Magic is the hardest combat style to understand. You can spend millions and see no real improvement. This guide will tell you how to combine the right equipment to create the most powerful combat style in OSRS.

Part 1: Understanding How Magic Works

The main reason magic is confusing: upgrading your armor and weapons does not always increase your damage output. Having a higher magic level and using stronger spells is more important than gear.

A dirt-cheap necklace upgrade is more impactful than a set of robes worth hundreds of millions of coins. Learning how gear works with all its quirks allows you to make informed upgrade choices.

Spell Choice and Damage

The spell you use is the main factor deciding your damage. You have four spellbooks:

Normal (elemental spells)

Ancient (blood heals, ice freezes)

Lunar (vengeance)

Arceuus (thralls, demonbane)

Magic Damage vs. Accuracy

Early game gear has no magic damage bonus—only accuracy. Magic damage is percentage based, meaning every extra percentage point becomes incredibly impactful later. Accuracy is useful, but early game you should always kill enemies weak to magic, ideally using their elemental weakness.

Part 2: Early Game (Levels 1–40)

Starting gear requires no stats. Basic wizard robes, leather boots and gloves, and a magic amulet. Everything is so cheap that you may as well grab every upgrade.

Air Staff – Your most important early purchase. Unlimited air runes and auto-casting makes training cheaper and faster. With this staff alone, you can do Barrows due to the bosses' air elemental weakness.

Level 20: Xerician robes are a cheap upgrade. Complete easy diaries for Rada's Blessing, Explorer's Ring, and Ardy Cape for accuracy boosts and teleports.

Level 40: Full Mystic (skip gloves). Use a Combat Bracelet instead—better boost and utility. Amulet of Glory for the neck slot. Book of Darkness (from Horror from the Deep plus Treasure Trail pages) provides accuracy and prayer bonus.

Part 3: Mid Game (Levels 50–70)

Level 50 Staves (both require quests):

Iban Staff (Underground Pass) – Iban Blast hits 25, far higher than any other spell for a long time.

Ancient Staff (Desert Treasure) – not immediately useful but essential later.

Complete Mage Arena for a god cloak. You will need this for the imbued version later.

Level 60: Bloodbark – Upgraded Splitbark. The cheapest way to get magic damage boosting gear in your three primary armor slots. Viable until endgame.

Malediction Ward – Requires 50 Defense. A fair amount of cash, but every percentage point counts.

Barrows Gloves (Recipe for Disaster) – Close to best-in-slot for all three styles. Do not skip these.

Level 62: Warped Scepter – Your first powered staff. Unlike normal spells that use runes, powered staves are charged and their max hit scales with your magic level. They also save inventory space.

Twinflame Staff – Dominates anywhere with elemental weaknesses. It auto-casts whatever spell the enemy is weak to, as long as you have the runes.

Spellbook Summary

Arceuus: Thralls for extra DPS, death charge, demonbane spells

Lunar: Vengeance for damage recoiling

Ancient: Blood spells (heal), ice spells (freeze)

By level 70, you unlock blood and ice burst (3x3 multi-combat). Use the Ancient Staff to auto-cast ancients.

Part 4: Major Upgrades (Levels 70–78)

Occult Necklace – Has a bigger magic damage boost than almost everything else equipped so far. Buy this before anything else. It is the single most impactful item for magic damage, especially for the price.

Ahrim's Robes – Decent defensive and accuracy upgrade, but Bloodbark has the same magic damage boost. If you have cash, buy it. If not, wait. Forget the Ahrim's staff.

Imbued God Cloaks (Mage Arena 2) – A substantial upgrade over the first cloak. Provides decent magic damage boost. Requires 75 Magic.

Trident of the Seas (75 Magic) – Next powered staff. Cheaper than Warped Scepter. Charged with death, chaos, and fire runes.

Trident of the Swamp (78 Magic) – Upgraded version. More expensive but has extra damage and accuracy, plus a chance to venom. Charged with same runes plus Zulrah scales.

Part 5: Optimizing Your Setup

Elemental Tomes – If using elemental spells, a tome (fire, earth, or water) provides a 10% boost to elemental damage. No air tome exists yet.

Powered Staves + Thralls – Powered staves are your bread and butter due to level scaling, faster cast speed, and spellbook freedom. For tough content, keep thralls active on the Arceuus spellbook. Unless you need another spellbook for a specific reason, Arceuus is your go-to.

Demonbane Spells – The only time you skip a powered staff on Arceuus is when using demonbane spells. The Purging Staff (77 Magic) provides an enormous boost against demons. Keep Mark of Darkness active.

Ancient Sceptre (78 Magic) – An upgrade to the Ancient Staff from Phantom Muspah. Further upgrades from Desert Treasure II bosses provide extra boosts helpful for endgame content like freezing at Theatre of Blood.

Part 6: Endgame Upgrades

Imbued Seers Ring – The normal ring is weak. Imbued (Nightmare Zone or PvP Arena), the 0.5% damage boost is better than nothing.

Tormented Bracelet – Requires 75 Hitpoints. You can pick it up earlier, but realistically this is when you have spare cash.

Eternal Boots – Require 75 Magic and Defense. In hybrid content you will not wear these, but for pure magic, the 1% damage boost is worth it.

Elidnis' Ward – Great damage boost for the price. Requires 80 Magic, Defense, and Prayer. Delay if prayer training is too expensive.

Eye of the Ayak (from Doom of Mokhaiot) – A top-tier magic weapon. Fastest magic weapon in the game. Its special attack reduces the enemy's magic defense. Only outclassed by Tumeken's Shadow (over 10x the price).

Confliction Gauntlets – Made from Mokhaiot cloth on a Tormented Bracelet. Passive effect: if you miss a magic attack, the next attack rolls accuracy twice. On average, this makes your attacks twice as likely to hit. Does not work with two-handed weapons like the Shadow.

Virtus vs. Ancestral

Virtus (78 Magic, 75 Defense) – Cheaper. Higher defense than Ancestral. Provides extra damage when using ancient magic (bursting/barraging).

Ancestral (65 Magic) – Expensive. Slightly better for non-ancient spellbooks. This guide assumes you choose Virtus.

Tumeken's Shadow (85 Magic) – The mega-rare from Tombs of Amascut. Its passive multiplies your magic attack and damage percentage by three (four times inside TOA). Gear really matters with the Shadow. It allows you to cheese monsters with high magic defense.

Part 7: Summary

If you cannot kill every boss with max magic gear, blaming your gear is not an option. Focus on:

Understanding spellbooks and elemental weaknesses

Prioritizing percentage-based damage boosts

Acquiring Occult Necklace, Eye of the Ayak, and Confliction Gauntlets in the correct order

Progression is about combining the right niche items with the right content, not simply spending your OSRS gold on the most expensive gear without understanding the mechanics behind it. For players looking to accelerate their journey efficiently, Rsgoldfast is a trusted source worth considering for acquiring the resources you need to build your ideal magic setup.