Alphanos

I think the best approach upon hitting Bowl is to upgrade all or almost all of your crew before going for the 4th ship. Arguably maybe also get the morale hull, since it's something like a +900 upgrade from the last morale hull. I upgraded all of my crew and got the morale hull, and just now I got my 4th ship. Thus my full Bowl crew are already levels 5-7 now. For the moment I seem to be able to send out 4 bowl voyages all at ~80% or higher. 32% towards Pincers, 68% remaining :).

This is an excellent point. Especially considering all of the reported bugs they didn't fix during the ~6 month EOC beta.

It's a simple fact that the quest cape is harder to get than a 99. I can only imagine that it continues to have second-class status in the eyes of many players because this hasn't always been the case.

A quest cape requires about 24M experience minimum (with a total level of 1790). Compared to 13M for an untrimmed skillcape or 26M for a trimmed skillcape. IMO, the discrepancy in stats now can only be a result of carelessness on Jagex's part. The quest cape has had stats matching skillcapes for years and years now.

Kalphite king is going after one guy who's standing behind two other people blocking the kalphite king from being able to attack the person so he never actually hits anyone. Everyone attacks kalphite king with steel titans and maxed gear and the KK goes down in 45 seconds. So a tactic people used years ago at Barrows rears it head again? You'd think Jagex would know by now to give boss monsters the ability to knock people aside or walk through them. Still, good on players finding a technique that works. Seriously Jagex, you have beta servers set up, why not use it. Give some incentives to encourage players to try out beta every week such upto 10 spins, 200 runecoins or 1000 loyalty points after 3 hours of beta testing at particular areas every week. Oh, nope, they're big on the surprise update with the always occuring, soon to patch (hopefully) bug. [/hide]On another note please, spare us. You know jagex can't possibly test content from every single angle. Firstly, that's a bizarre response. NukeMarine's exact point was that Jagex should stop pretending that they can catch all of the bugs themselves. Jagex has a clear-cut choice between surprising players at the cost of bugs, or preventing the bugs by ruining the surprise. Jagex has chosen the surprise, and NukeMarine is arguing for the bug-reduced alternative. But the whole thing about how it's impossible for Jagex to test everything is oft-repeated and oft-misapplied. There are many things that Jagex can't test as fully at the player base can. There are also many things that they should be able to easily test themselves, yet don't. It often seems like extremely tight deadlines force Jagex's QA to be bizarrely haphazard rather than organized and methodical. As just one example, the latest armour updates apparently updated the stats on skillcapes, but not the quest cape. That kind of oversight is exactly what you'd get if an employee was asked to name the equipment to test off the top of their head. What should clearly be happening in a case like this is that they should have some central database they can query of all equippable items in-game. It shouldn't be even remotely possible for them to "forget" to update particular items, because this isn't the kind of thing that should be done from memory.

I can see that the screenshot was edited - look at the space between "of" and the price in the bottom line. But why did you bother to edit the screenshot before posting? This is presumably some kind of attempt at market manipulation, and rather than 5.5M you sold for 3.5M or 7.5M. Regarding speed in Bowl, standard length voyages have max 9:24 at 1700 speed and min 6:57 at 2300 speed. From my experience, you'll probably need two of these three things on a voyage to get max speed: The Bowl's rudder. A Solidarity crew member. A 10k-chime captain, or a lower-tier captain focused in speed. You don't need all three. If you have a lot of crew members who rolled with innate bonuses to speed, maybe you'll even be able to get away with only one. However having the rudder can offer you some more flexibility in arranging your crews. It's definitey worth getting your speed up to 2300 or close to it. At default voyage times, you can only do two sets per day, while with minimum voyage times you can do three sets if your schedule allows.

I don't use golems for their special ability, but I've found the Chimeras' combat/morale stat combo to be pretty useful from time to time, and Jade Golems are a stat upgrade from Chimeras. Both the Sea Witch and Jade Golem have 1050 base stat points compared to the 1000 of standard Bowl crew members.

