Advanced Monster Blocking (links 13 Jan 2006) (AOW discuss)

Tip.It staff note: This guide has been copied to the Archive of Wisdom http://forum.tip.it/viewtopic.php?t=608702

This original topic is for replies to the author and discussion.

A Guide to Advanced Monster Blocking

I've been contemplating a guide like this literally for years. I'm sure there are others out there who know how this works but I never see anyone using these tricks. Most people only know popular "safe spots" like the ones in this long (and excellent) guide to safe spots. But that only covers the popular spots. If you enjoy blocking all enemies, big and small, and enjoy finding new spots to block monsters just for fun, this guide is for you!

Though written for rangers at first, mages and hally users can use this guide too. In fact a halberd will work for EVERY block in this guide. The techniques deal with movement, positioning and how to control monsters, not long-distance attacks.

So here we go with the course: Advanced Blocking.

The Basics

Run, don't walk. No, it's not because we're afraid of getting hit. We run because we can move two steps before the monster moves one. This has a huge impact on the directions we can draw the monster.

Know which axis is which. By "axis" I mean either N-S (north-south) or E-W (east-west). Monsters move differently along each axis so what works in one direction will often NOT work in the other. After a while you'll start remembering by reflex which way is north in a room. All images below have north at the top unless stated otherwise.

Floor. Stuff you walk on.

Good ol' rocks. This represents any kind of obstacle you can shoot over.

Solid stuff like walls that you can't walk or shoot through.

Our hero.

A generic monster.

Part 1 - Using Corners

Monster movements

Small monsters: (Monsters that occupy a single square.) When attacking they will always try moving towards you diagonally first before moving rectangularly along the axes. If they hit the point of a corner while moving diagonally they will always try moving E-W first.

Large Monsters: (4 squares, 9 squares, etc.) Large monsters cannot move diagonally at all. They will always move E-W first until they hit something or until they are lined up directly N-S of you. Furthermore, when lining up they will always try to line up their south-west square with you. Try thinking of the S-W square as the "core" of a large monster and the rest of the squares as baggage that can get caught on things. You'll notice this is the square where your arrows always fall, and where the drops appear when killed.

The Corner Rule

KEY POINT. This is a great exception to the rules of movement above and it is the key to most of these advanced blocking techniques.

Any time an attacking monster is 1 step N-S and 1 step E-W (so, directly on one of your corners) it will ONLY want to move E-W. Even if the E-W direction is obstructed and the N-S direction isn't, it will NOT move the 1 step N-S to reach you. This is what makes monsters seem to get "stuck" on corners when chasing you. If the corner is made of something you can shoot over, you can safely range the stuck monster.

Note, they won't stay stuck if they're more than 1 diagonal step away from you. Stay right next to the corner.

Examples:

This long clump of rocks seems cumbersome at first if you only try shooting straight across the whole thing. However any monster that hits the side when approaching you will still get stuck on the corner.

Rangers in the Canifis bar, stop running round and round the tables endlessly and use the corners of the stools, please! You make me dizzy!. [EDIT]

The corner rule works even better on large monsters. If even one of his squares is obstructed then the whole monster can't move E-W, and it will also not want to move N-S. Using this, you can shoot large monsters stuck even on corners made of solid walls, because there is nothing actually between you and the monster. Note the one square of space between you and the wall.

Fixing Botched Pulls

Many places are considered bad ranging spots because a safe spot is hard to hit right, and if you mess it up you have to eat the damage because "running to the other side of the rock" doesn't work. By moving and dragging the monster around a bit it's often possible to get a different block. You may even find that "botching" the pull on purpose and then fixing it is easier than trying for the obvious block!

Oops, missed this shot. This clump of rocks is too wide to run across to the other side without the monster following you, and because he approaches E-W the monster doesn't get stuck on the corner.

Solution: draw the monster down to the proper side of the corner, then run up through him. Because you run two steps before he can move one you'll pass through him before he can back up. Then use the corner. If done quickly you shouldn't take more than 1 hit.

Similarly, if you were trying to get him stuck on the corner and miss like this, you can fix it by running back and forth through the monster, drawing him one square upward.

New problem: the rocks are still too wide to run across and now we can't pull the monster down. There is a spot similar to this in the Jellies room in slayer dungeon.

Solution: by running two squares to the side we put enough distance between us and the monster so that it moves diagonally onto our row.

