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Sunday, April 4, 2010

Post-Weekend Update

I didn't take screenies, so all I can do is tell you what happened.  My bad.

First of all, the bonus percentage dropped dramatically faster than I anticipated.  Aparently something was changed to maintain some kind of balance.  Smithing and Construction both got skipped because by the time I got done with Herblore, clay hammers offered a better bonus.  I also didn't spend a lot of time Runecrafting, as I wanted to spend some time working on Fishing.  But here's what I managed to get done:

Herblore:  75 to 82
Farming:  78 to 79
Summoning:  80 to 81

And a large dent in 87 Fishing.

Once I started leveling Herblore, I saw rather quickly that I would get access to Saradomin Brews before all was said and done...which added another few million to the total value of my weekend Herblore supplies.  And about 34 million gp in herbs and secondaries condenses down to about 6 million gp in potions.

Glad I didn't buy any of it.

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All in all, I was rather happy with the end result. 

Thursday, March 11, 2010

Pre-Bonus Results

It's now the night before, so here's a rundown of my plan:

Right out of the gates, I'm going to tear into Herblore and crank it out until it's finished.  Then, I'm going to do what little Summoning I do have.  Then, depending on how much time has passed, I will either smith the Adamant bars I have or I'll go right into Crafting.  I have a decent number of gems that I plan to make into jewelry.

Once I'm 2 hours in, any skills that have Stealing Creation tools or bonus experience items won't be worth training.

Once the above is finished, I plan to do some ZMI runecrafting (I have over 3k pure essence) until I can't stand to do it anymore.  Then I plan to hit Fishing hard enough to get to 90.

A lot of my plan is on the fly.

Here's my Herblore bank:


That should do some serious damage!

And here's my Hiscores listing the day before:


Wish me luck!

Saturday, March 6, 2010

Bonus XP Weekend!

From the Jagex Website:

"When you initially log in on the weekend, you will gain approx 2.7x XP for all "normal training" activities (see the question below for a list). While you are logged in, a timer will be running over the time you are logged into the game. Over time, the bonus will decrease to a minimum of 1.1x your usual rate."

HOLY CRAP!

Something of this magnitude needs careful and meticulous planning.  Priorities need to be set and materials need to be gathered.  Because when that timer starts, Wrthlss Noob is going to explode.  I have Friday and Saturday off, so I fully intend to spend every waking moment possible training something.  Apologies in advance to Dylan and Zack.

Expensive skills are currently a priority, followed immedately by hard to train skills and skills which require special, untradable materials (Summoning).

Herblore immedately rises to the top of that list, as does Construction.  Both skills are skills that I really want to train up.  Smithing makes the list from the "hard to train" category, and while Summoning would normally be high on this priority list, I'm happy with my current level.  Fletching makes the cut as a wildcard, from the "skills I hate to train" category.

Current Priority List (as of 3/8/10):

#1)  Herblore
#2)  Smithing
#3)  Construction/Magic
#4)  Summoning
#5)  Fletching

My weekend rounders will be Fishing, with possibly a little bit of Slayer and Runecrafting thrown in for good measure.

Preps:

Herblore:  I have bought about 3m gp worth of herb seeds, and I plan to continue to farm and possibly do more Herblore throughout the weekend.  *NEW*  I realized that I would save a lot of time by making unfinished potions, and so this is done.  I currently have over 2.6k various unfinished potions stockpiled.

Smithing:  I have made plans for trips to GWD to obtain Adamant bars, and I'm saving the bars made from ores obtained from star bonuses.  While my goal is 2.5k bars, I will continue to add to this total as time permits.  I need at least 89 Smithing for the Ardy Achievement Diary.  2.5k bars will insure at least 80 Smithing.

Construction/Magic:  I have a signifigant number of mahogany logs, which I intend to use Plank Make during the bonus weekend.  I have not yet made sure that I have enough runes/money for this, but calculations are forthcoming.  I have no particular goal for either skill, other than "higher than they are now."  *NEW*  Plank Make kills a lot of time, so I decided to make the planks beforehand.  While Magic is not necessarily off the table, making planks is.

Summoning:  I do not intend to persue charms (outside of daily Bork battles), but I will be gathering the necessary secondaries to use the charms I have.  *NEW*  I've changed my mind, and decided to do a little Slayer in order to boost my charms.  This is not a signifigant focus, however.

Fletching:  This is an extremely small priority, and really I just want to save myself some time in the future by boosing it a level or two in a short time.  Bank space will quickly become an issue, so I don't want to have a lot of logs hanging out in my bank.  So, I need 431 Yew logs to train my Fletching to 85 (Mage Longbow).  I intend to have 1k Magic logs that I will fletch and string.  These will either be sold or alched.

Fishing:  I have a goal of 90 Fishing, so that I can fish Rocktail.  I'll be switching back and forth between Monkfish (to sell) and Sharks (for food).

Slayer:  Not a terribly large concern, but I can't pass up the chance of some bonus Slayer xp.  Iron Dragons is up currently, and I'll stick with that for starters to save a few charges on my Gloves of Dragonslaying.  This is just to break up the monotny of Fishing.

I will not repost, but instead, will make relative changes here.

"As sand through the hourglass..."

...so are the Days of our Runescape Lives.

Yes, the end of Runescape is upon us.  They changed the name of the Hit Points skill to Constitution, and made a minor alteration to how combat works.

They moved the decimal place of all damage related statistics one place to the right.  Yes, I know.  Devistating.

