Introduction
This channel explores Melee 
in detail, including how to increase your damage output, ability prioritisation, crafting a rotation and explanations of commonly-used abilities and gear.
Weapon Camping
"Camping" means to use one weapon/set for all attacks.
"Juggling" means to switch between gear to maximise damage output.
Although camping has become far more common with recent powercreep, for most situations juggling is still recommended to maximise damage output.
In you want to weapon camp (for example if you have accessibility considerations or you are AFKing), use the following lists to decided which is best for your situation:
Disclaimer: From here on, this guide assumes you will be juggling weapons.
Basic Ability Prioritisation
Like other styles, effective adrenaline management is essential for maximising Melee DPS. By balancing adrenaline-building basics with high-damage thresholds and ultimates, you ensure smooth rotations, minimise downtime, and stay ready to activate Berserk or other key abilities as soon as they’re available.
Use the following prioritised lists (i.e. ability at the top is best) to understand which basics are best to use:
Basics by priority (gear-modified)
⬥ 
Dismember
• with 
+ 
+ Lunging 4 
• with +
⬥ 
Punish with enemy <50% health
⬥ Dismember
• with
• with
⬥ 
Greater Fury
⬥ 
Backhand with Flanking 4 
⬥ Dismember with Lunging 4
⬥ 
Slice when enemy is stunned following 
/ 
/ 
⬥ Continue to the list below...
Note:
Basics by priority (no gear modifiers)
⬥ Dismember
⬥ Greater Fury
⬥ Sever 
/ Cleave 
/ Decimate 
/ Fury 
⬥ Havoc 
/ Smash 
⬥ Chaos Roar 
• Use purposefully for its effect due to long cooldown (60s)
⬥ Punish / Barge 
/ Greater Barge
⬥ Backhand 
/ Kick 
/ Sacrifice 
• Only use to force-walk a 1x1 target (e.g., to boost Slaughter 
)
Note: You can compare ability damage on RS Analysis website.
Critical Strikes and 'Crit Builds'
With the exception of the Equilibrium Aura 
which prevents them, critical strikes (or "crits") are an important but commonly misunderstood way of improving your damage output.
What is a critical strike?
All attacks have a 10% chance to crit, which increases the damage of that attack based on your 
level (not 
).
Here's a worked example:
You use an ability which would normally deal 2,000 base damage.
You are level 90
You successfully land a crit, so +1,000 crit damage is added (+50% of 2,000).
You now deal 3,000 damage (2,000 + 1,000).
Step 1: Boosting your crits
To harness them properly, you will want to maximise both the frequency/chance and the damage of your crits. Several modifiers exist, ranging from perks to gear. The most common are illustrated below:
⬥ Greater Fury 
⬥ Eclipsed Soul 
⬥ Warpriest of Tuska Set
Step 2: Harnessing your crits
We can go one step further with crits, leveraging the effects of Meteor Strike 
, Incendiary Shot 
and Tsunami 
to generate additional adrenaline any time you crit for 30.6 seconds after using the ability - shown on your buff bar as 
.
Below are two examples of ways we can generate a large amount of adrenaline in a short time whilst under these abilities' effects:
⬥ Switch to a range weapon with Caroming 4 and cast Greater Ricochet 
⬥ Switch to a mage weapon and cast Greater Conc 
Now we have an excess amount of adrenaline and can use it to do large amounts of damage in a short space of time. Common ways to "dump" excess adrenaline include:
⬥ Dragon Claws Spec 
⬥ Early use of Berserk 
or EZK spec 
• Note: can mess up your rotations due to cooldowns.
⬥ Zaros Godsword Spec 
⬥ Natural Instinct 
• Note: allows for even more adrenaline gain!
Cancelling Channeled Abilities
Some abilities known as "channels" take longer than other abilities to complete. Examples for melee include 
.
By learning to cancel these channels at the right time, you can avoid lost ticks and therefore damage potential. Reasons for needing to cancel include:
⬥ Cancelling channelled abilities saves time.
⬥ Animations are sometimes unsynced with the hitsplats.
⬥ It can be higher damage-per-tick and more adrenaline friendly to cancel early.
