Quyneax

The first.

We should totally get 200x the xp. Still barely worth it but ok.

Yep.

Hi we're the same total again.

You'll get way more steel than chimes (if you buy Pincers crew when possible), I'm at 50k steel and I can't buy even a single crew :(. My tiger is +2500 combat now though, that's nice.

Cannon + barrage under Waterbirth.

Kind of true, luckily high level caps somewhere. But there is low-to-mid level content that has stayed valuable, or has been patched up - Barrows mostly (tds/glacors pre-eoc). Kind of struggling to think of t70 examples, but t80 there's quite a bit (corp, all GWD) although that's mostly to do with EoC making everything incredibly easy.

Dragon battleaxe is level 60, rune crossbow level 50, of course dba is going to do more damage. Greaters aren't that strong. Get yourself a nice keepsaked weapon and use Guthan's, that would suit your playstyle very well.

Make sure you have the important stats for moving around (64 magic for group gatestone teleport, 59 rc for double cosmics helps a bit), high in one of attack/ranged/magic and high defence (ideally 99 but 80 and 90 are good milestones too), high prayer only gets useful at 95 really, herblore can help with pot doors, any other skill is luxury basically but every level helps.

Why are we assuming new trees is only a graphical update and not a woodcutting update to tie into the construction update? Because the highest level useful tree is at level 54 (arctic pine), and I don't think Jagex will add low-level trees. People still use yew/magic logs for bonfiring, I don't see how these aren't useful. They're not gotten from trees though, mostly RDT, QBD and other bosses, challenges can return magic logs I think?, and a bunch of other resource-generating things.

Why are we assuming new trees is only a graphical update and not a woodcutting update to tie into the construction update? Because the highest level useful tree is at level 54 (arctic pine), and I don't think Jagex will add low-level trees.

OK, so updates under development, what's there: RuneScape 3: New graphics, customisable interfaces and some amazing launch content to boot. Who could ask for more? Good stuff. Divination Skill: Old-school training with new-school rewards. Skill 2: No, I won’t tell you what it is yet! Dwarf Finale Quest: As voted for by you. Probably good stuff. Barrows Brothers Deluxe: Can they really get more awesome? Yes, they can. What? Do we need this? Barrows is perfectly fine at the moment. Epic World Events: Seriously - these are amazing, and will change the future of RuneScape forever. I can’t wait to tell you more, but I don’t want to ruin the surprise. Could be good stuff, could be really boring/inconsequential/badly executed. Seasonal High Scores: Check out the recent RS3 BTS video to find out more. Player-Owned Ports Expansion: More islands, more adventures, more rewards. Probably good stuff. Quest: Bringing Home the Bacon: Yum! Upgraded Tool Belt with New Tools: As suggested by you, via the forums. Does not sound particularly interesting - low-level quest? 6th Age Quests 1, 2, 3 and 4: What madness will the 6th Age bring? That's a lot of quest, should be good. Loyalty Store Update: New stuff! Really? Get lost. Grouping System: A great new way to access our minigames without having to wait. Will the minigames get useful as well? Anyway, I hope this makes SW boostable. Halloween: Woo, scary! Woo. Pickpocketing Summoners: Does exactly what it says on the tin - a great way to get charms and Thieving XP. Predicting decent thieving xp rates in the range between master farmers and room 7 at PP. Bosses: More epic battles, including powerful loot for mages. Elite Combat Mobs: Combat training for the toughest high-level players. About bloody time. New trees: New foliage that's sure to make the cut! It's only graphics, but still cool. Construction Rework: Build in places you'd never expect! Could be good, good chance it's useless though, remember hidey-holes? New bank interface: Better access to your stuff than ever before. About bloody time. Overall, I'm not seeing any of the updates we need, those to the combat system, adressing skill and xp balance, bots, rolling out abilities to all monsters and such. Basically, Jagex are not working on making the game interesting.

Huh. OK, glitch, ignore I said that :S. That is really stupid. Do you need 40 ranged to use addy arrows as well?

Barraging stuff. Good things include abyssals, armoured zombies, dagannoth (if you want ranged xp also, use cannon under Waterbirth).

That's not a glitch, abilities require no ammunition.

I might try that sometime. Got my laptop back now :). Also stuff done: Nothing much. Started hunting armoured zombies for scroll, kph is pretty ok (something like 600 total xp each, 250-300k magic xp/h?) with just treachery + grifolic and seasingers (also haven't barraged in years). Yes, not great, I'll get subjugation in the morning. Vwand seems way overpriced though... over 140m now, and it's not even t90. I hope t90 will bring virtus weapons back in line with other t80 weapons, because atm the difference is just too big. Edit: magic xp was split with defence. Seems like too high xp/h, probably forgot to ovl somewhere. Will test for real later.

Yes it's faster than drygores. You should probably barrage anything that takes up one square, two-square monsters typically need to be stacked before barrage can hit enough of them (think the old ape atoll skeletons versus the old rock lobsters).

