Runescape Game Play

I am often asked what order to level melee combat skills.

The answer to that is not straight forward but there is a definite best way to do it, this is likely to differ from the way you want to train it due to the fact that people like to see immediate visible results.

Its a good idea to train all stats equally but if you want a skill cape the quickest way is to train attack then strength then defence.

Training attack first will make more of your hits count, if you hit more often your xp will go up quicker than if you hit occasionally hard, I would sooner hit 3, 30's out of 5 than 2, 35's out of 5, work out the maths for yourself, its not always that easy with the Runescape random generator coming into effect but over the period of a level there will be a definite advantage in training attack, another benefit over strength is you can use a whip to train and this is again a lot quicker than any other weapon for training.

Then strength next, now you can hit as often as possible lets make every hit as hard as you can make it, because your attack is maxed you will be able to hit your max more often, as you increase your strength level your max hit will increase but the attack level will make more of your hits count and increase the amount of xp.

Defense is next this will allow you to fight for longer because you will be taking less damage, defence is important and with maxed attack and strength you will be hitting your max hit as often as possible and this will increase your xp and defence will now increase a lot more rapidly than if you trained it first.

Using pots and super pots/sets will speed up your level increases by a lot, dress with maximum attack and strength bonuses, training slayer as you go will also help to break up the monotony and get you xp in another skill at the same time.

Use a whip for attack and defence and a d scimmy or d long for strength.

I have left hp because this is difficult to train independently and will go up as you train the other skills.

Prayer is easy to train but can work out expensive, getting to level 70 will not take long and not cost a great deal if using a gilded altar or the ectophunctus, prayer will increase your combat level and can help you fight for short periods but is not good for prolonged fighting without using expensive prayer pots.

The reason I say this method may not be the way you want to train it is because people like to see high hit numbers when they fight, the fact that these number are not very often does not change the fact that they have hit hard.

The easiest way to train is to do it for fun, do it because you enjoy doing it and your level will shoot up effortlessly

The Great Brain Robbery was a good quest I enjoyed it a lot, I was a bit disappointed by the anchor that is given as a prize, the best thing about the Barrelchest Anchor was the fact that it made you walk like you needed the toilet desperately, I tried and could not hit over 18 with it and it ended up buried in the depths of my bank.

After the initial fun with Jagex changing the stats and prices on a regular basis I thought I would try it again, I had Jungle Horrors for slayer so thought I would give it a try.

Off I went to Mos Le'Harmless super potted and started to attack them, 18 great 18 again 0 omg this is carp, 42 wtf 38, I was after the initial few kills amazed at the power of this anchor, I could hit a 42 with a weapon that cost 50k to have repaired, I switched back to the whip and rune defender and my max was 38 Ok the whip was a bit quicker but I now understand why the anchor is used for pking, it owns.

I am now trying to find ways to justify using my whip for anything but dragons and skeletal wyverns, I can see this being the main reason for the fall in the cost of whips, perhaps I ought to sell my 5 whips before the price plummets.

The Barrelchest anchor is designed to be used in defensive mode as the crush bonus is massive, I am 99 strength and attack so its ideal for me, aww I love my whip, I will need the test the Barrelchest a bit more before archiving my faithful whips.

I got 98 strength the other day, 15 March 2007.

I got 98 strength on the 15th march, one level to go and the strength cape is mine.

Thats not bad quite a good level to get, nope its not I want more, so I set out on a frenzy to get 99! I went off to pest control with the intentions of getting 99, I had ancients to help win the rounds by Barraging the spinners that appeared and the Blue portal if things got close (The blue portal is the only mage weak portal).

I had about 2.8k bloods and the required water and death runes for Ice Barrage and off I trot, the problem with Pest control is if people lose a game it becomes a carp world and everyone leaves this sometimes makes it a carp world and the rest leave, all worlds could be good if people didn't leave when they lose a game, low level players make it easier for the high level players by reducing the defence of the portals and the number of monsters coming through the portal, so don't moan at them thank them for playing.

My message that I am continuing to say is don't kill the f'in spinners, I would love to kill the muppets who keep saying kill the spinners a lot of time is spent killing spinners that are attacking me, the aim of the game is to kill the portals not the spinners, the spinners will not kill me Im a big boy and can withstand many spinners on me, unless you need zeal kill the portals, I repeat DO NOT KILL THE SPINNERS just attack them and get their attention you do not need to kill them, repeat after me DO NOT KILL THE SPINNERS.

Anyway I spent most of Saturday there getting good world and bad world swapping worlds for better ones, this was quite intensive training but I was there most of the day and got a lot of xp about 600k and 65 points before I retired to bed.

Sunday morning I got up and started again, I was getting good and bad world and got my first 100 tickets and a few more before I needed to go out about 2 o'clock ish I got back later and started again, finding a world that could win was a nightmare and very frustrating, losing games for some stupid people doing things like being stood next to spinners and not attacking them, yes I know "don't kill the spinners" but attack them and continue on the portal.

