I'll take 'Senioritis' for 1200

Saw this on jeopardy, thought it needed to be shared.

Update

I haven’t had much to write about lately. I’ve still been playing with lots of new things since I last posted anything meaningful. Prayer cape, potion flasks, troll invasion, all great additions. Making flasks is currently funding my daily staff purchases but I assume that will only last another day or two before they drop down to a price where I start considering actually using them opposed to selling them.

I’ve been pretty good about making sure I harvest my morchella mushrooms twice a day. I have over 500 now and about 1.5k fellstalk pots (u) which I’m saving for bonus weekend which should be sometime in March.

I’ve also been on a mission to get the hybrid sets of armor. I have the boots from Pest Control. I’m currently working on the legs from Soul Wars and mannnnn, its taking for-ev-er. I can’t tell you how many points I’ve cashed in or games I’ve played and still nada. I did go from 90-91 Ranged cashing the points in and am only about 50k from 92 Range. I got 99 Pray several months ago so I’m using my points on Range. I was ice barraging for a while, which is amusing but I’m terrible at it. Its still nice to see the big numbers come up on the xp meter when you start doing it right though.

I used up my skoll boots at the barb agility course. Watching that xp melt away felt great. It was to a point where I actually didn’t mind doing agility for a few days. That said, I went from 90-92 and I’m happy with that. After bonus weekend I’ll start doing some BA again to recharge my horn.

My drive to level is to really just do that, level. I have a good amount of friends who are maxed in the game. Some still play but many have lost interest and start something else, another game. My ultimate goal, as I’m sure is everyone else’s, is to max. I’m at that so-close-yet-so-far point I think. Most of my levels are 90+ with only 4 skills in the 80s (RC, Con, Slay, Hunt). Still that road from 92-99 is pretty harsh. I do get jealous to an extent every time I see that max cape. I want it so bad. Maybe in a year or two I’ll get to throw that thing over my shoulders.

I haven’t really had much cash since I spent the dough on bones getting 99 prayer. I luckily did that right before the frost dragon update when frost bones were at the lowest in a while. This is the first time I’ve lucked out with RS timing. I usually get the short end of the stick when it comes to that. Since then I hover around the 1-2 mil mark. I’m hoping to hit the RS lotto with a big drop that’ll fund some skills which I should be training, but are kinda useless (construction, I’m looking in your direction). To get con and herblore out of the way would be great. I’m almost 96 herb which is great and incredibly annoying at the same time. At 96 I’ll be able to make the strong naturalist potions in dungeons. Being 95 and needing to pot up to make a pot sucks. Again, so-close-yet-so-far.

Everyone seems to be fighting Jad for their firecapes in order that they can get their firecape 2. To say I have no interest in fighting 2 jads doesn’t even scratch the surface of how I feel. I’ve said it before, I suck at just one jad. 0-23. And before you say it, yes I have seen ______’s video, yes I know how to pray switch, yes whatever else you’re going to suggest me. I’ve heard it all. Call it operator error. I know everything I should do, it’s the execution that’s an issue. I am happy that its coming out for others, but its not content that I’ll be checking out anytime soon.

I wish I had anything more interesting to write about. I log in, do some things for an hour or two and log out I want to start doing boss trips again, but even when I’m doijng that, I’m thinking about how I could be skilling instead. I thought about nuking this blog, but I’ll keep it running. If anyone goes through these past posts and finds anything helpful, then it served its purpose. As of now though, the updates will be few and far between. Not for lack of interest, but really lack of inspiration. I’ll keep playing, but not really writing about playing.

This is not a swan song, but who knows.

Been a while

So its been a bit. Bonus xp weekend, Dung weekend, etc. etc... Got a few levels, got a few capes.

I hate to bring this up, but my absence has had a reason. I've had some terrible months and I hate to say it but I've been diagnosed as being bipolar. Kind of hard to take when you are in your 30s... If I can stress to anyone, its that there are lots of us out there. It does suck, but it does get better.

Back to trying to get back to reality. Fighting.

Prepping for who knows what....

If history is any indicator, we should probably have another bonus xp weekend in September. I’ve decided to start stockpiling supplies now while there’s a lot of good prices out there. Toadflax seeds are just about 200gp! I thought I was getting a great deal when I found them for under 1k ages ago. I stocked up then, but I’m definitely restocking now.

I’m going to be more diligent about herb runs and managing my kingdom when I get time to play. Also grabbing that free pure ess each day should add up as I’ve been doing a bit of runecrafting recently. I’d love to stockpile my 80 staves that I get each day and save them for when there’s a bonus, but I don’t haven enough cash to do that for too long. Besides, that’s fast enough xp and good money anyway. I’m almost at 97 Crafting so there’s nothing much I can really unlock for that skill.

Again, if history’s any indicator, not only will this happen but I will also be out of town for one reason or another and not able to participate. In that case, I’d just sell my materials when things get pricy and make some cash. Even if it doesn’t happen, having a stock of materials isn’t ever a bad thing, especially if one seed is just 200gp!

Over the last month or so and played a LOT of Soul Wars. I managed 85-90 prayer there before I couldn’t take it any longer. I broke down, sold some stuff and bought bones and worked my way to 95 prayer. Varrock and Fally Diaries completed! I’ve been better at getting Bork on a regular basis too, the double rewards are sweet!

I’m about 40k away from 99 Hitpoints. I just couldn’t keep my eyes open last night to get it done. That xp counter goes painfully slow when you’re watching it intently. Hopefully that will be for tonight or sometime this week, depending on work.

HP & Prayer have always been two of my favorite capes. What can I say, I guess I have a weakness for the white. I kind of wish they didn't change the HP emote though, I thought the old one was the coolest one out of them all.

Still Alive

I'm still alive. Life is ridiculously busy. I feel like every weekend since 2005 involves me going to a wedding... When I've been in the game all I've been doing is penguins and Soul Wars. So far I've gone 85-90 Prayer. I'm close to 91. It's taken weeks. Soul Wars clan chats are some of the most annoying I've ever been in.

