green9090

Slightly off-topic, but this thread motivated me to make a suggestion on improving skilling. I could use the feedback if anybody wants to go check it out- link's in my sig.

This thread is now posted on the RSOF! Visit and show your support at Quickfind 24-25-573-57125258! Please give me a bump! I recently read a thread about refining skills being worthless, which reminded me of something which has bothered me for quite some time now. There are skills in RuneScape which simply suck up money without offering any benefit. My goal in writing this suggestion here is to get feedback from the Tip.it community before copying this to the RSOF and hoping to make it survive there. I will go through the skills one by one and explain what is good, and what needs to be improved. Please don't feel as though you need to read the whole thing- if you're interested in a particular skill, give it a read and then add some input. If I like your idea, I'll add it to the appropriate section and credit you here. I won't be able to credit people on the RSOF because of naming-other-players rules, but I'll keep the idea there. [hide=Summoning]I will start with Summoning, because this is a skill which I feel Jagex has finally gotten right (though it took two tries). Summoning is very, very difficult to train. One spends millions of gold to attain even a modest level. However, once one has the level, they have access to real benefits which enhance gameplay. Pouches are cheap; really, really cheap; compared to their benefits. At level 52, I can get a terrorbird and 200 scrolls for nothing, which lets me run for the entire pouch duration AND carry 12 extra items with me. At level 68, a bunyip will heal me a ridiculous amount over time, supplementing other healing methods for endless safe monster camping with no food at all. The skill keeps me wanting to work all the way up to a 30 inventory beast of burden that can bank for me at 96 and an incredibly efficient fighting machine at level 99. Summoning is a perfect example of a well-balanced skill.[/hide] [hide=Melee Combat]Combat is another well balanced aspect of the game. The only issue I hold with combat is the fact that somebody with level 99 def wears the same armor as somebody with 1/10 the exp. This is a relatively small problem, though, and I hope it will continue to be fixed as the game goes on.[/hide] [hide=Ranged]Ranged is well balanced except, again, the highest equipment is too low level. See above.[/hide] [hide=Magic]Ah yes, magic... There are a few things wrong with this skill. First, magic must be used in combination with another skill to defeat any competent opponent. Even Ice Barrage only hits 30, which is not enough for a KO. Second, magic is too expensive for use on most monsters. This is something I won't try to solve- it's okay that magic takes cash to train if you come out with something great at the end. Third, rune prices have been messed up for some time. Bloods should not cost less than deaths. The fact that they do indicates that there are too many bloods in the game compared to deaths, and that death runes are more useful than bloods. To fix magic and make it balanced, here is my suggestion: more blood rune spells. Powerful ones. Ones that DO NOT use more death runes than blood runes *cough barrage cough*. I won't lay down hard and fast "This is what to do, Jagex" concepts, but I do have a few ideas that can be taken or left to get the creativity flowing. The important part is that blood runes are used, and they provide a boost to the effectiveness of solo, one combat style magic against players. Close range blood spells- A mid-level (75-80ish) spell using 3 or 4 blood runes which must be cast from within melee distance. Each spell would cause two hits- one from the magic, and one melee based (but magic exp-giving) whack. Damage would scale with magic level, hitting up to 60 at 99 magic (you know, like a godsword). Melee stats would NOT come into play determining damage, the melee aspect is to help reduce the effectiveness of blocking magic with dragonhide, and using prayer against magic. "Charge" like spells- A spell using blood runes which temporarily increases the max damage of all spells cast. Higher levels should be capable of at least a 30% boost. This should comsume a lot of blood runes. More curse spells would be awesome! To this I add that perhaps a curse could multiply damage done to a player by 1.3 for about 5 seconds. Curse spells should use soul as well as blood runes, and maybe body too.[/hide] [hide=Prayer]This skill essentially ends at 70, except for small boosts in prayer potion restoration. Some nice ideas for new prayers would be piety-equivalents for ranged and magic, protect-from-X coupled with attack/strength/magic/ranged boosters which save on prayer point costs... the possibilities are endless. Prayers up to 90-95 would be nice.[/hide] [hide=Runecraft]Runecraft is actually pretty good. If blood runes become more valuable (as suggested in the Magic improvements), this skill will be pretty much fixed. Death runes are even worth more than natures these days! Soul runes being released would be nice as well.[/hide] [hide=Construction]Skill ends when you can make a gilded altar, which is around the low 70s, depending on how many boosts are used. After that it's just for showing off, which is really annoying when the skill costs soo much. 99 construction is worth some serious game-changing advantages considering the effort that goes into it. How about thrones that do something? Sit in a demonic throne and end up with 130% of your normal hitpoints, prayer, and summoning, + full run energy? Higher level larders with valuable foods like butter, pineapple, ect... Our own summoning mini-obelisk in one of the garden plant spots. Teleport portals to Lunar Island, Ape Atoll, Trollheim, Ice plateau, etc... (which need to be placed in higher level portal frames) Many more things. Things that actually help with gameplay rather than "oh look, my dining table is now white!" Indeed! Higher levels = more/better patches? Around 70 before you can make an herb patch, high 90s can have herb, tree, and fruit tree patch at once?