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!

Sitting in the waiting room ahhhaa...

"I am a patient boy... I wait, I wait, I wait..." for my Con rocks... "Be-cause I can't get up..."

Now that Mining week is over for the Jagex Cup, I’ve had a little time to sit back and relax. I went from 85-87 Mining during the number of sessions I had down in the Living Rock Caverns.

Mining and banking gold ore is great xp and brings in a decent amount of cash (or smithing xp if you use the ores yourself), but in order to get the most xp out of the hour long sessions, it actually cost a good bit of money. Sounds weird right? A resource skill actually costing money…

I averaged around 65k/hr (62k/hr on the ones where you get a random) using a D-Pick and Lava Titan. I’d love to figure out how much xp I’d get using the Varrock 3 or Stealing Creation pick, which weren’t legal for the Jagex Cup. Since for the hour long sessions, the majority of your xp had to be in that particular skill, low alching the ore was the way to go. Mining a gold ore is 65xp, the same amount as casting the high alch spell, which would have then nullified the session. By low alching the ore you only gain 31xp (or is it 33? Whatever, its low 30s) meaning the majority of your xp is the mining. This cost about 250k gp/session in using the nats, since the gold ore only alchs for 60gp. I know, what a waste of ore, but come on, this is competition!

Next week starts the 2hour Fishing/Cooking combined sessions where you’re not allowed to bank your resources before cooking them. 2 hours is a little long of a requirement, they should have stuck with the 1hr sessions. Also, I’d love for some sort of update regarding the competition in general. What do they have down for my average xp/hr and does it match up with what I recorded? Were all of my sessions allowed? Just a simple indication of where the clan stands in the overall ranks would be nice. They seem to be really lacking in that aspect. It does change the way you look at it. I thought 65k/hr is really good, however if I find out there’s a clan that’s pulling 90k/hr and is around the same skill level, something in my method needs to be recalculated.

On to Fishing and Cooking I guess, two skill I don’t need xp in, but I always like Fishing, so it doesn’t really matter to me. I can’t imagine my rage when I log about 1:55 session and my internet’s going to crap out on me nullifying the entire thing. With Mining I was at least leveling.

Sold my d-pick, stars and sc pick’s will be alright for now on. With climbing boots getting their value re-adjusted, jester boots are the way to go if you want a cheap shoe with good stats at Corp Beast.

I think I’m going to work on Herblore a bit this weekend. I want overloads and I have some cash laying around. I won’t get close to 96, but might as well put that money to work. Making Harrlander Tar works well and usually sells pretty quick. It just takes a bit for the swamp tar to initially buy.

Still no splits at corp, gotta keep trying. One day that “7-7-7” jackpot green line will appear. Other than that, its just fun to kill.

Killed Bork, a big ork.

I haven't had too many things to write about recently. I received about 3 effigys (effigies?) as drops and I love them. I like the idea of helping others out with them as well. My 2010 goal is everything except Dungeoneering 90+, now there's a reason behind it. It's great xp and I think it gets more people to use the assist system.

The Jagex Cup is up and running and I'm mining as hard as I can. I find W77 concentrated gold to be the best way to go. I sold my chins and bought a dragon pick to help it go along. I've been tweaking my outfit to stop from getting killed by the living rock creatures. For now I'm going with infinity boots, bandos tassets, arma top, obby shield and gold helmet. I wear my gold helmet when I'm serious about gold :P I've also taken to wearing it while smithing.

I've been gathering obby charms for some cheap summoning seconds. I got 2 of my effigys from them.

Other than that, just been keeping current with Bork and staves. Got to witness Lepage getting his 99 Agility so congrats to him! Got to hang out with Jax and Avicile and that's always fun.

Even ran a few dungeons with Jax and some other friends and saw how they do things. I only made it through about 3 dungeons before I almost fell asleep at the keyboard, but I got a couple levels out of it which was awesome.

Did a large dungeon with a few other friends, they're just too much for me I think. It just takes forever. The xp is great, its just a little too much for my attention span.

Other than that, the World Cup and Tour De France have me distracted a bit. I'm ok with that.

