Free-to-play melee training

This article will provide non-members with information to training Attack, Strength, Defence, and Constitution effectively. Members can use this, but it is recommended to use the Pay-to-play Melee training. It will explain which monsters are the best to kill at a certain level, providing the pros and cons of training on each monster. It will also provide tips and suggests suitable monsters to kill at a wide range of levels. This article assumes players are training attack, strength, and defence equally, or close to equal.

General training notes

 * It is highly recommended that players use the best equipment available to them at their level. For example, if whilst training you reach a Defence level of 20, it is worth going to the GE immediately to purchase some steel armour.
 * Try to match your attack style to the monster's weakness for maximum damage, and therefore xp/hr; a player attacking a fire-weak monster with a crushing weapon will train slower than a player with the same weapon attacking a crush-weak monster.
 * Depending on the monster's combat level and stats, food may be needed.
 * Try to fight monsters with low defence. Lower defence means the monster is easier to hit, so less time is spent out of combat, therefore providing more experience.
 * If your Magic level is high enough for a teleport spell, it is advised you carry teleport runes, just in case. (This may or may not apply, as you can now access the lodestone network for teleporting purposes. It is still a good idea to bring some in case of an emergency however.)
 * When fighting monsters that are aggressive, turn on Auto Retaliate for an easier training experience.
 * Training in the Wilderness is generally a bad idea, due to the threat of player killers. Most monsters that are found in the Wilderness can be found elsewhere, or have better alternatives in non-Wilderness locations.
 * Free players can now use all basic combat potions, (attack, strength, defence, ranging, and magic) which can make training significantly faster.
 * Two ultimate abilities can be chosen. Rejuvenate lessens the need for food somewhat, but requires constant monitoring in game and the player must have a shield equipped. Overpower deals an accurate blow with high damage.
 * Some players have developed a method which equips between 2h sword and a shield, they are benefited from heightened attack power and not losing the rejuvenation ability. This is because though exchanging equipment incurs significant cooldown penalty, it is not long enough for adrenaline to start falling off. Those players finish a fight with full adrenaline, change to a shield and immediately activate rejuvenation just when cooldown ends. The downside is they cannot attack during the 10 seconds in rejuvenation, which is of little concern as most monsters are no longer aggressive.
 * Momentum is no longer an ultimate ability. It can be toggled on and off at will much like multi-way wilderness. It is extremely useful when fighting monsters significantly weaker than yourself.
 * It is possible, but not recommended, to train against monsters who have a "weakness to magic" as similar combat styles are considered neutral to each other.  If you choose this approach, it is best to fight targets who are much lower than your current level.  (e.g. Hill Giants are best fought with melee stats over 40 or even 50.)

Weaponry
Since the Evolution of Combat, melee weapons are effectively balanced. While damage output over time is roughly the same for any weapon, the accuracy greatly depends on the properties of the targeted monsters. Monsters with high defence need weapons with high hit bonus and suitable attack style, while weak ones are quite free on the choices. Each weapon only has one of three attack methods: stab, slash or crush. The player can choose which skill to train as mentioned before.

Before EoC, a weapon could have 2 to 4 attack choices, each choice consisting of one method plus one skill choice. Players could switch attack method without using another weapon, but weapons had varying bonuses according to their attack methods. Players also had limitations on which skill they could train, as some skill-specific styles were unavailable on some weapons.

Two-handed weapons are recommended in most cases because there is no option for dual wielding in free-to-play worlds, and because equivalent tiered 2h weapons have a 150% damage boost over one-handed weapons.

Armour and weapons
Remember to keep your equipment up to par. As you train, you will start to be able to use better and more powerful combat items. Once you can use a better combat weapon, try to save up the money for it. (The ideal path to take for your choice of armour goes as: bronze, iron , steel , black, mithril, adamant, rune. The armour sets from bronze to steel are actually fairly lack lustre and unnecessary, provided you only train on the less powerful monsters like goblins.) It is strongly recommended that you wield the best weapon and armour available to you.

