Combat pure

A  Combat pure is a player who works primarily on certain battle skills, focusing much of their attention to make those skills stronger. Combat pures fall into four categories: Meleers, Mages, Rangers, and Hybrids. Pures are also distinguished by their usually low Defence levels.

Overview
Combat pures mainly train combat skills and are usually made for player killing, possibly with a money making skill such as Woodcutting as well. The purpose of having a combat pure is to be specialized in one or two combat skills, thus being very good at a low combat level. Defence and prayer are normally sacrificed when being a combat pure, as they always add to combat level. Both skills are arguably less useful than, for example, Strength in player-killing, although both have their uses.

The overall goal of a "pure" is to be highly specialized in a particular style of combat, where they will do more damage for a given combat level. A variety of combat skill combinations is considered favorable for different kinds of tasks.

At the Tutorial Island, any skill can only be trained up to level 3, so you can come away from there with level 3 Attack, Strength, Magic, and Ranged. For Magic, runes will be replenished only if you drop the runes then ask for more, then pick up the ones off the ground then drop all, then repeat. For Ranged, arrows will be replenished by the instructor, so train on rapid. Although getting all of your combat skill levels up to level 3 raises your combat level to level 5, it is well worth it. Even a pure Ranger or Mage should avail themselves of the 100% pure training in Attack and Strength, since the early level-up to level 6 (warrior) will put you outside the aggressive limit of level 2 giant rats, and training the preferred skill to level 7 and beyond will make it the determining factor for combat level. It also means that you can equip steel weapons and Steel armour.

Some quick tips:
 * To avoid training Defence, do not fight in a defensive or controlled style. Always double check the attack style you are using. Doing so prevents unwanted levels being gained. Note that it may help to use weapons with similar styles.
 * To avoid training Hitpoints on a melee pure, you can complete the Vampire Slayer Quest to earn 4825 Attack experience. Magic levels can be gained without Hitpoints by using alchemy, teleportation and curses.  The best way to train any skill without gaining Hitpoints experience is playing Pest Control.  You can exchange the points won from each successful game for experience in a single combat stat, except Summoning, that is higher than 30.  To avoid Hitpoints gain entirely, you have to rebuild smashed barricades and doors, and avoid fighting the Pests as much as possible.
 * To avoid training Prayer, do not bury bones and do not complete the Restless Ghost quest.

Combat pures vary with their combat class (ranger, mage, or warrior), so they are discussed below.

Advantages of defence
There are many reasons why one would be interested in getting Defence levels while being a Pure, one of which is to wear better armour which may give better statistic bonuses. Another reason why one might get defence levels is to get hit damage less often, or to simply not be a pure anymore. However, this involves sacrificing combat stats and also hitpoints.

Using prayer
Although prayer does contribute to the combat level at a lower rate, it has a few advantages. In addition to 5, 10 or 15% stat boosts, at level 25, you will save an additional item when Protect Item is active (and only one item, if the player is "skulled" for using the Abyss or attacking another player, which still gives them a chance to save their most valuable item in your pack).

However, protection prayer is often looked down upon because player-killers tend to think it drags out the fun; many will run if confronted with this.
 * At level 31, you can access the Monastery which contains an altar to recharge prayer to two above your base prayer level. This will not allow you to use prayers above your base prayer level (i.e. using the altar at 41 Prayer will not give access to Protect from Melee)
 * At level 37, you gain the Protect from Magic prayer, very useful when you are wearing armour with a low mage defence bonus.
 * At level 40, you can use the Protect from Missiles prayer which defends against damage from all forms of ranged attacks (excluding mage).
 * At level 43, the last of the protection prayers, Protect from Melee, is usable, which protects you from melee attacks.

For P2P players, 52 prayer unlocks Smite. When this prayer is active, 1 prayer point is removed from your opponent's prayer for every 4 damage inflicted on them. You can use smite to win your opponent's "protected" item, assuming you defeat them. During intense and hectic situations, you may be forced to make a choice to eat food or drink a prayer potion when nearing death. If your foe does not renew their prayer points when depleted and dies, they will lose the item that would normally have been protected.

