Pay-to-play melee training

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This article provides information for members about effective ways to train Attack, Strength, Defence, and Constitution through melee combat. It contains some general training tips and suggestions for suitable monsters to kill for a wide range of levels. In this article, monsters are sorted according to the level of the skill being trained, not the recommended overall combat level.

This article assumes that players are training Attack, Strength, Defence, and Constitution more or less equally. If not, go to the pure melee guide.

Tips

 * Use the best gear you have and a weapon that has a style they are weak to.
 * Complete Slayer tasks whenever possible in order to train Slayer while training other combat skills. Additionally, a higher Slayer level allows players to kill stronger Slayer monsters, which are generally profitable because of their unique drops. The use of a black mask or slayer helm during a task also allows for faster training. However, remember that Slayer tasks may give you monsters with weaknesses to ranged or magic, rather than melee.
 * You may want to consider wearing a ring of wealth whenever fighting a monster that drops items on the rare drop table if you are interested in valuable drops rather than slightly faster experience rates from rings with combat-related stats.
 * An emergency teleport that can be activated with one click can be useful to avoid death. A simple house teleport tablet is cheap and could end up being a lifesaver.
 * Use potions in order to boost skill levels and increase experience rates. A super set (consisting of super attack, super strength, and super defence potions) is recommended.
 * When fighting monsters that are aggressive, turn Auto Retaliate on to reduce the number of clicks you have to use.
 * Completing the easy quests Fight Arena, Holy Grail, Waterfall Quest, Scorpion Catcher and Tree Gnome Village gives efficient combat experience if done at a low combat level.
 * Pay attention to your foes weakness. Try to attack monsters weak to the attack style of the weapon you are using. For example, moss giants are weak to slash attacks so it is a good idea to attack them with weapons such as the abyssal whip or the dragon scimitar rather than weapons using crush or stab.

Abilities

 * Healing abilities are a must for extending the length of a training trip. The Resonance ability is a basic level Defence ability, that causes the next hit to heal instead of damage you. Rejuvenate is an ultimate Defence ability that restores 40% of your life points over several seconds. Regenerate is a basic Constitution ability that uses whatever adrenaline you have left to restore your health if you're not in combat.
 * Although the Resonance and Rejuvenate abilities require a shield to be equipped, you only need to equip the shield for as long as it takes to activate the ability if you prefer to dual wield or use two-handed weapons.
 * Consider using threshold abilities instead of ultimate ones; the damage done by thresholds is lower, but they use less adrenaline, meaning more than one can be used in a row.
 * Set up your action bar before you go into combat, making sure all the abilities you want to use are on there, and that all the abilities are ones you can use with the weapons you have. Remember that you can have multiple bars set up at once, and there is no penalty for changing which one you're using.

Weaponry

 * Each weapon has  one  attack style (stab, crush or slash) but  all can train strength, defence and attack.
 * Utilise monster weaknesses. Using a crush weapon against a monster weak to crush gives a much higher chance to hit against that monster, and significantly higher hits.
 * Always use the best tier of weapons you can wield. Better weapons ensure higher damage output and a higher chance to hit.
 * The abyssal whip is a very popular weapon for combat training due to its rapid attack speed, relatively low cost, and the fact that it is only one-handed, meaning it can be paired with an off-hand weapon or shield.
 * Generally speaking, when fighting monsters with low Defence, a fast yet weak weapon is preferable over a slow yet strong weapon. Players should avoid training with most two-handed swords (with the exception of the Saradomin sword), including godswords.

Armour
For extended combat training, armour with a good defensive bonus is generally recommended. Consider rune, dragon, Barrows, or Bandos armour depending on your Defence level. Bandos armour is particularly good, for those who can afford it, due to its high defensive and life point bonuses. Barrows armour is a cheaper alternative, although it degrades with use meaning that it will incur a maintenance cost.

Sacred clay equipment, rewards from Stealing Creation, doubles the experience gained from combat, even if only one piece is worn. It offers the same defensive bonuses as rune armour. Most players choose to use their Stealing Creation on skills that cost money to train rather than combat, which is usually profitable.

Healing
After the Evolution of Combat, food is much less neccesary than it was before. Generally speaking, most of the time you will not need food if you use healing abilities such as Rejuvenate, an ultimate ability which restores 40% of your health (but requires a shield), Regenerate, which can be used outside combat to convert remaining adrenaline into health, and Resonance, which makes the next attack to hit you heal you instead of hurting you.

Other methods of healing include:


 * Using food
 * Guthan the Infested's equipment has excellent defence bonuses and a set effect, which players can use to heal themselves. However, use of Guthan's has a few downsides. Use of guthan's helm prevents the use of other head-slot items, such as a slayer helm or face mask. Guthan's spear is merely an average weapon. For these reasons, some players bring a set of Guthan's in addition to their regular armour set, and switch between the two as necessary when needing to heal.
 * Bones to Peaches is a spell unlocked at the Mage Training Arena which allows players to convert bones and big bones into peaches, each of which heals 80 life points. Players who have not unlocked this spell can instead buy and use bones to peaches tablets.
 * Soul Split requires 92 Prayer and access to the Ancient Curses. It heals its user 20% of the damage dealt if it is activated during a successful hit against a monster. Because of its rapid drain rate, many players use the prayer flashing technique to drastically reduce, or outright nullify, Prayer point drain.
 * The saradomin godsword's passive effect, Healing Blade, has a 1/4 chance of healing the player for the damage dealt with every hit.
 * Auras such as vampirism help by healing the player by 5% of damage dealt with every hit.

