24th August - The Light Within

[Wkw]

 

When the junkies .. erm excuse me shapeshifters swap forms they count as a new monster. There is a rare occurrence where you somehow kill the old and the new form at the same time and they drop 4 (heck I had a couple of 6) crystals.

 

Can anyone thing of a way to use this "knowledge" to effectively cut the farm in half ... ?

 

for the most part, this scripted event is mostly useful to disrupt your fighting every dang time when they want to swap

 

however, there are certain...interesting behaviors displayed when you force them to switch to melee

 

about: gender

 

in this specific case, since the npc is a woman, the npc is a woman

 

full stop

 

If the NPC is a woman, but says they were previously male, then they had changed genders in-cannon, making this the first in-cannon gender swap that it outside of 'funny'. Make over Mage was funny,,, this is real.

[Vann]

 

 

 

 

When the junkies .. erm excuse me shapeshifters swap forms they count as a new monster. There is a rare occurrence where you somehow kill the old and the new form at the same time and they drop 4 (heck I had a couple of 6) crystals.

 

Can anyone thing of a way to use this "knowledge" to effectively cut the farm in half ... ?

for the most part, this scripted event is mostly useful to disrupt your fighting every dang time when they want to swap

 

however, there are certain...interesting behaviors displayed when you force them to switch to melee

 

about: gender

 

in this specific case, since the npc is a woman, the npc is a woman

 

full stop

If the NPC is a woman, but says they were previously male, then they had changed genders in-cannon, making this the first in-cannon gender swap that it outside of 'funny'. Make over Mage was funny,,, this is real.

Is their name Bruce and/or Caitlyn?

[Miss_Kozlov]

My point was one of language, since you would identify what the thing was at the time the action was committed.

 

Also, was this necessary? I remember when this game would rather have a Monty Python reference than a political statement.

[Veiva]

So I went to Tormented Demons today. Haven't killed them much since July 11 of this year. I soon noticed something was amiss... So after doodling around for a bit, it turns out Wild Magic is behaving stupidly.

 

I'll quote my Reddit post:

 

Warning: this is probably (to the community at large) a useless observation. However, for me (and perhaps others), it's asinine and frustrating.

 

I noticed while killing Tormented Demons today on a whim that Wild Magic's behavior has been modified at some point, perhaps to the behavior it had before the responsive combat update on February 9, 2015.

 

Pre-responsive combat, when firing Wild Magic, if more than 3100 magic damage was dealt to the Tormented Demon before the second Wild Magic hit appeared, more often than not the demon would switch prayers. As a result, the second hit will be nullified, greatly reducing DPS. However, wands were not affected. In turn, staves were objectively worse (I speculate that Virtus wand + book would have been superior to a Noxious Staff because of this [and only at Tormented Demons, mind you]).

 

This behavior has returned. I searched Patch Notes and found that Wild Magic's hits were separated slightly (therefore returning Wild Magic to its behavior before the responsive combat update, I guess?) on July 13, 2015. I'm aware that's over a month ago but I haven't been playing much, let alone killing Tormented Demons, but I digress.

 

This is a problem since Wild Magic is one of the best abilities to use against Tormented Demons. In fact, unless you can kill a Tormented Demon in under 20 seconds and move on to the next one (which would mean you kill at least 180 an hour, which in my opinion is not feasible to sustain consistently hour by hour), you will use it nearly every kill. Considering it is the prime high-DPS magic ability, this greatly reduces KPH and efficiency (on a guess I'd say it could be upwards of 10 less kills an hour if my prior experience means anything, which is nearly 10% less per hour for me [or over 600k less gp/hr]).

 

The notes mentioned Snap Shot also being affected. However, as far as I could tell, Snap Shot (at least with dual wielded weapons) still lands both hits regardless. Therefore you can do something like Needle Strike + Snap Shot: if Needle Strike and the first Snap Shot hit deal something 5000 damage (i.e., over the 3100 prayer switch target), the second hit of Snap Shot will still land, regardless. This is contrary to Wild Magic (at least with staff weapons).

