This update was added on 6 January 2014.
Over the Christmas break we've prepared another batch of the Slayer updates for which you voted in Poll #13. Visit your Slayer Master to unlock the new abilities.
- The Slayer Helm can now be constructed, if you have a Crafting level of 55. Combining the protective properties of the earmuffs, nosepeg, facemask and spiny helmet, the helm also includes a built-in Slayer gem, allowing you to check your task progress by 'operating' the helm.
Like the black mask from which it is constructed, the Slayer helm gives you a 15% bonus to your melee accuracy & damage when fighting your assigned target.
- Just as the Nightmare Zone reward shop allows you to imbue a black mask, it can imbue a Slayer helm. The Slayer helm (i) gives a 15% to your ranged accuracy & damage, and to your magic accuracy, when you're fighting your assigned target. It has no negative combat bonuses for magic or ranging. We could offer that bonus for magic damage too in a future poll.
If you construct a Slayer helm from an imbued black mask, the Slayer helm will automatically be imbued too.
- Players can cancel or block unwanted assignments, on payment of some reward points. Up to 4 creature types may be blocked, depending on how many quest points you've got. We can add further slots in future.
- Broad bolts can now be purchased from the Slayer Masters' rewards menu. Level 55 Slayer is required to equip the bolts, and a runite or Armadyl crossbow is required to fire them, so they've inherited a Ranged requirement of 61.
Fletchers can unlock the ability to make their own broad ammunition. Level 52 Fletching is required to make the arrows, and level 55 to make the bolts. The components are sold in the Slayer Masters' cash shop, either individually or in packs of 100. When this feature was released before, broad arrows offered a disproportionately high rate of Fletching XP. For OSRS, while the XP rate is still high, it's a little lower than in RS3.
- Crafters can learn to make Slayer rings, with a Crafting requirement of 75. In addition to the abilities of the Slayer gem, the rings have 8 charges for teleporting to popular Slayer sites. The rings may be also be obtained from the Slayer Masters' reward menu. You can use one ring on another to transfer the charges between them.
- Nieve, the new Slayer Master, can now be found via the 'Contact NPC' spell on the Lunar spellbook. We've added the abyssal Dark Mage too, so you can get your pouches repaired remotely.
More Slayer updates are already in development, with a new water-dwelling monster and the leaf-bladed sword in the pipeline. We'll be posting details as work progresses.
The Christmas holiday event is still open. If you haven't got your rewards from Shanty Claws, get on with it! We're planning to close the event later this week.
In other news
- Vials, feathers and fishing bait are now available in packs of 100 from the shops that sell those items. This update came from Poll #14; we needed something similar to help players buy the broad arrowheads and unfinished broad bolts from Slayer Masters in bulk, so we've brought them out together.
- The Cursed Bow no longer works in the Wilderness or PvP worlds.
- The tooltip on the combat interface for spiked weapons, such as the Anchor, will now correctly state that the Aggressive stance gives Strength XP. A typo had led to it claiming that the weapon gave Controlled XP.
- The bank in Lletya has had a navigation error fixed.
- The Evil Twin random event now pauses your prayer points from draining while you're in the event.
- When you fail to identify a herb because your Herblore level is too low, the message no longer refers to cleaning!
Over the Christmas break you've voted for a wide selection of features from Poll #14. We've started working on those already, including the Zamorak hasta, the Lletya fruit tree patch and Smith-X, and we'll hopefully be able to release a batch of them later this week.
Come over to the forums to discuss the update.
Mods Ash, Mat K & Reach
The Old School RuneScape Team