With Runscape’s January 27th War’s Retreat (or the PvM Hub) update, many people are calling the Max Guild dead content. Is this warranted? Or are there advantages to both? How do they compare in requirements, access, and content?

REQUIREMENTS: The Max Guild requires you to have 99 in every skill and resets any time a new skill is released. On top of that, it requires a lengthy quest series to access its city, Prifddinas, which is locked behind a membership. War’s Retreat only requires combat level 60, allowing pures to access it, and is free-to-play. War’s Retreat is a clear winner here, as it has incredibly low requirements that are completed by maxing anyway.

ACCESS: Both the Max Guild and War’s Retreat have runeless teleports directly to them. War’s Retreat does require 10 boss kills, which is negligible considering the Giant Mole or King Black Dragon can easily get you that. Assuming you have access to both, it’s a tie.

BOSS PORTALS: The real reason these two areas are compared is they both offer quick access to bosses. The first time attuning each areas’ portal is free, then costs money beyond that. The Max Guild offers a 50k coin reattunement without a kill on the boss and offers access to additional combat areas. War’s Retreat requires you to have at least one kill on a boss, with a 100k reattunement fee to that boss until you have 100 kills on it; it then drops to 50k. After 100 total boss kills, you unlock a second portal with the same restrictions. War’s Retreat also offers a portal to your current Reaper task and another portal to the elite dungeon on rotation, both of which are incredibly helpful. It’s difficult to compare these; I would say the Max Guild is better for early bossing, but War’s Retreat far outstrips it for late bossing.

BONFIRE: Both areas offer a bonfire with a few significant differences. The Max Guild’s bonfire allows Cooking and Firemaking, with additional bonuses. War’s Retreat, however, only offers the bonfire health boost, but takes no supplies and is much faster to proc. The downside is that it starts at regular logs (lasting six minutes) and must be upgraded with 1,000 Marks of War and 1,000 logs of increasing level, with a total coin cost of over 9.7 million. For low- to mid- experienced players, I believe the Max Guild is much better, but experienced PvMers can easily unlock the Elder log bonus after six hours of bossing.

DECANTING, BANK, AND ALTAR: Potions are necessary for high level bossing, and both areas offer a decanting service. However, only War’s Retreat offers decanting into flasks, which makes it a clear winner here. Both areas offer banks and altars that restore Prayer and Summoning points, but while the banks are free, you must unlock the altar in War’s Retreat after 200 total boss kills.

OTHER SERVICES: The Max Guild is not a dedicated PvM area, and so offers several skilling benefits instead: a Grand Exchange stand, a skillcape seller, and two skilling portals that do not have a maxed requirement. War’s Retreat offers dummies like the Lumbridge Combat Academy, adrenaline crystals (unlocked after 1,000 total kills), and a high-level aura and aura/Sign of Life refresh shop.

For PvM, War’s Retreat far outstrips the Max Guild in nearly every category that isn’t a tie. If Jagex adds a GE stand to War’s Retreat like people are asking for, the Max Guild will be almost completely invalidated. They are aware of people’s comments and have said multiple times that the Max Guild should get an upgrade, so I am eager to see what they bring to it. As a maxed player who is starting to get into bossing on my way to completionist, I am going to be using both areas quite often. I would hardly call the Max Guild dead content, but I would like some changes brought to it, or even turn it into a Skilling Guild! That brings along several problems, but I am confident that whatever may happen to it, it will be well worth the wait. Have a good whatever!