Quyneax

When you take the url "http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gjGCpG8JalE&list=UUZYGNRpNEIa6f8FUmz73Q8g&index=1&feature=plcp" you can remove the "&index=1&feature=plcp" bit and it'll show the right vid. Fixed that in your post :).

Rushing is the most sensible way of combat, from a lore perspective >.>. Ever watched a fencing match? They do 5-10 seconds of fighting before one scores a hit. When you score a hit, it's over. That's how it works - one dragon claw to the gut and you're a goner. Remember that dragon is probably several factors stronger than steel or even mithril, probably enchanted and claws are actually body parts of tormented demons. When I'm taking a walk in a forest of charred trees, and you jump from behind a tree brandishing bright red foot-long claws wrenched from the body of a demon that was previously thought to be impossible to actually bind to this plane, and you put them in eight vital organs over the course of three seconds, I think I deserve to be dead or dying, thank you very much. Except your armor comes from killing Nex, something so scary all the remaining gods in the time of the godwars put aside their differences bound her (couldn't even kill her.) And this is with her patron God gone or whatnot. Chances are your armor will come from some place that's fairly epic as well. Plus, in any visual story telling medium, the epic fights are long because long fights are inherently cooler then short ones. This is especially true in fantasy settings. Another thought: PVP is, in a sense, a two player game. Each of you is trying to kill the other person. In any two player games, one of the most important things is that both players interact. If you're wandering about the wilde, or the Crucible, and out of nowhere you get attacked and die in two seconds, you've done very little interacting. This creates a very negative feeling for the loser and isn't good for the health of the game. Therefore, rushing as a PVP tactic is very bad to the overall health of the game. Nex' relation with the armour is never explained afaik, it's completely unrelated (she doesn't use it for sure). But yeah, in general armour has its strengths, too. But no amount of armour can stand up to a straight-up attack. That's not how it works - you don't stand around in plate armour tanking hits, you don't catch blows on your shield straight-on. Armour is there to deflect, to cushion and to stop attacks that already mostly missed you because you were able to evade them. And armour most definitely doesn't give you more health. If someone mauls you, you are dead or stunned, no questions asked. The current system is already a massive over-estimation of the length of a fight. I do agree rushing fights are not fun for the loser. But personally I find it very fun to watch a compilation of successfull 990 hp comboes, and I imagine getting a (profitable!) kill that way is very satisfying. There's a difference between fighting for fun (e.g. duels) and fighting for survival (in the form of income, in this case). Imo the wilderness is for real, brutal fights, short and more hunter-killer than fair duels. A truly dangerous place. If you want long, spectacular fights, go to the Fight Pits or Duel Arena and fight with trusty steel weapons. In the end it comes down to preference I guess, but imo the wilderness can't be dangerous enough if you can reasonably bring 3-4x more health than your opponent can ever hit in one hit.

ITT: We Complain Because They're Making It Harder Even Though We've Been Complaining About Them Making It Too Easy What he means is that a level 200 without prayer will be expected to train on level 170 monsters just like totally maxed people. With the difference that prayer adds about 30-40% dps depending on the defence of what you're fighting (32% straight up dps from strength boost + 29% from attack, totalling 1.32*1.29 at most). It's not 15% + 14%, it's 1.15*Level + 14 + 8 + style bonus. The same goes for strength (except the max boost is 9). I know I know, just an approximation at 99 strength. The +8 is a fair difference, ok. So properly it maxes (at all 99s) at 135/107 and 141/110 for attack and strength respectively (on agressive), totalling 61% max.

Except that the reward is higher lp... right now, lp just goes up as you level combat. Defence and hp cover two totally different areas like attack and strength cover two different areas. That's being changed for no reason. The ratio of 15:1 means that hp will either become useless, or it will become a secondary requirement to all kinds of armour and therefore act like a second defence skill except that it's slow as hell to train. Untrue. Armour switching is a natural consequence of the combat triangle. The only way a ranger can deal with a meleer is switching to magic. If you take that away, there is no more skill to combat - it's just mage bashes melee, good fight, see you again and if you come back in ranged gear, I took that into account and I'm now a meleer. E.g. rock-paper-scissors. A 'good' reason to penalize armour switching is that you want to make combat slower overall. But I don't see why you would want to do that, because it's already quite slow. From a lore point of view, you can kill a couple of goblins in a day. Scale theory right there. Also, how are you going to practice your particular fighting style if you're at risk of being killed? From a lore point of view, we should be fighting in arenas with wooden swords 99% of the time. Also, the entire thing is backwards. It shouldn't be: > Is high level > Low level monsters provide better raw xp/hr > Penalty for training on low level = Train on high level It should instead be: > Is high level > Is capable of killing high level monsters > High level monsters drop more loot/unique items/have other advantages = Train on high level Any time you create a mechanic to prevent people from training on low levels, you've designed the game wrong. Rushing is the most sensible way of combat, from a lore perspective >.>. Ever watched a fencing match? They do 5-10 seconds of fighting before one scores a hit. When you score a hit, it's over. That's how it works - one dragon claw to the gut and you're a goner. Remember that dragon is probably several factors stronger than steel or even mithril, probably enchanted and claws are actually body parts of tormented demons. When I'm taking a walk in a forest of charred trees, and you jump from behind a tree brandishing bright red foot-long claws wrenched from the body of a demon that was previously thought to be impossible to actually bind to this plane, and you put them in eight vital organs over the course of three seconds, I think I deserve to be dead or dying, thank you very much. It is nostalgia, yes. It also makes hitsplats smaller and easier to read, as you won't have to read as many zeroes >.>. Can use larger letters etc.