See the following example with 
from Magic (functionally identical to ):
How do I cancel channels?
Watch: when to cancel Melee abilities.
⬥ Assault / Destroy / Greater Flurry
• Cancel on 4th hit (7t/4.2s), or after 2 or 3 hits.
• Note on : hit timings vary with DW vs. 2H, but cancel timings stay the same—DW shifts hits by 1 tick, but cancel times are unaffected.
• Note on : use 4 hits to speed up cooldown or adjust as needed for rotation alignment.
Indirect Damage Boosts
In addition to abilities and attacks, there are a few notable supporting buffs you can use to further boost your DPM:
⬥ Ruby Aurora 
(Ancient Spellbook) - 5% chance (10% with Light Form) to grant players around the caster (not the caster themself) +1% damage boost for 24s, stacking up to +3%.
⬥ Weapon specs 
are covered in later.
Putting It Together (Building a Rotation)
By now you should understand:
⬥ How to build adrenaline and which basic abilites to use.
⬥ Why crits are so important and how to harness them.
⬥ Indirect ways to improve your damage output.
⬥ How and why to cancel channels.
While melee rotations vary by available unlocks and situation/boss, there are two duration-based types:
-
"Burst Damage" - For short kills or hybrid scenarios, focus on maximising quick, high-damage abilities.
-
"Sustained Damage" - For longer fights, aim to keep consistent damage output, cycling abilities efficiently.
Maximising Use of Berserk
Most rotations are built around the Berserk ultimate ability, used as often as possible to leverage its +100% damage boost.
Whichever rotation followed, your rotation will come in 2 phases:
⬥ Phase 1 - Berserk active
• Use high-damage thresholds and special attacks
• Avoid bleeds within Berserk, as they aren’t boosted
⬩ Dismember may be used for adrenaline gain if no stronger abilities are available
⬥ Phase 2 - Berserk on cooldown
• Build adrenaline and alternate with specials to avoid camping at 100% adrenaline
Note: 10 abilities fit within Berserk’s 20.4s duration (increased to 14 abilities over 26.4s with 3 pieces of Vestments of Havoc
).
Example Rotations
The below rotations follow the upgrade path "Stages" listed in #upgrade-order (#Melee). They are designed to "loop", i.e. you do Phase 1 → Phase 2 → Phase 1 → etc.
Guidance:
⬥ Pick the rotation closest to your current upgrade progression.
⬥ You will likely need to adapt the rotation to your specific situation.
⬥ They assume the sections above are followed, such as basic prioritisation and correct cancelling of abilities.
⬥ Due to their long cooldowns, you will need to improvise where repeating rotations for and 
based on lessons you've learnt so far.
⬥ Upgrades not included in the upgrade order like 
relics and 
have been considered as they are hugely beneficial to adren management.
Stage 0
Upgrades:
⬥ Berserk active: → → → → → → → → → →
⬥ Berserk on cooldown: → → → (push) → → 
→ → → → → → → → (Build with basics to next )
Stage 1
Upgrades: Super Adrenaline Potion
⬥ Berserk active: + → (tc) 
→ → (bleed) → → → → → → 
⬥ Berserk on cooldown: → → → → (push) → → → 
→ → → → (Build with basics to next → )
Stage 2
Upgrades:
⬥ Berserk active: → → (tc) + → → → → → 
→ → 
→ → → → → → (last tick of )
⬥ Berserk on cooldown: → (push) → → → → → (Build with basics to next → )
Stage 3 - without crit buffs
Upgrades:
⬥ Berserk active: → → → → → → → → → → → → → → → (last tick of )
⬥ Berserk on cooldown: → → → → → (push) → → → → → → → → (Build with basics to next → )
Disclaimer
Content below this point in the guide is being updated after the March 2024 Combat Update. Contributions are welcome - head to #editors-chat to make suggestions.
Ability Information
The core part of this guide is now complete. We will now explore the intricacies of different Melee abilities, special attacks and gear.
Greater Fury
How it works
⬥ Greater Fury is an upgraded version of regular Fury , unlocked by reading a Greater Fury ability codex 
costing 
263,124,876.
