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

[GregorDGrim]

To Get Farming Experience, Or Not To Get Farming Experience? That is the Questing. - Okay, so that's goofy, but it sums up my session today. I wanted to level farming, and noted that Fairy Tale I would get me 3,500 experience in that skill. At my low level, that's a good amount. I needed to complete Nature Spirit and Lost City before even becoming eligible for Fairy Tale, so I put on my questing cap (figuratively, I don't actually own a real questing cap) and went to talk to my good buddy Drezin in the vaults below the Saradomin Temple. He told me to find some dude, who turned out to be dead, but I was able to help him turn into a Nature Spirit and turn his disgusting grotto into a beautiful nature rune altar. That earned me two quest points, along with some experience in crafting, constitution and defense:

 

[spoiler=At One With Nature (Spirit)]

 

 

Next, I heard rumors of the Lost City of Zanaris, so I tricked a small group of adventurers hanging around the swamps outside Lumbridge into telling me that I needed to find some leprechaun to help with locating the city. Of course the little green scamp told me, so after some work I found myself ducking into a shed and getting transported to Fairy World...er, I mean Zanaris. That was a quick and easy three quest points, but more importantly, allowed me to start Fairy Tale:

 

[spoiler=Taken to the Fairy Woodshed]

 

 

So Martin, the fantastic gardener and woefully inadequate defender against pickpocketers, tells me that the crop productivity is down all over the globe. He sent me on interviews of other master gardeners, who spouted off their crazy theories explaining the problem, but it turns out it was a problem with fairies. The Fairy Godmother (aka Queen Bee) had been attacked and nearly killed by Tanglefoot, so I confidently went forth to kill this brute. I ended up having to trek to Tai Bwo Wannai (I know, right?) to get some Volencia moss, one of the items needed to get the Nature Spirit to bless my secateurs:

 

[spoiler=Bonus Picture!]

 

 

I have to admit, that is a pretty sweet screen grab, although I'm stepping on the side of my staff for some reason.

 

I took the blessed secateurs, found Tanglefoot, and started hacking him apart. Unfortunately, I had forgotten to wear my armor, so I ran out of food quickly and had to run away. Big shout out to the Fairy city planners who decided to put a bank in Zanaris. A quick wardrobe change, and it was back to old Tanglefoot. This time, I chopped him to bits, and the Queen's secateurs were mine. I then sold them to a rogue fairy for 150,000 gold. Actually, I meekly returned them to the Fairy Godfather, and the quest was complete:

 

[spoiler=You Say Secateur, I Say Tree Hacker]

 

 

The farming experience earned during the quest leveled me from 19 to 24, bringing that skill even with summoning. Soon I shall have at least level 30 in every skill. Maybe. I'm low on charms.

 

While I typed up this post, I chopped ivy on the southern Falador wall. That helped keep my exp/hour today from being horrendous.

 

Breaking News - as I was typing that last sentence, I was pulled away from the wall for a random event. I kissed a frog and I liked it. She turned into a princess, I took the experience lamp, chose summoning, and it was enough experience to make level 25:

 

[spoiler=Take That, Farming!]

 

 

What excitement! Time to call it a night. Not much experience, but seven quest points and a handful of levels in my worst skills.

 

Total levels = 1,165

[Syd]

Congrats for 1000 views Gregor, good going! :shades:

 

Good job with the latest levels too. My hint for growing trees for farming still stands. One tree can easily give you like couple k's xp at lower levels too. At higher levels getting over 10k experience per tree is very much possible. And using supercompost and seed you don't have to check the trees at all. Only need to claim the xp. Survival rate is still 90%.

 

So basically setting up trees and going back to set up new trees once a day (doing apples and oaks which you can now) could yield like 6,000 or more experience per day with very little effort. When I was doing trees, I used to get over 35,000 experience per day checking them all once (which took me 5 minutes to do), and I didn't even do normal trees at all.

 

Not to mention the lower level trees are cheap as dirt. Actually it's about somewhere up to pineapple trees and willow trees very very cheap. :smile:

 

Like for example, doing 5 oaks (467xp) and 4-5 apples (1199xp) (depending whether you use Herblore Habitat area which might be a bit hard to reach - unless you buy juju spirit bags from there) you could get 467x5 + 1199x4 or 5 =~ 7000 - 8200 xp per day. After you reach level 30, you could do willows and banana trees, which would already be 1456x5 + 1750x4 or 5 =~ 15000 xp per day. The levels would go up very fast and you could still boost those XP ratings by growing orange trees, curry trees, maple trees and upto pineapple trees as soon as you're able. Over 100,000 farming xp in a week, spending 5 minutes on a day with it would be possible even for your levels. Double that after you get around 50s. That's why I said the skill is actually one of the easiest to train. :razz:

[GregorDGrim]

Congrats for 1000 views Gregor, good going! :shades:

Thanks! I noticed that this morning...after accounting for the times I've clicked on the thread, that must be more than 250 views from others!

