Combat questions

[bjanko]

Hi guys! Sorry to bug you once more. I didn't really know an appropriate title for the thread, so I decided to stick with that.

 

1) Concentrated blast

 

Okay, i've been searching the RSOF until my eyes bleed from the posts there but i've yet to find any concrete evidence of a nerf. Is it even confirmed that Jagex is looking into it? Is there some kind of HLF post, Twitter/reddit post, or livestream that they've stated they're going to nerf it on? Or is it just a rumor floating around? I don't really want to put money into a virtus wand/book (Or eventually seismics) to use if it's just going to crash because of this nerf.

 

2) Virtus wand/book

 

At the moment I main Torva/Drygores on pretty much everything unless I need to switch styles (KK, Polypore dungeon, Nex?). I won't be able to afford seismics as I just banked all of my buyable 99s, so until then my only good mage option is full virtus with wand/book (Which I can somewhat comfortably afford.) Assuming "general" combat (Occasional non-vorago/rot6 bossing trips, slayer, etc), would anyone advise picking up the wand/book combo for use? I usually use a chaotic staff when I *need* to mage.

 

3) Charms

 

After I finish getting comp cape (However many years that will take me), i'll be looking into finishing my old summoning exp goal of 50m. I'm not sure of the best places to farm charms after EoC, and a lot of people that i've asked have told me to do slayer for charms...Yeah. I would be thinking based on previous posts i've seen that it's either still waterfiends or Glacors, however as Glacors drop a lot of blues i'm not sure i'll be up to dropping 27 gp/exp on Geysers for another 35m exp (My time value isn't quite that high and i'm not sure that it would be practical for long-term training). Any tips on what to camp and what locations and if necessary, small tips to help get the most out of that monster?

 

4) Ability ticks

 

I've heard that it's possible to get abilities to fire off in 2 ticks instead of 3 using full manual combat. Is that a myth? If not, how could you do that? (If it's not against the rules).

 

5) Adrenaline management

 

Assuming that your Sunshine/Swiftness/Berserk is on cooldown and so are your thresholds, is it better to use a damage-dealing ultimate or wait until your thresholds are off cooldown?

 

Thank you for all of your advice =]

 

 

[Stev]

Regarding 1.

No idea.

 

Regarding 2.

Yes. What other magic gear have you got? I tend to only use melee when I need to. Magic is better in general.

 

Regarding 3.

Tormented Demons. Tormented Demons. Tormented Demons. Especially now that they've altered combat, you can kill them quite easily in under 10 seconds. I still bring my charming imp, but I believe the still drop 3x.

 

Regarding 4.

You can make abilities stack, in a way. For example, using Assault on a Tormented Demon and then instantly switching to magic which will allow you to instantly Wild Magic without delay while Assault is still in effect.

 

Regarding 5.

I never use ultimates. If meleeing, you've got Assault and Destroy, for Magic you have Asphyxiate and Wild Magic, etc. This is, of course, assuming your "general combat", which I assume is Bandos and other Godwars.

 

Take Bandos for example. As soon as he spawns, turn on your prayers, Wrack, Wild Magic, Asphyxiate. By the time that's finished, the kill's almost finished. Keep the minion you're strongest to alive to keep your adrenaline up while you AFK. Once the minion dies (it'll die on it's own after x-amount of time), use an Anticipate when you have to, the boss will spawn and repeat. Ultimates at anything lower then Nex is a waste.

[Ambler]

Regarding 1:

It's not 100% confirmed, but it's been said that a nerf was sort of in the planning, as it is currently op as hell (Literally the same power as a single wild magic hit- every 2 abilities.)

Most of it's regarding Chris L saying he was in charge of balancing abilities, so I'm assuming magic will remain the most powerful- or Range/Melee will be buffed to match it.

[bjanko]

Regarding 2.

Yes. What other magic gear have you got? I tend to only use melee when I need to. Magic is better in general.

 

 

I have subjugation robes that I use along with my chaotic staff for slayer, but apart from that and arcane stream nothing special. As I said, I can comfortably afford virt and wand/book. Could you please explain why magic is better in general? I'd understand within tiers (Comparing virt wand/book to chaotics or such), but with the extra damage and accuracy, I couldn't see how it's better then drygores. 

