My first 99

[Biofrequency]

So I've been playing this game on and off since around 2001 or 2002 when there was RS classic if anyone can remember that?! And because I've played on and off, I always end up making a new character. I've never gotten a lvl 99 in a skill before, and I decided that its about time I get one. But I dont want to go for something easy/boring so firemaking, woodcutting, and fishing are out of the question (as I find these skills most boring). I want to go for something a little more challangeing to make getting to lvl 99 that much better! Now note that I would like to achive this in a non combat skill! Some of the skills that I though would be cool for a first 99 would be:

 

Farming - takin a recent intrest in and can be very profitable

Herblore - love this skill but can be very pricey

Runecrafting - like the skill, but most will be in runespan

Theiving - fun and helps with a lot of other skills

Crafting - good skill to have, not sure about profit/price

 

My current lvls for these skills are:

 

34 Farming

40 Herblore

62 Runecrafting

32 Theiving

54 Crafting

 

If I had to put them in order from which I wanted most to least it would go: Herblore, Runecrafting, Farming, Crafting, Thieving

 

I'm willing to throw all my cash at this, and cash I can make with any other skills as well (I just think it's time I get myself a 99)

 

And please give me an honest opinion on which skill would be the best to get first, I dont want to go for something just because its a higher lvl. I would like to see what other people think would be cool for a first 99 skill

 

So again please dont base your answer off of my current lvls, but more personal experience in the skill itself, and what would be a best 99 skill out of the 5

[Cheat]

To get herblore to 99 is very expensive far more than I imagine you can afford (judging by your stats) so I wouldn't even think about that for the moment.

Runecrafting used to be one of the most challenging 99's as I'm sure you know but Runespan has changed that. I hear Runespan is a quite a nice AFK activity but haven't really been there myself.

Farming - good plan to get this to 99 farming can be hugely profitable if you level it up with herbs but than can be very slow. Few people get faming as their first 99 because it has to be done over such a long time. But as you seem like more of a casual player it may suit you as farming doesn't require a long hard griend over a few weeks but a little bit of work everyday about 30-40 minutes if you do everything as often as you can.

Crafting is fastish to train and not too expensive if you can be bothered to wait to buy all the battlestaffs having said that it's not particularly useful and will still cost you a fair bit of money.

Thieving is one of the fastest free skills to train so could be a viable choice for a first 99.

 

Personally I wouldn't recommend getting a 99 skill for the sake of getting a skill to 99. A player with the same amount of experience spread across 10 level 90 skills has usually got a much better account than someone with 3 or 4 level 99's. Train skills for their benefits not for some e-peen. About the only skill I would go for as a 99 is Slayer considering the host of benefits it will bring you along the way but very few people get Slayer as their first 99.

 

If you do really want to challenge yourself go and get 99 Agility.

[Assassin1357]

Herblore cost like what, 150-200mil I believe(might be lower but that was the last estimate I saw). I would not recommend trying to go for that as your first 99. I would recommend doing farming while doing runespane at the same time since you will be doing 2 at once. Do runespane while waiting for your stuff to grow then pick and go do more runespan.

[Umanyar]

The problem with farming while doing runespan, is that, especially in the higher levels, it takes some decent time to gather the runes needed to navigate to the platforms you are looking for.

[Miss Lioness]

Herblore cost like what, 150-200mil I believe(might be lower but that was the last estimate I saw). I would not recommend trying to go for that as your first 99. I would recommend doing farming while doing runespane at the same time since you will be doing 2 at once. Do runespane while waiting for your stuff to grow then pick and go do more runespan.

 

I already spent 4m 80-85. I calculated that if I did brews 85-92 I would lose another 22m.

 

So I think it can be done for under 50-60m and still at a decent rate.

[Hedgehog]

The problem with farming while doing runespan, is that, especially in the higher levels, it takes some decent time to gather the runes needed to navigate to the platforms you are looking for.

It takes 2 seconds to buy the runes then another minute at most to get back to the good islands.

[Cheat]

Most people would not consider making brews the best way to train herblore because you have essentially wasted the money. You should not think of making extremes as a money sink rather you are making a very valuable potion that can be used to great effect in speeding up your GP/H in any combat situation. My point is getting herblore for the sake of getting 99 herblore is very stupid you should get 99 herblore because you want the 2-4k Overloads you'll end up with.

 

Making however many Sara brews to 99 herblore = 80m cost with Saradomin brews but you have no overloads most high level players will use say 2k Overloads pretty easily to make 2k overloads then will cost you (estimating an overload from scratch to cost 60k) 120Mil you've spent a total of 200Mil which is basicallly the same amount you would've spent getting to 99 herblore via extremes and overloads but you have fewer overloads than someone who made them from 92-99 herblore and you've wasted a lot of time.

