Runescape offers players an incredibly vast world to explore with 27 unique skills to train. Choosing which skills to prioritize can feel overwhelming for both new and experienced players.
Not all skills are created equal in terms of usefulness and impact on advancing your character. Some skills provide tremendous utility and enable access to profitable high level PvM and skilling activities. Others may not be worth the time and GP investment relative to alternatives.
This definitive guide will equip you with expert insights on the 10 most important RuneScape skills to train, ranked from #1 to #10. We‘ll analyze why each skill is so valuable, what benefits training them unlocks, and how they can accelerate your progress in the game.
1. Invention
As of 2022, Invention stands clearly as the most useful skill for all players to train. Introduced in 2016, Invention allows you to disassemble items into components that can be used to manufacture powerful devices and perks.
At level 80 Invention, you can augment degradable endgame weapons, armor, and tools to give them special effects. This includes adding damage boosting perks like Precise and Equilibrium to your weapons. Augmented gear no longer degrades to dust, just broken down items.
Invention passively trains alongside your combat stats. Killing bosses, slayer tasks and other PvM activities will earn you invention XP as augmented gear gains item XP through usage.
Some extremely useful inventions include:
- Planted Feet – Extends duration of ultimate abilities like Sunshine and Death‘s Swiftness
- Mobile – Free Surge and Escape abilities while equipped
- Scavenging – Chance of getting uncommon and rare components when disassembling
- Enhanced Devoted – Chance to greatly reduce incoming damage
To even unlock Invention, you first need level 80 in Crafting, Divination and Smithing. This makes the skill a long-term goal, but greatly worth the investment.
2. Magic
Magic is undoubtedly the most versatile and useful combat skill in Runescape. It‘s absolutely vital to train for PvM and also unlocks a slew of teleports and skilling benefits.
Each spellbook contains unique teleports, abilities and spells that make magic an essential skill:
- Normal Spellbook: Alchemy, enchantment, telegrabs and basic teleports
- Ancient Magicks: Ice spells to freeze enemies and teleports to ancient locations
- Lunar Spells: Stat boosting spells like Vengeance and Magic Imbue for combo eating
Magic is incredibly important for PvM and slayer. Most high level bosses and demons are weak to magic. You‘ll want to utilize magic alongside range and melee for optimal DPS.
The Surge ability at level 30 magic vastly improves mobility and navigation. Once unlocked, you can surge 10 tiles instantly in your forward direction every 30 seconds. This makes getting around the world much faster.
Magic is a complex skill with many nuances, but training it provides some of the most substantial unlocks and benefits imaginable. It‘s a must for all players, especially Ironmen, to work towards leveling up.
3. Prayer
Prayer is an absolutely critical skill for combat and survivability. The range of useful prayers unlocked while training prayer make tough bosses and challenges much more manageable.
Prayers like Protect from Magic/Missiles/Melee help reduce incoming damage from each style. This mitigates the need for extra food at bosses. Soul Split at level 92 Prayer restores health based on damage dealt, acting as a pseud0-food source.
Having 95 Prayer unlocks the incredibly useful Turmoil, Anguish, and Torment Prayers. These provide +10 invisible levels to the respective combat stats, far surpassing the effectiveness of a super potion.
The Temple at Senntisten quest is required to unlock Ancient Curses like Soul Split. But the investment is well worth it for the combat advantages gained. Having high Prayer and utilizing curses is virtually essential for surviving and excelling at PvM.
4. Slayer
Slayer is the perfect skill to train alongside Combat. As you level Slayer, you‘ll be assigned monsters to kill ranging from low to high level.
Many of the most profitable and rewarding bosses in the game require high Slayer levels to even damage. For example:
- 85 Slayer: Abyssal demons
- 95 Slayer: Eddimu
- 115 Slayer: Abyssal Lords
Unlocking the ability to damage these profitable, high XP monsters makes Slayer incredibly important. Focusing on Slayer is also a structured way to work towards leveling up your combat stats.
The Slayer skill really opens up end-game PvM opportunities and money-making potential. The passively trained Invention skill ties into Slayer progression as well, making Slayer an obvious top priority.
5. Herblore
Herblore allows you to create a wide array of potions that provide boosts to skills, combat stats, and more. Potions are absolutely vital to high level PvM and skilling.
Extreme potions unlock at level 85 Herblore, providing +17 boosts to the respective stat. Overloads at 96 Herblore boost all combat stats by +17 and reapply every 15 seconds.
Overloads are essentially required to effectively take on bosses like Araxxor. Other important potions include:
- Adrenaline potion: 12% adrenaline gain increase
- Replenishment potion: 10% life point restoration over 30 seconds
- Holy aggroverload: Boosts stats and draws aggro in certain situations
Herblore also enables great money making such as buying herbs and secondaries to make unfinished potions for profit. Unlocking untradeable combinations like Overload Salves is also crucial for PvM.
