Defence

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.

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 black armour. Though this strategy gives a person high power in their attacks, it is not recommended. Even if a person in the wilderness 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 rune armour.

Experience
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 ranging in the "long range" attack style. For every hit dealt to the opponent, players receive 2 range 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
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.

Stab: Wearing melee armour lowers the chance of players stabbing with a weapon from dealing high damage. The higher this bonus is, the less often an opponent will deal damage by using the stab attack style. The maximum possible bonus attainable by players is 397.

Slash: Wearing melee armour lowers the chance of players slashing with a weapon from dealing high damage. The higher this bonus is, the less often an opponent will deal damage by using the slash attack style. The maximum possible bonus attainable by players is 410.

Crush: Wearing melee armour lowers the chance of players crushing with a weapon from dealing high damage. The higher this bonus is, the less often an opponent will deal damage by using the crush attack style. The maximum possible bonus attainable by players is 377.

Magic: Wearing ranged armour lowers the chance of magic attacks dealing high damage. The higher this bonus is, the less often an opponent will deal damage by using Magic. The maximum possible bonus attainable by players is 201. In addition, your passive magic defence is 70% of your magic level, and 30% of your defence level.

Ranged: Wearing melee armour lowers the chance of players using ranged weapons from dealing high damage. The higher this bonus is, the less often an opponent will deal damage by using Ranged attacks. The maximum possible bonus attainable by players is 414.

Summoning: Wearing most melee armours lowers the chance of players using Summoning Familiars from hitting.

Other defence bonuses

 * Some weapons also give a small increase or reduction in a player's defence bonus. For example, magical staves increase a player's defence bonus while two handed swords and halberds 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 against all attack types.
 * An Amulet of Power gives a defence bonus of +6 against all attack types.
 * An Amulet of Glory gives a defence bonus of +3 against all attack types.
 * A Holy symbol gives a defence bonus of +2 against all attack types.
 * An Amulet of Fury gives a defence bonus of +15 against all attack types.
 * A Gnome Amulet gives a defence bonus of +13 against all melee attack types.
 * A Berserker ring gives a defence bonus of +4 against the crush attack type.
 * A Warrior Ring gives a defence bonus of +4 against the slash attack type.
 * A Seers' ring gives a defence bonus of +4 against the magic attack type.
 * An Archers' ring gives a defence bonus of +4 against the ranged attack type.
 * The Beacon Ring from the quest What Lies Below gives a defence bonus of +1 against the magic attack type.
 * A Lunar Ring from the quest Lunar Diplomacy gives a defence and attack bonus of +2 for magic.
 * The gloves from the quest Recipe for Disaster give varying melee and ranged defence bonuses, ranging from +2 from the "bronze" gloves to +12 from the "barrows" gloves. All Recipe for Disaster gloves give half the defence against magic as they would for the other attack types; i.e. "barrows" gloves give +12 against melee and ranged attack types, while only providing a +6 defence bonus against magic.

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


 * The requirements are determined by a player's base defence level, boosts will not allow a player to wield armour higher than his base.

Maximum P2P defence bonus
Below is a table, how to get the maximum overall defence bonus. Other equipment is needed to get a maximum defence bonus of a certain type.


 * (1)The Statius's full helm only lasts for 1 hour (or 15 minutes if corrupted) after being equipped.
 * (2)The helmet slot may be replaced with a Torag's helmet or a Guthan's helmet if a player does not want the Statius's full helm.
 * (3)The Gnome amulet has +13 in all melee defence stats and is free although it only has those three.

Maximum F2P defence bonus

 * (1) The Corrupt dragon med helm will disintegrate after 30 minutes of wielding.
 * (2) The Corrupt dragon chainbody will disintegrate after 30 minutes of wielding.
 * (3) The Corrupt dragon platelegs will disintegrate after 30 minutes of wielding.
 * (4) Fancy boots can also be used.
 * (5) Any team cape would also work.
 * (6) The Corrupt dragon sq shield will disintegrate after 30 minutes of wielding.

Temporary boosts
The maximum boost can be achieved using the best armour, Saradomin brew (+25%) and Piety prayer (+25%) or Mystic might (For defending against magic, gives +15% mage defence/attack).
 * Defence potion - Boosts Defence level by 15%; amount depends on player's Defence level.
 * Super defence potion - Boosts Defence level by 20%; amount depends on player's Defence level.
 * Saradomin brew - Boosts Defence level by 25%; amount depends on player's Defence level.
 * Prayer - Thick Skin, Rock Skin, Steel Skin, Chivalry and Piety boosts defence level by 5%, 10%, 15%, 20% and 25% respectively.
 * Excalibur special attack - Excalibur is a reward from the Merlin's Crystal quest. Its special attack raises a player's Defence level by 9% temporarily. The special attack uses 100% of the Special bar.
 * Enhanced excalibur special attack - Enhanced excalibur is obtained by bringing a Excalibur to Lady of the Lake on the peninsula in Taverly after completing all the Hard tasks of the Seers' Village Achievement Diary. Its special attack raises a player's Defence level temporarily more than the original Excalibur, also healing the player up to 20 hitpoints (4 hitpoints every 2 seconds for 10 seconds). The special attack uses 100% of the Special bar.
 * Draynor Manor Cabbage - +1 or +2 boost
 * The special move of the War tortoise familiar raises defence by 8.