Clan Wars is an activity, available to both free players and members, which is located in the Gamer's Grotto. It was released on 10 December2007 which Jagex decided would be an adequate compensation as a result of the controversial Wilderness and PKing changes. The activity allows clans consisting of up to 100 players to fight each other, with designated maps and strategies being used. Many clans are made specifically for clan wars and some clans attend periodically. Some clans require members to change their names and often high combat level is also required.
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 your items if you die during this activity, but most wars are fought in a "safe" mode.
Alternatively, players can use a white portal or a red portal. These portals offer Free-for-all games.
Clan Wars received a major expansion on 9 September2008 with the addition of new fighting options; "calling" - a new messaging option; and new arenas/maps. The official worlds for clan wars are World 141, World 129, and World 68 and World 50. World 1 is also known amongst players as an unofficial Clan Wars-designated server due to the high amount of players in the world.
Clan Wars is located in the dungeon just north of Falador alongside Fist of Guthix and Stealing Creation. This was changed from the previous location in the Wilderness because of the 1 February 2011 update. It is called Gamers Grotto. The Clan Wars battlefield still appears east of the eastern wilderness ruins.
Popularity and the Effect of Updates
Clan Wars received more player attention after the 9 Septemberupdate, which has added more arenas, the White and Red portals, and Terms of Battle/Usage screens (the Clan Wars setup menu). As of February 1 2011, Clan Wars was officially taken from the wilderness with the free trade and old wilderness update. There was just not enough room to keep it. Also, it was not very popular among runescape players, so they moved it to Gamers' Grotto, along with Fist of Guthix and Stealing Creation.
Portals
There are three portals in the Clan Wars Challenge Hall. A purple portal is located in the southern part of the hall while a white portal and a red portal are located in the northern part of the hall.
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.
Challenging and Entering the Portal
After entering the Clan Wars Challenge Hall, a player ranked as a Captain or higher in a Clan 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 clan-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.
A player must accept these terms to fight the battle; otherwise, they are placed within a "watching" location outside the arena. If someone who isn't a member of a clan (or is a member of a clan 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
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.
The message displayed when the opposing clan reaches the max kill count set.
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.
White portal
NOTE: FFA means free-for-all.
The white portal.
Also known as the non-FFA, SFFA, FFAS, and FFA Safe.
The white portal was added as part of the Clan Wars Update of 9 September2008. 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 to the very South 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 and recruitment for large clans can be dealt with here.
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 OF THEIR ITEMS in their inventory or of what they are wearing, 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 to the very south of the arena (including the entrance/exit portal) is designated as Combat-free where players may wait for the right moment before joining the fray. It should be noted that, if you are about to die, you can drop your items and pick them up again once you respawn and re-enter the arena, which will save you losing some of your items. 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.
Since the new wilderness update, along with the movement of clan wars, the dangerous portal has gotten much more popular. All items a person has on death now shows up as loot for the killer, just as it is in wild. Moreover, the minimap of the red portal is the same as that of the white portal.
You could not teleport out of this arena.
The dangerous portal.
Arenas
Since the 9 September2008update, 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. Similar to Clan Wars Classic, the middle of the arena is Multiway Combat, but near the portals, it is all Singleway Combat. This greatly reduces the chance of a clan getting knocked out if the clan retreats. This tactic is favoured by ranger and mage clans mainly because they can play the rocks by shoot at the enemy from the single zone while hiding behind rocks. Melee attackers have 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. The majority of the map is Singleway Combat, meaning that large clans cannot make use of their size. Often, the clan with the greater number of high levelled players will win, as piling cannot be used. Larger clans may, however, rotate their fighters by having one fighter stop attacking while another attacker engages the enemy player.
Turrets
The centre of the map a short while before the match begins.
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. Interesting to note that 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.
Strategies and Tips
Advertising - See "Recruitment".
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. It is worth noting that in Clan Wars, a disorganised, larger, or higher-levelled clan can be beaten by a smaller or lower-levelled clan that is more organised. A common strategy is to group together near the back of arena to pick off a few targets before the main force arrives. However, it is not uncommon to see small, high-levelled clans win against much larger, lower-levelled clans, especially under "run in" or similar terms of battle.
Berserking - Useful in large clans, this is normally the default strategy, due to a lack of leadership and clan chats not allowing talking. But is, ironically, often effective, assuming that the clan members know how to "pile" (see below).
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. The other clan members finish off the bound player before the effect wears off. This strategy is also useful if a clan wants to keep an opponent that is a high threat away while they are defeated.
