The Anticipated update to the combat system…Opinions?

First topic message reminder :

Well?

Double wield chaotics. They're epic.

So epic.

<3

Grahhhhhhh, anone has a crossbow and sword I can borow?

Dusk, everything's given out for free...


In other news, while running around in full Torva is fantastic fun, I've decided to start figuring out what I should actually be wearing when the update comes out. Barrows armour is great now - Verac's is only narrowly weaker than Bandos armour but has a prayer bonus. And the brassard looks awesome - the player's finally gotten some gym membership, it seems. The Bandos helmet looks cooler than Verac's though, so I may mix-and-match. I guess it depends on the price when things come out - I may own Bandos if I can afford it (I predict a price crash, by the way).
I can happily take anything from the dungeoneering shop, safely knowing that it'll be accessible to me when the update goes live. I already have a rapier, question is, offhand rapier to match, or offhand longsword? Can't decide...

Annoyingly, Bandos boots and gloves outclass dragon boots and my hard-earned Barrows gloves respectively, so I'll have to change them around when the update goes live. Skillcapes, now seem much more viable as armour with my untrimmed one only narrowly being outclassed by the TokHarr-Kal in melee but being better all round, and being equal to or perhaps better than the fire cape. You'll be seeing me showing off 99 attack a lot more now, it seems.

Fighter torsos are utterly useless in the new system by the way, as they no longer have their offensive bonuses and are beaten hands-down by arguably easier to obtain barrows armour.

Awesome, do I buy them normaly from GE or, were do I get them?

In a lot of town centres, you'll find NPCs wearing armour; you can collect weapons and armour from there. You can find them in Falador and Ardougne and outside the Grand Exchange. There may be others, I just stuck around there...

All nice to give people a chance with weapons and armour they may have always wanted, not really very useful if they haven't got the money to afford that armour.

Yeah. What Morb said. I find the one in Lumbridge to be the most convenient.

Can adrenaline production of the body be affected by the presence of nasty gases or smoke in the system?

I was thinking of some more ideas to help Combat Beta along the way.

I think some armours should have the ability to build adrenaline quicker or better retain it after breaking from combat. This could be useful for armour sets that maybe be weak to close combat and rely on long distance for their effectiveness.

I still stand firm on Shadow and Smoke remaining; for storyline sakes. The ancient elements are prominent throughout a great deal of stories speaking of the Mahjarrat and the Empty Lord, Shadow being the most ominous and mysterious of them. Shadow should instead have a chance of reducing prayer or its effectiveness rather than reducing attack as was the effect within the quest. Smoke should, instead of poisoning the body, affect adrenaline production. This could mean either depleting it, slowing down production or halting it altogether for a set amount of time.

In terms of lore, a lot could be lost in purpose from the changing of the ancient elements. In the Legend of Arrav, Zemouregal struck him down with a sword of Shadow and Smoke. Striking down a hero with a sword make of Rock and Gale doesn't sound nearly as impressive; if you combine the runes together, you would just get a sword of dust, which sounds pathetically harmless unless Arrav was asthamtic. Keep the additional rune requirements in addition to the existing non-elemental rune requirements (maybe for smoke, require nature runes in addition to smoke runes); this can easily be explained away by saying the elemental runes assist a newcomer to ancient magics by giving them an elemental base they are familiar with to bind with the strange magic.

Oh and other combination runes should see more use. They rarely, if ever, see any usage.

Prayer doesn't appear to blocking NPC damage properly! I had full health when I was fighting in the God Wars dungeon. I put protect from melee and was piled on by orcs. I was down to very little health in no time at all, all of the damage dealt through melee!

How?

Protect Prayers no longer offer full protection. No bugs, everything's working as it should be. JaGex have quite rightly decided that combat will be more exciting if you can't just block off all damage at the click of a button.

Then what's the point of protection prayers if they don't protect? That's the only reason why I have protection prayers in multi-combat situations, to block the damage done from pile ups. Food won't last forever!

How am I supposed to build up the kills needed to kill the bosses if I run out of food from fighting the lower level enemies because they hit through prayer?

Protection prayers reduce damage, not totally nullify it. Therefore, they do still protect.

And if you haven't noticed, everything's become much more defensive, players included. I sat and took hits from General Graardor for a round without prayer and I didn't have to eat anything. I'm finding food does actually seem to last for ages. I have no idea what you're doing wrong, but it's not a flaw with the combat system.

I'm using the best armour I can wield, but I am still crap at combat!

I wear Bandos armour (best I can find for the right bonuses), I make sure all my stats are fully restored before entering, I wield a Saradomin sword and I take huge amounts of damage from supposedly "weak" foes. Why?

