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Last month I wrote about Melee defence, this week I’ll be talking about Magic defence. I was initially going to do Ranged defence this time, but since much of the ranged defence armor is the same as the melee defence armor I thought I should wait a month and do Magic instead to give some variety.

Note: Again, I will not be talking about Zuriel’s or Morrigan’s armor because they only last for an hour, and I think most of us would like to fight longer than that.

It’s a well known fact that Archers beat Mages hands down almost every time. For this reason it should come as no great surprise that many of the items I’ll be talking about will be ranged related items.

Magic

Helm
The Armadyl Helmet currently holds the record at +6 Stab, +8 Slash, +10 Crush, +10 Magic, +8 Ranged, and +12 Summoning along with with a nice little +1 prayer bonus. It’s a great helm if you’re going to be ranging also because it adds +10 to your ranged attack. However if you’ll be maging or meleeing I wouldn’t suggest it as it has a -5 penalty on Stab, Slash, Crush, and Magic. At 4.8m it’s certainly not the cheapest, and because of its penalties I don’t suggest using it.

From the third age, and coming in second, is the Third Age Mage hat at +0 Stab, +0 Slash, +8 Mage, +0 Ranged, and +12 Summoning. However due to it costing 34.5m, it is not worth considering. Unless your money grows on trees.

Coming in third is the Bearhead from the Mountain Daughter quest at +12 Stab, +14 Slash, +10 Crush, +7 Magic, +9 Ranged, and +0 Summoning. Along with its melee defences, it makes for a good, cheap, helm that anyone can wear (yes, it doesn’t require any levels).

For F2Ps the best helm is the Green Dragonhide coif from Fist of Guthix at +4 Stab, +6 Slash, +8 Crush, +4 Magic, +5 Ranged, and +4 Summoning. Or if you don’t want to spend the time playing Fist of Guthix you can just buy or make your own coif, which has the same defence as the Green Dragonhide coif except that it has +4 Ranged and +5 Summoning.

Amulet
The Leader of…all amulets I think is the Fury. And I’ll quote myself from last time in saying that…
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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’ve got that kind of money – great! But since some of us don’t we should use the Amulet of Defence, which gives +1 to all defences. Now this is actually the best F2P amulet for defence also, which I forgot to say in my last article (So that you’d have to read this one, hehe, gotta keep you coming back for something). However since this amulet does only defence it’s not always the best one to use. The Amulet of Power adds +6 to all attacks, defence, and strength, making it the best amulet all around for F2Ps.

Cape
You’ll probably see this cape mentioned fairly often throughout this series of articles.
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For now the Fire Cape from the Tzhaar Fight Caves still holds the record for best defence. It gives +11 to all defence, along with +1 to all attacks, +4 strength bonus and +2 prayer bonus. The annoying thing about this cape is that it requires the defeat of the Tztok-Jad, one of Gielinor’s most dangerous known monsters.

Not bad, but who can kill the Jad? If you’d rather best a god’s follower instead of getting fried by the Jad then you could complete the Mage Arena mini-quest and use the Godcape of your choosing. Coming in with +1 Stab, +1 Slash, +2 Crush, +10 Magic, +0 Ranged, and +5 Summoning, it’s not only got really nice defence, but it also comes in second place for all time best Magic defence.

If skilling is more your thing then you could get one of your skills to level 99 and buy a cape of Accomplishment for 99k from a certain NPC (depending on the skill) which would give +9 to all defence. If you get two skills to 99 you’ll get an additional +4 prayer bonus on your cape.

Ofcourse if your money trees are in bloom you can spend 200k on an Obsidian cape which also gives +9 to all defences, however it doesn’t give you +4 prayer.

Unfortunately there is no good magic defense cape for F2Ps. Sorry guys 🙁

Body
Covering the largest percentage of the body, this is not a piece to be over or under looked.

Coming in first is another piece of Armadylware – the chestplate at +56 Stab, +48 Slash, +61 Crush, +70 Magic, +57 Ranged, and +52 Summoning. The downside is, like the helmet, that it gives a penalty to melee and a hefty penalty to mage attacks, being -7 and -15 respectively. Though that’s overlooking the 11m it costs to buy it.

