Clans Wars and Grand Exchange

December updates for Runescape have mentioned Clan Wars minigame that is due to be released this month. This comes on top of the recently released Grand Exchange that has sent the runescape market into turmoil, although clans will have benefitted from the fact that resources are all much cheaper.

The introduction of the grand exchange would therefore appear to be beneficial to all clans - as they can get all pking supplies bought much cheaper on the grand exchange than they were able to buy for previously. Has this provided more benefits to pkers or has it taken away the benefits of pking?

There are 2 camps. Some people argue it is now much cheaper to pk and are more likely to pk as a result of it being more affordable, while others argue that it has made the financial rewards much less worthwhile and are likely to pk less. The overall impact of the grand exchange is that prices for many items have crashed due to the large amount of supplies in the game. This may change in the long term, but the immediate impact has many thousands of players refusing to use it.

Having outlined this alongside the planned Runescape Clan Wars Minigame, will Jagex make it something that clans will actually use? It is very hard to know how Jagex are treating this as many people have wanted a Clan War Arena within runescape for a long time and it would certainly help ensure that wars are less likely to be crashed.

It certainly is an appealing feature, but there has been no information released on whether items would be lost or won. If clans do take up the clan war minigame, then it will be much easier to provide more accurate clan ranks than previously. Although with so many possible types of war available, it is inevitable that Jagex will only appease some clans and will further alienate other clans and players at large.

Overall, clan wars are something many people have wanted and Jagex almost always take a different view to the majority of players. The success of this minigame will definately be dependent on the clan community embracing the same vision as Jagex, something that generally hasn't happened yet.

All I can hope for is that Jagex have done proper research into how the clan community would like something like the clan war minigame introduced, and not how Jagex perceive people want it introduced.

DOA Closed Again

Well, I was a member of DOA when it was restarted, although the leaders decided to close it down again instead of it slowly dwindling to nothing. Since the end of May there were numerous good pking events held by the clan, though with real life pressures on many people, activity levels were not as high as expected.

In the history of DOA, there have been numerous members and Robertwb69 is putting a list together that will eventually list all members of DOA from its very first inception.

There have also been numerous breakoff clans that have formed, or that have ex-doa members at their core. It really is hard to please everyone in any clan you belong to, although in all instances, if the leaders themselves cannot be everpresent at pking events, then overall activity will suffer.

If anyone wants to be apart of the new doa clan then they are welcome to apply for membership at the temporary address of http://newdoa.12.forumer.com/index.php (we have not yet decided on what to do with the name, maybe put it into retirement or make the clan more of a community of friends). With the time changes happening recently more confusion has been thrown into the works and nothing has been fully decided.

If I had not been busy trying to launch an online business site, then I would have looked at driving the clan forward - either in association with my main runescape help site or in association with the remaining community or even alongside an existing clan.

DOA had managed to get ranked 33rd on the RAW list, although we had not warred much and the overall warring on the RAW clan ranks seemed to be very slow going. All I can say is c'est la vie and real life takes precedence over virtual gaming.

DOA Ressurected

The first runescape clan I joined was DOA (Dead on Arrival). It went through many highs and lows and I eventually left and joined ST (Sacred Templars).

Once ST closed I remained clanless although many former ST members joined EH (Eternal Honour). One of the reasons I never joined is that I wouldn't have had any time to really do much with the clan due to other real life events.

My personal schedule has not really eased up much since then, although I have decided to rejoin the runescape clan world. The decision is due to DOA being ressurected and so is a chance to go back and join many of the original members (who are still playing) and probably back home.

Anyway, it will be interesting to see who else comes out of clan retirement to rejoin DOA and it will be interesting to see how much some people have progressed since I was last a member.

Originally I was under level 95 combat when I joined, this time I am level 122 combat. Hopefully this will help spur me on to achieving maximum combat in the near future.

Overall, there have been some changes that have taken place in the runescape clan world with the RAW League being a prominant change. As DOA will primarily be a pay to play clan, it will be interesting to see if we enter the league at some point in the future.

Latest Runescape Poll

Jagex are again putting out a feeler about the strength of the role clans play in runescape. The current poll lists 3 questions that each have multiple answers.

