Self-Sufficiency vs. Bought Skills

[xSxqPowerx]

I am incredibly not self-sufficient.

 

I buy everything I need, and I only worry about the speed of training on the rare occasions I do train a skill. I NEVER collect raw materials.

 

 

 

There are many skills I haven't trained for years.

 

I plan to get a few buyable skills to 99 sometime in the future though (the fastest way possible, of course.)

[Makoto_the_Phoenix]

I guess I'm about a half-and-half person here. Here's my reasoning.

 

 

 

I usually *love* gathering my own stuff, and whenever I can, I do. However, because my levels are a lot higher than they were when I got levels every ten minutes, harvesting tens of thousands of goods just isn't my forte. I'm guilty of banking 98 firemaking, but I plan to mine enough Mithril to get either 80 Mining or Smithing -- whichever comes first, I don't care.

 

 

 

I guess it boils down to the type of player you are. Some of us enjoy doing the simple things, and others enjoy getting it done yesterday. For myself, I think I like a mix of both.

[lebst]

I'd much rather runecraft an hour to be able to buy 4k yews rather than chop 1k willows in that hour, I'm more of a person that likes to be efficient and have fun doing it. So generally I buy my skills instead of d.i.y'ing them

[oxidation83]

I basically do what I want and never worry about self-sufficiency. If I feel like training a skill, that's what I do, and if I have the cash to power train it, even better. To quote my grandpop, "money's no good unless you're spending it."

 

 

 

I do worry about efficiency though. For example, when doing allotment runs, I can visit and water and watch all the patches myself, but I don't. I pay the farmers and craft deaths while they're growing. The end result is more the same amount of Farming XP, added RC xp, and I make more cash RCing than I lose by farming.

 

 

 

EDIT:

 

Also, you say that powerleveling is not enjoyable and I say you couldn't be more wrong. I powerleveled my cooking in the Rogue's Den at the same to 2 all-99ers were training their way up to 200m xp and had an absolute blast talking to them and most of the crowds they attracted. Even now, I'm in the middle of training Farming with Yews and Palms. I had the cash to spend and I enjoy the skill. In fact, I got to 70 by mostly DIYing it, and I'm liking it more that I can take 2 tree and 1 fruit tree run every day as opposed to having to wait to gather the seeds myself.

[Adam007]

For me, it's more of an issue of self sufficiency vs. efficiency. If I need to get my cooking level up for a quest, I'm going to buy fish and cook them. Time is money too, so I'm not going to spend over twice the time just so I can be self sufficient. Before you accuse me of not levelling the enjoying way, remember not all of us have all the time in the world to play.

[gonearctic1]

I'm normally self-sufficient, getting most of my skills w/o buying anything.

 

 

 

The times that i have bought my levels was for power leveling cooking from 64 to 70 so i could finish quests. I have also bought stuff for smithing, though only being level 56 doesn't do much for me. Not sure if this counts, but my friend gave away 10k willow logs to people, and i got most of them, using them for fletching, but again, not sure if that counts

 

 

 

I keep thinking that I'm going to buy the rest of my prayer levels from 58 to 70, but the issue is that I wont feel the same as if i just get it from killing monsters that drop big bones.

 

 

 

Cooking and smithing are two skills that i have ever bought, i think..... well and i bought a few thousand farming xp a while back with ranarr seeds.

 

 

 

But I normally fish my own fish, then cook them, mine my own ore, then smelt and smith it, cut my own logs, then do whatever with them.

 

 

 

Conclusion:

 

I respect people more if they do the "hard" skills, but most of those skills are also bought.

 

 

 

It's better if they are self-sufficient, that way it has more of a I-did-it-myself feeling, giving someone a little bit more respect for themselves

[-Devoted12-]

I am the in the middle. I know I am not self-sufficient because I buy tree seeds, herb seeds, planks, etc. Yet, I do not power level. I may get a nice amount of xp in one day, but that is only because I enjoy the skill.

 

 

 

I always try to balance out, also, buyable skills. Farming is a perfect example, do a couple of herb runs while checking your trees, one run a day, and profit off the skill. :D

[Low C]

For me, it's more of an issue of self sufficiency vs. efficiency. If I need to get my cooking level up for a quest, I'm going to buy fish and cook them. Time is money too, so I'm not going to spend over twice the time just so I can be self sufficient. Before you accuse me of not levelling the enjoying way, remember not all of us have all the time in the world to play.

