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Defence
yep out of date DON'T USE!

Defence is a skill that gives player protection. As a player raises their Defence level, opponents will deal damage less often. Defence does not influence the amount of damage that will be taken. Defence levels also affect what kind of armour a player can equip.

A small selection of players choose to focus exclusively on Defence and not train any other combat skills. These players are known as defence pures. It is suspected that the number is low due to the cost dying as a defence pure and the limited appeal of long combat round between a defence pure and their opponent.

Fighting defensively[]

To increase a player's Defence level, they must choose the "defensive" attack style. To do this, a player has to click on the image with the two swords beside the menu that shows their skills. This menu is called the "attack style menu". The player can then click on the attack style that says "defensive" in brackets.

While fighting defensively, players will not be hit as often as they would when fighting aggressively or accurately and when they are, the damage is reduced, to the minimum of 0, making it as if the player was never hit by the attack. Fighting defensively will also reduce how often you hit and how hard you hit.

Strategy[]

Having a high Defence level is key to any fighter's success. If one wants to land strikes, one has to also be able to take them. The Defence skill lowers the frequency of opponents' attacks landing and causing damage, countering the opponent's Attack skill and by extension their Strength.

Numerous players, especially melee-pure player killers, neglect their Defence in favour of training Attack and Strength or Strength alone. Often, Defence is left at level 10, so as to enable the wearing of popular black armour. Though this strategy gives a person high power in their attacks, it is not recommended. Even if a person in the Bounty Hunter arena boasts very high Attack and Strength levels, if they do not have the ability to wear or do not possess decent armour, a person of a comparable level with high Defence may kill them with little or no trouble. Therefore, it is becoming increasingly popular to train defence to at least level 40, as to enable the player to wear the ever-popular rune armour.

Experience-this is out dated[]

A formula is used that decides how much experience a player obtains when fighting defensively. If a player hits an opponent, whatever damage they deal is multiplied by 4 and given to the player's Defence skill. For example, if a player hits a 1, then they will receive 4 Defence experience.

Some experience is also given to a player's Hitpoints level when they deal damage. If a player hits an opponent, whatever damage they deal is multiplied by 1.33 and given to their Hitpoints. For example, if a player hits a 1, then they will receive 1.33 Hitpoints experience, in addition to the 4 experience in defence.

If a player fights with the "controlled" attack style, then whatever damage they deal will be multiplied by 1.33 and given to the player's Defence, Attack, Strength, and Hitpoints level.

Defence can also be trained by training the Ranged skill in the "long range" attack style. For every hit dealt to the opponent, players receive 2 Ranged experience, 2 Defence experience, and 1.33 Hitpoints experience.

Defence can also be trained by attacking with Magic spells while autocasting with a staff with a defensive cast style. Doing so gives players 2 experience points to Magic and 2 to defence, as well as the 1.33 to Hitpoints.

Defence bonuses[]

Main article: Equipment bonuses#Attack bonuses

Some weapons and armour give players "defence bonuses" against certain attack types. These bonuses can be seen in the equipment menu, to the right of the inventory menu. Defence bonuses give players advantages as well as disadvantages in combat.

Other defence bonuses[]

  • Some weapons also give a small increase or reduction in a player's defence bonus. For example, staves increase a player's defence bonus while two-handed swords reduce a player's defence bonus.
  • Leather gloves, leather boots, and capes give slight defence bonuses.
  • An Amulet of Defence gives a defence bonus of +7 all attack types.
  • An Amulet of Power gives a defence bonus of +6 against all attack types.
  • A Holy symbol gives a +2 defence bonus against all attack types.

Defence requirements[]

Defence levels required to equip different types of armour are as follows:

Type Level Notes
Bronze 1 Bronze armour is the weakest metal armour that players can make in all of RuneScape.
Iron 1 Iron armour is stronger than bronze armour.
Steel 5 Steel armour is stronger than iron armour.
Black 10 Black armour is stronger than steel armour.
Mithril 20 Mithril armour is stronger than black armour.
Adamant 30 Adamant armour is stronger than mithril armour.
Rune 40 Rune armour is stronger than adamant armour and is also the strongest armour free players can equip.

Maximum defence bonus[]

Below is a table, how to get the maximum overall defence bonus. Maximum defence bonus is needed to get a maximum defence bonus of a certain type.

Item Stab Slash Crush Magic Ranged Strength Prayer
Rune sword (any sword will do) +0 +3 +2 +0 + 0 +49 +0
Rune berserker shield +45 +49 +47 -1 +47 +4 +0
Rune full helm +30 +32 +27 -1 +30 +0 +0
Rune platebody +82 +80 +72 -6 +80 +0 +0
Rune platelegs(male) +51 +49 +47 -4 +49 +0 +0
Amulet of Power +6 +6 +6 +6 +6 +6 +1
Cape (any) +0 +1 +1 +0 +2 +0 +0
Fighting boots +1 +2 +3 +0 +0 +0 +0
Rune gauntlets +10 +11 +11 -1 +10 +3 +0
Ring of devotion +1 +1 +1 +1 +1 +1 +0
TOTAL +225 +233 +216 -7 +224 +62 +1

Temporary boosts[]

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