As of early 2022, there are a total of 27 skills that you can train in RuneScape 3.
If you’re a member, you can train all 27 skills.
However, free-to-play players only have access to 17 of these skills.
That said, not every skill is important on RuneScape.
Some skills are more important/useful than others because they are required for certain quests or to have access to certain monsters.
For example, you need a Slayer level of 85 to damage Abyssal Demons.
This list contains the 10 best RuneScape skills from the most to least important.
Here are the 10 best RuneScape skills:
1. Invention
As of 2022, the best RuneScape 3 skill to train is Invention.
Invention is an elite skill that was introduced in 2016.
It allows players to get new materials by disassembling items.
The materials can then be used to produce devices and augment high-level armor, weapons, and tools with perks.
When a weapon is augmented, it can no longer be traded.
To unlock the skill, you need level 80 in Crafting, Divination, and Smithing.
2. Magic
The best combat skill in RuneScape 3 is magic.
Other than combat, magic has a lot of skilling abilities like “Alchemy”, “Superheat”, “Enchant”, and more.
You’ll also be able to teleport around the world using teleportation abilities.
When you reach level 30, you’ll have access to the “Surge” ability.
The ability allows you to instantly teleport 10 tiles ahead of you.
This is incredibly useful for getting around Gielinor.
Magic has not only one spellbook—but three spellbooks.
Ancient Magicks and Lunar spells are both available to members after they’ve completed Desert Treasure and Lunar Diplomacy.
3. Prayer
Prayer is essential for PVM because it’ll give you access to melee, ranged, and magic reduction.
For most bosses, you need damage reduction prayers to survive.
At level 92 Prayer, you’ll have access to Soul Split after you’ve completed The Temple at Senntisten.
Soul Split is basically “lifesteal” where you can gain health while damaging a monster.
It heals 10% of the damage that you deal, which means that you can use it as an alternative to food.
4. Slayer
If you’re training combat, Slayer is a must to train as well.
With Slayer, you’ll be assigned tasks by Slayer Masters to gain XP.
You need a certain Slayer level to damage certain monsters.
Typically, the monsters that drop good loot require a high Slayer level to damage.
For instance, Abyssal Lords require level 115 Slayer to damage.
Essentially, if you have a high Slayer Level, you’ll have access to a wider pool of monsters which will make you more money.
5. Herblore
With Herblore, you can create stat-boosting potions.
This includes Overloads, Adrenaline potions, Superfire potions, and more.
Herblore also has great money-making methods such as making unfinished potions.
With level 82 Herblore, you can make weapon poison++, which gives you a profit of more than 10 million GP every hour.
6. Dungeoneering
While doing Dungeoneering, you can train multiple skills at the same time.
More importantly, you’ll have access to multiple resource dungeons across Gielinor.
For instance, you need to have level 85 Dungeoneering to access the Asgarnian Ice Dungeon resource dungeon.
The dungeon contains 15 Frost Dragons which you can kill for Frost Dragon Bones.
Frost Dragon Bones are worth close to 30,000 GP, which makes killing Frost Dragons highly profitable.
You’ll also have access to Chaotic weaponry at level 80 Dungeoneering, which can be bought at Daemonheim from the rewards trader.
The rewards trader also sells useful items like the Bonecrusher, Charming imp, and Gold accumulator.
7. Divination
Divination gives you access to signs of the porter, which automatically teleports items to your bank.
It’s also useful for training your low-level skills like mining and woodcutting.
This is because you can make divine items like the Divine mithril rock, deadfall trap, salmon bubble, and more.
You’ll also have access to the sign of life and the sign of death, which revives you when you die.
Level 80 Divination is also required to unlock the Invention skill.
8. Crafting
Crafting is needed to create a ton of items in RuneScape.
For example, if you want to get the blood amulet of fury, you need to combine an amulet of fury with a blood necklace shard.
The process requires level 80 crafting (but can be assisted).
You won’t be able to buy the amulet in the Grand Exchange because it’s untradable.
Making decorated urns is also a great money-making method.
9. Summoning
For combat, Summoning allows you to have access to damage-boosting familiars and familiars that can hold your items.
If you have level 96 Summoning, you’ll be able to summon the Ripper Demon.
It has a passive effect that increases the damage of the player’s attacks by 0-5% which scales with the percentage of their target’s lost life points.
For skilling, you can get skilling boosts and special abilities can benefit you.
However, training the skill is expensive, and collecting charms is a tedious process.
10. Ranged/Attack
Ranged and attack are tied at the tenth spot on the list.
With higher combat stats, you can kill bosses faster.
Ranged is slightly better than melee because you’ll be able to “safespot” from a distance.
This will allow you to conserve your health because you don’t need to consume much food.
It’s important to train all combat styles in RuneScape because each monster is weak to different combat styles.
Conclusion
Keep in mind that the rankings in the list above are accurate as of early 2022.
Some rankings are +/- depending on how often you use the skill.
For example, slayer, magic, and prayer are more useful for PvM (player versus monster).
Due to the constant updates that the game has, the list might change in the future.
For free-to-play players, you can ignore the members-only skills in the list.
This includes invention, slayer, herblore, divination, and summoning.
