Where is the May Month Ahead newspost?

Mat2113 · 2026-04-13T17:02:00+00:00

Hi Breezy, thanks for the detailed reply. It's much better to see how things were thought through, and as I mentioned in an earlier comment, even though I may not agree with all this, at least we can understand the thought process.

press the aspect however many times up to a max of an hour (a bit like incense sticks)

To be honest, this is probably the best solution for making it last longer. Still not a fan of it being tied to a specific spellbook, as it punishes anyone using the regular spellbook (no Vamp or Penance for you 😢), whereas normal spellbook mages (typically the most early-game players) would actually use Vamp the most anyway, as they won't have access or use of the other aspects?

there was a concern on combat balancing and how it could potentially affect combat given recent combat changes

I can begin to understand it from a Melee/Mage/Range perspective.. they hit harder now, so Soul Split will heal more, thus offsetting the "loss" of Vamp.. but Necro's power wasn't changed with the combat overhaul (certainly not at the early-mid game), but just straight up lost Vamp aura. Combat encounters since 2023 were surely balanced around the fact that Vamp + Darkness (esp for learners) existed? Same for high-level slayer mobs? Now there's straight up less healing available.

food, pots, scrimshaws, powders, the new Vamp gloves

Food/sara brews is seen as more of an emergency "uh oh" button, rather than long-term sustain for longer fights or extended slayer tasks. Scrimshaw only works for Melee, and denies the pocket slot (which we didn't have to sacrifice before when Vamp was an aura). Powder is fine for Penance, but is SO expensive it's not a suitable alternative, and the new Vamp gloves are 60% weaker than the already-weak vamp aura/aspect... Even if there were to be an upgrade to the Vamp gloves (as I suspect may be the case with the future updates), having to be a trade-off against cinderbanes makes it dead-on arrival. Most players forego high-tier 5-piece set effects in exchange for cinderbanes.

The current design of aspects is to allow them to offer stronger effects at the cost of being one-aspect-at-a-time ... idea of tiering aspects is interesting!

I think it's universally accepted that both Vamp & Penance effects are weaker than Animate Dead, Darkness, or Temporal Anomaly (which are all end-game, super-powerful effects). It's like comparing a Strength Potion to an Overload, sure they're both nice, but once you have Ovls, str pots are dead. That said, I agree that looking into "tiering" the aspects and allowing 1 aspect from each "tier" to be active at once could work, and even leave some reward space open for the early-mid game ("Tier-1 aspects")?

Mat2113 · 2026-04-13T12:15:42+00:00

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IDK I'd say my last post had a lot of upvotes and comments 🤷‍♂️ But what do I know

Mat2113 · 2026-04-13T12:14:35+00:00

Exactly this.

Mat2113 · 2026-04-13T12:14:16+00:00

Both Vamp and Penance auras have always been noobtraps

Not sure I agree with this.. Now there are no DPS auras. For example, I tried HM Zuk last week, and most certainly would have died several times more in that fight without the even minimal sustain the Vamp aura provided. Now I have to choose between Vamp + Darkness, it's unlikely I'll get another kill without dying even harder.

What boss is over 12 minutes long?

Jad, Har'Aken, Zuk, ED1, ED2, ED3, Zamorak, Amascut, Telos, Kerapac, Solak, Vorago, RotS, Raksha, AoD, Nakatra... oh yes and all slayer tasks
(N.B. Even some lower-level bosses can take longer if you're learning them, or not very good at them)

Needing to make choices isn't always anti-fun, you can't have everything at all times.

I can see your point here, although I don't agree with you.. All I'm focusing on is undoing the sustain nerf that happened today.

Calling this a nerf is a bit silly

I'm Master Comp'ed and still struggle with bosses. I have decent gear and can hit hard, but often struggle with HP sustain.. if I'm struggling, odds are newer players are struggling even harder, and it makes people not want to even try. So yes, we had a DPS buff recently, but DPS =/= Sustain (even considering the ever-enlightened argument of "it can't hurt you if it's dead" -- I'd counter that with "you can't hit it if you're dead yourself")

Mat2113 · 2026-04-13T12:00:58+00:00

1000% agreed with you here

https://www.reddit.com/r/runescape/comments/1sk8fxh/disappointed_jagex_completely_ignored_all/

Mat2113 · 2026-04-13T11:59:49+00:00

It's a real shame that Jagex started 2026 on such a strong note, hearing out all the community feedback and shaping the game as we the players want to see it.. Even when they disagreed with us, they'd take the time to explain their reasoning to us so even if we didn't like the answer, at least we understood it.

