Defence

Defence (spelled "Defense" in RuneScape Classic; abbreviated as Def) is a skill that gives the player protection during combat. Though often seen as a 'melee' skill, defence actually contributes to a player's combat level in any of the 3 combat disciplines. As a player raises their Defence level, opponents will deal damage less often, rather than deal less damage per hit. Defence levels also affect what kind of armour a player can equip ranging from level 1 for bronze armour and iron armour to level 80 for the Dungeoneering shields.



A small selection of players choose to focus exclusively on Defence and not train any other combat skills. These players are known as Defence Pures. It is suspected that the few players train as defence pures due to the limited appeal of long combat round between a defence pure and their opponent. However, many pures frown upon defence seeing that it does not lower damage received. There are quite a few players who have achieved level 99 Defence without levelling Constitution at level 27 combat through the use of Soul Wars and various other levelling methods; for example, experience lamps and Penguin Hide and Seek.

Fighting defensively
To acquire Defence experience through combat, a player can choose one of two options: to get the most defensive experience, a player must select the "defensive" attack style. To do this, a player has to select the Combat Styles tab (image with the two swords one left of Stats tab), then select the combat style that says Defensive in parentheses when the mouse cursor is hovered over it. The second way to acquire defensive experience is by selecting the controlled attack style, though it is not as efficient in training Defence as it equally splits experience with the Attack and Strength skills. One-third of the experience gained when using controlled, 0.133 experience per damage point dealt by the player, is given to Defence. Using defensive gives 4 experience per 10 damage points the player deals. The higher defence level you have the greater chance of an opponent hitting a 0 on you.

Strategy
Having a high Defence level is key to any fighter's success. If a player wants to land strikes, one has to also be able to take them. Contrary to popular belief, Defence does not lower the amount of damage per hit; rather it makes your opponent's attacks less accurate.

Numerous players, especially melee-pure player killers, neglect their Defence in favour of training Attack and Strength or Strength alone, feeling that training Defence isn't important once you train Attack. Most of these players leave their Defence at level 1, and wear iron armour to provide basic Defence. Defence is also sometimes raised to level 10 or 20, so as to enable the wearing of black armour/white armour or initiate armour respectively. Though this strategy gives a person high power in their attacks, some do not recommend it. They argue that even if a person in the wilderness boasts very high Attack and Strength levels, if they do not have the ability to wear (or do not possess) decent armour, a person of a comparable level with high Defence may kill them with little or no trouble. Although it should be noted that since the levels used on defence are put into Strength and Attack (as well as life points), a pure of a comparable combat level could have a high enough attack level to fair with the person easily regardless of their Defence level, or be able to hit high enough to make up for not hitting as often. A pure may possess higher life points than the person with a higher Defence level as well. It is becoming increasingly popular to train defence to at least level 40, as to enable the player to wear rune armour. Most of the time people go 5 beyond this level, maybe increasing their combat level by one, so that they can wear a berserker helm. These people are known as 'Berserker pures'.

Experience
A formula is used to calculate how much experience a player obtains when fighting defensively. If a player hits an opponent, whatever damage they deal is divided by 2.5 and given to the player's Defence skill. For example, if a player hits a 10, then they will receive 4 Defence experience.

Some experience is also given to a player's Constitution level when they deal damage. If a player hits an opponent, whatever damage they deal is divided by 7.5 and given to their Constitution. For example, if a player hits a 10, then they will receive 1.33 Constitution experience, in addition to the 4 experience in Defence.

If a player fights with the "controlled" attack style, then whatever damage they deal will be divided by 7.5 and given to the player's Defence, Attack, Strength, and Constitution level.

Defence can also be trained by ranging in the "long range" attack style. Damage dealt is divided by 5 to determine experience for Range and Defence, and by 7.5 to determine experience for Constitution.

Defence can also be trained by attacking with Magic spells while casting spells with a defensive cast style. Damage dealt is divided by 5 to determine experience for Magic and Defence, and by 7.5 to determine experience for Constitution.

Defence bonuses
Some weapons and armour give players "defence bonuses" against certain attack types. These bonuses can be seen in the equipment menu, to the right of the inventory menu. Defence bonuses give players advantages as well as disadvantages in combat.

Stab: Wearing melee armour lowers the chance of players stabbing with a weapon from dealing high damage. The higher this bonus is, the less often an opponent will deal damage by using the stab attack style. The maximum possible bonus attainable by players is 467.

Slash: Wearing melee armour lowers the chance of players slashing with a weapon from dealing high damage. The higher this bonus is, the less often an opponent will deal damage by using the slash attack style. The maximum possible bonus attainable by players is 472.

Crush: Wearing melee armour lowers the chance of players crushing with a weapon from dealing high damage. The higher this bonus is, the less often an opponent will deal damage by using the crush attack style. The maximum possible bonus attainable by players is 456.

Magic: Wearing ranged armour lowers the chance of magic attacks dealing high damage. The higher this bonus is, the less often an opponent will deal damage by using Magic. The maximum possible bonus attainable by players is 207. In addition, your passive magic defence is 70% of your magic level, and 30% of your defence level.

Ranged: Wearing melee armour lowers the chance of players using ranged weapons from dealing high damage. The higher this bonus is, the less often an opponent will deal damage by using Ranged attacks. The maximum possible bonus attainable by players is 485.

