Returning after almost five years

[Ddrmaster7]

So I'm considering getting back into the RS swing of things as of recently. I doubt anyone remembers me, but I used to frequent these forums long ago. Can't play nearly as much as I used to, but it's fun every now and then. Problem is, everything's changed so much that I have no idea what's going on. (I played for a month over two years ago, but totally forget how I leveled summoning, haha.) I have a few questions:

 

- I'm hearing lots of talk of "the only way to make money is through combat (and maybe farming)". I used to be a hardcore RCer, but is that not a viable skill for cash moneys anymore? How can I make decent money nowadays? I only have about 4-5M to my name right now. Is farming still horrifically boring?

- Similar to the previous question, is there anything from '07 that's still relevant? Gear/skill training methods/anything?

- Should I be leveling summoning just because of the utility of the familiars? Seems they help with every other skill in some way.

- I used to be able to wear my quest cape, but obviously no longer. Should I go through and do every quest again? Are they worth it?

 

[spoiler=Skills:]Attack: 78

Strength: 77

Defence: 78

Ranged: 79

Prayer: 62

Magic: 85

Runecrafting: 85

Construction: 60

Constitution: 82

Agility: 72

Herblore: 62

Thieving: 63

Crafting: 71

Fletching: 88

Slayer: 63

Hunter: 67

Mining: 70

Smithing: 65

Fishing: 79

Cooking: 84

Firemaking: 81

Woodcutting: 79

Farming: 61

Summoning: 33

Dungeoneering: 1!

 

 

My main problem right now is I feel overwhelmed by the sheer number of things I feel like I should do, which requires learning this game almost from scratch. If there are any quick tips for reorienting myself, I would very much appreciate it.

[Jruskey2013]

Rs wiki. Look up the updates page and just go from there.

[Sinkhan]

- I'm hearing lots of talk of "the only way to make money is through combat (and maybe farming)". I used to be a hardcore RCer, but is that not a viable skill for cash moneys anymore? How can I make decent money nowadays? I only have about 4-5M to my name right now. Is farming still horrifically boring?

 

Basically combat is the only way of making lots of money, either through bossing or at least high requirement monsters like frost drags (actually kinda meh now) and glacors.

 

RCing has a long time been not worth doing. Even double nats are awful money nowadays. Check the GE for prices and you'll know.

 

If you want cash in a non-combat way, you either learn to flip/merch or farm. The skill itself has basically stayed the same in regards to how it makes money, but it's actually pretty decent cash and takes minimal effort so I'd consider doing it.

 

- Similar to the previous question, is there anything from '07 that's still relevant? Gear/skill training methods/anything?

 

You're going to have to be more specific as to what skills/aspects of combat you're wondering about.

 

Probably one of the most major updates was DGing, making a lot of gear like whips and godswords obsolete.

 

- Should I be leveling summoning just because of the utility of the familiars? Seems they help with every other skill in some way.

 

Yes. Summoning is very much worth it.

 

- I used to be able to wear my quest cape, but obviously no longer. Should I go through and do every quest again? Are they worth it?

 

There have been a fair number of decent quest rewards, so weigh into that and also decide how much you value the quest cape. There have been a few tougher quests like Nomad's Requiem though.

[Ddrmaster7]

Rs wiki. Look up the updates page and just go from there.

 

It's not really that helpful. I tried doing that, but I'm asking you guys as a community to help me sift through the nonsense and get to the good stuff. Plus, there's no point to reading an update that came out in '07 if its benefits are already obsolete, right?

 

And thanks for the tips, Sinkhan. Few follow up questions:

 

- Any tips on what exactly to farm? I'm willing to put effort into it if it means making money.

- Think I should just go to different slayer tasks for combat levels (I'm only 102, I suppose I should work that up if I want to take on Nex or whatever haha), and use the charms from the drops to level summoning at the same time? I guess what I'm asking is, is that a typical/beneficial plan?

- I guess the "relevance" question I was getting at was in regards to all these new abbreviations and acronyms I keep hearing. People talk about Bandos a lot; I only just figured out what that was (thought people were talking about the trimmed armor, haha). I mean, the whip used to be amazing, and now I guess it sucks. What weapons/armor are preferred nowadays?

[GlowinRedM]

farm herbs for profit (torstol are best with scroll of life from dging)

slayer yes, it used to be a good moneymaker too and you can still profit if you are training just melees with it, make sure to use best prayers you can

best weapons are chaotics from dungeoneering; rapier is best for slaying and general training, while longsword is for bandos godwars and maul is for sara godwars and (debatable) waterfiends, to give a brief overview. whip is still decent though

[hovercraft2]

My income basically comes from slayer and farming runs. I got lucky with 2 dragon skirt drops and a 24 clean tortsol drop yesterday, so slayer with a bit of luck combined with farming between tasks is excellent. Combine that with kingdom management your talking about some series consistent income.

