Soma2035

I don't use a maul because of monsters weak to crush... I use it because the animation creates a significant delay between when the attack is "complete" (allowing me to move) and when the damage is dealt (which is when the monster can react). You can really mess with the AI of several enemies in the dungeon with the maul. Versatility is great, but I've found that with 3 spear users and a ranger on the team already, another spear really isn't the best option. Instead I opted for Maul / Staff. But yea, anyone who thinks Maul wins because of DPS (even against crush-weak enemies) is just kidding themselves...

Personally, I think it would've been better if they never announced it and simply gave it out at Runefest to those attending...

It's definitely horrible PR. I don't disagree. There probably will be lawsuits, because, as Qeltar mentioned, some players really are petty enough to spend their money on a ticket and not attend the Runefest - they only want the flag. But from the transaction itself, they do have the right to retract it, because the gift isn't being exchanged for anything in particular. In fact, my understanding is that several players already purchased their tickets before the gift was announced or discovered. The whims of a court are directed by the lawyers. Whether they are sued and whether they are forced to pay damages isn't really relevant, because my only point was that they are not selling the flag... EDIT: Also, if they are sued, it would more likely be for false advertising than fraud... but again, good lawyers can make anything stick or fall apart so going down that route seems fairly pointless.

Okay, so you're *not* a lawyer, but you feel comfortable pretending to be one. Whatever floats your boat, I suppose. But you're still not a lawyer. I could do the same, saying that I feel pretty confident that if Jagex advertised a benefit as being tied to the purchase of a ticket and reneged on it, that they could be sued. Which of us is correct? Nobody knows, but the presence of the question nicely tosses your neat little "legality" argument out on its ear. Companies have been sued for less, and the matter of the "gift" versus the "purchase" is not nearly as cut-and-dried as you'd like to pretend. Why is it ridiculous? You're engaging in enough hand-waving here to propel a sailboat. An item that can only be obtained with money gives an advantage to those with money. It is Jagex themselves that said they didn't want money to be a factor in who owns what. So why get pissed off at people who hold them to their word? The argument that it's okay for Jagex to do something that's unfair to poor players because life is already unfair to poor players is nonsensical. I'm not trying to pretend to be a lawyer. I don't plan to be a lawyer. But taking classes in law and learning the fundamentals of justice systems is crucial to many career paths, and more importantly, lets you protect your own rights. Yes, companies have been sued for less. McDonalds has been sued for making girls fat. But that doesn't change the actual contract made when you purchase a product. According to the agreement you made with Jagex, in creating your account, you are borrowing their software. This is in the terms and conditions for anyone to read - whether this is fair or not could be a matter for the courts to decide if it comes to it, but the terms you agreed to in creating your account is that Jagex retains ownership of "your" account, "your" items, and thus can change them with impunity. The terms of your purchase are very clear as well. You are paying for a ticket to their event, Runefest, to be held in the UK. They are obligated to host the event. There is no obligation to give you gifts. You can sue for practically anything, what you can be sued for is completely irrelevant. The point is, there is no agreement, no legal obligation, to give you the flag. Therefore it's not a sale. If you can't accept the simple logic of it, then continuing this path is futile, but you can give it a rest with your "the payment is for both the flag and the ticket," because it's not, and anyone with an ounce of common sense can see why it's not. I find it ridiculous because we can not even agree that it is an advantage. Plenty of people have posted saying "it's just a flag." We tolerate the remaining RWT. In fact, many players welcome it unknowingly. We understand and accept that other players with more real-world money can purchase better gaming hardware than us. We understand that these are advantages granted by real-world situations. And we scream bloody murder about a flag that we can't even all agree is an advantage? Yes, Qeltar, I think this is ridiculous. This is the little boy who picked up money and didn't return it. Sure, he knows he should give it back. Sure, he knows it doesn't belong to him. But it's in the gray area. And when we readily and clearly accept what's fully in the black, [bleep]ing about the gray area is nonsensical. If you disagree, that's fine. But like someone said above, Jagex probably isn't going to change their mind on this... and many players are behind Jagex, not because they are "Jagex Fanboys" as you have so accused us, but because they have a different opinion. And if you can't accept that, then perhaps you are as petty as those who would spend $120 on a virtual flag. You missed my point entirely. Yes, Jagex can do whatever the hell they want. No, they shouldn't. But that's not my point at all. My point is that they are not selling anyone flags. They are selling tickets. They are giving out flags of their own volition, and not in exchange for money received. Therefore, it's a gift, and not a sale.

