Runescape: Skill Weekend 3/16/12- What will YOU be working on?

Not much going on right now for me.  Internet has been having intermittent service, so I've been unable to do anything dangerous.  I keep getting logged out.  Cable guy came out today, installed a couple of new parts.  Said there was a problem with the 'forward signal' in the outside lines, whatever that means.  He's sending someone to check it out.

In the meantime, I'm stuck skilling.  Doing things that won't cause problems if it logs me out.  Which ties in very nicely to today's "Behind the Scenes" announcements.  New Extra Experience Weekend coming up the weekend of March 16 (2012).  That's cool.  Monique and I usually make it a date weekend, and let everybody know we're out of touch for the weekend.  I haven't decided what to spend the time doing.  Thinking to spend at least part of the time on Agility.  It would be good to get crafting up, too.  That's an expensive skill if you're using Black Dragonhides! I pre-bought enough Black Dragon Leathers to go up one level... from 86 to 87. 

Then there's mining.  At one point that was going to be my next 99, but events (and Runescape Updates) have sidetracked me a bit.  Or, if they allow extra tokens and exp for Dungeoneering, that's an option.  Can't remember offhand if they allowed it last time or not.  Have to wait for more details to see what Jagex's rules and restrictions are for this time around.

Problem is, there's too many skills to work on, and not enough weekend to do it in.  Monique's got 98 Defence and aiming for 99, this might be a great opportunity for her to get her next 99.  Of course, choosing how to spend that time is half the fun.  I enjoy looking through the skills, seeing what's close to another level, or what's normally an expensive/slow skill to raise.  These weekends are great.  One of the first ones earned me a 99 Construction, which was awesome, considering it's expense.  The Hati paws helped train my Agility.  Monique got 99 Crafting AND Herblore from the last time.

There's just so many choices, I'm really looking forward to it.  For now, not really sure what to do, but going to have fun doing it!

So what did YOU do during Extra Exp Weekend last time?

What are your goals for this time?

Runescape 99 Woodcutting: Might as well make it official

I guess it's official by now.  Having been undecided on my next big goal for some weeks now, I've been cutting Ivy behind Varrock Castle.  By my last post, it was pretty clear I had unintentionally set myself up to get 99 Woodcutting.  At this point, I've given in to the inevitable and sunk my teeth in the bit.  That 99's going to be mine.  At the start of this phase, my Woodcutting was early 90's, maybe as high as 92.  Sorry, just don't remember at the moment.  By now, it's up to 97, and about a third of the way to the next level.

Look like the same picture as last time?  That's because I'm standing at the same wall cutting down the same ivy as last time.

One thing I didn't realize, was how many birds nests are dropped cutting ivy.  I do wear a rabbit's foot necklace, which is supposed to help make nests drop more often.  It's been quite nice, selling off a few extra crushed nests, rings, and seeds for an additional bonus.  Mostly the seeds are junk, like acorns, but occasionally they're quite nice.  A couple of days ago I got a Magic Tree seed, Yew Seed, and Spirit Tree seed, back to back.  Can't sell the Spirit seeds, but they're great farming experience.  And I made a good chunk of change that day from selling the seeds and nests all together.

I've mentioned this before, but since there's no 'direct' income to be made from cutting ivy, it's a good opportunity to flip at the Grand Exchange.  I haven't had as much luck with flipping since the return of the wilderness and unrestricted trading, and it's gotten even slower since the bot-nuking day.  But it still works.  It's just that my old favorites don't have enough margin any more.  I used to do great with Pure Essence, maple logs, and the like.  Seems like something has to be a lot more expensive now to have any margin for profit.  At least the time limits are gone.  I can buy and sell trade limits without having to wait 4 hours.

Since my playing is pretty focused, I haven't gotten to experience much of the new updates, as far back (and including) the Dominion Tower.  It sounds like fun, but my combat stats are maxed.  I'll try it sooner or later.  Same with the Polypore dungeon.  Haven't been yet, though it sounds like a lot of fun.  I like the idea of an entire mage-combat-centric dungeon.

I did fill the new tool belt, even though it took a little work to get some of the pieces.  It may not be a high-visibility glamorous update, but in it's own quiet way, it's a very useful update, and will continue to be for as long as I'm playing.  It's nice to have all those basic tools on hand all the time, and not wasting an inventory space to have them.  I've been using it to crush birds nests, chip house teletabs for alternate destinations, and light fires.  It's especially great when I go penguin hunting, because my inventory is usually pretty full carrying all the possible teleports, runes, and general junk I find useful while chasing down the weekly penguins.

