Abyssal whip



The Abyssal whip is thought to be one of the best melee weapons in RuneScape due to its high accuracy, strength, and speed. Players must have 70 Attack to wield the whip.

Whips are dropped by level 124 Abyssal demons which require level 85 Slayer to kill. An Abyssal minion can give players a fake Abyssal whip which "turns to ash" when equipped, effectively destroying it.

The whip's special attack, Energy Drain, makes the attack more accurate and, if used against a player opponent, transfers 25% of the target's run energy to the attacking player. It uses 50% of the special attack bar. This special attack is frequently ridiculed because of its impracticality, despite the fact that it can be useful in some PvP minigames, such as Fist of Guthix, to stop the players from running away.

The Abyssal whip has the same attacking speed as a scimitar, which is one strike per 4 game ticks (about 2.4 seconds total), but has a higher accuracy and strength. The Abyssal whip is often called the best weapon because it has the best damage rate of all weapons against monsters with a low to medium defence and no unusually high resistance to slash attacks. With a Strength level of 99, an overload/extreme strength, Turmoil prayer at +32% strength, a slayer helmet on a slayer task, and with the right equipment (including a Ferocious ring) the whip can hit up to 61.

The whip is often criticised for its inability to train Strength on its own, as the whip offers a controlled style but not an aggressive style. Even so, the whip is often considered one of the best, if not the best one-handed weapons in the game.

It is common for players to lose this item on death due to its relatively low alchemy value compared to other high level equipment, such as the more expensive pieces of Dragon armour and Barrows armour.

An update to Barbarian Assault on 19 January 2010 allowed players to change the colour of their whip to either yellow, white, blue, or green. The cost of doing so is 50 points in any of the roles in Barbarian assault. After that update, whips became quite difficult to purchase from players or the Grand Exchange. On 25 January 2010 their supply caught up with their demand, and since then whips have been easy to acquire from Grand Exchange.

History
Abyssal whips were introduced to RuneScape with the Slayer skill update on 26 January 2005. The very first inventory icon was. The Abyssal whip's original special attack used 50% of the special attack bar and caused one to either hit the Abyssal whip's maximum hit for the user at the time or not hit at all.

Later, Jagex changed the special attack to drain 10% of run energy from targets, citing that the old special attack was an unwanted glitch. The special attack continued to use 50% of the bar.


 * On 12 May 2009, the inventory image of the Abyssal whip changed to [[File:Second-abyssal-whip.png]] so that it better resembled its appearance when wielded.
 * On 16 June 2009, the special attack effect was changed from transferring 10% to 25% run energy per special attack due to complaints. The 50% drain per special attack remained the same. And whilst running, the whip retracts into the players hand when equipped.
 * On 28 July 2009 the Abyssal whip's appearance and special attack animation were updated.
 * On 17 September 2009 the Abyssal whip was updated once again, the unused ring, or loop, of the whip below the players' hand were removed and the handle now points forwards instead of back as it did before the previous update. In addition, the whip's attack sound was changed along with the attack animation.
 * On 19 January 2010 it became possible to have the whip segments painted one of four colours: green, white, yellow, or blue. These colour changes are purely aesthetic; they have no effect on combat and become untradeable. This can be changed back by using a cleaning cloth on the painted whip.

Combat styles
The Abyssal whip has three combat styles: accurate, controlled, and defensive. All are slash style. The whip is often criticised for the lack of an aggressive style. Strength can only be trained by means of the controlled style.

Training


The Aggressive training method is not available while using the whip. Therefore, the only way of training the Strength skill is through the Controlled method. This method is one-third the strength-training speed as the aggressive option and also gives Defence and Attack experience, making it undesirable for some pures and players wishing to level up quickly. The whip is often criticised for having no option to directly train Strength.

A common yet expensive replacement for the whip is the Saradomin Sword which offers similar bonuses (with an additional Prayer and crush bonus), but has the option to train Strength. However, the Saradomin Sword is two-handed, so it cannot be equipped with a defender or shield. The Dragon Scimitar can be used as a cheap alternative for training Strength, along with a Rune Defender. Yet another relatively unknown method of training strength is to use the Obsidian sword in conjunction with the Berserker necklace which increases strength while using all Obsidian equipment.

Market

 * On its release in early 2005, the Whip's price was at its highest ever (as high as 100 million coins; some whips were traded for Party hats), then began to fall as supply increased and excitement over the new item diminished.
 * In Summer of 2005 the Whip was about 5 million coins, then fell to around 4.3 million by Autumn. By late that year and early 2006 the whip had reached about 3.5 million coins.
 * From 2006 to early 2008, the Whip's price steadily increased from about 1.5 million to 3.5 million coins.
 * On January 2, 2008, Free Trade was removed and whips price slowly began to decline bottoming out at around 1.3m in late 2008.
 * On June 16, 2009, a PvP world update was introduced, removing the Abyssal whip from the PvP drop tables as well as making it more likely to lose a whip in PvP.
 * After July 20, 2009, due to inflation and possible price manipulation, the price spiked to over 3 million coins for the first time in years. The price then dropped sharply to around 2.3 million coins, but then began rising again, breaching the 3 million mark again in September 2009 and the 4 million mark in October.
 * The price crashed partially as a result of the anti-76k update on October 26, 2009, and stabilized at about 3.5 million.
 * On January 19, 2010, whips were bought out of the Grand Exchange due to speculation caused by the release of additional whip colours. This caused their price to peak at just over 4.2 million coins on January 24, 2010. After this date the price dropped back to 3.5 million coins as of January 28, 2010, the same as before the colouring update.

Colours
For the full pages, See Abyssal link paint (Green), Abyssal link paint (Yellow), Abyssal link paint (White) and Abyssal link paint (Blue)

As of January 19, 2010, you can now change the colour of your Abyssal whip. To do so, you have to spend 50 points (from the Barbarian Assault Mini-game), which can be of any type (Attacker, Defender, Healer or Collector). Your whip's chain links can be white, blue, green, or yellow. A painted whip is untradeable, and has no effect on its potency in combat. Should you wish to return your abyssal whip to its original colour, simply use a cleaning cloth on it. A cleaning cloth can be made by using Karamja rum on a piece of silk, or you can buy one from Tamayu in Tai Bwo Wannai village after the Tai Bwo Wannai Trio quest.

Trivia

 * Whips were originally a possible drop from players on PvP worlds, but on 16 June 2009, whips were removed from the PvP drop tables.
 * Before its graphical update on 28 July 2009, the clear sections of the whip would sometimes take on the same colour as other elements in the player's environment; for example, the colour of the ground. As the whip no longer has any clear segments, this glitch can no longer occur.
 * The Abyssal whip's updated look originally had the handle held backwards, with the player holding a section of the whip which was used to attack opponents. As of 17 September during a hidden update, the handle now points forwards and the actual whip is no longer held in the players' hand, but still retains the same whipping animation.
 * If you perform the Special Attack underwater in Port Khazard, you cannot see the Special Attack, only the movement.
 * The abyssal whip has the second highest strength bonus of any non-degrading one handed weapon in the game, behind the Dragon Battleaxe.
 * Just as with the Flame gloves, wearing Lunar legs with the whip would cause them to be stretchy.
 * Before the update of coloured whips the update was posted on the page a few hours before the update but shortly after it was taken down.