History YMMV / RuneScape

** The Dragon Scimitar fell into ScrappyWeapon territory once the Evolution of Combat dropped, which only worsened once its historically-reviled special attack got added back in 2014, making it inferior to literally all other dragon weapons (which had the same or similar stats, but better special attacks). This all changed in 2022, when dragon weapons had their special attacks rebalanced across the board. The scimitar got one of the biggest buffs, with its attack going from a vastly inferior version of the Havoc ability that cost 55% adrenaline, to a more utility-oriented special attack — in addition to having a much lower cost of 25% adrenaline, it now gives a 25% accuracy bonus to slashing weapons for a minute. Combine this with the fact that many of the best melee weapons in the game are slashing weapons, and you have a highly useful special attack for fighting targets with high defence. While it might not have restored the beloved Dragon Scimitar to its former glory, it at least gives players a reason to keep it in their arsenal even for endgame combat.
** ''Old School'' had an equipment rebalance in 2021 that rescued several weapons from the heap, but the most significantly affected among them were warhammers. Once one of the worst weapon types in ''Old School'', warhammers got a significant buff that not only increased their damage output, but also changed them to have ''Strength'' level requirements instead of the typical Attack requirements of other weapons. This would be a significant change to the PlayerKilling scene, as it not only introduced Strength pures to the free-to-play game, it also gave members pures access to the powerful special attack of the Dragon warhammer.

* SelfImposedChallenge: Ironman Mode forbids any kind of trading with or recieving aide from other players. You must be entirely self sufficient, which puts a unique spin of the game. But this mode is entirely optional.

*** "Desert Treasure II" ups the ante with [[spoiler: the mysterious figure, who packs a lot more of a punch than the stranger does. She can ambush you anywhere at anytime, even inside the comforts of your own home. She'll also sometimes disguise herself as the sandwich lady.]]

** In general, there sometimes seems to be an undercurrent of resentment in free-to-play (f2p) players against pay-to-play (p2p) members. Part of it was that members have hundreds of extra hours of content, with a game world several times the volume of the free-to-play zone. Several years back, there was even a page on [[TheWikiRule the RuneScape wiki]] about ''free-to-play versus pay-to-play wars'', all about how f2p tried to revolt to get more content.

** "Curse of the Empty Lord" (renamed "Curse of Zaros" in later versions) is particularly notorious for requiring you to stand for long amounts of time in high-level Wilderness listening to [=NPCs=] give you a lore dump, hoping some [=PKer=] doesn't show up just to ruin your day. It's better in RS3, where [=PvP=] is opt-in only, but in ''Old School'' [=PvP=] is always on in the Wilderness.

** "Curse of the Empty Lord" (renamed "Curse of Zaros" in later versions) is particularly notorious for requiring you to stand for long amounts of time in high-level Wilderness listening to [=NPCs=] give you a lore dump, hoping some PKer doesn't show up just to ruin your day. It's better in RS3, where PvP is opt-out, but in ''Old School'' PvP is always on in the Wilderness.

** "Curse of the Empty Lord" (renamed "Curse of Zaros" in later versions) is particularly notorious for requiring you to stand for long amounts of time in high-level Wilderness listening to NPCs give you a lore dump, hoping some PKer doesn't show up just to ruin your day. It's better in RS3, where PvP is opt-out, but in ''Old School'' PvP is always on in the Wilderness.

* MorePopularSpinOff: ''Old School'' was released as a way to pacify those who were dissatisfied with the Evolution of Combat. Jagex initially treated it as more of a companion to the main game, and they didn’t even expect it to last more than six months. However, ''Old School'' went on to eclipse the main game.

*** "Desert Treasure II" ups the ante with [[spoiler: the mysterious figure, who packs a lot more of a punch than the stranger does. She can ambush you anytime, anywhere, even in the comforts of your own home. She'll also sometimes disguise herself as the sandwich lady.]]

** Coordinate clues require you to use a very clunky navigation interface to find a spot to dig. What's worse, some of them send you to dangerous places like the Wilderness where stopping to use said interface would be problematic. Many players regard these as de facto GuideDangIt moments.

** Recipe for Disaster, which at the time of its release was the game's longest and most difficult quest, is the sequel to Cook's Assistant, a ''tutorial'' quest.

** "Desert Treasure II" ups the ante with [[spoiler: the mysterious figure, who packs a lot more of a punch than the stranger does. She can ambush you anytime, anywhere, even in the comforts of your own home. She'll also sometimes disguise herself as the sandwich lady.]]

** The eighth Barrows wight, [[spoiler:Linza]] the Disgraced. It's similar to the other Barrows wights, but for whatever reason, it has over ''twelve times'' as much HP as they do, at ''150,000'' HP. Furthermore, the wight's special power can randomly reflect damage done back onto you, making it a hellish fight of attrition. Even worse, for whatever reason, Barrows amulets don't work on it. Thankfully, you never have to deal with her in the actual crypts by the loot chest.

** Night-Gazer Khighorahk. Its room has four torches at the corner that must be lit in order for the boss to become vulnerable. Keeping them lit is a chore, and you'll spend the brunt of the first phase relighting them over and over, only having enough time to get maybe a few attacks in. On top of this, if you get within melee distance of the boss, it uses a special attack that can deal well over 8,000 damage if you don't get out of the way. The second phase thankfully eliminates the need to light the torches, but the boss's regular attacks hit harder and it has a stun attack that it just ''loves'' to spam. Getting hit by the stun just before it prepares a special attack is almost guaranteed death unless you use Freedom.

