Zerker pures - going for new prayers(?)

[hohto]

Hello comrades,

 

Like most of you already know, we just got a new pack of prayers. Of course, these are heavily pvp related and by the looks of it, pures could benefit from these new ones. However before going to details lets clear some facts:

* This quest requires the Curse of Arrav, which requires Defender of Varrock. This means you can't get these prayers with 1 def: DoV gives 10k xp and the quests needed for it give you 2k. This means that you will be 31xp from having 29 defence IF you start with 0xp. In other words initials, 1 deffers and such can't get these. Also the DoV requirement is bad for those zerkers who have been lazy (or played too long) and gotten their def xp's from training instead of quests.

* The level requirements for all the quests are relatively high from pure's point of view: 61 agility, 66 thief, 64 mining and such mean that you have to train non combats too in order to achieve these new prayers.

 

Because of the defence "requirement", I'm now talking from zerker's point of view. Of course the same things apply for 30/40/50 def pures too.

 

Now, we've cleared the table. Lets get into details.

* Sap spirit - Drain enemy special attack energy. With this, you can neutralize your enemy's AGS, claws or such. Requires lvl 56 prayer.

* However, you lose your ability pray against combat styles when you are lvl 54 pray and using the new prayer book: for deflect prayers (protection+small venge ability) the levels are 65 for mage, 68 for ranged and 71 for melee. This means that if you want to benefit from these prayers, you must get a higher level. If you get rid of someone's specs and such with your pros, you can be sure they use their pros, which in this case means protect prayers. Of course you could hybrid your way out of this too, but for many that isn't always the most reliable alternative.

 

Because of these, it seems that in order to benefit from the prayers, you will need 71 prayer. Others you can be sure that your opponent prays against your combat style and your boosts&drains from potions and prayers become invaluable. Now, lets take a closer look at that 71 prayer.

* Most zerkers have 52 prayer at the moment, meaning you'd need to gain 19 pray levels more. With tip.it's combat calculator a pure with 75 att, 45 def, 99 str, 99 hp and 52 prayer would be lvl 99. With 71 prayer this similar character would be lvl 101. Both alternatives leave you a bit space for an accidental def level.

* Due the requirements of King's ransom (65 def requirement, 33k xp reward) you wouldn't be able to use piety at lower levels if you were a zerker.

* As your prayer level will be over 55, you are able to get the spirit shield if you are into questing. It's weaker than rune kite shield on slash (7 difference), stab (5 difference) and ranged (1 difference) but stronger on magic (2 difference) and crush (4 difference). It's debatable wether it's better for pkin or not from defence's point of view, but from offensive point of view it's superb: it has no negative range or mage attack bonuses and it gives a small prayer bonus. This means for hybrid pkers it's a good alternative.

* You can "neutralize" the combat level boost by having less than 75 attack. This means you won't be able to use godswords, which might be a good thing for getting those fights. An AGS against someone who is getting destroyed by your prayers equals for a run while range+d scim combo could be more bearable.

 

Now, if it was exactly like this, I'd personally nolife the skill requirements for these prayers, move to metal dragons and get myself 71 prayer. However there are few things that for me to stay our of training prayer as of now.

* When you neutralize your enemy's spec weapons and venge, what is their reaction? Most likely immediate running. Your "real venge"+deflect venge+spec versus their weakened normal hits or spec is a combination that is more than likely to drive people away. The odds are so badly on your side that they'd need to have something else against you, such as an ability to wear supreme items and hybrid well.

* With the extra combat levels, you are more likely to run to people who have a lot higher defence. It's just pure maths: the higher your enemys' combat levels are, the higher chances you have to fight against someone who has high defence. This reduces your chances to get some "normal ko's": your range or specs won't be hitting as often those big numbers and so on.

