Hello again!

It’s been over a year since I last talked about this subject and since Jagex has added new items I felt that it would be good to go over them again and see if we have any new all-time bests and if any of the efficient armors have gotten even better.

As usual I will not be talking about PVP items as they still only last an hour and most of them still cost an arm and three legs.

Melee

Helm
No broken records here; the Torag’s and Guthan’s helms hold a steady first place with +55 Stab, +58 Slash, +54 Crush, -1 Magic, +62 Ranged, and +15 Summoning. They do degrade, but at a cost of only 60k over 15 hours they’re very worth it. Like all Barrows equipment, they can be repaired at a POH Armor repair stand. The higher your smithing the cheaper the cost. Currently Torag’s and Guthan’s helms cost about 1.1m and 2.9m respectively, both up over double from last year.

In second is the 3rd Age Full Helm with +47 Stab, +49 Slash, +43 Crush, -3 Magic, +48 Ranged, and +12 Summoning. Somehow I forgot this helm last year, possibly because of it’s high cost of nearly 40m.

Slightly below the 3rd age helm is the Dragon Full helm with +45 Stab, +48 Slash, +41 Crush, -1 Magic, +46 Ranged, and +12 Summoning. I didn’t mention this item last year either because it costs too much(about 33m currently) for its stats.

In fourth is the Dragon Medium helm. Being only ‘Medium’ does sound kind of wimpy but it’s stats are actually pretty decent at +33 Stab, +35 Slash, +32 Crush, -1 Magic, +34 Ranged, and +10 Summoning. Considering it only costs 60k(10k down from last year) I’d highly suggest it over a rune full helm.

Fifth place is the Helm of Neitiznot with +31 Stab, +29 Slash, +34 Crush, +3 Magic, +30 Ranged, and +8 Summoning. The main reason I mention this helm since its only in fifth is because it gives a +3 Strength and Prayer bonus. If you like high strength bonus or need good melee defence and a decent prayer bonus I’d suggest this helm. It does require completion of The Fremennik Isles and a defence level of 55 though. It’s very reasonably priced at 54k.

The tried and trusted Rune Full helm is great for Free players. It gives a decent +30 Stab, +32 Slash, +27 Crush, -1 Magic, +30 Ranged, and +7 Summoning for a very reasonable price of 21k(only up 1k from last year).

If you’re doing Slayer I’d always suggest the 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% attack and strength bonus against slayer tasks. A new update this year saw the release of the Full Slayer Helmet which gives 15% bonus damage to range and magic against slayer tasks. To make it you must buy a Hexcrest and Focus sight and use them on an existing Slayer Helmet. Adding both pieces costs about 1.6m.

Amulet
Like I said last year, you rarely have to change amulets! That’s still true as no better amulets have been released for melee defence:
“The nice thing about amulets is that you rarely have to change them. The best amulet all around for defence is 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. The downside to the fury is that it’ll set you back nearly 3 million, costing 2.7 million.

If you’re not exactly made of money then the gnomes have your neck wear. After completing the Tree Gnome Village quest you are given a Gnome Amulet of defence, which adds +13 to Stab, Slash, and Crush. Unfortunately it doesn’t do anything else, but those defences are pretty decent considering it’s completely free.

F2Ps should still use their amulet of Power. Unfortunately Jagex hasn’t given them anything better. It’s +6 to all attacks, defence, and strengths makes it a very worthwhile piece of jewelry for F2Ps.”

There’s just one thing I should add. The Amulet of Defence is actually the third best melee defence amulet. it gives +7 to all defence. The Amulet of Power though is still the best all-around F2P amulet.

Cape
This cape is still a hot topic because of it’s great defences – The Fire Cape! it still holds first place +11 to all defence, along with +1 to all attacks, +4 strength bonus and +2 prayer bonus. The only price you have to pay is defeating the Tztok-Jad, but then that’s easy, isn’t it?

