A few weeks ago, I talked about how Sailing was the newest skill added into Runescape, and how I would not be touching it until I could easily cut through the early game. Well, that happened a week and a half ago when they allowed Tears of Guthix XP to be put into Sailing. This sped me up past a few quests, and I could go directly to salvaging as an afk activity. Ever since then, I have been afking quite a bit doing some deadlines, but the levels have been slowly moving up. Since, I have tried the Barracuda Trials and salving, I thought I would give my review of how the skill is so far. I have not done deep sea trawling, but I don't feel I would like it right now due to the low XP rates, and how active you have to be.
My current Sailing Level
As of right now, I am level 73 Sailing. It's also the level where you hit around 1 million XP, and that is 1/13th of the way to 99. I feel like I have broken even in terms of cost and what I have earned from salvaging so far. So I don't think the skill is that bad. However, I don't look forward to the rest of the upgrades because they do seem quite expensive. It won't be long until Sailing isn't my lowest skill.
What do I think about the XP rates?
Below level 40, I think the rates are horrible, and it isn't as afk as I would like. I think I'll talk about the thing I did the most then talk about a few of the other options.
Salvaging
Once you get to level 40, and have access to crew members, it's not as bad. When I don't have time, I just set my crewmates to salvage for me, and the XP just comes in. If my cargohold is full, I still get XP but no salvage. Essentially, it can become a 30 minute afk session for XP even if the XP is horrible. So in terms of that, I think it's fairly good. The image above, where I showed my skill total is also showing my salvaging. I love those double salvaging spots because it's less likely for my downtime to hit me.
My current goal for salvaging is to get all the treasures and the rare items from salvaging. The treasures that I show above come out at a 1/3000 drop rate. There are also a few more rare drops with a drop rate of 1/20000, so I think that getting all of them at least once will take me at least halfway to 99 by being mostly afk. At the same time, I have cleared out the lower salvage areas where I don't earn anything, and I am focusing more on the profitable areas for those drops.
Sea Charting
One thing they released is a Captain's Log, and it contains a bunch of one-time xp drops for going around the entire seas documenting things. I don't have all of it done, but it took like 4-5 hours to get what I had done already. I didn't have the level required to finish all the charting for that bonus experience. I do think it's a good way to get some bonus XP and speed up your early game. The current ducks and weather charting are the worst, though. The ducks take a few minutes to go to their destination, and weather charting is so buggy that you have to spam-click near the spot to get them (you have to stand on their exact tile).
Barracuda Trials
Barracuda is a way of more actively training the skill, and it provides the best XP rates for the skill once you unlock it. I don't like being as active on them, and honestly, I just do it for the first clear reward. Above, you can see what I have for the Jubbly Hive (the second one). It took me a few hours to get the Merlin rank because I was dumb and didn't notice the 13th pillar. I was wondering why it wasn't clearing, and then it took a few times before I got it done without making any major mistakes. Overall, they provide a challenge, and it can be good if you can stand it. It's not for me though as I will just be getting my first clears for the rewards and moving on.
Conclusion and my plans
I plan on afking quite a bit while doing the salvaging. At least until I have some higher levels, because some more ship upgrades might make that last Barracuda Trial easier. I had so much trouble in Jubbly Jive, so I don't know if I can stand that trial for now. I think it's a fairly nice skill, even if some of the stuff like charting and Barracuda Trials are a pain. It was a new type of challenge, I guess. Taking more time, but afking it to 99 is perfectly fine with me.
Do you play Old School Runescape? If so, have you tested the new Sailing skill?