Clan Chat hijacking - This tactic is severely frowned upon. In an attempt to recruit for one's clan, recruiters may go to other chats, advertising their own clan, usually getting kicked in the process. This is usually done by people with auto talkers as they can advertise much faster.
Communication – Talking in the player's Clan 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. The two minute delay is a good time for the clan leaders to organise tactics on their separate channels, giving the opportunity to prepare a quick plan.
Death Dot - This tactic makes use of the game's minimap mechanics. Many players would stand in the same spot, which makes all of their minimap dots clustered into one white dot. Thus, when the enemy clan attacks, they would be surprised by one white dot containing so many players. This is effective for piling too, as the enemy clan would have to determine who they should attack, while the clan that did the "Death Dot" would already have seen who they would pile, and would come out of the death dot to pile that person.
Diversion/Distraction - As a defensive maneuver, a player may try to get the attention of enemies, getting them to chase after them. The distractor usually puts on defensive prayers to stay alive longer. If the distractor runs away from the main fray with their pursuers, they help their team by re-aligning the odds at the front.
Food – Food may or may not be allowed in Clan Wars. It is up to each individual whether they want to bring food into Clan Wars though. Many players will chastise eaters, claiming it's unfair and/or a waste of money.
Hit-and-Run - Attacking an enemy then running away may dilute the enemy's assault force. It can be useful as most people wear armour, but it uses up a lot of run energy and can only be effectively used in numbers.
Hugging - When being melee attacked by someone stronger than you, 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.
Luring – One clan will hide in a specific spot and/or do a "death dot" (abbreviated as "dd", all of the clan will stand on the same square). Then a designated scout from the clan will go to the centre and wait until the match is about to begin or has just begun. In most cases, many of the enemy will chase the tanker, who leads them to ambush at the "dd" location.
One versus One (abbreviated as "1v1") - Some players in Clan Wars may wish to duel another player on the opposing side without any interference. If a player does wish to have a one on one fight, he either says "1v1 anyone?", and waits for someone to answer, or says "[insert name/level here], 1v1?". If the challenger accepts, they move to an isolated area. When the war is started, the players begin to fight, and when one is defeated, the winner moves on to other players and proceeds to fight.
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.
Recruitment - This tactic is used by most clans. In clan wars, the more members in a clan, the better. The main way to gain more members is to asks friends to join, or - the more popular way - publically ask all nearby players to join. Common phrases include, but are not limited to: "Join me", "Join [Clan Chat name]", "All Join [Clan Chat name]", and "[clan chat name] [combat level+]". Chat effects are commonly used.
Resupply - During the time immediately after a clan war and during the two-minute delay before an additional war, clan members may replenish food, potions, and runes (if these are allowed) at the bank chest just outside the portal.
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.
Smaller clans - Smaller clans may have an advantage over larger clans, as smaller clans are easier to organise and can quickly relay a strategy to the membership, whereas larger clans tend to be disorganised and cluttered.
Sneaking - Hiding out of view on either edge of the map and then rushing to the opponents' side of the map as soon as the stone wall lowers can be beneficial. The sneaking clan can then wait in the opponents' side to ambush any opponents that may have ventured back alone to investigate. Many times, by the time that the sneaking clan is found, their opponents are low/out of run energy. This tactic does not work sometimes as more experienced clans will have watchers in a skirmish line along the stone wall.
Sniping - Attacking a leader or a binder of the opposite clan without following a specific pile.
Spam Block - This is not commonly used but sometimes if a 1v1 battle is going on, one person may spam with red text which will camouflage the other person's health bar from being visible to them. This prevents them from knowing when to heal or when their health bar is low and when to run. This won't work sometimes since it's possible to see through the chat.
Spinning - The act of throwing binds at members of the opposite clan's pile.
Spying - Very rarely, the enemy leader uses a friend as a spy, this is great for intercepting enemy clan chat and turn the battle to your favour.
Strategic Positioning - Different classes of characters position themselves at advantage areas in the arena. Strong Melee fighters charge into battle first at the middle of the boundary. By the time they fall, a good percent of the opposing clan is typically down as well. Then Tanks are waiting with high defences to slowly defeat more enemies while staying strong. In the far back are Mages who cast supportive Spells to disable opponents while staying at a safe distance. And finally Rangers are at the far sides and corners of the arena picking off opponents while being hard to reach. If done correctly, this strategy can work better than many others, especially the favoured "charging" strategy.
Suicide Bombing - If a player's Prayer is high enough, they can use Retribution (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. A Dragon 2-Handed Sword special in a large cluster of enemies could also be used in a "Suicide-Bombing" attempt. Also, a more effective way to suicide bomb would be to use the members prayer Wrath. This prayer can be unlocked by completing The Temple at Senntisten quest and having 89 Prayer.
