Access Directions | These monsters guard the central chamber of the upper level of the Desert Slayer Dungeon in Pollnivneach. You will encounter and learn how to fight them during the Smoking Kills quest.
The fastest way to get to Pollnivneach is to use a ring of slaying, which takes you right to the house of Sumona the Slayer Master. If you haven't yet learned how to make these, then use the usual methods, such as the Teleport to House spell if your house is in Pollnivneach, or the magic carpets from Al-Kharid or Sophanem.
Once in Pollnivneach, run to the well in the center of town and descend. Run north past Catolax and you'll find the mighty banshees scattered throughout the room. |
Equipment | The easiest and safest way to melee mighty banshees is using prayer gear. Their attack is magic-based melee, so use Protection from Melee. If you want to save money on prayer potions you can wear high magic defence armor like Karil's, but you'll still need a lot of food. And since you really should use a macaw here, you can't use a bunyip.
You must wear either the masked earmuffs you learn how to make during Smoking Kills, or the new Slayer helmet. Otherwise you will take heavy damage in the dungeon. The helmet is obviously better.
Wear a Salve amulet for meleeing; it gives a 15% bonus to accuracy and damage (the enhanced version gives 20%). The exception would be if wearing the Slayer helmet, since the items' bonuses do not "stack".
I usually my Soul Wars cape for its balance of defensive and prayer bonuses. Another option is the Ardougne Cloak 3, which also has a handy teleport right to a prayer altar for recharges.
There are numerous obstacles you can use as safe spots for ranging or maging. Cannoning is also quite effective here, but always use prayer if attempting it. |
Supplies | If meleeing without prayer, bring a load of good food, along with super set potions. The number of doses of potions depends on how long you plan to stay for each trip, which in turn depends on which herbs you plan to keep, as well as whether you are using a beast of burden. As I mention below, I prefer to make short trips, especially when cannoning. If meleeing with prayer use Zamorak brews and super strengths, along with prayer potions of course. Rangers and mages should bring ammunition or runes as appropriate, as well as some food for emergencies.
These monsters have some items worth alching, so a few sets of alching runes would be a good idea.
Note that I used pineapple pizzas in my 2008 log, but they are really too expensive per healing point now to use for monsters like these. Monkfish or similar is fine. |
Familiar | These are good herb droppers, so use a macaw. A healing familiar would be a good alternative if you aren't using prayer, but frankly, you get so much more value in herb drops with the macaw that it is preferred, even if you have to use more expensive food. |
Combat Notes | These monsters are pretty high level, are in a multicombat area and are aggressive -- don't underestimate them.
If meleeing without prayer, use the obstacles and walls in the area as cover, to trap the mighty banshees so they can't swarm you. Then pick them off one at a time until they stop being aggressive -- at that point they become much easier. The same cover can be used for ranging and maging.
Cannoning is very effective in the dungeon. While expensive in terms of cannonball use, you get a lot of XP and valuable drops. In fact, this is now the fastest way in the game to get pure essence.
The best place to set up the cannon is in the middle of one of the north/south corridors on the edge of the main room, near one of the alcoves there. Be sure the cannon has a clear "line of sight" in as many directions as possible. While fighting, watch your prayer level, keep the cannon topped up, and pick up drops. Be sure to watch out for banshees that die well away from the cannon -- keep an eye on your minimap for red dots.
Since you get a lot of drops quickly while cannoning, you'll need to develop an inventory management strategy. A beast of burden seems obvious, but trying to manage it with so much going on can be difficult. I found this plan worked well. Drink a Zamorak brew and super strength dose in the bank, then take with a 2-dose prayer potion and go to the dungeon. Fight until your inventory was full -- leaving behind lower-level herbs, this should take around 10 minutes. Then teleport to your house using a tablet, restore prayer and then bank, dumping herbs and other items. Then repeat the process. This also saves prayer potions as you recharge prayer more frequently. |
Drop Notes | These are the "big sisters" of Banshee!s!, and have similar drops, only better. The two main attractions are again herbs and pure essence, only these drop two herbs at a time, and 23 pure essence instead of 13 for regular banshees. (Banshees still net you more essence per hour because they are much faster to kill, though.)
These monsters also drop plentiful cosmic and chaos runes, noted eyes of newt, and decent alchable items (mostly mithril and adamant). |
|
