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RuneScoop.com  >  RuneScoop Monster Secrets       >  RuneScoop Monster Secrets - Waterfiend Guide

Waterfiend Guide - Basic Single Combat Melee Technique Waterfiend Guide - Multicombat Melee Technique (Chaos Tunnels)

This single combat waterfiend method is a more advanced version of the basic method, which uses prayer to enhance combat prowess and enable more waterfiends to be killed in a given period of time. This choice of which to do represents a trade-off between the extra cost of supplies (chiefly prayer potions) and the speed with which charms and other drops are obtained.

Aside from the use of prayer (and prayer potions) there is really very little difference between this method and the basic one. In both cases, the emphasis is on magic defence armor, the use of a fast crushing weapon, and a beast of burden to carry in cost-effective food and carry out supplies. Combat tactics are also pretty much the same, except for the need to manage prayer. Because of these similarities, if you read both the basic method and this one from start to finish, you’ll find a lot of repetition—I did this to avoid having to force readers to swap from one page to the other.

This guide assumes level 95 Prayer and completion of The Temple at Senntisten, to enable use of the Turmoil curse. If you have a lower prayer level, use Piety instead; it is only slightly worse in its Defence bonus, and against waterfiends, is actually slightly better on Attack bonus. The reason I use Turmoil is that the difference between it and Piety is small, and Turmoil drains prayer 1/3 slower than Piety. I also hate switching between curses and prayers.

Here’s a summary of the key information about this technique:

• Technique: Advanced melee using Saradomin sword with prayer.
  
  
• Risk Level: Very low. The use of prayer boosts your defence and actually makes this method safer than the basic one.
  
  
• Kills Per Trip: This depends entirely on the familiar and food you are using, and how many prayer potions you bring. I use a pack yak with cheap food—not even completely filled—and last for around 30 minutes per trip. With a smaller familiar, you either get shorter trips, or you need to use better food. Conversely, if you want to stay for more time, you can take better food. If using a healing familiar, you can stay for much longer periods of time.
  
  
• Kills Per Hour: I am able to get approximately 125 kills per hour. This is total time required, in casual play; it includes “sideline” activities like picking up drops, exchanging items with a beast of burden, alching armor and weapon items, and so forth. It excludes travel time and incidental activities like repairing Barrows armor.
  
  
• Charms Per Hour: About 120, with roughly 100 of them crimson.
  
  
• Profitability: This method is not quite as profitable as the basic method, due to the use of prayer potions, but it still yields net positive cashflow. The exact amount of money you make depends on your luck with drops, but typically is something in the 100k to 150k range per hour.

This method was tested using my character (Qeltar), which has maxed combat stats and high enough Herblore to use extreme potions. I decided to test using those potions because I generally find it easiest to test with maximized conditions and then let players “derate” based on their own character’s circumstances.

If you don’t have high Herblore you can use super sets, and from what I can tell, will experience only a small decrease in kill speed. If your Attack and Strength are below 99, assume you will get proportionally fewer kills per hour; if your Defence is lower, assume shorter trips or the use of better food. Players with substantially lower levels may need to modify this method to include more prayer potions and the use of the Protection from Ranged or Deflect Ranged prayer.

The primary goal of the equipment in this setup is to maximize magic defence, while secondary goals are to boost crush attack and strength for faster kills, and enhance prayer to save on potions. Table 193 and Figure 37 show my recommendations. See the discussion of challenges and strategy for more discussion on equipment trade-offs.

The supplies you need depend on not just your levels, but also on the familiar you are using. My recommended inventory items, shown in Table 194 and Figure 37, are based on my high level character and the use of a pack yak. If you are using a smaller capacity familiar, either bring less food or go for shorter trips. If you want to use a bunyip instead, then I recommend a mix of good and cheap food (say, monkfish and salmon), and suggest bringing with Swallow Whole scrolls. Players should adjust the number of boosting potion doses they bring to suit the length of their trips; I aim to use one 4-dose extreme/super set per half hour.

Start off by getting to the bank in Zanaris; an easy way to do this is to use a ring of slaying to teleport to Rellekka, then use the fairy ring just to the west of where you land. At the bank, do the following to get yourself ready for the first trip (or between trips):

1. Set your quick prayer to Piety, or your quick curse to Turmoil, as appropriate.
   
   
2. Use cheap food (trout, salmon, cakes, etc.) to heal up completely.
   
   
3. Make sure your prayer is topped up.
   
   
4. Put on or check all your equipment to make sure it is correct. If it’s been a while since you repaired your Barrows gear, be sure it is above 25%.
   
   
5. If you don’t have a familiar out, summon one. (There’s a Summoning obelisk right in Zanaris for your convenience.) If you have a familiar already, check that its timer is long enough to last for the next trip. If necessary, you can bring with an extra pouch and renew its timer while in combat.
   