However, 90 Prayer is a huge step in the 90+ quest. I'd love to get 95 for the diaries, but 92 would be great as well. It's just so slow and painful. And no, I don't have 100m to drop on it to make it faster. My bank has hovered around 300k for a long time now. I did manage 97 Attack which got me 134cb. I was pretty stoked on that.

I wish I had better things to report, but Soul Wars isn't really exciting. Slowly chipping away at Prayer levels...

Vengeancing Everything in Sight

I finally unlocked all of the livid farm spells. It really didn’t seem like a grind to me until the last 4 or so hours. That was probably because I knew I wasn’t going to get any other levels until I was done. Doing all of it I managed 2 farming levels and I’m about 68k from 91, 2 agility levels, a construction level and a magic level and a pretty good chunk out of my next. I think I’m about 300k from 97.

The spell came in pretty handy on a trip to corp, sadly I didn’t have any luck with drops.

I was a little closer to another agility level and something clicked where I finally realized I could access the advanced gnome course by using summer pies. Wow everyone who wrote about it was right, it really is scenic. I actually didn’t feel bored doing it. With the horn its about 1400+xp/lap. The running on the sign thing is actually a lot of fun. I played a little BA to charge my horn and once its full and I buy some more pies, I’m definitely going back there.

Air orbs are pretty low cost now so I bought a ton of them. That combined with getting 2 summoning levels, 90 and 91 pretty much wiped me out cash wise. I’ve been skilling so much lately that I guess its only time to get back into the swing of trips to kill stuff. So summoning knocks out another goal of getting all skills over 90. I’m getting closer. I actually got cb lvl 133 on one of the summoning levels, so that was a bonus. No fireworks for either though, weird.

Dungeoneering 90 might be left off that goal list. I spent a good hour in a large dung with 3 friends the other night. It was pretty much a full map and we had everything open and were just prepping for the boss when I lagged. It couldn’t have been more than a minute or two (I think you have 5 to return to the dungeon) but was kicked out. No experience given whatsoever and when I went to check, I again lost my binds. I thought that was only supposed to happen when the server crashed. Wtf! I’m so sick of spending time training a skill that keeps giving me no xp and taking my stuff from me. I started a small c6 that luckily had a few gorg spots so I made a couple items but then I just left it. It is so frustrating to deal with all that time and effort wasted over and over.

I’m excited to be able to do the lower level summoning effigies, if I ever get them.

Real life is pretty busy the next few days. I won't be on much.

Early Evening of the Dead

I used up my Hati Paws yesterday. It took maybe 4 hours. It was amazing how quick the xp flew by. My goal was to do it as quick as possible because, like I’ve stated I’m sure countless times, I hate ranging.

My gear:
Void Range Helm
Ammy of Ranging
Ava’s
Elite Void Top
Void Robes
Archer’s Ring
Void Deflector
Hati Paws
Ranger Boots (borrowed)
Chins


I managed to get 88, 89 and 90 Ranged! As well as 98 Hitpoints! When my paws ran out, I was still stocked and a little over 150k til 90 Ranged, so I stayed down there a little longer. My xp counted was at about 1.3m when I was done. I sold my remaining 6k chins and 500 pray pots afterwards. Note that chins are really pretty cheap at the moment if anyone is considering using them.


I went to Ape Atoll to fight the zombies under there. No drops, but fast and easy xp. There were a few near deaths, but I managed to survive even a disconnection. I’d recommend a ring of life if anyone is going to try it, just to be safer.


I can now use Grave Creeper bows which is great. Whenever we’d need to range in a dungeon, someone would give me a bow and I’d always forget to check the type until we were in the boss room and I’m wondering why I can’t equip it… >.< When I get in the mood to go back down there, I can also bind some Prom arrows, which will be pretty sweet as well.


I probably won’t get to play much this weekend. Going to a baseball game, Mother’s Day, Derby day, etc. I’m hoping when things settle down a bit I can finish the Livid Farm. It’s helping me with two of my sub 90 skills, Agility and Farming. Not too long ago I got 90 Mining, now 90 Ranged, got 89 Farming and in the past 2 days I’ve been buying addy bars and using my SC tool stockpile as hammers and doing some Smithing. My plan was to make addy plates, but then I realized I needed 88 to do that. Ah well, not too much of an issue. Kiteshields and legs sell pretty easily. I managed 85, 86 and 87 Smithing and will probably get 88 tonight (hopefully!).

Quatro de Mayo

It's been a frustrating few weeks. I kept Dungeoneering and just as I was about to kill the boss of a 1+ hr long solo med which would get a level as well as enough tokens to get a CR, the server crashed. Not a problem on my end, but a problem on RS's end. I couldn't log on for over 40 minutes. Not only did I not get any experience or tokens from that time spent, I lost the items I bound. I don't get it! I had them before the dungeon and I should hold on to them, however that is not the case. The only thing I had when I went back into the dungeon was my gorg arrows. I lost my hood and my Prom spear++. Not only did the game let me down by crashing, it stole from me.

After a few hours of blowing off some steam, I sucked it up and got what I was looking for. Needless to say, I'll be taking a break from Dungeoneering for a good amount of time. I also don't understand how Jagex just won't even address the issue. The items were bound and I could even concede if it was maybe a problem on my end, with lag or my computer crashed, but not when their world goes down. Lame.

I used the sword on Mith Dragons and it was pretty sweet. I did a round of... that summoning minigame where you gather shards that I can't think of the name of at the moment, then went on to Waterfiends. I love the sword. If I ever lose it, I'll probably be crushed. I can't imagine going through all that to get it back.

I've been spending a good amount of time at Livid Farm. I think I'm the only one who actually likes it. I've unlocked the first 3 spells and am working on the rest. It got me 95 Magic and 89 Farming. Right now I'm pretty close to 96 Magic and 82 Agility. I'm excited to check out the pouch repair for when I RC. I'd love to be able to Vengeance Others, but that's a little ways off. I'd say I'm about 11 hours into the 35 needed. I did most of that in just a couple days, I'll probably take a little break and then do it in spurts. I'll take all the Agility xp without actually training Agility I can get!

