After years of the best tank armour locked behind content a lot of people do not like, Jagex finally released more tank armour. One of the rewards from the first skilling boss in the game, Croesus, is cryptbloom armour.
Cryptbloom is a five-piece set with the torso and legs being augmentable. It has the same base stats as Achto Primeval equipment but has a different passive. The set possesses the passive ability of Nature's Envoy, which provides the following effects when a specific amount of pieces are worn.
When wearing two pieces reduce incoming magic damage by 12% and melee by 8%. If three pieces are worn it increases effectiveness by 6% and 4% magic and melee damage respectively, for 18% magic and 12% melee damage reduction. The effect is doubled if the player is using earth spells, for 24% magic and 16% melee damage reduction. Four pieces worn means whenever the player takes damage, there is a 6% chance to infect their target with death spores. This increases damage dealt against them from behind by 10% for 15 seconds, along with the 3-piece set effect. If the whole set is worn and the player falls below 20% of their maximum health, the armour will generate a fungal shield to protect the player for 15 seconds. Its durability is tied to the player's armour rating and Defence level. The shield has a 120 second cooldown time before it can be used again. The player also retains the benefits from the 3 and 4-piece sets.
Cryptbloom cost a little under 1 billion gold after release and stayed there until the fourth and final front came out. The ful front was released and cryptbloom was being used to help people stay alive in hard mode so it jumped up to almost 2 billion. Since the ful front is solo content players really only need three pieces. Since blast diffusion boots and cinderbanes would be best in slot, most players are using top, bottom and helm. If cinderbanes are not effective against the monster then Kerapac's wrist wraps would be better.
The four-piece set is very helpful at places like Nex Angel of Death since the rest of the group can benefit from the death spores. Also since AOD only hits with magic and melee it makes using a ripper demon as a base much easier.
The five-piece set is not very useful and should only be used when afking. This is because a lot of times against high-level bosses you will just get killed before the fungal shield will proc.
This armour is magic tank armour and stacks with animate dead. This makes things like standing in the fire at Vindicta only hit like 80 damage and very easy to soul split enough health back. It is possible to get 3 kills at Vindicta before looking at your screen again. The other boss I love to afk in cryptbloom is Helwyr, just like Vindicta, you can step away from your computer and come back and 3 or 4 kills have been done. The green mushroom and the melee bleed deal like no damage with all the buffs stacked.
Moving forward I will probably try out every new boss with cryptbloom on until I get a feel for it. The armour gives people who like to skill but want to get into pvm a clear path on how to do it. Do Croesus for cryptbloom then use cryptbloom to learn new bosses. Having tank armour not time-gated and be buyable is huge and will stay in the meta for a long time coming.
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