Once the monster is against the wall we have a few options. Using what we already know, move north one row and move back over 1 step at a time. By moving 1 step at a time the monster never gets farther than our corner, so it won't move diagonally away from the wall. It'll move straight E-W along the wall until it gets stuck on the corner.

But there's an even faster way that works in this particular case: 1 click! This only works because of the exact shape and timing of this situation. When we run we take 2 steps before a monster moves. Watch the path that the player takes and you'll notice that after exactly 2 steps we are on the monster's upper corner: just where we want to be to draw the monster to the side. So it moves sideways while we finish moving over the corner, completing the block. Thanks to this path and timing, this technique is almost as fast as pulling the monster down and running through it.

These screenshots have south at the top, but the n-s/e-w axes are the same so it shouldn't be confusing.

Once you get a feel for how monsters move and for recognising useful corners you'll start finding opportunities almost anywhere.

Part 2 - Using Other Players

Players as obstacles

Trampling: Why do monsters sometimes bump into players and other monsters, and sometimes walk right through them? Basically, a player that is standing still is "solid until trampled by someone else." Once you are trampled you stay that way until you move again. How exactly do you become trampled? It happens when another player or monster steps OFF the square on which you're standing.

(Next time you pickpocket NPCs, notice that many players can have an NPC trapped in a nook, until 1 person leaves to get food. When he steps off he tramples everyone else on the square and the NPC walks through them all and gets away.)

The following will trample you:

- Another player running through you

- You standing on a player or monster and them stepping off you.

- A monster spawning under you and stepping off you.

Cutting corners: One thing that looks like trampling but isn't: another player can cut diagonally across one of your corners. It will NOT trample you because they never actually stepped on your square. This is not obvious because monsters will never cut across a corner like that unless you're trampled.

Trampling monsters: Monsters are subject to exactly the same rules as players in regards to trampling, and they can be used to block other monsters unless they've been trampled.

Trampling large monsters: The same rules still apply, but each square of the monster is trampled separately. This means you can run across a large monster, trampling 1 or 2 squares, and still use its remaining squares to block another monster.

Player Movements

The path a player takes when you "walk here" is precalculated when you click, and the full algorithm is much more complicated than the movements of a chasing monster. For now we only care about one aspect: players prefer to move rectangularly first, then diagonally. I.e. the opposite of monsters.

Movement Techniques

Now that we know about trampling it's easy enough to attack monsters from behind your partner, just being careful not to trample him when moving around. But what if you're already being attacked? The following moves all stem from what we already know, but we'll spell them out here to help recognise them later.

Corner block: Simple corner block. Your partner blocks the monster's E-W axis. Of course, this still only works along the same axes as any corner block.

Diagonal step block: Cut across your partner's corner, then it's just a matter of monster movement. It can't move diagonally so it chooses to move E-W. This is another direction-dependent move; you start E-W of your buddy and finish all lined up N-S.

Knight's move block: This L-shaped movement is like a knight's move in chess, but remember that Runescape players always make it with a rectangular step first, then a diagonal step. The diagonal step cuts across your partner's corner. Somewhat uniquely, this move works equally well along either axis.

Thanks to 313sephiroth who was willing to stand still for the screenies. :wink:

Those with sharp eyes will notice that if you do this move with two separate steps it still works, in either direction, because it becomes one of the two techniques above. Why bother calling it a new move? By running the 2 steps, the monster doesn't get a chance to move to the side at all. This will be important next section.

Large Monsters: Because of their bulky size, large monsters are generally much easier to work with. If you remember that its s-w corner is drawn to you and know how a large monster will move, you can get the beast snagged on your partner in no time. Many ways to use the corner rule also leads to some neat-looking blocks.

This is only one example of many. Moving anywhere rightward will pull the monster straight against P2. Moving one downward makes use of the corner rule.

You can always just drag your monster around your partner until get a block, but if you're fighting something dangerous you will want to know at a glance how you need to move. Practice with easier monsters, and concentrate on moving around your partner quickly without trampling him. It's easy to click on the wrong square in the heat of the moment. You don't even have to practice with a friend; I use random meleers in the room while I'm training, just to liven things up! :D

Pairs Blocking

Things can get boring for Player Two (P2) serving as obstacle. If P2 is a ranger or mage he can attack a monster without moving. But if P2 flubs his pull, or if both players are already under attack, you can still work together to both get blocks by using the techniques in the previous section. There are many ways to do this and they all feel the same after a while, so I'll only give these guidelines and a few examples.

