It's explaining why training magic via High aclhing is a waste of time.
Didn't we already go over this? Alching is a waste of your time. Nothing, except fire capes (which would take a rediculous amount of time to get), would get you anywhere close to a mask/santa/phat. The highest profit I've ever heard of something you can buy off the GE then alch is about 100 gp. Almost nothing buys below alch price on the GE, usually lowest price is just over the high alch price.Now that I know how long it'll take me to get to 99 Magic,
what should I alch, that'll get me some decent cash?
I already have the nature runes.
There's a prize in it for someone who can tell me:
What to alch, for 99 mage (from 79) that will get me near enough for a mask / santa / phat? :o
What's your favourite colour
You would be much better off stringing jewellery, plank making, or surging dragons, and saving the time to do much more fun things. I mean, from 1.8m XP until 99 is 172,838 high alchs. At 1.1k an hour perfect clicking 99% of the time that's just over 157 hours. 157 hours of *click* *click* *click* *click* etc.
For fire wave on Metal Dragons (eventually upgrading to surge spells) it would probably take about 40 - 50k casts, probably less. This being about 45 - 55 hours (takes slightly longer to cast a surge spell then an alch) which is still over 100 hours shorter then alching. I couldn't tell you an exact cost on this method, because of the variable xp/cast (mage damage), however doing clues, getting dragon drops, and IF you have 96 Summoning, you can bank the Dragon Bones for a huge profit. Even if you don't you can bury them or use a bonecrusher to automatically bury them for bonus Prayer xp, which in itself is expensive.
**I personally used the Metal dragon method and profited over 11m from 96 - 99**
Stringing Jewellery is 132,945 Casts from 80 (need 80 to cast it) and casts about twice as fast as alching (1.8 seconds to cast vs 3 seconds). That's about 3k casts an hour. This method would take 44 Hours to get 99, Saving you over 110 hours then alching. Stringing Gold Amulet's is 3 gp/xp selling to the Rogue in Varrock. The total cost of this method would be 33.5m.
Plank Making from 86 (need 86 to cast it) to 99 would take 104,828 casts, at the same rate as stringing jewellery. This would be about 35 hours. Currently (with the cost of runes built in) using oak logs would get you 91gp profit/cast, and Teak logs are about a 112gp profit. Total profit (just from the training) would be 9,539,348gp on Oaks, and 11,407,736gp on Teaks.
Now, you may realize that "“Hey, these are way more expensive then alching!†as in the case of killing metal dragons and stringing jewellery, however, what you need to look at is the POTENTIAL profit.
Potential profit is money you COULD make during the time you saved. It is NOT guaranteed profit, however it is still something to take into consideration. If you could make 100 gp/alch, you would be making 110k an hour for 157 hours, which would be a total profit of 17,270,000gp. Yes, this is higher then the profit from Plank Making, and especially more then metal's or stringing jewellery. What's missing? The potential profit.
Say you can make 500k gp/hr doing something else, I don't know what else, you would have to figure that out (you can use this money making guide). At 500k/hr for 100 hours you would make 50,000,000 gp. This is much more then the 17,270,000gp from alching.
Some people can even make as much as 1.5m - 2m/hour doing things such as boss fighting or frost dragons, and can even have fun doing them.
As well as Potential Profit, there is also Potential XP gain. You could use that saved time to train other skills, and get your overall xp/total level up much quicker.
