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

[GregorDGrim]

Thanks for the bump, Sydan. Thanks also for the advice on wearing dragonhide while using protection prayers. While I like using the prayer potions, I burn through them quickly and they're expensive for someone with my level of gold. I'm playing around with the idea of clicking the prayer on and off during a battle, and particularly at the end of a battle before I engage the next mob.

 

There was a death in my extended family so my time on-line over the past week was limited. Here's a summary of what I was able to accomplish since the last post:

 

- Used the Jack of Trades aura a few times, leveling farming to 52 and gaining experience in herblore.

 

- Assisted Oomad Arrow with final preparations for the Games, although I was not impressed by the experience rates.

 

- Purchased 7,500 yew logs and bow strings, as I was running very low on each. I then fletched 1,400 unfinished longbows.

 

- Spent time Tuesday night maxing in the clan citadel. I used the fealty cape bonus on herblore, and the Mad Necklace at the summoning plot. I also trained crafting enough to level to 81, and then spent the rest of my time there at the smithing and mining plots.

 

- Used the clan ring bonus experience on woodcurring, chopped a lot of ivy and leveled that skill to 96:

 

[spoiler=Three More To Go]

 

 

This is the level of my statistical geekiness: to reach 1,800 total levels, I've set level goals in every skill, and track the amount of experience remaining to reach that goal. As of now, to reach my level goals in woodcutting (99) and fletching (96), I need 3,341,000 experience in each skill. Purely unintentional, and that particular number has no significance, but it is odd that it is the same for both.

 

Right, then...back to normalcy.

 

- Noticed that I gained a significant number of ranks in all of my skills, clear evidence of a mass banning.

 

- Took part in the Games; specifically, the Head to Head race and the Resource Race. The head to head is short and sweet, and pays off handsomely with agility experience. I earned more than 20K in about 10 minutes, without having to worry about getting PK'd. I spent the time harvesting black herbs in the Resource Race event, earning more than 4,500 farming experience in 15 minutes. Both were a nice diversion from the normal grind, and I'll be playing each frequently throughout the remainder of the Games. I haven't tried the Cheese Wheel yet, although it's on my list. I probably won't take part in any of the Marathon races. Here's a snapshot of my prowess in the Resource Race:

 

[spoiler=The Adoring Crowds Cheer My Name]

 

 

Total levels = 1,660

[Zodiac Lotus]

Wow GregorDGrim, this is an Awesome Blog. I must deffiantly will continue to read this for your Accomplishments.. Well done mate, and good luck on 2,000 Total level.

 

[PvM] Fredrow.

[GregorDGrim]

Thanks, Fredrow! Glad to see new faces here in Blogscape. I checked out your blog as well.

 

Yesterday was a very interesting day. It began in Varrock, where I took part in all three of the Games events. Head-to-head is my favorite as it provides excellent agility experience in a short time. The 20K+ that I earned resulted in an agility level (62). I followed that up with the Resource Race, earning another 4K farming experience. Last, I tried the Cheese Rolling game. It's quite stupid and frustrating. I gave up after earning just 1,000 defense experience, and may not ever visit it again. Unless I feel like a little self-flagellation is in order, of course, which is always a possibility.

 

After completion of those events, I strolled to the Thieves' Guild (yes, I actually walked somewhere) and picked up my hanky points for the week. I hardly ever remember to do this, and it's always a few thousand thieving experience points. I spent about ten additional minutes there, stealing my quota of hankies and picking a few locks, which got me to level 64 in thieving.

 

I spent a whole lot of time fletching yesterday, earning a hair over 200K experience in that skill and reaching level 92:

 

[spoiler=Halfway To 99, But Feels Like A Lifetime]

 

 

That picture looks more like I'm about to light a firework than whittle a log.

 

Yesterday happened to be my clan's first anniversary, so leadership put on a day long celebration, with multiple events such as battles, an organized walk through the lands, and some drop parties. I showed up for the final drop party of the evening, which took place in the Falador party room:

 

[spoiler=Drop It Like It's Hot]

 

 

This was the first drop party I've ever attended, and it was actually enjoyable. I popped a lot of balloons, and came away with slightly more than a million coins worth of loot, including 416 noted adamant bars and 11 kegs of beer. Supposedly 50 million coins worth of loot was dropped in total, so I got my share. I just missed out on some torstol seeds, which would have been cool.