 

Also, thanks very much for the advice on farming; I definitely will follow it. The Herblore Habitat suggestion will have to wait for awhile, however. From a guide:

 

The Herblore Habitat requires at least 54 Farming, 70 Hunter, 54 Herblore, and possibly 54 Construction, but it is recommended that you get at least 69 Farming and 78 Hunter as this grants you access to much of what the habitat has to offer.

[Syd]

I meant planting a fruit tree in the Herblore Habitat area. As far as I know, planting the tree doesn't require any levels - as the area itself doesn't require levels to access. So you're not actually "playing the minigame" but using the fruit tree patch to farm. It should work, as long as you're able to reach the place. I'm not totally sure if it requires levels to reach, but not as far as I can remember. :)

 

However, even skipping one tree you're still looking for decent xp rates. :lol:

[CannibalAngel]

Congrats for 1000 views Gregor, good going! :shades:

Thanks! I noticed that this morning...after accounting for the times I've clicked on the thread, that must be more than 250 views from others!

 

Also, thanks very much for the advice on farming; I definitely will follow it. The Herblore Habitat suggestion will have to wait for awhile, however. From a guide:

 

The Herblore Habitat requires at least 54 Farming, 70 Hunter, 54 Herblore, and possibly 54 Construction, but it is recommended that you get at least 69 Farming and 78 Hunter as this grants you access to much of what the habitat has to offer.

 

 

Correct me if I am wrong, but I don't think that viewing your own post counts towards the view count. So those 1K+ views you have are from other users. Nice work!

[GregorDGrim]

I had a productive session of woodcutting, fletching and magic. Simple and non-threatening. I spent it in one of my favorite spots in the world, the forest south of Falador and east of the clan camps. I chopped some ivy and reached level 78 in woodcutting. Afterwards, I chopped yew, fletched shortbows, and then alched them for 128 profit each. The alching got me to level 60 in magic:

 

[spoiler=You Have to Believe, I Am Magic]

 

 

I wanted to get fletching to 70 so that I could switch to yew longbows, but the chopping was taking awhile, so I traveled to the Grand Exchange and purchased enough maple logs to fletch and level more quickly:

 

[spoiler=Fletch Armstrong]

 

 

After finishing the level, I purchased 1,000 nature runes (down to 96 each, which is where they seem to have stabilized after Jagex nerfed the alching of nature runes) and went back to the Falador Woods, where I spent the remainder of the session chopping, fletching yew longbows and alching them. Alching these earns 384 coins, for a very good profit of nearly 290 each.

 

143K experience and three levels, and time for bed.

 

Total levels = 1,168

[GregorDGrim]

Since I was playing today while doing some other computer work, I stuck to the tried-and-true yew chopping, fletching longbows and then high alching them. However, I got to thinking. While an approximate 290 coin profit per yew longbow is good, particularly in conjunction with gaining experience and not having to go to the bank for any reason, wouldn't it make more sense to bank the fletched longbows, sell them for market price later (464 coins right now at GE), and buy something much cheaper to alch? I'd lock in a significantly higher profit, and then look for something that could break even or earn a small profit via alching. This would also allow me to alch noted items, saving me from having to click in multiple places in my inventory. I'm starting to try to think about things more efficiently, and this one seems like a no-brainer.

 

While cutting yew, I also received three birds' nests, one of which contained a papaya tree seed, so that added to a profitable, albeit short, session. It was a short enough session that I did not gain any levels.

 

Trivial note: It looks like I am getting approximately 43K experience per hour chopping yews and fletching longbows with them. That includes running to the eastern bank in Falador.

 

Total levels = still 1,168

[GregorDGrim]

Slay Bells Ring, Are You Listening? - finally, yes, I listened. After not practicing the slayer skill since the inception of this blog, I focused my last session on completing slayer tasks. I've been thinking that a higher combat level, particularly through training strength, would make easier some of the quests that I have on my priority list, and training combat skills through slayer tasks is good multi-skilling.

