Dragon claw

A dragon claw is a claw made of dragon metal. It was released, then as dragon claws, on 26 November 2008, along with the While Guthix Sleeps Quest and tormented demons. It is a one-handed weapon that requires an Attack level of 60 in order to wield. It is statistically identical to a dragon scimitar. The dragon claw may be obtained as drops from tormented demons, traded from another player or bought from the Grand Exchange. Tormented demons can only be killed during and after While Guthix Sleeps, but completing the quest is not a requirement to wield the dragon claw (or its off-hand equivalent).

With a Dungeoneering level of 80, players can attach five chaotic spikes to the claw, creating a chaotic claw, which requires level 80 Attack and degrades in the same manner as normal chaotic weapons. This process is irreversible, and the upgraded claw is untradeable.

Special attack
The dragon claw has a special attack, Slice & Dice, similar to its previous special attack before the Evolution of Combat. The special attack hits the target four times and uses 50% adrenaline.

The special attack requires both the main hand and off-hand variants equipped.

History
When released, dragon claws immediately became enormously popular with both player-killers and monster-killers, rapidly pushing up their market price from its starting position of 150,000 coins to approximately 40 million coins. They were used almost exclusively for their potent special attack, which made four attacks at once, and only used 50% of the special attack bar. The dragon claws' special attack was one of the most damaging special attacks in the game, and was very commonly used by player-killers as a "knock-out" weapon. The claws were seldom used outside of their special attack, as their offensive stats were relatively unimpressive when compared to other, much cheaper weapons.

Although it declined over time, the market price of dragon claws remained relatively high for years. A few notable events caused minor price fluctations, such as updates to PvP worlds and Bounty Hunter, the release of Bounty +1 worlds, and the release of Korasi's sword, which competed directly with dragon claws as a knockout weapon.

When Jagex announced in mid-2012 that the upcoming Evolution of Combat would remove special attacks from all weapons, dragon claws suffered a strong price drop, eventually reaching 8.5 million coins by mid-July. The price drop was driven by speculation that the claws, whose value lay almost solely in their special attack, would become useless. As summer went on into autumn and no official release date for the Evolution of Combat was posted, the price of dragon claws slowly began to recover; however, on 5 November 2012, Jagex announced that the Evolution of Combat would be released on 20 November, and the claws' price crashed, almost as quickly as it climbed when first released.

In addition to the removal of their special attack, the Evolution of Combat split the dragon claws into mainhand and offhand versions. Players who owned dragon claws were given both mainhand and offhand claws for free; however, dragon claws that were lent out or listed on the Grand Exchange were not split, only converted into mainhand claws. Additionally, the Evolution of Combat rebalanced the bonuses of the claws to be equal with other level 60 melee weapons. This was another reason for the price drop, as a pair of dragon claws would be just as effective in combat as a pair of dragon scimitars or dragon daggers, both much cheaper weapons. To counteract this, Jagex added a 0.8% melee critical bonus to the claws, to differentiate them from other dragon weapons, but it was not enough to turn back the severe price drop.

On 7 January 2013, Jagex announced the upcoming release of chaotic claws, an upgrade to dragon claws available from the Dungeoneering skill. The chaotic claws boast increased stats as level 80 weapons, and cost fewer Dungeoneering tokens to obtain than other chaotic weaponry; according to Jagex, this is because players must upgrade an existing pair of dragon claws to chaotic claws, a process that is permanent and renders the claws untradeable. This announcement caused a minor increase in prices as players bought dragon claws to upgrade, but nevertheless, the prices continued to drop throughout early 2013.

After the Combat Improvements Beta was announced, their price once again increased in anticipation of its returning special attack.

This weapon has a special attack which causes four very quick attacks performed at once with increased accuracy, but the last three hits depend entirely on the first hit. The second hit always be half of the first hit, and the 3rd and 4th hits always added up to the 2nd hit.

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