The new capes came out yesterday! I'm not thrilled about the design chosen of the Veteran's Cape (I think the flames at the bottom are tacky, it could have been so much more elegant) but the emote is great! I love being able to stand on a giant Rocky V symbol. I'd actually like it to change over the years as well. Maybe the people who have played 7 years get to stand on a giant VII or X for 10 years. That might make it a little more personal.

Jagex claims it won't tell people their start dates of their accounts. I wonder how people will know when they've played 5 years then... Mod Emilee said to check the holiday items if they weren't sure. That might be an ok gauge, but if anyone's like me, I didn't care about holiday items for the first few years I played. I think the first thing I got was the Grim Reaper Hood, and that was easily after several years of playing.

With the Classic cape, I feel the opposite of the Veteran's Cape. I love how it looks, but I'm not thrilled with the emote. Yeah its a little nostalgic, but meh.

I made all the skill level capes as well. I can wear the 80+ one, but was still able to make the 90+. They look alright. I don't think I'll do much more with them than just put them in my POH though.

I need to use up my Hati Paws! 100% left remaining and only 6 days to go! Look out zombie monkeys, I'm coming to throw small exploding animals in your faces!

Down in a Hole

I tried doing Dung with strangers (I was really, really bored). Oi! Annoying! It usually ends up with multiple deaths and general annoyance. The best is when someone states there’s a skill door at the ggs, so naturally I’ll tele over to open it. What they conveniently forget to mention is “Oh yeah, there’s also 3 lvl 130 Shades in there with two archers.” Mass confusion on opening doors/entering rooms too, as people jump into rooms they thought they were just unlocking. Out of about 4 dungeon attempts (and countless amounts of time trying to find a team) only one was completed and it took about an hour and a half. -42% for three deaths. One was completely my fault, but two weren’t. The people apologized, but it still sucks. If I try to do this again, I’m just going to keep my head down and do the bare minimum to get by. It seems to be what everyone else does and there’s no reason for me to be killing myself when no one else will.

Clan chat update…. Where even to start? How about how they chose the most obnoxious colors to begin with… Thankfully you can change them on our settings. That bright lime green is just offensive to look at. It’s also not multi-clan friendly. For me, I’m in two clans. One was started with friends years ago and is really just us hanging out with trips and competitions but no real requirements. There’s no public recruiting and potential members are on a buddy system, then finally allowed into CC on their own, but they’re acceptance actually takes a few months. This is really to weed out any personality conflicts and has nothing to do with skills or levels. The other is a lot larger with a different set of rules and monthly requirements and I love it because it keeps me motivated. Now, I have to have friend chat open to our old CC, with our new designed CC being automatically entered. This way, we can talk with everyone, even the recruits and just use the CC, which is accepted members only, for more business like discussions regarding clan matters, voting, etc. Since I’m already registered for that CC (which I need to be, being that I’m one of the higher ups needed for voting and business measures), I have no option regarding joining my other CC. I’m forced to log in as a guest, which has its restrictions and can not carry a rank.

Speaking of restrictions, how about mental ones? 5 levels of chat, all pretty much separated by a single keystroke? People struggle with wc’s constantly with just public, pm and cc. This should create some interesting drama.

I'm also baffled by needing to actually go up to the person in order to add them. Doesn't really make much sense to me as you never had to do that before.

We'll see how it goes. I finally got to see the tree update everyone had been talking about. (I had to come up to the service for the cc) They are beautiful! I love how gigantic they look.

Back to the dung...

Through the roof... Underground...

I have been doing a lot of Dungeoneering this week. I’ll do it with a friend or two if they’re willing and have floors in common, but I mostly do solos. I’ll rush 1-20 then do a few smalls but mostly mediums. I know its not the most effective, plus I’m dying to get it to 80 and doing it slowly, but I hate relying on others. Also, most people online I know want to start large dungeons at 11pm when I get up for work around 6am. Somethings in the game just take way too long when involving a group of people. 3 rooms in someone dies so you reset, then someone has to leave abruptly, then this and that and I just don’t even want to deal with it when all I can think of is that I’m not going to get any sleep when I was coerced into it to begin with.

I put large dungeons on the level of Armady boss trips. It takes forever to get your kill count, then two other people sign on and want to join, but need help prepping and getting kc.

I know I’ll get responses like “I do larges all the time and it only takes me 30 mins and never had an issue” or whatever. Awesome. I’m stoked for you. Not my experience. Unless I have a giant amount of time to kill or feel the need to be annoyed by strangers, I’ll keep at it my way. Earlier in the week I unlocked the occult floors, which have actually been easier for me. I know I’m jinxng myself, but I like them. I got up to lvl 76 and I’m just shy of lvl 77.

I had been using my ring all wrong. I finally figured it out and charged my gathering up to tier 9. It was an expensive amount of tokens and the reason why I’m spending so much time in dungeons is that I want a CR. It’s alright though, because of a jagex mix up, you can uncharged it once and get your tokens back. Just once though. I’m treating it like I’m just putting them in the bank.

The null thing in the Adventure Log is really annoying. I haven’t come up to the surface enough to check out the Livid Farm thing yet. Vengeance Group sounds like it would be a pretty amazing spell, but it looks like it’ll have a pretty huge time requirement to unlock it. I'm sure I’ll look into it soon. B2P took a long time to unlock, but that was absolutely worth it. VG would be amazing for boss battles. Blessing up to 30 people with Vengeance would destroy almost anything.

Have an amazing weekend!

On my way to the Prom

No, not the dance.

I've been doing a ton of Mining this week. I got 88, 89 and am about to get to lvl 90. Prom ore and size 9 stars, here I come! I need to work on my smithing though, that's only at 84. Prom ore isn't very useful if I can't do anything with it.

The combination of the penance horn and SC picks have been pretty amazing. I'm getting over 100k xp/hr mining gold at LRC. The horn's about to be empty though. I think when I do some BA runs and when it's refilled I might run some laps and get my agility up a bit.

