Combat pure


 * Twin redirects here. For the Random Event, see Grab the Evil Twin.

A  Combat pure is a player who works primarily on certain battle skills, focusing much of their attention to make those skills stronger. Combat pures fall into around four categories: Meleers, Mages, Rangers, and Hybrids. Pures are also distinguished by their Defence levels.

Overview
Combat pures mainly train combat skills and are usually made for player killing. The purpose of having a combat pure is to be specialized in one or two combat skills, thus being very good at a low combat level. Defence and prayer are normally sacrificed when being a combat pure, as they always add to combat level. Both skills are arguably less useful than, for example, Strength in player-killing, although both have their uses.

At the Tutorial Island, any skill can only be trained up to level 3, so you can come away from there with level 3 Attack, Strength, Magic, and Ranged. For Magic, runes will be replenished only if you drop the runes then ask for more, then pick up the ones off the ground then drop all, then repeat. For Ranged, arrows will be replenished by the instructor, so train on rapid. Although getting all of your combat skill levels up to level 3 raises your combat level to level 5, it is well worth it. Even a pure Ranger or Mage should avail themselves of the 100% pure training in Attack and Strength, since the early level-up to level 6 (warrior) will put you outside the aggressive limit of level 2 giant rats, and training the preferred skill to level 7 and beyond will make it the determining factor for combat level. It also means that you can equip a steel weapon.

Some quick tips:
 * To avoid training Defence, do not fight in a defensive or controlled style. Always double check the attack style you are using. Doing so prevents unwanted levels being gained. Note that it may help to use weapons with similar styles.
 * To avoid training Hitpoints on a melee pure, you can complete the Vampire Slayer Quest to earn 4825 Attack experience. Magic levels can be gained without Hitpoints by using alchemy, teleportation and curses.  The best way to train any skill without gaining Hitpoints experience is playing Pest Control.  You can exchange the points won from each successful game for experience in a single combat stat, except Summoning, that is higher than 30.  To avoid Hitpoints gain entirely, you have to rebuild smashed barricades and doors, and avoid fighting the Pests as much as possible.
 * To avoid training Prayer, do not bury bones and do not take on or complete the Restless Ghost quest.

Combat pures vary with their combat class (ranger, mage, or warrior), so they are discussed below.

Advantages of defence
There are many reasons why one would be interested in getting Defence levels while being a Pure. One of which is to wear better armour which may give better statistic bonuses. Another reason why one might get defence levels is to get hit damage less often. Or to simply not be a Pure anymore. However, this involves sacrificing combat stats and also hitpoints.

Using prayer
Though prayer does contribute to the combat level at a lower rate, it has a few advantages. In addition to 5, 10 or 15% stat boosts at level 25, you will save an additional item when Protect Item is active (and only one item, if the player is "skulled" for using the Abyss or playing Bounty Hunter, which still gives them a chance to save their most valuable item in your pack).


 * At level 31, you can access the Monastery which contains an altar to recharge prayer to two above your base prayer level. This will not allow you to use prayers above your base prayer level (i.e. using the altar at 41 Prayer will not give access to Protect from Melee)
 * At level 37, you gain the Protect from Magic prayer, very useful when you are wearing armour with a low mage defence bonus.
 * At level 40, you can use the Protect from Missiles prayer which defends against damage from all forms of ranged attacks (excluding mage).
 * At level 43, the last of the protection prayers, Protect from Melee, is usable, which protects you from melee attacks.

For P2P, you can get 52 prayer for Smite. When this prayer is active, 1 prayer point is removed from your opponent's prayer for every 4 damage inflicted on them. You can use smite to win your opponent's "protected" item, assuming you defeat them. During intense and hectic situations, you may be forced to make a choice to eat food or drink a prayer potion when nearing death. If your foe does not renew their prayer points when depleted and dies, they will lose the item that would normally have been protected.

In addition, two prayers have been added for members that have completed the Knight Waves Training Grounds mini-quest. The first prayer is Chivalry, at level 60 prayer, this increases your defense by 20%, your strength by 18%, and your attack by 15%. The second, and highest leveled prayer of all, is Piety, at level 70 prayer, which increases your defense by 25%, your strength by 23%, and your attack by 20%.

Attack 1
Recommended equipment: Obsidian maul, berserker necklace, berserker ring, combat bracelet, monk robes, obsidian cape, iron full helm

These pures are players that have a lot of funds and a lot of time. They stay at 1, 5, 20 attack, (mostly 1 attack) and 60+ strength for the obsidian maul. Some combine range or magic with this to make a deadly but costly combat combo (balance wise). Some also have 1-31-52 prayer. Pures with one attack do not get climbing boots due to the quest for them giving attack experience points.

