Bandos's Book of War

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Bandos's Book of War detail.png

Bandos's Book of War is a book held in the pocket slot, and is the God book aligned with Bandos. It can be purchased from Jossik for 5,000 coins at the lighthouse. Books of war must be made using all four torn Bandos pages which can be purchased from other players, obtained from treasure trails, cremating a vyre corpse, or opening an ancient casket. Equipping a book of war allows the player to preach and perform ceremonies, such as blessing, last rites, and wedding rites, by operating it (none of which have any effect on the game itself, and are simply recited lines of text).

Lost books of war can be reclaimed by speaking to Jossik at the lighthouse, or from a player-owned house bookcase, complete with all pages that have been added, for 100,000 coins. However, the book will lose all its remaining charges, requiring the player to add additional pages in order to activate the passive effect.

After completion of One Piercing Note, if the book has all four pages, it can be used to create an illuminated book of war and unlock the god book off-hand override. This requires level 60 Crafting and 60 Prayer, and grants 10,000 Prayer and 10,000 Crafting experience (for the first time only). The book of war is not consumed in the process.

Filling the Book of War with all pages currently costs 36,974 coins.

The book counts as a god item, rendering Bandosian followers non-aggressive in the God Wars Dungeon.

Book info[edit | edit source]

Combat stats[edit | edit source]

Passive effect[edit | edit source]

Bandos's Book of War passive

The book of war can be activated like scrimshaw to provide a passive combat effect. The book can be recharged with any Bandos page, giving 45 minutes of active time per page. This is shared, unchanged, with the illuminated book.

The passive has a 6.6% chance to activate per hit, and it has a 15 second cooldown once activated before it can activate again. When it activates, a shockwave hits the target, dealing 90-150% damage (PvP: 30-90%), reducing the target's Defence level by 5% + 5 and increasing its affinity values by 3 for 15 seconds.

This is based on General Graardor's hard mode ranged attack.

Debuff Mathematics (Outdated)[edit | edit source]

Revo/Manual combat has approximately 33 hits per minute, 33 chances to proc. The calculation for affinity usefulness can be calculated as follows - Combat can be split into two discrete phases:

  • 1. Affinity debuff not yet active and proc is possible
  • 2. Affinity debuff active, team is getting more damage in, proc is currently not possible.

Since passive has 5% chance to activate, each phase 1 will contain an average of 20 hits. Since the debuff is active for exactly 12 seconds, each phase 2 will last 12 seconds. Thus, together, a proc cycle will be a total of 20 hits debuff off, then 12 seconds debuff on. After it wears off the cycle repeats.

Cycles thus last an average of 48 seconds:

  • 36 seconds without the +3 affinity debuff
  • 12 seconds with the +3 affinity debuff.

An example utility function at 7 man Nex:Angel of Death, a pure DPS boss: Players with a standard Flanking 3 PF+vigour sunshine rotation and fully perked t90 gear can expect 180k dpm.

  • Inactive illuminated god book is flat +0.525% dpm.
  • Active book of Wisdom is +2.933%
  • Active book of Law +3.2% maximum (no movement)
  • Damage scrimshaw +5%
  • Superior Damage scrimshaw +6.66%
  • Bandos Book of War is +1.60% from direct proc damage, plus the damage boost for team. Assuming the team is under 94% hitchance for the entire kill, and 1 player has acitive Bandos book, average 25% of the kill will be spent with affinity debuff on (12 seconds per every 48 seconds). Assuming 7 man AOD, quake+gstaff, no SWH, that brings affinity from 59 to 62 while debuff is on, a +5.08% increase for all 7 players, or an effective +35.59% increase for the book contributor. Average of +8.8898% effective debuffer dpm per cycle. +8.8898%+1.60% = +10.4898%
  • Double Bandos Book of War: Since the debuff active does not stack with itself, phase 2 of the debuff cycle remains constant. Phase 1 time is cut in half. Thus, 2 books = 30 second cycles, 18 seconds debuff off, 12 seconds debuff on. The effective marginal gain of the second Bandos book is +5.338% effective debuffer dpm per cycle, a total of 5.338%+1.60%=+6.938%
  • Triple Bandos Book of War: the marginal gain falls off to +3.559% effective debuffer dpm per cycle, a total of 3.559%+1.60%=+5.159%

Note that the debuff does not have effect on minions or pillars, whereas damage scrimshaws do.