I'm not going to rant.  What I'm going to do is explain why they did what they did, and what it means to me.

What it allows for are potions and items which can boost your maximum HP (now called Life Points) temporarily.  So since Wrthlss Noob has 85 Constitution, he has 850 Life Points.  So if he drinks a potion (yet to be released) and raises it to 100, he would have a maximum of 1000 Life Points.  After taking damage, you could restore your LP to the elevated level by eating!

Before, if you boosted your HP, that bonus was totally gone after you took damage equal to the boost.

It also allows for combat effects that lower your maximum Life Points by reducing your Constitution.  Some elusions to a Dragon Warhammer were made, but I don't think this is more than something people think.  Nothing official to my knowledge, but it seems logical enough.

It's also not a stretch to imagine this being step 1 to the long discussed reworking of the Combat Triangle.  And I doubt that anyone could argue that this needs to be done.  Well...yeah, I'm sure someone could actually.  But I'm not ranting.

As for what it means to me, I have always used the green bar over the head of my character to determine when to eat.  While I know that sharks heal 20 HP (or did), that never really factored into anything I did in-game.  Just looking at the bar, I know when it's time to eat and I have a real good idea of how much will be green after I eat.

Really, it doesn't change the way I do business.  Sure, there's the occasional "OMG" factor that pops up when I get hit for 36, but it's short lived and causes no adverse affects.

It's something everyone has to get used to.

Thursday, January 21, 2010

Summoning Goal Reached!

Finally:



This, coupled with my 75 Farming have opened the door for two long term goals:  99 Woodcutting and 99 Fletching.  With the Hydra's scrolls I can re-grow my planted Magic trees instantly.  No more wilderness woodcutting, no more competing for resources.  But that's for the future.

Coincidentally, I reached another goal that I wasn't actively working on:



Runite ore is the best ore there is to mine.  While I can't quite smith it yet, it still sells for about 16k per ore.

Next on the list:

Obviously, the "All Skills 75+" goal is next on my plate.  While I was a fan on Hunter in the past, I had been having difficulty getting back into it.  Imp boxes (71 Hunter) was hard enough for me to get, and I was having some trouble trying to figure out how to handle this.

One thing that is kind of breaking me out of my rut is the new-ish group of hunting animals in the elf land.  While I can't catch Grenwall yet, I can catch their bait:  Pawya.  So I gave it a shot...

Unlike any other hunter animal that you catch with box traps, bait is REQUIRED.  And the bait isn't cheap, either.  Papayas have been on the rise thanks to the new "extreme" potions (Grenwall quills is an ingredient for one of them).  And I quickly learned that you lose a lot of bait.

It's hard not to notice players using the Fruit Bat familiars.  Anyone who's played has seen this.  The constant sound of the scrolls being used and bananas, lemons, limes and other fruit littering the ground everywhere is usually a dead giveaway.  When asked why, everyone who's doing it will tell you:  "I'm making money."  And the only fruit that is currently worth going through hours of clicking for is:  PAPAYAS.

So, having never used a Fruit Bat familiar before, I bought back 100 of the pouches I've sold, converted most into scrolls and set to work.  First thing I noticed is that you get a papaya every time it drops fruit.  So I started keeping track of what I spent Vs. what I'm "making" (I'm not really making any money since I'm not selling it).

The profit is high.  And when I say it's high, I mean:  "WHOA MAMA!"  I don't have any solid numbers on this yet, but I will soon, and I'll post the result here.  But so far, I'm up 500k gp.

I'm currently in the process of figuring up some percentages on profitability, as well as bait loss ratios when catching Pawya.  I'll post them once I've got them.

One final note today:  that Ardougne Achievement Diary Elite task list is really bugging me, so I've decided to gradually work on Smithing.  Summoning will come soon enough (as soon as I get back to Slayer).  Progress will be slow, and I maintain no illusions about getting it any day soon, but I am working on it when I can.  Gold ore with the Crafting Gauntlets from the Family Crest quest currently seems like the way to go, but I may mix it up with Adamant bars from GWD.

Tuesday, January 12, 2010

Back From Vacation

After spending a week getting 75 Runecrafting, THEN spending a good deal of time getting 1k tickets at Brimhaven Agility Arena, I had to take a break.  When it starts feeling like work, it's time to do something else for a while.  But the vacation is over.

I'm officially down to 3 skills below 75:  Herblore (74), Thieving (71) and Hunter (71).  And Herblore is getting close.

There were also 2 quests to do when I got back, and both were a little tough.  Blood Runs Deep in particular gave me a good measure of trouble (and I died twice), and it took me a couple days to finish.

A mixed blessing out of The Temple of Senntisten (the other quest) are the Curses.  It's an alternate "prayer book" if you will.  Gone now are the low level prayers that are pretty much wasted because of Chivalry and Piety.  Likewise, Piety's equivelent Curse (as far as I can tell) requires 95 Prayer.  And the price of dragon bones continues to skyrocket...not that I would ever buy them.  All penguin points are now going to Prayer.

Of course, now that those two quests are done, Jagex has released their second Grandmaster quest.  And from what I've been hearing, it's nasty.  I meet all the requirements (except for the two Soul Wars requirements), but with my "all skills 75+" goal being just around the corner, that quest is way on the back burner for now.

