The Second Thousand - A Noob's Journey (Less Than 80 Levels Left)

[SwreeTak]

Congratulations on that nice cooking level, and all those nice wc exp!

Keep going :)

[Syd]

First I have to apologize about my absence on your blogscape entry, but I haven't had much of time to scape around the realm of Runes. Or Run Escape, like we used to call it 10 years ago. I've had even less time with the forums.

 

However, just wanted to let you know that your blog is still being read, chapter after chapter. You're making progress, and before you know it, you'll be there where you're aiming at. RuneScape is a funny game - it's guaranteed that you always evolve. It's only matter of time.

 

I'll be keeping eye out for new entries, and leave a message every now and then. Good luck with whatever goals you've put your mind into! :)

[GregorDGrim]

Thanks to my regular readers for their nice comments!

 

I didn't have a ton of time this weekend to play, but I did have a couple of nice achievements. I started with some woodcutting, yew trees first for some logs to sell, and then ivy. I reached level 85, which I think is deserving of a picture:

 

[spoiler=Just 14 Levels To Go (aka 10 Million Exp)]

 

 

While chopping I was pulled away for a random event (trapping Molly's evil twin in a cage, using a remote-controlled claw), and used the bonus experience lamp on runecrafting, which took me to level 34. After leveling woodcutting, I teleported to the G.E. and sold a few hundred yew logs and some nests, which took me over the three million gold mark for the first time in my short history.

 

To finish my session, I went through 1,300 maple logs, either fletching them into longbows or burning them. This resulted in level 68 firemaking, and gave me 206K experience for the session, the 7th time I've reached 200K in a day.

 

Total levels = 1,293

[GregorDGrim]

I logged on today specifically to see if I could reach a milestone before the end of the month. Time to get busy:

 

1. Wearing the Jack of Trades aura, I quickly earned experience in 10 skills and used the bonus tome to level runecrafting (35):

 

[spoiler=Now I Can Create Chaos]

 

 

2. Switching to my Five Fingered aura, I started picking the pockets of the Varrock guards. I failed my first seven(!) attempts, but after a bit of cursing I settled into an uneasy pattern of succeeding, and failing, until I leveled thieving (48). I can't stand training this skill.

 

3. Switching to my Surefooted aura, I used my games necklace to teleport to the Barbarian agility course, where I leveled agility (52), using 19 minutes and 38 seconds of the aura's 20-minute charge.

 

4. Home teleporting (huh? Now there's an option to home tele to Burthorpe? Need to read the update post) to Lumbridge, I visited the bank chest under the castle kitchen and fletched 1,000 maple logs into unfinished longbows, leveling that skill (77).

 

5. Since the build clock reset at my clan citadel, I went there and started at the obelisk, leveling summoning (33). I spent about four minutes there, as I was very close to leveling that skill, and it's not exactly wonderful experience at the skilling plot.

 

6. I walked over to the mining plot and picked away at stone until leveling (55):

 

[spoiler=You Will Be Mine, All Mine]

 

 

7. I wrapped up my session at the citadel's loom, crafting cloth until earning a level in that skill (58). I enjoyed seeing a dragon, our newest clan addition, fly overhead.

 

Seven levels. That just happened to result in my 1,300th level overall:

 

[spoiler=300 Down, Hundreds and Hundreds To Go]

 

 

About halfway through the month, I thought it would be cool to reach the 1,300 milestone on the last day of January, because it would mean exactly 300 levels since I started this blog, exactly five months ago. 60 levels per month, about two per day. There's a nice symmetry to that. My next post will contain more statistics, but that will have to wait until tomorrow (at least).

 

Total levels = 1,300

[GregorDGrim]

January Update (aka a bunch of useless numbers)

 

Experience earned for the month - 1.925 million. Easily would have cracked two million if I had played during the first eight days of the month.

 

Levels earned - 50. I'm definitely satisfied with that total. 9 in crafting, thanks to clan citadel skilling. 5 in firemaking, with 4 each in fletching, cooking and smithing.

 

Most experience in a single skill - no surprise here; 722K in woodcutting.

 

Hours played - 38

 

Experience earned per hour - 50,600. Very pleased with this.

 

Total experience per hour - 8,640,000 / 381 = 22,677 per hour. I increased my exp/hour by more than 3,000.