My over ambitious goal last year was to get every level to 90. It was a motivator more than anything. I did get a lot of my lower skills up. I feel like with some additions to the game, that's actually possible and not that far away. I still don't feel any reason to level up Construction. I wish there was some motivation, but I can't think of anything. My house is exactly the way I want it, I have the higher level storage items to save bankspace because they're tradeable, I have no interest in a guardian or dungeon pet. Spending a ton of cash on a throne doesn't interest me. I use my house to check on stars, recharge my pray, store my stuff, repair my armor, teleport and that's about it. Can anyone think of anything? I'm not big into hosting house parties.

So Survivor kicked off and I'm happy. Lots of Mining, Thieving. Competition might be the motivation that I've been lacking lately.

I've seen a pretty decent exodus of friends from the game lately. A lot have picked up playing LOTRO, which I have checked out. It is a gorgeous game and is entertaining. Runescape will always be the go-to though. I have too much invested in it to really just switch over. Not just the gameplay, but the people that I don't know outside of the game. Besides, its SURVIVOR! I don't have the time to work on anything else!

Things have been hectic in RL, sick grandpop, super busy at work but some fun involved. About 20 of my friends and I heading down the street to watch the home opener of the Philadelphia Union (soccer) for my birthday. Gonna be cold, but should be a lot of fun.

Go Union!

So many things...

I skipped bxp weekend, but I got home in time to do a quick tree run which got me 88 Farming as well as the Circus, which has me closer to some levels in Mage and Range. After that I did about an hour or so of Runecrafting at Ouriana. That pretty much was the weekend for me.

I had been fooling around with my horn and I finally got around to getting back my Ninja Greegree, which I somehow lost (I think I teleported with a full inventory at some point, not sure how I got a full inv running laps, but every tells me that’s the likely culprit), which was a bit of a pain, but I’m glad I have it now. I got a few Agility levels and it goes fast at over 1kxp/lap.

My buddy showed me how to get the Herblore JuJu Pots from… Herblore Habitat? I think that’s the name. Super fast Hunting experience. Also using the Herblore pots on the herbs to make the Herblore pots = awesome. I made a lot of money selling herbs before the big weekend. Getting about 40 for each run is awesome. I’ve been mainly getting my Herblore xp from cleaning the herbs as well as the statue and giving assists. I’m about 10k from 91, and not as much in the mood to push it to 95 as I was a while ago. The extremes are working just fine.

I got to lvl 5 in all the Barb Assault roles, which really just makes it easier to get on a team when doing it with strangers. I also got to lvl 70 Dungeoneering. The new update is alright, I like that it gives you a screen in the chat box with all the info when you start it. I still have yet to do that with strangers, we’ll see if that happens.

Does anyone even really read the history notes that are dropped at the end of dungeons? I try to, but just getting a paragraph every now and then makes it very difficult to string together. Is there a place where you can pick up and read the ones you have start to finish? I’ve also gotten one or two that was just completely blank with a message ‘its too old to read’ or something along those lines.

Survivor is starting and I’m excited to get some Mining levels out of it. I’ll need to train Smithing at some point. Ore isn’t any good if you can’t do anything with it. I haven’t tried the new Smithing update area yet, anyone know if its any good?

I love the Ring of Wealth update. I always used mine as a good luck charm, even in LS where I know its useless. I was slaying yesterday, Waterfiends, Black and Iron Dragons. It was a little disheartening when it would shine brighter and the drop is 300gp. New task is Dusties, which I actually love. I’m hoping for some luck there. I have about 250 of them.

I just returned from amazing vacations in the Poconos and Key West (where I was during bxp) a few days ago and getting over a cold. March has been, always has been and always will be, super busy for me. The majority of my friends birthdays are in March, as well as my own. I haven’t had a birthday party in years because of how fast the month fills up. I planned mine in early January, which was good because the next week, every weekend is booked up until late April. Weddings, birthdays, life… Throw that on top with a sick grandparent (doing much better!) and a lap top that committed suicide on me, playing time has been limited. I’ve got a new computer though, and am going to actually live in my house for 2 straight weeks instead of being in hotels/motels/holiday inns. Actually, since I’ve been back I’ve been glued to the TV regarding the Japan crisis. I have friends over there who are thankfully fine. The western media regarding the radiation is out of control. We (meaning the USA) are going to be fine. No need to stock up on iodine. Actually doing that is a bad thing, Japan needs them more. Marlaine touched on it briefly on her blog, but its been a constant topic of conversation for me. No looting, no rioting, just trying to make it through it and coming together.

This reminded me of a recent insurance commercial I just watched last night with my roommate. It focused on how people went out of their way to help others. Someone was helping a person pick up papers they dropped, one was holding a door for others, one was stopping a kid from wrecking on his bike due to a runaway innertube from the beach. This shouldn’t be extraordinary behavior people! This is just called being a human being! It’s sad when common courtesy and respect are out the window. I see less and less of it in the RS community as well. I want to have a “Do something awesome for a completely random RS stranger Day.” It doesn’t have to be giving anyone something of value. It can just be something as simple as giving someone a lift to Lunar when they needed it, or showing a new player who’s lost where that super strange city of “Varrock” is located. Don’t really bring it up either, don’t start a competition about who can do the most (actually, would that *really* be a bad thing?), just have that little knowledge to yourself that you helped someone in need out. Negativity spreads like wildfire. You’re rude to a person in the grocery store because someone cut you off on your way to work who was probably pissed because someone cut them off beforehand. I’ve seen it in game. Someone gets scammed then they try to scam someone else, so then they camp and try to PK someone on a TT or something like that. Everyone just needs to chill. Life can be so much easier.

Wow, tangent much? Anyways. Happy St. Patrick’s day and lets go Villanova!

Catching Up

Where to start since last November? Dragon Defenders, return of the Wildy, free trade, the removal of the censor. So much has changed...

I haven't been missing all of this, I've still consistently been playing RS, I just haven't written anything on it. To be honest, everyone seemed to have pretty heated opinions on the subjects, myself included and I just wanted to sit back a bit.

Also, for a while I really lost my motivation in the game. When all you do is bankstand and chat with friends, and not actually 'play,' it doesn't give you much to write about.

