Pvm Guide binge - Celestial Dragons, Automatons, and the Ascended

[Army of One 138]

Would have had Glacors here too but gosh darn it Rene swooped down and beat me there. Allgood homie make that guide shine for us

 

Celestial Dragons

Written by: Army of One

 

Celestial Dragons

 

Celestial Dragons are a special type of Chromatic Dragon accessed during and after the One of a Kind quest. Twisted and mad, these poor creatures are a result of the Dragonkin Kerapac's experiments in attempting to break the curse of uncontrollable rage that the Dragonkin suffer when the Stone of Jas is used - fusing eggs of ancient White Dragons with Dragonkin eggs. However, the experiment failed and the result was a creature that is stuck between time, which resulted in their madness. Besides lore, these Dragons are very good to kill due to their very high XP rate, which can reach levels of over 400k per hour with the best level gear, and also their nice drops, which are almost all noted, and their very high drop rate of Draconic Visages.

 

ToC

-Requirements/Gear

-Getting there

-Abilities

-Rewards

 

Requirements

It is HIGHLY recommended that you obtain 85 Herblore for Super Antifire Potions before attempting Celestial Dragons. As they have quite a high defence, using a single-handed weapon could result in much slower kills, from lack of damage from your shots that do connect, and you also lose the value abilities Needle Strike or Dazing Shot. You will be killing these with Ranged, as they are weak to arrows and have a high defence against other styles. At least 80 Ranged with a level 80 weapon is highly recommended - level 70 or 75 weapons will have a tough time connecting shots. In short, the requirements to efficiently kill Celestial Dragons are:

 

Universal requirements:

-One of a Kind

-85 Herblore

 

Low requirements:

-80 Ranged (Chaotic Crossbows, Royal Crossbow, Zaryte Bow, Attuned Crystal Bow)

-70 Defence (for Armadyl armour)

-70 Prayer (for the Rigour Prayer)

 

High requirements

-90 Ranged (Ascension Crossbows, Noxious Longbow)

-80 Defence (for Pernix armour)

-96 Herblore (for Overloads. If you have unlocked Searing Overloads from Prifddinas, use these, as they will save you inventory space and are also economically beneficial to use over a separate Overload and Super Antifire)

-95 Prayer (for the Anguish Curse)

 

An example of an average low-levelled set up:

 

An example of a high-level set up on a budget:

 

In terms use ammunition, use Dragonbane ammo. Your regular Royal Bolts / Ascension Bolts / Araxyte Arrows will suffice if required to, but completion of the Ritual of the Mahjarrat and Lunar Diplomacy quests are highly recommended for the ability to make Dragonbane Bolts / Arrows. They are untradeable, and are cheap to make, requiring only a small amount of time to produce thousands of spare ammo.

 

Use your highest available weapon. If you are 90 or even 99 Ranged and are unable to afford Ascension Crossbows or a Noxious Longbow, a level 80 weapon will do just fine. With the Anguish curse and Dragonbane ammo, the difference between level 90 and 80 weapons is small, if even notable at all, because you'll have 100% accuracy and your Dragonbane ammo will already be doing it's best damage. However without Bane ammo or if you don't have 100 accuracy with tier 80 weapons tier 90 weapons will help you significantly (if you can afford them).

 

For armour, do not use tank armour. When using a Super Antifire potion and standing out of range of the Dragon, you will take 0 damage. Thus, power armour to max your damage per second is a must. The best possible power armour is Sirenic - however, this is very expensive so it is not recommended that you use your Sirenic Armour here if you have it. The next option which is far more viable is Pernix Armour. Degradeable but repairable, this offers the best damage increase behind Sirenic and if you can afford and are willing to buy a set, you should. If you aren't a fan of degradeable armour, Armadyl armour is highly recommended - offering a nice damage boost, non-degradeable, and looking seriously cool to boot, this is a great option for those who can afford the decent cost. Lastly, Void Knight armour is also worth mentioning - an untradeable armour set obtained from Pest Control or Conquest, it offers a nice ranged boost which is great for those who like going welfare. At the very least, a set of Armadyl or Bandos Warpriest will suffice by potentially reducing adrenaline cooldowns, and if you have none of the above, even no armour works, as you take zero damage.