 

I do not have any dual wielding magic weapons so I cannot test if the behavior is different, but I wouldn't be surprised. This means a few outcomes depending on if Wild Magic now has the pre-February 9, 2015 behavior:

• If Wild Magic has its previous behavior (i.e., mechanics prior to the February 9, 2015 update), staves are objectively inferior to wands. Noxious staff would be inferior to Seasinger kiba + makigai, perhaps even Virtus wand + book. There is no doubt this is silly.
• If Wild Magic is the same for dual wielding and staves, then magic has been nerfed at Tormented Demons as a side effect of some useless change. At least it's still superior to melee, I guess.

tl;dr: Wild Magic has recently changed its behavior at Tormented Demons due to some silly reason, greatly reducing its effectiveness with staves and perhaps dual wielding.

[Saradomin_Mage]

I thought the hits for wild magic and snap shot were only changed to be spread out for pvp combat? Strange.

[SwreeTak]

I thought the hits for wild magic and snap shot were only changed to be spread out for pvp combat? Strange.

 

I can confirm that they are spread out for all combat. I don't know the intentions' of Jagex, but they are spread out for all kinds of PvM I have tested since the update this summer (and that is A LOT).

[Hajutze]

I was thinking the armor set can't be worse than it is. Than I tried to recharge it (armor at 99.9%).

 

The Attuned Crystal Armor CAN ONLY be recharged with crystals. Eluned/The replacement dude doesn't work. Armor stand doesn't work ...

 

Slow clap, Jagex. Slow clap.

[Alg]

My point was one of language, since you would identify what the thing was at the time the action was committed.

Also, was this necessary? I remember when this game would rather have a Monty Python reference than a political statement.

...Really wanted to let this conversation die, but a trans person existing is a political statement?

[Miss_Kozlov]

I'd say given how prevalent in the news and the nature of the game, yes. And it wasn't a person, it was an elf. She changed her gender, not her race. :p

 

If you want to move the topic into the pedantic, given that she used what was her shapeshifting powers to change her gender could not other beings do so if they had sufficient power? Who else has shapeshifting powers? The Mahjarrat. So could one use their powers to change gender and thus possibly conceive without need of Enahkra? Or is it not meant to be taken in such a way in which case it would appear to be put in for the sake of simply being there.

 

Oh look, a butterfly... *runs off*

[essiw]

I don't find that a political statement, it is more like acknowledging that transgenders do exists, but I can see where you are coming from with all this recent news. Though we did have a political statement in the past, it was that Dwarf quest about energy supplies (green energy being better). Not that I mind or care about political statements, just saying that we had a real one a few years ago :P

[Poppet]

I swear someone really likes Guild Wars at Jagex. Seems like they imitate it a lot. GW2 had a Transgender character two months ago and got super up voted on reddit.

[helring]

I don't find that a political statement, it is more like acknowledging that transgenders do exists, but I can see where you are coming from with all this recent news. Though we did have a political statement in the past, it was that Dwarf quest about energy supplies (green energy being better). Not that I mind or care about political statements, just saying that we had a real one a few years ago :P

 

Honestly, that Dwarf Quest annoyed me because it seemed so forced and blunt. Angof seems to fit the game better and seemed more subtle since her character isn't all about her being trans and you actively have to go looking to get the info.

[helring]

I swear someone really likes Guild Wars at Jagex. Seems like they imitate it a lot. GW2 had a Transgender character two months ago and got super up voted on reddit.

 

I think it has more to do with the guy who won the RL contest. He's been advocating for more LGBT characters in RS.

[strilmus]

i prefer this to assuming everybody is hetero in one quest and then guilting you into it the next

 

come to think of it, i'd prefer it if the world were the theoretical one where these things truly don't matter, but a certain western social structure has grabbed the reins for several thousands of years, making that impossible for however long it takes to undo it once people start actually trying to, which might be never

 

then i wouldn't have to be a hip and edgy political statement/marketing tool, but a person who people would stop playing blind comedy anthropologist at when the mere suggestion that somebody like me was real

 

:///

[Miss_Kozlov]

I'd have taken that statement so much more seriously if it had proper capitalization and punctuation.

