Attack

For other uses, see Attack (disambiguation).

Attack is a melee combat skill which determines the accuracy of a player's melee attacks and the types of weapons a player may wield. The higher the Attack level, the fewer misses a player will incur during melee combat. As Attack is a vital skill in melee combat, increasing one's Attack level will increase one's combat level associated with melee.

History
Attack was one of the first skills available, introduced with the launch of RuneScape on 4 January 2001. Throughout the expansion and development of RuneScape, the concept for the skill has largely remained the same.

While the concept is largely unchanged, higher tiers of equipment have been released as the game has progressed. Bronze through adamant equipment were introduced with the game itself, but it was not until 26 July 2001 that rune equipment was added. On 27 February 2002, the first pieces of dragon equipment were released with the Lost City and Heroes' Quest quests, further increasing the Attack level necessary to equip all items. On 14 June 2004, special attacks were added to certain weapons. Dragon weapons and excalibur, along with a few Ranged weapons, were the first weapons to feature special attacks. Each special attack was unique to the weapon and used up a certain percentage of a player's special attack energy. Since the introduction of special attacks, several additional weapons have been added which feature unique special attacks.

However, no new weapons were introduced until after release of RuneScape 2 with the introduction of Slayer. The new skill introduced abyssal demons, monsters which dropped the abyssal whip, a powerful one-handed weapon which required 70 Attack to wield. Later that year, several other weapons were introduced which also required 70 Attack to equip. These weapons were part of different degradable armour sets of Barrows equipment, originally used by the 6 Barrows brothers. Of these 6 equipment sets, 4 were melee oriented and required 70 Attack to wield.

Nearly 2 years passed without the introduction of a higher-levelled weapon than the abyssal whip and the various Barrows weapons. On 28 August 2007, the God Wars Dungeon was introduced, featuring 4 warring factions, each protecting their respective versions of the fabled godsword. The godswords were massive two-handed weapons, offered a generous strength bonus, and required 75 Attack to wield. The reign of the godsword, however, was short lived, and on 15 October 2008, different sets of Ancient Warriors' equipment were released. The equipment was degradable, lasting for only a limited amount of time before disappearing. Although these weapons required 78 Attack to wield, they each had a "corrupt" counterpart which only required 20 Attack to equip. These corrupt versions lasted for an even shorter period of time than the normal versions. Additionally, the corrupt dragon weapons were the first new free-to-play weapons released since the introduction of rune equipment.

The release of the Dungeoneering skill marked the release of chaotic weaponry, degradable weapons available for purchase via Dungeoneering tokens. Three different melee weapons were introduced, the chaotic longsword, maul, and rapier, each requiring at least level 80 Attack to equip. The release of this new skill also introduced weapons that could only be used within Daemonheim while training Dungoeneering. This included the addition of the first set of weapons which required skill mastery in Attack to wield; the primal weapons all required 99 Attack to use, with the exception of the primal maul. These weapons were among the strongest melee weapons introduced into the game with several of them setting attack and strength bonus records.

On 12 July 2011, the whip vine was introduced. This item was released as an attachment to the abyssal whip, and when combined, resulted in an abyssal vine whip. While the abyssal vine whip offered offensive bonuses which were inferior to those of the various chaotic weapons released with Dungeoneering, it nevertheless required 85 Attack and 80 Slayer to wield, a higher Attack requirement than any weapon obtained outside of Daemonheim.

Combat


Players may receive Attack experience during combat, and the amount of experience gained is dependent on the combat style being used. Of the four melee combat styles available, Attack experience is only awarded when fighting in the accurate or controlled stances.

When fighting in the accurate stance, $$0.4 * x$$ Attack experience is awarded per hit, where $$x$$ is the amount of damage dealt. Fighting using the controlled stance, however, awards $$0.133 * x$$ Attack experience per hit, where $$x$$ is the amount of damage dealt. For example, a player who hits a 10 would receive 4 Attack experience when fighting in the accurate stance and 1.33 Attack experience when fighting in the controlled stance. The amount of experience received when fighting in the controlled stance may be calculated in the same way that experience awarded to the Constitution skill is calculated.