 

Obviously the maths is hugely inaccurate and terrible but you get the point I hope.

[Miss Lioness]

Most people would not consider making brews the best way to train herblore because you have essentially wasted the money. You should not think of making extremes as a money sink rather you are making a very valuable potion that can be used to great effect in speeding up your GP/H in any combat situation. My point is getting herblore for the sake of getting 99 herblore is very stupid you should get 99 herblore because you want the 2-4k Overloads you'll end up with.

 

Making however many Sara brews to 99 herblore = 80m cost with Saradomin brews but you have no overloads most high level players will use say 2k Overloads pretty easily to make 2k overloads then will cost you (estimating an overload from scratch to cost 60k) 120Mil you've spent a total of 200Mil which is basicallly the same amount you would've spent getting to 99 herblore via extremes and overloads but you have fewer overloads than someone who made them from 92-99 herblore and you've wasted a lot of time.

 

Obviously the maths is hugely inaccurate and terrible but you get the point I hope.

 

I was actually planning to do Ext along the way too. The original costs were like 30m. But that's Ext etc included. Next thing is, after 92 Herb, I probs wont train herb itself anymore except when I need new ext/ovl/renewal/stuff.

 

Oh and also some advice to OP.

Don't go for a 99 yet. It's extremely tedious, even for fast skills like Cooking and Firemaking. Firemaking took me a year on and off.

[Deletion]

But you shouldn't really be doing brews around those levels. When training Herblore around those levels you should be making at least some untradeable potions so you don't have to waste time + money after getting the levels if you need the potions. I don't see the point of getting 99 Herblore if you don't have a massive stock of untradeable potions.

 

As for the original question, how much money do you have?

Herblore - 100m+ if you make untradeables

Runecrafting - Much more viable with the introduction of Runespan. Expect 100k+ xp/hr at 90+ which is also very afk. Definitely a skill I am considering as my next 99 (after summonintg) due to the ease of it.

Farming - This is a very casual 99 and takes a long time due to only being able to get a set number of experience/day. I would suggest starting this as soon as possible by doing your most profitable herb every 90 minutes + a tree run once/day even if it doesn't end up being your first 99. The trees you use on your run depends on your budget (I can't get on Grimy's spreadsheets while on my Uni computer but I believe doing pineapples + willows is ~1-2gp/xp while doing Palms + Magics is 20-30gp/xp. I'm doing an inbetween method atm and doing willows or yews + papaya.

Crafting - I would suggest doing this similar to farming if you have cash you can spare to sit around in the GE. Making air battlestaffs is ~4gp/xp but the amount of battlestaffs you can buy/day is limited. Cost me under 40m.

Thieving - I found this a very fun 99. Definitely the easiest on your list.

[Troacctid]

• Crafting: Useless, no benefit for getting 99. Only useful things are Ganodermic repairs at 98 (but since you can assist, it's not actually useful) and flasks at 89 (which is even boostable). If you stop at 89, it'll be pretty much the same as maxing.
  
• Thieving: Also useless. Highest notable benefit is at level 82 for Ardougne Elite, and it's boostable.
  
• Runecrafting: Highest benefit is at 91 (Karamja Elite), followed by 90 (Runespan rewards). Levels after that are not technically empty since you get slightly more runes per essence, but it's not terribly notable. You can make money from runecrafting, but rune prices have tanked lately and will probably tank even more when the combat update rolls around, so don't get your hopes up.
  
• Herblore: Stops at overloads (96, boostable). There are no benefits for 97-99.
  
• Farming: Stops at 85 (torstol), but is an efficient moneymaker at all levels, so even though you don't get benefits for the levels, the opportunity cost for training it is minimal (and could even be zero).
  

 

I'm going to second Cheat's advice: you are much, much better off getting all of these skills into the upper 80/lower 90 range than getting just one of them to 99. Skillcapes are overrated. In the time it takes to get one skill to 99, you could get two skills to 92 or three skills to 88. 95 herblore + 88 crafting is much better than 99 herblore + 54 crafting, and it's not really close. Let alone 88 herblore + 95 prayer, which is only a little bit more expensive than 99 herblore but vastly more relevant.

 

Then what you could do once you have all of them in the mid-80s is you can start going for 99 farming via torstol, which is both fast xp and one of the game's top moneymakers, so it's something you'd want to do even if you didn't want the skillcape. (Just make sure to get scroll of life, a couple tiers of greenfingers, and juju potions.) You can do some Livid Farm while you're at it, since that gives reasonable farming xp and will unlock some good spells (Trollheim Teleport and Remote Farming should be helpful for herb runs, and there are a few others packaged with em that have some uses as well). Don't bother with trees because torstols are already fast enough xp without wasting time and money on expensive seeds.

 

So, get them all to a high level, then get 99 farming (but don't throw money away on it).