 

Another incredibly useful item - or rather, a set of items - is the Bonecrusher used in tandem with a Demon horn, Split Dragontooth or Twisted Bird skull necklace. When the Dragon is killed, you will recieve 150, 100 and 50 prayer points respectively. This effectively allows infinite usage of Rigour / Anguish, which is an incredible boost to your accuracy and damage at zero cost, however the two lower tier of necklaces may not provide enough prayer points to sustain the prayer / curse indefinitely.

 

In terms of Familiars, do not use a beast of burden. As you take no damage, there is no need for one. Bring your most powerful combat familiar, preferably a Steel Titan if you have 99 Summoning. Load your familiar with combat scrolls, and then right-click the familiar special attack bar and input '1'. This will ensure your familiar has a scroll output as fast as possible.

 

Getting There

 

Celestial Dragons are located within a resource dungeon on Dragontooth Isle. To sail to Dragontooth Isle, one must take a boat from Port Phasmatys. A bank is located there if necessary. The quickest teleport to Port Phasmatys is with the Ectophial. However, the single best teleport to Celestial Dragons is with a Hoardstalker ring. Obtainable through either finding them in chests in sinkholes, or playing a Preening Ibis card at the end of a sinkhole once the full Hoardstalker outfit has been achieved (5 Preening Ibis cards across 5 sinkholes is required for this) . They come with 8 charges and can teleport you directly to the resource dungeon. Rings can be recharged with 10,000 Dungeoneering tokens if required.

 

 

Abilities

 

When beginning to kill the dragons, CHECK THAT YOU HAVEN'T FORGOTTEN YOUR AMMO. Pot up, active your prayers, summon your familiar, load it with scrolls and begin. Your basic ability rotation should consist of the abilities (in order) Fragmentation Shot, Needle Strike / Dazing Shot, Piercing Shot, and Snipe. Do not use Ricochet, as this will attract multiple dragons onto you which could cause problems. Sacrifice is also a good ability to use if you have it, to use just as an adrenaline booster, as you won't need health. The main way you will be taking down the dragons is with your threshold abilities. There are four you will be using mainly - Bombardment, Tight Bindings, Snap Shot, and Rapid Fire. If you have all four off of cooldown, use them in that order - that is the fastest method to launch all four of them in quick succession. If not, you can start anywhere on that ladder, but still do your best to follow it in order. Also, use common sense - don't use Rapid Fire if the dragon has two or three thousand lifepoints left. Six or seven thousand would be the acceptable average.

Another threshold you can use is Smoke Tendrils. This ability hits ridiculously high, capable of hitting into the seven and eight thousands even without Death's Swiftness (capping at a round 12,000 damage if used in tandem with Death's Swiftness) but the higher the hit, the harder you will hit yourself. Thus, you will be taking damage. There are two methods to combat this without use of food - Soul Split and Sacrifice. If using Soul Split, make sure you activate it BEFORE using Smoke Tendrils, and then use as many thresholds as you have after that to swiftly heal yourself up. Use Sacrifice to finish off the dragon - this will result in a 100% heal, which if lucky can be up go 1,900 health without Death's Swiftness. Try and kill the dragons before they use their special attack - they will momentarily stun you, which can be annoying as it cancels your Rapid Fire ability. You CAN use Freedom to break free of this, however Anticipation CANNOT prevent it.

