Runescape - 99 Magic

I finally did it. I finally got level 99 Magic.

As I have discussed time, and time, and time, and time again, this has been a long and ongoing process. Between the setbacks, the missed goals, and the distractions, I wasn’t actually sure I would ever hit 99. But through it all, I have persisted, and finally reached my goal. On 17 March 2018, I made the final cast of High Level Alchemy that gave me enough experience to level up.

After DXPW, I only had about 12,500 high alchs to go before I got 99 Magic. Even if I just did 1000 per day, I could get it in about 2 weeks. To avoid getting a third ban, I limited myself to 500 or 1000 casts at a time. Eventually I would get it, I just didn’t want to have another ban on my record. My pace may have been a crawl, but I could see the light at the end of the tunnel. I was 1 level away, and I had already come so far.

While every skill that I have trained to level 99 has given me a sense of accomplishment from my persistence and relief from being finished, this one was different. It was tinged with an undeniable hint of bitterness. I could have reached 99 months ago, easily before Christmas. If the only problem had been the 24 hour loss of that first ban, I still could have finished by my goal time. The bigger issue was the ban just took the wind out of my sails. I had such great progress, and then got banned out of the blue. Why bother after that, you know?

I think the other reason for my bitterness is how pointless 99 Magic is for f2p accounts. For p2p, just about every new Magic level brings some sort of new spell, new gear, or access to something better. And the way the Magic skill used to work, leveling up made spells do more damage, even on f2p worlds. After the Magic rework, player level has no bearing on spell damage. So I spent all that time grinding out high alchs for no practical benefit. I had access to all f2p spells and gear before I even started playing again back last year. The past few months? Those just gave me a higher number.

Though I was hoping to get the Magic pet Newton before I reached level 99, that didn’t happen either. That, to me, is specifically annoying. I got Rue, the Runecrafting skill pet, after only 227,153 xp. Combat skill pets were added on 20 November 2017, at which point I had 8,964,913 Magic xp. I now have 13,039,157 Magic xp and I STILL don’t have Newton. Over 4 million experience points, and no Magic skill pet.

Regardless, I obtained my goal of 99 Magic. As pointless as it may be on f2p, and despite the fact that I didn’t get Newton in the process, I got another 99 under my belt. Eventually, I’ll probably start high alching again to try for Newton. Until then, I’m not going to touch it. I’ll use Magic for combat now that Air Blast is free with a Staff of air, and the Giant Mole is f2p. Otherwise, Magic can cease to exist as a skill for all I care.

Now that I’m done with Magic for the time being, I’m not quite certain what I’ll do next. Obviously, I’m still working toward my goal of “Lvl 99 Everything” to remain true to my coffee mug. I recently discovered that Maple logs are cheaper than unstrung Maple shieldbows, so that means I can train Fletching while technically making a profit. Not much of a profit, mind you, but it’s better than paying to train it. I might not go for 99 Fletching immediately, but that’s definitely on the radar.

Besides training Fletching, I’ll definitely continue running my daily tasks and trying to get the skilling pets for Fishing and Cooking. Update on those: the pets were released on 22 August 2016. Since then, I have caught 6451 salmon, cooked 948 of those, caught 7998 trout, cooked 1081 of those, and still got neither pet. I started at 13,281,159 Fishing xp and 13,189,041 Cooking xp. I now have 14,172,429 Fishing xp and 13,402,015 Cooking xp. That’s a gain of 891,270 Fishing xp and 242,974 Cooking xp with no pet. I’m starting to think I just got really, really, really lucky with Rue.

As of 23 March 2018

Whatever I do, I’ll still be playing for a while. I’m probably not going p2p any time soon, but I’m nowhere near out of things to do in f2p. Sometime coming up, I’ll probably try to work a little more on my combat skills. Magic is already taken care of, but melee and Ranged could use some work. They aren't as fun to train without Slayer, but it means that I can do harder tasks when I do start back.