Runescape: Dragon Pick Axe and Hatchet Now Go In The Tool Belt

This week's updates are based on player feedback.  Rather than make a single massive game-changing update, Jagex decided to implement lots of little changes.  All of them based on player suggestions in the forums.

They might be small tweaks, but there's a ton of them... and some will have a massive impact on the game.  The most-touted change is to the toolbelt.  Players have had a tool belt for some time now.  It was a great update when it came out, but basic.  Two of the most-needed implements could only be stored in the lowest-level form.  Brass pick axe and brass hatchet.  If you wanted to mine or cut trees down with a higher-level tool, you still had to bring your own.

 

 As of this week, that's been fixed.  Your toolbelt can hold a Dragon Hatchet, and a Dragon Pick Axe.  Yay.  There's some fine print though.  For instance, no slot for a Fire Adze.  Also no place to put your favorite gold-trimmed pickaxe.  I didn't want to 'un-trim' my pickaxe, so spent about 10 million to buy another.  It took a lot of time to get that axe trimmed, and removing the trim just didn't sit well.  I'd rather just get another for the toolbelt.  Rumor is you'll soon be able to put a trimmed pickaxe in, I sure hope that's true.

Also, once in, forever in.  Whatever tools go into your tool belt, they're permanent.  The bad part is, you can't change your mind.  No selling it back when you're done.  The good part is, no loss on death.  Even in the wilderness.  If it's in the toolbelt, you'll never lose it.  Seems like a fair deal.  Also, if you put something in the belt that's too high for your skill level, it will act as whatever skill level you can handle.  For instance, if the highest axe you can use is Mithril, you can still put a Dragon hatchet in your tool belt, and it will act as a mithril hatchet until you level up enough to use the Dragon hatchet.
Other updates are more random.  Some people might be happy, some not, some won't care.

Many monsters (high-level slayer assignments) are going to be harder to kill.  Aberrant Spectres, Living Rock creatures, Mutated Jadinkos, Waterfiends, Dust Devils, Brutal Green Dragons...
I can see the benefit, though I hope the rewards have also been tweaked to match.  For people mining in the Living Rock Caverns, that might pose a problem.  Guess we'll see when the first forum responses start trickling in.

The one that hits me the hardest is the change to Dragon vulnerabilities.  Instead of being weak to Arrows, dragons are now weak to Bolts.

You know, I just recently put a serious dent in my savings to buy a Zaryte Bow.  Paid nearly 100 million gold.  And suddenly it's not effective on dragons.  Odds are, the value of the bow is going to drop drastically as well.  That's a big ouch.  Up until now, I've dodged those kinds of bullets.  But this one caught me.  So, am I out 100 million gold?  No.  I have a bow that's fun to use, and still effective in other situations.

Just a game, right?  My bow is still cool.  Guess next up will be whatever cool crossbow is affordable.

One change that I like is to the Knockout Aura.  It very clearly raises the chance-to-hit on monsters with low life points.  The better the aura, the better percent improvement it gives.  Many auras have been made useless by the EOC.  It's nice to see them getting a bit of shine and polish again.

Grotworms are harder to kill, and hit harder as well.  With all the bots that flock to Grotworms, it would be nice if this change made Grotworms less desirable to botters.  I've seen at least one comment on the forums about Grotworms actually being dangerous now.

The gravestones finally persist beyond logout.  If I understand correctly, if  you log out after dying, you can log back in and recover your items for up to an hour later.  If you log back into the wrong world, a message will inform you, and give you the chance to log-in to the world where your gravestone it.

There are other changes, quite a few.  But these are the ones that caught my attention.  Like it or hate it, at least Jagex is listening to us.