I'll do a little recap:
- Got a few dragon defs a few days after it came out. I keep confusing it for a dragon scim in my bank even to this day. I like it. Was hard to get because of the crowds, but I signed on at an odd time and got a couple for myself

-Free Trade & Wildy. What a sham of a "vote." I fully believe they intended to bring it back regardless and the referendum and vote was really just an advertising ploy. I have no issues with free trade. I would have liked to have them set aside a few safe wildy worlds, but they didn't and what can you do? I've been playing for a while. I remember the pre-GE days and the dangerous wildy, so I just went back into that mindset and I don't really mind it. As with anything, you just deal with it. Prices of things went out of whack a bit. However, they kind of did in the same way when the GE was first created. Certain items tanked in value and recovered, the same thing is happening to those same items, so its kind of predictable. Maybe I'll put my money where my mouth is and see if it plays out the same.

-Removal of the censor. Someone brought up on forums that they thought Jagex would institute a voice chat included with the game. My thought process is that they'd never do that, as there's no way to censor it. However, with the removal of the censor, I really think they are going to institute this. Maybe charge a small additional fee along with the service. I've said I've hated it before, but I've come around to using Skype with the game. It makes things so much easier sometimes. Dungeons and Barb Assault come immediately to mind. Also, the removal of the censor was kind of abrupt. I'm older and I'm not really offended by the language, but for so many parents with younger kids playing the game, it seems off. Yes, there is a filter, but the kid can easily access that. If there were some parental control over an account, it might work better. The argument against this seems to be coming from kids. "In middle school I hear cursing every single day." Good for you (apparently this is something to be bragged about?). That doesn't mean you should. In a heartbeat I would cancel my kid's membership if they were in the 10-16 yr old age range.

Ok, those issues addressed. This is going to be a long post. What can I say, I haven't written in a while, bear with me.

So, after a long time of no motivation, an update actually sparked my activity. A seemingly weird one too. The Hati Wolf. Just seemed like a fun holiday-ish thing to do. The paws give you double xp in cb though. That was all it took. I HATE ranging. I've been at lvl 87 for a while now with not a lot of xp to get 88, but I just haven't done it. I am NOT wasting a chance at double xp on this. Plus my HP lvl is at 97 and could use some help. I'm going to use chins for this and after some discussion, the best way to do it is using the void gear. I never entertained the thought of using PC points for anything other than xp. It seemed like a waste. With the introduction of the Void Deflector, I could use the full gear and the paws. On to PC it was. I got all of the gear after doing it. On to Conquest... You start at 1000, but need either 1250 or 1350 to get the deflector, I forget which and can't be bothered to look it up atm.

The deflector I still need. I suck at conquest. If anyone wants to play a few rigged games, let me know. We can both get it.

Jax brought up the return of Survivor. In my inactivity I lost clan status, so if I'm allowed back, I'll be competing in this. I'm also organizing one with my other friends so if the first falls through, I'll have the other. Either that or its just double motivation.

Prepping for that, I've been playing a ton of non-cb Stealing Creation. This has always been one of my favorite in-game activities. I just love the race to gather, process and bank and see if I can make the hiscore. The cc's can be a little annoying at times, but whatever. Those little inconveniences will be worth it when I cash my points in. I'm currently at about 1300 points now and will try to get a lot more before the start of either.

Then I wondered what else is xp boosting that I need. My barb horn has been empty for some time. I started playing that, and currently I've just been concentrating on that. I did enough to get my horn full. I've never owned a penance torso, but I've always wanted one. A few friends have been on a BA kick and I'll usually only defend when I'm with friends. I can be sort of slow at it, but I can do it pretty competently now. I got my points to get my torso and I'm happy. I probably won't use it much, but its one of those things in the game that I just always wanted. I kept playing and managed to get up to level 4 defender (from lvl 1) with lvl 5's in all three other roles. I had lvl 5 atk for a bit, but have recently gone from lvl 2 healer to 5 and lvl 3 coll to lvl 5. I'm on a kick and I'm running with it. I kind of want all the penance parts and my bankspace is currently hating me because I've been on a collecting spree.

If people are free, I try to do a dung. Got up to lvl 67 which isn't high, but whatever. I actually like rushing floors better than doing the big ones. Anyways, that's what I've been up to. I hope you all have been well.

Motions

I’d like to thank everyone for their kind words and suggestions on my last post. Even just people and my friends I could talk to about random things in game helps so much. It was really hard playing during the first couple of days to be honest. Calling our one friend really helped because it was just good to talk to someone who could just relate was an amazing feeling.

We had a little memorial service for her which, with almost every large gathering in rs, was well intentioned but worked out kind of awkwardly. Her son logged on so he could see how many people cared, but I don’t think he fully understood it, and that I get. Let alone dealing with the loss himself, it’s a hard thing to look in on people trying to say nice things on an online game while a bunch of others are really just there as spectators or showed up out of curiosity.

Either way its just hard seeing that name on your friends list that you know is never going to log on again. I wish there were some way to close off her cc though, it seems to be being used by some pretty disrespectful people. People go to gravesites to visit and talk to their friends and family. I hate to make the analogy but the clan chat is kind of like that. I can’t get to the other side of the country whenever I want to talk to her. I was cleaning out my emails when I came across one from her not too long ago asking if I could teach her how to do Bork since the Chaos Tunnels were confusing. I think I made it a point to go everyday until she knew the route, then she would take me along showing me that she knew them so well. Fun stuff.


I’ve just been keeping myself distracted really. I’ve been doing a lot of Corp masses because they’re pretty fun and you don’t really think about much other than surviving there. Survival therapy I guess you can call it. I’ve seen some Spectral drops, I’m hoping I just go enough to get something awesome. You really begin to realize how rare certain drops are if you just spend day after day killing hundreds of the same thing. I managed to level my Defense up to 93 which I’m excited about. I always like it when I’m harder to hit.


I got 85 Prayer as well since the last post. That way I could make my Blessed Spirit Shield, mainly because I was curious about it. So far I’m liking it, but man, just getting from 84-85 shows why I haven’t done Prayer more often. I tried to go back to Soul Wars, it seems to be the free way to train it while getting other xp as well, but those games get pretty annoying sometimes. To see how it’d work out I actually switched to Ancients and took my Magic Essence pots (which aren’t tradeable and I gotta use them sometime) and tried using Ice Barrage for the first time. It’s not as fun as it looks.