In addition, two prayers have been added for members that have completed the Knight Waves Training Grounds mini-quest. The first prayer is Chivalry, at level 60 prayer, this increases your defense by 20%, your strength by 18%, and your attack by 15%. The second, and highest leveled prayer of all, is Piety, at level 70 prayer, which increases your defense by 25%, your strength by 23%, and your attack by 20%.

Attack 1
Recommended equipment: Obsidian maul, berserker necklace, berserker ring, combat bracelet, monk robes, obsidian cape, iron full helm

These pures are players that have a lot of funds and a lot of time. They stay at 1, 5, 10, 20 attack, (mostly 1 attack) and 60+ strength for the obsidian maul. Some combine range or magic with this to make a deadly but costly combat combo (balance wise). Some also have 1-31-52 prayer. Pures with 1 attack do not get climbing boots due to the quest for them giving attack experience points.

Defence 20
Recommended equipment: Melee weapon of choice, bearhead or initiate sallet, initiate platebody, black d'hide chaps, adamant gloves, amulet of fury, mithril defender, climbing boots, fire cape, berserker ring

Some players choose to get their defense to a level of 20 so as to be able to wear Initiate armour. It's done to have a greater prayer bonus which will help in keeping one's prayer level up for longer periods of time and for the better defence against magic provided. The only time this pure wears full initiate armour is when relying on prayer. The total strength bonus of an initiate pure is 28. 30 with amulet of strength.

Defence 30
Recommended equipment: Melee weapon of choice, Proselyte Armour, rune gloves, amulet of fury, adamant defender, climbing boots, fire cape, berserker ring Some Initiate pures get 30 defense (to wear Proselyte Armour as it provides better Prayer & Defense Bonus) when their strength reaches a high level. They normally get 60 or 70/75 attack for Dragon scimitar or Abyssal whip/Godsword, then 70 to 99 strength. The total strength bonus a proselyte pure gets from the outfit above is 30. 32 with strength amulet.

Defence 40-45
Recommended equipment: Melee weapon of choice, Fighter torso, rune platelegs, berserker helm, berserker ring, rune defender, Barrows gloves, amulet of fury, fire cape

Other players choose to get 40 defence or 45 for a greater selection of armour and the tremendous increase in strength given by the proper berzerker pure outfit (see above). Those who get 40 defence have access to Rune armour, Dragonhide armour, Splitbark armour and the Fighter torso (which has a greater defence against slash attacks then rune platebody but has lower defence against stab and crush attacks). Those who gain 5 more defence levels can wear the Berserker Helm. The other 'perk' that comes with 45 defence is access to lunar magics and the vengeance spell plus the ability to wield Dragon and Barrows Gloves from the quest Recipe for Disaster. To achieve barrows gloves this pure would have to gain a total of 176 quest points and get all their defence xp directly from quests. The quests a typical zerker pure will get defence from are The fremennik trials, dragon slayer, nature spirit, A Soul's Bane, monkey madness (accept the strength and hitpoints xp to get the lowest amount of defence xp), holy grail and in In Search of the Myreque. The total strength bonus of a Zerker pure is +44, so a dragon scimitar, for example, would have +110 strength.

Defence 50
Recommended equipment: Saradomin Sword/Godsword, Granite legs, Climbing boots, Berserker helm, Berserker ring, Barrows gloves, Amulet of fury, Fire cape

Altough uncommon level 50 defence pures as they are known are being created. Many players view this as odd but it is not truly so. There a few advantages of 50 defence. one of them being able to better range tank as a hybrid. Another one includes fighting rangers with the granite legs. Another main advantage is that having an Attack level of 75, a Defence of 50, a Prayer level of 52, and a Strength level of 99 allows the player to max out at combat level 100. One bonus to 50 defence is that having a factor of 100 increases the extra defence though this is not 100% confirmed yet. A extra bonus is that using granite legs and climbing boots with maxed out strength gear allows a player to have a unique and awe-inspiring appearance. An added bonus is the ability to use the Battle robes from Fist of Guthix.

Defence 70
Recommended equipment: Melee weapon of choice, Barrows equipment set of choice, Barrows gloves, amulet of fury, fire cape or strength cape, berserker ring

A Barrows pure (which isn't considered by some players to be a true pure) is a player killer with and Attack and Defence level of 70. Most player killers who choose to raise their defence levels to this extent do it to wear a powerful set of armours known as Barrows.

