GregorDGrim

Damn. I just accidentally deleted my entire entry, and am retyping. You now are going to get the abbreviated version of my original post. *sigh* Thanks for the comments, Turnpike and JustAlex! Here's what I did yesterday, in about five hours of gameplay: - Earned three levels and 365K total experience, my fourth-highest one-day total. - I leveled herblore to 42, using the JoT aura. - I strung 1,000 of the 5,000 yew longbows in my bank, planning to alch all 1,000. However, I got extremely bored after about 500, and quit after about 620, when I leveled magic to 68. I made a mental note (likely to be forgotten) to only alch while in front of a television or second monitor, so I can watch something while clicking. I sold the other 380 finished bows. - I spent about two hours chopping ivy in world 86, my first visit to a 1,500+ world. This world just felt more refined, more sophisticated, more peaceful. Okay, not really, but it was cool to finally be able to log on to this world, even if I was the fish in a tank of sharks. For the day, I earned more than 176K woodcutting experience, my best daily total in that skill. Fortunately, I got four bird nest drops, with a palm tree seed (worth 101K) in one. - I dove into the dungeons of Daemonheim and cleared floors two through eight (small c6), earning a total of about 12K dungeoneering experience and leveling that skill to 51. I used my second bind on zephyrium plate, which is nice because now when starting a floor I don't have to be worried about going through food while fighting mobs in the first couple of rooms. My best floor time was 9:30, with most floors completed in the 12-17 minute range. Not quick, but I did spend some time fishing, mining, smithing, and fighting non-guardian mobs. Overall, it's good total hourly experience (for all skills combined), but this is one slow-leveling individual skill, particularly doing it this way. It is similar to slayer, in that the experience earned while training the skill is secondary to the total experience earned in other skills. Total levels = 1,506

Great job with all of those quests. I wish you continued success with the DIY style!

Thanks for checking in, Will! My first session as a level 1500 was fairly dull, at least for blogging purposes. I trained in the clan citadel, leveling smithing (59), crafting (71) and cooking (73), while getting some experience in summoning and mining as well. I used the clan fealty experience on herblore, which gave the same amount of experience as the Jack of Trades bonus tome does. After charging my clan ring at the woodcutting plot, I chopped ivy for about an hour, taking advantage of the 25,300 bonus experience. While I was skilling, I started thinking about the next two hundred levels. I had a good road map for levels 1,300 - 1,500, and wanted to figure out the most likely path to 1,700. I certainly want to get all my sklls to at least level 50, which would take care of 20% of the 200 levels. I would like to get slayer to 65 and dungeoneering to 60, which would be another 24 levels. If all goes according to plan, I'll gain three levels in magic, woodcutting, and fletching, with at least six in every other skill. Plans and reality rarely match, however. After charting a path to 1,700 total levels, I calculated that I would need approximately 13.7 million experience to gain those specific 200 levels. At an average rate of 34,000 exp/hour (my current rate is about 32,500), that works out to just over 400 hours of game play. Two hours per level, on average. The path does not seem so daunting when I look at it this way. This is what I think about when chopping ivy. Total levels = 1,503

Impressive work, particularly for a DIY'er. The questing that you've done at your low total level is what impresses me the most.

Nice job on getting your clan over 100 members. It adds a fun dimension to the game, with citadel skilling and (hopefully) interesting clan chat. You're getting closer and closer to 2,000 total levels! That will be an excellent accomplishment.

