RuneScape unveils its biggest combat overhaul in ten years

Out of all the developers out there, Jagex is one of those with the closest bond to their players, even when they missed the mark massive with the Hero Pass at the end of last year. And now, after a beta period, they are ready to release their community-collaborate Combat Updates to RuneScape.

It has been ten years since Jagex last released a rework of this size for RuneScapes battle systems, with Evolution of Combat bringing upgrades like a higher combat level, a rebalanced combat triangle, more engaging enemies, and most crucially of all the ability to dual wield. Here's hoping for the mystical tri-wield.

Since the release of the first new combat style, Necromancer, it became clear that it was time for a tune-up for the original trio of Melee, Ranged, and Magic. Each of these has a huge range of updates that would take an absolute age to go over, so for a more in-depth look check out the full dev diary. Each has the damage ranges of their abilities adjusted, and other such changes, such as hit counts and passives.

In a general combat sense, the roll-to-hit system has been replaced with a damage potential method instead. What this does is basically modify the accuracy system of the original triangle to match Necromancer, where attacks always hit, but instead, it will modify the damage dealt, like the difference between a glancing slice or a complete skewering.

The game tooltips will also be updated to bring them up to a more modern look, and the Action Bar will receive a few new tricks such as a new toggleable cooldown timer, and the removal of the global cooldown from abilities that don’t use it. For extra eye candy, a Channel bar will added front and center to better track those skills.

RuneScape is available to download from the App Store and Google Play.