With the Evolution of Combat will, inevitably, come change in the economy. It’s a natural result of the re-alignment of all of the armour, weapons and food within the game. As you learn new ability combinations, ready your action bars for different combat situations and get to grips with the new combat stats, it’s inevitable that the RuneScape economy will change alongside it. We want to assure you that we’ll be keeping a close eye on the RuneScape economy, and to give you some tips as to how it’s likely to change post-20th November.
Keep on ‘Scaping!
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.
Veteran adventurer Lady Deathknell has set up shop in Lumbridge, with her Combat Academy replacing the old melee, magic and ranged training dummies. She has a class full of wide-eyed rookies to beat into shape and she needs a hardy volunteer to help out.
Act as Lady Deathknell’s assistant and you’ll be put through your paces in a set of fully voiced combat trials. You’ll cover everything from basic attacks and the relationship between the styles of combat, right up to more advanced techniques such as damage-over-time effects, exploiting enemy weaknesses and ultimate abilities.
Outside of the training, there’ll also be the opportunity to deploy training dummies – with defensive strengths or weaknesses of your choice – which can be used to test out your latest gear loadout or ability bar setup.
Make it through Deathknell’s rigorous regimen of training in the beta and you’ll have the opportunity to take part in a short survey. With this, we’ll fine-tune the new tutorial to give everyone the know-how they need to become all-conquering combatants. Complete this and you’ll be sent a tasty XP reward in the live game (equivalent to 10 times the XP you’d get from a Jack of Trades aura) on the week commencing with the 19th of November 2012.