⬥ Greater Fury hits once dealing 157% ability damage, giving the next ability an added 10% critical strike chance.
• Switching your main hand weapon loses the buff.
• If crits, the first hit of the next ability will be a guaranteed crit.
• As it becomes a non-channelled ability, it is Revolution-friendly.
Is it worth it?
⬥ Generally, Greater Fury is not a recommended upgrade.
• Regular Fury has better synergy with the Abyssal Scourge 
in a fight
⬥ It is possible for to be stronger (on average) than some 188% damage abilities ( / / ) under the right circumstances.
• This is due to its potential guaranteed crit buffs.
• This requires sufficient critical chance stacking, using a Grimoire 
and Biting 4 
perk active, and the next ability must be both high-damage and be able to crit.
• Some examples of follow-up abilities include Igneous Overpower , charged Greater Barge and Assault .
Greater Barge
How it works
⬥ Greater Barge is an upgraded version of regular Barge , unlocked by reading a Greater Fury ability codex costing 112,553,777.
⬥ It has two components - its own damage, and its passive effect.
⬥ Normal ability effect:
• For each tick (0.6s) since a player stopped attacking their target, damage range increases (+2% minimum hit, +10% maximum hit), capping at 10 ticks for a damage range of 45%-225%.
• It also clears binds on the player, and where possible, will also bind a target for 11t/6.6s.
⬥ Additionally, if it has been at least 8t/4.8s since the player has attacked a target, it gains another effect:
• This is indicated by the Greater Barge icon appearing on your Buff Bar.
• Using the ability will cause a second buff icon 
to appear on your bar.
• The next following melee channelled ability within 10t/6s will become a damage-over-time (DoT) instead.
• This is the reason is so strong.
Note: Channelled abilities that become DoTs through the effect of are typically called barge "bleeds" - however, they are not actually bleeds.
Is it worth it?
⬥ Being able to turn channelled abilities into DoTs offers the following advantages:
• It reduces the time required to cast them to 3t/1.8s, allowing you to continue using other abilities while they deal damage.
• This is very strong when combined with something like Berserk to fit more high-damaging abilities into its short duration.
• It also increases the burst potential of Melee in a fight.
⬥ This effect is typically used at the following places:
• At the start of a fight.
• After any mechanic that forces you to stop attacking for a period of time (e.g. reflect at Vorago).
• After a Berserk mid-combat.
Using Greater Barge in Combat
⬥ To use in combat, there are two ways to do it.
⬥ Method 1:
• Ability + click away → any Defensive → →
⬩ You must click away at least 1 tick before the defensive, or you will not get the bleed effect.
• Defensives include abilities such as Anticipation 
, Freedom 
, etc.
⬥ Method 2:
• Ability → wait 2 ticks → →
⬩ Doing it this way saves 1 tick (8t vs 9t) compared to the first method.
Notes
⬥ Multiple DoTs can stack on the same target, so it is group-PvM-friendly.
⬥ Bleeding will still reduce the cooldown of for all 4 hits.
⬥ Unlike normal non-damaging abilities, ZGS special attack will try to drag you in when using it, so remember to click away as you use it otherwise you will auto-attack and lose the buff.
⬥ * Greater Barge does not give adrenaline if you still have a target that is dead.
⬥ Damage dealt from the bleed will be affected by the equipment currently worn.
• e.g. if you bleed Assault with T80 weapons and change to T90, any remaining hits will be calculated with T90 damage instead of T80.
⬥ Each bleed hit rolls its own chance to hit.
⬥ If you stall a barge bleed the following will occur:
• Hit 1 will be stalled, and when released will hit at the time it usually would as the first hit of that ability.
• Hits 2-4 will not be stalled, and will hit the target at their usual timing, no matter how far you currently are from the target - this allows the hits to be far-cast.
• This is possibly a bug.
Greater Flurry
How it works
⬥ Greater Flurry is an upgraded version of regular Flurry 
, unlocked by reading a Greater Flurry ability codex 
costing 54,302,149.
⬥ Each hit of reduces the cooldown of Berserk by 2t/1.2s, up to a maximum of 4 hits, or 8t/4.8s.
