Runescape Game Play

I am often asked what is the cheapest way to train a certain skill, this is not as straight forward as it sounds, for example you may think that big bones are cheaper to get 99 prayer because they are cheaper than dragon bones, willows are cheaper to train fire making than maples, yews or magic logs or cooking trout is cheaper than cooking lobsters or sharks, this may well be the truth but there is a lot to take into consideration before you decide the cheapest route.

You need to work out what the most expensive commodity in Runescape is, this is not as straight forward as it might seem, if you have low level stats then it is generally the best thing that you can make or collect, if you have medium to high level stats the the most expensive commodity is often time.

Let me explain, these examples are made up numbers used to demonstrate my reasoning but they are not far off being correct at current prices.
Willows cost 22gp and maples cost 40gp you need 130k willows to get to 99 and 90k maples to get 99 firemaking, now you may think it is cheaper to use willows because 130k Willows cost 2.86m to 99 FM, maples cost 3.6m to get to 99, so by burning willows you are saving almost 1m.
Look at it another way, you need to burn an extra 40k willows to get to 99 fm, how long will it take to burn 40k willows? its a long time, how many nats can you make in that time? how many yew logs can you chop in that time? how many monkfish can you catch in that time? its going to be a fair few, if you spend the time that you would be burning those extra willows doing a good money making skill you can easily make more than the 1m that you save by burning willows, the cheapest apparent method is not necessary the cheapest way to train, in this scenario its cheaper to burn the more expensive log because it gives you more time to train money making skills.

Its the same with bones for prayer, fish when cooking and many other skills, you need to way up the costs per xp and quantity of items that the different training methods need, there is also the enjoyment factor to count in, if you like burning logs then willows would be fine for you, you may lose more money but its a lot easier if you enjoy it.

Unfortunately I can not say what is good for who, every player is different and stats for other skills pay an important part in your training method, all I am saying is consider the time taken in your cost to train calculations.

The Fist of Guthix mini game has been released, this is my opinion of the game as it is, there will be no comparison to how the game can be played when the novelty wears off, I will try to add my anticipated playability at the end of this post.

I logged on and had a few Bloodvelds to finish off for slayer, just out of interest Bloodvelds are great for green charms, after finishing the task I went to the pyramid to change my magic book to ancients, forgot any teleport tabs or jewellery so home teleported to Edgeville and ran to the game entrance.

I had already read about the game on the Runescape knowledge base so had an idea what to do, but still needed to speak to the earwig and watch the cut scene tutorial to get in, the tutorial is very good and well worth watching so you know what to do once you get in there.

First of all I was amazed at the amount of spammers moaning by the entrance about the difficulty to get in, it was difficult but when your inside there are far to many players anyway.

I took my Ahrims, Torags and Karils, a whip and DFS, robin hood hat and ranger boots, as well as a rune crossbow and diamond bolts, I also had my fury, barrows gloves, dragon boots and berserker ring, I like to be ready for all eventualities.

If I was the hunted first I would put my karils on as many were using ancients, and I did the same as everyone else, grabbed my crystal wielded it and ran for the centre and just stood there in a 20 level pile of bodies hoping the pile was so deep to hide my arrow (on top my head), my points just shoot up as I was in the middle and the only hope of getting caught was if my hunter could see me in the list when right clicking.

There is a drawback to this method, when you are stood in the middle you can not often see how you are being attacked, this makes it more difficult to know what protection prayer to use and what armour to wear.

There was a help from a crystal that you can use once to teleport you to the Fist of Guthix in the centre of the arena, when I used this it teleported me to the login screen, I then needed to login and the game was lost because I had left, there was an update later that night which I hope would have removed that bug, but I didn't log back in.

A good tip is to take a terrorbird familiar as some people like to run for safety the bird will keep your run topped up as much as your agility level will allow, he also has a peck at your opponent.

As a hunter I would put on my Ahrims and ancient staff and select Ice Barrage to autocast, this will sometimes prevent your opponent from getting away, I found the Rune crossbow and Diamond bolts very good when they were unable to move better even than barrage no matter what armour, if I could spot them in the middle I would switch to whip and DFS.

For the less adventurous being hunted there are corners in the arena that can be missed when your hunter is just skirting the arena, hiding there can avoid you being seen but wont get you many points, I do not pretend to be any good at the game but it is fun.

God (Guthix) knows how it will be when the novelty wears off, I anticipate it will not be a game of stealth but just a case of who can eat their bandages and change clothes quickest when stood in the middle, it has the potential to be an OK game the rewards are good so may keep people coming back for more points, a have a feeling this will be like most of Jagex new updates, a beta versions and the final stable release announced at a later date, I do not know if Jagex are taking less care in the preparation and testing of their updates or they are being a bit more ambitious but I don't remember regular major changes to their updates early in my Runescape career.

Im not complaining I get a lot of entertainment out of the game and its still nice to get regular updates.

Link: http://blog.milsom.biz/screencleaner.swf

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I just wanted to put up a post about the Bork boss, I am too busy now with my new businesses to play much Runescape or to update my blog regularly, sorry folks should be back when it is in full swing.

I did the mini quest "The Hunt for Surok" when it first came out, I quite enjoyed it as I love the chaos tunnels but it would have been nice to get some hunter xp after tracking him down.