Tagging - In Singleway 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.
Tanking - This is an often used tactic, almost exclusively by people with high magic and defence levels. This method is usually done if the clan is severely outnumbered by the opposing clan. Players tend to kill mages first because of their low defensive bonuses. Therefore, the player who tanks is usually a mage with high defensive bonuses and still keep a decent magic attack bonus. The tank is often a high-levelled player with a very high magic, defence and hitpoints with a decent prayer level. The mage tank will usually cast a combination of burst or barrage spells (most notably Blood Barrage), as they all have a useful effect to help the mage survive. The tank can also just stick to using potions and food, but that will decrease the effectiveness of this method. The tank tries to get people stuck behind barriers taking advantage of the way characters run and the low run energy of a lot of their pilers. This is most easily done in turrets as the walls and stairs help block the chasers.
Taunting - Essentially a form of luring, though it involves (normally) verbal abuse.
Turret Defence- The whole clan goes into a single turret picking off people around the turret with range and magic. People who use melee kill anybody who manages to get in the turret.
Wild Goose Chase- Mainly seen on Knockout modes, 1 player, usually the sole remaining survivor for a clan, may attempt to run like wild or hide, sometimes even behind the other clans portal. Dashing into a turret on Turrets forces a chasing player to re-click the attack button, woods on some levels disrupt ranging and spellcasting, and a smart or experienced player can avoid detection for some time. This strategy can be extremely annoying for opposing clans, though quite often a larger clan can quickly locate and pile the runner.
Scouting - This is not used often but effective players it is like the spying except there are some clans made from scouters to help allies they list down the clans they help and the clans they spy so a felllow spy of the same spying clan will not help that other clan.A clan will recruit people known as scouters they know how to use many of the tactics like turrent defence and binding to "scout" enemies by joining their clan chat and asking for a meeting then he lists the down the main attack styles and the levels of the other clan after listing down he will leave and go to the clan chat that recruited him then tell the leader all he know and go back to his respective scout clan but there are scouts who work indiviually.
Music
Clan Wars - Music will not unlock while waiting inside the arena; you have to wait for the actual fight.
Another screenshot of the inaccurate member-count glitch. The opposing team is listed as having no members, yet two can easily be seen.
Clan Wars is the only team combat activity where you can wear all of your items in-game.
There was a glitched space within several areas of the Clan Wars arena. It allowed you to drop into the ground and become invisible. Mysteriously, players could attack while hiding there. If you dropped an item in one of these spaces, you could not pick it up again. Many players used this glitch to hide from others although they could be still seen on the minimap. This was fixed on 29 January2008.
Some players may have an "Attack" option on other players outside of Clan Wars, despite not being able to attack anyone. This is especially likely to occur in a crowded world or if the Clan Wars Challenge Hall is crowded.
There is also a glitch in the upper-right player-counter box (that displays the number of clan members) which makes it inaccurate.
Sometimes clans would get what are called "split wars". It is one part of that clan is in one war while, another half, usually a single person, is in another. The cause is when while an original war is going on, a new clan mate who joined during the fight accepts or offers a war. That player and others who are not in the original war can go in the second war. This glitch is also somewhat rare.
On the 14th of October 2008, the Wise Old Man appeared in Clan Wars telling people that gravestones would not appear in free-for-all (dangerous).
There is a glitch when a player uses a viewing orb and a Protect prayer; the overhead symbol will appear in the orb's viewfield. Also if you talk while using the orb, the writing appears on the ground.
If you stand on the exit portal, in HD, after you die in a war, part of your body disappears in the portal.
Part of the free-for-all (safe) arena is replica of the wilderness and the north-west part is the demonic ruins.
Some mapping around the Clan Wars arena has been corrected as of 9 November2009.
There is a glitch in the text that says "Your clan has been defeated in battle", when your clan won the battle. The cause of this is unknown and has a very low rate of occurrence.
Even when fighting a safe battle, it used to be possible to lose all your items. If you were about to be killed, and you left your clan, you would end up in Lumbridge, with no way to recover your lost items.
If you are poisoned, and you leave the clan wars arena, you will remain poisoned.
If you go to the southeastern part of the Clan Wars free-for-all arena, you can see part of the Sorcerer's Garden activity with the Orb of Oculus.
On 15 June2009, the Classic arena was changed to become completely multicombat, whereas before it was only multicombat in the centre of the arena. File:Clanwarsupdate.png
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