Not many other things have been going on lately. Is it me or hasn’t there been an update in a while? Also, I’m guessing no Thanksgiving event this year? I kind of liked the turkey ones. I know it’s really only a North American holiday, but we’ve had them before. Ah well…

I’ve been struggling with bank space lately. All these clue rewards stack up (h3 plate, h2 helm, h4 legs) but not being able to put them in our POH without the complete sets is pretty lame. At least there’s the option now of not having everything bombard you when you open it. I opened my box for the first time since seeing everyone get destroyed with inv and bank spots and was pleased to see the option of that not happening. Also, I realized I only have 2 things in there that would have been affected, so it wouldn’t have been that much of a deal after all anyway.

My motivation for leveling skills has really just been take whatever’s closest to leveling and run with it. Dungeoneering aside, of course. It’s kind of at that point to where nothing really seems close to a level. My Slayer task is daggies so I went with a friend to the Daganoth Kings. Good lord that place is confusing to get to. On top of that I didn’t really like killing them too much. Them and TDs, I just can’t get into. It was an experience though, like trying a food you don’t like every couple of years to see if your tastes have changed.


Well, I guess that’s enough rambling for now. I hope everyone has a safe and good Thanksgiving for all those who celebrate it. For those that don’t, I hope you have a great week as well.

Devestated

I woke up at 3am. I was sick. My throat was dry, the room spun and I could feel my heartbeat in the pit of my stomach. I got up to get some water and turn on the fan and open the window. I had 2 beers about 6 hours prior, so that wasn’t the reason. It must have been the burger I ate around 9pm causing havoc in my stomach. I couldn’t go back to sleep so I opened my lap top.

My one friend had given her facebook password to her daughter. She was going in for brain surgery because they detected an aneurysm a month or two ago. Right as I open it I see the update. She didn’t make it.

This is not someone I knew in person, but rather in game and then later on myspace and facebook. When I first started playing, I didn’t do much to make friends. It was just a game to screw around on. When I left and then I eventually came back, I wanted to take it a little more serious. I decided to train whatever my highest skill was. It was fishing, I think it was in the 30s. I spent hours fishing in Catherby as well as other various places. I’d take part in conversations, but never bothered to remember anyone’s name being that it was always a different group of people. I was so excited when I finally had the level to enter the Fishing Guild. It was here where I really met my first few friends in Runescape.

I have acquaintances and good friends in Runescape, however the first 5 people I ever really met hold a very special place in my heart. I couldn’t believe that people were spending hours and hours fishing, just like me and for some reason, stuck to the same home world of 26. I had never played any sort of MMORPG before and didn’t even know that people had ‘friends’ in them. This was over 5 years ago. I got friendly with them and we’d chat daily as we slowly chipped away at the fishing xp. As friends grew and moved on, some quitting, some just not on anymore or some who just moved to timezones where we never see each other, we all still managed to stay in contact. She was one of those friends.

I immediately logged on to see if any mutual friends were online, but there were not. I tried to go back to sleep but I really just laid restless until my alarm went off. I checked again before work but still none online. Another one of those 5 friends was very close to her, even talking to her on the phone regularly. She has to be devastated and I wish I could talk to her.

She’d even have her daughters come online (she leaves behind a long term boyfriend and 4 kids) to say hello to us. I remember doing that for three years. They’d eventually get their capes before me. I got mine and still fished, but got more interested in doing other things. We didn’t see each other on a daily basis in the game anymore, but we’d still PM and chat that way. She continued to fish with another one of those core friends, both pretty much earning their fishing cape about 4 times over. She’d PM me saying she’s so impressed with the way I’ve been knocking out my total levels, I’d gush equally about how much fishing xp she has and how high ranked she is in it.

It’s amusing, she got tired of having a couple adult beverages and then the next day realizing that she’d sold all her armor, or bought something ridiculous. To combat that, she started a new account that whenever that account was online, it’d mean she was a little tipsy. We’d laugh and joke about that for a long time.

Her life wasn’t the easiest. She struggled a lot with money, health and other personal issues. She always seemed positive though and could always laugh things off. A perfect example of this is just the other day. I had known all of what was going on, she didn’t feel the need to hide much and we were so close she’d tell me pretty much everything and I would to her. I had my dates wrong and saw on her facebook that she was about to leave for the hospital to get this surgery done. I was in game at the time and saw her log out. She logged right back in and I was quick to grab her attention. She said she was leaving in about 10 mins to drive to the brain surgery center a ways away from where she lived. I told her I cared about her and assured her that everything was going to be fine. We joked about when they had her brain open to make it like the Matrix and make her learn different languages and Kung Fu. I could tell she was nervous, but the joking made her relax. She said thanks and that she’ll see me in two weeks or so when she gets back.

That’s the last conversation I’ll ever have with her.

My thoughts are with her family and friends. I’ll try to keep my shit together and get through this work day, which I am doing a terrible job of trying to do. I’ll talk to friends and family as if everything is fine. I’ll smile to coworkers but I am destroyed inside. They won’t understand. Maybe that’s why I’m writing this. It’s not just “someone on the internet.” It’s a beloved friend, who knew me more than a lot of the people that I know in real life. It’s amazing that someone on the other side of the country, who’s voice I’ve never even heard would have such an impact in my life. If you’re reading this blog it means you play the game. It also means that you get it. You get the connections that are made over time. Don’t take them for granted.

I’ll miss you Ven. You’ll always have a place in my heart.

Get A Clue

92 Defence, which got me up to lvl 131 cb! Also got 87 Slayer! I spent the weekend knocking out slay tasks. Killing tons of nechs, hellhounds, abby demons, abby spectres, greaters, blue drags, etc, also leads to tons of something else:



Yeah, that's a lot of clues. Biggest item I received was Bandos page 3, but I know have a bunch of teleports to random places. The lumberyard teles came in handy while doing the clues that lead you there.

