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This article is a strategy guide for Nex: Angel of Death. Information on mechanics, setups, and tactics is on this page. For the normal mode strategy guide, see here.
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Arena centre
Instakill safety zone in pink around X
Surge points in blue trim
Roles
- Base tank (BT) - Player should be tanking Nex's variety of melee and magic attacks, while manoeuvring Nex away to prevent punishment to other players and then close to the final pillar to allow for quick kills. The tank should be prepared to endure significant damage with Nex's enrage stacks while also suffering defensive ability resets.
- Base tank (BU) - Backup tank in case the main tank is unprepared for a defensive reset, gets iced, dies, or just needs damage negation for any reason.
- Debuffers - Every minute, one magic DPS should cast the debuff spells Vulnerability and Enfeeble to increase damage dealt to Nex by 10% and decrease damage received from Nex by 10%, respectively, in addition to Claws of Guthix special attack. Debuff spells can also miss and needs to be recast again if they do.
- The melee debuffer should use Statius's warhammer's special attack to increase hit chance each minute or Quake to temporarily reduce target stats.
- DPS - Once all tank roles are filled, any remaining slots should be DPS in Power armour. The DPS should assign once to each quadrant for Reavers and Praesul, surging into that quadrant if Nex is not facing in that direction.
- The last two DPS in a team of 7 (1 main tank, 4 quadrant DPS) assist with clearing amalgamations and pools while quadrant DPSers are bound to minions.
Gear
Ideally, ALL DPS players are in augmented power armour or void.
Like Vorago, melee can be used but is not recommended for those inexperienced, as it is much easier to manoeuvre around Nex's attacks with magic or ranged. However, the utility with melee debuffs such as Quake can prove very useful.
Dominion Tower gloves like spellcaster gloves and swift gloves are very effective here as Nex does not seem to replenish stats. Other items such as the Statius warhammer or Guthix staff will further increment your whole team's hit chance.
Augmenting your items will easily boost your DPS depending on what perks are used and should be utilized for this encounter.
It's recommended to bring Luck of the dwarves, but only wield it during the last 50,000 HP after all pillars are destroyed.
Fight
Nex uses melee and magic autoattacks against the team and will chase after her target. They are similar to the attacks in the normal encounter during her Zaros phase. Her melee attack has a large area of effect, drains prayer points, and accumulates enrage stacks. An instance is required to fight Nex; this instance is free of charge, but will only last for 1 kill.
Upon entering the instance, you appear on a balcony overlooking the arena below. A teleport pillar is placed in front of you and used to teleport to the arena. Players who die during the kill can come back to this balcony and watch the rest of the fight, but will not be able to rejoin. In the centre of the arena lies mysterious energy, which starts the boss fight. There is no confirmation dialogue, and Nex will spawn immediately.
At the start of the kill, Nex says Witness the true power of the elements. The pure power I have wrought into my will. Like all the messages during the fight, it is also repeated in the chat interface. Once the energy is released, it is a fight to the death; players will only leave if they are victorious or killed in battle, and no more players can join once it is released.
Nex can get enrage in a manner similar to Beastmaster Durzag. In addition, a passive enrage stack is also present throughout the fight. As this stack increases, Nex will deal more damage to everyone fighting her.
If you die while fighting Nex, your gravestone will appear outside in the lobby area in the Ancient Prison.
Note: Your gravestone is in the lobby area behind aggressive God Wars Dungeon and Zaros encampment monsters, so there is a risk of dying on the way to your grave and permanently losing your items. Depending on your items, it may be better to go get them yourself or pay Death to reclaim them immediately. If you go reclaim your items from your gravestone, bring the Shard of Zaros to make the followers on the way tolerant!
First Phase
Nex uses the following abilities:
- Power from the elements - Nex teleports to centre and faces a quadrant. After a few seconds, ice stalagmites appear, dividing the quadrants (which deal heavy damage if stood on). 3 blood reavers with 50,000 life points spawn at the corners Nex is not facing. These reavers do not attack the players meaning you can soul split them; instead, they simply approach Nex. If the reavers touch Nex, they will instantly die, heal Nex by half of their remaining life points, and increase her enrage. After dividing the quadrants, she will yell "WITNESS THEIR RAW POWER.", hitting everyone who was in that quadrant for 3,500 damage for three hits. This damage can be reduced/blocked by defensive abilities; use Reflect, Debilitate, and Resonance to mitigate damage. If nobody is in the corner Nex was facing, 20 enrage is added.
- Shadow orbs - After calling the command: Let the shadow engulf you. Give in to it., Nex will send three red shadow orbs at every player's location. Standing still will deal heavy damage. Moving one space away from your location for each spawned orb is enough to avoid taking damage. These orbs will remain on the floor as highly-damaging objects, even after being initially evaded. It is essential not to step back on them until they disappear later in the fight. However, they will disappear much faster if they were placed in one of the four cardinal directions, as a straight line (be mindful not to place them too close to where the Base Tank will be, however).
