What to kill?

[Sidartha]

I mostly been leveling up crafting and gathering skills. I been trying to level up combat but not sure what is best to kill? My combat level is 37 atm so what should I be fighting? Most of the dungeons seem too high for me. I been looking for enemies in the combat area with similar combat levels to fight but not sure if this is the best strategy?

Should I look for enemies with my combat level or maybe higher for more XP or lower for faster kills? Should I focus on particular mobs for certain drops while leveling? Something else? It seems like enemies that drop something I might want rarely drop that item (like a chest or armor piece).

[Huillam]

https://imgur.com/a/AmPxfz0
It may not be perfectly up to date but it's still great.

Trying to work on slayer tasks at the same time (even if it's not the most optimal target) is probably a good idea.
And the sooner you can get a Sandstorm Ring the better.

[Sidartha]

Thanks. I actually did find that but it made me wonder if something like that is best to follow or should I be focusing on certain enemies for particular drops or what?

[Huillam]

In the long run that probably won't make too much of a difference but I'd say the following are worth farming even if not optimal in term of experience:
Anything related to the fury of the Fury of the Elemental Zodiacs. Some enemies here are really weak and will be worth almost nothing.
Slayer tasks to unlock higher bounties and upgrade materials. The master bounties can cost you a lot (as in hundread of thousands) SP to get one you can handle if you're unlucky and that will be twice as worse once you unlock dark waters. Plus you'll need a lot of dragon bones. I raised magic to 99 here.
Even if not optimal the god dungeons are still pretty good and there's a lot of farming involved here (at least 100 runs per dungeons even if you have perfect luck). I raised melee and ranged to 99 here.
Griffins and Pegasi for the Ancient Claw. Volcanic Cave for the Ancient Armor set and Ancient Magicks. Dragon's Den for the armor set and crossbow. Hall of Wizards for the Book of Eli and Ancient Wizard set.
I also farmed Black Wizard for their wand but that took a lot of time and delaying that farming in favor of Cursed Maidens may have been a better idea (and maybe not, there were situations were I may not have been able to reach 20k accuracy and keep enough DR without that).

[Sidartha]

OK thanks for that info. I think most of that stuff is way beyond where I am but will use that as a future reference.

Can anyone explain how attack styles work exactly? Like I sort of get that you want to use a scimitar with slash style and a sword with the stab style but what would you use with block? Does it not matter?

[Huillam]

For melee it's pretty straightforward: you use the style that offer the highest chance to hit and that depends of your weapon.
For ranged you can choose between accuracy, dps and defense (which split experience between the ranged and defense skills but I can't say if that choice impacts combat in any way, the magic version of that style doesn't).
For magic the only difference is the type of experience your earn: either magic or split between magic and defense.

But all those skills come with their own benefits (that you can check from the left menu into Other -> Milestones): Attack unlock new weapons and increase your accuracy, Strength increase the damage of melee attacks, defense unlocks melee oriented armors (and maybe increases your evade chance but I didn't check). Ranged and Magic act like condensed versions of the melee skills increasing your accuracy (probably damage too but then again I didn't check) and unlock new gear.

[Sidartha]

I guess what I mean is..

Scimitar has a bonus to slash damage so benefits from slash style. Sword has a bonus to stab so benefits from stab style. Since Block style only gives bonuses to defense is there some optimal weapon to go with block style or are they all the same? When leveling attack and strength it's pretty obvious what weapon to use but when leveling defense I'm never sure what to use.

[Huillam]

Two-handed weapons usually have the same bonus for Slash and Defend.
And you can also use the defensive style available while using ranged or magic.

[Sidartha]

Seems like you are answering a question I didn't ask. Maybe I'm confused how styles work or not making my question clear. I'm just trying to figure out what weapon (if any) is optimal to use when using the block attack style? I would assume it's a shield + 1h weapon but not sure which weapon?

[Huillam]

Short version: Either a sword or scimitar with a shield (it's not optimal but it's not insanely slow) or a two-handed weapon.

Long version:
If you select a weapon (from your bank or from the smithing window) and click the view item stats it will open a new window.
Here you want to look at the 3rd, 4th and 5th lines under the Offensive Stats section. Thoses are the Stab, Slash and Defend bonuses and impact how accurate your weapon will be depending of the style you use.

For example in the case of a Bronze Scimitar the numbers are 1, 7 and 1. As you guessed it's best used with slash and is equally inaccurate with stab and defend.
In the case of the Bronze 2H Sword, the numbers are -4, 18, 18. You'll get the same accuracy with Slash and Defend here (and a noticeable malus if you try to use stab).

Last example is the dagger whose numbers are 7, 2, 7. It looks like the perfect weapon to use with the Defense style if you're using a shield. But while that's not apparent, it has a much lower DPS and you'll probably end up earning less experience per hour with it than you would using a sword or scimitar.

[Sidartha]

Thanks for the info that's good to know. I didn't realize a 2h could block as well as a shield.

[BustedHipGaming]

Originally posted by Huillam:

In the long run that probably won't make too much of a difference but I'd say the following are worth farming even if not optimal in term of experience:
Anything related to the fury of the Fury of the Elemental Zodiacs. Some enemies here are really weak and will be worth almost nothing.
Slayer tasks to unlock higher bounties and upgrade materials. The master bounties can cost you a lot (as in hundread of thousands) SP to get one you can handle if you're unlucky and that will be twice as worse once you unlock dark waters. Plus you'll need a lot of dragon bones. I raised magic to 99 here.
Even if not optimal the god dungeons are still pretty good and there's a lot of farming involved here (at least 100 runs per dungeons even if you have perfect luck). I raised melee and ranged to 99 here.
Griffins and Pegasi for the Ancient Claw. Volcanic Cave for the Ancient Armor set and Ancient Magicks. Dragon's Den for the armor set and crossbow. Hall of Wizards for the Book of Eli and Ancient Wizard set.
I also farmed Black Wizard for their wand but that took a lot of time and delaying that farming in favor of Cursed Maidens may have been a better idea (and maybe not, there were situations were I may not have been able to reach 20k accuracy and keep enough DR without that).

What's the point of ancient wizard set when its damage reduction value is so bad?