Warding

This article contains information on content that did not pass a poll.

As such, the information presented here does not pertain to the live game, and is preserved for archival.

Warding was a proposed skill that allows players to create magical robes and armour, as well as other magical items by using fabrics and vis. Warding was first announced at RuneFest 2018 and developed over the course of 2019, but ultimately failed to reach enough support in the polls and was never added to the game.

The development history of Warding includes the following updates:

• 9 October 2018 - OSRS Reveals: Warding
• 16 April 2019 - Warding Design Blog
• 25 April 2019 - QoL Changes and Warding Feedback
• 15 July 2019 - Warding Blog
• 19 July 2019 - Poll: Warding Skill
• 24 July 2019 - Warding Poll Results

Tools and materials

To create magical equipment via Warding, players require several tools and materials.

Channelling lamp

Channelling lamps can be bought at speciality shops. They are used for channeling vis, through wards, into materials that can create magically imbued equipment. They are also used to store any vis the player has gathered. The types of vis, as well as the amount that players can store, increase with their Warding level.

Level	Vis stored
1	Store air vis
15	Store water vis
30	Store earth vis
45	Store fire vis
60	Store omni vis

Vis

Vis are waxy substances used to draw wards where magical equipment can be created, similar to melee armour smithed at an anvil. Wards can be found across Gielinor, or created anywhere by a player using vis on the floor.

Vis can be obtained from dissolving items or casting elemental spells from the standard spellbook at the corresponding runic altar. It can also be purchased from speciality shops in small amounts. There are five types of vis: air, water, earth, fire and omni vis.

To obtain vis via casting spells, players must wield a channeling lamp; the rate in which vis is gathered increases based on the player's magic bonuses as well as the level of spell used. The type of vis obtained is also dependent on the spell cast, so casting fire spells will result in both air and fire vis. Omni vis can only be obtained by casting spells on the omni altar found in Arceuus.

Players can also obtain vis from recycling items. Players can dissolve, un-pick and reforge various items through Warding, Crafting and Smithing to obtain various types of vis. For example, reforging adamant equipment would require level 70 Smithing.

Dissolving (Warding)	Un-picking (Crafting)	Reforging (Smithing)
Robes (regular, trimmed and vestments) God pages Elegant clothing Various boss drops	Leather armour (regular, trimmed) Hats and masks Cloaks and banners	Metal weapons Metal armour (regular, trimmed) Amulets Canes and croziers

Materials

Various silk, hides and cloth are used to create the equipment. Players can kill various monsters to obtain the materials, or use the Hunter skill to catch various creatures for them.

Players can also chop bloodwood and soulwood trees, requiring 65 and 80 Woodcutting respectively, for bloodbark and soulbark, which are also used as Warding materials.

Hunter lv	Creature	Type	Location	Materials
5	Silk moth	Butterfly net	Silk Dungeon (north-east of Al Kharid Mine)	Silk
10	Occult silk moth	Butterfly net	Silk Dungeon (north-east of Al Kharid Mine)	Occult silk
20	Shadow silk moth	Butterfly net	Dark Wizards' Tower basement	Shadow silk
30	Dark silk moth	Butterfly net	Arceuus Crypts (north of Arceuus)	Dark silk
35	Kebos silk moth	Butterfly net	Kebos Swamp	Xerician silk
40	Mystic silk moth	Butterfly net	Random	Mystic silk
45	Crypt silk moth	Lantern trap	Shade Catacombs	Fine cloth
50	Dagannith fledgeling	Pitfall	Waterbirth Island Dungeon	Dagannoth hide
55	Vyre silk moth	Butterfly net	Sisterhood Sanctuary	Vyre silk
60	Chaos silk moth	Lantern trap	Tunnel of Chaos	Chaos silk
65	Savage suqahs	Pitfall	Lunar Isle mine	Suqah hide
70	Moonfly silk moth	Lantern trap	Lunar Isle mine	Moonfly silk

Equipment

Players can ward various magical equipment at various Warding levels.

