Killerwatts have a deserved reputation as being one of the toughest monsters for their level in the game. This is why I don't even have a mid-level entry for these despite them being only level 55 combat -- it takes too much food to fight them with level 50 skills. Because of the damage they do with their very fast attacks, many players avoid them even when they are given as a Slayer assignment. However, they do provide very good drops, including lots of herbs, tons of nature runes and many high-value alchable items such as battlestaves. You just need to use potions and high healing food; I recommend strawberry baskets, because even though they are a bit slow to eat, that's okay here, and they give you 30 HP of healing at a very low cost.
WARNING: Killerwatts are located in their own stormy plane, which Jagex made realistic through the use of storm clouds, lightning bolts and flashes of light. The light flashes have the potential to cause seizures in some epileptics. You do get a warning before you go for the first time, and the flashes are not present if you play on low detail. Anyone who has epilepsy should use caution and consult with their physician before fighting killerwatts. I recommend playing on low detail for these regardless, since the light flashes are rather annoying.
With monsters that drop a large number of herbs, there are trade-offs between keeping all the herbs or leaving the lower-valued ones so you can try to get more of the ones that cost more. There is also a trade-off between using a beast of burden to get more herbs per trip, or summoning a macaw for its herb enhancing benefit, because the macaw increases the percentage of good herbs (ranarr and above) by a hefty 40%. The key factors that determine the best approach are the number of herbs you get per hour from the monster, the distance to the bank (and thus how much time you waste per hour banking if you take more trips) and the value of non-herb drops.
Killerwatts are not very close to a bank, but they don't drop nearly as many herbs as monsters like cave crawlers or chaos druids. The value of their non-herb drops is very high, though, so you don't want to waste too much time running to and from banks. Based on my calculations, the best approach here is to use a macaw familiar and keep only guams and harralander and better herbs (i.e., everything but marrentills and tarromins). |
All information based on Grand Exchange price data from: May 19, 2012. Note that the three-day delay in price updates is waived for RuneScoop members. 