Runescape: How I Spent My (Bonus Exp) Weekend

Well, Runescape's Bonus Weekend has come and gone again.  I spent about 15 hours playing, so definitely got my time in!  Usually for a Bonus Exp Weekend, I focus on one thing and try to blast through as many levels as possible.  This time was a change of pace.  Spent some time hanging around the GE Crafting Black Dragon Bodies, and Flasks.  Went up two levels, from 86 to 88.  Not a significant mile marker or anything, but it makes crafting flasks require much less Crafting potion.  At 86, sometimes I couldn't even finish a full inventory before it timed out.  At 88, it's easy to do all 50 from one sip of potion.  Since I plan to take on the Fight Kiln soon, having plenty of 6-dose flasks will be very helpful.

After Crafting, I made about 150 Overloads.  No special exp goal, but since I was running out, it made sense to wait until the Bonus weekend to make more.  Already had most of the potions assembled, just had to add the Torstol leaves to it.  No levels gained.  But still, extra exp for the effort.  I certainly wish it wasn't such a complicated timekiller to make Overloads and Super Antifires.  

After that, Monique and I had a date at the ZMI Altar.  She wasn't quite ready, so for me, laps at the Advanced Barbarian Agility Course until she was done with her first project.  Once she was done training her Crafting, We met over at the Lunar Altar to switch spellbooks.  From there, we ran Runes at ZMI.  Talk about blindingly boring...  I only made about 100k exp, she stopped at 50k.  ... Next!

Okay, so that didn't go as planned.  Somedays, you're just not in the mood.  We both switched back to Agility, each to our own course (she's at Gnome Advanced).  Stayed there long enough to level up from 91 to 92 Agility.  It's a slow skill, but just felt more entertaining than Runecrafting.  Making 92 doesn't come with any great benefit, but it's one level closer to 99.

My agenda still includes getting Mining up, so after Agility, I went to the Living Rock Caverns.  Went for a few gold ores.  Only needed 220k exp to get a level, so made that the goal.  Went to world 77 so the Living Rock creatures might leave me alone more.  Talk about lag.  Move a step, pause.  Move a step, pause.  Went that way the entire time.  But still, got that level!

 

Last and finally, we both checked our 'cleanup' levels.  You know, the ones where you just need a few points to level up.  My only reasonable one was Hunter, needed about 16k for a level.  Went off to do Red Chinchompas.  Had no idea how crowded they are.  Wish there was some more space for others there.  Still, managed the 16k, made one more level.  It's my lowest skill, at 74 (75 now).  Usually I just let Juuna train that one.

I didn't focus on one single skill this time.  Just spread it out among different ones.  Made a few levels, had some fun.  In general, just really appreciated the bonus experience.

So that was my weekend... how did you spend yours?

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: Mining, Agility, Crafting, Fight Kiln... need more Gold!

I usually have no trouble staying focused.  But with all the recent events and updates on Runescape, I've been bouncing from one thing to the next without ever giving it my whole attention.
Way back before Hati  and Skoll came out, I was happily mining concentrated gold in the Living Rock cavern.  Working toward a 99.

Nice walkthrough for Hati and Skoll

Before getting very far, the wolf twins started harassing our friends in Fremennick.  So Monique and I geared up, and trundled over to give the wolves what for.  Not really that hard, but fun for a change of pace.  Skoll was interesting, simply because he was new and different.  The graphics were very well-done.  Runescape has come a long way in the look and feel of the game.  Hati, of course, gives the double-combat-exp gloves.  Monique got her mileage from them by getting 98 in Defense at Ape Atoll.  Dharok, gorillas, prayer... very fast experience.
Skoll dropped boots, which gave double Agility, which I can defenitely make use of.

So, goodbye concentrated gold.  Hello, Advanced Gnome Agility Course.  The boots brought me to 90, and most of the way to 91 at the Barbarian Advanced course.  (The new Elder Kiln quest did the rest of that level.)

Then, of course, the Elder Kiln quest... Love it.  Intrigued by the Fight Kiln minigame.  I suck at Jad, but have actually beaten him a few times.  Really looking forward to doing the Fight Kiln.  I'm sure I'll die many times, but still want to try.  But... need more money first, to fund all the needed supplies.

About this time, Monique told me she's been making good money mining her 50 Red Sandstone a day, and turning it into Robust Glass Flasks.  Sounded good, so grabbed my pick-axe, and hi-ho... off to work I go.  Mining, no problem.  Using the machine to make Robust Glass, easy.  Uh-oh...  my crafting is too low!!!!!