Thanks for the comments! Normally, I report this at the end of each entry, but I'm putting it at the beginning of this post: Total Levels = 1,500! Here's a comparison of where I am currently, compared to my stats at the beginning of this blog (level 1,000): My goal was to achieve this in 25 game days (600 hours played), and I made it in 24 (576 hours). I've earned a total of just under 18.8 million experience. I've come a long way since the first post in this blog, 373 hours of gaming and about 7 1/2 months ago. So...what did I do to get those final 11 levels? [spoiler=Chopping Ivy (Level 92)] [spoiler=Fletching A Ton Of Yew (Level 87)] I spent an hour using the Five-Finger aura in the Thieves' Guild, earning 47,400 experience and leveling twice (to 60): [spoiler=Stealing Hankies] I used the bonus experience from the JoT aura to level summoning to 43. The other six levels were earned while completing three slayer tasks. For the first task, I was assigned 94 vampyres. They were easy, but the drops are lousy and the leeches suck (pun intended). Next, I was given the task to exterminate 85 cyclopes. I was not even aware this was a possible monster to be assigned, but it worked out great. I still had more than 200 tokens in each of the five mini-games from my previous foray into the Warrior's Guild to get my dragon defender. The slayer experience was excellent, and I got a spare dragon defender as a drop. I also leveled constitution to 67, defense to 64, strength to 67, my total combat level to 87, and slayer to 50: [spoiler=Cyclopes Give Good Dropes] My third and final task of the session was 115 otherworldly beings, resulting in my first trip to Zanaris since gaining access to the fairy rings. While easy and not aggressive, these beasts were a disappointing task due to the lack of decent drops. I did level attack to 68, increasing my total combat level once again, to 88. With about 15 beings left on the task, I reached my 1,500th level, which happened to be level 51 in slayer. Oh, happy day. So what's next for me? Why, 1,600 levels of course, but I will not be feeling nearly the same push as I did to reach 1,500. I'm going to take my time and hopefully enjoy doing some more quests (seriously!) and tasks. I'll keep having fun, and I'll keep posting about my adventures and accomplishments.

Nice work on the slayer helmet, and level 50 dungeoneering. We hit that level on the same day (although I notice you leveled twice more since).

I'm now eight levels closer to 1,500 total. Four of them were quick, and four were slow. The quick ones: - The Squeal of Fortune, which seems to be stuck on giving me 50 coins each spin, was decent enough to me one day to give me two small experience lamps. I used both on runecrafting, leveling that skill to 43. - I used a JoT experience tome on runecrafting, leveling to 44. This was a number I'd been working (albeit very slowly) towards, because now I can make my own nature runes. This should make alching items more profitable. - I used the rest of the oak planks (around 370) in my bank to build larders in my house, leveling construction twice (to 52). My butler must be wondering what the heck I'm doing, but he always fetches planks with the greatest of discretion. The fact that I pay him so well must have a lot to do with that. The slow ones: I headed into the dungeons below Daemonheim to try out the new belts (tools and keys), and the stacking of gathered raw materials. I am definitely a fan of both parts of this upgrade. It really helps me with my inventory management, which is important for a solo dungeoneer. I completed a total of nine floors - 18 through 25, and then resetting my prestige and finishing floor 1. I went through all of them on complexity level six, and earned between 1900 and 3200 (floor 25) experience per floor, with most of them between 2100-2400. My quickest time was 14:39, but I wasn't focused on speed for this session. I was taking some time to get experience in various skills such as fishing, smithing, mining, and combat. The toughest boss for me was Sagittare, the archer, as I died twice to him. The easiest was Stomp, who I faced twice and had a very simple time of it on both occasions. The weirdest mob was a forgotten warrior in a puzzle room on floor 19. I got him down to almost zero hit points, and then missed the next 40 swings (at least). I went through all of the food in my inventory, and I was scrambling to figure out if this was part of the puzzle, if there was some other way I needed to finish him off. It looked, however, like this was just a random quirk and I finally bested him. The nine floors earned me a total of about 20,500 dungeoneering experience, and a lot of experience in other skills, primarily fishing. Fishing turns out to be excellent experience in the dungeons. I routinely was earning 3K+ exp per floor, and I leveled fishing to 66 in the process. All the dungeoneering experience earned resulted in three levels (to 50), which is good because now I can bind a second item: [spoiler=Dungeoneering] Total levels = 1,489

It sure is, because he'll keep the pipes unclogged and everything operating smoothly, which will minimize the chance that the tombs at the bottom will get flooded with sewage. I only read the thread title, not the responses, so my apologies if this has already been answered.

To buy items from NPC-owned shops.