 

 

 

The thing is, I'm not accusing you of not doing it the enjoying way you like. It is your preference which is more enjoyable. I know people who love buying skills and training them as fast as possible. Yet I know many who take their time. I, myself incorporate both aspects of self-sufficiency and buying up skills as I bought some pray levels and I bought all my construction levels. While I always have farmed for profit.

[doomy]

I fished to 89 cooking, before buying the rest.

 

Also fished an extra 5k sharks from 89-99...So not too bad.

 

 

 

Completely bought 78-99 firemaking and 74-99 fletch.

 

 

 

But I reckon its just as repectable.

[Hegel]

Being self-sufficient is usually much less efficient then buying the supplies and earning the money needed to do so. If there are people around that collect the supplies that you need, as there really always are, then just give them the business that they need. It's a win-win situation.

[spooferfish]

I level my skills however I can.

 

Even if you buy supplies to gain levels, you still have to do alot of work to get where you want.

 

 

 

And if your buying your skills, you had to get the money somewhere, which to me is sometimes just as impressive as a high level skill.

[bakura18]

Well I personally bought all my fish for 99 cooking. But that doesn't mean I didn't enjoy it. I would rather buy the materials for a skill I enjoy rather than collect them from a skill I don't.

[Tsar]

I'm a bit of both.

 

 

 

For cooking, even though I did most of it prior to Cook-X and even prior to RS2, I bought most of my lobsters. It was definitely faster than fishing your own, and why bother if you're rich enough to buy your way to the top. I even made a profit, since back then, a raw fish was cheaper than a cooked one.

 

 

 

With farming however, I've never bought seeds to train the skill with. Always used MTK, thieved them or got them from nests while chopping trees. Yes, that's self-sufficient, and I'm proud of my level 80 farming.

 

 

 

The reason people choose the faster, sometimes easier path instead of the self-sufficient way, all comes down to the amount of money they can spend on it. If you can buy all the seeds for 99 farming or all the planks for 99 construction, and not go bankrupt after doing so, you're good to go. And there's a simple obstacle to self-suffience aswell - time. If it takes a longer time to make the item yourself, and making it costs more money than you'd spend by just buying the item from the market, the question arises - why would you waste time on this. Time is money, never forget that. So therefore, self sufficience is not always good. This is the reason I never went dragon-killing to obtain the 100k+ green hides for my 99 crafting goal. Time.

[Karvinen]

Self sufficiency is inefficiency in most cases. Instead of mining coal yourself, you can use that time for a better money making method and buy much more coal in the same amount of time.

 

 

 

If you think that you are not losing any wealth by being self sufficient, you are fooling yourself. You will lose the same amount of wealth when training e.g. herblore whether you collect the ingredients yourself or not.

[Exe16p]

I am self sufficient. Simply because throught out my runescape life (my accounts life) i've never had enough money to by supplies so i've had to get them myself. Even now that i have a few million, enough to buy supplies, i still enjoy using my skills to get those supplies i need.

[halo475]

I do what is fun.

 

 

 

You may accuse me of buying 99 prayer, you said that buying skills means that you are grinding and not having fun. Well i enjoyed using my 45k BOUGHT d bones to get 99 prayer, i invited other people to use my alter having 100+ people in my house at times. I had a good time chatting to them all also making at least 10 friends out of it.

 

 

 

Now i could be 'self-sufficient' and kill green dragons for hours on end to get 45k d bones. If this isn't grinding away at something on runescape then what is? Also this wouldn't have been fun at all, who would i talk to, the asian sweatshops workers(bots/rwt)?

 

 

 

I like to get things done but i dont grind away to get things done. I have 99 fletching and i 'bought' it. The strange thing is i made 10m+ profit from it. I strung over 100k yew longs before string all, call me crazy but i enjoyed talking to friends and stringing bows.

 

 

 

I enjoy making money, i love to invest in the ge and work the runescape economy for my benifit. I also enjoy barrows (9 guthan spears) and godwars. Who wanted to kill green dragons all day again?