 

My buddy (well, he doesn't know that he's my buddy) for slayer is Mazchna in Canifis. The medium level assignments seem perfect for me. The big disadvantage of using Mazchna is the long walk required from Varrock. Because I am nowhere near the required levels in farming and herblore to complete Fairy Tale II (and use the Fairy Ring system of teleporting), I did not think I had any other option. However, I recently (as in last night) discovered that I will be able to start the quest and proceed far enough to gain access to the fairy rings, allowing me to teleport much closer to Mazchna. That just shot straight to the top of my priority list.

 

My first task, which I've had for more than a month, was to slay 31 desert lizards. I stocked up on waterskins and some ice coolers, wore my magic garb along with some desert robes, and strolled through the Shantay Pass to fire blast some over-sized geckos. First I heated them up, and then I cooled them down. What fun! Completing this task brought me to level 35 slayer:

 

[spoiler=I Already Used My Slayer Pun For This Entry]

 

 

Next, it was time for 40 cave crawlers. I should have gone to the Rellekka Slayer cave, but I didn't know that cave crawlers were there until after my third slayer task (foreshadowing). I knew there were some in the caves under the Lumbridge swamp, so I headed there with rope, a lit lantern, some antipoison potions (I read my guides) and NO tinderbox. While using magic on the lizards worked very well, I switched to full armor and a rune scimitar, and began training strength. Unfortunately, before I even found the creepy crawlers, I slipped in some water and my lantern went out. Ohhhhhh....so that's why I was supposed to bring a tinderbox. Not too bad, I thought, I could still see enough to feel my way around the cavern. Within a number of seconds, however, a swarm of insects started biting me, and they would not stop. I started running like a blind fool, eating the few lobsters I brought with me and frantically trying to find the exit. Thankfully, a very helpful stranger who also happened to be on a cave crawler slayer task saw my predicament and gave me a handful of swordfish. That gave me just enough health to escape the caves and be rid of the bugs. When I say 'just enough', I mean that I was down to 60 hit points and no food.

 

After getting my tinderbox and a few more food items, I returned to the scene and completed the task, which was pretty much anti-climactic after my first pass through the caves. I was able to personally offer thanks to my rescuer, and gave him some gold in gratitude. During this assignment, I leveled strength to 55 and my overall combat level to 69:

 

[spoiler=Getting Stronger Every Day]

 

 

The best thing about the cave crawlers is the loot they drop (all this, plus 11 charms):

 

[spoiler=Where Are Their Pockets?]

 

 

For my third task, I had to eliminate 49 cockatrices. This was my introduction to the Rellekka Slayer cave, and where I first had to run through a room full of cave crawlers. I am so glad I didn't die from those insects earlier; seeing these guys just wriggling around harmlessly would have made me very frustrated. I went in again with full armor, and a mirror shield to avoid their harmful gaze, and beat the snot out of them. I reached slayer level 36, and got an inventory full of limpwurt roots and cockatrice eggs. I did venture further into the caves, but quickly discovered that my slayer level was not high enough to harm the basilisks or jellies in the adjoining rooms.

 

I finished off the Slay Day with a task to defeat 46 bears. Grizzly bears just love the forest and mining area north-east of Ardougne. And I just love butchering grizzly bears. They caused almost no damage, they are easy to hit hard (I hit for my max of 122 on a couple of occasions), they drop some gold and other charms, and their meat is worth more than 300 gold each. I completed the task very quickly, and decided to keep on killing little Yogi and Boo Boo. I filled and then banked my inventory of meat and charms repeatedly, as it was a fairly short run to the Ardougne Savings and Loan ("I got my loan, in Old Ardougne!" - I'm sure you've seen the ads). I wound up killing more than 200 grizzlies, which will result in a nice profit once I sell the meat, and leveled strength (to 56) and constitution (to 55):

 

[spoiler=No, You Will Not Steal My Pic-a-nic Basket!]

 

 

With that, I ended my session. Before I undertake another slayer task, I will gain access to the Fairy Ring travel system. That will definitely save time.

 

Total levels = 1,173

[SwreeTak]

I love to see your progress. Seems like you went through quite a slayer adventure recently. It's good to see that there are still helpful strangers out there who hand out swordfishes to those who need it!

Congratulations on that nice slayer, strength and constitution level up :) Now keep going. Perhaps do some herblore and farming so you can do the quests for the fairy ring network?

