Dragon claw

Dragon claws are a pair of claws made of dragon metal. They were released on 26 November 2008, along with the While Guthix Sleeps quest. They are two-handed weapons, and players require an Attack level of 60 in order to wield them. They may only be obtained as a drop from tormented demons. Tormented demons can only be killed during and after While Guthix Sleeps and are commonly thought to have a claw drop rate of approximately 1/150 to 1/250. However, completing the quest is not a prerequisite to wielding them.

These claws feature a special attack, "Slice and Dice", which uses 50% of the special attack bar and hits an enemy four times with 1 special attack. When two specials are used back-to-back, a player can hit eight times in two attacks, which is similar to the dragon dagger's special, but much faster. The efficiency of the special attack is especially noticeable in Kuradal's dungeon, where the use of the ferocious ring adds +40 life points to successful hits of the special attack.

Dragon claws, when first released, started in the Grand Exchange at 150,000 coins, but the high demand has pushed them up to relatively high prices (at several tens of millions). With the release of the dragon claws, the price of the dragon dagger dropped. This may be a result of dragon claws outdoing dragon daggers in strength bonus (a +56 bonus compared to the +40 of the dragon dagger), matching them in speed, and arguably having a more potent special attack.

However, dragon claws are two-handed, which means that players cannot use a shield or defender while wielding them ( they provide some defence bonus though). Using a rune defender along with the dragon dagger provides more defence and attack bonuses than the dragon claws. Using a dragon dagger and a dragonfire shield provides more defence than that of the dragon claws. The right claw is used for slash attacks, while the left one is used for the stabbing. Both claws are used during the special attack.

Note: With the new Ancient Curse prayers, the threat of dragon claws is much less dangerous as a simple Sap spirit or Leech special attack render a back-to-back special impossible. Although it is still likely that the opponents special attack energy won't be reduced until after the second dragon claw special has been used should the opponent use Slice and Dice right away or if the opponent also does use Leech special attack then it would negate the special attack drain. However, it should be noted that the Ancient Curse prayers also introduced Turmoil, allowing players to hit even higher with the special attack.

Slice and Dice Sequences
This isn't the only sequence though, there are also 3 other sequences, if the first two sequence hits 0-0, the 3rd and 4th will do damage at 2x to ensure the reliable potential. For example instead of hitting 300-150-75-75, it may instead hit 0-0-300-300. Or on an odd situation, dragon claws have hit 3 zeros connecting, the last resort is to hit the last damage with 50% damage boost. For example 0-0-0-450.

If and only if, the player manages to endure ALL 3 previous sequences, either by the sufficient defence from the opponent, or lack of offence from the attack, the special attack will hit a 0-1. This is the failed attack. Its unknown why it doesn't hit a 0-0 instead. ( a player with protect from melee, divine/elysian shield, or using the staff of light special attack somehow can allow a 0-0 from claws assuming it "misses")

Because if the guaranteed ability to 2x damage if the first hit is successful, many players view this weapon to be overpowered even compared to the Armadyl godsword. Also it has 5 different sequence hits making this special attack one of the most reliable in the game, coupled with the fact that it never truly hits a 0 but instead a 0-1 is another factor. despite that, there are a few scenarios to look at:

Dragon claws hits comes in pairs 2 by 2, for example 200-100 then 50-50. There's a tiny delay where the 3rd and 4th sequence comes in. This makes it possible to survive with a Phoenix Necklace, or maybe a Ring of Life. Even Redemption prayer gives a chance to survive if lucky enough. Players can also eat between the small delay before the 3rd and 4th sequence comes in but quick reflexes is needed and thus hard to do. Theoretically using a phoenix necklace, dragon claws will have to hit approximately over twice as much damage as needed to kill a foe. This is because the necklace will activate in the middle of the sequence. Also theoretically, a player with 2 Phoenix Necklaces and Redemption prayer makes them nearly 100% immune to a KO from claws assuming full LP with high healing food is included. This does not work against the majority of the other KO weapons in the game since the attack comes in a single hit.

Example: Your opponent has 600 LP but is wearing the phoenix necklace, your dragon claws hits a 600, it comes in 300-150-70-80. The necklace will activate between the 300-150 effectively removing 30% damage of the overall spec, causing the 70-80 to be useless. Then if the player eats and put on a second necklace assuming they have one, he/she is 100% safe

Slice and Dice is also the reason Claws are so sought after on GWD teams. Many players will find that teams on the forums are looking exclusively for people who have claws to spec with.

WARNING: This special attack is extremely powerful. The accuracy of Slice and Dice is very high and can inflict a maximum of 933 damage on a player in a single special. Due to this, many players think that they are the best KO-weapon in the game. It is also a high risk to take them into PvP worlds, or dangerous PvM activities as they are very rarely kept whilst using the Protect Item prayer as the High Alchemy Value is only worth 81,000 coins.

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Market
Since their release with a starting price of 150,000 coins, the price of dragon claws has risen dramatically by the highest percentage in the history of the Grand Exchange by player-demand only (not including Jagex's own price modifications of objects).

After just 30 days following their release, dragon claws had risen by 2,142%, gaining a total of more than 6 million coins. As of 31 January, 2009, the Grand Exchange indicated a mid price of 38 million for claws, meaning they have risen 25,351% from their initial price. From there, the price of dragon claws was slowly decreasing.

On 15 July, 2009 Jagex introduced an update to PvP worlds and Bounty Hunter Worlds in which players were automatically skulled on entering the world and the Protect Item prayer was disabled. Dragon claws, a popular item used by one-itemers started to see a rapid drop in price along with other one-itemer weapons such as the Armadyl godsword and Saradomin sword. The dragon claws suffered a 1.2 million gold loss the day after the update.

On 17 July, 2009 Jagex released Bounty+1 worlds, which allowed players to keep one item on death. The demand soon shot up with players buying for well above maximum price.

With the update at 4 August, 2010 the dragon claws are currently dropping because of too many people looking for elite clues, resulting on more dragon claws drops; That happening, also with less demand, caused the price to drop.

Trivia

 * Sometimes a player using the dragon claws' special attack twice in a row on the second special may only hit 2 times instead of the usual 4. This is not a glitch. Since the special attack is 4 separate hits, if the enemy dies after one of the hits, the following hits do not occur. However, there are some occasions when the enemy is still alive after 2 hits and the special attack misses, hitting a 0 and a 1, or a 0 and another 0 if target was using Protect from Melee, but the 0-1 special happens reasonably often on good defence and/or armour.


 * On 20 October 2009 Jagex included a sound effect for the dragon claw's special attack.
 * On 26 October 2009 Dragon claws reached their all time high of 42.2m, and experienced an almost smooth decline, with a few sharp jumps in price mainly due to updates.
 * Like all dragon metal weapons, the dragon claws are much more expensive than their runite (metal) counterpart. However, the difference in price between Rune claws and dragon claws is more than 35,000,000 coins, which is much more of a difference than all other rune and dragon weapons.
 * Due to a recent update, claws were thought to be changed to now have the "wield" option instead of "wear", however on dragon claws still say "wear"
 * Dragon claws can be considered the fastest two-handed weapon in Runescape, faster than the Saradomin Sword and Zamorakian Spear, as the Special attack hits four times in just 2 game ticks (1.2 seconds), which would mean that while doing the special attack the claws are faster than any other weapon in Runescape.