Second place is no real surprise either. After getting a skill to 99 you deserve a decent reward, right? Well that’s what these capes of Accomplishment are for. They give a nice +9 to all defences and if trimmed an additional +4 to prayer. They only require a level 99 skill and 99k coins.

In third place is still the Obsidian cape with +9 to all defences. It’s price has dropped to nearly a third of last year’s price, costing only 83k now compared to the 210k last year.

A new cape on the block is the Soul Wars cape. Coming into fourth for melee defence with +8 to all, the Soul Wars cape is a good one to wear for melee if you don’t have a cape of Accomplishment, though this cape in itself is an Accomplishment to acquire. The best part about this cape is the whopping +12 bonus to prayer.

A classical favorite, the Cape of Legends looks great and gives decent defences with +7 to all. It’s price never changes since it’s not tradeable. Unfortunately with so many capes being better it has lost it’s value as a cape of experience.

F2Ps still need to ‘haggle’ with Highwaymen for a cape.

Body
One of the thing’s I love about writing this series is when I get to say that a cheaper item is actually better than an expensive item.

That’s definitely the case with Body armors.

Dharok’s, Torag’s, and Guthan’s Platebodies all still hold the top spot for body armor with +122 Stab, +120 Slash, +107 Crush, -6 Magic, +132 Ranged, and +60 Summoning. Granted, they do degrade, but they only cost 90k (less depending on your smithing level) to repair every 15 hours. If you choose this route for body armor (as I’d suggest) you’ll probably want to buy the Guthan’s body for around 400k instead of the Dharok’s for 520k or the Torag’s for 530k. The prices are kinda surprising at a near double since last year: Torag’s 215k, Dharok’s 235k, and Guthan’s 260k.

Most people assume Bandos is the best body armor, and, well, it isn’t. It’s very good, but it only ranks 4th for all-time best.

The 3rd Age Platebody takes second with +96 Stab, +108 Slash, +113 Crush, -4 Magic, +97 Ranged, and +52 Summoning. The down side to this relic is that it costs a whopping 132m, up 83% from last year!

Third place is taken (without much surprise) by the Dragon Platebody with +109 Stab, +107 Slash, +97 Crush, -6 Magic, +106 Ranged, and +50 Summoning. A slight knocker is that the price has remained about the same over the past year, about 12m.

Now for the popular favorite, the Torag’s platebody. I admit it’s a good piece of armor, giving a hefty +98 Stab, +93 Slash, +105 Crush, -6 Magic, +133 Ranged, +52 Summoning, and +4 Strength & +1 prayer bonus. Over the past year it has seen a 10m increase in price from 13.3m to 23.3m currently.

If you’re looking for cheap good defence go with a Granite Platebody. Granted, it costs almost twice the price of a Rune Platebody, but it’s states of +87 Stab, +84 Slash, +79 Crush, -6 Magic, +97 Ranged, and +45 Summoning are quite decent. The Rune platebody has +82 Stab, +80 Slash, +72 Crush, -6 Magic, +80 Ranged, and +40 Summoning and costs 70k. In the end this choice is pretty much left up to personal preference as the bonus differences are so close that the cheaper price of the Rune platebody may make it more appealing. The Granite platebody has nearly tripled over the past year whereas the Rune platebody has only gained about 50%.

F2Ps should stick with their trusty and hopefully not rusty Rune Platebody.

Gloves
Dragon Gauntlets come in first at +14 Stab, +15 Slash, +15 Crush, -1 Magic, +14 Ranged, and +14 Summoning, along with a nice +3 strength bonus. They cost about 290k or 300 Fist of Guthix Tokens.

Second to these is without a doubt the ‘Barrows’ gloves from recipe for Disaster at +12 Stab, +12 Slash, +12 Crush, +6 Magic, +12 Ranged, and +6 Summoning, along with a hefty +12 strength bonus. Some would debate that these are the best gloves to wear when fighting nearly anything and honestly, I’d have to agree. But since this is about melee defence they are only in second. These gloves never break like their supposed barrow armour cousins. However they do require the completion of all of the Recipe for Disaster mini-quests and 100k to buy them. If you can get ’em, get ’em.

