Gameplay and getting going

Link: http://www.runescapeblog.co.uk/game.php

I am currently playing with new skins for my blog, take a look at the gameplay blog and have a look at the new skin, there are small tweaks that need doing but it is a lot cleaner than the current default one.

I would like any comments about the skin and layout that you think could help the site.

I am not great at graphics and as you can see the header graphic is very pretty but not very Runescapy, I would very much appreciate it if anyone who can work with graphics could make the header a bit more topical, it needs to retain the same colour background and the picture must just cover the same area so the heading and description is visible, changing other aspects will probably involve a lot more work and I cant spare too much time doing that.
This is a non profit blog just for my enjoyment and to help other so I can not afford to pay for your services, I would however give you full credit for the work and a link to your site.

Thanks in anticipation

Steve

I have been playing Runescape for many years and there are a lot of things that I take for granted, when I started I did not have the benefit of loads of fan sites (they were there but I just didn't think to look for them), I was probably about level 50 combat when I found RuneHq and I have been a regular contributor there ever since.

I read a post today that got me thinking about when I first started playing Runescape, I actually created an account went through Tut island and attacked someone who slaughtered me, I'm still not sure who it was but I think it was a guard probably in Varrock, because of this I decided to start a new account, I wasn't sure how to get my items back and I wanted a better name without a number after it.

I created my new character and trained on rats and was amazed how quickly my levels were going up, my levels were great going up at a rate of knots but wondered why I wasn't hitting any harder, having a look at my interfaces I noticed that my attack was 10 and my other stats hadn't moved, I then started playing and changed attack style and my other stats started to rise, this is when I learnt how to change attack style.
Even though I could train my other styles I still wasn't sure what I was doing and what it meant I just trained it because it made sense to me to keep them equal.

So for the sake of the new players I will tell you what each combat style means.

Attack
Attack is the most important combat skill, this determines how often you hit a monster causing damage, when you attack a monster you will see a series of red and blue splats, the blue is when you miss and the red is when you cause damage, the higher level attack you are the more reds you will hit compared to the blues and therefore cause more damage and kill the monster quicker.

Strength
Strength is the second most important combat skill, strength determines how much damage you cause when you have a successful hit (a red splat) a number 1 in a red splat will remove 1 hp from your monster likewise a 10 will remove 10 hp, the higher the number the quicker the monster dies.

Defence
The importance of defence is underestimated by many players, having a high defence can limit the amount of red splats inflicted on you, the more red splats you have against you the more you need to eat, eating takes up an attack opportunity and leaves you vulnerable for another attack from the monster before you get the chance of a hit on it, its no good being able to hit hard and often when you are constantly eating and not getting a chance to hit back.

I have written another post on how best to train combat to check it out please click here.

Dark Beasts are easy to kill by the time you have 90 slayer, they are located in the dungeon below the mourners house in West Ardougne, you need to at least start Mournings End Part II and wear the full mourner clothing set, you can not wear anything else to enter the mourners house with the exception of a ring.

It is by far easiest to wear proselyte and use protect melee prayer a God Sword is the weapon of choice to kill Dark Beasts but a whip will work fairly well, you can use Guthans but you will take a lot of damage and be using the spear a lot and therefore slow training down considerably, I always wear a ring of wealth fighting Dark Beasts because they drop dark bows.

Dark beasts look like a cross between a gorilla and a rhinoceros, they are slow clumsy animals that attack using Mage and melee attack styles.

Fighting techniques
Use melee protect prayer and pot up before entering the area, as soon as you enter all beasts will attempt to attack you, if you attack 1 first it will mage you and normally cause damage (about 8) then continue to melee attack, if you just run in they will automatically attack melee and this can save you the mage damage, they will all stare at you as you slaughter their friends but it is non multi area so they can not help, as soon as you have killed 1 another will start to attack, again if you let them attack it will save you the mage damage, you may need to move to give them space to attack you as I said they are slow and clumsy so need a bit of space.
They never get used to you so will always be aggressive, you can just keep topping up your prayer and watch the fight, they rarely have good drops but drop more blue charms than any other colour, I had 19 blue charm's from 170 kills so not a great dropper but proportionally good compared to other charms.

