Runescape: Skill Weekend 3/16/12- What will YOU be working on?

Not much going on right now for me.  Internet has been having intermittent service, so I've been unable to do anything dangerous.  I keep getting logged out.  Cable guy came out today, installed a couple of new parts.  Said there was a problem with the 'forward signal' in the outside lines, whatever that means.  He's sending someone to check it out.

In the meantime, I'm stuck skilling.  Doing things that won't cause problems if it logs me out.  Which ties in very nicely to today's "Behind the Scenes" announcements.  New Extra Experience Weekend coming up the weekend of March 16 (2012).  That's cool.  Monique and I usually make it a date weekend, and let everybody know we're out of touch for the weekend.  I haven't decided what to spend the time doing.  Thinking to spend at least part of the time on Agility.  It would be good to get crafting up, too.  That's an expensive skill if you're using Black Dragonhides! I pre-bought enough Black Dragon Leathers to go up one level... from 86 to 87. 

Then there's mining.  At one point that was going to be my next 99, but events (and Runescape Updates) have sidetracked me a bit.  Or, if they allow extra tokens and exp for Dungeoneering, that's an option.  Can't remember offhand if they allowed it last time or not.  Have to wait for more details to see what Jagex's rules and restrictions are for this time around.

Problem is, there's too many skills to work on, and not enough weekend to do it in.  Monique's got 98 Defence and aiming for 99, this might be a great opportunity for her to get her next 99.  Of course, choosing how to spend that time is half the fun.  I enjoy looking through the skills, seeing what's close to another level, or what's normally an expensive/slow skill to raise.  These weekends are great.  One of the first ones earned me a 99 Construction, which was awesome, considering it's expense.  The Hati paws helped train my Agility.  Monique got 99 Crafting AND Herblore from the last time.

There's just so many choices, I'm really looking forward to it.  For now, not really sure what to do, but going to have fun doing it!

So what did YOU do during Extra Exp Weekend last time?

What are your goals for this time?

Runescape Bunus Exp Weekend Over and Gone

So, the Runescape Bonus Experience weekend is over now.  How'd you do?

My 1 level raised over the Bonus Exp Weekend...

Let's start off by saying Monique smoked me.  She left skid marks on the road, and me standing in a cloud of dust.  Early Friday morning, I was aware she had just gotten 97 in Herblore.  A short while later, she sent me an email.  All it said was "98".  By the time I got home she was nearing 99, and had her skill cape in no time flat.  I asked how she was screaming through it so fast, she said she was making overloads from scratch.  Sounds expensive, but she'll use them on Slayer and make it back.
In the meantime, she moved over to Crafting, and gained a few levels in that.  Then she jumped to Fletching, which is where she spent the rest of the weekend.  Her goal was to get at least 93 Fletching, in order to be able to do all levels of Effigies for Fletching/Woodcutting.  Neither of us has that at the moment.  Or, we didn't.
We'll get back to the effigies in a moment...

In the meantime, I started bonus exp weekend having just barely begun Slayer level 97.  I use Super Sets (Strength and Attack), Turmoil, Soul Split, Cannonballs, whatever I can to speed it up.  I don't pick up any drops unless they're especially good... like Effigies.  No extremes, though.  My herblore's only 89, which limits which ones I can make... and I don't want to take the time from Slayer to make them.  When it makes sense, I use Dragon Claws special, or Vine Whip special, Korasi's special, or the Enhanced Excalibur.

Steel Titan, Cannon, Potions, every advantage possible

I skip slow tasks, even if I like them.  Right now, all I want is speed.  So, during the weekend I got a grand total of over 6 million exp.  I wish it all went to Slayer, but of course most of it was just plain old combat.  Of that number, 1,200,000 or so went to Slayer.

While working on the skill, I got a ton of Effigy drops.  I quit counting after a dozen, and just cashed in the ones I could, left the rest in the bank for the moment.

Now's probably a good time to talk about Effigies.  I don't know which monsters drop them, or what the drop rate is, but it seems to be rare, or very uncommon.  They have 4 stages, each of which requires a correspondingly higher skill level in different skills to unlock.  Each level you unlock (or someone assists you to unlock) gives experience points to that skill.  (Either to you, or the person assisting if you needed help.)  The final stage reveals a Dragonkin Lamp, which is used for experience in any skill you want.  The amount given depends on the level of the skill chosen.

Ancient Effigy

That's the short form.  For a full explanation, Wiki has a great webpage.  In my case, it's all going to Slayer, and at level 98... and yes, that's the only level I gained this weekend...  I'm getting about 46k exp per Dragonkin Lamp.

So currently, I've got something like 14 Effigies that I'll need boosts or assists to unlock.  Once I unlock all the lamps, that will give me about 600,000 exp.  I also have enough Slayer points to buy about 85k exp as well.

