This month was supposed to be about Magic defence, but I did that last month since most of the best Ranged defence items are also the best Melee defence ones.

If you’ve been following the series then you’ll know that I won’t be mentioning PVP world rewards.

Ranged

Helm
It should come as no surprise that the Torag’s and Guthan’s helms take the award for best Ranged defence since they also take the award for best Melee defence. At +55 Stab, +58 Slash, +54 Crush, -1 Magic, +62 Ranged, and +15 Summoning, it’s actually better to wear them against rangers than meleers. I would suggest Torag’s over Guthan’s as it only costs about 497k where as Guthan’s costs about 2.2m.

Second and third place is Verac’s and Dharok’s Helms with +56 and +51 respectively. However due to their price (2m and 3.3m respectively) I wouldn’t advise either unless you were planning on completing the set.

Jumping down the line a bit past the Dragon full helm and 3rd age helm which both cost too much is the Dragon medium helm. Though it may sound and look weak, its defence is decent for its price of about 65k at +33 Stab, +35 Slash, +32 Crush, -1 Magic, +34 Ranged, and +10 Summoning

F2Ps still need to use their Rune Full helms which give +30 Stab, +32 Slash, +27 Crush, -1 Magic, +30 Ranged, and +7 Summoning and only cost 21k. Something I didn’t mention in the Melee article is the fact that Sacred clay armor gives the exact same defence as rune armor but it’s free and gives double experience for a limited time. After this time it stops giving bonus experience but the defence is the same, so it still functions as rune armor.

If you’re a member on a slayer task, I would suggest this part from my first article:
“Of course if your doing a Slayer assignment you should always use your Slayer Helmet, which gives nearly equal defences as the Rune Full at +30 Stab, +32 Slash, +27 Crush, +0 Magic, +30 Ranged, and +7 Summoning and also gives a 15% damage bonus against slayer tasks.”

Now that’s using your head.

Amulet
Amulets, not just for decoration. The best one being the Amulet of Fury, which gives +15 to all defences along with +10 to all attacks, +8 bonus to strength and +5 bonus to prayer. It’s got really nice ranged defence for an amulet, however it’s price tag is not so nice, being about 2.2m.

Second place, somewhat surprisingly but yet not, is the Amulet of Defence giving +7 to all defence. Costing only around 650, it won’t make you take out a loan on your POH or make you mortgage your Godsword.

The downside to the Amulet of defence is that it only gives defence, which is why the Amulet of Power is more desired. Coming in third and being the best amulet all around for F2Ps it gives +6 to all attacks, defence, and strength. At only 3.5k, it would be a good investment to help you pay off your mortgage on your Godsword.

Cape
Capes for Ranged defence don’t vary much…at all from capes for Melee defence because all of them add to all defences.

The Fire cape, which takes the cake and burns down the house, gives +11 to all defence, along with +1 to all attacks, +4 strength bonus and +2 prayer bonus, and all it requires is killing the Tztok-Jad. That’ll be an easy cape to get.

Coming in second is the accomplishment capes which give +9 to all defence. One of these could actually be harder to get than defeat the Tztok-Jad and would certainly take longer depending on which cape you go for. The great thing about these is when you have two level 99 skills, because then the trimmed cape gives an additional +4 to prayer! Great if you need to use protect from melee while defending from ranged attacks at the same time.

Obsidian capes give the same defence as accomplishment capes but they lack the possible prayer bonus. However they cost around 175k and you have no level 99 skill to show for it.

The third cape which is one of the oldest ones is the Cape of Legends. Unfortunately this great piece of equipment has been degraded over the past few years with the addition of the Fire cape, Capes of Accomplishment, and the Obsidian cape. It gives +7 to all defences and is a nice white color. Nowadays, unfortunately, it is used mainly to compliment white outfits.

F2Ps should still poke Highwaymen for their capes. The nice thing about these capes is that they can be colored seven different colors for free to play and an eighth additional color for members who have completed the Hand in the sand quest. Giving +2 ranged defence makes it a bit better than nothing.