Third to these are the Rune Gauntlets from Fist of Guthix at +10 Stab, +11 Slash, +11 Crush, -1 Magic, +10 Ranged, and +10 Summoning, along with a +2 strength bonus. And (drum roll please) they’re free to play! These are great gloves for F2Ps, because they only cost about 200k or 200 tokens.

Ring
Another new item that we received over the past year was the Imbued rings, most specifically the Imbued Onyx ring with gives +6 to all attacks and defences except for Summoning. It costs 144,100 Mobilising Armies reward points to have an Onyx ring imbued.

Second place is the Imbued Dragonstone ring which has identical stats except it only gives +5. It costs 141,300 reward points.

Third place is the Imbued ring of Charos which gives +4 to all defences except Summoning. It costs 106,000 points.

Legs
Ahh, leg armor. Almost as vital as body armor, or in some cases more vital as its very hard to stand your ground when you’ve only got one leg to stand on!

Dharok’s and Torag’s platelegs both still hold first place with +85 Stab, +82 Slash, +83 Crush, -4 Magic, +92 Ranged, and +30 Summoning. They’re probably one of the most surprising cost increases of the year, seeing a leap of over 500% from roughly 350k each to about 1.8m each currently. They were much more cost effective last year and I hope you got some then. They are, however, still cheaper than the second best legs.

3rd Age Platelegs take second with +78 Stab, +76 Slash, +83 Crush, -5 Magic, +75 Ranged, and +25 Summoning but I wouldn’t suggest using them since they cost roughly 146m. If you bought a pair last year for the price of 61m I might suggest selling them. You would receive a pretty nice profit.

In a close Third is the Bandos Tassets with +71 Stab, +63 Slash, +66 Crush, -4 Magic, +93 Ranged and +25 Summoning along with +2 strength and +1 prayer bonus. The great thing about these is they give a strength bonus and a small bit of prayer bonus. The bad thing is they cost about 25.3m, 13.9 more than last year.

Fourth place is held by the Dragon legwear. I say legwear because unlike the three previously mentioned pieces, Dragon armor comes in both legs and skirts. Both have the same stats(+68 Stab, +66 Slash, +63 Crush, -4 Magic, +65 Ranged, and +20 Summoning), weight, and alchemy values. The only difference is the Grand Exchanged price. Last year the legs cost 645k and the skirt cost about 180k. Today the legs are nearly 890k and the skirt is about 184k. I’m going to quote myself for a message to guy’s that I said last year:
“Guys, please do not wear skirts. They may be cheap but they look ugly on male characters and you can get better defence and look alot better for only a little more if you buy Dharok’s platelegs. Save yourself the disgrace – buy platelegs!”

Unfortunately F2Ps still have to rely on their trusty Runeite Legwear. It gives decent defense (+51 Stab, +49 Slash, +47 Crush, -4 Magic, +49 Ranged, and +15 Summoning) and won’t break the bank at only 61k(Legs) and 45k(Skirt).

Boots
Ahh boots, those things that make my feet sore as heck but keep all my toes in one place (on my foot!).

First place remains in ownership of the Bandos Boots with +17 Stab, +18 Slash, +19 Crush, +0 Magic, +0 Ranged, and +15 Summoning as well as a nice +1 prayer bonus. Surprisingly they’ve only risen about 40k over the past year, currently being at 917k. I don’t have a pair of these yet but I may get one if they lower a bit more. The Defence and prayer bonus is a nice combination, though they lack the normal strength bonus of Bandos items.

No surprise is the Dragon boots in second with +16 Stab, +17 Slash, +18 Crush, +0 Magic, +0 Ranged, and +15 Summoning. Dragon boots are actually close to doubling in price, costing about 485k today compared to 250k last year. The reason I have Dragon boots currently and not Bandos boots is because the Dragon boots give +4 to strength and the Bandos do not. If you know me fairly well you’ll remember that I almost always take defence over damage, but in this situation I’d rather the Dragon boots. On average the +4 strength will give you +10 damage (more if your strength level is higher) which will usually help you more than the Bandos boots’ +1 prayer. If going for endurance though the Bandos boots are better.

