Combat

CONTENTS
(please click for your desired section)

Introduction

Combat Level

Combat Skills

Combat Skill Training

Special Attacks

Defenders

Weapon Types

Armour Types

Requirements

Introduction

Combat is, most likely, the most important skill in all of Runescape. Unless you are a skiller, combat is a big part of your character. It helps decide what monsters you can train on, who you can fight in the wilderness, and often your level of knowledge and skill in the game.

There are several skills, which will be explained, that decide your combat level. These skills play an important role in RuneScape; they are the cornerstone of pking, the focus of many mini-games and quests, and a big source of money and items for players.

Combat Level

Your combat level can range from level 3 to level 126. When you start out the game fresh off of tutorial island, you are level 3; but once you have accomplished level 99 in all of the combat skills but Prayer, which would need to be 98, you will be level 126. Depending on which level you are in between each of those levels you can gain or lose respect. The higher you are the more respect you will have, the lower the less respect you will have.

Other characters have, when you move your cursor over them, a name, a level, and a color. That level is their combat level, the higher it is the more combat efficient they are and the better they might do in a fight, unless they are a pure in which case it is unpredictable. The color shows how much higher or lower combat level they are. Anyone 7 combat levels less than your character will show up as a light green, anyone 7 levels higher will show up as a dark red. If someone is your level, they will appear as yellow. As a player approaches your level, their level will appear more yellow. A player that is just lower than you will be a yellow-green colour; someone just higher will be an orange.

Examples
Green -

Yellow -

Orange -

Red -

Your combat is determined by these factors:

Hit Points level and Defence level
Prayer level

And one of the following:

Attack level and Strength level
Ranged level
Magic level

As you level up in the combat skills, your combat level increases.

Combat Skills

There are seven combat skills which are the base of what your combat level is. Here they are with a brief overview of each skill.

Attack

Attack effects how accurate your character is with a weapon, it also allows your character to wield better weapons.

Strength

Increasing your strength skill will increase how much damage your character can hit with a weapon. Some weapons, armour, and agility obstacles require strength to use.

Defence

Defence increases your character's ability to dodge/block attacks, making them harder to hit. Armour requires a higher defence level to wear as the quality of the metal increases.

Hit Points

Your hit points, or HP, determine how much damage your character can take before (s)he dies. Death takes place when your character's HP drops to 0. Food can replenish your HP and can be vital for survival, making food and good armor vital in some situations.

Ranged

A better ranged level allows you to equip and use better bows, better armor, and other ranged equipment. Ranged is like attack and strength combined, a higher level allows you to hit higher with ranged weaponry and makes you more accurate with it.

Magic

Increasing a magic level allows you to equip better (magic) armor, gain access to better spells, and have better accuracy with spells. Spells have a set max hit so increasing a magic level does not increase your maximum damage dealt with spells. It does, however, increase the ability to defend against spells.

Prayer

Prayer is sort of a self-support magic-ish skill; your character prays to one of the three RuneScape gods, Saradomin, Guthix, or Zamorak, for aid in battle. By activating a prayer, depending on the prayer's effect, your character's stats are increased, whether it be attack, strength, defence, range, or magic, for as long as that prayer remains active. Some prayers have different effects, three being the protection prayers, which give defence and resistance to the chosen combat style.

Combat Skill Training

The basic prinicipal of training your combat skills is very simple; just attack something or someone. Depending on how much damage you inflict, you will receive a certain amount of experience for that skill. To train different skills you will first need to open the attack style menu whick looks like this:

The different buttons on the menu will customize how your character attacks. Depending on which attack style is selected, your character will use a different style of attack (accurate style, aggressive style, etc), use a different type of attack (stab, slash, crush, etc), and get xp in a different skill. For example, to train your strength, you would select the "aggressive" style. It is pretty self-explanatory.

Melee
Style	Trains	XP Formula
Accurate	Attack	(damage dealt) x 4
Aggressive	Strength	(damage dealt) x 4
Defensive	Defence	(damage dealt) x 4
Controlled	All 3 skills	(damage dealt) x 1.33
Ranged
Style	Trains	XP Formula
Accurate / Rapid	Ranged	(damage dealt) x 4
Longrange	Ranged & Defence	(damage dealt) x 2
Magic
Style	Trains	XP Formula
Accurate / Agressive	Magic	(Base Spell XP)* + (damage dealt) x 2
Defensive	Magic & Defence	(Base Spell XP) + (damage dealt) = Magic XP Damage dealt = Defence XP
Any (melee, ranged or magic)
Style	Trains	XP Formula
Any	Hitpoints	(damage dealt) x 1.33

Looking at the table, you'll see that beside each attack style, it says what it trains. This is pretty self-explanatory, for example a "defensive" attack style will train your defence skill, and an accurate attack style trains your attack skill. For hitpoints, you will receive experience by dealing damage to an opponent with any attack style.

Special Attacks

Some weapons, and all dragon weapons, have special attacks available for them. There are many types of special attacks, from temporary boosts in stats, to strikes dealing extra damage. When you wield a weapon that has a special attack, and go to the attack styles menu, you should see this:

This is the special meter. When clicked on, your character should perform a special attack, granted you have enough energy. When a special attack is activated and used, a certain percent of the special meter will be drained. If part of the special meter is drained, it will slowly replenish its self until it is back at 100% of the meter.

Special Attacks are members only.

Defenders

When Jagex released the Warriors' Guild, they also released a set of new off-hand items, called defenders. These, which are acquired at the guild, are an "off-hand weapon", meaning that they are wielded in the shield slot.

