Update:Combat Refinement & Off-Duty Outfits! - This Week In RuneScape

This official news post is copied verbatim from the RuneScape website.
It was added on 23 October 2023 and revised on or before 23 October 2023.
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Necromancy combat refinement continues, plus a novel pre-order and a stylish new outfit override - you really can choose books and looks!

Necromancy: Combat Refinement and Upcoming Beta

Coming October 30th

Since its release, Necromancy has proved to be an extremely adaptable and versatile skill. We've really enjoyed seeing how you use it in different combat encounters, and watching you unlock its full potential! Now, though, there are some concerns that it's a bit too ahead of the other skills for the overall balance of the game.

Today, we're starting to make some refinements that will reduce the gap between the strengths of Necromancy and those of other combat styles. Over the coming weeks, we aim to bring the other styles up to modern standards of feel and pace. From October 30th, you'll be able to participate in a new Combat Beta so you can try out the new approach and help us refine it with our feedback.

Check out our recent blog on the topic for more information, and see the Patch Notes section for a list of today's changes!

Here's a recap from the blog:

We're adjusting conjured spirits to tone down their power level while improving their quality of unlife.
- Adrenaline cost has been removed from conjure and command abilities
  - We've observed this play style and feel that separating conjures from adrenaline is the best approach going forward.
  - This should help normalize damage across the entire encounter instead of it all being frontloaded at the beginning.
- Addressing the power of 'Command Vengeful Ghost'
  - There was a bit too much power in the 'Woo'
We'll also be introducing a new ability: 'Conjure Undead Army'.
- This ability requires 99 Necromancy and is available at tier 7 of the Well of Souls talent tree. This ability allows a player to conjure multiple spirits at once.
- Ectoplasm costs will be equal to double each conjure ability included, and the ability can be right-clicked and customized to select/remove conjure abilities.

Off-Duty Attire Collection

Strike a Pose

Tired after a long day of defending Gielinor from all manner of threats? Get out of those adventuring outfits and into something a little more cosy! These Off-Duty Attire pieces are the perfect way to show your after hours style.

The visual overrides can be bought as a bundle from the Spotlight tab for 200 RuneCoins for F2P or 180 Runecoins for members. Purchasing will unlock them in the Wardrobe tab of the Customisation interface.

The list of items includes:

Off-Duty Gambeson
Off-Duty Coat
Off-Duty Coat Variant (studded)
Off-Duty Jacket
Off-Duty Shirt
Off-Duty Leggings
Off-Duty Trousers
Off-Duty Boots

All items except the boots have recolourable parts.

RuneScape: The Gift of Guthix

Preorders of the novel available now!

RuneScape: The Gift of Guthix, the first of three planned novels from Titan Books, will be published May 2024 - and it's now available to pre-order!

Asgarnia's fate hangs in the balance. Disparate tribes unite under the banner of Lord Raddalin, and his enemies look on in fear and hatred. Raddalin's advisors – an uneasy alliance of Black and White knights – whisper of a discovery in the North that will give them the power to change everything.

Caught in the midst of history, a lowly scribe and the son of a Jarl hold the fate of Raddalin's new kingdom in their hands.

From the glorious inauguration of King Raddalin's reign to the disgraceful expulsion of the Zamorakians from Asgarnia, The Gift of Guthix tells an epic tale of the origin of magic, the plight of civil war, and the crushing defeat of the Fremennik Great Invasion. Amongst plots and betrayals, a penitent turncoat waits for her moment to leap into the unknown...

The novel will be penned by Erin M. Evans, the author of seven Forgotten Realms novels for Wizards of the Coast, including the 2011 Scribe Award winner Brimstone Angels.

Pre order now from your favourite local bookstore or online retailers. Also available directly from Titan Books

Treasure Hunter Calendar

What's up next?

Starts October 17th | Ends November 1st | Grim Harvest

The harvest is upon us! Smash Pumpkins for spooky cosmetic rewards. Fill the Harvest Bonus bar as you bosh the squash - once it's full, choose between a modifier or a reward item!

