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WIKI GUIDES - YAMA MELEE AND MAGE (OSRS)
Date 2025-09-01
Type challenge
Video youtu.be/KIII4sXUDTk

Summary

Gnomonkey brings back the Wiki Guides series for September: he kills Yama using the OSRS Wiki's lowest recommended melee gear (tentacle whip, Myth's cape, Ring of suffering, SGS spec), then repeats with a budget setup built from the same GP total via Gearscape (Emberlight, fire cape) and a mage setup. He argues the wiki's gear 'downgrade' templates are misleading and wants budget tiers instead.

Outline

  • 0:00 Introduction, Wiki Guides series returns for September, the worst wiki melee setup explained
  • 3:56 First melee run: Yama phases, void flares, glyphs
  • 5:56 Enrage phase challenges with the tentacle whip
  • 9:20 Finalizing the wiki-gear melee kill (about 12 minutes)
  • 14:40 Reviewing the wiki template's gear mistakes and why the series exists
  • 17:32 Improved budget melee attempt with Emberlight from Gearscape
  • 23:11 Amulet of the damned discovery for the mage setup
  • 25:04 Magic setup kill
  • 32:21 Final thoughts on wiki gear templates and September stream goals

Topics covered

Wiki Guides challenge series

  • (0:00) Gnomonkey brought back his Wiki Guides series in September 2025 because his Twitch September goal for Wiki Guides was reached; Yama was the first boss covered.
  • (0:29) The Wiki Guides challenge is to kill a boss using the worst gear that the OSRS Wiki's setup template suggests, deliberately in bad faith, then redo it with a better setup that uses the same amount of GP to show where the wiki is misleading.
  • (14:36) Gnomonkey says the series is not meant to attack the OSRS Wiki, which he considers the best video game wiki he knows of; his criticism is only aimed at the gearing template.
  • (16:40) To choose the improved setup, Gnomonkey takes the total budget of the wiki's bad setup (which he says is usually fairly high because of the poor suggestions) and spends it on a much easier setup.
  • (32:43) Gnomonkey says he does not hate the wiki and only thinks it could be better in the setup/gear section; he gets frequent comments claiming he does.
  • (32:55) Gnomonkey says the community Wiki Guides goal for September was met, and the stream is working towards a community day, then longer-term goals of a No Pillar Coliseum run and a possible PvP collab with Oda.

Yama

  • (0:29) Gnomonkey considers melee the hardest way to kill Yama.
  • (1:29) Gnomonkey ranks the Bandos godsword special attack as the second-best spec weapon for Yama, right below Elder maul with Horn, and better than Emberlight.
  • (1:55) The wiki setup's calculated time to kill Yama with the worst melee gear was 600 seconds, not counting his stat increase in the enrage phase; Gnomonkey guessed roughly 13 minutes in practice.
  • (2:27) Gnomonkey's dry-calc accuracy against Yama's last phase with the wiki tentacle whip setup was 37.76%.
  • (2:29) Yama's last-phase void flares can be two-shot, which forced Gnomonkey to allow himself a Blue moon spear and Occult necklace mage switch in the wiki melee run, since he lacked a purging staff spec.
  • (4:00) Gnomonkey notes you have to kill the void flare you have fewer glyphs for first.
  • (7:04) Gnomonkey says Yama's enrage is where the fight becomes an actual challenge, because his defence goes up at the end of the fight and damage becomes very poor.
  • (14:36) Gnomonkey's kill with the wiki-recommended worst melee gear took about 12 minutes.
  • (17:44) The further Yama is from a glyph, the less damage the glyph does to you; the recoil damage can be up to 12 if he is right next to it, so keep him away from glyphs to save health.
  • (18:15) When Yama is blocked by glyphs for too long you can run out of glyphs because they do not respawn fast enough, which is why Gnomonkey kills one glyph-blocked orb rather than blocking both.
  • (18:15) Gnomonkey says keeping Yama far from the glyph is especially useful for Yama contracts.
  • (19:19) Gnomonkey says if Yama does not spawn void flares in the first phase he also will not in the following phase, so you can attack immediately.
  • (27:05) Mark of Darkness lasts about 15 minutes in Gnomonkey's estimation, so it does not need re-applying in a normal kill.
  • (28:28) What Gnomonkey brings for the judge phase DPS barely matters for Yama; it only costs a few seconds. He punched the judge in the mage run and notes a void helmet would have been free to bring.
  • (32:00) The mage setup kill of Yama took slightly longer than the wiki-gear melee kill by Gnomonkey's estimate, though he lost time to missed specs.

