Fist of Guthix Guide [ Free to Play ]

[BeNiceOk]

 

Hello, and welcome to my FoG guide. This guide is designed for players who already have a basic understanding of what the Fist of Guthix is, and how it works. Described in this guide are more advanced tactics for moderate to higher level free-to-play players, as well as any player wishing to learn some more advanced tactics. While this guide is written for free-to-play, members can still apply some of the concepts explained in this guide to their version of Fist of Guthix.

 

If you are just beginning Fist of Guthix, it is recommended you check out these guides for some basic information:

http://forum.tip.it/topic/185588-the-finest-fist-of-guthix-strategy-guide-updated/

http://www.tip.it/runescape/?page=fist_of_guthix.htm

 

 

Introduction

 

When I play Fist of Guthix (FoG) I base my play-style off three "P" words to remember; Plan, Predict, and Preform. I'll go into some detail to explain what each word means, and how it relates to improving your game!

 

[hide=Section 1) Planning]

 

Since you are already somewhat experienced in the game-play of FoG, your going to have an advantage over most players. A large portion of free-to-play only use the fist as a method of gain free magic experience, and there's about a 50% chance you will encounter one of these players each round. Don't let this go to your head however. There are some good free-to-play FoG'ers out there, and chances are if you play enough you will run into them at some point. It's worth being prepared for such a circumstance. So what do I use?

 

I am a fan of Ranged combat, and Free-to-Play FoG is one place range really shines. Due to the fact a players defense is reduce to 0 towards the center of the fist, this gives range an opportunity to provide some of the fastest DPS against an opponent. With this in mind, there are a few things you should consider, and a few things you want to steer clear from when choosing equipment.

 

Weapons you should consider:

Gravite Shortbow

Maple Shortbow

Gravite Rapier

Rune Scimitar

 

Protip: Ranged weapons should be used with the best possible arrows.

 

Weapons you should not consider:

Sighted Maple Longbow

Any Longbow

Gravite Longsword

Gravite 2H

 

You said not to use xx weapon, why? As noted earlier, as you move closer to the center of the arena your opponent begins to lose defensive points. At the center, your opponent is equal to having 0 defense. This reduction makes it extremely easy to hit your opponent with low accuracy, boosting the effectiveness of "Fast DPS/Low Accuracy" weapons, and lowering effectiveness of slower weapons.

 

Ranged or Melee, which should I choose?

 

While ranged is one of the best (if not the best) method to kill your opponent in FoG due to the fact it can cause damage at speed rate 7. Some players may not have the necessary ranged levels, or have a desire to use melee combat instead. Melee tends to be higher Damage, however range has some perks in FoG that put it over the top (which I will explain later).

 

You may have wondered why I only mentioned the best weapons to use, and nothing about armor. There are two main reasons why I don't suggest armor:

 

1) A large problem in Free-to-play is that we cannot use the agility skill. As a result, every KG of weight you add to your player has a large impact on how long you can run. Someone who is lighter than their opponent has a huge advantage, and could easily exploit that advantage to tip the scores in their favor.

 

2) Due to Free To Plays attack and defense values, at the center of the first your opponent will have near perfect accuracy on you every attack. Rather than helping you, armor in F2P works the opposite and increases your weight giving you a huge disadvantage.

 

Ideal Setups

 

 

Ranged:

Gravite Shortbow > Best shortbow you can use

Adamant Arrows > Best arrows you are willing to waste

Green D'hide Vambs > Leather Vambs > Nothing

Monk's robe top > No top

Monk's robe bottom > No bottom

Amulet of Power > Amulet of Accuracy > Holy Amulet

Explorers Ring > No Ring

 

 

Melee:

Gravite Rapier > Rune Scimitar > Rune Sword=G2H > Any quick weapon

Monk's robe top* > No top

Monk's robe bottom* > No bottom

Rune Guantlets > Best FoG Guantlets

Amulet of Strength > Amulet of Power > Holy Amulet

Fancy/Fighting Boots > Leather Boots

Explorers Ring > No Ring

 

Note: While a "light" 2 kg weight is an added bonus, the primary reason to use monk's robes when using melee is the prayer bonus.

 

I burried all those bones for a reason!

 

FoG prayers are typically very straight forward, and are broken down into two groups; Offensive Prayers and Defensive Prayers.

 

 

The two images on the left show which offensive prayers you should be using for range and melee, respectively. For defense, you should be using rapid heal and your highest defense prayer.

