Runescape - Bond Burnout
I knew it would happen eventually. My third bond recently ended and I’m getting to the point now here I’m pretty burned out with the paid game.
Mind you, I still haven’t paid a cent of real money on the game since my purchased membership ended on 8 September 2013. But the whole situation of having to prioritize making money within the game to pay for the bonds I’ve purchased with in-game currency… it gets old. I’ve fortunately found some ways to recoup the monetary cost of a bond pretty quickly, but temporary membership of any sort still adds that feeling of obligation to the game. For each bond that I buy, I’ve got 14 days of membership, and I have to max out what I do within that time, else I’ve wasted it.
The entirety of my first bond was colored with that “ermahgerd, I’m a member again” magic. Considering my only exposure to p2p in the past almost 5 years was a free membership weekend, having 2 weeks to do whatever I wanted in the game was great. It wasn’t really driven, and honestly, it was slightly overwhelming having the full game thrown at me for the first time in so long. I can’t count the number of items, quests, and training methods that I was completely unaware of, and had to read up on. It was a fun 2 weeks, but it was more exploratory than anything else.
My second bond was more targeted and driven. I knew that I wanted a Crystal hatchet, I knew how to get it, and that basically defined my entire 2 weeks of playing. I knocked out the requirements for Plague’s End, did the quest, grinded out a bunch of Harmonic dust, and got my Crystal hatchet. Ultimately, the goal here was to improve the rate at which I could cut Elder logs and make back the money I spent on bonds. (Side note, cutting elders is SO last month. Mining harmonized runite ore is all the rage now.) It was practical from a standpoint of paying for my bonds, but also an achievement that I wanted for my gaming experience anyway. Two birds, one stone.
During my second bond, I placed a Grand Exchange order for a Dragon pickaxe at slightly above market value. If the Crystal pickaxe was the best in the game and I had the items and levels to acquire and use it, I figured I may as well pick one up and put it on my toolbelt. Oddly enough, my significantly higher offer didn’t purchase quickly. Eventually, the market price climbed significantly higher than what my offer was for. I deduced that it wouldn’t purchase, but I left the offer up, since it didn’t interfere with my f2p Grand Exchange slots. Even more strange than my high offer not purchasing, when I went on to buy another bond to use, the pickaxe then bought at a price significantly lower than market price. I wasn’t sure what generous deity I had appeased, but decided not to look a gift horse in the mouth.
The third and most recently finished bond (I actually have an active bond right now) was spent exploring some of the other amenities in Prifddinas, and grinding out 99 mining. With Crystal pickaxe in hand, I could mine with the big boys. Seren stones were moderately easy to afk mine, and gave incredible experience rates. Looking into the training methods for f2p vs p2p, it was absurd how much more quickly members could train mining levels. Even though mining is technically a f2p skill, there was no way I would get 99 in a reasonable time frame without membership. Besides, the Corrupted ore from mining Seren stones gave me an easy way to train smithing, too. Toward the end of the third bond, I discovered harmonized runite, and how it can easily net 1.5 million gp or more in a single hour. As much as I had previously relied on Elder logs as my bread and butter during a bond, harmonized runite was significantly faster money, and gave me more time to do other things with my membership. If I didn’t manage to hit Voice of Seren at Trahaearn, I could fall back on elders for slower but consistent money.
In addition to Elder logs and Harmonized runite, I started doing herb runs for passive income and farming xp. A full run only takes about 5 or 10 minutes every 2 hours or so. Low investment, decent yield, fairly consistent overall. Herbs surely wouldn’t cover the cost of a bond alone, but it didn’t hurt having some extra income without chewing up a lot of time.
The one thing that I didn’t achieve in my third bond that I had originally planned for is finishing the quest to unlock Menaphos. Honestly, it doesn’t even look like I will in my fourth bond. Admittedly, there are more pressing goals available that would improve my experience more than a new city. Menaphos is additional content, but I have plenty of content available now. I just don’t have all of the quests and skill levels to fully make use of it.