A better weapon means more damage and increased accuracy, which results in more experience gained in a shorter period of time. Better armour reduces the likelihood of enemies damaging you, which allows you to stay at a training spot for a longer time with less food. Better armour also provides a larger life point bonus. Two handed weapons are often used in player versus player combat because of their ability to inflict larger amounts of damage in a single hit. It is also advised to wear an Amulet of Strength, as it gives a 3.2% melee critical bonus, compared to 3.0% from an Amulet of power. The Amulet of defence provides a 2.6% melee critical bonus, while also providing a small armour bonus.

Inventory and drops
For players with at least 52 Defence, the Rejuvenate ability makes food less useful for training, though some will still be useful against enemies that often hurt you, deal enough damage during the cooldown to outpace it, or to avoid wasting adrenaline.

Finding a good balance of food to bring is a necessity for any warrior. Filling up with food may sound good for training, but inventory space may be needed for potential drops, especially if you are against low-level monsters where food is rarely consumed. If you are looking to make money while training, remember to consider the cost of the food you bring.

Salmon and tuna are two of the best foods for training as a non-member player, as lobsters and swordfish have high prices due to their extensive use in player-vs-player activities. Teleportation runes, an Explorer's Ring, or a Ring of Kinship is recommended for training in areas with aggressive and/or high-level monsters. If a monster gets a lucky streak and manages to hit you hard, you may find yourself with a small number of lifepoints, and a method of quick escape may be necessary. Since combat experience increases with kill rate, strength potions are recommended for players who can afford them but are not necessary.

Remember to also collect bones. While collecting bones is often tedious and can be boring sometimes, but it can be helpful since burying bones can lead to more powerful Prayers. They can be buried for Prayer experience (4.5 experience), or sold for coins on the Grand Exchange, for a total of 0 coins per inventory. Big bones can be buried for even more prayer experience, or a full inventory of big bones can be sold for 0 coins.

Attack styles
Train Attack, Strength, and Defence as you see fit – this preference is different for every player. Generally, high Attack will be vital against opponents with high defence as it increases accuracy; high Strength will be best if you want to hit harder; and high Defence will alleviate the need for food, as you will be hit less often. If you're not sure what to raise, try raising them equally. This method works extremely well in the long run. For most training methods, raising Strength, Attack, and then Defence will provide the fastest experience, although you may want to train attack to a decent level first to increase your chances of hitting the monster before you raise your strength level.

A very sucessful method is to train Attack till you can use the next tier weapon (2h sword). That new weapon has higher stats and allows one to get bigger hits and train much faster. Then train Strength to the level of Attack. Finally train Defence to the level of Strength and Attack. Now get the new tier armour and repeat. (Use all the new potions you can to increase you melee stats and further increase training speed.)

The levels below refer to individual combat stat levels, not your overall combat level (so a player with level 25 Strength would refer to the section titled "Level 16 to 30").

Tips

 * Training the Magic skill increases your magical defence and magical potency. The higher your level in the Magic skill is, the better your defence against magic is as well as your accuracy.
 * Remember every enemy is different, so even if you found it easy to, say, kill a lesser demon, doesn't mean you'll find it equally easy to kill something else of a similar level, for example, a revenant cyclops.

Level 1 to 20
As your Attack and Defence levels progress, upgrade your equipment from Bronze to Iron to Steel.

Level 70 - 99
No free-to-play monsters give decent xp for training from 70 to 99. The maximum experience approximately 30k xp per hour with full attention paid and constant use of abilities, making high-level melee training in free-to-play extremely difficult. With the release of the Evolution of Combat, players are given the opportunity to train the Defence skill through the two other combat styles: Magic and Ranged. This enables a bit of variety for melee training, and may be helpful to players who are planning to train melee extensively whilst free-to-play.

High level options do exist: