Last month I wrote an article on why you should train combat with Slayer. This month I am following that up and discussing how you can combine Slayer with Farming and Herblore all while being self sufficient and making a profit. Although being self sufficient is not always the most cost effective or fastest way to train a skill, many people often find it much more satisfying knowing that they did the work themselves rather than relying on others. In this article will attempt to show a balance, so that in following it you can provide for yourself as much as you can without it becoming an extreme hassle.

In order to most effectively do slayer, you should be using the highest attack and strength potions and prayers that you have available, meaning you will be going through a substantial amount of prayer potions as well as super or extreme attack and strength potions. This is where the farming and herblore come in. As I mentioned last month, one of the benefits of slayer is that it breaks the combat up into tasks allowing for herb runs and a bit of potion making in between. You can easily spend a few hours slaying and doing quick five minute herb runs and a few minutes of making those potions in between tasks.

As far as gathering the potion supplies goes, the degree of self sufficiency is up to you. For the purposes of this guide, I would recommend buying the herb seeds from the Grand Exchange and collecting everything else yourself. This is because gathering a sufficient amount of specific seeds in a rather short period of time is not very easy, whereas the rest of the secondaries and vials can simply be purchased from an NPC shop or picked up off the ground. Here is a quick guide for obtaining vials of water and the secondaries needed for each potion:

• Vials of water can be bought in packs of 50 from various NPCs across Gielenor. Each week you can buy 40 packs of vials from Poletax in Taverly, totalling 2000 vials every week. If that is not enough Jossik at the Lighthouse and Obil at the Shilo Village general store stock 20 packs each.
• Prayer Potion – Snape Grass: There are over 25 Snape Grass spawns on Waterbirth Island, making there a great place to collect them at a fast pace. With 73 Magic and access to the Lunar Spellbook, you can easily teleport to the island, fill up your inventory and BoB of choice, then teleport back to the bank, repeating as necessary. Without this spell you can still access the island after The Fremennik Trials quest by talking to Jarvald in Rellekka, yet getting to him from the bank is much slower than simply teleporting to the island.
• Super Attack Potion – Eye of Newt: Just like the vial of water packs, you can purchase 20 packs of 50 eye of newts from Poletax or Jatix in Taverly. This adds up to 2000 eye of newts in one short trip.
• Super Strength Potion – Limpwurt Root: At level 20 Dungeoneering you can access the Hill Giant Edgeville Resource Dungeon where there are 4 limpwurt root spawns. Similar to collecting the Snape Grass, an Amulet of Glory can be used to teleport to the Edgeville bank, then run back to the resource dungeon.

The other half of making the potions is of course the herbs. The herbs you farm will vary based on whether or not you are making extreme potions or not. For those who don’t know how to do herb runs, an old but not outdated by Chief Snake can be found here. Here is an outline for what you should bring on a herb run depending on what potions you are making:

Super Potions:
1 Irit seed for Super Attacks
1 Kwuarm seed for Super Strengths
2 (3 if you have done the My Arm’s Big Adventure quest) Ranarr seeds for Prayer Potions

Extreme Potions:
Alternate between 1 Irit seed and 1 Avantoe seed for Extreme Attacks*
Alternate between 1 Kwarm and 1 Dwarf Weed seed for Extreme Strengths*
3 (Assuming you have done the quest as you are making high level potions) Ranarr Seeds

*Another option would be to just buy the Super versions and make them into extremes with the herbs you farm.
OR
1 Irit seed for Super Attacks
1 Kwuarm seed for Super Strengths
1 Avantoe seed for Extreme Attacks
1 Dwarf Weed seed for Extreme Strengths
1 Ranarr seed for Prayer Potions

And now, the slaying can begin! A full guide to Slayer could go on forever, but here are some general things you should take into consideration when slaying following this guide. Doing at least 1 herb run for every two slayer tasks should provide you with plenty of attack, strength and prayer potions. Keeping this in mind, don’t wait until your boosted level falls back to your normal level to drink another attack and strength potion. “Re-potting” every 4 to 6 minutes should help maximise your damage output and not use up more potions than you are making. Also, you should be making enough prayer potions where you should not only be able to use your best attack and strength prayer(s) the entire task, but using the appropriate protection prayers as well to eliminate the need for food at all. Since you will be using so much prayer and not needing defensive gear when using protection prayers, Initiate and Proselyte armours unlocked from the Temple Knight quest series can help reduce prayer drain, allowing you to use less prayer potions.

I hope this guide gives you a new look in to Slayer and helps you find greater satisfaction of training multiple skills together without heavily relying on other players for resources. Happy Slaying!