- True Blood Sacrifice - If reavers reach Nex, Nex will say "Taste the true power of a blood sacrifice." It will deal damage equal to 1/10th of the total health the reavers had when they touched Nex (up to 15,000) to all players and heal her by half of their remaining health (up to 75,000) and reset every player's defensive abilities.
After some time has passed, she will use her "power from the elements" attack, facing one corner at the same time. Players should try to avoid standing in where the icicles will pop up or they will take heavy damage.
Blood reavers will appear in the quadrants that Nex is not facing. Immediately kill them (Ice Barrage is highly recommended); in a small team use entangle and voke the reavers to stall them from reaching Nex then get on Nex.
Nex continues to attack normally for a bit. After that, she will say "Let the shadows engulf you. Give in to it." Standing on an active shadow orb will deal heavy damage. This rotation will continue until Escalation phase, although she will jump to the centre and phase to spawn minions at 2,100,000 life points.
| Tank |
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| During reaver spawn, tanker should try to avoid being in the quadrant that Nex is looking at, as the extra damage from the pillar can result in them being easily combo'ed by Nex's powerful attacks. After ice boundaries are removed, walk Nex away from any surviving reavers to prevent a blood sacrifice. Afterwards return Nex to the middle of the arena. |
| DPS |
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| During this phase, have an equal amount of people in each corner to deal with the blood reavers that appear. Players should return to their assigned quadrant to kill reavers unless Nex is facing in that direction. If Nex is facing in that direction, only one player should remain in the area, using Resonance, Reflect, and Debilitate to reduce damage then promptly running out from the quadrant.
As the assigned role for the quadrant:
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Praesul Minions
| Minion | Umbra | Glacies | Cruor | Fumus |
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| Pillar location | SE | NE | NW | SW |
As soon as Nex reaches 70% (2,100,000) of her life points, she will summon four amalgamations of the Ancient Magicks; Shadow, Ice, Blood and Smoke. They explode in a small area when they appear, dealing 4000 damage, which can be reduced. Each one has 40,000 life points and an orange/blue bar over them. While Nex summons the amalgamations, she will take reduced damage.
If the amalgamations are not destroyed in time, the praesuls (Umbra, Glacies, Cruor, Fumus) will appear without saying anything. They have 300,000 life points and can use abilities against the players, which can deal a lot of damage. Both Siphon and Natural Instinct affect the four mages as if the battle was PvP.
If the amalgamations are destroyed before the bar fills, the praesuls will appear with 50% (150,000) of their health, saying a random quote:
- "So be it. I'll do what I can."
- "Too soon, but more than enough to crush you."
- "I do not feel complete master, my contact with the elements have been cut short."
| All players |
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| Kill remaining reavers while building adrenaline for amalgamations.
Tank the praesul, focusing on phasing Nex to Escalation first. This will prevent Nex from summoning reavers or shadow orbs which can severely impede the DPS of the team. The order of how you kill the praesul will determine how the crystals in the corners will unlock. The praesul should be killed counterclockwise starting with Umbra (due to the shadow crystal being very tedious to deal with), since the ice crystal's effect can be negated with Freedom; the shadow traps from the shadow crystals can be extremely deadly, especially if you are frozen by icicles in the previous phase or from the ice crystal itself. Reavers take priority over praesul, although in a good team Nex should not spawn reavers again before being phased. There are two main strategies to killing minions:
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Escalation
Freeze effect
After reaching 1,800,000 life points, Nex will discard her abilities from the previous phase in exchange for the ones below:
- Smoke Wall - Similar to Vindicta's dragonfire wall attack, Nex will target two players with a visible popup warning of power being called from a direction and summon a line of smoke in a "+" formation. Players hit by the smoke wall will be dealt with rapid hits of 1500-2000 magic damage which cannot be blocked. Upon receiving this message, run to an adjacent wall until the smoke wall appears so that it's not placed in the middle of the arena. If the players stand directly next to a wall, the smoke will not appear at all.
- Shadow Pool - Nex sends a small black cloud in a random direction. Upon landing, a shadow ring spawns. When someone moves into the ring, an unstable crystal will appear, which must be clicked on. If no one absorbs the crystal, everyone will be hit for damage equal to 37,500 split over the number of players on the team, to a minimum of 3,750 each. Grabbing the crystal will deal 14,000 damage, which is split evenly to everyone that was in the shadow ring when it was grabbed. This disables all defensive abilities. Nex announces this attack with the line Even I can not control the element of smoke... Let us see if you can. This is followed by the following message in the chat interface: Nex casts a thick black smoke towards the centre of the arena.
