I was hunting grenwalls so went to world 2 for faster respawn, after I got my 2 rocks I went to the museum to hand them in, as I passed the GE I noticed how busy it was, I havent been there since the GE replaced world 2 fally park so I decided to take a look.

I have been looking to buy a crown for a while to finish my set and was interested to find out how much they cost, I saw a guy selling a crown for 50m, I first thought what a nub he will never get that for it (3m GE) then I saw a guy buying a crown for 35m, I am not totally ignorant and knew that there were such things as junk trades but I would have thought that 10m would have been a high price for such an item especially as its an item that will increase in quantity and therefore drop in price quite considerably over time.

This partly explains an encounter I had earlier this week I will fill in the rest later*.

Quite shocked by the asking price for crowns I also noticed the cost of wolf masks, people buying for 25m, I bought all the masks to fill my house when the dearest was 4m, I could take all the stuff from my house and sell for many times my purchase price, the problem is the trade limit, unless I have junk I can not get the asking price for my items, people were selling junk but that is defeating the object of junk, if you buy the junk you may as well have taken that amount of the asking price, unless the junk is rising in price which would be rare for something that doesnt sell, having said that the price of rune darts (p) goes up and down from 300gp to 1.3k each and no one buys them.

The usual rares prices are there but that has always been a strange over priced setup.

My next shock was as I went to the north west side of the GE, people were trying to borrow AGS/claws etc and offering 1.5m for 20 hours 300k for 1hour, I have both AGS and claws, I dont use either, AGS is carp as a training weapon, great as a posing weapon but a whip is far better for training and a fraction of the price, I only have both because my son likes to borrow them, If I had enough junk I could make a living just lending out my stuff, I dont need the cash hence 120m being tied up in 2 weapons just for my son, If I had the junk I would have lent my stuff out there and then.

*My experience that I touched on above, I went to Puro Puro because I found a crop circle at Catherby, I like the 30 minutes farmer affinity bonus so planned spending 30 minutes there, as I was going around there was another player obviously after Kingleys like myself, we never spoke  and we just passed each other, he then stopped and stayed in 1 spot for a long time, I asumed he had gone afk and just left it logged in, I then approached him and he responded as follows.

Bare in mind I had said nothing to him before this just going around and around, the reason I said lucky is because a Kingly had appeared right in front of him, having seen the street prices of Crowns I can understand someone being a bit protective over implings but I didnt ask him about his sexual orientation so why he wanted me to do things to him I can not understand, having said that i do look hot, a level 138 with a white Mohawk and full agile.

This has highlighted a fact that I had previously believed to be true being that hunters are one of the most ignorant, inconsiderate group of players, this first being noticable at red chins higher level hunters coming along and putting the traps directly next to lower level players in a bid to force them away. it is obvoiusly not always the case but probably the highest group of players that will push out other players for their own gain, I have a theory that because it is an easy skill to train, quick and produces good money that less experienced (in life not just RS)  players can get what they want quickly.

Thats why I had neglected hunter until I discovered grenwalls, there is never competition at grenwalls all players who arrive when someone else is there will hop worlds, I guess the players who can get there have had more experience dealing with people and playing the game because the quests to get there require some effort.

I have set ways to collect rocks, some are always quick some are always slow, very few are predictable, here is how I get them.

Agility - Gnome stronghold agility course, I use the high level route it can take ages for the rocks there but I quite enjoy the course, I have also tried Brimhaven with mixed results, in the end redoing a fast action obstacle back and fourth until I get the rock.

Construction - this is one of the worst to get just stand by the entrance portal in your house and wait for a rock to appear, there is no other way I find it very boring, very little you can do and I have waited 40 minutes for a rock to appear, ok if you have someone to chat to while waiting.

Cooking - I cook sardines in the rogues den, cheap to buy, I never burn them, they sell afterwards and I dont need cooking xp.

Smithing and crafting - With goldsmith gaunts I smelt 25 gold ore to bars, on the same  trip i turn the bars to bracelets, good smithing xp, good crafting xp and the bracelets sell afterwards so you can recover some of the costs, the rocks dont often come quick but I need the xp in both skills so happy to train.

