Runescape Daily Challenges: How to turn off Maxed 99 Skills

This is just a short update post.  When the Daily Challenges came out, I was essentially all for it.  Except for the skills with 99.  Giving us a suggested task, and some cool rewards for doing it, is a fun way to keep some variety in our training.  But why bother training 99 skills?

Well, I'm sure there are individual cases where someone would want to.  But I'm not a maxed player.  There are plenty of 'unfinished' skills left to work on.  That was my only complaint.  In general, for the effort given, the rewards were very nice.  Often very close to breaking even.  Sometimes even profitable.  I just skipped the ones that didn't appeal to me.

Well Jagex heard us.  Always nice to see that.  They've made several changes, especially towards increasing the experience rewards for Construction, Summoning, Herblore, and Prayer on the challenges.  Nice to see on the Herblore, though I had no complaints.  The others I haven't tried, so no basis for judgement there.

But the best part:  We can now TURN OFF any skill we're maxed in!

Anyway, when I saw the announcement, they didn't say HOW to turn off maxed skills.  So I spent some time searching all over the Daily Challenges and Noticeboard interface. with no luck.  No option anywhere on the board.

Turns out, it's controlled by the Quartermaster in Burthorpe.  Same guy who gives out rewards for completed challenges.  If you talk to him, he'll give you the option to select which skills to de-select.  Hover the mouse over each skill, and it will tell you if you're 99 or not.  Click on it, and it will be X'd out.

Now, I only get tasks that are useful to me personally.  No more wasted assignments.  Every challenge assigned to me are going to help me level something up.  Excellent update.  My hat's off to Jagex.

As far as I'm concerned, the Daily Challenge assignments are perfect now.

Runescape: All Hail the King Blad Dragon Graphical Rework

The updates at Runescape continue to fly fast and furious.  This week the King Black Dragon got a makeover.  I've always had a soft spot for him.  Once upon a time he was king of the hill, now he's one of the weakest boss monsters.
Back when the wilderness did not have PVP, I used to enjoy trekking out to his site and camping every now and then.  I seriously wanted the stuffed head for my player-owned-house.  Just a couple of days before the return of PVP, he dropped the head.  It was an awesome feeling.  I like dragons in general.  As far as I'm concerned, the KBD stuffed head is the best in the game.  Sure, the Abyssal Demon stuffed head is pretty cool.  And the Kalphite Queen mounted head is a neat accomplishment, though I don't really like the head itself.  But the KBD heads are the best wall-mounted trophy that can be mounted in a player's home.

Since I really dislike PVP (nothing against players who like it, but it's not my cup of tea...) it was very nice to get the drop before player-vs-player came back.  I haven't been back since then.  Now with the update, Edgeville has a shortcut to the King's lair.  Right behind the monastery, there's an artefact (that's how it's spelled in-game) kind of half-buried in the ground.  It'll teleport you directly to the KBD's lair.  Pretty awesome!

If you get there the hard way, through the wilderness, you get a 10% bonus to your attack damage.  But that's okay.  He's not that hard to take down.  I'd rather just teleport and skip the long trek.

It was pretty exciting gearing back up for him.  Ever since Jagex mentioned he'd be getting an update, I've been eager for it.  It makes sense that a lot of other people are interested too.  Especially since he's been given an improved drop table, and two unique drops listed as "best in class" for prayer bonus.

And yes, there were plenty of other players there.  They seemed like a friendly bunch, smiles, waves, and greetings.  What I didn't expect, was the InstaKill Darts.  Remember those?  Sizzling Summer, members for all of August and September got some pretty amazing bonuses.

Well, as fast as the King showed up, he was dead.  Appear, spin around, flop over.  I think MAYBE I got to hit him once.  Not entirely certain about that.  Guess it might be smart to wait for the excitement to die down.  And people to use up their InstaKill Darts.  Then maybe try again.