#1) P1 is the first person to get a block and should always block using P2's monster, not P2 himself. The reason for this is P2 cannot move if his body is being used to protect P1.

#2) Since monsters are used to block, you must not trample them by accident. To un-trample your monster just move around so it moves to follow you.

#3) Once P1 has a block using P2's monster, P2 can always find a block with 1 knight's move. There are usually other options too, but unless you're too near a wall a knight's move is always a possibility.

Be aware that when one monster is killed the structure will usually collapse, and the player who isn't finished starts taking hits again. Hopefully this isn't a big deal. If it is, the one who kills first should be nice enough to get into position (or just stay still) so the other player can reblock and finish his kill. Obviously pair blocks are quite unstable and are mostly for fun while training, or for a fun challenge. Be very careful if there's a chance of dying.

Examples:

I like this one just for the symmetry. You're done after the first set of moves, but can straighten out to a line if you want, or even move next to your partner.

Here's a case where P2 MUST use a knight's move, either north or south. Anything else would make his monster move (or would trample someone).

Screenshots may be added when I find a ranger bored enough to join me.

Large Monsters

Once again I'll leave this as an exercise for the reader. It seems complicated to have two large monsters being pulled in close proximity, but there are even more possibilities than with small monsters. You can even run through each other's monsters, partially trampling them, and still use them for blocking.

I hope I haven't made the information needlessly complicated. In retrospect it looks less like a "guide" and more like a "textbook". :wink: But you only really need to get the gist of it here. If you only know about the corner rule and trampling (and for large monsters, that their s-w square is their core) you can figure out all the moves for yourself while playing. It adds an element of strategy and puzzle-solving to boring "point, click, fight" combat.

Sep 08, 2006 So, I've been taking a break from runescape lately. I'm glad the guide is still getting positive responses and I'll still check occasionally to make sure all the images are up, etc. If anyone poses a question to me specifically I won't be around to respond quickly though. If it's a question about blocking maybe someone else will be able to answer it in the thread.

Jan 13, 2007. All images now on imageshack. No change to text so not really an "update". I'm still away from rs but I'm glad this guide is still around in the AOW and helping folks.

Dude, awesome guide, even though I don't play RuneScape any more.

great guide, this will really help me

Superb guide you got there.

Keep up the good work. :)

Fantastic guide! Sticky please!

I don't range, ever, so it is useless to me, but hey! You obviously put a hell of a lot of work into this! Nice one!

omg such a good guide !!!!

Nice, you've done a lot of research and with a lot of effort to. Good job! :D

Beautiful.

Awsome guide! Not much of a ranger...but as you said, will work for mages to :twisted:

Brilliant mate, great work!

Make sure you tell Leesters and he'll certainly put it in the Book of Knowledge! :D

cool, i can use it when i start for 70 ranged.

This HAS to be Archive of Wisdom-ified. Someone drag Leesters away from the Dag Kings!

Woah, very nice guide :-). I'll be sure to try this out sometime.

10/10

That explains a lot, particularly the "stuck on a corner" thing.

Archive of wizdom, here you go.

dude, i am SO trying this when i begin ranging! great job on this!

This is an awesome guide!! Great way you put it together and stuff too.

Awesome guide dude! I'll use it when I start going to 65 ranged!

Wow. Nice jobbers.

So, when was the last time you got hit? :?

This guide is great! this will help loads of tipiters for sure :lol: :D

Awesome, and completely right from what I can tell :) nice work.

Bumping for the second half of the guide I just added. I can't say for sure that it's finished but at least I can't think of more to add.

Comments are welcome. If you think I got something wrong or if you know some detail you feel should be added, by all means let me know.

Also, I've heard of some NPCs that can't be blocked by a friend, like Damis and the Barrows spirits. I never got around to trying these, and I'm f2p now. Can anyone give me a clear explanation as to why they don't work? I'm not sure I want to start including unique exceptions into the guide, but you might say I have a professional interest in this. :)

Everybody knows about the "good" spots already, but this guide will surely help me with my slaying :) .

very nice guide. It'll prove helpful next time i'm training range :D