Summoning: Wearing most melee armours lowers the chance of players using Summoning Familiars from hitting.

Other defence bonuses

 * Leather gloves, leather boots, and capes give slight defence bonuses.
 * An Amulet of Defence gives a defence bonus of +7 against all attack types.
 * An Amulet of Power gives a defence bonus of +6 against all attack types.
 * An Amulet of Glory gives a defence bonus of +3 against all attack types.
 * A Holy symbol gives a defence bonus of +2 against all attack types.
 * An Amulet of Fury gives a defence bonus of +15 against all attack types.
 * A Gnome Amulet gives a defence bonus of +13 against all melee attack types.
 * A Berserker ring gives a defence bonus of +4 against the crush attack type.
 * A Berserker ring (i) gives a defence bonus of +8 against the crush attack type.
 * A Warrior Ring gives a defence bonus of +4 against the slash attack type.
 * A Warrior Ring (i) gives a defence bonus of +8 against the slash attack type.
 * A Seers' ring gives a defence bonus of +4 against the magic attack type.
 * A Seers' ring (i) gives a defence bonus of +8 against the magic attack type.
 * An Archers' ring gives a defence bonus of +4 against the ranged attack type.
 * An Archers' ring (i) gives a defence bonus of +8 against the ranged attack type.
 * An onyx ring (i) gives a defence bonus of +6 against all the attack types.
 * A dragonstone ring (i) gives a defence bonus of +5 against all the attack types.
 * The Beacon Ring from the quest What Lies Below gives a defence bonus of +1 against the magic attack type.
 * A Lunar Ring from the quest Lunar Diplomacy gives a defence and attack bonus of +2 for magic.
 * The gloves from the quest Recipe for Disaster give varying melee and ranged defence bonuses, ranging from +1 from the "leather" gloves to +12 from the "barrows" gloves. All Recipe for Disaster gloves give magic defence of half that for the other attack types; e.g. "Barrows" gloves give +12 against melee and ranged, and +6 against magic.

Defence requirements
Defence levels required to equip different types of armour are as follows:


 * The requirements are determined by a player's base defence level, boosts will not allow a player to wield armour higher than his base.

Best F2P melee and range defence bonus

 * (1) The Corrupt dragon med helm will disintegrate after 30 minutes of wearing.
 * (2) The Corrupt dragon chainbody will disintegrate after 30 minutes of wearing, and the Rune Platebody has one more point of stab defence.
 * (3) The Corrupt dragon platelegs or Corrupt dragon plateskirt will disintegrate after 30 minutes of wearing.
 * (4) The Runecrafting staff is a reward from the Great Orb Project.
 * (5) The Corrupt dragon sq shield will disintegrate after 30 minutes of wearing.
 * (6) Any other jewellery will give similar defence bonuses - Amulet of Power that only gives +6 def to all stats but gives more offensive stats.

Best F2P melee and range defence bonus using non degradable armour

 * (1) The Rune Chainbody has a higher crush defence and does not require the Dragon Slayer quest to be complete to wear.
 * (2) A normal coloured cape has the same stats as a wilderness cape.

Temporary boosts
The maximum boost can be achieved using a Saradomin brew (+25%) and the Turmoil prayer (+33% at maximum) or Mystic Might (For defending against magic, gives +15% mage defence/attack).
 * Defence cape - Boosts Defence level by 1 (100/99, must be wearing it, and operate it)
 * Defence potion - Boosts Defence level by 3-12 (3 + 10% of your defence level, rounded down).
 * Super defence potion - Boosts Defence level by 5-19 (5 + 15% of Defence level, rounded down).
 * Saradomin brew - Boosts Defence level by 25%.
 * Prayer - Thick Skin, Rock Skin, Steel Skin, Chivalry and Piety boosts defence level by 5%, 10%, 15%, 20% and 25% respectively.
 * Ancient Curses - Leech Defence and Turmoil boost a player's defence level by 5%, then up to 10% after time, and 15% + 10% of the opponent's level respectively.
 * Excalibur special attack - Excalibur is a reward from the Merlin's Crystal quest. Its special attack temporarily boosts a player's Defence level by 8 points. The special attack uses 100% of the special bar.
 * Enhanced excalibur special attack - Enhanced excalibur is obtained by bringing a Excalibur to Lady of the Lake on the peninsula in Taverley after completing all the Hard tasks of the Seers' Village Achievement Diary. Its special attack raises a player's Defence level temporarily more than the original Excalibur, also healing the player up to 200 life points (40 life points every 2 seconds for 10 seconds). The special attack uses 100% of the Special bar.
 * Draynor Manor Cabbage - +1 or +2 boost
 * The special move of the war tortoise familiar raises defence by 8.

Trivia

 * In RuneScape Classic, Defence was spelled "Defense"
 * Defence is the least common combat 99 (excluding Summoning and Prayer).
 * Pures avoid levelling defence in order to deal a lot of damage while retaining a low combat level. Exceptions are Defence pures or Summoning tanks.
 * When using a Steel titan, the extra 15% stab, slash, and crush defence bonuses will be added to the player's armour and shown in the equipment stats screen.
 * Many players see defence as a melee skill, however this is not true as defence goes towards base combat, and can be trained with all combat styles.