Glacor/Strategies

After completion of Ritual of the Mahjarrat, players can kill glacors, powerful ice elementals residing in the Glacor Cave. Glacors are very powerful for their combat level of 160, but are the only monsters to drop steadfast boots, glaiven boots, ragefire boots, and shards of armadyl that can be used to make Armadyl runes or the Armadyl battlestaff. Glacors also drop large numbers of crimson charms and blue charms.

Glacors are relatively unique in that they must be soloed; only one player may fight a glacor at a time. However, groups of players can individually kill glacors together.

Getting there
The fastest way to reach the Glacor Cave is by fairy ring (code: ). Fairy rings are scattered all across RuneScape, though they may be most easily reached with the TokKul-Zo's teleport to the TzHaar Fight Cave, or the ring of slaying's teleport to the Fremennik Slayer Dungeon. The TokKul-Zo's teleport is recommended due to its extreme proximity to a bank.

Offence
Glacors primarily attack with Ranged and Magic attacks that can each hit up to 980 damage and are quite accurate. They can also attack with melee, though they will only do so if players move within melee distance of them. At range, a glacor will only attack with one style at a time, but it will switch back and forth between them at regular intervals. The Ranged attack, fired from their right arm, looks like an icicle. The Magic attack, which glacors shoot from their left arm, appears to be a blue orb. In addition to dealing damage, the Magic attack has a chance to freeze players in place for about five seconds. This does not count as a stun, so Anticipation does not offer protection from it; however, Freedom can be used to escape it.

Glacors also have the ability to encase you in ice, similar to Ice Barrage, although you cannot retaliate back. The player must click five times anywhere on the screen before the Glacor smashes the ice, dealing around 1000 damage if you cannot break free in time. Attacks and abilties alike will be stopped, and players will do a basic attack instead of the ability they were going to use before being encased in ice.

In addition to their Ranged and Magic attacks, glacors have a special attack in which they slam both arms down onto the ground and fire a large group of icicles. These icicles will target the square in which you're standing when they are fired; if you do not move out of the way before they hit, they will deal damage equal to 40% of your remaining life points. Resonance will block this damage, though it will not heal you. Generally, but not always, a glacor uses this attack when it's going to change from Ranged to Magic or vice versa.

When the glacor is reduced below half health, its attack speed will increase by one stage.

Defence
Glacors have very high defence against melee and Ranged attacks, and are weak to Magic, particularly fire spells. Additionally, glacors are immune to rebound damage, such as from deflect curses and Reflect. Glacors will not move around the area unless you run out of range of their attacks, at which point they will move enough to attack you.

When a glacor is reduced to half its health, it will summon three glacytes, detailed below. The glacor is invincible until its glacytes are killed, though it will still attack you. Once the glacytes are defeated, you can once again damage the glacor, though it will inherit the trait of the glacyte that was killed last.

Glacytes
At half health, a glacor spawns three glacytes, smaller versions of the glacors. Each of them attacks with melee, hitting up to 640, and has a special ability, as detailed below:
 * The sapping glacyte will drain 20 Prayer points with a successful melee attack.
 * The unstable glacyte will periodically violently explode, dealing damage equal to 33% of your remaining life points if you are adjacent to it. A blue-and-yellow bar, similar to the adrenaline bar, will appear over an unstable glacyte's head and slowly fill to indicate the time remaining until the explosion. The explosion will only damage players who are within a 3x3 grid of the glacyte. Regardless of whether the explosion hurts you, it will damage the glacyte for 90% of its remaining life points. After about ten seconds, the glacyte will begin regenerating its life points back to approximately half and begin the explosion again.
 * The enduring glacyte has damage reduction that scales inversely with its distance from the glacor. The closer the glacyte is to the glacor, the stronger its damage reduction; while it stands next to the glacor, it is virtually impossible to damage it. To kill this glacyte, lure it far enough to deal enough damage. If far enough from the glacor it will take full damage.

The glacytes may be killed in any order. However, the glacor will inherit the trait of the glacyte that is killed last:
 * If the sapping glacyte is killed last, each of the glacor's attacks will drain 50 prayer points.
 * If the unstable glacyte is killed last, the glacor will periodicially explode in the same manner as the glacyte. However, the glacor's explosion has a diameter of 5 squares, rather than the glacyte's explosion's 3-square diameter. After it explodes, the glacor will regenerate its health, up to about 1/3rd of its maximum life.
 * If the enduring glacyte is killed last, the glacor will gain 60% damage reduction.

Requirements

 * Completion of Ritual of the Mahjarrat, which carries many skill level and quest requirements; see the quest's article for details.