 

 

Rewards

 

Celestial Dragons have a very static drop table - All four basic Dragonhide, Water and Fire Talismans, Steel Platebodies, Adamant Bars, Unicorn Horns and Dagannoth Hides - all noted. Unnoted Rune Platebodies are also dropped, so a Spring Cleaner or High Alchemy runes are very good to prevent your inventory being filled with these. They also drop very good Crimson charms, so bring your charming imp if you have one. All of their other drops are rare drops, which are clue scrolls, Draconic Visages (which they drop far more frequently than any other dragon - one can sometimes see multiple Visages per hour) and the rarer pieces of Dragon Rider armour. This is a tier 70 Hybrid Armour, including the helm, platebody, chaps and cape, that offer some of the best prayer bonuses in-game. They also drop upgrade kits to use on Dragon Rider boots and gloves, which are drops from the King Black Dragon. This will change them from tier 60 to 70 gear, to match the other Dragon Rider armour pieces.

 

 

 

Automatons

Written by: Army of One

Cres's Automatons

 

Cres's Automatons are robotic slayer monsters accessable after full completion of The World Wakes. Requiring level 67 Slayer to kill, these creatures are known for dropping the tier 85 tank gloves in all 3 combat styles - Pneumatic, Tracking and Static, for Melee, Ranged and Magic respectively. They can also be assigned as a slayer assignment to those with the requirements. Alongside their glove drops, they drop various other stackable items, like herb seeds, Earth runes, noted Supercompost, ores, and magic logs, and also a very rare chance (roughly equal to a gloves drop) of dropping a Cresbot - a tiny Automaton that will follow you as a pet.

 

ToC

-Requirements/Gear

-Getting there

-Melee

-Ranged

-Magic

-Rewards

 

Requirements/Getting there

Automatons don't have the highest of defence, and thus your weapon selection can be more generous.

 

Universal requirements:

-The World Wakes (full rewards)

-67 Slayer

 

Low requirements:

 

Melee:

-75 Attack / Strength (for a Godsword. If you have 80 Slayer and have completed the Seers Hard tasks, use a Vine Whip paired with an enhanced Excalibur)

-70 Defence (for Barrows or Bandos armour)

-70 Prayer (Piety)

 

An example of the premium Melee set up

 

Ranged:

-70 / 75 Ranged (for a Crystal Bow / Black Salamander or Hand Cannon respectively)

-65 or 70 Defence (for Royal d'hide and Karil's / Armadyl armour respectively)

-70 Prayer (for Rigour)

 

An example of a lower-tiered Ranged set up

 

Magic:

-75 Magic (for a Staff of Light / Polypore Staff)

-70 Defence (for Ahrim's or Subjugation armour)

-70 Prayer (tier 70 mage prayer)

 

An average Magic set up

 

If your stats and equipment are higher than thus, such as if you have full Malevolent and a set of Drygores, or full Virtus and a Noxious Staff, there is nothing preventing you from using them. They will speed your kills up and are recommended if you have them. Also, level 95 Prayer (and completion of The Temple at Senntisten) for Turmoil / Anguish / Torment and Soul Split are very helpful prayers to use to keep you speed up your kills and keep your health up.

 

Melee

 

The Automaton Tracer, weak to crush attacks.

 

If you wish to melee the Automatons, your basic ability rotation will depend on your weapon/s - if you have 2h or Dual Wield. Universal abilities include Slice, Sever, Dismember, Punish, and Backhand / Kick. Dual Wield abilities include Decimate and Havoc, and 2h ones are Cleave and Smash. However, your thresholds will do the majority of the damage. Use Assault whenever it is off cool-down, and also use Slaughter and take one step forward to inflict an incredible bleed. If Dual Wielding, Destroy is another very powerful ability, and for 2h users you may also use Hurricane and Quake. However when Meleeing BE VERY CAREFUL OF THE AUTOMATON'S SPECIAL - Automatons have a special attack in which they will slam the ground with their hands repetitively, which will release shockwaves along the ground hitting into the high thousands at a rapid pace.

