My Switch to Cyber Hunter

I've finally made the switch tons of other bounty hunters made when Delta came out.  Well, I'm a Cyber Hunter now.  Weird.
I really don't know what made me do the switch.  Actually, let's go back a bit more.  I had 4,000+ Artix Points sitting in my Master Account.  I was going to save up for 10,000 Artix Points (aka 10000 Varium and 5 keys), but that went down the drain when I remembered how much I wanted the Wraith Weapons (a lot).  So I thought about it.  And then bought the varium.
Now, what did I do with the Varium?  I realized that my love of Wraith Weapons had suddenly vanished.  I still wanted a Varium weapon, though.  So I went over to Rabblefroth.
Rabble did not disappoint.  I went away with Macabre Harvest, which I bought for its suspiciously tankish stats (+15 dex, +8 tech).
Then I hit another wall.  What the hell was I going to do in battle with an energy primary and sidearm as a Bounty Hunter?  And no, I was not going to save up to get a physical gun.  I go on EpicDuel about once a week now (suffering from 'I will play other games while Omega is still in development' syndrome), just to prove to my faction leader that I am still alive and on a computer.  (I wonder what Faye Runaway is thinking of my disabled Tactical Mercenary- if she sees this, Merc1225 is disabled, and yes, it may take a while before I have him back, along with ReconnaisX).
Wow.  That went off-topic really fast.  But anyhow, I switched.  There.  Simple as that.
And then I hit yet another wall.  What kind of build would I use?  Strength was definitely out of the question; that is for people with all varium weapons enhanced to the max who will probably leave when Omega is released. I just wanted a simple basic build (and to balance my defense and resistance.  That didn't work so well, try using Plasma Armor with Cardboard Crusader).  I was familiar with only one in the CH category (don't worry, I know a crapton of builds for the other five classes, as I have played as one before).  And that happened to be a Five Focus build.  Ha.

Note the obvious unbalancement of defense and resistance.  Then add 10 to the resistance.  Yeah, I know.

That's my build up there.
But really, even as I write/type/push buttons at 70 wpm/demonstrate an input-output system, I am still thinking: Am I an idiot?  I joined the already massive league of Cyber Hunters months after their great nerfs.

~ReconnaisX

PS: Since I am a Cyber Hunter, I guess now I shall be arguing for them, which is ironic, because at one time in my ED life I hated them to no end.

Coal Bag: Number Crunching Time

There's no denying that the coal bag is a very useful piece of equipment.  It holds 27 additional coal- which is a lot if you happen to be training Smithing, like me.  The cost is pretty low- just four thousand Dungeoneering tokens.  That's only about forty dungeons (assuming one gets about 1000 xp per dungeon).  It's a good deal.
But what I'm going to do here is calculate a bunch of numbers.  Don't worry, they'll be useful.

Mining
50 xp per coal
27 coal slots in coal bag
For bag only: 50*27= 1350 xp
28 inventory slots
For inventory only: 50*28=1400 xp
Coal Bag + Inventory: 50*27*2=2700 xp per filled inventory

Smithing (Smelting part)
Comparing Iron to Steel (Is it worth it to get 2 coal to make steel?)

Iron Bar
Smithing Level+35= percentage change that your iron will smelt into a bar.  Cannot be greater than 80% (level 45 Smithing).  I'll take my Smithing level as an example (50).
50+35=85
85>80 so my percentage change of getting a bar is 80% (which is still relatively low).
But assuming that one smelts an inventory of iron ores (28 ores-28 bars)
28*12.5=350 xp, assuming that there is no loss of ores (highly unlikely, as 20% is still a sizable chance)

Steel Bar
So someone smelts an inventory's worth of steel bars (from ores, 18 coal and 9 iron)
ONLY steel bars: 9 (total number of steel bars produced with inventory full of resources)*17.5=157.5 xp, which is a lot lower than 350 xp (and we're just on the smelting part!)
But for Iron, there is a risk.  For steel, there is not.
Now let's bring in the Coal Bag.
Inventory's worth of resources: (27 coal from bag+9 coal in inventory+18 iron ores)
That equals 18 bars (twice that of the above result), which is 315 xp, which is unfortunately still less than 350.  But compared to the first scenario, this is twice the xp.

Now for the actual smithing of gear.

