Magic
From the RuneScape Wiki, the wiki for all things RuneScape
- "Spells" redirects here. For a comprehensive overview of all spellbooks, see List of spells.
Magic is a versatile skill that uses elemental energy released from runes for a variety of subjects such as combat, enchantments for certain items, teleporting, and to fuse items into money via alchemy spells. While it is possible to play the game without being skilled in Magic, it is a very considerable advantage to be able to use many spells, especially high level alchemy and various teleports. Magic can also be used by many different monsters in the game.
Once players reach level 66, they will be able to access the Wizards' Guild that is located in Yanille.
The current minimum requirement to be ranked (at rank 2,000,000) on the hiscores for Magic is level 51.
As with all guides in the Skills section, members-only items are in italics.
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[edit] Spells
Magic is used almost exclusively through casting spells on another player or non-player character, on oneself (reflexively), or on an item.
There are three kinds of Magic in RuneScape: standard (commonly called "modern" or "regular"), Ancient Magicks, and Lunar Spells. Each has a different spellbook and typically only one can be used at once (for an exception to this rule, see Spell Book Swap). The special spellbooks are only available on member worlds, with the completion of their respective quests.
To cast a spell, a player must choose the wanted spell from their spellbook. To access the activated spellbook, click on the Spellbook icon (
) in the game's interface.
[edit] Ancient Magics
The Ancient Magics contain some of the most dangerous offensive spells. These spells can only be used after completing the fiendish and long Desert Treasure quest. These consist of the following types of spells: Ice, Smoke, Blood, Shadow, Miasmic, and Teleportation.
Ancient Magick spells are capable of bringing in some of the best experience for Magic; however, the high price of Runes used in Ancient Magick spells makes this a very expensive way to train. This is comparable to using Chinchompas for Ranged.
[edit] Lunar spells
The Lunar Spells are useful for helping training your noncombat skills and other players for example in PvP situations (with the exceptions of Vengeance and Vengeance Other), and require the Lunar Diplomacy quest before being usable. A spellbook extension becomes available after completion of the Dream Mentor quest.
Many of these spells make other skills easier to train; for example, the Plank Make spell provides an alternate, faster way of making planks rather than using the sawmill.
[edit] Standard spells
The standard spells are activated on any new character's account and they are available on all worlds. There is no prerequisite to using the standard spellbook, although some spells are only available on member worlds and others require completion of certain quests or tasks. As with other skills, new capabilities require higher skill levels.
All spells yield their associated amount of experience when cast; combat spells give additional experience directly related to the amount of damage caused to the opponent(s).
In the standard spellbook, spells fall into one of several categories: combat, curse, teleportation, alchemy, and enchantment.
[edit] Teleportation spells
Teleportation spells are divided into two categories: the Teleother and personal Teleport spells. The latter is most popular with all players, free and member alike, as teleportation spells save lots of time when travelling around the world.
[edit] Combat spells
The maximum hit using a combat spell in the standard Spellbook is 30 (any of the God Spells used in conjunction with Charge). This is currently causing a lot of rancour among magic since rangers and warriors have a much higher maximum hit and is the subject of much ranting in the forums. Jagex has yet to take action in response.
[edit] Splashing
Combat spells will occasionally splash upon contact with a target (i.e. they will do no damage). When splashing, the caster will receive only the base experience for that spell and no additional experience. As a result, there is no physical difference between splashing with a spell and hitting a 0 with the same spell. The splash rate depends on eight things:
- The caster's Magic level
- The Magic attack bonus of the equipment the caster is wearing
- Any Magic prayers the caster has activated.
- The target's Magic level
- The target's Defence level
- The Magic defence bonus of the equipment the target is wearing
- Any Magic prayers the target has activated (including Protect from Magic)
- Any Defence prayers the target has activated.
[edit] Curses
A curse spell is any spell that causes a negative effect to its target other than damage, usually reducing a stat.
[edit] Alchemy
- All alchemy spells use nature runes to transform items into coins, or ores into bars. Particularly note High Alchemy in this section, as it is probably the most widely used spell in the game, but is usually considered a somewhat expensive training method at higher levels because of the accumulated money lost.