I like the concept of the Money Pouch, but it's got a couple of rough edges.  The idea of a safe-upon-death pouch to keep your money in is very cool.  Even though it DOES NOT protect your money if you die in the wilderness, that's quite understandable.  There are two problems though that baffle me.  They seemed like an oversight at first, but since Jagex has not yet corrected the problems, now I'm not sure.  The first, is the glitch when you're buying battlestaves at Naff's Staffs.  Even with money in your pouch, it says you do not have enough money.  You have to remove enough from your pouch into your inventory, to buy battlestaffs.  Should be a simple fix, but it's been days (nearly a week now?) and no change, or even mention from Jagex.  The other complaint is related.  When you remove money from the pouch, there should be an 'All' option.  Whether it's going into your inventory, or back to the bank, I hate having to type a specific amount in for every transfer.  A simple 'transfer all' option would make it perfect.

Oh well, minor complaints.  It's a step in a good direction.  I like most of these minor-improvement updates.  They make the game more fun, more playable.  Last night was penguin night, and it was my first time to run into the new npc interfaces.  I like them greatly.  The options are commonsense, look good, and are far far easier to manage.  Great job on the conversational update.  I've only seen it in a few places so far, but it looks very good!


Generally, I focus like a laser.  One thing, don't stop until done.  With the woodcutting, I'm actually considering taking entertainment breaks.  Do a little dungeoneering, fish, some agility.  Maybe even Jad.  On the other hand, it's going quite well, very easy skill to level, and all I need is 98 and 99.  Maybe I'll just tough it out.

Runescape: Fishing for a 99

It's been a while since my last post.  So, okay, here's a quick synopsis of what I've been doing:

Bored.

Bored, Bored, Bored…

 Okay, a little more detail-   After all the excitement of learning how to kill Jad (it's been a long time in the works, and more than a little drama involved), I wasn't sure what to do with myself.  A little here, a little there.  A bit of Barrows.  Some flipping at the GE.  A quest or some new content as it's available.  Penguin hunting.  But mainly, going for my fishing 99. 

I know, right?  Boring.  But I was pretty close to 98 just kind of by accident.  For lack of anything else really appealing, I figured it couldn't be that hard to get the 99.  It was pretty easy to get 98.  But I keep forgetting how much raw experience it takes to get a 99. 

Finally, it's getting pretty close.  Baby Jad's been down in the Living Rock Caverns with me, catching Rocktail.  It's a shame he can't learn some tricks.  That would be kind of fun.  But anyway, at the moment I'm about 212k away.  Not getting there tonight, it's almost 1am.  But soon. 

Really, now, what's the point?  It's not like fishing is a cool skill.  Certainly not that interesting.  Though it does make a good skill to work on while I build and paint a model at my desk.  Or write this blog…

And it's not a rare skill.  No excitement on any front whatsoever.

At this point, you've got to be wondering why the heck I'm writing this?  I know I'd be asking that question right about now. 

Which brings me back to my initial point… Bored.  Bored, bored, bored.

Yeah, writing this is helping to pass the time.  But also, it's been a while since I wrote a new blog.  I don't like to go too long without a new one.  Got to keep up the habit.

Anybody else working on a boring skill for the 99?  We can compare boredom together  :^)

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- 99 Smithing, 90 Mining... Promethium Chestplate, here I come!

Mining gold ore at the Living Rock cavern

About a month ago, I was enjoying some Dungeoneering.  At that time, it had cost me something near 2 million gold to get someone to smith a Promethium 2-Hander and a Promethium Chestplate.  While I liked them very  much, in a way paying so much for them kind of locked me in.  At that price, it's not a good idea to keep trying new stuff.  If I bound anything else, that money's down the drain.  Also, any money paid for the newer gear would be a further loss.

Lava Mines- No ore, but easy exp.

Maybe I've already got the best stuff I currently can.  That's not the point.  The point is that I'm afraid to bind anything else.  There's no going back.  The solution seemed obvious.  Get 90 Mining, and 99 Smithing.  Simple, right?

Turning ore to bars at the Edgeville Smithy

Superheating at the bank

Well... don't know why, but I decided just as a side project, I'd  bang out those levels and then always be able to make anything needed.  It sounded like a simple plan, and besides, it ought to be fun.  It shouldn't divert me from my Dungeoneering that much, right?  Little did I know.

Going from 82 Mining up to 90 was no big deal.  It took about 4 days, and that was fine.  Spent some time in the Lava Mine.  Some for the experience, which is easy, but not as fast as possible.  Stayed there until I got my gold mining armor.  The rest of the time was spent mining gold ore in the Living Rock Cavern.  That's probably the fastest way to raise mining levels, with the ability to mine many ores from a single rock before it runs out.

The hard part... going from 90 Smithing to 99?  That was insanity.  I KNEW it would take about 125,000 gold ore being turned into bars.  I just somehow thought it would go much faster.  I mean, you take a whole inventory to the furnace in Edgeville... wear gold-smithing gloves... Have my Varrock 4 armor for the occasional extra bar smelted.  It's automated- you click to start, and then sit back while it does the whole backpack.
I somehow forgot that each bar smelted comes with full graphics animation and the 'hissss' noise.  No shortcuts, no speed-ups.  Full wait for every single gold ore to be converted to gold bar.