ITT: We Complain Because They're Making It Harder Even Though We've Been Complaining About Them Making It Too Easy What he means is that a level 200 without prayer will be expected to train on level 170 monsters just like totally maxed people. With the difference that prayer adds about 30-40% dps depending on the defence of what you're fighting (32% straight up dps from strength boost + 29% from attack, totalling 1.32*1.29 at most).

8/10 http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fKYAkM4d3iM (my favourite rapper)

I would have thought the penalty would just apply to pvp? Or does it reply to pvm too? if so, jagex have ballsed upp big time. Afaik the special moves are going to be very important in both PvP and PvM. And if they are going to make up most of your dps, dagannoth kings and tormented demons will become much more annoying. Special moves will obviously have a big effect, but im thinking in terms of the armour switching penalties Well, armour switching penalties will apparently include having cooldown timers doubled (in duration) on your abilities. Which means your dps will presumably be reduced. If we assume your adrenaline normally allows you to use abilities at a rate roughly equal to their cooldown, anyway. If adrenaline (from regular attacks) is the bottleneck more than cooldowns, I suppose it won't be much of an issue.

Thought I'd post here rather than derailing the Combat Update thread more: 15k lp from armour and only 990 lp from hp is totally lame. You suck, Jagex. The new combat level is just as inaccurate as the old, and WTF removing SUMMONING*!?! Penalizing armour switching sucks as well. Penalizing training on low-level mobs sucks, again. Adrenaline is just like special attack, it just fills faster and empties more often. Could easily just make regular special restore 1%/second and be done with it. Also, why the big numbers :(. RS was more fun when +1 max hit meant something :( (borrowing rune battleaxe to hit a 14! omg). So far the update seems to have two upsides: cool graphics and hotkeys. The rest, meh. *I know it's not removed, but making it unimportant enough that it's removed from combat level & "a separate overhaul later on" means steel titans will be useless for a year after that update :(.

Guys, I see three people immediately suggesting to sell the ags. The OP did specifically state he doesn't want to. While it's fine to point out exactly how good a weapon it is, it should not be the main premise of your advice. Thank you.

I would have thought the penalty would just apply to pvp? Or does it reply to pvm too? if so, jagex have ballsed upp big time. Afaik the special moves are going to be very important in both PvP and PvM. And if they are going to make up most of your dps, dagannoth kings and tormented demons will become much more annoying. @Sxq: that's a good point... one might (slightly optimistically) conclude that Jagex has taken this into account and that hybriding will still exist, but limited to weapons only. Idk though.

Probably killing dragons, however that does not involve your ags in any way since you're not 80+ herblore. Farming is also a good skill to get started on. Unlock Manage Thy Kingdom for an easy 1-2m per week profit for almost no work done. I should note that godswords are currently horrible weapons. However with the upcoming combat update, they may become useful. Leave your ags banked until then, because there's no reason to risk it.

Combat formula is changing, so there's a good chance they will. As for the armor thing, Jagex wants to make the combat triangle matter more with this update. If you can constantly switch armor without penalty, well, there's significantly less of a combat triangle imo. People style switching is the ultimate proof that the combat triangle is powerful enough that another set of equipment is more useful than 4-5 brews (or even two sets with 10+ switches, tribrid in Clan Wars) which means a hybrid will beat a one-style opponent with 20% more health. Removing style switching is ultimately a really stupid move imo, it's one of the most interesting parts of the RS metagame due to the many different (combinations of) switches you can use, as well as the interaction with available healing, runes and other inventory space-taking things. I don't think this completely ruins style switching, it just makes it less valuable. "Will not be an effective tactic" Granted, Jagex doesn't understand metagaming at all, so they might well be wrong. But it's not a good sign. Double global cooldown sounds to me like you get half the number of ultimates/time compared to your single-style opponent, plus that your adrenaline builds up slower because you can't use the adrenaline-filling abilities as much. I imagine those ultimates will be powerful enough that an extra one is a battle-winner, comparable to another claw special. Either way making it less valuable is stupid too :P. (also, tormented demons are so going to be dead content with claws crashing and style switching "not an effective tactic")

Combat formula is changing, so there's a good chance they will. As for the armor thing, Jagex wants to make the combat triangle matter more with this update. If you can constantly switch armor without penalty, well, there's significantly less of a combat triangle imo. People style switching is the ultimate proof that the combat triangle is powerful enough that another set of equipment is more useful than 4-5 brews (or even two sets with 10+ switches, tribrid in Clan Wars) which means a hybrid will beat a one-style opponent with 20% more health. Removing style switching is ultimately a really stupid move imo, it's one of the most interesting parts of the RS metagame due to the many different (combinations of) switches you can use, as well as the interaction with available healing, runes and other inventory space-taking things.