⬥ The damage dealt depends on the situation:
• Against a single target, damage is increased, dealing 31-157% damage per hit.
• Against multiple targets, the damage is the same as normal Flurry .
• If bled with it does NOT act as an AoE.
Is it worth it?
⬥ It can help reduce the cooldown time of Berserk significantly, used almost 3 times per minute. This is important to minimize the amount of time spent outside a damage-boosting ultimate.
⬥ It acts as an extra strong damaging threshold for Melee users.
⬥ You can cancel it on a desired hit to help line up timings for an ability on the last tick of .
• For more information, see !lasttick command.
Chaos Roar
Note: for a quick summary, you can use the !chaosroar command.
How it works
⬥ Chaos Roar is a basic ability unlocked by reading a Chaos roar Ability codex 
costing 60,992,233.
⬥ It has an initial hit of 20-130%, but also doubles the base damage of the next melee ability used with 12t/7.2s.
• This includes all hits of bleeds and multi-hit abilities like Hurricane and Igneous Overpower .
• For channelled abilities like Assault only get their first hit boosted.
Is it worth it?
⬥ It can be extremely damaging when followed-up with certain abilities:
• Ek-Zekkil special attack can deal massive damage used after .
• Slaughter and Tendrils with are strong choices as well (note that will give double recoil damage).
• Can follow up with Hurricane or Meteor Strike for high AoE clear damage.
Gear Information
This section will examine equipment that is useful for Melee , and should be incorporated where relevant as you get comfortable with handling them. Not all items are applicable in all scenarios, so use your best judgement.
Flanking Switch
How it works
Note: To learn more about how flanking angles work, check out #mechanics.
⬥ This is a simple, easy-to-get, relatively inexpensive and strongly recommended switch, especially for group-based content.
⬥ Recommended to put on an off-hand weapon to use with dual-wield.
⬥ When standing 'behind' bosses, Flanking 
turns Backhand and Forceful Backhand into far stronger abilities at the cost of their stun. At it's maximum rank of Flanking 4:
• The damage range of is increased from 20-100% up to 52-260%, making it one of the strongest basics.
• The damage range of 
is increased from 40-200% up to 64-320%, making it much stronger.
⬥ In order to get 2 in one rotation, the first must be at the latest the second ability after .
• This is before the 3-piece set effect of Vestments of Havoc 
is acquired.
Note: (Flanking) Forceful Backhand may not heavily prioritised due to the availability of stronger thresholds, however it can help salvage a rotation in a pinch.
Sliver Enchantments
How it works
⬥ With the release of Zamorak 
and ED4, slivers were added to the game.
⬥ Slivers can be consumed with some other items to create enchantments.
• Enchantments are one-off consumables that permanently unlock certain effects.
⬥ There are 3 enchantments relevant to Melee :
• Enchantment of Agony 
costing 66,909,786.
⬩ Increases the non-bleed damage-boosting effect of enhanced Gloves of Passage by +6%.
⬩ Increases their bleed damage buff effect by +5%.
• Enchantment of Heroism 
costing 57,151,346.
⬩ Champion's Ring 
has +1% increased critical hit chance.
⬩ also adds +1.5% critical hit damage per bleed on the target.
⬩ If bleeds are used on the target, the upgraded is better than the Reaver's Ring 
.
• Enchantment of Savagery 
costing 29,979,451.
⬩ Increases the damage-boosting effect of the Terrasaur Maul 
by a further 5%.
Jaws of the Abyss
How it works
⬥ It is a T85 power armour helmet that has one a strong passive: melee basics give +2% adrenaline per active bleed on a target.
⬥ It is camped for this effect, and is a high priority upgrade.
⬥ Bleeds that affect include the following:
• Dismember
• Slaughter
• Blood Tendrils
• Massacre 
• Ek-Zekkil special attack
• Abyssal Parasites from Abyssal Scourge / Abyssal Armour Spikes 
• Fragmentation Shot 
• Corruption Shot 
• Deadshot 
⬥ The effect is doubled under Natural Instinct buff.
Key Considerations
⬥ Despite being T85, it is the best-in-slot where Trimmed Masterwork Armour 
set effect is not absolutely vital to survival.