I just voted and here is the current state of affairs for all 3 questions:

Question 1:
How often do you play through quests with friends?
Sometimes when I play a quest 53% (30354 votes)
I never play a quest with friends 32% (18403 votes)
Most of the time I play a quest 9% (4845 votes)
I don't play quests 3% (1772 votes)
Every time I play a quest 2% (1376 votes)

Question 2:
How often do you train your skills with friends?
Sometimes when I train my skills 57% (32548 votes)
Most of the time I train my skills 19% (10968 votes)
I never train skills with friends 19% (10600 votes)
Every time I train my skills 4% (2111 votes)
I don't train any skills 1% (523 votes)

Question 3:
How often do you player-kill with friends?
I don't player-kill 32% (17906 votes)
Most of the time I player-kill 20% (11599 votes)
Sometimes when I player-kill 20% (11465 votes)
Every time I player-kill 19% (10520 votes)
I never player-kill with friends 9% (5260 votes)

The results of the polls will help Jagex decide on which multi player areas of runescape they should concentrate on developing further. Obviously it does not mean they will start providing clan support within the game - it just may help them realise clans play a more important role than they currently believe.

This can therefore help the longer term objective of making Jagex adopt some form of clan support within runescape.

Runescape RAW League

Runescape clans have began to be more organised in a sense when dealing with clan ranks. This has taken the form of the RAW League with the primary aim of regular warring within the runescape community.

Not all clans have taken it upon themselves to be entered into the league ranking and not all clans wishing to be included would adhere to the rules. As of 27/04/07 the following clan rank list was updated to reflect the current standings:


1. Divine Forces (DF)
2. Corruption (Corr)
3. Damage Inc. (DI)
4. Lithuanian Forces (LF)
5. The Runescape Warhungers Federation (TRWF)
6. THE (THE)
7. The Mighty Red Dragons (TMRD)
8. BlacKnights (BK)
9. Eternal Honour (EH)
10. Violent Resolution (VR)
11. Chivalry Legions (CL)
12. Anarchy (@)
13. Wilderland (WL)
14. RuneScape Elites ((RE)
15. Gladiatorz (GLADZ)
16. Red Devil Clan (RDC)
17. The Flipscapes Clan (TFC) ~
18. The British Elites (TBE) +
19. Masters of Dragons (MoD)
20. Echo of Silence (EoS) +

The RAW clan ranks are not an official method of ranking clans but it is a good indication on how various clans are performing on the battlefront.

A total of 60 clans are currently active in the listing and I felt giving a list of the top 20 would suffice to demonstrate a level of warring required to make it to that level.

Jagex presently do not have any clan support in runescape and the formation of the RAW league and its success, may persuade Jagex to look at implementing greater clan facilities into runescape.

Runescape Clans and P2P Wilderness

Clans in runescape dominate the wilderness without any shadow of a doubt. However, the clan atmosphere is in a different league between free to play and pay to play (P2P). A recent dicussion on runescape community forums asked the questions and wanted opinions of people on what destroys the P2P Wild?

There were some different views taken by different people, although it boiled down to a small number of reasons:

1. No Honour Clans
2. One Itemers
3. Ancient Magic
4. Cost of items significantly greater

The list is relatively short and in some aspect it can easily show a reason why numerous people prefer to fight on free to play rather than pay to play. Runescape clans will not be as strong overall in P2P and therefore have less control over situations. This enables no honour clans an easier task to crash and interfere in any clan wars.

When any clan war in runescape P2P wild takes place there will be a network of one itemers and no honour members assembling and getting ready to crash the war. The fun element for them is taking the enjoyment out of the wilderness for other people. Clans will normally be much weaker in overall strength on P2P as not all clan members would be runescape members. However, almost every single no honour clan member or one itemer will be a member.

The organisation isn't as great on P2P when events get crashed as the crashers are simply their to cause mayhem - this causes confusion in clan ranks and members are less likely to return when they do not know what is happening or who exactly is crashing etc. With less organisation, lower members and more confusion, many clans simply refuse to hold P2P clan wars.

Overall, the cost of item replacement is certainly one factor that determines a persons ability and willingness to return to any clan war, although the fact no honour clans continually crash wars is probably the main reason in my opinion. The no honour clans will normally have a significant amount of ancient mages and therefore be able to cause huge damages quickly to any group of people. This hampers the ability of many melee based members to actually be able to do anything to help their clan. Consequently, returning is often pointless and certain fatality would only come of it.