Potions

 * Potions are well worth the extra cost. They increase your training xp/hr rate significantly.
 * It can help to get 96 Herblore for overloads which makes training much faster. Other extreme potions such as extreme attack, strength, and defence are also worth the added cost.
 * If unable to create overloads or extremes due to low Herblore, super sets work well too.
 * Regular combat potions are more cost effective than attack potions and strength potions because they combine the effects of both while being cheaper than the two individual items combined.

Level 4-10

 * Chickens are the easiest npcs to kill for the first 6 levels; they are right next to the Lumbridge cow pen. Use an iron scimitar, then a steel scimitar when appropriate.
 * Use a black scimitar (duel-wield for more damage or a 2h) if you can afford it.

Level 10-20

 * Cow.png Cows give good xp when compared to the difficulty of killing them, and their hides are also valuable. Killing cows is one of the best ways to get your melee stats up until about level 15. Cows can be found on fields such as near the Crafting Guild, Lumbridge or Falador farm.
 * There is a field next to Beefy Bill where you can collect cowhides and bank them with him. However he will take anywhere from 1-4 of your cowhides and bank the rest for you. (He takes 4 if you have a full inventory.) This method is especially good for starting players who want to make money. Banking hides will lower xp rates, though the additional money can help fund future equipment improvements. This field can be found by following the path north from Lumbridge (towards Varrock), past the goblins and the milk seller to an area slightly north. Alternatively you can home teleport to Varrock lodestone (not Varrock teleport) and head south-west past the Champions' Guild, mining area and farming patch.

Level 20-50

 * Al Kharid Palace is a good training location at this level. With a moderate Defence level, the Al Kharid Warriors here will deal low damage while also dropping grimy herbs quite frequently.
 * At level 30 or above, the barbarians in the Barbarian Village give better xp rates. Remember to use the best equipment for your level.

Level 40+

 * Deadly-red-spider.png Killing deadly red spiders found in the Chaos Tunnels can provide very great amounts of experience for many players with melee stats in these ranges, as each kill is worth 419 experience (along with 21 or 22 constitution experience). They are weak to crush, so using dual-wielded crush weapons and super attack and super strength potions, one could easily manage to gain over 35,000 experience per hour in any given melee skill while using Momentum.  After testing done with attack and strength levels around 90, experience rates reached between 150,000 to 200,000 experience per hour.  For maximum experience, use weapons that have the best possible crush bonus, such as Torag's Hammers, or the Saradomin sword.

Level 60+
Killing Ankous found in the 4th level of the Barbarian stronghold can provide 45,000 experience per hour. There is a safe spot to Mage and Range them, but we obviously won't be doing that if training Melee. Ogres are also a viable training option, as they often drop seeds of mid-high level, such as Watermelon, Ranarr, or Toadflax. They have a low max hit and low defence, but high accuracy and lifepoints for their level. Iron Dragons are also able to be killed for exp and drops after the Evolution of Combat, since players may use healing abilites such as Rejuvinate. However, if slaying Iron Dragons an Anti-Dragon Shield (or Antifire potion) is required, so dual-wielding is impossible without large amounts of Antifire. Iron Dragons also have a high max hit, and high accuracy, so Dragon armour, Rune armour or better is required as well as large amounts of moderate-high healing food (depending on your Cooking, Constitution and perhaps Fishing levels) e.g. Lobsters.

Level 70+

 * The TzHaar area is fairly useful after the Evolution of Combat update, using abilities one can get an estimated 50k experience an hour while making a fair profit. Using the Regenerate, Resonance and Rejuvinate ultimate ability one can eliminate the need for food. The area is rarely crowded, and the monsters can be killed by low levels, though the expected experience rates will be less impressive for those with lower levels.
 * At level 70 dagganoth  is your best bet. It is really worth it. Use a combination of a 2H weapon for their Area of Effect capacities, and of a 1H / Shield for the healing capacities of the shield.
 * Killing fire giants at 70 Attack and above can provide large amounts of experience. These giants are weak to slash, so use of slash weapons such as the abyssal whip is recommended.
 * If you have 65 Slayer, dust devils can give up to 250k xp/hr if using a chaotic maul and the Berserker ability.
 * Doing the Pest Control activity can give 100-250k experience when using the veteran boat and using the points on whatever skill you are training because you will rarely lose any game you are playing. You could also get 100k+ coins per hour.
 * The Living Rock Caverns provide a great way to gain experience. Over 500 exp per kill(380 to designated skill, remain constitution), provides great drops, and isn't crowded(unless on the living rock caverns world). High leveled players can make up to 400k an hour while leveling up fairly quick.