What Are the Best Skills in RuneScape? A Comprehensive Guide
Determining the “best” skills in RuneScape is subjective and largely depends on your goals and playstyle. However, certain skills stand out due to their profitability, usefulness, and overall impact on your RuneScape experience. In a broad sense, the best skills are those that provide a combination of financial gain, access to valuable resources, combat power, and enjoyable gameplay. Considering both RuneScape 3 (RS3) and Old School RuneScape (OSRS), these skills generally fall into the following categories: combat, resource gathering, crafting, and support skills. The most advantageous skills help players progress quickly, accumulate wealth, and enhance their enjoyment of the game.
Profitable Skills: Earning Your Fortune
Slayer (and Other Combat Skills)
Slayer stands out as a top-tier skill due to its ability to combine combat training with unique rewards and consistent income. While training your combat stats (Attack, Strength, Defence, Ranged, and Magic) is essential for any serious player, Slayer provides a structured way to level up combat while earning significant amounts of gold through loot drops and specific Slayer rewards. In RS3, Slayer even goes to level 120, meaning you can continue its benefits far beyond other skills. Bossing, a high-end combat activity, also provides excellent rewards once your character is strong enough. Combat skills provide progression in the game through fighting stronger monsters.
Hunter
Hunter is a skill in which you can capture creatures for their valuable resources, often those needed for Herblore and other skills. This skill offers a mix of active training and passive income, making it a rewarding choice for dedicated players. This skill is especially lucrative for more dedicated players who can capture high value resources.
Runecrafting
Runecrafting is a very important skill for anyone who plans to use magic in combat. This skill has the ability to train by crafting runes for profit, and then in turn using the runes for combat. While it is often slow to level, it provides valuable resources for magic and can lead to high profits at higher levels.
Herblore
Herblore, like runecrafting, is another crafting skill. It involves making potions from various herbs, and it is an integral part of the game for combat and other activities. It is often needed to use potions, so you can use the skill for personal use or for trading. This means that it can bring in great profits, especially for higher leveled potions.
Farming
Farming offers a unique way to generate resources and income. You can grow herbs, produce crops, and raise animals, all of which can be sold for profit. While it might not be as lucrative as high-level Slayer, it provides a consistent and relatively low-effort way to generate income once your farm is established.
Efficient Resource Gathering: Essential Skills for Progression
Fishing
Fishing is a fundamental skill that provides raw food and supplies for other skill training. The most valuable catches can be sold for profit, and is often used as a way to afk train and relax. Although it is often not the most efficient skill to train for profit, it is one of the more relaxing skills that is also needed for cooking.
Mining
Mining is another fundamental resource-gathering skill. Players mine ore to craft other valuable items. While the skill by itself may not be as profitable as other activities, the resources can be used for smithing, or sold to players, making it a valuable skill to train.
Essential Crafting Skills
Smithing
Smithing is the skill that takes ore and forges it into armor and weapons. These weapons can be sold for profit, or can be used by the player for combat training and pvm. Smithing is a popular way to earn money and is needed to craft a wide variety of items.
Fletching
Fletching, much like smithing, creates useful items, such as bows and arrows. These items are commonly used in combat, or sold to other players for money. Fletching is known as one of the fastest skills to level up, making it an easy option for many players looking for a max skill.
Supportive and Utility Skills
Prayer
Prayer is a vital skill for combat in RuneScape. It allows players to use powerful buffs and protection against enemies. Though training Prayer can be very expensive, it is essential for high-level bossing and other difficult activities.
Thieving
Thieving is a unique skill that can generate a surprising amount of gold. At higher levels, players can pickpocket NPCs and loot chests for valuable items and cash. This skill is known for being the fastest skill to 99 in RuneScape 3.
Construction
Construction allows players to build their own houses. While not immediately profitable, it allows the use of convenient features that can drastically improve your gameplay, such as a teleport portal room and fast access to the grand exchange.
Magic
Magic is a complex skill that allows players to use spells to damage enemies, teleport, and more. It is a powerful skill for both combat and utility, and is often used to make the game easier. It provides a huge range of helpful features and is a versatile and useful skill to train.
Skills That Reach Level 120
A few unique skills go past level 99 in RS3, reaching level 120, which shows true mastery of the skill. These skills include:
- Dungeoneering
- Invention
- Slayer
- Herblore
- Farming
- Archaeology
- Necromancy
Conclusion
In conclusion, the “best” skills in RuneScape are diverse and cater to different playstyles. Prioritizing skills based on your individual goals will greatly enhance your overall experience. If you are looking to make a lot of money, you should train Slayer, Hunter, Herblore, and Runecrafting. If you are trying to reach max level, training Thieving, Cooking, and Fletching are good options.
Frequently Asked Questions (FAQs)
What is the most expensive skill to level in RuneScape?
The most expensive skills to level in RuneScape are generally Prayer, Construction, and Magic. These skills often require significant financial investment to reach higher levels due to the cost of materials and training methods.
What is the fastest skill to 99 in RuneScape 3?
The fastest skill to 99 in RuneScape 3 is Thieving, particularly through safecracking at the Thieves’ Guild. This method can yield up to 800k experience per hour and even makes a small profit.
What RuneScape skills go to 120?
The skills that can be trained past level 99, all the way to level 120, are Dungeoneering, Invention, Slayer, Herblore, Farming, Archaeology, and Necromancy.
What is the fastest skill to 99 in OSRS?
The fastest skills to 99 in Old School RuneScape are typically Fletching, Prayer, Construction, Cooking, and Firemaking.
Who got the first 99 in RuneScape?
The first player to reach level 99 in Old School RuneScape was Atrate, who achieved level 99 in Thieving shortly after the game was released.
What is the hardest fight in RuneScape?
The hardest fight in RuneScape 3 is generally considered to be Telos at high enrage. Other challenging bosses include Nex: Angel of Death, Solak, and Zamorak, Lord of Chaos.
What is the easiest skill to get 99 in RuneScape?
The easiest skill to get to level 99 in RuneScape 3 is Thieving due to its fast experience rates through safe cracking.
What is the fastest Smithing XP method in RuneScape?
The fastest Smithing experience in RuneScape is achieved by smelting Gold Bars at the Blast Furnace. This method provides over 300,000 experience per hour.
What is the maximum cash value in RuneScape?
The maximum amount of gold that can be stored in the RuneScape money pouch is 2,147,483,649,147,483,647 or roughly 2.1 quintillion.
How much wealth is considered rich in RuneScape?
In membership-based OSRS, players with over 1 billion in wealth are considered rich, while the average player wealth is approximately 11 million.
Which RuneScape is more popular, RS3 or OSRS?
Old School RuneScape (OSRS) has a larger player base than RuneScape 3.
What is the fastest skill to train in RuneScape (generally)?
The fastest skills to train in RuneScape include Fletching, Cooking, Construction, Firemaking, and Prayer.
What is the fastest skill to 99 f2p in RuneScape 3?
The fastest skills to 99 in RuneScape 3 for free-to-play (f2p) players are likely Prayer, Construction, and Herblore.
How long does it take to get 99 in RuneScape?
The time it takes to reach level 99 varies depending on the skill and the training method. Training combat from level 1 to 99 can take approximately 120-130 hours.
What heals the most in RuneScape?
The highest-healing food for non-members is swordfish. For members, the highest healing food is the sailfish calorie bomb. However, in certain ideal situations, braindeath rum can heal more than any other single food.