Weapon Ranking Guide

 

 

 

Introduction:

 

 

 

"Godswords are only good for the specials." "Granite maul is way too slow." "The whip is the best weapon in the game." "There's hardly any difference between a Saradomin Sword and a dragon scimitar combined with a rune defender." "Dragon longsword is much worse than a dragon scimitar." "Dragon mace ftw!"

 

 

 

Heard any of these statements or similar ones throughout your Runescape career? You probably have. I have heard these types of statements from people and wondered which of these are true and to what extent. All of these statements, I think, have a biased notion and can only be based on personal opinion or experience. To counter such statements spurs discussions/arguments that include arbitrary terms such as "faster," "hits more," "more accurate," or "slow." Tip.it's combat guide defines weapons to have "fast" or "medium" speed and "high" or "medium" strength, but how accurate are these terms?

 

 

 

This guide is meant to disambiguate any questions of which weapons are better than others. This guide will clearly define and rank common weapons by killing efficiency. I have found out through scientific process which truly is the best weapon and how much better some are than others. Therefore, this guide can influence which weapons you choose to train with.

 

 

 

Explanation:

 

 

 

The area that this guide is most relevant to is training, or situations where you are not going to lose health very rapidly and are going to spend (hours) attacking monsters. Therefore, is it safe to say that the most effective and efficient weapons are the ones that kill the monster the fastest. We all know that weapons have an attack bonus and a strength bonus, as well as other bonuses. The attack bonus is important because you want to be able to do damage on the monster, and the strength bonus is important because you want to do lots of damage to the monster. Hitting the monster frequently with highly damaging hits kills the monster fastest.

 

 

 

So, accepting that information, it can be inferred that weapons with higher attack and strength bonuses are better. One might be led to the conclusion that a rune two-handed sword is better than a dragon scimitar because it has higher numbers. This, however, is where the ambiguity steps in. While Jagex gives us clear, defined numbers for attack and strength of a weapon, it does not tell us exactly how long it takes between hits of the weapon. For this, I had to turn to other sources, and the perfect one was shown to me by nubbycubby. I found it here.

 

 

 

 

 

My formula:

 

 

 

Since efficiency is a balance of strength bonus, attack bonus, and hit time, I divided both bonuses by the hit time and averaged them to get one final number per weapon. I rounded that number as well as the att/sec and str/sec values to one decimal place to make things easier. No two weapons were closer than two tenths apart in weapon efficiency, so there is no need for more decimal places. The numbers don't really mean anything in and of themselves; they are meant for comparative purposes.

 

 

 

Variables:

 

 

Please again note that weapon special attacks are by no means taken into account here. Nor were any other bonuses that could affect one weapon more than another. However, one important and easily incorporable variable is the rune defender. Combining it with certain weapons dramatically increases weapons' efficiency rating. The defender is also important because it can only be used with one-handed weapons. I have taken this into account in my data.

 

 

 

So, without further ado, here is a table of data that I have collected and calculated regarding a few common weapons in Runescape.

 

 

 

Data:

 

 

 

 

 

 

Analysis:

 

 

 

From the data, it is concluded that an abyssal whip used with a rune defender is the most effective way of training. For strength training, the best option would be a Godsword followed by a Saradomin sword.

 

 

 

Feel free to comment.

:wall: :wall: :wall: :wall: :wall: :wall: :wall: :wall: :wall: :wall: :wall: :wall: :wall: :wall: :wall: :wall:

 

 

 

http://runescape.wikia.com/wiki/Attack_speed

 

 

 

The delay time in seconds between each attack is equal to 6 - 0.6*(Speed Value)

 

 

 

http://www.runescape.com/kbase/guid/combat_weapon_types

 

 

 

A longsword attacks 5 times in the same time it takes for a scimitar to attack 6 times; the official RS website even has all the speed value bars and such

 

 

 

http://runescape.wikia.com/wiki/Game_tick

 

 

 

Also, the smallest unit of time in RS is 0.6 of a second, and every action must be a multiple of 0.6 seconds... also, lag. Lag makes your times off.

Good effort, but you tested the wrong thing (evident by the above response)

 

I, for one would be highly interested if you did research on the performance of weapons in practical applications. Eg. Is leaf-bladed sword really better for metal dragons? If so, by how much. That can be tested by counting hits, creating an average and calculating error. Then, you can have a more accurate weapon ranking system. (For example, it is widely believed whip's DPS is higher than Godsword's DPS on most monsters, but a test would be very valuable)

My data is slightly off. Although those sites don't link, but rather talk about, speed and power.