 

But yeah, that Dwarf quest was so hamfisted in its message I resented it not for its message, but for the method of delivery.

 

And is no one else going broach the subject of Akthanakos and his gender identity issues and the substantial rise in tension between him and Enahkra is the idea that she is the last "female" Mahjarrat?

 

And I also stand by my point of it being a political statement because it serves no purpose outside of its own existence. No one else makes mention of it, it had no added value to any plot or another character, it is simply there.

 

I don't say I disagree with it and I understand them as a company and they support this group of people. That's great, but why do we have to get all pissy and emotional when we honestly identify a thought or action for what it is?

[Saradomin_Mage]

Meh, personally there was nothing wrong at all with the reference in the first diary. You've got a line where she talked about being a boy before, and that was it. Subtle drop. She doesn't bring it up in conversation again, because it's not important. It's just who she is, which we'll take for granted.

 

The preachy bit comes where your character finds the wedding ring (after slaughtering probably the whole Cywir clan), and when you turn it in to her, she lets slip that she used to be a boy. Rather than just go "oh that's nice" your character goes into "OMG YOU WERE A GUY?????" mode, to which she replies that not everyone is born into a body that they're comfortable with. Is our character seriously that retarded?

 

Why do we need to have this spelt out to us? It's terrible writing when you have to drop something so obviously instead of leaving contextual clues. Did we need to ask Korasi if she was hot for Jessika?

[helring]

Meh, personally there was nothing wrong at all with the reference in the first diary. You've got a line where she talked about being a boy before, and that was it. Subtle drop. She doesn't bring it up in conversation again, because it's not important. It's just who she is, which we'll take for granted.

 

The preachy bit comes where your character finds the wedding ring (after slaughtering probably the whole Cywir clan), and when you turn it in to her, she lets slip that she used to be a boy. Rather than just go "oh that's nice" your character goes into "OMG YOU WERE A GUY?????" mode, to which she replies that not everyone is born into a body that they're comfortable with. Is our character seriously that retarded?

 

Why do we need to have this spelt out to us? It's terrible writing when you have to drop something so obviously instead of leaving contextual clues. Did we need to ask Korasi if she was hot for Jessika?

 

 

When you give her the wedding ring you have two choices. Yes, you can go "OMG YOU WERE A GUY", or you can choose not to and let he continue her explanation of the ring and reminiscing about her lost husband. So they only really had to spell it out for those that decided to demand she spell it out.

[Saradomin_Mage]

Fair enough, I have been misinformed about the dialogue options.

[helring]

Yea the 2 options you get to ask questions during her story are

 

 

If you choose not to interrupt she just continues her story, however if you choose to interrupt she explains a bit and then you get

 

 

So, its really up to the player whether they choose to dig about it or just accept it and continue.

[Saradomin_Mage]

Anyone have a rough idea of the drop rate for the wedding ring? Also, which type of shapeshifter did you kill for it. Currently at 750+ shifters killed, all ranged type at time of kill, no ring so far.

[Hajutze]

I got it around my 1000th kill, banked it and got another one near 1250th.

[helring]

Anyone have a rough idea of the drop rate for the wedding ring? Also, which type of shapeshifter did you kill for it. Currently at 750+ shifters killed, all ranged type at time of kill, no ring so far.

 

I ranged them, although I doubt it matters. It took me a while, not sure how many exactly but I currently have around 1100 shards and some are from skilling so I'd estimate maybe 400-500 kills it took me but can't be sure.

[Miss_Kozlov]

So when they decided to make all the Elder gods into females does mean some of them had GIDS as well?

[helring]

So when they decided to make all the Elder gods into females does mean some of them had GIDS as well?

 

[Miss_Kozlov]

That would appear to fall into the Christian method of "I can't refute your reason therefore God must be beyond reason." :p