Farming - I plant and harvest allotments, usually get the rocks on first allotment run sometimes it takes a few more trips.

Firemaking - I am training firemaking so i burn yew logs, usually get both rocks in first few loads.

Fishing - the quickest by far, usually get both rocks on first loads of monkfish sometimes after just a few fish.

Fletching - I fletch maple longbows (u), I dont need fletching xp but maples are a by product of my kingdom, maple longs sell quickly for more than the logs so I make a profit.

Herblore - I use the herbs from my kingdom making super pots then extreme pots, usually get the rocks quickly.

Hunting - very slow, I either catch grenwalls, pawya or red chins, can catch 500 chins before getting rocks.

Mining - First I mine for the chap on miscelanea very often get 2 rocks on just a few thanks!, if I dont get both I then mine addy or mith at lumby swamp.

Runecrafting - I make bloods through the abyss, take all pouches full, emptying 1 at a time and crafting, rocks can be quick or slow.

Thieving - Master farmers in Draynor, 1 click thieve and some good seeds found, fairly quick rock finding.

Woodcuting - Chop yews for the rocks, very quick can be found in 1 or 2 inventories, also ivy not to bad but boring.

Still a lot to learn but hopefully I can enlighten people to a few tactics I have learnt, its lots of fun, pretty much addicted to it at the moment.

Skill/mini game debate

its not going to go away in a hurry, Agility is trained in courses but can be used outside the courses with shortcuts run length etc, runecrafting is trained in alters around Runescape the runes are used for magic as is mining, fishing, woodcutting with their respective produce etc, combat related skills are used when fighting.

Dungeoneering now refered to as "dung" is only trained in 1 place as is Stealing creation, items have no use and can not be taken out side as in stealing creation, playing dung as in stealing crteation the only benefit outside is rewards from the game, sacred clay tools, armours from sc and void knioght armour from pest control.

Quests have requirements in skills to complete or even start, how will this work with dung, perhaps you needs to kill a monster in level 7 dung to be able to enter a cave in Runescape, you can't take stuff in or take it out (yet) so you can't be expected to get anything there.

Its a mini game dressed up as a skill, or could it be the new Jagex way of reducing the grind from a skill, time will tell.

Quitting becasue of Dungeoneering

As with all updates there are players threatening to quit over it, its a bit like stopping shopping at Tesco because they started selling a loaf of bread that you dont eat, if you dont like dung then dont play it, dont qite because you have another option of gameplay that you dont like, or ever scarier you play the game and enjoy it, dont fight an update, try it and you may warm to it.

Hints and tips

I find it more fun to solo or play with a small group of friends, with friends you share the resources and think of the other player, with a group of strangers its a race to the good stuff, on your own or as a group you can plan tactics and take your time working out how to approach things.

Maximising XP (Solo)

If you are on your first attempt at a new floor and you have had many deaths defeating the boss or other NPC's before reaching the boss it may be worth considering aborting the level, doing this will give you some of the xp for that level, if you continue you will gain your prestige and floor xp, for a new floor this will be quite high, if you have many deaths this will be reduced considerably in the final calculation, you may even get an easier boss in the following game, on multiple visit floors the xp is taken from a lower level so the difference willl not be so great, depending on how many deaths you have had it still may be worth aborting and starting again when you reach the boss.

Bosses

Gluttonous behemoth

Fairly easy to kill solo, select a protect prayer for your weakest defence and any attack strength or defence prayer, piety or your favourite boosting curse, stand between it and the food source (the poor dead dinosaur) and just hack away, if your in a group and each stands in front of a food source, should one player die he will eat from there sol you may as well die and save your food for the next atack.

Lexicus Runewright

Lexicus is fairly easy to fight, I started to melee and had fairly good results but switched to range because he teleports away, I used protect range/deflect and range sap, when he shouts Book Barrage run away, you dont need to go far but you will explode if you don't (maybe not explode but it hurts, a lot) when he teleports away this is your chance to eat, make the most of it and start your attack again, no need to die, if you get hammered run to another book case for some thinking time.

