Current Ranged weapons by Eeeeediot edited by Silverion

Go to Ranged Guide by Cameron1987 for info on tactic/locations where to train/detailed damage info and more!
Link to old Ranged guide

Well as I am a big fan of the ranged skill; as oposed to other 90% of players who hate/dislike/ignore it, I decided to run an investigation into the newly released weapons and their efficiency and if they are actually useable. As well as that I have included some basic information regarding the older weapons as most players seem illiterate with regards to the details of the ranged skill in runescape.

- the various short and long bows (normal to magic)
All fletchable from logs from their respective trees and their only purpose is in increasing the accuracy of your arrows by reducing the amounts of 0s you hit. The better the bow the higher your required ranged level to wield it upto Magic Longbow; the best in the game (50 to wield)

- the various arrows (bronze to rune)
All fletchable (using smithable arrow heads - 10 per bar) and their only purpose is that they increase your max hit and also on aveage you will hit harder. (they can also be poisoned for added effect on other players but not npcs). To be used with bows only and the better the arrow the better the bow needed to fire it. The max hit with 99 ranged , ranged potion and rune arrows currently stands at 20/21.

For complete info on member bows/arrows go to Fletching guide

Name

Picture

Description

Price

Short Bow

No advantages.
Use 2 hands

70gp

Long Bow

Long range, Use 2 hands

80gp

Bronze Arrows

Used for short and long bow

4gp*

- normal and phoenix crossbows
The normal one can be bought from ranged stores and the phoenix one can be obtained from the weapon chest of the phoenix gang; and is rumoured to hit more often/harder.

- bolts and pearl tipped bolts
Only purchasable from stores and Pear tipped can be made by crafting the pearls (obtained from fishing) onto normal bolts. The advantage is that they hit harder. In comparison to arrows and how hard they hit, normal bolts are similiar to iron and pearl tipped are between steel and mith.

Name

Picture

Description

Price

Cross Bow

Can be used with shield
Higher max damage/short range
Use 1 hand

70gp

Phoenix Gang
Cross bow
Rumored to do more damage/add to hit.
Use 1 hand
--

Cross Bolts

Used for crossbow

4gp*

Pearl-tiped Bolts

Used for crossbow

 

- Throwable knives (bronze to rune)
Smithable from their respetive bars, two are produced from each bar and in inventory hold one space each. Can be poisned and when held look like a long sword. Don't know too much about them need more info on poison etc.

Name

Picture

Description

Price

** Knive

Can be used with shield
Damage like arrows
Use 1 hand

 


- Darts (bronze to rune)
Disadvantage- Shorter range, less damage then arrow/bolt spear
Advantage One hand so you can use shield for additional protection, better accuracy then arrows of same type with best bow, occupy one less space in inventory.
Dart heads are smithable (7 per bar) after completion of the "Tourist Trap" quest and when fletched with feathers make darts(1 fletching exp). They can be stacked in one inventory space. As regards to the bug where you pick them up on the floor and they go into another space, you have to not be wielding the ones already in your inventory so before picking them up, remove the ones you are currently holding so they will go into the same inventory space. This is not applicable with arrows as they bow is being wielded and the arrows will always be stacked in the same inventory space.

Name

Picture

Description

Price

** dart

Very accurate/Can be used with shield
Lower max damage/short range
Use 1 hand

 


- Spears (bronze to runes)
They have high range/ high damage but they are NOT stackable. Currently only dropped by several mosnters - for a full list search the monster database but the ones I know of are Jogres, Hobgoblins, Tribesman, Demons and Dragons with levels above 100 and normal goblins as well.

Name

Picture

Description

Price

** Spear

Can be used with shield
Higher max damage/Long range

*

- Cannon
you can buy one after completing Dwarf Cannon Quest it come with full warranty and cost 750.000 gold. More info needed on his use but it was VERY popular for hunting of King Black Dragons. It use Cannonballs that are real pain to get. They use One stell bar and you need mold in inventory at last 30 lv smithing and give only 12,5 smithing exp. You cannot retrive cannonballs they are one use even if they are stackable. Max danmage is 35 on 99 range. You cannot use it against players.

Name

Picture

Description

Price

Cannon

High max damage/Long Range
Can break/cannot be used in PvP
Use 0 hands/set it on ground

750.000gp

Cannonball
Used for cannon / high cost


Discussion
For training the most cost efficient way to level is with bronze arrows , your best bow and with picking up arrows. Many people prefer iron and steel to quicken up the pace and I personall use steel (self smithed and fletched). Bolts will hit more 0s as crossbows are less accurate than higher bows so users of them are at a slight disadvantage.

As for the new weapons, spears look cool but I do not know hoard they hit in comparison to arrows so I cannot make any judgments. Throwable knives hit similar to arrows and pose no advantage whatsoever to the user and only serve to take more inventory space and are in my opinion totally useless. As for darts, they take one less space in the inventory compared to arrows and can be stacked which I like. And when equipped cannot be seen by opponents giving you the element of surprise.

So it would seem as it stands only arrows, bolts and darts are of any use to the budding or professional ranger and below are the results into the investigation I conducted to compare arrows and darts with respect to their comparitive accuracies and how hard they hit.

Investigation

Method

I recorded the hits (how much hp I hit on the opponent) of 100 arrows and darts for steel and mithrill and performed some mathematical calculations to determine their usefulness to rangers. I obviously did not count the last hit which killed the npc as the amount hit is unknown. To keep it fair, I used the same npc in all tests. I was also level 75 ranged during all hits and used a Magic Longbow.

Conclusions/Deductions

-- The obvious; Mith hits harder than steel.
-- For both Mith and Steel, the max hit seemed to be the same. I would assume for other levels this would sometimes vary.
-- Looking at both averages, arrows HIT HARDER than darts overall.
-- Looking at the graph it would seem the darts hit more often to either extreme while arrows are slightly more spread out.
-- One type does not hit harder than the other. They both hit as hard as each other.
-- There is no fixed pattern like, 20% of all hits at level 75 ranged will be 3 or somthing like that; it is mostly luck based.
-- The max hit is determined by your level (obviously ;-))
-- You can shoot longer with arrows than darts!!
-- Also, there is one more advantage to using darts as opposed to bows that you failed to incorporate......darts are one-handed. This means that you get added defense should some warrior attack you. (dandydestroy)


Overall there aint much difference as the sample size was relatively small (100) and could not provide too much information as no obvious pattern emerged from the graphs. Considering only 7 per bar are smithed as oppose to 10 arrow heads, I would think the RS designers intended darts to have a slight advantage over arrows. For pking, it would definetly be darts as their acuracy and power compares to their arrow even with a Magic Long bow.
Maybe when I get to 80 I will repeat the same test but with a sample size of 1000 and post them here again.

Hope this of was some use to the readers - and enjoy

Will you use Menaphos to train your skills?



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