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Mithril Dragon Guide - Advanced Melee Technique with Dragonfire Shield and Piety TruthScape Monster Secrets - Ice Trolls Cannon Training Guide

Are you an adventurous sort? Do you enjoy risk taking and live for excitement? Do big hits thrill you, and is the prospect of killing a mithril dragon in under 60 seconds hard to resist? Most importantly, do you have nerves of steel—and an excellent Internet connection with no lag? If so, then you may be up for the most exhilirating and dangerous of mithril dragon hunting methods: using the Veracs set with the Piety prayer.

Now, I know what you’re thinking… “What? Veracs? The flail is a two-handed weapon! Without the anti-dragon shield I’ll get roasted!!” Well yes, that’s true, but we aren’t going to let a few little hits of 30-35 damage scare us, are we? J Actually, in the first week that mith dragons existed, Veracs was “the” way to kill them because Jagex made protection from magic block most of their firebreath attack. That’s been “fixed” and so Veracs is much more of a challenge, but it can still be done.

Why take such a big risk? At least two main reasons. First, this is by far the fastest method of meleeing the dragons, approaching the speed of even the quickest ranging technique. Second, it can be a lot of fun—certainly it requires a lot more skill than standing there plunking bolts into a dragon until it keels over, and your friends will be awed/amused/horrified. J

Of course, the method is not for the faint of heart (see Figure 350). In addition to the big dragonfire hits, you’ll be in melee range without the protection from melee prayer activated. It’s also not a cheap method, as it requires lots of good food and potions. Even properly prepared, if you get unlucky, the dragons are capable of hitting over 70 damage in a few seconds. Try it the wrong way and you’ll find yourself missing some important gear. Fortunately, I’ve worked out the best way to do this and will tell you how on this page. I have killed probably close to 100 mith dragons with this technique without dying.. yet. J

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

• Technique: Advanced Melee Using Veracs and Piety
  
  
• Risk Level: Extremely High. You will be meleeing the toughest dragons in the game without protection from melee or an anti-dragon shield. This is an advanced method for experienced meleers. Do not attempt if you have any lag in your connection, any distractions that might divert your attention, or if you cannot afford to lose equipment should you die.
  
  
• Risk Level Relative to Other Techniques: Very High. This is easily the most dangerous mithril dragon method in this guide.
  
  
• Kills Per Trip: Usually 3; often 4; sometimes only 2.
  
  
• Kill Per Hour: Approximately 16 to 20.
  
  
• Cost Per Kill: Approximately 11k to 13k.

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.

You will of course be wearing the Veracs set, with support equipment designed to improve prayer bonus and defence. You will also be taking with an anti-dragon or dragonfire shield and a regular weapon, for reasons I’ll explain later. Table 76 lists my recommended items, which are in most cases rather “firm”, and Figure 351 illustrates them.

I decided on a set of food and potions for this technique only after a great deal of experimentation. Note that for this method I do recommend using the Grand Tree approach to free up an extra inventory slot for food; if you don’t want to do this, remove one monkfish for a games necklace. See Table 77 and Figure 351 for my recommended inventory items.

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

And finally, you will need 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 and regular restore 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. Then put the pots back in.
   
   
6. Take out all the food you are going to use.

The idea behind this method is simple: it’s the perfect embodiment of the concept I mentioned in my discussion of strategy, namely that “the best defence is a good offense”. You will be taking lots of damage and healing frequently, but also be getting in constant, high hits on the dragons. With a bit of luck you can kill them so fast that they simply don’t have time to consume too much of your food.

Let’s talk a bit first about the dangers you face. You will be fighting mostly without an anti-dragon shield in place, and you’ll also be using protection from magic instead of protection from melee. (This is necessary because your armor has decent melee defence but poor magic defence.) The Piety prayer, combined with protection from magic, will drain prayer rather quickly despite the high Prayer bonus of your equipment—though again, you will hopefully be killing the dragons very fast. Piety will also increase your defence, but you are still going to take much more in the way of melee damage than if you were using the advanced melee technique with dragonfire shield and Piety—those extra +70 or so points of defence from the shield really do matter.

Now let’s talk about the dangers the dragons face! J You will be using the Veracs set with its excellent set special where it hits through your opponent’s defence: this lets you do far more damage than any other meleeing method. You will be using super attack and super strength potions, and the Piety prayer will boost attack and strength by 20% and 23% respectively. This means you will be frequently hitting 30+ damage on the dragons.

I’m sure you noticed that you start out with Veracs flail in your inventory and an anti-dragon shield on. This is important for two reasons. First, it prevents you from taking a big dragonfire blast from the brutal green dragons as you run past them. Second, it lets you go back to regular meleeing with a shield if you are having trouble with Veracs or running out of food near the end of a kill.

Upon entering the cavern, drink the first dose of your super attack potion and your super strength or regular strength potion. Put on protection from mage before going downstairs; if you are new to this method, I recommend putting on the Protect Item prayer as well. It doesn’t drain Prayer much and could save you a lot if you die.