⬥ The extra adrenaline from the effect can help make stronger rotations, and is required for some meta rotations to work.
⬥ As the effect activates without any additional input required from the user, this is a revo-friendly buff.
Abyssal Scourge
Note: See !lengs and !scourge for a summary.
How it works
⬥ It is a T92 main hand melee weapon, currently the best-in-slot main hand option for long-term dual-wield damage, and is a high-priority upgrade.
⬥ It has a passive effect called Abyssal Parasites:
• Every melee hit with refreshes and adds a stack of Abyssal Parasites.
• Parasite stacks deal 18-31 bleed damage every 1.8s, per stack , increasing up to 50 stacks.
• Stacks reset after 9 seconds if not refreshed.
• Parasite stacks count as a bleed.
⬥ Parasite stacks can also be added by at a lower rate.
Key Considerations
⬥ Camping is extremely strong, and building stacks at the start of a fight is important to quickly benefit from the full bleed damage.
⬥ Stacks can be gained faster using bleeds and multi-hit abilities, including:
• Dismember is typically cast with a Masterwork Spear of Annihilation but can be cast with at the start of a fight to build stacks quicker.
• In rare cases with out damages in , see the link below to get an idea of when this is worth doing.
• Similarly, the Ek-ZekKil special attack can be cast with for parasite stacks.
⬩ Only do this if you cannot benefit from the full 14 hits from using instead.
⬥ It is better to use Leng main hand over when:
• Additional accuracy is required; or
• Parasite stacks cannot be consistently built.
⬥ Between and Lengs , it is generally the case that Drygores 
and Khopeshes 
are irrelevant in the current meta.
Leng Weapons
Note: See !lengs and !scourge for a summary.
How They Work
⬥ The Dark Shard/Sliver of Leng are best-in-slot weapons for dual-wield Melee.
⬥ They are upgraded from their T85 counterparts (Dark ice shard/Dark ice sliver) with drops from Arch Glacor (
).
⬥ They can be further upgraded to T100 with 
from Nakatra.
⬥ Passive effect: attacks have a chance to generate 1 stack of Primordial Ice 
with each hit
• 2% chance with only off-hand equipped
• 10% chance with only main-hand equipped
• 12% with both equipped
⬥ The set's special attack Icy Tempest requires both weapons to be equipped, costing 30% adrenaline with a 15-second cooldown and consumes all stacks:
• It deals 2 hits on the same tick:
⬩ 100-120% ability damage dealt to the primary target.
⬩ 150-180% ability damage dealt to targets around the player (including the primary target).
• For each stack:
⬩ Adrenaline cost is reduced by 12% (thus 3+ stacks costs 0 adrenaline).
⬩ Both hits' damage is increased by 18-22%.
Key Considerations
⬥ It is better to use Leng main hand over when:
• Additional accuracy is required; or
• Parasite stacks cannot be consistently built.
Masterwork Spear of Annihilation (MSoA)
How it works
⬥ The MSoA is the upgraded form of the regular Spear of Annihilation.
⬥ It increases the base duration of bleed abilities by 50% rounded down.
⬥ It is recommended to use it as a bleed switch, perked with Lunging 4 
for .
⬥ The following bleeds are affected by :
• Dismember (5 → 7 hits)
⬩ With Strength Cape 
(8 → 10 hits)
• Blood Tendrils (5 → 7 hits)
• Slaughter (5 → 7 hits)
• Ek-ZekKil special attack (with EoF) (6 → 9 hits)
• Massacre (5 → 7 hits)
⬥ The effect does not work with Greater Barge bleeds, as they are not considered actual bleeds.
Key Considerations
⬥ This weapon is typically used to switch for bleeds but may also serve as a 2H switch in general if you do not want to bring more items.
⬥ It drastically improves the damage of the abilities it affects.
• 
becomes your strongest basic ability.
⬥ The extended bleeds pair well with the Champion's Ring and Gloves of Passage (as well as their respective Enchantments).
Laniakea Spear 
How it works
⬥ It is a halberd-range T82 weapon with T90 damage and T75 accuracy, with the range of a halberd.
