Defence



Defence (spelled "Defense" in RuneScape Classic; sometimes abbreviated as Def) is one of the primary combat skills that grants players protection in all forms of combat. For this reason, Defence is one of the skills that will raise the combat level of a player regardless of other combat skill levels.

The higher the Defence level, the fewer successful blows an opponent will land against the player, this applies to all combat styles used against the player. Defence is thus a vital skill for enduring attacks for long periods of time, and can be extremely helpful against opponents with high Attack, Ranged, Magic or powerful Summoning familiars.

A player's Defence level also determines which equipment he or she is able to wear, as most pieces of armour or other equipment have a Defence level requirement.

Combat
Defence plays an important role in all forms of combat. The higher a player's Defence level, the more likely the opponent is to miss an attack, dealing 0 damage.

Defence can be trained in combat using any of the three combat styles: Magic, Melee or Ranged. This is determined by selecting the XP button on the combat tab, and then selecting to train Defence for each combat style, or train a combination of defence and the skill related to that combat style. For melee attacks, defence can be trained by itself or alongside attack and strength; for ranged attacks, defence can be trained by itself or alongside ranged; and for magic attacks defence by itself or alongside magic.

It is worth noting that 1/4 of all combat experience is given to the constitution skill, regardless of what is selected on the xp button. The experience for combat is added after a kill is made, and added in one block. If a player is training slayer, slayer xp is added after the opponent's life points gauge is emptied, and combat xp is added after the opponent's death animation finishes.

Experience rewards
Players can get Defence experience as a reward for completing certain quests for a total of 166,037 experience. There are also lots of quests that allows the player to choose the skill that will receive an experience reward.

Experience lamps, gained through tasks and random events can be used to grant experience to any skill. Players can also trade points gained in certain minigames for experience in Defence level. Other ways to get reward experience in Defence is through the Dragonkin lamp, penguin points, Tears of Guthix and by completing Court Cases with a successful defence.

Other ways to gain experience

 * The brawling gloves (melee) provide 50% bonus experience whilst training on any of the Melee skills (Defence, Strength and Attack) using the melee combat style. In addition, the gloves provide 300% bonus experience if players train whilst in the Wilderness. The gloves last for around 100,000 combat experience, and disintegrate after the player receives all this bonus experience.
 * A player can train Defence on the Catapult room at the Warriors' Guild, the player will receive 10 experience per successful defence.
 * Harvesting the fruit from a Prickly pear will grant defence experience related to your defence level.
 * Players receive combat experience from the damage dealt by their Summoning familiars, the skill that receives the experience varies depending on the familiar, except that Constitution always receive 13.3% of the damage done by the familiar.

"Controlled Familiars", for whom 13.3% of damage dealt is converted to Defence experience :

Equipment
Almost every single piece of combat equipment (except for the ones that go on the weapon, cape, ring, aura and amulet slots) requires a certain Defence level to wear. Here are links to tables of armour and equipment that require a Defence level to wear:


 * Armour - For an overview on the different types of Armour.
 * Melee Armour - An overview of the different types of Melee armour.
 * Magic Armour - An overview of the different types of Magic armour.
 * Ranged Armour - An overview of the different types of Ranged armour.
 * Prayer Armour - An overview of the different types of Prayer armour.
 * Defenders - A weapon that goes on the shield slot and provides offensive bonuses while also having an Attack and Defence levels requirement.

Other features

 * You require a certain Defence level to do certain quests. The highest requirement is level 80 Defence for The Brink of Extinction.
 * The prayer Piety requires 70 Defence to be activated.
 * You also need a certain Defence level to complete certain Tasks; they involve, among other things, quest requirements, trying out some equipment at certain places, and the highest levelled task being to enter the Seers' Village Courthouse with the Piety prayer activated.
 * Defence is used on the Dungeoneering skill in several ways.
 * Thieving using a Maple blackjack (d) requires having 30 Defence.



Skill mastery
After achieving level 99 Defence, players can buy the defence cape from Harlan the melee instructor in the building north of the Lumbridge general store. The defence cape is light blue in colour, and has a cream trim for players who have more than one level 99 skill.

Temporary boosts
Flat and percentage Defence level bonus don't stack with each other when they add up above the base Defence level. They do, however, stack with the effective defence bonuses of prayers and equipment special effects, as they don't increase the defence level in any way but directly affect the actual chance of dodging an attack when in combat. Members items are marked with (m)
 * Defence cape - Boosts Defence level by 1 for a short period of time after using the skillcape emote. (m)
 * Defence potion - Boosts Defence level by 1 to 8 (1 + 8% of base Defence level rounded down).
 * Super defence potion - Boosts Defence level by 2 to 13 (2 + 12% of base Defence level rounded down). (m)
 * Extreme defence potion - Boosts Defence level by 3 to 17 (3 + 15% of base Defence level rounded down). This item cannot be traded and the only way to obtain it is by making it at 90 Herblore. (m)
 * Overload offers the same boost as the Extreme defence potion, but applies it every 15 seconds for 5 minutes, at which point it wears off completely. (m)
 * Saradomin brew - Boosts Defence by 4% + 1, in addition to other effects. 4. (m)
 * The special move of the War Tortoise familiar raises your Defence level by 8. (m)
 * Titan's Constitution - The special move of the Fire, Moss and Ice Titans boosts Defence level by 1 + 11% (m)

The following bonuses don't increase the player's current Defence level on the stats tab, but allows the player to be hit less often (see above) and will therefore stack with other boosts:
 * Prayers from the standard book:
 * Thick Skin, Rock Skin, Steel Skin, and Chivalry (m) boost Defence by 2%, 4%, 6%, and 7%, respectively.
 * Piety (m), Augury (m) and Rigour (m) all boost Defence by 8%.
 * Prayers from the Ancient Curses:
 * Leech Defence boosts Defence by 2%, increasing to 8% over time, while draining the opponent's Defence by 6%, increasing to 12% over time (m)
 * Turmoil(m), Torment (m) and Anguish (m) boost Defence by 10%

History
Before the Evolution of Combat update, the way in which defence was trained was different for all attack methods:

Melee
Defence xp was only gained if a player hit an opponent while on Defensive attack style, chosen on the Combat interface. The Defensive attack style was available with all weapons besides the dwarven army axe.

If a player fought with the "controlled" attack style, then the experience was split across Strength, Attack and Defence.

It is worth noting that the Defensive stance gave an invisible +3 boost to Defence level, and the Controlled stance an invisible +1 boost to Defence as well as Attack and Strength.

Ranged
The player could earn Defence experience only when attacking with Ranged by using the Longrange attack style, which split experience equally between Ranged and Defence. 2 Ranged and Defence experience were earned for each 10 damage dealt. This attack style gave an extra square of range to all weapons, however speed of fire was sacrificed.

Magic
Defence could be trained while training Magic when casting offensive spells by toggling the "defensive casting" option in the lower right corner of the combat menu. 1 Defence experience (as well as 1.333 Magic experience) will be awarded for every 10 points of damage dealt. The experience awarded for casting the spell was not affected, and only awarded to Defence.

Trivia

 * In RuneScape Classic, the American spelling "defense" was used.