Introduction
There are a lot of people saying that Dragon Hasta is better than Whip. However, that is not true. Dragon Hasta may have higher maxhit than whip does, but due to the hidden mechanics of Attack Styles, that doesn't mean Dragon Hasta is any better than Whip is. Let's take a look at those mechanics.
Melee
(http://i.gyazo.com/432abacbc91c7ed4dae3b808cf70d4eb.png)
There are 4 different types of Melee Attack Styles: Strength, Defence, Attack and Mixed. Depending on weapon, these styles have their different names (slash, stab, etc...).
- Strength - Grants an invisible Strength level boost of 3. Experience gained per hit: 80 Strength XP and 20 Hitpoints XP.
- Defence - Grants an invisible Defence level boost of 3. Experience gained per hit: 80 Defence XP and 20 Hitpoints XP.
- Attack - Grants an invisible Attack level boost of 3. Experience gained per hit: 80 Attack XP and 20 Hitpoints XP.
- Mixed - Grants an invisible Strength, Defence and Attack level boosts of 1. Experience gained per hit: 26,6 XP (rounded up/down depending on your hit) on each 3 attack styles and 20 Hitpoints XP.
Ranged
(http://i.gyazo.com/289ecc2f7947bc7c241aeafd8082fe3c.png)
There are 3 different types of Ranged Attack Styles: Accurate, Rapid and Longrange.
- Accurate - Grants an invisible Ranged level boost of 3 (= increased accuracy and damage). Experience gained per hit: 80 Ranged XP and 20 Hitpoints XP.
- Rapid - Increased attack speed. Experience gained per hit: 80 Ranged XP and 20 Hitpoints XP.
- Longrange - Increased attack range. Experience gained per hit: 40 Ranged and Defence XP and 20 Hitpoints XP.
Rapid is often considered to deal the highest DPS (damage per second). Accurate Style might prove to be effective when fighting monsters with high defence, such as bosses. Longrange is most often used to train Defence while also training Ranged.
Magic
(http://i.gyazo.com/5525de78f9babec3142b0fe447b968ba.png)
Most Magic weapons have 4 different Attack Styles. 3 of them are melee and 1 is magic. The melee Attack Styles are barely used, because of the lack of Melee bonuses on Magic weapons. The Magic Attack Style lets you autocast spells, duh.
- Melee - Grants an invisible level boost 3 to their respective skill. Experience gained per hit: 80 XP to respective skill and 20 Hitpoints XP.
- Spell - Magic Attack Style. Experience gained per hit: 80 Magic XP and 20 Hitpoints XP.
(http://i.gyazo.com/f527afa438560ae57af60e8cf90669f7.png)
The Rod of Ivandis and Zuriel's Staff cannot autocast regular combat spells, because they use an unique spell.
r8 8/8 m8, pls
Source: http://runescape.wikia.com/wiki/Combat_styles and common knowledge ._.