Dark Slayers Prevail

Dark Slayers clan (plus future applicants) claimed victory in a 1 vs 3 clan handicap battle.

Dark Slayers and their future applicants had arranged a battle with the Wilderness Guardians (plus their juniors), Cursed Lands and Rune Raiders (plus their juniors).

The summary of the battle is as follows:

Times

Fight began - 7:30 PM
Fight Ended - 8:00 PM
Total Fight time - 30 minutes.

Statistics

Ds starting options - 399 (190 people)
WG starting options - 330(confirmed)
CL starting options - 220(confirmed)
RR starting options - 250(confirmed)
Ds ending options - 350+

The battle itself was blighted by the presence of the dreaded looter (apparently 120 of them) - In runescape a looter is basically someone too much in love with collecting pixels to get serious about helping a clan improve its wilderness presence.

This showing by DS does tell the clan world that Dark Slayers have a strong future ahead of them due to their future applicant programme. This programme, or similar ones, has been implemented by the majority of the top clans including my own clan, Sacred Templars.

Congratulations Dark Slayers, and hard luck to the other clans who fought in this battle - although it does give a lot of lower level people invaluable battle experience that should ensure the growth and prosperity of their own clans respectively.

Clan Member Lists

In the past, there have been some websites that have tried to get a good clan listing system in place but have since gone down and are no longer maintained.

Currently, there is only one site that I am aware of that is still being maintained and also gives a very solid database for players to check out other clan member lists. The site I am referring to is the RuneScape HighScores Catalogue.

For any players that are not familiar with how the highscores catalogue works, it is primarily used by clans to maintain their members and also get an indication of the overall strength of their clan.

At the time of writing this post, the current top 10 on the clans list is:

As you can see, this is a summary of some of the things that are considered in evaluating who actually are the top 10 clans in Runescape. The number of players in the clan, the average skill level, the average hitpoint level and the average combat level are all factors that can be considered. However, there is no point a clan having all the best averages if they have no activity, and as such, this is a very useful resource regarding runescape clans - but it again cannot give an actual answer to which clans are the top 10 in runescape.

It is invariably the opinion of people at the end of the day that will have their own top 10 clans, and it is fun at times to see how peoples opinions change over time and how actual clans develop as a result of clan leader decisions.

Free to play - Clan Uniform

Generally all clans will have a basic clan uniform based on melee. In the free to play wilderness, melee is the most predominant fighting style and therefore most clans will expect their members to be fighting in full uniforms.

The basic uniform is generally full rune equipment with a rune scimitar as the weapon of choice. The cape colour will vary depending on which clan you belong to while some clans may not insist on the leather boots or the green dragon vambraces. This uniform has been an accepted part of clans for a long time. However, the recent new boots for free to play may become part of the uniforms due to having slightly better stats than the basic leather boots. In general, if a clan wears the same uniform they are less likely to attack each other in the heat of battle, although it does happen from time to time.

In addition to Clan Leaders insisting on members wearing an appropriate uniform, they will normally also insist on having a basic inventory of food and potions. On free to play servers this is normally 1 basic strength potion and 27 cooked Swordfish as players on free to play servers cannot use any other potions at this time. Some clans may opt for 2 basic strength potions and fill the remaining inventory with cooked lobster. The choice is purely down to the clan leader and council.

Overall, if a clan does not have a uniform of some sort they will be weaker due to the fact not everyone will always bring the best equipment available to them. If people are not wearing decent equipment, or if they dont wear a full uniform, then collectively as a unit, they will have lower overall strength, defense and power.

Sacred Templars Vs Divine Forces

The scene is set.

Sacred Templars start to muster for a PK trip and Divine Forces have already been out pking and have large options of around 270 (90 players). Sacred Templars pull together 210opts (70 players) and know that Divine Forces are out in the wild. A request for a planned run-in is made and subsequently accepted. Returning was permitted and no boundaries had been set. Below is one of the options pictures for Divine Forces and at this time I do not have any starting opts pictures for Sacred Templars.



Sacred Templars march into the battlefield and rush the waiting Divine Forces Clan. Immediately, Sacred Templars are scattered and disorganised due to being spread out by marching in the way they had. Divine Forces quickly get into the swing of things and are piling people quite effectively and managing to keep their attacking groups limited to about 2 main calling piles.

The battle starts to spread out and there are many Sacred Templars walking around looking for a target to attack as they have chased a Divine Forces member east, then chased them west and then east again. The signs look ominous for the Sacred Templars - defeat is inevitable on this occasion as the initial attacks left the templar forces spread far and wide.

The green dots in these 3 pictures represent Sacred Templar members. As can be seen in the first two pictures, Divine Forces appear to have much greater control over their organisation, subsequently appearing more effective in picking off opponents.
However, the pictures are not 100% accurate, not all clan members are visible as green dots due to having their private chat off.

This final picture shows more what battles normally appear to be - close knit groups of friends working together to try and successfully overcome all foes in front of them. During this particular encounter, there were not many moments where either clan showed full control over their actions.

On this occasion though, Divine Forces did hold their ranks tighter and as a result duely claimed victory.

The Victory celebrations can be seen in full flow below at Edgeville Bank after the Divine Forces Clan has returned from the Wilderness.

What makes a clan successful?

Ultimately, depending on other people for success is an inherent flaw in the clan system. It is a flaw because of the diversity of the people coming together and the various time zones that players belong to.

Ideally, a successful clan would be one that displays complete trust in all of its members and can always rely on activity when it is needed most - as a display of strength.

Many clans rise and fall within Runescape due to the voltatile nature of many of the leaders. The major downfall for many may be the leader itself who can display an ego problem, a problem with managing people or simply cluelessness and the inability to make key decisions.

Successful clans generally display similar traits:

1. A strong leader always prepared to make decisions in the interests of the clan
2. A loyal group of friends that will always help defend a friend
3. An enjoyment of wilderness PK trips and battles
4. Generally abiding by Jagex Rules - which helps control the turnover
5. Highly active members willing to attend both PK events and non-pk events

Of course, there are many other factors that are included when considering what makes a clan successful. I have simply stated a few that I believe are common to many of the top clans. If you feel there are any noteworthy aspects left out then feel free to comment and I can later amend the list to include it.

Runescape Clan Ranks - June 2006

1. DI - Damage Incorporated
2. DS - Dark Slayer
3. RSD - Runescape Dinasty
4. The - The Clan
5. Gladz - The Gladiatorz
6. ST - Sacred Templars
7. TRWF - The Runescape Warhungers Federation
8. Corr - Corruption
9. DF - Divine Forces
10. MK - Mystic Knights

This is my opinion of the current top 10 in the Runescape World.

There are some noted exceptions and mainly Hostile Alliance has been excluded as I do not know enough about them although I am aware they can muster quite high numbers of players on occasions. Time will tell if they make it into the top 10.

Discuss who your top 10 would be or who deserves to be in the top 10.

Areas to judge when making your decision are:
1. Numbers of players
2. Activity of players
3. War results
4. Normal Pk battles
5. Overall Attitude of members within the clan.