Release date | 10 December 2007 (Update) |
---|---|
Members | No |
Location | Gamers' Grotto |
Participants | 2+ |
Skills involved | Combat |
Reward currency | None |
In spotlight rotation | No |
Hiscores | No |
Tutorial | No |
Custodians | Calladin |
Music unlocked | Clan Wars |
Developers | • Original: Greg V • Update: Ashleigh B |
Clan Wars is a minigame, available to both free players and members, located in the Gamers' Grotto. It was released on 10 December 2007 as compensation for the controversial Wilderness and PKing changes. Clan Wars allows members of two opposing Friends Chat channels (formerly referred to as Clan Chat channels), consisting of up to one-hundred players each, to engage in player-versus-player combat against one another. There are many in-game clans who focus heavily on Clan Wars, but these clans often require their members to have high combat levels.
Each "clan war" is begun with conditions of victory and item safety set by the clan leaders prior to the start of battle. Depending on the settings chosen, it is possible that you will lose all items if you die during this minigame, but most wars are fought in a "safe" mode.
Alternatively, players can use the White or Red portals, which allow free-for-all combat.
Clan Wars received a major expansion on 9 September 2008 with the addition of new fighting options; "calling" - a new messaging option; and new arenas/maps.
Portals[]
There are three portals in the Clan Wars Challenge Hall. The purple portal is located in the southern part of the hall while the white portal and red portal are located in the northern part of the hall.
Purple portal[]
This portal is the main portal, leading to arenas used for organised clan wars. For a discussion of techniques of fighting, see Strategies and Tips.
Friends Chats and clans[]
For engagement in the Purple portal, players who wish to be on the same team have to be in the same Friends Chat. Although the term clan is used frequently, it doesn't matter in which Clan players are. This happened because formerly Friends Chats were called clans and the current clans didn't exist.
Players who wish to fight with their clan against another clan might try a similar minigame - Rated Clan Wars, which is located in the Clan Camp.
Challenging and entering the portal[]
After entering the Clan Wars Challenge Hall, a player ranked as a Captain or higher in a Friends Chat channel can right-click another player within the Challenge Hall, and in a different clan, and select "Challenge", sending out a request to that person (who must be ranked Captain or higher too).
Once the challenge has been accepted, and the conditions have been agreed upon, the challenging player and the accepting player will be teleported into the arena. All other players logged into the respective Friends Chat channels are notified of the initiation of hostilities in two minutes time. Players must click on the purple portal to enter the battle, where they will be presented with the terms of engagement and the option to either participate in the fight or watch from the sidelines.
There is a two minute countdown whenever a purple portal battle is started. The only two ways out of a dangerous purple portal fight are to either, leave the friends chat, or to run out via the portals on each end of the field. There is NO way to prevent players from exiting the purple portal at any time. Battle can not take place before the two minute timer has hit 0:00, and the wall has dropped. The portal is not dangerous until the two minute timer has elapsed. If someone who isn't a member of a Friends Chat (or is a member of a Friends Chat that isn't involved in a war) tries to step through a portal, they will be able to choose from three options:
- To be teleported to the viewing area of one of their friends' clan wars
- To be teleported into the viewing area of a random war
- To simply stay outside the portal.
Terms of battle[]
Terms of battle include:
- The arena in which the battle is held.
- Whether food, potions, prayer or summoning familiars are allowed.
- Types of combat allowed - Melee, Ranged, and/or Magic.
- Victory/defeat conditions
- Whether items are kept or lost upon death.
Engagement[]
Once the clan enters the arena, they are separated from their opponent by a barrier that spans the middle of the battlefield. After a two minute countdown the barrier slowly lowers and combat begins. Depending on options chosen, players may not be able to enter the battlefield after the start of the battle, or they may be able to enter or even re-enter the battlefield at any time (for example, after death). Players can leave the battlefield at any time via the two portals located on opposite directions.
Ending a clan war[]
If a clan wins, a scroll on the screen will display: "Your clan was victorious!"; or, if you are not in the Clan Wars area, a message will show up in your chatbox saying: "Your clan has triumphed in battle!". If a player's clan loses, the screen will say: "Your clan was defeated!". If you are in the Clan Wars area; the same message will be displayed in the chat box when you are not in the area of Clan Wars. Ammunition for rangers is returned after the end of a battle, but runes are lost upon usage. To win a Clan War, your clan must get a certain amount of Kill Points or defeat everyone on the enemy team.