Third place is held by the Rune Boots with +12 Stab, +13 Slash, +14 Crush, +0 Magic, +0 Ranged, +10 Summoning, and +2 Strength. Though they won’t make you hit extremely high nor prolong your prayer forever, they are good boots for only 97k, up from 54k last year.

F2Ps are still stuck with their Fighting/Fancy boots from the Stronghold of Security. They give +1 Stab, +2 Slash, +3 Crush, +0 Magic, +0 Ranged, and +0 Summoning and seeing as they are free I’d suggest getting them.

Shield
In first place is an item who’s update saw Chaos added to the battlefield – the Chaotic KiteShield! Added as a reward from Dungeoneering, the Chaotic kiteshield not only adds +83 Stab, +90 Slash, +86 Crush, -5 Magic, +89 Ranged, and +0 Summoning, it also absorbs 10% of all melee damage and 20% of all ranged damage over 200. The Chaotic shield costs more than just a few million coins, it costs a whopping 5 billion. Yep, that’s right, 5 big-No. Seriously. You can’t buy this shield. This shield requires time, and lots of it. You need atleast 2 million Dungeoneering experience to have enough reward tokens to spend to purchase this shield. Furthermore, this shield wears down slowly from use and must be repaired. This costs either cash, or cash and tokens.

In second place is last year’s leader, the DFS also known as the Dragon Fire Shield. It gives a toasty +70 Stab, +75 Slash, +72 Crush, +10 Magic, +72 Ranged, and +67 Summoning as well as an insane +7 strength bonus! If its name doesn’t imply it enough, the DFS operates just like an Anti-Dragon Fire Shield in the sense that it protects from Dragon Fire. Its no surprise the price has doubled from 17.4m last year to 35.8 today.

Third place is the Divine and Elysian Spirit shields, both with +63 Stab, +65 Slash, +75 Crush, +2 Magic, +57 Ranged, and +65 Summoning, along with +3 prayer bonus. Unfortunately they both cost a ton (534m and 506m respectively), so I wouldn’t suggest either.

Fourth is the 3rd Age Kiteshield with +63 Stab, +65 Slash, +61 Crush, -3 Magic, +63 Ranged, and +63 Summoning. At a cost of 88m though its a little too pricey for me.

Fifth is the crystal shield. For it I’ll refer to what I said last year:
“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 equipment. 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.”

Only reason I mention Sixth place is because the Dragon Square shield is a decent one for its price of about 300k. It, the Blessed, Arcane, and Spectral spirit shields are pretty much tied with about 50 for melee defences, with the spirit shields having higher crush defence. The spirit shields, however, cost alot more.

The Rune Kite shield is still the best for F2Ps with +44 Stab, +48 Slash, +46 Crush, -1 Magic, +46 Ranged, and +40 Summoning. The great thing about this shield is that it almost always costs the same. last year it was 50k, this year its about 60k.

Weapon
Weapon’s can be defensive too! And that’s especially true about staves, specifically the Toktz-Mej-Tal at +10 Stab, +15 Slash, +5 Crush, +15 Magic, +0 Ranged, and +0 Summoning. It also has a nice +55 strength bonus and +5 prayer bonus. This is another item which has actually dropped over the year, being 122k last year and about 50k this year.

In Second place is the Lucky Cutlass with +6 to melee defence. Its non-tradeable and must be bought from a Pirate on Mo Le’harmless for 2.5k.

Third place is any Longsword, Rune or Dragon will do fine. They all give +0 Stab, +3 Slash, +2 Crush, +0 Magic, +0 Ranged, and +0 Summoning.

I was actually surprised to see that we only had a few new best defence items this year. I was very surprised at some of our price increases though. A 500% increase?