Smithing (Smithing part)

Iron 
25 xp per bar used in Smithing
Assuming that you lose no iron in smelting: 25*28=700 xp
Add that to the first figure, and you get 700+350=1050 xp per 28 iron ore

Steel
37.5 xp per bar used in Smithing
18*37.5= 675 xp
Add that, 675+315= 990 xp per full coal bag, 9 coal, and 18 iron ore.

Iron would be easier to do for training, but there is a risk factor involved.

Now for the higher tier bars.

Mithril bar

1 mithril ore
4 coal
30 xp
Without Coal Bag: 20 coal, 5 mithril ore is the highest you can get.  Sorry.
So...5 bars*30 xp per bar=150 xp.  That is actually pitiful.
But 50 xp per bar used in Smithing, so 50*5=250.
250+150=400 xp for 20 coal and 5 mithril ore.  Sad.

Enter the Coal Bag.
Full coal bag (27)+10 Mithril ore+13 coal
So that would be 10 Mithril bars.
10*30=300 xp.
10*50=500.
300+500=800.
Now I know to what to train with.

Adamantite Bar (aka Adamant)

1 adamant ore
6 coal
37.5 xp
Without Coal Bag: 24 coal, 4 adamantite ore
4*37.5=150
62.5 xp for each bar used.
62.5*4=250
150+250=400.
Wow.  Just wow.

Add the Coal Bag.
Full Coal Bag+15 coal+7 adamantite ore
7*37.5=262.5.
7*62.5=437.5.
262.5+437.5= 700 xp exactly.

Do you realize yet that the higher tier we go, the less xp one gets with an inventory full of resources?

Runite Bar (aka Rune)

1 runite ore
8 coal
50 xp
Without coal bag: 24 coal, 3 runite ore
3 bars possible, 3*50=150 xp.  Hey, it's the same as the one for Adamant.
75 xp per bar used.
75*3=225.
225+150=375 xp.

Add the Coal Bag...
Full Coal Bag+21 coal ore+6 runite ore
6*50=300.
6*75=450.
300+450=750 xp.

So without the coal bag, making Runite bars is worse than Adamantite, but with the Coal Bag, it gets better.  Strange.

Anyhow, if I were training (as a matter of fact, I am), I would stick to steel, because:
-Higher tier bar-->more coal needed
-Iron ore is easy to get (heck, I can mine it myself)
-Does not pose the risks that iron does.

But for those who happily disagree with what I said (and support Iron):
-Potential to harvest more xp per inventory load (note the word potential)
-Harvesting just iron ore is easier (especially if you're mining it)

Oh, and if you ever need iron, go to a populated world and then go to the Al Kharid Mine (the one with scorpions).  There's bound to be some Mining pure dropping iron ore at some time.

~ReconnaisX

Rejuvenate

If you're a Runescape player with at least 52 Defence, the title will probably seem familiar to you.  It should.  The skill Rejuvenate is widespread and abused too often.
Since Jagex is finally nerfing Rejuvenate, I can freely rant about this.  (I wouldn't have before; as I have 61 Defence and abuse the skill too.)  If you don't see why they're doing so, let me explain.
If you have used Rejuvenate before, you probably know how much it heals (40% of your maximum health, according to the description).  In any battle scenario, that's a lot, and that can shift the tide of a fight quickly.  It usually doesn't, though, because other people use it too.
Forty percent is just overpowered.  There's no other way to put it. 
And I'm pretty sure that the little stat restore thing is worth less compared to the heal. 
One minute of cooldown is too little.  (By the way- that's how long it usually takes for one to get a full adrenaline bar if they use abilities often in a battle.)  I'm glad they're increasing it to five minutes. 
Now, the other reason the J-Mods have for nerfing Rejuvenate was about something about the Grand Exchange prices.  I don't know about that part.  I don't watch the prices.

Taken from Mod Mark's post:
"This is intended to stabilise the value of these items on the GE in the short-term, and to increase their value in the long-term."

I'll be honest here.  My general reaction is something of a question mark.  I don't know.  But whatever.
Yeah, Rejuvenate really helps me.  But that all goes down the drain when I'm in Clan Wars, and everyone else is using it, too.  (No really, it gets annoying.  We have to pile someone when they use Rejuvenate to kill them.)  I even bring a shield and a warhammer in addition to my regular 2h so I can take advantage of Rejuvenate when I hit 100% adrenaline.
Well, at least that's over. 