[edit] Enchantments
Enchant spells all use cosmic runes to make an item magical.
[edit] Standard spellbook
On the 27 January 2009, the way you could order your spells was altered. You could have teleportation spells first, combat spells, or just the normal level orders. The way you could change the order was by clicking on one of the three icons in the bottom right corner of the spellbook (
).
[edit] Spell Components
[edit] Runes
All spells (except Home Teleport) require the use of runes as a consumed resource. It's recommended to craft your own runes rather than buying it unless you can find a good way to make money. Runes are commonly traded stackable items which are obtained by various methods. For hints on obtaining runes, see Runes: Obtaining runes.
[edit] Elemental staves
The requirement for certain runes in a spell can be removed if the player wields an Elemental staff corresponding to an elemental rune. As an example, wielding a Fire staff allows a player to cast High Level Alchemy using only one Nature rune.
Players who are lucky enough may obtain a combination staff. This is a staff with more than one rune's power. So far, the only existing combination staffs are the lava battlestaff (which is fire and earth), mud battlestaff (which is water and earth), and the steam battlestaff (which is water and fire), and their mystic counterparts.
Various magical staves are available in RuneScape. In the list below are all the free-to-play staves, which can all be obtained at Zaff's Superior Staffs! store in Varrock. The main effect of a staff or magic staff is to boost magic attack and defence, while elemental staves provide unlimited amounts of their elementary rune in addition to the boosts provided by a magic staff. There are many members-only staves such as battlestaves, mystic staves, the Slayer staff, the Lunar staff, the Ancient staff, and God staves.
Some members magic staves can increase the power of combat spells by 10% if they are wielding it. The staves which fall into this category are: Ahrim's Staff, Ancient Staff, Master Wand, Void Knight Mace, Zuriel's Staff and Corrupt Zuriel's Staff.
| Item | Attack | Defence | Strength | |||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Crush | Magic | Stab | Slash | Crush | Magic | |||
| Staff | 7 | 4 | 2 | 3 | 1 | 4 | 3 |
| Magic staff | 10 | 10 | 2 | 3 | 1 | 10 | 7 |
| Staff of air | 7 | 10 | 2 | 3 | 1 | 10 | 3 |
| Staff of water | 7 | 10 | 2 | 3 | 1 | 10 | 3 |
| Staff of earth | 9 | 10 | 2 | 3 | 1 | 10 | 5 |
| Staff of fire | 9 | 10 | 2 | 3 | 1 | 10 | 6 |
[edit] Robes and armour
Most mages wear robes, although some light armour is available that is made from special material and does not hinder the wearer's ability to perform magic attacks. For the different sets of armour and detailed information on each piece, see the Armour: Magic armour article.
A player's maximum magic attack bonus is +152, and the maximum magic defence bonus is +196.
[edit] Best Magic armour
[edit] Best Magic Attack Bonus
| Item | Bonus | Requirements | |
|---|---|---|---|
 | Zuriel's hood[1][2] | +8 | 78 Magic, 78 Defence (20 Magic, 20 Defence for Corrupt version) |
 | Zuriel's robe top[1] | +35 | 78 Magic, 78 Defence (20 Magic, 20 Defence for Corrupt version) |
 | Zuriel's robe bottom[1] | +25 | 78 Magic, 78 Defence (20 Magic, 20 Defence for Corrupt version) |
 | Master wand | +20 | 60 Magic |
 | Arcane spirit shield[3] | +20 | 65 Magic, 75 Defence, 70 Prayer, completed Summer's End |
 | Barrows gloves | +6 | Completed Recipe for Disaster |
 | Infinity boots | +5 | 50 Magic, 25 Defence |
 | God capes | +10 | 60 Magic, completed the Mage Arena |
 | Third age amulet[4] | +15 | 65 Magic, 30 Defence |
 | Seer's ring (i) | +8 | Mobilising Armies Rank of 300 |
Total
| +152 | 65/78 Magic, 75/78 Defence, 70 Prayer, completed Recipe for Disaster, Summer's end, and the Mage Arena, and a Mobilising Armies Rank of 300. | |
- ^ a b c All Ancient Warriors' Equipment comes in corrupt versions. Normal versions require level 78 in relevant skills and last for 1 hour. Corrupt versions require level 20 and last 15 minutes.
