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 1/300. 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 (aided by that the claws are far more accurate due to the bonuses).

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 will render a back-to-back special impossible. 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
 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, with only enough time for one food item to be used. Due to this, many players think that they are the best KO-weapon in the game. Also, when using the special, it can be used a few squares away from your opponent. This means it is an excellent weapon to rush unwary opponents. 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 because the high alchemy value is only worth 81,000 coins.'''

The Dragon claws does not only have one special attack sequence. There are four, which are:


 * The normal special attack, which first deals a high amount of damage, then half of that, and finally two attacks that add up to the previous attack. For example, You may hit a 300-150-70-80.


 * If the first two attacks hit 0-0, the 3rd and 4th will do damage at the same level as the first attack. For example, instead of hitting 300-150-75-75, it may instead hit 0-0-300-300.


 * If the dragon claws have hit 3 initial zeros, the last hit (if it hits) would have a 50% damage boost; eg: 0-0-0-450.


 * If the first three attacks fail, and the fourth attack also "fails", the fourth attack almost always hits a low number instead of a 0-- approximately between 7 and 1 lifepoints. A player with protect from melee, divine/elysian shield, 90+ defence, or with the Staff of Light special attack active can sometimes completely defend against dragon claws.

The reason many players view this weapon to be overpowered is because of its potential to hit 2x normal damage, compared to the Armadyl godsword's 1.25x damage. It also has 4 different sequence hits, and almost never completely misses, making its special attack one of the most reliable in the game. Despite that, there are a few scenarios to look at:

The dragon claw's hits come in pairs; for example, 200-100 then 50-50. There is a tiny delay after the 2nd sequence: this makes it possible to survive with a Phoenix necklace, a Ring of Life, and even the Redemption prayer. Players can also eat in the interval of this small delay, but quick reflexes are needed and thus it is hard to do.

Theoretically, if the defender uses 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. 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 their attacks come in a single hit.

Example: Your opponent has 600 LP but is wearing the phoenix necklace, and your dragon claws hits a 600: it comes in at 300-150-70-80. The necklace will activate after the 300-150, causing your opponent to gain 180 LP before the 70-80 hits. If the player eats and puts on a second necklace assuming they have one, he/she will be 100% safe.

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

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 would slowly decrease.

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.

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.
 * Dragon Claws may be a two-handed weapon, but when attacking normally only one hand is used to hit the enemy.
 * 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 counterpart. However, the difference in price between rune and dragon claws is more than 30,000,000 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.