Helpful PVM Tips for Old School Runescape
• Imbued heart will not give max hits while players are using spells with static damage thresholds (Ancients/normal spellbook). It will give small accuracy boosts and sizeable magic defence boosts as well as max hits with non static damage thresholds such as trident or sanguinesti staff.
• Pathing in OSRS for players will always lead players east/west first, then north/south. Players will always path in a straight line first then in a diagonal in the most efficient line to get to a certain location. This video goes more in depth:
(Note: The pathfinding mechanic in OSRS is specific to Melee attacks. Meaning if you have a range or mage weapon equipped and click on a monster you will be pathed in the most efficient pattern to Melee the monster. This is why in COX you may notice your character getting dragged across the tightrope room to the west 10 tiles then attack the ranger rather than running 2 tiles south and immediately attacking the monster. You need to manually path 2 tiles south then click on the mage to attack as quickly as possible in this scenario.)
• NPC’s will path to the player similar to how a player paths with the caviat that NPC’s will always path in regards to their southwest tile. They will always endeavor to line up their southwest tile with the player, but if they are able to attack the player before they correctly line up, the NPC will stop at their current position unless the player moves. Chinning and barraging also works in a 3×3 exclusively on the southwest tile of NPC’s. 2 NPC’s can be in the hull of each other but if the second NPC’s southwest tile is not within the 3×3 of the first NPC, area of effect attacks will not hit both NPC’s.
• NPC flinching is a mechanic used in many PVM encounters. Flinching is where you hit a monster (who falls into the following scenario) and cause the monster to “flinch” where they will not be able to attack the player for X (it varies per monster) ticks. Flinching is only possible on monsters that do not have an attack delay or a flinch delay. This means it only works on monsters that have not done damage or have not been recently flinched. NPC’s become flinchable again 8 ticks after their previous delay has ended. The duration of a flinch is 1/2 of the monsters attack speed rounded down. This DOES NOT line up with the hp bar of NPC’s (although for most NPC’s the hp bar is a good indication). For example, if you hit KQ, and immediately run under you will cause a 2 tick flinch (KQ’s attack speed is 4 -> 4/2 = 2 ticks) and you will then have to wait 8 ticks for the flinch to be available again (2 ticks of flinch + 8 ticks of waiting).
• “Red X” is a term used to define when a player clicks on something that is interactable causing a “red X” on the screen to occur. A “Red X” can be caused by anything from a food on the ground, to a door in a house, to a monster you are attacking. A “Red X” click causes NPC’s to stop moving until the player has done an action that is not a “red x” (such as drinking a potion in the inventory) or until the NPC has attack the player. This was originally put into the game to allow players to hit NPC’s like Graardor without infinite pathing issues. For example if there was no “Red X”, and a player had run energy turned off, a player could click bandos and path in exactly the same way Graardor did to every side of the room which would never allow the player to actually be able to attack Graardor. “Red X” has applications in many situations, most notably in the 5:0 Zamorak method, and the 6:0 Bandos method.