Slayer Wildcards

[Fedal]

This is a rant post.

I'm not one to focus on the shitty updates but i can't believe something so dumb made it into the game. It's even more insane to me that these aren't being talked about at all. Well of course, they were conveniently slipped under the radar while DXP hype was at its peak. 

 

"Slayer Wildcards are a possible reward from Treasure Hunter. While carried, the next monster killed that qualifies for some Slayer assignment (while not your current Slayer assignment) will grant its normal Slayer experience. In addition, Slayer Wildcards increase the chances of certain unique drops when slaying certain monsters, as if killed on a Slayer assignment. It will also allow drops that can only drop while on an assignment to drop."

 

What the fuck is this?

This is SO bad. This literally kills the fundamentals of slayer, having to get tasks from a master. All for a couple extra dollars. I mean i guess they've done this for every other skill but this one genuinely makes me so sad. Who even asked for this?

Sure, you could argue they are way too rare to be sustainable now, but so were silverhawks on release and we all know how that aged.
Imagine these becoming super common in the future and people stocking them in the thousands...

• meta strat for a new player? get some wildcards, safespot wildy greater demons and skip the whole fucking skill. Slayer master? what even is that bro?
• meta strat for 200m? buy couple thousand wildcards and spend a week at abyssal lords. Don't forget to bank every 3 hours for ovl doses!
• want that eddy pet that's so annoying to get? np king just grab some o these and afk them for however long you need to.

I think it's pretty clear why these wildcards are fundamentally broken and unhealthy for the game. Of course these are only funny hypothethical scenarios today but i can easily see them happening. Maybe i'm overreacting, i know this is just a game but i love it so much and it sucks to see it turn into a braindead idle, second-monitor game a little more every day.

And honestly the most worrying part of this all: mtx now boosting collection logs. The last piece of content that still held value (to me). 
I seriously can't think of a worse addition to the game in years. 

 

Again i'm sorry for the negativity, i've always ignored mtx stuff but lately it's been getting so bad, it's hard to not care about the game. Had to let it out hope yall understand.

[MrsDewwBerry]

personally slayer has never really been my favorite skill in fact its one of my least favorite so I don't really bother much with it I'm just after the souls for trim to finish the codex right now but other then that I couldn't be bothered with new slayer additions I do think its not a great concept and kind of ruins the purpose of slayer master in the first place if you don't need to be on task for drops now then what's the point of even having slayer masters to assign tasks other them maybe getting slayer points to unlock stuff in the rewards section from slayer master but it doesn't seem to be hard to collect all the points needed for all the unlocks in there, and for those that already have all the unlocks that really have no use for slayer points then this just seems very broken 

[Hess]

You raise some good points. I think I have 10 in my bank somehow, didn’t even occur to me how busted that is.  

[GonJaa]

As much as I will be abusing utilizing these over dxp now that they are a thing, I agree that they are unhealthy for the game. They really do allow you to essentially skip the fundamental aspects of slayer and just kill whatever you want Greater Demon Berserkers to 99, 120, 200m, or any other goal you might have. I can only hope that they'll be rare enough and not a common main-stay on TH so that their price is somewhat maintained. They're currently ~100k ea, and really not worth the investment if you're trying to earn a profit while slaying through cinderbanes, or other similarly rare drops, but an absolute godsend for slayer logs. The one exception to that I see right now is the hexhunter bow, which is like 600m or so right now, but even so that's still perhaps one of the rarest drops in the game. 

If they stay on TH for any considerable amount of time, they will almost assuredly crash into oblivion the way silverhawk feathers have, and slayer will be essentially be another buyable skill. But as they stand, they are incredibly OP. I'd like to see them either give XP and not slayer drop rates, or slayer drop rates without giving XP, but they're absolutely busted giving both. (Not to mention that Tuska's Wrath hits 15k's on pretty much anything with them in the inventory, AND gives slayer helm bonuses. They're gonna be meta to have in the inventory for any boss where the slayer helm works *cough cough kerapac cough cough*)

[T K O]

wonder where i should use these cards at , since im already 120

 

[Coalsen]

@Fedal while I completely agree with you. Like @GonJaa I did use about 900 of them so far and I feel i did exactly what you thought was a problem.

Edited May 24, 2023 by Harumia

[Fedal]

3 hours ago, GonJaa said:

I'd like to see them either give XP and not slayer drop rates, or slayer drop rates without giving XP, but they're absolutely busted giving both. (Not to mention that Tuska's Wrath hits 15k's on pretty much anything with them in the inventory, AND gives slayer helm bonuses.

I agree 100% with you and this is exactly the problem. While I hate the concept of proteans, they are somewhat balanced as there is no loot, pet chance and they are not the optimal training method, except for traps and essence i think? These wildcards on the other hand give you ALL of that and more with zero downsides. They are on-par with silverhawks as the most OP mtx item ever released imo. 

 

The way I would balance them is simple: take them out of the game. No but seriously, if they gave XP as if on-task but consumed all drops instead of boosting their rates, they would be fine. A protean-like powerslaying tool that doesn't harm the market or collection logs. 

Alternatively keep them as they are but make them untradeable, only buyable for 5-10 slayer points each. Luxury items you have to earn by actually doing the skill. But yeah, we know money > game design nowadays.

[GonJaa]

49 minutes ago, Fedal said:

The way I would balance them is simple: take them out of the game.

**Never have introduced them in the first place    Like honestly, look at my slayer gains this past few days and tell that's not a problem. Its actually insane. 

But honestly I agree. My 'solutions' were given under the assumption they're here to stay since I highly doubt they'll be removed now that they're in the game's economy. Best we can hope for is a massive power-down.
Making them untradeable and earnable through the slayer skill is another alternative as well. But unfortunately, I don't see them making any changes to them, sad as it may be for slayer's future. 

[Sirsir]

You're absolutely spot-on with the problems you've perceived, in my humble opinion. I don't see your assessment as unreasonable in the slightest; your feedback is entirely valid. To be quite honest, I fully expect this to end poorly for Slayer myself. This is coming from someone who doesn't even enjoy the skill that much (sorry ) 

 

I'm not opposed to higher XP rates within reason, but they should never be derived from microtransactions. The obvious problem with Agility aside, the problem with skilling in RS3 is that it has been trivialized by MTX. One of my favorite parts of the game used to be finding a niche in discovering unlikely but effective skilling methods, and I think I was decent at it back in the day; but even without the culture of efficiency that dominates the game today, it's useless to even try when the best methods are almost always MTX-related, or can be directly improved by MTX. 

 

And that's just XP, mind you. Slayer Wildcards are an absurd and greedy leap to monetize game goals like Slayer Logs as well, which up to this point at least demonstrated effort in the skill that couldn't be "cheapened" in this way. 

 

We might see things get even worse from here. Silv;erhawks have been normalized; one day, Wildcards will be, and their next idea will be released. 

[GonJaa]

[Fedal]

3 hours ago, GonJaa said:

LOL. So true

[Fedal]

21 hours ago, Sirsir said:

I'm not opposed to higher XP rates within reason, but they should never be derived from microtransactions. The obvious problem with Agility aside, the problem with skilling in RS3 is that it has been trivialized by MTX. One of my favorite parts of the game used to be finding a niche in discovering unlikely but effective skilling methods, and I think I was decent at it back in the day; but even without the culture of efficiency that dominates the game today, it's useless to even try when the best methods are almost always MTX-related, or can be directly improved by MTX. 

Appreciate you sharing your thoughts! I could not agree more. MTX powercreep has sadly gone so far beyond some daily free xp. Portables and pulse core boosts are enough to kill any room for imagination. Just gather up at a bank chest and afk will be the go-to forever.

[Kris_Kronkle]

Not sure how this works or if someone has mentioned it but in regards to the edimu point specifically I’m pretty sure you still need a slayer task to enter the dungeon. Other than that yeah it’s super op for early level slayer leveling and is convenient for hunting raptor mob log items 

[Fedal]

2 hours ago, Kris_Kronkle said:

Not sure how this works or if someone has mentioned it but in regards to the edimu point specifically I’m pretty sure you still need a slayer task to enter the dungeon.

Wildcards let you enter and kill them without task.

[Kris_Kronkle]

9 hours ago, Fedal said:

Wildcards let you enter and kill them without task.

Dang I doubted jagex would be able to program that. I wonder if you get the slayer helm buff too

[GonJaa]

2 hours ago, Kris_Kronkle said:

I wonder if you get the slayer helm buff too

You get the slayer helm buffs on anything where it works, as long as you have the cards in your inventory. Tuska's Wrath also hits for 15k's.

[Kris_Kronkle]

4 hours ago, GonJaa said:

You get the slayer helm buffs on anything where it works, as long as you have the cards in your inventory. Tuska's Wrath also hits for 15k's.

Damn no wonder they are so expensive. I wonder if you can use one for say magister or kk for slayer helm boosts/tuskas and put the card in a yak before the kill ends to preserve the effect

[Hess]

2 hours ago, Kris_Kronkle said:

Damn no wonder they are so expensive. I wonder if you can use one for say magister or kk for slayer helm boosts/tuskas and put the card in a yak before the kill ends to preserve the effect

 

Kris breaks the game

[X5-452]

It seems these are here to stay, but still not very common. Haven't use any, and I've found  so far.

[Rafi]

It’s the same thing MTX has done for the entire game - don’t want to put in the time? Just pay to win. Paying for faster drops is little different than paying for faster xp. I abhor it, and have since they first released squeal of fortune. 
 

The possible compromise, which they would never do as they’d sell fewer keys, would be that buying keys instantly disqualifies you from showing up on the main high scores, rank links, etc. I haven’t seen the point in rank lists since mtx was added - it’s comparing apples to oranges.