Body
Ahh, body armor. It certainly makes things alot more difficult when you have 20 arrows sticking through your chest. For this reason most people wear body armor, the best of which being the Bandos chestplate. Now this may sound odd to some of you, it certainly does to me seeing how Bandos armor is overall weaker than barrows. In fact, this is the only place where Bandos armor beats Barrows armor in defence, by 1 point of Ranged defence. The Bandos chestplate is outmatched by over 20 points of Stab and Slash defence by the Dharok’s, Torag’s and Guthan’s platebodies. However it does have a +4 strength and +1 prayer bonus which the barrows plates lack. Strength has never been my strong point though, so I’d rather recharge my Torag’s plate over 150 times for the near 14m that the Bandos Chestplate costs than get a +4 strength bonus.

And now we come to the Barrows brother’s armor, Dharok, Torag, and Guthan. They all give a whopping +122 Stab, +120 Slash, +107 Crush, -6 Magic, +132 Ranged, and +60 Summoning! With the Torag’s and Dharok’s plate costing only around 200k either of them are a worthwhile investment.

Coming in second is the 3rd age platebody with +109 Stab, +107 Slash, +97 Crush, -6 Magic, +106 Ranged, and +50 Summoning. However the cost (about 80m) is comperable to buying about 400 Torag’s plate or buying one and recharging it over 850 times! Save your money, go Barrows.

If you want great Ranged defence but don’t want to pay alot upfront or continue to pay every 15 hours of combat, go with a Granite body. Yielding +87 Stab, +84 Slash, +79 Crush, -6 Magic, +97 Ranged, and +45 Summoning, it’s great defence for the roughly 50k it costs.

F2Ps should use either a Rune Platebody or Sacred Claybody, both of which give +80 to Range. Not bad considering you can get double experience while using it.

Gloves
Gloves. You ever tried picking nettles by hand? They hurt! Not quite as much as when an arrow hits your hand but still, good hand protection is key.

Surprisingly, yet not, are the Dragon gauntlets which hold the record with +14 Stab, +15 Slash, +15 Crush, -1 Magic, +14 Ranged, and +14 Summoning, as well as giving a nice little +3 strength bonus. Now in my first article about Melee defence I said that you had to recharge Fist of Guthix gloves every so often. But as one of our readers said in a comment on that article:
“Fist of Guthix gauntlets do not lose charge over time they only lose charge if
1. You die with them equipped or in you inventory
2. You bring them to Fist of Guthix and ask for there charge to be removed”

Thank you Spoc77 for that clarification, I didn’t know that. The main reason being because
the Barrows gloves from Recipe for Disaster are all around better giving +12 Stab, +12 Slash, +12 Crush, +6 Magic, +12 Ranged, and +6 Summoning, as well as a hefty +12 strength bonus. As well as having my personal recommendation, these gloves also come in second place for highest Ranged defence. Another commentor on my Melee article questioned my price for the Barrows gloves. I had said they cost 25k, which wasn’t correct. I did some research and the price is actually 100k. The reason I had said that they only cost 25k was because I knew that Jagex had changed the price, but I didn’t know how much they changed it. Even at 100k, they’re such a versatile pair of gloves that every warrior should have them.

The third and best gloves for F2Ps are the Rune Gauntlets, which give +10 Stab, +11 Slash, +11 Crush, -1 Magic, +10 Ranged, and +10 Summoning, along with a +2 strength bonus. I would like to remind everyone that FOG gloves only get uncharged when you die or go to the FOG area and have them uncharged.

Ring
There’s really only one ring that helps you against ranged, and it’s the Archer’s Ring which gives +4 ranged defence and attack. However it costs around 485k, which is a fair bit for such a small bonus.

F2Ps don’t get any enchanted rings, sorry 🙁

Legs
Legs are essential for movement, so even when your enemies are at a distance you need to protect them.

