To begin with, ever since EOC Beta was announced my focus has been skilling. Didn't' see sense investing time in combat when everything's still in flux. With all that free time spent NOT in combat, there's been several 99's happening. Currently I'm training fletching, and am halfway between 98 and 99. Next up will probably be Hunting.
Skilling, while kind of a drudge, is traditional gameplay. The trick to getting your mindset is to focus on the excitement of levelling, and maxing the skill. Reach a zen state, and zone out.
In between working skills, I do my daily money run, and work on my Player Owned Port. Really enjoying the POP. Have 3 ships, a few upgrades, and about 5 scrolls so far. Many people are much farther along. That's okay. It's been a lot of fun.
But... I'm a bit nervous about the upcoming updates. Mod Mark published his latest Og Blog yesterday. It's describing some pretty large changes to the EOC, scheduled to take place on 14 Jan 2013. A lot of them I'm not too thrilled about.
Get used to the EOC? Okay, fine. They took roughly six months to test it, and have been working on it ever since. Minor changes, adjustments, updates, those are all to be expected. That's all okay with me. A major realignment at this point in time though? That's kind of hard to take.
I've gotten used to, and quite attached to, Rejuvenation and the other healing abilities. After they already took away my Enhanced Excalibur, now they're taking away my healing abilities. Or at least, making them nearly useless by putting Rejuvenation on a 5-minute timer.
I'm also worried about the armor changes. Buffing high level armor is fine, but it sounds like they're going to make it nearly mandatory to wear the best armor to fight the biggest fights. I've been playing since 2004, but I still can't afford an entire set of Torva, much less adding Pernix and Virtus to all of that. I do well to keep my bank at 100 million. Making it factors of 10 greater is going to take a long time. Requirements like this certainly encourage gold farming. I worry that some day we'll be able to buy RS gold in Solomon's store. That would be a sad day. However much gold I've got, I earned it, and so should everybody.
I can appreciate Jagex's goal here. Trying to stabilize the price of supplies and equipment. Bring value back to the skillers and killers. Yay to the goal. But if that means I'm going to need a few Billion (with a "B") gold to effectively fight the highest level monsters... I'll be years saving up for it. Every time I get over 100 million saved, I spend it training a skill.
After playing nearly a decade, I'm effectively being shut out of something my character is capable of, because they're making the armor requirements too restrictive. That seems harsh.
Maybe I'm wrong. Might be misinterpreting the intent, or the after-effects. Maybe the new high-level armor from POP will fill in the gap with effective yet affordable equipment. Possibly the upcoming Kalphite King drops will become the new 'top gear', bringing price down on the older gear. Or maybe the prices will drop to affordable levels as a direct result of the proposed changes. I really hope something helps.
Because, as I've stated before, Runescape is just a game. If it changes to the point where I don't like it any more... then it's time to go. No drama. No hate. But I'll be a lot happier if it continues to be a wonderfully enjoyable game that Monique and I can play together. After both of us have spent nearly a decade enjoying it, we've built a lot of good memories playing. I'd really miss that.
Guess I'll find out in a week. Fingers crossed!
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