The Tip.It Times


Issue 9999gp

The Evolution of Weaponry

Written by and edited by Racheya

Throughout the years it has become evident that things never stay the same. With a dose of nearly weekly updates from Jagex, things never can stay the same for too long. Be it new quests, new areas, new NPCs, anything... everything is bound to change. Weaponry is not void from this either.

Think about it, if you are an older player, what weapons were you using about 4 or 5 years back? What weapons are you using now? My guess is that they are quite different to how they were back then. Remember back to the days of Dragon and Runite weaponry, as this article you a brief and hopefully informative run down of the Evolution of Weaponry.

Dragon and Runite weaponry have been around for a very long time, pretty much from the start of the game, although new Dragon Weapons have been added here and there since – such as Dragon Claws. An example is the Dragon Longsword. Most people tended to stick to these sets of weapons as they were literally the best weapons you could get back then.

However, from the 26th January 2005, a huge batch of weaponry changed how we slay and kill our foes. The aforementioned date was the release of the massive Slayer skill, which brought with it weapons that are still used today – the Granite Maul, the leaf-bladed equipment, and the most famous – the Abyssal Whip. Almost all players know of the strength and the speed of the Whip, which is why it caught on so well. The first few whips in-game were sold for an astonishing 100M+, some even sold Party Hats to get hold of this awesome piece of weaponry. From then on, the price declined as more and more people achieved the big goal of 85 Slayer and more whips were put into the game. As it fell, the pretty cheap price of this great weapon attracted many, many players, and it became the best weapon in game – along with the Dragon Scimitar, which was released two months after Slayer’s initial release.

Most people, like the whip, know of the Dragon Scimitar. It is a common weapon amongst many, for its whip-esque speed and rather strong statistics. It is often used as a companion to the Whip to train Strength with, since the Whip has no option to train that combat skill exclusively. It was one of the rewards gained after Monkey Madness, given that you did not actually ‘gain’ it, but rather gained the ability to buy it from a shop. Yes – buy it from the shop. This meant that there were several hundreds of Scimitars already in game, in the virtual shop, just waiting for a player to pick one up and use it, much unlike the Slayer weapon drops. It wasn't even that expensive either - just a very set fee of 100,100 coins.

The Slayer weapons and the Dragon Scimitar became known as some of, if not, the best weapons in-game and were incumbent on this throne for several years. That, however, changed two years down the line. On the 28th August 2007, the God Wars Dungeon was released and brought with it a new strongest weapon. The Godsword.

Instantly becoming a hit, the Godswords were first being sold for several hundred million on the street. Their insane stats and magical special attacks attracted many players, and everyone wanted to get their hands on one. Much like everything new, they started to decline, but with an obvious line of rarity, and the challenge of getting one. This is shown by current prices of the Godswords – Armadyl being the most favoured sword for its special attack, and Kree’Arra being hard boss to kill, led the AGS to becoming the most expensive. On the other hand, however, the Bandos Godsword is easily acquired as Graa’dor is an easy boss, leading to the hilt price dropping dramatically.

For years, the 3 royalty of the weapons – the Godsword, the Whip and the Dragon Scimitar, remained the strongest weapons for quite some time. Obviously, new updates brought new weapons that contested these weapons, but were mainly swept away as people liked to stick to the weapon they already had.

I’m sure, by now, you know where this is article is next heading. Well, here it is. The 12th April 2010, saw the release of the most recent skill: Dungeoneering. Skip through the Dungeons themselves, you get to the rewards – some of the most useful and greatest items that you might find in RuneScape. But this is focused on the weapons, thusly; the rewards being looked at are the Chaotic Weapons.

The Chaotic Weaponry are now some of the strongest weapons in-game, however the degrading and the huge amount of Tokens required draws a few people away from these amazing weapons. The Rapier is like a whip on steroids, giving astonishing stats and, when combined with the Rune Defender, it can even outclass the great Godswords. The Longsword is a fantastic piece of weaponry, generally used in Boss Hunts and PvP, and the Maul is stronger than the Godsword, giving an alternative to players who Dungeoneer.

So, over the course of only five years, you can see a huge change in Weaponry. From simple Runite, to the desired Chaotic weapons, there has been a huge leap in how we slay and kill our opponents. What could possibly happen over the next 5 years? What do you think can come next – can anything come next, without unbalancing the game? Tell us what you think in the discussion topic!


Do you have any thoughts or comments about this week's articles? Want to discuss these articles with your fellow RuneScapers? We invite you to discuss them in this forum topic.


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Will you use Menaphos to train your skills?



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