Legiones/Strategies

The Legiones are the strongest unit in the Monastery of Ascension, each requiring one of their own respective Ascension keystone needed to kill them once each time. They are hunted for their signets which are in turn used to create the expensive ascension crossbow and its offhand counterpart; the signets have an uncommon drop rate, confirmed to be 1/64. It should be noted that players do not need to have 95 Slayer (this is not a requirement for fighting the boss, but instead for entry) in order to kill them - boosts such as wild pies and spicy stews will work.

General attacks
The Legiones use fairly inaccurate magic attacks, and are able to summon lightning strikes on the floor that can be avoided, similar to the Corporeal Beast's area-of-effect magic attack. Legios always use two lightning attacks, then a basic magic attack (with the exception of Secundus and Sextus). The damage from the ground attack is very hard-hitting, so it must be avoided as much as possible to avoid a swift death and help extend the trips when killing the Legiones. The closer the player is to the centre of the lightning, the more damage received. The lightning attack will always hit 1400+ if on the rims of the lightning, 1800-2000 one space from the center, and 2200-2400 when directly in the centre, as base damage (different for Legio Primus, due to his unique ability). The speed of the incoming damages are also affected by how close you are from the centre; being directly in it results in the player taking almost 4-6 hits per lightning attack if caught in the middle.

The pattern of the lightning can be somewhat controlled: the Legio will use one lightning strike on the players current spot and the second on the first place the player clicked from their current standing spot. As such, if the player clicks on one spot and then detours to another, the lighting attacks can be completely avoided.

Using Protect/Deflect Magic along with Devotion will block all damage from the lightning attacks.

Setup
The Legiones, like all monsters in the Monastery of Ascension, can only be fought with Ranged, as other combat styles will miss too often, even with the highest accuracy bonuses Despite their weakness being Ranged, they have high lifepoints and defence making it harder to deal damage and kill effectively.

High level ranged armour is advised when fighting the Legiones as this will near-negate their regular magic attack. Power armour is especially useful due to increased damage dealt which will significantly speed up kills.

The Legiones appear to have a damage reduction when fought, however this is significantly weakened if the player is using ascension bolts to kill them (even if used with (a) crossbow(s) that is/are not ascension).

Food is more of a priority than prayer, as prayer does not have much of an effect on the orb lightning attack (except when combined with Devotion) so bring more food than potions. Beast of burdens are recommended over other familiars due to being able to bring more food.

Instead of a farsniper necklace and soul split, protect from magic and the two single stat-boosting ranged prayers can be used in combination with an amulet of zealots for faster kills and slower prayer drain overall (in comparison to using soul split and anguish).

General strategy
Players should engage the Legiones using the hit-and-run tactic - where they attack the Legiones while they keep running around, which will make them avoid the lightning orb attacks most of the time and help conserve food. Each Legio has their own unique special attack which will activate when they reach 75%, 50% and 25% lifepoints. Despite this, the hit-and-run tactic should still be used as normal, except for Legio Quartus and Legio Quintus (see their respective sections below).

Soul Split should be the overhead used mainly; if this is not applicable, then Protect/Deflect Magic should be used as the second priority. Avoid the lightning orb attacks as much as possible for every Legio - combo abilities such as Snipe, Rapid Fire and Unload should not be used at all against the Legiones as these abilities ground the user which almost certainly makes them hit by an orb attack, more than often resulting in a swift death or unfortunate depletion of food. However, if you have Devotion available, you can practically nullify the lightning damage for 10 seconds, allowing you to employ these devastating abilities with impunity.

When fighting the Legiones, it should be noted that they enjoy a damage reduction the further away a player is from them. For example, if a player uses Fragmentation Shot against a Legio and runs to the corner of the room away from the Legio, it will deal very little damage while being next to or under the Legio does regular damage. It is recommended to unleash thresholds/ultimates while the player is next or near them in order to maximize damage inflicted.

The preferred action bar setup:

Legio-specific strategy
Each Legio has his own unique ability which intensifies or is performed again when they reach 75%, 50% and 25% lifepoints respectively.

Primus
Legio Primus' unique ability is that the lower lifepoints he has, the more damage he deals - akin to that of Dharok the Wretched. This strategy of his is generally not a problem as using the hit-and-run tactic as normal will nullify this ability; however, be sure to have plenty of lifepoints when most of his are depleted as a couple hits from a lightning attack may prove fatal.

Secundus
Legio Secundus' unique ability is using the lightning orb attack more frequently as his lifepoints lower. At 75% health, he will use three orb attacks, then one basic magic attack. At 50%, he uses a simple magic attack every four orbs, and at 25% he will exclusively attack with lightning. This is generally not a problem as using the hit-and-run tactic as normal will nullify this ability, however the lightning orbs will be more frequent so having high lifepoints is advantageous when most of his are depleted.

Tertius
Legio Tertius' unique ability is summoning Monastery of Ascension units when his health lowers - 3 Rorarii when he reaches 75% lifepoints, 1 Gladius when he reaches 50% lifepoints and 1 Capsarius when he reaches 25% lifepoints. It is not required to kill the Rorarii or Gladius, however it is mandatory to kill the Capsarius to be able to finish Legio Tertius.

It should be noted that the Ascended called by Tertius will spawn under him, so when he calls for a Gladius it is recommended to use Bombardment and then Freedom consecutively to avoid being stunned by the Gladius, or avoid using Bombardment/Ricochet at all after this point during the kill since being stunned will expose the player to orb attacks which may stack and kill quickly.

Quartus
Legio Quartus' unique ability is teleporting the player next to him when he reaches 75%, 50% and 25% lifepoints and launching an additional lightning attack at the spot he teleported the player, on top of his regular attacks.This act can be seen as both a benefit or threat - if the player is many tiles away from Quartus, being teleported nearby should not have much of an effect to their lifepoints. However, being nearby may cause the player to be stuck for a few ticks inside an orb attack, proving dangerous to be in so as soon as the player is teleported (it is easy to predict if they watch his health bar) to immediately run away before the orb attack hits them.

Note: It may take multiple clicks to move away from Quartus as the teleport cancels your action in doing so when using Revolution to fight.

Quintus
Legio Quintus' unique ability is summoning "Lines of Ascension" in the laboratory when he reaches 75%, 50% and 25% lifepoints. This is very dangerous and makes Quintus possibly the most tedious to fight as death is a much higher possibility since the lines can hit harder than the orb attacks. The first line is from West to East, the second from North to South and the last from West to East again.

It is worth noting that the player can "force" the lines to spawn as when he reaches 75%, 50% and 25% lifepoints respectively, a line will spawn wherever the player is currently at. Doing this near the edges of the laboratory will effectively nullify them if they perform the hit-and-run tactic while keeping away from them completely.

It should also be noted that the lines will only hit once per tile, meaning that if you step on an affected tile and do not move, you will only be hit once (this is however impractical unless using Devotion, as the lightning attacks will force you to move quickly). Players should avoid running along the lines as this will deal damage of similar amount to the lightning attack and can result in a quick death.

Sextus
Legio Sextus' unique ability is a longer lasting and larger radius lightning orb attack that occurs with a lowered amount of lifepoints. He also does not use the regular magic attack unlike the other Legio. This should be kept in mind while running around; doing so in an erratic way is not advised as the larger radius and prolonged duration will probably end up killing the player. An aggressive familiar can be used to distract Sextus, as with the other Legiones, they will attack with their regular attacks rather than lightning. However, multiple pouches may be required as he can hit very hard and often against them. Despite this, Sextus is generally straightforward to kill, like Primus.