Hazy Shade of Winter

I haven’t written much lately. To be honest, I haven’t had that much to say. I’ve just been going about my business. Errands, woodcut, mine gold in living caverns place, godwars, penguins, etc. Nothing too exciting, just letting you know I’m alive.

There’s a slight chance that I might be able to take the week between xmas and new year’s off. This all depends on how much work I get done next week. If that miraculously comes together, my plan is to bang out all the quests that I have left. There’s only like 4 or so I haven’t completed, mainly the most recent ones. The new one looks fun and has pretty decent rewards. I’m glad I do the diaries as soon as they’re released.

Real life has been incredibly hectic. Some in a good way, some in a bad way. I’m looking forward to it calming down a bit. I’ve got some big goals for the new year. I’ll bring them up in a year end post.

I want a goal to be ‘write more.’ I feel like that would just lead to some incredibly boring entries though. I think I need to adjust that to ‘have more to write about.’ Kind of hard, but we’ll see how it goes.

For those wanting to fill their costume room, Jax is hosting some events to get those pieces of clothing which can be hard to acquire. I actually think I have more of a chance of making the 2AM time than I did the previously scheduled time, but my chances of making it are pretty low, sadly. Again with the real life stuff. However, you should go! Here’s the info:

Trouble Brewing at 7am Saturday 19th of December (GMT Time) which is 11pm PST (my time) and 2am for those of you in EST. World 104.

Pissed

Star Find seems to be growing and I hate it. Someone please explain to me what the point of it is? I tagged a size 9 last night after soloing it. There was one other person there. We stood there for about 10 mins going through each of our friend lists scouring for a 90+ in mining (curse this 79 lvl!). It was pretty nice that we were the only ones there. After calls to friends, there were about 5 of us. 1 90+, 1 80+ and the rest of us 70+.

Right before we cracked it to a level 6, a cb lvl 51 shows up, claiming she only has 40 mining. Ok, fine, well wait it out. Two seconds later about 100 people show up. Boom, star is done. I was left with 10k xp. 5.8k from the tag, about 3.5k from the level 7 (with SC pick) and about 1k after Star Find showed up. There’s no excuse for getting 80 stardust from a level 7 star on. How do you not get 200 from a star that big??

Not only are they like a plague of locusts that hop, consume, hop, repeat, they are just incredibly rude people. What’s the point in insulting someone who is silently mining next to you not saying a word? To be obnoxious just for the sake of being obnoxious?

If someone, anyone, out there can explain to me the point of continually hopping worlds for less than 1kxp from a size 7 star, I’m all ears. You might as well just mine ores at that rate. I love star hunting, with a group of about 4 people. That’s the perfect size. Lately I’ve been soloing a lot. These clans take the whole point of the distraction out of it. As much as I love star hunting, I’d love jagex to put a limit on it like the evil trees. Two a day, regardless of size. Its extreme, and it sucks, but I really don’t see any other way. Every single world is being taken over. Either that or can we have separate servers for those over 25 who are sick of listening to childish insults for no reason?

End of the Month

There’s a new quest out today. I seem to have the requirements for it. It looks pretty interesting. I’m a little surprised All Fired Up isn’t a requirement. If Varrock’s being attacked from the Wildy and the beacons aren’t used, then what’s the point of them? I kind of love all things zombie related so I’m looking forward to this.

I found myself being indecisive again yesterday. I got all the levels I seemed to be close to, including 75 Range, 73 Agility and 69 Mining. The main reason I want 70 Mining is because of the stars now. Although mining my own addy will be nice. I won’t have to rely on Avansies just to work on my Smithing. My main default activity was always Fishing. If I couldn’t decide what to do, I’d Fish until something else came up. As much as I love moving up in the ranks by adding xp after my 99, I just think that all that time needs to be spent working towards levels in other skills. Sure I could always use extra food, but I have a decent supply still, and cooking is just so boring. I think I might be the only one who’s stayed at 94+ Cooking for over 3 months now and not gotten a cape. I just hate doing it.