Not only is this utterly beside the point, it's not even necessarily accurate. Are you a lawyer? Somehow, I doubt it. That analogy is too asinine to even bother responding to. The heart of the matter is that Jagex is supposed to be doing this to thank all of their customers. Deliberately doing something so petty and divisive is not justifiable using the "life's not fair" canard. Actually, I have indeed studied business law and will be studying it further. If you feel Jagex wronged you, you could try to sue, but their terms clearly have them covered. For one, when you purchase the ticket, to my knowledge it doesn't state that you are also purchasing a redemption code for an item. Secondly, Jagex clearly retains possession of all Runescape accounts, and therefore all items on them, so they can change them on a whim as they desire. They aren't selling you an item. Even if you have to buy something else to get the "free" item, the item isn't legally sold. And how is the analogy asinine? The point isn't that "life isn't fair". Don't put words in my mouth. The point is that calling this flag a "real world advantage" is utterly ridiculous. And even more so when you consider that real life undeniably conveys several real advantages. The flag is only a real world advantage in the loosest sense of the term... like picking up a dropped dollar bill and keeping it is only stealing in the loosest sense of the term.

Are you really going to stand there and argue that because life is unfair, that justifies a company deliberately making it *more* unfair, via something they claimed was intended to "thank their customers"? Bizarre. No, I'm pointing out that calling this unfair is ridiculous. You're prosecuting the 9 year old boy for picking up a dollar bill that someone dropped and keeping it, and turning a blind eye to the bank robber down the street.

And if Jagex had waited until after RuneFest was over, and then given everyone a card with a redeem code on it, then maybe I'd agree with you. That's not what they did. They are trying to have their cake and eat it too, by simultaneously calling it a "free gift" and also trying to use it as a hook to entice people to buy tickets. Sorry, it won't fly. It's patently dishonest. This is somewhat reminiscent of those giveaways they had at baseball games when I was a kid. (Maybe they still have them, I dunno.) You attend the game and get a "gift" of some sort. Except they announce them in advance, and the ability to get the gift is part of why people go to those games. When you dangle something in front of people to entice them to buy a ticket, it's ridiculous to then turn around and suggest that they aren't paying for the item you are dangling in front of them, but getting it "free". They can turn around and not give the item, or make it so the item disappears after Rune Fest, or change the item however they like. They did not legally agree to give you this item in exchange for money. Therefore it is a gift, and arguing otherwise is simply trying to twist the facts.

Why do people keep trying to make value judgment on other peoples items! I cross stitch a bunch, and have a whole collection of cross stitching books. I'm sure you wouldn't care a flip about them, but I love them. And the argument is not about staff, it's about the real world money being used to get in game items. It's about them saying one thing and doing another. It's about breaking the wall between real life and game life. The item itself is of no consequence. And five dollars and you leisure time may not be serious business to you, but my money and my leisure time are limited, and as such, I try to get the most out of them I can. And I agree with qeltar, the arguments saying it's not money for in game items are just playing semantic games You completely missed my point, yet gave it more validity. I'll spell it out for you: It is an item. A useless status symbol of an item, much like an expensive care that gets less Mpg or Kmpg. People will gawk at you, and you will smile, but at the end of the day, all you have is something that will be replaced with the "next big thing" in a few years. It is worthless and nothing to get worked up over. As for the "real world money for items" bit: you are a moron. In case you can not tell for whatever reason, I'm being blunt. It is a reward for buying a ticket, which would make Jagex assume that you are going to attend the event. A mistake on their part? Yes. Them offering items for cash? No. They are simply making assumptions that, if someone buys a ticket to an event, they will go to it. (SHOCKER!) The transaction is for the ticket. The item is meant for attendance. Jagex will learn from this and give out any future items via event booths at said event. It is their first convention, so mistakes are bound to happen. tl;dr You cannot judge the stance of an issue held by a company by 1 occurrence. As I said, Mountain out of a Mole hill. Now, to solve your immanent post, filled with emotion unfounded: It will boil down to, "Your opinion is different then mine, so it's wrong! *unjust moral examples* *personal attack* *more false examples* *up-up-down-down-left-right-left-right-b-a-fireball motion into your Super for finisher*" So, here is my response: You need to calm down, take a cookie, and eat it. While eating it, you need to examine your priorities and why you are wasting your precious, limited time expressing an emotional opinion about something that will not matter next year because Jagex will hold another event and that event will give out another item. Only time will tell if Jagex learns from this mistake. Oh, and don't respond to me. If the above failed to capture your attention and show you just how much you are exaggerating the situation, (Making a mountain out of a mole hill) then a further post will also fail to do so, even if I spend more then 5 minutes on it next time. No arguing with the illogical and irrational. To anyone wondering why I care to make this post: The last 10 pages. Well, if I miss the point you miss the point too. If you don't get that it is about having the benefits of real world money shoved in to ones escape from the problems of real world money, then you are not going to get it. They said they weren't going to do this, now they have. I'm not happy. Did it ever occur to you that I find this debate fun? You are very ready to tell me how to spend my time, and how to value my life. And if I have made some personal attack somewhere, it was unintentional. Im discussing and dissecting an issue hoping to give some road map to resolving the diverseness it has caused. So please, stop telling me what to do, that I am wasting my life, and get on with yours. Are you really ignorant enough to believe that real world money doesn't affect your status in Runescape? People with real world money often have fewer obligations, and thus more time to play. More play time generally equates to being a better player, in a game that favors grinding over anything else (besides possibly luck). People with real world money can afford better equipment. This can mean anything from being able to enjoy the highest detail settings to being able to purchase high quality gaming mouses to having faster and thus less laggy internet. People with real world money can visit any number of shady websites and purchase Runescape items and gold because of the poor pricing system and the abomination we call the Grand Exchange, and repeatedly go free despite the rules. People with real world money already have a huge advantage that Jagex has been tolerant of. Comparably, a flag that, once again, is a gift that Jagex is not obligated to provide in exchange for the money you paid for the ticket to Runefest can hardly account for anything.