Free to play runescape wilderness is much more evenly balanced in terms of the pking triangle and clans can maintain a much greater control over their organisation even when they get crashed. On top of that, all runescape members will be able to afford replacement of rune sets much more readily than barrows items or other specialist member items.

I don't know whether Jagex will ever get around to coding some sort of clan support, but one reason they should look at it is as a way to prevent the no honour clans (normally the same people associated with multiple types of cheating and scamming), from ruining the fun of the majority of more honest runescape clans and pkers in general.

Runescape Honour Versus No Honour

In the runescape clan world there has been an ongoing debate between honour and no honour clans. Personally, my preference is for some sort of honour system. I don't mean it to be extremely organised, but moreso, for it to be recognised as being respectful to other clans and showing common courtesy.

Runescape is a game at the end of the day and although Jagex do not officially recognise clans in runescape, perhaps they should consider the wider picture and look at adapting some formal clan system into the game. This would enable clans to be more organised from within the game user interface and would help establish some honour system.

Clans that respect each other will generally be classified as clans with honour, while clans that continually crash other clan wars or tournaments will normally be classed with no honour. In addition to crashing events or clan wars, no honour clans will also employ tactics that are frowned on by many of the runescape clan community. Activities such as luring, running from battles and looting at other clan wars can be broadly classified as without honour.

The fact Jagex do not recognise clans is one major limitation on being able to formalise some clan ethics within runescape. It is therefore normally set by established clans that want to promote a more active wilderness. This limits the impact of any generally agreed principles and as it is disjointed, it is really left open to individual interpretation - causing arguments or conflict within some runescape clans.

Overall, honour in runescape clans is never likely to become something that Jagex would adapt. It will therefore continue to be a cause of contention among the runescape clan community and we will continue to see the rise and fall of clans as time passes on. The large majority of runescape clans do work with their own rules and generally could be considered honourable clans. However, there has been an increase in the number of clans without honour and if this trend continues it can possibly have a large impact on runescape pking overall... with less players wanting to remain active in their clan and less pking in runescape in the long term.

Runescape Clans Not Endorsed

Runescape clans play an important role in the game for many players, however Jagex, the creators of runescape do not officially recognize or endorse clan activity. Jagex do acknowledge that certain players enjoy being part of a team and have introduced features they consider addresses the issue of clans.

The clan features (rather team oritentated features), that Jagex introduced to runescape are:

• Wilderness Team Capes
• Multi-player Mini Games
• Clan Forum section on the main runescape forums

These features may address some aspects of team play and go some way to unofficially accepting that clans play an important role for many runescape players. However, as most other MMORPG games have readily embraced clan activities, Jagex still hold back on implementing a coded solution.

If Jagex were to appease all runescape clan enthusiasts and implement a coded solution, the overall impact of clans in the runescape community would be increased significantly. Clans would be able to become organised through the game interface and official (or unofficial) tournaments or clan leagues would be much easier to control.

Runescape clans continue to thrive and exist beyond the Jagex realm and will continue to do so. However, by appeasing the large volume of members in clans and introducing an effective clan system into the game, Jagex can bring more benefits and longevity to the overall virtual lifespan of the average players' subscription.

Overall, Jagex are unlikely to change their opinion on whether a more formal can system should be introduced to runescape, even though many players only continue playing the game due to the clan they belong to. The runescape wilderness itself is dominated by clans and a formal clan system would help those players who are isolated from clan activities thoroughly enjoy their adventures more by being able to be more interactive in the game with others who are involved with clans.

Runescape Clan Closures

Dark Slayers:
Dark Slayers (DS), one of the more dominant clans in runescape have closed since last month. This provoked a lot of discussion on the clan community at Zybez. The decision had been taken many months before to end on the anniversary of its creation.

Runescape clan ranks may now be influenced by ex-DS members. It will depend on how many people remain active and on which clans they join. Many members appear to have joined up with Divine Forces (DF), and this will surely boost their overall capabilities in the wilderness.

Over at runehead editorials, there was an interview with the DS Leaders on msn and it explained why the clan closed as well as some mentions on the clan achievements.

Runescape pking, especially in free to play, will notice an impact to some degree, however, member worlds will not really be affected as most DS members pked mainly on free worlds.