I had heard that world 140 was a good PC world so I thought I would give it a try, so I logged out and logged into the German speaking world and woot what a lot of fun to be had by all, no one there speaks German which was a bit of a shock, I did find 2 Germans on it but they spoke English better than I do.

After the initial fun of using the German monster names I got down to some serious training, my bloods had run out so ancients were out of the question.

Well it was great, for some reason when we went off the lander I thought of the Normandy landings I don't know why I know very little about the Normandy landings but we were winning every game very quickly and in no time I had 100 points and traded them in, I used the Zybez Pest Control Calculator to find how many for 99 strength and it said 37, so I stayed up to get 37, I knew I wouldn't need that many but I got them anyway, I was training strength and getting xp that way so I would have some points left over.

I got my 37 points in German world and came back to an English speaking world to exchange my points and wooot woooooooot 99 strength.

At last 99 Strength, I only need to rain this for fun now.

I was told to get a cape so that is what I did my 99 strength cape.

I was knackered and dead chuffed I got form 98 to 99 strength in 2 days at pest control, I got my cape, the emote is a lot better than the attack one but the attack cape looks nicer.

I also went up a combat level to 121, I have gained a lot of mage xp and my hp is approaching 99 now as well.

This is really just a way to highlight the benefit of using the Black Mask when training meele on Runescape. its just a topic created to fit in the melee combat training category.

Slayer is a good skill to train in fact most of my money has come from there so it makes sense to train slayer when you are training combat, I take a slayer task and the monster I get decides what style of attack I will use, without Kurasks and Turoth my range would be embarrassingly low its only 90 at the moment but I am training strengh for now.

The Black Mask spells are pointless so you can forget about them and concentrate on the other benefits, you hit better with the Black Mask you hit harder and more often, for example when attacking Abyssal Demons I can hit 29 with a D scimmy at current level 97 strength this is fully potted and for a small while after, when I wear the Black Mask I can hit 35 with the scimmy.

This is a lot of difference and you can imagine how much quicker slayer tasks are completed and the extra xp for killing the monsters and getting on to new ones, you get combat xp, hp xp and slayer xp all in one go and extra fast.

I have always been one for making the most of my training times and this combination works well for me.

The Black Mask only benefits when training slayer

After my recent success at Barrows where I got a Guthans war spear I decided to purchase the complete set, I do not buy expensive items so would not spend 5m on a weapon that I stood a chance of getting myself, I did spend 2.7m on a whip but that was well before I had 85 slayer so had no other chance of getting one.

I already had the helm so only needed skirt and body which is very cheap, in fact that is one of the common scams people try trading the Guthans items for whips because Guthans is so dear the scammers hope you think it must be worth it and trade, the usual sells spiel is buying whip for 2.4 million and when you trade they but up a Guthans skirt, if you decline they trade again and put up skirt and body both together are not worth the price of a whip.

Anyway I have added this guide as list of my first experiences of using Guthans as a training aid, I will try it on other monsters as I go along and advise the ones that it can or can not be used on effectively.

Obviously it can not be used on Abberant specters, Banshees, and any monster in the smoke well including the Dust Devils, these require the head gear appropriate to fight them with.

Guthans special will add the hit point damage inflicted on your foe to your own hit points, this is very random and at my present level I can add over 27 hp to my health in 1 hit, its not a very affective weapon to fight with because it is slow and does not allow the use of a shield, the most expensive weapon on Runescape is rarely used as a weapon, normally people fight with a whip or scimmy or any other attack method and only use the spear when hp is low.

The way I use it at Abyssal Demons is to wear full Guthans have the spear in my inventory and fight using a whip and dragon square shield, I take superset and fight until half health and then use the spear to heal, because Abyssal Demons don't hit often or hard it is quite safe to use Guthans.

Healing can be a problem on some monsters because it can take a long time to spec on them, if you have a high hitting monster make the most of any randoms you get, attacking an evil chicken or security guard is very effective with Guthans spear and can repeatedly heal large amounts.

Monsters such as the Kalphite Guardian can hit very hard and using the spear to heal is a bit dangerous, I tested it on them by using Keris to attack and the spear to heal at half health, I repeatedly needed to use sharks to avoid being killed while waiting for the spear to heal.

Attacking mage based attack monsters is a problem as you have minimal mage resistance, I had mage defence of 10 when fighting Bloodvelds so I was constantly taking damage with Guthans on, swapping with dragon hide was a pain so I just used full Guthans and kept it on taking damage and healing constantly.

I will add sections to our monster database advising what monsters are easy to use Guthans on as I go along, sorry it is a tiny database at present but I will be adding more as I go along, please check out our sponsors regularly use the search box on the right hand side to help cover the cost of this blog.