Played this game way back in 05-06. I'm thinking about making a pking account. I've brushed up on some updates and it looks like zerkers and range tanks are the dominant pking accounts.

 

I had an idea of rolling 60 (or 70) attack, 70 defense, 1 prayer, and 99 everything else. This would put me roughly at the same combat level of a zerker, but I would be able to wear barrows at the downside of not having prayer.

 

Do you see any downside to this, other than it being expensive to die in? Would not having prayer limit my boss fighting abilities or hinder my pvp in some way?

Well yes, you'd never be able to have a fire cape for example, and chinning is going to be very difficult should you want to train range.

 

I am almost certain too that getting at least 13 prayer will be better for pking, and ultimately 31 prayer. If you want to see what this build is like, look up some videos from "Dharoks hope". Though keep in mind a lot of his effectiveness DH'ing came from his obscenely high HP level.

You pretty much said yourself that not having prayer was a downside.

If you went for a build like that, you'd be 97 combat once maxed out. (70 atk/def, 1 prayer, 99 everything else). Dying in the wilderness would be expensive and the kills you get would be of little value since you can't even smite for a whip. This is a staker build, not a pking build since the value lost would most likely outweigh the value gained by pking. However, this would do well at the arena if you know what you're doing.

Yeah, I had a few accounts back in the day with 1 prayer hoping that it'd be amazing for pking, but it turns out that the extra bonuses from prayer helps a LOT when pking. Staking on the other hand, there 1 prayer will make you bank.