Prayer

Prayer is a non-members combat skill. Prayer is trained by burying bones, using them on an altar in a player-owned house, by praying at the Ectofuntus with bonemeal and buckets of slime, or by killing reanimated monsters summoned via the Arceuus spellbook. Different bones give different amounts of experience.

Prayers are unlocked as the level in the skill goes up, which are used to aid the player in combat. The prayers can help with Attack, Defence, Strength, Ranged, Magic, and Hitpoints, among other uses. When prayers are activated, they drain the player's prayer points until the prayer is turned off or all prayer points are used.

Most prayers can be activated immediately before the attack hits and promptly deactivated in order to gain buffs and/or protection with minimal to no expenditure of prayer points. This is called prayer flicking.

Recharging points
The player can recharge all of their prayer points to full by praying at an altar, which are most often found in churches.

Praying at these altars will recharge the player's prayer points above the maximum:
 * The Altar of Nature in the Nature Grotto
 * The Edgeville Monastery (requires level 31 Prayer)

In addition, consuming prayer potions, Super restores, and Sanfew serums will recharge prayer points proportional to the player's Prayer level, and consuming Jangerberries restores 1 prayer point each.

Quick prayers
On 6 February 2014, data orbs were added and has given the Prayer icon the ability to select your quick prayers. It can be left-clicked to activate, or deactivate, a group of prayers preselected by the player simultaneously. You can select which prayers are activated by right-clicking the button and choosing the "Setup quick-prayers" option. Before the addition of this function, players had to, sometimes frantically, locate the prayer tab and activate them one by one. This function allows players to place many of the most useful prayers on immediate standby. It is very useful for prayer flicking. Quick prayers can also be used as an easy way to turn off all prayers by double left-clicking it (to turn quick prayers on, then off).

Prayers
The prayer tab contains all of the available prayers. To activate a prayer, simply click it. This will show a whitish circle around each active prayer, and will start to drain prayer points.

All prayers up to Mystic Might are available for free-to-play players, but prayers from Retribution onward require the player to be on a members' server. Additionally, Chivalry and Piety require completion of Camelot training room, and Preserve, Rigour, and Augury must be unlocked through prayer scrolls from Chambers of Xeric.

Prayer bonus
Prayer bonus can be viewed in the Equipment Stats window. Here, players can see all of their bonuses, including prayer bonus. A higher prayer bonus will cause prayer points to drain at a slower speed.

How prayer bonus affects prayer drain
Each point of prayer bonus slows the drain rate by 3.33% of the regular drain rate of the prayer(s). A general formula for the time (interval) between dropping prayer points with a given prayer bonus is:

$$interval_{modified} = interval_{original} \times (1+\frac{bonus}{30})$$

Where the drain interval is the number of seconds per point (i.e. 1 point per x seconds).

For example, if a player uses the "Protect from Melee" prayer with a prayer bonus of 0, their prayer points would drain at a rate of 1 point every 3 seconds. If that player then equips armour giving a prayer bonus of +15, the drain rate of this prayer is slowed by 15 / 30 = 0.5, so the drain interval becomes 3 × (1 + 0.5) = 4.5, or 1 point per 4.5 seconds instead of 1 point every 3 seconds.

To generate a prayer bonus, players must equip certain types of armour, clothing, weapons, and jewellery. See Prayer items for more information.

Prayer bonuses, however, do not help to stave off the side-effects of locations and monsters that drain Prayer.

The maximum prayer bonus is 66 wearing the following gear: Using the "Protect from Melee" prayer with this gear would result in 1 point drained per 9.6 seconds.
 * God mitre (+5)
 * Ardougne cloak 4 (+6)
 * Dragonbone necklace (+12)
 * God crozier or Void knight mace (+6)
 * God book, Broodoo shield, or Falador shield 4 (+5)
 * Proselyte hauberk (+8)
 * Proselyte cuisse/Proselyte tasset (+6)
 * Holy wraps (+3)
 * Devout boots (+5)
 * Ring of the gods (i) (+8)
 * Rada's blessing 4 (+2)

Prayer drain resistance
Players have a prayer drain counter, which starts at a value of 0. Additionally, each prayer has a prayer drain effect variable, and the sum prayer drain effect of all prayers currently activated is the total drain effect. For every game tick that a prayer is activated, the player's prayer drain counter value increases by the total drain effect of the prayers that are activated on that tick. Players also have a prayer drain resistance, which can be displayed by the formula:

$$drain_{resistance} = (60 + ({bonus}\times{2}))$$

Whenever a player's prayer drain counter value exceeds their prayer drain resistance, one prayer point is removed from that player's prayer points, and that player's current prayer drain counter value decreases by their prayer drain resistance. This can occur more than once per game tick. This can result in prayer points being lost, even though a prayer may not have been consecutively active for its drain rate.

Prayer flicking
Flicking lets a player use prayers in combat without having their prayer points drain continuously. A skilled player will turn prayers on right before their effects are required, and turn them off immediately after. This will stop prayer from continuously draining between attacks.

For prayer flicking involving Protection prayers, the most common usage, the player will activate the prayer just before being hit, and turn it off immediately after the hit lands. This uses up very few prayer points, and negates prayer point usage completely if done quickly enough.

Although flicking requires timing and skill, doing it successfully can save prayer points and allow a player to fight monsters for much longer, or increase damage rates with offensive prayers. If done perfectly, no prayer will be consumed regardless of how long the fight lasts.

Most players will not have totally perfect timing. Wearing gear with a high prayer bonus will help you prayer flick much longer. Flicking is considerably easier when fighting a monster that matches your weapon's speed, and/or when playing with sounds on.

