RuneScape combat

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Combat, a set of trainable skills in the MMORPG RuneScape, is the act of battling opponents, whether they are NPCs or other players. Combat between players and NPCs can take place in most locations in RuneScape, while combat among players can now only take place in designated areas.

1 Combat level and skills
2 Combat Triangle
3 Combat classes and styles
4 Equipment
5 NPC combat
6 Player versus player (PvP) combat
7 Gallery
8 Footnotes

[edit] Combat level and skills

The combat level of a player, shown in game on the player's attack style panel, is calculated internally by the game engine using the seven combat skills, attack, strength, defence, hitpoints, magic, prayer, and ranged, as detailed below. A player's combat level is usually considered to be the main factor in their overall power. The maximum combat level in RuneScape is 126. The RuneScape Classic maximum combat level is 123. In both versions of RuneScape, the minimum combat level upon departure from Tutorial Island is three. As a player progresses, it becomes more difficult to obtain combat levels.

The following are the seven combat skills:

Attack, which determines the accuracy of each attack in combat, is trained by using the "accurate" style when fighting. Higher attack levels are required to wield more powerful melee weapons.

Strength, which determines the maximum damage a player may deal in melee combat, is trained by using the "aggressive" style of combat when fighting. The higher a player's strength level, the more damage that player may deal to an opponent with each attack. Strength is also required to wield some items, such as Granite, Obsidian, and some Barrows weapons and armours.

Defence, which determines the chance of avoiding damage during an opponent's attack, is trained by using the "defensive" style of combat when fighting, by using the "long-range" style with most ranged weapons, and by having a spell selected when using a magic staff or wand in the defensive style. Players must have certain levels of defence before they can wear better armour.

Hitpoints, which determines how much damage players can sustain before they die, is trained during combat. Hitpoints lost in battle can be restored by eating various cooked food. Hitpoints also regenerate automatically as time passes. The rate of regeneration can be hastened by the use of a certain prayer. Hitpoints experience is gained regardless of the combat style used.

Magic, which determines what spells can be used, the damage spells deal in combat, and the spells' accuracy. Also, magic levels provide greater defence against other players' spells. It is trained by using runes to cast spells. Many spells, such as teleport and enchant spells, are not combat related; therefore, magic can be trained when players are not engaged in combat.

Ranged, which determines the chance of hitting an opponent with a projectile weapon as well as the amount of damage done, is trained by using ranged weapons in combat. A player's ranged level also determines the ranged armours and weapons that can be worn and wielded.

Prayer, which determines what divine powers the player may call upon as well as how long those prayers will remain active before players must recharge their prayer points at an altar, is trained by honoring the dead in various ways. Originally called necromancy in the extremely early stages of RuneScape, it was the last of the original skills for which players were able to reach maximum levels. At its highest levels, prayer can even be used to damage opponents.

[edit] Combat Triangle

The Runescape combat triangle

The three classes of combat in RuneScape form the combat triangle, Melee, Mage and Range. Each class has its own disadvantages and advantages over the other classes. The combat triangle primarily applies in player vs. player combat. Many variables such as weapons, armour and statistics affect the outcome of the battle.

Melee have an advantage against rangers because of the poor melee defence bonus of the rangers dragonhide. Their great weakness is against mages. Their thick metallic armour deflects the projectiles used by rangers but weakens their defence against magical attacks because of the magic conducting properties of metallic armour. Their weapons pierce the leather or dragonhide armours worn by rangers. Melee's greatest strength is that they don't use up items to attack such as arrows or runes and can deal the most amount of damage out of the three combat classes.

Mages have an advantage against melee as their armour has poor magic defence bonus due to its metallic nature. This amplifies the power of spells. Their weakness is against rangers as arrows can pierce the cloth armour of mages. Magic spells can bind and freeze players for a small period of time, keeping them from reaching the mage to attack with their short-range weapons. Mages also have the powerful Ancient Magicks, spells that deal a large amount of damage and have powerful effects such as freezing or poisoning the opponent combined into one spell. Ancient Magicks also have an extremely long range.

Rangers have an advantage against mages as their dragonhide has a high magic defence bonus. But Rangers are weak against melee as dragonhide has fairly poor melee defence as swords can easily cut through it. Arrows easily pierce through Mage robes causing much damage to the mage. Their long range attacks allow them to cause damage from a distance even when bound.