Defenders give a decent defence bonus to melee attacks, but a low (negative) defence against ranged and melee attacks. However, they add a good melee attack bonus to your attacks, and make you much more effective in combat against enemies with a large defence bonus. Higher quality defenders will also give a moderate strength bonus. Note that defenders need both an attack and a defence level to use, the metal and levels match the bronze-dragon scale. All defenders give the same stats in attack and defence.

Weapon Types

To increase your character's combat efficiency, you must be able to weild and use better weapons. As the quality of the metal improves, weapons require a higher attack, and sometimes strength, level to use. Some weapons are faster than others, some have different attack styles, and some hit harder than others. It is important that you know what the differences are between weapons, and their different attributes and specialties.

Image	Type	Styles	Speed
	Dagger	Stab, Slash
	The dagger is the fastest melee weapon in the game, at the cost of power. Members can poison daggers and thus make them more effective.
	Axe	Slash, Crush
	The axe is mainly used in woodcutting, but can be used as a weapon if need be. It is slower than a dagger but is a little bit more powerful.
	Mace	Stab, Crush
	The mace has the same speed of an axe and has about the same power. Maces, however, have a bonus to prayer and can be decent in some situations. The dragon mace is better than normal since it has a special attack which increases the damage dealt by quite a bit. Maces have a "controlled" attack style.
	Sword	Stab, Slash
	Short swords, or swords, are slightly slower but more powerful than a dagger. Like the dagger, it has a primary function of stab, but has a secondary slashing function. It has a "controlled" attack style.
	Scimitar	Stab, Slash
	Though the scimitar can use a stabbing attack, it is much more of a slashing weapon. It has a "controlled" attack style and is a fast, semi-powerful weapon. Scimitars are a very popular, and cheap, weapon.
	Longsword	Stab, Slash
	Longswords are a pretty balanced melee weapon. They have a decent power, a medium speed, and are pretty cheap. The longsword is usually the first dragon weapon that new members buy. Longswords have a "controlled" attack style.
	Battle Axe	Slash, Crush
	Slower, and more powerful, than the longsword, the battle axe makes a good weapon for a warrior. It has a crushing attack which can be useful when attacking an opponent in platemail.
	Warhammer	Crush
	Warhammers have the same speed and power as a battleaxe, but they are a crush only weapon. They make very good weapons when faced against an enemy clad in platemail.
	Two-Handed Sword	Slash, Crush
	The Two-Handed Sword, or "2h", is a very slow weapon. It makes up for the speed by its high power and accuracy. As it is a two-handed weapon, you cannot use a shield when weilding it, and vice-versa. It has a crushing function so it can stand up to platemail fairly well.
	Claws	Stab, Slash
	Claws have the speed of and, are slightly more powerful than, a dagger. However, they are two-handed and are not poisonable. Unlike most rune weapons, the rune claws have a special attack. Claws are a member only item.
	Spear	Stab, Slash, Crush
	Spears are very versatile. Their stats are the same in all three attack styles, stab, slash, and crush, and they have a "controlled" attack style. Spears are two-handed, and can be poisoned. On completion of the Tai Bwo Wannai quest, you can use a special poison on spears. Spears are a member only item.
	Halberd	Stab, Slash
	Halberds are a very unique weapon. They are more accurate with the aggressive, slashing attack style than they are with the accurate, stabbing attack style. Black and up halberds require strength the weild, and they can attack from two spaces away, making them a very good weapon for killing things at a range. Halberds are two-handed and are a member only item.

Armour Types

Along with the large, 5 star menu of weaponry there comes a selection of armour. Each piece has its own strengths and weaknesses. Learning what these strengths and weaknesses of armour can give you an advantage in a battle. Like weapons, you'll need a higher defence level to be able to wear armour made out of better types of metal.

Picture	Name / Description
	Helmets
	There are generally two types of helmets in RuneScape, the full helmet and the medium helmet. The full helmet offers better defensive bonuses and give slight decreases to rangers. The medium helmet is a little less armoured than the full helmet, but rangers have no penalties from wearing these.
	Shields
	Like helmets, there are two types of shields, square shields and kite shields. Square shields have a good defence against stabbing and slashing attacks but have a low defence against crushing attacks. The kite shield has a higher defence against slashing and crushing attacks, but a lower defence against stabbing attacks. Note that you can't have a shield equipped at the same time as a two-handed weapon, like the halberd. Magical staves are not considered two-handed and can be used with shields or other off-hand weaponry.
	Chainmail
	Chainmail is made out of small metal rings, and can absorb crushing and slashing attacks fairly well. However, it provides with a lower defence against stab based attacks. Chainmail provides no penalties for ranged attacks when worn.
	Platemail
	Platemail is a popular choice for warriors; it gives high defence to three of the most widely used attacks, stab, slash, and ranged. Platemail gives a lower defence against crushing attacks, and, being a metal armor, it has a bad defence against magic attacks.
	Ranged armour
	Ranged armour, leather through dragonhide, gives bonuses to ranged attack and defence. Dragonhide armour is most noted for its high defence against magical attacks. Being able to wear dragonhide armour can be valuable for a melee specialist since metal armour doesn't hold up to spells very well.
	Magic armour
	Robes, while giving a high magic attack and defence, give no defencive bonus to melee and ranged attacks. Some armor, such as Ahrim's and split bark, give some defence against melee attacks at the cost of a small amount of magical stats. Note that neither give defence bonuses to ranged attacks.