Death's Swiftness

"Swiftness" redirects here. For the title, see Swiftness of the Aviansie.

Death's Swiftness
Release date	4 March 2013 (Update)
Members	Yes
Skill	Ranged
Level	85
Type	Ultimate
Target	Area-target
Adrenaline	−100%
Equipment	Any
Cooldown	60 seconds (100 ticks)
Description
Create a shroud of death at your location. While in the shroud, ranged damage is increased by 50%. Deal 10%-20% ability damage to the target while it is in the shroud every 1.8s. 30s duration.
Infobox • Talk page

Death's Swiftness is an ultimate Ranged ability that is received as a reward for completing the quest The World Wakes. It requires level 85 Ranged to use.

The player creates a shroud of death covering a 7x7 area, granting the player an increase of 50% to their ranged damage while they are within the shroud. A damage-over-time effect is applied to the primary target (at time of casting) if it enters the shroud's AoE, dealing 10% to 20% of the player's ability damage every 1.8 seconds, for a total of 30.6 seconds. This damage-over-time is not influenced by ranged level or stats from other equipment.

The tooltip for this ability is somewhat misleading. Only if your current target is within the shroud upon cast will they begin to take the damage-over-time. They will be damaged until either the shroud disappears, they leave the shroud, or they die. Should your target die and you attack another enemy or you simply switch targets, the next enemy will not be affected by the damage-over-time effect of Death's Swiftness.

While in combat, if your current target is out of range and still alive then Death's Swiftness cannot be activated until the target comes within range, dies, a new target within range is selected, or combat status is dropped. It shares this affect with Sunshine.

Damage of range ability bleeds such as Fragmentation Shot, Corruption Shot, Puncture, or Deadshot are not increased. In addition to bleeds not being boosted, Incendiary Shot and Onslaught are also unaffected.

If a player uses the ring of vigour when using Death's Swiftness and drinks an adrenaline potion afterwards, Snap Shot should be used before Rapid Fire because Snap Shot will be off cooldown a few seconds before Death's Swiftness ends.

If fighting against monsters, use Natural Instinct and quickly build back to full adrenaline and use Death's Swiftness. The effect of Natural Instinct will still be lingering, allowing the player to build up to half adrenaline quickly and use powerful thresholds abilities like Rapid Fire, Snap Shot, or Shadow Tendrils with a 50% damage boost.

With the Planted Feet perk, Death's Swiftness will last for 38.4 seconds (64 ticks) although its damage-over-time effect is removed. The damage buff provided from Death's Swiftness begins 0.6 seconds after cast. This perk can be camped in most circumstances when doing low-effort PvM with Revolution++, as the increased uptime outweighs the lack of damage over time. In more active PvM, however, it is common to use a Planted Feet weapon as an offhand weapon switch, often alongside a primary offhand weapon with Aftershock 4 or Equilibrium 4. This allows the Planted Feet switch user the ability to use both Snap Shot and Rapid Fire twice in one rotation while still getting the benefit of stronger damage perks within the extended Death's Swiftness.

Death's Swiftness can be permanently upgraded into Greater Death's Swiftness, by reading a Greater Death's Swiftness ability codex, which is a rare drop from Zamorak, Lord of Chaos.

Planted Feet	Cooldown	Entire duration		Damage buff duration
		Duration	Uptime	Duration	Uptime
	60s	31.2s	52%	30.6s	51%
	60s	38.4s	64%	37.8s	63%

Comparison with other ultimate abilities

Death's Swiftness is Ranged's equivalent to Magic's Sunshine, and similar to Melee's Berserk and Magic's Metamorphosis. In the below comparison Sunshine is excluded, as it is identical to Death's Swiftness.

Ability	Pros	Cons
Berserk	Increases damage by 100%, rather than 50% Allows free mobility	Increases damage taken by 50% Lasts for 20 seconds as opposed to 30 Has no area-of-effect damage
Metamorphosis	Allows free mobility Magic bleed abilities are affected, dealing 62.5% or 31.25% more damage	Lasts for 15 seconds as opposed to 30 Has no area-of-effect damage

Graphical updates

• 

  Death's Swiftness after 4 March 2013 (update)

• 

  Death's Swiftness after 4 July 2022 (update)

Achievements

• Unlocking Expertise ( 75) – Unlock the listed abilities.

Update history

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!

• hidden 4 July 2022 (Update):
  • Death's Swiftness's ability icon has been graphically updated.

• patch 21 January 2019 (Update):
  • Seren Godbow special attack now ensures damage bonuses are applied correctly, for example, with Death's Swiftness.

• patch 21 August 2017 (Update):
  • Extended Death's Swiftness animation to last longer when using Planted Feet perk.

• patch 16 January 2017 (Update):
  • The Planted Feet perk now has the effect that the duration of Sunshine and Death's Swiftness is increased by 25%, but they no longer deal periodic damage to your target. This effect is not cancelled by switching weapon while Death's Swiftness or Sunshine are in effect, and Planted Feet no longer affects Berserk.

• patch 13 July 2015 (Update):
  • The Death's Swiftness damage-over-time effect will now scale correctly to ability damage.

• ninja 23 February 2015 (Update):
  • It is now possible to cast Death's Swiftness and Sunshine without a target.

• patch 17 December 2013 (Update):
  • Death's Swiftness can now be triggered when standing in someone else's area effect. This prevents the damage-over-time effect from triggering in the area.

• ninja 30 October 2013 (Update):
  • Players no longer lose their adrenaline when attempting to cast Sunshine and Death's Swiftness too close to another player's sunbeam or death shroud.

• update 4 March 2013 (Update):
  • Added to game.

Trivia

• When originally released, the effect of Death's Swiftness lasted for only 10 seconds. This was extended to 30 seconds on 22 October 2013.
• For a while after release, only one player could use this ability (or Sunshine) at a time. This was fixed to allow players to use it more often against bosses like Vorago. However, the first Death's Swiftness (or Sunshine) used against a boss will deal damage; others will not until the first Death's Swiftness/Sunshine expires.
• Although the shroud appears to encompass a 5x5 area, it actually covers a 7x7 area.