If you want to seriously get into bossing and combat, training Herblore is absolutely non-negotiable. Just be prepared to invest a lot into secondary ingredients and supplies.
6. Dungeoneering
Dungeoneering provides some of the most powerful weaponry, utilities, and area unlocks in the game. While training you‘ll gain XP in all skills by completing floors and defeating bosses.
At level 80, you can purchase a chaotic rapier, longsword, claws, or maul for melee, range, and mage. These require 20k dungeoneering tokens but provide tier 80 damage and accuracy.
Useful rewards purchasable with tokens include:
- Bonecrusher: Automatically buries bones
- Charming Imp: Collects charms into inventory
- Gold Accumulator: Picks up gold automatically
Dungeoneering also unlocks access to resource dungeons across the world containing slayer creatures and high level mining/fishing spots. These provide incredible money making and training opportunities.
If you love combat and want to unlock best-in-slot equipment for the 80-99 level range, train Dungeoneering! It will benefit you in too many ways to ignore.
7. Divination
Divination provides unique ways to boost skilling productivity and mitigate costs. At higher levels you can make divine locations for mining, fishing, etc. that give free resources.
Siphoning energy from wisps also earns you energy that can be transmuted into useful supplies like porters and sign refreshes. Signs of the porter teleport bankable items straight to your bank, saving inventory space.
Other useful Divination unlocks include:
- Guthixian Cache D&D for fast daily Div XP
- Memorial to Guthix for daily free XP in a chosen skill
- Sign of Life: Revives you if you die once per hour
Divination also helps with Invention training. Energy collected can be converted into divine charges to power augmented items like weapons and armor.
While not as directly combat or PvM beneficial as other skills, Divination provides skilling QOL improvements that make many tasks and money makers more efficient.
8. Crafting
Crafting allows you to create a variety of jewelry, armor, and items that offer useful effects and bonuses. While not a flashy skill, it enables acquisition of important PvM gear.
Some important items requiring high Crafting include:
- Amulet of Souls – Requires 93 Crafting and 95 Divination
- Deathtouched bracelet – Boosts slayer XP; Requires 96 Crafting
- Hydrix jewelry – Best-in-slot DPS accessories; Requires 93 Crafting
Crafting high level armor like sirenic or tectonic is also important for PvM. Players without Invention can utilize the effects longer before armor degrades to dust.
Other useful methods include cutting gems for profit and crafting urns for bonus XP while training skills like Fishing, Mining and Woodcutting.
While not the most exciting skill, Crafting definitely provides long-term benefits that shouldn‘t be overlooked by aspiring PvM experts.
9. Summoning
Summoning gives you access to familiars that provide passive boosts for skilling and combat. Certain high level familiars are virtually required for serious PvM.
The Ripper Demon at 96 summoning increases damage by 0-5% based on the target‘s missing health. This substantially increases DPS at bosses.
Pack yaks and mammoths provide extra inventory space to carry more supplies to bosses. Unicorn stallions and bunyips offer passive healing so you can stay longer at bosses and bring less food.
summoming also enables the creation of Combination Potions, offering effects of two potions in one. Examples include:
- Holy aggroverload: Aggro potion + Overload
- Salve: Prayer renewal + Antifire potion
- Perfect juju potions: Accuracy/JP boost with skill boost
The downside is Summoning can be very expensive to train requiring charms and secondary pouches. But the utility provided by high level familiars is well worth the investment for hardcore PvM.
10. Ranged/Melee (Attack, Strength, Defense)
No PvM training plan would be complete without leveling your Ranged, Attack, Strength and Defense. These combat skills are absolute necessities for being able to take on tough bosses and challenges.
Higher Ranged levels allow you to wield powerful weapons like dual ascension crossbows and the Eldritch crossbow. Ranged is particularly useful for "safe spotting" bosses from a distance.
Melee skills let you wield devastating weapons like drygores and tier 92 Khopeshes to demolish bosses at close range. Strength contributes heavily to max hit, so this skill directly boosts your DPS potential.
Defense reduces the damage you take from attacks, which conserves supplies used. It also enables wearing of the best armor like Torva, Malevolent and Trimmed Masterwork.
You‘ll want to train these combat skills in tandem with Slayer. This provides structure while unlocking the ability to fight profitable monsters requiring high combat levels. Prioritize these skills early on.
Not all skills are equal in RuneScape. Choosing to invest time and money into training the most useful skills for PvM and account progression will fast track your road to endgame.
Prioritizing Slayer, Combat Stats, Prayer, Herblore, and Summoning early on will pay dividends. Magic and Invention should be long term goals that give you incredible benefits once unlocked.
Use this ranking of the 10 best skills as guidance in determining where to focus your efforts. Keep in mind your playstyle, account goals and preferred money-makers as you plan your personal skill training roadmap.
With smart skill investments, you‘ll access profitable bosses faster, unlock essential utility perks, and greatly accelerate your account advancement in RuneScape.
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