I believe crew and then ship is the most suitable (Especially if you have all the upgrades already and dont really need going back), seeing you need 10k to get the 4th ship and it would take like 5-6(¿?) days to obtain all that jade (120-180 each regular voyage..maybe a 600 one special?), whereas getting better crew will help increase the % of success by a nice number using only 3.6k jade (counting 6 basic crewman for each stat at 200 jade each). Base stat crew is 1k, level 3 jade crew has the same stats as lvl 7 scythe crew which is quite a bit of difference. Thanks for the advice! It's unlikely I'll be able to resist spending some jade before going for the 10k anyway. Base stat crew being 1k is a bit disappointing though, even if it rises quickly. I have several Scythe guys with over 1.3k by now. On another note, has anyone noticed how female crew only exists in the lower ranks, good fortune wenches aside? There's a glass ceiling in the RS ship industry, you guys. The Sea Witch is female, as is one of the base crew members in Bowl :). Regarding crew vs. 4th ship, I think it would be a dangerous risk to go after the 4th ship before crew. When you first start Bowl, you're losing 200-300 stat points each to replace your level 7 Scythe crew members with level 0 Bowl crew. This is a tricky loss to manage, but it's worth it since you're looking at 400+ extra stat points each once the new guys reach level 7. Also, the new crew members reach level 3-4 after only 1-2 missions in Bowl, putting them at par. However if you wait until after 10k+ Jade into the Bowl before starting to make the replacements, then you'll be dropping your stats by significant amounts right as you're leaving behind the easy entry missions and moving on to the tougher missions found in each region. With missions now lasting 7-9 hours, sending missions out at 60% and failing is a much more significant setback than before. You could easily find yourself stuck for several days with little advancement. I plan to get most crew members, the rudder, and maybe the Hull of Glory before the 4th ship. I'm iffy on the hull, but it would offer +750 morale compared to the last morale hull available. By the way, how does everyone plan to set up their crew? Up until now, I've been using only 5 each for the main core stat guys, but with a 4th ship on the way I figure I'll need 6 each for the flexibility. My currently planned lineup is: 3 Judge of Dice 2 Jade Merchants 1 Jade Golem 1 Sea Witch 6 each of Farcrier / Bounty Hunter / Sea Dog Edit: I think that the 25% cap on voyage time reduction must have been a last-minute change to ports, and not something planned from the beginning. Bowl voyages reach minimum time at 2300 speed, and the speed crew member for Bowl gives +2500 speed. What would be the point of designing such a crew member unless it was originally possible to cut voyages times down further? Weighing the tradeoffs of using speed crew members would be far more interesting without the cap.

That's actually not too bad. I had a 6500-all regular mission in Scythe the other day which I managed to get around 75%-ish on.

I naturally save things like the 10% bonuses, especially since I'm in late Scythe and won't have a lot of use for them until I hit Bowl. Since the update to randoms, I have had both of the following happen to me: Random rewards skip the ones I have maxed and provide the ones I need. Random rewards skip the ones I need and give me nothing, with the message previously posted in screenshot. Since I've seen both of these results personally happen to me after the update, I'm guessing the change is something like the following. Before update: Randomly choose a reward. If full, choose again. Repeat until a valid choice is made. After update: Randomly choose a reward. If full, try once more. If still full, give no reward with the "full" error message seen in screenshots. Missions increase your progress bar to the next region based upon the base mission length. So Scythe missions provide the fastest rate of increasing your progress bar, assuming you're able to do all of your missions each day. If not then do some lower-region missions. This is of course assuming your goal is to get to Bowl ASAP. You may alternately be looking to get prior resources for building upgrades. That will slow your progression to Bowl, but by how much I can't say.

I suspect you'll change your mind on this before you reach 4,000 slate. As you continue doing Hook missions and your progress bar advances, the difficulty increases. A third ship won't help you with dual 4.5k missions or single-stat 7.5k missions, and I've heard there are even worse.

It's worth stating that the above is incorrect. Just as with redeeming a gift card, this is considered a one-time event and not a recurring agreement. So if you're currently grandfathered into the older/cheaper membership rate, you will automatically resume paying that monthly rate once the year of membership credit is used up. Of course, they may make other changes by then or offer more similar packages; some have even speculated that Runescape may end up going free to play supported entirely by microtransactions. But if we assume the status quo will be maintained and you currently have the old rate, then you're paying $15 for 2,000 runecoins (regularly ~$40), 365 spins (regularly ~$75), a bunch of old decorative items from the gift cards, and the new decorative paladin outfit. Personally I wasn't planning to shell out ~$25 for one of these new pets, but using half of the runecoins from this new package seems like a more palatable deal. One thing that confuses me about this new paladin outfit is that I had thought they were soon going to release a paladin outfit related to Sir Owen. Maybe the quests involving him have been delayed, or were always scheduled for further away than we had thought.

Obviously if that's how you prefer to play then have at it :). But FYI, there's substantial benefit to advancing to Hook and later backtracking for additional buildings/etc. As you continue to advance, you'll occassionally get a couple of Skull missions anyway, so it's kind of a waste if you buy everything gunpowder-related before leaving the Skull region. As a more specific example, Hook offers a higher-tier merchant crew member which gives a 20% bonus to resource rewards instead of the 10% found on Arc-region merchants. Given the patterns we've seen in POP so far, there's probably at least one more merchant later on which offers a 30-40% boost. If you're not capable of doing standard Hook missions, then finish getting ready for sure. But if you have the Skull's ship component upgrades and a decent set of Skull crew, then you're definitely better off heading to Hook ASAP and returning later.

