Combat Strategies (General)

**Combat Strategies** for individual monsters will be listed on their respective pages, however there are several general strategies that can be used, which will be described below.

## Preset Switching

It is often advantageous to be able to quickly switch between one or more pieces of equipment during combat. For instance, casting spells with full Magic Bonus including Reaper Robes can be done in between attacks without sacrificing defensive or offensive bonuses by switching between two presets.

Additionally, preset switching can also be used to wear armour that would otherwise give damage, such as during the Fire Hawk fight or in the Northern Fields. Environmental Damage occurs on every combat tick, approximately every second, but if you can quickly switch on and off of gear in between these ticks, you can avoid taking damage gear that would otherwise give you damage. This is only really useful for casting spells with higher Magic Bonus, because effects and damage from spells can occur off-tick, while all other melee and ranged attacks occur on-tick.

## Reflecting Charged Attacks

Several monsters use special charged attacks that deal a significant amount of damage, such as the Lava Alien, Knight 2, Knight 3, Reaper, and the Shark. They will often give some sort of animation before using this attack, allowing you to use the Reflect spell to avoid taking the damage and casting it back on your opponent instead. While this is relatively simple for the lower combat monsters, for which you only need to worry about one charge attack, it is more complicated for monsters such as Knight 3 and the Reaper, for which you will need to face many charge attacks in a single fight. It is often useful to cast the Freeze spell in between charge attacks, to give you more time for the Reflect cooldown to reset (and every +5 Magic Bonus increases the Freeze time by 1 second). Additionally, after learning the Invisibility spell, it can also be used to avoid additional charge attacks while waiting on the Reflect cooldown. However, Invisibility will not reflect the damage back at your opponent, and it only lasts for 2 seconds so it must be timed correctly to avoid the charge attack at the right time.

## Tank and Spank

One of the most common combat techniques for many monsters has been dubbed "Tank and Spank", where you must wear your highest defensive gear and cast the Heal spell whenever possible ("Tank") to survive enough combat rounds in order to deal enough damage ("Spank") to your opponent. For slightly improved results for more difficult fights, offsetting can also be used (see below).

## Offhand Dagger

The Offhand Dagger or OH is a very useful weapon because it increases the Attack, and therefore Maximum Hit, of your main weapon by +1. However, it can be difficult to decide if this Attack bonus is worth it considering the loss of Defence bonuses from the Shield you would be using instead. You can calculate the Hit Chance against you from any monster to determine whether a shield is useful, since if your opponent's accuracy is high enough compared to your defence, often times the shield won't make any difference, in which case the Offhand Dagger should be used. However, because of the way that Hit Chance scales, the extra Defence from the shield can often significantly decrease your opponent's hit chance against you. In addition, if your opponent only uses Magic attacks, Defence bonuses will not make a difference, so the Offhand Dagger should be used.

## Attack Offsetting

From the start of combat, you and your opponent will both attack at the same time, and will continue to do so as long as your attack speeds are the same and nothing else interrupts combat. Since most weapons have an attack speed of 3 and most monsters also have an attack speed of 3, your attacks will usually be in sync. However, if you use a weapon with a different attack speed for one attack, it will offset your and your opponent's attacks. This allows you to quickly switch between defensive gear (such as a shield) for your opponent's attacks and offensive gear (such as the Offhand Dagger for your attacks.

An offset can also be accomplished with the Freeze spell, however, it should be noted that casting Freeze without any bonuses will freeze your opponent for 3 seconds, so this won't actually offset if you are both using speed 3. Since Freeze will increase by 1 second for every +5 Magic Bonus, you need to have a bonus of +5 or +10 (but NOT +15), to get an attack offset.

## Tick Healing

In the Northern Fields, wearing Polar Bear Armour will passively give you health boosts during the fight. If this health boost occurs on the same tick that your health drops to 0, you will survive with that remaining health, even if your opponent's attack that would have killed you hits for MORE than the amount you were healed. Unfortunately, this tick healing does not work with the Heal spell, so cannot be used as a reliable strategy.

## Spell 1 Second Cast

After casting a Spell, when the cooldown of the spell is at 1, you are able to cast it, even though it still looks like it is on cooldown. This is not super useful, but it can speed up fights, or possibly clutch a fight for you in rare situations.