Combat Familiars.

[Psycho_Robot]

These familiars are not so great as they should be. Here's why:

 

 

 

They attack when you are being attacked, and once their "Attack mode" ends they go back to "Follow Master Mode". THIS IS LAME. The only spot that it's nice to use them is Armadyl GWD. Even so if they are going after someone who's attacking you, a monster or player ....they "WALK" before they "ATTACK". So that makes close combat familiars very, very ineffective with the damage they should be doing.

 

 

 

I'll say it again. the "ATTACK MODE" fight familiars are in is not permanent, it's temporarily.

 

 

Player attacks monster>Monster attacks player>Familiar goes into attack mode after 1-3 sec>Walks to monster>Hits it few times>Goes back to "FOLLOW MODE"> and this repeat itself.

 

 

 

Unfortunately fight familiars are not so effective except at places where you are attacked constantly. Dagannoth kings, Armadyl GWD... etc (Sara GWD requires alot running, so familiar follows you and dont attack much).

 

 

 

Now what Jagex should have done is this: They should have made familiar attack as soon as you attack a monster and not based on a monster attacking you. The monster should not be in attack mode at all time, but it's time in attack mode should be longer.

 

 

 

If this happened, i am sure fight familiars would be great.

 

 

 

Look at Steel titan, level 99 summon (Very hard and expensive skill)....yet it's not used to it's fully potential during most spots.

 

 

 

While this does happen, you mis-understand the cause of it. The summoning familiar only goes into "follow mode" when you are NOT under attack. The way that this could happen during combat is:

 

 

 

You attack monster -> monster attacks you -> familiar attacks monster -> monster attacks familiar -> familiar follows you (while still under attack) because YOU are no longer under attack

 

 

 

And you are quite right, its a very annoying bug that needs to be resolved.

[Aneron]

I started using combat familiars at level 85 and have always found them to be a great help

 

 

 

iron and steel titans are phenomenal but the others are good as well - it's worth using food on a task if it lets you speed it up as considerably as many combat familiars do

[Big_Stingman]

I think that combat familiars are only cool at high levels, but why wouldn't they? Makes sense to me.

 

 

 

By the way Sirhemen, I think your sig is a TAD to big imo... :lol:

[Maximusa]

They could certainly be better.

 

 

 

Its a bit of a nuisence putting them into combat - leaving them to themselves.. well.. As its already well known they take a long time and the big ones flap around alot.

 

 

 

I might of done 70% of the killing dmg on -high hp monsters- before it attacks. (Actually ingaged and not flapping about) It does help a bit though so I do use them. Does speed tasks up.

 

 

 

But put it this way.. If it ingaged quicker and helped me more I would use them alot more. Dust devils for example.. I would love to use a combat familiar there but its pointless. I kill them too fast and rather not have more than one ingaged at a time.

[Psycho_Robot]

The only combat familiar I ever used regularly was the Smoke Devil, and that is only because of its scroll ability, and only before I got level 68 summoning. Were it not for the scrolls multi-target ability, the smoke devil would have been as useless to me as the chicken familiar. It took too long to get into combat, it attacked too slowly (slower than a 2h I think), and it hit too low as well as not often enough. I imagine the higher level familiars such as the moss/fire/ice titans would be better, but I've never used them, nor seen them in use. Currently, there's no combat familiar available to me that's even close to a bunyip in terms of usefulness.

[Toad]

only way i can see it getting upgraded is changing it to stomp if the monsters under it when your attacking and your familiar decides to do the samba, otherwise use the whistle

[Maulmachine]

The only combat familiars worth using is Steel titan.

 

 

 

Rest of them are good too, but considering what you loose by using them...then it's not to smart.

 

A general rule should be to ignore this comment. Comment familiars are to be used if you do not need to heal. Bonus xp is bonus xp.

[Fedorca99]

I love combat familiars. \ I just got 8k magic exp from a fire titan pouch at fire giants.

[Golvellius]

Pathetic all the way from wolf to steel trashcan.

 

Remove them and give me back my 126 since summoning is only good for teleport, skill bonues, item spawning, and extra inventory space.

[Dire_Wolf]

The only combat familiars worth using is Steel titan.

 

 

 

Rest of them are good too, but considering what you loose by using them...then it's not to smart.

 

A general rule should be to ignore this comment. Comment familiars are to be used if you do not need to heal. Bonus xp is bonus xp.

