It's good to have Runescape goals

Well, I've been laying low recently.  I just got back into my writing
after the last long break, when I decided maybe it was time to get
some things done in Runescape.  Firstly, to level up all skills
necessary for every Elite Achievement Task.  So I started making
Decorated Fishing Urns, then Decorated Cooking Urns, until my
Crafting was high enough for the Relleka requirements, if I take a
skill-boosting potion with it.  Once Crafting was high enough, that
left me with a stock of Cooking Urns in the bank.  I also had several
thousand uncooked Rocktail in the bank, so decided to cook them up
before continuing with the skills.
In the process of cooking the Rocktails, I made it to level 98
Cooking, then about 1/4 of the way to 99.  Figured, what the heck,
let's get the Cooking 99.  So I bought something like 4,000 raw
Rocktail, while at the same time selling 4000 from my stock of cooked
Rocktail.  By the time the new ones were cooked, my stocks were
replenished, and a small profit of a nearly 200k had been made.  It
was kind of an accidental 99, but I'll take it any way I can!
At that point, the only skills that still didn't meet the Elite
Achievement requirements were Agility and Slayer.  Slayer only needs
about 3 levels, no big deal.  It's fun, so I don't mind working on
it.  Agility, on the other hand, needed around 10 levels...  That's
going to be a LOT of running around the Ape Atoll course.  I'm
sticking with it because once you hit level 75, you quit falling. 
Otherwise I'd go do the Dorgesh-kun circuit.
Looking at all the agility running, I decided this might be a good
time to focus on Jad for the Fire Cape.  I truly, deeply, suck at
prayer switching.  If I didn't want the Elite Achievement rewards so
much, I just wouldn't mess with him.  But, I really want the Elite,
so Jad's been seeing me a lot recently.  I got him down to the
healers time before last.  Then the next time, he killed me before I
could even find him.
I've combed the net looking for ways to beat him.  With very high
combat stats, and a lot of luck, I might be able to dragon claw,
vengeance, and ancient curse him to death.  Maybe.  On the other
hand, if I get really good at prayer switching, Jad can be beat
entirely by Deflect prayers from the Ancient Curses.
In the meantime, it's Runescape's Extra Experience Weekend (their third one).  Monique and I have been grinding away at those skills that we hate.  For me, that's agility.

No pics right now, this is just a quick update.  I want to spend all the time I can getting my bonus experience from Runescape.  Even though at this point I'm down to the 1.1% bonus, it's still extra.
After the weekend's over, I'll update, with some pics too.  Hope you're making the best of it, too!

Runescape Bonus Experience Weekend Coming Up Again

Dinner should be ready in a moment

If you haven't heard yet, it's true... Runescape will be hosting a Bonus XP Weekend from the 11th to the 13th of March.  Last time we had one, I used it to get my 99 in Construction.  Monique used it on a multitude of skills, but she played consistently all weekend and really maxed out her bonus points!
     If you don't remember how it went, you generally get a 2.7x experience bonus the first 30 minutes.  The next 30 minutes nets you 2.55x exp.  Every thirty minutes, the XP bonus reduces a bit, until you get to 10 hours.  After that, you get a constant modifier of 1.1x until the weekend is over.
     Some skills don't get any improvement.  For instance, if you're using a player owned house, or the ectofuntus to work on Prayer, the skill bonus won't apply.  That's a downer, because Prayer is the main skill Monique is trying to raise.  In lieu of raising Prayer, she's going to work on Herblore.  She's always enjoyed it, and wants her next 99 to be Herblore.  Though she might spend some time working on other skills.  In particular, Agility.  We both need to raise that a lot.

Crafting...I'm Urning this experience (bad pun)

