Add pros and cons to both prayers and ancient curses.

[shadow mulch]

Just a thought, but when players unlock ancient curses, there is almost zero reason to use the standard prayer book anymore. I just feel like that is wasted content after that point. From a game design point of view, I think it would be great to have pros and cons to both books. Let me give an example:

Curse Deflect = Provides 50% damage reduction against X attacks and can deflect some of the damage back to the attacker.
Prayer Protect = Provides 60% damage reduction against X attacks.

Curse Soul Split = Heals a player by 10% of the damage dealt.
Prayer Soul United = Armor increases by 10% of damage received.

Now this concept doesn't have to be what is shown above, but I am just making a point. Above you can see there are pros and cons to both prayers and ancient curses. I feel like this could add more variety to builds that people could make. I have heard people say that, "Ancient curses are suppose to just be an upgrade," but if that's the case, why not upgrade the standard prayer book with higher level prayers on completion of the quest too.

Anyway that's it. I would love to hear what other people can come up with in relation to this topic.

[real reef]

Support - I guess it depends what's happening with the combat beta but at the moment the offensive part of the game far outweighs the benefits of defence, with high tier gear being power only as a prime example of this approach. It would be nice to see some more balance not only for prayers and curses, but across the combat system as a whole.

[hearty wasp]

osrs had to go through a similar design process recently with ruinous powers, trying to keep both prayer books relevant but they were scrapped when the effort required to do so exceeded the potential benefits

personally i don't think keeping regular players relevant after upgrading to ancient curses is a design goal to be pursued much in a similar way as to how adamant armor doesn't need to be kept relevant once a player unlocks rune armor