 

Now that level 1,300 is in the books, I spent some time thinking about 1,500 total levels, and how it's most likely I'll get there. I harbor no illusions that it will be a quick journey. I'll continue my meandering, and having fun. That being said, I put together a goal list showing how the 200 levels could be divided up between the various skills. I'll be aiming for level 70 in each of the melee skills, along with constitution. That accounts for about 25% of the 200 levels. I see significant gains in ranged, dungeoneering and mining, with those three skills accounting for another 33 levels. I'd like to hit level 90 in woodcutting, and achieve at least level 40 in each skill.

 

While this is not directly correlating to my levels goal, I will be prioritizing quest completion. Considering I enjoy questing, I am not happy with my low number of quest points (80 right now).

[GregorDGrim]

After two weeks in a clan, I'm trying to figure out the reason why I joined, and whether or not I'll remain a member of this particular clan, join a different one, or forget about them altogether. I'm also trying to figure out whether four commas in a single sentence is at least one too many.

 

I wanted to enjoy some socializing, as constantly playing the game solo without any chatter does tend to get a bit boring. Talking with a clan leader before joining, I was encouraged by the seemingly mature attitude the clan encouraged. However, for the most part the clan chat is filled with juvenile discussion or prattling on about some perceived slight. Suffice to say I have not gotten as much out of the socialization aspect of a clan as I had hoped, at least so far.

 

I also was looking forward to taking advantage of the clan citadel for training. Being a member of a clan with 500 members and a Tier 7 citadel definitely is helpful to a noob like me. Most of my leveling the past two weeks has been a result of skilling within the citadel walls, particularly at the loom (crafting), BBQ (cooking) and mine (I think you can figure that out). In my last session, while maxing my weekly clan resources, I leveled crafting to 59, cooking to 67 and smithing to 47. Earning the clan ring to get a bit of bonus experience in a chosen skill is nice as well - each time I have charged it at the woodcutting plot and used it to grab 20K worth of bonus experience chopping ivy. I even cracked the top 200,000 in woodcutting! Let's hear it for players letting their membership lapse.

 

One thing I was not looking for from a clan was participating in clan-wide mini-game or other events. I assume they are held, but I have not paid attention to their scheduling or frequency. I suppose it is because I haven't really tried any on my own yet, aside from Vinesweeper, and who seriously would want to have a clan event playing that? I didn't think so. I am certain that many players thoroughly enjoy playing Soul Wars or hunting penguins together, but that was not a reason for me to join.

 

As for the clan battlefield, that is another area that holds no interest for me. Fun for many? I suppose, but I have no sense of urgency to find out.

 

I'm not really as grumpy as this post sounds, I swear. For now, this clan suffices for what I want from one - a place to get some simple skilling experience, and not feel quite as alone while playing the game. If the level of conversation does not pick up in quality, however, I may eventually look for somewhere else to hang my party hat. I'm speaking figuratively, of course.

 

Total levels = 1,303

[Syd]

I've had the same problem as you for some time. I've tried various clans, mostly based around some skill (dungeoneering), minigame (Pest Control back when there was only single boat) or player killing (back before first Wilderness removal/RSC - early RS2 era). Problem is that most often clans happen to aim mostly at perfecting what they're doing (be it skilling, games or killing), instead of focusing on the social aspect.

 

I've been thinking about setting up a clan myself too (or a friends chat), to simply focus on the socializing aspect. To provide players the ability to discuss about everyday things, the game itself and whatever comes to mind. Without having to end up discussing about internet memes. I'm not grumpy either, I've just grown tired of recycling the same jokes all the time.

 

Only if I had more time for the game, I probably would've set one up already. I'm not sure if I would find many players who would think likewise, especially when there already are plenty of clans to choose from. And usually people who join a clan, join one for improving their gameplay via xp-rates or ingame activities. I personally wouldn't bother about things like clan citadels at all. Only thing I would like is some likeminded players to chat with while playing.

 

You know, something like an english pub or a tavern, where you can murder a pint after work to share some stories with the locals?

[GregorDGrim]

Sydan, I like your idea of the pub/tavern for a clan. There probably are clans set up like that; there simply is not an easy way to discover them.

 

I started my last session using the Jack of Trades aura and applied the bonus experience to hunter, leveling that skill to 32. Since I was in Varrock, I finished fletching the maple logs in my inventory, and then sold 1,300 unfinished longbows for 110K.

 

Suddenly, and without warning, the combat bug bit. I want to get my attack and defense to 60 so that I can get some better armor, and also so I can wield the dragon hatchet to free up an inventory slot. I decided to walk to Canifis, perhaps to train on the experiments lurking in the dungeon beneath Fenkenstrain's castle. As I entered the Mort Myre Swamp, however, I heard moaning to the north. I followed the siren call to a pack of ghouls, and spent quite a long time hacking them to death. I alternated between defense and attack, leveling defense twice (56, 57) and attack (57), as well as constitution (59). My total combat level increased from 74 to 76, leaving me nine levels away from being able to complete Smoking Kills, which I want so that I can begin earning slayer task points. I've decided to hold off training slayer until I have completed that quest.

