Mid-level Woodcutting Tests

[balliztik1]

I'm sorry if this is in the wrong board. This board is for discussions, so I figured it was a good place for this topic. It's not quite a guide, since it's just data, and it's not really a debate, so I was unsure.

 

Hello. First, I'd like to introduce myself. My name is Balliztik1, both in game, and on this forum. I've not logged onto this site in a long time, so I'm basically new here. I've been "playing" Runescape for many years now, on and off. I recently returned to a member account and have regained my interest. I'm not a hardcore player. I'm not rich. I don't have very good stats. However, I do have a gift for math and logic, and I like to compare my options. With that said, onto what I'd like to present.

 

I never liked the idea of cutting willows. It always seemed too slow, too crowded, and not lucrative enough. However, I had not seen a guide that actually compared these three criteria to other wood types. With that in mind, I set out to do some tests to find average time, experience, and money gained from various types of woodcutting. I was level 54 woodcutting when I started, and gained just over 50k experience in the process of this test to push me to level 56, so time will be skewed slightly in favor of later test runs done at higher experience.

 

All runs were timed from leaving the bank to depositing the logs. I took short breaks to record data between runs. I used a rune hatchet on all trees and ignored all bird's nests during the runs.

 

Oaks

Most level 50+ woodcutters shrug off the idea of oaks. I had always been pleased with the results I achieved from oaks, so I first gathered data on oaks. Some tidbits about oaks, firstly:

 

• All over the world
  
• Relatively close to banks
  
• Low demand for oak cutting spots
  

 

For this test, I cut alone near the Seers' Village bank.

 

[spoiler=Oak data]Oak 1 1:44

Oak 2 1:40

Oak 3 1:47

Oak 4 1:33

Oak 5 1:26

 

Median Time 1:40

Mean Time 1:38

XP gained during test - 37.5 xp/oak * 140 oaks = 5,250 xp

XP / sec 9.18

Gold earned during test - 76 gp/oak * 140 oaks = 10,640 gp

Gold / sec 21.7143

 

 

 

 

Maples

Though maple cutting is available beyond level 45, it is ill advised to cut until 60, from most guides. I cut maples near Seers' Village bank. I am not including the data I gathered as I gave up after a few gruelingly time-consuming tests, but, rest assured, this statement is true. Even though I had no competition cutting at the same time as me, maples cut slowest and by extension yielded the least experience of all three trees, and did very poor for money.

 

Willows

It is customary to utilize willow trees for a significant portion of woodcutting training. I did this test third. Some tidbits about willows include:

 

• Select areas only
  
• Relatively close to banks
  
• Generally crowded
  

 

For this test, I cut alone outside Draynor

 

[spoiler=Willow data]

Willow 1 2:15

Willow 2 2:53

Willow 3 2:40

Willow 4 2:54

Willow 5 2:58

 

Median Time 2:53

Mean Time 2:44

XP gained during test - 67.5 xp/willow * 140 willows = 9,450 xp

XP / sec 11.52

Gold earned during test - 9 gp/willow * 140 willows = 1,260 gp

Gold / sec 1.5366

 

Of note during this test, I leveled up at the beginning of test 3. However, the data shows no sign of any significant change due to this. Also of note, the first time of 2:15 is far from the average, and might be considered outlying data. Removing that entry yields about a 4% decrease in performance, resulting in about 11.05 xp/sec, and 1.47 gold/sec

 

 

Conclusion

Oak to Willow xp/sec ratio 0.796875

Oak to Willow gold ratio 14.1314

 

While oaks only earn ~80% of the xp over time of willows, they garner over 14 times the money. Willows are indeed faster training, but yield far less monetary reward.

 

 

 

 

Obligatory Agenda Pushing

I was pro-oak before this test, and remain pro-oak. So, if you care to hear a bit of persuasion, read on. If not, that's fine too. It's purely optional.

 

 

There are some points to make about the tests that may have skewed data a bit. The first, which I stated in the beginning, is that I started oaks at 54, and achieved 55 before starting willows, so I had 1 whole level over the previous tests when cutting willows. Also, of a more major note is that I cut at Draynor with no competition. As willows can get very crowded at times, the ratios found can greatly decrease with even just 1 other person cutting in the same spot. Oaks, on the other hand, have very little demand. I've cut oaks during peak hours with only one interruption, ever. This alone makes up for the experience gap, in my opinion.

 

Of other note is the amount of money oaks give over willows. Consider the following: the experience from level 30 to 60 is 260,379 total. That's exactly 6,944 oak logs, and 3,858 willows. Selling those logs yields this:

 

6,944 oaks * 76 gp/oak = 527,744 gp

3,858 willows * 9 gp/willow = 34,722 gp

 

In the course of leveling woodcutting from 30 to 60, you would earn 15.2 times more money if you cut oaks.

 

 

If you want to take it further, one can assume that the experience ratio will remain constant between levels. However, this is likely not true, so the below is purely speculation, but interesting nonetheless.

