As an MMORPG, Oldschool Runescape is iconic for its skills that take forever to master. And many of those skills haven’t really been updated in a while.
This makes sense, as the community isn’t always a fan of changes, and everything in Oldschool Runescape is polled (yet another reason this is the best MMORPG out there!)
But some skills could benefit from changes. And I think the recent Skill Proposals from ‘Project Rebalance’ are a good start!
This article summarises part 1 of the ‘Project Rebalance‘ news post. I urge you to skim that first or follow along with Settled’s recap below!
Do we need to rework skills?
I personally think we do. Don’t get me wrong, I don’t think we should make skilling much ‘easier’ or ‘faster’ but I believe some skills could benefit from a little rework. Primarily, to future-proof the game.
We have already been through skill reworks in the past that made the game better. For example, Wintertodt felt like a necessary skill rework.
Players who have played Runescape in the 2000s might be convinced to train Firemaking manually, but introducing the concept of making lines of fire to a new player, is a tough sell.
Similarly, Tempoross didn’t ‘ruin’ existing Fishing methods, instead, it added a few alternative and social ways to train the Fishing skill.
And most recently, Forestry made Woodcutting more social.
I know some purists don’t like the idea of introducing new ‘easier’ ways to skill but I think the majority of the player base agrees that these reworks are good for the game (after all, they did pass the poll).
So yes, I’m fully in favor of ‘project rebalance’, and I’m confident it will be good for the long-term health of the game.
Which skills are being rebalanced?
Currently, the Oldschool team proposes to rebalance the following skills:
- Agility
- Thieving
- Slayer
- Mining
A summary of the proposal
Agility
For the Agility skill, the proposal improves rewards, accessibility, skill progression, and a rework of the Brimhaven Agility Arena.
Many of the proposed steps should already be in the game…
For example, it’s ridiculous that new players are forced to travel to the Gnome Stronghold to train Slayer from level 1. Swapping Draynor Village & Gnome stronghold is the way to go.
I’m a fan of a more linear skill progression, which would completely mix up the training meta. At the very least, it’s less confusing for beginners, and being able to follow the in-game guide to progress in a skill makes the game easier for new players. Even if it puts me as a guide writer in an unfavorable position.
The Agility Proposal looks pretty good, but what I really want to talk about is the Brimhaven Agility Arena.
I have many fond memories of the Brimhaven Agility course in the early 2000s, many of us trained there because it was fun. The course became obsolete with the arrival of Rooftop Courses and the Oldschool team proposes to change that as well.
And I think this would be a good starting point to give the Agility Skill a social activity, similar to Tempoross & Wintertodt.
More rewards, better exp rates, and an official world are exactly what the Brimhaven Arena needs to come back to life!
Thieving
The proposal for thieving is to add variety to the meta by rebalancing some failure rates, exp rates, and improving the respawn rates of stalls.
I don’t think many will disagree that these are good changes. Ardy Knights has remained meta for long enough now, its time we can explore some alternatives.
It’s also interesting that they plan to make stalls more viable, and it seems they could even become decent thieving moneymakers!
Slayer
Early-game slayer is a pain and it desperately needs a rework, I don’t think anyone would disagree with that.
The old-school team wants to address that by removing some early-game tasks that are just annoying on low-level accounts, and also decrease the kill counts to make it easier to accumulate slayer points.
Mining
Mining is a skill that already has countless activities so it doesn’t need anything new added to the mix, but it could benefit from a restructure.
As much as I love Shooting Stars, I would love to see the Motherlode Mine come back to life again, as a proper AFK training spot.
And it looks like they might actually make that happen. The Mining rework seems to focus primarily on making the Motherlode Mine more viable to compete with Shooting Stars.
Some notable changes:
- All ore veins get timers, instead of just upper floors
- Upper floor timers get buffed for increased AFK
- New unlock allows you to deposit ores at the upper level
- Ore sack limit increased
The Motherlode Mine is very much ‘oldschool’ but right now it’s a bit abandoned in favor of Motherlode Mine, so it’s time to change that!
Wrap Up
Agility, Thieving, Slayer, and Mining. I think we’ve all wished these skills looked a little different, and I’m in favor of all proposed changes.
But what do you think? I’d love to hear your thoughts. I don’t think anyone will fight the Slayer or Thieving proposals, but what do you think about the Brimhaven Arena rework? Or the Motherlode Mine? Let me know!
Read the full proposal here.