 

My farming run (which I repeat 2-3 times per day) utilizes 4 of the 5 available patches. I farm with snapdragons exclusively, which can make between 90 and 150k per 75 minutes depending on yields. I use magical secateurs (sp?) to increase yield with super compost.

 

I havnt touched dungeoneering since level 39, as I don't enjoy it. I get about 120k slayer Exp per day using Kuradal (sp?). I average around 4-5 hours a night, which is fairly slow Exp but I don't rush.

 

To summarize, farming snaps covers the cost of slaying with prayer poisons, and more. Slayer is still a very profitable way to make some nice reliable income and I would recommend it to anyone coming back to the game.

[Sinkhan]

- Any tips on what exactly to farm? I'm willing to put effort into it if it means making money.

- Think I should just go to different slayer tasks for combat levels (I'm only 102, I suppose I should work that up if I want to take on Nex or whatever haha), and use the charms from the drops to level summoning at the same time? I guess what I'm asking is, is that a typical/beneficial plan?

- I guess the "relevance" question I was getting at was in regards to all these new abbreviations and acronyms I keep hearing. People talk about Bandos a lot; I only just figured out what that was (thought people were talking about the trimmed armor, haha). I mean, the whip used to be amazing, and now I guess it sucks. What weapons/armor are preferred nowadays?

 

To supplement what was already said by glow and hover:

 

Snaps are still ok even after the recent herb crash, so I'd suggest just doing a few tree runs to get to 62 and start on those.

 

Gathering charms/raising CB through slaying is a pretty good plan. Some will argue that you'd be better off just farming charms/raising cb through more optimized means, but if you ever intend on getting slayer up you might as well do it now. Slaying pretty much does not make money anymore, so don't count on it doing so. Do it for a varied combat training.

 

In terms of equipment (melee) and keeping your current 4-5m budget in mind:

Head: Neitiznot helm/Slayer helmet on tasks is generally considered the best still

Amulet: Fury > Glory

Body/Legs: Bandos armour is pretty popular as is a lot of barrows armour (the really new armour, called Torva, gives insane bonuses, but costs in excess of 1billion). Void elite is basically the top and bottom giving a prayer bonus, obtained from a quest

Shield: Dragon defender was released, which is worth picking up over the rune defender. DFS, while cheaper now, is still generally not worth it. Some shields from DGing (dungeoneering) are also super powerful, as are the Spirit Shields. Void Knight Deflector also gives you some flexibility with void equipment setups

Boots: Dragon is still probably the best balance between price and effectiveness

Ring: Rings can be 'imbued' to give them extra stats at a mini-game called mobilizing armies. However, it's a pretty long grind. RoW has also been improved in a lot of areas, but zerker is still one of the best overall rings. The ferocious ring, obtained in Kuradal's dungeon, is good for slaying in Kuradal's dungeon.

Cape: Fire cape > Soul Wars Cape > Ardy Cape 3/4. There are also max capes and completionist capes now which give really good bonuses, but you're a little far off from those :P

 

Weapon: DGing weapons are king, with Rapier > Maul > CLS for priority to obtain in most circumstances. Dragon claws are pretty much the best speccing weapon, with Korasai's sword up there.

[Sona]

I'm in the same boat as you. Though I wouldn't quite say RC is not profitable. Blood Runes, with Darkness over Hallowvale are still about 200 per rune, so you're looking at about 300k or so per hour.

Armadyl runes are going for 1.4k per rune on the Grand Exchange. You'll need to finish off that new quest and also buy the dusts which are grinded from semi-rare drops from boss-like monsters from people.

 

New quest adds another chapter to While Guthix Sleeps. Quest reward includes the ability to make a ridiculously good battlestaff that takes 100 of the aforementioned shards. The staff itself fetches about 22 mil or so.

 

If you wish to farm, though, that dungeoneering scroll that costs 100k EXP to get is really good. It gives you a chance to recover seeds from your farming patches and also gives you a chance to get stuff from dead patches.

 

The whip is still not a bad weapon to consider using, though it's much cheaper now. There is a new quest reward sword, Korasi's Blade, that is also good for people who don't have the dungeoneering weapons due to its powerful special attack. Bandos refer to Bandos armor (huge shoulder pads on men and make women look like skanks), which is non-degradable, have stats close to Third-Age armor, and has a STR bonus. It's more expensive though.

 

EDIT: To translate and explain what the guy up there said:

 

- Helm of Neitznot is a cool hat. Makes you look like Thor. You get it by doing the Relleka quests (viking-land), which unlocks new spellbooks and several dungeons of note.