Level	Equipment	Materials	Vis
1	Blue Wizard robes	Silk	Air
1	Black wizard robes	Occult silk	Fire
5	Priest gown	Holy silk	Water
10	Druid's robes	Holy silk	Earth
15	Monk's robes	Holy silk	Air, earth
20	Zamorak monk robes	Holy silk, occult silk	Air, fire
25	Shade robes	Shadow silk	Fire
30	Xerician robes	Xerician fabric	Earth, fire
30	Pado's robes	Holy silk, silver bar	Water
35	Splitbark armour	Fine cloth, splitbark	Air, water, earth
40	Arceuus robes	Dark silk	Air, earth, fire
45	Skeletal armour	Dagannoth hide, Wallasalki bone pieces	Air, water, earth
50	Mystic robes (blue)	Mystic silk	Air, water, earth
50	Thaumaturge armour	Occult silk, dark silk	Air, earth
55	Bloodbark armour	Vyre silk, bloodbark	Earth, fire
60	Infinity robes	Finite silk	Air, water
65	Dagon'hai robes	Chaos silk	Fire
70	Thammaron's robes	Occult silk, mystic silk	Fire
75	Astral armour	Suqah hide	Air, water, earth
80	Soulbark armour	Moonfly silk, soulbark	Omni

Pado's robes

Pado's robes are a degradeable set of robes that requires level 30 Magic, Defence and Prayer. In order to ward the robes, players must first learn to do so via Brother Jered in the Edgeville Monastery.

The robes offer two unique effects:

• When all pieces are worn, the total prayer bonus increases from +8 to +20.
• Will of Saradomin - 10% increased damage against the following Zamorakian followers: Chaos druid, Elder Chaos druid, Monk of Zamorak, Lesser demon, Greater demon, Black demon, Vampyre, Werewolf, Chaos dwarf, Dark wizard, Solus Dellagar, Dessous, Damis, Fareed, Kamil, K'ril Tsutsaroth, Balfrug Kreeyath, Tstanon Karlak, Zakl'n Gritch

As a drawback, players cannot cast Flames of Zamorak while wearing Pado's robes.

Item		Attack bonuses					Defence bonuses					Other
Pado's helm		0	0	0	+3	0	+11	+11	+11	+5	0	0	0	0%	+2
Pado's robe top		0	0	0	+15	0	0	0	0	+10	0	0	0	0%	+2
Pado's robe bottoms		0	0	0	+10	0	0	0	0	+7	0	0	0	0%	+2
Pado's cloak		0	0	0	+2	0	0	0	0	+3	0	0	0	0%	+2
Totals		0	0	0	+30	0	+11	+11	+11	+25	0	0	0	0%	+8

Arceuus robes

Arceuus robes are a set of robes that requires level 30 Magic, 15 Defence and 20 Prayer, which resemble robes worn by the immortal inhabitants of Arceuus. In order to wear the robes, players must first complete the quest The Ascent of Arceuus.

Item		Attack bonuses					Defence bonuses					Other
Arceuus hat		0	0	0	+4	0	0	0	0	+4	0	0	0	0%	+3
Arceuus robe top		0	0	0	+8	0	0	0	0	+8	0	0	0	0%	+3
Arceuus robe bottoms		0	0	0	+8	0	0	0	0	+8	0	0	0	0%	+3
Totals		0	0	0	+20	0	0	0	0	+20	0	0	0	0%	+9

Thaumaturge armour

Thaumaturge armour is a degradeable set of equipment requiring level 40 Magic to equip. When the entire set is worn, the set effect "Spellwarp" becomes active, which decreases the attack speed of combat spells from the standard spellbook from 5 to 4 (3 seconds to 2.4 seconds).

As the Thaumaturge warper is equipped in the shield slot, a tome of fire cannot be equipped to benefit from the Spellwarp effect.