Defence tends to be the more neglected of the three melee stats, so the standard for a Melee tank is simply set by the relative levels. A level 75 wearing Torag The Corrupted's set of barrows equipment is considered a tank, due to a very high defence level relative to other level 75 players, but a level 100 wearing Verac is not considered a tank (unless they have 99 defence), due to the fact that 70 defence becomes significantly more common among similarly leveled players. Typically, these tanks are not the most effective variant, due to the fact that they are likely forced into a lower strength or attack level in order to maintain a lower combat.

Defence 1
Recommended equipment : Whip, Saradomin Sword, Godsword, or Dragon scimitar, Amulet of fury, unholy book, bearhead, iron platebody, black d'hide chaps, climbing boots, fire cape, berserker ring, Regen bracelet (has more accuracy than mithril gloves&Combat Bracelet)

These pures were created with pking in mind. A lot of people with defence did not pk in their best equipment unless they have a very large amount of money. With this in mind players created pures so that they could hit high at low combat so that they could destroy an opponent with rune and under armour. The structure of a pure (high attack, strength and hitpoints with low defence) gives a player a better chance of killing an enemy before he runs away, which was fairly common in the Wilderness. This line of thought carries into Bounty Hunter, since an opponent running for the exit has more chance of being killed by someone with high attack and strength then someone who has moderate attack, defence and strength. Low defence keeps the combat level down, so pures can more often than not kill a main account of the same level. Having a pure with high attack and strength creates a powerful account which makes up for its lack of defence. Even though you can hit accurately with high damage, you also receive a lot of damage in return, creating a double edge sword. This is the most popular form of pure among RuneScape players and the type most people think of when talking about pures. Pure attack and strength has the benefit to quickly eliminate your opponent which limits the damage you receive.

All Balanced
Having an all balanced account gives the player opportunity to withstand the attacks of pures with their defence but limits the damage ratio to those of pures with higher attack and strength.

Defence 1
Recommended equipment: Magic staff of choice, mage's book, Wizard hat, wizard robe top, leather chaps, leather boots, combat bracelet, god cape, seers ring

A description often used for a Player killer that routinely fights using the Magic skill. Pure mages can hit for lots of damage at a low level, ideally killing their target before it has a chance to run, but at higher levels, the power of Magic is greatly weakened.

In P2P, low-level (30-40's) PKing with Mage is highly discouraged with the large population of Range Pures and improved dragonhide armour that weaken the accuracy of magic spells immensely. The use of mystic is rare due to the fact that it needs 20 defence, and is an expensive loss if the player dies. However, in more recent times, the strategy of using prayer to enhance the accuracy of magic spells have become more common and favored, because the player does not risk any expensive types of magic robes. Runes are very expensive and magic is considered better for teleporting, smelting and enchanting than for fighting. Magic will only do good for fighting between level 5 and 30; mainly for pking.

The Mage Pure has no use for low level prayer - even protect item will not save runes, though it may be worth it to save a battlestaff or a piece of member's mage armour.

Also, mage pures tend to die more often than other pures, mainly because of their low hitpoints level, which is often due to training with curse and alchemy (otherwise noncombat) spells, whereas other pures tend to have a higher hitpoints level and are able to take more hits before needing to eat.

Defence 10
Recommended equipment: Staff of Air, Mage's book, Combat robes, Amulet of magic, Leather gloves, desired boots and cape

Although rare (sometimes belived that they do not exist), these pures choose to get their defence to 10 so they can wear Combat robes, which has a chance of suppying any mind, chaos, death, or blood runes in an elemental spell. This can be useful for the higher leveled elemental spells because the runes are quite expensive.

Defence 20-25
Recommended equipment: Staff of choice, mage's book, mystic robes set or Infinity hat (no gloves), combat bracelet, god cape, seers ring

Some players choose to get their defence to a level of 20 so as to be able to wear Mystic robes for a much larger magic attack bonus which helps while spellcasting. Also, you can opt to get 25 defence for Infinity robes.