 

Omitting concentrated blast (on the basis of a nerf or such), would you still say that is the case?

 

 

 

 

Regarding 3.

Tormented Demons. Tormented Demons. Tormented Demons. Especially now that they've altered combat, you can kill them quite easily in under 10 seconds. I still bring my charming imp, but I believe the still drop 3x.

 

I've not done TDs in years, the last time I killed one was probably in 2010 or something. What's their main charm drop, and don't they switch prayers based on damage recieved?

 

 

 

Regarding 4.

You can make abilities stack, in a way. For example, using Assault on a Tormented Demon and then instantly switching to magic which will allow you to instantly Wild Magic without delay while Assault is still in effect.

 

Ah, yes, I see what you mean there. What I was actually referring to was claims of say, Slice-> (1.2 seconds) Sever-> (1.2 seconds) Slice. Thank you though =]

 

 

 

Regarding 5.

I never use ultimates. If meleeing, you've got Assault and Destroy, for Magic you have Asphyxiate and Wild Magic, etc. This is, of course, assuming your "general combat", which I assume is Bandos and other Godwars.

 

Take Bandos for example. As soon as he spawns, turn on your prayers, Wrack, Wild Magic, Asphyxiate. By the time that's finished, the kill's almost finished. Keep the minion you're strongest to alive to keep your adrenaline up while you AFK. Once the minion dies (it'll die on it's own after x-amount of time), use an Anticipate when you have to, the boss will spawn and repeat. Ultimates at anything lower then Nex is a waste.

 

I've only done one bandos trip in I don't know how many years either. Most of the time I go to Gwd, it's usually zammy/sara or nex. =p

 

So even when they're all on cooldown it's not worth using a damage ultimate?

 

 

Regarding 1:

It's not 100% confirmed, but it's been said that a nerf was sort of in the planning, as it is currently op as hell (Literally the same power as a single wild magic hit- every 2 abilities.)

Most of it's regarding Chris L saying he was in charge of balancing abilities, so I'm assuming magic will remain the most powerful- or Range/Melee will be buffed to match it.

 

 

Thank you =]

 

When you mention every 2 abilities - Could you give me an example of a proper rotation including concentrated blast then? 2 abilities would be 3.6 seconds (or 4.2 accounting for some lag), unless i'm missing something.

[Yak-scythe]

Regarding 4.

You can make abilities stack, in a way. For example, using Assault on a Tormented Demon and then instantly switching to magic which will allow you to instantly Wild Magic without delay while Assault is still in effect.

 

 

I don't actually believe this is true because when you swap to a new weapon whether it be of different style or type, there is a 5 or 10 second cooldown on the abilities..

 

The only way I see what this question's answer is would be if your using assualt then just before the very last hit use destroy and it will combo two hits 1 being from assault and 1 from destroy. 

[bjanko]

Bumping this thread, A few more opinions and/or answers would be greatly appreciated =]

[Stev]

I don't have time for a full reply but:

 

I've not done TDs in years, the last time I killed one was probably in 2010 or something. What's their main charm drop, and don't they switch prayers based on damage recieved?

They drop 3x blues and crimsons nearly every kill. They still change their prayers every 3100 damage dealt. However, if you used an assault and the first one hit a 4000, the second one will still hit. Same goes for wild magic. So:

-Weaken

-Assault (Instantly switch once you see the animation, don't even wait for the hits)

-Wild Magic (Instantly switch once you see the animation, don't even wait for the hits)

-Destroy

-Get limbs (TD = dead)

 

I'll be streaming them frequently this weekend - will be happy to demonstrate.

 

I have subjugation robes that I use along with my chaotic staff for slayer, but apart from that and arcane stream nothing special. As I said, I can comfortably afford virt and wand/book. Could you please explain why magic is better in general? I'd understand within tiers (Comparing virt wand/book to chaotics or such), but with the extra damage and accuracy, I couldn't see how it's better then drygores.

Magic can out DPS melee almost everywhere if using your abilities correctly. Drygores stand no chance against magic (even if comparing virtus) at GWD, for example (I'd be willing to demonstrate ;)). It's also better for other things, such as slayer - even if their weaknesses aren't spells. Stacking abyssal demons, for example.