1) No, there is no problem with group quests. Why would there be? Next Dwarf quest requires that 5 players band together to defeat the final boss à la Penance Queen. (@Cheat: that's because you can't replay the quest) All you have to do is this: 1) You can replay the quest once a week. 2) In order to replay a quest, someone who has not yet done the quest must be in your party. 3) There is a reward for replaying the quest - nothing unique, but just about worth it, like penguins. Quest difficuly can on some parts scale with skills - this is always a bit of a problem with quests. You don't want new players to feel useless (Dungeoneering has this a bit). You could make a system where the new players take the lead role (killing bosses and whatnot) and the replayers take support roles. 2) I think signature heroes have been around for almost three years (dev blog dates from late june 2010) and nothing more than introductory quests has been done. If not failed, it is at the very least useless, half-hearted and low-quality work so far. Since there is no reason to assume Jagex will in any way improve on this, signature heroes will remain useless for at least the next 3+ years. That counts as failed. In the end, all of Runescape is not beyond salvation, but it's just not seeing any improvements (looking at the combat system, skill balance, xp balance, minigame revitalization etc.). 3) Yes, characters do think like that. We think like that, and we are adventurers, as is clearly demonstrated. Why would the laws of Gielinor change for NPCs? Surely, Ariane would realize the difference between the three combat styles, Ozan would know not to range Nex when her prayer's up, Owen would Resonance on your ultimate ability? Those things are part of the basics of the universe, and they should be rolled out all the way, not kept exclusive to players. The huge difference between player mechanics and NPC/monster mechanics hurts immersion immensely. Exactly because we lack classes, there should not be classes demonstrating the game. People should not get into the mindset of being a particular role, because that's not who we are. Of course no character would use a mix of batwing and royal dragonhide (actually, tank gear boots/gloves...), but what's wrong with giving Ariane batwing, Ozan blue dragonhide and Owen runite, and Ariane switches to melee (rune weapons ofc), Ozan to magic, Owen to ranged? That's an example of how the combat triangle works, how to hybrid, with recognizable gear and strategies. Jagex needs to use the metagame to their advantage. In-universe, people would have figured out ages ago that maging rangers is a stupid idea - logically, town guards and such would be tribrid as well by now (or rather, several high-power rangers to snipe enemy barragers, lots of mages to barrage approaching enemies, some warriors to barge and kill their rangers). Example: There are no horses in Runescape, and as a consequence, there is not much need for polearms in humanoid vs. humanoid combat. But spears are good for encircling enemies and using their force against them, which is what you do with big dragons and such. The corporeal beast works with this - the core and splash magic attacks heavily favour encircling manouvers, the damage reduction against non-spears ensures people use spears. However, the damage reduction is of course a horrible patchjob that could be implemented better - for example making spears & halberds both 2-square range, with abilities that allow you to shove a target back outside the first square range into the second. With coordinated tactics, nobody would be hit by the melee attacks, allowing everybody to use protect from magic (with ss flash ideally), greatly reducing damage taken. When the beast breaks out of the spear circle, it should melee for huge damage (in current numbers, 3-4k per hit through prayer, and multi-target). == Small recap of why people don't want to like these characters: they were added to the game to be our pals, and that's patronising. I will choose my friends myself, thank you. Why would I hang out with Ariane when I have Azzanandra, Sliske, Wahisietel, Kharshai and all my other Mahjarrat friends to hang out with? Not to mention, say, a nice conversation with a spirit tree? Or what about the Ramokee Skinweaver down in the Polypore dungeon? She would make a fine hero.

Chaotic staff is three levels higher, so it's a good bit stronger and more accurate.

<250 kills for hobgob. No problem. (also <500 for mummy)

Full Subjugation (GWD mage robes) with a wand of treachery and Ahrim's book, burst/barrage with momentum on most tasks. High xp rates, also costs a bit, but that's ok.