[GregorDGrim]

Thanks, swedishboy5, for the comments. I'm really in no hurry to level up herblore and farming that much. Now that I apparently can travel using the fairy ring network (see below), there is not much incentive to complete Fairy Tale II and III.

 

With the forum down for most of last week, I did not spend very much time on Runescape. I do not even have any pictures to share for this entry.

 

I am frustrated with the site I use to make my signature, because it has been switching back and forth between listing my skills that are at least level 30, but not in the top two million in rankings. As an analytical person, I do not like seeing my graphs on that site getting screwed up.

 

Anyway, here's the list of what I accomplished since last Monday in the game:

 

• Cut and fletched yew until reaching level 79 in woodcutting.
  
• Chopped a bunch of ivy.
  
• Sold some items and passed one million coins in the bank.
  
• High-alched yak-hide armor (200 of them) and attack potions (200) and leveled magic to 61.
  
• Started Fairy Tale II and progressed far enough to gain access to the fairy rings system.
  
• With a few friends, got a citadel for our small clan. Chopped wood for upkeep.
  

 

I'm not sure what we will be doing long-term with our clan. Currently it is just a place to hang out, but we have some roleplaying ideas. It is certainly in the infancy stage.

 

Total levels = 1,175

[GregorDGrim]

Gregor Gets Experience

A short tale by Gregor D'Grim

 

Gregor had been lazy recently. His skills were not progressing as quickly as he had hoped, due in large part to the administrative tasks upon which he was forced to focus for most of the prior week. "It's a shame there is no way to grade one's progress in dealing with others," Gregor thought, as he pulled himself out of bed. Fortunately, he would not have to deal with that nonsense on this day. Today would be a day of adventure. But first, it was time to head to Varrock to pick up a wicked hood that was promised to him; a small gift to reward Gregor's loyalty.

 

After trying on the hood and posing in front of his mirror for what seemed an interminable time, Gregor went to Falador to fight the ivy problem plaguing the city's southern wall. As he chopped for well over an hour, a total of five bird's nests fell to the ground. The seeds and jewelry he found within would be worth a pretty penny at the Grand Exchange, Gregor knew [about 55K worth, excluding the value of the nests]. "This ivy chopping has gotten significantly easier," he noted to the lifeless automaton with the vowel-less name chopping next to him. Of course, there was no response.

 

[spoiler=Woodcutting Level 80]

 

 

With tired arms from swinging the hatchet for so long, Gregor switched to something a bit more mundane. Yes, still no adventure yet. He withdrew his knife and fletched what felt like 1,000 maple logs into longbows [level 71 fletching]. With nature runes in one hand, and his lava battlestaff in the other, Gregor turned 550 of those bows into gold [levels 62 and 63 magic]. Creating money out of thin air, contributing in his own small way to currency deflation in the realm, made him very happy indeed. Of course, this high level alchemy was a strain on his fingers, and very boring, so he was up for trying something new.

 

Fortunately, a friend had invited him to try a game called Skullball, east of Canifis. Gregor was excited to try traveling via the fairy network for the first time, and it went off without a hitch (other than the leeches that repeatedly attached themselves to him before he could get into the Skullball cave). After showing Gregor the rules, his friend led him through a round. "Try to finish in less than three minutes," his friend remarked. "My best is right around 2:30." After a handful of circuits, Gregor realized one thing: he sucked at Skullball. "Unfortunately," he commented ruefully, "I think it will be back to the Barbarian training course for me."

 

It was time for some slaying. Since Gregor was already near Canifis, it was a very short trip to his slayer master buddy for a new task. His first assignment was to kill 46 desert lizards. As he had already completed a slayer task with the same assignment, he traveled prepared, with waterskins, desert robes, and ice coolers in hand. He completed the task with ease, burying the large bones of the lizards [level 37 slayer, level 39 prayer]. His second slayer task was to kill 67 crawling hands. The prior time Gregor was in the Slayer Tower, it was killing those same monsters, working on his ranging ability. This time he went fully armored, and wiped out his foe in near-record time. I mean, you really have to hand it to him [level 57 strength, total combat level 70].