 

 

 

You know one of reasons why Chaos tunnels is way it is was because of Summoning, so that familiars could be used there. But when i go to Dust devils down there, i kill dust devil before my familiar has chance to attack...

 

 

 

I said it wrong. What i meant was that combat familiars potential to be used often is bad, and only spots where you are attacked by aggressive multi combat familiars is ones to use them. The spots where monsters arent aggressive is completely useless.

 

 

 

Like i said before, the moment you attack a monster your familiar should target that monster immediately. It's funny though, summon as expensive, fast and hard it can be....a 99 summon Steel titan don't matter a thing at Dust devils in CT other than the defensive boost. Combat familiars...should be called "Reaction familiars", as they reaction speed is to slow compared to the death of a monster killed by a player.

[snowball]

If you have it at around the same level as your other combat stats, its pretty good IMO (although mine isn't). I use the range training ones for most of my multicombat ranging, but adding an extra hit can't hurt. I would rather hit 15-15-15-3-15 than 15-15-15-15. I use prayer on green drags @ chaos tunnels. I bring 2 familars, my combat familar (so it can give a bit extra exp on the blacks while I fight greens) and my BoB (for when I run out of space)

[Maulmachine]

The only combat familiars worth using is Steel titan.

 

 

 

Rest of them are good too, but considering what you loose by using them...then it's not to smart.

 

A general rule should be to ignore this comment. Comment familiars are to be used if you do not need to heal. Bonus xp is bonus xp.

 

 

 

You know one of reasons why Chaos tunnels is way it is was because of Summoning, so that familiars could be used there. But when i go to Dust devils down there, i kill dust devil before my familiar has chance to attack...

 

 

 

I said it wrong. What i meant was that combat familiars potential to be used often is bad, and only spots where you are attacked by aggressive multi combat familiars is ones to use them. The spots where monsters arent aggressive is completely useless.

 

 

 

Like i said before, the moment you attack a monster your familiar should target that monster immediately. It's funny though, summon as expensive, fast and hard it can be....a 99 summon Steel titan don't matter a thing at Dust devils in CT other than the defensive boost. Combat familiars...should be called "Reaction familiars", as they reaction speed is to slow compared to the death of a monster killed by a player.

 

A.) Use the whistle.

 

B.) Hit one dust devil then hit another, your familiar kills the first one whilst you kill others.

 

C.) You forget that if you use a steel titan scroll you can 1 hit dust devils without hitting them.

 

D.) A steel titan can also use the same method as decribed in point B.

[Psycho_Robot]

Pathetic all the way from wolf to steel trashcan.

 

Remove them and give me back my 126 since summoning is only good for teleport, skill bonues, item spawning, and extra inventory space.

 

 

 

And healing and infinite running! As it stands, I think you're right. Summoning is most useful only for skills, and having it add to combat levels when 1.) they're pretty much useless for combat as it is, and 2.) you can't use them anywhere but multi combat areas.

[Maulmachine]

Pathetic all the way from wolf to steel trashcan.

 

Remove them and give me back my 126 since summoning is only good for teleport, skill bonues, item spawning, and extra inventory space.

 

 

 

And healing and infinite running! As it stands, I think you're right. Summoning is most useful only for skills, and having it add to combat levels when 1.) they're pretty much useless for combat as it is, and 2.) you can't use them anywhere but multi combat areas.

 

You forget that steel titan has an invisible constant def boost, it is extremely worth it. As for multi, tons of places are multi.

[Smavey]

You're a fool if you don't use them in combat.

 

They are amazing. Combat familiars speed up slayer tasks and exp rates significantly.

 

 

 

 

 

It just takes some practice to do it right.

 

 

 

First of all. - when you go into battle - BLOW YOUR WHISTLE! This engages the familiar IMMIDIATLY! (instead of waiting 5 seconds)

 

 

 

Secondly - I use my familiar to kind of "clean up" - meaning i don't have to blow the whistle at all!

 

 

 

- I attack a monster, when the monster gets to 10-20% health instead of killing it I attack another monster and let my familiar kill it. (so i'm fighting one monster and my familiar and a monster are fighting each other). When it dies, the familiar will automatically immidiatly move on to help the monster i'm fighting (no need to blow the whistle!)

 

 

 

You get combat exp for using them! it's an extra 15k exp per hour.

 

 

 

Plus it's more fun!

[llamster]

My friend once did a fire giant task with a karamthulhu overlord. The overlord got him 6k range xp in an hour (almost 10% increase in speed), and using it didn't really slow him down at all since he was fighting multiple giants most of them time. Quite a few times the overlord KO'ed red-barred giants that he would've had to waste a hit finishing off.