⬥ Its passive effect causes poison 
to proc 5% more often, dealing 5% more damage.
Key Considerations
⬥ Normally not worth using over higher tier weapons, but the following can make it worthwhile:
• If Bik arrows 
are used to scale damage.
• If using a Blood Reaver 
along with a Scrimshaw of Vampyrism 
and/or Vampyrism aura 
.
• It can be better than a Noxious Scythe 
on poisonable targets with 100% hitchance.
⬥ It can be used to clear pools with Bladed Dive 
at Raksha instead of if you perk it with 
+ 
for the minimum hit increase.
⬥ One rarely-done, extremely niche application is called Lani-flicking:
• It is when you cast abilities with better weapons but switch to during GCD, to try and increase procs.
• This is extremely click intensive and prone to mistakes.
Ek-ZekKil (EZK)
Note: Use !ezkeof for a summary on why you should EoF your EZK .
How it works
⬥ The EZK's special attack, Igneous Cleave costs 50% adrenaline, has a 60 second cooldown, and has two components:
• An initial hit of 62-190% ability damage.
• A follow-up 6-hit bleed that hits every 4 ticks, with each hit dealing 5% more damage multiplicatively than the previous hit.
⬥ The follow-up bleed can be increased up to 9 hits using the Masterwork Spear of Annihilation if using an EZK EoF special attack .
⬥ While the special attack is active, each time a bleed used on the target, gains 1 extra hit (capped at 5 extra hits).
⬥ The following abilities extend duration:
• Dismember
• Slaughter
• Blood Tendrils
• Massacre
• Combust 
• Frag Shot
• Deadshot
• Abyssal Parasites from Abyssal Scourge
• Morrigan's Javelin spec 
- PvP only.
• Combust effect from Dragon Rider amulet 
- 10% proc chance.
⬥ The following abilities do not extend duration:
• Corruption Shot
• Corruption Blast 
• Puncture from Greater Dazing Shot 
• Incendiary Shot
Key Considerations
⬥ It is strongly recommended to place the EZK in an EoF to be able to use the special attack with for the longer bleed. See !ezkeof for more.
⬥ It is one of the best attacks to follow up after Chaos Roar for the massively increased damage.
⬥ You can use with instead to get more stacks of Abyssal Parasites, if you will not benefit from the increased duration by using it with instead.
Gloves of Passage
How it works
⬥ The passive effect, Enduring Ruin, grants Smash and Havoc two effects:
• Next non-bleed attack within 10t/6s deals ~10% more additive damage.
⬩ This does not stack with or other boosting effects.
⬩ If a bleed ability is used, the effect is consumed but does not benefit the player.
• Target takes 20% more multiplicative damage from bleeds for 17t/10.2s (including bleeds already in effect).
⬥ The effect is retained if switching gloves after using / 
.
⬥ If an Enchantment of Agony is consumed, these gloves can be upgraded from T85 → T90 enhanced version to benefit from the following:
• Damage-boosting effect increased by +6%.
• The bleed damage buff is increased by a further +5%.
Key Considerations
⬥ Melee is a bleed heavy style - it has many abilities that benefit from the bleed damage-increasing effect like / / / .
• It also increases the parasite bleed from using or .
• The MSoA only amplifies this effect.
⬥ This makes / far stronger than their 157% maximum damage may suggest.
• with 11 stacks is stronger than:
⬩ / /
• with an active / / / / bleed is stronger than:
⬩ / / 
Stalling
⬥ The increased next-ability damage from using / can be applied to multiple abilities using stalling.
⬥ The following examples work both with and interchangeably.
⬥ When wearing :
• → (stall) Ability 1 → (release) Ability 1 + Ability 2 will buff both abilities
• (stall) → (release) + Ability 2 will result in Ability 2 being buffed as normal.
Note: The following section requires further testing!
⬥ When not wearing :
• The boost will extend for 2 ticks (i.e. all abilities on 1 tick + the following tick).
• → 5TAA → Ability will both the auto and ability.
• → (stall) Ability 1 → (1t early release) Ability 1 → Ability 2 will also work.
