Jump to content

The death of making money by skilling.


Lugia_Lvl138

Recommended Posts

In the beginning of RS, long before I played, skills were THE way to make money. I've read stories of how Bluerose13x, the first to 99 Smithing sold Rune 2hs for 1m each(100m+ by our standards today probably). Now let's fast forward to mid-late 2005 when I started playing. I made my money mostly by skills doing some combat on the side. By early-mid 2006 my main moneymakers were Barrows and Runecrafting. As I leveled my Runecrafting higher and higher, I dreamed of 91, where I could make a guaranteed 1m an hour, incredible money at the time. I also did more and more combat, getting 85 Slayer at level 112 January 2007.

 

My first 99 was Fletching, achieved at total level 1837, after getting 85 Mining in order to alch in the Heros Guild. Now for June 2007, I read behind the scenes and learn that Dark Bows are coming. I instantly start training Slayer like crazy to get my 88 Slayer to 90 before the update. I succeed, and end up getting 5 Dark Bow drops. Those drops, along with a solo D Chain from KQ, allowed me to buy 99 Prayer(D Bones ran about 1.3k ea). After getting 99 Prayer, I decided to chase level 126 via Slayer, since I had already knocked out the hardest part.

 

God Wars comes out about a week after I get 99 Str at level 124. I get owned trying to solo the bosses at first, but soon find a safespot for Zammy, and later Bandos. I made like 40m+ in 2 days at the Bandos safespot with 2 solo Bandos Plates, absolutely unimaginable before GWD was out. I get level 126 October, and eventually start fooling around with solo Arma. On December 13 2007, I see a Blue drop and think, oh 20 Rune Bolts probably. But much to my shock, I picked it up, saw the feathers, and the words "use Armadyl Hilt". I cannot describe the sheer emotion I felt as I realized I had just soloed a ONE HUNDRED TWENTY MILLION drop. Before GWD, 120m would have been 8 Dragon Chains, some major luck at Barrows, or a lot of Runecrafting. and I had just gotten it off one drop, killing 1-2 Armadyl bosses per trip.

 

Summoning comes out and I instantly want the new level 138 to become even more powerful. My PVM capabilities evolve over time until I'm easily soloing 15-20+ GWD bosses a trip. I eventually did get 91 Runecrafting, but it's almost pointless to use it for money, considering what I can do at GWD or TDs. My point after all of this, is that I think money making via skills is severely underpowered compared to making money via PVM. The only viable method I see right now of making good money with skills is Hunting for Kingly Implings. And that is honestly better at generating "street value" than real money. I could have rushed all my buyable skills to 99 a while ago, but I chose not to simply because I see those skills as almost pointless because they do nothing to help me in PVM. I felt that way about Herblore for a while, but as soon as I found out what Overloads did with Sara Brews, I happily dropped 80m+ powerleveling it to 95.

 

In conclusion, I don't feel that making money by PVM is "overpowered" or anything like that. What I do feel is that money making via skills is essentially obsolete.

Lugia_Lvl138.png

 

4x Phat owner: Blue, Green, 2x Purple

 

3100+ GWD bosses soloed.

Solo GWD Drops:

5 Bandos Plates, 4 Bandos Boots, 3 Bandos Hilts, 2 Arma Helms, Arma Skirt, Arma Plate, 3 Arma Hilts, 4 Zammy Spears, Steam Staff, 15 Sara Swords, 6 Sara Hilts, 29 Shards.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

  • Replies 68
  • Created
  • Last Reply

Top Posters In This Topic

Been saying that since god wars and coinshare.

Where were you?

Now its a bit better thanks to 26king and a good price increase in raw materials.

Exclusive Legacy Mode Player

 

Golvellius.png


He just successfully trolled you with "courtesy" and managed to get a reaction out of you. Lol

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Skilling generally has no risk or effort besides leveling up to that level for the moneymaking stuff.