[hide] Do you remember Cyrisus? Any of the heroes who died in WGS? More recently, the PoP adventurers? And what about other players? In Runescape, other players play the other adventurers, not NPCs. We are supposed to be reasonably unique, certainly at the level of power we represent with TWW done. The main problem with signature heroes is that they are set up as marketing scheme. They are extremely, extremely heavy on cliches - the good knight, the charming rogue, the single-minded character (in this case a blacksmith - she practically denies the usefulness of anything besides metal weapons, to the point that it feels very forced), the curious/investigative character (also happens to be the wizard in the standard party of four, and the 'hot girl'). Plus a stock mysterious badass character. Annoyingly, they're all so bloody nice as well. Sure, Ariane and rogue dude have been 'cast out' but that was clearly for all the wrong reasons. Cyrisus at least had some real issues - he was bloody useless in combat as a consequence. Third point: the signature heroes are nothing like players - we are all-rounders, they are specialists. We all have access to all the powers, they use only their unique powers. We use crossbow shortcuts where they are built into the game, they use (cross)bow shortcuts only where quests call for them. Again, Cyrisus at least used the equipment that was high-end at the time - his bank was really good, but it was a player's bank, not filled with Ariane's Unique Hairpins ™ now available for just $8.99 (order here). For the purposes of the narrative, other actual players don't exist. It wouldn't make any sense if they did--fifteen million Saviors of Varrock, fifteen million Stone-Touchers, fifteen million people all saying they were the one to kill the Pest Queen. They don't exist, and never will unless Jagex decides to have no regard for the storyline at all. The Signature Heroes are the sort of partners and adventurers that fill in those spaces. Cyrisus was the same sort of idea--but he, for obvious reasons, can't be used again. I think the one-dimensional issues they seem to have is, again, an issue of their lack of storyline development as of yet--in the podcast the mods in control of each character's content very specifically states that they have no intention for them to be generic, boring characters. We will see a ton of character development for them--especially since they are not tied to any specific quest line like so many other characters. We've already had hints that Sir Owen will be turned against his own god, and even potentially attempt to kill him. They were all specifically designed to center around a specific character trope, and then completely turn it on its head in time. Jagex isn't staffed by fourteen-year-old fanfiction writers--they have experienced authors and designers who know how to write multi-dimensional, likeable characters. We aren't going to see that kind of character development in the few short quests they have had so far, or it would feel even more ridiculously forced. The major difference about equipment is that Cyrisus was, for the most part, designed to follow the tropes of the player character. He is not meant to be realistic--he is a in-world character who is constrained by the same gameplay constructs that we are. He is only able to make the same replica sets of armor, wear the same kinds of equipment, and train his skills in the same linear ways. In contrast, the Signature Heroes are in-world adventurers that only need to follow the limits of their universe. They can uniquely design and alter their armor, they can use runes in ways other than specific spells, and they can do pretty much whatever they want without worrying about invisible forces preventing them from doing so. Both approaches to "adventurer" characters have their merits, but the Signature Hero style is more attractive for potential storytelling. I'm not saying that they are amazing characters, but they are far from disasters. Not only do they very nicely advertise the possible paths of the game to new players, but they also have the potential to become really crucial and interesting pawns in this enormous mass of converging and shifting storylines that has been developed. [/hide]I disagree. For the purposes of the narrative, other players have not done some quests/other quests, but they exist as adventurers - there are adventurer supply shops and guilds, people recognize adventurers, and all sorts of services in the middle of nowhere relying on adventurers (candle seller in Lumbridge Swamp). Adventurers as characters have not been developed in the story, just like the signature heroes - Jagex could still choose to quit signature heroes and incorporate players as characters instead - 5:5 quests would be great, if you could replay them (provided at least one person in your team hadn't done the quest yet). I also disagree about Jagex and writing. Yes, they say they do not indend to make stock characters, but their intentions don't matter if the result isn't good. They want to set the cliches totally on their head you say? Certainly, that has only been done half as many times as the cliches themselves, and real psychology doesn't come into it. The signature heroes do not "advertise the possible paths of the game to new players" because they are extremely limited in their focus and use none of the abilities that players can. Cyrisus was an example to players - whip and Ahrim's, that's good equipment (for pking). Ariane's staff is a horrible weapon (well, it's an override right?, can't be used in pvp). Also, I see no need to make a difference between 'in-world characters' and 'player characters'. Players are supposed to be in-world as well - if they are not, your writing is bad. Signature heroes aren't more suited to storytelling at all. A good story with other adventurers would be a mix of Temple Trekking heroes and quests - you level them up to a certain point (and yourself), and then you can access a new quest. But nooooo, too much effort for Jagex.

Do you remember Cyrisus? Any of the heroes who died in WGS? More recently, the PoP adventurers? And what about other players? In Runescape, other players play the other adventurers, not NPCs. We are supposed to be reasonably unique, certainly at the level of power we represent with TWW done. There is no need for NPC adventurers to fill out the narrative, that's where co-op quests come in (would be awesome, dg-style questing). The main problem with signature heroes is that they are set up as marketing scheme. They are extremely, extremely heavy on cliches - the good knight, the charming rogue, the single-minded character (in this case a blacksmith - she practically denies the usefulness of anything besides metal weapons, to the point that it feels very forced), the curious/investigative character (also happens to be the wizard in the standard party of four, and the 'hot girl'). Plus a stock mysterious badass character. Annoyingly, they're all so bloody nice as well. Sure, Ariane and rogue dude have been 'cast out' but that was clearly for all the wrong reasons. Cyrisus at least had some real issues - he was bloody useless in combat as a consequence. Third point: the signature heroes are nothing like players - we are all-rounders, they are specialists. We all have access to all the powers, they use only their unique powers. We use crossbow shortcuts where they are built into the game, they use (cross)bow shortcuts only where quests call for them. Again, Cyrisus at least used the equipment that was high-end at the time - his bank was really good, but it was a player's bank, not filled with Ariane's Unique Hairpins now available for just $8.99 (order here).

I want all the signature heroes to end in an epic WGS-style battle, but in a quest that requires level 30-40 all-round stats (make it F2P, too!). That's the neatest easy way of tying them up right now. Outright removal is likely too much effort for Jagex.

The cosmetic weapons are still ugly imo. Better than some, but no good. They still look like they were never meant to be used in combat. Now Gandalf (the white), he has a fine staff and sword. Also, battlestaffs, ewwww so grotesque.