 

How long did I fight the ghouls? Long enough for 66 charms (nearly all gold) and four law talismen. At a charm drop rate of about 20% (according to a guide), that is more than 300 eviscerated evil entities. I set personal daily experience records in defense (39K), attack (30K) and constitution (23K), proving that I have not spent very much of my Runescape life in combat.

 

To unwind after all that mayhem, I teleported to Falador and chopped yew trees and a little ivy until hitting 211K experience for the day, my fifth highest daily total.

 

Total levels = 1,308

[GregorDGrim]

With the clan citadel build tick resetting in the morning, yesterday's session was all about the skilling. I spent my time in the citadel training five skills. I worked on mining, cooking and summoning, but not enough in any of those to level up. I did, however reach level 60 in crafting:

 

[spoiler=Honing My Craft]

 

 

I'm thinking that crafting on the loom is the best skilling plot in the citadel. It gives excellent, quick experience for mid-level players. Cooking at the BBQ plot gives better experience per click, but it is an easier skill to level in the game. A close second to crafting is smithing - while the experience gains are not as quick, it is free and simple, which is a definite advantage over turning ore into bars, and then hammering out the bars. Smithing for mid-levels is either expensive (purchasing the ore, or bars outright) or very time-consuming (mining the ore first), which is why smithing is typically not one of a player's highest-level skills. With all that, after leveling crafting I switched over to the furnace plot and smithed enough to gain three levels (48-50):

 

[spoiler=Will Smith (-ing Continue to Be This Simple)?]

 

 

After maxing my resource gathering for the week, I chopped yew trees and then sold 300 logs for just over 150K, which brought my gold total over 3.5 million for the first time. I purchased 4,000 maple logs for later fletching/burning, and then activated my Jack of Trades aura, using the bonus experience to level farming (34).

 

It was then I realized that I had forgotten to grab the clan ring from the quartermaster in the citadel's keep, so I went back and charged the ring on the mining plot (mixing things up a bit from my typical woodcutting charge). I spent the rest of the session mining iron at the Dorge'shuun Mine under Lumbridge, banking the ore (at 10K per inventory this is nothing to sneeze at for a poor soul like me) and leveling once (56).

 

Total levels = 1,314

[GregorDGrim]

I noticed something unusual while looking at my Runetrack statistics. Since I began tracking my stats there (August 2011), I had never earned any experience on the eighth of the month. On every other day of the month I have gained at least a little bit of experience. There is no particular reason for this anomaly; nothing more than an oddity.

 

Well, I put an end to that streak, and in a huge way. Yesterday I set my own personal best for experience in a single day. It used to be 253K, and now it is 308K:

 

[spoiler=Take THAT, Eighth of the Month!]

 

 

It really only means that I had more free time yesterday to grind some skills, but still... I am pleased about it. For a player close to max level, 300K experience is but a drop of water, but for a meandering noob it is a full glass.

 

How did I get the 300K? First, I used up the remainder of the charge on my clan ring, mining iron ore with the Dorge'shuun, and leveling (57). Next, I used the Jack of Trades aura to level hunter (33). I had a couple of random events that got me two smidgens of experience in runecrafting. Then, I chopped ivy. 127K worth, the second highest daily total I've earned in woodcutting, which resulted in level 86:

 

[spoiler=13 More Levels To Go]

 

 

I finished the session by using 1,800 of the maple logs in my bank. I fletched 1,100 of them into longbows, and burned 700 of them, which resulted in a firemaking level (69). I probably could have played a little while longer, but it was late.

 

Total levels = 1,318

[GregorDGrim]

When chopping ivy I think it's the best

when out of the plant drops a nest.

Due mostly to greed,

I sold a palm seed,

and then proceeded to throw out the rest.

 

114K for that seed

 

I like dungeoneering; I thrive.

I skill solo, trying to survive.

Slaughtered one boss twice,

that one on the ice,

and leveled up to forty five.

 

[spoiler=Four Floors, One Level]

 

 

It was time to put myself to the test

by finally trying another quest.

A magnetic backpack

will bring my arrows back.

A couple pictures will show this the best:

 

[spoiler=Animal Magnetism]

 

 

I finished my session with fletching.