Defence 50
Recommended equipment: Staff of choice, mage's book, Battle robes, combat bracelet, god cape, seers ring

A rare type of mage pure, usually berzerker pures that mistakenly get more than 45 defence will bump it up to 50. The benefit of 50 defence allows them to wear Battle robes. These robes provide a much higher bonus apposed to the Mystic Robes/Infinity Robes. However the Infinity Hat surpasses the Battle Robe hood.

Another benefit of the combat robes is that if the full set is equipped, there is a good chance that the robes will supply any Mind, Chaos, Death or Blood runes when casting a combat spell.

Defence 70
Recommended equipment: Staff of choice, mage's book, Ahrim's set, combat bracelet, god cape, seers ring

Although not commonly seen, a Mage Tank will often have a very high magic level, along with 70 defence to utilize Ahrim's Robes. These tanks are extremely rare, and are often easily taken down by a Damage Range Tank.

Defence 1
A term often used for any PKer that routinely fights using the Ranged skill.

Since defence is only required to wear the body section of the leather armour, a level 20 ranger can upgrade to Studded chaps and a Coif, and a level 40 with no defence can wear green dragonhide vambraces and green dragonhide chaps, a coif and a basic leather body.

For P2P rangers, it is advised to wear the highest-level Dragonhide that is available for the player's range level. The Magic Shortbow is a must for PKing, as it has a special attack unlike other bows and with the use of rune arrows, medium to high level rangers prove quite deadly. Rangers succeed most in the high level 30's to the low level 40's.

With the addition of the Dark Bow and Rune Crossbow, rangers at higher combat levels have a much higher chance of defeating other players in armour, compared to the magic shortbow.

The Range Pure has no use for low level prayer, except to protect a crossbow or dark bow - protect item will not save arrows.

Defence 40-70
The second most common tank variant is a Tank Ranger. By far the most commonly seen form of a Tank Ranger is a player wearing a Black Dragonhide body with Rune Platelegs, a Rune Full Helmet, and a Rune Kiteshield, often with a Rune Crossbow as the weapon of choice. However, these tanks are often described as "wannabe tanks" due to the fact that they generally do not have a very high defence bonus. Generally, the most effective Tank Ranger is a setup in which the Rune Helm is replaced with a Torag's Helm, the Rune Platelegs replaced with Torag's platelegs, and a superior shield such as a Granite shield, Crystal Shield or Obsidian shield in place of the Rune Kiteshield.

Another type of Tank Ranger utilizes armour such as Karil's for the phenomenal magic defence, and uses a very powerful weapon such as a Dark Bow or Karil's Crossbow. Due to the low melee defense of Karil's armour, this tank doesn't not excel against meleers, and as such, many also have the gear for regular Tank Ranging.

Defence Pure or Tank
Although extremely rare, a true Defence Pure is a character who solely trains Defence, whilst purposefully not gaining experience in the 2 melee stats. It is possible to gain 60 defence while not exceeding 30 combat; if the account is purely defence, it is possible by level 27 combat. However, Defence Pures are not very effective, as they have a max hit of 1 and hit many 0's due to the lack of attack and strength levels. A popular way of killing the opponent is to use an iron dagger (p++) to slowly whittle their health down. They then switch to a red topaz machete, which has the highest attack bonus of weapons requiring 1 attack. For non members, the highest attack bonus is shared with Silverlight and the Blurite sword. Another is, with 75 defence and the all-powerful Dragonfire Shield, using the shield to hit 17+. Training an account to 60 defence takes a good deal of patience gaining a maximum of 4 experience per attack, while not consistently administering damage. The more common reason for a Defence Pure is to show off one's opulence, such as equipping the account with Dragon chainmail, Dragon Legs or Plateskirt, and a Dragon full helmet of some sort. A good way to train defence pures is to kill monks at the Monastery.

An option for a member account wishing to build a defensive pure would be to train Farming skill (which doesn't get accounted for in combat skill calculations) and using the Magic secateurs for damage. The one problem with this approach is that the quests needed to obtain the the secaturs require defeating the Dramen Tree Spirit with limited equipment and armour that you can make while on Entrana, and defeating several other creatures. Some of these creatures may require some limited combat with ranging equipment instead. These quests also grant experience in defense and attack, so it won't be so much a "pure" defense after completing these quests either.

