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.

Sweetness

Finally got a split at Corporeal Beast. However, it wasn't the big one. Still though, my first Elixir split.



Some day those will be the really big numbers :)

I've grown to love Corp trips. You just need about 7 people, patience to world hop and you really risk a bare minimum if you gear up correctly. I think my risked wealth is around 70k. You can obviously go more expensive, but why bother if you don't have to?

Anyways, been getting my rocks again. I stopped by the fishing guild to use their bank and I noticed the Flinger guy outside. I hadn't done it in a while, so I pop in and there's 1 min to start. It took me a bit to get the combos worked out, I haven't done it in a long time. There's no way I'd be making the podium.

That's when I noticed something weird when I joined...



I was the only one there.

This couldn't be right, they expanded the amount of places the flinger guy hangs out at. On top of that, W39 is usually packed. But then it started, with just me. It was some sort of eerie post-apocalyptic version of the mini game.

I did alright:



Yes, yes I know, only one medal. Like I said, its been a while.

Anyways, I got to know what being on the top of the podium felt like. Kind of unfulfilling if there's no one to look out up. Or that there ever was a doubt of you winning to begin with.




I'm under 100k to a number of levels, so I should get those this weekend.

Congrats to the Blackhawks! Hated to see it, but great job. Now onto the World Cup!

And finally a plea, PLEASE PLEASE PLEASE realize that I live in the USA, where the World Cup games are on in the AM and middle of the day. Please don't post any world cup spoilers on here, I'm recording the games until I get home from work to watch them. I'm trying to avoid all avenues of hearing about them until I watch. I don't care about any other sites, but I get these comments emailed to me. I'll love ya for it (not that I don't already!) Thanks!

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!

Some Notes & Background

I realize I started this blog and hit the ground running with no real info about why I started it or as to what my experience with Runescape even is. I'm just going to take a couple sentences and address these things and will be back for a proper post later on.

I started playing RS in late 2003 and played for only about 8-10 months. I didn't really do that much aside from F2P quests, wander around and keep myself amused. Around August 2004 I stopped playing, too many things going on in life. Flash forward 2 years. I have some free time, am looking for an interesting game to play and I thought I might as well try to log back into RS.

It worked. "Your last log on was 635 days ago." Wow. After all this time, you still remember me. And look! I vaguely recognize some of those things in my bank. Some things were different. There were a few new skills, Construction, Hunter and I didn't remember Farming, but could be I just didn't notice it. I decided I might as well get my two highest skills up, Fishing and Cooking. So thats what I did. I kept to myself, as I did when I played before. I just fished and cooked. It probably wasn't until I was in the Fishing Guild when I started seeing the same people over and over, always in the same worlds. We talked and became friends. Their shock would put me on edge when I said I had about 600 total levels and about 50qp. None of that stuff ever mattered to me until I was shown everything I was missing out on. Everyone was migrating to Piscatoris and I looked at the list of requirements like it was a mile long. I needed 19 Mage levels?? This quest so I can do this quest so I can do that quest because I need it for this quest?! So I went out, I worked my tail off. I quested, I leveled, I ran all over RS getting the items we need. When I finally got all the reqs (seemingly FOREVER later). I try to start it and.... No. I overlooked one thing. 100 qp. What did I have? 73. Expletive!

So I herded sheep, I hid from the witch, I don't even know what else I did, but when I finally got there, I couldn't express how accomplished I felt. This is what I had been missing out on. Pretty much since then I've been trying to follow that feeling. Got the diaries done, can't wait for a new one to make me train Herblore (which I hate, but will probably grow to like similar to Farming and Smithing). Got my Skillcape. I love going to group activities and pretty much exploring every section of the game. Although, the fisherman in me is partial to Trawler :P

As to why I started this blog: When I first came to the realization that I wasn't the only adult playing the game, I felt.. vindicated. I could engage in conversations that extended beyond the realms of middle school/high school plight. As my obsession for the game grew, I started to look outside the game itself for insight into it. I came across a few amazingly thought up articles about everything from the sociodynamics of the game to the impact of what certain items/events have on its economy. I also just loved hearing people talk about their accomplishments, their thoughts, their lives, in an intelligent way. At first all I would come across were tips/guides (which are all well and good for the game, just not so much interesting reading), websites who RWT for gold/items and some various blogs with about one or two entries that were abandoned years ago. For me, these thoughtful sites were the light at the end of the tunnel.

However, then I noticed with a lot of the RS changes, changes in real life, etc., the authors of these articles would leave too. There only seemed to be a handful left. I thought I might just start this one, which a lot might not read, but maybe a couple will and like it the way I anonymously liked all those others for so long. A place where I could just put my random thoughts and maybe someone will be amused or find something helpful. So to you handful of readers, thanks for stopping by. And please, stop by often :)

Update: I'm relatively new to the whole blogging thing so bare with me. I just noticed the comments were restricted, this is no longer. And also if there's anything else I can change, please feel free to leave me some suggestions. Although, be prepared to give me a little advice, outside of typing this and playing RS, I'm not that hot with computers :P