Anzacs Closes:
Anzacs Clan (AZ), closed its doors for the final time as well. I do not know much about it and the news of its closure comes in the wake of the more headline grabbings closure of DS. At one stage they had a memberbase of 130 with a combat average of 110.8.

The combined closure of both Anzacs and Dark Slayers will enable existing runescape clans to boost their own ranks. It may have some impact in the wilderness as far as pking is concerned, although most people will remain unaffected.

As always, new clans will rise and fall with truly great clans choosing their time to disband instead of waiting for the inevitable to happen through inactivity or internal disruptions. Runescape clans will continue to be a source of enjoyment for any player who loves pking.

Runescape Clan League

Runescape Clans may soon have a clan league on their hands as there is a league being formed over at Zybez community discussion forums. I must say that this is something that has a lot of potential to guarantee clans of all sizes some regular battles in the wilderness. In addition, it may lead to Jagex someday introducing a clan battle arena and making it a more formal process.

When I initially wanted to start a runescape help site I had the idea of running a clan league to cater for all types of players. I had wanted to make it database driven where a clan representative would register their clan roster and then be able to keep their team members updated via the site. I still have an idea on how to make the process easily managed and would like to develop my idea if I can get ahold of some developers.

There are many different aspects to runescape clans and most of the top clans will be unlikely to participate for fear of losing their reputation. However, for those that do enter, there will be plenty of opportunity to get fighting experience in the wilderness.

In essence, it is a similar concept to the clan knockout tournament but with more regular and guaranteed action as clans will have to face each other througout the course of a season. This should prove a very useful learning experience for many new players - and help clans who do well to recruit new people into their ranks.

In mentioning clan recruitment, any player can register on my main runescape help site and submit their clan recruitment article or their clan event or even submit an article on any recent clan pking trips in the the runescape clans section.

Jagex Consider Clan Support?

In July, Jagex ran a poll on how people play Runescape. This was a chance for the clan community as a whole to make an impact and show Jagex the number of people who enjoyed the clan worlds. However, due to the options presented, many people missed this opportunity to give some great feedback to Jagex about how important the runescape clan community was.



As you can see from the results, option 3 (I play with a large group/clan of people only received 7% of the votes. This is unlikely to get Jagex to change their views on introducing a fully functioning clan system into Runescape. However, 43% of the people who voted did choose option 4. This may well have been a wasted vote and if any were involved with a clan, they missed the opportunity to influence Jagex decision making.

Just remember, next time if you see a vote that includes an option that mentions clans, then you should make a wise choice and not effectively waste the vote.

Clan Member Lists

In the past, there have been some websites that have tried to get a good clan listing system in place but have since gone down and are no longer maintained.

Currently, there is only one site that I am aware of that is still being maintained and also gives a very solid database for players to check out other clan member lists. The site I am referring to is the RuneScape HighScores Catalogue.

For any players that are not familiar with how the highscores catalogue works, it is primarily used by clans to maintain their members and also get an indication of the overall strength of their clan.

At the time of writing this post, the current top 10 on the clans list is:

As you can see, this is a summary of some of the things that are considered in evaluating who actually are the top 10 clans in Runescape. The number of players in the clan, the average skill level, the average hitpoint level and the average combat level are all factors that can be considered. However, there is no point a clan having all the best averages if they have no activity, and as such, this is a very useful resource regarding runescape clans - but it again cannot give an actual answer to which clans are the top 10 in runescape.

It is invariably the opinion of people at the end of the day that will have their own top 10 clans, and it is fun at times to see how peoples opinions change over time and how actual clans develop as a result of clan leader decisions.

Free to play - Clan Uniform

Generally all clans will have a basic clan uniform based on melee. In the free to play wilderness, melee is the most predominant fighting style and therefore most clans will expect their members to be fighting in full uniforms.

The basic uniform is generally full rune equipment with a rune scimitar as the weapon of choice. The cape colour will vary depending on which clan you belong to while some clans may not insist on the leather boots or the green dragon vambraces. This uniform has been an accepted part of clans for a long time. However, the recent new boots for free to play may become part of the uniforms due to having slightly better stats than the basic leather boots. In general, if a clan wears the same uniform they are less likely to attack each other in the heat of battle, although it does happen from time to time.