My origional goal is likewise on track.  I managed to get 75 Farming (for Magic Trees), and I'm 2 Summoning levels from 80.  As close as I am, I still imagine it's going to take several million GP to get there (not to mention several Slayer assignments).

Monday, November 2, 2009

More Goals Reached

The biggest news to report today is:



Yes, I now have 99 Firemaking, and the coveted (by me at least) Firemaking Skillcape!

While I had last reported that I was going to do beacons to get it, I learned through trial and error that simply burning logs was a lot quicker, but beacons gave better experience per log. Since availability of logs was nowhere close to an issue for me, I opted for the former.

Other News:

Hiscores:  I've recently broken into the top 50,000 players in Runescape!

Ardougne Achievement Diary: A new achievement diary was released for the Ardougne area. I completed Easy, Medium and Hard diaries...only to learn that there is an "Elite" achievement list.

I've always been one of those "do it all in the first day" kind of guys, but these Elite tasks really smacked me down. Hard. I've got 2 serious sticking points: 91 Smithing and 93 Summoning. That's going to be fun.

New Goals:

One of the things I haven't liked about my character is his inability to use the Giant Pouch when runecrafting. While I'm not 100% sure, I believe that 75 Runecrafting is one of the requirements for an Ardougne diary Elite task. So I've decided to get 75 Runecrafting.

I plan to do it by crafting Death runes (about 5k at a time) to get money to buy pure essence to use at the ZMI Runecrafting Altar.

Runecrafting is a skill I don't really like because of the time it takes. But after I get it to 75, this will trigger the start of my next set of goals: all skills 75+.

This will not affect my current goal of 80 Summoning.

Saturday, October 31, 2009

Changes galore

(Side note:  This should have been posted weeks ago and I'm not exactly sure why it wasn't.)

Lots of changes out of the last update.

Jagex changed how necklaces and amulets work when they're worn.  Instead of "operating" the jewelry, you can now select the location directly without a sub-screen.  It took me a while to get used to it, and I mis-teleported numerous times, but overall I like it:  it's easier to use during combat to escape since there's no sub-screen to get knocked out of.

There are some new, untradable/unassistable potions for Herblore now.  I'm nowhere near being able to use them so I have no idea what they're about.

I also changed my circle of friends.  The people I was hanging out with were hardly ever on, and never really did anything.  After talking with a group of people who used to hang out with us, I decided to join them on a permanent basis.  This has several benefits for me:

1)  They go out and do things together.  I've been wanting to do "things" for a long time.

2)  They have recently encouraged me to get back into my dailys.  Training firemaking isn't very profitable, and it was really starting to affect my bottom line.  I needed to return to this discipline.

3)  There's a better work ethic in the new group in general.  I was having some issues with my old friends work ethic.  They simply wanted things, they didn't want to work for them.  There was a lot of account trading going on and frankly it didn't sit well with me.  With my new (old) friends, I don't have to worry about having my loyalty challenge my personal morals.

4)  They have developed their own raw material trading system.  When one of them is training a skill, they will trade resourses they don't need for resourses they do need that the others don't. 

5)  And probably most importantly...I just like these guys more.  And they were glad to have me.

The four of us would be an excelent foundation for a clan.  Since we've already have an inter-clan resourses infrastructure, all that would be needed is to add people.  The problem is that we need good people.

This is something I'll bring to them later.  In the meantime, I'll look for a few other people who might be of leadership quality to bring in before I start planting ideas.

Friday, September 25, 2009

The Science of Firemaking

It didn't take me long to get bored with burning shades.  It's a very, very labor intensive way to make money, and as a source of Firemaking xp, it's even more labor intensive.  But while looking at a skill calculator, I noticed that a full run in the All Fired Up minigame was 39,990.5 xp.  This could be a shortcut, but it'll take some planning.  I already have my course set up for lighting from when I got the Inferno Adze, so all I need to do is come up with an efficient way of loading them.



As you can see (click to to see it bigger), some of the beacons are a bit far from the bank, in particular:  12, 13 and 14.  12 isn't horribly far from the Trollheim teleport, that's God Wars dungeon...and that place does horrible things to your skills.

The Science, Thus Far:

You dress for success, so that's where I started.



First thing you'll notice is the red pirate clothes.  Well...stop noticing it.  I'm only wearing it because it's my trademark.  Instead, notice the bracelet and sword:  Forinthry Bracelet and Enchanted Excalabur.  The equipment changes will be discussed a little later.

The lighting route remains the same, but my inventory has changed slightly.  Before I head to Oo'glog, This is what my inventory looks like:



The Lunar Staff is just for getting to Oo'glog.  I usually dip in the thermal bath (to ensure that I have full hp), the sulphur bath (for the Prayer boost), and finally in the salt water bath (for the unlimited run).  After I dip, I summon the familiar and load it with logs, head to the bank, deposit the Lunar staff, and fill the rest of my inventory with logs.  Notice the addition of the Super-Anti Poison.  I start my trip by using the Slayer Ring to teleport to the Mortiana Slayer Tower instead of using the fairy ring.

The bank trip in Edgeville differs too.  After I light the beacon (giving the tender logs), I bank:



The familiar gets all the food, and as many logs as it can carry, then I fill my inventory with logs.

Why the changes?

The various equipment changes were spurred by a serious issue I ran into at the end of the run:  escaping deep wildy with my life.  After God Wars, the trip is all deep wildy and riddled with dangers for someone not ready for them.  There was one close call where I was down to 4 hp and had no way to cut the webs into either Mage Arena or the Ardy lever.  I got lucky, and someone came along...but I don't like relying on luck.