Defence 20
Recommended equipment: Melee weapon of choice, bearhead or initiate helmet, initiate platebody, black dragonhide chaps, adamant gloves, amulet of fury, mithril defender, climbing boots, fire cape, berserker ring

Some players choose to get their defense to a level of 20 so as to be able to wear Initiate armour. It's done to have a greater prayer bonus which will help in keeping one's prayer level up for longer periods of time and for the better defence against magic provided. The only time this pure wears full initiate armour is when relying on prayer. The total strength bonus of an initiate pure is 28. 30 with amulet of strength.

Defence 30
Recommended equipment: Melee weapon of choice, proselyte set, rune gloves, amulet of fury, adamant defender, climbing boots, fire cape, berserker ring Some Initiate pures get 30 defense (to wear Proselyte Armour as it provides better Prayer & Defense Bonus) when their strength reaches a high level. They normally get 60 or 70/75 attack for Dragon scimitar or Abyssal whip/Godsword, then 70 to 99 strength. The total strength bonus a proselyte pure gets from the outfit above is 30. 32 with strength amulet.

Defence 40-45
Recommended equipment: Melee weapon of choice, fighter torso, rune platelegs, berserker helm, berserker ring, rune defender, Barrows gloves, amulet of fury, fire cape

Other players choose to get 40 defence or 45 for a greater selection of armour and the tremendous increase in strength given by the proper zerker pure outfit (see above). Those who get 40 defence have access to Rune armour, Dragonhide bodies, Splitbark robes and the Fighter torso (which has a greater defence against slash attacks then rune platebody but has lower defence against stab and crush attacks). Those who gain 5 more defence levels can wear the Berserker Helm. The other 'perk' that comes with 45 defence is access to lunar magics and the vengeance spell plus the ability to wield Dragon and Barrows Gloves from the quest Recipe for Disaster. To achieve barrows gloves this pure would have to gain a total of 175 quest points and get all their defence xp directly from quests. The quests a typical zerker pure will get defence from are The fremennik trials, dragon slayer, nature spirit, soul's bane, monkey madness (accept the attack and strength xp to get the lowest amount of defence xp), holy grail and in search of the myreque. The total strength bonus of a Zerker pure is +44, so a dragon scimitar, for example, would have +110 strength.

Defence 70
Recommended equipment: Melee weapon of choice, Barrows set of choice, Barrows gloves, amulet of fury, fire or strength cape, berserker ring

A Barrows pure (which isn't considered to be a true pure) is a Player Killer with and Attack and Defence level of 70. Most Player Killers who choose to raise their defence levels to this extent do it to wear a powerful set of armours known as Barrows.

Defence tends to be the more neglected of the three melee stats, so the standard for a Melee tank is simply set by the relative levels. A level 75 wearing Torag The Corrupted's set of barrows equipment is considered a tank, due to a very high defence level relative to other level 75 players, but a level 100 wearing Verac is not considered a tank (unless they have 99 defence), due to the fact that 70 defence becomes significantly more common among similarly leveled players. Typically, these tanks are not the most effective variant, due to the fact that they are likely forced into a lower strength or attack level in order to maintain a lower combat.

Defence 1
Recommended equipment : Whip or BGS or Dragon scimitar, fury amulet, unholy book, bearhead, iron platebody, black dragonhide chaps, climbing boots, fire cape, berserker ring, combat bracelet (has more accuracy then mithril gloves)

These pures were created with pking in mind. A lot of people with defence do not pk in their best equipment unless they have a very large amount of money. With this in mind players created pures so that they could hit high at low combat so that they could destroy an opponent with rune and under armour. The structure of a pure (high attack, strength and hitpoints with low defence) gives a player a better chance of killing an enemy before he runs away, which was fairly common in the wilderness. This line of thought carries into BH, since an opponent running for the exit has more chance of being killed by someone with high attack and strength then someone who has moderate attack, defence and strength. Low defence keeps the combat level down, so pures can more often then not kill a main account of the same level. Having a pure with high attack and strength creates a powerful account which makes up for its lack of defence. Even though you can hit accurately with high damage, you also receive a lot of damage in return, creating a double edge sword. This is the most popular form of pure among RuneScape players and the type most people think of when talking about pures. Pure attack and strength has the benefit to quickly eliminate your opponent which limits the damage you receive.

All Balanced
Having an all balanced account gives the player opportunity to withstand the attacks of pures with their defence but limits the damage ratio to those of pures with higher attack and strength.

Defence 1
Recommended equipment: Staff of choice, mage's book, wizard hat, wizard robe top, leather chaps, leather boots, combat bracelet, god cape, seer's ring

A description often used for a PKer that routinely fights using the Magic skill. Pure mages can hit for lots of damage at a low level, ideally killing their target before it has a chance to run, but at higher levels, the power of Magic is greatly weakened.

