RuneScape Discussion

RuneScape Discussion this month has explanation, argument and reasoning carefully woven together to form interesting articles to stimulate the mind and get the questions flowing.

Do you want to get a stat to level 99, but think it will be too hard? If so, Level 99: Is it really that hard? by Mrcsupertrain is for you. Do you want another opinion about the article Ranging, the Most Underpowered Skill? in the last edition of RuneScape Discussion? Simple013 gives her explanation in A Rangers Answer To Wr1t3r. Do you spend more time PKing or at Pest Control than anywhere else? Neo Avatars has a look at this phenomenon in Combat. To end off RuneScape Discussion this month, Solidsilver takes a look at What is it that makes us play in an intriguing article with a number of fascinating reasons.

-Neo Avatars

Level 99: Is it really that hard? - By: Mrcsupertrain

Runescape currently has twenty-three skills, each with it’s own unique abilities. We all find one skill as our favorite. One day in our Runescape lives we will think about leveling our favorite skill to the maximum - level 99. However, our first thoughts are usually, “That would take too long”. Back in the early days of Runescape, that statement was pretty accurate. A skill leveled 99 was not too common. Now, it is common in a large mass of Runescape players. How did they do it? How much money did it take? To be honest, it really is not that hard.

First of all, it is important to know why everyone wants level 99. The main, and newest reason is for a Cape of Achievement. A player who has achieved 99 in their desired skill can buy a special cape from a certain skill master. These capes come with their own design, color, and emote. Also, they increase your stat bonuses. These capes are beneficial for combat and for showing off.

Moving on, let’s discuss why 99 is easier than majority people think. Over the years, JaGeX creates new mini-games and options that increase the productivity of experience in a skill. Combat is becoming easier and easier to max out to 126, meaning Attack, Strength, Defense, Ranging, Magic, Prayer, and Hitpoints are all 99. Pest Control is a great example. Experience is given for killing the monsters in the game, as well as winning the game and earning Pest points. These points add up and can be exchanged for large amounts of experience in your desired combat skill. Pest Control takes care of fast combat leveling. What about non-combat?

Leveling non-combat skills can be a little more difficult, but just as easy. Some would consider that JaGeX has ruined certain skills, by making them too easy. Cooking and Fletching are becoming easier and easier to level to 99. You only need two items: time and money. With the option to “Cook X” and “Cook All”, cooking is a breeze. Although Fletching is a little more difficult, it still comes with a “Fletch X”. Cooking and Fletching are probably the easier levels to max. Other skills are becoming easier too.

Thieving is another skill where a lot of experience is gained though a mini-game: Pyramid Plunder. This game runs for 5 minutes, and the player’s objective is to steal ancient treasures from urns and tombs. The more you steal, the more you get. Everything is set up in rooms - steal everything and move to the next. Moving on, let us discuss Hunter.

Hunter requires minimal cash to gather supplies. Similar to farming, your only requirement to be success is to wait. Set up a trap and wait for an unsuspecting animal to trigger it. Check on the trap, and be rewarded with experience. Sure it takes a while, but it’s little effort. Is that a bad thing? No, but it is easy.

Agility is slowly becoming easier to max. New quests, such as Cold War, introduce new agility courses where you can obtain 500 plus experience. The courses may be long, but it is worth the experience. As I said before, Agility is slowly becoming easier. There currently is no, “Super Spectacular” agility course where you earn 2000 experience. Give it time my friends; one day that will be possibly.

Three skills that are not exactly 99 easy are Crafting, Smithing, and Construction. They all require a lot of cash to buy the necessary supplies. However, once you buy everything, it’s a breeze. For construction, build and destroy. For crafting, craft, then drop, alchemy, or sell. For smithing, smith, then sell, alchemy, or drop.

Herblore also requires a lot of cash, but it’s a matter of buying the herbs and selling the potions. Repeat.

There are seven remaining skills, which include: Farming, Firemaking, Fishing, Mining, Runecrafting, Slayer, and Woodcutting. These skills take a lot of time, and are truly honors for achieving 99. Farming requires a lot of time, Firemaking requires a lot of clicking, Fishing requires a lot time and work, etc. Using your background knowledge of the remaining skills, I’m sure one can figure out why they are more difficult to max. Time, Work, and Money; the key to success, even in a video game.