Another way a defence pure or tank will train defence without training strength or attack is by sacrificing some of ther combat level to the skill summoning. they will get the lowest level summoning as they possibly can but try to get a familiar that gives bonus defence experience. a popular familiar is the bronze minotaur, which can hit higher than a defence pure or tank can.

Hybrid
A hybrid is a term usually used for combat pures. A hybrid works on multiple skills. The most common hybrid is ranged/magic. It is difficult to use, but it should be possible to have equal primary statistics in two or even three classes of combat or at least a working ability in one or two other combat classes. Usually it is best to work on only 2 different combat types, rather than working on 3. Otherwise your combat will be high and your combat skill level will not be the best it can be.

Carrying two or three different sets of equipment would leave a hybrid with a lot to lose and very little space for food, but enable you to stand in two or three points of the combat triangle.
 * Armoured warrior is weak against Mage (if you have no other choice, take off your armour and charge the mage if you are willing to take a risk.)
 * Mages are weak against Rangers, as range armour is better defensively against magic than mage gear is against arrows.
 * Ranger is generally weak against Warrior (use bind to stop the warrior approaching if mage-range hybrid, and make good use of obstructions such as forest, fences, or higher ground).

At the very least, the Mage or Ranger should carry a backup weapon and train attack and strength to do worthwhile damage with it, better than hitting with their staff or bow when out of ammunition. A slashing weapon, such as a scimitar, is also needed to enter areas protected by a web.


 * Ranged/Mage: At low levels, ranged/mage hybrids can deal speedy damage and then finish their targets off with a powerful spell. At higher levels, mage is merely used to bind other players, and to attack melee fighters in metal armour.
 * Melee/Ranged: Uses dragonhide chaps/vambs. The player switches from the bow when the opponent is low on hitpoints to a powerful melee weapon. Weapons used include Granite maul, TzHaar-Ket-Om (Obsidian Maul), Rune 2h Sword, or a Dragon Dagger.
 * Any/Mage: Enables teleport spells, bind, and combat spells, and increases resistance to magic.
 * Any/Melee: Gives a backup combat method when out of runes or arrows, and good for kills that aren't worth wasting non-renewable gear on.
 * Mage/Melee: An increasingly popular strategy among lower levels is to Ice Blitz an enemy from a distance, and then perform a dragon dagger special on it. This prevents the enemy from escaping, while allowing the player to inflict damage a few seconds before they reach the person. These can be often spotted in F2P wearing mage robes, a fast weapon, such as the popular rune scimitar, and possibly a shield, although not much else to hamper magic attack. They fight by opening with a melee attack, allowing a few strikes before using runes to cast a blast spell or two, then continueing with melee, and may or may not use this tactic on ranged targets. These pures are quite rare, and can be easily killed with a rune weapon and dragonhide armour.
 * Any/Prayer: Prayer allows the use of protect item, smite, which lowers one's prayer, and prayers to boost attack, strength, defence, ranged, and magic accuracy.
 * Melee/Melee: First uses a simple fast weapon like a Rune scimitar, then takes out a much stronger weapon like Rune 2h sword or Rune Battleaxe to perform a much stonger attack at the same speed. But then its as slow as weapon choosen.
 * Ranged/Ranged: Similar to melee/melee, as the person uses a fast weapon such as a Magic shortbow, then takes out a much stronger ranged weapon such as a Dark bow or Rune c'bow.

Hybrids are the most feared types of pures as they can do damage in many different ways. In f2p the best possible hybrid for low level crater is melee/ranged, but once you reach a Combat level of 56, then you must use the medium level crater in Bounty Hunter. It is highly recommended to tank and get your attack and strength up. The tactics: Range/2h and Range/G Maul:Bring a strength potion and drink it then attack your target with the 2h and immidietley switch to your bow and start attacking. Once the opponent's health is extremely low they should be ready to eat. The next time your character pulls the arrow back on the bow click your 2h and then the person your attacking which normally leads to a KO (knockout). Range and G Mauling is the same thing except when you switched to your maul you must click then click the special bar on the attack screen. Ranged/Mage- Against warriors use your bind spell (or ice spell if you have Ancients) and then start to range and then go to your spell book and get ready to cast your highest damage inflicting spell. When your target has almost no hp your target will probably eat the same time you shoot. In free to play the max hit for your best spell Fire blast is 16. It may be helpful to know that using one form of combat (e.g, ranged with a shortbow on rapid), then after a few shots switching to a weapon of a completely different combat style (e.g rune scimitar), it is possible to bypass protection prayers, as the opponent will often not be able to switch the prayer in time to protect against that quick strike. This however, has the irritating side effect of sometimes generating criticism.

