RuneScape:Events Team/Barbarian Assault (30 August 2014)

Barbarian Assault

 * Friends Chat - Megadog14
 * Location - Barbarian Outpost, World 39
 * Date & Time:


 * Requirements:
 * Tutorial completion
 * High combat skills recommended

Overview
The barbarians at the Barbarian Outpost need your help to fight back the seemingly endless waves of Penance monsters. Captain Cain will brief you and your fellow adventurers on your tasks when you arrive. Without completing his tutorial, you will not be able to play. After gathering a party of five teammates, you will be allowed to head straight into the battle. After fighting back enough waves of Penance, you'll have enough Honour points to buy a variety of combat-based and cosmetic rewards.

While the Barbarian Assault arena is isolated within the RuneScape world, there are several methods by which it can be reached:


 * Games necklace teleport - The quickest way to reach the Barbarian Outpost. A games necklace can be made by casting Enchant Level 1 Jewellery on a Sapphire necklace.
 * Barbarian Teleport - This spell from the Lunar spellbook teleports the player to the Barbarian Outpost. Level 75 Magic, three fire runes, two astral runes, and two law runes are needed to cast it.
 * Agility shortcut - At level 37 Agility, players are able to scale the tree to the north east of the Tree Gnome Stronghold (The Grand Tree quest required).
 * Enchanted lyre - Teleport to Rellekka, then approach the Outpost via the Lighthouse.
 * If your P.O.H. (Player Owned House) is located at Rellekka, then house teleport and run from Rellekka following the same route as the Enchanted Lyre teleport method.
 * On foot - Players may journey to the Barbarian Outpost from the south, via the Baxtorian Falls.
 * Via Spirit Tree (After Completition of grand tree quest) teleport to Tree Gnome Stronghold and Use the shortcut to the north-east of the Grand Tree in the Gnome Stronghold (level 37 agility).

All roles

 * The most important thing you need to do is call! Every 30 seconds the call will change and appear white. Make sure you call as soon as it changes every time. Even if your team-mate does not call, call for them to at least speed things up a bit.
 * Teams do NOT lose honour points by using the egg launcher. Many players believed that in contrast to experiments and Jagex's statements. Players gain points based on TOTAL number of penance killed; as long as a penance is killed, the player will gain points, and whoever is assigned to that particular penance (Defender=Penance Runner; Healer=Penance Healer; etc. etc.) will still get the double points, even if it is not the usual way of killing them (Runners killed with traps; Healers killed with poison food). Jagex has even added the statement, "The cannon does not make you lose points." in Quick Chat! Also, unbeknownst to many players, the Stun eggs also do 16 damage, though it is with a delay. If using the Cannon on Penance Runners, an Explosive egg should be used in conjunction with a Poison egg if possible, as opposed to another Red, as this still kills the Runner in 2 hits while reducing the usage of the precious Explosive eggs. Usage of the Stun egg will prevent the Penance from taking any damage or doing anything in that time, and it is generally frowned upon by most players as this prevents the team members from killing the Penance in a faster way. For this cause, usage of Stun eggs should be considered only as a last resort.
 * Every team member will lose points when a runner makes it to the end, so a good technique is to use the egg launcher to help the defender kill runners south of the north egg launcher rock; everyone on the team will get full points for all runners killed regardless of how they are killed. Also, runners always have 50 life points and thus die consistently quickly, whereas the life points of all other Penance types scale up with wave number, making usage of eggs on them at later waves generally inefficient.
 * Players are allowed to use normal potions, with the exception of Saradomin brew; however, potions mixed using Barbarian training may not be brought into the arena. To conserve space, a cost-effective potion for Attackers to use is the Zamorak Brew. Low level players are advised to bring Antipoisons to handle damage.
 * On wave 10 once all Penance creatures are dead, team members should gather near the Healing Pool. This is better for the Healers as they do not have to run far. An alternative for Waves 1 through 9 is for players to hide in one of the corners of the Egg Launcher "hills", where they can't be poisoned, ranged or meleed. This strategy does not work at Wave 10 due to the Penance Queen's ranged attack.
 * It is helpful to other players if a person takes a role that is already being used, most preferably collector, and use the Horn of Glory at the south-east section of the cave, as this can be used to tell everyone what they need to do. This way players can focus on their jobs. The horn cannot be used on wave 10 when the Queen arrives.
 * Players can see each others chat from anywhere in the room.
 * It is recommended to "Quickstart" over waiting for the game to automatically set you into the wave: 1.) Select a teammate to leave the team and make them only to do this each and every wave. 2.) That team-mate exits the starting room. 3.) The team-mate re-enters. 4.) Your leader will make him rejoin. 5.) Your leader will start the wave. This is done in about 10 seconds, and it is shorter compared to the normal starting wait time (30 seconds). Quickstart can be performed faster by the quickstarter using the Give Thanks, Seal of Approval or Roflcopter emote at the very end of the wave, which forcibly ejects him from the team if the team leader closes the wave complete dialogue before the emote completes, cutting the time required to exit and re-enter the wave pen. Some players also leave the team by logging out to the lobby, then back into the game.