[ Back to top ]

A Rangers Answer To Wr1t3r - By: Simple013

In response to "Ranging an Underpowered Skill?" third article here: http://newspaper.salmoneus.net/2006/december/runescape.html

Right, most consider me to be a decent ranger, and at 99 that would be a fair assumption. Consequently I have shot many an arrow. That, however, doesn’t mean I have neglected my other combat statistics: With 95 in attack, strength and defence 88 in magic and 81 for prayer, you could say I am a decent allrounder, with a preference for range.

Let me take a moment to put to you two things that should be taken into consideration before even attempting to go into the finer points of the article as was published in the last episode of our Newspaper: Firstly, it seems JaGeX does favour the warrior class. Why? Well, the only way to reach a combat level of 126 is with a melee style of fighting, not with range (or mage for that matter). Secondly, one should take a look at the way Wr1t3r decided to organize his article: Not looking at the ranger as a class of its own, but taking parts of it and then apply them to that same warrior class. To give an example of the last statement: Why would you compare Black d-hide armour to adamant? That would be done only if you are a warrior, not if you are a ranger.

But two can play that game: The complaint Wr1t3r so eloquently put forward is the way the ranger gets new armour every 10 levels or so, and that is correct. But isn’t that also true for the warrior? He starts out with bronze at level zilch end ends up with rune at level 40. Or: New armour on average every 40/6=6.6667 levels. The best available armour, apart from Barrows, is Dragon. And that is available at level 60, whereas the best available for the ranger, again apart from Barrows, comes in at level 70. Ehm, what was the complaint again? Oh yeah, we get armour every 10 levels. One shot down and loads to go.

Wr1t3r then goes on to tell the reader black d-hide is the choice dress even for meleers. But what he neglects to mention is this: That has nothing to do with the defence against a ranger but is solely for the defence against a mage. And that, to make it a bit more clear, brings in the Combat Triangle. A mage is supposed to have an advantage over a warrior, a ranger is supposed to have an advantage over a mage, and finally, the warrior is supposed to have an advantage over the ranger. Basically it means this: What he is trying to tell us is the advantage a hybrid has over a mage. He is NOT stating anything about the ranger class.

Where Wr1t3r did not do that, let me do the honours and give you some statistics about de range defence the warrior has against the other two classes. And I will limit this to what is available in F2p (for now). The best available is Rune armour and it has a range defence of +205 for a full set with kite shield. The mage defence, however, is -12: Clearly a sign of the warrior’s weakness against magic and his strong defence against range. The rangers green d-hide (F2p, remember?) has a magic defence of +30 but the melee defence, separated for the 3 different styles are these: stab +65, slash +50, +73. Now that is funny: warriors have a negative defence against the mage but the ranger has a positive defence against the warrior. Oh right, we need to look at attack as well.
Lets do that and just to make it logical a slash weapon compared to slash defence: Slash weapon of choice for the warrior is a rune scimitar with a slash attack of +45. Thus the ranger has a left over bonus of +5 against the warrior (+50 def minus +45 att). Let’s do the same for the ranger against the warrior: +29 (maple short/long) +31 (armour att bonus) against +205 range defence. Net result: The warrior has a +145 defence against a ranger. Now the mage: He has a max attack bonus of +10 from his armour and +10 from his staff +20 in total. Put that against the defence bonus of the warrior and he has a total of -32 where the ranger has +10.

The numbers seen above would suggest the dominating class is the warrior, with the ranger and mage as second and third. And that is just looking at attack and defence bonus, not at the increasing effectiveness of the magic spells as levels grow.

Two down, still more to go.