 

 

 

So, they are not useless. Far from it.

[bedman]

Also, how well does a level 138 player with a steel titan fare in a single-combat area, compared to a level 126 player with summoning at level 1?

 

 

 

Well well well! Equally well! How great is that -.-

 

This is something I definately have an issue with. I've only been playing RS again for around 3 weeks after a 1.5 year break and i'm sure it's already been discussed to death, but combat familiars only being really useful in multi combat areas was something I was pretty disappointed with. Sure, it's nice having the extra healing/bag space from certain familiars, but considering summoning raises your combat level, the affect it has in single combat is pretty underwhelming. Of course, my summoning still definately needs some work, but those are my first impressions on combat familiars.

 

Fight me and my unicorn in a no food duel?

[Kepihan]

My friend once did a fire giant task with a karamthulhu overlord. The overlord got him 6k range xp in an hour (almost 10% increase in speed), and using it didn't really slow him down at all since he was fighting multiple giants most of them time. Quite a few times the overlord KO'ed red-barred giants that he would've had to waste a hit finishing off.

 

 

 

So, they are not useless. Far from it.

 

 

 

Weird, atm I am also doing a Fire Giant task with a Karamthulu Overlord, and it's rather good :D

[hyjack01]

You know one of reasons why Chaos tunnels is way it is was because of Summoning, so that familiars could be used there. But when i go to Dust devils down there, i kill dust devil before my familiar has chance to attack...

 

 

 

I said it wrong. What i meant was that combat familiars potential to be used often is bad, and only spots where you are attacked by aggressive multi combat familiars is ones to use them. The spots where monsters arent aggressive is completely useless.

 

 

 

Like i said before, the moment you attack a monster your familiar should target that monster immediately. It's funny though, summon as expensive, fast and hard it can be....a 99 summon Steel titan don't matter a thing at Dust devils in CT other than the defensive boost. Combat familiars...should be called "Reaction familiars", as they reaction speed is to slow compared to the death of a monster killed by a player.

 

 

 

Agreed and also isn't it ironic that the shape of many Chaos tunnels causes even more 'dancing' combatfamiliars than in other multi-areas?

[Zepheras]

Also, how well does a level 138 player with a steel titan fare in a single-combat area, compared to a level 126 player with summoning at level 1?

 

 

 

Well well well! Equally well! How great is that -.-

 

This is something I definately have an issue with. I've only been playing RS again for around 3 weeks after a 1.5 year break and i'm sure it's already been discussed to death, but combat familiars only being really useful in multi combat areas was something I was pretty disappointed with. Sure, it's nice having the extra healing/bag space from certain familiars, but considering summoning raises your combat level, the affect it has in single combat is pretty underwhelming. Of course, my summoning still definately needs some work, but those are my first impressions on combat familiars.

 

Fight me and my unicorn in a no food duel?

 

 

 

 

 

Once again, COMBAT familiar. Yes, we understand the benefits of healers and beasts of burdens. Point here is whether combat familiar is useful, and by combat it means offensive power, not passive healing, stats boost etc.

[Dire_Wolf]

The only combat familiars worth using is Steel titan.

 

 

 

Rest of them are good too, but considering what you loose by using them...then it's not to smart.

 

A general rule should be to ignore this comment. Comment familiars are to be used if you do not need to heal. Bonus xp is bonus xp.

 

 

 

You know one of reasons why Chaos tunnels is way it is was because of Summoning, so that familiars could be used there. But when i go to Dust devils down there, i kill dust devil before my familiar has chance to attack...

 

 

 

I said it wrong. What i meant was that combat familiars potential to be used often is bad, and only spots where you are attacked by aggressive multi combat familiars is ones to use them. The spots where monsters arent aggressive is completely useless.

 

 

 

Like i said before, the moment you attack a monster your familiar should target that monster immediately. It's funny though, summon as expensive, fast and hard it can be....a 99 summon Steel titan don't matter a thing at Dust devils in CT other than the defensive boost. Combat familiars...should be called "Reaction familiars", as they reaction speed is to slow compared to the death of a monster killed by a player.

 

A.) Use the whistle.

 

B.) Hit one dust devil then hit another, your familiar kills the first one whilst you kill others.

 

C.) You forget that if you use a steel titan scroll you can 1 hit dust devils without hitting them.

 

D.) A steel titan can also use the same method as decribed in point B.