Patch Notes

Fixes and improvements in this week's game update

Combat

'Conjure Skeleton Warrior' Ability:
- Damage range has been reduced to 22%-28% (was 27%-33%).
- Additional damage has been changed to a damage increase:
  - Previously, each rage stack would offer 1% ability damage, The average damage would be 55% ability damage per hit at max stacks (30% base + 25% from stacks).
  - Now each rage stack increases the damage by 3%. This is now 43.75% at max stacks (25% base + 75% damage increase from stacks).
'Conjure Putrid Zombie' Ability:
- Adrenaline cost removed.
- Base Duration reduced to 42s (-3 seconds).
- Move speed increased from walking to running.
- The damage range of the passive poison effect has been reduced from 27-33% to 8-12%.
- Passive proc interval rate increased from 1.8s to 3s.
  - We have reduced the damage and tick rate of poison as currently it was offering too much passive damage for minimal investment and we want poison builds to have their moments but still require equipment investments to see their full effects.
  - Bug fix: Passive damage will no longer attempt to apply poison while wearing Cinderbane Gloves.
'Command Putrid Zombie':
- Ability can now be cast without a target.
'Conjure Vengeful Ghost' Ability:
- Adrenaline cost removed.
- Heal value reduced to 125% (was 175%).
  - Healing now happens on-hit, as opposed to on-attack, which means that the healing value will scale up based on damage modifiers (e.g. if the target is inflicted with debuffs such as Haunted or Vulnerability).
'Command Vengeful Ghost' Ability:
- Adrenaline Cost Removed.
- Command now has a fixed duration of 30s and will require recasting to keep up.
- Changed the effect from 100% of base damage up to a cap of 35% ability damage -> 10% of base damage up to a cap of 20% ability damage as bonus damage.
  - The intention with this change is to still enable the benefit of amplifying high-damaging abilities while reducing how much extra damage was being generated from lots of instances of low-damage hits.
'Life Transfer' Incantation:
- Increase duration from 20.4s to 21s.
- Changed from maximum life points to base life points. E.g if you have 15000 Life Points with 99 Constitution, you will only lose 4950 (which is 9900/2) instead of losing 7500 which is what you would lose in the current version.
'Invoke Death' Incantation:
- Increased duration to 12 seconds (was 6 seconds).
  - It's still one application per cast, but there was an overreliance at the start of fights on being tick perfect with 'Invoke Death' which made it feel clunky to interact with.
Resolved some issues related to Death Mark:
- Fixed an issue that caused it to trigger multiple times.
- Fixed an issue where the damage from the mark was delayed.
- Fixed an issue that allowed Death Mark's insta-kill damage to reflect back at the player.
Fixed an issue where Necromancy Shields would cause conjured spirits to despawn.
- These are now classified as having an 'Underworld connection' which allows them to maintain conjured spirits, but they cannot be used to conjure them.
Paralyse delay for conjured spirits is now capped at 2 cycles as previously the ghost was 1 cycle longer and causing issues with things such as life transfer
Fixed an issue with the action bar frame where the graphics were drawn incorrectly

Necromancy

Fixed an issue that would cause the conjure abilities to be locked in the Command version.
A typo in the 'Command Skeleton Warrior' ability description has been fixed.
The deathday cake on the roof of the Last Call can now be examined correctly.
Fixed an issue where users were unable to complete the 'Draugr Me to Hela' achievement due to two of fourteen Listless Dead missing the option to free them.
Updated the spawn rate of the Soul Strike projectile.

Ancient Awakening

In Ancient Awakening, the Raptor now correctly directs players to the first floor.
We have stopped the companions from joining the conversation with the Archivist on Ungael after the completion of Ancient Awakening.
Granny Rowan will now only utilise noted items from within your backpack when preparing your potions.
We have updated the Zombies within the Combat Arena of Ancient Awakening to better reflect that they are Zemouegeal's evil Necromantic summons.

Halloween

Removed passive light source protection buff from Ensouled & regular Pumpkin Masks for Ironman players.
Party Pumpkins and Smashing Pumpkins have been made bigger and brighter to help alleviate visibility problems.
Pumpkin Pete is now standing on a crate, making him easier to distinguish at his ritual patch in Fort Forinthry.
The Holiday portal located in Priffdinas teleports the player to an ongoing holiday event.
The overhead emotes warning now only shows as a spam chat message.
Both Rotten and Normal masks now have a "Check" option while worn, allowing to check how many pumpkins have been smashed.