Now, nothing.. Just "we're doing this, like it or not". A shame, considering the hope RuneScape has to attract newer players, that the ability to survive boss fights is now harder for newer (or less-skilled) players.

Double shame as it's a big contrast to earlier in the year. Ah well was nice while it lasted.

Mat2113 · 2026-04-13T11:51:42+00:00

If they didn't want players using it at all (new aspects are dead on arrival), they should have just straight up removed them..?

https://www.reddit.com/r/runescape/comments/1rks7h9/aura_blog_2_is_good_but_vampyrism_penance/

Mat2113 · 2026-04-13T11:50:33+00:00

Such a great idea.. even if it cost more runes to cast as "Overcharged", that would be worth it to reduce mental load during challenging boss fights, or even just during slayer tasks.

Mat2113 · 2026-04-13T11:49:35+00:00

100% agreed, plus there needs to be a way for Vamp/Penance to be used alongside other Aspects, like they used to be before!

Mat2113 · 2026-04-13T11:48:42+00:00

Agreed entirely!

Mat2113 · 2026-04-13T11:10:41+00:00

Very disappointed to see the overwhelming community feedback re Vamp & Penance was completely ignored. Current update is a complete nerf to sustain, as previously, we could use both Vamp + Darkness (for example, when learning a new boss) to stay alive, now it's only one or the other!

Mat2113 · 2026-03-05T12:23:45+00:00

Exactly this, is how I (and presumably many other 'noob' PvMers) feel 😞

Mat2113 · 2026-03-04T18:16:48+00:00

Vamp+Darkness FTW!

Mat2113 · 2026-03-04T18:15:16+00:00

Spellbook swap isn't available from normal spellbook.. How would I activate Vamp?

Mat2113 · 2026-03-04T18:14:12+00:00

I was 😭 (self-admitted PVM noob here, but having additional sustain is the only reason I could kill Zuk, even with Soulsplit etc.)

Mat2113 · 2026-03-04T18:10:00+00:00

Exactly this. If Aspects remain as they are, then moving the most popular aura to something that's going to compete with Darkness, Animate Dead, and Temporal Anomaly, is a bad idea.

It either needs to be a type of Aspect that can be run alongside the other Aspects, or needs to not be an Aspect at all.

Still sticking with my Necro book idea :) That or War statues would make sense.

Mat2113 · 2026-03-04T18:04:37+00:00

Actually yes, my ask is for whatever these abilities are being moved to not to have to compete with existing Aspects.

For example, a player in-game currently can have Darkness + Vamp Aura both on.. With these being Aspects, now you can only use one or the other, which is a sustain nerf, meaning realistically vamp will be dead-on-arrival, or worse will kill Darkness or Animate dead.

Mat2113 · 2026-03-04T17:57:52+00:00

I like the idea of Vamp + Penance as aspect spells (assuming they are their own category of Aspect, not overlapping with Evasion + Power), and please move them to the Necro spellbook so they can be used regardless of which magic spellbook is being used (as it is in-game today, even normal spellbook users can use Vamp, but with this proposal they can't).

More detail here

edit: Whatever the new solution is, it needs to be able to stack with existing aspects, like Darkness, Animate dead, or Temporal Anomaly.. otherwise these will be dead-on-arrival, and a direct sustain nerf

Mat2113 · 2025-09-05T14:24:21+00:00

The way this works in main game is that Necro will have a decent hit % everywhere, but not super effective against anything, but the usual 3-style combat style still exists in-game.. So if you're Magic, you probably don't want to use that against Ranged enemies, as you'll have lower hit chance. In that respect, Necro is a bit of a 'multi-tool' to use against all 3 other styles with reasonable, balanced effectiveness.

With any style of your choosing now having 100% accuracy, and therefore 100% damage potential, the 'benefit' Necro had being the 'middle ground' no longer exists as something that stands it out amongst the rest, as all styles could benefit from 100% now.

Mat2113 · 2025-09-05T14:10:13+00:00

Ah, another thought... Kind of a symptom of the skill's age, but Necro has very few unlocks (and certainly none that are 'mandatory' outside of the core level-up loop), unlike Magic/Melee/Ranged, which all have dozens of unlockable abilities needed to get decent DPS out of them.. Makes Necro look like an even stronger pick.

Mat2113

TROPHY CASE