I started playing RuneScape in April 2006. After weeks of listening to my friends talk about the MMO, I’d finally given in and made an account. Logging in for the first time, I wondered whether it would be as good as they promised. This worry was soon forgotten when I found myself swept away in an exciting wave of sheep-shearing and goblin-fighting. I was hooked. My evenings became consumed with adventuring, hunting down dangerous beasts and crafting bowstrings. I visited the world of Gielinor nearly every day for over five years. By the end of 2011, however, these visits were becoming shorter, until one day I stopped playing completely, prioritising studying instead. But I always planned on returning one day, just to see how RuneScape had developed, and that day came in 2018. Logging into RuneScape for the first time in over seven years I realised two things. The first was that I couldn’t remember my bank PIN; the second was that the combat system had completely changed. In 2012, Jagex released the Evolution of Combat, which, as the name suggests, completely reworked the combat system, with the aim of rebalancing the ‘combat triangle’. This is the mechanic that determines which combat style holds an advantage over the other: melee is stronger than range, while range has an advantage over magic, which is more powerful than melee. It’s basically the various Pokémon types, but with medieval weaponry and magic spells. One of the biggest changes was the addition of abilities… [Read full story]
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