[/hide] [hide=Agility]More high-level shortcuts! Level 90 shortcut- climb a thorny vine directly into the metal dragon lair from near a fairy ring! I love the agility shortcut concept, but it cut off way too early![/hide] [hide=Herblore]Ah, now here's one of the problem skills. Spend millions to gain more and more ways to waste money on herblore exp. It's one of those skills which are just for the cape. There are two ways to solve this. One way is making sought after potions, with ingredients only herblorists are able to gather, and which give little exp. The low exp and inability to buy ingredients ensures that the potion would be quite a money-maker, assuming the potion is good. Super ranged and magic potions are always a good option, as well as something like a super prayer restore, or a temporary damage-reduction effect. These would be 90+ herblore, obviously. The other method of curing herblore would involve untradable high-level potions. One idea I liked was the ability to coat the inside of armor with a permanent balm which heals 2 extra hp per minute. This would make the armor untradable until it is wiped off. Other options involve things like cheaply made super prayer restores or something similar which cannot be traded /drunk without the requisite (90+) herblore level. Anything that gives an advantage to high level herblorists is a good thing at this point, since there's really no reason to train beyond what's needed for quests.[/hide] [hide=Theiving]Real, high level things to thieve that make real money would definitely do something to revitalize this skill. Pyramid Plunder solved the issue of thieving being much too hard with little reward, but did little for the fact that theiving just doesn't do much at high levels. Areas which can only be picklocked into at high levels which contain rune rocks, good training spots, or other exclusive content would be a step in the right direction. NPCs which can be pickpocketed for unique, useful items would also be a plus.[/hide] [hide=Crafting]Another "problem skill," in that a lot of money is expended for no benefit. I know it's cliche by now, but enchantable armor additions which improve stats or grant effects could be a great way to add use to the skill. If 95 crafting could add an onyx set in silver to any plate armor, which could gradually restore prayer, I think we would see more people training crafting for a reason other than the cape. This effect would obviously be untradable.[/hide] [hide=Fletching]Another money sink skill. Again, access to improved, untradable ranged ammo could make fletching a valuable addition to ranged. Use a stack of rune or dragon arrows on a whetstone at very high levels to create untradable sharpened arrows with max hits 4 or 5 higher than normal. Use a knife to make arrows aerodynamically superior, increasing range and accuracy.[/hide] [hide=Slayer]Good skill, but I can't help feeling that the levels between 90 and 99 are wasted. A level 95 and 99 monster, both with insanely good drops, would complete the skill. I've also always liked the idea of a relatively easy boss with good drops that requires a high slayer level to damage.[/hide] [hide=Hunter]This skill ends far too early. Train to level 63, and then catch thousands of red chinchompas. Pawya and Grenwalls were great ideas, except that they didn't actually do anything. Totally worthless addition. Hunting at high levels could be great! Ingredients for high level herblore potions, [bleep]es that can be added to more armor, food with special properties like pies, more light-weight clothing.... I'm constantly amazed how little potential has been milked from hunter so far. I definitely like the idea of high level hunting involving a bow![/hide] [hide=Mining]Pure essence could do with an exp boost to compensate for free versioners not being allowed to mine it anymore. If it became a legitimate option for training, then miners could make some decent cash training (not dropping granite), and runecrafters would get a break on supply costs. We could also probably use a higher level ore. Maybe something like platinum for very high level crafting, or titanium for high level smithing?[/hide] [hide=Smithing]Another skill without any benefit... oh how the mighty have fallen. I remember 99 smithers being the richest players back in RSC. Clue scrolls, I think, dealt the final blow, with all the rune rewards. But I digress. Armor improvements are the way to go with this skill, in my opinion. Affixing Grenwall [bleep]es to armor, giving them +5 str for plates, +4 for legs, and +3 for helmets is an idea I'm fond of. This armor would, of course, be untradable. If titanium is implemented for mining, improving high level armor would be the way to use it. Reinforcement giving better defence bonuses perhaps. Level 99 smithing being able to make barrows armor no longer require repair (and untradable) would be an excellent reward for an extremely difficult skill.[/hide] [hide=Fishing]A nice skill, but perhaps a little bit bland. It would be kind of cool to see some fish which aren't food. There could be more fish along the vein of the Rainbow fish, except they would be required (not optional) for high level, useful (not useless) hunter animal bait. Potion ingredient fish are always a good option as well. Something to keep the level 90+ fishers occupied somewhere besides monkfish would be nice.[/hide] [hide=Cooking]This may surprise you, but I feel cooking is fairly well balanced. It's extremely easy to train, and has many high level pies to make with interesting effects. More useful high level pies could never hurt, though :P[/hide] [hide=Firemaking]A problem skill if I ever saw one. Players have suggested flaming weapons and ammo many many times, seemingly to deaf ears. It's a good idea, though. Flaming arrows, chinchompa-like explosives, a temporary sword made of fire... all excellent ideas to breathe life into a skill that has never been useful. Some things ought to be tradable, like explosives, others should require the level, like fire arrows and temporary fire weapons. Maybe not 50s, but I love the idea of steady damage to the user to compensate for improved offense.[/hide] [hide=Woodcutting]Not a bad skill, but ends far too early. I'd suggest linking the rest of the skill with farming- farm high-level trees with farming and chop them with woodcutting for wood that could be used with the Firemaking and Fletching improvements.[/hide] [hide=Farming]A good skill, but could use some higher level benefits. As stated in my woodcutting section, I'd like to see some more wood trees only accessible through farming. More herblore and cooking tie-ins could never hurt either![/hide] That's it! Please post your ideas here and I'll be sure to read them all!

