Ultimate Ironman Guide/Equipment

Melee gear choices are often about maximizing your melee strength and accuracy bonuses. There are situations where the high melee and range defences can be useful, but it’s generally better to focus on offensive gear and use what you have when you need defensive gear.

It is not uncommon to have more melee weapons than any other kind of gear, as their specialties make them incredibly strong. It’s not uncommon to see only 1–2 mage and ranged weapons on a UIM, but 5 or more melee weapons for different types of defence and special attacks. Special attack weapons tend to follow one of 3 archetypes: damage, defence reduction, and utility. Damage special attacks are universally applicable, and other special attacks have to outperform them to be useful. Defence reduction often ends up being better for team-oriented situations and longer fights. They see use in fights where accuracy makes a difference, the target doesn’t die quickly, and the defence is able to be reduced. Utility special attacks are the least used, but are usually used where sustainability is the most important factor. The best special attack depends on the target, with the exact mechanics deciding which ones are most effective.

DPS specs

The three best melee DPS special attack weapons are the Voidwaker, the Burning claws, and the Dragon claws. Which special attack is best depends on the exact situation that you're in: if you are in an extended fight where you can maximize burn damage uptime and/or are fighting a demon, then the Burning claws are very good. If you need burst damage (such as in the theatre of blood) or are fighting lower defence enemies, then dragon claws are ideal. If you are fighting something with very high defence or that is immune to melee damage, then the voidwaker is typically the best option. All three have different applications and which one is ideal would depend on the exact scenario. That said, as tormented demons are extremely worthwhile in the early stage of an account, burning claws are the most likely option for most new accounts. However, they are harder to use effectively than dragon claws or a voidwaker, as, in order to unlock their true potential, burn damage must be maximized.

If you obtain a voidwaker, it is usually worthwhile to keep either burning or dragon claws as well, as the voidwaker is noticeably weaker against low defence targets. Conversely, it is not typically worth keeping both burning claws and dragon claws as their ideal use-cases see more overlap.

The voidwaker can also function as a reasonable main-hand melee weapon at earlier stages of an account: it is a comparable stab weapon to a Zamorakian hasta and for slash it is nearly identical in stats to an abyssal whip.

Which special attack weapon(s) you keep will likely depend on your goals and play-style, as they each have different, best in slot use-cases.

Defence reduction

Situational weapons

Melee helmets are generally very strong relative to other helmets in the game. They’re almost always chosen as the singular helmet for all 3 styles.

Melee bodies usually aren't high priority gear if inventory space is a concern. They give minor offensive bonuses and give good melee and ranged defence. The Fighter torso is useful for being extremely easy to obtain and store while being tied for the best strength bonus until the extremely late game Torva platebody. Proselyte is also very useful for prayer bonus on a slot that doesn’t add much DPS, and is easily replaceable. Mixed hide is easily reobtained and storable, and provides accuracy if using a stab weapon.

Prior to obtaining Oathplate, the best option for this slot for most players is the Fighter torso due to its 4 strength bonus and being storable in the POH. The additional defensive bonuses from a Blood moon chestplate and Bandos chestplate are typically not worth the bag space. This becomes even more true the further your account progresses.

Legs function similarly to body slot Melee gear. That said, they are often not brought into an encounter when using multiple styles and space is needed, as they don't tend to offer great offensive stats. Proselyte is even stronger in this slot as legs provide less strength bonus than body armour.

While the primary benefit of melee gear is strength bonus and gear such as Bandos tassets and Blood moon tassets provide a (marginally) higher strength bonus than something like Obsidian or Blue moon tassets, their paltry additional bonuses and lack of storage options means that many players will find them to be unworthy of a bag slot. Despite objectively being better without considering storage, the 1 extra strength over storable options rarely provides a max hit and the additional defensive bonuses typically do not matter very much --especially as bag space becomes more of a concern in the later stages of an account.

Gloves are very strong for melee, offering the highest strength bonus, and among the highest accuracy bonuses for armour. This slot is primarily filled with gloves obtained from completing Recipe for Disaster for tribrid, or ferocious gloves for pure melee.

A mostly inconsequential slot, but offensive melee boots are regarded as the best compared to the bonuses offered to other styles. Strength bonus should be maximized.

The fire cape and infernal cape are the two primary capes used for almost all melee combat, with the latter being a direct upgrade. Melee capes are a priority over a melee strength body, as the alternatives for bodies tend to be stronger than the alternatives for capes (e.g. fire cape vs. Ardougne cloak, and fighter torso vs. proselyte hauberk). The mythical cape has niche uses when using the dragon warhammer, and it can be slightly better than the fire cape when using the crush style. Mixed hide is a cheaper alternative available very early in the game.