White portal[]
The white portal was added as part of the Clan Wars Update of 9 September 2008. Usually referred to as FFA, or White Portal, it is a safe, free-for-all combat arena is found when entering the portal. If a player dies within this arena he or she will not lose any of their items.
A strip of land on the south edge of the arena (including the exit portal) is designated as combat-free. Players may prepare here for a fight or recruit others into their clan. North of the area spans a single-way Combat zone. Heading further north is a multicombat area and large clans (often found wearing specific team capes) sometimes choose to assemble wars here. This is probably the most popular portal, as items are not lost on death.
Red portal[]
This portal was added as part of the Clan Wars Update of 9 September 2008. A dangerous free-for-all combat arena is found upon entering the portal. If a player dies while in the arena, they will lose all items equipped and in their inventory, unless the Protect item prayer is in use. There are no gravestones in the dangerous arena, so it is best to only take items you can afford losing.
A strip of land on the south edge of the arena (including the exit portal) is designated as combat-free. Players may prepare here for a fight or recruit others into their clan. The Wise Old Man stood in the Challenge Hall about a week after the update, announcing that there would be no more gravestones in the Dangerous FFA arenas.
All items a person has on death now shows up as loot for the killer, just as it is in the Wilderness.
You cannot teleport out of this arena.
Arenas[]
Since the 9 September 2008 update, there are five Clan Wars arenas and a Free-for-all arena. Each arena offers a different type of landscape that gives different combat styles and different war strategies an advantage.
Clan Wars Classic[]
This is the original map used since the release of Clan Wars, although some areas of it have become Singleway Combat zones. The entire map was previously multicombat. This map features a varied landscape of lava pools, rocks, dead trees, fortifications, and different elevations. Mages and rangers may use the fortifications to their advantage as meleers often get trapped behind the side walls while in pursuit. However, the dead forests may offer meleers limited protection from mages and rangers as they cannot attack through the trees. The multicombat area is located in the middle while the area near the portals are singleway.
Plateau[]
This map is a barren desert-like battlefield with almost no obstacles and is one of the smaller maps. It obviously favours meleers, who will not have to run around barriers to attack mages and rangers. The only obstacles come in the form of curved bones lying on the ground, and they cannot be shot over. This entire map is a multiway combat zone and is a popular place for large scale wars between big clans. Large clans with many low-level players may have an advantage here since they can overwhelm high-level players by piling.
Forsaken Quarry[]
A vast grey mine full of rocks can be found on this map. Two abandoned sheds located in the middle partially reduce the starting battlefront. Prior to the EOC, the middle of the arena was Multiway Combat, but near the portals, it was all Singleway Combat. This greatly reduced the chance of a clan getting knocked out if the clan retreats. This tactic was favoured by ranger and mage clans mainly because they could shoot at the opposing clan from the single zone while hiding behind rocks. Melee attackers had an especially hard time fighting back as they must constantly keep up the chase.
Blasted Forest[]
This map is full of dead trees and is also relatively small. Prior to the Evolution of Combat, the majority of the map was Singleway Combat, meaning that large clans cannot make use of their size. Often, the clan with the greater number of high levelled players would win, as piling could be used. However, everywhere is multi combat now because of the Evolution Of Combat.
Turrets[]
The largest clan wars arena, the turrets map is a grassy plain with stone turrets scattered throughout the map of the battlefield. Mages and rangers receive a large advantage in this map as meleers can be pinned by crossfire from two or even three turrets. If the meleer decides to attack the shooter in another turret, he/she would have to run a good distance before reaching the other target. All arrows fired are automatically collected and will be returned when either the player leaves the arena or the battle is over. As same with Plateau arena, the entire map is also a multicombat area. This arena is greatly favoured by players as it has a large selections of Safe spots. This map is also favoured by smaller groups of higher level players as they can use "ninja" tactics to break apart much larger lower levelled clans and completely decimate them. The turret closest to the portal is often used as a Death Dot (dd) spot if clans are outnumbered. Upon enemies approaching, they would see only one white dot on the minimap, but is actually many players standing in the same spot.