Attacker

 * The first priority for an attacker at the beginning of the wave is to run west around the cannon. This way, you do not lure the Penance healers west with you, and it makes the healer's job much easier. Be sure you run west around the cannon during the start of a wave. Some teams may kick you if you fail to follow this general rule.
 * The attacker role should always keep auto-retaliate off to prevent any penalties like injuries and loss of honour points due to having on the wrong attack style.
 * The attacker gets calls for aggressive, reckless, balanced or defensive stances. These are under the constitution abilities in the ability book, and will appear once you have entered the game. Put all four stances on the quick keys bar.
 * Using any weapon at whip/scimitar speed, exactly 7 attacks will lapse at the start before styles switch, and 10 attacks thereafter for every later switch, assuming your collector calls within 2 seconds of the switch. Counting the number of attacks greatly reduces the chance of using the wrong attack style at the moment the styles switch on a Penance.
 * Recommended range weapons include any type of throwing knife/dart to leverage on the guaranteed 50 minimum hit for Level 5 Attackers. Alternative choices include the Magic Shortbow, the Dark Bow, the Crystal Bow and the Zaryte Bow. For mage, of course, elemental Surge spells, Wave types at the weakest.

Collector

 * The first priority for a collector at the beginning of the wave is to run west around the cannon. This way, you do not lure the Penance healers west with you, and it makes the healer's job much easier. Be sure you run west around the cannon during the start of a wave. Some teams may kick you if you fail to follow this general rule.
 * The Collector may destroy eggs on purpose by picking the wrong colour, and asking the Healer to heal the lost damage. This may lead to faster points as a whole as the point deduction for egg destruction is smaller than the point gain for that amount of HP healed. This strategy is known as "Suicide Collection". However, it is not recommended for any but the most experienced of teams due to its tendency to kill the Collector.
 * The Collector's primary responsibility aside from calling and picking up eggs is to load the cannon with (preferably Explosive) eggs as a backup in case the Defender requires support. Firing the cannon should generally be left to the team members who have already finished their roles to perform, not the Collector.
 * On the Queen wave, if all the other members spam click the Omega egg option prior to the collector loading one egg, it is possible for up to 8 eggs to be fired from the cannon when only one is loaded. Thus, experienced teams generally collect and process only ONE egg, instead of the required eight, and add then spam clicking the Omega Egg on the cannon. With three team members spamming the cannon in this way, one egg is needed, with only two team members spamming the cannon, this can still be accomplished with two eggs. This not only increases the speed at which the Queen is killed, but also reduces the chance she has to kill the weaker team members.

Defender

 * You can stand in front of the lure cave to block runners from passing by. (Note that a runner can get through if you are walked on by another player). However, this simply slows the team down.
 * The fastest possible way to Defend on certain waves (the waves where only one runner needs to be killed before the others arrive, such as waves 1 and 2) is to drop two correct baits next to the eastern trap and two wrong baits a few spaces north of the eastern cannon and within four spaces of the runners when they come out of the cave. The Defender must do this quickly, so it is very beneficial if the Defender is recruited either third or last. This way, the Defender will spawn near the machine at the start of the each game. After the bait is laid, the player should quickly run back to the trap and stand over the bait. If done correctly, only the first runner should have been killed (the second runner usually halts for a moment after the first runner eats a bait), and the Defender will not need to repair the trap when the rest of the runners follow.
 * On waves where two runners must be killed before the rest arrive, such as wave 3, a different strategy is needed. The player should lay these baits in order: two wrong baits just northwest of the eastern cannon, two wrong baits east of the hammer spawn and south of the eastern cave, a correct bait north of the eastern trap, two or more correct baits next to the eastern trap, a wrong bait on the hammer spawn (grabbing logs as well), and finally two correct baits within four spaces of the eastern cave. By this time the trap will be broken (because the initial two runners will have been killed), so the Defender can repair the trap and stack the rest of the runners. It is crucial that the first few baits are laid quickly, or the runners will get past.

Healer

 * At this point in time, due to the recent chatbox update making it expandable in non-fixed mode, the chatbox partially obscures the HP interface for Healers, so Healers need to be alert to ensure team members don't die.
 * Penance Healers only take poison damage from the most recent poison source. Many poor Healers make the mistake of spamming the poison pack on the Penance Healer in the hope that the stacking poison will kill them faster, but this merely restarts the same poison counter over and over again, making it counterproductive. Since Evolution of Combat the strategy of killing Penance Healers has been changed, see /Strategies/ for actual strategies.
 * Before Evolution of Combat poison eggs (or green eggs) would lower the Penance Healer's poison. This has been changed and there is no problem in firing poison eggs at Penance Healers.
 * Healers could heal each other when there is more than one on a team, as opposed to using the pool directly.
 * Solo healers are particularly at risk because they are generally unable to heal themselves at short notice. Thus, they should keep an eye on their life points, and if needed healing themselves at the healer pool.

For basic information on Barbarian Assault, click here.

For additional information on the gameplay, click here.