Item		Attack bonuses					Defence bonuses					Other
Thaumaturge mask		0	0	0	+4	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0%	0
Thaumaturge torso		0	0	0	+4	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0%	0
Thaumaturge tights		0	0	0	+4	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0%	0
Thaumaturge warper		0	0	0	+10	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0%	0
Totals		0	0	0	+22	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0%	0

Bloodbark armour

Bloodbark armour is an improved version of the Splitbark armour which has similar defensive bonuses to adamant equipment. In order to equip bloodbark armour, players require level 55 Magic and Defence.

Item		Attack bonuses					Defence bonuses					Other
Bloodbark helm		0	0	0	+5	0	+11	+13	+14	+5	0	0	0	0%	0
Bloodbark body		0	0	0	+21	0	+53	+61	+63	+21	0	0	0	0%	0
Bloodbark legs		0	0	0	+15	0	+27	+29	+31	+15	0	0	0	0%	0
Totals		0	0	0	+41	0	+91	+103	+108	+41	0	0	0	0%	0

Dagon'hai robes

Dagon'hai robes are a set of robes worn by the Dagon'hai, requiring level 70 Magic and 40 Defence to equip.

Item		Attack bonuses					Defence bonuses					Other
Dagon'hai hat		0	0	0	+7	0	0	0	0	+7	0	0	0	0%	+2
Dagon'hai robe top		0	0	0	+32	0	0	0	0	+28	0	0	0	0%	+2
Dagon'hai robe bottom		0	0	0	+24	0	0	0	0	+20	0	0	0	0%	+2
Totals		0	0	0	+63	0	0	0	0	+55	0	0	0	0%	+6

Thammaron's robes

Thammaron's robes are a degradeable set of equipment requiring level 60 Magic to equip. When the entire set is worn, the set effect "Thammaron's Fury" becomes active, which applies an additional 50% magic accuracy and 12.5% magic damage when attacking any NPC in the Wilderness. While the effect will stack with Thammaron's sceptre, the sceptre will not count towards activating Thammaron's Fury.

Item		Attack bonuses					Defence bonuses					Other
Thammaron's hood		0	0	0	+4	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0%	0
Thammaron's robe top		0	0	0	+4	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0%	0
Thammaron's robe bottom		0	0	0	+4	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0%	0
Thammaron's boots		0	0	0	+2	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0%	0
Totals		0	0	0	+14	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0%	0

Astral armour

Astral armour is a set of magic armour requiring level 65 Magic and 40 Defence to equip.

Item		Attack bonuses					Defence bonuses					Other
Astral helm		0	0	0	+6	0	+8	+7	+10	+2	0	0	0	0%	0
Astral torso		0	0	0	+22	0	+34	+22	+40	+12	0	0	0	0%	0
Astral legs		0	0	0	+16	0	+20	+19	+23	+9	0	0	0	0%	0
Totals		0	0	0	+44	0	+62	+48	+73	+23	0	0	0	0%	0

Soulbark armour

Soulbark armour is an improved version of the bloodbark armour which has similar defensive bonuses to rune equipment. In order to equip soulbark armour, players require level 70 Magic and Defence.

Item		Attack bonuses					Defence bonuses					Other
Soulbark helm		0	0	0	+6	0	+19	+20	+21	+6	0	0	0	0%	+1
Soulbark body		0	0	0	+24	0	+70	+78	+80	+24	0	0	0	0%	+1
Soulbark legs		0	0	0	+17	0	+45	+47	+49	+17	0	0	0	0%	+1
Totals		0	0	0	+47	0	+134	+145	+150	+47	0	0	0	0%	+3

Other items

Aside from magical robes and armour, players can also ward various items.

Combat rings

Combat ring imbues exist in-game as rewards from the Nightmare Zone minigame. These rings can be creatable via Warding using omni vis and the appropriate engraving, which would be rewards from a Warding focused minigame.

Existing imbued rings will not be unimbued.

