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Mithril Dragon Guide - Basic Melee Technique with Protection from Melee Mithril Dragon Guide - Advanced Melee Technique with Dragonfire Shield and Piety

The basic ranging method is already a fairly quick way of killing mith dragons—well, at least about as quick as killing a level 304 monster can be, anyway. After some experimentation, though, I discovered a way to refine this technique to get even faster kills: my best so far is 5 kills in 13 minutes at level 90 Ranged, including preparation and travel time to the lair. If you’re willing to spend a bit more per kill to get the kills quickly, and own a dragonfire shield, this may be the best method of them all.

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

• Technique: Advanced Ranging with Dragonfire Shield and Eagle Eye
  
  
• Risk Level: Moderate to High. Fairly safe if done right; fairly high chance of death if you lag out for a long period of time.
  
  
• Risk Level Relative to Other Techniques: Low to Moderate. This is the safest of the advanced techniques, since you will not be in melee range, but you will be fighting without prayer.
  
  
• Kills Per Trip: Usually 5; sometimes only 4.
  
  
• Kills Per Hour: Approximately 18 to 21.
  
  
• Cost Per Kill: Approximately 14k to 16k.

Note that the estimates above are based on using the recommended equipment and skills of about the following levels: 90 Ranged; 95 Defence; 97 Hitpoints; 94 Mage; and 80 Prayer.

The equipment for this method is identical to that of the basic ranging method, except for one change: substituting a (charged) dragonfire shield for the mundane anti-dragon shield. This costs you +5 of ranged attack but gives you an extra +8 magic defence and a whopping +64 ranged defence compared to the anti-dragon shield. This is necessary for the method to work.

Please see Table 69 in the basic ranged discussion for the rest of my equipment recommendations; you can also refer to Figure 347 to see how the equipment for this method appears.

Inventory items for the advanced ranging method are similar to those of the basic ranging approach, except that more potions and better food are required; see Table 73 and Figure 347.

You will also use the following items at the bank for preparation:

• One dose of antifire potion
  
  
• One dose of Saradomin brew
  
  
• One dose of regular restore potion

And finally, 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 bolts and 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 and regular restore. 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 as well. Then put the pots back into the bank.
   
   
6. Take out all the food you are going to use.

The idea behind this method is similar to the advanced melee+prayer technique: you use a boost prayer (Eagle Eye) so that you kill the dragons faster. One difference, though, is that with the advanced melee method you wear Veracs armor, which greatly boosts Prayer; you don’t have that luxury when ranging. Accordingly, you need to watch your prayer and food carefully. On the plus side, ranged attacks kill the dragons faster than melee ones do.

Upon entering the cavern, drink the first dose of ranging potion and put on melee protection to prevent pot shots by the brutal green dragons and the mith dragon near the stairs. Also ensure your attack mode is on rapid fire.

Choose a dragon to fight and position yourself outside melee range. Then turn on Eagle Eye (+15% Ranged) and turn off protection from melee. Fight the dragon for a while without protection prayers. Since it cannot attack you with melee, you don’t have to worry about being hit more than 18 at a time; just pay attention and you’ll be fine. As with the basic ranged method, use the enchanted ruby bolts until the dragon is down to about 50-60% of its hitpoints; then switch to diamond bolts so you don’t get hit for damage by the ruby bolt special when the dragon is low on health.

As you fight the dragons, you may find that you get lucky in terms of not taking much damage, or they may be annoying and hit you for a lot. Turn ranged 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 ranged for a while. Leave Eagle Eye on and watch your prayer level as it will drain very fast.
  
  
• If you have lots of health and food, turn protection from ranged off to conserve prayer. This will increase your chances of getting 5 kills in a trip.

While fighting, your ranging gear should protect you from most mage attacks. Beware that you may take more damage near the end of a trip as your Sara brew wears off.

As with the basic ranging technique, watch the following:

• Ranged Level: As soon as your Ranged level drops down to 3 or 4 below its maximum potted, take another sip. For example, at Ranged level 90 you pot up to 103; drink when you hit 100 or 99. This method is so fast that you may leave the lair with an extra dose of Ranged potion anyway.
  
  
• Prayer Level: This isn’t as critical here as with other methods because you have decent defence with the shield and will be fighting without protection prayers part of the time, but still keep prayer at least 50%.
  
  
• Hitpoints Level: When using the ruby bolts, keep your health between 50% and 75% so you take less damage if the spec activates. Bring your health back above 75% when using the diamond bolts for the second half of the kill.
  
  
• Bolts: Pick them up occasionally, especially if Ava’s accumulator decides not to work as it sometimes does. If you do this, though, remember to turn protection from melee on first!
  
  
• 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 breath!” message, take a swig of firebreath potion.

As always, after a kill, turn off your prayer and pick up drops. Put the ruby bolts back in your quiver for the next kill, check your prayer, hitpoints and ranged levels and eat/pot as necessary.

In most cases, you should be able to get five kills with this method, possibly even having one or two doses of prayer mix left over. You can afford to be somewhat aggressive with this technique as long as you have food, because ranged and mage are the dragons’ weakest attacks. On the other hand, you are carrying a lot of expensive equipment, so do not push things if you are low on food and prayer or start to feel nervous.

Leave using either your home teleport tablets or by casting the level 0 Home Teleport spell (usable once every 30 minutes). Cast the spell, recharge in the chapel in Lumbridge (or wherever you call home) and then use the bank to restock.

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.

Here are some extra notes and tips for success using this method:

• If you get a good drop always pick it up first before doing anything else, like drinking potions or burying bones, so you don’t get kidnapped by a random.
  
  
• 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. Then pick it up as needed when you get hit.
  
  
• If you aren’t in a safe spot and aren’t sure you will be done dealing with drops before the dragon respawns, put protection from melee on so you don’t get hit with a cheap shot.

Mithril Dragon Guide - Basic Melee Technique with Protection from Melee Mithril Dragon Guide - Advanced Melee Technique with Dragonfire Shield and Piety