All of a sudden, lots of new content in Runescape!

Recently, I've been doing circles in the advanced Gnome Agility Course.  Before that, I was working on mining gold in the Living Rock Cavern.  But then Hati and Skoll came out, so Monique and I took a break to do them.  Once I got Skoll's boots, and saw how great they were for Agility, I decided to use them up on agility.

So, round and round we go.  One lap, two laps, many.  Baby Jad faithfully following behind.  Then, with about 15% left on the boots, Runescape came out with the Burthorpe/Taverly newby update.  Here we go again.  Monique and I had planned on doing all the content, even if it was intro stuff.  We both like new content, and it doesn't always have to be high-level.  I also found out later, that I've lost my Taskmaster emote.  To get it back, I have to complete all the new stuff. 

We got a large part done last night.   Close to midnight, called it a night.  Hoped to finish today.  But instead, I'm falling behind on my writing, and spent all evening trying to catch up.  Now, it's nearly 11:30, and we're going to wait some more.  I haven't even done my Trolls yet this month!  Usually those get done on the first day of the month.

New day.  This is a first for me.  A Runescape blog I didn't write in sitting?  Man.  But I'm writing at least 3 other blogs a day, plus work.  It's hard to fit everything I want to do into one single day. 

Anyway, we finished the last few tasks.  Got my Taskmaster emote back, that felt good.  Worked long and hard for that, hate losing it every time something new comes along.

Now, it's back to the grind.  Agility has been going well.  Made 90 recently.  For a slow skill, and one I'm not over-fond of, it hasn't seemed too bad.  I really like the new meter the screen shows.  This little circle near the top, with the bar filling more and more of the perimeter as I gain experience.  A lot of these little mainenance fixes have been pretty good.

Got about 8% left on the Skoll boots.  After that, it's either push on through Agility, or go back to mining gold in the Living Rock Caverns.

Huh.  You know what?  I just realized I haven't done my trolls yet this month!  Guess I'll go back to Burthorpe.

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!

Finished Relleka Elite Tasks, Got the First Livid Farm Spell... and Got The Taskmaster Emote!!!

I'm not a 'Woot' kind of guy, but this deserves a Woot...  I've been working on mastering all the Elite Tasks for ages, and finally made it!  Everything I've done, every goal achieved, every level raised, every hour played, has all been to earn the Taskmaster rating.  Even facing Jad in the Fight Cave - that wasn't for the Fire Cape, that was for the Elite Task.  I didn't MIND getting the cape, it just wasn't the ultimate goal. 
     Sunday night, I did the last elite tasks, only to realize Runescape pulled a fast one.  They snuck in a Hard Task for the new game, Livid Farm.  Lucky for me, that was one of my future goals anyway, so I really didn't mind, but it slowed me down long enough to get the first spell reward from Livid.
     So, last night, Monday April 11, 2011, for the first time ever, I stood atop my pedestal and waited for the world to bow down before me. 
     Nobody got the memo- All I got was one decent fellow who congratulated me and told me "Well done".  Sigh...
That was a lot of work.  Yes, the per-item rewards are cool.  Some more than others.  I especially love the ones that teleport me. 

I'm super-happy they re-worked the graphics.  For the Elite Armor, it all goes together in a matched set, so it looks cool.  There's still a few pieces to go, so I'm assuming Runescape is going to come out with a few more Tasks.  It still needs a Necklace, Legs, and, honestly, a Weapon.  I'm hoping when they fill all the armor and weapon slots, the completed set will have some totally awesome Set Special Effect.  Something useful, not just flashy.
     In this pic, I'm wielding Elite Enhanced Excalibur, because you don't get the maxed out sword until you've done the all the Seers Village Tasks.  And really, this sword is probably the most useful reward from all the tasks.  It's like a constantly regenerating Monkfish and Super Defence.  Every five minutes...  Now THAT'S useful!

After all that work and effort, dedication and obsession, I wanted to make a video of the emote.  Unfortunately, at this time my computer just isn't fast enough to play Runescape and record screen video at the same time.  So I used my Flip Mino HD Video Recorder to take video manually.  It's not nearly as crisp and clear, but still... that's me up on that pedestal!  Until I can figure out how to get better video, that's what I'm stuck with. 
Getting the Taskmaster emote was a lot of fun at times, and a lot of drudgery at times.  Some skills were very expensive to raise, others just took a long time.  I kind of enjoyed the Slayer levelling, though I was rushing through it by the end.  Below was my final Slayer kill... the grand Ice Strykewyrm!  He was interesting, the entire line of Strykewyrms is a lot of fun to fight.

I've played Runescape for a long time, and had a lot of fun.  Part of the fun is that my wife, Monique, plays it too.  We have a lot of fun with all the different things you can do in Runescape (Penguins later tonight, as a matter of fact...:^)

But after all the quests, all the mini-games, all the fabulous mythical adventures, I have to say getting the Taskmaster emote ranks as one of my top two Runescape moments.  (Beating Jad was the other, and since I took on Jad as part of my quest to achieve the Taskmaster, it's really like both of my greatest moments were from the same thing.) If you want to know how Klutzy me beat Jad, a way that's super easy, click HERE.
So, the video... not the best video, there are better ones on Youtube... but this one's mine!

And, yes, I have about 8 baby Black Dragons and one each Green, Blue, and Red.  I like Dragons.  :^)