There are only two worthwhile shield slot equipments for melee: the dragon and the avernic defenders. The offensive boost is invaluable for melee, and the defensive bonuses are still comparable to metallic shields. The only time defenders are not used is when dragonfire protection is needed. Although it may seem desirable to hold onto a dragonfire shield due to its difficulty to reobtain, the defensive bonuses are not worth the loss of accuracy and strength bonuses of a defender, and should only be kept if planning to kill a lot more dragons.

The Antler guard should only be considered if you are playing as a 1 defence pure. The reduced offensive stats make it significantly worse than any defender option despite having tri-style stats.

The ring slot has strong options for melee, with the berserker ring being relatively easy to obtain. The lightbearer typically outperforms the berserker ring when any special attack is being used.

Amulets tend to have tribrid stats until the endgame, and are good at all stages of the game. Obtaining the amulet of torture and subsequently the amulet of rancour is worthwhile, partly for their stats and because the other two specialty amulets make it a free upgrade space wise by replacing your tribrid amulet entirely. The amulet of strength is usually stronger than the amulet of glory for early game melee, despite having lower requirements.

Ghommal's lucky penny, which requires the Master Combat Achievements, saves a good amount of GP when used in conjunction with Scythe of Vitur, or any other item which consumes charges to function. Rada's blessing and god blessings can be useful for small Prayer bonuses if not needing the slot for a ranged switch.

The high accuracy bonuses of range gear often make range the most accurate and generalist style in the game. There are specific pieces of equipment that are instead strong but inaccurate, such as the void ranged armour set and the toxic blowpipe. Ranged gear is also commonly used when magic defence is important, even when not using ranged weapons. Ranged strength bonuses are very powerful, as range weapons tend to have faster attack speeds or other multipliers that make the bonuses exponentially stronger.

Weapons for range follow a simple flow chart: does the primary range weapon have a glaring weakness? If so, get a 2nd weapon to cover that weakness. The blowpipe, for example, needs to be paired with a higher accuracy weapon to deal with high defence foes, so a Twisted bow, Zaryte Crossbow, or Tumeken's shadow is good to offset that weakness. The bow of Faerdhinen can reasonably be used for all ranged combat as it is a more balanced option.

Crossbows are mostly used to deliver ruby bolts (e); Diamond bolts (e) are generally not worth making if runite bolts are available, as on average they do not outperform runite bolts enough.

Ranged helmets often don't provide strong enough bonuses to be worth an inventory space. Instead, melee helmets are often used even when ranging for their good defensive stats, low penalties to ranged accuracy, and more impactful bonuses for melee. The crystal helmet is unique, however, as it provides a percentage damage boost when using the bow of Faerdhinen and crystal bow, but it’s often dropped or converted into shards after doing all of the major range-focused, off-task, activities in a row.

Ranged bodies boast great range accuracy while being very well rounded defensively, especially against magic. The Crystal body is particularly strong when using the Bow of faerdhinen, but sacrifices a lot of magic defence compared to other late game options. It's not typically worth keeping armour like black d'hide in the looting bag when items like mixed hide are storable in the POH and provide comparable bonuses.

Useful in similar situations to body slot items. The crystal legs do not lose out on as much magic defence relative to the body. Ranged or magic legs are often worn in situations where you are using both styles but melee legs don't provide any significant DPS boost.

Gloves are fairly inconsequential for ranged. The best options for most of the game are the RFD gloves, which are also used for melee. Zaryte vambraces are worthwhile to have in the end-game, as range strength scales well.

Like helmets and gloves, it’s common to range with melee boots, though dedicated ranged boots see more use than mage boots. Pegasians are extremely hard to justify, as they offer negligible accuracy over storable ranged boot options. After obtaining Avernic treads however, Pegasians can be worth obtaining in order to upgrade the Treads.

An important slot for ranged due to the ammo-saving effect. The ranging cape is storable, whereas the unstorable ava's assembler has good offensive stats. The assembler max cape and the Dizana's max cape are storable, making them upgrades to the ranging cape. Players choosing to primarily use the Bow of faerdhinen can safely skip this slot in favour of another, more useful, item.

Ranged shields typically rarely see use past mid-game, as almost every strong range weapon is two-handed. The twisted buckler can make chinchompas a lot stronger and has some viability with the Zaryte crossbow, but it’s largely too niche to be worth going out of the way to obtain.

In early game, shield slot items are usually more useful as the more available adamant, rune, and sunlight hunter crossbows are typically the strongest ranged equipment until two handed alternatives like the Toxic blowpipe or Bow of faerdhinen.

Ranged-specific rings are not typically worth the inventory space. Utility and general rings like the explorer’s and suffering are almost always more useful.

Amulets tend to have tribrid stats until the endgame. The anguish, and its upgrade the rupture, is very powerful, so it is worth getting as a specialised necklace.