 

Combat has all of those.

arcane_stew.png

Hypocrite. You tell others to be nice then attempt to murder people. Nice going, you just failed life.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

i still make 500k+ an hour doing homework while rune mining (so it takes 8-12 mins an hour doing the mining stuff, leaving me slightly less efficient with homework)

 

farming is still probably one of the most efficient moneymakers in terms of money per minute spent (7 mins max for a 5 patch herb run)

 

at the release of extreme potions, i id'd herbs, 100k+ herblore exp an hour, a guaranteed 2m+ an hour. of course, that no longer works, but there are bound to be methods still in use today

 

however, yes, experience currently holds market value. It has since fletching and alching bows was no longer profitable (i think this happened in 2006-7, may misremember year though)

 

The days of profiting off efficient methods of gaining exp are limited: the GE makes it very easy to spot these things and calculate them.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

I don't think skilling was EVER better than combat. The hallmark of skilling has always been 2x nats, and at its height it was 1.5m/hr ghraaking, and even then GWD beat it.

 

In the past, DKS and other boss monsters always averaged higher for high levels.

 

this is, of course, omitting farming for simple comparisons.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

I don't think skilling was EVER better than combat. The hallmark of skilling has always been 2x nats, and at its height it was 1.5m/hr ghraaking, and even then GWD beat it.

 

In the past, DKS and other boss monsters always averaged higher for high levels.

 

this is, of course, omitting farming for simple comparisons.

 

if you want to reduce it to those terms, you could say mechanting has in turn always been more profitable than monster hunting / pking and scamming has always been more profitable than that (before trade limits)

 

 

However, skilling now costs money in very many cases where you used to profit: already you are almost forced to boss or merchant if you wish to gain the higher level rares. that was not the case in the past.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

There are dozens of ways to make decent money skilling. You can usually make more money via combat, but that doesn't mean making money via skilling is "dead".

Qeltar, aka Charles Kozierok

Webmaster, RuneScoop - Premium RuneScape Information for Expert Players -- Now Free!

Featuring the Ultimate Guide to Dungeoneering -- everything you need to know to get the most of the new skill!

signew2.png

Link to comment
Share on other sites

I don't think skilling was EVER better than combat. The hallmark of skilling has always been 2x nats, and at its height it was 1.5m/hr ghraaking, and even then GWD beat it.

 

In the past, DKS and other boss monsters always averaged higher for high levels.

 

this is, of course, omitting farming for simple comparisons.

 

if you want to reduce it to those terms, you could say mechanting has in turn always been more profitable than monster hunting / pking and scamming has always been more profitable than that (before trade limits)

 

 

However, skilling now costs money in very many cases where you used to profit: already you are almost forced to boss or merchant if you wish to gain the higher level rares. that was not the case in the past.

Trade restrictions prevent a lot of products from making good money. Jagex needs to add more low xp/high value items to this different economy. Cannonballs come to mind.

yaay_1_def.png

siggy2.png

Link to comment
Share on other sites

I have said it before and will say it again, many skills money making ability went down the drain with the arrival of skill capes. Prior to that the people who wanted to make money off a skill would train the skill to do so, and those that didn't want to wouldn't. But with the skill capes, everybody wants to do the skills for the cape alone making the price of the items the skills produce worthless or lose money. Remove skillcapes and skills such as cooking, fletching, smithing and herblore would eventually be able to make money like they should do.

Want to be my friend? Look under my name to the left<<< and click the 'Add as friend' button!

zqXeV.jpg

Big thanks to Stevepole for the signature!^

Link to comment
Share on other sites

There are dozens of ways to make decent money skilling. You can usually make more money via combat, but that doesn't mean making money via skilling is "dead".

 

Ok, not dead, but most certainly "obselete". Let's use solo Bandos as an example. With my Chaotic Longsword, I can down roughly 2 bosses per Overload dose. We'll say 1.3 bosses per dose considering luck, and time spent at bank and getting KC. Now, completely ignoring the chance of big drops(especially considering my last drop was Boots 245 kills ago, and my last major drop was 469 kills ago), we'll say each boss kill is roughly 50k on average. I believe that figure is accurate considering the Bones alone are 15k, and drops such as Rune Plates and Snapdragon Seeds are fairly common, balanced out by drops like 20k Coins, Magic Logs, Coal, and Addy Ore.

