Dragon Claws

Sorry all F2P players, this post is all about dragon claws. Dragon claws are a sweet weapon that several members use in PvP situations. The thing that makes these so great is the special attack "Slice and Dice," which allows a player to hit four times before the opponent can attack again.

Dragon claws are made out of dragon metal, and were released at the end of 2008. They cannot be made, and therefore have to be obtained through a drop from a Tormented Demon. You can also purchase them from the Grand Exchange for about 35 million coins.

You can only fight Tormented Demons during or after the quest "While Guthix Sleeps." It is an extremely rare drop from the demons so you may be fighting for a while before you obtain them. If you buy the claws from the Grand Exchange, you can wield them if you have 60 attack or above regardless of your completion of "While Guthix Sleeps."

The strategy with dragon claws is generally to use "Slice and Dice" two times in a row. Since the special attack only uses 50% of the special attack bar, using twice back-to-back allows you to attack eight times in two attacks!

The amount of damage done from the special attack depends on the first hit. The second hit is always half (give or take one for odd numbers) of the first hit, and the third and fourth hits are half of the second hit. If you use "Slice and Dice" and the first hit does "x" amount of damage, then the second hit will be .5x, and both the third and fourth will be .25x.

Clearly, dragon claws have a huge advantage over most players in PvP. If you were to hit 200 damage, instead you would hit 400 (200+100+50+50). Do that twice in a row and you most likely just KO'd your opponent, unless his Hp level is above 80. Here is a quick video of someone Pking with dragon claws:

Get Ecto Tokens

A surge of people are suddenly asking what Ecto-Tokens are, or how to get them. That is very simple, but lets start off with uses.

What are Ecto-tokens used for?

Ecto-tokens are most famous for being needed in the Ghosts Ahoy quest, although they are needed for all the following quests:

• Ghosts Ahoy requires 31 or more Ecto-tokens to complete.
• Animal Magnetism requires 20 tokens to complete. 
• Creature of Frankenstrain requires two tokens to complete. However, it does not require any if Ghosts Ahoy has already been completed.
• Making History requires two tokens to complete, but once again not needed if Ghosts Ahoy is already finished.
• Rocking Out requires 25 tokens to complete.
• You can buy a trip to Dragontooth Island for 25 Ecto-tokens. 
• After Animal Magnetism, you can buy and Undead Chicken for 10 tokens.
• Last, you can pay five Ecto-tokens for ale-yeast. This is a complete rip off considering the Grand Exchange price for ale-yeast is 30 coins.

To get Ecto-Tokens, you need to worship the Ectofuntus. This can be done if you have bonemeal and slime.

Fill your inventory with 9 bones, 9 pots, and 9 buckets and head to the Ectofuntus. You must be wearing your Ghost Speak Amulet to get Ecto Tokens. The Ectofuntus is almost at the most eastern point on the map (only Dragontooth island is further east, and you need Ecto-Tokens to get there).  It is East of Frankenstrains castle, in the kingdom Morytania.

Once you get there, go to the east side of the building and climb the flight of stairs. Up there you will find a bone grinder with a "wind" ability. When you wind it you will lose bones and get bonemeal in your pot. Do this nine times so that all pots are filled. Head back down the stairs to floor one.

Now go to the west side of the room and climb down the trap door. This room has a bunch of circular layers with staircases. Just walk around the circle and head down the stairs, repeat that until you get to the bottom. Now fill your buckets with slime and head back to the main floor.

Last, right click the Entofuntus and click "worship." Do this nine times and talk to the ghost disciple to claim your Ecto-Tokens. Since you get five tokens per worship, that comes to a total of 45 tokens! Hopefully this clears up a lot of unsure information.

Combat Observation: Agressive Monsters

Let's face it, training your combat level for hours at a time gets really boring. But we still want to kick butt in the dual arena don't we? So how do we level up and have fun at the same time? It's a question that a lot of level 50 (about the time when leveling up seems to take a while) characters are trying to answer.

It is very hard to level up quickly when you're bored out of your mind because you are distracted easily. You will find that you have a sudden urge to go work on other skills like fishing, woodcutting, mining, or anything besides combat. The key to getting strong fast is to have fun while you are advancing.

In that case, there are a couple of solutions to this predicament. First, you can train your character in the duel arena, clan wars, or other PvP activities. These are exciting and keep you on your toes looking for new challenges and adventures. But, of course, there is a catch. Fighting against other players is one of the slowest methods in the game for getting experience because you will spend a lot of your time looking for people to fight. Players also have intimidating defense levels when you compare them to monsters.

The other solution is to fight aggressive monsters. Aggressive monsters will attack you automatically, so it involves a lot less clicking. But how is this more fun than fighting normal monsters? Because you can do whatever you want while you are fighting! Okay, that sounded a little strange. What I meant was:

• Get your character into an area with aggressive monsters so he will not stop fighting.
• Make sure these monsters do not hit hard enough to deal massive amounts of damage to your character.
• Now do whatever you want! Watch TV, read the Runescape Observer, play another computer game, or eat your lunch! Just check on your character every 15 minutes or so and make sure to make sure he/she is alright. 
• Eventually, monsters will lose their aggressive attribute (in most cases at least) towards you. This can be solved by leaving and re-entering the area.

Problems arouse from fighting aggressive monsters when you use Range. If Rangers want to pick up their arrows, they have to be watching the screen at all times. It takes three minutes for your arrows to disappear and then they are gone for good. Rangers have two options if they want to use the aggressive monster technique:

1. Check your character more frequently, about every 3-5 minutes. By this time, only large stacks of arrows will remain and you can recover the majority of the arrows much faster than if you picked them up one by one.
2. The other option is to simply ignore your arrows, and don't pick them up. Vast amounts of Rangers like to purchase bulk amounts of bronze arrows and brush off the urge to retrieve them. This makes range training very easy, although more expensive.

You can find aggressive monsters throughout Runescape. I recommend using the Runescape Wiki to check monsters (See Picture To Left).

Flesh Crawlers and Zombies in the Stronghold of Security are great aggressive monsters to fight. Bring a fly fishing rod and feathers, and just fish at the Barbarian Village every time you get weak. Flesh Crawlers stay aggressive for about 15 minutes.

You can also fight aggressive skeletons in the Karmja Volcano. You can catch the swordfish and lobsters off of Karmja Island when you get weak. You might even consider taking on the Lesser Demons here if you feel like a real stud (be careful if you are leaving for 5 minutes or more). 

These are just a few of the many aggressive monsters. Please comment with your own training areas and strategies!