Runescape: TzTok-Jad Interlude... Getting Stomped on by Jad One More Time!

 After months of off and on Slaying, and a recent dedicated push to 99 my Slayer skill,  Kuradel finally... FINALLY... assigned Jad to me as a Slayer task!  I didn't want to waste time trying for him without some/any exp benefit, so I've been waiting till I got an  assignment to try.  My old guide on beating Jad by Ancient Curses/Deflects no longer works.  Jagex 'fixed' it.  Man, I really hate that.  They also 'fixed' the Vengeance technique.  As a result, I can' beat TzTok Jad any more.  There are no more non-combat methods to use.

I want to go back and figure out another way that works for me, but am focused right now on Slayer.  Making it a bonus assignment is the perfect practice.  I get to try it, and if I fail, at least there's some basic Slayer experience.  

So, spent the weekend practicing to Jads new sounds.  Yep, that's new sounds, courtesy Jagex, as of sometime mid-2011.  Have to learn new sounds to trigger the reflexes.  Hunted for techniques I thought might work for me.  Decided to get him halfway down, then Dragon Claw him to death.  Since I can't do Overloads, but I CAN do Extreme Strength, Attack, and Defense, I figured that would be sufficient.  I don't have a Godsword, but I've got Karamja Gloves 4, which let me die and be reborn at Jad once a day.  So I figured I'd slap him as hard as I can, get killed, and hit him a couple more times.  Seemed reasonable.  

Unfortunately, it wasn't enough.  Those darn healers topped him off faster than I could damage him.  Once I realized I wasn't going to make it this trip, I got crazy.  Running at Jad, chasing him, trying not to get hit while I took my shots at him.  In a strange way, it was kind of fun.  He still killed me, but I've never done so well at Jad before.  Usually, I can't handle the prayer switching.  This time, I was doing all kinds of other things, and still surviving.  Pretty cool.

I can't wait until I get Jad assigned again.  I'm still searching for better ways to kill him.  I'm a Prayer Switching Klutz, so I need something pretty simple to follow.  But I'm getting better at Prayer Switching.  Maybe better enough to eventually switch Prayer and still manage eating, drinking, potting, and dealing with the healers.

Below is the setup I used.  It got me there with all my food, and lots of prayer pots left.  It even let me get Jad down halfway, then chase him all over the cave.  When I died, I still had plenty of supplies.  I just missed one prayer switch too many…

If you're reading this, and looking at my setup, I'd appreciate any suggestions.  Not stupid stuff, please.  But I'd really appreciate some honest help and suggestions.

Here's what I wore:

Slayer Helm

Amulet of Fury

Armadyl Chestplate

Armadyl Chainskirt

Rune Crossbow

Dragonfire Shield

Soul Wars Cape

Broad-tipped Bolts (5,000)

Barrows Gloves

Ranger Boots

Archer's Ring (Not imbued)

Aura: Reverence (But I'm thinking on trying "Knockout Blow" next try.)

Inventory:

Dragon Claws

Karamja Gloves (for fighting Jad so I'll respawn on the spot when he kills me)

Diamond Bolts (e)

Excalibur (Elite Enhanced)

Prayer potions (4 serving) - 10

Rocktails - 7

Runes for Vengeance (Lunar spellbook- 4 Astrals, 8 Deaths, 10 Earths per cast)

(I brought 40, 80, and 150 just for the heck of it)

Extreme Att, Str, Def

Range Pot

Before going in the fight cave, I sip a super set and range pot from the bank just to make the beginning faster.

On wave 61, I took a break.

Killed the 1st 360, and before killing the 2nd:

Turn off auto retaliate long enough to:

Cast Vengeance

Switch to Karamja Gloves

Switch to Diamond Bolts and set Range to Long Distance

Make sure Quick Prayers are set to Turmoil and Soul Split for Meleeing

Sip Pots (Extreme Att, Str, Def, and a Ranging pot)

Turn Auto Retaliate back on and kill the remaining 360.

Deflect, Vengeance, and Range Jad till the Healers show up.

