Last year we made gradual improvements to Evolution of Combat, but now we’re going to really step it up. We’ve been listening to your suggestions and feedback, and - based on these - we have a number of big changes lined up that we think will really improve the combat system, making it more varied and satisfying, and also easier to use.

It's vital to us that you're driving the development of these changes every step of the way. That's why - from today - every RuneScape player can test out the new combat features on our beta servers and offer feedback on the forums.

Read on for more details of the changes, and how you can get involved with testing them!

Here are the top changes we’ve got coming up:

Special attacks – That’s right, they’re coming back! We’re going to be reinstating special attacks that existed before EoC, and may add new ones too. This should add more diversity within level tiers, and more tactical choice when gearing up. The special attacks will exist as abilities - charged by adrenaline - but will function almost identically to how they did in the old combat system.

Revolution – This player-proposed feature is a brilliant middle-ground between low intensity Momentum gameplay and high-intensity manual ability use. It allows you to automate basic abilities while still building up adrenaline and being able to perform thresholds and ultimates. Perfect for Slayer when you want the benefit of abilities, without the need to make your fingers continually dance across your keyboard! Thanks to Mist Singer for her ‘Conservation’ idea which inspired this.

Momentum plus – We’re going to upgrade momentum so it allows for low intensity gameplay without locking you out of other combat features. This means when using upgraded system you’ll accumulate adrenaline and can activate ultimate abilities and special attacks, without breaking Momentum.

Ability queuing – This will allow you to select your next ability even if it’s still on cooldown, removing the need to hammer the ability button to make it fire immediately. This small ‘buffer’ is a subtle change which will make performing combat abilities smoother and more lag-tolerant.

Action bar setups – The game will offer you a quick and simple way to fill your action bar with a set of recommended abilities for general combat use, for each combat style. This will allow players to start out with Evolution of Combat and begin using abilities with minimal fuss.

Quick loadout switching – Changing your equipment can be a hassle, so we’re going to build features that allow you to create preset loadouts and switch them on the fly, both from your bank and between inventory and worn equipment.

PvP refinements – We want to revive PvP in RuneScape, and will be starting with a collection of essential combat tweaks and rebalances. This will include changes to stun durations, incoming damage, PvP minigames and removing the global cooldown on weapon switching.

These are some of the larger features we're working on, but there are plenty of smaller improvements coming up too. With these changes, we hope Evolution of Combat will be more appealing to all types of players, adding more depth for experts, while making it more accessible to those just starting out. But that’ll be for you to decide.

Your feedback is incredibly important to us, so we’ve put an early work-in-progress version of some of these new features on the beta servers. The first beta has a bunch of special attacks, plus early versions of revolution, momentum plus and ability queuing for you to try out. Take a look at the video below to see Mod Chris L take you through some of the new features.

We intend to keep updating the beta build every couple of weeks with newer versions, and will also add in-game polls on the beta servers so you can tell us what you think as you play.

The beta servers are open for anyone to access - free players and members alike. Please jump on now, and make sure to come to the combat beta forum to let us know what you think.

Mod Pips

Executive Producer, RuneScape