Revenants are a constant problem in wilderness (as they were designed to be), so the food and Anti Poison are to help me survive as I run past them.  Once I'm done, I can't use the levers if I'm teleblocked, so I added the Forinthy Bracelet to prevent it.  Enchanted Excalabur is a slashing weapon, so I can use it to cut any webs I need to in order to get to the lever...with a side benefit of healing 2 hp every second for a total of 20 hp with it's special.

The Loading Dilemia:

Loading was still an issue for me because it took so long.  But with a little trial and error I came up with a workable plan  (the plan listed assumes I'm starting right after a finished run, hence the Terrorbird.  Initial starts without a Terrorbird take longer).

Beacons 1 and 2:  I fill both my inventory and the bird's inventory with logs.  I teleport to the Slayer Tower and load both beacons.  Teleport to Edgeville and bank.

Beacons 4 and 5:  I fill both my inventory and the birds inventory with logs.  I run to the 5th beacon and fill it, then run to the 4th beacon to fill it.  Run south to Varrock East bank.

Beacons 3 and 6:  I run to the 3rd beacon and fill it, then teleport to Edgeville and fill the beacon there.  Bank.

The Terrorbird isn't much use from here on out (I usually need something else in my inventory so I won't have enough for 2 beacons and if I'm following a run it's getting close to expiring), so I grab Tireless Run scrolls to use until it dies.

Beacon 12:  The God Wars beacon is next because the cold in the area lowers all of your stats.  This gives my Firemaking skill time to get back to normal.  I grab Trollheim teleport runes and a full inventory of logs.  I head to the beacon and fill it, and teleport to Edgeville.

Beacon 7:  I grab a full inventory of logs and head to the beacon at Black Knight Fortress.  After I fill it, I teleport back to Edgeville.  I change out the Glory with a Games Necklace.

Beacon 8 and 9:  If the bird is still alive, I fill both of our inventories with logs and teleport to Burthorpe Games Room.  From there I head to beacon 9, then walk to beacon 8.  If the bird is not, I bank in the Rogue's Den before I go to Goblin Village.

Beacon 10 and 11:  While I do these separately, the procedure is the same.  I teleport to Trollheim, fill beacon 11, teleport to the Wilderness Volcaon to bank, then teleport back to Trollheim, down the agility shortcut, then fill beacon 10.  Teleport to Wilderness Volcaon.

Beacon 13 and 14:  I grab Trollheim teleport runes, a hatchet and logs.  I head down the shortcut by beacon 11 and run north to fill beacon 13.  I head back down the ladder and continue north to the area around the 14th beacon.  Here, I cut 20 regular logs to fill the beacon (it gets lit last, so it only matters that it gets lit).  I head to mage arena to start the run.

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On a small side note:  cavefish heal 20 hp of damage, which makes them as good as sharks.

Saturday, September 19, 2009

Completed Goals

Big news today.

First of all, I completed half of the goal I mentioned in my last post:



Dragon Full Helm: 15,600,000 gp

This fulfills a long standing dream I've had since I started: Full Dragon Armor. As usual, it was up 1 million from when I last checked the price. Typical. But I still like it, and that's all that matters.

Next, I've finally acquired something I had been hunting for a while:



Full Lumberjack!

The Woodcutting bonus is small, but every little bit helps. I found some advice on the forums to stay to the easy path and avoid encounters (fewer combats means faster trips, faster trips means more trips, more trips means more chances to get it).

I am still working on the Firemaking cape, and I'm still doing Shades of Mort'ton in order to get it. My current plan is to use the money to train up Construction, and to do Summoning when I have the charms for it. I currently have a bunch right now, so I'll be doing some soon. As of this moment, I have 500 Sacred Oil (4), and I'm cutting the logs for them now.

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Other News: They opened up a new cavern in the Dwarven Mines under Ice Mountain called the Living Rock Caverns. New monsters with ok drops from what I've seen so far. In my Full Dragon, they don't hit me often, but they are quite easy to hit. Doing this I managed to get an Attack level, a Strength level and a Combat level.

I'm now 110 Combat level.

With this new cavern, they introduced new fish which require a high Fishing level. The lowest of these are Cavefish, which require an 85 Fishing. I spent the night before I went fishing Monkfish in order to get the level for it.

I don't know how they are as food yet, as I'm not currently working on combat and haven't even cooked any of the one's I've acquired so far.

The new Dwarf quest (Forgiveness of a Chaos Dwarf) is also done, keeping me eligiable to wear my Quest cape...even though I'm still wearing my cooking cape. This opened up a new area with monsters that drop a new handheld cannon and the long awaited Dragon Pickaxe. I haven't been to the cavern yet (I'm assuming it's going to be busy for a while), nor have I price checked handheld cannons or pickaxes. I'm assuming they're going to be expensive, so it'll be a bit before I got one of either.

Sunday, September 6, 2009

Combining Goals

While doing the various things I do to make money, I got a little bored and went out to do the Temple Trekking/Burgh de Rott Ramble minigame for a bit. While I didn't get a Lumberjack shirt (much to my continued annoyance), I did stockpile some shade remains. So, once I got tired of trekking, I decided to burn some shades.

I, of course, didn't just burn the small number I got from trekking: I decided to make a day of it. I stockpiled 250 sacred oil (4), 250 magic logs, and 250 shades. I ended up making about 1.2M gp. I also got somewhere in the neighborhood of 120k firemaking xp.