But here is where shizzle hits the fan: Wr1t3r decided to include P2p in his story. In his second section he is said to have covered the attacking speed of the various classes. Hm, not really, he is only looking at the speed of the ranger, not the speed of the warrior. Or to put it more bluntly: The warrior is trying to defuse the ‘rangers rant’ without looking at anything else. So what about this speed? A ranger delivers an arrow not once every second as we are led to believe, but once every 1.6 seconds. The special of the magic Shortbow delivers two arrows in the same time frame though with a lower accuracy. When I pot I have a max hit of 23 and this is where the fabled 23-23 special originates from. But…. I have never hit a 23-23 in my whole RS life since I reached 99 range. But with a Dragon dagger I hit over that combination regularly, you see, where the ranger has to deal with DECREASED accuracy, the warrior has the advantage of INCREASED accuracy. What is more: the special of the MSB takes away 55% of the special bar where the DD takes only 25%. Or to put it even more graphic: The warrior can hit a ranger 8 times in a row with increased accuracy and with a higher max hit.

Three down..

The ‘new’ cross bow. The abomination JaGeX introduce not too long ago. 3.5 seconds between shots fired make it slower than a halberd. Ever seen someone PK with a halberd? But Wr1t3r doesn’t look at that he looks at the bolts and those amazing specials they have. Sure, amazing specials they are. You cannot control the special, it kicks in rarely and when it does you probably are dead already. So I will give you my own evaluation of them: They stink. Even at 99 range I am unable to kill a Blue Dragon without the bolts becoming visible to fellow players. Now that means it takes over one minute to kill a Dragon with an amazing 107 hitpoints. Need I say more?

Four down and time to look at Wr1t3rs conclusion. And it is a funny thing:

“It depend's on how you use it, it can be a pker's best friend, or it can lead to a terrible disaster, so don't go and say it's underpowered until you realize it has limits.”

How am I to read that please? How I use it? I am a ranger, not a warrior using range as an addition. Range is by far the weakest class around. And what is more, all know it, even the warrior who has it in for the ranger. I’ll give you a few examples of how this can be shown even more clearly.

When a warrior pots up he drinks his potion and his stats are increased, super strength potion awards a maximum of a 19 boost: he will have 118 strength. When he does this his maximum hit will rise. When a ranger pots he will be a maximum of 112 (figures according to JaGeX Knowledge base) but the only thing that will increase is his accuracy not his max hit.

When levelling slayer only the warrior has a benefit of the Black Mask, not the ranger nor the mage. That means a boost of 15% to strength and attack: faster killing, faster levelling.

The number of effective weapons for the warrior far outstrips the rangers choice.

Updates aimed at warriors far outstrip the updates for rangers. Just a few examples/questions. The latest addition at the Haunted mine is in essence not accessible to a ranger, unless you want to range melee style (the salve amulet is another example btw). Ever tried getting 50 hits at Pest Control? If there are a few high level player attacking a portal you aren’t going to get them, not even with a crystal bow and at 99 range.

I’ll stop now, I did like what Wr1t3r wrote but I don’t like the way he portrays the skill. If range is so easy to level, as he states at the start, why then would you only need 91 range to reach the top 10,000 in high scores? You would need 99 both for attack and strength and 95 for defence to get to 10,000. Even magic takes more, level 94 and you make it to that position. If range would own the wild wouldn’t there be more rangers around? If PKing is the measure then it would be something like this: Mage, Warrior, Ranger.

[ Back to top ]

Combat - By: Neo Avatars

Combat is what many would consider a major part of RuneScape, and that it is also a necessity that is impossible to live without. For Freeplayers, nearly half of the skills that they have access to are combat related, while for Members that number drops to about a third. 50% and 33% of everything may sound like a lot, but when you look around there is much else to do, and combat certainly isn’t always the right thing anyway.

There are 3 types of combat that you can choose from: Melee, Range and Magic.

The first is the fairly simple option in which you pick up a sword and Metal Armour and fight to the high pitch scream of metal or monster flesh upon metal. This is the chosen method of fighting by many since you don’t lose your weapon, unless you die, and can sell it once you’ve finished. Of course there are Barrows armours and weapons, but they just cost money to repair and you keep the actual object even if it is in a decayed form. The one major flaw with the metallic needs of any Meleer is that those with Magic attacks can usually wipe them straight off the map due to the dreadful magical resistance of the metal.

