29 January Updates: Major NPC defence nerfs

[Mike]

After running a number of PvM combat simulations, we have come to the conclusion that many of our bosses still take significantly longer to kill than before the update on 21 January. This update aims to remedy that. In short, our bosses now take about as long to kill as they did before 21 January. Some have even become faster to kill, while others now have increased droprates.

First of all, please accept our sincerest apologies for adding the OSRS stats (without any modifications) to our bosses in the first place. All we wanted is for each top tier weapon to have a use in the game and giving our bosses their appropriate strengths and weaknesses from OSRS seemed the perfect way to do this. However, using exact OSRS stats led to bosses taking significantly longer to kill than before, which has upset many of our players. It is apparent that quick boss kills, just like fast XP rates, is something people truly enjoy about PkHonor and RSPS in general.

We have learned from this and have now adjusted the defence of our NPC's accordingly. Our bosses still have the same stats, strengths and weaknesses as in OSRS, but we have applied a global modifier to their defence which now makes them faster to kill again. Based off the results of this poll, we have also applied a specific modifier to some of our bosses (mostly GWD bosses, wilderness bosses, dragons and the Corporeal beast) to nerf their defence even further.
There are still a few exceptions, such as Nex, Fight cave NPC's and the WildyWyrm, which do not (yet) have OSRS stats. As such, they were not affected in any way on 21 January, nor will they be affected by this update.

The Magma blowpipe, combined with the Completionist cape (chaos) is still the strongest combination in most situations, as it used to be. The Twisted bow is great against bosses with high defence and magic (although slightly outperformed by BP + chaos comp against some bosses), while Craw's bow is the best ranged weapon against most wilderness bosses. A strong melee setup (Scythe of Vitur, Ghrazi rapier or Whip of chaos depending on the boss) or Magic setup (such as a Harmonised nightmare staff with a Tome of fire) gives the highest damage output against specific bosses that have a specific weakness to melee or magic or that are (mostly) immune against ranged attacks.

As of today, the following bosses have become slightly faster to kill than they were before (without any changes to their droprates):

• Zulrah
• Kraken
• Demonic gorilla
• Lizardman shaman

All other bosses should take more or less the same amount of time to kill as before 21 January. Some will be slightly slower, others will be slightly faster, depending on the specific boss and your gear setup.

A couple of bosses are still slower to kill than before, as their defence used to be extremely low compared to OSRS. Even after applying a huge defence nerf compared to OSRS, they still take longer to kill than before and we can't keep nerfing them indefinitely. To compensate, the droprates of the following bosses have been significantly increased (especially their rare and valuable drops):

• Dagannoth Prime, Rex and Supreme
• Vet'ion
• Callisto
• Crazy archaeologist

This is all based off simulations that I have performed with 22 different gear setups. I have made comparisons using cheap welfare setups, BIS setups and using all forms of combat including melee, ranged and magic. However, simulations can only tell us so much and they may not be entirely accurate. Some things may have been overlooked and not all weaknesses may have been explored. If you feel that some NPC's still take far too long to kill or are unbalanced in some way (not profitable enough compared to others, or too profitable for what they are), please let us know.

Also keep in mind that we may introduce further rebalances in the future where we think they are needed.

In further news:

• The rate at which you receive a purple chest at the Chambers of Xeric has been increased by 50%. There is now a 1% chance to receive a unique item for every 5,784 points (instead of 1% for every 8,676 points). The point cap has been lowered to 380,000 points (from 570,000 points).
• A Lucky Olmlet now increases your chance of obtaining a unique Chambers of Xeric item by 16%, an Ex-ex parrot by 13% and a Ring of wealth by 12% (just like other NPC's, you cannot combine these with each other). This can be combined with a Whip of fortune, Tentacle of fortune or Completionist cape (fortune), which adds an additional 14% chance to receive a unique item. Hitting the Great Olm's head with a Whip or Tentacle of fortune special attack increases this chance by another 1%. This means you can increase your chances of a unique CoX item with up to 31% when combining all of this.
• The Thermonuclear smoke devil now has 240 hitpoints (instead of 600), a max hit of 8 (instead of 20) and an attack speed of 2 (instead of 5). Its droprates have remained the same.
• A bug has been fixed where the Corrupted scavenger in the Thieving room would not eat Cavern grubs faster if there are more in the trough.
• A bug has been fixed where Vasa Nistirio could trample players in another Chambers of Xeric instance.
• Clue scrolls received from the Chambers of Xeric are now logged in your Clue scroll collection log and Kill count book.

[Empty]

pogg more purples <3<3

[Mvpranger]

A couple of bosses are still slower to kill than before, as their defence used to be extremely low compared to OSRS. Even after applying a huge defence nerf compared to OSRS, they still take longer to kill than before and we can't keep nerfing them indefinitely. To compensate, the droprates of the following bosses have been significantly increased (especially their rare and valuable drops):

• Dagannoth Prime, Rex and Supreme
• Vet'ion
• Callisto
• Crazy archaeologist

Since the droprate got increased, will we see a change in the wilderness achievements aswell for these bosses?

[Will be ok2]

Looking forward to testing out the new pvm stats. Ty for listening and taking action

[Finalizer]

Thank you for working fast to fix the updates, hopefully its much better to kill frost drags and other 250+ monsters. Once I tried it out and see if its different or not ill come back for input.

[Brant]

Unless stated otherwise, I don't know if slayer mobs were changed, maybe someone can correct me as I'm at work and can't check right now

[Stale fish1]

Lovely update. It's refreshing to see how the community input has shaped this update. Good job to all involved

[Finalizer]

Has anyone try pvm again yet? It is better now? For example fighting frost drags or mith drags with a whip and barrow set.

[Brant]

Has anyone tried pvm again yet? It is better now? For example, fighting frost drags or mith drags with a whip and barrow set.

I have checked with monster examine and all the stats from the monsters I checked are still the same. I don't know if the overall defense modifier is accurately reflected for monster examine, but I feel like it isn't. If that theory is correct then I believe that it was an oversight. Wil latest the monsters more in the next days

[Finalizer]

Has anyone tried pvm again yet? It is better now? For example, fighting frost drags or mith drags with a whip and barrow set.

I have checked with monster examine and all the stats from the monsters I checked are still the same. I don't know if the overall defense modifier is accurately reflected for monster examine, but I feel like it isn't. If that theory is correct then I believe that it was an oversight. Wil latest the monsters more in the next days

I mean you have to actually try and fight it with the setup. I will give it a try once i get home. Before the jan 21 update I can kill mith drags within 15-20 seconds with whip and barrows set.