Summary of: Dark Beast
Temperament: Constantly Aggressive
Combat Level: 182
Attack Style: Melee
Use Guthans: Possible but not recommended
Recommended armour: Proselyte or initiate
Slayer Level to kill: 90
Slayer XP: 225
Max Hit: N/K
Examine info: From a darker dimension
Drops: Adamant javelin, Adamant square shield, Adamantite bar, Air rune, Attack potion, Black 2h sword, Black axe, Black battleaxe, Blood rune, Blue charm, Chaos rune, Coins, Crimson charm, Dark bow, Death rune, Death talisman, Dragon medium helm, Dragonstone, Gold charm, Green charm, Grimy cadantine, Grimy dwarf weed, Grimy guam, Grimy harralander, Grimy irit, Grimy kwuarm, Grimy marrentill, Grimy ranarr, Grimy tarromin, Law rune, Loop half of a key, Nature rune, Nature talisman, Rune 2h sword, Rune Arrows, Rune chainbody, Rune full helm, Rune sq shield, Runite bar, Shark, Shield left half, Silver ore, Steel Arrow, Tooth half of a key, Uncut diamond, Uncut emerald, Uncut ruby, Uncut sapphire

before Jagex introduced the anti scam and RWT update it was not unusual to have a low level player asking for a whip when I was killing Abyssal Demons, my normal reply was sorry just alched my last whip drop or I will leave the next one on the floor for you, these players thought that whip drops were a common drop, the reality is they once were a common drop but have had their drop rate reduced considerably.

When I first got 85 slayer many many moons ago I went to the abyssal space and had a slaughter fest on the Abyssal Demons, the first time I went there I had 2 whips and a shield left half in about an hour, following tasks I had at least 1 whip when fighting the demons sometimes 2, it was indeed rare not to get a whip drop, I even sent a friend of mine off to world 2 Fally to sell my whips for me some 23 whips, this is when they were worth 3 to 4m each, how many people can trust a friend like that?

All of a sudden I could have many tasks and not get a whip drop, there was widespread rumours that whip drops had been nurfed and my experience certainly backed that claim up.
We all know that Runescape good drops are random and you can have a good day and a bad day but the change really was dramatic and noticeable.

The other day I had a slayer task for Abyssal Demons and I had a whip drop, my next task was the same Abyssal Demons, two of the same monster tasks in a row has only been possible since the recent update to slayer but guess what? I got another whip drop, a few days later I had Dark Beasts and guess what I got a Dark Bow drop, when the Dark Bow was first introduced I spent all day there and never got a bow, the following day I got a Dark Bow as my second kill, in those days slayer tasks for Dark Beasts was 9 to 19 beasts, now you can have as many as 199, they are easy to kill but require prayer to stay any length of time, on my task I killed 3/4 of my task and got a Dark Bow, I had to leave to get more prayer pots and came back and guess what? I got another Dark Bow, has the drop rate been increased or was I just lucky?
You may remember a while ago I had two Draconic Visages 1 from black and 1 From steel Dragons and a Zammy hilt when I soloed K'ril at God Wars in a 2 week period, so luck does appear to come in batches.

I have also recently had a Dragon Spear and a Shield Left Half, I could be back on one of my lucky streaks, having said that the shield left half sold for about 60k, the last one I had was worth 700K, last time I checked the Dragon Square Shield was worth less than the cost of the shield right half so I sold the half shield.

I personally don't mind poor drop rates, I would sooner have a few drops worth a lot of money than a lot of drops worth a little.

Has anyone else noticed a difference or am I just lucky?

I have 180 Dark Beasts tonight so I will let you know if I get any good drops.