Attack

Attack is a melee combat skill which determines the accuracy of a player's melee attacks and the types of weapons a player may wield. The higher the Attack level, the fewer misses a player will incur during melee combat. As Attack is a vital skill in melee combat, increasing one's Attack level will increase one's combat level associated with melee.

History
Attack was one of the first skills available, introduced with the launch of RuneScape on 4 January 2001. Throughout the expansion and development of RuneScape, the concept for the skill has largely remained the same.

While the concept is largely unchanged, higher tiers of equipment have been released as the game has progressed. Bronze through adamant equipment were introduced with the game itself, but it was not until 26 July 2001 that rune equipment was added. On 27 February 2002, the first pieces of dragon equipment were released with the Lost City and Heroes' Quest quests, further increasing the Attack level necessary to equip all items. On 14 June 2004, special attacks were added to certain weapons. Dragon weapons and excalibur, along with a few Ranged weapons, were the first weapons to feature special attacks. Each special attack was unique to the weapon and used up a certain percentage of a player's special attack energy. Since the introduction of special attacks, several additional weapons have been added which feature unique special attacks.

However, no new weapons were introduced until after release of RuneScape 2 with the introduction of Slayer. The new skill introduced abyssal demons, monsters which dropped the abyssal whip, a powerful one-handed weapon which required 70 Attack to wield. Later that year, several other weapons were introduced which also required 70 Attack to equip. These weapons were part of different degradable armour sets of Barrows equipment, originally used by the 6 Barrows brothers. Of these 6 equipment sets, 4 were melee oriented and required 70 Attack to wield.

Nearly 2 years passed without the introduction of a higher-levelled weapon than the abyssal whip and the various Barrows weapons. On 28 August 2007, the God Wars Dungeon was introduced, featuring 4 warring factions, each protecting their respective versions of the fabled godsword. The godswords were massive two-handed weapons, offered a generous strength bonus, and required 75 Attack to wield. The reign of the godsword, however, was short lived, and on 15 October 2008, different sets of Ancient Warriors' equipment were released. The equipment was degradable, lasting for only a limited amount of time before disappearing. Although these weapons required 78 Attack to wield, they each had a "corrupt" counterpart which only required 20 Attack to equip. These corrupt versions lasted for an even shorter period of time than the normal versions. Additionally, the corrupt dragon weapons were the first new free-to-play weapons released since the introduction of rune equipment.

The release of the Dungeoneering skill marked the release of chaotic weaponry, degradable weapons available for purchase via Dungeoneering tokens. Three different melee weapons were introduced, the chaotic longsword, maul, and rapier, each requiring at least level 80 Attack to equip. The release of this new skill also introduced weapons that could only be used within Daemonheim while training Dungeoneering. This included the addition of the first set of weapons which required skill mastery in Attack to wield; the primal weapons all required 99 Attack to use, with the exception of the primal maul. These weapons were among the strongest melee weapons introduced into the game with several of them setting attack and strength bonus records.

On 12 July 2011, the whip vine was introduced. This item was released as an attachment to the abyssal whip, and when combined, resulted in an abyssal vine whip. While the abyssal vine whip offered offensive bonuses which were inferior to those of the various chaotic weapons released as rewards from the Dungeoneering skill, it nevertheless required 85 Attack and 80 Slayer to wield, a higher Attack requirement than any weapon obtainable outside of Daemonheim at the time.

After six months of beta testing, the Evolution of Combat went live on 20 November 2012. This update dramatically changed the way players interacted with monsters and other players through combat. As the entire combat system had been reworked, many weapons had accuracy and damage adjustments to re-balance the combat triangle. As part of the weapon rework, several long-standing level requirements were changed. For example, adamant and rune weapons which had required levels 30 and 40 Attack were bumped to require levels 40 and 50 attack respectively. However, some weapon requirements were decreased, as seen with the abyssal vine whip, which had its level requirement reduced from level 85 to 75 Attack. In addition to weapon adjustments, the update introduced the use of abilities, various rechargeable attacks which helped increase overall damage throughput compared to standard auto-attacks.

Following the introduction of the Evolution of Combat, chaotic weapons once again held the highest Attack requirements to wield. This held true until 14 January 2013, with the release of the Kalphite King and drygore weaponry. The King dropped main- and off-hand drygore rapiers, maces, longswords, each requiring 90 Attack to equip. These weapons were significantly stronger and more accurate than chaotic weapons when they were first released. However, due to an update in late May which changed how weapon accuracy and damage are calculated, the accuracy difference between drygore and chaotic weapons was lessened.