I have a level 6 merchant. However I've definitely noticed that higher-levelled crew level up far more slowly than low-levelled. I'd bet that the levelling formula is much harsher/steeper than with Runescape skill levels. It's probably something more along the lines of doubling the needed voyages for the next level. This is probably done to reinforce the value of acquiring higher-tiered crew from new regions, instead of just levelling up crew from the Arc or something.

I do agree that it's silly he can summon minions while we cannot. However let's talk about unfair "stunts": We have vast arrays of enchanted armours and weapons imbued with ancient secrets lost to the simple folk of this age. However we don't pick just any old pile of artifacts filled with elder might, but a specific set designed, in combination, to maximize our effectiveness against TokHaar-Hok. Including the magic ring the TzHaar gave us which makes us extra-powerful at slaying TokHaar. We bring to the battle ancient ice magicks devised by otherworldly war-monsters which happen to be super-effective against lava creatures. We call upon direct divine favour to enhance our prowess in battle, as well as drinking copious amounts of performance-enhancing magical potions. Ha, so TokHaar-Hok wants to heal damage he has taken in battle? We'll stun him and block him from doing so, all the while carrying and consuming enough magical mutant fish to heal ourselves to full health 5 times over. If we should happen to lose this battle 10 times in a row, well, that's just a trial run and we'll give it another go. However if TokHaar-Hok loses even once, then obviously we are superior and he is forced to abandon his entire race's ambitions! ;)

It's possible that you didn't notice, but: You used the best possible gear. You have maxed combat. A bunch of people are trying to fight him with lower level gear and stats in the low to mid 80s. Also, for those who haven't realized yet: you don't have to wait for him to attempt to heal before you stun him. Once you stun him, he'll stay stunned for the same duration as your stun ability's cooldown (15s). So if you just stun him once your ability comes off cooldown it will help to avoid being pulled into the lava. Or there are always ice spells. Edit: Found this on another forum: So it looks like the ideas about tanking the triple damage elsewhere are moot. If the 10% accuracy bonus only works against TzHaar anyway, then there's not much point.

I don't think proper testing has yet been done on this. My guess is that the only method which could have improved much from EOC would be power-mining iron. I doubt it matches granite though. Another option you might want to consider is the lava flow mine. In terms of raw experience per hour it's slower than granite. However it also requires less attention, potentially allowing you to mine while reading a book or watching TV.

Presumably the best alternative to a Zaryte would be either the Crystal Bow (next best bow, 10 levels lower in tier) or the Royal Crossbow (same tier as Zaryte, but not an exact style weakness match). Someone would have to test to be sure which is better.

If you're specifically trying to get the charms prior to reaching 99 HP, don't underestimate the benefits of Bork. With the Varrock diary completed and a ROW equipped, you get a ton of summoning experience from him for very little combat experience. If needed you can always train other skills for a period of time until you've collected enough Bork-charms. I voted for waterfiends - IMO it takes too much of your 40 minutes to get to rocket lobsters, hop to find a free world, get setup, etc etc.

Grain can be wooden in the sense of "wood grain", i.e. the way lines run through the wood. Not that there's any connection between this meaning and food or cooking...

Seriously? The Tip.It forums are fantastic, but there's no possible way for any website crew to match the volume of content/data produced by a wiki with near-unlimited contributors. You're missing out.

When I first read the title of this thread, I was very irritated at the thought of giving out loyalty points for PvP victories. After seeing that it's only 500 points, I'm not bothered any more.

One thing that may be relevant is that while two herbs will definitely last through 50+ bones, there won't be a ton of time left over as leeway. Meaning that if the burners are halfway through at another's house when you arrive and start offering, it seems to me there's a decent chance they'll go out and you'll be offering several bones burner-less until the lighter notices. Disclaimer: I have not tried training at another's house before, so this is purely speculation. I didn't know this - thanks :).

I could be mistaken, but I doubt that any loading speed benefits outweighs the slowdown of having to repeatedly type in the other player's name to reach their house. A gilded altar costs about 1.2M, which can be substantial at lower levels. However, that's around 6% of the cost of training prayer from 80 -> 85 using dragon bones, and about 1% of the cost of training 80 -> 95.

Since you have 80 construction, I would strongly recommend building your own altar. Based upon your summoning and herblore levels, and your intent to train prayer above 80, I suspect you can spare the ~1M or so to get your own, and it'll save you a decent amount of time not having to repeatedly type in another player's name. When I trained prayer, I had a stack of house teleport tablets, tinderbox, two herbs, 24 frost bones, and 24 more in the yak. I'm pretty sure the extra banking time isn't worth it for 6 more bones, and definitely not for 3. I used rings of duelling, with a glory equipped in case I forgot to grab a new ring when mine broke. Grimy's sheets indicate a max of around 1,400 bones offered per hour using 50 at a time, but in practice it'll be less, especially if using another's house.