Author: Runescape

Start the month with membership and you’ll get your hands on the aura on December 1st. Details of how you’ll get the aura are coming soon. Join on any other day of the month and it’ll be yours the moment your membership starts!

What’s more, every Saturday and Sunday in December is a Winter Weekend, each featuring a hearty bonus for members, starting with this weekend – December 1st and 2nd – with double drops on bosses! There are five weekends in total, with members’ bonuses including double Dungeoneering XP and double minigame rewards to come. Watch this space for further updates.

December is already set to be an incredible month with the launch of our Tzhaar Grandmaster Quest: The Brink of Extinction, Player-Owned Ports, plus our awesome Xmas 2012 Stray Dog event. To grab your aura – with its 50% XP boost every day in December – click here and become a member today.

At the end of Rune Mysteries, Ariane found herself in a bit of a bind, and now she needs your help once more. You’ll fully explore the arcane ruins beneath the Wizards’ Tower and experience – through the memories of its former inhabitants – the clashes of magical ideals that led to the old tower’s downfall. Dig deep enough and put together the pieces of this ancient puzzle, and you’ll have all you need to free Ariane and avert the disaster once and for all.

Rewards for this members-only quest include a full set of magical robes to accompany the last quest’s hat, as well as access to Archmage Sedridor’s personal rune essence chest, which will grant you rune essence every time you level up in Runecrafting. This is applied retroactively if you’ve already levelled the skill, and by 99 you’ll have received a mighty 24,750 essence in total! Those of you with very high Magic, Prayer and Runecrafting will find further, hidden rewards – ask around the tower once the quest’s complete.

This mighty new gear looks truly spectacular, and works much like Void Knight armour: the body armour can be paired with melee, range and magic-specific helms, each giving a 10% accuracy bonus in its style. It requires no less than 80 Defence to wear, and the completion of The Brink of Extinction, and its stats are suitably spectacular: equivalent to Torva armour, with additional damage reduction per piece against against creatures within the TzHaar City and its surrounding PvE minigames (the same creatures affected by the TokKul-Zo). However, you’ll take triple damage if you use it against other players, or in any other location. It also degrades, and new pieces must be made once the armour is destroyed. That said, for a run through the Fight Cave or the Fight Kiln, there’s no better gear out there.

The armour and its raw materials are untradeable, and smithing it is no small feat: you’ll need 90 Smithing to complete a full set, and the obsidian shards needed to make it can only be found in one place…

The Fight Cauldron

In the Fight Cauldron you’ll face the full might of the TokHaar, dodging lava and doing battle with everything they can throw at you: from the humble TokHaar-Hur, all the way up to indomitable TokHaar-Ket-Zek.

All enemies you defeat within the Fight Cauldron will drop obsidian shards. If you have the Smithing level necessary, these can be smelted into obsidian bars and smithed into obsidian armour.

The onslaught will continue until you choose to leave or are killed. You won’t lose any of your gear upon death, although you will expend runes if you’re using magic, and anything left on the ground – such as arrows or bolts – will be left behind.

Last, but not least, you’ll have the option to donate TokKul at a coffer near the Fight Cauldron entrance, which will give any obsidian armour a defensive buff during your next session in the Fight Cauldron.

In this Grandmaster finale to the TzHaar storyline, you’ll be asked to resolve the differences between the Ga’al, TzHaar and TokHaar by using a fiery combination of wits, knowledge and the sheer, unbridled potency of the new combat system. You’ll have to fight your way through waves of vicious foes and burn through tricky puzzles, as you march forward to the ultimate goal – bringing the city back from the brink of extinction. With fantastic graphics, voiced characters and full integration with the EoC, it’s the flaming hot action we’ve all been longing for.

Huge thanks go out to everyone who’s tried the beta and offered their opinion so far. The Evolution of Combat’s come on in leaps and bounds since its beta launch in June, and that – in large part – is down to you. Some of the biggest changes we’ve made so far have been in direct response to feedback from you. Here are a few examples of the most prominent:

The new combat system’s more involved, tactical and exciting than ever before, but some of you found that long combat endeavours such as Slayer tasks had – as a result – become feats of endurance. As such, we upped auto-attack damage and introduced a new ultimate named Momentum – which further increases auto-attack damage for 20 minutes per activation – which means a lower intensity approach to combat will remain available.

The relationship between gear and your combat capabilities is one of the most profoundly altered areas of the combat system, and your feedback and gameplay data have been invaluable in balancing these aspects. A great example of this was rebalancing shields, which many of you said were overpowered.