 

 

 

A)Whistle just calls your familiar to you? What's your point? EDIT: I read a post and know now that it engages your familiar into combat instead of waiting for it to after few secs. That's a improvement.

 

 

 

B.)The time used to attack a familiar then change to another so that your familiar can be in action is not effective:

 

 

 

B.2: I kill to fast and i am pretty sure that many does too

 

 

 

B.3: For that trick that you attack monster and change to work, you will need to attack more than 3. Because if i spend time attacking just 1 monster 1 at time i will kill them all much faster than if i spend time "getting familiar" in action. Also if you do this, you will get heavy damaged and not everyone can endure the hits. I have 99 defence and if i have 2-4 dust devils on me, pretty soon my hp will get low.

 

 

 

C.) According to Runescape Highscore there's 1,051 players with 99 summon (steel titan), and currently there is 94.4K players online...

 

 

 

I realize some familiars have a special attack scroll, if you have to use them to get your familiar to "HELP" then what's point with their usual attacks?

 

 

 

Also if i used a rune minotaurs special attack like this:

 

Special>Direct to attack Dust devil>Attack...

 

 

 

I would hit more if i attacked myself than if i let my minotaur. The thing is i don't think combat familiars are bad but they are not at their best. There are still some more stuff to fix before we can say "I am gonna take my combat familiar instead of bunyip".

 

 

 

Here's what i want from a combat familiar:

 

1) Always attack the monster i attack, for example if i change from Monster 1 to Monster 2 it should attack 2.

 

2) (Forgot what i was gonna say here-.- darn it.)

[Gbpackers31]

Also, how well does a level 138 player with a steel titan fare in a single-combat area, compared to a level 126 player with summoning at level 1?

 

 

 

Well well well! Equally well! How great is that -.-

 

This is something I definately have an issue with. I've only been playing RS again for around 3 weeks after a 1.5 year break and i'm sure it's already been discussed to death, but combat familiars only being really useful in multi combat areas was something I was pretty disappointed with. Sure, it's nice having the extra healing/bag space from certain familiars, but considering summoning raises your combat level, the affect it has in single combat is pretty underwhelming. Of course, my summoning still definately needs some work, but those are my first impressions on combat familiars.

 

Fight me and my unicorn in a no food duel?

 

 

 

 

 

Once again, COMBAT familiar. Yes, we understand the benefits of healers and beasts of burdens. Point here is whether combat familiar is useful, and by combat it means offensive power, not passive healing, stats boost etc.

 

 

 

Imo, Combat familiars are not useful enough to warrant using them. As Bedman shows, A familiar like the Unicorn is more useful than a combat familiar. Because of this, combat familiars aren't useful since you have better options.

 

 

 

By themselves, I feel that some combat familiars are quite useful and worth using. However, since you can only have one familiar at a time, I would choose a Unicorn over a titan or any combat familiar any day (taken I have 88 summoning :P ). The Unicorn, Bunyip, Pak Yak, etc. are far more useful than combat familiars, and thus are why combat familiars are not a viable choice to use.

[Maulmachine]

The only combat familiars worth using is Steel titan.

 

 

 

Rest of them are good too, but considering what you loose by using them...then it's not to smart.

 

A general rule should be to ignore this comment. Comment familiars are to be used if you do not need to heal. Bonus xp is bonus xp.

 

 

 

You know one of reasons why Chaos tunnels is way it is was because of Summoning, so that familiars could be used there. But when i go to Dust devils down there, i kill dust devil before my familiar has chance to attack...

 

 

 

I said it wrong. What i meant was that combat familiars potential to be used often is bad, and only spots where you are attacked by aggressive multi combat familiars is ones to use them. The spots where monsters arent aggressive is completely useless.

 

 

 

Like i said before, the moment you attack a monster your familiar should target that monster immediately. It's funny though, summon as expensive, fast and hard it can be....a 99 summon Steel titan don't matter a thing at Dust devils in CT other than the defensive boost. Combat familiars...should be called "Reaction familiars", as they reaction speed is to slow compared to the death of a monster killed by a player.

 

A.) Use the whistle.

 

B.) Hit one dust devil then hit another, your familiar kills the first one whilst you kill others.

 

C.) You forget that if you use a steel titan scroll you can 1 hit dust devils without hitting them.

 

D.) A steel titan can also use the same method as decribed in point B.

 

 

 

A)Whistle just calls your familiar to you? What's your point? EDIT: I read a post and know now that it engages your familiar into combat instead of waiting for it to after few secs. That's a improvement.

