Background: - I have been playing off and on for 15 years, mainly a skiller and not a fan of PvM. I tend to second screen RS working for 5.8 on my main and when I have the time to active play, I'm making money on my alt to fund the main. I enjoy "watching number go up" and never really enjoyed PvM, unsure if that's because I am bad at clicking/doing multiple things at once or because it looks daunting. I use Revo when I PvM. I was also on a break during the first leagues so didnt experience that at all.
Leagues: - Because of this, Leagues looked daunting. Everyone's getting excited about crit/poison builds, theory crafting the best route to the most power, what areas to unlock for which bosses, what drops provide the highest prayer bonus for the lord of light build etc. Daunting. I was honestly reluctant to play, I don't PvM, what if majority of high level tasks are PvM for bosses I don't even know exist because when they were released, I wasn't interested. But through all this, I thought "well if I try it and don't like it, I just wont play it", simple enough.
Leagues update rolls around and I log in, HOLY SH*T. Lumbridge looks like the underground tube station in London during rush hour. I LOVE IT. I check the leagues tasks and they're all quick easy tasks, kill cows, goblins, fish, mine, woodcut, hundreds if not thousands of people doing the same thing. People are actively chatting, helping each other out, giving tips/tricks on what to do/where to go to accomplish XYZ. This is what Runescape used to feel like, ALIVE.
I am running around like a headless chicken, I NEED TO MAKE A CAKE, WHERE THE HELL DO I MINE TIN, WAIT, LUMBRIDGE HAS CATACOMBS?! It was humbling being a 15 year vet playing and not knowing how to do basic early game content because I haven't needed to in years or I simply didn't even know it existed.
This adrenaline feeling I had, the excitement, the turn in your belly discovering something new and the thrill of adventure has never hit me hardest. Even as I write this, it makes me smile with excitement because of the amount of fun I had giving Leagues a try.
Progression was nice, slowly moving through the world of Gielinor, exploring new areas completing tasks as you go along, finding new unexplored areas filled with people doing the same as you. Leveling skills in ways I have never done before. The Mining and Smithing rework, I completed 120 in these skills on my main before the rework and haven't touched it since, whoever created that needs a pat on the back, its so seamless and flows together with creating melee armour and weapons so nicely. It's a shame the same cant be said about magic/range gear, this seriously needs an overhaul, especially for magic. I genuinely didn't use magic at all this leagues because I have no idea how to get appropriate magic armour. I guess you can use mystic until you reach GWD2 (if you chose that region) but then what?
At this point, I AM HOOKED. I'm talking any free time I have... I'm playing leagues. I'm on the train to work... playing leagues, I'm on the porcelain throne... playing leagues. I feel like I'm racing for worlds first (no-where near) and I cannot wait to log in and get points, to try new things, to experience new areas and soak up everything. But then what comes with... the dreaded... PvM.
I filter the Wiki by tasks with the most points and I see it. KILL XYZ for 400 POINTS. COMPLETE COMBAT MASTERY FOR XYZ FOR 400 POINTS. EQUIP A LVL 95 WEAPON FOR 400 POINTS. f*ck. Is this where my journey ends? Will I ever reach dragon without doing this stuff? Well the short answer is yes, yes you can. However, just because you can doesn't mean you should. So lets figure out what these "blessing" things are and give it a crack. I will summarise my terrible story telling by telling you my opinions on this.
Blessings: - I understand they need to be challenging, they offer good combat benefits and you need to feel like you've achieved something when you complete a blessing task, but I wish there were more. Again remember that I dont PvM, and I am not asking them to cater to me- yes I probably am autistic (aren't we all) but I do wish I had a few "easier" combat tasks. At one point, I was so close to lord of light, but the only realistic task I could do with the area I had was a Solo KK. ME.. A SOLO KK. That's like using hot sauce and lube. It just doesn't work. And you know what, maybe that was the point, because it did push me to look up a guide and figure out how to dodge his green booger attack and It took an hour and a half but I got one kill, then realised I left the instance on 5 players so it didn't count and had to do it over again (I take responsibility for that one though).
I did eventually toward the end of my dragon trophy grind end up killing Rasial, Arch Glacor, Amby, doing all the ED's I had access to, Raksha, somehow, I absolutely cheesed a 4K Telos kill (shout out to the reddit comments on a post I read about 4K Telos) and I did end up enjoying some of the PvM. I think it helps that I was overpowered with a lord of light build and it made me not have so much anxiety going into kills that I could actually learn mechanics.
On this point, Please Jagex allow for bosses to have a mode like arch glacor, it was so nice learning mechanics slowly as I felt ready rather than just "here you go, get on with it". This is how you get people like me into PvM. I am now prepared to give Arch-Glacor a crack on my main because it genuinely helped me and didn't feel overwhelming.
Side note; I have never used the Wiki more in my life (shout out to everyone who edits that because that was so helpful and must have been an absolute mission to keep updated).
To spare you all the long post, Ill skip to the mid-late game of leagues
Instead of rambling on (and making this post as long as the bible), I will summarise a few key points that I feel need to be mentioned, both positive and negative aspects of each.
Tasks: - The task system was great, some random ones on there but that's part of the fun, seeing areas you never thought you would and doing things you never could have imagined (or even existed). Some Tasks definitely need a rebalance, some 200 point tasks need to be worth 400 (I'm looking at you Leng weapons) and there needs to be a rebalance in each category, I spent more time completing 30 point tasks than I did 80 point tasks which doesnt make sense.
Regions:- I didn't mind the region locking, it makes you think harder about your choices however it does feel punishing. I dont expect the whole world to be unlocked (maybe this can be a thing for the final week of Leagues to let people test their PvM builds on different bosses they didnt have access to) but I ended up choosing wildy mainly for dungeoneering because I wanted to max, not because I actually wanted the wilderness.
Quests:- I mean this with as much respect as possible. Like F*ck am I doing quests on a limited time game mode. I hate quests in main game and hate that the content I want is on the other side of a storyline from god knows what age I'm supposed to be playing in. This usually wouldn't bother me and id avoid them but I chose the relic that gave me the void shards which give me a chance at dragon equipment, ahh amazing, at least when im level 60 I can use my battleaxe and off-hand dragon battleaxe to save me smithing for it, NOPE. WOMP WOMP. Need a quest for that, also need a quest for a million other dragon items which effectively rendered that part of the relic useless because It annoyed me enough to begin smithing all my gear every 10 levels.
Endgame:- I lost the excitement, it became a slog, I couldn't do any of my 200 or 400 point tasks which means I was spending time going through 30 and 80 pointers (some of which were completely fine) but it it felt like a huge jump between rune > dragon and I lost motivation. I logged on, done tasks I didn't enjoy just to get dragon trophy and stop.
I wholeheartedly loved the beginning-middle and even some of the late game content but I just wish there were more tasks that were higher points. I pushed myself out of my comfort zone for PvM to try to get points and it worked, and that was probably the intention, to get people doing things they don't usually do, but there came a point I genuinely couldn't figure out a boss, I couldn't do any more 200/400 pointers and I lost interest.
I sincerely hope that Jagex takes notes from this leagues to improve the next one and to also address the issues in main game, some of which being; older bosses needing updating (hopefully coming with endgame rework), the fact there is no clear progression in magic armour/weapons, (melee has mining/smithing rework, ranging has dragonhide, what does magic have?), an increase in tasks and more points awarded for tasks.
Overall I did enjoy my first Leagues, I will not be as hesitant for the next one and I hope Jagex listen to all the feedback and make relevant changes where possible.
Thank you for coming to my Ted Talk