Runescape: Social Slaying and the Geilinor Games Preparation

We're not just Social Slaying... we're Synchronized Slaying!

 Last night Monique and I tried out the Social Slayer feature.  It may not seem like a big deal, but I liked it.  Took a moment to realize the Ring of Slaying's dropdown menu won't show the co-op option unless you're wearing it.  At it's most basic, Social Slaying just reduces the boredom.   Makes Slaying, as it says, a more social event.  Since she and I team up quite often as we play, this provided a nice extension to our playstyle.

Monique had to cancel her previous task.  When I asked Kuradel for a new task, Kuradel assigned the task to her as well.  We got 196 Dust Devils, which was an excellent test task.  Went quickly, didn't require special techniques (aside from wearing the Slayer Helm).  Dust Devils are easy to kill; with two of us sharing the task, it flew by in no time.  My only complaint is getting just one point for a task assigned by Kuradel.  

 Since the easiest tasks from the easiest Slayer Masters are worth one point, it would have been nice to boost the Co-op rewards if you choose harder Slayer masters.  As it is, I can spend days getting 100 points from Kuradel, or a few hours getting 100 points from Spria in Taverly.  I already have 99 Slayer, and Baby Jad.  Don't really need the new pets.  But I like the idea of the baby Ice Strykewyrm as a pet.  Not too impressed with a Baby Aquanite.

The other two rewards seem very close to useless.  Sharing food and potion points just doesn't seem that high-priority.  At least the pets are fun.  I've got a menagerie full of baby dragons, a 2nd baby Jad, and one or two other pets.  I'd like to add Freezy, the baby Strykewyrm, to it.

Currently only 2 players can share a task.  That's probably for the best, unless they coop boss assignments, like Jad...  Could you imagine double-teaming Jad?  What fun that would be!   :^)

We didn't notice it, but apparently some people have mentioned that when you wander too far apart, the count isn't shared.  You have to be fairly near to share each other's kill count.

In spite of the imbalanced and less-than-useful rewards, I like the idea.  Sharing a slayer task with Monique was a lot more fun than just grinding it out on my own.  We kept up a running commentary of our drops, our good hits, bad hits, and the interloper who kept trying to take our kills.  Needs some rebalancing to make Social Slaying functionally rewarding.  But in terms of fun, I liked it a lot.  In spite of nay-sayers in the forums, Jagex has been coming out with some excellent updates this year.  Once Combat Beta goes live, Social Slaying should be even more fun.

We also participated in the Geilinor Games preparations.  The Games are in honor of this year's Olympics being in England.  There'll be some competitions, some buyable rewards.  Not too sure I care about the rewards, but I'd rather have the option than not.  So we're doing the Preparations.  Talking to Oomad Arrow will get assignments in cooking, making medals, and building construction components.   

You can only help a limited amount per day.  Doing so will earn some skill exp, plus rewards points in the Geilinor Games Rewards Shop.  The shop won't be open until the Geilinor Games begin, but I'm doing my best to save up points for spending in it.  According to Wiki, to get every reward in the shop will  cost 30,550 points.  I suppose it might be nifty to own all the rewards (though I would hope they could be stored in our house and not our bank!).  Mainly, I like the emotes.  As long as I can get the two emotes in the gold rewards, I'll be happy.

Doing the assigned preparation tasks can be time-consuming.  Making the 3 meals goes quickly enough, but mining the nuggets from the scrap pile takes forever, even if you've got a Dragon Pickaxe.  If I'm in the middle of something major, it might not be worth interrupting.  For now, I'm not spending as much time playing as normal, so most of my play is just 'maintenance' work.  You know, mining the red sandstone, getting Berts free buckets of sand, making runes from the Wicked Hood, buying Battlestaves...  all the daily tasks that I like to do.  Just a few minutes of running around generates over 500k gold daily.  Plus doing my Jack of Trades aura each day for the free exp.

If I do all that and still have time to play, it's usually to thieve from the Knights of Ardougne.  It's an easy skill to start and stop training.  Well suited to my current limited playing time.  Same thing can be said for Agility.  Both are good skills to work on during long phone calls...

Slightly off subject, Monique and I did the first Combat Beta Weekend event, the Castle Wars game.  Has anybody heard what and when the next event will be?  I thought it was going to be one event every weekend, but it's starting to look like they're skipping over this weekend.  We both want the associated Mad Scientist costume, and don't want to miss an event for lack of information!

In the meantime, look for me hanging out with the Knights.  I'll be spending time there whenever I can.