My outfit made me look quite fetching.

Hit level seventy eight;

that's good but not great.

More longbows tonight? I'd be retching.

 

Total levels = 1,320

[GregorDGrim]

No limericks this time around. I had some playing time, but couldn't dedicate my full attention so I stuck to easy tasks. I had 800 maple logs left in my bank from the 4K purchase, so I took a little less than an hour and burned them. That's the way to get my exp/hour up! I leveled twice (70 and 71):

 

[spoiler=Smells Like Burnt Syrup]

 

 

After that, I teleported to Varrock and got my Jack of Trades aura bonus experience, using it on herblore and reaching level 40:

 

[spoiler=Used Jack To Get Herb]

 

 

I suited up in my finest warrior gear (which in all honesty is not all that fine) and sauntered over to the Mort Myre Swamp for some man-on-ghoul action. I was actually accused of being a bot, which was comical. A noob, yes. Bot, no. I leveled both attack and defense to 58 before calling it a night.

 

Total levels = 1,325

[GregorDGrim]

I spent some more time fighting ghouls in Mort Myre Swamp, leveling constitution to 60 (no pic; the horror!) and attack twice (59 and 60):

 

[spoiler=Got A Good Action Shot]

 

 

They drop charms at about a 20% rate, which over the course of the last two sessions fighting them has given me more than 100 gold charms, so it may be time for some summoning. The levels I earned also pushed my total combat level to 77.

 

With an attack level of 60, I can now wield my dragon hatchet instead of carrying it in inventory, so that frees up one space for an extra yew log. Of course, I took advantage of this by chopping ivy. :blink:

 

When the build tick reset for the citadel, I traveled there and split my time between various plots: summoning, smithing (level 51), mining (level 58), crafting (level 61) and cooking (level 68). After maxing resource gathering, I went back to chopping ivy for a little while before calling it quits.

 

Total levels = 1,332

[GregorDGrim]

A productive session for me resulted in four levels and 267K experience, good enough for second-best on my daily experience rankings. I started by chopping ivy, which got me the first 100K experience. Then I activated the Jack of Trades aura and used the bonus on runecrafting, leveling that skill to 36. After that, I traveled to Draynor to pick up the Carnivale headdress from Diango (ugly - not Diango, but the headdress). While there, I switched to the Five-Finger Discount aura and stole from the master farmer in Draynor long enough to get thieving to level 49.

 

Thieving is probably the most frustrating skill for me to train. There just does not seem to be any rhyme or reason to the success or failure of thieving attempts. Succeeding seven times in a a row does not offset the feeling of failing seven straight times. I wanted to train thieving to 50, but I just couldn't take it any longer so I decided to make myself feel better by hacking some undead. Back to the ghouls in Mort Myre, where I leveled defense twice (59, 60) and reached total combat level 78:

 

[spoiler=The Letter 'D' with a Picture of a Fence Next To It]

 

 

With the killing out of the way, I was relaxed once again so I went back to Falador and chopped yew logs. The price of yew is now over 500, so it is a nice money-maker for us poor folk. There was a friendly fellow also chopping yew, so the time went by quickly as we discussed various topics (excluding the death of Whitney Houston). After chopping 300 logs, I sold them for 160K and bought 5,000 maple logs for 100K. I fletched a few hundred into longbows before logging off.

 

Total levels = 1,336

[GregorDGrim]

I barely played over the past few days, but did manage the following:

 

• Used JoT aura bonus experience on summoning, leveling to 34.
  
• Bought dragon longsword (need a quest to be able to use the scimitar), dragon boots, dragon helm, dragon platelegs, and granite body. The dragon chain is 4.2 million and the plate is 8.3 million, so my armor's going to clash for a time. Buying the equipment left me with just under four million gold.
  
• Chopped a bit of ivy, and got two bird nests in consecutive chops. There was a maple tree seed in each (worth 38K apiece).
  

 

My sons got a kick out of my total levels.

 

Total levels = 1,337

[GregorDGrim]

I accomplished a fair bit yesterday, and will now summarize my activities in handy-dandy list format.

 

1. Passed the four million experience mark in woodcutting, chopping ivy and reaching level 87:

 

[spoiler=That's Not My Zamorak Chick]

 

 

2. Fletched 2,100 maple long bows, reaching level 79. Sold 2,800 in my bank for approximately 285K.

 

3. Saw someone wearing a max cape for the first time, in the Varrock Bank:

 

[spoiler=Blink Amy Is Her Name]

 

 

4. Used JoT and one random event bonus experience on summoning, achieving level 35:

 

[spoiler=Perhaps One Day I Shall Train This Skill For Real]

 

 

5. Took on a slayer task with my shiny new dragon gear. The assignment was to kill 30 earth warriors. My max hit is now 172, which is nice. I leveled in slayer (44) and constitution (61), and earned 65K worth of swag (runes and seeds) and 21 charms.