 

Protip: Make use of the Quick Keys F1 (Inventory) and F3 (Prayers) for healing and switching prayers!

 

Optional: Some people make a big deal about use of overhead protection prayers (Like protect from missiles). I often go by the rule of: how long is this fight going to take? If I see someone and predict they can hit 100-200's consistently, I am likely to use my overhead only if I am hunted on the first round. If my opponent was hunted first, I typically will not use overheads. Again, this is a personal preference and there is no "right" or "wrong" answer.

[/hide]

 

[hide=Section 2) Predicting]

Now that you have the basics of what to wear, we can get onto the real strategies to win games.

 

Upfront you need need to understand there is no 100% foolproof "win all" strategy. Every strategy has its own strengths and weaknesses. To be able to Predict what strategy your opponent will use, will give you an edge on making sure you score beats theirs.

 

Take a quick glance at the image below. Can you identify who might be using what combat style? What am I going to be hit with? What combat style will be best against my opponent?

 

 

Every time you enter a game you will need to ask yourself all those questions, and within 5 seconds of seeing your opponent should should be able to Predict:

 

1) What/If You should pray defensively

2) What combat style you should use offensively

3) What combat style your opponent will use offensively.

4) If your opponent will stand in the center

5) If your opponent will Hide in Houses

6) If your opponent will run

 

How do I predict?

 

The best way to identify who will do what is to take notice how players react each round. You can use this chart below as a type of "guidelines" however tactics are always changing and you need to change with them. Some key elements you will need to look at is their armor, weapon, prayer usage, willingness to move close/away from you, and level.

 

 

Protip: Take look at your opponent's amulet. It is a usually good indicator of what combat style they will be using!

 

 

"They Remember..."

 

Often times you will be placed with the same opponent you battled a few rounds ago. You must go into the game expecting your opponent predicts you to use the same exact strategy you did last time. Change your strategy to something different, and you will throw your opponent off guard. Overconfidence in knowing what your opponent will do before they do it, is the greatest threat in this mini-game.

 

Using the tools to Predict your opponent's tactics will then help you once you begin your Performance....

[/hide]

 

[hide=Section 3) Performance]

 

Once you have solid Planning and Predictions, you can then spend less time worrying about what you use to play the game, and more about how to bend the mechanics of how the game is played.

 

There are Lots of "tricks" players use to give them edges in battle, and I will only explain a few on this guide. Please note that these Preformance tricks are not "bugs", but tactics that simply take advantage of the in-game mechanics. The three I will cover in this guide are the Lag-line, Aerial View (Down Point), and XP Usage.

 

Protip: Lag is a controllable element. Put your graphics to the lowest settings to reduce loading time!

 

The "Lag-Line"

 

The Runescape game itself is one giant map. Every time you move from location A to location B, you load a small section of that map between the two points. The fist of Guthix is no exception, and such a large area that is fits on two loading points. Where are the loading points exactly? While they vary from game to game, the loading point is typically towards the center of the Fist.

 

 

As seen above, the small black section on your mini-map is the edge of the loaded map, or the "Lag-Line" as I call it. Once you move close enough to the black edge, you will step over the loading map line the game will proceed to load the next section of map. This map loading often takes a few seconds of "lag" which is why it is dubbed the "Map Lag Line". Below is an example of where the lag line is approximately:

 

 

So how do I use this to my advantage? Keep in mind that your opponent also suffers from the lag line. Knowing this, you can use it both offensively and defensively.

 

Offensive: Stand in the center for a few seconds after the round starts. If you see your opponent running towards you, right click on him but DON'T click attack. Wait until he is almost in the center and then begin your assault of arrows or melee. Chances are, they passed into the lag-line running towards the center. Since your opponent is now crippled with lag, this gives you 2-5 seconds of attacks (usually 1-3 combat rounds) before he/she will be aware you are dealing damage to them.

 

Once your opponent awakens from their lag state, all your damage will be displayed on their screen, appearing as if you dealt several damage splats on them at once. Players often use a programmed response of eating food as quickly as possible when getting hit with multiple splats, ignoring the fact they haven't turned on any defensive prayers.

 

Defensive: The best way to use lag to your advantage is to determine where the line is during a game. If you run to the center of the map just to the point before you activate a loading screen, you should run across the line just as you predict your opponent will cross the line. By doing so, you clear the loading screen off your character and preform a "swamp positions" of sorts. Your opponent will see you rush by them, and you will rush by your opponent running to opposite sites. You must be careful however, as some types of lag could end up to hinder you...