Another big change is the introduction of adrenaline and abilities, and your input helped us not only to ensure that they worked in a fair and balanced way, but also to make the ability book interface as user-friendly and intuitive as possible.

Dungeoneering was a big point of feedback too, as increased emphasis on the combat triangle and introduction of elemental strengths and weaknesses meant that solo players among you were having a much harder time than you should. With this in mind, we relaxed the vulnerability relationships as they’re applied in Daemonheim, and brought in a new range of omnielemental staves for use by dungeon-delving wizards. There are some big changes to the binding system coming soon, too!

A fine addition to any armoury, this trio of expertly forged suits is available right now from my store. Do you have any queries regarding my distinguished boutique? I’m confident you’ll find an answer in the comprehensive FAQ, found here.

If you’ve yet to visit my establishment, why not drop in and receive 200 RuneCoins absolutely free? Remember that if you wish to purchase additional RuneCoins, you can do so here or by clicking ‘Buy RuneCoins’ inside my store. Don’t forget that I offer a 10% discount to all members.

Until next time.

There will also be further news posts over the next few days, detailing key changes and how best to prepare for the launch. While it’s securely founded in the RuneScape combat you know so well, it contains an array of large-scale improvements and new features, including:

• Abilities: These are a replacement for the old special attacks found on weapons, but they’re an whole different beast. Divided up into three classes: basic, threshold and ultimate, these do more damage than regular attacks and cause a range of nasty negative effects to your opponent, such as damage over time or stuns. Some may even bestow positive effects, healing you or further boosting your damage output for a set amount of time. Making sound use of abilities will push your combat prowess to new heights.
• Adrenaline: This new resource is built each time you hit an enemy with an auto-attack, or with a basic ability. It’s spent when you use the more powerful threshold and ultimate abilities, and when you eat food in combat, so you’ll want to build it as quickly as possible during a fight.
• Action Bar: This handy new interface holds all your ability buttons, and can give quick access to essentials such as potions, food and utility items.
• Armour and Life Points: The armour you wear now greatly affects your maximum life points. The Evolution of Combat is balanced with this in mind, so you’ll need to gear up to stand up to your foes!
• Dual Wielding: That’s right – with the launch of the Evolution of Combat, this much-requested feature will be fully implemented. With abilities specific to dual-wielded weapons and increased gear choices for mages such as wands and orbs, your choice of gear loadout has never been more varied. Off-hand versions of most weapons will be made available once the Evolution of Combat launches, so no need to go out and buy duplicates of your favourites just yet.
• And Much More: We’ve introduced far too many new features, tweaks and improvements to list here, but some of the biggest are as follows:
  • We’ve filled out gaps in gear progression, including loads of brand-new level 50 gear and new options for mages and rangers.
  • The combat triangle is more important than ever, and you’ll need to take careful count of your foe’s fighting style to prevail.
  • There’s an array of awesome-looking new animations for the new abilities and distinct combat styles.

We’ve also listened carefully to feedback from those among you who know and particularly enjoy the current system. With your input in mind, we’ve made many changes to the Evolution of Combat which will allow you to continue playing with the traditional style of combat, while also benefiting from the raft of improvements the update brings.

To coincide with the Tears of Guthix update, Yelps has introduced D&D Tokens to Squeal of Fortune and they’re up for grabs right now!

Want to take part Tears of Guthix twice a week instead of once? You can with a D&D Token! This brand new item allows you to jump into a Distraction & Diversion when its cooldown period is still in effect. That means you can finish Fish Flingers and the Pit twice in one day, Familiarisation twice a week and tackle two Troll Invasions a month!

You’re able to keep using the traditional, low-intensity combat that has always been a part of RuneScape. Clicking on an enemy still initiates a repeated auto-attack, and the amount of damage this does can be multiplied for a 20-minute period by using the Momentum ability.

Momentum is an ultimate ability in the Defence/Constitution category, available to players of all levels, that can be activated when your adrenaline is fully charged. You can access this ability via the ability book that’s been incorporated into the ‘magic’ side stone on your interface.

You can also minimise the action bar at any time. This will free up valuable screen space, and will keep your chat window active by default, so you don’t need to press enter each time you want to speak to your friends.

So what does this mean for you? Well, basically you get to pick and choose the features you want to use without being forced to do any of it. You can have all the cool new gear and other upgrades that the EoC brings, while still enjoying the game in the way you’re used to via the Momentum ability. It’s just one more click every 20 minutes or so!