But for the brief moments he was there, he looked awesome!  Great graphical rework.  Really caught the spirit and gave him personality.

New Stuffed and Mounted Head

Wish I could say the same about the stuffed and mounted King Black Dragon head, though.  The ONE head that's on my wall now looks very cool.  But where the heck are his other two heads?  Very disappointing.

Old Stuffed and Mounted Head (talking to baby black dragon)

Even more disappointing is the conversation.  The old conversation was funny.  It had tons of personality and attitude.  He was the King, and even as a stuffed and mounted head, he was still convinced of it.  A bit dense, but very likable.  He even had two possible conversations, for a little variety.

The new head has a new conversation.  Only one.  No  variety.  They've made him sound far more intelligent, and very obnoxious.  I liked the old KBD.  The new one is a jerk.  In all fairness, if I was a disembodied head hanging on the wall, I might be obnoxious too.

Another one of those gain something, lose something, situations.  The actual dragon looks spiffy.  Much improved.  The stuffed and mounted head looks good as far as the one head goes... but I miss seeing all three, and the fun interaction they all had.

Runescape: First Festival of the Dead Event

This being October, I've been expecting Jagex to announce the upcoming Halloween event soon.  It's always fun to play out the extra content, and see what they've come up with each holiday.  This year for the first time ever, in addition to the Halloween content, Runescape is celebrating the Festival of the Dead.

In this event, Father Joakim asks your help in celebrating the passing away of some of Runescape's notable characters.  There were supposed to be two starting points, one in Burthorpe, and one south of the Lumbridge graveyard.  Monique and I went to the Lumbridge point.

Right off the bat, you see a wooden crate, a decorated coffin, and Father Joakim (wearing a mask).  He asks for your help.  Seems like he's trying to start a new Runescape tradition, modeled after a celebration he witnessed with a group of unknown travelers.  Your job is to decorate the coffin, and bring an item from one of the selected deceased characters. Decoration involves getting flowers from the wooden crate, and making three skulls from soft clay.  All this goes on the coffin.

We started off with Duradel.  He's the highest-level character to choose, and really, the only one that had a real emotional connection with.  Going to where he once dispensed Slayer tasks, we found Duradel's Slayer Claws on the floor of his hut in Shilo.  (Lapalok's hut, now.)  Bring the Slayer Claws back to Father Joakim, and put them on the coffin.

Having done this, there's some discussion by associated characters, especially Kuradal, his daughter.  Here's where I was disappointed by the event.  I thought we would actually have a chance to converse with the spirit of the departed.  Maybe a chance to thank him for his sacrifice for Geilinor, or to know he bears no ill will.  Or that he appreciates being remembered. 

Unfortunately, nothing of the kind happens.  We talk, we light firecrackers, there's a bit of dancing, and the offerings disappear.  Joakim claims this is a sign the spirits are happy with the items on offer. 

And that's it.  Just do the same for each character.  The more characters you celebrate, the more Prayer Bonus experience you receive.  Bear in mind, this is NOT pure experience.  This is boosted experience.  When you train prayer, you get double experience up to whatever maximum you earned.  Up to a maximum possible of 251k.

You'll also get a purely cosmetic skull mask.  It does nothing except look like a skull mask.  You can store it in a house Toy Box, or destroy it and Diango will keep it for you. 

The experience bonus is excellent if you're training prayer.  If you've already got 99 Prayer, I'm not so sure it's worth the effort.  I only did two of the tasks.  Monique finished all 5, hoping at the end we'd get to talk to the 'honorees'.  But nope.  No emotional payoff.  Just experience bonus.

My Prayer is 99.  There's just no incentive to finish.  If there'd been a little emotional reward, it would have been really cool.  Jagex missed a really cool opportunity here, in favor of a purely mechanical experience bonus. 

The graphics were nice.  The cut-scene was good.  The rewards are top-notch if you're training Prayer.  But the storyline was watered-down. They had an excellent idea, but it wound up being anticlimactic.