In addition to Clan Leaders insisting on members wearing an appropriate uniform, they will normally also insist on having a basic inventory of food and potions. On free to play servers this is normally 1 basic strength potion and 27 cooked Swordfish as players on free to play servers cannot use any other potions at this time. Some clans may opt for 2 basic strength potions and fill the remaining inventory with cooked lobster. The choice is purely down to the clan leader and council.

Overall, if a clan does not have a uniform of some sort they will be weaker due to the fact not everyone will always bring the best equipment available to them. If people are not wearing decent equipment, or if they dont wear a full uniform, then collectively as a unit, they will have lower overall strength, defense and power.

Sacred Templars Vs Divine Forces

The scene is set.

Sacred Templars start to muster for a PK trip and Divine Forces have already been out pking and have large options of around 270 (90 players). Sacred Templars pull together 210opts (70 players) and know that Divine Forces are out in the wild. A request for a planned run-in is made and subsequently accepted. Returning was permitted and no boundaries had been set. Below is one of the options pictures for Divine Forces and at this time I do not have any starting opts pictures for Sacred Templars.



Sacred Templars march into the battlefield and rush the waiting Divine Forces Clan. Immediately, Sacred Templars are scattered and disorganised due to being spread out by marching in the way they had. Divine Forces quickly get into the swing of things and are piling people quite effectively and managing to keep their attacking groups limited to about 2 main calling piles.

The battle starts to spread out and there are many Sacred Templars walking around looking for a target to attack as they have chased a Divine Forces member east, then chased them west and then east again. The signs look ominous for the Sacred Templars - defeat is inevitable on this occasion as the initial attacks left the templar forces spread far and wide.

The green dots in these 3 pictures represent Sacred Templar members. As can be seen in the first two pictures, Divine Forces appear to have much greater control over their organisation, subsequently appearing more effective in picking off opponents.
However, the pictures are not 100% accurate, not all clan members are visible as green dots due to having their private chat off.

This final picture shows more what battles normally appear to be - close knit groups of friends working together to try and successfully overcome all foes in front of them. During this particular encounter, there were not many moments where either clan showed full control over their actions.

On this occasion though, Divine Forces did hold their ranks tighter and as a result duely claimed victory.

The Victory celebrations can be seen in full flow below at Edgeville Bank after the Divine Forces Clan has returned from the Wilderness.

What makes a clan successful?

Ultimately, depending on other people for success is an inherent flaw in the clan system. It is a flaw because of the diversity of the people coming together and the various time zones that players belong to.

Ideally, a successful clan would be one that displays complete trust in all of its members and can always rely on activity when it is needed most - as a display of strength.

Many clans rise and fall within Runescape due to the voltatile nature of many of the leaders. The major downfall for many may be the leader itself who can display an ego problem, a problem with managing people or simply cluelessness and the inability to make key decisions.

Successful clans generally display similar traits:

1. A strong leader always prepared to make decisions in the interests of the clan
2. A loyal group of friends that will always help defend a friend
3. An enjoyment of wilderness PK trips and battles
4. Generally abiding by Jagex Rules - which helps control the turnover
5. Highly active members willing to attend both PK events and non-pk events

Of course, there are many other factors that are included when considering what makes a clan successful. I have simply stated a few that I believe are common to many of the top clans. If you feel there are any noteworthy aspects left out then feel free to comment and I can later amend the list to include it.

Runescape Clan Ranks - June 2006

1. DI - Damage Incorporated
2. DS - Dark Slayer
3. RSD - Runescape Dinasty
4. The - The Clan
5. Gladz - The Gladiatorz
6. ST - Sacred Templars
7. TRWF - The Runescape Warhungers Federation
8. Corr - Corruption
9. DF - Divine Forces
10. MK - Mystic Knights

This is my opinion of the current top 10 in the Runescape World.

There are some noted exceptions and mainly Hostile Alliance has been excluded as I do not know enough about them although I am aware they can muster quite high numbers of players on occasions. Time will tell if they make it into the top 10.

Discuss who your top 10 would be or who deserves to be in the top 10.

Areas to judge when making your decision are:
1. Numbers of players
2. Activity of players
3. War results
4. Normal Pk battles
5. Overall Attitude of members within the clan.