 

To wrap up the evening, a fellow clan member was asking if any of us had a fish mask we would be interested in selling. Having seen the street price about a month ago of just a couple million, I hadn't been looking to sell the item any time soon. However, the G.E. price last night was nearly six million (!) and the clan member offered me 6.8 million, so I jumped (like a salmon returning home) at the offer. Once I fletch and sell/alch all of the yew logs in my inventory, I should have more than 12 million coins in my trusty pouch. That's twice as much as I've ever had before. I'm rich, beotch!*

 

*yes, I realize that 12 million coins in no way makes me rich or even well-off, but it feels like immense wealth to me, so just let me wallow in my delusions. Thank you.

 

Total levels = 1,663

[JAMjE]

But you had so much cash why did you sell the mask!? They were only going to go up, you should've saved it until you really needed the cash! Or maybe this is just my way of envying that cash pile...

Congrats on the fletching level, I still can't fathom getting that skill so high but I'll bite the bullet one day... Have you ever considered fletching broad bolts/arrows? I know that from experience broad bolts are 100k exp/hour and you pretty much break even, if making a slight profit. I heard arrows are even faster but do make a loss. Just an idea if you wanted to spruce up training, and with this new found wealth you might want to become one of those efficiency enthusiasts!

Keep it up!

[GregorDGrim]

JAMjE, I'm not so certain the price of the masks will rise dramatically in the short-term, and the gold will come in handy for leveling some of my lower skills (like construction, prayer and herblore) or for buying equipment and potions. I'm going to look into fletching broad bolts; thanks for that suggestion.

 

The last few sessions haven't been very long or thrilling, so this is a very short update. I used the Jack of Trades aura to level farming (53) and herblore (53), and played the Head-To-Head event in the Games three days, resulting in two agility levels (63 and 64). Anyone not taking advantage of the experience to be gained there...well, they're just being silly.

 

I fletched for a time, I alched 600 yew longbows to get my gold pile over 10 million, and I hung out by a bonfire for awhile, resulting in 17 charms awarded to me from grateful fire spirits.

 

From the inception of this blog, I have now earned exactly two thirds of the levels needed to get to 2,000 total. I wish it were two thirds of the time needed. Honestly, though, I would not have predicted that I would have reached this mark so quickly. 333 to go.

 

Total levels = 1,667

[Low Levelled]

Do you have any plans as to when you'll be achieving 99 wc?

[GregorDGrim]

The only plan I have for certain is to reach level 99 by the end of this year. Chopping ivy is a decent way to pass the time, but I have a hard time staying on task for more than an hour or two at any one skill. I think it would take about 45 hours of steady chopping to reach 99, but the thought of using my limited playing time to just do that makes me shiver. My best guess is that I'll reach 99 in October, unless I get a strong urge to finish it off. Actually, just typing all this out makes me want to reach 99 more quickly. That feeling will probably pass.

 

While I did not play for all that long over the past two days, I felt as though I accomplished a fair bit. A summary post is probably in order:

 

- I used most of my 93K loyalty points to purchase the Master Reverence (I had to buy Tiers 1 and 2 first) and Penance auras. They should both help me while training combat. It took me awhile to figure out what to purchase, but I figured that since I didn't already have any auras to steer me towards combat training, these would be a good idea. I'm sure, though, that I'll be forgetting to wear the appropriate aura for a time.

 

- The Squeal of Fortune graced me with a Prized Pendant of Fishing. At my fishing level, this provided 18K bonus experience. This was a really sweet pendant, as every lobster I caged in Catherby earned 270 experience instead of the usual 90. I leveled fishing to 68 before the pendant became worthless, giving me access to the Fishing Guild.

 

- The Squeal of Fortune also provided 500K coins in a single spin, which was nice:

 

[spoiler=I'd Like To Make A Withdrawal, Please]

 

 

- That was a fortunate spin as it helped fund the purchase of 2,000 oak planks which I used to train construction at my house. Total cost = 940K. Total return = five levels so far, with enough planks left over for 100 more oak larders, and 70K experience, the most I've earned in a single day on construction. Training this skill 'efficiently' (oak larders) is extremely boring, which is why I didn't use up all of the planks in one go, but my faithful butler doesn't ask questions (like 'why, Sir, do you continue to tear down the oak larder you have just completed?' or 'Sir, is this your OCD again?'), he just follows orders. That's the kind of help worth keeping. I hit levels 53-57; here's a pic of level 55:

 

[spoiler=I Need A Larder To Store All Of These Larders]

 

 

- I continued to take advantage of the fantastic agility experience offered in the Head-To-Head contest, earning a total of 41K and leveling the skill to 65:

 

[spoiler=I Beat Usain Trollt]

 

 

This is a fun mini-game, but there are certainly improvements that could be made to it. I don't like how the cow always falls in front of me and the gold racer; that should be randomized. Also, there are times where the effects of a card don't work for the exact duration claimed. The suggestion I wish they would implement first, however, would be to randomize the lane assignments before each race. The 'adjacent to red' or 'adjacent to blue' cards only ever help the same single racer, and that's a design issue. Overall, though, it is 100x better than the Cheese Rolling event.

