Mage Arena

The Mage Arena is a members' only minigame in which the player must travel to the Mage Arena in the deep Wilderness and fight Kolodion, the master of battle magic. To fight in the arena requires level 60 Magic (boosts do not work), and the ability to kill increasingly difficult forms of Kolodion using only magic. It is also strongly recommended you have 37+ prayer, so you can use Protect from magic. Its bank is a hotspot for player killers to restock their supplies.

The Mage Arena itself is not safe from player killers, although the banking area is. When you are fighting Kolodion you ARE NOT safe from PKers, however it is a single-combat zone so as long as you are fighting Kolodion you should be fine.

It is strongly recommended that a player bank all of his/her items first (Except a sharp object to slice through the webs, otherwise you will not be able to enter the banking area - this is avoidable if you already have a knife on your toolbelt), and then travel to the Mage Arena. This way, if a player dies for whatever reason on his way to the arena, he/she won't lose valuable items. The Mage Arena bank is very useful for restocking on food when you're training agility at the Wilderness Agility Course.

Beginning the Mage Arena
Players with level 60 or higher Magic can begin the Mage Arena. Head out into level 53 Wilderness to start, but watch out for player killers (Using the Ardougne Teleport Lever or Edgeville Teleport lever to teleport to the Deserted Keep is recommended to minimise the time taken getting there).

What you should have:


 * 10-15 shark and/or a few prayer potions if using prayer.


 * Highly Recommended to have 37+ prayer. 50+ should be safe.


 * Enough runes to cast 50-100 spells depending on what spell.


 * A magic level 70+, although 60 will work.
 * The Protect Item prayer should be active at all times.
 * If you have a magic level of 80+ and a polypore staff, the staff can be used along with cheap prayer equipment (Monks Robes, Citharede robes, etc) which will be easy to replace. No expensive runes are needed, nor any prayer potions (if you have above 37 prayer), resulting in minimal losses if killed.

Just north of the Mage Arena is a little broken down house. Players should approach this house warily, as there might be player killers waiting.

Cut down the webs in the house. Pull the lever on the wall of the house to be teleported into a small cave (commonly refered to as the Mage Bank).

In here is a rune store run by Lundail, a bank run by Gundai, and Kolodion, the non-player character who must be talked to in order to start the Mage Arena minigame. Kolodion will also be fought during the minigame, so just talk to him to begin. After a long dialogue, you will end up fighting him. As long as you are in the cave, you can teleport and you are safe from Player Killers. Remember that the arena is considered the wilderness, and you may not teleport.

Before going out of the arena, make sure no Pk'ers are nearby. If you seem like a good target to them, return to the Mage Bank lever as quick as you can. Be sure to pray against whatever attack style they use against you.

NOTE: You can go to the least populated members world, EXCEPT high risk wilderness worlds, to minimise the possibility of PKers.

Battling Kolodion
Kolodion changes into 4 different forms as the fight progresses, and will always attack with magic and therefore the Protect from Magic prayer should be activated for all of his forms and will prevent half of his damage. As each form changes, the life points of the form increases, but the battles are fairly easy to win.

At the start he appears in human form, and should not be challenging to defeat. After defeating this form, he will transform into an ogre, a troll, a dark beast and finally a black demon.

If the battle turns sour you can escape the arena and restock at the nearby bank, use the bridge from the centre of the arena, on the west side of the arena, to the outer ring. On the north side of the ring is the staircase to the north of the ring. You will find yourself outside the arena, next to the small hut with the lever that teleports you to the bank. Talking to Kolodion again will resume your battle at the point you left it, although his life points will be fully restored.

Equipment

 * Best magic equipment you can afford to lose. Though the risk is fairly minimal, there is no emergency teleport available, and this is a dangerous fight.
 * Several doses of prayer potions, though it's easily feasible to do it without any potions, with a high (60+) prayer level- even while flashing mystic might. You should be using Protect from Magic the entire time, and while battling Kolodion you are safe from PKers, so the risk is minimal. Some food is a necessity, however, as prayer no longer provides immunity.
 * Runes for the highest spell you can cast, at least 50, preferably 80-100 casts. If you have Iban's staff or can use a polypore staff, those are highly recommended. With enough prayer potions, even the lowest spells can work, but they will take a much longer time and use more pots.

