Combination rune not working?

[counterintel]

I just recently started magic/alt magic, and had been running alchemy iii offline. I had checked the 'use combination runes' option, but as soon as my normal fire runes ran out, it stopped and doesnt even allow a manual start unless i have standard fire runes?

Ive never used magic in combat so far, and just assumed combination runes counted as both for magic across the board? Am i misunderstanding how combination runes work?

That's all, thanks!

[Huillam]

If you mouse over a recipe the tooltip will display the requirement for both the regular and combination recipes.
In the case of Item Alchemy III, the recipe is the same in both cases because there's no combination rune made with two of the following three: nature, fire and spirit.

[DragynDance]

Unfortunetly combination runes don't work like they do in actual runescape. A lava rune, for example, can't be used in place of a fire rune or earth rune, it can only be used as BOTH when a spell requires both. This effectively makes combination runes nearly useless save for levelling runecrafting, and then you sell them for bank space.

[counterintel]

Originally posted by Huillam:

If you mouse over a recipe the tooltip will display the requirement for both the regular and combination recipes.
In the case of Item Alchemy III, the recipe is the same in both cases because there's no combination rune made with two of the following three: nature, fire and spirit.

Originally posted by DragynDance:

Unfortunetly combination runes don't work like they do in actual runescape. A lava rune, for example, can't be used in place of a fire rune or earth rune, it can only be used as BOTH when a spell requires both. This effectively makes combination runes nearly useless save for levelling runecrafting, and then you sell them for bank space.

Ah, thank you both very much. That makes perfect sense then, and while unfortunate, It's super useful to know.