Note: This essay just expresses my feelings about the recent update and how it has made me view the Slayer skill. It is not intended to persuade anyone about anything, nor am I suggesting anyone else feels the same way I do. Take it for what it’s worth.
Everyone has strengths and weaknesses, both in real life and in virtual worlds like RuneScape. Sometimes they have common elements. In the real world, I am very poor under pressure – I have nerves of mush, not nerves of steel. I am also very risk averse. I have made some progress in these areas over my 20+ year adulthood, but not a great deal. Much of it is simply innate, and I have learned to live with these characteristics through my own lifestyle choices.
These attributes also carry through to RuneScape. I have maxed out melee combat stats, and am close to maxed out in Prayer, Ranged and Magic. But despite that, I have never been to the Dagannoth Kings. I briefly tried the God Wars Dungeon but found it nerve-wracking. (I actually solo’ed Graardor once and barely survived, shortly after GWD came out.) I am still working up the courage to try tormented demons.
It is for these reasons that I always liked the Slayer skill. Now that I write RuneScape guides and reviews full-time, I have to do lots of things in the game I don’t like, but when I wanted to take some personal time just for fun, Slayer was my most frequent choice. I enjoy casual combat, not fighting tough boss monsters. I appreciate variety and was attracted to the idea of being given different monsters to kill, some of which had special tricks involved, and then getting bonus XP in a separate skill for it. I liked the steady pace of the skill, the ability to do it at my leisure, and the new features that allowed me to block some of the monsters I didn’t care for.
When the dark bow was released, my Slayer level was around 86. I ate lots of wild pies to try to get one, and eventually got my level up to 90 so I could fight dark beasts without fancy pastry. I kept working at the skill, knowing eventually there would be a new level 95 monster (or whatever). I told myself that I should keep plugging away at it despite there being nothing above level 90, because some day they would release a higher level monster and I wouldn’t want to be locked out of it.
And so now we have a new monster, and I’m locked out of it anyway.
It’s a mistake to accept one’s limitations as carved in stone, and so I work to improve my weaknesses wherever possible. Until last week I had never seriously tried the fight caves, knowing how I tend to react in these sorts of situations. Jagex forced me to challenge myself in this area with the new strykewyrms update that requires the fire cape.
I have now tried to complete the fight caves a total of five times. I have made use of expensive gear and my high level Herblore to no avail. I have tried melee, ranging, halberds, poison, onyx bolts. In my most recent attempt, I blew 14,000,000+ gp on a strong PvP weapon that degrades after one hour, because some folks said it would allow me to kill Jad quickly, but that didn’t work either. I have now spent 20+ hours in the last week between doing the fight caves, working on strategy and discussing how to do it with various people.
While accepting limitations without challenge is a mistake, it’s just as foolish to deny essential elements of one’s physical characteristics or personality. And it is quite clear that I just don’t have what it takes to do this.
I noticed something interesting on my most recent attempt at Jad. I didn’t feel particularly nervous when he showed up, having a plan in place to try to take him down, which I executed on. But I looked down and realized that my left hand was shaking violently as I was in combat. This was already my fifth try, and I should have been more comfortable with the process. But subconsciously, my “fight or flight” reflex had kicked in, and there was really nothing I could do about it.
I used to love Slayer, but since last week’s update it just isn’t the same to me any more. Some people have tried to convince me that I “haven’t lost anything” because all the old monsters are still there. Which is true, on an objective level. But for me at least, the skill is no longer something relaxing and satisfying. It’s stressful. I’m approaching level 95 Slayer, but that will no longer seem to me an achievement, just a reminder of my own incapability.
Where before I felt a sense of excitement going to get a new assignment, now all I can think about is how much of a failure I am for my inability to get a fire cape. I used to love going to visit Kuradal, and now just thinking about her makes me see red. Every time I start a new task I think to myself: “If I didn’t suck so much, these might have been ice strykewyrms”. And then I keep wondering, “maybe if instead of working on Slayer I spent several more hours in the fight caves, I could somehow figure it out?” On a conscious level, though, I know this will just waste more of my time and frustrate me further.
Slayer has gone from my favorite skill to my personal albatross.
Jagex wanted these new Slayer monsters to be “elite” content. I guess I’m not elite. And I suppose RuneScape is now moving on and leaving people like me behind.
If you’re still having working on getting the fire cape here’s some great advice
Use full guthan’s to heal when waves are under control (along with sara brews, and super restores.) and use karil’s boltracks and crossbow for fighting.
honestly the speed at which you kill jad/your ammo really doesnt matter much. u just have to try multiple times til ur calm and confident. the key is listening for the double shot noise and switching to mage protect, then back to range. so make sure u have sounds on.
on my fifth try i finally beat him on my account with barely any health left. the next day i did it for a friend successfully on my first try and ended the fight at 112 hp, not getting hit once! its all about practice on the boss, as knowing his moves makes you calmer – i’m real jumpy under pressure too.
(and remember, guthans and karils bow is most assuredly great equipment – and not too expensive! as i tried just about everything else)
There are multiple people who have killed Jad in under 10 seconds using a strategy called rushing: equip dragon claws, cast vengeance, wait 30 seconds. When you finally can attack Jad, activate turmoil and soul split (very important to use soul split), use both specs, cast vengeance again once he hits you, then switch to a whip/similar weapon. If you want a video showing that strategy, search for the user “Wooox16″ on youtube. If you’re not sure if that’ll get him down to 0, then attack him normally and lower his hp a bit first before you try rushing him. That’s the best strategy that I can think of for people who have such trouble with Jad but have really high stats — I don’t think there’s a faster way to do damage to him.