The Bandos Tassets barely take first place by one point over the Torag’s and Dharok’s legs. The Tassets have +93 Ranged and Torag’s and Dharok’s have +92, the nice thing is they also give +2 strength and +1 prayer. However the cost of over 12 million deters alot of people, including me.

Coming in second, and with my recommendation, are the Torag’s and Dharok’s platelegs with +85 Stab, +82 Slash, +83 Crush, -4 Magic, +92 Ranged, and +30 Summoning. Costing about 360k for Torag’s and 315k for Dharok’s, they’re my personal favorite.

Third is Verac’s Plateskirt with +84 Ranged and costing about 520k.

F2Ps still have to use their Rune platelegs or Sacred Claylegs. They give +51 Stab, +49 Slash, +47 Crush, -4 Magic, +49 Ranged, and +15 Summoning and cost either 50k if you buy Rune platelegs or free if you play Stealing Creation and use Sacred Claylegs.

Boots
No boots give defence, which is surprising since your feet are such a vital part of a characters independent movement. Losing them would really ruin your dreams of winning the marathon.

I’d suggest either Dragon Boots or Bandos boots as both give good melee defence. Dragon boots also give +4 strength where as Bandos boots additionally give +1 prayer.

Shield
Ahh, a shield. Many a deadly arrow has many deflected by a sturdy shield. The sturdiest being the grand Crystal shield which gives +80 Ranged defence when fully charged. I think the best way for me to describe the shield fully would be to just quote what I said last time:
“The Crystal shield is the best defence which won’t cost you an arm and a leg. It gives +51 Stab, +54 Slash, +53 Crush, +0 Magic, +80 Ranged, and +70 Summoning when full. The unfortunate thing about the crystal shield is that it will wear down. However, it wears down much, much slower than a piece of barrows armor. Instead of per time, it wears down per hit. A full or new crystal shield can withstand 2,500 hits. Note: This is hits, not damage. If you get hit for 30 points of damage once it will only count as one hit. But if you’re hit for 1 thirty times it will count as thirty hits. The crystal shield costs 750k when it’s first recharged and the price goes down by 150k each time until the price is 150k. Unfortunately this means it costs 2.1 million, not counting the cost of the crystal seed.”

In second place is the mighty DragonFire Shield with +70 Stab, +75 Slash, +72 Crush, +10 Magic, +72 Ranged, and +67 Summoning when full. The neat thing about this shield is not only the fact that it absorbs dragon fire like an anti-dragonfire shield, nor that it gives +7 strength, it’s that you can release charges of dragon breath against your opponents, though it only affects non-dragon and non-fire based creatures. The annoying thing is that it costs nearly 18 million.

In third is the famed Obsidian shield, or TokTz-ket-zil. Many feel this is a great all around shield, as I talked about in my first article, but it mainly shines against ranged. It gives a +65 Ranged bonus as well as a +60 Summoning and +5 strength bonus. Its melee defences are about 4-8 worse than the Rune kiteshield, which is why I’m not mentioning them here. The Obsidian shield costs about 175k, which may be a bit much for some people.

Tied with the Obsidian shield is the Granite shield, which has equivalent ranged defence but 10 less summoning defence and no strength bonus. The granite shield, however, only costs around 35k, making it much more affordable than its obsidian brother.

F2Ps should use a Rune Berserker shield as it gives 1 better defence all around except for magic than a kiteshield, giving +45 Stab, +49 Slash, +47 Crush, -1 Magic, +47 Ranged, and +41 Summoning. An uncharged berserker shield costs about 40k where as a rune kiteshield costs 50k. It’s both better and cheaper, so why not use it?

Weapon
Surprisingly I could only find one one-handed weapon which gave ranged defence, and that is the Lunar Staff which gives a whopping…+1. I don’t have a Lunar Staff and no where in the RSM does it say that it’s two-handed so I assume it’s one-handed. I’m sorry if it’s two-handed.

Remember, this list is based solely off of the items with the best ranged defence, that doesn’t necessarily mean that you should use them. Always look up your enemies weakness before fighting.