This means using a Bandos book is on par with best in slot pocket items, in situations like no-hammer, sub-94% hitchance 7 man AOD. 1 Bandos book is advised, ideally on base tank or 4ticker. All other team members should be on Superior Damage Scrimshaws.

Of course, if the team has a hammer, is using Maniacal auras, Nihils, Reaper necklaces, or other ways to boost hitchance, team hitchance becomes 100%. Thus, Bandos is no longer useful: utility falls to +1.60%. Bandos book is best used in large team, low-hitchance bosses.

Cost[edit | edit source]

Page Cost
Bandos page 1.png: RS3 Inventory image of Bandos page 1Bandos page 1 11,369
Bandos page 2.png: RS3 Inventory image of Bandos page 2Bandos page 2 8,565
Bandos page 3.png: RS3 Inventory image of Bandos page 3Bandos page 3 8,400
Bandos page 4.png: RS3 Inventory image of Bandos page 4Bandos page 4 8,640
Total 36,974

Usage cost[edit | edit source]

Duration45 minutes
Item(s) consumed1 × Bandos page 1.png Bandos page 11 × Bandos page 2.png Bandos page 21 × Bandos page 3.png Bandos page 31 × Bandos page 4.png Bandos page 4
Total GE Price11,3698,5658,4008,640
Per hour
Cost15,15911,42011,20011,520

Transcript[edit | edit source]

The following text is transcluded from Transcript:Bandos's Book of War.
Wedding Ceremony

  • Big High War God want great warriors. Because you can make some more, I bind you in Big High War God name.
Last Rites

  • You die too easy.
Blessings

  • Big High War God make you strong, so you smash enemies.
Preach

  • Big High War God say: You not run away from battle, or Big High War God strike you.
  • Big High War God say: Good warrior kill enemies, before he get squished.
  • Big High War God say: Follow and obey your commander, unless they run away.
  • Big High War God say: If you not worthy of Big High War God, you get made dead soon.
  • Big High War God say: If your friend get killed, be happy; they were too weak for Big High War God.
  • Big High War God say: War is best, Peace is for weak.

Update history[edit | edit source]

This information has been compiled as part of the update history project. Some updates may not be included—see here for how to help out!
  • ninja 28 November 2022 (Update):
    • God Books can now be charged up to 24 hours.
    • God Book tooltips have been updated to better emphasise their effects.
  • patch 12 September 2016 (Update):
    • Lowered the base hit-chance bonuses from Bandos's Book of War, from 5% to 3%.
    • Lowered the internal cooldown for Bandos'/Illuminated book of war to match the other books.
  • patch 11 April 2016 (Update):
    • Increased the cooldown between the potential active effect of the Bandos’s Book of War triggering.
  • patch 17 December 2013 (Update):
    • The god books have been updated to match the current Sixth Age story.
  • patch 4 June 2013 (Update):
    • God-books now stay attached to your hip while woodcutting.
  • hotfix 18 March 2013 (Update):
    • Preaching with the various God books will now only preach a certain passage, rather than one out of a possible 6 passages.
    • Players can once again attack from a distance whilst holding a god book.
  • patch 1 November 2011 (Update):
    • The blessed god books now all mention the god that they represent.

Trivia[edit | edit source]

Bandos's Book of War equipped.png
  • Prior to 22 February 2016, this book used to be held in the off-hand slot.
  • The Book of War and the Ancient Book are the only two that do not mention the God's name when reading from them.