 

50k times 1.3 times 12 is 780k an hour soloing Bandos not factoring in any drops Shard or higher. I think the 1.3 might even be a bit conservative. Now I've read your dynamic moneymaking guide and I believe the highest non limited method clocked in at around 1.15m an hour. When you consider that I'm likely on a big unlucky streak at Bandos, and that I have the wealth and supplies to "roll the dice" literally hundreds, even thousands of times, it's clear that Solo Bandos would normally be the better moneymaker.

Lugia_Lvl138.png

 

4x Phat owner: Blue, Green, 2x Purple

 

3100+ GWD bosses soloed.

Solo GWD Drops:

5 Bandos Plates, 4 Bandos Boots, 3 Bandos Hilts, 2 Arma Helms, Arma Skirt, Arma Plate, 3 Arma Hilts, 4 Zammy Spears, Steam Staff, 15 Sara Swords, 6 Sara Hilts, 29 Shards.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

I have said it before and will say it again, many skills money making ability went down the drain with the arrival of skill capes. Prior to that the people who wanted to make money off a skill would train the skill to do so, and those that didn't want to wouldn't. But with the skill capes, everybody wants to do the skills for the cape alone making the price of the items the skills produce worthless or lose money. Remove skillcapes and skills such as cooking, fletching, smithing and herblore would eventually be able to make money like they should do.

The RS economy is just different. In real life, raw materials are worth less then finished goods. In RS, its the opposite in many cases, since potential/stored XP is a large factor in item prices. There is nothing wrong with that.

Stonewall337.png
[hide=Drops]Araxxor Eye x1 Leg pieces x2
GWD: 5000 Addy bar Steam B Staff x3 Z Spear x6 Sara. Hilt x2 Bandos Hilt x2 (LS, Solo)SS x6 (1 LS)
Tormented Demons: Shard x6 Slice x5 Claws x9 Limbs x3
DKS: Archer x21 Warrior x31 Berserker x30 Axe x51[/hide]

Link to comment
Share on other sites

I have said it before and will say it again, many skills money making ability went down the drain with the arrival of skill capes. Prior to that the people who wanted to make money off a skill would train the skill to do so, and those that didn't want to wouldn't. But with the skill capes, everybody wants to do the skills for the cape alone making the price of the items the skills produce worthless or lose money. Remove skillcapes and skills such as cooking, fletching, smithing and herblore would eventually be able to make money like they should do.

The RS economy is just different. In real life, raw materials are worth less then finished goods. In RS, its the opposite in many cases, since XP is a large factor in item prices. There is nothing wrong with that.

 

Even removing skill capes would not make Herblore profitable as everyone wants the high level UNTRADEABLE rewards from it now.

Lugia_Lvl138.png

 

4x Phat owner: Blue, Green, 2x Purple

 

3100+ GWD bosses soloed.

Solo GWD Drops:

5 Bandos Plates, 4 Bandos Boots, 3 Bandos Hilts, 2 Arma Helms, Arma Skirt, Arma Plate, 3 Arma Hilts, 4 Zammy Spears, Steam Staff, 15 Sara Swords, 6 Sara Hilts, 29 Shards.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

I have said it before and will say it again, many skills money making ability went down the drain with the arrival of skill capes. Prior to that the people who wanted to make money off a skill would train the skill to do so, and those that didn't want to wouldn't. But with the skill capes, everybody wants to do the skills for the cape alone making the price of the items the skills produce worthless or lose money. Remove skillcapes and skills such as cooking, fletching, smithing and herblore would eventually be able to make money like they should do.

 

Yeah, Skillcapes kinda messed that whole side of skilling, so now xp has dollar value.

rosssigfinal.jpg
Link to comment
Share on other sites

I have said it before and will say it again, many skills money making ability went down the drain with the arrival of skill capes. Prior to that the people who wanted to make money off a skill would train the skill to do so, and those that didn't want to wouldn't. But with the skill capes, everybody wants to do the skills for the cape alone making the price of the items the skills produce worthless or lose money. Remove skillcapes and skills such as cooking, fletching, smithing and herblore would eventually be able to make money like they should do.

