Armadyl GWD and QBD - High and Low level

[Blake]

I have two accounts - a main, and a mid-level DIY. I'll start off with questions about my main first.

 

My main stats are 95/95/94, 97 hp, 92 Magic, 93 Range, 91 Summoning, 97 Herblore, 98 Prayer. I have relatively little bossing experience. I have about 270M to spend.

 

I tried Armadyl a couple days ago (first duo, then solo). I didn't know what to wear, so I just bought full armadyl and a zaryte bow. I was using a couple rocktails per kill, using basics until the 8-shot thresholds, and SS/ranged turmoil. I know you're not supposed to use any food at all, so I was wondering what I was doing wrong/a sort of mini-guide to doing a little better. I'll be using Royal xbow for future kills though.

 

Secondly, I tried QBD after I saw a quick guide post by Quy on another H&A topic. I found it relatively easy and quick to do, and fun. I was using dual drygore rapiers, superior tetsu plate, bandos helm/tassets, dragon boots, fury, berserker ring, fire cape. I would just use adrenaline potions, and use Destroy/Assault when possible, praying SS/turm. I am getting 4ish minute kills, but I'm averaging about 5-8 rocktails per kill. I know you're able to get 2-3 minute kills, with just 2-3 rocktails per kill.

First question about it is do you just spam basic abilities until thresholds, or use an ability after each auto attack?

Second question is about survival. What do you do when the souls spawn? How do you avoid their special, especially when there's 4 in the last round, hitting around 4k with it? I've been running out of the 1950 hitting dragonfire, which I assume is right. Lastly, when you are running to an artefact to turn it off and there's a firewave, do you run through it and tank the 750s or wait? They usually hit about 4 times, running there and back. Waiting will spawn more grotworms, though.

 

 

My DIY account has 70/71/71, 76 hp, 77 ranged, 79 prayer, 76 magic, 64 herb, 72 summoning.

My gear is black dhide, crystal bow, verac flail, verac brassard, full batwing/Greater runic staff. Rune, etc otherwise. Keep in mind it's harder to get gear being DIY.

For this account, I was wondering when I could start doing bosses like Armadyl and QBD, preferably solo. I assume I could duo Armadyl fine, but that's not in the spirit of DIY. I'd probably preferably range things. I'm working on Barrows armor currently.

 

 

 

Lastly, about combat in general.

What would be the best cape/ring/boots/gloves for my DIY character? I'm using Wealth, Ardy cape 1 (I know I can upgrade to 2/3), mithril boots, and mithril RFD gloves.

What is the prefered method for combat for each of these situations - spamming abilities, or using an ability after each autoattack?

- 2h mage staff

- mage wand/shield/book

- 2h range

- 2h melee

- 2h dual-wield

 

Sorry for the long post, and thanks in advance for help :)

[Th e Doctor]

I have two accounts - a main, and a mid-level DIY. I'll start off with questions about my main first.

 

My main stats are 95/95/94, 97 hp, 92 Magic, 93 Range, 91 Summoning, 97 Herblore, 98 Prayer. I have relatively little bossing experience. I have about 270M to spend.

 

I tried Armadyl a couple days ago (first duo, then solo). I didn't know what to wear, so I just bought full armadyl and a zaryte bow. I was using a couple rocktails per kill, using basics until the 8-shot thresholds, and SS/ranged turmoil. I know you're not supposed to use any food at all, so I was wondering what I was doing wrong/a sort of mini-guide to doing a little better. I'll be using Royal xbow for future kills though.

 

Secondly, I tried QBD after I saw a quick guide post by Quy on another H&A topic. I found it relatively easy and quick to do, and fun. I was using dual drygore rapiers, superior tetsu plate, bandos helm/tassets, dragon boots, fury, berserker ring, fire cape. I would just use adrenaline potions, and use Destroy/Assault when possible, praying SS/turm. I am getting 4ish minute kills, but I'm averaging about 5-8 rocktails per kill. I know you're able to get 2-3 minute kills, with just 2-3 rocktails per kill.

First question about it is do you just spam basic abilities until thresholds, or use an ability after each auto attack?

Second question is about survival. What do you do when the souls spawn? How do you avoid their special, especially when there's 4 in the last round, hitting around 4k with it? I've been running out of the 1950 hitting dragonfire, which I assume is right. Lastly, when you are running to an artefact to turn it off and there's a firewave, do you run through it and tank the 750s or wait? They usually hit about 4 times, running there and back. Waiting will spawn more grotworms, though.

 

 

My DIY account has 70/71/71, 76 hp, 77 ranged, 79 prayer, 76 magic, 64 herb, 72 summoning.

My gear is black dhide, crystal bow, verac flail, verac brassard, full batwing/Greater runic staff. Rune, etc otherwise. Keep in mind it's harder to get gear being DIY.