On a more general note, I’m seeing more and more that I need to clean up my bank. I’m still a good ways off from the item storage cap, but it’s just a cluttered mess. I have all of the items that I use to make money up at the top of the main tab, but everything else is strewn everywhere. I’ve looked up a few different bank organization schemes, but I haven’t yet seen a system that works with what I want. Admittedly, I’m not even sure what I do want. I’d rather come up with an idea before I actually commit to moving everything around, though.
I have learned that membership doesn’t actually end until you log out after a bond expires. So you can game the system by staying logged in for several hours beyond when you would normally be forced back to f2p. With so many of the afk options available, especially in Prif, it doesn’t take a lot of effort to squeeze a few more hours out of a bond for some last minute house cleaning and a few more gold pieces in the bank.
As for my current bond, I’ve made good progress. My center goal is creating the Magic golem outfit. This would give me a higher rate of obtaining runite ore during Trah hour, which would allow me to make money more quickly. To make the suit, I need 20 Invention. To unlock the Invention skill, I need 80 Divination. I started the bond with only 56 Divination, so I knew it would be a long shot, but I’ve already made it to 70, and I still have a full week left. Chances are I won’t get much time to actually make use of the Magic golem outfit, but I should at least be able to obtain it.
I mentioned getting burned out, though. It’s very taxing to spend so much time getting the most out of each bond. I do my herb runs and Trah hour runite mining, so paying for the bond isn’t an issue, but I’m trying to do so much and it’s mentally exhausting. The game isn’t to the point of a chore yet (and I hope not to let it get there), but it has definitely lost a lot of the magic from that first bond. I’m grinding out gold to pay for the bond. I’m grinding my skills to 99. I realize it’s an MMORPG, so there has to be grinding, but is that all there is? Sure, you get a sense of achievement from leveling up and unlocking new things, but when do I use those skills and levels to do fun things?
This won’t be my last bond, I’m sure, but I may tone it back for a little while. I still have all of the items in my bank to grind out 99 Fletching, I just haven’t gotten a chance to do that between bonds. Not only that, but I said I would do more Dungeoneering, and I haven’t done much of that at all. I think it would do good for my experience to cut back on the p2p game for a little while and come back later with a fresh set of eyes.
Mind you, I still haven’t paid a cent of real money on the game since my purchased membership ended on 8 September 2013. But the whole situation of having to prioritize making money within the game to pay for the bonds I’ve purchased with in-game currency… it gets old. I’ve fortunately found some ways to recoup the monetary cost of a bond pretty quickly, but temporary membership of any sort still adds that feeling of obligation to the game. For each bond that I buy, I’ve got 14 days of membership, and I have to max out what I do within that time, else I’ve wasted it.
The entirety of my first bond was colored with that “ermahgerd, I’m a member again” magic. Considering my only exposure to p2p in the past almost 5 years was a free membership weekend, having 2 weeks to do whatever I wanted in the game was great. It wasn’t really driven, and honestly, it was slightly overwhelming having the full game thrown at me for the first time in so long. I can’t count the number of items, quests, and training methods that I was completely unaware of, and had to read up on. It was a fun 2 weeks, but it was more exploratory than anything else.
My second bond was more targeted and driven. I knew that I wanted a Crystal hatchet, I knew how to get it, and that basically defined my entire 2 weeks of playing. I knocked out the requirements for Plague’s End, did the quest, grinded out a bunch of Harmonic dust, and got my Crystal hatchet. Ultimately, the goal here was to improve the rate at which I could cut Elder logs and make back the money I spent on bonds. (Side note, cutting elders is SO last month. Mining harmonized runite ore is all the rage now.) It was practical from a standpoint of paying for my bonds, but also an achievement that I wanted for my gaming experience anyway. Two birds, one stone.
During my second bond, I placed a Grand Exchange order for a Dragon pickaxe at slightly above market value. If the Crystal pickaxe was the best in the game and I had the items and levels to acquire and use it, I figured I may as well pick one up and put it on my toolbelt. Oddly enough, my significantly higher offer didn’t purchase quickly. Eventually, the market price climbed significantly higher than what my offer was for. I deduced that it wouldn’t purchase, but I left the offer up, since it didn’t interfere with my f2p Grand Exchange slots. Even more strange than my high offer not purchasing, when I went on to buy another bond to use, the pickaxe then bought at a price significantly lower than market price. I wasn’t sure what generous deity I had appeased, but decided not to look a gift horse in the mouth.