Considering I made it though a task of 73 dragons (which is above average) in just about 50 minutes (judging by my bunyip timer) for a cost of 11 doses of antifire, 1 dose of prayer pot, and 1 super set... I think the savings in prayer potion are worth the 10 minutes tops. Unless you can make enough to buy however many prayer potions you used in 10 minutes?

I'd like to go ahead and second that. If you range, I'd suggest either emerald or diamond bolts, depending on your budget. If you have void range, use it, otherwise black dragonhide all the way, along with all your other best range gear (archer helm/god coif/robin/arma, ranger/snakeskin boots...)

I probably won't change what I'm doing too much, but I definitely won't ignore water the next time I'm near it... I'm also pretty eager to see the new God Wars dungeon.

Yeah, sorry about the high requirements. I'm sure you can see, though, that the high requirements are definitely there for a reason. This isn't a guide for your average level 110, but it was something that I found incredibly useful, and I hope others in my position will as well. And for those of you without the requirements, who knows, maybe you can think of something to make this useful for you, which I overlooked because of being too high a level to need it? Also, though the SGS makes things way way way easier, this method can help a LOT even without it. You'd be amazed how much it helps to be healing while you pray, and then you can go ahead and take the prayer off again. Mix that up with a few bowls of curry and you're still probably cutting your prayer pot use in half, more if you have good defence. If I can survive off of two SGS specs worth of prayer per 5 minutes, that really isn't very many prayer pots. Each spec is probably about equal to 1/3-1/2 of a dose of prayer potion.