For example, it is widely believed whip's DPS is higher than Godsword's DPS on most monsters

 

Hasn't my guide cleared that up?

The delay time in seconds between each attack is equal to 6 - 0.6*(Speed Value)

 

 

 

*Groan* This may mean I have to do my whole data over. I didn't realize there was information like this out there already.

 

 

 

 

 

Oops. Sorry. :oops:

My data is slightly off. Although those sites don't link, but rather talk about, speed and power.

 

 

 

Fix it then; I'm really interested in this

Ok

Very interesting.

 

 

 

Something seems to be off though. The Godsword has a abnormally high exp/s. It has been proven to be much worse then the Whip+ Defender, and the SS has been proven to be much better then the GS at training Str.

Try max hit/seconds per attack. If you're training you don't need to incorporate attack bonuses and accuracy. Also include barrows gloves/fury/zerker/all that stuff because thats what makes a whip>gs.

Try max hit/seconds per attack. If you're training you don't need to incorporate attack bonuses and accuracy. Also include barrows gloves/fury/zerker/all that stuff because thats what makes a whip>gs.

 

Well the thing is I tried to keep as much away from external bonuses as possible. Max hit is dependent on what you wear, so I don't know what bonuses to give.

in my opinion those external bonuses do not matter as much, because you can use them with both weapons, but the rune defender can only be wielded with 1 handed weapons, so that's an important part of the calculation.

External bonuses make faster weapons deal more dps than slower weapons.

You average weapon attack and weapon strength. I would say that in most situations one of those is more important than the other. You also assume this whole damage system Jagex came up with is linear, I don't think that is right.

I don't know what is wrong with your method, but the results are wrong. :( A saradomin sword gives more xp/h then a GS, but your conclusion says otherwise.

 

Here is proof:

 

[yt]C1JMM3_4dQA[/yt]

Your formula only takes into account two variables, but there are other factors that affect the exp/hr. For example: Attack style. Different monsters have different strengths and weaknesses against slash/crush/stab styles. This also influences whether the style is controlled/agressive/accurate/defensive, which also affects exp/hr.

And he assumes accuracy and strength are linear factors and he leaves out external modifiers. Weapons cannot be ranked for general use, sometimes godswords are better, sometimes verac's, sometimes whip, sometimes sara sword, sometimes dharok's. You would be better off ranking weapons on various things suck as general slayer tasks or training monsters or at bosses.

I don't know what is wrong with your method, but the results are wrong. :( A saradomin sword is gives more xp/h then a GS, but your conclusion says otherwise.

 

Here is proof:

 

[yt]C1JMM3_4dQA[/yt]

 

Depends on the HP of the monster and there defense.

 

Low hp then the fast weapon will easily win.

 

Low defense then the faster weapon again will win.

 

 

 

GS's are better then the monster has 80+ hp.

Ahh yes. There are so, so many variables that come into play.

I don't know what is wrong with your method, but the results are wrong. :( A saradomin sword is gives more xp/h then a GS, but your conclusion says otherwise.

 

Here is proof:

 

[yt]C1JMM3_4dQA[/yt]

 

Depends on the HP of the monster and there defense.

 

Low hp then the fast weapon will easily win.

 

Low defense then the faster weapon again will win.

 

 

 

GS's are better then the monster has 80+ hp.

 

 

 

 

 

Thats not always true.

 

 

 

When training Str, Saradomin Sword wins. Peroid. End of story. Over. Done. kthxbai.

 

 

 

Even if the monster has over 80HP, the SS will kill it faster. The GS can't always 1 hit it. Unless you AGS spec everytime in Str gear and hit, its hard to hit an 80. That means you have to hit atleast 2 times. Thats 4 hits for the SS.

 

 

 

GS must hit two consecutive 40s, while the SS must hit 4 consecutive 20s.

 

 

 

Much easier to do the latter.

The most simple way to explain why your guide is incorrect is because you're using the wrong formula.

Boo hoo. And what formula, might I ask, Is the correct one, your all-knowningness?

Nobody knows. That's why people use xp rates to find out which weapon is best, which has consistently proven to be the whip. No need to be an [wagon].

Obby sword + zerker necklace is better than the d scim and potentially better than the SS, but highly variable.

Nobody knows.

 

So how, then, can you be sure that mine is wrong?