Recently, a lot of people have been asking if I could help them get into PvP. Although I can’t completely tell you each step of what to do in a certain PvP scenario, I can always help you get started. There are many styles of fighting to choose from, and as you start fighting people, you will get to know the other styles and be able to change your methods accordingly, as everyone has a setup that suits their own tastes. I personally have changed my style several times to become better, but everyone has a setup that suits their own tastes. I’ll just cover some of the basics right now. So, let’s get started!

*Warning* The following recommended setups might not be the best for everyone. It’s just a possible lead into personalizing your own setup.

Melee

Melee style fighting includes fairly easy techniques, but a melee fighter will often have to risk around 500k.

Whip/dds (poisoned dragon dagger) is one of the most commonly used techniques. Use your whip until they get around 400 lifepoints or near death and use the dds special quickly. Having 4 special attacks per bar is great because that gives you more chances to get the kill. If that fails, hopefully you can get a few accurate shots from your whip and if they can’t eat fast enough, they’ll go down. Along with your whip, you should carry an obsidian shield for a strength bonus or a rune defender for accuracy.

Godsword bashing is always great if you’ve got extra money to be able to buy one. Its pretty easy to use, because using its special attack as well as using it as your regular weapon means you don’t have to worry about switching weapons.. The Bandos (BGS), Armadyl (AGS), and Zamorak (ZGS) godswords are the most commonly used godswords in PvP because of their special attacks. The BGS and AGS are just like the whip/dds combo in that when they get low on lifepoints, you should use the special attack to finish your opponent off. With the ZGS, you will need to lure your opponent out, and if they start to run, use the special attack to freeze and finish them off. The problem with godswords is that they only have at 1-2 special attacks per bar so you have to get it right or you are mostly out of luck unless you get a couple lucky hits at the end. The great thing is that they can hit hard! Everyone fears the famous AGS, especially because its special attack can hit 600+ lifepoints!

Most of the time when using an extreme secondary weapon (like Vesta’s longsword or claws) you should carry a dragon scimitar to lower the opponents lifepoints to the danger zone. I’ve never been much of a fan of this because a lot of people that use this method will unload their special and then run for it. There is no real back-up plan if your special fails. The dragon scimitar is used a lot in PvP and BH +0 worlds where you don’t want to risk your high value weapons. In these worlds scimitar/dds is used as commonly as the whip/dds combo is used in BH +1.h

The armor used in all these variants are dependent on the amount you want to risk. Most use a setup including the helm of Neitiznot, a rune platebody and platelegs, climbing boots, rune gloves, and an amulet of strength. For more risk just upgrade a piece and see if it gives you the stat bonus you want.

My recommended melee set up:

Ranged

The ranged style can be expensive depending on the bolts and armor used. Rangers risk considerably less though, so that is always a plus if you believe you are going to be dying a lot. A good place to start in PvP is to be a ranger if you have high range (80+ preferably). As there is a wide variety of weapons there is a wide variety of rangers, but they all basically follow the same pattern.

The rune crossbow along with another special weapon such as Morrigan’s javelin is one of the greatest combos of them all, in my opinion. Runite bolts hit as hard as whips. Not only that, you can tip them with gem’s and enchant to hit 60’s (dragon/onyx). Then the special attack from a hand cannon, javelin, throwing axes, or claws (though your getting into hybriding when you spec with claws) can finish them off for good.

* Magic Shortbow (msb) and a variety of special weapons can also be used instead of rune crossbow for faster (yet weaker) hits to lower life-points to the point that you can kill with something else.

My recommended ranged set up:

As for the armor, rangers usually will change as they gain more fighting experience. Maybe after the first fight one could say “oh, my prayer is draining very fast. I’m going to switch to a Neitiznot helm from archers to help that.” or “I’m hitting more accurately than i thought i would. I think ill give up some of that accuracy for more defense.” There is more versatility in ranging than melee, at least for the lesser expensive/effective items. To give a better strength bonus in your platebody you have to move up to the ancient warriors armor or risk the beloved torso.

Magic
The magic style is pretty much left to pures. As of right now, it’s far too weak to be used alone. I will, however, say that it is used widely among clans in multi-combat to keep someone from running away, or from switching back and forth (from melee/range to mage to confuse the one being attacked to switch protection prayers. If you’re on the unlucky side of fighting a mage, try to teleport and pray if you aren’t tele-blocked.

Any questions, suggestions (even on what you would like to see in future articles), shoot me a PM on the forums or comment below.