This got me to thinking...instead of just wasting time burning maple logs for weeks to get 99 firemaking, why not burn shades? It might take the same amount of time (or a bit more), but I'll have a whole lot of money when all is said and done.

Now, I've never played for money. But (much like in the real world) money does help. I am going to get the firemaking skillcape anyways, so why not do it in a way that I end up ahead financially? Plus, I'll also get a decent amount of crafting and prayer xp, too. Finally, the minigame is rather easy (although it is a bit labor intensive) and I enjoy it.

As a result, my firemaking skillcape goal and my Dragon Full Helm goal have met unexpectedly at a bizarre crossroads out in the middle of nowhere and became unlikely travelling partners.

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In other news: All of my melee stats are now 79. With 80's across the board in combat, I'm temted to try to get all my combat stats 80+. It would give me an excuse to do some work on my prayer. I already have a goal to get summoning to 80, and I could train range and prayer at the same time by killing dragons. These are only thoughts, however, as I still have a long way to go for 80 in my melee stats.

I am also just a stone's throw from 74 summoning.

Thursday, August 20, 2009

Back Again

After a small hiatus (call it a "mental health" holiday), I've returned with news. Not much news, but some.

Before my vacation, I got my Cooking Skillcape. While I would have undoubtedly achieved this on my own (at some point) I managed this with the help of some friends. I shaved weeks of cooking (and months of procrastinating) off my time with the help, primarily of (but not exclusive to) two of my friends: Nana Sam and Zenia2008. Since they both had cooking capes themselves, they appointed me their personal Runescape chef.

And I didn't have to make any Summer Pies. I hate making pies.

I also bought a good number of raw Manta Rays, and cooked them to sell, like was suggested to me by someone else. And he wasn't kidding when he said it was a profit. In fact...it was staggering at the time. Even while burning 16% on average, I made nearly 1k gp per Manta Ray BOUGHT (yes, that's right, bought, not sold). Between those and my daily tasks, I made enough money to make one of my long standing dreams come true.

Wait for it.

Drumroll please?



Dragon Platebody: 10, 600,000 gp.

After seeing myself in my new armor, I decided I have to get the whole set. All of which I need now is the full helm. Which is more than the platebody (of course). So, of course, my goal of a Firemaking Skillcape are temporarily on the back burner.

Sunday, June 28, 2009

New Goals Added!

After getting 92 Cooking (which gave me 2 skills beyond the half way mark), I was somewhat coersed by my friends into the persuit of a skill cape. Then independently thought "Untrimmed skill capes suck. Let's make it 2." Firemaking was the obvious choice for two very important reasons: 1) It's 1 of the 2 closest skills to 99, and 2) I already have everything I need to get it...I just have to do it.

A friend of mine has been trading raw monkfish for cooked with me for a little bit (it will be over 6k when all is said and done). I'm also still getting tuna and swordfish from Miscelania, which is good for about 1k-2k fish every week.

I just recently got 95 Cooking, so I can now make Summer Pies. Most of the ingredients I can get from either farming, the RFD chest in Lumbridge basement or my house, so I plan to assemble the pies as I get the materials and cook them using the Lunar Spellbook when I make my glass for orbs (you don't burn them using the "make pie" spell). This will help out my Farming level goal as well.

I was also told by a friend of mine that it was possible to buy raw manta rays, cook them, and sell them for a profit...and at 96 cooking you don't burn any with the cooking gauntlets. Prices on food has changed remarkably recently, so I don't know if that still stands, but it's worth looking into.

Speaking of changing food prices: cooked sharks are currently going for 1,262 gp (at the time of the writing). Now that I don't burn sharks, I'm even considering fishing some to sell.


Firemaking, my plan is to burn 1k to 2k logs every day, plus do my 2 Evil Trees per day. Should take a month or less.

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Other than that, nothing really new. I've done some Slayer, but haven't really got much in the way of good charm droppers. There were also a few new quests, but nothing really hard-core. More fun than difficult, which I don't mind at all.

I do have a desire to hit God Wars for a bit when all is said and done, in a desire to upgrade my uniform a bit, and to buy a few new toys. These wants include (but are not exclusive to): Dragon Plate Body and full helm, Bandos armor (of some kind, preferably body), and a Dragonfire Shield. It's a big shopping list, but there's big money to be made at GWD. And besides...it's not like I couldn't use the Range experience. Even to get one or two of the above items would be a good break from power-training.

Tuesday, April 28, 2009

Happy Birthday Wrthlss Noob!

While I'm late in posting about it, Wrthlss Noob turned 1 year old Sunday. For posterity's sake, I'm posting a screenie of my Hiscores:





While I think that 1807 total levels and a 104.9 Combat Level isn't a bad acomplishment, I was hoping to have a Skill Cape by now. But I do take solace in the fact that I have a Quest Cape (which is my favorite cape anyways), I'm ranked within the top 100,000 players in Runescape, all my skills are 60+, I got the Inferno Adze, and all the Achievement Diaries done.

Happy Birthday Wrthlss Noob!

Saturday, April 11, 2009

A New Set of Goals

I was kind of at a loss after getting the Adze (much like I was after getting my Quest Cape to begin with and after completing While Guthix Sleeps). When you train for a really long time on one thing, it's difficult to figure out what to do next. But during the course of Firemaking and getting the Adze, I had learned some things.

