The Bird and the Beast

So today Jagex released the 2nd world event, the Bird and the Beast!

Post your opinions below..

*I would of posted this in updates but I don't have the rights :p*

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The Bird and the Beast - World Event 2

Bandos and Armadyl are locked in a deific stand-off above Falador. From atop lofty towers, they're gathering divine energy to fuel siege weapons of prodigious power - enough to kill a god.

After pledging your allegiance to Armadyl or Bandos, you'll support the energy-gathering effort to help your god get his shot off first, killing the other outright.

Protect friendly caravans sent out to gather the energy and attack those belonging to the enemy; battle enemy players; build powerful war structures along the caravan routes and have your say in your side's grand strategy - all to make sure your god's the one standing at the end!

The stakes have never been higher, and the rewards are awesome: new combat abilities; hybrid armour with a chance to reduce cooldowns on combat abilities; titles, cosmetic weapon overrides and - of course - plenty of XP.

Read on for further details, or get started now!

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The War Effort

Whether you're a battle-hardened fighter or a peaceful skiller, there's plenty that you can do to help determine the outcome of The Bird and the Beast. Everything described in this section will help your faction harvest divine energy and/or hinder the enemy in doing so, thus affecting the factions' overall score. At the end of the six week event, the side that has the highest overall score (as shown on the bar at the top of the screen in event areas) will emerge victorious - and for the losing god, it'll be lights out!

Contributing in also earns you renown that can be spent on rewards at your faction's quartermaster.

Note that this a safe event. If you die in one of the marked zones around RuneScape's major cities - be it to an NPC or another player - you'll respawn with all your gear intact at your faction camp.

Once you've spoken to Kara-Meir north of Falador and chosen your side, you're good to get started. Read on, and see the wiki for full details of everything you can do to help.

Caravans

Divination energy is gathered by caravans sent out by both sides. The position of active caravans can be seen on the war map in your faction camp, or the world map interface.

Attack your enemy's caravans and accompany your own to ensure your side comes out on top. If enabled via the Bird and the Beast interface, you can even fight other players for renown, heroic skulls and bragging rights. Note that having PvP enabled also increases your overall renown gain.

If you're not a fighting type, you can follow friendly caravans and help siphon divine energy when they stop, or you can halt enemy NPC diviners by clicking on them. You can also interrupt players who are siphoning energy by using a disruptor rod on them.

Construction

RuneScape members can claim construction nodes along the caravan routes, and can choose from a selection of useful buildings to place there, whose handy effects include summoning friendly NPCs and increasing energy gathering speed. Once chosen, the initiating player will start to build, and others (both free players and members) can help.

Each claimed node acts as a teleportation destination for its faction, accessible via the war map.

If the opposing faction has claimed a node, you can work to sabotage it. If it's destroyed, its benefits will be removed its benefits and the node will be freed up.

Strategy

You'll have a say in a certain aspects of your faction's battle strategy.

One example is the construction of golems. Speak to the golem master on the first floor of your faction's tower to cast your vote on what body parts to use in its construction. The completed golems will defend or attack caravans (depending on how they've been built), thus contributing to the faction's score.

Check out the strategy board and the voting board - both at your faction camp - for more voting opportunities. More will become available as the weeks go on, so keep checking back!

A World at War

NPC-versus-NPC skirmishes can break out at a number of locations in the world, and their outcomes affect your faction's overall score. Vote wisely on your faction's recruitment strategy - thus affecting the type of fighters your faction fields in these fights. And if you see one in progress, wade in and help!

More Spoils of War

When you sign up to a faction, you'll earn a token of fealty, which gives you 10 teleports to your faction camp per day and unlocks event-related buffs as your personal contribution increases, geared toward improving your performance in the event.

You can requisition rewards from your faction's quartermaster in exchange for your earned renown.

Among these are all-new combat abilities, usable from level 10 in their related skills:

Sacrifice a basic ability (Constitution) that self-heals as you deal damage.
Devotion: a threshold ability (Defence) that grants 100% effectiveness of protection prayers for a time. The effect can be extended by killing enemies.
Renown: an ultimate ability (Constitution) that stuns you for a short duration, then heals more than twice any damage you've received during that stun, and subsequently imparts a lengthy stun immunity.
Renown will also buy you hybrid warpriest armour that scales in effectiveness up to level 75 Defence (50 for free players). Also, wearing three pieces or more of the armour earns you a set effect: a chance to reduce your longer ability cooldowns.

The quartermaster can also grant you faction-specific emotes and titles, as well as generous XP lamps.

More rewards will open up as the weeks progress. Be bold, be resolute, and check back as the event goes on!

Finally, you'll be able to collect sacred metal fragments and faction-specific weapon components as you fight and work on battlefield structures. 1000 fragments and a weapon component can be combined to make orkish or aviansie weapon overrides for claws, shields, throwing weapons and wands.

Keep Up the Fight!

There's something for everyone to do here, in our most epic in-game event yet. The event will develop and escalate as the weeks go on, with plenty of surprises to come. Watch the news and in-game notifications for details!

Fight for the future of your favourite god, but - most importantly - have fun!

The RuneScape Team

I'm going to try this right now! I'll leave my opinion when i'm done

Just got my 30,000 renown! I'm unsure if I like this right now, it seems pretty pointless... but yeah, it's afk and free con xp Who can complain.

I'm having really horrible connection issues. Not sure what's up!

zomg free con xp gfoing to try right now!

From the few mins ive gotten today. It seams well detailed and well thought out. One thing that disappointed me was the lack in the PvP part of it all. I wish it would work like wild. Where you lose all gear on death. I think that would make it feel more like a war. I know a few ppl on bandos that just have it disabled because of the ratio 10 armadyl followers vs 1 bados follower. At the very least they should have made it 1vs 1

From the few mins ive gotten today. It seams well detailed and well thought out. One thing that disappointed me was the lack in the PvP part of it all. I wish it would work like wild. Where you lose all gear on death. I think that would make it feel more like a war. I know a few ppl on bandos that just have it disabled because of the ratio 10 armadyl followers vs 1 bados follower. At the very least they should have made it 1vs 1

I agree that it should of been 1v1

Bandos.. or arma.. bandos.. or arma D: IDK WHO TO PICK

This event was so poorly thought out, it's baffling. There's supposed to be pvp and battling for control of the land, but there's none of that because one side outnumbers the other 15-1. On top of that, the event was designed to cripple the losing side further, and there's no chance of anything but a massacre. I don't see why they didn't just kill Bandos in the opening cutscene.

Lmao, so true. Everyones actually just there for exp, no one ever cared about bandos :<

Just did the calcs for the lamps, and huge is 2.614 exp/renown, large is 2.514 exp/renown, med is 2.4428 exp/renown and small is 2.0429 exp/renown, so save up and buy that silver token!

I chose to follow Armadyl a while back, and everyone pretty much knew Bandos would lose this one. Unless there's a huge change before the 6 weeks is up...

And the 1v1 would have been better. Also not being allowed to run quickly out of pvp to avoid death, since it is safe on death after all... Maybe they could have made it so you have 30 seconds of 1v1 and then you are eligible for ffa or something. And a similar rule for exiting pvp... Maybe like 10-15 seconds after you leave you are safe, but still able to be killed in those 10-15 seconds.