 

6. Took on a second slayer task with my barely-dented dragon gear. 92 cockatrices went down with barely a fight. I executed a special attack with my dragon longsword that hit for 200 (wow!). I leveled strength (61), and walked out of the slayer dungeon (okay, I teleported) with 59K worth of limpwurt roots and runes, along with 16 charms.

 

7. Six levels gained and my 12th 200K+ experience day, my fifth-highest daily total.

 

Total levels = 1,343

[GregorDGrim]

Miscellaneous Musings

 

- Maxing resource gathering in the clan citadel each week has been a great source of leveling for me. This week I leveled three skills for a total of four levels: smithing (52), crafting (62, 63) and cooking (69). I've mentioned this before, but weaving on the loom is excellent (and free!) crafting experience. A couple of hours of effort certainly pays off.

 

- I hit the 1350 total level milestone yesterday. I'm suprised that it happened this quickly; 50 levels in three weeks is extremely fast for me. Setting a personal record for daily experience (309K) and two consecutive days' experience (553K) gave me a feeling of RS accomplishment. That's different from other types of accomplishment, of course - this is sort of like feeling good about the way I wasted my time.

 

- My total rank on the highscores chart improved by more than 33,000 places in one day. Apparently there were still tens of thousands of bots roaming around, because their nuking is the only explanation for this ascension. I'm not complaining.

 

- I settled in for an hour or so of chopping ivy, and on my very first chop a bird nest fell, with a papaya tree seed. Combined, those two items are worth nearly 50K; not an insignificant sum for this guy right here.

 

- Got my first Morytania-based slayer task - 62 vampyres. They were not very difficult, but the place was over-run with leeches, which sucked (of course, pun intended). This was a lame task compared to the two I had the prior day: just 27K worth of swag and three charms. I did reach level 45 in slayer, however:

 

[spoiler=Slay-king My Thirst For Blood]

 

 

- I spent some additional time in Mort Myre after my slayer task, trying out the new gear on my buddies, the ghouls. I leveled attack and defense to 61, which increased my combat level to 79. Six more levels until I can complete Smoking Kills and start earning slayer points. Of course, I still need to complete Icthlerin's Little Helper first.

 

- I am so damn lazy when it comes to quests. I've had a 'must-do' list of a dozen quests for months now, but have barely touched them. I don't understand my aversion to them.

 

Total levels = 1,350

[GregorDGrim]

I only recently learned of the experience penalty that players take while dungeoneering solo, if they have a total combat level of 90 or above. As I want to continue soloing dungeons until I get better at them (I do not want to be a burden to a group), and my combat level is 79 and climbing, I need to spend some more time in Daemonheim.

 

Last night I fought through three floors (9, 10, 11) at complexity six in an hour and 12 minutes, averaging 24 minutes each. That earned me about 6,100 dungeoneering experience and level 46. I also picked up a level in smithing (53) while making fractite armor. I had to fight Planefreezer once, which is an extremely annoying battle, and To'Kash the Bloodchiller twice, which is very simple with prayer protection against magic along with a scimitar set to slash.

 

Less than 6K an hour in any skill is extremely slow, although I did manage to get a total of 23K in all skills combined while in the dungeons, so this did not feel like a waste of time. It does mean that getting to level 55 in dungeoneering, which I would like to accomplish before reaching total combat level 90, is going to take a fair amount of hours. I am going to need to think about whether I am really up for this.

 

Total levels = 1,352

[GregorDGrim]

Fletching was the focus of my weekend. I chopped yew logs, sold them, bought maple logs, fletched, and sold unfinished longbows. Rinse and repeat. I hit level 80 in fletching, which became my second skill to reach that milestone:

 

[spoiler=I'm Fletching in This Photo, I Promise!]

 

 

The clan I belong to had a Slay Day on Saturday; unfortunately, I was not able to log in for most of it, taking part for only 90 minutes and completing just two slayer tasks. My first task was 39 crocodiles, which is the lousiest task I've faced to date. No drops, a run to the middle of the desert and having to refill waterskins. What fun. My second task was better, although it took even longer to reach: 74 ankous, found at the very end of the Stronghold of Security. I had to wait for repops as there were always a few others (most with bot-like names) fighting alongside. I enjoyed this task much more than the crocodiles, as I snagged more than 70K worth of drops and 16 charms. I also leveled slayer to 46, strength to 62 and constitution to 62.