• Equipping on tick 3 when click-releasing an ability on tick 2 in the second method, will not break the effect, except if the abilities are: 2H / channelled / special attacks.
Vestments of Havoc
Note: Use !armour to see raw damage comparisons between different tiers of armour.
How it works
⬥ These are a T95 set of melee power armour that are intended to be used as 'glass cannon' armour - more damage at the expense of defence.
• They are T95 but have T100 damage bonus, and an armour bonus equivalent to T75 power armour.
⬥ The set effect, Herald of Chaos, depends on how many pieces are worn.
• 2-piece effect: Gain 15% adrenaline over 18 seconds after casting a melee ultimate ability.
⬩ does not affect the adrenaline gain.
⬩ Using a second ultimate while it is active will end the effect and instantly add +20% adrenaline.
• 3-piece effect: Berserk duration is extended by 10t/6s, from 34t/20.6s to 44t/26.2s.
• 4-piece effect: Adrenaline cap while wearing all 4 pieces is raised to 120%.
⬩ This stacks with Heightened Senses 
to 130%.
⬩ The effect instantly ends if any piece is unequipped.
Key Considerations
⬥ By sacrificing some defence, the player gains a substantial amount of damage potential.
⬥ The low armour rating usually does not matter, but some exceptions exist (such as melee Telos).
⬥ The 2-piece set effect can act as a replacement for Limitless .
⬥ The 3-piece effect can adjust the way rotations are executed:
• Doing → → allows you to use a second (2 hit) → before runs out.
• The extended duration requires more strong abilities to fill - it is common to see being used within for this reason.
⬥ The 4-piece effect can be used as a switch at the start of a fight, but requires a helmet switch (with ) to use properly.
Dragon Battleaxe 
How it works
⬥ The special attack Rampage costs 100% adrenaline and has the following effects:
• Drains 10% (rounded down) of / 
/ 
/ 
levels.
• Boosts level by 10 + 1 level for every 4 levels drained from other stats.
• Multiplicative 10% reduction on hitchance.
• Multiplicative 20% damage boost (hidden).
⬩ Stacks with going from 1.25x → 1.5x damage boost.
⬩ Stacks with Berserk (2.0x → 2.2x boost) - making only a 10% damage boost, not 20%.
Key Considerations
⬥ is mostly used when the hitchance debuff will not matter, and you have time to use it.
⬥ Examples of places it can be used:
• Where you cannot deal damage for a time (e.g. Taraket while phasing).
• Where your damage output is not a priority for a time (e.g. Ambassador spinners' phase).
• Where you can use it in advance (e.g. War's Retreat adren crystals before a fight, or preparing for a speedkill).
Important EoFs
This section covers weapons that are worth placing into an Essence of Finality amulet for access to their special attacks.
Dragon Claws EoF 
How it works
⬥ Dragon Claws have a special attack called Slice and Dice that consumes 50% adrenaline to deal 4 damaging hits on the target, dealing a total of 184-600% ability damage.
⬥ They are a useful way to dump excess adrenaline in scenarios such as:
• Getting a Relentless 
proc after a Berserk
• Near the end of a kill where you no longer need the adrenaline.
• Places where you get excess adrenaline (e.g. Telos green beam).
⬥ Some examples of bosses where is used:
• Melee Telos
• Seiryu 1-cycle attempts
• Advanced rotations are Solak and Ambassador
• Zamorak, Lord of Chaos.
Statius' Warhammer (SWH) EoF 
How it works
⬥ The SWH special attack, Smash costs 35% adrenaline and has two effects:
• Deals an initial hit of 83-208% ability damage.
• Lowers the target's Defence level by 30%, and increases affinity by +5 for 1 minute.
⬩ This can stack with a Guthix staff 
and Quake to reach 5+2+2 = +9 affinity bonus.
⬥ It is primarily used for its special attack.
⬥ Placing in an EoF prevents it from degrading when used.
• You can place it in an even when it is low on charge without issues.
⬥ It's great where you require additional accuracy to avoid splashing, such as:
• Vorago
• Telos
• Nex: Angel of Death
• Raids
Statius' Warhammer (SWH) EoF
See the earlier section Ek-ZekKil (EZK) for more details.