Rewards
Once Kolodion is defeated, the minigame ends and players will be teleported out of the arena, talk to Kolodion and he will congratulate you on a fight well fought. He will then ask players to choose their God. To do this, head into the nearby 'Sparkling pool' and you will come out in another room near the Chamber guardian. Head past him into a larger chamber with three god statues. Now choose your God and pray at the relevant statue. Players will then receive one of the God capes, determined by which god is prayed to. After receiving the cape, head back and speak to the chamber guardian to receive one of the God staves, which will be the partner to the cape. To unlock Divine Storm and use it outside of the arena, it must be cast 100 times inside the arena. To obtain other God Staves, talk to the chamber guardian who will charge 80,000 coins as a fee for the staff. Note that Divine Storm can miss, but as long as you have spent the runes for 100 casts, you will be granted the spell. God staves cannot be wielded with the cape of another god. For example, the Saradomin cape may not be worn while wielding a Guthix staff, but the Void Knight Mace can be worn with any god cape. The capes do not amplify the power of Divine Storm, but provide an excellent magic bonus, and can be changed by praying at the desired god's statue.

Note: If you already have a god cape (either in your bank, in your inventory or equipped) then you won't be able to obtain any other god capes, even capes of the same god as yours. If you happen to lose your cape, you can pray at a statue to obtain another. If you attempt to drop your cape, it will disappear with a message in the chatbox stating "(Saradomin/Guthix/Zamorak) reclaims the cape as it touches the ground." You can "drop" your cape to obtain another too (while losing the original in the process).

Unlocking Divine Storm
If you want to charge Divine Storm, you have to cast it 100 times inside the arena. During the time that you are fighting Kolodion, you are free from all player killers, but now, you are vulnerable. While in the mage arena casting the spell, you will not be attacked by the battle mage of the God whose cape you are wearing; however, they will retaliate just like the other battle mages. The others will attack you, but it is a single combat zone, so if you are fighting a mage you are safe. It is recommended to bring prayer potions and food, as both you and the opponent will be casting the god spells, which can hit up to 200. Once you have charged Divine Storm (cast it 100 times) you will receive a message saying you are now able to cast the spell outside the arena. Congratulations!

Strategies
A good strategy for unlocking the spell quickly is using a magic wand, as they have the highest attack speeds of all magic weapons. Since you can simply let the spell splash and still be counted as part of the 100 casts required, you can equip ranged armour to lower the amount of food required. For the same reason, one can bring 500 air runes to have just the exact amount to unlock divine storm. This can also facilitate calculating how many more casts are required to unlock the spell by dividing the number of runes left in your inventory by 5. The Guthix God cape is probably the best to bring, as the Guthixian battle mages are near the entrance to the arena and seem to be the most powerful of the three gods' battle mages.

Bank
The Mage Arena cave's bank (known as the Mage Bank) is run by Gundai. The best choice is after you kill each form, go to the level in front of the entrance and exit the arena, then go back in and get more food from the bank in the Mage Arena and stock up on food and the form you left on will be fought again even if you leave.

Note: Unless you have a knife stored in your toolbelt, you may want to take a knife or a slashing weapon, such as a Dragon Dagger in order to cut webs.

Shops
When you first enter the Mage Arena Cave, you may want to visit the shop. Lundail's Arena-side Rune Shop is run by Lundail and supplies runes.

After stepping into the Sparkling pool, there is another shop run by the Chamber guardian. He sells the 3 god staves for 80,000 coins each. There is no limit to how many you can buy, so you can obtain more than one of each staff.

Player killing and the Mage Arena den
With the return of Player Killing in the Wilderness on the 1st of February, and the removal of all the other Banks in the wilderness, the Mage Bank is now a refuge for PK'ers, who often kill those trying to reach the arena. Those players often use spells from the Ancient Spellbook, such as Ice Blitz or Ice Barrage, due to the rune shop nearby. (Lundail)

Players training in the arena should be aware of the fact that they can be attacked at any time between leaving the bank and entering the inner part of the arena. One would be wise to bring food such as rocktails and an extra prayer potion to maintain the Protect from Magic prayer.

Trivia

 * Kolodion, before an update, would transform first into a Jogre, then into a large spider, then a ghost, and finally the demon. This is not the case any more. He now turns into an Ogre, then a troll, then a dark beast, and finally a blue demon (which looks similar to a black demon).
 * The Mage Arena bank area used to be accessed via a ladder, but this was changed to a lever with the introduction of the Teleport Block spell to prevent a player affected by a teleport block from entering.
 * Since the update on 1 February 2011, the Mage Arena bank is the only one of its kind inside the wilderness. The Wilderness Volcano and Fist of Guthix bank have been removed and replaced.

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