Melee

Melee is one of the three main Combat styles, alongside

Error creating thumbnail: File missing

Ranged

and

Error creating thumbnail: File missing

Magic

.

Mechanics

Unlike the other two combat styles, Melee has separate skills for increasing Accuracy and Damage (

Error creating thumbnail: File missing

Attack

and

Error creating thumbnail: File missing

Strength

respectively) instead of them being combined into a single skill. As melee armor requires

Error creating thumbnail: File missing

Defence

levels to wear while most Ranged and Magic armor requires only levels in the appropriate skill, leveling Defence is also more important to Melee than any other style. Melee receives Combat Triangle bonuses when used against

Error creating thumbnail: File missing

Ranged

and penalties when used against

Error creating thumbnail: File missing

Magic

.

Due to requiring three skills to be leveled in order to be used effectively instead of just one, melee is the slowest style to train, although this is offset somewhat by not having a cost associated with each attack as neither runes nor ammo are needed.

Melee weapons and armor can be made using the

Error creating thumbnail: File missing

Smithing

skill or received as drops from various Monsters or Dungeons. The Melee icon (

Error creating thumbnail: File missing

) is the same as the Attack icon.

Attack Styles

Melee has three attack styles: Stab, Slash, and Block. Each has a separate attack bonus stat associated with it, and most melee weapons have different bonuses for different styles. This means that a given melee weapon will be most accurate when used in certain styles. For example, the Ragnar Godsword has a +125 Slash Bonus but a -4 Stab Bonus, making it substantially more accurate when using the Slash attack style than it is when using Stab.

In addition to having different bonuses, each attack style provides XP to a different skill:

Stab provides
Error creating thumbnail: File missing
Attack XP
Slash provides
Error creating thumbnail: File missing
Strength XP
Block provides
Error creating thumbnail: File missing
Defence XP

The Stab attack style also provides +6 hidden Attack level. The Slash and Block styles do not have any such bonus.

Melee Equipment Stats

Weapons

As a rule of thumb, smithed weapon follow this style:

Weapon	Details	Style
Dagger	Fast, weaker	Error creating thumbnail: File missing Stab	Error creating thumbnail: File missing Block
Sword		Error creating thumbnail: File missing Stab	Error creating thumbnail: File missing Block
Scimitar		Error creating thumbnail: File missing Slash
2H Sword	No shield, slow	Error creating thumbnail: File missing Slash
Battleaxe	Slow-ish	Error creating thumbnail: File missing Slash	Error creating thumbnail: File missing Block