 

Gregor was feeling quite blood-thirsty, so he took on a third task. He had to travel to the Relleka Slayer dungeon to dispatch 68 pyrefiends. Here's where he made it more difficult than necessary. Noting that the pyrefiends were weak against enchanted pearl crossbow bolts, Gregor took his trusty Dorge'shuun bone bow and the pearl bolts (along with a supply of bone bolts) for his assignment. He quickly realized that the pearl bolts could not be fired with the bone bow, so he headed to the Grand Exchange to purchase a regular crossbow. This worked much better, and Gregor got 28 kills before running out of food [level 46 ranged]. Gregor decided to switch into his best rune armor and go back with plenty of food. Once again, he realized that he had not read up on the pyrefiends as much as he should have. Melee armor was not very helpful against the magic-using creatures, so he took even more damage than with the dragon-hide armor he had on with his bow. Stubbornly, he refused to leave the dungeon again, and had just enough lobster to see him through the end of the task [level 38 slayer, level 53 attack, level 54 defense].

 

Sore, exhausted, and needing to replenish his lobster inventory, Gregor traveled to Catherby for some relaxing fishing and cooking time. He did not spend long enough there to get better at either skill, but his lobster supply was amply refilled, and Gregor did get to listen in on some very stimulating conversation regarding the Twilight movies. "What the hell?" he wondered, shaking his head, and trudging back to his house. It had been a very good day.

 

The End

 

 

11 levels for Gregor, and a personal record for the most experience earned in a single day:

 

[spoiler=A Quarter Million Day (AKA 30 Minutes for S U O M I)]

 

 

Total levels = 1,186

[GregorDGrim]

Some sessions there are many things to write about, and then there are sessions like yesterday's.

 

Step A - Continue fishing for lobsters, and cooking those bad boys, in Catherby.

 

Step B - Level fishing twice (to 57) and cooking twice (to 58).

 

Step C - Goodfight.

 

Semi-interesting Trivial Bit of Information - I came oh-so-close at one point to cooking the perfect inventory (i.e. no burnt lobsters), with all but one turning out moist and tender. Now where did I put that butter?

 

Total levels = 1,190

[SwreeTak]

Awesomeness. Gratz on those cooking levels :)

[Syd]

So do you, Gregor, have any new plans for the upcoming week with alot of interesting events? Slayer, especially for low level could be very big boost. Assuming most of the slayers are on the higher end of "slayerchain", killing the higher level monsters, one with lower level slayer might be able to rack fast experience in almost empty spots despite the 3x experience. Might be. To be honest I have no idea how many players you see on your day to day tasks, but I assume it's less than there are on task to task basis at the higher level slayer monsters.

 

And have you ever been searching penguins, or done Cold War (& Hunt for Red Raktuber) quest(s)? Next week at D&D day, getting 3x penguin points would mean nice experience on skill of your choice.

 

And you most definetly should try Soul Wars on Soul Wars -day. It's easy experience no matter the levels. Just choose a team and stick with it and eventually you should be winning about 50% of games (2 zeals per 20 minutes), with 3x points that's already 18 zeals per hour. While top clan members can yield a bit less than 9 zeals per hour on normal day. That would be nice experience in combat skill of your choice.

 

In overall, you're progressing like usual. Keep up the good work. :-)

[GregorDGrim]

So do you, Gregor, have any new plans for the upcoming week with alot of interesting events? Slayer, especially for low level could be very big boost. Assuming most of the slayers are on the higher end of "slayerchain", killing the higher level monsters, one with lower level slayer might be able to rack fast experience in almost empty spots despite the 3x experience. Might be. To be honest I have no idea how many players you see on your day to day tasks, but I assume it's less than there are on task to task basis at the higher level slayer monsters.

I would love to get some bonus slayer experience tomorrow, but I don't think my schedule is going to allow it. I've been extremely busy the past week (which is the reason for a lack of updates), and this week is nearly as busy.

 

And have you ever been searching penguins, or done Cold War (& Hunt for Red Raktuber) quest(s)?

Nope, haven't done those quests yet.

 

And you most definetly should try Soul Wars on Soul Wars -day. It's easy experience no matter the levels. Just choose a team and stick with it and eventually you should be winning about 50% of games (2 zeals per 20 minutes), with 3x points that's already 18 zeals per hour. While top clan members can yield a bit less than 9 zeals per hour on normal day. That would be nice experience in combat skill of your choice.

I might check that out on Thursday, if I have time.

 

Thanks for the nice comments, Sydan and swedishboy5.

 

Total levels = still 1,190

[ClimberKid]

Really enjoyed reading through this blog! Great goal you've set for yourself as well. Look forward to reading more from you!

