# Weapon Special attack

(Redirected from Special attack)
"Spec" redirects here. For the shield, see Spectral spirit shield.

Weapon Special attack is a Constitution ability that can only be used when specific weapons that have a special attack are equipped. The effect and adrenaline cost vary from weapon to weapon.

## Normal combat mode

To activate Weapon Special attack, a weapon that possesses a special attack must be equipped. The ability is found in the Powers interface in the Constitution abilities tab. When wielding a weapon that has a special attack, the name of the ability changes to the name of the special attack for that weapon; however, the icon will always be the same. The player can also click on the adrenaline bar on the Action bar to activate a special attack. It is also possible to designate a keybind for Weapon Special attack in the options menu, which does not occupy any slot on any action bar. Special Attacks cannot be automatically activated by Revolution.

Each special attack requires a certain amount of adrenaline to use, which is also consumed on use. For example, the Korasi's sword's special attack, Disrupt, may only be used at 60% adrenaline, and once it is used, 60% adrenaline is drained. There are no cooldowns for using most special attacks, although there are three exceptions: the Zaros godsword's, the Seren godbow's, and the staff of darkness'.

The Ring of vigour reduces both the adrenaline needed to perform a special attack and the final amount of adrenaline that is drained by 10%, and the Asylum surgeon's ring has a chance to reduce a special attack's adrenaline cost by 25%.

All special attacks that directly damage the opponent receive a hit chance boost. When using a special attack, your base hit chance is multiplied by ${\displaystyle \left(1+{\frac {L-W}{100}}\right)}$, where ${\displaystyle L}$ is the player's visible attack/range/magic level, and ${\displaystyle W}$ is the tier of the weapon the special attack is cast with. For example, if a player with level 99 magic is wielding a Guthix staff and has 50% hit chance on a target using normal abilities, the special attack's hit chance would be ${\displaystyle 50\%\times \left(1+{\frac {99-60}{100}}\right)=69.5\%}$.

Some special attacks, like the Dragon dagger's "Puncture", have further effects on hit chance that happen after the above calculation. In the case of Puncture, it provides a 15% (multiplicative) increase. It is worth noting that special attacks can also have a negative impact on hit chance too, such as Magic shortbow's "Snap-Shot", which decreases hit chance by 30%.

## Legacy combat mode

To use the special attack in Legacy combat mode, you can either click the adrenaline bar (Note: This refers to the bar itself rather than the sword icon which toggles auto-retaliate) or enable the Legacy interface mode; from there, the special attack bar can be found at the bottom of the Combat Settings menu.

Each special attack requires a certain amount of special attack energy to use, which is also consumed on use. For example, the Korasi's sword special attack, Disrupt, requires 60% special attack energy, and once it is used, 60% energy is drained.

### Ability damage in Legacy combat mode

Because ability damage does not exist in Legacy combat, such a number is calculated and used with special attacks. This value is calculated as follows:

${\displaystyle D=1.166ad\times sm}$

Where:

• ${\displaystyle D}$ is the result, worth 100% ability damage when using special attacks in Legacy
• ${\displaystyle ad}$ is the player's auto-attack damage with their main-hand or off-hand, as seen in the Loadout screen
• ${\displaystyle sm}$ is a multiplier that localises damage from weapons of different speeds:
${\displaystyle s={\begin{cases}{\frac {96}{149}}\approx 0.644295&{\text{Average}}\\{\frac {960}{1225}}\approx 0.783673&{\text{Fast}}\\1&{\text{Fastest}}\\\end{cases}}}$

If dual-wielding, the results from main-hand and off-hand are added together. Hence off-hands will increase the damage of main-hand special attacks, as they do in the modern combat system.

## Important notice when comparing damages

When comparing damages between different special attack weapons, their tiers must be taken into consideration. For instance, even though the dragon halberd may have a higher average damage than the dragon dagger, it cannot upgraded to its superior variant like a dragon dagger could be. Also, main-handed special attack weapons have a much larger advantage over two-handed special attack weapons, because an off-hand weapon can be a much higher tier than your main-hand. For instance, if a player used Korasi's sword (main-hand, tier 75) and an off-hand drygore mace (tier 90), that will deal much more damage than a Saradomin sword (tier 75), because the average tier of both weapons is greater than the Saradomin sword.

Another very important point is to consider the augmentability of the weapon. If the weapon is not augmentable, but is main-handed, then a suitable off-hand that is augmentable allows for powerful perks, such as Precise, to apply to the special attack. But for two-handed weapons (and dragon claws) which are not augmentable, they miss out on such perk benefits.

Additionally, special attacks which take longer than one game tick (0.6 seconds) to perform (such as dragon dagger, dragon claws, or dragon halberd), will either have to sacrifice some damage-enhancing perk on their augmentable offhand for an Aftershock switch, or in the case of dragon claws and the dragon halberd, forego the use of Aftershock completely.

Godbows

Godstaves

## Update history

The update history project is a work-in-progress – not all updates to this topic may be covered below. See here for how to help out!
• patch 30 November 2020 (Update):
• Using a Special Attack from the action bar without a weapon equipped will no longer cause players to disconnect.
• ninja 23 November 2020 (Update):
• Special attacks that require no target can now be activated using the Constitution special attack ability from both the Ability Book and the Action Bar.
• The Zaros Godsword and the Eldritch Crossbow have been added to the list of weapons that can be activated without a target. The full list is as follows:
• hotfix 24 August 2020 (Update):
• Players can no longer use an Essence of Finality to cast a channeled weapon special attack, then switch to another Essence of Finality with a different weapon's special attack to trigger that on the same global cooldown cycle.
• patch 3 April 2018 (Update):
• The special attacks refund will no longer be affected by adrenaline boosts.
• hotfix 10 April 2017 (Update):
• Fixed an issue with performing melee weapon special attacks for no adrenaline cost.
• patch 7 April 2015 (Update):
• Players are no longer able to perform higher-cost special attacks at a lower cost by switching weapons in PvP combat.
• patch 16 March 2015 (Update):
• Resolved an issue in which borrowed dragon daggers would only deal one hit - rather than two - when using the Puncture special attack.
• patch 5 January 2015 (Update):
• The magic shortbow special attack is no longer accessible on free-to-play worlds.
• patch 28 July 2014 (Update):
• Lent items now use the relevant special attack correctly.
• Special attack energy now restores correctly within certain areas in Legacy mode.
• The special attack bar no longer drains if target is too far away.
• The Enhanced Excalibur special attack no longer persists in duels where the option is disabled.
• The ancient mace special attack now correctly drains prayer again.
• patch 22 July 2014 (Update):
• The Staff of Light special attack will no longer give the berserk effect when it runs out in legacy mode.
• Using the Healing Aura scroll will no longer drain special attack in legacy mode.
• update 14 July 2014 (Update):
• Constitution ability "Weapon Special attack" added to game.
• patch 11 April 2012 (Update):
• The "Special attack" button no longer appears to switch off when selected and the bar recharges.
• patch 12 October 2011 (Update):
• The special attack tool tip now disappears correctly when switching weapons.
• patch 2 November 2010 (Update):
• The dwarf handcannon now has a sound effect for its special attack.