- "You... stay... DOWN!" - Nex picks and stuns a random amount of targets, and an icicle will collapse on them a few seconds later. Other players near the targeted player(s) will take 5,000 damage from the icicle that appears if they are within a 5x5 radius from the targeted player(s). This icicle has 100,000 life points, or 50,000 life points if two icicles spawn. If this icicle is not destroyed in time, when the victims are free and when the icicle has +30,000, 20,000-29,999, or 1-19,999 life points, they will take a 2,000 bleed for 6, 5, or 4 hits respectively, which increases to 3,000 if they are close to another player. Freedom and Anticipation will prevent the initial stun before the icicle spawns and but have no effect on the bleed.
| Tanker |
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| It is essential to drag Nex away from the southeastern quadrant if players are there killing minions, as being in range will result in DPS receiving auto attacks from Nex in addition to the attacks from minions, plus moving Nex away will direct leeches that they need to go after the new targets. Make sure to call all pools that spawn far from DPS and return Nex to the centre of the arena after minions are killed. Call backup to voke if targeted by an icicle. |
| DPS |
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| Players should drag minions/surge to the southeastern corner if that was the agreed strategy. Otherwise, keep killing minions. At this point, use AOE abilities and items like halberds and Mechanised chinchompas to increase damage rate and clear minions in the assigned order, before returning to Nex.
Smoke Wall - assigned players should run away from the team to position the smoke outside the fight area. For example, if receiving "power from the East," run north so the horizontal smoke line is north of players. If standing by the appropriate wall, the smoke will not spawn. Shadow Pool - Players not targetted by a minion should run into the smoke after it spawns. In a small team, the backup tank intercept-cades to negate damage.
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Last Stand
Elements dome safe area in blue
Elemental pulse
Once Nex reaches 600,000 life points, she will be invulnerable and the crystals in the corners will need to be destroyed. She will also replace her special attacks:
- Elements instant kill - Nex will target a random player with the message "Nex has marked you to take the full force of the elements," attempting to kill them by giving them a large amount of smoke, shadow, blood and ice energy. The player needs to stand in the blue dome barrier in the centre of the room, which appears at the start of this phase. When she starts this ability, the targeted player(s) will be notified of this and a blue bar will appear over them, filling over time. If they are not inside the blue dome when it is filled, they will be instantly killed. Immortality does not work against this attack.
- Pulse follow-up - After the instant-kill attack, the player will be informed that the elements are boiling inside them. Like the instant-kill attack, another blue bar appears over them, filling over time. Once this bar fills, a large elemental pulse will appear at that location, dealing rapid damage of 3,000 each hit, if its radius was entered. The pulses last indefinitely until Nex is killed. Affected players should run from the centre of the arena to a wall or to a depleted pillar in the corner to release the pulse, then return to killing pillars or Nex.
- Virus (Smoke crystal) - The smoke crystal can occasionally allow Nex to send viruses out at players, which drains their stats and overload timers. At the end of this virus, the player's prayer points will be massively drained. This is weakened if the crystal is destroyed while the player is infected. Nex's magic attacks will also gain the ability to poison players, dealing around 1600 damage at maximum. Antipoison potions or the Venomblood perk are recommended, as the total damage exceeds 12,000 health.
- Shadow traps (Shadow crystal) - The shadow crystal allows Nex to mass place shadow traps underneath players, which will follow them around. While the damage is not instant, you will take rapid hits of unblockable heavy damage (up to 4800) if you are under a shadow trap. Multiple shadow traps are placed for set players, so one should continually move until they ensure there are no more shadow traps under them. Players will not be notified of traps appearing so they should look down to see if any traps are under them.
- Freeze (Ice crystal) - The ice crystal allows Nex to have the ability freeze players. Players will be notified that the ice crystal is starting to freeze them. As the freeze continues, an icy overlay similar to the Wyvern's cave will gradually appear; the more opaque it is, the closer it is to stunning the player. Using Freedom will remove the icy overlay and the freeze attempt. If the freeze is not prevented, the player will have defensives reset and be bled for 2,000 damage 5 times, which increases to 3000 if they are near another player. If the crystal is destroyed while the ice effect is taking place, the screen will gradually return to normal.
- Blood crystal - Until destroyed, allows Nex to heal over time from attacks.
The order of the crystals to attack is based on the deaths of the praesuls; for example, if the team killed Umbra, Glacies, Cruor, and Fumus in that order, they must destroy the crystals starting from Shadow, Ice, Blood, and finally Smoke in that order.
For base tanks, she stops using her melee attacks and only uses magic for the remainder of the fight, which means that she will no longer reset defensive abilities. She will gain enrage stacks if near a pillar that is activated (attackable).
Once the last crystal is destroyed, Nex can be attacked again. She will lose access to all of her abilities except the instant-kill attack. Try to destroy the crystals quickly, as the more pulses there are on the map, the more dangerous it becomes. Once Nex dies, any potential rewards are dropped in the middle of the room, and a teleport shard spawns next to the rewards to take you out of the chamber. The shard will drop you back into the lobby room in the Ancient Prison, where you may rebank for another kill.
| Tanker |
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| Nex should QUICKLY be walked to the northwest or southwest away from DPSers, and kept in a quadrant players are not in. When the final pillar is almost dead, it's time to bring Nex back between players and the arena centre for the remainder of the fight. If Nex is in attack range from players standing in the room centre then players will be able to continue killing Nex while managing the instakill attack. |
| DPS |
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| Clear pillars as quickly as possible to limit pulses, while building to ultimate after the final pillar.
Pulses do not damage if far away from Nex, which means in a professional teams can a) effectively stack pulses on the same square without use of defensives, and b) pulses can be placed by the activated pillar to reduce time spent not contributing. |