If you can find the time Slayer, please find me so you can tell me what it is I'm doing wrong?

I still don't understand; even with decent armour and weapons, I still take too much damage and deal too little, even on weak foes.

This is why I need prayer to offer full protection, because I still cannot land a hit.

I think I may have worked out the problem. I took on the Barrows without a single problem, but that maybe because I had a shield and used magic.

I want these things.

• A version of "The Power of Dance" spell that I onced proposed. A basic ability lasting a very short time will be available, a threshold version which lasts longer and affects more enemies and an ultimate version (Murder on the Dancefloor) which last longest and damages foes when it's expired.
  
• The armour being worn affecting running speed. At the moment, all combat types move at the same speed, even with heavier armour. This needs to be changed so that combat types with the lighter armour move faster than those with heavier armour. Run energy won't deplete faster if you're heavier because of what you wear, you just don't move as fast. However, adrenaline can be used to up your running speed once you build it up.
  
• If your prayer level is higher than the necessary requirement for a protection/deflection prayer, the endurance factor should be higher (however, it won't be possible for 100% protection). Also, if the prayer no longer offers complete protection, it should award some exp for prayer or constitution depending on how much damage was absorbed or reflected.
  
• Similar to how food now states how much it restores when eaten, potions should also list how much they boost/restore when drunk. At the moment, prayer renewal is no more effective to me than a prayer restore, but there is not indication into how much I am acquiring from it.
  
• At the moment, the activity bar based abilities for mage, as far as I am aware, are the same for all three spell-books. There should be some abilities available in one spell book, but not others.
  

Point 4 is definitely a neat idea. Points 2 and 3 would need trialing but sound cool in theory: point 2 would likely only meet approval if you could move faster than you currently can with certain armours.

I see no reason for point 5. Why should they change?

And I don't know what point 1 is. You haven't actually explained what it actually does, only how different versions vary.

In terms of the "Power of Dance" spell, it was a little trick that was designed to temporarily distract an enemy. The level of the spell effects how long and how far the enchanting spell lasts.

The basic spell causes foes to dance rigorously, making them unaggressive and unable to attack during that time unless something attacks them. This is useful in a situation where you're in dire need to heal, but might not last the next attack, run away or deal a dirty blow. To save it being spammed, the cool-down period is very long.

The ultimate ability version "Murder of the Dancefloor" has the largest area of affect, but only enemies closest to it will take the damage when the spell expires. Some foes are completely unaffected (we're talking ones who are either resistant to such mind tricks or genuinely have no sense of rythmn) and some NPCs, even unattackable ones, end up dances.

Viable solution alert!

Shadow spells to become Shadowstone spells and Smoke spells to become Smokestorm spells. No wierder than Bloodfire.

The Adventurers Logs lists Slayer, Thieving and Agility as Support Skills; so maybe they should be used for support in combat.

One idea for a threshold ablity for range was "Defensive Retreat". During which, a player will retreat, but will do so backwards so they can continue firing at the target. It's largely innaccurate and you're more likely to end up tripping with lower agility levels, but it can be useful in certain situations if you wish to continue attacking whilst escaping.

Another idea I thought of for a threshold ability for Magic was to create a doppelganger that takes the damage. With this ability, the doppelganger, created with both Magic and Summoning, is produced and once it's attacked, the real player wil be invisible for a short time whilst the low defence copy is acting as a distraction. If the player so wishes, and if adrenaline doesn't fall below 100% during the time you're out of combat, they can use their thieving level to sneak up behind their target and use a magical combination from behind to take out their foe. As this is in an ultimate ability, you'd need to act quickly before your adrenaline falls below 100%.

The effect would change depending on the spell book; Normal magic would stun the target if successful, leaving them out cold and at the mercies of whatever comes to attack them. Ancient magic can kill them quickly.

A nice little feature for safe PvP games in which you respawn would be a "kill-cam", where you can get a last look at the player who took you out. Also thrown in would be an Prayer/Ancient Curse that would give you slight stat boosts if you target the last player that killed you, so you can retaliate against them.

I found this on a beta world; looks as if someone is publicly enjoying themselves.

What? No one found that funny?

I mean it sort-of was. I just didn't post.

I did

holy shit....I am going to be a mage after this update. I am a mage on virtually all of my RPGs except for Runescape only because of the rune system and melee is ultimately cheaper over time and training it was soo boring, but now it is like I got 37% to 72 in under 15 minutes using just earth waves and killing ogres! I love magic now! I gotta get Ahrim's before it becomes too expensive.

I'll be publishing my report on the combat overhaul later.