The RS economy is just different. In real life, raw materials are worth less then finished goods. In RS, its the opposite in many cases, since potential/stored XP is a large factor in item prices. There is nothing wrong with that.

 

But that was not always the case. The reason potential exp is a factor is because of the Skill capes as I said. If you go back pre-skill cape, raw materials were much more dependant on ease of collecting and how much profit could be made through a production skill. Take for example sharks. When the price of raw sharks rose to the price of cooked sharks, people would stop cooking them forcing the raw price down. Now, simple breaking even or making a low loss keeps the price down for those wanting an easy skill cape.

Want to be my friend? Look under my name to the left<<< and click the 'Add as friend' button!

zqXeV.jpg

Big thanks to Stevepole for the signature!^

Link to comment
Share on other sites

I have said it before and will say it again, many skills money making ability went down the drain with the arrival of skill capes. Prior to that the people who wanted to make money off a skill would train the skill to do so, and those that didn't want to wouldn't. But with the skill capes, everybody wants to do the skills for the cape alone making the price of the items the skills produce worthless or lose money. Remove skillcapes and skills such as cooking, fletching, smithing and herblore would eventually be able to make money like they should do.

The RS economy is just different. In real life, raw materials are worth less then finished goods. In RS, its the opposite in many cases, since potential/stored XP is a large factor in item prices. There is nothing wrong with that.

 

But that was not always the case. The reason potential exp is a factor is because of the Skill capes as I said. If you go back pre-skill cape, raw materials were much more dependant on ease of collecting and how much profit could be made through a production skill. Take for example sharks. When the price of raw sharks rose to the price of cooked sharks, people would stop cooking them forcing the raw price down. Now, simple breaking even or making a low loss keeps the price down for those wanting an easy skill cape.

 

But what about the collection skills? An idea I saw a long time ago that I took a liking too was a new high level(90+) WC tree that gave untradeable logs that could be Fletched(also 90+) into Battlestaves. Fishing has been revitalized somewhat, although not a lot because of Rocktails. Mining needs something above Rune Ore at 85.

Lugia_Lvl138.png

 

4x Phat owner: Blue, Green, 2x Purple

 

3100+ GWD bosses soloed.

Solo GWD Drops:

5 Bandos Plates, 4 Bandos Boots, 3 Bandos Hilts, 2 Arma Helms, Arma Skirt, Arma Plate, 3 Arma Hilts, 4 Zammy Spears, Steam Staff, 15 Sara Swords, 6 Sara Hilts, 29 Shards.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

i usually make a mil or two per day (i usually calculate my money per day due to my lax nature) just doing some broad bolt fletching and farming runs. back in the day when i first created this account crafting nats was the stuff though. skillers have always taken a backseat to merchants but i don't think boss hunting really caught on until GWD came out (even i remember that). i mean, those kq and kbd hunters, though i once envied them, are simply a humerous memory.

[size="5"][font="Georgia"][b]Staking:[/b][/font][font="Palatino Linotype"][color="#FF0000"][/color][color="#FFFF00"][/color][color="#00FF00"] 4+ mil[/color][/font]
[font="Georgia"][b]Current Status:[/b][/font][font="Palatino Linotype"][color="#FF0000"][/color][color="#0000FF"] Training defense [/color][/font][/size]
Link to comment
Share on other sites

Hm.

 

I wonder if there could be profitable "dangerous" skilling.

 

I'm sure some of you will be quick to point out a few examples we may have already but they don't particularly stand out.

8f14270694.jpg

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Hm.

 

I wonder if there could be profitable "dangerous" skilling.

 

I'm sure some of you will be quick to point out a few examples we may have already but they don't particularly stand out.

 

Only 2 I can think of off the top of my head are Kingly Imp hunting and Wilderness Rune Mining. The only "danger" in the former is the competition from other players. The latter used to be incredibly dangerous due the threat of PKers, but now the biggest threat is again, other players. I can't honestly think of anything both profitable and dangerous(and not by sheer competition) as far as skilling goes.

