Nex is one of Zaros' most powerful followers. She is imprisoned in the Ancient Prison, sealed away beneath the God Wars Dungeon.An immensely powerful entity and one of Zaros's most powerful weapons of war, Nex is a nihil from Freneskae and possesses physical traits of the icyene, demons, aviantese and vampyres.
She is known for her assortment of Zarosian-affiliated drops, such as torva, pernix, virtus armour, zaryte vambraces, the ancient hilt and the nihil horn, which is used to create a zaryte crossbow.
Nex spawns in her chamber shortly after a player or team of players pass through the ancient barrier within the Ancient Prison. She has very high hitpoints and deals relatively high damage even through protection prayers, so fighting her in a team is effectively a requirement.
The fight consists of five distinct phases based on the Ancient Magicks, with Nex using smoke, shadow, blood, and ice magic, before entering an empowered final state. She can also use melee and a number of special attacks. In order for the fight to progress, Nex's hitpoints need to be reduced to a threshold, after which the mage who empowers her magic must be killed, which will then lead to the next phase.
Like other God Wars Dungeon bosses, there is an altar to restore prayer in the back wall of the room with a cooldown of 10 minutes, though uniquely if a Zarosian item is equipped, it will also replenish health, run energy and special attack energy.
Smoke BarrageNex's first phase, the smoke phase, starts when she shouts Fill my soul with smoke! During this phase, Nex will use Smoke Rush against players. This is the only phase where her basic magic attacks do not drain prayer. .
Her special attacks in this phase are:
Choke - Nex will shout Let the virus flow through you! The player furthest away with the least amount of magic defence bonus will be targeted with the attack and become infected, drains two prayer points per every two ticks, and drains stats based on the player's highest attack bonus. The virus will also spread between adjacent players, infecting players without it, and resetting the duration on infected players.
Avoid - Infected players can be easily identified by the *Cough* above their heads. The virus can easily be prevented from spreading by having one player equip negative magic defence armour, such as Justiciar, and standing away from the other players, at the start of the fight to avoid spreading Choke to the rest of the players.
A Nightshade Helm will prevent infection from other players, and reduce the prayer drain.
After Nex reaches 80% health, she will shout Fumus, don't fail me! Now, her mage Fumus will become vulnerable and must be killed to proceed to the next phase. Fumus is weakest to stab attacks, although ranged is still reasonable.
Shadow BarrageNex's second phase, the shadow phase, starts when she shouts Darken my shadow! During this phase, Nex will shoot shadow shots which are considered as Ranged attacks. Having Protect from Missiles active will cut the damage taken in half. Successful hits can drain prayer points slightly.
Her special attacks in this phase are:
Shadow Smash - Nex will shout Fear the shadow! Deadly shadows will appear under every player. Players have three ticks to move out of their way before they erupt and deal significant damage.
Embrace Darkness - Nex will shout Embrace darkness! The chamber will be darkened drastically. The closer players are to Nex, the darker the room will be. If players stand next to Nex, they will take constant damage from the pure shadow. If this damage is triggered, the player must remain outside of Nex's melee distance for 10-15 seconds to avoid taking damage while next to her.
Players targeted by Nex should try to lure her away from Umbra. This allows the entire team to attack Umbra, once she is vulnerable, while maintaining a safe distance away from Nex.
After Nex reaches 60% health, she will shout Umbra, don't fail me! Now, her mage Umbra will become vulnerable and must be killed to proceed to the next phase. Umbra is weakest to ranged attacks. Whoever Umbra is focused on should use Protect from Magic and stay away from the rest of the team, as Umbra uses accurate Shadow Barrage attacks.
Blood Barrage iconNex's third phase, the blood phase, starts when she shouts Flood my lungs with blood! During this phase, Nex will use Blood Barrage against players, which heals her a percentage of the damage dealt.
Unlike her other long-ranged attacks, the barrage is only casted at one player, although it has a 3x3 AoE centred on the current target. However, it is very accurate. Ideally, each player should stand away from each other while in melee distance of Nex to avoid getting splash damage.