- ^ A Third age mage hat also gives +8 magic attack and requires 65 Magic with 30 Defence, but is much more expensive.
- ^ A Mage's book only gives +15 magic attack and requires 60 Magic, but is much less expensive
- ^ Both the Amulet of glory and the Amulet of fury give only +10 magic attack but have no requirements to use and are much less expensive
[edit] Best Magic Attack Bonus Without PvP Armour
| Item | Bonus | Requirements | |
|---|---|---|---|
 | Third age mage hat[1] | +8 | 65 Magic, 30 Defence |
 | Ahrim's robetop | +30 | 70 Magic, 70 Defence |
 | Ahrim's robeskirt | +22 | 70 Magic, 70 Defence |
| Master wand | +20 | 60 Magic |
| Arcane spirit shield[2] | +20 | 65 Magic, 75 Defence, 70 Prayer, completed Summer's End |
| Barrows gloves | +6 | Completed Recipe for Disaster |
| Infinity boots | +5 | 50 Magic, 25 Defence |
| God capes | +10 | 60 Magic, completed the Mage Arena |
| Third age amulet[3] | +15 | 65 Magic, 30 Defence |
| Seer's ring (i) | +8 | Mobilising Armies Rank of 300 |
Total
| +144 | 70 Magic, 75 Defence, 70 Prayer, completed Recipe for Disaster, Summer's end, and the Mage Arena, and a Mobilising Armies Rank of 300. | |
- ^ Ahrim's hood, Farseer helms, Healer hats, and Infinity hats all give +6 magic and are all much cheaper.
- ^ A Mage's book only gives +15 magic attack and requires 60 Magic, but is much less expensive
- ^ Both the Amulet of glory and the Amulet of fury give only +10 magic attack but have no requirements to use and are much less expensive
[edit] Best Free-to-Play Magic Attack Bonus
[edit] 
Best Free-to-Play Magic Attack Bonus
The maximum hit with magic in a non member world is 16, using Fire Blast.
The following armour gives the highest possible magic attack bonus for non-members:
| Item | Image | Magic attack bonus | Requirements to wear/use |
|---|---|---|---|
| Runecrafter hat[1] | 
| +3 | 50 Runecrafting |
| Combat robe top-100[2] | 
| +7 | 20 magic and 10 defence |
| Combat robe bottom-100[2] | 
| +6 | 20 magic and 10 defence |
| Any elemental staff[3] |
| +10 | None |
| Runecrafter gloves[4] | 
| +1 | None |
| Amulet of Magic | 
| +10 | None |
| Explorer's ring[5] | .png){kind=small}
| +1 | Completed all Beginner tasks in the Lumbridge and Draynor Diary |
| Total | +38 | 20 magic, 10 defence, 50 Runecrafting, and completed all Beginner tasks in the Lumbridge and Draynor Diary. |
- ^ The Combat hood and the Druidic mage hood offer the same magic attack bonus as the Runecrafter hat, however the runecrafter hat has better defensive bonuses and doesn't degrade.
- ^ a b Combat robes offer the same magic attack bonuses as Druidic mage robes.
- ^ Any of the four elemental staves give the same bonus as a magic staff.
- ^ Any colour runecrafter gloves may be used.
- ^ Explorer's ring 1, 2, and 3 give the same bonus.
Additional note: The anti-dragon shield and the Wooden shield also give a defence bonus without damaging magic attack bonus, unlike other melee based shields, but the anti-dragon shield is slightly better, so is often used with the above equipment.
