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Mithril Dragon Guide - Advanced Ranging Technique with Dragonfire Shield and Eagle Eye Mithril Dragon Guide - Advanced Veracs Technique with Piety

My basic melee technique for killing mith dragons works and is quite economical—but it’s also rather slow. If you are willing to spend a bit more per kill, have level 70 Prayer, and either have or can buy a dragonfire shield, this advanced method using that shield and the Piety prayer may be more to your liking.

This is basically a modification of the basic melee method that changes it in three important ways. First, instead of going for high mage defence, the equipment is designed to maximize melee defence; you protect from magic damage instead of melee. Second, the Piety prayer is used to speed up kills and increase defence to cut down on melee hits. Finally, prayer bonuses become a priority because Piety drains prayer very fast.

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

• Technique: Advanced Melee with Dragonfire Shield and Piety
  
  
• Risk Level: High. The mith dragons have a much higher max melee hit, and the higher prayer drain rate means a greater chance of death if you lag for long periods of time. You are also carrying some very expensive equipment into the lair.
  
  
• Risk Level Relative to Other Techniques: Moderate. This is a more risky technique than the basic methods, though with the high melee defence and the 25% defence bonus of Piety, damage can be controlled pretty well.
  
  
• Kills Per Trip: Usually 4, sometimes 5.
  
  
• Kill Per Hour: Approximately 15 to 17.
  
  
• Cost Per Kill: Approximately 9k to 11k.

Note that the estimates above are based on using the recommended equipment and skills of about the following levels: 95 Attack; 95 Strength; 95 Defence; 97 Hitpoints; 94 Mage; and 80 Prayer.

As mentioned in the introduction, the goal of the equipment here is to balance melee defence and prayer bonuses, while keeping mage defence at least moderately in the black as well. Table 74 shows my recommendations, which are illustrated in Figure 348; note that I have not provided too many alternative suggestions here, as much of the equipment really does need to be precisely what I advise.

Table 75 shows my recommended inventory items for this technique (shown in Figure 348).

You will also use the following items at the bank:

• One dose of antifire potion
  
  
• One dose of Saradomin brew
  
  
• One dose of regular restore potion
  
  
• One dose of super strength potion.

And finally, you should have some cheap food to heal up between runs.

Do the following to get yourself ready for the first trip or between trips:

1. Use cheap food (trout, salmon, cakes, etc.) to heal up completely.
   
   
2. Put on or check all your equipment to make sure it is correct.
   
   
3. Take out more teleport tablets from the bank if necessary.
   
   
4. Take out all of the inventory items except for the food.
   
   
5. Take out an extra antifire pot, Saradomin brew, regular restore and super strength potion. Take a sip of each in that order. This will ensure you have a few minutes firebreath protection at the start, will boost your defence and give you a hitpoint bonus, and bump up your strength as well. Then put the pots back in.
   
   
6. Take out all the food you are going to use.

The basic technique here is to have Piety on constantly, and with protection from mage turned on and off as you fight. You will be relying on your melee defence, the Sara brew you took at the start and the Piety prayer to keep you from taking too much melee damage, and it works well most of the time.

Once you enter the cavern, drink the first dose of your super attack potion. Put on protection from magic before going downstairs to where the brutal greens are; this will save you from getting hit with pot shots as you go past. Once you are up the stairs choose a dragon and start fighting it. I then recommend turning Piety on and protection prayers off.

It can seem a little scary to be meleeing without protection from melee, but as long as your skills are high and you’re properly prepared it works just fine. On the offensive side, the Piety prayer will let you hit much more often and do lots of damage, hopefully killing the dragons quickly (see Figure 349). As you proceed, you may find you get lucky in terms of not taking much damage, or they may be annoying and hit you for a lot. Turn magic protection on and off depending on how much you are getting hit.

If you are taking a lot of damage then heal up and turn on protection from mage for a while. Leave Piety on and watch your prayer level as it will drain very fast. If you have lots of food, turn protection from mage off to conserve prayer. This may give you a chance to go for 5 kills in a trip.

Beware that you may take more damage near the end of a trip as your Sara brew wears off.

As with the basic melee method, pay close attention to the following:

• Attack Level: Take another sip of your super attack whenever your Attack level has dropped to more than 3 below its potted maximum. I am attack 96 and super pot to 115, so I drink at 111 or sometimes 112.
  
  
• Prayer Level: Because of your very high melee defence, you actually aren’t in as much danger if you run out of prayer with this method, though you should still watch it.
  
  
• Hitpoints Level: Keep your health above 75% if at all possible; there is no advantage here to letting it drop too low, and the dragons can hit close to 50 points of damage in a few seconds if you are unlucky.
  
  
• Firebreath: If you find you are taking damage from firebreath and no longer see the “Your potion protects you from the heat of the dragon’s fire” message, take a swig of firebreath potion.

After you finish a kill, turn off your prayer(s) while the dragon is dying, then pick up drops. Take a drink of super attack if you haven’t recently, check your prayer and eat/pot as necessary.

Depending on how lucky you get with taking damage, you will probably be able to get four or five kills. Running out of prayer entirely is not a big problem as long as the dragon is nearly dead and you still have food; remember that this method involves fighting without protection prayers anyway. On the other hand, you are carrying a lot of equipment, so do not push things if you are low on food and prayer or start to feel nervous.

As always, to leave use your home teleport tablets or cast the level 0 Home Teleport spell (every 30 minutes). Remember to recharge prayer and then go to bank.

If you are banking at Grand Tree, then use a home tablet, recharge prayer at your altar, then rub an Amulet of Glory that you should have mounted on the wall in your house. Teleport to Al Kharid, run north to the glider and take it to the Grand Tree, and bank there.

Additional Notes and Tips

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

• Safe spots are less important for this method than ranging or basic melee but still useful. Since your melee defence is high, you also don’t have to worry nearly so much about a surprise hit when the dragon respawns.
  
  
• Again here, pick up good drops immediately to avoid losing them to randoms.
  
  
• If your health is full and you need more inventory space for drops, temporarily drop some food near where you will stand during the next fight.

Mithril Dragon Guide - Advanced Ranging Technique with Dragonfire Shield and Eagle Eye Mithril Dragon Guide - Advanced Veracs Technique with Piety