Professions

An example of Profession Points in action, it might make the idea a little less confusing;

At level 20 you gain your first PP. I'm going to use Melee as an example.

At level 21 Attack I receive my second Warrior-PP. Should my Strength level overtake and reach 22 first, I will receive my third Warrior-PP from Strength. I now have 50 Warrior-PP and have been purchasing my way down the Guard Profession, with one or two of the earlier upgrades in the other professions (but I don't plan to go much further). I get bored of being a Guard, and pay to have all by Warrior-PP returned to the bin and I decided to spend them (instead) on the Berserker Profession. You can only do this once a day (or just less, similar to staffs).

I am not limited to my profession, but changing it is costly. Not training a profession doesn't affect my ability from the before the upgrade, it only adds a more interesting way to customise my character than, say, wearing a different set of armour. The closest thing I can think of is the Family Crest Gauntlets - you get one for free, and have to pay 30k to upgrade! Back in my day it was only 20k, they've raised the price (unless this is built in, the more times you change, the more it costs each time ^{[which is actually a good idea, lol]}. Prayer Books are similar, although you get one for free and have to pay a bundle to unlock the ability to buy the others - so it's not quite the same.

"Professions" use a talent/skill tree like system used by many MMOs. Each class has three Professions that you can master, or you can get half-way to mastering all three - although it's better to choose one. Unlike some games where an upgrade is active from the moment you've purchases it, in RuneScape a player may only have an amount of unlocks active at once. The first game that came to mind was Bioshock. If I recall, in Bioshock you can only have 5 of your power-ups active at once but they stack with other active power-ups (so you could have 2x "2x Damage Multipliers" active at once). For Professions there would be a second body-panel like interface where you can select/change any active unlocks (this interface can be accessed from banks/specific locations). The Profession Trees and purchasing upgrades is handled by the Tutors in Lumbridge.

Profession Trees only control what unlocks you can purchase at any particular level - also, the amount of points required for the high-end unlocks in one profession means you cannot unlock the high-end unlocks in another. So you cannot have the ability to wield two-handed weapons with one hand (a possible Berserker Upgrade) with 0.5x Damage Multiplier (a possible Guard upgrade). Some upgrades won't be that useful, but are required to get higher up in the Profession ladder. Some unlocks would grey-out other unlock-zones (like a two-handed weapon and the shield zone).

This is all in aid of adding variety, so two players with the same get-up and levels aren't necessarily going behave the same.

• Archer Professions - Arbalest, Hunter and Marksman.
• Magician Professions - Archmage, Elemental/Arcanist and Warlock.
• Warrior Professions - Berserker, Guard and Swordsman.

Arbalests work with Crossbows. This chain focuses more on the Crossbow as a weapon - as well as the general Ranged class. Hunters have no specific weapon. This chain focuses more on the accuracy of Ranged - it also has effects which reduces the players "aggro". Marksman work primarily with bows. This chain focuses mainly on bows - increasing their accuracy, power - as well as general aspects of Ranged.

Archmages focus more on power, sacrificing upgrades in speed and accuracy. This chain, therefore, focuses on the general effectiveness of spells. Elementals wield the elements better than other Magicians - power, speed and accuracy. This chain focuses on the basic Wind, Water, Earth and Fire elements. Warlocks are based on the "tank" tactic - upgrades which increase the players "aggro", and higher defence upgrades than an Archmage or Elemental. However, unlike the melee tank, the offensive upgrades of a Warlock are generalised - fairly utilising all aspects (accuracy, speed, damage, etc - not all in the same upgrade, mind).

Unique to Magic, whilst utilising the Ancient Spellbook, the Elemental Profession is replaced with the Arcanist Profession. They are connected - so upgrading one will upgrade the other. Most upgrades are similar, but some aren't.

Berserkers focus on strength and blunt weapons. A higher-levelled upgrade (beyond the point of mixing professions) could be one-handed wielding of two-handed weapons. Guards are heavily based on the "tank" tactic - artificially high "aggro", increased strength and defence, but quite often have accuracy penalties. Swordsmen are skilled with blades and polearms. This chain focuses on general speed and accuracy, but includes (more than other chains) "attack techniques" - such as stunning and, a higher-levelled upgrade, injuring (where the foe would lose weapon-wielding abilities).

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Profession Points, or PP, are gained as you level. Archer, Magician and Warrior PP are independant of each other – as Jagex is promoting "unlocked" classes, despite adopting a "single class" system.

Using Warriors as an example, though it would be the same for Magicians and Archers – you gain your first Warrior-PP at level 20 Attack or Strength (whichever reaches level 20 first). You will gain an additional point with each level (again, whichever reaches the level first) – meaning a total of 79 Warrior-PP.

An upgrade can cost anywhere between 1 and 5 (this isn't determined by how far in the chain it is). You can spend PP on an upgrade even if you don't have enough PP, but it will not be unlocked until you have deposited the full amount of PP (so 3/5 PP, for example). Upgrades use a branch system. After unlocking an upgrade, you may choose to unlearn for free within the first 24 hours – in the first month of release, this time could be made infinite. Tutors can recall all PP (in their class) for a hefty fee (depending on how much they need to unteach you) - this allows you to completely redo your choices. However, aside from the first 24 hours, there is no way to unlearn specific upgrades (excluding the get-used-to-it period).

To complete a Profession you require *exactly* 60 PP - this means you have 19 PP spare to spend in the other two professions. However, you could share the 79 PP out evenly, should you wish, but this limits you to low levelled upgrades.

Remember, each class has independent profession points – so that's 79 Archer-PP, 79 Magician-PP and 79 Warrior-PP in total!

No! Just NO! This is an affront to one of the most basic concepts of runescape! I am ashamed to hear this from you! I despise the concept of PP's (or at least a limited amount of PP's) Because the nice thing about runescape is that if you level attack to 99 that doesn't mean that strength is locked in lower due to a lack of points!
This could be fixed by having say...insane quests or crazy hard dungeons...that could award you over the max of 79...

Say what? You've completely misunderstood.

How? I know exactly what you're saying!

Edit: I know this wouldn't apply to attack and str, it's and example albeit a bad one

At no point did I say that training Attack would limit your Strength.

As i said I know that's a bad example...I just am saying that that is a basic principle...if you train ranging it doesn't limit you from training magic due to a lack of points, but here if you train archmage you are limited in training warlock/elemental due to a lack of points

At no point did I say that Professions would affect the current gameplay, either.

And: "Remember, each class has independent profession points – so that's 79 Archer-PP, 79 Magician-PP and 79 Warrior-PP in total!" At no point did I say that having a Melee profession would hinder your ability in Magic or Ranged. I say again, you've completely misread it.

At no point did i say that either! What I am saying is that a principle of runescape is that mage doesn't hinder melee doesn't hinder range etc.

why should it be then that within the classes various proffesions would hinder other proffessions

Having a profession only limits your ability to access other professions in the same class. Being a Berserk means you cannot be a Tank. However, this does not affect the default gameplay, so no-one loses out. Professions only allow variety to players.


At the moment players are clones... the only thing that can change this is locked/semi-locked choices. If you could easily switch between Professions then the whole point of it (adding variety) is removed, as again there is nothing making you different from the next person.

Exactly! Why should they though! that goes against runescape principle!