If your money trees haven’t bloomed yet then the Karil’s leather top is for you. Costing only 90k to repair every 15 hours and coming in second all time at +47 Stab, +42 Slash, +50 Crush, +65 Magic, +57 Ranged, and +60 Summoning, it is a quite reasonable piece of armor.

F2Ps only require level 40 Ranged and defence to wear their best magic defence armor – Green Dragonhide – yielding +40 Stab, +32 Slash, +45 Crush, +20 Magic, +40 Ranged, and +40 Summoning.

Gloves
There’s a reason these gloves are still around even though they were built in the Third age. The Third Age vambracers hold the record at +6 Stab, +5 Slash, +7 Crush, +9 Magic, +0 Ranged, and +5 Summoning. However due to their price of nearly 17m, I wouldn’t suggest using them.

Black Dragonhide vambracers come in just behind the Third age ones at +6 Stab, +5 Slash, +7 Crush, +8 Magic, +0 Ranged, and +6 Summoning. With the addition of kebbit claws these add +2 strength bonus, making them even more inviting.

The ‘Barrows’ gloves from the Recipe for Disaster quest give the next best defence at +12 Stab, +12 Slash, +12 Crush, +6 Magic, +12 Ranged, and +6 Summoning and an equal amount to the respective attack stats, as well as +12 to strength.

Again Green Dragonhide is the best for F2Ps at +3 Stab, +2 Slash, +4 Crush, +2 Magic, +0 Ranged, and +3 Summoning. Requiring only 40 Ranged, pick these up and don’t put them down.

Ring
Not surprisingly the Seers’ Fremmenik ring takes the cake for best ring at +4 Magic defence and attack. At only about 66k it’s worth it if you’re just going for defence.

Cheaper, and in second place, is the Lunar Ring from the Lunar Diplomacy quest at +2 Magic defence and attack. If lost it can be bought back from the Oinerimancer (or however it’s spelled, darn lunarians need to use real words) for about 2,000 coins.

Third place is the Beacon ring from What Lies Below at +1 magic defence and +2 magic attack. I’m not sure how to get it back, probably from Zaff.

F2Ps are still out of luck. 🙁 Sorry guys. I’d suggest using a Ring of Recoil as it does 10% damage back (always dealing atleast 1 damage) whenever you take damage. It can deal 40 points of recoil damage to your enemy before it breaks. Not too bad and almost as good as defence, they’re pretty easy to make and only cost about 700 on the Grand Exchange.

Legs
Holding the record, but no place in my bank, is the last piece of Armadylware ranged armor – the legs – at +32 Stab, +26 Slash, +34 Crush, +40 Magic, +33 Ranged, and +25 Summoning. However since they cost a quaint ‘little’ 12m, they hold no place in my armory.

The Karil’s skirt, however, does hold a place with +26 Stab, +20 Slash, +28 Crush, +35 Magic, +33 Ranged, and +30 Summoning. Holding second place and costing only 240k and 80k to repair every 15 hours, these are worth it.

Since the Third age Ranged Legs cost over 35m, I won’t say anymore then that they’re in third place with +30 Magic defence.

If you want cheap, reliable legwear that still ranks high go for Black Dragonhide chaps. They give +31 Stab, +25 Slash, +33 Crush, +28 Magic, +31 Ranged, and +30 Summoning and only cost only about 6k.

F2Ps still get to use their trusty Green Dragonhide. At +22 Stab, +16 Slash, +24 Crush, +8 Magic, +22 Ranged, and +15 Summoning and no repair fees, its good armor even for low level members.

Boots
Some of the best warriors have been taken down by foot injuries, so it’s crucial that you arm (or rather foot) yourself with the best possible boots you can.

Dazzling with colors, the Infinity boots take the title of best Magic defence in footwear at +5 Magic defence and attack, alongwith a quaint little +5 to Summoning defence. Unfortunately these only add to magic and summoning so unless you’re planning on Maging what’s Maging you and have been cultivating your money trees, I wouldn’t spend 850k on a pair of these.

