Evolution of Combat

The Evolution of Combat is a scheduled complete rework of how RuneScape combat works. This update will be set up as a beta for users who want to test it out early, signups for which were open from 1 June 2012 to 19 June 2012. The actual update is estimated to take place in September, but this is subject to change. Any player who has been a member for 12 consecutive months will get unlimited access to the beta once it begins, although they also must currently be a member to sign up and participate in the beta. Members who don't reach the 12 consecutive month requirement will be able to access the beta on weekends. Jagex will also select 50,000 other members who signed up and did not get access instantly, and the 50,000 are chosen based on how "active" they are.

Players using the beta will be using a cloned version of their actual accounts, accessible only on the beta server. Players on the beta server will have access to the Beta Shop, which will provide all levels of combat gear for free, for players to test. This gear will not be transferable to the main servers.

Video One
On 1 June 2012, Jagex posted a YouTube video detailing the June Behind the Scenes. This video included a mention of the combat update, starting at 01:15.

In the video, it could be seen that there are two distinctive types of melee hitsplats; it appears that those with red backgrounds are damage dealt with abilities, and those with transparent backgrounds are normal hits. A new type of hitsplat is also shown.

The combatants are shown to wield a rune 2h sword, dragon scimitar, what seems to be a plain longbow, bronze crossbow and staff differently than how they are wielded now. The "punchbag", the computer used to show off the abilities on, appears to be attacking with a dragon defender wielded in the right hand.

One of the melee combatants is also shown to be able to kick the opponent while wielding the weapon, as well as doing some form of shield-bash, both of which stun the opponent with a new animation. The life points bar above the character's head is shown to fade from green to yellow then away rather than disappearing abruptly when out of combat.

Both the ranger and the mage are shown to teleport for short distances with the warrior showing a similar dash attack as part of the shield-bash.



Video Two
On 8 June 2012, Jagex posted a youtube video. This video included a mention of the combat update, starting at 1:40. The commentary is with Mods Chris L. and Hunter. In this video the new hit splats were discussed, confirming that the "no background" hits are normal auto-attacks hits, as well as the red background hit splats being ability hits. They also discussed some updated interfaces.

A new main interface, called the main tab was introduced in this video (image on the right). According to the commentary in the video, this new interface will be located in the top left of a player's screen along with a player's "chat head". The chat head has not yet been detailed. From this main interface, you will have acess to your target's information, which can either be a player or an NPC. The information displayed will include their weaknesses, which will be located in the top right hand corner opposite their head icon, the target's Life Points percentage, their combat level, active prayers, and any positive (green outlined) or negative (red outlined) effects that are currently active on the target. On the bottom, it will show the player's own Life Points, as well as any positive or negative effects the player may currently have. Positive (green outlined) means that a stat is boosted above it's regular level--known as a buff. In most cases, negative (red outlined) means that the stat is below it's regular level--known as a debuff; however, there are other red outlined negative effects that are not stat debuff's, including stun, bleed, and burn effects. Located at the bottom of this interface is an auto-retaliate toggle (named simply, "Retaliate"), and a button leading to the Combat Experience interface.



Another new interface that also been revealed is the Combat Experience Sub-Tab. It can be accessed by pressing the "XP" button on the main tab, and it will allow the player to control how their XP is gained for each of the three combat styles. The interface is seperated into three mains tabs: Melee, Ranged, and Magic. Each tab has 3-4 experience style toggles that can be activated, which will allow the player to gain certain types of XP. Based on the given information shown in the video, the toggles for each style are completely independent of each other--for instance, in the video, Attack (melee), Ranged/Defense (ranged), and Magic/Defense (magic) were all active at once, which are all different styles.

The example character in the video was shown to be using magic auto-attacks (which appear to be graphically updated water based attacks), with a bronze sword equipped. The character also uses a few magical abilities (one of which is the "choke" ability), and uses at least one melee ability--a stab to the belly that causes bleeding. Based on our available information, all of the abilities are Basic to Threshhold, as all of the abililty effects shown in the video (stun, bleed) are caused by Basic to Threshold level abilites.

Also, a new icon for protect from melee was shown in the video, and it was hinted that we will hear more about the combat level rework, as a 139 character was part of the video and that level is currently un-obtainable (The maximum is currently 138).

Video Three
On 15 June 2012, Jagex posted a third video, this time about the Evolution of Combat alone, which introduced the concept of Adrenaline and showed how the Action Bar would work

Adrenaline was described as a bar which will slowly fill up as you execute normal attacks, but will increase more when Basic or Threshold abilites are used. As the bar fills, you will be able to utilise more powerful abilities- when the Adrenaline bar is 50% full you may use Threshold abilities, and when it's 100% full Ultimate abilities become available.

