Binary Mage

So, according to the FAQ, [spoiler=Lore Spoilers] 1) Ocellus is still a Guardian of Guthix. Guardians do not need any special powers, assignment, or other special abilities--they just need to be someone who was a companion of Guthix at the end of the Third Age. The entire "pantheon of powerful Guthix Guardians" idea is a construct of misguided Guthix-worshippers in recent ages. 2) Ocellus has some relation to Zaros, and is considered "an insane demon". 3) The Godless will need to overcome the problems that Ocellus found when trying to make humans not need to worship. 4) The other Guardians despise Ocellus, because he has warped and twisted Guthix's teachings into something that is no longer anywhere near the way of Guthix. So there is one more Guardian to find.

No, there are several updates planned for this month. The difference is that we don't know what the other one or two are yet, as they gave us a list of potential releases. (Their update schedule is uncertain because of RS3 so they don't know which will be ready first) We are getting one or two of those this month for sure. Triskelion will be tomorrow or Wednesday most likely.

That's how they should do level-your-equipment, really. Take your untradeable and outdated quest items, let you improve them through a similar process to how you got them in the first place. Much better than stealing items that would be for low-level players if Jagex didn't put it on an endgame boss's drop list. :razz: The idea behind Level-your-Equipment was that you would have a low-level, easily-obtained drop that would gain its own XP (and levels) as you killed with it--and would eventually, after weeks of killing, become an amazing top-tier weapon. The whole Dragon Crossbow -> Ascension Crossbow thing is just an alternate, wonky system of obtaining non-levellable equipment. :P It's not their solution to level-your-equipment; we should see that in 2014/2015.

It's a really long tongue-twister story incorporating references to pretty much every single quest in the game. Apparently if you can list all the references you get a prize.

I always found it really odd that the dragon hatchets and pickaxes would be exclusively reserved as combat drops. Now those of us who don't like bossing have a chance at getting one without needing to buy it :) I would imagine they are going to add something interesting to the drop tables to compensate.. I'm a HUGE fan of treasure trails, crystal keys, locator puzzles, and other things like that which are currently in the game, so this should probably be another really awesome update for me. I like the fact that the pieces are untradeable--that was always my problem with the Crystal Key. It was so hard to know what you were getting that it was always more worth it to sell the pieces off instead of actually chancing the random loot.

Technically, English won't be a dead language--just that hyper-condensed speech will be more commonplace in it. Acronyms/contractions are still English, one way or another. You have to realize that English has been evolving for a crazy amount of time--the same anger you feel about those young adults has been felt by generations of people in the entirety of human civilization as languages have evolved and changed beyond what the "old guard" is used to. I imagine there was a similar outrage the first time someone started removing letters for basic contractions. Back on topic: I am really, really pleased with the drop changes. Battlestaves seem to have almost completely replaced the normal staves for Capsarii, becoming even more common. It's a high alcher's paradise in there--I eagerly anticipate an Ascended slayer task in my future :D Also good if you want to save up resources for skilling. So many crossbow limbs, noted bars, noted logs, noted ores/coal, and other useful raw materials have been added to the drops tables it's ridiculous.

I really like the new drop tables for the Ascended, especially the Capsarii. They were already pretty darn great (made a nice profitf rom yew logs/pure essence/battlestaff drops) but now they don't drop any more useless basic staves, drop better gold amounts (just got a 3500 gold drop), drop a silly amount of rune daggers, and also drop noted coal and dozens of blood runes at once. All of this on top of lots of crimson charms and more pure essence than before. Overall, great profit for the effort you put in. Should help the keystones drop in price a good bit.