~ReconnaisX

Ace of Spades: First Impressions (and 0.75 Beta)

The first thing I noticed about Ace of Spades is that it's pretty close to Roblox.

Really close.  I mean, when I played Roblox, people made worlds where you would do exactly the same.  Exactly.  Except there was more freedom in creating the world.  As long as you had sufficient knowledge of Perl, you could literally make anything.  I'll be honest here- why didn't Roblox become this famous?

But this is not about AoS versus Roblox, so that discussion will be another blog post.  Anyway, Ace of Spades isn't bad.  So I'll start there.

First- it's a FPS (first person shooter).  As a general rule, I am not good at first person shooters.  Actually, horrible.  It's because you're in first person.  You can't see omnidirectional.  That by itself is okay.  (If it wasn't, I wouldn't be playing Minecraft.)  But coupled with long-distance weapons (bows don't count, Minecraft is about more than that), I can't take it.  I'm okay with third-person shooters (namely, Pawn Tactics), but FPS is another thing.

Second- you can build.  It sounds like Minecraft right around here (this is why people say that AoS is a mix of Minecraft and Team Fortress), where you can build to your heart's content.  For the game itself, this is what differs it from other FPSs, in my opinion.  Of course, used correctly, this is a tactical advantage.

I'm waiting for PrizeRebel to process my custom order of the released game.  But while I was waiting earlier today, I played the 0.75 Beta, which is free.  I believe that this post will be more about the 0.75 Beta, because I actually have played it.

Right off the bat, I realized that I would have to get the hang of this quickly.  There was no tutorial, which, in my opinion, is essential to (almost) every game.  So, thumbs down in that category.  In the Beta, they just throw a list of controls at you.

I didn't want to mess up early in my AoS playing, so I chose a random server and decided to spectate instead of fight.  (To be honest, I didn't see the 'Spectate' option coming.  It's like Clan Wars in RuneScape that way.  I like it.)  It served well to let me learn about the controls.

In Spectate mode, you are in a perpetual Fly mode (think Minecraft) of sorts.  The default controls are the same (good old WASD).  The only noticeable difference was the lack of a main use for the Shift key.  Still, I liked that.  Also, I'm still wondering whether or not one spectating can be sighted by those actually on the teams.  (I ran into the line of fire more than once.)

The servers seemed normal enough.  Just like Minecraft.  I noticed, though, that there is no Single Player Mode.  So there was no way for me to learn the ropes by myself.

I joined a server and luckily embarrassed no one on my team.

But that was the beta.  I'm looking forward to the actual released game.

~ReconnaisX

On Dungeoneering With Other People

What a boring title.  I know.  It sounds like a title for a speech.

But really, Dungeoneering with others is much different that going alone.  I usually go alone, because

1) Partners are not always reliable
2) Some people do not wait for me to finish skilling
3) It takes a while to get a partner
4) General lack of patience
5) Potentially quicker

But when you go as a group,

1) It is more fun
2) You get that teamwork feel (the very same as the one in Clan Wars)
3) Shared skilling xp (though not much)
4) Go in a large dungeon (lots of work)
5) You can show off your skills (if you have any)

I'm writing this mainly because of the teamwork thing, though.  I consider it the most important.
Today, I decided to go Dungeoneering, as usual.  I did a few dungeons alone, as usual.  Then I went onto World 7.  (W7 is the official Dungeoneering world.)  Someone invited me, and because I would go dungeoneering anyway, I accepted.  Then, that someone (Boulderbare) collected two others before the four of us went down.
Together, the four of us only did one dungeon.  I don't remember much because it was the first, but there was this guy who was always low on health (1-5%), so I had to feed him a crapload of food (and consequently got the Medic achievement at the end of the dungeon).  There was a level 105 who didn't die frequently, much to my surprise.  And Boulderbare had high skill levels in almost everything.  She got us past almost all of the doors (I'm talking about all of the dungeons we did) except for one that required 105 Runecrafting.  Ha, you can't make potions in F2P worlds in Daemonheim.
So we finished the first dungeon, and started the next.  Immediately, two guys bailed out (I expected them to, a lot of people do this).  Two of us was not enough for the Follow the Leader puzzle in the next room, so we left the dungeon and she reinvited me once we were outside.  This time, she pulled together a crew of five.  We went back in.
I remember this party more clearly-
(In order of invitation)
1) Boulderbare- Party Leader
2) Dragon 09853- Me
3) B I G E
4) like a ghost
5) Villian155