Monique assisting me with Ancient Effigy

To top it all off, tomorrow is Tuesday, and Monique and I will be doing penguins.  They'll give me close to 40k.  Which means, at my current Slayer experience, I only need about 300k more experience to get 99.   (Quick update here:  we finished Ritual of the Mahjarrat, and used all 80k exp lamps on Slayer.  I just need to finish cashing in my effigies to level 99!)

That's a lot of work, but without the Effigies, it would be tons more!  I think I can get it by next weekend (I hope!)

Then I start playing Soul Wars, earning Zeal points.  With 100 Zeal, TzRek-Jad will be mine (insert evil laughter here).  I can't wait!

Runescape Bonus Exp Weekend

Splash Image from Runescape.com during Bonus Exp Weekend

 Today starts the first day of the Runescape Bonus Experience Weekend.  To the best of my recollection, it's the third one ever.  Monique and I missed the first one.  Just had too much happening to play that weekend.  The second one we did really well.  That's pretty much where I got 99 Construction.  

This one, we have a couple of non-game things going on, but should be able to devote most of the weekend to it.  I'm really hyped about it.  With the advent of the new Baby Jad, I've been pushing to 99 my Slayer as fast as possible, and just got to 97 a couple of days ago.  So this is absolutely perfect timing to get that last push in.  Don't know how far it can take me, but I'm going to be Slaying my brains out this weekend... :^)

It's only 2 levels to go, but more than 2 million exp points!

I seriously doubt I can get (roughly) 2 million Slayer exp in a single weekend, even if it IS Bonus Exp Weekend.  But still, that's going to save a tremendous amount of time.  Money too, since I always use an inventory full of Prayer pots, a couple of Super Sets, and a Cannon as often as possible.  Anything I can think of to speed it up.  I can't make Overloads, and don't really want to take the time at this stage to make a bunch of Extreme Potions.  After all, the goal is to get the last 2 levels of Slayer, not to level up Herblore.  Not the timing I would have chosen, but when they came out with Baby Jad, it through my general plans out the window.  I want him NOW!

A little obssessed, you say?  True enough.  I think most real Runescapers are, at least to some extent.  But I have a special history with Jad.  Through all the years he's been in existence, we've been happy to live and let live.  I don't kill him, he doesn't kill me.  We both liked it that way.  Then one day Jagex came out with the Task system, and over time it evolved into a goal of mine to get the Taskmaster Emote.

The bad news:  One of the Tasks requires killing Jad.  Was I committed enough?  Yep.  I'm horrible at Jad's kind of real-time combat.  Anything requiring fast reflexes and hyper-concentration.  So beating him was not just a matter of a couple of days effort.  There was research, study, practice... I had to find the simplest method possible so I could handle the prayer switching.  

The result was 2 months of banging my head against the fight cave wall.  Total frustration.  At some point, I found mention of the Ancient Curses technique.  After a lot of effort, it worked for me and I wound up with 3 Fire Capes.  

By the time it was over, Jad was in my subconscious.  Couldn't quit thinking about him.  He showed up in my dreams.  I kept hearing his sound effects in my head.  To get him out of my system, I wrote about him.  Wrote for nearly a week, and when it was done, it had turned into a pretty good guide on beating Jad with Ancient Curses.  Hadn't meant it to turn out that way, but since it turned out so well, I cleaned it up and published it online as a guide.

Random Slayer Scene #1: Ice Strykewyrms

It worked.  I pretty much went my own way, and left Jad alone down in the depths of his Fight Caves.  Until...

Jagex decided the (non-combat) method of killing Jad with Ancient Curses was a 'glitch', and removed it.  They also 'fixed' the 'Vengeance' method, which was nearly as easy.  All gone.  No more.  So they just destroyed the only way I can beat him, not to mentioned all that time and work making the guide.

Well, that guide is a work of heart for me.  I'm not pulling it off the web, I just included an update that the part of it relating to Ancient Prayers no longer works.  Most of the guide is still very useful.  But the real meat of it is gone.  When I get the assignment from Kuradel, I attempt Jad again.  But she's only offered him twice so far, and I've gotten killed both times.  Still working on him.

Random Slayer Scene #2: Calling down the thunder on Steel Dragons

Okay, by now this just sounds like whining.  But it's setting the stage for the flip side.  Just as the Lord giveth, and the Lord taketh away, Jagex took something from me, but offered something in return.

Baby Jad.  TzRek-Jad.

After all that history, I HAD to get baby Jad.  Already had 99 Summoning.  93 Slayer.  No Zeal Points.  Time to get busy.  By now, I've gotten 97 Slayer.  This bonus exp weekend will get me much farther ahead.  Maybe a whole level.  

When they announced the weekend, I KNEW how I'd be spending it.  How about you?

Final Random Slayer Scene: A Guy and His Titan... taking down the Black Demons