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Dragonfire shield

Also known as?	Dfire shield, DFS, dragonfire
Release date	18 June 2007 (Update)
Members only?	Yes
Quest item?	No
Tradeable?	Yes (Only when uncharged)
Equipable?	Yes
Stacks?	No
High Alchemy	1,200,000 coins
Low Alchemy	800,000 coins
Destroy	Drop
Store price	Not sold
Exchange price	34,700,000 coins update
GE Database	Look up price
Examine	A heavy shield with a snarling, draconic visage.
Weight	9 kg
Click to enlarge

A Dragonfire shield, also called DFS for short, is an anti-dragon shield combined with a Draconic visage. When fully charged, it has the greatest overall Melee defence bonus of any shield, with the Crystal shield having a higher ranged defence bonus, the Mage's book and Spectral spirit shield having a higher Magic defence bonus, the Blessed spirit shield and variants having higher crush defence bonus, and the Mage's book and Arcane spirit shield having a higher mage attack bonus. Several shields have higher Prayer bonus and Summoning defence bonus. When completely uncharged, its stats are somewhat better than a Mithril kiteshield. To wield this item, a player's Defence level must be 75 or higher. This shield is also unique for giving the highest strength bonus of any left-handed item. Its strength bonus beats both the Rune defender and Toktz-Ket-Xil by 2 allowing you to hit a little higher with out having a Two-Handed sword equipped.

It can be smithed at a Smithing level of 90, combining a Draconic visage with an Anti-dragon shield, earning 2,000 Smithing experience after a few clicks. If you don't have the required Smithing level, you can also bring the required items to Oziach who will smith it for you for the hefty price of 1,250,000 coins. The Assist system can also be used to make it. Since many high levelled smiths would jump at the opportunity to assist and gain 2,000 experience, using the assist system is better to make the Dragonfire shield. Only adult Blacks, Irons, Steel and mithril dragons, the King Black Dragon, and Skeletal wyverns will drop the Draconic visage. The shield itself was a possible drop from PvP Worlds until 16 June 2009. After the release of Spirit shields and PvP Worlds, the price of the Dragonfire shield significantly fell.

This shield, like the Anti-dragon shield, does not provide full protection against dragonfire or dragonbreath of skeletal wyverns, even when it is fully charged. Use of an Antifire potion with the shield renders full protection.

Charging

Player charging the Dragonfire shield.

The shield absorbs dragonbreath, which stays in the shield and gives it charges. Each dragonbreath attack gives it one charge, up to a maximum number of 50. Each charge increases the shield's defence against stab, slash, crush, range and summoning attacks by +1. The best place to charge a shield is anywhere with Metal dragons, as when you move away from them they use their dragonbreath faster than the Chromatic dragons.  The bronze dragons in the Chaos Tunnels are particularly good.  Since they are in a multicombat area, you can have multiple bronze dragons shooting their dragonbreath at you at once.

Discharging

A player discharging dragonbreath at an opponent.

A player releasing accumulated dragonfire charges from the shield.

When the shield is worn, players can also release charges of dragonbreath by operating it. To discharge the flame, right-click on the equipped shield while in combat and select Activate. The shield will then fire a deadly blast of fiery energy at the opponent, which hits up to 25 damage, but lowers the stats of the shield by 1 for every charge used. Players can also operate the shield while not in combat, and then target an opponent to release the attack on. If done so, the attack will be long-ranged and the player will also run toward the opponent to start fighting. This will not work against dragons. The damage of this attack is reduced just like a dragon's dragonbreath attack if the opponent is wearing an Anti-dragon shield, a dragonfire shield, or is under the effects of an Antifire potion. Once operated, the shield needs to cool down for exactly two minutes before the player can unleash its flames again. The only other piece of equipment to have this ability is an enchanted dragonstone bolt.

Since the shield is untradeable when charged, players wishing to sell the shield must completely deplete its charges before they are able to do so. They can simply use all 50 charges by using the dragonfire attack 50 times; however, with a 2 minute cool-down between each use, this would take 1 hour and 40 minutes. Instead of this rather lengthy process, players can instead right-click the shield in their inventory and pick the Empty option to release all remaining charges in a single harmless burst.

Bonuses

Uncharged Bonuses

Bonuses Hover over image for type
Attack bonus
0		0		0		-10		-5
Defence bonus
+20		+25		+22		+10		+22		+17
Other bonuses
+7			0			0			0
Item compare not supported

Fully Charged Bonuses

Bonuses Hover over image for type												A player wielding a fully charged Dragonfire shield.
Attack bonus
0		0		0		-10		-5
Defence bonus
+70		+75		+72		+10		+72		+67
Other bonuses
+7			+0			0			0
Item compare not supported

Slash, crush, stab, ranged, and summoning defence bonuses will lower by 1 after a charge is used.

Trivia

A glitched Dragonfire shield.

• When a dragon breathes fire on a player wearing the shield, the player crouches behind the shield and does not make an attacking motion, however, the damage against the dragon still registers.
• Though the dragonfire attack from the shield is a devastating attack, most players do not use it because doing so lowers the combat stats.
• Using the dragonbreath attack against a monster will earn Magic experience.
• Before the PvP and Bounty world update on 16 June 2009, players could get a dragonfire shield from PvP kills; however, the aforementioned update removed dragonfire shields from PvP drop tables.
• The anti-dragon shield was named the dragonfire shield or "df shield" among many long-time RuneScape players because it was formerly named the dragonfire shield until its name was changed for an unknown reason sometime in late 2005 or early 2006. The "df shield" nickname for the anti-dragon shield mostly died out soon after the release of the dragonfire shield, and the nickname was passed on to the newly released dragonfire shield.
• The anti-dragon shield weighs 5 kg and the Draconic visage weighs 1; however, when joined, the Dragonfire shield's weight increases to 9 kg.
• There may be a graphical glitch for the Dragonfire shield. The conditions required to recreate it are unknown, but when met the shield gains a shiny, metallic lustre. (It may be triggered merely by graphics settings, the computer being used, a combination of the two or something else.) This glitch also works on other armour.

References

Grand Exchange Database - Current price