I more or less learned everyone's strengths.  Boulderbare was good at everything (that we needed), I mostly skilled but from time to time worked as a ranger and high-level monster soloer (everyone else was unlocking rooms, and I cleared them out.)  There was this one time that I was ranging a level 134 Icefiend alone (For comparison- I'm level 125, my ranged level is 47, and I was using a Spinebeam longbow with Fractite arrows.).  It took me around 5 minutes to kill it (thanks, Rejuvenate- it's seriously OPed).  Villian was a skiller.  B I G E and like a ghost were the relentless fighters, always pushing forward (and making me heal them).  Very fun- I should do this more.
At the end of a couple of dungeons, we added each other to our friends lists.  In fact, Villian155 was on about 5 minutes ago.
~ReconnaisX

PS: Got an UGC ($10).

Videos+ Moar RuneScape

I've more or less gotten the hang of EoC, so now I don't feel noobish in RuneScape.  I went to the Wilderness yesterday (specifically, Forinthry Dungeon, aka the Revenant Spot) for fun.  Of course, I didn't go in full rune (I don't have that much money to waste).  I went in full iron I had smithed and I picked up a steel sword along the way.  I killed Revenant imps (lowest-level revs), hoping to get Corrupt Dragon.  Well, of course, I got none.  Cool.
I found out that PrizeRebel is legit yesterday when I redeemed an Ultimate Game Card code from there for RuneCoins in RS.  Being the vain RS player that I am (gold-trimmed armor and all), I spent my (hard-)earned RuneCoins on TokHaar Warlord, which doesn't look that bad.  I also bought the title "The Untouchable", because I am a Defense tank.  (My friend reminded me at school today of the Untouchables in ancient India.  Basically, they were the lowest social class, and did the disgusting work that you might expect a janitor to do.  In short, totally different topic.)
If I decide to spend my next UCG on RuneCoins (who knows- I might need some Varium for Omega when it's released), I'll probably get the Solarius Shield (may have spelled wrong) and the Brutal Longsword.  Or maybe I'll wait for cooler stuff to come out.
I know that essentially, everything in Solomon's Store is vain/aesthetic/cosmetic, but I don't like the idea of membership, because I'm usually not sure when I can use a computer- aka not a daily basis.  And besides, with things like membership, once you stop it, it's as if you never had membership.  You'll have to continue the membership to continue your "experience" and continue using your "member stuff".  It's like the addiction of Varium- once you start, you can't stop.  However, with RuneCoins, you can, or at leastst in my opinion.
~ReconnaisX
PS: The ~ is called a tilde.

On Skilling in RuneScape

I'll say this about skilling- as long as you don't empty your inventory (how wasteful!), it makes you feel productive.

Well, I felt productive, burning logs and polluting the Earth (both virtually and physically) as I trained my Firemaking skill one day.  On that morning, my Firemaking level was 31.  When I went to sleep that night, it was 50.  Is there any argument as to the fact that Firemaking is probably the easiest skill to train in RuneScape?  It's also the most mindless one ever since bonfires were introduced.
If you're wondering why I would cut down logs just to burn them (I'm not really a Firemaking noob, I strongly lean towards combat skills), there happened to be some people in Draynor Village training their Woodcutting.  Dropping the logs onto the ground.  Horrible.  Wasteful.  So I decided to get some xp and I burned the logs like crazy.  (It also helps that I had to do my math homework IRL.)

I would get into how bonfire rewards are mostly crappy, but that's off-topic.

Now onto Mining and its brother skill, Smithing.  Collecting the raw materials required for Smithing is where Mining comes in.  Sure, maybe mining iron ore isn't all that fun, but I do feel good making iron armor and weapons and then selling it at the Grand Exchange.  You know, helping out the low-level noob community.

Of course, everyone knows that people train Firemaking because they want that cape and that skilling gets old eventually.  Heck, did you miss the Evolution of Combat?  Or are you a skilling pure?

~ReconnaisX