If you’re a member, you’re immediately eligible to sign up for the Members’ Loyalty Programme. All you need to do is speak to Xuan in-game – found in Varrock market square and north-east Burthorpe. Once you’ve done so, you’ll get a helping of loyalty points to spend in the store for each month that you’re a member, which increases the longer you’ve been a member. You’ll also be kept informed of updates to the Loyalty Shop, including future special offers.

Combat-oriented Loyalty Programme auras are being overhauled for the Evolution of Combat, and will be all the more amazing once it launches – not to mention easier than ever to get your hands on, with the 25% discount. Here are a few of the best to whet your appetite:

• Inspiration: This will add extra adrenaline with every hit – great for opening up those ultimate abilities all the quicker, particularly with a fast-striking weapon.
• Invigorate: This aura will retain a chunk of the adrenaline you’d usually use when firing off an ultimate ability, so you’ll be ready to break another out all the sooner.
• Vampyrism: This fang-tastic favourite really comes into its own with the Evolution of Combat. It returns life points equivalent to 5% of the damage you deal, and the new EoC abilities mean that a skilled player can push DPS – and the healing from this aura – to lofty new heights.

These are just some of the awesome auras available from the Loyalty Shop. Take a look here for full details.

On top of this, everything else in the shop is a mere 50% of the cost it would normally be. There’s never been a better time to grab a flamin’ fabulous ‘blazing gaze’ effect that’ll burn your face into your enemies’ minds, or a ferocious Werewolf Transformation emote. These, and a wide range of other rewards, are all available to those signed up for the Members’ Loyalty Programme.

Whether you’re just signing up now, or have been saving up your loyalty points for a spending spree, don’t miss out on the Evolution of Combat Loyalty Shop Sale when it starts in just five days’ time!

Why merely light a fire when you can combust one into existence? Why fish with a rod when a depth charge is just as effective? Alchemy is an impressive feat in itself, yet that much more remarkable when it’s explosively unstable.

Indeed, those looking to transform their regular skill animations into explosive alternatives need look no further than these latest ones released from my store!

In the conclusion to this exciting storyline, you must find out why the TzHaar city is cooling down, or else it’s certain disaster for these noble creatures. What part will the Ga’al play in their future, if there is to be one? It’s a Grandmaster-level quest with some of the most challenging combat ever to grace the realm, and epic rewards to boot!

Avast me hearties! Fancy trying yer hand at runnin’ your own port? Or are ye a lily-livered land lubber? Arr! That it be!

In this huge, high level content(one of the biggest projects this year) you’ll have the chance to equip ships, hire captains, build your own shipyards and send your cut-throat crews to explore the fabled, lore-rich eastern lands. Bounties beyond your wildest dreams await!

The Varrock dog has never had a good life. It’s been kicked, burned and even had raspberries blown at it as it skulks off to the nearest corner. It’s a sad tale, and if any character deserved a happy Christmas, it’s the Varrock dog. Get involved with giving it a Christmas it will never forget!

In this Distraction & Diversion, you’ll be invited to help a keen artist construct scaffolding to support his latest creations – magnificent sculptures dedicated to a range of gods. Get the scaffolding and location right and you’ll reap the rewards, but if you get it wrong, who knows what abominations you may end up creating?

Featuring our innovative new browser-based technology and with big investments in graphics and gameplay, RuneScape is set to take a monumental leap forward in 2013. Higher visual and audio fidelity, improved camera mechanics and a much more customisable interface system are but a taste of what you can expect.

New Skills (all)

Two brand new skills await you in 2013, with one new resource collection skill and a support skill which will be modelled on some of our oldest and dearest content. Designed to suit the old-school, yet complement the entire game.

Epic Story Conclusions (various)

Pirates, dwarves, gnomes, desert gods, vampyres, workshops, heroes, dragonkin, monkeys… so much to choose from, and that’s just the tip of the penguin iceberg! Help us to define which to work on next by letting us know what your favourites are.

Construction Rework (all)

Our plans for user-generated content are just beginning to culminate in a sequence of mind-blowing updates to the Construction skill. Build and hold forts with your friends as you defend the realm! Bring your finely built, graphically updated houses to the main game world! Design dungeons and invite hardy dungeoneers to crack them!

The new combat system’s more involved, tactical and exciting than ever before, but some of you found that long combat endeavours such as Slayer tasks had – as a result – become feats of endurance. As such, we upped auto-attack damage and introduced a new ultimate named Momentum – which further increases auto-attack damage for 20 minutes per activation – which means a lower intensity approach to combat will remain available.

The relationship between gear and your combat capabilities is one of the most profoundly altered areas of the combat system, and your feedback and gameplay data have been invaluable in balancing these aspects. A great example of this was rebalancing shields, which many of you said were overpowered.