 

 

 

I could go on and on and my stats show that i dont collect raw resources, but one things for sure i enjoy playing runescape and isn't that all that matters?

 

 

 

Why are players like myself looked down upon? We just enjoy ourselves playing runescape and dislike fishing and woodcutting which in my opinion and many others are extremely boring and repetitive skills.

 

 

 

Why are we the guilty ones?

[Will H]

I'm self-sufficient, because as of yet I've found no enjoyment, let alone profit, in buying skills.

 

 

 

But, that's probably the case because I haven't got to such a high level where skills really start to get 'grindey', if you know what I mean. However, even when I am self-sufficient, I still don't like to rush things, because I'm enjoying the game as it is and how I want to.

[Rune_User]

I'm not really self sufficient on anything.. I prefer to just spend a little money and get the skill a lot faster than collecting all the items myself. The exception is a few skills, range for example, I don't like the fact that it's turned into another buyable through the use of red chinchompas.

[Unify]

i got 99 farming and i like to think i got it self sufficiently, i spent money on seeds for the last levels but all the money came from farming, i love the skill and im still farming after 99, i farmed because it was fun and it was fun to be self sufficient.

 

 

 

skills like prayer i bought because its no fun for me killing thousands of dragons

[Low C]

Some of you have been talking like one side of the discussion is being put down. This is a two sided discussion, neither side is better. Last night, I bought 450k worth of dragon bones because killing dragons was making me nearly go insane.

 

 

 

My balance of self-sufficiency and buying up skills is nearly balanced. Some skills I buy, others I an self-sufficient in.

[Carl]

This all depends on your own personal preferance.

 

 

 

Some people like grinding through skills to achieve that cape, levels, milestones. They want it done the quick and easy most efficient way. They may find it more enjoyable.

 

 

 

But then there's the other type

 

 

 

The play the game for aspect in each skill, getting that level or miletsone is just an added bonus. They like the skill so therefore they train it.

 

 

 

For example, you need say, a high prayer level to solo a monster in GWD.

 

 

 

You want that level as quick as possible so you can possibly make all that cash back and a little extra on the side.

 

What will YOU do?

 

Will you buy all the dragon bones for 80+ pray or go and slay thousands of green/blue/red dragons, whichever is your preferance to get those levels.

 

 

 

You'll get the level ALOT slower, but still by chance make the money you were possibly going to use to buy that skill...

 

 

 

It's all what you prefer. I don't see why people judge others on their personal preferance

 

 

 

E.g

 

#1 Ohh there's a guy with a cooking cape, must of bought it.

 

#2 what a nub

 

#1 I agree, it would be different if he worked for it.

 

 

 

---

 

 

 

As a matter of fact that "nub" did work for it. He worked for the GP for that high cooking level, it's what he enjoys.

 

 

 

I've seen people earn all the money to achieve a goal, spend it and be broke.

 

 

 

They'll merchant or whatever until they get more gp to buy another 99.

 

 

 

It's fun, what they enjoy. No one should be judged on how they play the game.

 

 

 

A buyable 99 is a 99 anyway, it's not different. People should get the same respect and be treated in the same way.

 

 

 

I'm not self-sufficient (thank Zamorak) as that's what I enjoy.

 

 

 

Wahey for being the nub in the cook cape (I bought it over a period of 6 months :D )

[Roseiah]

It all depends on how long I am playing runescape. As I rarely log onto runescape when I do I usually just do the first thing that comes into my head, sometimes this involves buying things I need for a skill, or just getting on with getting them myself.

 

 

 

For example, when I was smithing, I used the ores that I had already gained from mining, but then when I ran out, I bought them. I try to be self sufficient, but sometimes I just think buying the items I need means I have more time to actually get the levels.

[noobs r us]

I'm pretty self efficient... i trained my cooking along with my fishing as you can see and I've always made my own fire runes and air runes to train my mage. The only skill I can remember spending tons of money on is prayer as it is so hard to train...

[Yes_Its_Ross]

I'm a little of both. I like to powertrain when I have the money but I don't mind taking the time out of my schedule to have a little fun with the game. I don't bash others for powertraining either.

[oddyss3us222]

I myself enjoy farming, even though my level doesnt look like it. I have bought all most 15.8mil in seeds, all needed for 99. So im going to buy and enjoy my farming cape ;)