are you dumb? I'm not sure. Can you repeat the question? If you're asking if I'm dumb for soloing the floors - I'm low level in the skill, and trying to learn as much as I can about it before I subject myself to groups. I've probably read as much of the DGS guides and forum threads at xp-waste as half of your members. A lot of it is far, far above what I need to know right now as a level 47, but information to me is gold. I am fully aware that quicker experience in the skill is to be had by grouping, and that at higher levels it becomes ridiculous to solo, but I'm not combat level 90 yet so I don't get penalized for soloing yet, and I'm still figuring out the intricacies of the skill. If you're asking if I'm dumb for thinking the enhancements are more beneficial to solo players - it's my impression that's the case, because as a solo player I have to play every role in the dungeon - keyer, resource gatherer, runner, and so inventory management seems to be a bit more important. I'm certain that you could convince me that I'm being dumb in thinking this way. If you're asking if I'm dumb for posting anything in this thread - yes, probably. edit: I notice that your original post was removed, but it didn't bother me and I really am interested in finding out which part of my comment you felt displayed ignorance. No I asked because soloing would mean you own every single tool, chisel and key anyway. It's good that you're learning, no offence meant. None taken. Giving all players access to every key is obviously a benefit for groups; I understand that. From an inventory management standpoint, it helps me as a solo player to have those extra slots available which often are taken by keys. Stacking certain inventory items (particularly uncooked food and ore) is also tremendously helpful to me for inventory management. I need to do some skilling on just about every C6 floor, which I don't believe is the case for each member of a dungeoneering group. Finally, having to open the tool kit takes up a significant portion of my inventory, which will now be freed. I shouldn't have any storage issues at all.

If you're asking if I'm dumb for soloing the floors - I'm low level in the skill, and trying to learn as much as I can about it before I subject myself to groups. I've probably read as much of the DGS guides and forum threads at xp-waste as half of your members. A lot of it is far, far above what I need to know right now as a level 47, but information to me is gold. I am fully aware that quicker experience in the skill is to be had by grouping, and that at higher levels it becomes ridiculous to solo, but I'm not combat level 90 yet so I don't get penalized for soloing yet, and I'm still figuring out the intricacies of the skill. If you're asking if I'm dumb for thinking the enhancements are more beneficial to solo players - it's my impression that's the case, because as a solo player I have to play every role in the dungeon - keyer, resource gatherer, runner, and so inventory management seems to be a bit more important. I'm certain that you could convince me that I'm being dumb in thinking this way. If you're asking if I'm dumb for posting anything in this thread - yes, probably. edit: I notice that your original post was removed, but it didn't bother me and I really am interested in finding out which part of my comment you felt displayed ignorance.

This is a nice little update, even if I do the exact same 10 skills each time, and in the same order. I know that once I fletch the log, I'm done. I am excited about the dungeoneering update, as I run the floors solo and it seems as though the enhancements are more beneficial to solo players than those who play in groups.

My last session was broken into three major components - slayer tasks, skilling in the clan citadel, and chopping ivy. Slayer Tasks - I completed five tasks, earning my first-ever slayer points on the fifth one. I'm using Vannaka in the Edgeville Dungeon - the tasks aren't overly simple like the ones from the Canifis slayer master, and not too difficult like Sumona's in Pollnivneach. The five: - 53 green dragons - this one was ridiculous. Not because of the difficulty of the mob, but because of the bots infesting every single world I tried. It was tough to get one hit in, let alone deal the majority of the damage required to get slayer credit for that mob. There were at least half a dozen bots present, rushing from one green dragon to the next. I figured the best strategy was to stand right by where one re-popped, and hope to get a couple hits in before the damage-dealing, mindless hoard arrived. This task took about two hours to complete, but I did level slayer to 47. - 75 banshees - having just completed Smoking Kills, I was scared of this task at first, thinking only of the level 90 evil banshees that nearly killed me on my run to the boss. Then I realized these were the level 23 banshees in the Slayer Tower. After green dragons, this seemed absurdly easy. - 114 ice giants - this may be my new favorite combat mob. It's easy to deal damage, they don't hit very hard, they drop charms at a 50+% rate, the big bones give nice prayer experience, and they give 70 slayer exp each. I leveled attack to 67 and slayer to 48 on this task, and received 59 charms. - 60 hill giants - super easy, and I buried the big bones, leveling prayer to 51. - 100 ice giants - so nice, I got to fight them twice! 56 charms this time, and a lantadyme seed (currently worth 20K at GE) drop. I also leveled slayer to 49. Clan Citadel Skilling - I find myself looking forward to Tuesdays, because the build tick resets and I can scoop up 100K+ of free, relaxing experience. I spent time smithing (level 58), summoning, mining, firemaking and crafting (level 70): [spoiler=He's Crafty, He Gets Around] I used the clan fealty bonus on runecrafting, which unfortunately was not enough for a new level. Chopping Ivy - I spent about two hours at my regular ivy spot along the southern wall of Falador. Charging my clan ring at the woodcutting plot gave me 25K of bonus experience, which is always nice. I earned a shade over 164K experience, halving the amount required for level 92. A couple other things resulting in levels: - I received a random event upon departing the clan citadel, and used the experience lamp on farming, leveling that skill to 41. - I used the JoT aura to earn an experience tome, which I used on herblore, leveling that to 41. All told yesterday, I earned a total of 416K experience, my third-highest daily total, including at least 10K in 10 different skills. Unfortunately, none of that experience was in dungeoneering. I had been hopeful for the weekly update to include the dungeoneering enhancements, but since the update was postponed a day, I decided to wait a little longer to once again enter the dungeons of Daemonheim. Total levels = 1,481