Run past the brutal greens, up the stairs, and then head to “Mith Dragon #1” (see “Lair Analysis, Dragon Selection and Positioning”), in the alcove north of the dragon near the stairs. For this method you really want this dragon as it has the only true safe spot; the dragon near the stairs has a “mostly safe spot” you can use as an alternative. Do not fight any others with this method. Once you engage the dragon in combat, leave on protection from magic and turn on Piety.

When you are ready, switch to the Veracs flail. (Your inventory will likely still be full at the start, so temporarily drop a piece of food and then pick it up later.) Now the damage will start flying fast and furious, though during combat you really need to carefully watch only the two essentials:

• Hitpoints Level: Keep your hitpoints above 75% at all times. With an antifire potion and no anti-dragon shield, the mith dragons can hit up to 35. Their melee attack can hit up to 28, and it can follow very quickly on the heels of a breath attack. Don’t be shy on the food, but try to plan its use efficiently. In particular, try to use up the monkfish first to free up inventory space for drops, use the pineapple pizzas when you have time for it, and save the sharks for when you get hit hard.
  
  
• Prayer Level: Veracs has a high prayer bonus, but Piety drains it fast and you have Protection from Magic on as well. Keep an eye on your Prayer; the primary way you will top it up is at the end of each kill using the super restore potion, but use the extra prayer mix (2) pot if needed also.

Unlike the other methods, with this technique I recommend a specific set of steps to follow after each kill, as follows:

1. Turn off Prayers, Pick Up Drops and Go to Safe Spot: Disable your prayers, grab all the drops and go to the safe spot. You may also wish to wield your anti-dragon or dragonfire shield as a safety precaution.
   
   
2. Take Antifire Potion: With other techniques you can just wait until you start taking extra damage before you drink your antifire potion, but not here! Without an anti-dragon shield or antifire potion, mith dragons can hit up to 50. (In preparing this article I lost track of what I was doing once and got whacked for a 49.. not fun!)
   
   The antifire you take in the bank will protect you for the first kill. Drink the first dose from the antifire potion before starting on the second dragon; it should last you for two kills unless the second is really slow. If that’s the case you won’t be able to do four kills, so take the second dose of antifire before the third kill. If things are going well, save the second dose for kill #4.
   
   
3. Heal and Boost Prayer: You need to heal up, and if possible, use the Saradomin brews and super restore potions to get yourself above maximum hits and increase Prayer level. Take up to 3 swigs of the Saradomin brew potions to get your hit points up to the maximum that Sara brews will allow. Then take the super restore potion. If 3 doses of Sara brew won’t get you to 15% above your normal hitpoints, eat food before taking the brews.
   
   
4. Boost Attack and Strength: Quaff one dose of each of the super attack and super strength.

You are now ready for the next kill. (Remember to re-equip your flail if you switched to the shield temporarily.)

Be sure to see the “Additional Notes and Tips” section for some more useful ideas.

You should be able to get three kills using this technique without too much trouble unless you make a mistake or get extremely unlucky, in which case you might be able to do just two. On the other hand, at least half the time I can actually kill four dragons in one trip.

Do not proceed to start another dragon unless you have plenty of prayer and food remaining. I urge you not to take chances or underestimate these dragons; on several occasions I have been breezing along getting two easy kills and then suddenly the third dragon will just hit me over and over. I can recall on one occasion a dragon that decided to just whack me with one breath attack after another, about 5 or 6 of them: it did over 100 points of damage in oh, maybe 15 seconds or something. I also had one trip where the first dragon must have done over 250 points of damage on me before I finally killed it! I don’t even remember if I got a second kill that time. See Figure 352 for a tough dragon I had to deal with while preparing this guide.

As mentioned before, I recommend banking at Grand Tree when using Veracs. At the end of your trip hit a home tablet, recharge Prayer at your altar, then rub an Amulet of Glory to teleport to Al Kharid. Run north to the glider and take it to the Grand Tree.

Here are a few additional special notes for this method:

• Do not hesitate to teleport out if things aren’t going right—it’s a lot better than dying, and it just doesn’t take that long to go back to the cavern.
  
  
• If you are on a quiet world and can’t quite finish off a dragon, you can often come back and finish it on your next trip. Of course, sometimes another player will find it and kill it, but if you are fast and have done over 50% of the damage, you might get back quick enough to get the drops.
  
  
• If you need another inventory slot after a kill, remember that you can temporarily wield your shield and dragon longsword. You can also do this if you are getting hit hard with firebreath and need some time to heal.
  
  
• If you are getting hit really hard in the middle of a kill, use the safe spot to catch your breath. You can also use it to “reset” as if you were at the end of a kill. Step into the safe spot and disable your prayers; eat food and drink Sara brew pots, then take a super restore, super attack and super strength. Then turn prayers back on and attack again. You’ll get one fewer kill on this trip, but so what.
  
  
• If you are near the end of a kill and are getting low on food, wield your longsword and shield and finish the dragon off that way.

Mithril Dragon Guide - Advanced Melee Technique with Dragonfire Shield and Piety TruthScape Monster Secrets - Ice Trolls Cannon Training Guide