Combat


Players may receive Attack experience during combat by selecting the Attack skill in the interface under the Combat tab. Experience is only gained when the player slays an enemy, after which both Attack and Constitution experience are awarded dependent on the opponent's stats. It is also possible to earn experience across all melee combat skills by selecting Attack, Strength, and Defence in the experience menu. If this is chosen, the amount of experience that would have been awarded to Attack alone is evenly split among the three skills.

Experience rewards
Attack experience may be awarded after the completion of certain quests, miniquests, tasks, random events, Distractions and Diversions, and other minigames. Additionally, experience lamps, dragonkin lamps, and books of knowledge may be used to gain Attack experience.

Bonus/other experience
Several items provide bonus experience in Attack, as well as other melee skills, when equipped. Melee brawling gloves provide a 300% experience bonus to Attack (as well as Strength and Defence) when training combat in the Wilderness and a 50% bonus when training outside of the Wilderness. The brawling gloves last for approximately 100,000 experience before disintegrating.

Hati paws, a reward from a seasonal Winter event, boosts experience to combat skills during the months following the event. The amount of bonus experience rewarded is limited, however, as the paws lose charge when providing bonus experience.

Individual pieces of sacred clay equipment obtained through the Stealing Creation minigame also provide an experience bonus to Attack and other combat skills. These items double the amount of experience received through combat when equipped. Only one piece of sacred clay armour must be worn to receive this bonus. Similar to the brawling gloves, a piece will disappear after the experience threshold of 24,450 experience is reached.

Equipment
One of the main uses of the Attack skill is determining which types of weapons a player may wield. Generally, higher level weapons provide greater offensive bonuses than similar weapon types of a lower level, providing an incentive for players to train the skill.

Common weapon types
Below is a list of some common types of weapons available through the use of the Attack skill. Weapons denoted with (m) are members only.

Miscellaneous weapons
Many miscellaneous weapons all over RuneScape do not fit into any particular category, such as quest and minigame rewards. Weapons denoted with (m) are members only.

Dungeoneering weapons
Conventional weapons used throughout Gielinor are not allowed in Daemonheim, so a separate set of metals is used during Dungeoneering. The metal types are classified by their "tiers", with tier 1 being the weakest and tier 11 being the strongest. Tiers 1 through 10 weapons may be player made or received as a drop from several monsters, but tier 11 items may only be received as a drop from boss monsters.

Fun weapons
Some weapons do not give any or give very little accuracy and damage bonuses. These weapons are often referred to as fun weapons as they are often impractical for use in any combat situation. As these weapons do not exist necessarily for use in combat; they exist merely for aesthetic purposes.

Warriors' Guild
The Warriors' Guild is a guild for players who have attained mastery or near mastery of melee combat skills. Entrance to the guild requires either 99 Attack, 99 Strength, or a sum of 130 in Attack and Strength. The guild features several activities which involve combat and combat experience, one of which is the cyclops room, run by Kamfreena. Here, players may obtain defenders as drops from the cyclops and cyclossi. Additionally, Attack may be trained on the animation room of the Warriors' Guild, granting 15 experience per successful hit to a dummy.

Skill mastery


Level 99 is the maximum level a player may achieve in Attack, attained at 13,034,431 experience. The amount of experience players may gain is capped at 200 million, but acquiring additional experience until 200 million experience will not increase the Attack level beyond level 99.

As with all skills, players who achieve level 99 in Attack may purchase a Cape of Accomplishment from the skill's master. The Attack cape and hood are sold by Ajjat in the Warriors' Guild for 99,000 coins. Players with more than 1 skill at level 99 will receive a golden trim on the sides of the cape along with a +2 prayer bonus. However, players with only 1 level 99 skill will receive an untrimmed version of the cape.

Currently, there are players with level 99 Attack and  players with 200 million experience in Attack.

Temporary boosts
Various items, potions, prayers, and familiars provide temporary boosts. Below is a list of all possible boosts to Attack. Click on a category to sort.

Visible
Visible boosts are indicated in the stats interface by showing a level increase from the base level.

Herblore
Note: The numbers in parentheses are only required for the mixes.

Invisible
Invisible boosts are not indicated in the stats interface, but they are applied in combat calculations nevertheless. Members-only boosts are indicated by (m).