Slayer - Rewards

[cat666]

This isn't really a rant, just an observation, so please no flaming.

 

 

 

When I first started Runescape it was shortly after the release of the Slayer skill. I soon learned that whips were awesome and that getting 85 slayer would mean I could get whips and therefore 3.5mil (price at the time) easily. Obviously it took me a while to get to 85 slayer and when I did, whips were only 1.3mil. Obviously over time the number of whips in circulation increased, as did the amount of people with 85 slayer meaning a price plummet.

 

 

 

Is this really fair though?

 

 

 

Normally I would say yes, you'd expect a depreciation in most things. However with slayer things are a little bit different. From the way slayer is designed its rewards are its drops. Yes you get combat XP, but you could get that from no-lifing at Dust Devils. Without the rewards, slayer becomes a pointless skill to raise unless you have the determination to get 99 for the cape.

 

 

 

So I got to thinking about all the "rare" slayer drops and there change in price. All of them, bar none have dropped in price. So the early slayers got all the benefit from the rewards. Nechs used to be an achievement to reach, 200k for rune boots was a nice little bonus. However now they are worthless, made almost obselete from the release of the Dragon Boots. When the Dragon Boots were released people camped out at Spirtual Mages, some of these players already having profited from the earlier releases.

 

 

 

So what motivation do new users have to training slayer? Well whips are still a big draw I am sure. 1.5mil is still a lot of money to a new player. After that the Dark Bow, a level 90 monster required to kill which most high level slayers dislike. What other skill offers such low incentives to train? Sure if you train slayer you will profit with regular items, gain charms and the like but that's seriously nothing if you can camp out at monsters or do the GWD.

 

 

 

What can Jagex do to improve slayer for newer players? Well firstly the slayer points system gets a big thumbs up. It's main selling point is to beneift from the rewards you have to train slayer. Unlike whips, which can be hunted by anyone with 85 slayer, whether they are training slayer or not. Hopefully Jagex will add new "slayer" armour only purchasable with slayer points. The Fighter Torso for example would suit this system very well as it is used my many mid-level slayers. How about some new level 70 required armour? Stats similar to Barrows but they don't degrade and only available to hardcore slayers? That's an incentive if I heard of one.

 

 

 

Secondly, and more controversially, any new drops from slayer monsters should only be obtained if you are on task. Dark Bow was released and players camped at Dark Beasts for days. The rich get richer. Same scenario with Dragon Boots. Dragon Boots are one of the main pulls to do the task, if they were worthless (which if Barrows Boots ever come out they will be) then mages would get skipped like rangers. However if a new item is released and you have to be on task to obtain it this instantly makes the item more valuable and more profitable for the slayer. It also means more people start training slayer.

 

 

 

What do people think?

[Omali]

I agree, and I like the idea of only being able to get special slayer drops while on the task, it would certainly raise prices.

[Zaaps1]

I agree. There has to be better rewards for slayer.

 

 

 

Maybe low the drop rate of rare items, but only make it a normal rate if you're on task. Kinda unfair for boss monsters though.

[Bloodkay]

I agree with what you're saying, that drop rate should either be lowered or you should only get items if you're on the task (for slayer monsters only, right?) or that a new high-leveled slayer-required item or items be made.

 

However, I disagree that you should be posting this in the rants section as you state it's not a rant, and it seems more of a suggestion xD Should probably ask a Mod to move it~

[Lord_Shalaj]

You have presented a fair idea, and I don't think I could agree more with you. However more Slayers means that the areas with monsters which are usually empty will get filled up. Also, since I've been working hard on Slayer for the past week and I am only 50 points away from Helm today, I've gotten a general idea of which monsters are camped and which aren't.

 

 

 

I never camped at any monster, nor I think I will for now.

 

Maybe when I reach 83 slayer, things will be different ;)

 

 

 

But you do realise I hope that if we take the case of a Draconic Visage, you have the chances of 1/500 for a Skeletal Wyvern? (Erichermit's guide) We hardly seem to get more than 90 Wyverns in a task which greatly reduces the chances of the drop. I support your idea, but I feel you will receive some fair amount of flaming on this topic.

 

 

 

Good Luck..

 

 

 

Thanks..

 

Lord Shalaj

[BloodArgon]

You have presented a fair idea, and I don't think I could agree more with you. However more Slayers means that the areas with monsters which are usually empty will get filled up. Also, since I've been working hard on Slayer for the past week and I am only 50 points away from Helm today, I've gotten a general idea of which monsters are camped and which aren't.

 

 

 

I never camped at any monster, nor I think I will for now.

