RuneScape Weekly Patch Notes – August 7, 2023 (2024)

It’s that time of the week. You’re getting ready for another week of whatever it is you do. Who knows what this week will bring you? One thing that is for sure, though, is that with a new week comes newRuneScapepatch notes. I’m always eager to see what has been changed and improved! Especially with Necromancy launching today! Let’s see what they’ve released, updated, or modified in this week’sRuneScapepatch notes as ofAugust 7, 2023.

What’s New This Week in RuneScape

COMBAT

• Several monsters have been rebalanced in line with modern standards.
  • In particular, this affects a sizeable chunk of early-mid-game monsters:
    • The current list includes primarily monsters from Turael/Spria to Mazchna.
    • With the Evolution of Combat a number of monsters were harshly balanced, meaning now a variety of monsters get one-shot or deal essentially no damage. As a result, we’ve committed some time to redo the balancing on a fair number of the early-to-mid game mobs.
      • Essentially, we’ve made a greater number of monsters more appealing for their respective levels, which means they will deal more damage and get 1-shot far less often.
      • We’re confident these should be more appropriate for their respective levels, but if there are mobs that you feel have been over-buffed or you think could do with another look, let us know!
      • Likewise, we’d like to extend these changes to more of the game, so if there’s anything in particular you’d like to get a rebalance – again, let us know.
• Tank gear lifepoints:
  • Necromancy tank gear benefits from updated lifepoint values.
    • In the other styles, tank gear typically doesn’t grant a LP boost until 70+ and even then it’s a very small amount.
    • We’re trialling bigger boosts for Necromancy tank gear (up to 50% lifepoint increases), and starting from level 1, so it competes slightly more against power gear.
    • If this is received favourably by players we will look to roll it out across the other styles.
• Spectral Spirit Shields are now Necromancy Shields (previously Magic) and have the same passive effect as other Spirit Shields.
• Igneous Kal-Zuk Capes will be removed from worn and/or keepsakes (key refunded) and go into either your backpack, Bank or to be reclaimed from General Graardor in the Zuk area of Senntisten. All owned Capes will then be converted into a ‘hardened’ variant, which can be broken down into its constituent Ket, Mej and Xil Capes. To reform the igneous Kal-Zuk, players will need to obtain the Necromancy Cape variant – an Igneous Kal-Mor (made from a TokHaar Kal-Mor and an Igneous stone) – and combine all four capes back into the Igneous Kal-Zuk.
• Weapon special attack changes:
  • Special attacks that universally affect combat styles will now also apply to Necromancy. Examples include:
  • Barrelchest Anchor (Sunder) – can now also sometimes drain Necromancy attack or strength.
  • Bandos Godsword (Warstrike) – can now also sometimes drain Necromancy attack and strength.
• Two Summoning Familiar special attacks have been slightly amended:
  • Bloated Leech (Blood Drain) – can now also restore Prayer, Archaeology and/or Necromancy.
  • Phoenix (Rise from the Ashes) – can now drain Necromancy.
• Prayers/Curses – certain Prayers and Ancient Curses have been renamed to better reflect what they do, add consistent naming and avoid confusion with new Necromancy Curses.
  • Protect from Missiles → Protect from Ranged
  • Sap Warrior → Sap Melee Attack
  • Sap Ranger → Sap Ranged Attack
  • Sap Range Strength → Sap Ranged Strength
  • Sap Mage → Sap Magic Attack
  • Sap Magic Strength (unchanged)
  • Sap Spirit → Sap Adrenaline
  • Sap Strength → Sap Melee Strength
  • Deflect Missiles → Deflect Ranged
  • Leech Attack → Leech Melee Attack
  • Leech Ranged → Leech Ranged Attack
  • Leech Range Strength → Leech Ranged Strength
  • Leech Magic → Leech Magic Attack
  • Leech Magic Strength (unchanged)
  • Leech Strength → Leech Melee Strength
  • Leech Energy → Leech Run Energy
• The Invigorating perk has been rebalanced to better support the new basic attack system.
  • Now gives 5% additional adrenaline perk rank to basic attacks (was 10%).
• Adrenaline gained from Tsunami, Incendiary Shot and Meteor Strike is now specific to the related combat style’s critical strikes (e.g. after using Tsunami, Necromancy critical strikes will not generate extra adrenaline).
• Some minor tweaks to how and where basic attack adrenaline is granted to non-Necromancy combat styles:
• Basic attack adrenaline is no longer given to magic AoE abilities that hit multiple targets.
• Magic now calculates adrenaline from basic attacks based on weapon speed, like melee/ranged.
• Tuska’s Wrath has been tweaked to prevent rapidly resetting the ability for Slayer tasks by logging out/using the Altar of War:
  • No longer goes on extended cooldown on Slayer task use.
  • The empowered effect now goes on cooldown, which is shown separately on the debuff bar.
• Updated Kalphite Queen’s base hit chances to be more in line with their intended values.
• The ‘Bash’ and ‘Revenge’ abilities have been tagged as ‘Offensive’ abilities.
• The target information panel will now display your last known hit chance against the monster.

