TheAncient

Unless you're using Zuriels for PvP, SoL is the best staff ignoring the +3 difference with master wand. Remember, most people use ice barrage. In this case the 15% damage DOES matter. And again, the spec is useful for tanking in clan wars / safe PvP. I dont know how many times I have to repeat this. If you're properly tanking, melee bonuses are irrelevant.

2 hours. 3 If you're not high enough to enter a decent clan. Thats anywhere from 2 - 10M of wasted time. I'd rather just buy the SoL when it becomes cheaper. The bottom line is, if youre going to mage in safe PvP (clan wars, castle wars, soul wars), you are eventually going to want to buy this staff. With all things considered, it is the best overall mage staff. Everything else is just for a niche now.

I would like to re-emphasize the point that SoL is 5speed, not 6speed. It isn't really a standalone melee weapon. Sure you could use it for melee, but it isn't that good. I think Jagex designed this well. If it were 6speed, SoL would definitely be OP

^ This. But I agree with the people that say that you can still use it as tanking equipment even if you aren't a mage. In safe clan wars / if youre in a warring clan, this spec is the absolute best thing you can have, other than maybe a Divine. Why? -- You probably won't get KOed by claw specs -- You can't get melee piled -- You get a mage defense bonus ^These are relevant for ANY pvp person, not just magers.

wouldn;t a helm of neitiznot be better? edit: you swapped pics on me ;_; I still don't get how whip > gs... graardor has relatively high defense?

What? I'm just trying to present a clear case why it's useful. You don't need to take this personally. OT: Internet requirement and computer stats are NOT jagex's responsibility. People with bad computers and bad internet should consider getting better equipment if they're going to play any computer game seriously. With the time you invest in RS, isn't it worth it to spend a little bit of money to buy better equipment for it in real life?

This vid has been posted before, but: Shows SoL -- Absorbing Claw Specs -- Holding its own against whip and GS in melee combat

50% melee protection for 1 minute = tank twice as many claw / ags specs against you = you can pray range / mage against a boss you'd normally have to pray melee against (e.g. Corp beast) I mentioned this already. It was good in theory, until someone tested it and found that it's too slow. It would be like using a D Long against the Corp, you simply won't do enough damage to make it worthwhile. That's disappointing but at least it isn't OP. Either way, it's still viable for just straight up tanking hits / piles.

No because they'll get wrecked due to a lack of defensive stats and if they farcast people will cry and pray and if they get tbed they'll run for sure. and if they fight a ranger they're definitely screwed As long as you range protect, wear a melee shield, wear a melee helm, and pray defense, you won't get owned by a few rangers... Rangers also have pretty terrible defense, unless you tank range (in which case youre also quite inaccurate, even with dhide/arma body) Also, I would even like to bet that a mage wearing Verac's body is more accurate against meleers than a ranger with dhide top/bottom Uh not really. The melee shield and helm are common but you still get hit often, and rambo tanking is ridiculous... No offense but I'm guessing you don't pvp often. Idk about now, but I've seen people tank 10+ mage/rangers and a few claw specs... it comes down to knowing how to run around stuff & not getting frozen I clan warred for an entire year. lol. Ive also been in 2 warring clans. There have been points where I was in full arma with 99 range and still missed consecutive shots against someone in Vhelm + DFS + ahrim... I guess the big difference is that you do dangerous PvP where people use welfare gear, while I only do safe PvP where everyone is in maxed gear

50% melee protection for 1 minute = tank twice as many claw / ags specs against you = you can pray range / mage against a boss you'd normally have to pray melee against (e.g. Corp beast)

No because they'll get wrecked due to a lack of defensive stats and if they farcast people will cry and pray and if they get tbed they'll run for sure. and if they fight a ranger they're definitely screwed As long as you range protect, wear a melee shield, wear a melee helm, and pray defense, you won't get owned by a few rangers... Rangers also have pretty terrible defense, unless you tank range (in which case youre also quite inaccurate, even with dhide/arma body) Also, I would even like to bet that a mage wearing Verac's body is more accurate against meleers than a ranger with dhide top/bottom

Its melee capabilities are definitely relevant. The greatest strength of the staff is its spec - melee protection. But this effect only occurs if you have the staff equipped for the whole 1 minute the spec is active. If the staff is a terrible melee weapon, then you're stuck using magic only while you have the spec active. But since the staff has melee potential, it's possible to hybrid mage/melee with the staff while the spec is active. Or even just melee with it.

