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Melee is one of the three main Combat styles, alongside Ranged and Magic.

This page is up to date (v1.2.2).
Melee

Mechanics

Unlike the other two combat styles, Melee has separate skills for increasing Accuracy and Damage (  Attack and   Strength respectively) instead of them being combined into a single skill. As melee armor requires   Defence levels to wear while most Ranged and Magic armor requires only levels in the appropriate skill, leveling Defence is also more important to Melee than any other style.

Melee receives Combat Triangle bonuses when used against   Ranged and penalties when used against   Magic.

Due to requiring three skills to be leveled in order to be used effectively instead of just one, melee is the slowest style to train, although this is offset somewhat by not having a cost associated with each attack as neither runes nor ammo are needed.

Melee weapons and armor can be made using the   Smithing skill or received as drops from various Monsters or Dungeons.

The Melee icon ( ) is the same as the Attack icon.

Attack Styles

Melee has three attack styles: Stab, Slash, and Block. Each has a separate attack bonus stat associated with it, and most melee weapons have different bonuses for different styles. This means that a given melee weapon will be most accurate when used in certain styles. For example, the   Ragnar Godsword has a +125 Slash Bonus but a -4 Stab Bonus, making it substantially more accurate when using the Slash attack style than it is when using Stab.

In addition to having different bonuses, each attack style provides XP to a different skill:

Each attack style also provides +6 hidden levels in the respective skill. Hidden levels are functionally identical to normal levels for all accuracy, damage, and evasion calculations, but do not count towards item equip requirements. Using the Block attack style at   Defence Level 54 would not allow the player to equip a   Dragon Platebody

Melee Equipment Stats

Weapons

As a rule of thumb, smithed weapon follow this style:

Weapon Details Style
    Dagger Fast, weaker   Stab   Block
    Sword   Stab   Block
    Scimitar   Slash
    2H Sword No shield, slow   Slash
    Battleaxe Slow-ish   Slash   Block


Helmets

Bodies

Legs

Boots

Gloves

Shields

Capes