Level	Ring	Engraving
34	Warrior ring	Moonclan engraving
37	Treasonous ring	Wild engraving
40	Tyrannical ring	Wild engraving
44	Ring of the gods	Wild engraving
49	Berserker ring	Moonclan engraving
54	Seers ring	Moonclan engraving
59	Archers ring	Moonclan engraving
64	Granite ring	Slayer's engraving
69	Ring of suffering	Slayer's engraving

Skilling rings

Skilling rings are untradeable and degradeable rings which give a small chance to double the amount of resources obtained per action (no additional experience is given). Creating these rings will require an untradeable item obtained randomly while training a certain gathering skill.

Level	Ring		Materials	Vis	Effect
9		Ring of wood	Willow log, stone leaf	Air	X% chance to receive double logs, scaling based on tree
19		Ring of earth	Soft clay, old seed	Earth	X% chance to receive double produce from allotments
29		Ring of amber	Silver bar, amber	Water, earth	X% chance to receive double loot, scaling based on hunter creature
39	Ring of bone		Gold bar, fish bone	Water	X% chance to receive double fish, scaling based on fish
49		Ring of iron	Iron bar, obsidian shard	Fire	X% chance to receive double ores, scaling based on rocks mined

Essence pouches

Players can repair their essence pouches with abyssal silk, which can be obtained from abyssal creatures. This will be an alternative to repairing pouches via the dark mage.

Level	Pouch size	Abyssal silk
25	Medium	2
55	Large	3
70	Giant	4

Players can also use Warding to create a "fused pouch", which can hold 27 pure essence. It is created by combining all runecrafting pouches. Doing so requires 10 abyssal silk, omni vis, and all pouches, and requires level 85 Warding and Runecraft to make.

The fused pouch will have a 100 charges before breaking, leaving players with a degraded giant, large, medium and an undamaged small pouch. Players will not be able to obtain any kind of runecrafting pouch while they have a fused pouch.

Elemental tome pages

Players can create pages for elemental tomes, which will be obtained as drops from bosses such as Obor and Bryophyta. The creation of elemental pages can be done with Warding, with the cost of vis to make these pages matching the price of burnt pages.

The following table lists the types of incantations, the Warding level required to create them, and the Magic and Defence levels required to equip them.

Level	Page	Tome used	Materials
35	Breezy page	Tome of air	Papyrus, air vis
52	Damp page	Tome of water	Papyrus, water vis
67	Dirty page	Tome of earth	Papyrus, earth vis
80	Burnt page	Tome of fire	Papyrus, fire vis

Incantations

Incantations are an ammunition-slot item that grants small amounts of magic bonuses. Players will need papyrus, the appropriate talisman and certain vis to create incantations.

Warding lv	Incantation	Magic lv	Defence lv	Materials
15	Mindful	20	1	Papyrus, mind talisman, air vis
30	Chaotic	30	10	Papyrus, chaos talisman, earth vis
45	Astral	40	20	Papyrus, astral talisman, water vis
60	Deathly	50	30	Papyrus, death talisman, fire vis
75	Bloody	60	40	Papyrus, blood talisman, fire vis
90	Wrath	70	50	Papyrus, wrath talisman, omni vis

The incantations have the following stats:

Item		Attack bonuses					Defence bonuses					Other
Mindful incantation		0	0	0	+1	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0%	0
Chaotic incantation		0	0	0	+2	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0%	0
Astral incantation		0	0	0	+3	0	0	0	0	+1	0	0	0	0%	0
Deathly incantation		0	0	0	+4	0	0	0	0	+2	0	0	0	0%	0
Bloody incantation		0	0	0	+5	0	0	0	0	+3	0	0	0	0%	0
Wrath incantation		0	0	0	+6	0	0	0	0	+4	0	0	0	0%	0

Anti-poison lamp

The anti-poison lamp is an item equipable in the off-hand slot, created with level 20 Warding. It can be filled with anti-poison potions of all varieties, providing immunity to poison as long as there are charges inside the lamp. The lamp can also be upgraded into an anti-venom lamp, which would allow for anti-venom to be stored inside as well.

