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Fire surge

A player casts Fire Surge, the most powerful elemental spell available.

Elemental spells are the primary source of damage for mages. The standard and ancient spellbooks contain a variety of elemental spells across many levels. Lunar mages can only cast elemental spells with a polypore staff or through the use of Borrowed Power.

Types of spells[]

Many monsters have a weakness to a specific element. For example, TzHaar-Kets are weak to water spells. Any spell will be effective against such an opponent, but a water spell will offer higher accuracy. A player who is weak to magic attacks will have no specific elemental weakness.

In order of ascending required level, the four elements of the standard spellbook are:

On the Ancient Magicks, the same elements come in a slightly different order:

Each elemental class has a range of different spells. For the standard spellbook these are as follows, in order of ascending power:

The range of different spells in the ancient spellbook are as follows, in order of ascending power:

Comparison between Standard and Ancient spells[]

Arranged spells by level and damage, separated by spellbook
Element Classic combat spells Classic combat spells Ancient magicks combat spells Ancient Magicks combat spells
Strike Bolt Blast Wave Surge Equivalent Rush Burst Blitz Barrage
Air weakness icon Air 1 (48) 17 (163) 41 (393) 62 (595) 81 (777) Smoke 50 (480) 62 (595) 74 (710) 86 (825)
Water weakness icon Water 5 (48) 23 (220) 47 (451) 65 (624) 85 (816) Ice 58 (556) 70 (672) 82 (787) 94 (883)
Earth weakness icon Earth 9 (86) 29 (278) 53 (508) 70 (672) 90 (864) Shadow 52 (499) 64 (614) 76 (729) 88 (844)
Fire weakness icon Fire 13 (124) 35 (336) 59 (566) 75 (720) 95 (883) Blood 56 (535) 68 (652) 80 (786) 92 (883)
Required level to cast (Maximum damage dealt)

In addition to those above, there are four special air spells. The first three are unique to the standard spellbook, whereas the last is on all spellbooks.

Spell Magic level Damage Notes
Slayer Dart icon Slayer Dart 50 480 Also requires 55 slayer, a Death rune and a Slayer's staff, abyssal wand, abyssal orb, or Staff of light.
Divine Storm Divine Storm 60 576 Unlocked at the Mage Arena.
Storm of Armadyl Storm of Armadyl 77 739 Unlocked by completing the Ritual of the Mahjarrat quest. Uses Armadyl runes instead of air runes.
Polypore Strike icon Polypore Strike 80 768 Requires a charged polypore staff and is available with any spellbook.

Spell damage and scaling[]

The spell damage values listed above and on other articles correspond to , and may be different than the value found by mousing over the damage in Offensive Stats. This is because a spell's level scales with your Magic, which allows for elemental weaknesses to be exploited without sacrificing damage. Like ranged ammunition, spell damage caps at the level of your weapon.

Spells scale until a stronger variant of the spell is unlocked. For example, Air Blast requires 41 Magic, and it scales with the player's Magic up to level 61. Air Wave is unlocked at 62 Magic. Spell scaling ends early at higher levels; this may be so that the strongest spells are always worth using over spells with smaller rune costs. However, the weapon's damage cap still takes precedence over the scaling of spell damage. Therefore, the player generally cannot benefit by using the higher level spells with lower level weapons, particularly if the damage cap of a lower-levelled spell would be greater than or equal to the weapon being used. For instance, while using a tier 75 staff of light, there is no benefit to using the level 95 spell Fire Surge over the level 75 spell Fire Wave, as both spells would be scaled to the same damage (tier 75), while the former would cost an extra fire rune and air rune per cast.

All spell damage is capped at level 92, the level of the staff of Sliske, and the wand of the praesul and its off-hand counterpart, which are the strongest magic weapons in the game. However, while Dungeoneering, it can scale all the way up to level 99 when used with a celestial catalytic staff or a celestial catalytic wand and orb.


Standard spells
Spell Level requirement Level for maximum scaling Original damage Maximum scaled damage
Air Strike 1 16 48 153
Water Strike 5 22 48 211
Earth Strike 9 28 86 268
Fire Strike 13 34 124 326
Air Bolt 17 40 163 384
Water Bolt 23 45 220 432
Earth Bolt 29 52 278 499
Fire Bolt 35 58 336 556
Air Blast 41 61 393 585
Water Blast 47 64 451 614
Earth Blast 53 69 508 662
Fire Blast 59 74 566 710
Air Wave 62 80 595 768
Water Wave 65 80 624 768
Earth Wave 70 80 672 768
Fire Wave 75 80 720 768
Air Surge 81 92 777 883
Water Surge 85 92 816 883
Earth Surge 90 92 864 883
Fire Surge 95 - 883 -
Ancient spells
Spell Level requirement Level for maximum scaling Original damage Maximum scaled damage
Smoke Rush 50 60 480 576
Shadow Rush 52 63 499 604
Blood Rush 56 67 537 643
Ice Rush 58 69 556 662
Smoke Burst 62 73 595 700
Shadow Burst 64 75 614 720
Blood Burst 68 79 652 758
Ice Burst 70 80 672 768
Smoke Blitz 74 80 710 768
Shadow Blitz 76 80 729 768
Blood Blitz 80 92 768 883
Ice Blitz 82 92 787 883
Smoke Barrage 86 92 825 883
Shadow Barrage 88 92 844 883
Blood Barrage 92 - 883 -
Ice Barrage 94 - 883 -
Other spells
Spell Level requirement Level for maximum scaling Original damage Maximum scaled damage
Magic Dart 50 65 480 624
Divine Storm 60 71 576 681
Storm of Armadyl 77 85 739 816

Trivia[]

  • The graphics for the standard spells were updated with particles on 24 June 2010.
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