 

Two Automaton Guardians using their special attack

 

This can be avoided by stepping backwards - the escape ability is useful - but if you channel a combo ability such as Assault right as the Automaton begins it's special, you will have to break the ability and run to avoid being quickly killed.

 

Ranged

 

The Automaton Generator, weak to arrows.

 

Your basic ability rotation should consist of the abilities (in order) Fragmentation Shot, Needle Strike / Dazing Shot, Piercing Shot, and Snipe. Be careful using Ricochet, as having multiple Automatons on you at once could drain your health at an alarming rate.

The vast majority of your damage lies within your threshold abilities. There are four you will be using mainly - Bombardment, Tight Bindings, Snap Shot, and Rapid Fire. If you have all four off of cooldown, use them in that order - that is the fastest method to launch all four of them in quick succession. Smoke Tendrils is not recommended as it will damage you significantly. However with Soul Split this should not be too much of a problem. You will be out of range of the special attack, so you need not worry about it unless you like ranging from point-blank range.

 

Magic

 

The Automaton Guardian, weak to fire spells.

 

Probably the easiest method to take down Automatons, due to the fact you can farcast and safespot the melee Automatons, magic is good for those first learning to kill them. Use Fire Wave or any Surge spell if you have them. Your basic abilities should rotate through Impact, Combust, Wrack, Sonic Wave / Concentrated Blast, and Dragon Breath. Be wary when using both the later ability and chain, as it is difficult to fend of multiple Automatons at once if you catch any more with the AoE of those abilities. Use the two thresholds Asphyxiate and Wild Magic when you are able, as these both do very high damage even for thresholds and are where most of your damage will be sourced from. The best place to safespot the Automatons is around the small blockings on the sides of the entrances to the unaccessible storage bays that were used during the quest.

 

Rewards

Alongside their glove drops, they drop various other stackable items, like herb seeds, Earth runes, noted Supercompost, ores, and magic logs, and also a very rare chance (roughly equal to a gloves drop) of dropping a Cresbot - a tiny Automaton that will follow you as a pet.

 

 

Their XP is not the greatest of all monsters but it is still decent and they offer good Slayer XP when on task.

 

 

The Order of Ascension

Written by: Army of One

The Order of Ascension

 

The Ascended are a clan of creatures located within the Monastery of Ascension in the Feldip Hills. Created from the experiments of the ancient Guardian of Guthix Ocellus, a slightly deranged Blood Reaver, in his failed attempts to create life that worships no god. All creatures aside from the bosses require 81 Slayer to harm (81 Slayer is also a requirement to even enter the monastery - this is boostable) but have very generous drops when killed, dropping the keystones required to kill the bosses, which drop the six signets required to make the mighty Ascension crossbow.

 

ToC

-Requirements/Gear

-Getting there

-The Monastery

-Rewards

 

Requirements/Gear

 

The first thing that you need to know - nothing in this dungeon can be harmed with any method other than Ranged. Melee and Magic will NOT do any damage. Thus, decent Ranged gear is required at all times.

 

Universal Requirements:

-81 Slayer

 

Low Requirements:

-70 Ranged (Crystal Bow / Black Salamander / Karil's Crossbow/s, Armadyl Crossbow)

-65 Defence (Royal Dragonhide armour)

 

High Requirements:

-80 Ranged (Royal Crossbow / Attuned Crystal Bow / Chaotic Crossbows)

-70 Ranged (Armadyl Armour)

 

If you have higher tier weapons, such as Ascension Crossbows or a Noxious Longbow, feel free to use them if you wish to maintain the upkeep costs. Degradeable armour is not recommended, as you won't take enough damage to make anything higher than Armadyl worth it.

 

Getting There

 

The entrance to the Monastery of Ascension is located slightly west of the Oo'glog lodestone in the Feldip Hills. This is the fastest way to access them. More methods include the various ways to teleport to Mobilising Armies - Spirit Tree, teleport or Ring of Duelling.