I've been doing a lot of slayer lately, and got more metal dragon assignments than I would have liked in a row. I had been ranging them, but decided to try something a little different. What I discovered was a way to cut costs by 100-500% while not sacrificing efficiency. I assume for this guide that I am speaking to an audience experienced in using the standard prayer method of fighting iron dragons. Thus, I won't be telling you things like how to get there, because there are plenty of other guides for beginners. This guide is for very high levels who already know what they are doing. Here's what you will need: 90+ attack and strength. Probably could be done with less, but it wouldn't be nearly as fun. 95+ defence, the higher the better. This is very important, the lower your defence is the more you will be spending. 43+ prayer. Highly recommended to have at least 60 or 70. 68 summoning. Bunyip is involved. 88 would probably be much much better, but this works with a bunyip. Veracs top, bottom and helm or slayer mask. Very important for the combo of great defence and prayer bonuses. A leaf-bladed sword. I did some tests and this is clearly better than the whip. You hit lower, sure, but you also hit about 3 times more often. Common sense. It's better to waste a dose of prayer potion than end up in Lumbridge with <5 minutes to get all the way to Brimhaven dungeon. Here's some things that are really, really nice to have, but not strictly necessary: An iron dragon task. This works great when you've got 99 attack and strength and the 15% black mask bonus. As A First Resort complete, granting access to the pools of win. A Dragonfire shield. The extra defence is absolutely awesome here. A Saradomin Godsword. This is how you'll cut your costs by 500%. Alternatively, the enhanced excaliber sword from the hard Seers' Village achievement diary is a good runner-up if you don't own a Saradomin Godsword, as each special (full spec bar) will heal you 20 and act as a dose of super defense potion. If you own neither of this, you can use the ancient mace from Death to the Dorgeshuun, which heals prayer but not hp with the spec. 70 prayer and access to piety. An Amulet of Fury. Mostly for the extra prayer, otherwise a glory works. Here's your equipment setup: Helmet: Slayer helmet>Black mask/Veracs helm>Neitiznot>Berserker Amulet: Fury>Glory Body: Veracs>Bandos>Other barrows Legs: Veracs>Bandos> Torag/Dharoks Cape: Fire>Trimmed skill>god cloak>untrimmed skill/obsidian>other Boots: Dragon/Bandos*>Rune>Climbing Weapon: Leaf-bladed sword>Whip Shield: Dragonfire>Antifire Ring: Berserker/life/wealth Gloves: Barrows/Dragon Slayer. I prefer barrows, but whatever. *Bandos boots have +1 prayer and 1 higher in all melee def. Dragon boots have +4 strength and are much cheaper. I prefer dragon, but Bandos could be a good option too. Here's what you'll bring: SGS if you have it, otherwise excaliber, ancient mace, dds or something else to spec with. 2 super sets. Enough antifire potions to last however long you want to stay. If you have an SGS, bring about 75% as many prayer pots as antifires. If you don't, about 150% as many. Holy Wrench. Woodcutting axe. Entrance fee. Alchs. Teleport out. Slayer gem if you want it. 2 or 3 Bunyip pouches, depending on your expected trip length. And finally the strategy. This assumes you use an SGS or ancient mace, if not ignore the awesome parts: First, use the Ooglog hp, prayer, and run pools if you can. Then, head on down to the iron dragons, and take a sip of antifire, super attack, defence, and strength potion. Try to find a world in which the irons nearest the entrance are free, and fight those. Summon a Bunyip as soon as you take damage. Fight as long as you can without using prayer (don't go below 60 hp in case of lag), and then flip on protect from melee when you need it. You'll notice now just how awesome the Bunyip effect is. Let him fill you up to an acceptable amount of hp, and then flip the prayer off again. If you have an SGS, then as soon as you can probably use two good specs in both the prayer and hp categories (or just prayer with the ancient mace), head on up to the black demon area. Make sure you do not switch weapons until a dragon is NOT attacking you (I found this out the hard way and got nailed a 17 and a 26). Then turn on piety and unload your specs on a dog or demon. Then replace your shield and whip, and go back to fighting iron dragons. If you are using excaliber, then instead simply switch to that sword and use the special when your hp runs around 30 or 40 below normal. When your bunyip runs out, summon a second one as soon as you have under full hp. If you don't have enough summon energy, there's an obelisk right out next to the black demons that you can use to top off. If you do this right, you should use dramatically less prayer potion than you normally would for this task, with hardly any extra effort. Take advantage of curry drops as extra time without prayer on, and use your SGS wisely, and you might not have to use any prayer potion at all. That's right; my first time using this (at maxed melees and 73 prayer), I used ONE DOSE of prayer potion for 73 iron dragons. And I was in the middle of inventing it at the time. Good luck using this method, and please post questions if you have them! Edit: I tried this on steel dragons, which did not work out well for a few reasons. First, it's impractical to use an SGS for steels because they aren't sitting right by the entrance. If you leave, then an iron will probably attack you, and that's a big pain. So no SGS. Second, they hit hard. Like, 22 is not uncommon through super potted 99 def and Veracs with DFS hard. The healing you get from a Bunyip does not last long. Because of this, I suggest bringing Proselyte armor instead of Veracs. For steel dragons you really do need the prayer.

