Introduction
This is an article which provides safe, effective and economical training in the melee combat skills including Attack, Strength and Defence.
This guide is lain out in such a way, that players should not need much food at all.
Equipment
Use the best equipment you can afford, and use weapons according to their style. For example, Moss Giants are weak to Slash attacks, so it would be wise to use a slash weapon.
An Amulet of Strength would be very useful, due to the fact that it increases your max hit.
Level 1 - 20
Rat
Head on over to the Man-Hole in Varrock, just east of the Castle Courtyard.
Descend into the Man-Hole and take an immediate east-ward turn, players will see a small body of water. Next to this water a player will find level 1 Rats and Spiders.
Pros: They have practically 0 Defense, and at level 5 Strength players can one-shot nearly every time. Each rat gives around 11-12 experience. Not to mention, they pretty much cannot hit through armor,which means no food cost at all.
Another bonus is that these rats have an instant respawn timer. Meaning a player can just click the same spot on the floor over and over as they respawn. A player could potentially do this all the way to level 35, until other options where one can hit higher more often become available.
Cons: No loot, and very frequent clicking required.
Recommended gear:
- Bring a crushing weapon.
Level 21-39
- Al Kharid Warriors ( level 9 )
To find these, make your way to Al Kharid palace, in the rooms on the east and west you should find them.
Many guides recommend fighting these enemies at a much earlier level in the game. However, they also expect you to bring inventory after inventory of food. If you are keeping your stats balanced, you should have no problem taking these guards down at level 20 combat stats.
Pros: Players will find that these guards attack automatically, once attacked. This means less clicking. Also, their armor is fairly weak, and the guard's health is just enough to yield better hit ranges than rats.
Cons: This is a multi-combat area, meaning more than one guard can attack the player at once. However at 20+ Defence, you should have no worry.
Recommended Gear:
Bring a slashing or stabbing weapon. Wear a platebody. Bring a few pieces of salmon or trout, in case the guards get lucky.
Level 40+ Options
Level 40 and onward is about the time that finding the "best mob" to train on is a bit ambiguous. Players will find that many, many options become available, and it is all about what they are willing to give up for an increase in something else. For example, increased money gain by sacrificing speed of killing. This article editor will now add a method for each sort.
Also, these following methods are pretty much the best to finish off to 99 with. You may need some food, but none of these are great danger when training, and you will earn more money than you spent on food.
The Speedy Method
- Guard (level 21)
A player can discover these NPC's at the north and south entrances of Falador, or near the eastern, southern and western entrances in Varrock, as well as in the Varrock Palace.
Pros:
Unlike the previous mobs, players can actually make decent money from looting Falador Guards. Not to mention, these guards have practically as weak defence as Al Kharid warriors.
Not to mention, if a player is wearing a Rune platebody, they very rarely hit, and if they do the max it is two.
Drops that the player can look for from these guards mainly are Coins and Body talismans, both of which have a frequent rate of dropping.
Cons:
While guards are great, they're also very popular and over-crowded by other players. One will often find there are not enough guards to go around for more than two to three players.
This is the "sacrifice loot for speed" method. Though body talismans sell rather well on the Grand Exchange, it takes a great number of them to be comparable to training methods designed for maximum looting.
Recommended Gear:
Bring maybe 5 trout and a fast stabbing weapon.
The Loot Method
- Ankou (Level 75-86)
A player can find these enemies within the 4th "Death" level of the Security Stronghold. Quite a few rooms have them.
Pros:
This method's title says it all: This is (arguably) the highest loot-effective method of melee training in-game. Ankous drop many stackable items, meaning less trips to the bank for the sake of loot. Players have many items to look for when looting, such as Rune Scimitar, Adamant Arrows, Death runes, Mithril Ore, and so on.
Their defenses are particularly weak.
Cons:
While their defense is low, they can pack a mean punch, with a maximum hit of eight!
Players WILL need food for this, however the loot gain from these undead foes counters the food cost with immense value.
Recommended Gear:
Food, plenty of it (about ten lobsters per trip, depending how long a player wants to let the loot stack up.) This enemy is weak to Stab, so bring an appropriate weapon.
SIDE NOTE: It is a common argument, that ankou attacks are magical-melee. However, the official wiki here dictates that these are purely melee attacks.
Balanced Method
- Moss Giants (Level 42)
These enemies are located in the deepest bowels of Varrock sewers, Crandor Isle, and the deep Wilderness.
Pros:
These Moss Giants have it all. Weak defense, weak attacks, good loot, and a substantial amount of health yielding high combat experience. Not to mention, their loot is fantastic.
The drops may not be as insane as Ankou loot, but they drop useful items, such as law runes, nature runes, big bones, 124 coin, Iron and Steel arrows, large amounts of elemental runes such as 12 - 18 air runes, 22 earth runes, etc...
These are an all-around great monster to fight. Not as fast exp-wise as guards, not as loot-rewarding 'nor slow as ankou.
Cons:
While weak, they still hit fairly regular. Players will need about 8 lobsters or 12 tuna before the loot begins to over-fill their inventory.
These Moss Giants are quite popular, and each location only holds about 5 - 8 of them, meaning fighting training on these will be competitive.
They're a hostile monster, in a multi-attack area, meaning a player can have a number of these bludgeons attacking them at one time.
Recommended Gear:
About a half-inventory of food. and teleport runes. For equipment, wear chain armor to reduce the crush damage of the moss giant. Giants are weak to slash, so prepare accordingly.
Reducing The Price of Training
Over at Barbarian Village, on the river's edge, players can find that fishermen are dropping raw or cooked salmon and trout nearly 24 hours a day. If it is raw, don't worry! There is a fire in the barbarian hall, and a range in Juliette's house.
This is just one guide of many out there on the internet, but this author is confident enough in the effectiveness of this method to share it on the official Wiki.