 

- I played Resource Race a couple of times, earning about five thousand experience in farming.

 

- Using the Jack of Trades bonus tome on prayer, I leveled that skill to 52.

 

Total levels = 1,675

[A_Gardener]

Funny; when I use the Cow card, it always falls in front of Green/Red runners.

 

Have you purchased any of the Rings from Oomad?

[Zodiac Lotus]

Yeah, i've had to problems with the Cow card in Head2Head. Hmmm, might just not like you? hehe. Nicely done Greggor, keep at it buddy.

 

[PvM] Fredrow.

[GregorDGrim]

Interesting how the Cow Card seems to have different results for different players. A_Gardener, I have not purchased any of the rings from Oomad, and had no idea about the Herculean ring's bonus experience effects until I looked it up last night. An obvious xp waste that will be rectified today.

 

Yesterday I spent the day maxing my resource gathering in the clan citadel, focusing on summoning (using the Mad Necklace), mining (leveled to 68), firemaking (to gather coal so that I could smith) and smithing (level 65):

 

[spoiler=Mr. Smith Goes To Citadel]

 

 

I used the Mad Necklace while training smithing, and still have 42% of the bonus experience to use. I'm still planning to use most of the remaining amount on prayer training.

 

I charged my clan bonus ring at the woodcutting plot (naturally) and chopped ivy until the bonus experience ran out. Interestingly, about halfway through the chopping, two bird nests dropped within two ticks. That's the first time that's ever happened so quickly for me.

 

The clan cape fealty and Jack of Trades aura bonuses were both used on summoning, so I leveled that skill to 53.

 

Finally, I took part in the Head-to-Head event (for the last time without the Herculean ring!) and earned about 21,000 experience in agility.

 

Total levels = 1,678

[Zodiac Lotus]

Getting close Gregor, Well done buddy. Congratulation on 65 Smithing.

 

[PvM] Fredrow.

[GregorDGrim]

Occasionally there are days when I play for a couple hours but don't level or accomplish anything picture-worthy. Yesterday was one of those days, making this update almost unnecessary. Since I've already started typing, however, I'll just continue and finish off this post so that you (and I) can get to more interesting things.

 

I purchased the Herculean ring upon log-in, and whattya know, it gives bonus experience while participating in the Games. I tried it out on the Resource Race, and it offered a 10% bonus to the farming experience I earned (a total of 5,200 in two attempts). I'll try it at Head-to-Head next session.

 

I fletched for about 30 minutes, and then chopped ivy for about 90 minutes. I'm not close to leveling either skill. I did get three bird nests, two of which contained seeds that in total are worth about 40K.

 

Whew! What a day. It was time for a nap, so I logged off, slept and then played poker last night. Next post will contain a little more in the way of activity, I promise.

 

Total levels = 1,678

[Zodiac Lotus]

Still Gregor, it's a day well used. :) i always look at, any xp gain is good xp gain regardless of the amount.

Looking forward to more of your adventures.

 

[PvM] Fredrow.

[GregorDGrim]

At the end of my last post, I promised more activity in my next session, and I think you will find that I made good on that pledge. Upon log-in, I discovered that I had reached 25 million in total experience earned while in my clan, which earned me a promotion to captain. It doesn't really mean much other than a measure of longevity in the clan, but I can also host clan events if I choose.

 

I took a couple of runs through the Head-To-Head track, earning just over 23K experience and leveling agility (66). I played the Resource Race twice as well, once earning farming experience and once performing woodcutting to see how that experience would be. Earning almost 8,800 experience was quicker than chopping ivy, so it is certainly worthwhile.

 

After the Games, I logged into world 31 (House Parties) and joined the House Party friend chat looking for a gilded altar upon which I could sacrifice some of the big bones I had collected from my cyclopes tasks. I found one quickly, wore my Mad Necklace for bonus experience, and trained prayer long enough to level three times (53-55):

 

[spoiler=Altar-nate Reality]

 

 

This was the first time I had ever used a gilded altar in a player-owned home. I am intrigued by the fact that there are players willing to build an altar and invite players to use it, while they keep the incense burners lit at all times to maximize players' experience. This particular player is named YuriZ, and he seemed to be quite friendly. I gave him a 25K donation as thanks, which I'm sure is a pittance compared to the amounts other players sacrificing dragon or frost bones could donate, but he seemed appreciative. I had plenty of bones left and a 33% charge remaining on my Mad Necklace, but I wanted to move on to something different.