- There are new items that help you hit more accurately/do more damage on slayer. Black mask for melee, Hexcrest for magic, and focus sight for ranged. They're about 15-16.6% bonus on each but only on your tasks.

- Armors: New quest armor in the White Knight quest line gives you a fairly decent amount of prayer bonus (Proselyte armor) as well. Void knight armor is pest control, which you should be familiar with. A full set of void armor gives a bonus to a certain style depending on your level, so the armor becomes stronger as it go by.

- Spirit shields are a new class of shields after the Summer's End questline. The more expensive ones (ranging from several hundred million) can reduce damage based on percentages - look at it in the wiki if you want to know more. The regular version isn't bad as a shield, though.

- There are dragon boots you can pick up.

- Ferocious ring is an item that allows you do some amount of extra damage in Kuradal's dungeon. It's a semi-common drop, but worth it if you can use it.

[hovercraft2]

 

Gathering charms/raising CB through slaying is a pretty good plan. Some will argue that you'd be better off just farming charms/raising cb through more optimized means, but if you ever intend on getting slayer up you might as well do it now. Slaying pretty much does not make money anymore, so don't count on it doing so. Do it for a varied combat training.

 

 

Sinkhan touched on a good point, slayer is excellent for charms! Especially those Chaos Tunnels tasks. Typically (from my experience from 60 summoning/slayer to 80 summoning/slayer) collecting all charm drops will result in summoning and slayer levelling at the same rate.

 

I would however disagree that slayer is not good for money, as I frequently get dragon tasks and other such tasks which make allot of profit.

[Ddrmaster7]

Everything in here has been really helpful. I appreciate your advice. :) I might try dungeoneering for a bit to get those good weapons and go from there. Thanks for the tips, guys. And if anyone has any more thoughts to add, feel free to do so. :D

[Sinkhan]

I would however disagree that slayer is not good for money, as I frequently get dragon tasks and other such tasks which make allot of profit.

 

You have to realize that instead of slaying, you could just camp dragons or other said 'profitable' tasks to make money directly. There are tons of unprofitable tasks that you'll inevitably be getting and if you're doing them with a reasonable amount of speed (ie. cannon + constant prayer), you'll not be making much money.

[Quyneax]

Well, there are a couple of things I'd note about the current game vs. the 'old' game, the most important being that you missed years of power creep. A high-level 'pro' player in 2006/2007 might've hit 30s, 40s even, but these days you can reasonably expect to hit over 60 when slaying and 50s anywhere else, also with magic and ranged. For your convenience these numbers are in pre-constitution numbers - hitpoints got renamed to constitution, which means you no longer lose levels when taking damage, but you instead lose lifepoints, which you can see in the red bulb in the interface. You get +10 max lifepoints for each constitution level you have, and all damage was multiplied by 10 as well (so when I say you can hit 60 in old money, that's really a 600). Prayer works the same way but is still called prayer.

 

Currently, a lot of the best gear/potions etc. is (part) untradeable and requires hours of skilling/minigaming or quests to achieve. Small list of combat items: Chaotic weapons+arcane stream+other dg rewards, imbued rings, elite void, unlocked Storm of Armadyl, overloads, curses unlocked+turmoil, yak+steel titan, barrows gloves, fire cape+Ardougne cloak+Soul Wars cape, Korasi's sword, even small items like the helmet of Neitiznot require quests.

 

When a new prayer book was released, dragon bones rose from under 2k to over 5k, at times even 6k, and that was of course great reliable income because you could easily bring in 100-200 bones per hour and make bank. With the return of free trade, goldfarmers can now easily buy/sell/transfer whatever they harvest, and dragon bones are down to about 2.5k. If a resource does not require quests, it is botted. If it requires a few quests it's botted a little less. In general, all low-medium level moneymakers are goldfarmed, which leaves only bosses as high-level incomes, but they require 300m+ investments in prayer and herblore to be killed efficiently. Farming torstol is one thing still decent, but even that is worse, and it requires fairly high stats (70+ hunter and herblore, 85+ farming, 10k dungeoneering tokens, magic secateurs). It will make you about 250-300k per five minute run.

 

Compensating for the lower income, most skills are also cheaper to train. Adamant bars are dropped by aviansies (which are botted a lot) and down so far that smithing adamant platebodies costs 1.5-2 gp/xp (used to be as high as 10). Herblore was 20-30 gp/xp, is down to 10-20 gp/xp. Prayer of course is directly affected by the bone crash. Construction has been getting somewhat cheaper lately as well. Together with the introduction of new skilling areas etc., most skills are much faster to train than they were, either in time to get the xp or in time required to make money.

 

Welcome back and good luck I guess :P.