I routinely team with people under level 130... in fact, my last team had a level 118 and a level 126. I've never once had a "failed" 5:5 floor. The closest to failing one was when Night-Gazer pulled off some really nasty chains of high hits and killed 3 of the 5 members of our team. But that's happened before in 3:3 and 3:2 games for me too... and it's not common. Which is why people who mention 5:5 games repeatedly emphasize good, coordinated teams. I wouldn't say that big teams train faster than small teams. In fact, I think small teams can expect slightly (perhaps 10% higher) rates in experience. But big teams do have the advantage of gaining the higher rate for a longer period of time. My theory at the moment is that it's best to play 2:1 or something along the lines of that for the lower floors, and switch to 5:5 for the upper floors, but I don't really have the numbers to back it up yet so I'm just playing whenever I feel like, however I feel like. :P

The exchange of money is not for the flag. Look at the terms of the purchase. You are exchanging your money for a ticket to their event. They are not legally obligated to give you anything more than that, therefore, you did not exchange money for the item.

No, they don't. But you know what? Jagex didn't *need* to make it impossible for these people to get that flag either. They didn't *need* to put something so obviously stupidly thought out into the game at all. You're using a form of argument that basically boils down to "life sucks, so it's okay if people make it suck more". Rather spurious. This was supposed to be an event to *thank* customers, wasn't it? Since the flag and the event must be purchased together and cannot be obtained in any other way, the flag and the event are collectively $120. Any attempt to separate them is silly game-playing. If you aren't familiar with the custom of giving gifts as a present to those who attend an event, then there's reason arguing this with you, but anyone with any understanding of social customs should know that rewarding attendees with an additional commemorative bonus is NOT the same as selling the bonus for the entry fee. Also, legally, Jagex could easily change their mind about the flag. They can not do so about the ticket. A purchase is a legal contract, and in this case, it is your money for a ticket to their event. It is not for the flag. If they were to change their mind about the flag and remove it, it is well within their legal rights. Because they aren't agreeing to sell you a flag, they're only agreeing to sell you a ticket. Gift versus purchase. There's a huge difference.

If you live on Hawaii? If you are a poor kid with poor parents? If you're a poor kid with poor parents, hopefully you would have learned by now what's important and what's not. If you haven't, well, then expect to remain poor. A virtual commemorative sign to indicate you've attended an event should not be a big deal to you if you're poor - what's for dinner is probably more important, and anyone in that situation probably realizes this. Stop hiding behind the perceived misery of other people. Poor players are probably just fine because they live in a life where resources are scarce and they learn repeatedly how to prioritize their needs properly. They don't need a silly little flag in a computer game. The flag isn't $120. The event is. The flag is given as a commemorative gift that no one will care about three months from now. Petty players who would pay $120 for the flag alone should really re-consider their lives. Besides, your real-life status has had far greater effects on your Runescape experience than this flag could ever hope to emulate.