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[edit] Combat classes and styles

Players can use different combat classes and styles to train different skills, depending upon the weapons used as well as the form and focus of the attack.

[edit] Melee

A warrior (right) fighting a Black Knight (left).

Melee fighting is the art of hand-to-hand combat, with or without weapons. Melee fighters, or warriors, concentrate on training their attack, strength, and defence skills as these skills determine the quality of the weapons and armour players are allowed to use as well as the amount of damage they can inflict or avoid in battle. Most melee weapons have four styles of attack:

The Accurate style reduces a player's chance of missing the opponent completely (scoring a hit of 0). Selecting this style of attack trains the player's Attack skill (4 experience to Attack per 1 damage dealt).
The Aggressive style increases the amount of damage players inflict upon their opponents in battle. Selecting this style trains the player's Strength skill (4 experience to Strength per 1 damage dealt).
The Defensive style increases the chance that the opponent will score a hit of 0. Contrary to popular belief, defence counters attack and not strength. Selecting this style trains the player's Defence skill (4 experience to Defence per 1 damage dealt).
The Controlled style is a balance of accuracy, aggressiveness, and defence. Selecting this style trains the player's Attack, Strength, and Defence equally, allowing warriors to gain experience in all three skills at the same time, but gain only one third of the normal experience (1.33 experience to Attack, Strength and Defence per 1 damage dealt).

Also, for every attack type, hitpoints experience is also received, which increases your health.

[edit] Ranged

Magic shortbow attack

Ranged fighting is the art of combat with projectile weapons, such as bows and crossbows as well as thrown weapons such as darts, knives, and axes. Ranged is intertwined with the P2P skill of fletching, in which players craft bows and arrows from various woods and metals. Ranged weapons have three styles of attack.

The Accurate style increases the chance of hitting for more damage than the Rapid style, but it is not as fast. This attack style also cannot fire as far as the Long Range style. Selecting this style trains the player's Ranged skill by giving 4 experience for every one damage dealt.
The Rapid style increases the speed with which players can fire their weapons, but cannot do as much damage as the Accurate attack style. Selecting this style trains the player's Ranged skill by giving 4 experience for every one damage dealt.
The Long ranged style increases the distance that players can shoot and still cause maximum damage to their opponents. Selecting this style trains the player's Ranged and Defence skills by giving 2 experience to each Range and Defence for each 1 damage dealt.

[edit] Magic

A mage casts the Entangle spell on a black knight and defeats him using Fire Wave.

Magic combat involves the use of spells powered by Runestones, or Runes which are consumed upon the casting of a spell. Once considered a supplement to melee fighting, Magic has developed into a battle skill in its own right. Mages wield various staves and wands to assist them and wear armour and robes specific to them. With the appropriate runes and skill level, players may cast a variety of spells. Magic is intertwined with the skill of Runecrafting, in which players craft the runes they need from rune essence, or blank runestones. To cast a spell, a player needs to have the appropriate runes in their inventory for the spell wanting to be cast. There are eight main classes of runes and the spells that they go with:

Many higher level spells are available only to members, such as the Elemental Waves.[1] All spells are composed of one or more types of Elemental Runestones (with a few exceptions), which give the spell its elemental alignment, and a "binding" rune, which gives the spell its type. Each type of binding rune is associated with one type of spell.

Elemental runes are the foundation for almost all spells, offensive or otherwise. The four elemental runes are Air, Water, Earth, and Fire. They grant magical affinity to gems when used to enchant jewellery, or add elemental power to attack spells. However, a player may also wield an Elemental Staff to take the place of elemental runes. These staffs can be used as infinite supplies of their respective rune(s).
Cosmic runes are used for enchantment spells, which are cast on gold jewellery set with gems. The enchantment spell used depends on the kind of gem. Enchanted jewellery boasts reasonable bonuses for the combat skills, in addition to a few various other functions.
Missile runes are used to cast damage-inflicting spells, there are four levels of missile runes. In order from weakest to strongest they are: Mind, Chaos, Death, and Blood runes.
Curse spells are used to temporarily lower the melee combat skills of an enemy. For low levelled curse spells, Body runes are used. For high levelled curse spells, Soul runes are used.
Binding spells, which are used to hold an opponent in place, and Alchemy spells, used to turn items into gold, both use Nature runes.
Law Runes allow the use of teleportation spells.[2] These make travel throughout the expansive lands of Runescape much easier. Law Runes are also used for Tele-Grab, a spell which allows you to take an object on the ground that you can see but can't reach.
There are actually three "spellbooks" in the magic skill: the default spellbook, which all non-members and most members use; the "Ancient Magicks" spellbook, for players who have completed a certain extremely difficult quest; and the "Lunar" spellbook (see below). A player can only use spells from their current spellbook, and can switch spellbooks only at a certain location. While the normal spellbook has a wide variety of spells, the Ancient spellbook is mostly focused on combat and contains the strongest combat spells in the game. Ancient Magicks uses many more runes than normal magic, and is, therefore, much more expensive.
With the addition of the Lunar Diplomacy quest[3], Astral runes and the special Lunar spellbook became available. These allow the user to execute a wide variety of unique spells, from 'Bake Pie' to 'Heal Group'[4]. The use of these spells is given to members who have completed the quest. Most Lunar spells are focused on team cooperation and noncombat effects.