 

I had another 200K+ experience day (a shade under 228K), the 14th such day I've had. As they become more frequent (six in February alone), reaching that number feels less significant to me. 300K in a day, which I've achieved twice this month, is the new 200K. For now.

 

Total levels = 1,356

[Syd]

You're progressing fast Gregor!

 

Hey no offense, but your gear really reminds of bots (about someone thinking you were a bot). It's the only rather reasonable/cheap gear all bots use (dragon legs/skirt, granite body, dragon medium..). :oops:

 

You should aim for 70 attack as soon as possible. Having whip will make a tremendous boost over dragon long for now. Dragon scimitar is good, but whip beats it hands down. Would make slayer/combat training alot faster and rewarding.

 

You might want to try Barbarian Assault minigame for fun, and get a fighter torso. Efficiencymongers might say it's not worth the effort, but I personally used one for years before finally having enough cash to afford full bandos. +4 Strenght bonus for "free" torso is great.

 

Another items you might be interested are Recipe For Disaster (quest) gloves. After each subquest you can get a better pair of gloves, and already tier 7 (out of 10) gloves (adamantite) are already better than regeneration bracelet would be. Unless you really don't fancy quests, you should get regeneration bracelet for +7 strenght bonus gloveslot. It also regenerates your hitpoints in 2x speed, which might be helpful for your level.

 

Neitiznot helmet would also offer a great all-around helmet for many purposes. It doesn't compare with black mask/slayer helmet on slayer task, but outside tasks it's better option.

 

Also considering you are already +60 melee stats, it's not long till you get attack and strenght levels to total 130. As soon as Attack+Strenght = 130, you can enter warriors guild and get dragon defender (it's easy!). Dragon defender is no doubt the best shield slot item in the game with terms of melee slaying and is definitely worth getting as soon as possible.

 

So in short, my hints for aiming towards better melee gear:

1. Dragon defender (as soon as you get 65 attack and strenght, or they total 130) - easy to obtain, boosts offense hand a huge amount! +6 strenght and upto +25 in melee offense abilities!

2. Regeneration bracelet (and best culinaromancer gloves whenever you feel like it) - buyable for 120k, +7 strenght and upto +8 in offense abilities. Best Culinaromancer gloves offer +12 strenght bonus!

3. Abyssal Whip - used to be the best melee weapon in the game until chaotics came - 70 attack requirement, rather cheap and has +82 strenght and +82 slash bonus and is as fast as scimitar - also possible to add whip vine to boost it further!

4. Helm of Neitiznot (one of the best all-around helmets in the game) - +3 strenght, +3 prayer and decent defense bonus!

5. Fighter Torso (as good strenght bonus as bandos chestplate) - +4 strenght, almost as good as rune platebody in defense

6. Black mask (slayer helm when you have enough slayer points) to boost +15% damage when on slayer task

 

Other hints:

a) get more potions (especially prayer ones) when slaying!

1. Use boosting prayers when training!

2. Use super strenght and super attack potions

3. Don't hesitate using protection prayers against monsters that hit high and often. Banking for food mid task is really tedious!

 

Even though it makes training a bit more expensive, the cost compared to how much it adds up to your killing rate is not worth passing by!

 

One can really get hooked into training combats/slayer when they get proper gear and setup to do it well! Happened to me too. :)

 

In overall, I hope you don't take my words too seriously, since I'm only trying to share some tips that made the game more enjoyable to me in the past, not telling you what you should or shouldn't do! ;)

 

Good luck with your slayering and killing things! It's fun!

[GregorDGrim]

Sydan, thank you so much for your post. You have given me a lot to think about regarding combat, and the advice is highly appreciated. Also, responses on my blog are always welcomed! Your comment about having 'bot gear' is humorous as I was just realizing that last weekend. When I was fighting the ankou in the Stronghold of Security, I forgot which person was me at one point. I will have to wear something distinctive.

 

Yesterday was a combination of the familiar and the uncommon for me. I spent some time fletching maple longbows, calculating that I only need to fletch 190K more to reach level 99. Like that's happening soon. I also chopped ivy for about an hour, reaching level 88:

 

[spoiler=Let's Bury the Hatchet]

 

 

Moving on from skilling, I used my JoT aura for hunter experience, leveling that skill to 34. I then decided to train ranged, using the backpack I had earned from the Animal Magnetism quest. Slipping down into the dungeon under Varrock/Edgeville, I started with attacking hill giants, but the drops were lousy so I found a safe spot and went after the moss giants instead. I spent enough time there to level ranged twice (to 50):

 

[spoiler=Forget the Rolling Stone, I'm Gathering Moss]

 

 

I went back and checked my stat history, as it seemed like a long time since I had trained ranged. It was more than four months - October 24th to be exact. I'm shocked that I was even able to hold my crossbow steady.

