Combat

The RuneScape Wiki also has an article on: rsw:CombatThe Old School RuneScape Wiki also has an article on: osrsw:Combat

For the level associated with combat, see Combat level.

A player fighting a man.

Combat is an aspect of RuneScape Classic gameplay which allows the user to attack various player and Non-Player Characters around them. During combat, a player will fight their opponent until one of them dies or retreats. To retreat, simply click to walk away from the fight. Retreating is not allowed until three rounds of combat have passed, and a player cannot log-out until ten seconds have passed outside of combat. Keep in mind that some enemies are aggressive, that is, they initiate combat with players and will follow players a certain distance after retreating.

Combat involves seven different skills:

• Attack, which causes players to hit more accurately with melee.
• Strength, which causes players to hit higher numbers with melee.
• Defense, which reduces the amount players are hit.
• Hitpoints, which raises the amount of damage a player takes before dying.
• Ranged, which allows for more efficient ranged combat.
• Magic, which allows for more efficient magical combat.
• Prayer, which allows various different bonuses to be temporarily applied.

Classes

In RuneScape Classic, there are three basic combat classes that players can attempt to weigh their stats in. These combat styles are: Mages, players who train magic and primarily fight with it, Rangers, players who train their ranged skill and use it in combat, and Warriors, players who fight using melee weapons. Some players may choose to only train one skill, in order to keep their overall combat level low, and those players are called Pures.

In early revisions of Classic, players were given a choice between Classes when creating their characters, as to whether they would like to play as an Adventurer, Warrior, Wizard, Necromancer, Ranger, or Miner. Each class would give a small bonus in level of associated skills, and some starter equipment. The choice was fairly inconsequential though, since the bonuses given only amounted to about 30 minutes of gameplay. The class system was removed on 3 July 2002 in order to not force the player into making a choice that they did not understand the consequence of.

Combat Styles

The menu for the attack styles.

There are four different attack styles. All of them add experience to Hits at the same rate, but others add experience to specific skills, with the exception of Controlled, which adds experience to all three at a slower rate. They all give bonuses to the skills they add experience to, excluding Hits. In melee and ranged combat, you will only gain experience after you have killed your opponent.

• Controlled - adds *1 experience to Attack, Defense and Strength
• Accurate - adds *3 experience to Attack
• Aggressive - adds *3 experience to Strength
• Defensive - adds *3 experience to Defense

Switching combat styles during melee combat has a slight advantage. For instance, players wanting to aim for a slightly harder hit on their turn select aggresive and then change to defensive (to try to have a higher defense) after they have made their hit attempt. Alternatively on less frequent occasions players choose to alternate between accurate and defensive styles.

Trivia

• Characters that are currently in combat do not change their sprites according to the angle of the camera, they are basically flats with a looping animation during combat.
• The amount or the type of damage received or given do not change the color of hitsplats. Enemies will always display blue, and the players will always display red hitsplats.