 

[spoiler=Purely Speculative Claims]In an even further demonstration from just this data, though it is insufficient to make such a claim, one can compare time over the 30 levels. Assuming that the xp/sec rate stays constant, the following can be deduced:

 

98 sec/load * (6,944 oaks / (28 oaks/load)) = 98 sec/load * 248 loads = 24304 sec

164 sec/load * (3,858 willows / (28 willows/load)) = 164 sec/load * 138 loads = 22632 sec

 

From this assumption, one finds that cutting oaks from 30 to 60 takes about 6 hours, 45 minutes, and cutting willows from 30 to 60 takes about 6 hours, 16 minutes. From this, it is assumed that one stands to make an extra 493,022 gold from 29 extra minutes of oak cutting, with an equal amount of xp gain. The exact amount of time needed to go from 30 to 60 is purely speculative, however.

 

 

 

 

So, all in all, hello. I'd love to see some responses to this. I've used Tip.it for a long time now, and find it to be a really good source of info. I don't expect this post to turn the woodcutting world on its ear, but I'm just curious as to what people think of this.

[12pure34]

I do not really know what to think about these numbers tough. In a way, this is a solid research. You've timed several runs and calculated gp/xp and xp/hour. Yet I see to many variables. Including the level difference in tests, where did you cut? Did you cut oaks at the best spot? Were there other players involved.

 

The one thing you could calculate (which to be honoust, I am to sleepy to do), is the income/hour where cutting Oaks > Willows. E.g. if you earned over 200k / hour, it is adviced that you cut willows, due to opportunity costs.

 

In my opinion, these results form a basis. Yet it requires a far greater sample of tests to actually give trusted results. Especially when it comes down to nest droprates and cutting-speed at various levels. Heck, I'd even say this could be a painfull proces to gather.

[Sy_Accursed]

That is based off the assumption you can actually sell oak logs.

 

Which is incorrect. Oaks and Willows do not sell in bulk, only Maples, Yews and Magic logs do. So the likely hood of making any money from cutting willows or oaks is pretty much 0 unless you wait months for them to slowly dribble away over the ge.

[Romy]

The thing is, even though oaks may be more profitable, it's absurd to think they're better than willows-

 

Willows are faster exp.

 

Maples/Yews/Magic tree are (way) faster cash.

 

Most Willow-cutters are after exp, which is way they should pick the best to get said exp.

[balliztik1]

@12pure34 Very true. In order to gather enough accurate data, you'd need at least 10 separate characters all leveled to the same level each testing and compiling. Unfortunately, this is not really an argument I wish to make. To be honest, I'm happy with the experience I got. The tests actually kept me going. I'm not willing to make it a full-blown study, but it would be very interesting to see. Also, as you said, opportunity cost is huge. Faster experience means more time to commit to actually money-making. Relativity doesn't consider other options. However, an actual trial in 30-60 might be fun. As stated, at current market price, oaks would offer nearly 500k more than willows from 30 to 60. Given that 200k is acceptable money/hour, oaks would merely have to best willows by about 2.5 hours in order to not be wasted time (Either that, or just don't cut wood). Results would certainly be interesting. I think my brother has an account in the ~25 range on wc. Might borrow it sometime. *rubs hands together menacingly* ;)

 

@Paw_Claw Indeed, in bulk both oak and willow are hard to sell. The few maples I got from these tests sold near instantly, while the oaks and willows took quite a while. However, all did sell. "Months" is quite the exaggeration, as I've sold thousands of oaks at market price recently. But, as you said, for the purpose of bulk cutting, it gets better past maple.

 

@romy That pretty much sums up my findings. ;) Willows are indeed faster, by about 25% (at least at my level during the test).

 

 

But, like I said, do with the data as you will. While it's inconclusive to be used universally, it does at least provide some data. I originally set out to see just how fast I'd accrue experience with both willows and oaks (and maples, which wasn't so good), and I found what's above, proving both my theory that oaks were more profitable, and the accepted theory that willows were faster. I think this is basically a closed discussion for now. I don't see much other discussion persisting. Most angles were covered.

 

Well, thanks for the replies, guys.

 

 

Until next post,

 

Ciao.

[treefalse]

I had tested the difference between willows and oak years back. The data gave very different results as a F2P before GE when the "standard" value of oaks was 20gp and willows was 30gp. I also believe that I found willows to give better xp still, but did not include how crowded the places might be.

 

One must also put into account that once one's level gets higher, the time it takes to cut oaks levels out much sooner, so once the willow rate levels out as well, it may affect the data at higher levels. Yes, I understand the data is based on mid-level woodcutting, but who wants to stay there?

[Kalafai]

yeah, once you're cutting willows at max speed, with a log nearly every swing, it's much faster to get a full inventory of them... at level 70 or so. But with this data I, myself, will be using oaks to level on.