 

Before leaving the dungeon, I checked in with the resident slayer master for a task, and was given 54 green dragons. Did someone just say dragons? Gulp. Apparently I do not need to risk life and limb in the Wilderness; a trip to the Chaos Tunnels will allow me to find my quarry. I am going to accomplish this task, but I want to read up a little bit on the best strategy first, so I put this one on hold.

 

I thought some more about my time in Daemonheim last week. To best train dungeoneering, I think that I need to stick with c6 floors but skill only when necessary, and try to get through the floor as quickly as possible. To test my strategy, I fought through six floors (12-17). The skill I worked on the most was smithing, as the armor helps tremendously. I ran through rooms without fighting the monsters, except as necessary in the guardian rooms, and paid close attention to the colors and shapes of the door keyholes so that when I found a key, I would remember exactly where to go to use it. There are a few different guides out there that provide excellent dungeoneering strategy, and reading those carefully is a huge help.

 

The result of my attack plan? A resounding success. I completed the six floors in 79 minutes, an average of just over 13 minutes each. I even had a sub 10-minute floor (9:47) and two others under 12 minutes. In all, I earned a shade over 10K experience points (leveling once to 47), which averaged out to 2K more per hour than when taking my time killing and skilling. I know that as the floors get deeper, the experience will come even more quickly.

 

I finished the session with something else I have not done in awhile: fishing. I relaxed at the lake north of Seers' Village, catching (and dropping) salmon and trout until reaching level 64 in that skill.

 

Total levels = 1,362

[GregorDGrim]

No images in this post; just a short summary of what I did last session:

 

• Trained in clan citadel, leveling crafting (64), smithing (54) and mining (59), and also training summoning.
  
• Got my clan ring, charging it at the woodcutting plot, and then used it chopping ivy.
  
• Used the JoT aura bonus experience on runecrafting, leveling that to 37.
  
• Purchased a ring of wealth to wear while monster hunting.
  
• Decided to forego the additional profitability of fletching maples. Sold the maple logs and unfinished bows in my inventory for 270K. Purchased 1,000 yew logs and bow strings for a total of about 630K.
  
• Fletched 280 finished yew longbows and sold them for 190K. Assuming that I can sell the rest at that price, I'll make about 40K profit, and significantly increase my fletching experience rate. I think this is worth foregoing the additional profit.
  
• Reached 200K xp for the day again; the 16th time I've done this.
  
• Got to spin the Squeal of Fortune four times, getting nothing but garbage. I am not a fan of this update at all. It has no tie-in to Runescape lore. I think they should have put it in the Circus, if anything, which would have given new players an incentive to travel around the map and also earn some quick experience from training.
  

 

Total levels = 1,366

[GregorDGrim]

Monthly Update

 

I fletched the rest of the yew logs that I had purchased, selling the 720 finished longbows for 477K, giving me a profit of about 35K on the 1,000 total. I then spent some time chopping yew, and taking small breaks to steal from the Falador guards. A wholly unexciting session.

 

February as a whole, however, was easily the best month I've had since starting to play. Crunching the numbers:

 

Experience earned for the month - 3.23 million, 1.3 million more than in any other month.

 

Total experience - 11,873,000. Another month like February and I'll crack 15 million total.

 

Levels earned - 66. I was hoping for 50, so I'm quite pleased with this total. Thanks to training in the clan citadel, 8 of those levels were in smithing and 6 in crafting. An additional 22 levels were in combat skills, along with 4 in mining and 3 each in six other skills.

 

Most experience in a single skill - 1.25 million in woodcutting, with 700K in fletching.

 

Hours played - 70 for the month, and 451 total. 2.4 hours per day is high for me, and I owe that to some very slow days at work and a lack of other games drawing my attention. With Crusader Kings II out and a busier month anticipated, I would be surprised if that average did not decrease significantly.

 

Experience earned per hour - a shade under 46,200 for February. Overall exp/hour increased by more than 3,500 to 26,300.

 

Quest points earned - 1 in February, 81 total. Once again, I plan to spend more time on quests in the upcoming month.