     I'm going to be working on Smithing and Crafting.  Smithing is easy, I'm smelting gold ore for that.  But Crafting is a weak spot for me.  I don't like messing around with it, and as a result, I'm pretty low on Crafting.  On the good side, now that Urns have come out, I can make Urns to raise my crafting level fairly cheaply.  But it's still slow and boring.  So I'll spend most of my XP Bonus Weekend on Crafting.  I need nearly ten levels for my Elite Achievements. 
     I think it makes a lot of sense to use the extra experience on skills you hate, so you can knock them out of the way faster... or expensive skills, so you can afford to level up more.  I'll save the free and fun skills for normal times.  Though like Monique, I may spend some of that time on Agility.  It's free, but tends to be boring.
     Regardless of how you plan to spend your Bonus XP Weekend, I'm sure Runescape has something to offer for at least some of your skills.  Even if it's not the one you most want. 
     Believe it or not, there are a small group of immature whiners (name-calling, yeah, I really shouldn't, I know) who like to complain about everything.  They figure since they had to walk to school uphill, in the snow, both ways, every day of the year, then nobody else should get to ride the school bus.  Or, in Runescape terms, since they earned their 99's the hard way (whatever way that was) then it cheapens the skill for someone else to have it easier.
     Speaking as someone with several 99's, and several skills close to 99, I don't mind.  Sure, maybe I got some of mine the hard/expensive/long way.  But that's okay, because... I was a) having fun and b) playing a game.  If someone is not enjoying the game, maybe it's time to find a new game.  If they're truly upset that someone else gets to play and have more fun than they did, maybe it's time to turn off the computer and play in the real world for a while. 
     Seriously, it's just a game.  If it quits being fun, I'll find something else to do.  I play Runescape to get away from working, jobs, responsibilities... for a while.  If it starts feeling too much like work, why the heck would I keep playing?
   
     I thought very hard about not expressing my opinions here... but decided to let it stand.  Those of us who simply enjoy the game often get shouted out and flamed by those who can't tolerate other opinions.  So, there's my opinion.  Comments are welcome, even opposing comments... as long as we can keep it civil and express our thoughts coherently.  So if you disagree, and can say so nicely, I would be happy to discuss it, and share our thoughts.

Runescape Skilling - Just Got Better with Urns for Cooking, Fishing, Mining, Smithing, Woodcutting, and Prayer

This month's skilling update is a pretty cool one... or not, depending on your point of view.  As always, when Runescape gives us a new way to skill, or improves and existing one, there are complainers.  People with 99's who think this somehow devalues their skills.  While I can understand their feelings, I think they forget it's a game, played for fun.  If something changes to make the game more fun, I'm all for it.  Especially if it reduces the boring tedium required to earn a 99 in anything.
 

I like to have fun.  But I also like leveling up, even though it can be a real pain.  If I can level up, and have more fun doing it, that's the way the game should be.  If you followed the complainers logic to it's bitter end, we'd all still be playing original  Runescape Classic, in all it's glorious hand-drawn, flat 2-d art.  Because the complainers would veto any changes that made earning a skill easier.

Okay, enough griping.  Sorry, got off topic slightly.

The new Urns are a pretty spectacular addition to certain skills.  First, in their very creation, you earn exp in Crafting.  Way cool, because I need to improve my crafting level, and these are cheap to make, while mildly profitable to sell.  (I would say Wildly profitable, but they sell slow at the moment.)
Then they can be crafted to speed up experience in Cooking, Fishing, Mining, Smithing, Woodcutting, and Prayer.  I've only used the Fishing Urns so far, but the exp gain is very nice.  

With the best urn, I get 1900 exp per full urn.  I've been fishing Rocktails, with a Rock Lobster.  I now bring a few urns with me.  While they do enhance exp gained, and quite nicely, there's an even better aspect.  They give me something new and entertaining to consider while I fish.
Just imagine- fish, fish, fish, kill some bait, fish, fish, fish... that gets a little boring after 90+ levels.  Now, every now and then I get a notice.  "Your urn is now one-quarter full"... "Your urn is now half full"... and when the urn is full, I actually get to manually initiate the teleport.  Watch my little guy put the urn down, see it whisk away...

If it sounds like I'm teasing, well, maybe a little.  But really, I'm glad for the extra distraction.  It provides a little more entertainment, yet if I'm reading something, (or writing a new Runescape blog) there's no hold-up because I'm not paying attention.  Sometimes I miss an urn being filled up.  When the next one tells me, and I go to teleport it, that's when I realize I had more than one.  I still get all the exp, no waiting, hold-up, or penalties.
Bear in mind, I've only tried it with fishing so far, which I like very much.  

Monique has used the Prayer urns, and that looks pretty good too.  Prayer got an even better boost than the other skills did.  Now demons drop ashes that can be used for prayer, and are very effective used with the Prayer Urns.  Monique has been working very hard, and spending a fortune, trying to raise prayer.  Now she'll have a new tool to use.  She likes to multi-task, so rarely does Abyssal demons unless it's a Slayer task.  But I told her she should just camp out at the Abyssals, collecting the odd Abyssal Whip, and earning (urning) Prayer exp.  Sounds like a win-win to me!

The other update, making agility shortcuts easier, I haven't looked at yet.  Maybe this weekend.