Set Quick Prayers to Turmoil and Soul Split, turn them on as the healers arrive.

(Healers will heal Jad - even if you distract them - if you're too close to Jad.  I think this was part of my problem)

At half hit points, go all or nothing and Dragon Claw Spec Jad.

(Should I bring Spec Restore potion for extra hits?)

 I can be killed and revived on the spot once a day with Karamja Gloves 4

Maybe I should bring a Restore Potion for Special Attack?

I've got maxed combat stats, so I know my character can do it.  I'm just very clumsy at Prayer Switching, and easily lose my focus.

Anyway, that's my gear, and a few random thoughts that might help.  I'd love to hear some ideas from someone who's been there and won!

Runescape: The Quest for Baby TzRek-Jad?

Concept art from Runescape

Have you seen Baby Jad?

Are you one of the lucky ones that already got him?  I'm not.  Darn it.  

I spent a couple of months earlier this year getting the hang of beating TzTok-Jad.  Got to where I was sleeping and dreaming Jad.  Yes... I'm a slow learning, and am truly horrible at real-time combat.  Just can't handle all the prayer switching while fighting.

Still, with a lot of practice, and many attempts, I finally beat him.  Got 3 capes, and called it quits.  Thought when I finished I'd never want to see him again.  But in a weird sort of way, I've grown attached to Jad.

So when Jagex announced that TzTok-Jad had a baby... and it's name is TzRek-Jad...   I just flat-out, no holds barred, wanted one.  Maybe 2, one for my Player Owned House!  Before knowing anything except his requirements, I knew it was going to happen.

The requirements?  Only the most restrictive of any pet in the entire game.  Baby Black Dragons used to be the coolest pet in the game.  They needed 99 Summoning and a rare egg dropped from the black dragons.  (Green, Blue, and Red are also available, just not as cool.)

Now Baby TzRek-Jad has the baby dragon topped.  Baby Jad reqires 99 Summoning (just like having a baby pet dragon).  But he also requires 99 Slayer.  Plus 100 Zeal points from Soul Wars.  Plus, you have to GIVE BACK a Fire Cape!!

That makes him pretty darned exclusive.  At this moment, I've got the 99 Summoning, but only 95 Slayer.  I figure about a month to finish Slayer.  Then start Soul Wars.  Don't even know how long it takes to play, and how quickly points can be earned.  But I'll find out in about a month.  Seems reasonable to assume another month for that.

Let's see, this is the end of August.  So around the end of October, or early November, I hope to have mine.  And no, I'm not patient.  It's killing me to not already have him!  But I'm very good at persistent.  And even better at obsessive.  So I'll just obsess over it until I've got it.  Last time I worked this hard for something, it was the Taskmaster Emote.  And just days after I earned it, Runescape released all those fancy capes for people who've maxed all their skills... or more.  

Kind of devalued my hard work.  But what the heck.  I'm playing Runescape because it's fun.  I'm sure not going to obsess on a Completionists Cape.  But Baby TzRek-Jad?  I think I can manage that.  :^)

By the way, since I don't have one of my own, I'm posting some YouTube videos that show him in action.  Enjoy.

Runescape: Taking a break from Dungeoneering to get 99 Slayer

Surrounded!

Monique finally achieved her goals in Dungeoneering.  She got the Bonecrusher, the Herbicide, and I think she even got the Farming one that sometimes gives you seeds back when a tree dies.
This is good... and bad.  To the good, she reached her personal goals and accomplished something she worked hard to get.  Also to the good, I want to get the upcoming baby TzRek Jad, so now I'm free to focus directly on level 99 Slayer now.  But to the bad, it was a lot of fun dungeoneering with her.  I really enjoyed duoing the dungeons together.  It took a while, but our playstyles had evolved to where we partnered extremely well.  Since both of us liked taking our time in the dungeons and actually 'playing', there was no pressure to just rush all the floors.
Now that she's reached her goal, I don't think she'll be Dungeoneering that much any more.  :^(