The third and most recently finished bond (I actually have an active bond right now) was spent exploring some of the other amenities in Prifddinas, and grinding out 99 mining. With Crystal pickaxe in hand, I could mine with the big boys. Seren stones were moderately easy to afk mine, and gave incredible experience rates. Looking into the training methods for f2p vs p2p, it was absurd how much more quickly members could train mining levels. Even though mining is technically a f2p skill, there was no way I would get 99 in a reasonable time frame without membership. Besides, the Corrupted ore from mining Seren stones gave me an easy way to train smithing, too. Toward the end of the third bond, I discovered harmonized runite, and how it can easily net 1.5 million gp or more in a single hour. As much as I had previously relied on Elder logs as my bread and butter during a bond, harmonized runite was significantly faster money, and gave me more time to do other things with my membership. If I didn’t manage to hit Voice of Seren at Trahaearn, I could fall back on elders for slower but consistent money.
In addition to Elder logs and Harmonized runite, I started doing herb runs for passive income and farming xp. A full run only takes about 5 or 10 minutes every 2 hours or so. Low investment, decent yield, fairly consistent overall. Herbs surely wouldn’t cover the cost of a bond alone, but it didn’t hurt having some extra income without chewing up a lot of time.
The one thing that I didn’t achieve in my third bond that I had originally planned for is finishing the quest to unlock Menaphos. Honestly, it doesn’t even look like I will in my fourth bond. Admittedly, there are more pressing goals available that would improve my experience more than a new city. Menaphos is additional content, but I have plenty of content available now. I just don’t have all of the quests and skill levels to fully make use of it.
On a more general note, I’m seeing more and more that I need to clean up my bank. I’m still a good ways off from the item storage cap, but it’s just a cluttered mess. I have all of the items that I use to make money up at the top of the main tab, but everything else is strewn everywhere. I’ve looked up a few different bank organization schemes, but I haven’t yet seen a system that works with what I want. Admittedly, I’m not even sure what I do want. I’d rather come up with an idea before I actually commit to moving everything around, though.
I have learned that membership doesn’t actually end until you log out after a bond expires. So you can game the system by staying logged in for several hours beyond when you would normally be forced back to f2p. With so many of the afk options available, especially in Prif, it doesn’t take a lot of effort to squeeze a few more hours out of a bond for some last minute house cleaning and a few more gold pieces in the bank.
As for my current bond, I’ve made good progress. My center goal is creating the Magic golem outfit. This would give me a higher rate of obtaining runite ore during Trah hour, which would allow me to make money more quickly. To make the suit, I need 20 Invention. To unlock the Invention skill, I need 80 Divination. I started the bond with only 56 Divination, so I knew it would be a long shot, but I’ve already made it to 70, and I still have a full week left. Chances are I won’t get much time to actually make use of the Magic golem outfit, but I should at least be able to obtain it.
I mentioned getting burned out, though. It’s very taxing to spend so much time getting the most out of each bond. I do my herb runs and Trah hour runite mining, so paying for the bond isn’t an issue, but I’m trying to do so much and it’s mentally exhausting. The game isn’t to the point of a chore yet (and I hope not to let it get there), but it has definitely lost a lot of the magic from that first bond. I’m grinding out gold to pay for the bond. I’m grinding my skills to 99. I realize it’s an MMORPG, so there has to be grinding, but is that all there is? Sure, you get a sense of achievement from leveling up and unlocking new things, but when do I use those skills and levels to do fun things?
This won’t be my last bond, I’m sure, but I may tone it back for a little while. I still have all of the items in my bank to grind out 99 Fletching, I just haven’t gotten a chance to do that between bonds. Not only that, but I said I would do more Dungeoneering, and I haven’t done much of that at all. I think it would do good for my experience to cut back on the p2p game for a little while and come back later with a fresh set of eyes.
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