* These quests and requirements mean that you have to be either a skiller or a dedicated pvper: random people at zerker combat levels usually don't have those requirements or they stay out of pvp worlds. This means that if you find someone who has these prayers, it's more than likely that he/she/it knows what he/she/it is doing. This means (how many times do I have to repeat those words?) that the ones fighting you are the ones who have the same abilities as you but they are also skilled pkers.

* In f2p, you'd be left with the same combat stats and longer lasting prayer. Woopidoo, your defence level is so weak that the scims could do a lot of damage in no time to you and you wouldn't exactly benefit from the prayers: your prayers would last what, around 25% longer and that's it.

 

If you only decide to get the saps and rely on hybriding against the people who use protecting prayers, you are in a bit different situation.

* You wouldn't exactly gain a lot of combat levels. Depending on your current def and pray level, the difference would be 0-2 levels, meaning 0 for those who are 45 def and 52 pray, 2 for those who have gotten accidental def levels, have low prayer and are close to level combat soon.

* You could still get the spirit shield if you went for the sap spirit prayer. For a hybrid this would be an optimal shield due the fact it doesn't give negative magic or ranged attack bonuses.

 

However, there are cons in this too:

* You can't exactly go to multi. Without protecting prayers you are a free prey there for any team that has more than 1 combat style: your def can't give a lot of protection and your armours can't exactly protect from all styles.

* This requires more skills than just one style pkin. It also means your deaths are more than likely be more expensive and as you have to carry more items at your inventory, you can't take as much food as your one styled friend.

 

In other words there are a lot of pros and cons in getting these prayers and increasing your combat level. We could always stick into things like "your p pots last longer at iron dragons" or "you can do quests for corp" for reasoning the higher prayer, but in my opinion those aren't the main things here. Of course they do help, but zerkers are mainly made for pkin; we got mains to do the corping and with our 45 defs, it's more or less suicidial anyways. From pker's point of view they offer huge chances to destroy your opponents but same time they may cause a lack of fights due the fact that people might avoid you because of your prayers.

 

Now, I'd like to hear your opinions why should or why shouldn't lower def pures get these prayers.

[Sy_Accursed]

Do you're research better.

 

At the moment it is pretty much 100% confirmed the stats changes DO NOT actually change you're stats. Instead they are all confined to the new percentage stat effect meters in the prayer screen.

So mage sap or leech won;t drop a players mage level, it just means in the mage screen they will get a negative percentage that acts on their attack power etc like a level drop would, but without making them lose spells.

 

Equally you're con of no protection can arguably be removed by using deflect prayers, which not only give the usual 60% block but can reflect some of the intended damage back. AND these deflect prayers can be used in conjunction with sap and leech.

[hohto]

So mage sap or leech won;t drop a players mage level, it just means in the mage screen they will get a negative percentage that acts on their attack power etc like a level drop would, but without making them lose spells.

 

Got the wrong impression from the tip.it thread then, haven't had time to do the quest yet and test it myself. My bad there, will rewrite the false parts tomorrow or sunday, whenever I have time for it.

 

edit: removed those parts I could find quickly. Already time to head to work.

 

Equally you're con of no protection can arguably be removed by using deflect prayers, which not only give the usual 60% block but can reflect some of the intended damage back. AND these deflect prayers can be used in conjunction with sap and leech.

 

I believe I talked about deflects there, at the section where I was talking about 71 prayer. Below is a direct quote, without the quote tags to make is clearer.

"for deflect prayers (protection+small venge ability) the levels are 65 for mage, 68 for ranged and 71 for melee. This means that if you want to benefit from these prayers, you must get a higher level."

 

It might be in a bit bad place to notice after a 1-2 min glance, I admit that. However there's the reason why I talk about 71 prayer in one chapter and that should be noticed.

[3hitm4g3u]

 

Click it while it's playing to watch it on youtube for a bigger screen.

[Aiel]

 

Click it while it's playing to watch it on youtube for a bigger screen.

 

wow that vid just made me want to sell my bank for 95 prayer