When venom or poison is cured via the lamp, ten charges will be consumed, in addition to receiving a five minute immunity to venom and poison.

Different tiers of anti-poison/venom potions add different amounts of charges.

Potion	Charges per dose
Antipoison	1
Superantipoison	4
Sanfew serum	4
Antidote+	6
Antidote++	8
Anti-venom	8
Anti-venom+	14

Rune pouch

Players will be able to craft three rune pouches with Warding and infinity silk (purchased from the Mage Training Arena), with the current existing rune pouch being renamed into the Wild rune pouch, which will only be useable in the Wilderness and cost less points. (Note: This was designed back when the Bounty Hunter reward shop was the only way to obtain the rune pouch.)

Level	Pouch	Runes stored	Materials
65	Elemental	Two elemental runes	3 infinity silk, omni vis
74	Mystic	Three of any runes	6 infinity silk, elemental rune pouch
83	Master	Four of any runes	9 infinity silk, mystic rune pouch

Scroll of redirection

Players will be able to make scrolls of redirection, used for making redirected house tablets, by using papyrus, a teleport to house tablet and omni vis. The scrolls will be made tradeable and removed from the Nightmare Zone shop.

Warding lv	Construction lv	Item
5	1	Rimmington teleport
10	10	Taverley teleport
20	20	Pollnivneach teleport
27	25	Hosidius teleport
32	30	Rellekka teleport
42	40	Brimhaven teleport
47	50	Yanille teleport
53	None	Trollheim teleport

Other content

Mystical Sleuthing

The Warding minigame, Mystical Sleuthing, will be a hybrid training method for Warding and Runecraft. It will require completion of Rune Mysteries and the introduction Warding quest that comes with the core skill. Players will also need a channeling lamp, vis, and any Runecrafting Talisman/Tiara that is useable for their Runecrafting level. Talismans that are currently unobtainable will be made to accommodate this minigame.

The aim of the minigame is to utilise Warding and Runecrafting to help citizens of Gielinor deal with magical problems and threats. Players can start this by getting a mission from various wizards, where players will then be given a location to investigate.

Once investigated, players will tackle the threat by making the appropriate ward. This ward will then turn the threat into a hard-rocky magical residue that can be siphoned into runes via their talisman.

The Warding XP rates for playing this minigame will be no more than 1/3rd of standard training rates, while Runecrafting XP will be no more than 5k an hour.

A new reward shop is an option for this minigame, which can sell the engravings used to create imbued combat rings.

Guild

A Warding guild brings in the ability to add more content to the skill whilst expanding on the reasoning behind it with new NPCs, lore, and dialogue. The guild will also offer a Cupboard, which acts like a seed vault that stores various pieces of silk, bark, and hides. There will also be a bank at this guild that allows easy access for training Warding.

The guild will offer a permanent catalytic ward and omni altar. The omni altar will allow players to gain omni vis for ring imbues and the catalytic ward will allow players to train Warding without having to make wards.

Concept art

• 

  Concept art

• 

  Concept art

• 

  Design concept of the trimmed and untrimmed versions of the Cape of Accomplishment for Warding.

Development history

This section will note some core changes made to warding between the first pitch and the final poll blog.

Wardstones

A chalky mineral mixed with vis. Used to draw wards. There are two types: elemental and catalytic, both types are created by the player via a channeling lamp.

• Elemental wardstones are a mixture of elemental vis and steatite and are used to draw elemental wards onto the ground. Steatite can be purchased from rune shops or can be mined with level 15 mining. Once an elemental ward has been drawn it can be used as a surface for warding.
• Catalytic wardstones are a mixture of catalytic vis and abraxas and are used to draw battle wards onto the ground. Abraxas can be obtained from monster drops or bought at rune shops. Once a battle ward has been drawn it will begin applying various magical buffs to nearby players.