First thing I learned was that burning maple logs takes a great deal of time. I've always been a "work smarter instead of harder" type of guy, and things that take a long time annoy me...especially when I could be doing something else to make it faster (I.E. burning mage logs).

I also learned that the Spirit Hydra's scrolls regrow your trees in farming plots. The Summoning level required for these familiar is 80. To plant a Magic tree, you need 75 Farming.

I'm sure you see where this is going...

This got me to thinking: having easy access to free magic logs could help me out in countless ways. While the Firemaking aspect is obvious (I still want a skill cape), I also have an 80 Fletching and can fletch Magic Short Bows (and work towards another cape)...which I can Alch for money and Magic experience (enter cape #3 in the long term). This is not to mention that Magic logs themselves are worth somewhere in the neighborhood of 1.3k each. And the whole process of this would give me a whole lot of Woodcutting experience (yet another cape!)

It's a great plan, with a sole hitch: my Summoning skill is currently 66.

I've shown my humble readers (if any) that I'm not opposed to power-training a skill when I want something. Power-training the Summoning skill is limited, however, by how fast you can get your hands on charms, specifically crimson and blue charms. This is not to even mention the fact that most of the charms I can make will cost insane amounts of money to infuse en-masse.

Charms are easily found in most monster drops. However, the drop rate and type is highly unpredictable and the process is slow. I have also heard that you can get charms as rewards from the Castle Wars-esque minigame: Soul Wars. But it's relatively new and I know little about it.

I've had a plan to increase my ability to make money (a more dangerous way than I'm currently working on): God Wars Dungeon. People brag about making ludicrious amounts of money here, and that's exactly what I need. From what I understand, I have the basic skills I need to go, and I have purchased the necessary gear. This is where the wheels fell off the wagon: the two people who were supposed to show me the ropes to get me started haven't been around. Time to start looking for a "Plan B." I'll probably handle it in typical Wrthlss Noob style by researching it myself and having a go at it alone. This will require careful planning, and before I go, I'll want to be able to make my own Range Potions (72 Herblore).

That's just for Summoning, however. I still need a 75 Farming to pull this off as well. This is easy, and I'm already prepared to start. I have a huge number of bird's nests (containing tree seeds) stockpiled from my kingdom at Miscelania. All I really need to do is get back to planting trees.

With these new goals in hand, I set out...

The Inferno Adze

Finally.

The quest for the Adze was definately a trying experience, let me tell you. While the single Agility level I needed wasn't much of a problem, the 11 Firemaking levels I needed were. It required me to reduce 23k maple logs to ashes, and at about 1.5k-2k per day (a couple of days I managed 3k), this took a couple of weeks. I literally did nothing (other than my dailys) but burn logs. And this was just getting the skills to get it.

To actually acquire the Inferno Adze, one needs to light all 14 of the All Fired Up beacons, and have them all burning simultaneously. These beacons are stretched from Paterdomus (the temple passageway to Canifis) to Ice Plateau in the Wilderness. While the Wilderness isn't as hazardous as it used to be, it still has it's dangers when you aren't combat prepared. A Revenant Ork managed to have it's way with me between the beacon at God Wars Dungeon and Ice Plateau when I was loading the beacons.

And now to the cost. Better logs burn longer, so to get the Adze you want the best logs you can get your hands on: Magic logs. Each beacon takes 20 logs to load it, and the assistant at the beacon holds 5 for you. This is 25 logs per beacon, except the last 3, which don't have assistants. This is a grand total of 335 Magic logs, and at 1.3k gp each: 435.5k gp. And I lost about 20 and had to buy more which put me up to about 461k gp. I could have tried to cut them myself, but the trees are usually over populated and this would have taken considerable time (I had already spent enough time getting 92 Firemaking in the first place).

The trip itself went smoothly. I'm documenting how I did it here, so if someone asks me how I did it, I can refer them here.





Getting Ready: Obviously, the first thing I did was load all the logs. This gave me the opportunity to make any necessary repairs and talk to the assistants. Talking to the assistants is an important step, because several of them require something before they'll help you. Check out the Minigame guide on Tip It to see what you'll need.

The Process: I wore nothing but the Ring and Gloves of Fire (previous rewards from this minigame) Amulet of Glory and a Combat Bracelet. I took a tinderbox, a Teleport to House tablet, a Spirit Terrorbird familiar and 25 Magic logs from the bank. The first thing I did was go to Oo'glog and bathe in the salt-water spring to quicken my run. This gives me unlimited run for a decent amount of time (one less thing to be concerned with). Once I got out, I hit my tab and used the portal in my house and used my Kharill portal. From the Canifis bar, I went through the temple to the first beacon. From here I lit beacons 1-5, running the entire trip. After lighting the 5th, I teleported to Edgeville.

At Edgeville, I summoned my familiar and reloaded my inventory. I then took the following: Tinderbox (obviously), 4 law runes, 4 fire runes, Goblin Village teleport orb (from Dorgesh-Kaan), Games Necklace, Super-Restore Potion and the rest of the logs (12 of which I gave to my familiar). I ran up and lit the 6th, and used my combat bracelet to teleport to the Monestary. From here I ran to the 7th and lit it. I used the Goblin Village orb and lit the 8th. I took the logs from my familiar and then teleported to Burthorpe via the Games necklace and lit the 9th. From here I didn't go directly to the 10th, but instead teleported to Trollheim and lit the 11th beacon, climbed down the ladder and backtracked to the 10th (I would have had to walk south from Burthorpe, head east and then back north to get to #10 in order). From the 10th beacon, I teleported to Trollheim again, this time going north past God Wars Dungeon to get to the 12th (your levels decline steadily in the harsh cold, thus the super-restore potion). I climbed down the agility shortcut into the Wilderness, and headed to the 13th beacon, just north of the temple. Then on to Ice Plateau for #14.