The disadvantages to prayer flicking are the high click intensity associated with constantly turning prayers on and off, and the time needed to get good and consistent at it.

How to prayer flick
To prayer flick, one must activate and deactivate a prayer so it is active on the needed game tick. If flicking a combat prayer, this is the tick you attack. If flicking a protection prayer, this is the tick your enemy attacks (which is not necessarily the tick in which you appear to take damage). If flicking against monsters, it will help immensely to know the monster's attack speed.

While it is possible to prayer flick against monsters that use Magic or Ranged attacks, it is best to practice against monsters that use melee at a 2.4 second interval if you are learning how to flick for the first time.

Timing
For all of the following, it is assumed the player either turns off the prayer immediately, or as soon as they see a 0 hitsplat for confirmation.


 * Activate the protect from melee prayer just before the hit splat appears on your character.


 * With a standard speed weapon (4 ticks) and offensive prayers, turn your prayer(s) on just as your hitsplat disappears.


 * If you are fighting a monster with an attack speed of 6 (4 ticks) with a normal retaliation time (2 ticks), turn your prayer on just as the attack animation starts.


 * If using a slow speed weapon (5 ticks) and praying offensive prayers, turn your prayer(s) on after your hitsplat disappears.


 * If using a very slow weapon (6 ticks) timing becomes difficult for offensive prayers. The prayer must be on 2 ticks (1.2s) after your hitsplat disappears. A visual cue is useful- after your initial attack, turn on your prayer(s) as soon as the monster's hitsplat on you disappears, then again as soon as the monster's third attack hitsplat lands on you.


 * Praying defensively against normal monsters, turn your prayer(s) on just as their hitsplat on you disappears. Alternatively, turn your prayer(s) on after you see your hitsplat on the monster appear.


 * Defensive prayers against monsters with a very slow attack speed is tricky. Activate Protect from Melee when your first hitsplat on the monster disappears. Time your next prayer flick to be active right between your next two attacks. When the hitsplat from your second attack disappears, activate Protect from Melee as you did in the first step, repeating the cycle.


 * If you have your settings configured so that experience drops show up on your screen, the time to activate stat boosting prayers is just before the experience for the hit appears.

Specific combat style flicking

 * Melee flicking: Right before the hitsplat is supposed to show up, you should turn on your prayer, and then turn it off again. The hit will always be a 0 if done correctly, but not deplete any prayer points due to it being on for just half a second. You will know that you executed it correctly if the blue hitsplat and your overhead prayer symbol appear at the exact same time.
 * Ranged/Magic flicking: Right when the monster/player begins the attack animation (Ranged: Pulling up the bow, Magic: Putting hands together for the bolt to form) you should turn on your prayer, and then turn it off again. The hit will always be a 0 if done correctly, but not deplete any prayer points due to it being on for just half a second.
 * Note: there is a slight delay between when you click the prayer and when it appears/takes effect. The prayer must be active at the beginning of the animation, meaning depending on your ping you may need to click even slightly before the animation begins.
 * Damage flicking: This can also be done with any other prayer, so you could do it with prayers such as Ultimate Strength or Piety to get the extra 15% bonus whilst not draining prayer points.



The exception to the rule of initial-tick-counts is TzTok-Jad. His attacks are calculated after the start of his attack animation, as player protection prayers are part of the strategy to defeat him. His distinctive attack animations telegraph the nature of the next attack, but are not part of the attack itself.

For players who have never prayer-flicked before, the killerwatt plane is an excellent training ground. Killerwatts exist only in a single-combat zone (usually absent of other players) and are not aggressive until you attack them first, giving you ample time to prepare; their melee attacks are also fast enough that you don't need to worry about awkward timing; their attack speed is exactly double what you will encounter when fighting most monsters.

Killerwatt melee attacks are dangerous and accurate if your Protection prayers doesn't negate the damage, so it will be quite easy to tell whether you have mastered the skill or not. Killerwatts are very easy to flick effectively against with Protect from Melee, and once mastered, you will be able to apply flicking more easily to enemies with slower attack speeds (which, as mentioned above, are more difficult to flick accurately against).

Note that killerwatts can attack with either melee or ranged attacks at will, but there is a way to prevent this: see the killerwatt wiki page for details.

1-tick prayer
While this method is extremely click-intensive, it is possible to have your quick-prayers active at all times while not draining any prayer points. 1-tick prayer involves activating and deactivating your quick-prayers on every single game tick, and requires very precise timing along with strict adherence to the click pattern. Notably, this is the only way to fully protect yourself in a multi-combat zone filled with aggressive enemies without expending prayer points, and works against enemies that cannot be reliably prayer-flicked against due to varying attack speeds (such as Cave horrors). When done correctly, your overhead prayer should be visible at all times, but you will not lose any prayer points.

This technique provides no benefit when used with Preserve or Rapid Heal.

Equipment that affects Prayer
Some equipment can bypass or disable overhead other players' protection prayers, as well as drain, restore or depend on Prayer.

Most of this equipment cannot bypass monster protection prayers, with the exception of Verac's set against the Kalphite Queen.

Monsters that use Prayer
Several monsters are able to make use of protection prayers.

Skill choice
Upon completing any of the following quests, players may choose to allocate experience to Prayer. These rewards usually come in the form of items, such as lamps or books, and are independent of any experience rewards directly received for completing the quest.

Trivia

 * A Prayer bonus of +30 is required to halve the drain rate of prayers.
 * In RuneScape 2, the Prayer icon colour was originally yellow, but Jagex changed the colour on 21 November 2006 when Hunter was released.
 * Within the game cache, there is an unused icon for ([[File:Protect from Summoning.png]]). This is left over from the original Old School RuneScape backup from August 2007 when the  skill was still being developed.