[GregorDGrim]

I am in a great mood this morning. I missed all day yesterday, so unfortunately was not able to take advantage of the slayer experience bonus. However, reading about the apparent success of Jagex against the bots has put a big smile on my face. It's likely that bot developers will do everything they can to come back from this, since it really was a golden goose for them, but I'm happiest about the efforts put forth by the company. There will always be cheaters, in this and any game, but seeing an active fight against them is good for morale.

 

Although yesterday was a no-go, it was a great session the day before. I began by visiting my clan citadel, to chop enough wood to earn the clan ring from the quartermaster. While there, I noticed that we did not have a build order in for the week, which was a bit frustrating. We had chopped enough wood to upgrade the plot, but since I have not been granted the ability to set upgrade orders, I was resigned to asking the clan leader about it next time I saw him.

 

After charging the ring, I left the citadel and, since I could see Frank advertising Deathcon II out of the corner of my eye, I walked over to talk with him. He mentioned that Death was looking for volunteers to assist the clan members in getting ready for the big convention. After reading the message board in their citadel, I helped Beauty, Frank and DJ Infinity with their tasks. If you happen to attend the big party, just remember that it may not have happened if not for my efforts!

 

[spoiler=Alert! Alert! We Have Entered Deathcon II!]

 

 

I earned a handful of emotes as a reward, plus a t-shirt. My Friends All Went To Deathcon And All I Got Was This Lousy T-Shirt. Anyone ever get a shirt like that from their family or friends? Well, this shirt is nicer than those are.

 

In my sweet shirt and clan ring, I chopped ivy until receiving all 15K of the bonus experience provided by the ring. It was a busy area, with four other (silent) choppers. I wondered how many of them might not be around later in the week. After the bonus experience expired, I took the one nest that fell from the ivy and crushed it, along with the other 34 I had saved in my bank. At the Grand Exchange, I sold all of them for nearly 240K. I then spent time high alching the 450 unstrung maple longbows I had left in the bank, which resulted in my bank coffers swelling to more than 1.4 million gold.

 

While alching, I was randomized (not as painful as it sounds) and sent to play with some abyssal appendages (more painful than it sounds). I completed the task and used the experience lamp on summoning, which increased my level to 26, as well as my overall combat level to 71. I checked my bank for charms, and noticed that I had just enough to reach a goal of mine - hitting level 30 in summoning. It was going to cost a pretty penny as I would need to purchase a ton of shards and some secondary ingredients, but my pockets were overflowing. Well, relatively. When one million coins seems like a fortune, 1.4 million makes one feel like Warren Buffett.

 

I spent about 200K purchasing shards, pouches, compost buckets and bronze claws, and ran back and forth between the Falador bank and Pikkupstix' shop in Taverly, doing the following:

• green charms and compost, creating compost mound pouches
  
• gold charms and iron ore, creating granite crab pouches
  
• crimson charms and bronze claws, creating spirit scorpion pouches
  

This depleted all of the charms in my bank, aside from a single blue one. It did get me levels 27 through 30 in summoning, though:

 

[spoiler=Summon Chanted Evening]

 

 

Suddenly, I found myself lacking charm. This would not do. After a bit of research, I decided to travel to Canifis and kill some werewolves, since they provide very good experience for my level, drop charms most of the time, and I knew of a safe spot where I could use my crossbow against them without taking any damage. Until it was time to call it a day, I kept picking off the unfortunate Twilight-movie wannabees, getting a slew of charms and leveling ranged twice (to 48) and constitution to 56. I hit for a maximum of 101 damage; it was nice to see triple digits for once with my crossbow.

 

ClimberKid, welcome aboard my blog train!

 

Total levels = 1,198

[GregorDGrim]

Two Milestones In One Day

 

Fresh off reaching level 30 in summoning, I decided to do the same in farming. Farming was the last skill I had under level 30, which was an important number to me because Runetrack captures statistics only for those skills at least that level. So, with one more review of the farming guides, I set off, using the following strategy:

 

1. Plant marigolds at plots near Draynor/Falador, Catherby, and NE Ardougne
   
2. Once the marigolds bloomed, plant tomatoes in the allotments in all three locations.
   
3. Continue replanting tomatoes until level 30.
   
4. Don't pick the marigolds.
   
5. While waiting, play Vinesweeper or do some fishing/cooking in Catherby.
   

 

I quickly hit levels 25 and 26. Achieving level 26 resulted in hitting my first milestone of the day:

 

[spoiler=1,200 Total Levels]

 

 

I paused from my manual labor and patted the sweat from my brow, proud of what I had achieved in a short time. A realization struck me, however: 20% of the Second Thousand levels did not mean 20% of the total time required. More like 3-5%, I think. I have such a long, long way to go, but I plan to enjoy the trip.