Wizard boots come in second at +4 Magic defence and attack. Unfortunately, like their elder relations the Infinity boots they lack any other bonuses, deterring them from being used by Warriors. At around 320k, they’ll cost you a fair bit and probably won’t be worth it, though they do make for nice blue boots.

Ranger Boots and Lunar boots are tied for third at +2 Magic defence. The Lunar boots also add +1 Stab, +2 Slash, +2 Crush, and +2 Summoning, but lack Ranged defence. The Ranger boots also add +2 Stab, +3 Slash, +4 Crush, and +10 Summoning, but also lack ranged Defence. Ranged boots cost about 6.8 Million where as Lunar boots only cost 10k to buy back from the Oinerimancer if lost. Between the two, I’d pick Lunar though if you find a pair of Ranger Boots in a clue – Great! Wear them. But I would highly suggest not buying them.

F2Ps still have to wear their trusty Fighting or Fancy Boots. They don’t add Magic defence but neither do Leather boots.

Shield
Among many it’s thought that the Mage Book holds the record for best Magic defence in a shield, however that’s not true.

The Spectral Spirit Shield soars over the Mage Book with twice the defence at +30 Magic defence! The nice thing about the Spectral Spirit Shield is that it offers a rather large +53 Stab, +55 Slash, +73 Crush, +52 Ranged, and +65 Summoning, as well as a +3 bonus to prayer. The downside is that this shield will set you back over 120 million. So it’s not the best shield to buy unless you’ve fertilized your money trees.

The Mage’s book from the Mage Training Arena comes in second at +15 Magic defence and an equal amount to Magic attack. At 2 million, I wouldn’t suggest buying it because it only adds to Magic attack & defence, unless you plan on maging your maging opponent.

Coming in third is the DragonFire Shield at +10. It doesn’t matter if it’s fully charged or not as it will always add the same amount. This is a good shield to use against enemies which hit you with a melee based magic attack as it also gives decent defence. Unfortunately it still requires some money tree farming at a cost of about 17.5 million.

Fourth place is the Elemental Mind shield at +9. It’s pretty cheap, but only gives Magic defence, nothing else.

In fifth place is the Holy Book, or Saradomin God Book. Why am I talking about fifth place? Because the Holy book not only adds a useful +8 to all defence but also adds +5 to prayer. Very useful if you need to use Protect from Melee and have good Magic defence at the same time. Free as a quest reward and free to get back, the only cost is buying the 4 Saradomin pages to fill it. Altogether all four pages will cost less than 250k.

F2Ps should use the Anti-Dragon Breath shield, which yields +2 Magic defence as well as +7 Stab, +9 Slash, +8 Crush, and +8 Ranged, unfortunately lacking any Summoning defence.

Weapon
One of the most overlooked pieces of defensive armament is the weapon, which can add a surprising amount of defence.

There’s a reason there is a star on this wand, it’s because it won first prize for best Magic defence in a weapon. The Master Wand from the Mage Training arena takes first place with +20 Magic Defence and attack. Good if you’re going to be maging your opponent back, but I wouldn’t suggest poking the Chaos Elemental with this 560k twig.

The Ancient Staff, Ahrim’s Staff, and Toktz-Mej-Tal are all tied for second with +15 Magic Defence and attack. The Toktz-Mej-Tal gives +10 Stab, +15 Slash,+5 Crush, and +5 Prayer whereas the Ahrim’s Staff gives +65 to Crush Attack and Strength bonus. The Ancient Staff Costs 60k, Ahrim’s staff costs 50k, and the Toktz-Mej-Tal costs 120k. Choose which is best for your situation.

The Lunar staff claims third with +13 Magic Defence, however since it lacks an elemental rune or a special ability I doubt anyone would want to use it.

All Elemental staffs, The Staff of Iban, The Dramen Staff, and the Slayer Staff all add +10 to Magic Defence with atleast that much to attack also. The Slayer staff adds a total of +12 to Magic attack.

Because there are four F2P elemental staffs, Fire, Water, Earth, and Air, F2Ps aren’t far from the best Magic Defence weapon when they use one of them.

Again, please remember that these are the items with the best defence for Magic only. This doesn’t mean that they’ll always be the best armor or weapon to use against whatever you’re fighting. Always research your enemy and find its strengths and weaknesses.