I'm sorry... if you're 99 slayer and can't properly prayer switch you are terrible at Runescape combat. TD's are harder than jad. And I can farm TD's like they're goblins... All it takes to beat jad is practicing prayer switching. If you've developed proper prayer switching skills, with 99 HP jad should be a walk in the park.

OK, I think my main point is being misinterpreted. In safe PvP, there are currently: -- Meleers -- Rangers -- Ancients The people who range do it for the following reasons: -- Meleers have a disadvantage in that they have to be close to their target -- Ancients is too expensive -- Standard is too weak What' im asking is, in this niche of players (who want to used a ranged attack but don't want to spend so much on ancients), will Standard become more popular? It's relatively cheap now with bloods and deaths crashing in price, and it can hit around 40, which is approximately the same as diamond (e)'s. It's also more accurate than range (typically). I don't think that ancients will switch back to standard. Ancient was and still is much stronger than standard. People that use ancients can afford ancients, so they will stay on the stronger spellbook.

Just to think... an overpowered weapon / useful slayer addons requires a hard boss?

SoL is definitely a viable melee weapon if it has 6speed. It can probably beat out whip + dds or maybe even whip + claws, if you have spec restores (to replenish the SoL spec)

I'd say after a couple of months, Staff will drop to 10-15M. it seems that you can reasonably obtain one or more a day. Hexcrest/Focus will probably be around 1M each. I imagine the demand for them will be pretty low, as most people use melee to slay. Melee is the fastest and cheapest. I expect most of the demand for hexcrest/focus to come in for people who wish to finish their slayer helm just for the sake of having a "Full" helm.

It's also possible that RS stacks the effects, in which case it's only: 1 - (1 - .50)(1 - .30) = .65 65% resistance to melee Either way, if you stack that with melee prot you're basically immune from any melee.

Looks like an ss. uncreative :(

Ice barrage and fire surge have the same max. and it's not 46. And my point is not that standard spellbook will replace people who use ancients, but rather that more people that used to use range or melee will switch over to maging with standard. Magic is the only combat (damaging, as opposed to something like prayer) skill that heavily relies on armour for accuracy and bonuses. Because of this, the skill is seen quite inferior to the other two, melee and range, where you can easily slap on dragon hide or plate armour in the case of a ranger, without any adverse effects. 99 Range with +150 range attack can't hit against +250 range defense even using dhide body and legs And no, you can have ~+250 melee / ~+150 range defense and still have enough mage bonus to be very accurate.

Ice barrage and fire surge have the same max. and it's not 46. And my point is not that standard spellbook will replace people who use ancients, but rather that more people that used to use range or melee will switch over to maging with standard.

Mages are known mainly for ice barrage and its freezing capability, and not its damage. However, ice barrage is notoriously expensive, at over 2K a cast, and is one of the main detractors from using mage. Previously, Standard spellbook wasn't really an option because it was too weak. But can mages stand their own without barrage now? That is, are we to see more Standard mages now that Standard spellbook can hold its own? Fire surge's max hit is over 40, with extremes/wolpertinger and the staff of light. It's also much cheaper than ice barrage; it costs roughly 800 gp a cast compared to ~2200. Now that diamond (e)'s are over 1.7K each, the cost for Standard mage and range are almost comparable! Keep in mind that mage attacks are typically much more accurate than range attacks, as most people use some form of melee gear.

You forget that people play 300 games of mobilizing armies to get +4 stats on their rings. Or that people pay 100M+ for spirit shields. No... ahrim's hood as no range defense. Again - melee defense isn't too important in safe pvp. The only real threat melee poses in safe PvP is claw specs. Mage defense is so much more important. As long as you don't get barraged, you can tank. If you get barraged, you get piled.

+3 Prayer bonus is really trivial in PvP situations, so I don't think so. +3 Prayer bonus is, at worst, a matter of sipping 1 extra ppot dose.

I was just looking at the KB article for staff of light when I noticed the stats on the new "full" slayer helm were quite interesting: +3 Mage attack +3 Range attack +10 Mage defense +30 Range defense +30 Melee defense Compare this to verac's helm, which is the helm typically used by mages in PvP: -6 Mage attack -2 Range attack +0 Mage defense +56 Range defense +60 Melee defense In clan wars / safe PvP, the slayer helm seems to be a pretty viable choice for mages or mage/range hybrids! It has 9 more mage attack than verac's helm - this is pretty huge! +10 Mage defense is also quite good. You're really only sacrificing 25 range defense, 30 melee defense, and 3 prayer. However I think the +9 / +10 mage bonuses make it well worth it. Comments?