That's very weak :(. Apparently Jagex is intent on destroying the things that make RS interesting >.>. How are they even going to reward apm if you can't switch in combat? One click per 4 ticks to activate your ability, aka 25 apm max?

Yes, 80 magic. Preferably something to heal you for a bit of damage, e.g. bunyip, soul split, enhanced excalibur. You don't need a lot of healing, but sharks may cut your trip short just a little, so it's nice to have renewable healing. Magic level boosts are important for polypore, so bring Vecna's + maybe some mage pots. Wolpertinger would be even better. Equipment-wise, Verac's is best, so 70 def is recommended. Boost mage attack and prayer a bit, Rex doesn't have much mage defence but positive mage attack is nice. I don't know how extensive people dk these days but people on task, people with higher magic levels and in general anyone tribriding will crash you easily unless you have 105+ magic and SoA.

The new combat level is ridiculous if it doesn't reflect prayer/summoning/hp and such. The formula also doesn't give a good image of how strong someone is. The no-xp rule is stupid as well. Right now there's one monster worth training on, and that's the dagannoth sentinel, which luckily is level 193. So I guess if that stays at 170+ combat there's no problem. But slayer will be a problem. Right now the 170+ combat monsters somewhat worth killing are dark beasts, ice strykes, iron/steel/mith/black dragons, black demons. There's mutated velds, spectres, dagannoth, hellhounds, suqah etc. way below that level. Of course a rebalance might put these creatures at a higher level but good slayer monsters are generally low defence. I see a lot of potential to mess this up now :(. Edit: Nevermind, ninja'd by above post. Guess limited xp is alright, but it better be only a slight cut.

I'd only renew for the combat update, the rest is meh.

Vyres drop bloods/deaths and some splitbark. Zombies drop some lower runes (chaos and stuff) and noted planks + charms.

I would get 99 summoning, taskmaster and a quest cape.

Broad arrows are a lot faster than the rest, about 200k xp/hr more than adamant bolts which are between half and a third of the cost (idk if they sell at a reasonable price). I don't think you'll finish 99 fletching @ Livid if you do adamant bolts. It's about 150-200k xp/hr with broad arrows, for about 45 hours (90-99 fletching is 7.8m xp). Adamant bolts would then be 90-120k xp/hr for 45 hours, leaving a few million xp past Livid. Given that you can probably Nex well enough, broads would be a bit more efficient but only barely. Dropping is faster than low alch and you don't need AHK. The trick is to click superheat (opens inventory), click the ore and right-click it before the magic interface shows up again (you have 1 tick). Then you can drop it from the magic tab and immediately reclick the rock.

I'm not even sure monsters use different attack styles currently (anything that hits gano better than torag, with melee?). Wouldn't surprise me at all if they removed stab/slash/crush defence. I wonder what will happen to summoning defence though. Also important, cannon dps. If monsters get rebalanced to 5k+ lp specials, the cannon better hit thousands or slayer will get a lot slower :(. I remember one of my friends advising me not to use Gano VS Sanfreet because his tail appears to be a stab attack. Other than that, I've no idea. I remember feeling like I was hit harder (or more more often if you want to split hairs) by Ankous and Brutes and such in DG while wearing plate but that's hardly conclusive. If monsters didn't use different melee styles though, what would your defense VS them be based on? I'm guessing all monsters use crush attacks regardless of "real-world"/"logical" styles for their respective appendages, due to crush being the default unarmed style. Just a thought though, I have no proof whatsoever. Maybe Barrows Brothers and other monsters with visible, existing equipment actually use different attack styles, which should/would mean Guthan hits fairly well on ganodermic.

I'm not even sure monsters use different attack styles currently (anything that hits gano better than torag, with melee?). Wouldn't surprise me at all if they removed stab/slash/crush defence. I wonder what will happen to summoning defence though. Also important, cannon dps. If monsters get rebalanced to 5k+ lp specials, the cannon better hit thousands or slayer will get a lot slower :(.

Now the question is, can you beat Aten O?

Added, thanks :). @dumb_dog66: Added :).

(late reply, must've missed this earlier) Saves you some 3% of a torstol seed per patch, e.g. 5-10k? That's pretty good. In game-related news, I just finished all the achievements for Monster's Den 3. Time to wait for 4 :D.