Runescape: Achieving 99 Thieving

This was a good weekend.  Friday evening, I got 98 Thieving.  Mainly from the Knights of Ardougne.  At level 97, with Gloves of Silence and Ardougne Cape(4), you never fail thieving from the Ardougne Knights.  They might not be as fast as Monkey Knife Fighters, but they're very consistent experience.

Even so, I got impatient there, and spent a large amount of Sunday with the Monkey Knife Fighters.  With practice, and by developing a 1-2-3 rhythm, they went quickly.  Still got stunned now and then.  Late Sunday evening, the 99 fireworks exploded for me.

This 99 was a long time in coming.  Years ago I thought it would be the be-all and end-all of making money.  Free money, right?  No, it didn't work like that.  I spent a long time thieving cakes in Ardougne.  As a matter of fact, I still have a big stack of cakes in the bank from those days.  Then it hit me... Knights of Ardougne!  Great profit, fast experience...  so I knocked around until my Thieving was 55.  Started trying to steal from the Knights... and got stunned every time I turned around.  No go.

Discouraged, I let it be for a long time.  Then I met Salarin the Twisted.  He's a great way for low-to-mid level players to collect herbs and practice magic.  Additionally, he drops the Sinister Key, which opens a chest of nice herbs.  Or it can be sold at a decent price.  Not fast money, but easy money.  I'd run to that little building just north of Yenille, climb down, run through the halls, through the agility areas, and fight him until the inventory filled up.  When I discovered the shortcut right near the bank, Thieving popped back up on the radar.  Level 82?  Darn, that was a lot of effort.  But great when that locked door finally opened.  Level 82 was also handy for getting the Taskmaster emote.  Among many skills, 82 Thieving was required to achieve all the requirements.

Aside from the occasional thieving for quests and from boredom, that's where it stayed until recently.  Since the release of Combat Beta, I've pretty much quit fighting.  Combat skills are maxed anyway, and it just wasn't fun when I knew everything would be different once Beta was perfected.  Didn't want to spend a lot of time in Beta, because nothing you do there counts toward improving your character.

Wanted something profitable to do while waiting for Beta to be finished.  Wound up with Thieving.  Did Master Farmers for a while.  Stacked seeds, tried both the Ardougne Farm, and the South Varrock Farm.  It was okay, but very slow.  And the seeds weren't anywhere nearly as good as I'd hoped.

Spent a LOT of time trapping Ardougne Knights and stealing from them in bulk.  Did some Pyramid Plunder.  Didn't bother with the Sorceress' Garden this time.  Meant to, just never got around to it.  Tried the Monkey Knife Fighters.  Couldn't get the hang of them for a long time.

Because I just wasn't doing well with the monkeys, the majority of my training was on Ardougne Knights.  By level 97, they quit stunning me.  At level 98, it was time to visit the monkeys again.  This time they cooperated.  Two things really helped.  First, keeping a 1, 2, 3 count.  1 was always 'Punch', 2 and 3 were pickpocketing.
The other thing was timing.  You can't go too fast.  It works best if you wait until you actually hear the action happen before clicking the next action.  Click 'punch', wait until you hear it hit.  Pause a micro-second, then click 'pickpocket'.  Pause a moment, then click 'pickpocket again'.

After a while, the rhythm becomes second nature.  But worked until it became habit.  For all of level 98 to 99, it was the Monkey Knife Fighters.  I didn't keep track of the hours, but it was somewhere between 4 and 5 hours to get from 98 to 99.

Thieving was actually a decently fast skill to raise.  Next up will probably be Agility or Mining.  Neither one's fast, but Agility's 95, and Mining's 92.  And Agility costs nothing to train.  Mining is profitable.  (Or not, if I decide to drop the ore along the way.)  Not really sure what to choose.

For now, it's just a nice feeling to have Thieving out of the way.