Free-for-all[]
This is a combat arena which is accessed through the white portal, where players keep your items on death, or the red portal, where players lose their items on death. This map consists of both Singleway and Multi-combat areas. Its terrain looks similar to that of the Wilderness. There are small houses in the middle in which Free-for-all clans may battle on the roofs. These are commonly referred to as the "towers". Clans usually camp at the towers and the ruins and wait to attack anyone who passes by. The ruins in the north of the field are replicas of the demonic ruins.
Team capes[]
There are many capes that can be worn to distinguish you and your clan from opponents. When you wear a wilderness team cape anyone who is wearing that cape will appear blue on your mini map. These capes can be bought from sellers scattered throughout the wilderness.
However, it is not necessary for clan members to wear team capes or add each other for easy friend and foe identification since the game will automatically identify all clan members as purple dots on the minimap.
Most members simply wear the custom capes they were given after the 12 April 2011 update. Clan mates appear as orange dots making them easily distinguishable; and with this method Clans can finally fight under their own colours.
Strategies and tips[]
- Basic triangle tactics - A proven strategy is to make full use of the combat triangle, rangers take on mages, mages take on warriors, and warriors take on rangers. Once the barrier is about half way down, rangers and mages will be able to fire projectiles or spells at the other clan; this gives a big advantage as the melee players have to wait for the wall to be lowered.
- Basic combat level tactics - This tactic is attacking players with lower combat levels than you, in order to increase your chances of winning. This may or may not be used with the Basic triangle tactics.
- Binding - This is an often-used tactic in Clan Wars; many recruiters do not mind if the player who can use this tactic in their clan is lower than the clan's Combat level requirement. Players simply use binding and freezing spells such as Entangle and Ice Barrage on their opponents so they cannot move.
- Calling - This is when a player says the name of the opponent so team mates know who to attack next. This is very handy as team mates may get confused on who is the right person to attack and may have to guess who's the right target. Calling is often used by players leading so team mates will know who to pile.
- Communication – Talking in the player's Friends Chat channel whilst waiting for the wall to go down is very helpful for teamwork. Talking about who to attack or what strategy to use helps the team know what to do.
- Death dot - This tactic makes use of the game's mini-map mechanics. Many players would stand in the same spot, which makes all of their mini-map dots clustered into one white dot. Thus, when the enemy clan attacks, they would be surprised by one white dot containing so many players.
- Diversion/distraction - As a defensive manoeuvre, a player may try to get the attention of enemies, getting them to chase after them.
- Food/Brews – Food and Saradomin Brews may or may not be allowed in Clan Wars. It is up to each individual whether they want to bring food/brews into Clan Wars though.
- Hugging - When being attacked by someone, run around an object to try to get the attacker "stuck" for a moment so you can escape.
- Hybriding - This tactic involves players switching different armours of the combat triangle to have a defensive advantage.
- Piling – Piling is when multiple players attack one enemy. This tactic works very well if the team attacking uses two or more of the combat styles, as the victim will not be able to use protect prayers against all forms of attack.
- Running/falling back – Clan Wars is about surviving for the longest. If needed, running can be a very good thing to do. If being piled (see above), running can shake some of the attackers off, and keep the runner alive longer.
- Suicide bombing - If a player's Prayer is high enough, they can use Retribution or Wrath (Members only) and let themselves be killed to damage your opponents. This works better if there are more opponents in the direct vicinity when the prayer goes into effect.
- Tagging - In Single-way Combat areas, the player being attacked may switch off auto retaliate when in a losing fight so that one of his team-mates can attack the enemy player. This greatly increases the chance of winning the fight.
Music unlocked[]
- Clan Wars – the track will not unlock while waiting inside the arena; you have to wait for the actual fight.
Trivia[]
- On 14 October 2008, the Wise Old Man appeared in Clan Wars telling people that gravestones would not appear in free-for-all (dangerous).
- On 15 June 2009, the Classic arena was changed such that only the middle section allowed for multicombat, whereas the arena was previously multicombat throughout.
- On 22 October 2010, as part of the 2010 Hallowe'en event, Jagex Moderators became 'zombies' at Clan Wars. See Zombie outbreak.
- The ruined building in the North of the Clan Wars classic arena resembles the old appearance of the Demonic Ruins.
- The Clan Wars classic arena previously appeared in the Wilderness on the world map, although it was not labelled as being Clan Wars.
- The basement of the Artisans workshop is visible if you stand at the edge of the lobby near the bank chest.