I assume you haven't finished the History of the Order? I've been reading it o the wiki. Honestly I don't get how you all aren't seeing this as mod Osborne said there are 8 guardians. Guthix chose those guardians and the others don't have the ability to do anything other than excommunicate them from efforts like you mentioned. He is a guardian because guthix chose him not because Juna dismissed him. In TWW we were gifted with guthix own magic and powers the same as the other guardians. There are eight guardians, but we don't know of at least one of them. (Two if Ocellus is not considered a Guardian anymore) The number of Guardians can't be used as confirmation of Ocellus' inclusion or exclusion in the number itself. It is debatable as to whether or not it is the power imparted to them that makes them a Guardian, or if they are only blessed with power to help accomplish their set task if they can't do so with their own abilities. For example, the player was given protection from the Gods--but that was given separately after we had already become a Guardian. Cres, on the other hand, seems to have no special god-granted powers whatsoever--just immense intelligence. Ocellus seems to be the same way, from the information we know so far. For the most part, being a Guardian is being assigned a task by Guthix. If you are exiled by the other Guardians and you no longer follow the assigned task, there can't really be any connection left to being a Guardian--you really aren't guarding anything anymore. What makes a Guardian--the (potentially related) powers, or Guthix + other Guardians' opinion? That is the question that is currently being pondered--we won't get a direct answer until Mod Osborne is asked it. It can be argued one way or another, we just need to learn out what he had in mind when he said eight Guardians. (And, thusly, are there one or two remaining Guardians to look out for?)

Ocellus lied when he said he was busy--he was not invited by Juna because she was horrified at his experiments. (Revealed in the Book of the Order) He has gone completely insane--he has been excommunicated by the other Guardians for all intensive purposes because of how far he has deviated from Guthix's ideals. He is not "falliable", per se--he has outright fallen from grace with no possible redemption. The question is to whether or not that still qualifies him as a Guardian. It is uncertain as to whether or not one has to specifically be granted special powers in order to be a Guardian--and even if so, since Guthix is dead the definition of a Guardian lies primarily in the hands of the other Guardians. If they no longer consider him a Guardian, does that truly make him one? (In the eyes of Mod Osborne at least.) The main reason we are asking this is because Mod Osborne said that there is only eight Guardians of Guthix. If Ocellus does not count to him (which may be entirely likely), that means there are two Guardians left to discover. (Even if it raises more questions--since Ocellus seems to have been the "Guardian of Free Will" sort of Guardian, does that mean our Player has replaced him?)

I'm really only happy about the charms being added. Pretty neutral on them increasing keystone drops considering the rate of signet drops from the bosses. They aren't increasing keystone drop rate as far as I can tell--they are simply giving the Ascended better drops overall so that more people kill them for pure profit, and thus get excess Keystones to sell to folks.

Aren't you forgetting Juna, guardian of the Tears of Guthix - which were the magical energies mixed with runestone to create the Ascended? Nevermind, your breakdown includes 6, even if Juna was added (and it was mentioned earlier in the post) it wouldn't bring the count to 8. My bad. My deffo only 7 thus far: Death Valluta Juna Fiara Cres Occelus You So is the general consensus that Occelus is or is not a Guthix Guardian, because the way the lore goes from the book of ascension, it all but says that Occelus is a disgraced more likely than not former guardian of Guthix, which would leave two gaps in our list? It's possible either way--depends on the strict definition of a Guardian. We will likely only find out Osborne's thoughts on the subject in a future Q&A, and finally see just how many Guthix Guardians there are left to discover.

Fresh Prince of Bel Air, garish vest, awesome radio voice. What else could you ask for?

In the same thread they mention that they will be adding charms and other more sought-after drops, so that keystones will come into circulation in much greater numbers (and thus making the crossbow a bit more common).

I think the best way to judge an update's worth is the number of complaints, not the absence of them. There will always be complaints, thanks to differences in opinions, outlook, experience, and general stupidity. After the armor rebalance we had a ridiculously large outpouring of people saying that the game was dead because of it. That was, admittedly, a pretty bad update. Farming update had people saying it was worthless and that Jagex had failed us all. That level of complaint marks a good update. And now we have people saying that this update is grindy and is pointlessly hard compared to Drygores--this level of complaint is known as the Sweet Spot, where there are so few complaints that the only ones that boil up are relatively reasonable (if not easily overlooked by many) . There are rumors of a fourth tier of update, where no one can find anything bad to talk about, but said rumors go against our current scientific understanding of the Runescape userbase.