The next option is Ranged. This normally involves picking up Dragonhide Armour along with a Bow and Arrows, and firing the projectile at the enemy. When in this form of combat there is usually an object in the way to stop the enemy dealing damage on you from Melee distance. Dragonhide Armour is lightweight, but this also comes with the drawback of being thin, flimsy, and easy to slice with the sharpened blade of a sword. Although it is easy to chop with a sword, Magical attacks will often miss because the Dragons that drop the Hides are Magical Creatures themselves. The other problem that a Ranger has to face is that the Arrows keep getting scattered all over the area that they are killing enemies in. This makes it hard to pick them all up, and therefore lose Arrows and made a monetary loss. Other Arrows become stuck in the corpse of the dead foe, so are lost that way.

The final option is Magic. Users of this form of combat have the ability to lose money much faster than any other fighter due to the extravagant cost of Runes. Whenever a spell is cast, it requires Runes, and Runes cost money. When you add up the costs after just a short killing spree, you could very easily find yourself out of pocket. The thin Robes that are enchanted, then worn to help the enchantment guiding each spell are easily pierced by Arrows sent from a Ranger’s Quiver. The cost for Magicians may be huge, but the power of the spells is mystifying and only the Gods know quite how a single person can Make Soil produce Extra Crops, Stop things moving for 20 Seconds, and turn Bones, that should be buried, into Peaches.

The basics of each form of Combat may sound simple, but when you look carefully, each type of fighter could use sub-sections of the skill to an advantage. Meleers have Attack, Strength and Defence. Rangers have a variety of Bows, each with its own advantage. Magicians have a choice of spell books to choose from.

When it comes down to Melee, by far the favourite option of the three is to make Strength as high as possible and keep Defence low, but is this actually the right decision? Yes, you can hit that almighty 32 damage with your leetness, but how does hitting big actually help? When training against ordinary monsters you may claim that by hitting high you are able to kill the monster faster, but how much extra time do you spend eating food, wandering to the Bank to get more food, and getting new methods to eat new foods such as the Bones to Peaches spell from the Mage Training Arena? Or is there a major problem with these ideas? The problem that nobody actually eats nowadays!

With the arrival of Pest Control, combat lost its touch and true meaning forever more. People flooded there in their thousands for the wonderful experience that it was handing out. Clans erupted out of nowhere so that people could catch the best corner of this action, and within a couple of weeks, beautiful new Void Knight Robes were introduced along with an ability to get 10% extra experience by cashing in lots of points at once.

There are clans out there that make it possible to get 100 Pest Control Points within just 80 minutes. With level 80 in the combat stat that the person is training, this works out at 117,300 experience from only 80 minutes work, or nearly 90,000 experience per hour. This doesn’t even include the experience gained within the game by killing the enemies! No food is required to play this game, there are monetary rewards, and it makes it possible to train up a single combat stat at extortionate speeds ready for the Wilderness.

The Wilderness is where many people want to be able to strive. Killing other people to try to get their items along with the infamous skull that brings shame and disrespect upon many bearers. When looking at this art of ‘Player Killing’, where does the positive aspect arrive? As mentioned earlier, Strength is favoured and apparently ‘owns’ in the Wilderness, however whoever came up with this idea had clearly only just finished the Alfred Grimhand Barcrawl. What actually happens in reality is that those with high Defence take advantage due to the constant 0’s being hit by the ‘Strength Pure’ since they can’t hit through the Defence. The ‘Defence Nub’ has the wonderful advantage that their opponent forgot that hitting 12 five times is actually more than hitting 29 once and 0 four times.

Once one of the people has finally died, usually the person who got attacked without aggravation, their items will be taken by the attacker (PKer) and get stored in their Bank. The person who got attacked is a Green Dragon Hunter. He works hard killing Green Dragons to get a constant income and is the friendliest person in the work. When he gets killed by the assailant, he will lose what he has worked hard for. Whether what he loses is classed as in-game value or time lost, he has lost something of some sort.

There is a simple sentence that can be used to describe how PKers make their money. This very same sentence can be used to describe how Item Scammers make their money and is: Gaining for yourself from the discomfort of others.

Anybody who goes into the Wilderness has clearly taken a risk and knows that they may lose something, but regularly the PKer who attacks will gain absolutely nothing at all, yet still carries on. What is the use of killing people training Agility?

