Evolution of Combat: Now Live!

After 6 months of beta testing and floods of feedback from you, the Evolution of Combat is now live. We couldn’t have done it without your help, and every one of you who has logged into the beta, tried out the new combat system and offered us your feedback has our deepest, most heartfelt thanks.

From now on, the array of gameplay enhancements and improvements that the Evolution of Combat brings – as described here – are yours to use in the live game. New features such as adrenaline, abilities and the all-new action bar – not to mention dual wielding, distinct combat styles and damage-type resistance and vulnerability – add fathoms of depth to RuneScape’s combat system.

Even those of you who prefer a peaceful life will find plenty to pique your interest: the action bar can be used for speedy resource gathering and skill training, and the new Make X Production Interface streamlines skilling like never before.

When you first log in after the update, you’ll notice the following:

• You will be teleported to one of nine banks, in safe areas within the free-to-play zone.
• Any items that you had equipped prior to the update will be de-equipped and placed into your inventory.
• If your inventory is full, your items will be moved to the bank. Everyone now has 15 additional bank slots, to ensure that there will be enough space.
• Depleted prayer points will be fully restored.
• Any claw weapons you have will be converted into a main-hand claw and an off-hand claw.
• Your task total will have been recalculated. This is the result of certain tasks, which are no longer relevant with the Evolution of Combat launch, being removed from the game and replaced with newer equivalents.
• Many items of equipment have different level requirements. However most of these changes are on equipment with skill requirements lower than level 50, and few high-level items are affected.

Be sure to stop by the Combat Academy in Lumbridge for a whistle-stop tour of the EoC’s key features. Even if you’ve already done so in the beta, it’ll be a valuable refresher – not to mention that you’ll earn combat XP rewards for acing Lady Deathknell’s combat tests! A session at the Combat Academy’s a good idea even if you’re planning to go old-school with auto-attacks and the Momentum ability, as you’ll still need to know how damage types work, and how the combat triangle has been affected by the change.

Innumerable smaller changes have come to the game with the EoC, including (but not limited to) the following:

• All poisoned items – such as the dragon dagger p++ – have been converted to their unpoisoned versions. Permanently poisoned weapons no longer exist in the game. Poison is now applied on a temporary basis. Using weapon poison potions (including + and ++ variants) gives all weapon attacks a chance to apply poison on hit for a limited time.
• Spellboxes earned as a reward from Dungeoneering have been removed, and their cost in Dungeoneering tokens refunded.
• The Dungeoneering token cost of the Dungeoneering-specific prayers Augury and Rigour has been refunded, where purchased. These are now unlocked at the same time that the Piety prayer is unlocked.
• PK skulls no longer exist as a game mechanic. Any existing from before the update have been removed.
• Diseases are also no longer a part of the game. Again, any existing from before the update have been removed.