* MorePopularSpinOff: ''Old School'' was released as a way to pacify those who were dissatisfied with the Evolution of Combat. Jagex initially treated it as more of a companion to the main game. They didn’t even expect it to last more than six months. However, ''Old School'' went on to eclipse the main game.

** ''Old School'''s "Song of the Elves" surprised players with its plot taking a hefty departure from ''[=RuneScape=]'''s "Within the Light" and "Plague's End", including [[spoiler:reviving King Baxtorian in the Waterfall Dungeon, turning Lord Iorwerth into an AntiVillain, Arianwyn's [[HeelFaceRevolvingDoor betrayal and then redemption]], the true nature of the "Dark Lord", and a hefty ShipTease between the player and [[TheBusCameBack Elena]]]]. While some players might be frustrated by some of the puzzles and [[spoiler:the Grand Library]], almost everyone agrees that both the [[SceneryPorn visuals]] and [[AwesomeMusic soundtrack]] are ''stunning'', especially at the end when you finally unlock access to Prifddinas.

** Ghasts. When just crossing the Myre they sometimes destroy your food, and during Temple Trekking they have annoyingly high HP and drop little loot. You can kill them, and you'll actually get a small amount of Prayer experience for it, but doing so requires druid pouches, which can be annoying to acquire. Thankfully a permanent version of the druid pouch can be earned as a Temple Trekking reward, but it doesn't make them any less annoying to kill.

** Pretty much every normal monster encountered in Daemonheim while Dungeoneering counts, particularly when you're trying to do a puzzle at the same time. And yes, on some floors there are even literal bats.
** The Tz-Kihs, flaming bats that dwell inside the Fight Cave. While they're the weakest enemy inside the cave, they drain your prayer, even if their attacks deal no damage. A group of them can quickly drain your prayer if they're not dealt with.

** Speaking of ''Old School'', two weapons stand out there: the Scythe of Vitur, and the Twisted Bow. The scythe because it hits in an arc like ''[=RS3=]'''s halberds listed above, but it does it with its basic attack, and hits targets bigger than one tile more than once, which can only be done with the dragon and crystal halberd's special attacks, the magic shortbow's special attack, or the dark bow. The Twisted Bow, however, takes the cake: it gains '''power and accuracy''' based on its target's Magic stat, which anything worth its salt has a very high level in because of how magic defence is calculated. With very few exceptions (made specifically to nerf the bow's ability against them, because it just shreds through them otherwise), anything that isn't very weak to magic is very weak to the twisted bow. The cherry on top is that while the scythe requires constant recharging with consumable materials that are used on each attack (~1250 coins per swing), the bow doesn't require ''any'' charging at all. Instead, its upkeep is the arrows it uses — while the cost per arrow is actually slightly ''more'' expensive than the scythe[[note]]assuming the use of dragon arrows, the bow's intended ammo, at about 1500 coins each[[/note]], they can at least be conserved by using an Ava's device as with any other ranged weapon, resulting in lower upkeep costs in the long run.

** Halberds, for one main reason - their longer reach compared to other melee weapons. Impressive in its own right, but when you take into account that the extra reach applies to abilities as well, including the many area-of-effect abilities available to two-handed melee weapons, you have a weapon class that, with the right setups, can result in ''hundreds of thousands'' to '''over a million''' melee experience per hour in places with large amounts of monsters, such as the Abyss or Mazcab. There's a very good reason why the strongest of these halberd-type weapons, the level 90 Noxious Scythe, is much more expensive compared to similar level 90 weaponry.
** A few other combat weapons and spells also came to mind, some eventually getting nerfed. Ice Barrage is one of the most memorable in its glory days for making any [[PlayerVersusPlayer PvP]] game laughably easy, and Dragon Claws once went for ''hundreds'' of millions due to their special attack being essentially a one-hit kill if the user [[{{Minmaxing}} uses a setup focused on maximum strength]].
** For ''Old School'', two weapons stand out: the scythe of vitur, and the twisted bow. The scythe because it hits in an arc like halberds listed above, but it does it with its basic attack, and hits targets bigger than one tile more than once, which can only be done with the dragon and crystal halberd's, the magic shortbow's special attack, or the dark bow. The twisted bow, however, takes the cake: it gains '''power and accuracy''' based on its target's Magic stat, which anything worth its salt has a very high level in because of how magic defence is calculated. With very few exceptions (made specifically to nerf the bow's ability against them, because it just shreds through them otherwise), anything that isn't very weak to magic is very weak to the twisted bow. The cherry on top is that while the scythe requires constant recharging with consumable materials that are used on each attack (~1250 coins per swing), the bow does ''not'' require charging; instead, its upkeep is the arrows it uses, which can be conserved by using an Ava's device as with any other ranged weapon.

* TierInducedScrappy: Among Slayer masters, Duradel is the least popular. Not only is he one of the masters with the highest requirements (at level 100 combat and 50 Slayer, he has the fourth highest requirements in [=RS3=] and the highest ones in [=OSRS=]), but he's out of the way unless you have Karamja gloves 3 or 4, and Sumona or Nieve (depending on which version you're playing, with them being ''[=RS3=]'' and ''Old School'', respectively) are very similar in the tasks they give out while having lower requirements (90 Combat and 35 Slayer/85 Combat and no Slayer prerequisite respectively). While Sumona is also out of the way and requires you to complete Smoking Kills, Nieve is both near the spirit tree in the Gnome Stronghold and can be teleported to directly with a slayer ring.

* MorePopularSpinOff: Old School was released as a way to pacify those who were dissatisfied with the Evolution of Combat. Jagex initially treated it as more of a companion to the main game. They didn’t even expect it to last more than six months. However, Old School went on to eclipse the main game.