Herbicide

Looking forward, though... like I said, I'm working on my 99 Slayer.  I enjoy Slayer, so that's cool.  It's generally fun and/or profitable.  I've gone through Hellhounds, Abyssals, dragons, Black Demons, and multiple assignments of Spiritual Mages and Mutated Jadinkos.  It's all okay, except for the Jadinkos.  Those guys are slow to kill, and I can't find any real guides online with step by step proven techniques.  They're easy enough to kill.  It's just that they seem to have good defense and high hit points.  So when I'm trying to blast through my assignments (I go to Kuradel), these guys bring me to a screeching halt.  I even switched to doing the babies.  Thought they'd be a lot faster, kind of like Kalphite assignments.  Instead, the babies are level 90, and yes, they're easier and faster to kill than the adults.  But still slow.  Darn.

Entering the Jadinko Lair

I've seriously considered taking Mutated Jadinkos off my list of tasks, but when I'm not trying to rush, I enjoy them.  And I don't want to waste 100 Slayer points knowing they'll be put back on my list later.  So for now, I'll just do the babies as fast as I can to zip through.

In the meantime, my current task is Black Demons.  I love slaying Black Demons.  They're fast to kill, easy risk-management if you Prayer flash.  Even easier if you bring an Enhanced Excalibur.  And very profitable.  They drop a decent amount of alchable items, and the ashes are very valuable for Prayer training.  Or just selling on the GE.

Business as usual in the Black Demon Cavern

This morning, I was settling down with my breakfast and coffee, just in time to see there were only 7 minutes left before System update.  Decided to use those 7 minutes.  Black Demons are excellent subjects for Prayer flashing, and I'm still getting the hang of it.  So during that time, there was plenty of chance to get a feel for when to click.  After the update, started Prayer flashing again, and the response time was greatly improved.  I don't know if that was deliberate to the update, or just me having a better-than-usual internet connection, but it was really nice.  Almost real-time.

I haven't seen anybody else mentioning it yet, so maybe it was just me.  But I'm looking forward to seeing how well the overall speed runs later tonight.  I hope it's consistent, reliable, and Runescape-wide.

My last kill this morning leveled up to 94.  Only 5 levels to go!!!

Runescape: Dungeoneering, Baby TzRek Jad, Slayer... so much to do, so little time!

In spite of the fact that Monique and I are still Dungeoneering extensively, I've not seen any Night Spiders since the beginning of the month.  That makes 7 Night Spiders to get my Shadow Silk Hood, then 2 more Night Spiders in the next couple of days, now I've seen none for nearly 2 weeks.  Wow.  I'm extremely glad I got my hood so early in the hunt.  

Since then, I've managed to get level 83 Dungeoneering, which makes 42 my deepest dungeon available.  Monique's gotten to floor 38, but for her, it's not about the Dungeoneering, it's about the tokens.  By now, she's gotten every reward she desires except for the crafting one.  She's already gotten Bonecrusher, and the Scroll of Life.  Once she gets that last reward, I think I'll have lost my Dungeoneering partner.  Oh well, I ran solo before she got interested, and I'll just go back to solo when she's done.  In the meantime, she still needs about 23,000 tokens, which means I don't have to worry about it for a while.

Besides, with Jagex releasing baby TzRek Jad sometime this month, I've got plenty of other things to work on.  His requirements are 99 Summoning, 99 Slayer, and 100 Zeal from Soul Wars.  I've got the summoning, which is the hardest/most expensive skill to max (in my opinion, anyway).  My Slayer is 93, but I like training Slayer, so it'll be fun to focus on getting that as my next 99.  It's the Soul Wars I'm really dreading.  Don't like team sports...  But I'll do it for baby Jad.  TzTok Jad was such a pain to beat, that in a strange way, I kind of like him.  It's going to be awesome to sport a baby TzRek Jad.

While Monique is still interested in Dungeoneering, I haven't put much effort into Slaying.  Maybe three tasks in the last several days.  I always go to Kuradel, and she gave me nearly 200 Nechryaels, then 186 Spiritual Mages, and now 150 Blue Dragons.  Blue Dragons!  Heck, yes, they're like a trip to Disney.  Fun, fast, easy, and reasonably private if you use Kuradel's Slayer Dungeon.  I'm about halfway through them, and have gotten 2 Dragon Eggs so far.  Nice, though I've got plenty in my player owned house.