[edit] Combat
[edit] How to successfully fight as a mage
A player who is a mage is weak against Ranged and strong against Melee fighters. When attacking others, a mage should use a combination of curse spells (Bind, Snare, Entangle, Ice spells in Ancient Magicks) and highly damaging combat spells such as Fire Wave, or the Mage Arena spells. Curses tend to be underused, but do not underestimate them. When fighting monsters, using battle tactics helps, such as staying in a safe spot. Most undead creatures and demons are weak to magic attacks. This will provide an advantage over these creatures. One should take note of a monster's weakness to a particular element (wind, water, earth, or fire).
A little known fact about Magic is that as a player's Magic skill level increases, so does their defence against magical attacks. Magical defence is calculated from 70% of a player's Magic level and 30% of their defence level. Thus, even if a player doesn't care to use Magic too often, having a high Magic skill can help to protect them.
[edit] Training magic
Generally, the fastest way to obtain runes is to buy them. If money is tight, it is recommended that a player uses the Runecrafting skill to make runes for magic training. Alternatively, a player can play Fist of Guthix for free runes, although these cannot be taken from the arena. Using magic this way is the fastest and cheapest way to use magic, while also gaining the Fist of Guthix tokens to purchase items. You could also make teleport tablets, gaining money and experience at the same time.
Certain locations such as the prison in Port Sarim and the demon's cage atop the Wizards' Tower can prove to be useful when training magic because of the safespot which leaves enemies unable to retaliate.
Organising your spells into the proper category may maximise your training and lower the amount of time needed to cast each spell.
Recently, an achievement diary was added as a new kind of quest. For free players, finishing the 2nd part of the Lumbridge/Draynor diary gives you an upgrade to your explorer's ring, giving you the power to make 30 low level alchemies a day. This is easy experience, that if you take a few minutes each day to do it, you can level up your magic very quickly. The easiest but not the most profitable way to level your magic up using this method is to head to a field of crops (ex. potatoes, cabbage) and pick up 30 of them and then using the ring power of low level alchemy on them all. Each cast is 31 experience, so for one day, you can get 930 experience in a few minutes. It may not be a lot, but it literally takes minutes, even though you must wait a day to repeat it.
| Minimum level | Members? | Combat? | Details |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | No | Yes | Cast any attack spell in Clan Wars. The higher the magic level, the better, so that a player can cast higher level spells. |
| 1 | No | Yes | Cast elemental spells at Spiders in Lumbridge's cellar with melee armour on. The spell will splash which leads to a long bout of magic casting with minimal input required. Do not leave your keyboard while doing this as it can result in being banned! |
| 1 | No | Yes | The Dark Warriors' Fortress has an unlimited supply of Air, Earth, Fire, Water, Body, Mind and Chaos runes to use on the level 8 Dark Warriors. |
| 1 | No | Yes | The Fist of Guthix minigame gives free runes that can be used only within the game. Training here can save lots of money, considering spells that require death runes are very expensive. If you intend to get Fist of Guthix Tokens, it is recommended that your combat level is at least 30. |
| 19 | No | No | Cast curse on the magic training dummies in Lumbridge. A Mud battlestaff supplies water and earth runes making casts cheaper. However, a Staff of earth or a Staff of water is a cheap alternative if you cannot afford or equip a Mud battlestaff (30 magic and attack). With a Mud battlestaff, a player can get to 99 magic from level 30 magic with less than 5 million gp. The dummies can be cursed again, even if the spell hits. Equipping sacred clay armour doubles the rate of xp and makes it even faster. |
| 33 | No | No | Use Telekinetic Grab in the west Varrock bank to get the gold ore inside of the vault, then sell the ore for about a 100gp profit. Buy another law rune, and repeat. One may also choose to collect Wine of Zamorak, as this is highly valued by high level herblorists. Another way to profit from using Telekinetic grab is buying law runes for 300 each, and telegrabbing the nature runes North-east of Rellekka. There are two in a stack, which can sell for a total of 600 coins, for a 300 gp profit. However, this stack takes approximately one minute to respawn. A player could grab the nearby sapphire in this time. Even though these are cost effective methods, they are very slow and can hardly be compared to cursing.Alternatively, if a member, use telegrab at the Mage training arena for pizzazz points, which can be traded for Infinity robes as well as extra experience. |