 

At 50, hunter was my lowest-leveled skill, so I decided to try out something else new - the falconry. Notwithstanding the long walk (I wasn't sure if I could get any closer than Seers' Village with my abilities), hunting spotted kebbits using a falcon could not be more simple. The only thing that took any time was dropping the fur and burying the bones that came into my inventory each time I retrieved the falcon. I got two strange rocks within five minutes of training, which meant I had to drop/bury items a little more frequently for the duration of my stay. I stuck around long enough to level hunter three times (51-53), at which point I was sick of kebbits.

 

I spent the rest of the session earning a lot of experience - first by fletching, then by chopping ivy and finally via firemaking at a bonfire. While chopping ivy I scored a magic tree seed, which sold for just over 200K at the Grand Exchange. The bonfire conversation was actually interesting last night, and I added a friend while leveling firemaking (83). That level means I can now burn curly roots, which I'm certain I'll try at some point. I earned 161K experience in total on that skill, which is a daily record for me. This is not a difficult record to beat as firemaking is very fast experience, but for me it is significant because I don't typically stay with a skill long enough in a single session.

 

Last, but certainly not least, I bought a fish mask. Wha...wha...what?? Yes, I decided that I didn't really need that cash, so I spent 5.5 million on a mask. All that means is that I made a 1.3 million profit for doing nothing. I'll take that any time.

 

Eight levels in total on the day, and my fifth-highest daily experience total (431K). I'd say that's a bit more activity than in my prior session.

 

Total levels = 1,686

[Zodiac Lotus]

Wow Gregor, you've been very busy mate. Well done, It makes me want to work harder at my stats :)

 

Love to read you thread/Blog of your everyday activities. :)

 

[Syd]

Nice progress like usual. And I see you took your first steps towards "merchanting" aswell with that fish mask trade. It's always nice to spot trades like that! Basically you can profit from any item if you just stay patient enough and keep your eyes open. Congrats on those levels and good luck on your last stretch toward 99 woodcutting. That's something I'm not personally looking forward to getting myself. :P

[GregorDGrim]

Thanks, Fredrow and Sydan. Woodcutting is certainly a bit of a slog, but I did reach a nice number in that skill:

 

[spoiler=10 Meeeeee-lyun Experience]

 

 

I didn't do all that much other than chop ivy and fletch, although I did play the Gielinor Games a couple of times, leveling agility (67) at Head-To-Head and farming (54) competing in Resource Race.

 

This was a nice, relaxing session.

 

Total levels = 1,688

[Zodiac Lotus]

Nicely done Greg, You've been busy mate. Well done on 10million xp. Big milestone there, I've been meaning to do gielinor games for a few days now, but i'm investing most of my time into Pest control at the moment.

 

Keep up the good work buddy :)

 

[GregorDGrim]

Time for a short update of the past couple of sessions:

 

Agility - reached level 68 playing Head-To-Head. The cow card is really annoying. It lands in my and the gold player's path every single time. This one is still the best of the three mini-games, however.

 

Firemaking - reached level 84 relaxing by a bonfire at the Grand Exchange. As a nice change of pace, the conversation was actually interesting and I added a new friend.

 

Herblore - reached level 54 thanks to a random event (finding a cooked fish and uncooking it, for Bob the Cat). Bad kitty.

 

Crafting - reached level 82 while skilling in the clan citadel. Other than the 10% allowable resources at the summoning plot, I gathered all of my allowable resources for the week at the loom. This earned me 184K experience in crafting, which is the 7th highest daily total I've earned in a single skill.

 

Fletching/woodcutting - spent some time doing each, chipping away at the amounts needed until 97 (woodcutting) and 93 (fletching).

 

Almost 100% of my play time over the last few days has been while engaged in some multi-tasking. I haven't had the opportunity to really focus on something like combat, questing or dungeoneering; hence, the relatively boring updates.

 

Total levels = 1,692

[Zodiac Lotus]

Nice work Greg. Great lot of level ups in the last few days :)

 

[GregorDGrim]

Level 1693 - I fletched yew longbows and strung them (93):

 

[spoiler=Shirtless Pics Friday]

 

 

Thanks to picking up my free Tropical Top at Solomon's, I'm now running around showing off the muscle-bound upper body that I've earned chopping ivy for months.

