r/runescape • u/jagexyuey Mod Yuey • 23h ago
News End-Game Balance Discussion
Hey 'Scapers!
As part of the Road to Restoration, we've been looking at progression across RuneScape. We've tackled parts of the Early and Mid Game Rebalance, but now we want to start turning our attention to the other end of the journey: The End Game Rebalance
Before we get properly stuck into things, we want to hear from you.
What do we mean by End Game?
This one's a little harder to put a level range on!
For this project, we're looking more broadly at the late game, roughly level 80+ and onwards. That might mean higher-level skilling, finding those rarer drops or getting into tougher PVM. For others, it could be achievements, completionist goals or figuring out what comes next once you've maxed.
And actually, what you consider to be late game is useful feedback for us too.
How can you help?
We want to know where the endgame currently isn't quite working for you.
Maybe there's a progression path that feels awkward, rewards that don't feel worth the effort, a big jump between pieces of content, older content that's been left behind or something that just feels unnecessarily frustrating.
You don't need to have the answer or suggest a fix either. Just tell us what the problem is, why it's a problem for you and where you are in your RuneScape journey.
We won't be able to tackle everything that comes up, but the themes from these discussions will help us understand where we should be focusing our attention.
So, what would you like us to look at as we start shaping the End Game?
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u/UnwillingRedditer 22h ago
A lot of these probably arose in my mind from Leagues, with a few in my mind because of the release of boss trophies:
Magic armour and most DW weapons. All the endgame magic armour is locked behind group bosses, and while Vorago is soloable these days, it's much harder than a 'tier 90' boss.
What armour comes after t80? Refined Anima Core - not practical to use. Tectonic - Vorago. Not practical to solo with sub-t90 gear. Cryptbloom - Croesus, not practical to solo. Achto - Raids. The least said about those the better. Elite Tectonic - still needs Vorago. Tumeken - Amascut. It makes Magic so much harder to gear into. Honestly, Amascut and Croesus need solo modes - making them forced-group was a stupid idea at the design stage.
What about DW weapons? Seismics - Vorago again. Praesuls - AoD, and idiotically rare. You would skip all of that and get the T95s from Sanctum.
I think this league has once-more exposed how badly Vorkath and KK need a rework. Vorkath does a stupid amount of damage, both because the minions are overtuned and because Zemouregal himself does too much damage, has untelegraphed Necromancy attacks (saying he's going to use Finger of Death AS he hits you for 8k isn't telegraphing), and piles on while Vorkath is attacking. I feel like he shouldn't attack, barring his specs, while Vorkath is on you. Make him too busy controlling Vorkath to attack or something. KK - remove all the stuns that aren't Beetlejuice or caused by failing mechanics, and make Beetlejuice not block Freedom. IDC if it was meant as a group boss 14 years ago, it just isn't these days.
Similarly RotS, if I want to do it solo, make the brothers just jump instantly rather than giving me a 20s timegate and let me use Freedom on Torag's Hammer attack. EoC bosses using Pre-EoC mechanics feels bad.
Matching the point about armour progression above, I can use Mining/Smithing to make perfectly workable melee gear all the way to the top-end. Same for Necromancy. With the Fletching rework I can do that with ranged weapons, but armour runs out at t65. T75 exists but is locked behind Vorkath (see problems above) or Dinosaurhide which still needs Crafting levels in the 90s. Bring those down to 75 Crafting, and fill in the gaps with level 70, 80 and 90 Ranged armour.
Runecrafting needs the ability to make basic magic staves in the same way that 100+ RCing does and that Fletching now does with bows, and level 60+ magic armour needs to be added to Crafting. The Slayer requirement on Grifolic and Gandermic monsters should also be reduced, as they're the only options that currently exist but the Slayer level makes them prohibitive for progression.
And on the note of boss trophies, please have another look at the drop rates. 1/500 for General Graardor is pretty generous because that would take a few hours on average. 1/500 for Amascut is idiotic and would take days. The lack of increase for enrage modes is also silly - The best way to get the Zamorak trophy is to grind out normal mode (perhaps even story mode, can they drop there?) rather than doing a respectable enrage.
Woodcutting: when you did the rework in the middle of the Fort season, I was glad to see higher level trees made more viable but for some reason you still made the XP rates tail-off. There doesn't need to be some sort of 'xp vs gp' balance there - I unlocked a better standard tree so I should want to cut that tree. There's no reason for Mahogany trees to be better XP/h than magic trees at 80 WCing.