| 39 | No | Yes | Use Crumble Undead on Skeletons in the Varrock Sewers or Shilo Village or the Shades in Shades of Mort'ton (minigame), the xp you get are higher than from a Fire bolt which needs a chaos rune, too. Even on higher levels this is a fast and cheap way to train your magic. |
| 40 | Yes | Yes | Use the Sacred Clay robes and/or magic staff rewards obtained from Stealing Creation to double the experience received from casting any combat spell. |
| 41 | Yes | No | If completed Biohazard and Gertrude's Cat: This method of training magic mainly revolves around raising Kittens into Cats and selling them to the West Ardougne Civilians for 100 Death Runes per Cat. After obtaining enough Death Runes, the easiest way to train magic is to buy an Air Staff and use Wind Blast. |
| 43 | No | No | Requires level 50 Smithing minimum. Purchase all ores required at the Grand Exchange to smith a Mithril, Adamantite, or Runite bar(s), equip a Fire Staff, and use spell Superheat Item to smelt into bars. Fastest way to train Magic/Smithing simultaneously, with relatively little cost to small profit. A profit can be made when smithing steel/rune bars. Gives 53 magic exp per cast. |
| 45 | Yes | No | Repeatedly cast Camelot Teleport. By using an air staff, only one law rune will be used. This spell can be cast at a relatively fast rate, with a gain of 55.5 magic experience per spell. Law runes can be bought for around 300 gp each in bulk, or one can do Law running for free law runes. |
| 50 | Yes | Yes | The guide to the Barrows covers this in more detail, but the Barrows can be extremely good magic experience, mainly because large amounts of runes are a common reward from the chest. Magic dart and ice burst are effective against the brothers. It is also profitable to train magic here, provided one knows what he/she is doing. |
| 50 | Yes | Yes | If 50 attack and done Underground Pass: Go into the underground pass and bring 1k+ death runes and 5k+ fire runes. Go all the way to the paladins and cast Iban blast on them, or some other nearby monster. Recharge the staff at the well nearby if necessary. |
| 55 | No | No | High Level Alchemy allows one to convert items into Coins. Most players owe their high level of Magic to this spell, at 65 magic experience per casting, using a fire staff so as to only consume 1 Nature rune per spell. See the High Level Alchemy article for detailed information on training with it effectively, as well as the High alchemy calculator which lists a profit analysis for this spell. |
| 57 | Yes | No | Enchant Crossbow Bolt (Diamond) Turns Diamond bolts into Enchanted diamond bolts, and is one of the few ways to gain magic experience while making money as well. This gains the player 67 magic experience per cast, and typically manages to net the player 1-2 gold per bolt (10-20 gold per cast). While this may not seem like much, done on a large scale (say, several thousand bolts), it can be a very fast, profitable method of training magic. This can also be combined with a player's fletching ability to both make the bolts and enchant them. |
| 60 | Yes | No | Using Bones to Peaches at the Mage Training Arena is good experience as well as making a profit by buying and selling infinity robes. A Mud battlestaff is recommended. |
| 66 | Yes | No | Craft Air orbs. This yields a reasonable amount of experience and sometimes even some profit. Buying unpowered orbs and Cosmic runes is recommended for the fastest experience possible with this method. Some food is recommended for lower levels because of the aggressive monsters in Edgeville Dungeon |
| 68 | Yes | No | Cast Humidify. Astral runes, fire runes, a steam staff (or a water staff however this requires a fire rune), and a bucket are required. Keep filling the bucket and emptying it. With a steam staff, the spell only requires 1 astral rune but gives 65 Magic experience. Doing this is convenient near Baba Yaga's rune shop. Additionally, you can cast humidify on empty vials and sell the full vials for a modest profit. An even better method to train magic efficiently would be to cast humidify using an empty fishbowl. Fill it with the spell, then empty and repeat. The advantage of using a fishbowl is that it has a left click empty option. Use the F1 and F4 keys to get to your inventory and spellbook faster. |