 

I don't actually believe this is true because when you swap to a new weapon whether it be of different style or type, there is a 5 or 10 second cooldown on the abilities..

Incorrect. There's no delay now as of the combat update. Again, I'll be streaming it this weekend.

 

Edit: The Lioness is stalking me! ;).

[bjanko]

Hi Stev,

 

Thanks for your prompt reply. I understand being constrained for time - I'm going to be quite busy myself this weekend!

 

Because of that, are streams on whatever platform you choose saved for later watching? If so, i'll be able to check out you murking some tds after the weekend. Thanks for the tips though =]

 

I'd also like to see (or hear an explanation of) magic being better dps then melee (in regards to virtus over drygores). At zammy, for example, in full virt with wand/book and stalling between kills to sunshine + pot, I get around 15-30 second kills, whereas with drygores and full torva I can manage 15-20 second kills quite consistently. Perhaps zammy is a bad example, although it's the only non-Nex GWD boss i've done lately. I would also imagine drygores to be better at harder bosses due to the accuracy bonus.

 

Not saying you're wrong - if there's a way I can get more DPS for my buck then i'd love to hear how, it's just that I don't understand.

 

Thank you =]

[Stev]

I've not done Zammy in a while either, but like I said - I rely on thresholds. Will never see me use and ultimate because wrack/impact/fire breath to wild magic to asphyxiate can deal out faster damage then sunshine. :P.

[Perfect Wave]

Magic can out DPS melee almost everywhere if using your abilities correctly. Drygores stand no chance against magic (even if comparing virtus) at GWD, for example (I'd be willing to demonstrate ;)). It's also better for other things, such as slayer - even if their weaknesses aren't spells. Stacking abyssal demons, for example.

Incorrect. There's no delay now as of the combat update. Again, I'll be streaming it this weekend.

 

Edit: The Lioness is stalking me! ;).

 

False. Melee can certainly out dps magic by ALOT on p3 at Vorago and possibly p5. I've seen meleers in tetsu outdps tect and dual seismic experienced dps by over 3k xp on p3. Also I think drygores+ascensions is comparable/better than Seismics at nex, but I have no actual numbers to support that. 

[khandajatt]

Mage is useless at nex now due to new update on secpnd spwan so that is out pf the compairson

[Perfect Wave]

Mage is useless at nex now due to new update on secpnd spwan so that is out pf the compairson

That's like saying melee is useless at nex because she prays melee on Zaros and range is useless because she prays range half the time.

You have to bring a gear switch no matter what style you use. I personally tank so I bring Mage and melee and can say for certain Mage is 100x better than melee for tanking and you can still use it like 70% of the time.

[khandajatt]

Well ill try it out :) thanks

[bjanko]

Regarding 1:

It's not 100% confirmed, but it's been said that a nerf was sort of in the planning, as it is currently op as hell (Literally the same power as a single wild magic hit- every 2 abilities.)

Most of it's regarding Chris L saying he was in charge of balancing abilities, so I'm assuming magic will remain the most powerful- or Range/Melee will be buffed to match it.

 

Just bringing this back for a second,

 

I brought virt wand/book to try out to see if I could get some decent damage going with rotations, and while so far the only thing i've tested has pretty high defence to magic (Celestial dragons, though I was still getting higher kill rates then people ranging and when I was with torva/drygores there), I think i've got the hang of it.

 

I've got my ability bar set up like so:

 

Conc blast - Wrack - Dragon Breath - Combust - Impact - Asphyx - Wild magic - Sunshine

 

Sunshine whenever i've got an overflow of adren (I suppose i'd start bosses with that), then make my way left to right on the ability bar. (Replacing combust with chain for slaying and impact on stun immunes) An example might be:

 

Conc blast -> Wrack -> DB -> Conc blast -> Wrack -> Combust -> Conc blast -> Asphyxiate -> Conc blast -> Wrack -> DB -> Conc blast -> Wrack -> Wild magic

 

To my mind (And it's pretty late here), something like that should maximize both the usage of conc blast as well as dragon breath while spacing thresholds.

 

Is that what you're talking about, Stev?

 

---

 

On a random note, without much practise (it's been a while), what kind of kph should I expect doing glacors?

 

Thank you all again for your help =]