Exactly.

I personally see this as a problem that needs to be solved. It makes sense that you spend money to train to higher levels, but those levels in turn should do something for you. Let's take an example from summoning. I spend millions upon millions gathering crimson charms and converting them to pouches, and finally arrive at the coveted level of 88. Then I buy cheap unicorn pouches and scrolls, and go out to god wars with it, making millions on the extra bosses I can kill with little extra supplies. The refining skills don't work quite this way. You get the first part- spending millions for exp. And then... the skill is over. What we need is very high level (90+) abilities in these skills which produce something very valuable for very little exp. The little exp will mean the price is higher than the materials, since people training for the cape will not partake, and suddenly the skill is profitable again. The rewards could also be untradable- what if I could add Grenwall (remember those useless hunter animals in Arandar?) [bleep]es to Bandos armor to give it an extra 10 str bonus- but I'd need 95 smithing to do it and the [bleep]ed Bandos is untradable? What if 90 herblore could make a special coating for the inside of armor that heals an extra 2hp per minute? Things like this would make training these skills have more of a point than just going for a cape.

Slaying sounds weird, hunting doesn't. They (being whomever named the skill) probably used slayer as a precedent, even though the same logic doesn't really apply. Because "hunting" is longer than "runecrafting."

To add to the above post, animal masks wouldn't cost so much anymore in a free market. The GE is forcing the prices to remain high for a few reasons. First, gathering enough junk to sell them at a non-ridiculous price is a lot of work. Most people who currently own an animal mask are probably hanging on to it until the GE price goes up. This creates an artificial scarcity. Sellers are hard to find, so the price stays high. This same thing is the reason why, as soon as the GE reaches the correct price, it will swing back down again as all this hidden supply enters the market. Then they will become scarce again as people who don't want to sell the masks get them, and the price swings up again. Rinse and repeat for a few weeks. This is exactly what happened with Bandos and Zamorak Godswords a while ago. Second, junk does have some intrinsic value. When you pay 15mil for the mask, part of that cost is really overhead for the junk gathering, since if you want to make another junk trade you get to reuse the junk. The mask itself, even with the artificial scarcity, would cost less without the junk aspect.

Even then you'd be better off selling the ores, smithing is a moneysink nowadays.

I've wondered that as well, and have two theories: First, perhaps the testers don't know enough about RS to know that some things are bugs. Maybe pets are supposed to act as safespots. Second, perhaps they never test content by simply playing normally. It's quite possible they become tunnel visioned into "try everything possible to see if you can break x" that they don't even notice a bigger more obvious bug that you find over the course of normal play. Either way, something is definitely wrong if bugs are getting out that most players are affected by.