Doggone it.  So, with Monique's tremendous assistance (From buying my first 1000 black dragon hides, to helping me get Sacred Clay Needles) I spent the weekend getting 86 Crafting.  Took quite a few crafting potions to do it, and something like 20 million gold.  Wait a minute, I was supposed to be MAKING money!

Mining the Sandstone

Okay, now with the help of more Crafting potion, I can make Robust Glass Flasks.  Hmmm, weren't they supposed to be useful in the Fight Kiln?  Maybe I won't sell them after all.  So here I am, with my brand new Crafting levels, down by 20 million gold, and... NOT making money from flasks.  :^(

Making Robust Glass

Got that critical level now!

In the meantime, I did take just a couple of minutes to get killed quickly in the Fight Kiln.  No intention of truly trying for it.  Just wanted to pay the Fire Cape, and try a wave or two.  Went in with Armour and whip.  No food.  No potions.  No bolts.  Didn't want to spend ANY money yet.  Made it to level 5.  Fair enough.

And Finally Making 6-potion Flasks!

Now, I'm back to needing money to fund my Fight Kiln attempts.  Runecrafted for a while.  Boring.  Flipped some essence.  Slow.  So, it's either my old favorites, the Avies, or maybe Black Dragons.  Dragons are fun.  Decent profit, with the chance of some good special drops.

So, let's sum it up.  I've recently been a miner, acrobat, crafter, and fighter.  Now it's time to make more money.

Focused?  About as tightly focused as a butterfly in a field of daisies.  Well, we'll see how it goes.

Skilling to make Dungeoneering more fun

Recently, I've gotten into dungeoneering.  Having never really tried it before, I was pretty intimidated by the massive learning curve.  My level was mid-60's due to Tears of Guthix.  (Funny how much exp a solid year of Tears will give you!)

Monique tried it with me, and we had mixed results.  She likes to dive in and try things.  I like to research, plan, and prepare.  So for her, it was very boring... waiting for me.  For me, it was a wonderful new world within Runescape.  Dungeoneering harks back, for me, to the early days of home computers.  Bard's tale, Pool of Radiance, all those games that were mainly about gaining levels and crawling dungeons.  I kind of miss those days.

As I've learned, and improved, I think maybe I can take Monique back into the dungeons and not slow her down now.  So with luck, she might be willing to duo a few floors with me.  Otherwise, I enjoy solo dungeoneering.  Even if the exp is far slower than with team play.

A couple of weeks ago, I found someone to make a couple of items for me to bind.  Promethium 2-Handed Sword and Chestplate.  Love them both, but I would really enjoy trying other things out.  I'm also looking to find a Shadow Silk Hood, and will have to give up one of the binds if I do.  But I can't afford to lose the time, or money, constantly paying someone to make new gear, so I'm hesitant to experiment, and don't want to give anything up for the hood (not that I've found one yet!).

It got me thinking how fun it would be, to make my own gear.  I'm a skiller at heart, and most of  my skills are decent or better.  So I looked up how much I'd need to mine and smith promethium.  To do it all, I'd need 90 mining, and 99 smithing.  I thought, heck, I've got 82 mining, and 91 Smithing.  Let's do this! 

The Liquid Gold Nymph sorta liked me...

It's a week later now.  I have the fancy golden mining armor from the Liquid Gold Nymph.  It took 14 real-time hours down in the Lava Flow Mine to get it all, and to have my pick guilded.  Also bought a Dragon Pick Axe for best mining.  Figured I can always sell it back later.  And at 14 million, trust me, it's going back just as soon as I'm done with it! 

She gave me this cool Gold Mining Armor

For the last week, all my game-time has been spent in the Living Rock Cavern, mining gold.  My mining went from level 82, up to 88 by Thursday.   89 by Friday, and got 90 this morning.

I'll be glad to leave this chaos behind!

Started all this last Sunday, and today is Saturday.  Now that mining is at 90, I've switched to smithing.  It'll take 125,000 gold ore turned into bars, using the goldsmith gauntlets and my Varrock 4 armor.  I banked about 17,000 gold ore while mining.  (Spent some of my time Lava Mining, which doesn't give ores.)  It cost around 24 million to buy the rest of the ore, which will become gold bars.  Then craft, probably into plain gold rings.  They resell at a loss, but not a complete loss.  With any luck, by the time I've gotten to 99 smithing, it won't be a big money pit.   Or maybe I'll forget profit, and just make gold amulets for the better experience.

Monique and me making gold bars

I know this'll take a lot of time.  But worth it, when I head back into the dungeons and can make my own armor and weapons instead of relying on someone else.  To me,  dungeoneering is all about the fun.  If I was serious about getting exp and levels, I'd team dungeon.

The good part, when it's all done, I'll be a tiny bit closer to the max skills cape.  So it's all good.

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.