For this account, I was wondering when I could start doing bosses like Armadyl and QBD, preferably solo. I assume I could duo Armadyl fine, but that's not in the spirit of DIY. I'd probably preferably range things. I'm working on Barrows armor currently.

 

 

 

Lastly, about combat in general.

What would be the best cape/ring/boots/gloves for my DIY character? I'm using Wealth, Ardy cape 1 (I know I can upgrade to 2/3), mithril boots, and mithril RFD gloves.

What is the prefered method for combat for each of these situations - spamming abilities, or using an ability after each autoattack?

- 2h mage staff

- mage wand/shield/book

- 2h range

- 2h melee

- 2h dual-wield

 

Sorry for the long post, and thanks in advance for help :)

 

You shouldn't be using any sort of food at armadyl, especially not in t7 gear and higher. Using a dragontooth necklace and soul split I never run out of health or prayer. You should be using abilities non-stop and prioritize ricochet and bombardment so that you can get extra health from the minions.

 

[hide]

 

I stand in the northwest corner (near the altar) so that Kree has to walk to get to me and I open with fragmentation shot [r] so that you get the x3 bonus damage from him walking towards you (this works ~90% of the time) and I use a dreadnip. Then I go through e,w,q,1,q,w,e,4,r,2 (as you see your 8th shot fire then hit whatever your highest cooldown basic is, most often binding shot [1]). From there I prioritize thresholds (rapid > bombardment > snapshot) > basics (highest cooldown > lowest cooldowns).

 

I pray Anguish and Soul Split the entire time and my set up looks like this.

 

 

The necklace is twisted bird or whatever the tier 1 prayer necklace from dg is. You can go up to tier 2 for an extra 100 prayer points per kill but I never run our with the 4-500 that I get from killing kree and 4 minions (the mage one will die half way through the kill due to ricochet and bombardment and respawn). With renewals and regenerate I never run out of prayer or health. The prayer potion is there for if I derp and leave prayer on in between kills by accident. If you're using a titan or familiar you can put the scroll use button where my prayer potion button is on the action bar.[/hide]

 

That's what I use at armadyl . Also remember to use regenerate after any kill where you need some health. And the minions drop plenty of manta rays/potatoes so feel free to use those.

 

EDIT

 

Why are you using dragon boots? Switch to bandos boots, get a 6th age circuit or a warrior ring, and a saradomin whisper. I'm fairly confident sub 2 min kills is with void, steel titan (also dreadnips if you have them), and drygores but I was averaging 4 minute kills with crapier/eee. Are you using overloads?

 

 

When souls spawn you want to click to run through them as they speak their dialogue. For the 4 souls you should have berserker popped, sipped an adrenaline potion and hit 2 abilities to be able to use your 2 flurry attacks and that should end the fight so you should rarely run into a 4 soul spawn at all.

[Ammako]

For QBD, I start out by potting. Then I alternate between Slice and any other basic I have available (this allows me to always have a basic ready), then I use Berserk asap.

After that, if QBD's first phase is not done yet, I use some more basics, clicking the artifact as soon as it activates. You can save half a second by activating yet another ability as soon as the artifact is activated, to re-attack the Queen almost immediately.

 

Then, if my adrenaline isn't at 50% yet, I use some more basics (alternating between Slice and others I found was nice), then I use Assault (it isn't too uncommon to 'kill' the QBD's second phase with just 1-2 basics + 1 Assault if you have Berserk activated.)

 

 

Since you have adrenaline potions, you can most likely skip most of the adrenaline building from the start and go for Berserk asap. I'm unsure if the cooldown for adrenaline potion would be over once you activated Berserk, but if it is, it's worth using.

 

Don't bother with autoattacks, I found that using abilities was pretty much always a better option (mostly because in order to use an auto-attack, you have to wait like 2-3 seconds after using an ability, that wastes a lot of time in the long run.)

 

Using Destroy/Assault asap sounds like a pretty good option. Personally, I like using Flurry when the Queen summons tormented souls to get rid of them easily while still damaging the queen (could probably do with ignoring them though.)

 

 

But Berserk really helps when you can activate it.

 

Oh, and one more thing. Only use your thresholds if you know the QBD can take at least 3 of the 4 hits, otherwise it's a waste (overkill, etc.)

[Blake]

Tieszen - Thanks for the armadyl advice, I'll do that next time I go. Before, I was kinda just winging it :P

The reason I have crappy equipment right now is that this is really my first time playing since EOC, besides doing ports. I still need to do TWW for the ring, and I just bought subj boots, because I've been doing QBD. I am using overloads.