Another big change is the introduction of adrenaline and abilities, and your input helped us not only to ensure that they worked in a fair and balanced way, but also to make the ability book interface as user-friendly and intuitive as possible.

Dungeoneering was a big point of feedback too, as increased emphasis on the combat triangle and introduction of elemental strengths and weaknesses meant that solo players among you were having a much harder time than you should. With this in mind, we relaxed the vulnerability relationships as they’re applied in Daemonheim, and brought in a new range of omnielemental staves for use by dungeon-delving wizards. There are some big changes to the binding system coming soon, too!

In celebration of the unveiling of Ariane’s first two quests, I have stocked my store with the most fitting of tributes: Hero Packs, inspired by Ozan and Ariane!

Those questing head-first into the unknown mysteries of the Wizards’ Tower can do so in style with these exquisite packs. Each contains a full outfit – indeed, inspired by Ariane or Ozan – alongside a unique emote, teleport animation and weapon override. The discerning adventurer choosing Ariane’s pack will wield her mighty staff; archers among you have your tastes catered for with Ozan’s bow.

Community Creations

RuneScape creative regular Teezkut has created a fearsome black dragon from polymer clay. Combining clay, metal wires and foil, this awe-inspiring beast wields an elusive elite clue scroll! Great work, Teezkut!

If you want to see your RuneScape creations featured in the weekly Community Round-Up, send it over to us at community@jagex.com!

That’s all for this week’s edition of the Community Round-Up. Don’t forget to get involved with all of these awesome competitions and events and – most importantly – have a great week in a brand-new RuneScape!

Think of your audience as somebody who has yet to spend much time in the Evolution of Combat beta and wants to know more about how to best utilise the new abilities and action bar when the update goes live.

Your video can be about almost anything, assuming it’s related to the Evolution of Combat update, but here are a few of our suggestions:

• Boss killing (e.g. God Wars Dungeon, Corporeal Beast, TzTok-Jad)
• Skilling – specifically the ways the action bar can speed up skilling (e.g. power mining)
• Creating the perfect specialisation set-up (e.g. warrior, mage, ranger)
• PKing and the Duel Arena – PvP Combat
• Dungeoneering

You can find out more about making the perfect Evolution of Combat video guide over on our forum thread here.

Every video we feature on our official channels will receive the following prizes:

• Promotion of the video on the official RuneScape website, Facebook, YouTube and Twitter pages
• Green Skin customisation
• Ornate Katana in-game item
• 25 Squeal of Fortune spins
• 10% XP boost for 72 hours (real-time)
• Three months of RuneScape membership

To submit your video for consideration, send it to us via email at community@jagex.com.

We’ll be accepting submissions right up until the 30th November and will be featuring selected videos as we receive them.

So, jump into the Evolution of Combat servers and start filming – we can’t wait to see all of your entries!

In line with feedback received on the Evolution of Combat, we’ve also overhauled the item binding system. Everyone – regardless of Dungeoneering level – can now bind ten items. You won’t get to carry all ten at a time, of course; they’ll go into a remotely-held pool of bound items, from which you’ll be able to select loadouts by speaking to the Smuggler. You can return to the Smuggler at any time to switch your bound items, and he’ll remember up to three presets for ease of use. The number of your bound items that can be included in a loadout varies according to your Dungeoneering level:

• 1 Dungeoneering: 1 item
• 20 Dungeoneering: 2 items
• 50 Dungeoneering: 3 items
• 90 Dungoneering: 4 items
• 120 Dungeoneering: 5 items

With this new system, you never need be without the right weapon for the job – doubly important when the Evolution of Combat lands in a week’s time. Switching between specialised melee, range and mage setups is as simple as a trip back the smuggler and will no longer take such a heavy toll on your inventory. Couple that with a slick new interface to manage the new system, and no foe need stand in your way.

Why merely light a fire when you can combust one into existence? Why fish with a rod when a depth charge is just as effective? Alchemy is an impressive feat in itself, yet that much more remarkable when it’s explosively unstable.

New to Squeal of Fortune are Prismatic Pendants. These chromatically cool accoutrements can be converted into any skill pendant that you don’t already own, and come in regular and prized varieties.

One aspect of the EoC that’s not so often commented on is the side benefit that it provides to the skilling community.

In particular, by assigning resources to a slot in your action bar you’re able to continue dropping items as they are gathered, thereby increasing your rate of XP per hour.