I love Runescape.  This won't change my mind.  Besides... we've still got the Halloween content coming up!!

Runescape Sizzling Summer Bonuses

The Runescape Sizzling Summer payoff finally arrived.  For those who subscribed as a member through the whole summer, there are some pretty amazing rewards.  The most substantial (and most appreciated by me) are the experience bonuses.  Members through August received 350,000 experience in the form of Experience Lamps.  Then you get twice that (!) if you stay a member through September as well.

The lamp interface can be a little confusing at first.  It's called a Promissory Note.  Before I realized it, I'd spent one of the smallest lamps on the first 350k, and had to spend the rest in multiple increments.  Had I been paying full attention, I could have just spent the whole lamp at once by clicking on the largest amount.  With the 700,000 experience bonus, I just blasted it all in one lump.  Much easier.

The whole month of August members got an extra Squeal of Fortune spin per day.  In September, we were given 2 extra spins every day.  I'm not a SoF hater.  Except when I get bad spins...  But it ads fun to the game, and there's always the anticipation of getting a great prize.  The big money and powerful items are cool.  But what really makes me happy is winning experience lamps.  Or even Skilling Pendants, so long as it's a Pendant I can use.  I'm not so thrilled when it's for a skill that's already 99.

Over the course of August, Solomon's store also gave away costumes, emotes, Seaweed dreadlocks, a Title, and a Squid Cape.  Okay, they're all only cosmetic, but these things add choice and variation into the game.  And the Squid Cape looks a whole lot better than you'd expect.  It actually looks cool enough that I see players wearing it throughout Runescape.

The final reward is very different.  Jagex put a deck of 4 Fate cards in your inventory.  (Assuming you were a member for the required space of time.)  These cards are:

Dodging Death:  Get killed, respawn right then and there with all your gear.  Full life points.

Instakill Dart:  This ones a gimme... Kill something.  Right away.  Some limitations apply.

 Emergency Healing Box:  Can be used to heal all life points immediately, on you or someone you choose.

Remote Deposit Box:  Can be used anywhere, gives a bank deposit box for 1 hour.  Once placed, it can be used by anybody for it's duration.

With the experience bonus, it was fabulous, but over in a micro-second.  Like a child eating a bag of candy, I used all my exp in a single glorious moment.  I have a policy of putting all unassigned exp into Dungeoneering.  I always either solo, or duo with Monique.  So it takes forever to make progress.  As a result, my Dungeoneering level is pretty high, but haven't played it that much.  I do enjoy Dungeoneering, just don't want to spend forever getting it leveled up.

With the Fate Cards (as in "Choose your Fate") the decision's not quite so clear-cut.  Though strongly leaning toward the Instakill Dart, I haven't actually chosen yet.  Some players apparently don't understand the value of these cards.  On the Yanille Home Teleport last night someone had played their Remote Deposit Box.  What a waste!  For a high-level player, I could see an hour at the Frost Dragons with unlimited deposits.  For lower levels, the Green Dragons out in the Chaos Tunnels would be a big help.  Plenty of in-between places where it could help.

But for me, the Instakill has a big appeal.  I'll freely admit, the Fight Kiln has so far been beyond me.  I always die.  Done Jad a few times.  Maybe half a dozen total.  Haven't beaten the Queen Black Dragon either.  Since I can't even get to the boss in the Fight Kiln, that's out.  Since I can beat Jad on my own, not sure I'd use it on him.  But the Queen is easy to get to, and I can't yet defeat her.  She might be the perfect target just for the fun  of killing her once.

What did you do with your rewards?  Where did you spend your bonus experience?  On a skill that costs a lot of money?  Takes a long time?  Or maybe one that bores you?

How about your Fate Cards?  Which one would you use?  Where?  Why?  Personally, I think the Insta-kill dart is best, but I don't PVP.  Does that influence your choice?

I'd like to hear some opinions before choosing.  What advice do you have?