The highlight of my weekend on Runescape was completing two quests. Not just any quests, mind you, but Icthlarin's Little Helper and...drum roll...Smoking Kills. I can now earn slayer points for completing tasks, and buy fun items like a slayer helmet. So, about these quests - they were both more difficult than I anticipated, but that was due primarily to my lack of adequate preparation. I always seem to forget to do or bring something, which adds time and unnecessary difficulty to the quest. Icthlarin's Little Helper (hereafter called ILH) was a challenge, particularly trying to get through the various traps and rooms in the temple. I fell prey to the wall traps a few times, and then realized I hadn't brought food. I got poisoned by the insect swarm and then realized I hadn't brought anti-poison. This definitely should have killed me, but I got very lucky. With under 200 hit points, I reached the door code puzzle. I spent extra time on that screen, noting that my hit points were not decreasing. I waited for the poison to wear off, and solved the puzzle. After completing the puzzle and leaving the temple, my son met me outside the city gates and gave me a handful of sharks and a 4-dose anti-poison. That was enough to finish the quest: [spoiler=ILH Complete] Apparently, my character is quite self-assured and ambitious, as I bragged to the Wanderer: [spoiler=The Noob Who Would Be King] After a short break, I moved on to Smoking Kills. This was a straightforward and overall simple quest, until I got to the Banshees. I went into their section of the dungeon completely unprepared for the amount of damage I would take, so I beat a hasty retreat and hit the bank (First United Desert Bank?) for a full inventory of food. The next trip was better, as I snuck up the west side of the cave which minimized the attacks, passed through the barrier, and vanquished my final foe, freeing someone's sister or something like that. My memory is fuzzy, as I was focused on not running out of prayer points, which I did during the middle of the boss fight. As my protection against ranged wore out, I made a mental note to bring prayer potions in the future. I'm certain that by now it is clear that I am too often woefully unprepared. Amazingly, I have not died yet, other than at the hands of PKers in the Wilderness course. I finished this quest with just over 200 hit points, a few food and zero prayer points: [spoiler=Smoking Kills, But It Didn't Get Me] There were a handful of other things I did during my weekend sessions: Took part in the mining competition held by our clan. I didn't come close to winning, but I did level mining twice (to 63). Purchased 750K experience worth of yew logs and bow strings (5K of each), which cost approximately 2.9 million. I should be able to break even on the sale of the finished longbows. Fletched 2,000 of the logs. Played Vinesweeper for a little while, trading in the points for 1,600 farming experience. Traded in a medium lamp won on a SoF spin for runecrafting experience, leveling to 42. Used a JoT experience tome on summoning, leveling to 42. Bonus Top 15 Player Snipe: [spoiler=Is It Easy Being Green?] She was taking part in some Kia Kaha clan discussion with a few other clan mates at the Edgeville lodestone. I tried to think of something to say, but decided to not interrupt. She was not training any skills, but she did look to be chatting efficiently. Finally, thanks to those of you who read this blog. Reaching 5,000 views is a nice milestone. Total levels = 1,472

My sons got me interested in playing. Spending time playing with them, and discussing the game during car rides, has given us an additional activity to have fun with together. Updating my blog is a big motivator. I find that keeping a log of my adventures helps me to organize my playing time. Reading other players' blogs has given me various ideas, and it is interesting to see players' experiences at all different stages of their playing time-line. I've played for only about nine months, so many of the frustrations for long-time players regarding updates and changes have not been a source of frustration for me. The game is still fun to play.