 

Pingouin - Thanks for the advice. I've been doing a combination of yours, tieszens, Quy, and some random youtube video advice and it seems to be working very well. Overview of what I do - enter, drink Ovl, renew, super antifire. Turn on pray, alternate slice and others with an adrenaline sip. Use both Destroy and Assault on the first phase, kills every time. Get adrenaline back up for second, use destroy and assault again, almost always kills. Same for other two phases. If I see a soul, try to dodge the attack (bad at this on waves 3/4). If I ever have full adrenaline after a stage (usually after a carapace) I use berserker, otherwise just the 2 thresholds.

 

This has been pretty consistent for me, just did an hour of it. Still a couple questions, should I prioritize berserker on first and fourth (with pot) stages, or keep with thresholds, and do I run through fire waves to activate artefacts?

Also, what levels for my DIY account can I do it

 

Here's about 4 hours of loot :) (also effigy)

[Th e Doctor]

Sub boots are good. If the CD on berserker allows for using it twice in a kill do it. If not save it for phase 4 so you have to deal with as little time in that phase as possible. Also test a run or two in void. I would personally run through the firewalls if you can afford it food-wise.

 

And I started Arms 2 weeks ago in royal d hide after never having done eoc before so i understand. 2 weeks later of maybe an hour a day and I'm up over 80 mil. Very close to my goal of drygore mace

[Quyneax]

Personally I do not use berserk and I consistently get 2 kills per overload dose. Unless I have 80% or more starting adrenaline, in that case I use assault > basics > berserk > adren pot > basics > (first artefact here somewhere) > basics > destroy to finish phase 1&2 quickly. Ending kills with near full adrenaline is pretty common, unless lots of 4-souls happen (more flurry).

 

Remember that berserk is double damage for 20 seconds, but using assault instead means you'll get 219% damage over 6 seconds (compared to 125% with slice, 100% with punish/havoc and 188% with sever, so assault is actually better than berserk > slice > punish > slice > havoc > slice) and still have tons of adrenaline left. Add to that that there is a damage cap at 5000, while berserk + assault maxes at ~8k and berserk + destroy at ~7k, so you lose a good chunk of dps there*. It is generally not a good idea to use berserk unless you can adren pot right after, and adren pots have a 120s cooldown, so you can only ever use it once per kill, tops.

 

*Capping a 1-8000 hit at 5k reduces the average hit from 4000.5 to 3437.5, a loss of about 14%.

[Blake]

Good luck on drops then tieszen :) I don't have a part of void, so I'll just stick with what I have for now.

 

I tried using berserk, both on the second/fourth kill and just the fourth, using an adrenaline potion. In 10 kills, none of them went very smoothly. I'd either not have enough adrenaline at the fourth, or get hit with too much damage. I did own her though :P

 

I think I'll just stick to Destroy/Assault, like Quy says. I thought they removed the 5k damage cap though? I did hit 5k a couple times tonight, so I know it's still there, but I remember reading something about it being removed. I'll probably still berserk every once in a while if I get max adrenaline.

 

 

Does anyone know the minimum levels for armadyl or qbd?

[xpx]

If you really want the fastest qbd kills, you need to forget about defensive armor and go with void- yes, you will get blasted by the worms(try to get as much mage def from other armor, like glaiven boots, onyx(i)>circuit>warrior/warrior(i)), but if done right, you will average less than 1 rocktail per kill and never need to bank for food(still need to bank for pots, obviously). Also as you found out by yourself, berserker, or any ultimate for that matter, isn't worth using. Ultimates are for KO hits and not dps(even the example by Q underestimates the loss by overkill due to criticals), so it's generally advised to stick to 4-5 basics plus assault/destroy- even flurry isn't generally worth using.

 

But yeah, a general strategy of mine is:

1st: destroy-> assault

2nd: basic->destroy->basic

3rd: destroy-> assault

4th: destroy, later assault

 

Usually start kills with 70-90% adrenaline and 3-4k lp. I rarely avoid any damage but for firewalls when running to artifact(run to the side and wait a little) or superbreath. There should be enough worms in stage 4 that you only get hit around 2-3k with the souls. You'll likely die alot when you start using this strategy, but will get much better with time and be able to get more than 50 kills per death when you are good at it. I can average up to 26 kills an hour, but any more than that is hard to reach.

[Blake]

That sounds good, few questions though.

 

I assume you just loot quick, using defensives to keep adrenaline up between kills?

Which stage do you drink the adrenaline pot at?

What does the number of worms do with the number of souls in stage 4 (When you talk about 2-3k hit total)

 

The only time i've been using flurry is it the souls have been there a while, and the queen might siphon them.

[xpx]

Loot quick, look for rocktails in loot. Just before you loot use anticipate and just before entering use freedom. Then use anticipation again before you can attack. You rarely need to use adrenaline pots, i only bring them for a fourth of the kills(primarily when you need to eat before a kill).

 

The more worms there are, the more likely it is that the whirlwinds will hit them. If you are precise you can always avoid them for 1 and 2 soul spawns.