Account Types
Please note that these are only selected account types and stats, as there are many other different accounts that have different stats.

Twinning
Two or more similar pures that have similar names are sometimes called twins. Twins may player-kill with each other. Similar named accounts may cause confusion for another group of pkers that these twins are attacking, while the twins can synchronize their efforts on one target at a time. A very useful way to kill while twinning was for each twin to get a Dragon dagger and both attack and use the special attack on a player at a time. This requires 60 attack. Sometimes twins will both wield Dark bows. They require 60+ Range to use. When both twins are attacking something at the same time, they can kill it within the first few seconds of combat.

Skill pure
A skill pure is a player who does not train combat stats, but does work on other skills. Common skill pures may be woodcutters, miners, fishers, etc. Skill pures can also train Slayer and still not get combat levels. They normally do this with rings of recoil and experience lamps.

Classic Pures
In the days of Runescape Classic, the term "pure" was much more defined. 8 Magic or Prayer levels was equivalent to a single combat level.

Typical Low Level Pure
A typical classic pure was around 30-40 combat with 40 attack, 1 defence, 54+ strength, 1-14 prayer and 1 magic. Many pure account makers would train on dummies in Varrock, causing their attack levels to rise, without the extra hitpoint levels (these accounts were given the name wined pure). Wined pures were very criticized, as many people believed that hitpoints were much more useful than the bonus strength they got in turn.

Plate Pure
In the days of Runescape Classic, there were also a very rare breed of pures, named "Plate Pures". Plate pures were defined as pures that had 1 Magic, yet could wear a rune platebody. On Runescape Classic, the only way to obtain the map piece from Wormbrain was to retrieve the map with Telekinetic Grab. These pures were very highly prized accounts, as they only possible way to obtain them, was from either:


 * 1) Originally when the quest was released, quest items were still tradeable, so some players would trade a map piece to an account they wanted to keep 1 magic on, thus allowing them to finish Dragon Slayer.


 * 1) The second way to obtain a plate pure was by trading Runescape 2 items back to Runescape Classic. Some people logged on to their Runescape 2 account, killed Wormbrain, and grabbed the map piece on Runescape 2. Jagex allowed 1 week for players to swap items from Runescape 2 to Runescape Classic, thus some people traded the map piece back to their Runescape Classic pure.

There are hardly any accounts left on Runescape Classic, and even less of the accounts are pure, and even less are plate pures. They still exist, however most players won't admit that their account is a plate pure, because they enjoy the advantage of a rune plate body over a rune chain, while retaining the combat levels that would have been given to them because of 33+ magic.

Criticism
Some players argue that because pures only work on few skills, they are weak in different aspects of the game. Other criticisms against low-level pures include the belief that making a skiller is seemingly pointless since they can do similar things on a player's main account. Also, many criticisms are directed towards the Ranged Pures, hence Ranging and Magic take the longest to increase a full combat level.

Many pures, due to the extremely competitive nature of player killing, may insult others. Sometimes they do it so much, it almost becomes a personality trait and is carried out of the wilderness and into the rest of their gaming life. This is where people often get the idea that pures are mean, disrespectful, selfish, etc.

For anyone who uses a more balanced character to make and give things to their pure fighter, attention must be drawn to Rule 8 of the rules section on runescape.com.
 * Rule 8.
 * You may create more than one RuneScape account, but if you do, you may not log in more than one account at any time, and they must not interact with each other in any way. This includes 'drop trading' or any other method of item transfer.

Please note that as of January 2, 2008, all "unbalanced" trading is prohibited, and therefore interacting between a pure and a "main" account is nearly impossible.

'''IMPORTANT NOTE: ALWAYS check what skill you are training. Otherwise, you might accidently level up a stat you didn't want. '''