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!

Pray Hit Eat - Melee Combat in Runescape

How do you fight in Runescape?  More specifically, what's your melee style? 

Pray Hit Eat- it pays to have high prayer levels!

 I was discussing Jad with a friend recently, and the subject kind of drifted in sideways.  Being a high-level player, I tend to rely on lots of prayer, Attack/Strength, and hit points.  For most ordinary monsters, that's generally sufficient.  Which is good, because I spectacularly fail when it comes to complicated combat styles.  Jad in the Fight Caves took me two months to beat.  I only succeeded because I found out you can kill him with deflect prayers and never actually have to fight Jad.

Same thing with Nomad.  I studied every guide out there, tried it all, and finally beat him mainly by persistence, luck, and by having high stats.    Before the big fight, when Monique and I were doing the Nomad quest, we came to the maze of exploding floating platforms you had to jump across.  Monique was cautiously threading her way through, trying to jump only to ones that wouldn't explode.  About 1/3 through, she looked over at me, to see me just waiting for her at the end.

"How did you get there?"

Me: "I ran"

Monique:  "How'd you know where to run?"

Me:  "I didn't... I just ran."

Got to the end with hit points to spare, ate some food, ready for the next phase.  And Monique?  Well, she got to the end in pretty good shape, and her method was much more elegant than mine.

This pretty much explains my approach to most combat as well.  I do my research, try to face it intelligently, but rely heavily on the "Pray Hit Eat" method of survival.  I'm just not coordinated enough to get truly elegant.  Survival is the goal, and it doesn't have to be pretty.  Just effective.

In the long run, my technique has limited effectiveness.  But with higher stats, I can afford to be a bit sloppy.  So, how do YOU melee?  With wit, charm, and style?  Or "Pray Hit Eat?" 

Being a Wandering Vagabond in Runescape

Hanging with the StykeWyrms on my beautiful island retreat

 After all this time, working towards one major goal, then another...
First it was 99 Summoning so I could max my combat.  Then, I had to get 99 Prayer, for the same goal.  Once I got 138 combat, it was time to get 99 Construction.  Got that, though I'm still saving up to max out the house.  Can't believe it's 25 million just for one simple little demon throne!
Somewhere in there, the achievement diaries came out, then they became the Task System.  I wanted the Elite level for all tasks.  The armor, the teleports, the special rewards... the Taskmaster Emote!  Killing Jad, which was part of the elite tasks for Karamja.

Now that I'm retired, I can relax and go fishing

I recently got the Taskmaster emote, and while there are plenty of things I want to do, for a change I don't have any obsessively driven things to do.  Sure, I want to get all the new spells and rewards from Livid Farm.  And I want to get at least 90 Agility.  And 99 Slayer.
As an aside, I keep going to Kuradal (spelling?) hoping she'll assign Fight Caves.  It's funny, how I hated Jad and the Fight Cave so much.  But by the time I'd figured out a way I could beat Jad, I kind of enjoyed it.  I don't want to go back for no reason, but I keep hoping I'll get him as a slayer boosted assignment.

I'm at 96 Fishing, and currently am relaxing at the Fishing Guild while I do a little one-handed Barbarian Shark Fishing.  It's kind of fun to be able to do it, though I don't really see a huge speed increase.  I think for normal fishing, I'll stick with Rocktails.
I've been Slaying for the last few days.  Sometimes I'll go over to the Gnome Advanced Agility Course.  I'll flip an  hour or two at the Grand Exchange.  Now maybe I can even explore Dungeoneering - finally!

In all honesty, it's kind of nice just doing what I want to.  I've been driven to reach those difficult goals for so long now, Runescape's almost become like work.  Finally, I'm relaxing.  Whatever the mood is, that's how I play.  I really enjoy combat, so Slayer's been getting a lot of my time.  But I'm not obsessing over it.

Goals are good.  It really gives you a sense of accomplishment to set a hard goal, and after lots of work, actually achieve it.  But wow... just wandering aimlessly has a lot going for it.  I drive hard when I'm going for a goal.  Now, I'm enjoying Runescape.  My biggest goal is to save up enough gold to finish my house.  Let's see, 2 thrones, there's 50 million.  A few dragons in the dungeon, at about 10 million each, that's probably another 50 million.  Maxing the odds and ends of each room in the house, I'm guessing I'll need between 125 million and 150 million.  I'm about a third of the way right now, but I don't want to spend all my seed money.  I use maybe 50 million for trading when I'm flipping.  It fluctuates a lot, based on what I'm trading at the moment, but usually it's commodities.  Essence, Runes, Food, Wood... The stuff that's always in demand.

When I get close to enough money, I'll probably start obsessing like usual.  But for now, I'm just the happy wanderer.  Check out the pubs in Falador, Varrock, Brimhaven, etc... you'll probably find me knocking back a few beers with the local rednecks!