Publishing as I write but it will be a long post, read back regularly for updates to this post.

In my view under no stretch of the igaination can it be a skill, I thought a skill had to be a part of the main Runescape game not a seperate game that has no bearing on Runescape whatsoever,  the only impact it has on the game is the rewards at the end, very much similar to the way Stealing Creation is linked the main Runescape game.

The XP is very slow to gain so leveling can take hours even at low levels, I can see it having a major overhaul similar to the way Summoning was improved, I will write more as I play more because I can not give a in depth conclusion having only played for a day.

Its a fun mini game but its not a skill.

Now with the updated version things are a totally different situation, 10 Jars a day are enough to keep me interested, even if I dont buy a jar generator I know the next day I would have enough jars to catch the required implings for a generator, at 1gp each they are not going to break the bank either.

Now you can get the 10 jars a day, you can catch some more implings, namely Zombie, Spirit and Kingly, the Zoimbie Implings drop bones from big to ourg and ALL bones inbetween, these quickly add up and Zombie Implings are common implings in Puro Puro, its not unusual to earn 1m gp in a single impling hunting session, Spirit Implings drop all items used in summoning with the exception of spirit shards, all colour charms and all secondaries, now the kingly, these are not as rare as you would imagine, you can go all day without seeing one or you can get 4 in a 30 minute hunting trip, they drop the very highly desired  royal clothing as well as onyx and dragon stone bolts and arrows, I have also got a shield left half from one.

Even the lower level Implings drop good items, earth implings drop earth and fire talismans, worth around 3k and 6k at current GE prices, nature implings drop ranaar seeds and magpie drop a good slection of value items.

Not only are the good drops common but you can get some very fast hunter xp, if you are not too fussy what you catch and loot the xp can build up quickly when constantly catching and looting implings.

A few tips for catching the rarer implings, Dragon and Kingly, you can find a quiet Puro Puro world and just run around in the centre of the rows looking on either side as you run, if you find a poor world with not many good implings you can swap world and run around again, hopping worlds can be very profitable if there are few high level hunters on, unfortunatly you need to be on very early in the morning to find that many quiet worlds, when you find one and there are no other players around you can bind, snare or entangle depending on your magic level to stop them moving for the set amount of time, if there are other players around it may be wise to just try and catch to prevent bringing other players attention to the impling, unless its in your same path and you can get there quickly.

As you can imagine he met with quite a lot of hostility from other players about the fact that it is a hard quest for low level players and not being able to recover your items was a risk of the quest, it then got me thinking.

Most of the players on the forum were long term players, they remember the days when losing items was an everyday possibility, a stroll in the wilderness, extinguishing your lamp in a dungeon or not concentrating when fishing could part you from your items, the days when death meant some vulture would have a treat at your expense.

Things have changed now, death is less common, if you die you can collect your items from your grave in 99% of Runescape locations, Runescape has become idiot proof, danger is safely tucked away in little corners with warnings about everything from entering caves without a light and the removal of predatory randoms.

If a player has not been subject to the dangers of Runescape, if they are not aware that their safety was their responsibilty and trust in the provision of signs and warnings by Jagex for their protection then why should they expect to be in a situation where they can lose items.

Jagex have made a generation of players who expect to be hand fed and pampered on their Runescape career, it is not the fault of new players that they are upset when (In their eyes) errors occur in the game that force them to lose wealth, Jagex have made the game too easy and safe, players should still be taught that their safety is their responsibilty, I made a post at the beginning of this blog (here is a link for your information) about people taking responsibility for their actions, its a bit dated but the lesson is still very relevant.

I am not saying that Jagex have made mistakes, their hand has been forced by players who buy RS gold (real world trading) and the people who supply the gold, I do think the issue of accepting responsibility should be handed back to the player.

I could catch Pawya's they were good xp so thought I would give it a try, had a few 100 papaya's went to the magic trees at Lletya, planted my traps laced them with papaya summoned my trusty Wolpertinger for the hunting boost and chopped magic logs while I watched, I heard that catching Pawya's was expensive and that is why no one did them, Papaya's were about 1.5k each so could understand that but I had plenty cash spare decided to give it a go.