Took an impromptu clan trip to the Zammy boss in Godwars yesterday. We had roughly 8 people so it was relatively safe. One person did die towards the end then timed his re-entry into the boss’s room poorly only to be killed again. Such are the risks I guess. I accidentally ended up tanking it one of the times, that was a little stressful, but I lived to see its demise. No great drops, but that’s ok. We were able to make about 15 kills before having to tele out. One more thing done that I’ve never tried before and new music is always fun. I couldn’t get over how dark it is in that room though, its like fighting with the lights off.

Just today and tomorrow remain for Agility and I think I’m done. I got from level 60-73 this month and am thrilled that I don’t have to walk the entire way around Tav Dungeon anymore. My original goal was 80 but other things kept getting in the way. It’s a shame Agility doesn’t get you any cash. I had to stop and make some money for the daily errands. I’ve been stockpiling my staves and I am THRILLED to be able to assemble/alch them on Wednesday. All that Crafting and Magic experience just waiting to be raked in. That’ll give me a good amount of cash too, maybe I’ll splurge on something. Maybe buy a bunch of bars for Smithing or what not.

I’ve been neglecting Slayer, I should really train that as well. Hopefully this week is a little more calm. Last week was kind of hectic between going to baseball games and weddings. This one seems a little more settled down. No more sneaking out of a wedding reception so I can see the Phillies clinch the National League East crown! However they play when I’m at work. I’m waiting to hear about NLDS tickets and already have my NLCS tickets purchased. Can’t wait! Go fightins!

Walk on the Wild Side

Ventured into the Wildy yesterday to do a little star hunting with a group. I was checking out the lower level mining areas and in the time waiting I came across a Rev Dragon, four Rev Orks, and two Rev Knights. There’s nothing that rings in my head with such fear/aggravation as that dreaded sound of a Rev attacking you. I was pretty prepared to die, wielding only my pickaxe, Forinthy Bracelet and Ectophial so I wasn’t worried. I ended up getting away, but it was annoying nonetheless.

Word came from a friend that the star had fallen just outside of the Mage Bank in the level 55 Wildy, and it was level 9. I teled quick to Ardy and went over to use the lever to be put right smack in the middle of another two Rev Orks. They must up the Rev count when there’s something going on out there, I’m convinced. After waiting a bit, I figured I’ll just run past them, which worked out quite well. I ran up to the bank, saw about four or five green dotties and a star larger than my character. We were waiting on someone’s friend who had 90 Mining so we could start in on it. I had to wait to level 6 to start gathering dust, which took a while and was a definite reminder that I really need to train Mining more. While waiting, two more Rev Knights and a Hobgoblin started attacking some of the people who had gathered. That’s when it happened. Some scattered into the bank, would come back to check and get attacked again. There were some low level players there as well who didn’t stand much of a shot if a Rev attacked them. The Knights would leave them be, but a Hobgoblin isn’t above attacking a level 14. I had grabbed my Rune Scimmy in Ardy so I could slash through the webs at the lever. I proposed the idea of maybe fighting the Revs, something I never would have done had there not been about 30 people there. They couldn’t kill all of us, right? Some high level cb players took to the Knights, taking turns attacking when one would get low on health. I still had to wait around for the star to get to level 6 and wasn’t just going to stand around so I took to the Hobgoblin with just my Rune Scimmy, and no armor. I had grabbed a couple sharks before just in case, but I wasn’t going to risk anything more than that. I got it down pretty low several times, always within a hit of death it would heal itself. Just as I had it about to be killed, it froze me. That’s when a friend came over to deal it its final blow. There had been one casualty, a player who was just wandering by, with no real items on who was curious as to what we were doing. His grave was blessed just in case.

We went back and mined away, filling up on stardust when it hit me. Did that really just happen? Did we just all cooperate to protect strangers and bless a grave in the Wilderness?! A place where you would run if you saw a group of white dots approaching? A place of deception and doing anything you can to kill another player and take everything they have? We’ve come a long way in the past year and I kind of liked it. Soon pvp will come back, people will be luring and deceiving others to certain worlds or areas with their friends waiting to pile on and attack the defenseless to take their items, but there for that one moment of clarity, the Wildy seemed like a decent place.