They didn't remove them from treasure trails, they just added another way to get them. Though I hadn't heard anything about them coming from Vyres...

What items? You mean the rune berserker and gauntlets?

Since mining makes money and smithing loses it, I doubt you're going to find too many people who have rune ore they want converted into something less valuable...

If Firefox is crashing, that's probably a computer/internet problem rather than a Firefox problem. Tried reinstalling Java?

Yes, and I'm sure this team is as top of the line and thorough as the team in charge of customer support and reviewing abuse reports. In other words, let's just say I'm not shocked that things slip through the cracks. I've seen plenty of errors made by forum moderators.

I would be happy if the Quest Cape could be trimmed along with a certain total level, say 1800-2100 or so, probably 2000 for an even number. It needs to be tough, because the Quest Cape is much MUCH easier to get than even a 99 like cooking (I have a Quest Cape, by the way).

By it's sheer presence and not being deleted it must be concluded that it's 100% true, if there was anything incorrect within the post, Jagex would've edited/removed it fast. You'd be surprised. It's not like they read every forum mod post. Back when the world switcher rules were being fought over, forum mods posted a lot of things in direct contradiction with the rules, and often turned out to be very wrong. This is another one of those times when you have to realize that mods are human and can be idiots too.

News flash: Forum mods do not represent Jagex, and have often been wrong about things like this in the past. I call bs unless a Jagex mod confirms it.

A couple people have posted wondering why rare items are going down. This is completely due to supply and demand, and there are several factors at work here. First, the supply and demand of many items was hidden before the GE. Maples logs stayed steady at 100 ea because so many people had thousands upon thousands they were going to sell some day but didn't have time for. Along comes instant trading at the click of the mouse and, surprise, billions of maple logs clog the GE. They are pretty cheap now. Similarly, people have found it easier than ever to put their rare item up for sale. This by itself wouldn't have an effect, but it does contribute to the problem. You see, there are many things in the game for rich people to spend money on. I can go out and buy 99 firemaking in a matter of hours from the GE in maple logs if I want. Same with cooking, prayer, herblore, smithing, and every other buyable skill. Summoning is an especially big contributer, being both expensive and new. God wars items continue to drop in price, getting toward the levels at which moderately wealthy players can consider buying them. When somebody decides they're willing to cash in their santa hat collection for a 99 skill or some shiny Bandos and an SGS, it's easier than ever to pop it in the GE at low, rather than spending hours in world 2 trying to find a deal. Another cause is the across the board drop in prices, in general. Money making methods are worth less than usual for the most part, especially the ones that actually let people buy rares. A notable example is barrows- prices just keep dropping. As a result, many have less disposable income, and are willing to pay less and less for an item that is entirely for show. Finally, rares used to be an investment. When people, including myself, saw that the GE was causing nothing but price drops in the rare item department, we bailed. I didn't have my masks to show off, I had them to hold a solid chunk of my net worth in appreciating assets- that is, items which will reliably go up in price. This is no longer the case, which removes the whole point of rares for many, many wealthy players.

Yeah i know, but i experienced that remmembering your char details after you quit after a year is kinda hard. And by that time you forget other detials also. And that leads to you not acessing your account. Lol, so really your concern isn't security. It's forgetting your account details. Here's an idea if you want to be sure you'll be able to get back in your account through your email- email yourself your password and recovery question answers and save it to a folder in your email. Then you won't have to worry, and the rest of us don't have to deal with our email being another way to our Runescape account. Personally I'm much less protective about my email because I don't do anything important with it. Oh no, they saw that email from my girlfriend about nothing and the confirmation email from Amazon about buying that book. Much better than logging in to find somebody has played BH in my (120m+) slayer outfit.

That's because if somebody gained access to your email, they would automatically have access to your Runescape account. It's more secure with the only way being to enter your recoveries or your password.

When was this written? The last time Lunar magics were "the latest craze" was about three days after Dream Mentor when everyone figured out the new spells still weren't that great.