Dragonfire shield



The dragonfire shield is an anti-dragon shield that has been fused with a draconic visage by an expert smith. When fully charged, it has the second greatest overall defence bonus of any shield, beaten only by the chaotic kiteshield, and is the strongest non-degradeable shield in the game. It is well known to be worth a fortune, and is sometimes worn as a status symbol. Other shields in its class are the crystal shield which possesses a higher ranged defence bonus, the mage's book and spectral spirit shield possessing higher Magic defence bonuses respectively, and the blessed spirit shield (and variants) which possess higher crush defence bonuses. A number of shields possess higher Prayer and Summoning defence bonuses. When completely uncharged, its stats are only slightly better than the Mithril kiteshield. To wield this item, a player's Defence level must be 75 or higher. This shield is also unique for giving the highest strength bonus of any left-hand wielded item. Its strength bonus beats both the rune defender and toktz-ket-xil by 2 and the dragon defender by 1, allowing you to hit a little higher without having a two-handed sword equipped.

Creation
The dragonfire shield can be smithed at a Smithing level of 90 or higher by using a draconic visage with an anti-dragon shield, earning 2,000 Smithing experience. The Assist System and boosts can also be used to make it as well. If you don't have the required Smithing level, you can also bring the required items to Oziach who will smith it for you for 1,250,000 coins. Bronze, Green, Blue and Red dragons are the only dragons that will not drop the draconic visage. All other dragons will, including skeletal wyverns and the king black dragon. The shield itself was a possible drop from PvP Worlds until it was removed from the drop table on 16 June 2009.

Use
This shield, like the anti-dragon shield, provides partial protection against dragonfire. Unlike the anti-dragon shield however, it also provides partial protection from the ice breath of skeletal wyverns. The Dragonfire shield's factor of protection against dragon breath does not change as it discharges. The use of an antifire potion with the shield renders full protection from standard dragonfire, but not from the special attacks of the King Black Dragon or the skeletal wyverns breath.

Charging
The shield absorbs dragonbreath from all dragons, including the ice breath from Skeletal Wyverns, when equipped. Each breath attack received provides one charge, building up to a maximum number of 50 charges. Each charge increases the shield's defence stats, raising its stab, slash, crush, range and summoning attacks by +1 per charge. The number of charges the shield holds will not affect the factor of partial protection given by the shield against dragonfire. You can check how many charges the shield has accumulated by right clicking it in your inventory and selecting "Inspect."

The best place to charge a shield is anywhere with metal dragons or frost dragons as when you move away from them they use their dragonbreath attack at a faster rate than chromatic dragons. The bronze dragons in the Chaos Tunnels are particularly effective at charging the shield, as they are in a multicombat area, allowing multiple bronze dragons to attack the player at once. For players unwilling to coerce dragons to blast them with fire, a somewhat safer method to charge a Dragonfire Shield is by means of metal dragons in a Player-owned House dungeon; this includes dragons owned by other players.

The shield is untradeable when charged, and as such it must be discharged completely before being sold. A complete discharge can be done by right-clicking the shield in the inventory interface and selecting the empty option. This will release all remaining charges in a single, harmless burst. The shield cannot be lent, whether it is charged or not.

Discharging
When the shield is worn players can release a charge of dragonbreath by selecting activate from the equipment interface. Oddly, this will even work underwater. Once operated, the shield has a cool down time of exactly two minutes before its flames can be unleashed again. The Dragon Breath special is so powerful that it can strike from up to 19 steps away (maximum). When activated the shield will then fire a deadly blast of fiery energy at your opponent, which usually hits 300+ damage, but remember doing so lowers all of the stats of the shield by 1 for every charge used. Players can also activate the shield while not in combat, resulting in the charge being released on the next opponent the player attacks. Using the dragonbreath attack against a monster will earn Magic experience.

When activated, the charge attack will be long-ranged, and the player will run toward the opponent to start fighting (if wielding melee weapons). The attack will not work against chromatic dragons or Skeletal Wyverns but will damage metal dragons. The dragonbreath discharged is known to be highly accurate and do a great deal of damage, as such it is commonly used as a sneak attack against an opponent.

Use in Pvp
Because of the accuracy of the dragonfire special, its use could determine the outcome of the battle, especially if both parties are left with less than 300 lifepoints. This strategy is commonly used in the duel arena as well as pvp in general. Be wary of opponent using a dragonfire shield in a match, and remember, the dragonfire special can only be used once every 2 minutes (exactly).

The damage of this attack is reduced, just like a real dragon's dragonbreath attack, if the opponent is wearing an anti-dragon shield, a dragonfire shield, or is under the effects of an antifire/super antifire potion. The only other equipment that produces the dragonfire attack are dragon bolts (e).

Bonuses
Slash, crush, stab, ranged, and summoning defence bonuses will increase by 1 for every charge accumulated, and decrease by 1 for every charge spent.

Trivia

 * When a dragon breathes fire on a player wearing the shield, the player crouches behind the shield and does not make an attacking motion, however, the players attack damage against the dragon still registers.
 * Before the PvP and Bounty world update on 16 June 2009, players could get a dragonfire shield from PvP kills; however, the aforementioned update removed dragonfire shields from PvP drop tables.
 * The anti-dragon shield weighs 5kg while the draconic visage weighs 1; however, when fused the dragonfire shield's weight increases to 7.2kg, a total weight increase of 1.2kg.
 * In July 2010, the shield's appearance was updated so that both sides of the shield, the parts that were not covered by the visage, were orange. Previously, one side of the shield was orange, and the other side was the same colour as the visage.
 * The anti-dragon shield is held with the left hand when worn, however, once the draconic visage is attached, the dragonfire shield is held by the forearm when equipped. It's possible that because of the shield's weight, the avatar needs to get a better grip and therefore holds it differently.
 * Due to the shield's ability to protect you from Skeletal Wyverns' ice breath (much like the series of elemental shields), this shield provides the best stats for the off-hand slot when fighting a skeletal wyvern.
 * The shield's special attack raises defence experience when used against other players.
 * Although the Anti-dragon shield has no magic attack penalty, the Dragonfire shield does, similar to how dragonhide armour interferes with magic.
 * The price of the Dragonfire shield declined due to the release of the Dragon defender. The Dragonfire shield has become somewhat less popular due to many players' preference to wield the extraordinarily cheaper and often more efficient Dragon defender instead.
 * The Dragonfire shield was not updated in the damage soaking update, so it will not provide any soaking effects. It was stated by a Jagex moderator on the RuneScape forums that high-levelled shields, such as the Dragonfire Shield, did not receive a damage soaking update due to their already impressive stats combined with other features such as absorbing dragon breath.
 * Even if the shield charged only with Ice breath from Skeletal Wyverns only firebreath will be discharged rather than the ice breath, much to the disappointment of some players.
 * It is advisable to take caution in smithing shields for profit (if the player has 90 smithing), as the dragonfire shield and visage are often changing drastically in price.