[edit] Equipment

Like many modern fantasy-medieval setting videogames, RuneScape has a significant amount of armour, weapons and other combat equipment available to players. Corresponding to the combat triangle of Magic/Ranged/Melee fighting, this equipment is designed for Magic, Ranged or Melee fighters.

[edit] Melee equipment

Historic fluted Maxmillian Gothic plate armour, similar to that depicted in RuneScape, minus helmet plumes.

Melee equipment is usually made of a metal or an alloy. Some of these metals are fictitious and/or magical in nature. In order from softest to hardest, these materials are^[1]^[2]^[3]:

Wood (Organic material, only available in the form of a wooden shield for new players)
Bronze (Alloy of copper and tin)
Iron (Unalloyed metal)
Steel (Alloy of iron and a small amount of carbon from coal)
Elemental (Fictional magical alloy)
Black (Unknown composition)
White, including Initiate and Proselyte (Unknown composition)
Mithril (Fictional alloy of mithril ore and carbon)
Adamantite (Fictional alloy of adamantite ore and carbon)
Runite (Fictional alloy of runite ore and carbon)
Dragon (Fictional magical metal)

Melee equipment is made from one of these substances, with the exception of some special new player and veteran player items.

Armour consists of various pieces of Plate armour or Chainmail^[1], form fitted to protect players effectively.

Platebody - torso and arm plate armour.
Chainmail - torso chainmail armour.
Plateleg - plate armour protecting the entire leg.
Full Helmet - grille visored helmet with plumes, most similar to the Bascinet design in appearance.
Medium Helmet - open faced helmet, similar to those worn by Greek Hoplite soldiers.
Gauntlets.
Boots in leather or metal.

Weapons are a mix of medieval styled weapons from around the globe, in any of the above materials^[2].

Daggers.
Swords.

Available as:

Broad-bladed scimitars.
Spiked maces.
Warhammers.
Battle axes.
Spears.
Halberds.
Claws (gloves with blades extending from the fingers).
A number of unique/special weapons.
Pickaxes and Hatchets are intended as tools for Mining and Woodcutting respectively, but can be used as a weapon.

[edit] Ranged equipment

Archery equipment is made of lighter materials than melee gear, to enable an archer to move and fire his or her weapon effectively. Materials for armour include Leather; either soft or hardleather, softleather can be augmented with metal studs; or the hide of various types of Dragons^[1].

Weaponry is comprised of Bows and Crossbows, along with various thrown weapons, such as knives. Bows are made of different types of wood and come in short and long variants. Crossbows are made of wood, with metal fittings. Arrows and Crossbow bolts can be tipped with metal, gemstones or even be magical^[2].

[edit] Mage equipment

Magical equipment is comprised of robes made from simple cloth, so as to allow more magical energy to flow through the mage without the hindrance of inflexible or uncomfortable materials. Their protection against physical attack, if any, is derived from magical enchantment^[1]. A mage relies on being able to kill an opponent fast and from a distance so no damage will be inflicted. A mage's abilities can be enhanced with a magical staff - which can be used as a quarterstaff in melee if necessary.^[2]

[edit] NPC combat

Players engage in combat with NPCs for many reasons:

Experience in Attack, Strength, Defence and Ranged is gained by inflicting damage upon their opponents. Prayer experience is gained by burying the bones left behind when certain NPCs die. Magic experience is also gained by casting offensive spells, though experience can also be gained through non-combat means.
Wealth is gained by defeating certain NPCs, which drop items, equipment, and coins (GP).
Quests are often completed by defeating a particular monster or group of monsters. Many Quests are done for the ability to do other quests, or the ability to use a new item or travel to a new location.
Mini-games such as Pest Control, the Barrows or the TzHaar Fight Cave require players to defeat monsters in order to gain rewards.