Ultimate abilities themselves were also described in greater detail. When using one, the Adrenaline bar will completely deplete, thus preventing you from using Threshold or other Ultimate abilities until it recharges. Two Ultimate abilities, Meteor Strike, a melee ability in which you leap into the air and bring your sword down on your opponent, and Tsunami, a magic-based ability in which you summon a massive tidal wave, inflicted area of effect damage upon any enemies within a large range in front of you.

The Action Bar allows you to assign skills from your ability set- this replaces the Magic tab- onto twelve slots above your chatbox, which can then by utilised by either clicking on them or assigning hotkeys to them; the default hotkeys are 1-9, 0, - and =. You can also switch between different action setups by pressing Shift+1, 2, 3, 4 or 5, allowing you to store and easily switch between different action setups.

It also showed that after 15 seconds, the player would come out of "combat stance", and that a one-handed weapon and a shield would be put back automatically, sheathed. Jagex has not confirmed whether sheathing of weapons would be automatic or manual.

Changes to hit splats
The hit splats for auto-attack damage do not have a red background--they are merely static numbers without a background (not even including the hit type-melee, ranged or magic). Hit splats for abilities will have a red background. This was confirmed in the second combat evolution behind the scenes video.

Weaknesses
Along with the new interfaces, weaknesses and buffs will now have a more prominent effect on gameplay. According to | Combat: Buffs and Weaknesses, "There’ll also be changes to a whole host of RuneScape inhabitants to ensure that when a creature is weak to fire damage or stronger against ranged attacks, for example, it will have a more significant effect - particularly on your combat style and equipment setup." From what is shown in the second youtube video, weaknesses will be represented by icons in the main tab interface, opposite the target 's head icon--the player's weaknesses will also be located opposite his or her head icon. Currently, only one weakness has been shown per target/character.

New Effects
Some confirmed effects include damage over time (DoT) and temporary damage boosts. The currently confirmed damage over time effects include burn and bleed, similar to the current poison effect.



New Abilities
There will be three levels of the new abilities: Basic, Threshold, and Ultimate. These offer offensive and defensive boosts and damage to replace Special attacks. Some of them would have Attack, Defense, Strength, Ranged, Magic and Constitution requirements. Some of the popular special attacks will be adapted into the new system. For example, the Slice and Dice special attack of the dragon claws will be reworked into the Flurry ability, available to a range of small weapons. Two-handed weapons will also get a set of abilities - such as the Armadyl godsword special, which cannot be performed with smaller weapons. It is mentioned that weapons popular for their special attack, like godswords, would have their stats boosted to compensate. You will unlock abilities by leveling your combat skills such as attack, defence and magic, excluding basic abilties.

Basic Abilities
There are no requirements to use Basic Abilities. Some abilities include stun, spell cast interruption, critical hit, damage over time, multi-targetting, and damage-reduction. These attacks are good to boost adrenaline and are not much stronger than an auto attack.

Threshold Abilities
Threshold Abilities have requirements to use, require 50% Adrenaline, and are a step-up from Basic. Some abilities include rapid fire, area of effect damage, damage reflection, and multiple spell casting. These are not good when you just need to kill one low-mid level monster but if lots of enemies are near by or you are doing a boss these are extremly useful. Most attacks of this type will be based on existing specs (unconfirmed).

Ultimate Abilities


Ultimate abilities are incredibly powerful and will have the highest requirements. They require a full bar of adrenaline, and drain the entire bar upon activation. The current known abilities are:
 * Meteor Strike: a powerful melee attack in which the character jumps into the sky and brings their weapon down on the opponent to deal massive damage,
 * Deadshot: a powerful ranged shot that causes a large explosion
 * Tsunami: an area of effect attack in which the character summons a gigantic wave to attack enemies in front of them
 * Other Abilities: are "lifesaving effects that could completely turn the fight around."

Also, the warrior does a move that looks exactly like the image that represents Ultimate Abilities on the new abilities page.