Each person who did this generated nearly a year's worth of subscription revenue for Jagex, and Jagex gets the money immediately. If I introduce a new service or product line as a businessman, and it generates more revenue than the sum of: a) the cost of providing the service or producing the product, and b) total lost revenue attributable to the new product/service through customers leaving, then I deem the new line a success. There is no doubt in my mind that Jagex is generating significant returns from this idea. While customer anger seems widespread, as one reads the forums, the vast majority of players who don't see much, if any, of a problem with the purchasing of spins are not on-line posting their acceptance. They're just playing. I don't like the ability to purchase spins because it encourages wasteful spending, it is marketed primarily to minors, and because it doesn't fit into the overall theme of the game. I'll never purchase additional spins. All that being said, it does not interfere with my enjoyment of the game to the extent I'm ready to leave.

That's a good plan. Quantifying like that seems to make goals more achievable. I did the same thing at level 1300, plotting out how I would get to 1500. I'll do the same thing for 1500 to 1600. Won't those combat levels result in more than a two level increase in constitution (HP), though? Seems like you also could get an additional five levels in agility easily enough.

Congratulations on 100M total experience! It's just a number like any other, but it feels great to hit those types of numbers. I'm low enough total exp that I still feel a small sense of accomplishment in reaching each million. Getting 2135 total levels in 100 days of game time is actually pretty quick, I think. Nice job.

Nice start to your blog, and a good, realistic initial goal. I'll be following.

Thanks, swedishboy. That was actually kind of exciting, seeing that I'm now eligible to open a starved ancient effigy in woodcutting. The very little I know about effigies has been gleaned from reading the 200M in all skills thread. Yesterday was another unglamorous session, spent primarily skilling in the clan citadel. I spent time training summoning, crafting (level 69), smithing (level 57), mining and cooking. Afterwards, I used my JoT aura to level hunter to 40: [spoiler=I Should be Hunting Wabbits This Easter] See how I made that picture festive? That is as involved as I'm going to get with this Easter event. The cool part (to me) of reaching level 40 in hunter is that I reached a milestone of being at least level 40 in every skill: [spoiler=Level 40 in....Everything!] With seven skills in the (mostly low) 40s, it is going to be a while before I reach level 50 in all skills. Once I maxed in the citadel, I charged my clan ring at the woodcutting plot. After grabbing the JoT bonus tome for the day, I went back to the comfort of southern Falador and chopped ivy. I clicked on an ivy and then chopped, and chopped, and chopped...to the tune of 26 straight on a single click, before a bird nest fell and I broke off from the ivy. I don't know what my old personal best was, but this has to be my new record. I also passed six million experience in the skill. It was just five months ago (November 4th) that I had less than six million total experience. Heck, it was only January 12th when I passed seven million total experience. I've played more, and have become more focused, over the past two and a half months. I'm beginning to feel a bit less like a newbie. One side note: my eldest son reached the 1,500 total level milestone over the weekend. He's feeling the heat from me, though! Total levels = 1,468

It's grinding time! Good work on your recent levels. I'm following your progress regularly.

There's a reason why ridiculously rich businesspeople are rich, and it isn't because they're spending their time playing Runescape.

I skilled while watching the NCAA college basketball championship game, which was not close and so was not very interesting. I did manage to level hunter to 39, thanks to my JoT aura, along with woodcutting to 91 while chopping ivy: [spoiler=No Ivy League Teams in this Championship] ...and fletching to 86, thanks to stringing 1,000 yew longbows and fletching a few hundred unfinished maple longbows: [spoiler=Fletch Lives] The clan chat was abuzz tonight with discussion over the ability to buy Squeel of Fortune spins. I don't think it was a good idea for the game, but it doesn't bother me as much as other updates (e.g. putting in the Squeel of Fortune in the first place, removing free-to-play players from the high scores list). I have a hunch that Jagex will be modifying this in some way, however, and fairly quickly. Total levels = 1,465

I know. Between this and the next bot nuke, I'm going to shoot up the rankings! That's great for you, but I wonder how many that have not moved on to other games, that will be left to admire you. edit: I hope it doesn't turn out that way, but just sayin' you know... nothing lasts forever. Yeah, I was being goofy. I started playing Runescape less than a year ago, so I don't have anywhere near the history to draw on that most of the dejected commenters do. This game, like any other, lasts for an individual only as long as they're still having fun playing it, and there are not other options that are more fun. There are two MUDs that I played for more than five years each, but, as you mention, nothing lasts forever. My desire to play decreased to a point where I looked for something else, and apparently this scheme by Jagex is causing that for a number of players.