• 

  Air wardstone

• 

  Water wardstone

• 

  Earth wardstone

• 

  Fire wardstone

In the final poll blog, the wardstones concept was abandoned, and drawing wards would be done with vis instead.

Channeling lamps

Used for channeling vis through a ward and into raw materials to create magically imbued equipment. The most basic channeling lamp can be purchased from a general store for a few gold pieces. Lamps can be used to store any vis the player has gathered; higher tier lamps are able to store higher tiers of vis.

• 

  Lamp 1 (presumably the lowest tier channeling lamp)

• 

  Lamp 2 (presumably the medium tier channeling lamp)

• 

  Lamp 3 (in the final poll blog, this lamp was referred to as the 'Anti-Poison Lamp')

• 

  Lamp 4 (presumably the high tier channeling lamp)

In the final poll blog, the channeling lamp variants were reduced from 3 to 1. This remaining channeling lamp could be purchased from any rune or ward shop for a few gold pieces.

Elemental Robes

Robes or armour created via warding that have a specific unique buff. These degradable Battlemage Robes, which will also be available to free-to-play, will come in Air, Water, Earth, and Fire variants. The set includes a mask, and a robe top and bottom. All parts need to be worn for the set effect to work: increasing the speed in which spells of the standard magical spellbook are casted.

The mask will require a new unique drop from the elemental giant bosses (eg. Obor and Bryophyta) to make, whilst the robe top and bottom will require a matching elemental talisman.

• 

  Air Battlemage Robes

• 

  Water Battlemage Robes

• 

  Earth Battlemage Robes

• 

  Fire Battlemage Robes

The name of these robes was changed to the Thaumaturge set for the final poll blog. It was not specified if this set would have come in multiple colours and if it would have been available in free-to-play.

Kinhunter, Venomous and Cosmos armour

Three extra armour sets were pitched in the original blog: Kinhunter, Venomous and Cosmos.

• Kinhunter: This degradable armour has improved damage against dragon enemies in a similar way to the Dragonhunter Crossbow and Lance.
• Venomous: These degradable robes have improved damage against poisonous enemies such as lizardmen, spiders, and snakes.
• Cosmos: This degradable armour is an improved version of Lunar armour with further increased damage to aquatic enemies.

• 

  Kinhunter armour

In the final poll blog, these armours were abandoned.

Runestone Monoliths

A giant chunk of Runestone that aids with warding. Here players can channel equipment without having to draw their own ward. Casting magic upon the Runestone Monolith can generate small amounts of vis.

• 

  Ward training - mind

• 

  Ward training - death

• 

  Ward training - blood

• 

  Ward training - chaos

In the final concept of Warding, Runestone Monoliths would be located in wardshops. They could be used as magical training dummies. When a successful combat spell is cast upon it, a small quantity of vis of that element is created.

Farming

There are two new types of patches to gather fabrics that utilises the Farming skill, flax patch and magnanery.

• The flax patch functions similarly to an allotment patch, however the amount of flax gathered depends entirely on your Farming and Warding level.
• The other new patch, the magnanery, functions very differently to a typical patch; fill them with silk moth larva and they'll begin to produce silk, keep them fed with berries to assure they live longer. Silk gathering is greatly improved with higher Warding.

This comes to at least five new flax seeds and over seven types of larva to collect and train farming with.

• 

  Farming silk worms - magnanery

• 

  Holy flax gathering

In the final concept of warding, these incorporations with the Farming skill were abandoned, and instead some new unique Hunter methods were introduced.

Other early development images

• 

  Part of the animation of drawing an earth ward

• 

  Part of the animation of drawing a water ward

• 

  A graphic of the dissolving process

• 

  A mock-up of the skill guide as it would be found in game

• 

  A mock-up of the skill guide as it would be found in game

• 

  Wards example

• 

  Dagon'hai robes

• 

  Splitbark, bloodbark and soulbark armour