Ah but they just may be! In general 4:3, 3:2, and 2:1 (6 Complexity ofc) small map are pretty close if not better xp per hour than a 5:5 Large. The reason for this is, they do not require armor at all. A couple of telports for the team, and a super melee pot when you can buy the seed finishes games extremely fast with highly decent xp. Also with the smaller maps if someone leaves, its no big deal. On a large map if someone leaves 1/4 or 1/2 way through, your SOL. With less people on the map on a 5:5 the chance of death is much higher which brings me to my next point... The big kicker is death. Even on a good team, on a large 5:5 map there is the chance of death. If you have 4 or less because people leave it becomes increasingly riskier. 2 shades and a 100+ brute will wreck you. On a small map the chance for death is dramatically lower, so you have little chance to get any penalties. This alone can make smaller maps quicker than the 5:5 large since your not getting a -8% or more for your xp/hr. I've played several 5:5 games and I've never died. In fact, I've died more frequently in 3:3 and 3:2 games than in 5:5 games. 2 shades and a 100+ brute are laughable at best, you can easily tank the shades while using prayers against the brute, who goes down in seconds to magic. The biggest actual threats to good players are Monolith rooms (which occasionally spawn 3-4 several high level shades at once) and a combination of high level forgotten rangers and mages. Even these are manageable if you recognize how dangerous they are beforehand and work as a team. Most bosses are relatively harmless, although the Bulwark Beast has a nasty tendency to trample a player if someone's attacking from a distance as well as hitting him with lightning, and the Shadow-Gazer can sometimes pull off a really nasty combo with its acid rain, reminiscent of the Corporeal Beast's white claw spell. These are threats on any difficulty, though. Level 31 was worth 42K experience for me. If your team actually cares about how fast you're going through the dungeon, you can do this in 40-50 minutes easily, which is ~56K per hour. How much experience do you get playing 2:1 on this floor? From experience, 3:3 yields a little less than half the experience of 5:5 (the modifiers on the score screen are misleading, because the floor and prestige scores are heavily impacted by the modifiers with exception of death before the modifiers are applied a second time). If this ratio holds true, playing 2:1 would yield perhaps a fifth of the experience per floor. That's 8K experience per run. At about 8 minutes per full run. that's only ~60K per hour, which isn't really that much higher. The rates really feel about the same (I've personally played 3:3, 3:2, 3:1, and 5:5), so it comes down to how you'd like to play. However, my guess is that the actual "best" rates are drawn from rushing through some floors, and playing the highest floors with large teams. Since the XP rate is higher on deeper floors, it makes sense to prolong these floors while shortening earlier floors.

Hardly a mistake considering if it turned out you didn't like the maul, a promethium spear is easy to get if you find a good smith. (how is the maul though, in comparison to the spear?) Its hard to find a 90 smith, and even if I do sometimes they don't want to make me one out of pure jerkiness, or sometimes they get pissed off at me for doing the infinite money trick for hours on end trying to scrap together the 416k needed. I got my prom spear because a very nice level 138 fellow with all 99s (except dungeoneering, of course) made me it along with a gorgonite platebody. Prom spear had like 127 stab I think. Primal maul has about 157 crush. I know most bosses are weak to stab, but I think having a massive crush bonus will make up for it. Maul is only 1 speed slower than a spear too. But yes if I had a primal spear I would defintely choose it over the maul. If you have a choice of weapons, you should ALWAYS choose the spear. Not true at all. The maul's unique attack animation allows for some really, really interesting ways to deal with monsters.

Spear probably beats maul in DPS. Maul beats spear if you kite enemies at all.

we know that it efects ruby tiped addy bolts as insted of 4000 lp thay only hit 1000. Yea... but to be honest, we're not sure how that works either. Theoretically it should hit 4000, but it only hits 1000. When the beast is at 75% of its hp, it should hit 3000... but it still hits 1000? The most common theory I've heard is that it caps damage at 1,000 in addition to halving range damage. That could be it. Or it could be something else entirely. >.>

It's been proven to reduce damage from the Dark Bow. Otherwise, there's no "proof," but fairly good evidence, that it reduces damage from several melee weapons. It's been proved to not affect damage dealt by magic. There's a damage reduction in place, but since no one really knows how it works, the only item that we can say with 100% certainty that it affects is the Dark Bow.

