Dragon claw



Dragon claws are a pair of claws made of Dragon metal. They were released on 26 November 2008, along with the While Guthix Sleeps quest. They are two-handed weapons, and players require an Attack level of 60 in order to wield them. They may only be obtained as a drop from Tormented demons. Tormented demons can only be killed during and after While Guthix Sleeps and are commonly thought to have a claw drop rate of approximately 1/200 to 1/300. However, completing the quest is not a prerequisite to wielding them.

These claws feature a special attack, "Slice and Dice", which uses 50% of the special attack bar and hits an enemy four times within one turn. When two specials are used back-to-back, a player can hit eight times in two attacks, which is similar to the Dragon dagger's special. This especially notable because its rune counterpart also has a special attack, making claws the only type of weapon where both the dragon and rune versions have a special attack. The efficiency of the special attack is specially noticeable in Kuradal's dungeon, where the use of the Ferocious ring adds +40 life points to each individual successful hit of the special attack, a possible 160 extra damage if all four attacks hit.

Dragon claws, when first released, started in the Grand Exchange at 150,000 coins, but the high demand has pushed them up to relatively high prices (at several tens of millions). With the release of the Dragon claws, the price of the Dragon dagger dropped. This may be a result of Dragon claws outdoing Dragon daggers in strength bonus (a +56 bonus compared to the +40 of the Dragon dagger), matching them in speed, and arguably having a more useful special attack.

However, Dragon claws are two-handed, which means that players cannot use a shield or defender while wielding them. Using a Rune defender along with the Dragon dagger provides more defence and attack bonuses than the Dragon claws. Using a Dragon dagger and a Dragonfire shield provides more defence than that of the Dragon claws. For some reason you wield 2 claws but only use 1, except for its special attack.

Slice and Dice
The special attack is based on the first hit. It takes the first hit, halves it, halves it again, and then it hits for the same again. For example, if a player hits a 400 on the first hit, the special would be 400-200-100-100. If it is odd, like 410, it may be 410-200-100-110, or 410-200-100-100, to average the 4 split hits with the first hit. This means that the Dragon claws essentially doubles the damage into four separate hits.

The claw's special can hit up to a total of 1100 (consisting of a 550, a 270, a 150, and a 130) under perfect conditions, which equals 2200 with both specials, while under perfect conditions the dragon dagger can hit two 560s four times for a total of 4800 life points from the four specials. However, in PvP, these damages would not be possible, as they rely on other factors, such as a Castlewar bracelet against the flagholder. Also, the dragon dagger's special attack, puncture, has a significant lag time after the first special attack has been used. Therefore giving the wielder's opponent enough time to eat food, before the dragon dagger's special attack is fired again. The advantage of the dragon claws over this is once the special is used, all 4 hits connect simultaneously, without stopping.

Because if the guaranteed ability to 2x damage if the first hit is successful, many players view this weapon to be overpowered even compare to the armadyl godsword. Also it has 5 different sequence hits making this special attack one of the most reliable in the game, coupled with the fact that it never truly hits a 0 but instead a 0-10 is another factor. despite that, there are a few loopholes to look at:

1. Dragon claws hits comes in pairs 2 by 2, for example 200-100 then 50-50. There's a tiny delay where the 3rd and 4th sequence comes in, this makes it possible to survive if a Phoenix Necklace, or maybe a Ring of Life. Even Redemption prayer gives a chance to survive if lucky enough. Theoretically using a phoenix necklace, dragon claws will have to hit approximately over twice as much damage as needed to kill a foe. this is because the necklace will activate in the middle of the sequence. also theoretically a player with 2 Phoenix Necklaces and Redemption prayer makes them nearly 100% immune to a KO from claws assuming at full lp, with high healing food this prevents a kill entirely. This does not work against the majority of the other KO weapons in the game since the attack comes in a single hit.

Example: Your opponent has 600 lp but is wearing the phoenix necklace, your dragon claws hits a 600, it comes in 300-150-70-80. The necklace will activate between the 300-150 effectively removing 30% damage of the overall spec. This means someone with say 400 lp you would have to hit a potential 600-800 just to bypass the necklace (300-150 or 400-200), however a Godsword can just hit a 400 and simply kill the player.

2. If both spec fails the player is left with a weak weapon. However they might just switch to another main weapon.

Market


Since their release with a starting price of 150,000 coins, the price of Dragon claws has risen dramatically by the highest percentage in the history of the Grand Exchange by player-demand only (not including Jagex's own price modifications of objects).

After just 30 days following their release, Dragon claws had risen by 2,142%, gaining a total of more than 6 million coins. As of 31 January, 2009, the Grand Exchange indicated a mid price of 38 million for claws, meaning they have risen 25,351% from their initial price. From there, the price of dragon claws was slowly decreasing.

On 15 July, 2009 Jagex introduced an update to PvP worlds and Bounty Hunter Worlds in which players were automatically skulled on entering the world and the Protect Item prayer was disabled. Dragon claws, a popular item used by one-itemers started to see a rapid drop in price along with other one-itemer weapons such as the Armadyl godsword and Saradomin sword. The Dragon claws suffered a 1.2 million gold loss the day after the update.

On 17 July, 2009 Jagex released Bounty+1 worlds, which allowed players to keep one item on death. The demand soon shot up with players buying for well above maximum price.

Trivia

 * Sometimes a player using the Dragon claw's special twice in a row on the second special may only hit 2 times instead of the usual 4. This is not a glitch. Since the special attack is 4 separate hits, if the enemy dies after one of the hits, the following hits do not occur. However, there are some occasions when the enemy is still alive after 2 hits and the special attack misses, hitting a 0 and a 1, or a 0 and another 0 if target was using Protect from Melee, but the 0-1 special happens reasonably often on good defence and/or armour.
 * Many player think that if they kill another player in one attack using the Dragon Claw's special attack, it will be consider to be a one-hit kill. This thinking is clearly wrong, as the Dragon Claw's special attack deals four hits in one round of attack.
 * On 20 October, 2009, Jagex included a sound effect for the Dragon claw's special attack.
 * On 26 October 2009, Dragon claws reached their all time high of 42.2m, and experienced an almost smooth decline, with a few sharp jumps in price mainly due to updates.
 * This weapon's special attack is very similar to the attack that Wolverine (a character in X-men) does. This is also very similar to the attack moves demonstrated by Vega and Geki (characters from Street Fighter).
 * Dragon claws were suffering a price drop when the weapon Staff of light came out, as the staff's special attack reduce the melee damage done by another player by half, making the dragon claws less lethal.