July OSRS Poll Results

The recent Slayer poll updates just dropped and we have to tell you how excited we are. One of the things that makes OSRS superior to many other MMORPGs is the team’s dedication to improving content with player feedback. Few games do it as OSRS does and the ones that do are just as worthy of the praise. The most recent poll was assessed by the mod team and the slayer tasks, as well as other parts of the slayer skill, are seeing some fun changes.

            For those of you who might be coming into this cold and fresh, what is Slayer? Slayer is a skill that allows players to hunt monsters that normally would be too strong to damage. This is a highly favored skill among the player base because of the fact that players still receive combat XP will leveling their slayer skill, so it turns into very beneficial investment. Additionally, many of the monsters on hunts for the slayer tasks and quests drop rare and valuable loot so leveling this skill can also be quite profitable.

            Now that I told you what slayer is, let’s see what just changed.  One of the biggest parts of the update was the specialized slayer armor received an aesthetic change, specifically the five slayer helmets. The helmets were meant to resemble corresponding bosses you defeat as part of the slayer skill. The five helms that received updates to their appearance were the Black Slayer Helm, meant to resemble the King Black Dragon, the Green Slayer Helm that looks like the Kalphite Queen, the Red Slayer Helm, which is supposed to resemble the Abyssal Demon, the Purple Slayer Helm which looks like the boss Skotizo and the Turquoise Slayer Helm, which resemble Vorkath.

            But the updates to the slayer skill weren’t purely cosmetic. Some changes were entirely mechanical, such as the ability to store slayer tasks until later. For 1000 slayer points you can story a slayer task from your to-do list at the slayer store and withdraw it for free later. This means that if you are given a task that you don’t feel you are prepared for or takes you someplace you would not travel to at the moment, you can opt to store it and deal with it later. The only thing you cannot store there is wilderness tasks, most likely for balance reasons.

            And those are the two big changes that are coming to the slayer skill from this poll, but they are far from the only ones.

            A new area has been added to the Kharidian Desert Smoke Well. The area is a Dust Devil task-only area. This will likely make accomplishing slayer tasks involving that particular desert-dwelling creature a lot easier to deal with.

            A couple of changes are coming to the slayer-related events with Zulrah. Firstly, players can now choose to kill between 3–35 Zulrah bosses for the related slayer task. Secondly, but just as important, a right-click option has been added for boarding the Zulrah boat. I know this may seem like a minor addition but honestly, we love this some fixes. It makes a task that can become annoying and repetitive so quickly feel that much smoother. We’re honestly super thankful to the mod team for this small change.

            More Bloodvelds have been added to the God Wars dungeon. That means less wait time on respawns and more time to play, level, and quest. You would think more monsters would be the last thing players would want, but if it’s players that are leveling up their slaying skill then more monsters are exactly what they were asking for.

            Slayer XP will now be awarded for killing Sire Respirators that appear while fighting the Abyssal Sire, creating the opportunity to net 50XP per Respirator. Certainly, any opportunity for more XP is exciting but they did cap it at a max of four kills per one encounter so any attempts to farm an encounter won’t work.

            The Kraken can now be awoken using fishing explosives. Originally the player would have to disturb the four smaller whirlpools before disturbing the larger one in the center. While that is still an option, a player can now bypass that simply by throwing fishing explosives into the center whirlpool. Convenient to be sure, but we can’t help but appreciate the small touch of immersion it brings to the game as well. You have to love the mod team’s commitment to versatility in play.

            A new shortcut has been added to the game. While normally this would be more pertinent to Agility rather than Slayer, the connected locations make it much easier to find and kill certain monsters. The shortcut is located in the Asgarnian Ice Dungeon and it takes the player to the area the Hobgoblins inhabited to the Skeletal Wyverns. It requires 72 Agility to use, so it’s kind of a high-tier shortcut but it will certainly come in handy for those who voted for it.

            The last change we wanted to note is technically two, specifically two changes made to the Grotesque Guardians. Both of the changes seem to be intended to make the fight a little easier, which is a bit of a mixed bag. While some players don’t necessarily want an easier fight, they do want a fair one. Also, people love winning, so there is that. The first change makes it so when a player absorbs the guardian energy sphere they no longer take damage. The second change is related to phase two of the fight when the rocks begin to fall. An indicator will now appear, showing you where the rocks will fall, making it easier to avoid them.

            A lot of changes big and small with this poll but none of them appear to be too controversial. And the good news is if you end up not liking the changes you can always vote in the next poll. Always good to know your voice is heard in a community like this one.  As always, we are fully stocked on OSRS accounts for sale if you wish to jump into the game and check out these new changes.