Astea Frostweb

Astea Frostweb is a Dungeoneering boss. She summons ice spiders while attacking the player directly with magic. She also randomly alternates among the prayers Protect from Melee, Protect from Ranged, and Protect from Magic while in battle.

Background
In her journal, Astea writes about how Astea and Lexicus Runewright, her lover, signed up with 'Bill' (Bilrach) to assist his work. Lexicus discovers a secret "Too horrible to comprehend", making it necessary for her and Lexicus Runewright, her lover, to "kill Bill".

The 18th part of Bilrach's journal revealed that they confronted Bilrach, Bilrach defeated them, placed them under his control and separated them forever as punishment for their rebellion.

Astea's Offence
Her main attacks are a melee attack that can hit diagonally, an ice spell similar to Ice Barrage which freezes the player temporarily for 5 seconds, and an avoidable spike attack which targets all players. The spike attack appears as icy spikes growing on the ground and deals damage immediately after they appear, not when they disappear, contrary to popular belief, making it not impossible but hard to evade these. The damage from the spike attack is not classified as any specific type of damage, and subsequently cannot be blocked with protection prayers. Protect from Magic should be used to reduce the damage from her Ice Barrage. Prayer flashing is possible if you can anticipate her offensive casts, but difficult to use due to her irregular attack speed, and doesn't prevent freezing.

Because her Ice Barrage spells can keep the dungeoneer at a distance, fighting her with ranged or magic attacks or summoning a combat familiar may be easier. Melee works well, however, if you can stay close to her or trap her in a corner. Holding spells are ineffective due to her immunity to stuns.

Astea summons ice spiders, the levels of which are determined by the raid's average level and difficulty. She summons two per person, for up to 10 at once for a party of five. If you're alone she can summon up to 6 spiders; however, it is possible that she doesn't summon any at all, especially when she is fought on the first floor. According to the Smuggler, Astea will summon more spiders to attack players with Protection prayers activated.



The ice spiders hit low (with a max hit of 70 life points at their highest level) but with very high accuracy, unless the player wears good armour. Protect from Summoning can help reduce the damage dealt by the spiders. Low levels either protect from melee or magic should be used; however at higher levels or with good armour, Protect from Magic is more effective.

Sometimes some of her spiders would wander off rather than attacking the players. This might be a glitch. When Astea is killed, her summoned spiders will also die, so ignore them and focus on Astea.

Astea's Defence
She uses protection prayers which switch randomly every 25 seconds or so, regardless of the player's style of attacking. If using melee only, the best way is to turn on protect from mage, and stay close to her, until she switches prayer, then attack her with your melee choice.

Note that unlike regular protection prayers, Astea's protection prayers provide 100% protection.

Strategy
Firstly, players should turn off auto retaliate. Otherwise the player will significantly be distracted from killing the boss by the spiders and finishing the floor would be rendered very difficult.

Astea has no weakness, so all attack styles are equally effective in killing her. When she freezes a player within melee range, she takes one step backward, much like forgotten mages. This makes melee slightly less effective than ranged or magic. Ranged players should turn on Protect from Melee (if with good ranged armour) or a ranged boosting prayer (if less than 40 prayer) to fight. Being frozen by Ice Barrage will cause the character to stop automatically attacking her, so clicking Astea or using abilities is necessary to continue fighting.

Pure melee fighters should turn on Protect from Magic (except if they have full ranged armour) and ignore the spiders, possibly trapping them to minimise damage. Dual combat type characters should have arrows wielded and click the alternate weapon once Astea changes to ranged/melee prayer, and then switch to ranged when Astea freezes them. It is extremely helpful to have a combat familiar, preferably a bloodrager, to carry on fighting in case Astea changes her prayer to your backup style after freezing you.

If you are with 4 or more people, try to surround her so she won't escape when she freezes you. Have at least one ranger and one high level mage (preferably with 95+ Magic) on your team so you can continuously inflict damage.

For a soloer, they should try to trap her near one of the corners. This way, when she freezes you, she won't be able to move anywhere else but back to the same spot, making it very easy to target her. This however, is quite rare to do because it is rare she will be in the corners, but is very effective at defeating her without having to move constantly around.

Drops

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Trivia

 * If Astea freezes you just before she dies, you will be able to move about even though your player is shown to be frozen in an ice block.
 * Astea's melee attack makes the motion of attacking with a staff, even though she is unarmed.
 * As with all monsters that use protection prayers, is impossible to use the Smite Prayer or the Soul Split Ancient Curse to eliminate Astea's protection prayers. It is also impossible to disable her prayers with the ability Smash.
 * It is possible to successfully cast binding spells on her despite her immunity to stuns, but they are useless as they will have no effect on her.

Astea Frostweb Astea Frostweb Astea Gelateia