Abyssal whip

The Abyssal whip is widely considered one of the best melee weapons in RuneScape due to its high accuracy, strength, and speed. Players must have 70 Attack to wield the whip.

Level 124 Abyssal demons drop whips; these require level 85 Slayer to kill. With the release of PvP worlds, the whip became a possible drop from another player, although as of 16 June 2009, it has been removed from the PVP drop tables. An Abyssal minion can give players a fake Abyssal whip, although it "turns to ash" when equipped, effectively destroying it.

The whip's special attack, Energy Drain, makes the attack more accurate and, if used against a player opponent, it transfers 25% of the target's run energy to the attacking player. It uses up 50% of the special attack bar. This special attack is frequently ridiculed because of its impracticality despite the fact that it can be useful in some PvP minigames such as Fist of Guthix to stop the players from running away.

The Abyssal whip has the same attacking speed as a scimitar, which is one strike per 4 game ticks (about 2.4 seconds), but has higher accuracy and strength. The Abyssal whip is often called the best weapon because it has the best damage rate of all weapons against monsters with low to medium defence and no unusually strong resistance to slash attacks. In general, most monsters in RuneScape fall under the category of the whip being the most effective weapon against them. With the right equipment, potions, Prayer, and special bonuses (including a Salve amulet (e) used on an undead creature), the whip can hit up to 54 maximum damage.

The whip sometimes also criticized for its inability to train Strength on its own, as the whip offers a controlled style but not an aggressive style.

It is common for players to lose this item on death, due to its relatively low alchemy value compared to other high level equipment, such as the more expensive pieces of Dragon armour and Barrows armour.

History
Abyssal whips were introduced to RuneScape with the Slayer Skill update on 26 January 2005. The very first inventory icon was. The Abyssal whip's original special attack used 50% of the Special Attack bar and caused one to either hit the Abyssal whip's maximum hit for the user at the time or it did not hit at all.

Later, Jagex changed the special attack to drain 10% of run energy from targets, citing that the old special attack was an unwanted glitch. The special attack continued to use 50% of the bar.

On 12 May 2009, the inventory image of the Abyssal whip changed to so it better resembled its appearance when wielded.

On 16 June 2009, the special attack effect was changed from transferring 10% to 25% run energy per special attack due to complaints. The 50% drain per special attack remained the same. And whilst running the whip retracts into the players hand when equipped.

On 28 July 2009 the Abyssal whip's appearance and special attack were updated.

On 17 September 2009 the Abyssal whip was updated once again, the unused 'ring', or 'loop', of the whip below the players' hand were removed and the handle now points forwards instead of back as it did before the previous update. In addition, the whip's attack sound was changed along with the attack animation.

Training
The Aggressive (Strength) training method is not available while using the whip. Therefore, the only way of training the Strength skill is through the Controlled method. This method is one-third the strength-training speed as the aggressive option and also gives Defence and Attack experience, making it undesirable for some pures and players wishing to level up quickly. The whip is often criticized for having no option to directly train Strength.

A common yet expensive replacement for the whip is the Saradomin Sword which offers similar bonuses (with an additional Prayer and crush bonus), but has the option to train Strength, however the Saradomin Sword is two-handed, so it cannot be equipped with a defender or shield. The Dragon Scimitar can be used as a cheap alternative for training Strength, along with a Rune Defender. Yet another relatively unknown method of training strength is to use the Obsidian sword in conjunction with the Berserker necklace which increases strength while using all Obsidian equipment.

Because of its very high power and accuracy (for a 1-handed weapon, plus having good speed.), the Abyssal whip is widely recognized as the best weapon for training both Attack and Defence.

Trivia

 * When using the Abyssal whip, the clear sections of the whip sometimes took on the same colour as other elements in the player's environment, for example the colour of the ground. As of 28 July 2009, however, the whip no longer has any clear segments, so this glitch can no longer occur.
 * The Abyssal whips updated look originally had the handle held backwards, with the player holding a section of the whip which was used to attack opponents. As of 17th September during a hidden update, the handle now points forwards and the actual whip is no longer held in the players' hand, but still retains the same whipping animation.
 * Oddly, the Abyssal whip has white thorns in its inventory icon and when it's dropped on the floor, but appears to have black thorns when a player is wielding it.
 * After the Abyssal whip's animation was updated on 17 September 2009, wearing Flame gloves and a whip at the same time somehow caused the gloves to stretch.



Market

 * Upon its release in early 2005 the Whip's price was at its highest ever (as high as 100 million coins, some whips were traded for Party hats), then began to fall as supply increased and excitement over the new item diminished.
 * In Summer of 2005 the Whip was about 5 million coins then fell to around 3 million by Autumn. By late that year and early 2006 the whip had reached about 2 million coins.
 * From 2006 to 2008, the Whip's price was steady between 1.2 and 1.6 million coins.
 * In the Summer of 2009, the Whip's price increased from around 1.5 million coins to well over 2 million. This was likely caused by the new PvP worlds which increased demand and decreased supply through players losing Whips.
 * After 20 July 2009, due to the Whip's updated appearance and merchant activity, the price spiked to over 3 million coins for the first time in years. As the effects wore off, the price dropped sharply to around 2.3 million coins, but then began rising again, breaching the 3 million mark again in September 2009 and the 4 million mark in October.
 * With the removal of the 76k trick in October 2009, the price of the Whip has begun to decline rapidly. Also possibly associated to a merchanting clan dump, since then however the price has yet again began to climb