Blue Dragon - Access and Combat Recommendations

Access Directions

While Taverley Dungeon is the place that comes to the minds of most players when you mention blue dragons, the Ogre Enclave is a better choice, assuming you can access it (requires the Watchtower quest). There are only three blues in Taverley and they are perpetually crowded. Also, there are many baby blue dragons around and they will attack players below combat level 97.

To fight the ones in the Ogre Enclave, take a duelling ring to Castle Wars and bank there. Then exit the main doors, cross the bridge to the south and run well east, under the southern wall of Yanille. Go up to the Gu'Tanoth doors and pass through. Then head down the dungeon entrance and go inside. There are six dragons, though the one at the north of the circle-shaped dungeon has an aggressive greater demon near it that will try to distract you.

If you want to go to Taverley instead, I recommend level 70 Agility to use the pipe shortcut; it saves a lot of walking (or level 65 Agility with a summer pie). Bank in Falador and go over the western wall, then run to the entrance. Take the pipe obstacle and ta-da, you are at the dragons (this is why the area is often crowded). If you can't use the shortcut, you must go all the way around the dungeon, past magic axes, chaos dwarves, lesser demons and so forth; don't forget your dusty key.

There's a solitary blue dragon in the basement of the Heroes' Guild. Every time I go there -- without exception -- there's at least one person there and others standing around twiddling their thumbs. Just don't bother.

Finally, there are five blue dragons in Kuradal's Dungeon. These can only be fought if you have blues as your current Slayer assignment, however. Get there quickly using a ferocious ring; If you don't have a ring, use the fairy rings to code "B J Q", then run south and go up the stairs to Kuradal.

Equipment

These can be effectively meleed or ranged from safe spots; maging is not recommended. If meleeing, you need to deal with the dragonbreath attack, and there are a couple of ways to do this.

First, you can use a shield with a weapon like a whip, along with antifire potions. Second, if you want to use a godsword or try Dharoks, you can do so using Protection from Magic (along with the potions). Players with high enough Herblore to make super antifire potions can use them to provide complete protection against firebreath, enabling the use of two-handed weapons without the need for prayer.

Very high-level meleers can get by fine with standard melee gear (rune/granite/dragon) while players in the level 100 area are better off with Barrows gear for defence. You could also wear prayer gear and use Protection from Melee with an anti-dragon shield. Dharoks is quite effective here at the higher levels, but obviously dangerous -- you must be sure to watch for the messages indicating that your fire protection is wearing off.

These are also popular monsters for ranging, and if in a safe spot you don't need the anti-dragon shield. However, bringing one with is a wise idea, so you can wield it while grabbing drops when they are aggressive. You can then switch it out for an unholy book or to use a two-handed bow. But if you're an expert at ranging dragons and feel comfortable without the shield, you can leave it in the bank.

Always wear a ferocious ring if fighting in Kuradal's Dungeon (which is only possible if these are your current Slayer assignment.)

Supplies

Use super sets (or extreme sets) if meleeing and ranging pots if ranging. Antifire potions are not needed if ranging, and you can even get by without them for melee, but in the latter case they are a good idea as they cut down on food use.

The number of doses of potions and the amount of food you bring really depends on how often you plan to bank, which comes down to whether you will bury the dragon bones on the spot or bank them for use on a gilded altar or the Ectofuntus. If you want to bank bones then you will need to leave for banking about twice as often as if you bury the bones on the spot. Another issue is the capacity of your beast of burden, which will determine how often you need to bank. You'll need to experiment to figure out what makes the most sense given your levels, equipment and priorities. If using a pack yak's remote banking ability, you'll of course also need Winter Storage scrolls.

Familiar

A beast of burden is recommended, and this is one place where even the overpriced war tortoise pouch is worthwhile to cut down on banking runs. If you can summon a pack yak, it is particularly useful due to its Winter Storage scrolls, so you can stay in place and bank even less often (see the combat notes for more).

Combat Notes

These are quite a bit tougher than the Green Dragons, but still fairly straightforward to melee for high-level players. Ranging is also effective as mentioned earlier, as long as your Ranged level is reasonable (above 50 recommended) and you use good equipment and ammo.

Be careful when fighting in the Ogre Enclave, not to accidentally click on the ogre shamans -- they cannot be killed and may damage you if you even try to talk to them. And this warning goes double if you are Dharoking -- as I found out the hard way doing my latest log, one false click on an ogre while Dharoking and you're toast! Don't use a cannon in the Enclave either, for the same reason.

Blue dragons used to be constantly crowded, both because of bots and regular players. They are now much less civilized, and it is usually easy to find a dragon to yourself. In fact, it is often possible to find adjacent dragons unoccupied, and this is important for very high level players who want to kill them continuously. The two best spawns for this are the ones in the southwest corner of the enclave.

The most advanced technique involves using a pack yak with Winter Storage scrolls, as demonstrated in my January 26, 2010 drop log below. To do this successfully, be sure to use the scrolls constantly, starting right in the beginning (even when you have inventory space free). Use the slots in the pack yak when your special move bar gets too low, and supplement with doses of Summoning potion. Be very sure to watch your health and especially, make sure you don't let your super antifire wear off.

Drop Notes

Blue dragons are obviously great drop monsters; with dragon bones now worth nearly 5k each, you are guaranteed 7k per kill, and high level players can kill blue dragons very quickly.

Beyond the bones and hides, blue dragons also drop herbs, nature runes, water runes and small number of mid-valued alchables. These aren't worth a great deal, but they are a nice supplement to what is already a lucrative monster.