Her special attacks in this phase are:
Blood Siphon - Nex will shout A siphon will solve this! Nex will summon up to eight blood reavers (depending on team size) and kneel down for about 8 ticks. During this, all damage she receives will instead heal her. When a new siphon is used, the previous siphon's reavers, if any, will die and heal Nex for their remaining health.
Blood Sacrifice - Nex will shout I demand a blood sacrifice! A single player will be marked for sacrifice, and will glow red. The marked player has about four seconds to move at least seven tiles away from Nex, otherwise they will be dealt damage through Protect from Magic which heals her. Closest players will also take damage through Protect from Magic.
After Nex reaches 40% health, she will shout Cruor, don't fail me! Now, her mage Cruor will become vulnerable and must be killed to proceed to the next phase. Cruor is weakest to slash attacks, although ranged is still reasonable.
Any blood reavers that persist will be automatically killed once Nex starts the next phase.
Ice Barrage iconNex's fourth phase, the ice phase, starts when she shouts Infuse me with the power of ice! During this phase, Nex will use Ice Barrage against players, which will freeze them. Teams should generally stand in melee distance to reduce the frequency of the magic attack. Players should be wary of the 'Containment' special attack when standing in melee distance, especially after Glacies has been activated to avoid being frozen in place.
Her special attacks in this phase are:
Containment - Nex will shout Contain this! She will smash the floor and icicles will appear in a 5x5 area around her. Getting caught in this can damage players up to ??? hitpoints and will deactivate protection prayers. Players near Glacies should be wary of this special as it is possible for Glacies to freeze them in place and at the same time Nex glide to the corner and use this special right after. If one is frozen and cannot escape the special attack, praying Protect from Missiles will reduce the damage by half its original amount.
Ice Prison - Nex will shout Die now, in a prison of ice! She will freeze a targeted player using an ice stalagmite attack, spawning stalagmites within a 3x3 AoE centred on the target player and deactivating their protection prayers. Players next to the formation will be shoved aside for no damage, although players on the same tile as the target will also be imprisoned. Four seconds after forming, the prison will shatter, dealing up to 750 damage to everyone inside it if one of the stalagmites were not destroyed.
To destroy these, use either stab or crush-based attacks; while unarmed players can destroy them via kicking and punching, stab and crush weapons (especially those with higher accuracy like the Elder chaotic maul or Fang of Chaos) are more effective and have less chance of failing. Like with the containment special attack, If one is frozen and cannot escape the special attack, praying Protect from Missiles will reduce the damage by half its original amount.
After Nex reaches 20% health, she will shout Glacies, don't fail me! Now, her mage Glacies will become vulnerable and must be killed to proceed to the last phase. Glacies is weakest to crush attacks, although ranged is still reasonable. Glacies can still freeze players through Protect from Magic, so it is important that they stay away from Nex as much as possible to avoid getting clipped by her containment attack.
Ruinous PowersNex's fifth and final phase, the Zaros phase, starts when she shouts NOW, THE POWER OF ZAROS! During this phase, Nex will call on Zaros' power, healing her, and will only use her melee and non-attuned magic attacks. Players with the lowest crush defence bonus are targeted more frequently by her melee attack.
In addition, she will use several Ruinous Powers, which are Zarosian prayers, in this final phase of the fight:
Turmoil - Lasting until the end of the fight, Nex's magic and melee attacks are now far more accurate and powerful, hitting massive damage even through prayer. In addition, it can also drain the player's melee, range and magic stats, transferring the drained stats to her own.
Deflect Melee - An overhead prayer in which Nex will activate a variant of Protect from Melee that deflects the damage the player would have dealt to her with melee attacks.
Wrath - An overhead prayer in which Nex shouts Taste my wrath! This is a stronger version of Retribution, and deals up to 50 damage to players within a 5x5 radius of Nex upon her death. Players have three seconds after her death to run away from her Wrath attack.