Lugia_Lvl138.png

 

4x Phat owner: Blue, Green, 2x Purple

 

3100+ GWD bosses soloed.

Solo GWD Drops:

5 Bandos Plates, 4 Bandos Boots, 3 Bandos Hilts, 2 Arma Helms, Arma Skirt, Arma Plate, 3 Arma Hilts, 4 Zammy Spears, Steam Staff, 15 Sara Swords, 6 Sara Hilts, 29 Shards.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Hm.

 

I wonder if there could be profitable "dangerous" skilling.

 

I'm sure some of you will be quick to point out a few examples we may have already but they don't particularly stand out.

Rocktails would fit technically, if you afk for long periods, with auto-retaliate off.

pere_grin.png
Link to comment
Share on other sites

Hm.

 

I wonder if there could be profitable "dangerous" skilling.

 

I'm sure some of you will be quick to point out a few examples we may have already but they don't particularly stand out.

Rocktails would fit technically, if you afk for long periods, with auto-retaliate off.

 

World 84 has a ton of people there 24/7 reducing the chances of me being targetted. And I always play with sound on, and I always take decent armor down there.

Lugia_Lvl138.png

 

4x Phat owner: Blue, Green, 2x Purple

 

3100+ GWD bosses soloed.

Solo GWD Drops:

5 Bandos Plates, 4 Bandos Boots, 3 Bandos Hilts, 2 Arma Helms, Arma Skirt, Arma Plate, 3 Arma Hilts, 4 Zammy Spears, Steam Staff, 15 Sara Swords, 6 Sara Hilts, 29 Shards.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

50k times 1.3 times 12 is 780k an hour soloing Bandos not factoring in any drops Shard or higher. I think the 1.3 might even be a bit conservative. Now I've read your dynamic moneymaking guide and I believe the highest non limited method clocked in at around 1.15m an hour. When you consider that I'm likely on a big unlucky streak at Bandos, and that I have the wealth and supplies to "roll the dice" literally hundreds, even thousands of times, it's clear that Solo Bandos would normally be the better moneymaker.

Perhaps it is. But there are disadvantages with that style of gameplay.

 

Prep time, finding open worlds, dealing with crashers, risk of death, etc. etc.

 

Skilling is generally easier, simpler, less risky and more suitable to multitasking. So while it may be slower, it definitely still has its place.

Qeltar, aka Charles Kozierok

Webmaster, RuneScoop - Premium RuneScape Information for Expert Players -- Now Free!

Featuring the Ultimate Guide to Dungeoneering -- everything you need to know to get the most of the new skill!

signew2.png

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Part of the problem is that Jagex has been trying to release new and powerful weapons/armor, necessitating stronger bosses and therefore newer better drops, so more profit. Nothing analogous has happened with skilling in a big way. You could argue that extreme potions made farming and hunter considerably more profitable though. As a whole though, there just isn't the same demand for most products of skilling. The fact that skilling is very easy means there is probably a larger supply as well.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

I agree skilling still has its place, but it is by no way a get rick quick thing.

 

On the other hand, with monster hunting, one drop could give you enough money to spend for a month or more. A con about monster hunting is it is very luck-dependent, which means some people have great luck while others have terrible luck. I know there is no way to make it not based on luck, but it still has put me off monster hunting, and makes me stick with farming/MTK/flipping for profit.

Staurolite.png

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Well it's never really been any sort of a great moneymaker since rsc, and it wasn't good even in the late days at that. Atm though, farming still can be a very proftable skill, with 250-300k profit from a 6 minute herb run, though it's very limited.

 

Also, as far as i've come to see in the last years, pvm is a terrible moneymaker aswell(having got a divine drop) and merchanting beats it in any way possible.

First to 99 Farming on 27. September, 2005.

First to 3766 Port Score on 20. March, 2014.

First to 4664 Port Score on 2. March, 2015.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Create an account or sign in to comment

You need to be a member in order to leave a comment

Create an account

Sign up for a new account in our community. It's easy!

Register a new account

Sign in

Already have an account? Sign in here.

Sign In Now

×
×
  • Create New...

Important Information

By using this site, you agree to our Terms of Use.