Okay, so I've been studying the way the new equipment stats work(since there is no one who seems to understand it and no guides for it that explain in much detail), and the big change I noticed was they are putting way more emphasis on the combat triangle than they used to. Tweaking different pieces of armor back and forth, I noticed that wearing some magic armor combined with some of my melee armor would help me fight off melee opponents better while using melee, while wearing full melee armor would be better against rangers. I also noticed that using dhide is no longer an effective way to make it possible to melee magic opponents, as when you put on armor that is of the part of the triangle you are weak against, it nerfs your to hit capabilities.

 

So basically, melee and magic armor had no effect on my chance to hit with melee, but putting on ranged armor made my chance to hit go way down, by around 20%. Although it did raise my block chance versus magic, I don't see the point if I can't hit them either. I also noticed that the "armour" rating for armor does not have an effect of its own, but only changes the block chance against different types of combat, likely with a formula that combines the armor rating and the type of armor it is to give the +/- to your block chance.

 

I hope this helps to clarify the way the equipment stats work for others who have been very confused like me. What I am wanting to know is if anyone knows what kind of equipment you can use to fight the part of the combat triangle you are weak against, or if you just have to face being nerfed against them no matter what you do(unless you switch to using a different form of combat.) I'd also like to hear anyone's opinions on what I've come up with.

The only slots that reduce your accuracy if you use the wrong style of armour (ie melee weapon with magic armour) are the chest, legs, and shield slots.

 

So, after filling out those slots with your weapon type, you can use the remaining slots to bulk out your weakspot.

 

So if you're using melee weapons and want to fight mages, use a melee weapon, chest and legs (and shield if your weapon isnt DW or 2H) and then fill out the other slots (ring, cape, helm, gloves, boots, maybe amulet?) with range class items.

 

However most of the time you'll want to use a melee class amulet and ring for the crit bonuses, or maybe power-type gear of the same class for damage bonuses too.

The way accuracy works for armor (on these forums at least) is pretty common knowledge. Chest, Legs and Shield affect accuracy while the rest do not. For 99% of monsters in runescape getting the extra defense does not matter if you have overloads, soul split, and drygores (even t80 weapons suffice in most cases) so it's better to just do the power armor of the type of damage you're dealing. For bossing it's better to round out your defense at most bosses because you take damage from all 3 sides of the triangle at once.

Thanks guys, your responses were both very helpful :). I'm not so sure its very common knowledge though, asking around RS I couldn't hardly find anyone who knew anything about it. A lot of people seemed to just use the gear they were told was good. I understand it a lot better now though, the way Jagex explained it didn't really cut it.