“Z0mg I ju5t p33 k@y3d 15 c@kes!!!!!!!1111!11shiftoneone!1111!!!!”

If somebody can find it an enjoyable or helpful thing to waste 10 minutes of somebody else’s time training an already slow skill by killing them then there is something seriously wrong with the attacker. Or is the reason behind all these attacks on innocent civilians based on the fact that everybody will praise you for killing a ‘difficult enemy’? They aren’t difficult. They clearly won’t drop anything worth having. What they do want, however, is to be able to raise their skills in a proper way and not power-train with no effort at all on the Pest Control Island, at the Bandits in the Desert or at the Dagannoths.

Combat isn’t all bad if you know how to use it properly. There is one method of training that has the ability to make you a much more worthy fighter and praised to levels that others don’t even have the ability to imagine. This method of training is called Slayer. The experience gained from it may not be anywhere near as wonderful as that gained from Pest Control, but there are other kinds of rewards that are harder to find. These rewards may not please everybody, but then at least there are the lazy methods to fall back onto.

The concept of Slayer isn’t difficult to grasp. Go to a Slayer Master, get a task, kill the monsters, repeat. These monsters range from simple monsters such as Goblins to fearsome enemies such as the Kalphite Queen of King Black Dragon if the warrior is big enough and not scared of a proper fight. These monsters are clearly extremes, and the monsters that are normally assigned mean that, as long as you go to the right master, the basic combat experience is great. On top of the basic experience come some fantastic perks such as millions of gp worth of easy-to-obtain monster drops, Slayer Experience, and the fame of being “The person who wasn’t so lazy and single minded that they had to train at Pest Control all the way to 126 combat”.

Having a high Slayer level is something that you have to work to achieve, like getting good in any skill. It may feel slow, but it is possible to gain over 300,000 experience in a single day. You may feel like you will stay poor forever more, but just wait until you suddenly get 10,000,000gp worth of drops within a day or two.

There is more to Combat than Pest Control and PKing. Try it out, or ignore the fighting spirit altogether, and you will find yourself a much better person and player at heart.

[ Back to top ]

What is it that makes us play? - By: Solidsilver

Why do people play Runescape?
Why is it so addicting?
In this article I will try and provide some answers to these questions. Sure, other people will most likely have different answers but this is what I think.

Why do people play Runescape? I believe people play Runescape for three main reasons.
Those three reasons are to have fun, meet new friends, and to get away from the real world.
You have lots of fun playing Runescape, if it is going to an online birthday party or maybe a drop party.
The truth is, you will have fun pretty much wherever you go in Runescape.
I certainly meet lots of new friends on Runescape.
If you want to make some friends go to a popular skill training spot (like the yews in Edgeville), and talk about your interests. Other people there might say “Hey, I enjoy playing that sport as well!” or something along those lines and what do you know? You’ve got a new friend!
Now, the third and final reason.
People use Runescape as a way of getting away from real life for a while.
When people are having problems in their life they sometimes just want to get away from it all. Some play Runescape to solve this.
There are people that help you and comfort you in Runescape if you want to tell them your problems. But, only ever say your issues if you really feel safe telling the person.

Why is it so addicting?
Runescape can be a very addicting game.
Of course, some people only play a little bit and don’t find it addicting one little bit.
One of the possible reasons is that after playing once or twice it becomes a habit.
You think that you have to keep playing.
One thing that increases addiction levels is when you have real-life friends that play Runescape and sometimes you feel like you need to be better than them. So, you play more and more just to be better than a friend.
The truth is, you don’t. It is just your mind telling you to.
It can become a very bad habit, some people might play non-stop for hours.
Remember, this could be harmful to your brain and other parts of your body.
For instance, some people play while leaning forward. If you stay in that position for too long it could lead to back injuries. Every now and then, you should have a break, go outside and get some fresh air. Anything to stay away from the computer for a while.
If you are continually staying inside for very long periods of time you may become ill or sometimes worse.
So remember, next time you are playing Runescape remember to take breaks occasionally so nothing bad happens to you.

[ Back to top ]