Okay, that's a valid distinction. But it doesn't change the principle here, which is still people using money to get items that cannot be obtained in any other way. I could pretty easily come up with other examples of RWT that don't involve tradeable items but that are still prohibited. I don't have that quote handy. But they have pretty consistently said they didn't want to get into have and have-nots based on real world financial situations, and that's what they have done here. It doesn't matter that the item has no use. There are tons of things that people spend a lot of time and money on, both in-game and out, that have no use. There is no difference, even if you want to pretend to see one. You pay 75 pounds, you get the whole package. No money, no package. Them deciding that the money is only for part of the package and not the rest is just yet more of the "Emperor has fine new clothes" technique that Jagex seems to now use regularly. It's nonsense. And I can guarantee you that there are people who will buy tickets only for the in-game item and then never go. So much for "not paying for the goody bags". All of this is besides the point, though. This should have been an event to raise goodwill and thank the community for making RS so successful. Jagex has turned it into a morass because of their unwillingness to make it economically feasible for most players, because of their dishonest attempt to make it seem like only adults play RS, and then this in-game item nonsense, which was totally unnecessary and the response to which could have easily been predicted by anyone with a clue. Do people still believe that real world advantages have no place in Runescape? I thought that facade had been peeled away ages ago. Like I said, go look at Jagex's quotes in the wake of War of Legends. One of the executives explicitly states that he is interested in micro payments for cosmetic items. I don't recall any quotes ever promising that no micro payment system won't exist, and seeing as a Jagex executive specifically showed interest in it, this seems quite contrary to what you're saying. Yes, some people might pay for the tickets for the in-game item. But it's hardly Jagex's issue if some players are petty. Whether you like it or not, Jagex is trying to give a little freebie to those who are attending their festival. That's it. Also, it's not economically feasible for THEM to make it accessible for all players. Contrary to what appears to be popular belief here, prices aren't made up at random. You're not stupid, you should have an understanding of costs and elasticity. Jagex didn't pull a number out of a hat that happened to be too large. The price was either set to be the most profit generating, or it was set to cover the costs and make it as accessible as possible without breaking their own bank. In either case, you can hardly blame them.

Halloween masks are purely commemorative and cosmetic. You haven't explained how the tradeability aspect makes any difference; I sure don't see it. Corporations making promises -- such as "we won't make in-game items you have to buy" -- and then reneging on them are nothing new either. Fanboys of that corporation falling over themselves to come up with rationalizations for how the company violating its own principles is just hunky dory, and anyone who takes issue with it must just be a big jealous poopyhead? Nothing new there either. But again, the real point is that Jagex has miraculously turned this event from something positive into something negative due to a fine combination of greed and cluelessness. I'm starting to think that whoever is in charge of gameplay balance testing over there must do double time as the head of PR -- surely it would be impossible to find *two* people this out of touch with the customer base? Halloween masks can be traded for in-game currency. The festival flags can not. Halloween masks therefore can be used for a major in-game advantage, while the flags can not. Where is the actual quote that states Jagex won't make in-game items for people to buy? As I recall, they specifically expressed interest in micropayments for cosmetic items, not long after the release of War of Legends. Also, they aren't selling items. They are selling tickets for a festival. They're GIVING items to people who are going to attend the festival. There's a difference, even if you don't see it. Like someone said before, it's like goody-bags at a birthday party. You aren't attending the party for the goody bag, you're attending it for the party, and they're giving you a goody-bag just because it adds to the festive cheer.

Some people expect the world of them. Others just expect decent behavior, fairness and consistency. And then there are the suckups who will defende anything Jagex does, no matter how ridiculous, incompetent or idiotic. (Seem to be lots in that category.) I just have one question, though. How is my paying $125 to get a festival flagpole any different from a philosophical or game fairness standpoint than my paying $125 to get a Hallowe'en mask? Because a Halloween mask is tradeable, and isn't a new item. There's a difference between giving an item that actually conveys in-game benefits and detracts from other items already given, and items that are purely commemorative and cosmetic. Commemorative, cosmetic items that are exclusive to those who met real life conditions are nothing new. Get over it.