Final few bits of info from the Book of the Order and Ocellus' dialogue [spoiler=Ocellus + Book] The Legiones banded together to make a new Guthix to replace the dead one. They are kidnapping people, mummifying them, and physically melding them together into a giant Guthix. That's right. The statue is made out of mummified human flesh. Dear god. The Order of the Ascended are Ocellus' third attempt to make a race that does not need to worship. He believes he is very close to completing this task, and that he will try again--this time, he will make the subjects worship him as a god instead of Guthix. He has gone completely insane. Juna did not call him to help protect Guthix because of his horrifying deeds--enough to be exiled from their group. This begs a question--is a Guardian of Guthix considered a guardian because of their powers, or because of their place alongside the other Guardians? Let's hope Osborne answers this in a future Q&A. The Chapel was built by the Ascended. It was torn down several times by Ocellus, but they keep rebuilding it.

I have got 5 keystones in about two hours worth of killing Capsarii--I guess you're just having bad luck :(

[spoiler=Book of the Order Spoilers]Wow. The later entries are horrifying. It explains a LOT. Ascension Crystals are rune stones imbued with the Tears of Guthix. The Ascended are humans altered with said crystals, in an attempt to make humans powerful enough to usurp the gods (and follow Guthix's teachings). Because Ocellus is a Virius (with different moral code), he does not understand the implications of this. Ocellus was not called to assist Guthix because of the horrible atrocities he has committed. He is no longer considered a Guardian. The Ascended worship Guthix as a god, despite Ocellus' intentions. They wish to bring him back to life to rule over the world in tyranny. The Legiones are tied together as a single consciousness. The Roarius are prototypes of that idea. Ocellus is horrified at his creations and desparately tries to find someone to kill all of them, as to prevent them from succeeding.

He definitely knows more than he is telling us. Compare his speech patterns to the Book of the Order and you'll see why. And you are making an odd comparison. Saying that Ocellus is the "Guthix Guardian of protecting against the Ascended" is like saying Valluta is the "Guthix Guardian of preventing Zilyana from killing Guthix". It is what he is current occupied with, not what his purpose is. We don't know the specifics of his purpose as a Guardian yet, it will likely be revealed in time. (Or, likely, through a Storyline Q&A) From my understanding of the Book of the Order so far, the Ascension Crystals are linked to Runestones and thus the Stone of Jas. It's likely that he was tasked with guarding the crystals somehow.

What are the top four abilities in your screen, and how do you get them? I've never seen those before. :/ If I remember correctly, they are the four stances used in Barbarian Assault since EoC. They only appear in the ability book after you play Barbarian Assault once.

Dear God. [spoiler=Ascension Dungeon Spoiler]

Just wait for them to add it to Solomon's General Store. Possible, but I'd think they intended for the Shadow Knight armor to be always-available fixed-color Paladin-Lite armor, and for the Paladin set to be a specific incentive to buy a Gold Membership at least once. Still could happen though

There's a full picture of the set with shield/sword on the wiki page I linked to. :wink: The shield has a LOT of trim on it, which makes it look amazing when recolored. I always use it to replace my DFS when I'm trying to fit a specific color scheme

[spoiler=Dual Battleaxes] [spoiler=Spear] Sorry I know this is off topic, but what armour is this? 0_0 The fully cosmetic (with recolorable trim) Paladin Armor, that I got from buying a Gold Membership back when they were available in January. I recolor it to suit whatever look I want at the moment I think it might be available again in next year's Gold Membership pack again, but there's a chance it might not :(

For the most part, Mod Mark tells us things that are true at the time the question was asked or the statement was made. Game development is a crazy business--things can change completely, dates can be moved back, projects can be found to be useless and scrapped in favor of a better idea. What was true today may not be true tomorrow, especially when working with an in-house game engine with its own share of limitations. For all we know, said Construction changes could have been cancelled and, instead, the full Construction rework moved up to later this year. This is the problem of giving people hints and advance information--people may love you for update hints and future plans, but will hate you if a single thing is out of place when it finally gets here (or gets scrapped). But, generally, most updates don't get scrapped--so there's an incredibly good chance that we will see said Construction update this year. (Especially if he was confident enough about it to mention it to us) The execution of the update could be miserable (unlikely), but we will probably see it in some shape or form in the coming months.