 

Maybe when I reach 83 slayer, things will be different ;)

 

 

 

But you do realise I hope that if we take the case of a Draconic Visage, you have the chances of 1/500 for a Skeletal Wyvern? (Erichermit's guide) We hardly seem to get more than 90 Wyverns in a task which greatly reduces the chances of the drop. I support your idea, but I feel you will receive some fair amount of flaming on this topic.

 

 

 

Good Luck..

 

 

 

Thanks..

 

Lord Shalaj

 

Perhaps the drop rates should increase since they would only be gained on task.

[Gin_and_Tonic]

When i first read the title i thought it was someone whining about the new update...

 

 

 

Now i've read it, i can't agree more.

 

 

 

Unlike skills such as thieving, crafting, fletching etc, where the rewards of Gp remain relatively stable and the xp is extremely fast, slayer is a skill people spend months training, in order to merit from the higher level drops (as low level drops suck)... Then when they get there... items are worth half the price.

 

 

 

Its very constructive and logical rant, and something really does need to be done.

 

The last of the non-buyable skills need to be saved.

[Miner52289]

blah blah blah...

 

The last of the non-buyable skills need to be saved.

 

 

 

Just thought I'd point out that Fishing, Mining, Farming, and Woodcutting are not buyable either. But on topic: I completely agree with the topic creator and while I'm only at lvl 68 slayer right now and don't really have access to these high item drops yet, it kind of makes me mad thinking about how by the time i can get dark bow drops, they'll certainly be below 1m each...

[123Yourgone]

You have presented a fair idea, and I don't think I could agree more with you. However more Slayers means that the areas with monsters which are usually empty will get filled up. Also, since I've been working hard on Slayer for the past week and I am only 50 points away from Helm today, I've gotten a general idea of which monsters are camped and which aren't.

 

 

 

I never camped at any monster, nor I think I will for now.

 

Maybe when I reach 83 slayer, things will be different ;)

 

 

 

But you do realise I hope that if we take the case of a Draconic Visage, you have the chances of 1/500 for a Skeletal Wyvern? (Erichermit's guide) We hardly seem to get more than 90 Wyverns in a task which greatly reduces the chances of the drop. I support your idea, but I feel you will receive some fair amount of flaming on this topic.

 

 

 

Good Luck..

 

 

 

Thanks..

 

Lord Shalaj

 

Draconic visages are not a slayer drop, they drop off any high lvl dragon.

[NoMoreDead]

blah blah blah...

 

The last of the non-buyable skills need to be saved.

 

 

 

Just thought I'd point out that Fishing, Mining, Farming, and Woodcutting are not buyable either.

 

 

 

Farming is buyable.

 

 

 

Anyway...back on topic. I think that making it so you can only get rare items on task is somewhat risky. Suppose you rarely ever get a spiritual mages/Abby Demons/Dark Beast task once every 20 or so tasks. Now suppose you don't get a rare drop on that task. Well, you just spent countless hours trying to get that task, and you didn't get a rare drop. I think that interest in the skill would drop and players would get discouraged more easily.

 

 

 

Another issue: Making the rich richer is not exactly a good idea. The whole fun of getting to 83/85/90 Slayer is camping at the special monsters. Making it so the special drops increase in price means that less low level players can afford them, and more than likely high level players are the only ones who can earn them.

 

 

 

One more problem, although a non-economical issue: Camping at monsters (and in doing so, not earning any slayer experience) such as dusties, abby demons, or spiritual mages decreases (to an extent) the number of 99 Slayer capes in existance. Once some people achieve their goal in Slayer, they choose not to go much higher in the ranks. With a system like you proposed implimented, we would (most likely) see an increase (albeit a slight one) in the number of slayer capes, just because players will have to stay on task to earn rare items.

 

 

 

However, I think you're onto something here. There is definatly a need for a few revisions in terms of special drops, but I don't think that this particular system would work. If you refined it and filled in the probelms I pointed out, perhaps you could be onto something big :D

 

 

 

Great work! :

[cat666]

I'm not saying all drops should be "on task" only. The current drops should stay as is otherwise it wouldn't be fair.

 

 

 

My whole point of the rich getting richer is a shortfall of the current system. Anyone who had got to 85 when slayer was released (and therefore made millions on whips) could go and kill Spiritual Mages when they were released and make millions from them as well. Obviously the 85 slayers deserve a chance to kill the mages as well, but they camped there and then very quickly the price of the boots plummeted. This isn't fair on the up and coming slayers.