 

 

 

B.)The time used to attack a familiar then change to another so that your familiar can be in action is not effective:Huh? why would you attack your familiar? Do you mean that attacking a monster, then hitting another one would be ineffective? if so then you are wrong because it takes about 3 seconds to attack a monster, then hit another.

 

 

 

B.2: I kill to fast and i am pretty sure that many does tooI'm unsure what this means.

 

 

 

B.3: For that trick that you attack monster and change to work, you will need to attack more than 3. Because if i spend time attacking just 1 monster 1 at time i will kill them all much faster than if i spend time "getting familiar" in action. Also if you do this, you will get heavy damaged and not everyone can endure the hits. I have 99 defence and if i have 2-4 dust devils on me, pretty soon my hp will get low.I do this method, I don't die I'm 98 def, so clearly you are ill-informed.

 

 

 

C.) According to Runescape Highscore there's 1,051 players with 99 summon (steel titan), and currently there is 94.4K players online...Ahhh, therefore the steel titan is useless, because its hard to get.

 

 

 

I realize some familiars have a special attack scroll, if you have to use them to get your familiar to "HELP" then what's point with their usual attacks?I never suggested doing this, I said that with a steel titan the scrolls are effective.

 

 

 

Also if i used a rune minotaurs special attack like this:

 

Special>Direct to attack Dust devil>Attack...

 

 

 

I would hit more if i attacked myself than if i let my minotaur. The thing is i don't think combat familiars are bad but they are not at their best. There are still some more stuff to fix before we can say "I am gonna take my combat familiar instead of bunyip".Yes you would, but A.) if you are 99 def you shouldn't need a bunyip, I don't. B.) you are engaging two monsters in combat, this makes it oodles more efficient.

 

 

 

Here's what i want from a combat familiar:

 

1) Always attack the monster i attack, for example if i change from Monster 1 to Monster 2 it should attack 2.Then monster 1 would attack you, it's fine the way it is.

 

2) (Forgot what i was gonna say here-.- darn it.)So, you only have one thing that you can think to change, and you describe them as inefficient and bad?

 

 

 

My comments are in bold.

 

 

 

As for the above poster, Combat familiars are great to use if you do not need to heal, at 99 def you reach a point where you can get by with monks+def pots on most tasks, making the combat familiars more efficient.

[Dire_Wolf]

 

 

 

Imo, Combat familiars are not useful enough to warrant using them. As Bedman shows, A familiar like the Unicorn is more useful than a combat familiar. Because of this, combat familiars aren't useful since you have better options.

 

 

 

By themselves, I feel that some combat familiars are quite useful and worth using. However, since you can only have one familiar at a time, I would choose a Unicorn over a titan or any combat familiar any day (taken I have 88 summoning :P ). The Unicorn, Bunyip, Pak Yak, etc. are far more useful than combat familiars, and thus are why combat familiars are not a viable choice to use.

 

 

 

If the familiars attacked by themself once their master=you attack a monster, then it would work well. But that don't happened unless you use wolf wistle/special scrolls, which takes time and with that time you could do higher damage yourself.

 

 

 

EDIT:

 

Maulmachine, the discussion between you and me have ended. You just don't understand what i mean, because you neglect it. You have some good points though, but unfortunately i don't see me getting through you to work so END.

[Maulmachine]

 

 

 

Imo, Combat familiars are not useful enough to warrant using them. As Bedman shows, A familiar like the Unicorn is more useful than a combat familiar. Because of this, combat familiars aren't useful since you have better options.

 

 

 

By themselves, I feel that some combat familiars are quite useful and worth using. However, since you can only have one familiar at a time, I would choose a Unicorn over a titan or any combat familiar any day (taken I have 88 summoning :P ). The Unicorn, Bunyip, Pak Yak, etc. are far more useful than combat familiars, and thus are why combat familiars are not a viable choice to use.

 

 

 

If the familiars attacked by themself once their master=you attack a monster, then it would work well. But that don't happened unless you use wolf wistle/special scrolls, which takes time and with that time you could do higher damage yourself.

 

 

 

EDIT:

 

Maulmachine, the discussion between you and me have ended. You just don't understand what i mean, because you neglect it. You have some good points though, but unfortunately i don't see me getting through you to work so END.

 

I was merely showing how efficient summons are, if this offended you I am sorry. This does not mean that I won't show how well the summons work.

 

 

 

While you hit a monster, then hit the whistle, how do you lose efficiency,exactly?