Skill levels

 * 80+, ,
 * 92+
 * 67+
 * 92+

Inventory items

 * Boosting potions in potion flasks: Super magic flasks and super defence flasks; or extreme magic flasks and extreme defence flasks; or overload flasks
 * Prayer renewal flasks and prayer potion flasks
 * The charming imp, optionally, to easily collect charms
 * Runes
 * Some food for emergencies
 * An emergency teleport

Prayers
Players with 92+ Prayer should use Soul Split constantly. Glacors' Ranged and Magic attacks are very accurate, hitting hard and often even at 99 Defence with level 80 armour. Soul Split helps mitigate the high amounts of damage they deal and can even sustain your lifepoints on its own, provided that you are able to deal enough damage to keep up.

Players without Soul Split should switch between Deflect Magic and Deflect Missiles in order to reduce the damage dealt by the glacors' attacks. Keep an eye on the glacor and watch for it to switch attack styles; it uses Ranged with its right arm (left arm from the perspective of a player facing a glacor) and Magic from its left arm (right arm from said perspective).

Familiars
Combat familiars, such as steel titans, are not recommended for killing glacors due to the glacors' high defence against non-Magic attacks. If you opt to bring a familiar, use a beast of burden such as a war tortoise or pack yak to carry extra supplies, or a healing familiar such as a bunyip or unicorn stallion for extra health.

Abilities
Here follows an individual breakdown of each Magic ability's relative usefulness at glacors.
 * Wrack: Reasonably powerful, very fast cooldown, and no drawbacks. Use this ability as often as possible when building adrenaline, and in between other abilities.
 * Dragon Breath: Hits hard, but requires you to be within melee distance. Not useful against the glacors for this reason, but can be effective against the glacytes. Be careful not to accidentally kill the wrong glacyte.
 * Sonic Wave: If using a staff, this is another good, foundational basic ability. Use it in conjunction with Wrack in this manner: Wrack > Sonic Wave > Wrack.
 * Concentrated Blast: If dual-wielding, this ability is reasonably good for DPS due to its rapid hits. However, as it is a combo attack, it is less efficient at generating adrenaline. Its multiple lower hits, however, syngergize well with Soul Split.
 * Impact: Glacors and glacytes are immune to stun; Impact, therefore, will hit them hard. Use this often.
 * Combust: Good for its guaranteed level of damage if it hits. Another ability to use often. Avoid using it when the glacor is almost at half health or almost dead, as some of the hits will be wasted.
 * Chain: Avoid this ability. Its damage to a single target is subpar and if you use it against the glacytes, you might accidentally kill the unstable glacyte. On rare occasions, Chain might even hit a second glacor, causing it to attack you as well.
 * Surge: Might be useful to buy yourself a few seconds of time while the glacytes run to catch up, or to lure away the enduring glacyte. Currently, however, Surge is bugged and sometimes cannot be activated in combat.
 * Asphyxiate: This is your best ability for damage, particularly against the glacor. Optimally, activate it when you initially attack the glacor, and again after you kill the glacytes; this prevents wasted hits when the glacor dies or becomes invincible. Watch out for the icicle attack when using this!
 * Wild Magic: Also good for dealing quick damage. At high levels Wild Magic can kill a glacyte all by itself. Less damage than Asphyxiate, but delivered more quickly.
 * Detonate: Not useful at glacors. While it's charging, you can't move away from the unstable glacyte or the icicle attack without interrupting it, and due to its low range, it's only effective against the glacytes, whom you want you kill one at a time anyway. Do not put this on your action bar.
 * Omnipower: Reasonably good for a knock-out hit, but otherwise inferior to Metamorphosis and especially Asphyxiate.
 * Metamorphosis: The best of the Magic ultimate abilities, though Asphyxiate is better for pure damage as it doesn't drain your adrenaline to zero. A Metamorphosis-boosted Asphyxiate is very likely to take off half of a glacor's lifepoints.
 * Tsunami: Short range and subpar damage for an ultimate ability. Skip it.
 * Sunshine: This ability has half the duration of Metamorphosis in exchange for dealing small amounts of damage to targets around you. This extra effect might work against the glacytes, but you might accidentally kill the wrong one. Metamorphosis is preferable to Sunshine for the extra duration.