Magic is gimmicky when playing alone, because most dungeons are too short for the time investment to be worthwhile. However, in larger dungeons, magic saves a significant amount of time since you're very likely to encounter high level forgotten warriors and brutes. Magic is also very effective against certain bosses. Aside from the bosses with the obvious magic weakness, Vengeance is in general fairly useful and extremely helpful against Lexicus as it can quickly dispatch the summoned tomes. Magic bypasses Bulwark Beast's armor ability entirely, and it doesn't hurt that the Bulwark Beast is vulnerable to magic as well. A couple of the later bosses heavily punish warriors with close range high damage attacks that must be dodged - magic doesn't surpass melee in damage here, but it's safer, and in the case of one of the bosses, allows you to remain close to the pillars of light as well. My current binds are Primal Maul, Empowered Catalytic Staff, and 125 Blood Runes. A spear is more flexible than the maul, but the unique animation and timing of the maul makes kiting a lot easier, which makes dealing with early dungeon spiders a lot less frustrating. I haven't found stab or slash attacks to be strictly necessary yet, but I can understand choosing the spear over the maul.

Where are people getting the 30% bonus for the celestial staff? It's not in the knowledge base. Can someone show me a picture of one being wielded? I know that the KB is still horribly wrong with a lot of those items. http://www.runescape.com/kbase/guid/dungeoneering_mage_equipment First few paragraphs, magical equipment page.

Are you really that ignorant? There are many places in the world from which you can't log in from. The idea is still the same. Those who can go can go and have a good time. Those who can't due to extraneous circumstances are SOL, but it's not a big deal.

I stand corrected. I hadn't thought of hunter (which is a pretty big oversight, admittedly). Hunter is just one example though. It just so happens that the first Bonus XP Weekend happened at around the time of the Ice Strykewyrms, when Staffs of Light were a big deal. With all the slayers and merchants trading their staves of light for some raw materials, even places like unicorns (unicorn horns) and Dagannoth Kings (Water Talismans) were crowded. The real big offenders were Summoning and Herblore, seeing as they're expensive, and in the case of summoning, slow, and Herblore just got the nice Overload potions. What if we get a nice smithing update first this time? Can we expect Adamant, Mithril, and Coal mines to be ridiculously crowded? I personally liked one of the ideas voiced earlier, that is, to limit bonus XP weekend to particular skills. If I were to pick a list of skills, I would choose: Attack Strength Defense Prayer (Barring multipliers) Fishing Woodcutting Mining Hunter Agility Thieving Runecrafting Slayer These skills can arguably still be bought to some extent, but that extent is minimal compared to the other skills. Also, I would make the experience multiplier lower (say, 1.5x), and constant. Instead of encouraging a prepare-and-use methodology like the first weekend did, it would be more of a suggestion as to how to spend the weekend should you choose to play RS. Also, there's no pressure to "save as much time as possible" like there was with the first weekend, meaning players could more likely find time to chat with each other. The crowding is still an issue, but it would be for the weekend only, and for several of these skills, crowds are not as big of an impact. But honestly, creating weeks of turmoil as players scramble to find the materials they need, culminating in a massive, high pressure, low margin-for-error period of grinding feels like a mockery of this game. Especially when the only objective is to make this game easier... like I said before, I'd rather they simply double all experience gained in every skill permanently than suffer another Bonus XP Weekend of the same sort as the first.

That's fair enough, but that's also the reason why Jagex announced these things ahead of time in very public and well-covered ways. It seems a shame to essentially 'nerf' the nice give-back aspect of these events because of a completely unrelated issue: merchanting clans and the grand exchange. That, I think, is more unfair than just asking people to plan for the future. After all, is the every day casual player really going to get so distressed about not being able to grind out 'til the end of the multiplier as someone who is making long-term goals and going for maxed stats? Not really. I disagree; I think merchanting clans and the broken GE are completely related, as they directly affect a player's ability to prepare for such a weekend. But it's not just clans, it's thousands of individuals all attempting to do the same thing: buy supplies. Everyone is affected, casual or otherwise. EDIT: I take that back; DIY'ers aren't affected to any significant degree as far as I can tell. DIYers are most certainly affected. A while ago, Swamp Lizards were bought out (this was WAY before the Bonus XP Weekend). I was trying to use up a few of my charms, and my friend volunteered to help me. The two of us went to catch swamp lizards and found that we weren't the only ones with the same idea. We found that every spot was crowded, and people were fighting over the hunting spots. Among the people fighting for spots were DIYers (or those who claimed to be DIYers) who were training hunter while gathering their own summoning supplies. When items are impossible to buy, some people resort to collecting their own. Others collect it to trade for other items impossible to purchase. This most definitely affects a lot of DIYers.