 

1694 - I alched 700 of the strung yew longs, leveling magic (72). Exciting stuff.

 

1695 - 1697 - I had 725 gold charms in my inventory, so I purchased 725 chunks of raw bird meat (which cost about 150K) and ran back and forth between the Falador Bank and Taverly, making spirit terrorbird pouches. I leveled summoning three times (54, 55, 56):

 

[spoiler=Summon Please Help Me!]

 

 

I completely forgot that there's a bank hidden in the SW corner of Taverly, which is a quicker run than to Falador. One more example why I the subtitle 'A Noob's Journey' is still on the header of my blog. Leveling summoning three times also increased my combat level to 93.

 

I took a walk down to fill my bucket at Tears of Guthix, earning me some hunter experience, but no level. That filled the bucket with my own tears.

 

1698 - after some ivy chopping to buff up, I used the Five-Finger aura and stole hankies for an hour at the Thieves' Guild (65):

 

[spoiler=Seriously, Where Does This Guy Store All The Handkerchiefs?]

 

 

1699 - three different days' worth of Head-To-Head training all led to me leveling agility this morning (69).

 

1700 - My 1000th level was in farming, and my 1700th level is in farming (55), thanks this time to Resource Race:

 

[spoiler=How Does Your Garden Grow? Damn Fast]

 

 

So...I was hoping to reach 1,700 total levels by the one-year anniversary of this blog, and I'm three weeks early. I'll take it.

 

[spoiler=Total Levels =]

 

[Turnpike]

Keep it up. I'm still watching you.

[GregorDGrim]

Glad to see you still following along, Turnpike.

 

I only spent about 30 minutes this weekend playing the game, but I hit two milestone levels:

 

Agility - level 70 via Head-to-Head:

 

[spoiler=I Was Not As Agile Snapping The Pic]

 

 

Herblore - level 55 via Jack of Trades bonus tome:

 

[spoiler=Should Be Called Herb of Trades]

 

 

I will definitely be making some super strength potions to use on slayer tasks.

 

I chopped ivy for a bit, but the past couple days have been very busy so nothing really else to comment on in this post.

 

Total levels = 1,702

[GregorDGrim]

I'm very busy this week, but I did have time the past two nights to play for a few hours. Here's an edge-of-your-seat summary of my achievements:

 

- Earned another 51K agility experience playing Head-To-Head (that event has to be ending soon, doesn't it?) and some experience farming playing Resource Race.

 

- Fletched yews for a little while, then sold about 1,500 strung bows and purchased a 6K shipment of yew logs and bow strings. I'm still making a small profit selling the bows, so I'm going to keep on doing it.

 

- Traveled to Daemonheim and completed floors 11-13 on complexity six. I wasn't in a huge rush, so I spent some time skilling, earning experience in various skills. I defeated To'Kash, Bulwark Beast, and the Divine Skinweaver bosses in succession without any deaths, or really any difficulty. The three floors resulted in about 5,700 dungeoneering experience and level 57, and took a total of about 42 minutes.

 

- Received a pendant of agility from SoF, which will give me 10K bonus experience whenever I decide to actually train agility on a course instead of at the Geilinor Games.

 

- A friend of mine gave me an obsidian cape as a gift. Sir Noob-I-Am has never had a cape to wear during combat before now. Thanks, Maha!

 

- Trained in the clan citadel last night. Because of the need to gather certain resources for the new clan avatars, the crafting plot was locked for training, so I spent about 80% of the time training cooking. I earned 241K experience, the second highest daily total I've ever earned in a single skill, and reached level 81. Only one of my 10 best individual skill daily gains is in woodcutting (#10) - it's funny to think that I'm level 96 in woodcutting and have never earned more than 176K in a single day of chopping or cutting. That is proof that it's very difficult for me to spend more than two hours in a row at any one skill.

 

- Charged my clan ring at the woodcutting plot, but was too tired to cut ivy or do anything more.

 

Total levels = 1,704

[GregorDGrim]

I spent most of my last session chopping ivy (to use up the clan ring bonus) and fletching. I did level twice, both thanks to the Gielinor Games - level 71 agility playing Head-To-Head and level 56 farming playing Resource Race.

 

I also had a total of four spins on the SoF, and received four small experience lamps, for use in any skill. Seems like that wouldn't happen very often. I used all four of them, and the Jack of Trades bonus, on herblore, so I am very close to leveling that skill.

 

I wasn't feeling motivated to go 'do' anything of significance, so this is all there is to this update.

 

Total levels = 1,706