   
6. Set your Summoning left-click option to “Take BoB”.
   
   
7. Take out any inventory items you need for the trip (food, potions, etc.)
   
   
8. Wield your dramen staff or lunar staff.

Run southeast from the Zanaris bank to the main fairy ring and click on it. When the interface comes up, scroll down the list slightly, find code “B J Q”, and click it to go to the Ancient Cavern.

When you appear, do not move off the fairy ring until you are ready for combat! Wield your real weapon, and check its combat style to be sure it is on a “crush” setting. Take the first dose of your extreme set or super set, turn on your enhancement prayer, then click on a waterfiend to start fighting. When it dies, take its drops, then go to the next one, and so forth.

While fighting, pay attention to the following:

• Health: Watch your health, eating food when necessary. Use the “Take BoB” button to get more food when necessary. If you really find yourself in trouble, put on Protection from Ranged or Deflect Ranged, at least temporarily.
  
  
• Prayer: Top up your prayer with potion doses as needed. Since you are using this mainly to speed combat, running out of prayer isn’t that big of a deal here, though.
  
  
• Position: Stay well away from the brutal green dragons, especially during the aggressive period at the start of combat. Try not to move around too much, so the fiends eventually become unaggressive; this makes life much more pleasant.
  
  
• Combat Levels: Take another dose of your combat enhancing potions every 5 to 10 minutes, depending on how many doses you brought and how long you plan to stay.
  
  
• Special Attack: Remember to use your special attack every few minutes, depending on its drain rate. Swap weapons to your secondary weapon if you are using one.
  
  
• Inventory Management: Waterfiends have so many drops that sometimes inventory juggling becomes an issue. Use your beast of burden to keep a few inventory spaces open, so you can spend less time managing items and more time killing. Alch the alchable items you get as drops, and store arrows in your quiver. Managing your inventory gets easier as you use up your food; also don’t be afraid to “waste” your food if you need more room—that’s one of the reasons you use cheap food in the first place.
  
  
• Familiar Timer: If you have brought a familiar on a second or subsequent trip after summoning it, watch its timer. Even if it does expire, though, you still have five minutes to get what it drops, which is plenty of time to go back to Zanaris, get another pouch, and return.

Fighting waterfiends can be annoying at the start, when they are aggressive. Since they can attack from a distance, you’ll start getting pelted by your next victim while still gathering the drops from the first one. This can lead to lots of “dancing”, and some players prefer turning off auto-retaliate during this period. If you do that, though, be sure you remember to click manually to attack after eating food or taking a potion.

I usually stay in the waterfiends’ lair until one of three things happens: I run out of food, I run out of potions, or my beast of burden is full of decent drops. Make adjustments to your supply levels so that all three of these events occur at roughly the same time. Random chance being what it is, though, sometimes you’ll run out of food more quickly than you expect, or you’ll get lucky and get a lot of good drops, or whatever.

If you run out of food prematurely, one option is to make use of protection prayers temporarily; you’re already using prayer so this will just drain it a bit more. Very high level players can also try using Soul Split, which lets you heal 1/5th of the damage you deal while it is enabled.

If you are running low on combat potion doses, then take longer between doses. The Berserker curse from the Ancient Curses can be used to help stretch your stat boosts. Or, you can just fight with slightly lower stats for a while.

If you run out of prayer potions, you can just fight without prayer (using the equivalent of the basic method) until you are ready to bank.

When generous drops are the issue, your obvious choices are to bank more often or leave the drops behind. Getting a couple of raw lobster drops can fill up even a pack yak rather quickly, so I usually leave them if I don’t have space. However, I am not one to leave raw sharks, good herbs or mithril bars on the ground. :)

Whatever the reason, when you are ready to bank, it’s pretty easy: re-equip your lunar or dramen staff, click the fairy ring, and run back to the bank. You will probably be out of prayer points, so you can either use prayer potions at the bank to restore prayer, or use the Ardougne cloak trick: take out of the bank your Ardougne cloak and a ring of slaying, teleport to the Monastery, recharge prayer, then use the ring to go to Rellekka and use the fairy ring there to return to Zanaris.

Here are a few additional notes and tips for success using this method:

• This is not a place where being on as full a world as possible is particularly important. It’s more useful to be on one where there aren’t too many other players competing with you for the waterfiends.
  
  
• Avoid the far northeast part of the secondary waterfiend lair; you end up wasting time running around an obstacle.
  
  
• Turn off your prayer temporarily if you need to pause to deal with drops or something else.
  
  
• All of the armor and weapon items dropped by waterfiends are worth alching.
  
  
• Keep an eye out for useful items left behind by other players, which sometimes includes noted items you may already have in your inventory.
  
  
• Remember that if you get bolts or arrows as drops, you can store them in your quiver.
  
  
• Need an extra inventory spot at the end of a trip? Drop your leftover fire runes—they aren’t worth much any more.

Waterfiend Guide - Basic Single Combat Melee Technique Waterfiend Guide - Multicombat Melee Technique (Chaos Tunnels)