Wiki gear setup template

  • (0:00) Gnomonkey says Yama's wiki page recommending anything below an Arclight is crazy because the Arclight is a free quest item, and that at some point you need to do quests or earn more GP before attempting certain encounters.
  • (0:00) Gnomonkey says the wiki setup suggestions on a new boss like Yama are often a hindrance, and hopes the wiki eventually sections setups into Ironman, Budget, Mid and Max.
  • (15:04) Gnomonkey argues that including downgrades below the Arclight on Yama's wiki setup implies they are usable and good when they are not, and extra information in the template can actively hinder players trying to gear up.
  • (15:04) Gnomonkey says even a scythe is something you should never use on Yama, and that the wiki listing downgrades below a scythe is an example of misleading extra information.
  • (33:29) Gnomonkey says the wiki templates mislead players who blindly follow them without understanding what is going on.
  • (33:57) Gnomonkey would like the wiki to work with Gearscape on a tool where players import their bank and get a setup that works for them, saying he could see it being implemented on the wiki.
  • (34:19) Gnomonkey says the wiki's downgrade charts lack context about the value of a given switch; for example, they list downgrading a fire cape to a Myth's cape with no indication that it is a terrible decision.
  • (34:23) Gnomonkey would like the wiki to replace its gear downgrade tables with a few setups per boss, such as max, mid and min budget, or Ironman max and min.

Gearscape

  • (15:36) For the improved Yama setup Gnomonkey used Gearscape, giving it a 47 million GP budget (rounded down), with Yama as the boss, melee/mage/slash options, and enrage as the phase to optimise for.
  • (16:10) Gearscape's suggested melee setup for 47M on Yama included Emberlight because synapses are cheap, and a staff of the dead was also suggested as a good option.
  • (16:10) Gnomonkey says the Gearscape setup for the budget is basically the same gear as the wiki setup except with an Emberlight and some strength upgrades, so no spec weapon is needed.
  • (33:57) Gnomonkey notes Gearscape also has a tool for importing your own bank to see your own setup, and that a similar tool replacing wiki templates would work well.

Tentacle whip

  • (0:29) Gnomonkey says the tentacle whip is so much worse than even an Arclight on Yama, 'night and day' worse.
  • (33:32) After killing Yama with the whip, Gnomonkey said the tentacle whip is pretty bad for Yama and that he never wants to go back with a whip.

Emberlight

  • (16:40) Gnomonkey says any strength you can give Emberlight is extremely important for its max hit; his budget Yama setup with it reached a max hit of 60 on Yama.
  • (18:46) In Gnomonkey's improved Yama melee setup, his max hit was about 60 against Yama because of the added demonbane, compared with about 45 with the wiki setup.
  • (22:51) The Emberlight budget melee setup killed Yama about five minutes faster than the wiki-gear melee kill by Gnomonkey's reading, with roughly a minute lost to bad play.
  • (22:51) Gnomonkey says he considers the Emberlight a possible better setup for Yama than the wiki's gear and describes the improved kill as dramatically faster.

Amulet of the damned

  • (23:18) Gearscape's mage suggestion for Yama included the Amulet of the damned; Gnomonkey says he had not thought of it.
  • (23:48) With full Ahrim's, the Amulet of the damned lets you autocast Ancient spells and gives a 25% chance for combat spells to deal 30% more damage, according to Gnomonkey.
  • (23:48) Gnomonkey says the Amulet of the damned with Ahrim's set effect beats a 5% occult necklace for mage on Yama.
  • (24:15) Gnomonkey says the full Ahrim's set with the amulet costs about 35k GP in this setup.

Magic

  • (1:55) Gnomonkey says the mage setup is easier to use than the melee setup, and slower, but not horrible; he found it easier to use during enrage.
  • (25:39) Gnomonkey's improved mage setup for Yama used the void mage set, a purging staff because it is cheap, a mage book and Seers ring, with the Amulet of the damned.
  • (27:05) In the mage run Gnomonkey reached a max hit of 60 on Yama, which he liked far better than the roughly 30 he got with the wiki mage setup.

Void Knight equipment

  • (28:59) Gnomonkey says a void helmet should have been brought for punching the judge in the mage run because it is free to bring.