When ever I am on I go to do the fight again, its very easy and I only need to take a few sharks as the noob Surok likes to take a pop at me occasionally hitting as much as 25, I start to attack Bork with protect melee not sure if he hits hard melee but I cant see any point in wasting sharks, he is a bit easy so I attack the little guys he calls up and collect their charms, I also thought it would be fun to have a pop at Surok, he has an attack option but no combat level.

He uses some form of magic melee protect spell to save him, I couldn't do any damage so I just killed his pets.

Still the xp and drops are good from the boss Bork and a few charms from his familiars is not to bad, well worth a daily visit.

Twas a sad day yesterday, I died!

I hear of people dyeing all the time, luckily with the Trade cap I no longer hear "phree stuff pl0x I died" but until yesterday I had never tried this death thing that so many complain about, I have never tried the "I lagged and died" quote so often touted by the now extinct Pkers from edgy, using lag as a way to justify death instead of admitting you are better than me and I died because of it.

The story unfolds when a friend contacts me and tells me that he knows how to kill the Saradomin boss at Godwars solo, that to me sounds far too good to be true, having had the easy Zammy solo ability removed I was well happy and went along to have a look, I got my Godwars Gear on and went to have a look, I entered the Saradomin Encampment and went down the 2 ropes to get to the boss room, sure enough my friend was there a little green dot in the corner of the room and sure enough there was a level 596 babe with wings (Commander Zilyana) stood looking at him, she was taking damage but didn't even attempt to hit back.

I stood there watching as she was slowly reduced to nothing and all that was left was a unicorn, I don't know why but I was constantly thinking my little pony when I was looking at it. she reappeared and my friend attacked and killed her again and then again and then again, I watched his technique and he just kept killing 1 after another only taking damage from 1 monster, He reports that he can kill 18 to 20 boss's on each entry into the room, I witnessed 5 so I have no doubt about that whatsoever.

Well that was me hooked it was late so I went to Cammy and put on my Karils armour with an archer helm Sara Stole, Zammy book, ava's accumulator and some other non expensive items, I took a rune crossbow and 200 diamond tipped enchanted bolts, went to the encampment and got my kill count on Spiritual Mages, in the process of getting kill count I got some dragon boots, after getting 40 I went to bed.

The following morning I got up and switched on my computer and started Runescape, I was at the boss room with kill count and carping myself just a bit, I watched and waited for the monster in the room to get in a good position then I ran like a man possessed to get in the exact position that my friend was in, poop something was wrong it didn't work as planned and I had a very angry group of monsters all giving severe grief, hp went down in seconds and I managed to eat, I was in the wrong position and I had no Idea how to correct it, I kept eating but I could see how pointless it was and I hit my tele tab, Then I hit it again, I was surprised to then find I took more damage and my fight for life was over.

I woke up in Fally none the worse for wear but minus some items, my worst loss was my Sara stole, my Karils skirt, my newly acquired dragon boots and about 200 diamond bolts, for inconvenience the loss of my accumulator and Zammy book ment a few unwanted journeys, my loss was about a million worth but everything easily replaceable with GEbay.

I had learnt a valuable lesson don't take anything worth having on your first visit to god wars dungeon boss rooms, I replaced my stuff and decided to try again, this time I wore black dragon hide armour and used sapphire bolts.

I went along and tried again, I went straight to the correct spot and started to kill Commander Zilyana, she did not attack back but I had an annoying pony biting me, I managed to get her down to about 5% health and needed to tele, I only took a few sharks and brews, when I restocked I went back someone had finished her off, I saw the drop so it was my kill it looked like 3 ranaar seeds, so not a big loss.

I got my kill count again and moved to a different world I went in got the Pony in the correct spot and started to kill Commander Zilyana, I killed her 3 times on that run, my best drop was 100 silver ore, I did get 2 addy plate bodies but left them there, didn't want to move from the safe spot.

I did 2 more runs killing her several times just getting carp drops and decided to call it a day.

I decided to tell a friend about this technique and he asked me to show him, I was more than happy, Im still bitten by the God Wars bug so we got ready and set off, we both got our kill count and I went in to show him where to stand, I got the pony just right and starting to kill Commander Zilyana, all of a sudden my friend ran in and stood next to me, before I could say stand on top of me Commander Zilyana and my little pony had moved over and started attacking him, I ran away to lure them over so I could reposition them safely, my friend started running around the room, I thought he was looking for the gents, this sent the monsters all over the place and I had no chance of getting them repositioned quick enough, he must have somehow escaped because all monsters descended on me and I was dead in seconds, luckily my worst loss was my diamond tipped bolts.

I later found out that my friend forgot to take a teletab, what a noob! but hey don't tell him that I forgot mine too.

The moral of the story is always take a teletab to dangerous fights, be prepared to lose stuff when experiencing new monsters, and locate the gents before you enter the room.

My friend felt a bit guilty about totally that run up, my opinion is to expect things to go wrong on your first run, I died on my first attempt, there is more pressure when your part of a team and its nice to get things right the first time, but were only human and mistakes will happen.

I will add a guide on how to solo Commander Zilyana when I get a bit more confident and can take some screenies, it will probably be for registered members only, It doesn't cost anything to register but after my report about soloing K'ril it was discovered to be a bug and fixed, although this is not a bug but using the characters characteristics to your benefit you Im sure Jagex will change it eventually.