At some point, I read that smelting in Edgeville can give about 60k exp per hour.  That was pretty much my experience, so I give them credit for accuracy.  The same place said that Superheating can give up to 100k per hour.  At that point, I still had about 60,000 gold ore left, so I bought 60,000 Nature Runes, grabbed a staff out of the bank, and started Superheating.  They were right, it was far faster.  It also took a lot more attention and effort.  After a while I started alternating.  Some at the Edgeville furnace, some superheating.



So... slightly over three weeks of my time spent on nothing but smithing... and last night I finally got my 99 Smithing!  Wow.  That was intense.  Would have finished over the weekend, but Monique, my son, and my daughter-in-law, pooled their resources to give me a brand new (birthday) computer this weekend, and I spent the whole weekend playing around  with it.

Now I can get back to Dungeoneering!

 Late last night, did the final few thousand with Superheat.  This morning, my mouse finger was cramped... :^)  But I'm done!!!

Mining the Promethium

Now I can relax, Dungeoneer, make my own Prometheus gear.

I can even wear the cape and do the 99 Smithing emote, which I hadn't thought of until Monique asked about it! 

But no more no-lifing to 99.  It's not worth it.  With my obsessive nature, I get too absorbed.  Told Monique if I ever get a notion like that again, just hit me.  Hard.  With a big stick.

Skilling to make Dungeoneering more fun

Recently, I've gotten into dungeoneering.  Having never really tried it before, I was pretty intimidated by the massive learning curve.  My level was mid-60's due to Tears of Guthix.  (Funny how much exp a solid year of Tears will give you!)

Monique tried it with me, and we had mixed results.  She likes to dive in and try things.  I like to research, plan, and prepare.  So for her, it was very boring... waiting for me.  For me, it was a wonderful new world within Runescape.  Dungeoneering harks back, for me, to the early days of home computers.  Bard's tale, Pool of Radiance, all those games that were mainly about gaining levels and crawling dungeons.  I kind of miss those days.

As I've learned, and improved, I think maybe I can take Monique back into the dungeons and not slow her down now.  So with luck, she might be willing to duo a few floors with me.  Otherwise, I enjoy solo dungeoneering.  Even if the exp is far slower than with team play.

A couple of weeks ago, I found someone to make a couple of items for me to bind.  Promethium 2-Handed Sword and Chestplate.  Love them both, but I would really enjoy trying other things out.  I'm also looking to find a Shadow Silk Hood, and will have to give up one of the binds if I do.  But I can't afford to lose the time, or money, constantly paying someone to make new gear, so I'm hesitant to experiment, and don't want to give anything up for the hood (not that I've found one yet!).

It got me thinking how fun it would be, to make my own gear.  I'm a skiller at heart, and most of  my skills are decent or better.  So I looked up how much I'd need to mine and smith promethium.  To do it all, I'd need 90 mining, and 99 smithing.  I thought, heck, I've got 82 mining, and 91 Smithing.  Let's do this! 

The Liquid Gold Nymph sorta liked me...

It's a week later now.  I have the fancy golden mining armor from the Liquid Gold Nymph.  It took 14 real-time hours down in the Lava Flow Mine to get it all, and to have my pick guilded.  Also bought a Dragon Pick Axe for best mining.  Figured I can always sell it back later.  And at 14 million, trust me, it's going back just as soon as I'm done with it! 

She gave me this cool Gold Mining Armor

For the last week, all my game-time has been spent in the Living Rock Cavern, mining gold.  My mining went from level 82, up to 88 by Thursday.   89 by Friday, and got 90 this morning.

I'll be glad to leave this chaos behind!

Started all this last Sunday, and today is Saturday.  Now that mining is at 90, I've switched to smithing.  It'll take 125,000 gold ore turned into bars, using the goldsmith gauntlets and my Varrock 4 armor.  I banked about 17,000 gold ore while mining.  (Spent some of my time Lava Mining, which doesn't give ores.)  It cost around 24 million to buy the rest of the ore, which will become gold bars.  Then craft, probably into plain gold rings.  They resell at a loss, but not a complete loss.  With any luck, by the time I've gotten to 99 smithing, it won't be a big money pit.   Or maybe I'll forget profit, and just make gold amulets for the better experience.

Monique and me making gold bars

I know this'll take a lot of time.  But worth it, when I head back into the dungeons and can make my own armor and weapons instead of relying on someone else.  To me,  dungeoneering is all about the fun.  If I was serious about getting exp and levels, I'd team dungeon.

The good part, when it's all done, I'll be a tiny bit closer to the max skills cape.  So it's all good.