 

After my reflection period, I continued farming and knocked out levels 27-29 easily. At level 29 I also planted some harralander herb seeds, which I was more hesitant about doing since there does not appear to be any method available to prevent them becoming diseased. Of course, two of the three did get sick, but I was able to treat them in time. Finally, after doing my best to mostly ignore farming during my brief RS career, I reached level 30:

 

[spoiler=Old McGregor Had A Farm]

 

 

Since I was having so much fun, I planted another set of crops and managed to level both fishing (to 58) and cooking (to 59) while waiting in Catherby. There were a lot of fishermen on the shore, and they were a bunch of chatterboxes. I assume they were reveling in the fact that everyone there was not a bot. With my final harvest of the evening, I leveled farming one more time (to 31).

 

Total levels = 1,207

[GregorDGrim]

Chop

Chop

Chop

 

That was my entire session. I started in the clan citadel, chopping 500 resources at the plot. After charging the clan ring, I went to my favorite ivy spot and chopped until the benefits of the ring wore off. Experience adds up quickly when I'm getting 499 experience per ivy. Since it's a good moneymaker, the three yew trees south of Falador were last on my list. Two bird nests dropped within a one-minute span:

 

[spoiler=Poor Widdle Birdies]

 

 

One of the nests contained a seed worth about 10,000 coins, so that was a very profitable minute. I also had a random event, called away to take part in the "Odd One Out" quiz show. For the first time that I can remember, an experience lamp was not offered as one of the rewards, so I took two gold charms instead.

 

All in all, I earned some decent money through nests and yews, and leveled woodcutting to 81.

 

Total levels = 1,208

[GregorDGrim]

I wrapped up October with a good session, starting with the sale of lobsters and yew logs that I had accumulated. That left me with more than 1.6 million gold in the bank, the highest amount I've ever had.

 

While peering through the tabs in my bank, the ring of Daemonheim beckoned, so it was off for some dungeoneering. I spent about two hours clearing three floors (7-9), focusing on skilling as well as getting through the dungeon. The rooms seemed to have an inordinate amount of puzzles, including three instances of the pondskaters, two of them in a row on floor 8. The most difficult boss on the three floors was Planefreezer Lakhrah...Lakhrah...something; I can't read my notes. I leveled dungeoneering (to 41) and smithing (to 42) while poking around.

 

After resurfacing, I was pining for the comforts of home, so I decided to buy oak planks and build some items in my workshop. Since gold tends to burn a hole in my pocket, I purchased 200K worth of planks (less than 500 - this sure is an expensive skill to train) and built flatpacks of carved oak tables and chairs. That got me levels 38, 39 and 40 in construction:

 

[spoiler=The Oakcidental Leveler]

 

 

Level 40 construction was a goal of mine because I really wanted a butler. Tea service and plank delivery - really, could one ask for any more from the help? First I had to add a bed to the second bedroom so that he would have somewhere to sleep. After that was completed, I traveled to Ardougne and hired my guy:

 

[spoiler=Billy Bob Butler]

 

 

I was also happy to reach level 40 construction because it made me eligible to take on the Spirit of Summer quest. With the experience rewards and access to the Spirit Portals, this is one quest that jumped near the top of my to-do list.

 

I finished the session with some tomato planting and some ivy chopping, but no additional levels.

 

Total levels = 1,213

[GregorDGrim]

October Summary

 

Since I'm a big fan of statistics, here's a mostly numerical summary of Gregor's progress during October:

 

Total experience earned = 1.694 million. I am listing that to three places only because I beat my September total by 3,000 experience. Total experience just over 5.8 million.

Levels gained = 61.

Hours played = 54. Very consistent with last month, when I had 57 hours of game time. Brings my total to 314 hours.

Experience per hour = 31,370, slightly higher than September's 29,667. It means I did a lot of woodcutting in October. Total exp/hr for Gregor since inception is just over 18,500.

 

Breakdown of levels earned during the month:

• Farming - 11. Not much experience, but finally got this skill (the last one) to level 30.
  
• Magic - 8. 234K was third most in any skill, and the vast majority of it was via high alching.
  
• Summoning - 7. The other sub-30 skill prior to the month, I accomplished most of this in one shot, burning through all my gold, green and crimson charms.
  