In P2P, low-level (30-40's) PKing with Mage is highly discouraged with the large population of Range Pures and improved dragonhide armour that weaken the accuracy of magic spells immensely. The use of mystic is rare due to the fact that it needs 20 defence, and is an expensive loss if the player dies. However, in more recent times, the strategy of using prayer to enhance the accuracy of magic spells have become more common and favored, because the player does not risk any expensive types of magic robes.Runes are very expensive and magic is considered better for teleporting,smelting,and enchanting than for fighting, magic will only do good for fighting whe your from level 5 to 30;mainly for pking.

The Mage Pure has no use for low level prayer - even protect item will not save runes, though it may be worth it to save a battlestaff or a piece of Member's mage armour.

Also, mage pures tend to die more often than other pures, mainly because of their low hitpoints level, which is often due to training with curse and alchemy (otherwise noncombat) spells, whereas other pures tend to have a higher hitpoints level and are able to take more hits before needing to eat.

Defence 20-25
Recommended equipment: Staff of choice, mage's book, mystic set or infinity set (no gloves), combat bracelet, god cape, seer's ring

Some players choose to get their defense to a level of 20 so as to be able to wear Mystic robes for a much larger magic attack bonus which helps while spellcasting. Also, you can opt to get 25 defense for Infinity robes.

Defence 70
Recommended equipment: Staff of choice, mage's book, Ahrim's set, combat bracelet, god cape, seer's ring

Although not commonly seen, a Mage Tank will often have a very high magic level, along with 70 defence to utilize Ahrim's Robes. These tanks are extremely rare, and are often easily taken down by a Damage Range Tank.

Defence 1
A term often used for any PKer that routinely fights using the Ranged skill.

Since defence is only required to wear the body section of the leather armour, a level 20 ranger can upgrade to Studded chaps and a Coif, and a level 40 with no defence can wear green dragon vambraces and chaps, Coif and the basic leather body.

For P2P rangers, it is advised to wear the highest-level Dragonhide that is available for the player's range level. The Magic Shortbow is a must for PKing, as it has a special attack unlike other bows and with the use of rune arrows, medium to high level rangers prove quite deadly. Rangers succeed most in the high level 30's to the low level 40's.

With the addition of the Dark Bow and Rune Crossbow, rangers at higher combat levels have a much higher chance of defeating other players in armour, compared to the magic short bow.

The Range Pure has no use for low level prayer, except to protect a crossbow or dark bow - protect item will not save arrows.

Defence 40-70
The second most common tank variant is a Tank Ranger. By far the most commonly seen form of a Tank Ranger is a player wearing a Black Dragonhide body with Rune Platelegs, a Rune Full Helmet, and a Rune Kiteshield, often with a Rune Crossbow as the weapon of choice. However, these Tanks are often described as "Wannabe Tanks" due to the fact that they generally do not have a very high defense level. Generally, the most effective Tank Ranger is a setup in which the Rune Helm is replaced with a Torag's Helm, the Rune Platelegs replaced with Torag's platelegs, and a superior shield such as a Granite shield or Obsidian shield in place of the Rune Kiteshield.

Another type of Tank Ranger utilizes armour such as Karil's for the phenomenal magic defense, and uses a very powerful weapon such as a Dark Bow or Karil's Crossbow. Due to the pathetic Melee defense of Karil's armour, this tank doesn't not excel against meleers, and as such, many also have the gear for regular Tank Ranging.

Defence pure or tank
Although extremely rare, a true Defence Pure is a character who solely trains Defence, whilst purposefully not gaining experience in the 2 melee stats. It is possible to gain 60 defence while not exceeding 30 combat; if the account is purely defence, it is possible by level 27 combat. However, Defence Pures are not very effective, as they have a max hit of 1 and hit many 0's due to the lack of attack and strength levels. A popular way of killing the opponent is to use an iron dagger (p++) to slowly whittle their health down. Another is, with 75 defence and the all-powerful Dragonfire Shield, using the shield to hit 17+. Training an account to 60 defence takes a good deal of patience gaining a maximum of 4 experience per attack, while not consistently administering damage. The more common reason for a Defence Pure is to show off one's opulence, such as equipping the account with Dragon chainmail, Dragon Legs or Plateskirt, and a Dragon medium helmet of some sort.

Hybrid
A hybrid is a term usually used for combat pures. A hybrid works on multiple skills. The most common hybrid is a range and mage. It is difficult to use, but it should be possible to have equal primary statistics in two or even three classes of combat or at least a working ability in one or two other combat classes. Usually it is best to work on only 2 different combat types, rather than working on 3. Otherwise your combat will be high and your combat skill level will not be the best it can be.