Notes on tanking
Tanking glacors with a one-handed weapon and a shield is a viable strategy that exchanges killing speed for survivability. In addition to the extra armour and lifepoints granted by a shield, certain defensive abilities are very helpful. Reflect gives you 50% damage reduction for 10 seconds, though the glacors and glacytes are immune to rebound damage. Resonance may be used for extra health, but note that it will not heal from the icicle attack, only block its damage. If you are going to use Resonance, make sure the glacor is firing a normal attack first. Revenge can be useful when the glacytes are attacking you to give you a quick boost in damage. Rejuvenate will heal you 40% of your lifepoints with a shield equipped.

The best shield to use when tanking is the arcane spirit shield, which offers 30% damage reduction in exchange for depleting a small amount of prayer when taking damage. This shield can be combined with the Penance aura, which will restore enough prayer to completely negate the arcane spirit shield's prayer draining. Otherwise, prayer renewals and prayer potions may be used to offset the extra prayer loss. The spectral spirit shield is a cheaper shield with the same stats as the arcane, but without the additional damage reduction.

Strategy
Quick tips to remember when fighting glacors:
 * Be careful when using combo attacks! If you start using Asphyxiate and the glacor fires its special icicle attack, you'll either have to move out of the way, wasting some of Asphyxiate's attacks, or finish the ability and take heavy damage.
 * Keep a fair distance away so that you can spot the special icicle attack and move out of the way.
 * Place Freedom on the action bar. Use it when stunned to escape the icicle attack or the unstable glacyte's explosion.
 * Don't kill the enduring glacyte last, or the second half of your kill will take much longer.

The battle with a glacor can be summarized into three distinct stages. Stage 1 is taking down the first half of the glacor's lifepoints. Stage 2 involves killing the glacytes. Stage 3 is about killing the glacor itself.

Don't forget that your combat abilities will always be boosted when fighting glacors, due to residual energy from the Stone of Jas. This enhancement functions as an invisible boost, rather than a boost to skill levels.

Stage 1
This stage is relatively simple and should go quickly. Turn on prayers, attack the glacor, and begin cycling through abilities. The best time to use Combust, Concentrated Blast, and Asphyxiate, which deal their damage in multiple hits, is early on. Watch for the glacor's icicle attack and dodge it at all costs. If you've been frozen by the Magic attack and need to dodge the icicle attack, use Freedom; otherwise, save it for dodging the icicles or the unstable glacyte.

Stage 2
When the glacytes spawn, you should know the order in which you wish to kill them. Avoid killing the enduring glacyte last, or the glacor will gain 60% damage reduction, substantially increasing the kill time. Therefore you must choose between killing the unstable glacyte and the sapping glacyte last. Each has its advantages and disadvantages: If you kill the sapping glacyte last, your kill speed in stage 3 won't be affected, but the glacor will drain your prayer with its attacks, placing further strain on your supplies. If you kill the unstable glacyte last, the glacor will periodically explode, which can easily be avoided by keeping away from it. However, the lifepoint regeneration aspect may increase your kill time if you cannot kill the glacor before it heals. With high stats and a good two-handed weapon, or dual-wielded weapons, you ought to be able to kill it in time. Killing the unstable glacyte last, therefore, will have the smallest impact on your trip, assuming you can kill the glacor before it heals itself.

Whichever glacyte you choose to save for last, kill the other two first. The best time to kill the unstable glacyte is right after it explodes, at which point it only has about 400 health and is easily killed in one hit. A proficient glacor slayer can kill the other two glacytes before the unstable glacyte explodes. Remember that you have to lure the enduring glacyte away from the glacor in order to strip away its damage reduction.

Don't forget, the glacor will still attack during this stage! Keep an eye out for the icicle attack. If players do not wish to block the Glacor, the ability Debilitate will prove useful, as the effect is activated as long as it hits.

Stage 3
Stage 3 is much like stage 1, except that you must deal with the glacor's inherited ability and slightly faster attacks. If it inherited the unstable ability, keep at least three squares away from it at all times, or else you can be caught in the blast. If the glacor inherited the sapping ability, fight it normally, but keep an eye on your Prayer points.

Drops
Glacors are the only monsters to drop steadfast boots, currently worth 0 coins. They can also drop glaiven boots, worth 0 coins, and ragefire boots, worth 0 coins. However, these drops are very rare. Their other unique drop is shards of armadyl, which are significantly more common.

You can do two things with shards of armadyl: Grind them into dust, or save them to make an Armadyl battlestaff. If you choose to make dust from the shards, then each shard drop is worth 0 coins. However, if you save them to make an Armadyl battlestaff, each shard drop is worth 0 coins. You need 77 Crafting and 100 shards of armadyl to make the staff, however. Grinding the shards into dust provides quick but small profits, while collecting 100 shards and combining them into an orb is much more profitable, but slow.