Iddison isn't looking so bad

Climbing boots were updated today. Now there are 2 types: climbing boots (no stats, cost 12gp) and rock climbing boots (same stats as before update, cost 75k).

"There are always thousands of accounts trying to buy these boots on the GE with very few trying to sell them, because they had low shop prices and complications to obtain in the first place."

People want to buy these boots off the GE and/or other players for one of two reasons: 1) too lazy to buy from Trenzig or 2) haven't done Death Plateau quest.

I'm looking forward to the future rope update which will increase the cost of a rope to 50k with a high alch value of 26k.

Jumping through hoops

Chinahearts mentioned on System Update #18 about the hoops one has to go through in order to join a clan these days. Having made several applications of my own, I've seen common ideologies amongst them.

The first point is there will usually be a combat and/or skill level requirement. For clans leaning more toward fighting, combat will be their big concern while a skiller clan looks toward high, non-combat skills. The lowest combat and skill requirements I've seen were 100+ (without summoning) and 50+ in a single, non-combat skill respectively.

Secondly, event attendance is necessary for, typically, 2-3 events per month. It doesn't seem like a lot to ask. Clans tend to have quite a few events each month and picking a minimum to attend shouldn't be difficult. If you only have a few hours to play, clan events can cut into any training time you may have planned. 

Online forums are standard as well. Minimum post count (10-20) seems to put you into the "I'm serious about this" category. Screenshots of you attending any events provide proof.

It's a rarity to find a clan that doesn't have or has a minimum of requirements. If Canting is considered a clan (in loose terms, I suppose it is), it has the least; merely joining Merch Gwyar's clan chat will get your boot in the door. 

The worst part of joining a clan is going through all the trouble of being at events, posting on the forums, getting or keeping your skills high enough only to find out the clan dissolved.

Questions

Why can we not recharge prayer points at the Ectofuntus?

When did AFK (Away From Keyboard) become AFRSWYTBFINAFKBICHGS (Away From RuneScape Watching YouTube Videos and Browsing Forums but I'm Not AFK Because I Can Hear Game Sounds)?

What is the deal with the slow response times between mouse clicks and keystrokes and RuneScape?

Does the return of Behind The Scenes mean Jagex has learned their employees aren't any better workers without deadlines?

Guides

When did using a quest guide become the Welcome to Noobville city sign?

It's great that you did Elemental Workshop 3 without any help, but are you really that much of a better person because of it?

I use quest guides most of the time. I don't see anything wrong with it. I certainly don't think it makes me a crappy RuneScape player.

Learning process

You can never know everything about RuneScape because it's constantly updating and evolving. Last year, I learned something that made my opinion of Barrows armor do a 180.

Since I became a member in 2006 and learned about the Barrows brothers and their armor, I'd been under a misinterpretation of their degradation. The RS Wiki says this about Barrows degradation:

"Each piece of Barrows equipment degrades when it is used. After 15 hours of combat, an item becomes fully degraded, at which point it is unusable (cannot be worn or wielded) until it is repaired. The equipment only degrades during combat and can be worn indefinitely without degrading as long as a player does not enter combat."

Theoretically, Barrows armor should degrade like the other degradable items in RuneScape (runecrafting pouches and crystal equipment). Sounds simple enough, doesn't it?

Not really.

What's left out of the explanation is Barrows armor doesn't lose any bonuses as it degrades. That's right; Torag's platebody gives as much protection undamaged as it does when knocked down to 25%.

It took me 3 years to even get to the point of asking myself (and Merch) whether this uber armor really degrades (as in loses protection bonuses). I ended up secretly testing it out in the Legends' guild basement. 

To sum up, other degrading equipment gradual decreases in ability until it's destroyed (the usual definition of "degrade"). Barrows, on the other hand, has full ability until it breaks (moreso a demotion or binary definition; either it works or it doesn't).

Fast SC

Asking anyone how to make construction, crafting or smithing faster and the usual answer will be "play fast sc". It's a tad more complicated than that.

The short of it is Fast SC is a clan chat dedicated to making Stealing Creations go fast by eliminating the combat aspect. Everyone is expected to wield a bow with no arrows and help by calling in the chat where the clay deposits are hiding.

Now for the long version. On the RSOF under Events is a thread titled Fast Sc: NonCombat Sc Clan 6.5 (lazy may clicky here). Read the first couple of pages to get an idea for acceptable behavior and what will get you kicked/banned. The group typically can be found on W99. Joining the chat can be done by typing "fast sc" after clicking join a clan. Hop one of the stiles into the clan holding pen and wait for the massive crowd if there isn't one. The chat will tell you if they're close to completing a game.

The clan's basic rules are pretty straightforward:

1. Always wield a bow (no arrows). Doing this means you can't accidentally attack someone.
2. No armor of any kind, this includes mage hats.
3. No thieving/pickpocketing
4. Don't put barriers around clay locations. The whole point of Fast SC is to get all the clay picked/processed by EVERYONE as quickly as possible.
5. Call out any clay locations. The code is not hard to understand once you get the hang of it (C4s = class 4 swarm for example). Frags or rags are those low level fragments. Giving calls in the cc helps make the game go faster.

They get their share of griefers, mostly in the form of pkers (typically mages). The idea is to get those sc tools as fast as possible and getting into fights only prolongs the games. If you want to pk, go over to regular Stealing Creations.

Here's my strategy which may help.

When game starts, head out to the nearest frag spot and get 5 frags. Run to the nearest kiln and make 1 of each: hatchet, pickaxe, butterfly net, harpoon and a bow. Equip the bow asap, then go hunt around for the best clay you can process. Keep an eye on the chat for clay calls because it seems the cc has scouters for that. Once you get to the best clay you can make stuff with, get 1 clay, run to a kiln and make a new piece of equipment in order to get clay faster. After that, get a load of clay and hit the kiln again. Make replacements of the old frag tools, a summoning pouch and the rest make into scrolls. Summon your familiar and deposit your frag tools into it. Now, just run around gathering all the clay you can and processing it into scrolls. I make scrolls because they can't be used for combat like arrows or runes. Keep gathering until the one minute warning appears. That means all the clay is gone and you've got to hustle your butt back to base. Deposit all your tools into your summon and use the Clay Deposit ability to send all your tools to your base. Run to base, take off your bow and deposit your inventory.