Epic Picture

I've got into one of those stretches (which happen from time to time) when I have to work 16 hours work days (including weekends), so naturally I haven't played or read much recently... It's gonna get even worse, as I'll be working in Mexico for three weeks. I should have internet access there, but I suspect that my entries in the Runescape Reader's Digest will be rare and far in between during that time. It'll get back to normal after Dec 5.

Meanwhile, I'd like to point you to this epic picture.

Thanks to Avicile Mohaili for sharing it. IMHO, it beats Gods War in "epicness" hands down. If anything, it reminds me of Borodino Panorama.

How to buy a party hat in Runescape?

An article on Tip.it about unbuyables, that is, items which cannot be bought at the Grand Exchange. Party hats are among them now. I can confirm it myself, as I've been trying to buy one for over a month... without success. The price just keeps rising and a max order never gets fulfilled. So I want to repeat the question from the subject: how to buy a party hat in Runescape? Anybody knows?

Halloween in Runescape (alternative view)

After I completed the Halloween event (and liked it), I went on reading multiple reviews from other players. Much to my surprise, I saw more negative reviews than positive ones. Actually many players liked some parts of the event and didn't like other parts (notably rewards and the agility web). There were other complains too.

Finally, I came to the "Halloween at its Finest?" article from the Informer, which listed pretty much all of them, but in rather funny and amusing way. So here we go. Enjoy.

History behind your name

Dom (sorry, Dr Lepage) tells a story of his name and asks everybody to share theirs.

I can't resist and will share mine. But before you read it, I just wanna bet that no matter how many people tell their stories, there won't be any alike ones! People are so amazingly unique, that even seemingly straightforward process of making up an MMO avatar name is different for everyone.

So here is my story. Gazillion years ago, when I lived in another country, didn't speak any English, and Internet was a rarity, I got introduced into one of Russian MUDs (I think it was Aladon MUD, though I can't be 100% sure). I didn't play that much, but I was hooked for good. And of course, I had to come up with a name before I started. The MUD had name approval process, that is, every new name was checked by a player moderator (or god) and approved/disapproved within a few hours. If the name was disapproved the account was automatically deleted and player had to start it all over. So I really wanted to do it just right from the first attempt. After about 15 mins of brainstorming I came up with "Вайскор" (would sound like "Vice-core" in English). "Вайскор" was a loose derivation from an old Russian word for "army" or "troops". And it was accepted. A few years later I did learn English and moved into the US. I also got a laptop from my company and, of course, without Russian keyboard. Typing in Russian became difficult and I decided to switch MUDs. I picked one of popular English MUDs (I don't remember which one) and tried to register there as "Vaiskor" (which was letter for letter translation from "Вайскор"). The name got rejected with an explanation that it was hard for English people to pronounce. Well, maybe. Anyway, I wasn't in a mood for inventing completely new name and simply removed "i", thus getting Vaskor. It was accepted (and I am sure, Alex can confirm that it is easy to pronounce for English speaking people :-) ). Since then I started to use Vaskor as my online identity, so here we go. Incidentally, there is also a Hungarian name Vaskor, which has nothing to do with my nickname.

A few quick links...

Two quick links:

• G is gathering opinions on making RS blogging forum/meeting (I am not entirety sure). Check it out.
• Ren explaining the Stellar Dawn/MechScape situation.

Soloying Chaos Elemental

If you remember, about a month ago I was going to solo Graar. Well, it didn't happen. Every time I tried to muster my courage the thought of getting kill count only to be exterminated a few seconds later by Graar and his generals would put me off. Somehow I was always finding something better and easier to do in Runescape. That is - until today.

Today I finally admitted to myself that I was simply not ready for Graar. At least not yet. Plus I was skipping another Boss, which was presumably a bit easier - Chaos Elemental. So I decided to go hunting for Chaos Elemental instead. I've met it before, but never really fought against it. Our previous meetings had always ended up in the same way: me running away wounded, disarmed and confused. I read about the disarming spell of Chaos Elemental and how counter it by filling inventory with stews or potions. I opted to use potions, as I knew I'd need all hitpoints I could get.