General

Fixed an issue with the size of the chat head model for the Micah pet.
Players now cannot chop a tree with a Blessed hatchet until level 30 Woodcutting.
The position of the 'Skeletal Vial' animation override has been adjusted and is now held in the correct hand.
The specific quick-chat bubble appears when using the Wilderness flash event option.
Token rewards from Treasure Hunter should now be delivered to the Inventory if the Bank is full.
Fixed an issue that would prevent the Grand Exchange value from updating on the Smithing interface based on the tier of the item.
Fixed the DXP timer from visually pausing on mobile if the chat was opened.
A volume slider is added to the Options menu in the lobby while on a mobile device.
Fixed an issue that resulted in no XP being awarded when using Protean Essence with the Protean Processor at levels 72 - 76 Runecrafting.
Fixed a typo in the examine texts of skill training dummy crates.
A grammatical error in the 'Raksha Observations' page has been corrected.
The Decorated Hunter Urn crafting menu now shows the amount of Mud Runes from the Rune Pouch.
Fixed a typo within the teleport interface for Nature's sentinel helm.
Fixed an issue with a small amount of map tiles near the Crafting Guild that forced the player to move east when stepped on.
Crocodile handling at Het's Oasis can no longer be done while running Make-X actions.
Fixed an issue that caused the Dwarven Instinct Aura unlock display multiple times as chat notification at once.
Fixed an issue where Death's dialogue box could appear during cutscenes.
The full stop was removed from the end of the sentence while setting up the Effigy Incubator when talking to Vicendithas.
The noticeboard outside of the Artisan's Workshop has been removed. This was intended to provide players with information after the M&S rework and is no longer needed in-game.
Fixed a typo in the Pets interface for Muick - it now correctly says 'Elegant Muick'.
Added an option to reset slider puzzles to resolve puzzles that are broken from login-lockout.
Fixed an issue that caused flags for other language servers displayed in Friends Chat List to show a Beta server icon.
The Mining Accumulator now correctly appears as 'Device: Mining Accumulator' in the Invention skillguide.
Cursed energy is no longer listed as an ingredient for transmuting Radiant Energy in the skillguide.
Fixed a typo when speaking to Larxus after defeating all Champions.
Fixed an issue with the missing hitbox of the wheelbarrow at the Falador cabbage patch.
Names of Pollnivnian bandits have been adjusted in the Agility Skill guide.
An issue with the chat message has been fixed when the passive effect from the Crystal Knife activates.
Some clipping and blocking issues at the cave entrance near Catherby and White Wolf Mountain have been fixed.
Fixed functionality to only deposit logs and bird nests when interacting with log piles in Woodcutter's Grove.
The 'Taking it easy' rest animation no longer loops infinitely.
All of the Nature's sentinel teleport options have the same colour.
The broadcast message for Third Age Ranger chaps is now more accurate.
Corrected a typo when combining the items required to create a Slayer Helmet.
Sailfish is now selectable as a cooking quick chat option.
Fixed tooltip information on the Elysian, Divine and Arcane spirit shields.
The chat message is no longer cut off when trying to duel someone who is already in combat.
The tooltips of the Pawya and Grenwall entries in the skillguide are now correct.
Smouldering plants now disintegrate to ashes as expected and allow a new plant to be lit on fire immediately when they are removed from the main hand slot before their timer runs out.
The in-game clock has been added back on mobile.
Planting a tree or fruit tree in your last unplanted Farming patch now correctly unlocks the 'Gotta Patch 'Em All' achievement.
The correct wording is used when reporting a player on mobile.

Community

The latest goings-on from our community

Community Showcase

@evankarl_art has been continuing work on their Daemonheim Remastered idea, and these concepts are just gorgeous.

Meanwhile @Legend_Arts has been working on some ideas for seasonally-appropriate Necromancy weapons!

Scapers' Screenshots

Kleptomamma taking in another brisk evening on Ungael.

Squad goals as Seu Madrugo and the Fort Expedition Team check out some.... interesting... places.

Pink Skirts Player Events

Each week the Pink Skirts put on a selection of fun activities that everyone can join. Here are the main events this week:

Corporeal Beast

Hosted by: Patrick K & Clackworthy
Date/Time: Monday October 23rd, 19:00 Game Time
World: 123
Location: Corporeal Beast Lair
FC: Patrick K

Penguin Tour

Hosted by: Miss Misty
Date/Time: Wednesday October 25th, 20:00 Game Time
World: 60
Location: Edgeville Bank
FC: Miss Misty

Stealing Creation

Hosted by: Lady Spyra, heathychan, and Fast SC
Date/Time: Saturday October 28th, 19:00 Game Time
World: 99
Location: Stealing Creation Lobby
FC: Fast SC

If these don't take your fancy, take a look at the full events schedule here. There's sure to be something you'll enjoy!

Community Spotlight

ScreenieScape

The wonderful folks over at ScreenieScape are hosting a series of spooktacular Halloween-themed events and would love if you joined them!

FashionScapers

In honour of Halloween the lovely Scapers over at FashionScapers will be running a Halloween Themed Fashion Contest from October 23rd till November 6th. Head over to their discord and check out the #event-info channel to find out all the details!