Carrying two or three different sets of equipment would leave a hybrid with a lot to lose and very little space for food, but enable you to stand in two or three points of the combat triangle.
 * Armoured warrior is weak against Mage (if you have no other choice, take off your armour and charge the mage if you are willing to take a risk.)
 * Mages are weak against Rangers, as range armour is better defensively against magic than mage gear is against arrows.
 * Ranger is generally weak against Warrior (use bind to stop the warrior approaching if mage-range hybrid, and make good use of obstructions such as forest, fences, or higher ground).

At the very least, the Mage or Ranger should carry a backup weapon and train attack and strength to do worthwhile damage with it, better than hitting with their staff or bow when out of ammunition. A slashing weapon, such as a scimitar, is also needed to enter areas protected by a web.


 * Ranged/Mage: At low levels, ranged/mage hybrids can deal speedy damage and then finish their targets off with a powerful spell. At higher levels, mage is merely used to bind other players, and to attack melee fighters in metal armour.
 * Melee/Ranged: Uses dragonhide legs/vambs. The player switches from the bow when the opponent is low on hp to a powerful melee weapon. Weapons used include Granite maul, TzHaar-Ket-Om (Obsidian Maul), Rune 2h Sword, or a Dragon Dagger.
 * Any/Mage: Enables teleport spells, bind, and combat spells, and increases resistance to magic.
 * Any/Melee: Gives a backup combat method when out of runes or arrows, and good for kills that aren't worth wasting non-renewable gear on.
 * Mage/Melee: An increasingly popular strategy among lower levels is to Ice Blitz an enemy from a distance, and then perform a dragon dagger special on it. This prevents the enemy from escaping, while allowing the player to inflict damage a few seconds before they reach the person.
 * Any/Prayer: Prayer allows the use of protect item, smite, which lowers one's prayer, and prayers to boost attack, strength, defence, ranged, and magic accuracy.
 * Melee/Melee: First uses a simple fast weapon like a rune scimitar, then takes out a much stronger weapon like Rune 2-h or Rune Battleaxe to preform a much stonger attack at the same speed. But then its as slow as weapon choosen.

Hybrids are the most feared types of pures as they can do damage in many different ways. In f2p the best possible hybrid for low level crater is range/mage but once you are a lvl 56 and must go to med level crater it is highly suggested to tank and get your attack and strength up.

The tactics: Range/2h and Range/G Maul:Bring strength potion and drink it then attack your target with the 2h and immediatley swich to your bow and start attacking. Once is health is extremely low he should be ready to eat. The next time your character pulls the arrow back on the bow click your 2h and then the person your attacking which normally leads to a ko (knockout). Range and G Mauling is the same thing except when you switched to your maul you must click then click the special bar on the attack screen. Range/Mage- Against warriors use your bind spell (or ice spell if you have Ancients) and then start to range and then go to your spell book and get ready to cast your highest damage inflicting spell and when your target has almost no hp your target will probaly eat the same time you shoot. In free to play the max hit for your best spell (fire blast) is 16.

Twinning
Two similar pures that have similar names are sometimes called twins. Twins may player-kill with each other. Similar named accounts may cause confusion for another group of pkers that these twins are attacking, while the twins can synchronize their efforts on one target at a time. A very useful way to kill while twinning was for each twin to get a Dragon dagger and both attack and use the special attack on a player at a time. This requires 60 attack.

If two twins are logged in at the same time they can be reported for rule 8: multiple logging in.

Skill pure

 * Main article: Skill pure

A skill pure is a player who doesn't train combat stats, but does work on other skills. Common skill pures may be woodcutters, miners, fishers, etc. A lot of players usually in the free worlds may see a level 3 skill pure and barrage them with insults because they judge a player by their combat levels and not their skill levels. Skill pures can also train Slayer and still not get combat levels. They normally do this with Rings of Recoil and/or from an experience lamp.

Criticism
Some players argue that because pures only work on few skills, they are weak in different aspects of the game. Other criticisms against low-level pures include the belief that making a skiller is seemingly pointless since they can do similar things on a player's main account. Also, many criticisms are directed towards the Ranged Pures, hence Ranging and Magic take the longest to increase a full combat level.

Many pures, due to the extremely competetive nature of player killing, may insult others. Sometimes they do it so much, it almost becomes a personality trait and is carried out of the wilderness and into the rest of their gaming life. This is where people often get the idea that pures are mean, disrespectful, selfish, etc.

For anyone who uses a more balanced character to make and give things to their pure fighter, attention must be drawn to Rule 8 of the rules section on runescape.com.
 * Rule 8.
 * You may create more than one RuneScape account, but if you do, you may not log in more than one account at any time, and they must not interact with each other in any way. This includes 'drop trading' or any other method of item transfer.

Please note that as of January 2, 2008, all "unbalanced" trading is prohibited, and therefore interacting between a pure and a "main" account is nearly impossible.