The difference between these two stances is that the accurate stance solely provides experience for the Attack and Constitution skills. However, the controlled stance distributes experience among Attack, Strength, Defence, and Constitution evenly. A player who hits a 10 would receive 1.33 experience in each one of those skills. Additionally, fighting using the accurate stance provides a hidden boost of +3 to the Attack skill while using the controlled stance only provides a boost of +1.

Experience rewards
Attack experience may be awarded after the completion of certain quests, miniquests, tasks, random events, Distractions and Diversions, and other activities. Additionally, experience lamps, dragonkin lamps, and books of knowledge may be used to gain Attack experience.

Bonus/other experience
Several items provide bonus experience in Attack, as well as other melee skills, when equipped. Melee brawling gloves provide a 300% experience bonus to Attack (as well as Strength and Defence) when training combat in the Wilderness and a 50% bonus when training outside of the Wilderness. The brawling gloves last for approximately 100,000 experience before disintegrating.

Individual pieces of sacred clay equipment obtained through the Stealing Creation activity also provide an experience bonus to Attack and other combat skills. These items double the amount of experience received through combat when equipped. Only one piece of sacred clay armour must be worn to receive this bonus. Similar to the brawling gloves, a piece will disappear after the experience threshold of 24,450 experience is reached.

Attack experience may also be received from damage dealt by certain Summoning familiars. However, different familiars provide experience for different combat skills. The following familiars grant 40% Attack experience per point of damage dealt.

The following familiars grant 13.3% Attack, Strength, and Defence experience per point of damage dealt.

Equipment
One of the main uses of the Attack skill is determining which types of weapons a player may wield. Generally, higher level weapons provide greater offensive bonuses than similar weapon types of a lower level, providing an incentive for players to train the skill.

Common weapon types
Below is a list of some common types of weapons available through the use of the Attack skill. Weapons denoted with (m) are members only.

Miscellaneous weapons
Many miscellaneous weapons all over RuneScape do not fit into any particular category, such as quest and minigame rewards. Weapons denoted with (m) are members only.

Dungeoneering weapons
Conventional weapons used throughout Gielinor are not allowed in Daemonheim, so a separate set of metals is used during Dungeoneering. The metal types are classified by their "tiers", with tier 1 being the weakest and tier 11 being the strongest. Tiers 1 through 10 weapons may be player made or received as a drop from several monsters, but tier 11 items may only be received as a drop from boss monsters.

Attack bonuses


Melee weapons may confer positive or negative bonuses to stab, slash, and crush attack styles. Certain types of weapons are naturally better suited to certain attack styles, and many weapons are not able to utilise all three styles.

Additionally, some weapons do not give positive bonuses to any of the three attack styles and are often referred to as fun weapons. These weapons do not exist necessarily for use in combat; they exist merely for aesthetic purposes.

Warriors' Guild
The Warriors' Guild is a guild for players who have attained mastery or near mastery of melee combat skills. Entrance to the guild requires either 99 Attack, 99 Strength, or a sum of 130 in Attack and Strength. The guild features several activities which involve combat and combat experience, one of which is the cyclops room, run by Kamfreena. Here, players may obtain defenders as drops from the cyclops and cyclossi. Additionally, Attack may be trained on the animation room of the Warriors' Guild, granting 15 experience per successful hit to a dummy.

Skill mastery


Level 99 is the maximum level a player may achieve in Attack, attained at 13,034,431 experience. The amount of experience players may gain is capped at 200 million, but acquiring additional experience until 200 million experience will not increase the Attack level beyond level 99.

As with all skills, players who achieve level 99 in Attack may purchase a Cape of Accomplishment from the skill's master. The Attack cape and hood are sold by Ajjat in the Warriors' Guild for 99,000 coins. Players with more than 1 skill at level 99 will receive a golden trim on the sides of the cape along with a +4 prayer bonus. However, players with only 1 level 99 skill will receive an untrimmed version of the cape, as can be seen to the right.

Currently, there are players with level 99 Attack and  players with 200 million experience in Attack.

Temporary boosts
Various items, potions, prayers, and familiars provide temporary boosts. Below is a list of all possible boosts to Attack.

Visible
Visible boosts are indicated in the stats interface by showing a level increase from the base level. All of these boosts are members-only.

Invisible
Invisible boosts are not indicated in the stats interface, but they are applied in combat calculations nevertheless. Members-only boosts are indicated by (m).