 

Beware of using a tele-orb defensively, as it produces "tele-lag" shown below:

 

 

A similar situation to the "lag-line", using a tele-orb will instantly activate your map load crippling your character. In addition, it also must load the characters around you, which could give your opponent some time to attack you before you even see them. In the above image, there is actually 50-100 people around me, they just haven't loaded yet. My attacker could be 6 squares away, but I can't even see them! If I'm hunted first, and I can't see my attacker, there is no way for me to Predict anything about the situation. Because of this lag, its more efficient to use your orb offensively (when your opponent uses theirs), rather than using it defensively to teleport at the start of the round.

 

Protip: When a player crosses a loading screen, any right clicks options are reset and vanish!

 

 

Just cant Click it! - An Aerial View

 

Any time you play Fist of Guthix, it is recommended that you play on Resizeable mode or Full Screen. Why? Both the resizeable mode and full screen allow you to see farther and gain a higher aerial view (aerial view being the most important reason).

 

As a defensive strategy in Free to Play, hunted players often clot up and "death dot" on each-other at the first, so your right click attack option vanishes. This can be a big problem because if you can't attack your opponent, you can't do damage! How to get around this problem is actually an idea already thought of by Jagex many years ago. The magical team cape!

 

Team capes grant you the ability to have a left click attack option as a default regardless of level range. Using your extended aerial range from your Resizeable mode or Full Screen, you can aim you camera up above the masses as shown below:

 

 

What does this do exactly? By using a combination of your screen pointed downward and the team cape ability, you can left click on the "stack" of players where you opponent is and start attacking them. Shortly after the Fist of Guthix was introduced, Jagex updated the game so your opponent always shows ontop of other players, creating this tactic. This update ensures that, provided you click ontop of the "correct" pile, you will always attack your opponent.

 

I keep clicking, but how do I know if I am starting to attack my opponent?

 

 

Use your XP, just not for skills? O_o ...

 

So how exactly do you know that your attacking your opponent? XP! No, not XP from your stats menu (you shouldn't be looking at your stats, however pretty they are :P ) Instead, make use of Jagex's handy little XP counter.

 

 

At any point of the game, XP of a dice roll is given to a player before the actual attack animation is started. Using this performance tool, you can see when you have locked onto your opponent and started attacking before you even lift your first arrow! Sometimes attacks can be difficult to see visually, and this trick is a great way to get around it.

 

Protip: XP from players varies, however if you learn the "general range" of your XP, you can predict if your opponent is using a protection prayer!

 

Keep in mind these are only a small few Performance tricks in Fist of Guthix. A large number of them simply develop over time as you gain more experience playing the game. I would be a fool if I gave you all of the tactics I knew of, after all I have to use something against you :P

 

The best advice I can offer for this game (or anything in life in general) is to not get disappointed when you lose. Rather than looking at a loss with a negative light, take the strategy that beat you, and build a tactic using Planning, Prediction, and Performance to beat that strategy!

 

"If one cannot learn to fail, then one will never understand the importance of success."

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Guide Version 1.03 Last Edit: April, 2011

[K4ylan]

I love the layout of this

 

And "Areal" is spelt "Aerial"

[Killhim9612]

This isn't very good, sorry. And it's not past the basics... Add me in rs, "Idk How2slay". I'll provide some help.

[Wkw]

Nice tactics. Pretty good. I like to use sighted maple bow, just because it gives you pretty good accuracy vs people in rune armor.

[BeNiceOk]

This isn't very good, sorry. And it's not past the basics...

 

Care to elaborate? Saying "xx isn't very good" isn't really constructive criticism. Was the format not to your liking? Was there not enough tips? Did you feel the weapon choices were wrong? Please explain.

 

Also, the main concept of the guide is to teach people how to use more than the basic rules of the game to defeat their opponent. So I would argue that it is "past the basics" of the rules on how to play. Not sure if your judging this because you feel your personal methods are on a "expert level". Personally I believe the perfect strategy is dependent on the person, which is what I was attempting to show in this guide. Again, could you elaborate more on why you feel this way?

 

Also @ Wkw.

Thanks! :D Sighted bow is a decent weapon, however at the center it is usually a moot point, as you will hit with almost the same accuracy as a sighted or maple shortbow. In that case, speed is usually better. Sighted may be handy to use however if your opponent decides to try and hide on the outside ring.

[Helm_Lardar]

Interesting guide. I've played a bit of FOG in my time, and I certainly learned a few new things from this guide.