[GregorDGrim]

Welcome to this edition of D'Grim Truth, where we tell you all the excitement that's been happening in Runescape. Well, not all of Runescape; just the things that happen to Gregor D'Grim. I'm your host, Annie Ankou.

 

In our top story, Gregor blasted his way to a personal best as he racked up more than 326,000 experience points among various skills. He spent significant time training two skills that quite honestly had been getting the short shrift over prior months: thieving and summoning. He spent an hour in the Thieves' Guild, earning 36,000 experience and leveling three times to 52. Our cameras managed to catch a glimpse of him as he reached level 50:

 

[spoiler=Why Hasn't He Been Here Lately?]

 

 

Why has he neglected to train thieving here, instead becoming increasingly frustrated with city guards or master farmers who seem to catch him trying to pickpocket every other attempt? Why, indeed. It can't be because the Guild reeks of onions, or can it? Tune in later for a feature segment on this pressing issue.

 

Gregor's summoning experience came courtesy of the nearly 400 charms he had gathered from various creatures. He spent quite a while running back and forth between the bank in western Falador and the summoning obelisk in neighboring Taverly, creating beaver, vampire bat and granite crab pouches. He leveled the skill four times to 39, and reached total combat level 80 in the process. While he had to purchase 125,000 coins' worth of shards, he had enough iron ore and the other tertiary items were cheap enough that he actually turned a small profit selling the pouches.

 

In entertainment news, Gregor attended two parties of clanmates celebrating level 99s. At the first, held in the bedecked Catherby Bank lobby, the celebration was for two players who both reached level 99 in fletching at the same time. A while later, the celebration was more muted as partygoers congratulated a player who reached 99 in woodcutting while the group listened to the peaceful music played by the hippie north of the Falador gate.

 

The Jack of Trades aura was on display, as usual, and this time Gregor used the bonus tome to reach level 35 in farming. Varrock security cameras snapped this shot:

 

[spoiler=We Know You Were Not Really Farming]

 

 

Gregor's ninth level of the day was in an old standby, fletching. He reached level 81 by fletching longbows out of 500 yew logs that he chopped south of Falador. Rumor has it that he was hoping to attach bow strings, but they were scarce at any sort of a reasonable price at the Grand Exchange, so he sold them unfinished for about 230K.

 

With the release of the March Behind the Scenes, Gregor must be looking forward to the clan upgrades, although nothing else about the updates for the month should affect him very much. While the bonus experience weekend is something that most players will love, Gregor apparently has 'plans' that will keep him from taking advantage of more than a few hours of the bonus.

 

As for the new Squeal of Fortune game that is sweeping Runescape, it is turning thousands of players into glassy-eyed gamblers who think nothing of flinging some poor creature across the sky in the hopes of landing something more than a small experience lamp or a few logs. Luck smiled slightly on Gregor yesterday as he won a 2-handed rune longsword and 10,000 gold pieces, but word on the path is that he is not a fan of this gimmick as a whole. He certainly is not going to be one to turn a blind eye to the prospect of a bit of loot, however.

 

Finally, was there another small bot nuke yesterday? There has been no official word, but Gregor's overall ranking improved by an average of 22,000 places in the combat-related skills yesterday, while gaining almost no experience in any of them. That seems odd to this commentator.

 

Thanks for tuning in, and perhaps we'll produce another episode some day. If so, we know you will be tuning in. Where else are you going to get this kind of in-depth noob news? I'm Annie Ankou, wishing you the best of the 'scape.

 

Total levels = 1,375

[GregorDGrim]

I hit 300K in daily experience for the fourth time yesterday and leveled seven times. Here's how:

 

- Used the JoT bonus tome on runecrafting, good for level 38.

 

- Received a small lamp from the Squeal of Fortune, using it on on summoning and reaching level 40:

 

[spoiler=Squeal of Summoning]

 

 

- Set fire to enough maple logs to reach level 72 in firemaking.

 

- Purchased 5,000 yew logs and 5,000 bow strings for a total of 3.33 million coins. My plan is to make a small profit by selling finished yew longbows. I fletched about half of the logs into unfinished bows yesterday, resulting in level 82 and my highest daily experience total in a single skill (186K).

 

- Strapped on and activated the Five Finger Discount aura, and spent an hour in the Thieves' Guild, earning 40,875 experience and three levels (53, 54, 55) (good fireworks capture in this pic):

 

[spoiler=Guild-y, As Charged]

 

 

- Between this session and last, the six levels I earned in thieving moved me up more than 117K places in the rankings for that skill.

 

Total levels = 1,382