I finally return to King Roland for my very own Infernal Adze!

The actual lighting of the beacons took maybe 15 minutes. Setting up to light the beacons took several hours. But it was worth all the hard work.





In Other News:

The Evil Chicken (as well as all the combat randoms) are gone. We will miss you.

I have also broken combat level 100, and have completed the Karamja and Seer's Village achievement diary. This leaves one more to finish: Falador.

Finally, I also acquired enough Slayer points to learn to make slayer helms!

Friday, February 13, 2009

Long time, no see

I've been somewhat lax in posting on my blog as of late (as anyone can see), so let me bring everything up to date. I'll start with my progress on the Grand Master quest.

December 6: 65 Farming
December 16: 55 Hunting
December 17: 65 Herblore
December 22: 75 Magic
December 23: While Guthix Sleeps quest finished

The grand master quest wasn't as hard as I thought it would be, but there was a tense moment where my hit points dropped into the teens.

They've likewise released several achievement diaries, and currently this is where a majority of my focus is on training at the moment. Here's a list of what I still need to do there:

Lumbridge: Complete
Falador: Hard
Fremennik: Complete
Karamja: Hard
Seer's Village: Hard
Varrock: Complete

Inferno Adze is temporarily on hold, while I stockpile wood from Miscelania. I will probably start burning after I finish the diaries. I have recently decided that I'd like Firemaking to be my first skill cape.

I've fallen in with a small group of people who have also given me several different focuses. First and foremost: there are several NPC's who will give or sell you things once a day. Bert in Yannelle for sand, Aherin in Catherby for seaweed and pineapples, and Zaff for battlestaffs (Zaff I was already doing). The Seer's diary added Geoffry in the flax field to the list as well. Doing these things every day have done incredible things for my Crafting and Magic skills (not even to mention my Runescape finances) by making it possible to assemble 64 Air Battlestaves per day.

On top of these daily skiller errands, I can check/kill a Jade Vine for Farming and Slayer experience, I can kill Bork for a handful of higher level charms, and now I can kill a Phoenix for phoenix feathers (which is a component for a Summoning pouch I'll be able to make in the future). I'd like to say I do all my "dailys" on a daily basis, but I usually only do the combat ones a couple times a week.

In addition to these dailys, this group has gotten me into Star Hunting. While I can't remember specifically when, I'm sure I've mentioned that I hate mining. If I haven't previously, I'll do so now: I hate mining. Most of the better locations are remote, and the ore doesn't respawn fast enough to make it entertaining for me. But Star Hunting has made it possible for me to level Mining as never before. Currently, I'm about 20k or so from 80 Mining (which had been 67 for a really long time).

The best part about Star Hunting is that it's a 20-30 minute bout of single-click mining every 2 hours. It leaves me plenty of time to work on other things. The diversion (as it's called) also gives you some loot, but with my skills, the loot's not really all that great. But it does give me some cosmic runes (which I do find useful) and the gold ore is really starting to build up in my bank (once I have a good amount, I'll smelt them with gold smithing gauntlets). A quick 50k each day for something I'd do anyways is also quite welcome.

Another side benefit of star hunting is that it has helped eleviate some of my fear of the Wilderness and the Revenants that inhabit it. After heeding a piece of advice from one of my hunting team, I can now hold my own against lower level Revenants, and I kill a good number of them when they attack.

Combat-wise, I've been training Strength with Slayer. I spent a bit of time making some money and bought a Saradomin Sword (not a Godsword, unfortunately), which I am extremely fond of. It's twice as fast as a regular 2-handed sword, hit's well, and does a decent amount of damage. It's a great companion with proselyte armor, as it gives a +2 Prayer bonus.

Well, that about brings you up to date. I'm going to try to post a little more often from now on.

Thursday, November 27, 2008

Grandmaster Quest

Up to now: I managed to get my Firemaking skill to 80, which gave me both access to fire gauntlets and Magic pyre logs. I cut somewhere in the neighborhood of 300 magic logs to use in Shades of Mort'ton. As maybe you remember, I already have about 800 sacred oil (4) that I intended for use with magic logs. While I made, on average, about 400k per 100 logs, I managed to lose a good amount of money in the process. The shades I need for Magic pyre logs are level 100, and I wasn't watching my HP. The loss was a bit over 500k, and I still haven't replaced my dragon boots.

After about 300 logs, my attention turned to combat. And as with most any other time where my attention was on combat, I decide to train combat through Slayer. At first, my goal was simply to gain access to the warrior's guild (which required 3 Attack or Strength levels). But after I managed to get both 65 in Attack and Strength, I decided it was time to raise my combat level. My current combat level goal is 90, with a goal set for my Attack skill of 70.

I goof around at the Warrior's guild for a bit (about 1k tokens and still no defender of any type) before I return to Slayer. I'm using Sumona now as a master, and she gives good assignments. The assignments however make me realize that my current food technologies are a bit lacking. I stop my training at combat level 88, in order to fix this problem.