As you can see I got a court summons for the sandwich lady. It's the first one I've ever gotten. I went over to the court and pled her case and got her off the hook. The very next clue I got I received another summons! I thought this was awesome and head back to the court house to see who else I could get out of being falsely accused. Bummer, you have to wait 2 weeks to do it again... Ah well, at least I already have it.

I noticed I was getting close to a task where I was going to receive a slay points bonus. I went over to Lapalok for a task. Bloodveld! Hadn't had those in forever. I grabbed my cannon and went to kill the mutated ones and it was great xp and super fast. I completed the task and I got the "Get 75 points from Lapalok for completing a task" crossed off the elite Karamja diary list.

Potpourri

I finally did the Halloween event (on 11/1, I’m happy I didn’t miss it!) and it was pretty good. I had some trouble finding all the spiders but it didn’t take long to get them on their matching tiles. I had heard this was super hard for some people. I think I really just lucked out, half were correct before I even realize what was going on. The talking to the dead musician guy was probably the worst part of it for me. I actually pulled up a guide because that kind of thing frustrates the hell out of me. However, when I looked at it, I realized I was on the last choice anyways.

I think the bone brooch is pretty cool and the emote is fun. Overall I liked it. I like how it incorporated people from previous Halloween events. I liked the Poe references and I had to look it up to confirm it, but there was a Bill & Ted’s Bogus Journey reference. I got worried there that I was reading Bill & Ted’s into it, but its there! Whenever I see the grim reaper I think about challenging him to battleship and twister so I already had that goin on in the back of my head. Also, I don’t know where Bill S. Preston gets off adding Esq. to the end of his name. There’s no way that kid went to law school and passed the bar. Also, they’re coming out with a third one soon, which... will be interesting.

Yesterday I got to 93 Crafting, which I’m pretty happy about. Staves and the occasional assist is really the only way I train it. I had about 800 staves laying around so I bit the bullet and bought the air orbs to make them. They’re super expensive now, but they bought at mid instantly. I go in and out of my DIY phases and I just didn’t have it in me to make the orbs from scratch. Part of that has to do with not visiting Arnheim in Catherby for my seaweed. I just don’t really think of it because I have enough pineapples to last me forever.

The cash supply was running a little low, so I went to my favorite alching spot and took care of those. The best place to alch is the Skavid caves at Gu’Tanoth while collecting nightshade. It’s a second for herblore and its respawn rate is a little slow, not to mention it being untradeable. You just need a lightsource and the Skavid map. I wear my Seer’s 3 headband but you can also use the mining helmet to save an inventory spot. I wear my dueling ring so I can bank pretty quickly at Castle Wars. You also need to wear any kind of gloves or else it’ll hurt you when you pick it up.

It never ceases to amaze me how much of Runescape is based upon actual things. There really is belladonna and nightshade and it actually is a toxic plant. I’ve touched on this before, but the amount of real life knowledge you gain while playing a fantasy game is astounding. I always just assumed about 10% of it was real, while the rest is all just imaginary.

Do you know that when Jagex said that they were going to find a use for Ecto-Tokens, that was in 2008. It’s been 2 years and they still haven’t touched on it. They can’t think of anything to do with them? Really? I guess they have better things to do, but they just keep piling up. What would you want them to do with them? Have any ideas? New outfits? They stated originally that they’d be required for a pet, but something with the ex-ex-parrot got it askew. Which reminds me, I should get one of those… Spending 25 or whatever every, say, 4th week because there’s a penguin on braindeath doesn’t exactly deplete the pile. We already have ghostly robes, so that just seems redundant. I wouldn’t want to trade them in for xp being that the ecto place already gives the best pray xp you can get.

With two months left in the year and motivation at a pretty low state, I have to admit I don’t think I’ll make my goal of 90+ (Dungeoneering aside). I’m ok with that. I really wish I posted a list of my skills last January to see how far I’ve come. That’s something to remember for this year. It was a lofty goal, but I’m ok with not achieving it. It was something to reach for and I’ve done a lot in these 10 months. Training some skills that were already over 90 took some time away from leveling the lower ones. I got my Woodcutting cape which I never thought would happen. I brought Thieving up from one of my lowest, most hated levels to one of my higher ones. I got my Strength cape, have been working on Attack, etc.

I just looked back through this blog and my first post of the new year mentioned that I had just lost to Jad 4 times. Things don’t seem to change much I guess. I also noticed that it’s almost been a year since I had the idea of all the RS bloggers to kind of have a get together. It didn’t go exactly as I had thought it would, but it was a lot of fun to get to see everyone in game that I read about on an almost daily basis. Would anyone be interested in doing this again? I think it could be fun. Make it pretty informal, like a house party or meet in a tavern somewhere. Actually, maybe a F2P place would be better since some don’t have memberships. Falador pub? We can stack up on Dwarf Stouts and Wizard Mind Bombs when we’re there. Let me know your thoughts. I’ll organize something if people are interested. And I promise this year I’ll make it at a better time for the ones on the other side of the Atlantic.

Jax’s blog must have me thinking about goals. Congrats to her on her 4th complete year of playing and just plowing through levels. I’ve been playing years longer and haven’t accomplished nearly as much.

Sweetness

It’s been a while since I’ve posted. It hasn’t been a while since I’ve written though. The amounts of posts that I never put up could fill volumes. It’s kind of ridiculous, but sometimes I just get to the end of writing something, realize I hate it and then just scrap it.

I’ve been killing a lot of mith dragons lately. I’ve grown to like it a lot. Also getting effigies and my first ever elite clue help. I got a dragon platebody ornament kit. Looking at the price it was something like 10M. Everyone told me the street price was much higher and not to sell it on GE. Which is good if you have lots of junk. I don’t. Heck, I don’t even pay attention to what even classifies as ‘junk’ anymore. I just cleared a bunch of useless crap out of my bank and sold to a guy for something like 15M. He promptly used it on his armor, which I was relieved. If he took it to resell I would have thought I was getting the short end of the deal. At least he used it and ran off to show his friends. At the end of the day, even if it is worth more, it’s a free 10M for me and some new bank space.