[edit] Player versus player (PvP) combat

[edit] History of PvP combat

Originally, after the release of Version 3, players could select whether or not to play as player killer characters. Players could switch from player-killer mode to non-player-killer mode (in which the character could not attack or be attacked by other players) three times, after which they remained at their chosen setting forever. PvP combat could take place at most locations in the RuneScape world. The rules of combat were the same as in the modern Wilderness. Lumbridge was designated as a neutral area in which players could not attack each other; this was done to prevent a practice called "spawn camping", in which recently killed players were immediately killed again as soon as they respawned. In addition to this restriction, NPC Guards and White Knights patrolled the cities of Varrock and Falador, breaking up PvP battles by attacking the aggressor. These guard units were limited in number, however, and if all the units in a city were already in combat, PvP combat could go on freely. On August 13th, 2001, this system was replaced by the Wilderness, partly due to complaints from many players who were unable to leave Lumbridge without being attacked by hordes of hostile pkers. Later, additional areas where PvP combat is allowed were added.

[edit] The Wilderness

Main article: Wilderness (RuneScape)

The wilderness is the most popular area of RuneScape for PvP combat, or PKing (Player killing). PKing can bring great rewards, but also great risks if players are killed. After attacking another player, an image of a skull will appear over the attacker's head. If a player dies with a skull they will lose all of their valuables, unless the protect item prayer is used. The skull will disappear after 20 minutes of non-combat. It is still the only place where players can kill one another for the opportunity to scavenge the items players drop after being killed.

[edit] Duel arena

The Duel Arena is located in the Al Kharid desert and is only available to members. It allows a formal fight between two and only two players, who agree to the terms and conditions of their fight before it starts. Players can choose to duel for fun and experience, in which case no items are wagered, or to wager items that the winner will receive.

A player stands on a rampart at the duel arena as combatants fight in the arena below

Inside the arena players are given the option to 'Challenge' other players. If the other player accepts the challenge both players will be brought to the staking screen. At this screen players decide whether they will wager items on the duel, or if they will fight for fun. Players can choose to restrict their combat to a certain style, remove the ability to use food, amulets, prayer, and even specific pieces of armour, and can prohibit a player from forfeiting in order to avoid death; however both combatants must agree to the conditions before the battle begins. When both players accept the terms of the duel they will be brought into the arena proper.

At the beginning of each duel, the participants are placed at different points of the arena and are given a 3 second countdown. Before this countdown lapses, both duelists are immune from harm and can try to position themselves at an advantage for when combat begins. Players can easily distinguish their sparring partner by the flashing arrow placed over their opponent's head, so the player can be distinguished in a crowd. If one of the players dies or forfeits, both players will be fully healed and appear in the hospital area of the Duel Arena, ready to challenge another duellist or leave the arena. The winners of the last fifty duels on the server can be viewed on the scoreboard in front of the arena.

Non-combatants may purchase rotten tomatoes and throw them at duellists from up in the stands.[5]

[edit] TzHaar Fight Pit

The TzHaar Fight Pit is a free-for-all combat arena located deep under the Karamja volcano. Groups of players may enter the arena and fight each other to the death; any kind of combat is allowed here. There is no risk, because players who die here will simply respawn in the waiting area. The last player remaining receives a large amount of Tokkul, the money used in the TzHaar city, and will be marked as the champion by a red skull above the player's head.

[edit] POH combat

Players may create combat rooms in their player owned houses using the construction skill. In the combat room, they can build several combat rings each with their own rules.

There is absolutely nothing to gain or lose in any combat room (besides combat experience), as players will simply reappear outside of the ring if they die, with no loss of items. Players like to place bets on who will win, and the combat ring is popular for clan events.

Players may also build their own throne rooms and dungeons. In the throne room players can turn their dungeon on and off and can also turn on player vs player (PvP) mode. There is still nothing to lose in a PvP dungeon, but if players make it to the treasure room and defeat the boss, they can gain treasure (donated by the house owner). The owner of the dungeon may place various monsters in the dungeon for other players to fight; these monsters range from a basic skeleton guard to a powerful steel dragon available only to those who have the highest possible construction level.