So here I was with inventory full of saradomin brews and super restores. I also had extreme potions, antipoison and dragon dagger (which proved invaluable). I dressed into "I don't mind to be killed" costume comprised of dragonhide, glory, snakeskin boots, elemental shield, ring of wealth, helm of Neitiznot, barrow gloves and Farming cape, took whip and summoned an Obsidian Golem to keep me company. And off we went, to Ardougne, teleported to the deep wilderness and proceeded east to the Chaos Elemental's hunting ground. It was there all right...

The fight was long and messy. I poisoned the cloud, switched to the whip, turned on piety and spent the rest of the time frantically gulping potions and trying to engage in a close combat. And Chaos Elemental would teleport me out every few seconds, while hitting hard with its magic lightning bolts (or whatever it was). Half an inventory later Saradomin (brews) prevailed and here I was hitting the final blow :-) I need to note also that my fellow Obsidian Golem companion proved it worth and was frequently hitting 9-13 on its own.



"Phew, that wasn't that hard", - I thought and decided to repeat. Fortunately, I didn't stay with my half inventory or pots, but went back to fully resupply myself. Soon I was glad I did that. This time, when we reached the place, Chaos Elemental wasn't at home, so I sat down to rest and wait. The yellow dot appeared on the horizon and magic bolts soon followed. Yet again I managed to poison the monster and we engaged into our little deadly dance. However, this time we weren't alone. A big white wolf joined in, but I ignored it. I guess it got offended and called for relatives (or ancestors?). Anyway revenant werewolf appeared and now I was getting hit hard from two different directions. Still I concentrated on the Chaos Elemental only, trying to finish it off before my supplies run out. Then, as you might have already guessed, revenant knight appeared and joined in. Quickly it became real ugly... I ran for my life around the Rogue Castle. Once on the other side, I restored my health, drank extreme super set and assessed the situation. I still had a few potions left, angry revenants were between me and escape rout and Chaos Elemental was poisoned and almost finished. I decided to stay, single out revenants and finish off the Chaos Elemental. I knew I wouldn't even have to move - revenats always chase. And, indeed, the werewolf soon appeared with the knight trailing after it. I was fortunate to 3 hit the werewolf (extreme potions FTW!) and ran toward the knight. Two saradomin brews later the knight crumbled (or evaporated?) - the path was clear, so I went for the Chaos Elemental. It was already dying (presumably from poison), so we danced just a little bit. It died and left weapon poison and five bat bones lying on the ground (so that's how it flew!).

And that was it.

Meeting Celebrities in Runescape

It's interesting how much easier it is to meet a Runescape celebrity comparing to IRL celebrity. Especially now, when tons of clans and fan site events are publicized by Jagex. For instance, Tiz is talking about his meeting with Excl here. Zezima and some of 99 club members might be harder to track, of course, but I personally wouldn't consider all of them being celebrities either. I guess it depends on a definition of a celebrity... And answering Tiz's question, I've already met Runescape celebrities I wanted to. With one of them I even had a pleasure to walk pretty much all the way across Gielinor :)

How to reduce lagging on Runescape F2P worlds

This post if for F2P player only. If you have problems with ads and have the game lagging because of it, take a look at this guide: quite comprehensive list of options on how to deal with the problem.

Halloween in Runescape

I did wait for the exact day and time to do the event - right after IRL trick-or-treating and a party :-) I liked it, of course. Was one hit by both Grim Reaper and his doggy along the way too :-)

Jess's review of the event is probably the closest to my own impression, so here it goes.

Tour of Jagex's headquarters

Dreaming of working for Jagex? Well... Take a video tour of Jagex's headquarters and don't say that I didn't warn you.