• Woodcutting - 5. Chopping ivy and yew, earned nearly 900K during the month, and passed my son who has been at level 80 for a long time.
  
• Slayer, Fletching - 4. Leveled both the same amount, but earned 23 times more experience fletching. I'm getting to like slaying, though.
  
• Strength, Ranged - 3. Had just a few sessions focused on these two skills, mostly while slaying.
  
• Construction - 3. Earned these on the last day of the month, got me the butler.
  
• Fishing, Cooking - 3. These two have gone together for a long time. Catherby, anyone?
  
• Constitution - 2. When focusing on skilling more than fighting, not going to level this much.
  
• Attack, Defense, Prayer - 1. Am I really meant to be a skiller?
  
• Dungeoneering, Smithing - 1. Got both of these yesterday in Daemonheim.
  
• Crafting, Firemaking, Mining, Herblore, Agility, Thieving, Runecraft, Hunting - 0. I basically ignored all of these. Two months without a single runecrafting level.
  

 

[spoiler=21% Of The Way To Non-Noob Status?]

 

 

My main goal for November is to complete a bunch of quests. There are 57 that I've qualified for but haven't completed yet; I'd like to do at least a dozen. I'll be on vacation away from the computer for at least 10 days during the month, however, so play time is unpredictable.

 

Thank you very much for all of the page views!

[SwreeTak]

Congratulations on all those nice recent levels. It is just as fun to read through your blog posts now as it was when you started this blog. You have come quite far now and you are still doing nice and quick progress.

But man, you should really go train some runecrafting ;)

[GregorDGrim]

I pledge will try to remember to train runecrafting during November.

 

Yesterday was the day to try a new fishing spot. I've been reading that fly-fishing gives better experience than lobster trapping, because inventories get filled much more quickly which offsets the lower experience per catch. I had the rod, but needed feathers, so I bought 3,000 of them from the Grand Exchange. Apparently there's decent money in chicken plucking.

 

Shilo Village is the fly-fisherman's paradise, but I haven't completed the quest to allow access into that area, so I decided to check out the lake north of Seers' Village. It is both a lovely and lonely spot, so much more peaceful than the bustling area in Catherby. During my time there I ran into other people only while banking my catches of salmon and trout; a lone highwayman was the only one available with whom to strike up a conversation while casting:

 

[spoiler=What Exactly Did I Say to the Highwayman, Anyway?]

 

 

I spent awhile in solitude, and leveled fishing twice (to 60):

 

[spoiler=Here, Fishy Fishy Fishy]

 

 

After reaching that point, I had worked up an appetite. An appetite for fish! I traveled to Catherby because I like the proximity of the cooking range to the bank, and it's a familiar location to me. Cooking all of that fish resulted in leveling twice (to 61):

 

[spoiler=This Looks Just Like My Level 55 Cooking Pic]

 

 

While traveling between cities, I also managed a couple of farming runs, harvesting and planting tomatoes, leading to level 32 in that skill.

 

To get started on my questing goal for the month, I decided to try Spirit of Summer, mainly because of the nice experience I could earn in some of my lowest-level skills. This quest was interesting, and I felt as though I was doing something very valuable for the spirits who had been tormented for hundreds of years by this foul beast:

 

[spoiler=Evil Beast Dragon, Or Fluffy Bunny?]

 

 

I was happy to help little Summer Bonde, although according to the elder spirits, I had made a mistake in trapping the beast. "This is only going to make it stronger!" Whine, whine, whine. Only the girl was grateful, so she is the only one whose name I cared to remember. I just may need to assist her again in the future, though. If the rewards are as sweet, I'll be eager to do so:

 

[spoiler=The Summer Experience]

 

 

Just over 15K in experience rewards, but because of the particular skills in which the reward was given I leveled five times: levels 41 and 42 in construction, level 33 in farming, level 31 in summoning and level 40 in prayer:

 

[spoiler=Praying For More Summer]

 

 

My overall combat level also increased to 72 at the conclusion of this quest. Ten levels on the day, and some advertising of my blog. I'm confident that highwaymen readership of this journal will skyrocket.

 

Total levels = 1,223

[SwreeTak]

Congratulations on those nice levels, and the completion of that quest (I have yet to help Summer Bonde out).

[GregorDGrim]

Congratulations on those nice levels, and the completion of that quest (I have yet to help Summer Bonde out).

Thanks...by the way, after looking again at your levels I realize why you are teasing me about training runecrafting.