XP

• Changed how XP is awarded when tagging a monster.
  • Previously the tagger would gain all XP even if they did a very small amount of damage.
  • XP is now shared based on how much damage was actually dealt.
• Fixed an issue where Elite Dungeon monsters would give extra XP for each group member that attacked the monster.
• Changed the current combat XP formula, which was a bit confusing and made various assumptions about the stats of monsters. As a result, changing the stats of mobs could have huge changes on the XP they granted. We’re looking to both simplify the XP system so it’s easier for players to understand, and reduce the amount of combat XP players can get as it’s spiralled into astronomically large numbers.
  • XP from monsters is now calculated directly from its hitpoints (as it was pre-EoC), currently at a rate of 50 XP per 1000 HP. This still accounts for the damage you deal, so if you deal half a monster’s life you’ll get half the XP when it dies.
    • We’re going to monitor XP rates and may increase or decrease the XP per HP accordingly.
• Removed a workaround for high defence monsters that would halve the stats of any monster that was ‘taggable’.
  • We weren’t keen on how two monsters could have identical stats, yet their end defence and accuracy values could differ so greatly.
    • This also allows us to put more value behind weapon and gear accuracy, particularly with Necromancy’s new hit chance system.
    • We’ll be monitoring feedback on these and adjust individual cases accordingly.
• Reduced the benefits from stat boosting in combat.
  • Previously a level 90 player boosting to level 99 combat stats would outperform a player with base level 99 combat stats.
  • Boosting stats will now cause you to perform in an equal manner (e.g. boosting to 99 would cause your damage to be the same as a player with base levels 99)
    • The system was deemed unnecessary and confusing for players to calculate their damage, especially due to the manner in which it was implemented; boosting multi-hitting abilities far more than singular hits.

TOOLTIPS

• As part of Necromancy, we’ve made an effort to modernise combat tooltips.
• Necromancy only:
  • Tooltips now show exact damage values.
  • Tooltips now have inlined sprites when denoting effects/buffs or other abilities.
  • Tooltips now state the damage type (Necromancy damage etc).
  • We will be looking to roll these changes out to the other styles in the future.
• Game-wide:
  • Increased width of tooltip boxes.
  • Cooldowns are now displayed in exact measurements (e.g. 2s→2.4s).
  • Damage caps are now displayed on abilities which have unique caps (e.g. shatter).
  • Changed the colour, opacity and text colour of tooltips for better visibility.
  • Changed tooltip formatting.
• Object tool tipping (game-wide):
  • Objects now state their ‘tier’ not ‘level’.
    • If there is an accuracy/armour disparity with tier, it’s noted (e.g. armour (T70))
  • Off-hand weapons no longer display accuracy.
  • Tank armour now shows the damage reduction offered.
  • Subtype added to the equipment:
    • E.g. ranged (Power)/(Tank)
  • Weapon attack rate updated to seconds (e.g. fast→ 2.4s)

Related: How to Prepare for Necromancy in RuneScape

POTIONS

• Necromancy potions have been added to the game:
  • Necromancy potion (11 Herblore) – Marrentill and Cadava Berries.
  • Super Necromancy potion (79 Herblore) – Arbuck and Blood of Orcus.
  • Extreme Necromancy potion (93 Herblore) – Super Necromancy potion and a ground Miasma Rune.
• Overload potions now require extreme Necromancy potions to be made.
• Existing overload ingredient sets are no longer tradeable, and can be traded in by talking to any Grand Exchange Clerk for the old ingredients.
• Supreme overload batch recipes now require 3 of each ingredient to make, instead outputting 4 potions.

BUG FIXES

• Players can no longer gain Slayer Helm bonuses from the Obsidian Helm against TzHaar if they’re using a combat style that does not match the Helm.
• Fixed a bug…ha, bug…where the Kalphite Queen could still be instakilled by the Guardhouse Instakill upgrade.

GENERAL

• The total number of action bars has been increased from 15 → 18.
• The total bank space for all players has been increased by 50.
• Old Crone has been renamed to Netty.
• Necrovarus has been graphically updated.
• The ruins north of Draynor, used to access the City of Um (as well as War’s Retreat and Death’s Office) have been rotated 90 degrees clockwise to face the Draynor Lodestone.
• The Necromancer’s Tower has been graphically updated.
• Death’s Office has been graphically updated.
• Runecrafting Pouches and ethereal bodies have been given a ‘configure’ option. This lets you set a preferred order when filling them! Impure Essence is only added as an option after completion of the Rune Mythos quest.
  • default/Pure Essence – will attempt to fill with Pure essence first, then Rune, then Impure.
  • Rune Essence – Rune, then Pure, then Impure.
  • Impure Essence – Impure, then Pure, then Rune.

A lot of updates this week! It makes sense as Necromancy launches today, and many things need to be rebalanced and tweaked so that it can be a smooth transition to a new combat skill that exists outside of the original combat triangle. We can expect to see continuous updates to the game, as players continue to engage with the new skill and encounter bugs and issues that need to be resolved.

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