 

 

 

People are not going to get discouraged if they do not a rare drop. I've done plenty of Abby Demon tasks with no whip and my last task of Mages didn't even yield a pair of boots, yet I'm still training slayer. There is a difference between rare drops and slayer drops. My suggestion is to make certain drops available only if you are on task. Therefore everyone is getting a fair crack of the whip and you are being rewarded for training slayer. However I can see how this will cause animosity and believe the slayer points = slayer armour would work better.

 

 

 

As for making more people train slayer it can only be a good thing. Slayer means you get different monsters to fight so there will be less camping at popular monsters and more people spread evenly around the map. Slayer cape is never going to be that popular. People would rather get fast XP from camping and fast cash from GWD.

[Lugia_Lvl138]

I'm all for any new Slayer monster or drop since I'm 99 Slayer and will be able to camp at any new monster. Or if it requires me to be on task, I could task cycle with Burthorpe and not complain about loosing potential Slayer exp.

[fenrir321]

I've also found this to be quite annoying. I remember when D sqs were 1.4m ea, the d chain was 20m, and the whip was 2.2 m. There are only two things that can solve this problem:

 

increase demand drastically: make a dangerous minigame where people would have an incentive to risk losing barrows armor or even dragon armor but actually getting rid of the items from the game. Like dying in Temple Trekking, you die and you will ALWAYS lose your items which are drawn into a vortex of pure emptiness never to see the light of day, much less existence, ever again. We are basically in a plant pot with no hole to let the water out. If we can actually get rid of these items, there will be not only less supply, but more demand because of the incentives and because people have just lost their items forever.

 

 

 

decrease supply: either completely get rid of the drops for ~5 months, or nerf them so that the dust devil chance is 1:1,000,000 and the KG is 1:10,000. Coupled with the the above update, it would increase the value of items by a lot.

 

 

 

As for a way to get rid of players who seemingly don't "Deserve" a whip or gs (like a lvl 100 with a gs...), raise the requirements by a lot. This also solves the "Too many weapons/armor crammed into such few lvls" problem. The godsword should be a lvl 95 weapon, requiring 95 attack, strength, and 70 prayer. The lvl 70 weapons should be lvl 90 weapons and the Saradomin Sword and Zamorak Spear should also require 65 prayer. Barrows being lvl 90 armor/weapons. Third age being lvl 85 armor, gwd armor being lvl 80 armor. Obsidian and dragon armor/weapons should be lvl 70. Granite should be 60 and have better melee stats than full rune. Rune should be lvl 50, addy lvl 40, mith 30, white and black being lvl 20, steel being lvl 10, iron lvl 5 and bronze still at lvl 1. This would make getting barrows more "impressive". It's almost insulting to Dharok when a player's max with the set is 53...This new layout would either: make people more determined to get their requirements, and/or make them sell the armor/weapons and thus decreasing prices temporarily. Some dragon weapons like a dragon longsword and dragon dagger (without specs) should be f2p. You always hit 0's in bh with full rune on and just a rune scimitar...Meh I'm kinda getting off topic so I'll stop there for right now :)

[danelennon]

Secondly, and more controversially, any new drops from slayer monsters should only be obtained if you are on task. Dark Bow was released and players camped at Dark Beasts for days. The rich get richer. Same scenario with Dragon Boots. Dragon Boots are one of the main pulls to do the task, if they were worthless (which if Barrows Boots ever come out they will be) then mages would get skipped like rangers. However if a new item is released and you have to be on task to obtain it this instantly makes the item more valuable and more profitable for the slayer. It also means more people start training slayer.

 

 

 

That's a great idea, and it would also make it easier for people that are there to actually do their slayer task but find it filled with people that are killing them for the drops :)

[AlexDT]

I gave up on slayer when I realised that, by level 70, I'd made pretty much zero profit. Now that I know how frustratingly unprofitable it is even past 80, I don't think I'll be training it anymore.

 

 

 

I do like the idea of only getting slayer-specific drops while on task, though. As long as it's only monsters with a slayer requirement, I'd love to see it implemented. Or, perhaps you can only get the drops when you're either on task or have a slayer level >10 over the monster's slayer requirement?

[All_Is_Great]

I gave up on slayer when I realised that, by level 70, I'd made pretty much zero profit. Now that I know how frustratingly unprofitable it is even past 80, I don't think I'll be training it anymore.

 

 

 

I do like the idea of only getting slayer-specific drops while on task, though. As long as it's only monsters with a slayer requirement, I'd love to see it implemented. Or, perhaps you can only get the drops when you're either on task or have a slayer level >10 over the monster's slayer requirement?

 

 

 

I like the idea of slayer level>10, but maybe reduce the level difference for higher level monsters? Like 95 slayer for dark bows, 91 for whips, 90 for d boots, etc...