Ninja Update – Responsive Combat

Today's update brings a change that'll make RuneScape combat faster, more frantic and more fluid: improved combat responsiveness from the deadly and talented Ninja Team. Get into game, gear up and seek out an enemy - you'll notice the difference right away.

As determined in a Player Power poll last year, we've also made a whole load of Gielinor's deadliest beasts aggressive, as they once were.

Read on for further details!


Combat Responsiveness

First, we removed the short delays between cooldowns ending and abilities triggering, and between clicking an ability and that ability activating. This means combat now feels more immediate and dynamic – your actions translating crisply to those of your character in-game.

Note that we've increased cooldown times slightly to compensate for the quicker combat, so combat balance is unaffected.

As well as that, we've also improved target switching, so you can charge into battle with lethal efficiency.

Finally, if you're a Revolution fan, you'll find that your favourite combat mode kicks in and deactivates in a much smoother fashion.

There's no substitute for trying today's improvements first-hand. Log in and give it a go!

The RuneScape Ninja Team


Monster Aggression

Following last year's Player Power poll to bring back aggressive monsters, these beasts will now come straight at you when you enter their lairs:

  • Lesser demons
  • Greater demons
  • Black demons
  • Banshees
  • Mighty banshees
  • Aberrant spectres
  • Lizards
  • Desert lizards
  • Small lizards
  • Kurasks
  • Harpie bug swarms
  • Skeletal wyverns
  • Brine rats
  • Mutated bloodvelds
  • Dark beasts
  • Hill giants
  • Fire giants
  • Moss giants

You'll be able to initiate combat with as many monsters as you can handle, but only one enemy will attack you at a time if you make no aggressive move of your own.

Monsters will remain aggressive unless:

  • Your combat level is more than double theirs.
  • You've stayed in the area for longer than five minutes.

Stay alert on your travels - and make good use of those new, sharper combat skills!

The RuneScape Team


In Other News

  • Come and try out the new, more-responsive combat with Mod Kalaya and Mod Matthe in Castle Wars: today at 16:00 UTC, World 24.
  • GameBlast15 is coming 20th February, along with the next Double XP Weekend! Prepare now for maximum gains all-round on this weekend of charity fun.
  • The first RuneLabs poll is live! Head into game now and vote on your choice of player-proposed updates.
  • Want to know more about RuneScape lore? Head to the Lore Discussion forum on Thursday 12th February, 18:00 UTC, and join Mods Osborne, Raven, Rowley, Stu and Chaose for a Lore Q&A.
  • Try our fun Valentine's quiz and find out which Gielinorian's the sugar on your summer pie.

Read the patch notes for other updates released today.

Back to top