Getting assigned Blue Dragons is like a break.  When that's over, it'll be back to the usual assignments (I assume).  

The nice thing about Slayer, is you can go slow, medium, or fast, depending on your goals.  Slow, allows for bring a Pack Yak, and banking the drops for profit.  Medium, allows for banking the really exceptional drops, but mostly just killing.  And fast, is when I use all the boosts I can (Super Sets, Turmoil, etc.)  

I don't include overloads because I can't do the max, and it seems to me like the one I can do might be more effort than it's worth for an ongoing task.  I could see the value in getting past one specific boss monster, but not for a continuous ongoing goal.

But for now, we're Dungeoneering.  Lots of variety and fun.  We're not fast, and we don't rack up amazing experience.  We just play.  Monique by nature has gravitated toward being our keyer.  She loves to explore, and blaze new trails.  She manages the doors and makes sure we clear the floor before going after the bosses.  I combine skilling and fighting.  Making our armor, and our summoning beasts.  And fighting.  I enjoy fighting the monsters.  Even when we're trying to rush, I keep getting sidetracked fighting.  I guess it's not really a big deal.  We both enjoy it for one reason or another.

So, once Monique has reached her Dungeoneering tokens goal, I'm going to go guns blazing on Slayer and blast through it as fast as possible.  Goodbye, bank account.  But it'll be worth it...

Hello, baby TzRek Jad!

Runescape: TzTok Jad's a Dad! Who'd have thought it?

 

I've been exclusively dungeoneering for some time now.  Either solo, or duo with Monique.  Made it to level 82 so far, and going well.  Next thing I know, Jagex has a behind-the-scenes update with a ton of things coming out.  But the one that caught my eye?  Baby TzRek Jad!

Yes, they're coming out with a pet baby Jad!  I spent a couple of painful months learning how to beat Jad, then wrote a very long and detailed guide about it.  All using the Ancient Curses/Deflects method, which requires no actual combat with Jad, and does not bring the healers out.

I should have put that in past tense.  Jagex recently decided that was a bug, and patched it.  Now, whether you hit Jad or not, the healers come out.  So I'm going to have to figure out how to beat him all over again, and modify my guide.  It's going to be a while before I get around to that.  For now, I've just added a notice to the top of the guide about the recent changes, with some suggestions I found online of how to work-around it.  

So, while they've destroyed months of work, and taken away the only way I was able to defeat Jad, Jagex also announced the upcoming release of a pet Jad.  Kind of like a religious experience... Jagex giveth, and Jagex taketh away...

Which makes me mad at them, and thrilled, all at the same moment, and about the same thing.  Life's complicated, huh?  

Focusing on the good side, it's a really cool idea.  And the requirements for getting a pet Jad are satisfactorily high, which means you have to really earn him.  Up until now, the coolest (and hardest to obtain) pet was the Baby Dragon.  To get one, you have to have 99 Summoning, then kill dragons of your color choice (Green, Blue, Red, or Black) until you get a Dragon Egg.  This in itself is a rare drop.  I've gotten an egg as quickly as my first 10 kills, and as slowly as nearly 300 kills.  It's random.  Only Chromatic Dragons drop eggs.  The metal dragons do not.

You can only have one pet baby dragon in your bank/inventory, but you can fill your player-owned-house menagerie up with them if you so choose.  Out of  15 slots, 8 of mine are dragons, mostly black because they're the coolest.  :^)

I'm not even considering the Dungeoneering pet (Sneaker-Peeper).  It's not especially great, nor are the requirements that high.  Not that impressed.

That's a pretty restrictive requirement, yet baby dragons are all over the place.  Not exactly common, but not unusual, either.  Baby Jad will change all of that.  Suddenly, baby dragons are not the coolest or most restrictive pets in the game.

How cool could it get, right?  In this case, right through the roof!  