Prismatic Pendants are already on the wheel and up for grabs, and to be in with an even better chance of winning any skill pendant on the wheel – including these – be sure to spin this weekend. Between Friday 16th November at 00:00 GMT and Monday 19th November 23:59 GMT, you’re more likely to bag yourself a pendant and get an XP boost in your favourite skill!

For any questions you may have, check out our official FAQ and the Squeal of Fortune wiki for info on the new wheel and Prismatic Pendants.

Indeed, those looking to transform their regular skill animations into explosive alternatives need look no further than these latest ones released from my store!

Explosive variants for Fishing, Firemaking, Alchemy, Mining and Woodcutting are all available right now, and exclusively from my store. Should you have any queries regarding my distinguished boutique, I’m confident you’ll find an answer in the comprehensive FAQ, found here.

If you’ve yet to visit my establishment, why not drop in and receive 200 RuneCoins absolutely free? Remember that if you wish to purchase additional RuneCoins, you can do so here or by clicking ‘Buy RuneCoins’ inside my store. Don’t forget that I offer a 10% discount to all members.

Until next time.

The $25 Game Card Grand Lightning Pack contains the following: The ‘Professor’ Hairstyle and the high-voltage Lightning Staff, which can be converted into four increasingly powerful and awesome-looking tiers, depending on your level:

• Tier 1: No requirements
• Tier 2: 20 Attack, 20 Magic
• Tier 3: 40 Attack, 40 Magic
• Tier 4: 40 Attack, 60 Magic

On top of this, it can fire off a shockingly cool lightning emote when right-clicked in your inventory or the worn items interface.

There are two packages available:

• Purchasing a £7.50, $10 (US), €10, or $15 (Aus/NZ) green Game Card will unlock the ‘Professor’ Hairstyle.
• Purchasing a £20, $25 (US), €25, or $40 (Aus/NZ) red Game Card will unlock the ‘Professor’ Hairstyle, Lightning Staff and Lightning Emote.

This promotion is exclusive to the following retailers:

• GameStop (USA, EU)
• EB Games (Canada, Australia, New Zealand)
• WH Smith (UK)

If you’re unsure where your nearest branch of these stores is, use our handy store locator to find out. Please note that this offer applies to new style red and green Game Card cards only – not the old 30 or 90 day Game Cards.

First and foremost, don’t panic! The economy is often the subject of rumours and hearsay, meaning that many people make decisions that are a little hasty. The vast majority of tradeable armour and weapons that you currently have are going to still be your equipment of choice in the Evolution of Combat. Got a full set of Bandos armour from General Graardor? That’s still the best non-degrading melee armour that you can get your hands on, and – with the new Bandos warshield – you can use some of those nifty new defensive abilities to be even tougher and last longer on Slayer trips.

On the flipside, items that you might not have thought about for a little while now have new life breathed into them. With the launch, the Zaryte Bow will become the best bow in it’s class, and will be comparable to all other level 80 Ranged weapons. Korasi’s Sword may no longer be a one-hit-KO wonder, but it’s a fantastic complement to the new off-hand Enhanced Excalibur. Mage armours such as Infinity and the brand new Batwing now provide decent protection in against melee combatants. Don’t forget the underused warhammers and two-handers; with dual wielding, two-handed abilities and weaknesses to specific damage types, they are now just as useful as scimitars in the right situation.

Lots of New Items!

With the Evolution of Combat comes a whole host of new armours and weapons. For every player-producible one-handed weapon in the game there will now be a player-producible version for the off hand, and that opens up a whole new market within the RuneScape economy. Along with that, there’s likely to be a greater demand for the raw materials needed to make these new items, which is certainly worth looking out for if resource gathering is your thing.

This also means that some of the existing monsters that you know and love will drop new materials for making the new armour. For example, imps around the world will drop imphide, which will make some of the first pieces of mage equipment, providing a low-level player a new way of making some money.

Food, Glorious Food!

Not only have weapons and armour been given a makeover, but food has changed too. It’s now more efficient to eat food that’s around your Constitution level. This means that while you can still eat rocktails if you’re a lower level, they won’t heal you any more than food at your level would. Munching on salmon, anchovy pizza or chocolate cake – depending on your levels – will likely become cost-effective choices for those of you with the right levels. This should see a rise in the demand of the lower levelled foods and an opportunity for entrepreneurs or skillers to reap the rewards of their aquatic bounty.

The economy is going to change over the coming weeks but the financial future’s only looking brighter. What was good before Evolution of Combat is still going to be good when Evolution of Combat has launched; items not popular will have their purpose restored and there’ll be a ton of opportunities for skillers and everyone else to make plenty money out of the upcoming changes.