I was actually surprised to find that Pawya's not only covered the cost but could make a tidy profit, the cost of the papaya was 1.5k the value of the raw pawya meat was 2.5k each so every 1 caught had the potential of a 1k profit, obviously not every papaya used caught a Pawya but it evened itself out over the course of the inventory of fruits, I estimated about 50% to 85% success per inventory and I made some extra selling the bones.

As I trained I leveled enough to catch Grenwalls, grenwalls require Pawya meat as bait so I was lacing every trap with a 2.5k item, bearing in mind I was only just the level to catch them but I did have the help of a Wolpertinger, laying 4 traps at a time I was catching about 50% to 80% Grenwalls per inventory, the 2.5k investment was recovered 10 fold, when you catch Grenwalls you get Grenwall spikes worth just under 1.5k each, per catch getting between 18 to 21 spikes, thats 30k per catch just on spikes, add to that the value of the herbs avantoe up to Ranarr and the odd Papaya tree seed that they drop. you cant make that much profit from chinchompas so why are chompas so overly hunted, you also get 1.1k xp catching Grenwalls so the xp is huge.

As it happens grenwall spikes are a requirement for extreme ranging pots so I used all my spikes on them, had I sold I could have made many millions for the few hours work I put into hunting Pawya's and Grenwalls, It was also a lot more exciting than chompa's I really enjoyed getting to 80 hunting, now I can catch level 5 sacred clay swarms in stealing creation but taking a break from hunting for a while now while I try to regain my slayer rank.

As a little side note, since I got 80 hunter I quite enjoyed hunting and went back to the grenwall spot with a pack of papaya's, checked price on price checker about 25K, set up the traps and caught pawya's I then laid the raw pawya meat and caught grenwalls, the value of the spikes themselves was 250k, thats 10 x the money made in a few minutes, this has got to be as good an earner as slayer.

Went back again today and made 300k on a 20 minute trip, at 900k an hour this has got to be one of the best earners on Runescape, unfortunately its not always roses, another trip I only trapped a few and left with 150K profit, higher levels will get better luck but even 150k for 20 minutes work isn't bad.

just checked the value of the spines from the last few hunter levels, not bad for a few days work.

Now I am going to shove them in a range pot for extreme range potion, this is by far the quickest way to train herblore because you can combine 27 pots at a go, the spines stack and the extreme range pot production has one of the highest xp rates per action.

Familiars for training on Pawya/Grenwall can either be Wolpertinger as used by myself equally good are Spirit Larupia, Graahk or Kyatt, another idea that I saw at the grenwall hunting area was the fruit bat, the scrolls from this can be used to produce papaya fruit for the traps possibly prolonging your stay

Lets try to find a Runecrafting way I enjoy now.

1/ A creche for your familiar when you pop into GE to buy the supplies that you forgot to get, nothing worse than summoning your bunyip and remembering you forgot to buy your anti poison or bolts etc.

2/ Rework on the druid pouch, when you run through Mort Myre without a pouch the Ghasts can narrowly miss you, when you have a pouch they never miss you and it always uses a pouch, there should not be a penalty for taking the time to make the pouches they should be able to miss your backpack with or without a pouch in it.

3/ A fishermans hat, somthing to put your feathers in when fishing, similar to the enchanted summoning hats, not particularly useful but just a bit of fun, just to make it more like real life fly fishing.

4/ I think  the max skill level should be raised to 199, I do not think that you should be able to do anything extra above 99 but just to be recognised for having continued to train, either because you enjoy the skill or because you want another target to head for.

5/ Shattered hearts distraction and diversion, when waiting for the construction rock to drop it would be nice if it made the sound it makes when other rocks appear in your inventory when it appears,  you wouldn't need to stand by the entrance forever or keep going back waiting for it to appear.

I have many that I cant think of at the moment, if you have any please leave them as a comment, I will add the comment and include it as part of the post if it is one that I have considered, remember its not major game changing updates or changes I am looking for just a little tweek here and there.