First, you've got a baby of one of Jagex's most powerful, hated, and feared monsters.  If you beat Jad, you get the Fire Cape, so everybody can look and know you beat him.  Plus it's functionally one of the very best capes in the game.

Second, the requirements to get him are the most restrictive in the entire game.  You have to have 99 Summoning, 99 Slayer, 100 Zeal Points from Soul Wars (which takes a lot of playing!) and...

Finally... you have to trade a Fire Cape in!  If you've only ever beaten Jad once, this is a serious sacrifice.  But still worth it, as evidenced by Monique.  I've got three Fire Capes, so trading one in won't really bother me.  But Monique only has one Fire Cape, and has no intention of ever going back for another, yet she's willing to trade her one and only cape for a pet baby Jad.

That's a real sacrifice, since the cape is one of the best in the game.  On the other hand, she told me she rarely uses her Fire Cape, and if she's got a baby Jad following her, people will still know she beat Jad at least once.

So, is it worth it?  If you meet the requirements, and have multiple Fire Capes, then absolutely.  If you've only got one Fire Cape, maybe, maybe not.  And if you don't meet the requirements, then you may have a long haul before it's even an issue.

Me?  I've got 99 Summoning, and 3 Fire Capes.  But only 93 Slayer, and I don't like Soul Wars.  And still, I'm going for it.  I'll get my 99 Slayer, then play Soul Wars until I'm there, then proudly collect my baby Jad!

Runescape: 7 Night Spiders, 1 Shadow Silk Hood- great drop rate!

It's been about a week now since I finally got the Shadow Silk Hood, from my 7th Night Spider Kill.  At an average of 1 Night Spider every other day, you don't see very many of them.  Part of that was probably because I was soloing.  But still, I was deliberately spider hunting for speed, and no exp.  Floor 35, over and over.  

Since then, Monique and I have been playing mainly for fun, and we've seen 2 more Night Spiders, but no more Shadow Silk Hoods.  That's fine, though, because Monique doesn't want one.  She's firmly told me she'll be sticking with her Promethium 2-Hander and Chestplate.  

We've been going at the dungeon pretty intensely.  For me, it's purely fun, and I'm always ready to head underground.  For her, she has her eye on two of the rewards.  One she's already got, the Bonecrusher.  She's been training Prayer forever, and the cost is prohibitive.  So Monique sees the value in an item that buries any and all bones for you as you're fighting.  Of course, she still collects the best ones and uses at her player-owned-house altar.  But this is very useful to her in general combat.  

The other reward is the Scroll of life, which is very useful for farming.  She's actually been 99 Farming for years, but she still enjoys it.  With the cost of seeds, the Scroll of Life has a lot of appeal for her.

On my part, I simply enjoy Dungeoneering.  Sometimes I rush, sometimes just wander around having fun.  I can do a solo or duo C6 Medium Dungeon, in about 30 minutes, and get an average of 15k to 25k, depending on the floor.  I know, it's not fast, and it's not much.  But I have fun with it.  Got level 81 Dungeoneering last night.  It's going a get a lot slower from here on out.  Do I care?  Nope.

My goals are simpler than Moniques.  I'm not trying to reach one specific reward.  I want them all.  I want 120 Dungeoneering.  So all my tokens are first going to things that help me in the dungeon.  My ring is level 9 Berserker, level 5 Blazer, and I think I'm level 4 Gatherer.  My next goal is to get level 10 Berserker on the ring.  That's going to take a while, so I'm not worried about the next goal after that.

It's all been so much fun, my days of basking in Runescape's sun are nearly gone.  I sometimes head over to the Fishing Guild for a few shark.  Yes, slow exp, but I really like the barbarian fishing technique, and the graphic animation of catching sharks bare-handed.  Then there's the occasional trip to the new Jadinko Lair.  Having not yet gotten my whip vine, I still head down there now and then to try for it.  I still do Penguins once a week, and am looking forward to the Troll Invasion at the start of the month.

It's all good, or nearly all.  I've just been in the mood for the Dungeon.  That's the great thing about Runescape- there's so much to do, it never stops being fun!