I have a load of salmon in the bank that I used to get to 70 cooking. It was my origional intention to turn these 3600+ salmon into admiral pies, which would have got me well above 80 cooking. Once I sat down and thought about how I had to acquire everything to make them (flour, potatos, tuna and pie shells), I realized that making that many pies wasn't within my patience threshold. I sold all but 1k, and bought everything I needed to make the pies. This was not as easy as it sounds: nobody sells pie shells on G.E. Those I had to buy from a shop.

If you want to make a lot of high end and labor intensive pies, the best way to do it is to use the Lunar Spellbook. First thing it does for you is make it easy to fill buckets with water (Humidify spell). This is only a minor benefit, which can't be beaten out by the Make Pie spell. It cooks the pie, without the need for a stove, and you don't burn any. This means you get all the xp you worked for.

The pies only get me to 76, so I sell the pies and buy monkfish. I decide that this will be the fastest way to train cooking. I am not wrong, despite the fact that I burn about 15%. It only takes me about a day to get to 80. I set off to Catherby to get me some sharks.

It was here and about that Runescape took off the kid gloves. The long awaited "Grandmaster Quest" was released. And if the requirements are any indication, it's no joke. My quest cape is banked indefinately.

As you can see above, I have a lot of work to do.

Wednesday, November 12, 2008

New Goals

With my biggest goal met, it's time to come up with something else to do. While there are many things I'd like to acomplish, there is only one thing that really stands out: getting an Inferno Adze. For those who don't yet know, this is a combination woodcutting axe and pickaxe that is rumored to be better than even a dragon hatchet. To get one, you need several skill levels...the biggest being a 92 Firemaking.

I wanted a few Firemaking levels to begin with, so I could use Magic Pyre logs in the Shades of Mort'ton minigame. Of course, the easiest way to get Firemaking levels is to set things on fire. My current Firemaking level is 65, so I'm going to need to do a lot of burning.

I start out by cutting and selling Yew logs, and using the money to buy Maple logs. Maple logs give decent enough experience, and I can buy more than ten times the number of Yew logs I sell. I'll do this until it's no longer worth doing.

Another thing I'd like to get is an 80 Cooking. I still have all that salmon left, and my plan with that is to fish and cook tuna and use it all to make Admiral pies using the "Make Pie" Lunar spell (so I don't burn any). This probably won't get me the whole way, but it'll help.

I also set out to the All Fired Up minigame to get a Ring of Fire. Since I'm burning maple logs, I get 3718 xp per inventory (which is about 3 xp more than without, or 10% more).

The minigame isn't that difficult, but it's easier to just burn the logs with a tinderbox for experience. The trick is to fill all the beacons with the best logs you can use, then you head to the ogre spa and bathe in the salt water spring (for unlimited run for a time), and return to light the beacons after run is no longer a concern. It also helps to know where the beacons are, and take teleport runes with you for both bank runs and fast transporation to the next beacon.

Another thing I'd like to get done is to unlock the Air Guitar emote. I may just head to Bounty Hunter (and a couple other minigames) in order to unlock what I need (which is somewhere in the neighborhood of 5 songs).

Saturday, November 8, 2008

The Longest Mile: Conclusion

As it stands, all that stands in the way of my quest cape is 2 combat levels. I look at my combat experience to try and determine how best to get those levels.
I'm very close to levelling in Attack, Defence and Hit Points, and Dream Mentor will give me 15k in Attack and Hit Points (I can save the lamp for later)...which could potentially shoot me past 85 combat if I'm not careful. I pick up a couple of slayer tasks to see what I can do.
It doesn't take me long to rack up levels in all 3 skills...and no combat level. Rather than risk putting me too close to another level, I stop by Tears of Guthix to get a few Summoning levels. I end up with 34 Summoning, which brings me up to 84 Combat.
I decide that the safest way to get the last combat level is to break down and actually train Summoning. I've got over 2k charms of various colors, so that part won't be a problem. The exorbatant cost, however, does present a problem to me, and I spend well over 500k gp racking up 8 more levels. Now close to broke, I have my 85 Combat level.
I decide to take on Dream Mentor first. This is the one that worries me. I know what I'm up against, and I'm well aware that I've got my work cut out for me. Nothing left but to do it. It's a struggle, and in the process I learn a valuable lesson: if you're making headway, don't leave the "dream world" unless you're about to die. Doing so starts you at the beginning.
It takes a few hours, but I finally find my happy medium between Rings of Recoil, potions and food and get down to the 4th and last monster. This one is only a bit over 100 combat level, and doesn't hit very much. I was somewhat concerned that I didn't have any food left at this point (luckily I still had plenty of HP). It doesn't hit very often, and doesn't hit very hard at all. I finish the quest and get 2 quest points (for a total of 269 quest points).
Then it's off to do Smoking Kills. Two things I didn't like about this quest: it's a desert quest in the worst part of the desert (around the ruins from Dealing with Scabarous quest), and I've never done it before.
I heard it was easy...and it turns out to be true. While there were some close moments, it was nothing too tense and I finish the quest easily. I now have 270 quest points: enough to get a quest cape.

(click for a full-sized image...and take note of my combat level)
As you've seen, this cape requires a lot of work...and at a point almost total devotion to the mission. While this is the easiest Cape of Acomplishment to get, it requires constant maintaince. Every time a new quest comes out, I can't wear my cape until I finish it. But once you've got it, the maintaince isn't difficult.
It took me a little over 6 months to get the cape.