So I think I forgot to mention, but I got 99 summoning last weekend.



I've said for a long time now that summoning is easily the best skill to get to level 99. That's because, see, with most skills, the marginal value of leveling up that final time is pretty small. With ranged, for example, the only benefit from the final level is a slight boost to your accuracy and damage. With herblore, once you get Overloads at 96 (and you can even use Greenman's Ale to boost to them from 95 for free), there's no other benefit to leveling up. With mining, you get a teensy little increase in mining speed. And so on.

But with summoning, that last level is huge: it gets you Steel Titans! Steel Titans are pretty much giant balls of concentrated pwnage. They kick ass, and you only get them by going all the way to 99.

Well, with that in mind, I've been putting all my xp lamps and stuff into summoning for a long time now. About a year ago, when I got the Jack of Trades aura (which gives you a free xp lamp every day), I realized that I could very viably get to 99 using only xp lamps. When the Squeal of Fortune started handing out lamps like candy, it went from "viable" to "very real opportunity".

I didn't expect to make it this soon, but two things caught me by surprise: the massive xp rewards from the Mad May and Sizzling Summer events; and the Halloween double xp weekend event. Between them, I got an xp windfall large enough to propel me all the way to the skillcape.

So, what now? Well, I'm reallocating my xp lamps to slayer. It's the only skill I need to level before I can complete all the achievement diaries. (I need 93 slayer to kill an Ice Strykewyrm for Fremennik Tasks, although I could boost from 87.) Also, now that I have all the most awesome familiars to help me fight, I can do some proper slaying as well. I already tried out the Steel Titan at a Nechryael task, and it dropped them like things that drop easily. The Pack Yak did some nice work too, helping bank the bone drops from blue dragons and iron dragons.

I've also moved dungeoneering up on my agenda now that solo xp is getting buffed. Putting a team together is a drag, but moving at my own pace makes the skill much more comfortable to work with. I'd like to get a chaotic rapier at some point. Plus, since Tears of Guthix is also getting buffed, I'd really like it for my lowest skill to be something where the xp is more relevant.

Oh, and of course, I've got a dragon hatchling to raise!