I like the elite clues. I really like the rune rope puzzle things. The trick is to just pick out two of the paths, focus on them. Move one 17 times (how many runes are on it), if the overlapping spots don’t all match, move the other path 1, then move the original path 17 times again. Repeat until you have all overlapping spots green. Once you have that, simply move the third path until its all unlocked. Viola!

I was lagging so I decided to skip mith drags for a bit and I went to train some attack at abby demons. Whip drop! Sweet!

It’s kind of scary, and I thought it was always luck, but I’ve actually gotten pretty good at the party room. Now, what you get is random, but before I was just spam clicking whenever I saw a balloon. If you time it right, your odds are a lot better. In the last 5 party room drops I’ve been in, I’ve received at least one item. I got 2 things twice (18 prayer pots (4) and… something else, it totaled over 250k), 300k cash and some other fun things like 2k coal, etc.

I haven’t done the Halloween event yet, I meant to do it yesterday. From what I’ve read, it looks pretty interesting. I like seeing people just collapse into a pile of bones as well. I like novel emotes like that.

I’ve held off on posting this because I really wanted to end it by showing you my new firecape, however that hit a bit of a snag. During last week, I think it was Wednesday, I was assigned Jad by Kuradel. I went 3 straight times, losing to Jad each one. It didn’t matter that it wasn’t my assignment any more, it was a matter of principle. Kuradel assigned me Jad again yesterday. Again, got through all the waves with no problem. Again, Jad whacks a 90+ hit on me and I can’t bounce back. I can usually get to the healers, but yesterday the fight was pretty shortlived. Much respect to anyone with a firecape. This week 0-4 vs Jad. Overall 0-17. I think I just acquired my frustration skill cape.

I managed to get 94 Attack though this weekend, so that’s a plus.

October!

I’ve taken to doing assists just when I see them. There’s far too many people offering 91 Herblore and 95 Crafting in world 117 to make it worth my while to do it everyday. Once I get those up higher and can offer what’s really in demand, I’ll go back. For now, I’ll take the bonus of just seeing people ask for it while I’m in the GE or Edge bank. Standing for an hour offering something 5 other people are offering drives me a little crazy.

My friend set up this gi-normous checklist of things to do in game, each with a set point value. It’s like a giant scavenger hunt. There’s probably over 100 items on the list ranging from “Make and fire every kind of bow you can up to your fletching level” to “Beat Jad.” Her and another friend decided we should all go to KBD and watch each other’s backs for 2 items on the list. “Solo KBD” and “Beat KBD without antifire.” I’ve never solo’d KBD before, at least not that I remember. I certainly never thought to fight him without antifire, on purpose.

Let me tell you, ALWAYS bring antifire. I felt like one of those kids on a youtube video, where they set something up and you just know its going to go horribly wrong, but they do it anyway. Luckily, I didn’t die, but constant hard hits had me down to 073 lp once (I have hatred of rings of life), even while spam clicking food. I killed it, but NEVER EVER do that. At least my friends were right there ready to bless on the other side of the lever. After that I banked, restocked, sipped my mega antifire pot and stood ready to bless while they did the same thing. Everyone made it safe, thankfully. Then, since the list states that every item on it must be done on its own (ie, can’t combine the two tasks in one kill), we took turns soloing with antifire which was much easier. Maybe I should have done it that way first. It was an interesting way to go about my first solo kill of it. All my other experiences were with a group where you barely need anti and rarely ever even get hit.

I've been getting some levels here and there. The last three were 89 Fletching, 87 Farming and 58 Dungoneering (tears). A few steps closer to the year end goal of 90+, but its going to take some serious buckling down and doing things I hate to get it. 80 hunting and 78 Agility seem like they’d take forever to get there, just because of my sheer aversion to them. 90 RC would mean roughly 300,000 Blood Runes. 10,500 trips to the abyss? 3 months? Ok maybe not. Ugh, maybe I’ll have to break down and do Ouriana, it’s a shame I hate being on Lunar. I hate not being able to alch.

I have to do the new quest, maybe I’ll tackle that tonight. Apparently you can upgrade your void armor. If I ever had void armor, that’d be awesome. I could never justify using it on anything aside from XP. However, maybe I’ll look into it if I’m going to be training my range for at least 3 more levels (currently 87).

Prayer at 83 is going to be a pain as well. Well, not so much a pain as it is just really freaking expensive. It’s either that or completely time consuming at Soul Wars.

I still haven’t been into a dungeon in a while. There’s been some large ones scheduled among my friends, but it always seems to be when I’m busy or as I’m falling asleep. I guess I should just do them myself because now that I think about, the ones I need are the ones most people rush through because of the higher levels. I have the level to do some higher floors, the issue is actually unlocking them. User error.

So much to do! I still need to get my ninja greegree back! I have no idea how I lost that thing. It’s not like its something I’d take to do anything else but agility.

This blog is actually going to be posted, unlike my last… 20 which have fallen to the wayside. You should see the blog graveyard. For everyone I post, I probably write about 15.

Kick, Push, Coast

Got a few things accomplished recently.

I can finally hunt C5S's!



And do other hunting-things!



Shortly after, I ran into my first dragon imp and it gave me 52 dragon bones. Sweet! It sounds weird, but 80 hunting is more important to me than my next achievement, because I hate that hunting skill so much. I just want to be able to get imps and use it in SC.

The next one is pretty sweet though:



Stoked on that. It kind of just snuck up on me while I read/watched movies/did paperwork, etc. Now I need to find a new skill while I do those. Now that fishing and wc are out of the way, I'm not sure what the replacement will be.

I found a bit of motivation hidden somewhere in my sarcasm-laden heart and felt it was time to get back what I earned:



I finished Love Story, Quiet Swarm, Void Dance and finally Elemental Workshop 3 to get my questcape back. EW3 is ridiculous, even with a guide.

I've been lagging like crazy ever since the Z-Buffering update. I'm not sure why. I always play with the small screen, min detail and my task manager says java hovers around 80%. Any tips?

Also, this taken without permission, but if Avicile hadn't mentioned her dad's screen name a few times in her blog, I would have sworn this would be him: