Strategies For Handling Competition in Skilling Areas

Runescape is a very popular online game, and as a result, you may find yourself competing with others both in your battling areas and while you gather raw materials like logs and ores.

Simple strategies to lessen the frustration you'll feel from this competition are as follows:

• Become a Member if at all possible - the accessable part of the world is larger and thus there are places to gather your raw materials and build your skills.
• Find a bank far away from the main cities and gather your materials from that location instead. Many players are too lazy to leave the main cities, so the competition is inherently reduced.
• Find a time of the day when there are reliably less people playing, and spend that time gathering materials that are the most frustrating with other players around: mining, log gathering and fishing for example.
• Invest the time in improving your ranging ability (bow and arrow use), because when you're fighting in competitive areas, quick-clicking rangers have an advantage, and in some areas a ranger can stand out of the reach of a large monster, yet still attack and kill that monster.
• Make your own arrows - this goes with the above point - if you try to buy enough arrows to improve your ranging ability, you'll spend all of your money and still not have enough arrows. It's better to advance your mining, smelting and fletching skills so you can create and use your own arrows. Plus, hey, if you have an extra 1000 laying around after all that work, you can sell it for a profit to others who are too lazy to create their own!
• Explore the wilderness when the game server isn't full - there are a lot of great skilling places, like mines and herblore-component things, in the Wilderness. But of course, there are inherent dangers in the Wilderness - other players looking to kill you for sport or for your equipment. Explore when the game server is quiet and you'll be a lot less stressed.
• Save every rune you come across - then build your mage skills periodically. Building your mage skills is rewarded by the teleport skills you will get at mid-to-high levels, which make transportation around the world a LOT EASIER, and provides for quick-escape within certain parts of the Wilderness in case you find yourself under attack.
• Sell law runes 1, 2 or 5 at a time when players are specifically desperate for the runes - don't sell large quantities at any one time as you won't get a good rate for them, and law runes are valuable (being a key part of the mage teleports above). If you sell 1, 2 or 5 at a time, you can ask 1000 coins for each and players will pay. Watch for their advertisements in the bank.

I hope this helps!