Magic is very different compared to ranged and melee, both in how max hits are calculated and how useful accuracy is. Gear that increases magic damage is almost always more useful than gear that only increases accuracy, even when accuracy is important. Base max hits are either static numbers or follow a simple formula based on your Magic level. The base max hit is then multiplied by your magic damage bonus. This means that in many cases, a damage bonus that does not provide a max hit(s) is useless.

Accuracy is fairly binary on whether or not it is useful; it entirely depends on what is being fought. Magic is often used in situations where the opponent has almost no magic defence. In those situations, wearing utility or defensive gear is far more useful. Against monsters described as having “no magic defence”, the player's accuracy bonus can drop into the low negatives without any noticeable impact.

Useful magic weapons fall into 2 categories: powered staves and ancient magicks. Having the strongest one for each style is ideal. Powered staves generally provide the best single target damage, and scale well with boosts. Autocast weapons will either autocast ancient spells, make them stronger, or both. Ancients are notably powerful for having strong AoE damage utility effects like freezing and healing.

The Tumeken's shadow is (by far) the strongest weapon for magic. The Eye of ayak is very good in situations where you need a fast attack speed and also functions as the second most powerful mage weapon. It is also a much shorter and more easily accessible grind in terms of hours and gear requirements than the Shadow is. If you own both, it is worthwhile to keep both.

In general, magic helmets are less impactful than ranged helmets, but the Ancestral hat does carry enough magic damage bonus to make a difference. If you're using a shadow, it is always worthwhile to use any piece that has 1% magic damage or better. Otherwise, you will usually be better off not bringing a mage hat (instead opting to camp a melee helm) to anywhere that inventory space is an issue.

Due to the manner in which magic accuracy is determined, magic body armour that doesn't provide a damage boost exists on a binary spectrum of useful or useless --typically depending on the monster which is being fought-- with almost no in-between. The ancestral robe top is very strong, but a Mystic robe top can prove to be sufficient prior to obtaining one if additional accuracy is needed. However, if you're using a shadow, it is always worthwhile to use any piece that has 1% magic damage or better.

Magic legs see similar usage to equivalent body slot gear, but simply taking off gear of other styles is more common when inventory spaces are limited. If you're using a shadow, it is always worthwhile to use any piece that has 1% magic damage or better.

Prior to obtaining a Tormented bracelet or Confliction gauntlets, Barrows gloves or highest avaliable tier of RFD gloves are the best mage gloves. The tormented bracelet is often one of the few magic switches taken into an encounter, as it offers an impressive magic damage bonus.

Magic boots are never worth storing in your looting bag. They offer small offensive bonuses that are rarely needed, as most targets of magic do not need additional accuracy to hit, and they offer minimal defensive bonuses. Sometimes they’re taken to offset negative magic bonuses where no other set of boots would have been useful. While the damage boost provided by Eternal boots may appear to be desirable, they rarely provide a max hit unless used with the Tumeken's shadow, and --even then-- are likely not worth devoting a slot in your looting bag. Eternal boots are worth obtaining after obtaining Avernic treads so that they can be combined.

The imbued god cape from Mage Arena 2 is worn for its extra damage in scenarios where it provides a max hit. It’s better than a mystic top or bottom if space is limited and you need accuracy, since it provides the same accuracy as a mystic robe bottom.

Magic shields tend to be useless on their own, but there are 3 items that each have specific uses: the Book of the dead is brought whenever thralls are used, the Book of darkness provides decent magic attack on top of high prayer bonus, Elidinis' ward and its fortified variant are the only worthwhile magic strength shields in the game.

Despite being a strong option on the surface, the unfortified shield is usually a worse switch than the imbued god cape. If you have an Eye of ayak as your primary magic weapon, the unfortified ward is usually worth keeping. On the contrary, while the fortified shield is the second-best piece of magic gear for 1-handed staves, upon creation it becomes an unstorable and untradeable item. Furthermore, it requires an arcane sigil and the ward itself to create, which places it in a niche that means it is not an item many ultimate ironmen actively seek.

Though it might seem an attractive option at first, the Tomes of fire, water, and earth are usually not worth keeping for any extended period of time, as they are essentially just a stack of their respective runes that occupies multiple slots in your bag. Runes should be purchased as needed, and the tome should be discarded. They may be worth hanging onto temporarily for specific tasks against elementally weak foes (such as grinding Zulrah uniques), but are generally not worth going out of the way to obtain.

The Magus ring provides a decent increase to damage when using a Tumeken's shadow, however other rings are usually better--utility and melee rings are typically more useful.

Amulets tend to have tribrid stats until the endgame. The occult necklace is the second best non-weapon piece of gear for magic and is easy to obtain upon reaching the appropriate Slayer level.

Ghommal's lucky penny, which requires the Master Combat Achievements, saves a good amount of GP when used in conjunction with Tumeken's shadow, or any other item which consumes charges to function. Rada's blessing and god blessings can be useful for small Prayer bonuses if not needing the slot for a ranged switch.