| 68 | Yes | No | Casting Enchant Level 5 Jewellery in the Mage Training Arena while wielding a Mud staff is quick experience, and can help make a profit with Infinity robes. Keep in mind enchanting within the Mage Training Arena provides only 75% of the normal experience. |
| 70 | Yes | Yes | Using Ancient Magicks is a quick, yet expensive way to train magic. The way many players train with ancients is through Ice Burst. Utilise a multicombat area, the Tzhaar Fight Pits, or a combat ring in a player owned house to hit many enemies at once for more experience per cast.Alternatively, casting ice burst using a safespot in the Shadow dungeon can be a good training spot because there are many monsters that are weak to magic. |
| 80 | Yes | No | Casting Stun on the magic training dummies in Lumbridge can bring very fast magic experience, but at a high cost. A Mud battlestaff is a necessity for this method. Equipping sacred clay armour doubles the rate of xp and makes it even faster. |
| 86 | Yes | No | Casting Plank Make on Mahogany logs is one of the fastest methods of training magic. Players will lose 150-300gp per cast if they buy all the required materials. |
| 87 | Yes | No | Casting Enchant Level 6 Jewellery in the Mage Training Arena while wielding a Lava staff yields up to 75K xp/h, and can help make a profit through Infinity robes. Keep in mind enchanting within the Mage Training Arena only provides 75% of the normal experience, which reduces Enchant Level 6 Jewellery to only 72.8 exp. |
[edit] Temporary boosts
A Magic potion temporarily boosts a player's magic level by 4.[1]. Alternatively, a Magic essence potion boosts Magic by 3[1].
Three Prayers can boost Magic. These are Mystic Will, Mystic Lore and Mystic Might, which boost magic by 5%, 10%, or 15% respectively[2] for as long as they are active. These boosts do not increase damage, nor do they affect the player's actual level. Jagex has confirmed that these prayers only help your magical accuracy and magical defence.
Wizard's mind bomb is a type of beer that increases magic by 3 or 2 (if the player's Magic level is below 50). Players can brew it themselves at level 34 Cooking[3], or buy it at the pub in the Burthorpe Games Room or the Rising Sun Inn in Falador.
Red spicy stew can has the potential to give between +6 and -6 Magic boost.[4].
An extreme magic potion boosts all offensive magic spells to do 40% more damage.
[edit] Trivia
- The Magic Skill Cape is the only skill cape to have gold under the shoulder pads and on the back. On all the rest of the skill capes, they are coloured grey.
- Magic in RuneScape Classic was very different from its current incarnation:
- There were two magic skills, Good Magic and Evil Magic. When the current Magic system was released, the player's Magic level was set as whatever their highest old magic level was.
- Spells were all a simple flying blue star, which proved difficult to distinguish from arrows, which were green stars.
- Melee armour offered no Magic attack penalties, leading to a massive imbalance in favour of high-level mages.
- Spells gave the fixed experience using the formula 2 * spell level + 20. Jagex explains that the reduction of Magic experience in RuneScape 2 was due to the fact that runes were easier to obtain on the new version[source needed].
- Spells were sometimes failed, which did not use any runes, but stopped players from using any magic for 20 seconds.
- Combat spells cast on Dummies do not give Hitpoints experience.
- Ever since RuneScape HD's release, failed spells will sometimes fly straight up instead of splashing and disappearing as usual.
- If a player is far enough from their opponent, their spells will take longer to reach their opponent than an attack cycle, leading them to fire another spell before the first spell hit. This sometimes leads to a spell being in the air when the opponent dies.
- Projectile spells will change directions to hit players that teleport.
- Before the Autocast update on 9 September 2009, spells could only be autocast if wielding staves, and even then only certain spells could be autocasted.
- Players can choose the option to train Magic and Defence through selecting Defensive casting.
[edit] See also
[edit] References
- ^ a b Herblore - The Potions
- ^ Prayer - The Basics, RuneScape manual
- ^ Cooking - Drinks, RuneScape manual
- ^ Cooking - Extra Features, RuneScape manual
- RuneScape Game Guide
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October 2006