 

The Monastery

 

(Map)

 

There are four kinds of creature in the monastery - Rorarii, Gladii, Scutarii and Capsarii. Each have a unique ability that must be countered when fighting them.

 

Rorarii: these critters may look small, but if you disturb one - you disturb them all. Rorarii will pile you in large groups when you attack them.

 

Gladii: more or less the lightweight member of the order, these humanoid ascended have a very annoying tendency to dash across the rooms towards you and will stun you every chance they get. This can only be countered by the Anticipation / Freedom abilities or standing one square next to them. Be warned, for even if you stand next to them, they will zip backwards and dash forwards straight afterwards to stun you, so make sure you follow them as they move.

 

Capsarii: these units are weak, but when fighting other units of the order they will heal them rapidly whilst making them almost immune to damage (you cannot outhit this heal). You must kill these before finishing off what you were originally killing, but they have low health and can easily be two hit with basic abilities (or even one hit with Snipe or Needle Strike).

 

Scutarii: the heavy unit, these carry large shields covering their sides and front. They will take only 10% damage when struck from the front and 50% from the sides. These need to be stunned to kill properly, or doing so with a partner also works. Not suggested to kill.

 

The Monastery itself is a very large dungeon, filled with agility shortcuts and crevasses to navigate around.

 

 

 

I probably made a bad decision making this all in one post but man I don't even care, having three threads on the go would get kind of annoying. If you'd like to help me out with images, especially with gear I don't have (any Nex armours / any T90 weapons aside from Drygores / Armadyl armour) it would be solidly appreciated.

Edited February 2, 2015 by Army of One

[Renegaderp 17]

Quickly skimmed through it, here's a few things you may want to take into consideration:

 

Celestial dragons:

You should definitely mention that they're excellent to kill for Iron Man Accounts because they drop a lot of Summoning secondaries, which would otherwise take hours to amass.

 

Automatons:

Guardians are the safest to kill because you can safespot them, Tracers give the highest kills per hour, Generators are somewhat in between.

 

Ascension:

To efficiently kill Scutari, you need to have a partner.

 

Add Airuts?

[Army of One 138]

Quickly skimmed through it, here's a few things you may want to take into consideration:

 

Celestial dragons:

You should definitely mention that they're excellent to kill for Iron Man Accounts because they drop a lot of Summoning secondaries, which would otherwise take hours to amass.

Will add

 

Automatons:

Guardians are the safest to kill because you can safespot them, Tracers give the highest kills per hour, Generators are somewhat in between.

Had safespotting mentioned already

 

Ascension:

To efficiently kill Scutari, you need to have a partner.

Asc guide is unfinished so far.

 

 

Add Airuts?

These were on the list to be written and will most likely be done soon

[-Leaf- 197]

Requirements

It is HIGHLY recommended that you obtain 85 Herblore for Super Antifire Potions before attempting Celestial Dragons. As they have quite a high defence, using a single-handed weapon could result in much slower kills, from lack of damage from your shots that do connect, and you also lose the value abilities Needle Strike or Dazing Shot.

the value abilites? I assume this should be "the valuable abilities"

 

Gano gloves and boots for range? wtf

 

Demon Slayer is level 60 power armour for range and I think it's even cheaper than Spined.

 

If you're not going to use power armour, might as well go naked because you're not taking damage anyway unless you melee.

 

Dragon rider amulet switch in inv for increased pray xp when your pray is full.

 

I'd put a hoardstalker ring in place of the ectophial there.

 

Since you have charm placeholders there, might as well add placeholders for every other stackable drop.

 

 

Will get back to this when I have time

[Angel Hayley 81]

Ascension:

To efficiently kill Scutari, you need to have a partner.

 

Or there's a nifty ability called "Binding shot". Bombardment also works and deals full damage from the front. Note that you can deal full damage to scutarii by using an ability and quickly running through them to get behind them/to the side of them.