Ultimate Ironman Guide/Equipment

UIM Guide

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Damage per second (DPS) is the most important stat for gear as shorter kill times result saved time as well as less damage taken. Under the assumption that protective and damage boosting prayers are used, this results in a clear hierarchy of item stats: DPS > Prayer bonus > Defence bonus. In practice this hierarchy means that inventory and bag space should only be used for items that (significantly) improve DPS.

Drop indicates that an item is only useful for niche applications like combat achievements, certain bosses or while certain requirements for other gear aren't met. These items should be dropped after they served their time.

Skip indicates that an item shouldn't be actively sought after, either because getting these items requires more effort than getting an even better upgrade or because they only offer marginal improvements. If they only offer marginal improvements and bag space is a concern, it might be better to drop these items.

/ indicates that these items are similarly good.

+ indicates that these items combined are good.

Overall

Melee gear choices are often about maximizing your melee strength and accuracy bonuses. There are situations where the high melee and range defences can be useful, but it’s generally better to focus on offensive gear and use what you have when you need defensive gear.

Helmet

Melee helmets are generally very strong relative to other helmets in the game. They’re almost always chosen as the singular helmet for all 3 styles.

Body

Melee bodies usually not high priority gear if inventory space is a concern. They give minor offensive bonuses and give good melee and ranged defence. The fighter torso is useful for being extremely easy to obtain and store while being tied for the best strength bonus until the extremely late game torva platebody. Proselyte is also very useful for prayer bonus on a slot that doesn’t add much DPS, and is easily replaced. Mixed hide is easily reobtained and storable, and provides accuracy if using a stab weapon.

Legs

Similar to body slot Melee gear, legs are often the first switch when using multiple styles and space is needed, as they don't tend to offer great offensive stats. Proselyte is even stronger in this slot as legs provide less strength bonus than body armour.

Slot	Item (most effective → least effective)
	Torva platelegs / Gear of another combat style if bringing multiple styles	Obsidian platelegs^POH* / Bandos tassets^drop / Blood moon tassets^situational	Mixed hide legs^{Shop^POH}

Gloves

Gloves are incredible for melee, offering the highest strength bonus, and among the highest accuracy bonuses for armour. This slot is primarily filled with gloves obtained from completing Recipe for Disaster for tribrid, or ferocious gloves for pure melee.

Boots

A mostly inconsequential slot, but offensive melee boots are regarded as the best compared to the bonuses offered to other styles. Strength bonus should be maximized

Cape

The fire cape and infernal cape are the two primary capes used for almost all melee combat, with the latter being a direct upgrade. Melee capes are a priority over a melee strength body, as the alternatives for bodies tend to be stronger than the alternatives for capes (e.g. fire cape vs. Ardougne cloak, and fighter torso vs. proselyte hauberk). The mythical cape has niche uses when using the dragon warhammer, and it can be slightly better than the fire cape when using the crush style. Mixed hide is a cheaper alternative available very early in the game.

Shield

There are only two worthwhile shield slot equipments for melee, the dragon and the avernic defenders. The offensive boost is invaluable for melee, and the defensive bonuses are still comparable to metallic shields. The only time defenders are not used is when dragonfire protection is needed. Although it may seem desirable to hold onto a dragonfire shield due to it's difficulty to reobtain, the defensive bonuses are not worth the loss of accuracy and strength bonuses of a defender, and should only be kept if planning to kill a lot more dragons.

Ring

The ring slot has strong options for melee, with the berserker ring being relatively easy to obtain. The lightbearer typically outperforms the berserker ring when any special attack is being used.

Amulet

Amulets tend to have tribrid stats until the endgame, and are good at all stages of the game. Obtaining the amulet of torture is worthwhile, partly for its stats and because the other two specialty amulets make it a free upgrade space wise by replacing your tribrid amulet entirely. The amulet of strength is usually stronger than the amulet of glory for early game melee, despite it's lower requirements.

Slot	Item (most effective → least effective)
	Amulet of rancour	Amulet of torture/Amulet of blood fury^Situational	Amulet of strength / Strength amulet (t)^POH*	Amulet of glory^{POH, STASH} / Amulet of glory (t)^POH

Weapons

It is not uncommon to have more melee weapons than any other kind of gear, as their specialties make them incredibly strong. It’s not uncommon to see only 1–2 mage and ranged weapons on a UIM, but 5 or more melee weapons for different types of defence and special attacks. Special attack weapons tend to follow one of 3 archetypes: damage, defence reduction, and utility. Damage special attacks are universally applicable, and other special attacks have to outperform them to be useful. Defence reduction often ends up being better for team-oriented situations and longer ights. They see use in fights where accuracy makes a difference, the target doesn’t die quickly, and the defence is able to be reduced. Utility special attacks are the least used, but are usually used where sustainability is the most important factor. The best special attack depends on the target, with the exact mechanics deciding which ones are most effective.

Slot	Item (most effective → least effective)
	Osmumten's fang	Ghrazi rapier^skip / Inquisitor's mace^skip / Blade of saeldor^skip	Abyssal whip^STASH / Zamorakian hasta^Versatile / Voidwaker	Zombie axe^drop / Dragon scimitar^Shop	Rune sword^Shop
	Scythe of vitur	Soulreaper axe^skip	Noxious halberd	N/A	N/A

DPS specs

Defence reduction

Situational weapons

Ammunition

Ghommal's lucky penny, which requires the Master Combat Achievements, saves a good amount of GP when used in conjunction with Scythe of Vitur, or any other item which consumes charges to function. Rada's blessing and god blessings can be useful for small Prayer bonuses if not needing the slot for a ranged switch.