Benefits of putting your EZK into an EOF:
⬥ You can with for more hits or to build parasite stacks.
⬥ Typically you will with
⬥ This is a larger increase than what a t95 2H would provide.
⬥ Melee primarily uses DW; a T90/92 2H is a negligible decrease.
Remember you cannot sell the Ek-ZekKil (EZK)
Defensive Autos
While colloquially referred to as 'defensive' autos, it is more accurate to call them 'non-damaging' autos, since some non-defensive abilities have similar interactions with autos. Examples include ZGS special attack and Berserk .
For a thorough explanation of how defensive autos (and auto attacks in general) work, refer to #auto-attacks. Here, we will simply cover some of their uses.
Why Defensive Autos Exist
⬥ Generally, casting any ability will put your auto-attack 
on cooldown based on your weapon speed.
⬥ However, non-damaging abilities do not cause this cooldown.
• This means that defensive autos can be used within your main ability rotation.
⬥ Note that Melee does not have an auto attack keybind like Magic and so some input sequences may be different/delayed.
Common Applications
Note: You can check out !defauto and !freedom for a brief summary of mechanics.
⬥ Forcing 2H autos using Fast/Fastest Ability → Defensive → Ability.
• Replacing the with a magic spell keybind with the appropriate runes will attempt to cast the spell in place of the auto.
⬥ Forcing off-hand + 2H autos with Freedom
• The rotation is: Fast/Fastest Ability → Freedom → (1t delay) + 2H switch → Ability
• This will give an off-hand and a 2H auto, but do not switch to 2H too early.
⬥ Applying Smoke Cloud 
• Method 1: Press + Ability 1 tick after GCD ends to 4TAA .
⬩ This must be done following a Fastest speed, non-channelled ability.
• Method 2: Use to get OH + 2H autos, and replace the OH auto by pressing before - this is 1t faster than method 1.
⬩ This requires a magic off-hand with an autocast set, that you have the required runes for.
• Method 3: Press Target Cycle → + Ability to start an encounter if you do not intend to utilise the Greater Barge buff at the start of a fight.
Note: this is not an exhaustive list of auto attacks, just some of their uses cases.
5-Tick Auto Attack (5TAA)
Note: Any time a speed is before an auto/ability (e.g., "Average Ability") this simply refers to the weapon speed used to cast it.
What is 5TAA
Note 1: With the Abyssal Scourge with the Jaws of the Abyss , 5TAA is rarely used, as a 3 hit Greater Flurry gives the same result. It's also less prevalent when hybridding or using non-zerk auras like Invigorate 
.
Note 2: See !lasttick command or the Berserker Auras section of #mechanics for more information.
⬥ 5TAA is an extension of weapon juggling, similar to 4TAA with Magic but as Melee does not have an auto-attack keybind, it delays the execution by 1 tick.
• With : Fast/Fastest Ability → T4 Auto + Ability
• With : Fast/Fastest Ability → T4 Auto → T5 Ability
⬥ This is because without the auto keybind, we cannot force the auto before the ability, so the ability gets delayed to prevent putting the auto attack on cooldown.
⬥ If using Revolution, some extra effort must be done to 5TAA:
• You have to use Cease 
after casting your first ability.
• Then click your target after global cooldown ends.
• Finally, use an ability 1t after that.
Where It's Used
⬥ 5TAA is primarily done to align ticks so you can cast an ability on the last tick of Berserk .
• This is because that ability will be boosted by both the and an active Berserker 
aura.
⬥ This is typical in rotations that use one 7t channel (4 hit Destroy ) without the ability to use a 5t channel (like 3 hit Greater Flurry ) to align ticks. See the following table for an example.
T0 : Berserk cast
T3-6 : 2x Ability
T9 : 7t channelled Ability
T16-19: 2x Ability
T22 : Fastest non-channelled Ability
T26 : Auto attack*
T27-30: 2x Ability
T33 : Ability + Berserk ends (this ability gets boosted by both Berserk and Berserker aura)
Note: this is not a rotation to copy - it is simply an example to show how the ticks align.
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