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TruthScape Monster Secrets - Aviansies, the Perfect Magic/Ranged Training Monster Aviansies Magic/Ranged Training Guide - Quest, Skill and Equipment Prerequisites and Recommendations

The problem is an ages old one in RuneScape: finding a good way to train Ranged and Magic. This is especially troublesome for very experienced players, who may need up to a million XP just to gain a level. It seems that training these two skills always seems to boil down to either spending tedious hours doing boring things like alching bows and plinking Fire Giants, or blowing a lot of gold on trying to speed the process up. (And sometimes, you have to do both!)

This is one reason why I’ve specifically been on the lookout for new methods that make raising Ranged and Magic easier, more fun, and even profitable. I started with my Ice Trolls Cannon Training Guide, which is a great option for Ranged training. Now I have found another new monster that is a fantastic choice for raising both Ranged and Magic, due to its large number of useful benefits.

The idea behind training Magic (using combat) and Ranged is simple: find monsters and kill them, gaining experience from the process, and hopefully some loot that will cover the cost of runes or ammunition. You want plenty of monsters around so you can fight without stopping, and they should be easy to kill. It would also be nice, of course, if the process was fun, or at least not a total bore—in particular, most methods of training Magic are incredibly dull.

Whether intentionally or not, when Jagex made the God Wars Dungeon (GWD), it brought into being a monster that is nearly perfect for training Magic and Ranged. This monster meets all of the above requirements, and features a lot more. For starters, there are many aviansies around the dungeon, and they come back quickly so you can fight continuously without waiting for respawns. They are also easy to kill, because they have relatively few hitpoints and low defence, so you don’t waste time hitting zeros, and you get more XP per hour. They don’t hit particularly hard either, so they can be fought without constantly using Prayer, fancy techniques or very expensive special equipment.

In terms of drops, killing avianses yields many valuable items, including runes, herbs, gems, and alchable rune weapons like daggers and crossbow limbs. Their main attraction, however, is large quantities of noted adamantite bars, which quickly add up to a very high value. All of these drops make fighting aviansies not only very profitable, but extremely useful if you are training the Smithing skill; see Figure 444 for an example of what you can get on a long trip.

Finally, I find that killing the avianses is more fun than training on most other monsters. In particular, if I use the multiple monster method, I am kept constantly busy fighting and picking up drops, and have no time to get bored.

As we just discussed, easy kills and great drops are the key to a great training monster. Aviansies go beyond the basics, though, by adding several other fantastic advantages that truly make them a candidate for the title of “perfect Magic/Ranged training monster”.

Some of the more important advantages:

• No “Riff Raff”: The GWD has several relatively high skill and quest requirements, which keeps out most low-level players. This means less competition for the monsters, and a much lower chance of being harrassed or annoyed by “noobs” and “pures”.
  
  
• Random Event Free Zone: There are no randoms in the God Wars Dungeon! I don’t have to explain to you how wonderful that is, both in terms of saving hassle and not wasting time you could be getting XP.
  
  
• No Melee Competition: Aviansies cannot be meleed, so you won’t be competing with meleers for them. They are just for mages and rangers!
  
  
• No Cannons: Hate cannons taking your kills? Well, they can’t be used at all in the God Wars Dungeon.
  
  
• Modest Equipment Requirements: You don’t need particularly expensive or fancy equipment; i.e., no godswords or Guthans sets or dragonfire shields.
  
  
• “Pets”: Other monsters in the dungeon can be exploited to increase the number of kills and drops you get for the same amount of effort. I discuss this more in the topic on “Zamorak Pets”.

Sounds good, doesn’t it? Well, that’s because it is. J

This is the place where I’m supposed to tell you about all the dangers and drawbacks of training on aviansies, but the truth is that there really isn’t much to say. In fact, the relative lack of risk in fighting them is just one more reason why I consider them a perfect training monster.

Fighting aviansies one at a time using the methods I describe in this guide is about as safe as any other type of non-safe-spot training. The monsters don’t hit particularly hard, and they die quickly so there’s not a lot of risk of being killed due to lag.

One issue to be aware of is that you will be fighting in a dungeon with many types of monsters, some of which attack with each of the three combat types. I’ll show you how to wear the right equipment so that you aren’t aggressively attacked by them all at once, but you still have to be cautious. In particular, higher level players must be careful not to accidentally click on the wrong monster. For example, you may try to attack an aviansie and have a spiritual mage walk over the same spot just as you click, and then find yourself with powerful magic attacks coming at you when you weren’t prepared for that.

Aside from avoiding such uncommon mistakes, the only method that I feel has some risk to it is Ranged training on multiple aviansies simultaneously using Prayer. With this method you will be relying on Protection from Ranged to avoid taking large amounts of damage from many aviansies at once, so you must be sure to keep your Prayer points topped up. You should also avoid doing this on a laggy connection.

Note that I’ve killed thousands of aviansies and never come close to dying.

As I mentioned earlier, I have already addressed some of the problems with Ranged training through my Ice Trolls Cannon Training Guide. I consider aviansies not a replacement for raising Ranged using ice trolls, but rather an alternative—each has its strengths and weaknesses.

Here are some of the main benefits of ice trolls when compared to aviansies for Ranged training:

• More experience per hour (about 45k for ice trolls compared to at most around 30k for aviansies.) This is obviously a biggie!
  
  
• Different drops, which may be advantageous to some people. Those who prefer to get their own resources rather than buy them may find that drops such as raw sharks, seaweed, herb seeds and nature and law runes may appeal to them more than the aviansies’ drops, most of the value of which is in the addy bars.
  
  
• Less demanding skill and quest prerequisites—some people can’t get into the God Wars Dungeon.
  
  
• Many players just find it fun to use the cannon.

Aviansies, on the other hand, have their own plusses when compared to the ice trolls:

• You make more profit per hour than ice troll training (largely because you don’t have the expense of cannonballs).
  
  
• High level Smiths will find the adamantite bars extremely useful. Also, even if you can’t use the bars yourself, they are easier to sell in quantity than granite shields and some of the other valuable ice troll drops.
  
  
• Aviansies also drop feathers, so if you fight with addy bolts, you always get back enough raw materials to replace what you use up.
  
  
• The extra advantages I mentioned above, such as no random events in the dungeon.
  
  
• No need to own a cannon, which can be a cost and/or bank space issue for some players.
  
  
• It can be a lot more laid back and relaxing than fighting ice trolls. Some players hate using a cannon, especially when it must be constantly monitored and fed cannonballs, as is the case with ice trolls.

Of course, the ice troll cannoning method is only for training Ranged. Thus, if you want to raise Magic, aviansies are the clear winner there.

TruthScape Monster Secrets - Aviansies, the Perfect Magic/Ranged Training Monster Aviansies Magic/Ranged Training Guide - Quest, Skill and Equipment Prerequisites and Recommendations