Confirmed Updates

 * Mod Rathe has confirmed that a ranger and mage version of Turmoil will be released, named Anguish and Torment respectively. All three will unlock at the same prayer level. No other information has been given.
 * Mod Pi has hinted that more ranger and mage equivalent versions of Ancient Curses and Standard Prayers will be released.
 * Rigour and Augury will now unlock along with Piety upon completeing the knight waves. All players who bought Rigour and Augury through will have their points refunded, and Rigour and Augury will be removed from the Dungeoneering shop.
 * Mod Pi has confirmed that saps and Leeches from the Ancient Curses prayer book have been reworked and will "...most definitely do what they are supposed to do now." What is going into the actual rework is unknown, but it has been confirmed that Leech Magic will now work with combat spells.
 * All weapons in the new combat system will now have the same DPS if of the same metal/wood/staff type. For example, a rune dagger and rune longsword both have a DPS of 50, while the rune dagger hits much faster, it deals less damage. The DPS between weapons will now be more balanced, and 2h swords will now have a much higher damage boost to compensate the lack of a god book /shield /defender.
 * Updated character models, with detailed hands, including fingers and thumbs, and more points of articulation along the spine and other improvements. (confirmed; more "backbone" for better animations and to allow sheathed weapons to get closer to the character)
 * The ability to sheath weapons.
 * Video 3 confirms that the magic spellbook will change into an abillity book, which contains all new combat abillities. Each Ability will have different requirements, such as an attack, strength, defence, ranged or magic level (unconfirmed).
 * New 'Action-bar' which allows actions/abilities to be put onto it, and activated using the number keys.
 * The ability to unequip your shield by putting it on your back.
 * The max Combat Level will be raised to 200. The Combat Formula is being changed to x+(Defence Level)+2; Where x is your highest level out of Attack, Strength, Magic and Ranged. Constitution, Prayer, and Summoning no longer affect Combat Levels..

Speculated Updates
Currently from the images Jagex has released, as well as update hints, the following updates could be released:
 * Facial expressions.
 * Attack options, Spellbook and possibly more Merging together.
 * With the adrenaline update, the Special Attack bar will be removed, this may make weapons generally used for special attacks, such as Dragon Daggers, Armadyl Godswords, Dragon Claws, Partially, if not completely, obsolete. (Unless of course these weapons, specifically dragon Dragon claws, are given an extremely dangerous or useful ability.)
 * When out of combat characters will look as if they are breathing.

Expected Updates
This is a list of expected updates as stated in "Og Blog: Evolution of Combat."

In the second Og Blog, more information was mentioned. This blog was focused on the objetives of player based skill, fun, equipment rework and more, [|Og Blog: Skill, Variety and Fun]
 * Refocus combat around player skill - Combat will be more oriented on player skill, rather than navigating interfaces.
 * Encourage variety in combat equipment - We want you to be thinking carefully about the equipment you choose for any given situation, tweaking and making alterations according to your enemy’s strengths and weaknesses. The problem is, at the moment, there aren't many reasons to change from your favourite weapons or armour. We’d like to give you those reasons.
 * Make it fun! - There’s room in combat for situations that require a greater deal of attention and skill to overcome, hopefully making it more fun. In these situations, you'll be rewarded for your efforts with more XP. In-game combat - particularly training on standard enemies - currently involves clicking on a creature and waiting. We'll do a whole lot more to make these situations challenging, rewarding and - ultimately - more fun.
 * Make it easier to access - Several combat options (special attacks, combat styles, spellbooks) are tucked away, hard to access, or on various different interfaces, so we’re planning to bring all those options together.
 * Give rangers and mages a fighting chance – The combat triangle can be less of a triangle and more of a pancake – flat and a little out of shape - with melee dominant in training and PvP situations. Let’s put rangers and mages firmly back on that triangle.
 * Fill the gaps in existing equipment tiers – We’ve got an opportunity with the Evolution of Combat to plug holes in the tiers of combat equipment. Magic 'armour' is rare, and generally caters for a small level bracket, while melee and ranger sets are missing gloves, boots, etc.
 * Encourage challenging fights - We’d like the most challenging, rewarding and fun creatures to also be the most efficient creatures to fight. At the moment, it can seem more efficient to train on creatures that deal little damage and go down without a fight.
 * Fix the relationship between Defence, life points and damage outputs – Your ability to heal damage, through food or similar mechanics, should be comparable to how much damage you receive. That’s not quite true at the moment, and we’d like to address that.
 * Allow players’ combat levels to truly represent their ability – The combat level calculator is complicated and encourages players to not train certain skills in an attempt to create a false impression of their damage potential (pures).
 * Simplify the code and balancing – Simplifiying the code will allow Jagex to make high-level (85+) equipment faster and easier.
 * Be brave, but be traditional where possible - We are a game with a proud heritage and a player base with clear expectations of the game they want to play. We don’t want to make a game that we can’t even recognise anymore.
 * Additional on RS forums; Jagex Talks Combat - More Info