Nex

Nex (Meaning "murder" or "death" in Latin) is the Zaros boss of the God Wars Dungeon and, with a combat level of 1001, is currently the strongest monster in RuneScape fightable by conventional methods. She resides in the "Ancient Prison" - the Zaros stronghold of the God Wars Dungeon - which was released on 10 January 2011.

Nex is an immensely powerful entity and one of Zaros's most powerful weapons of war. What race she really is has been long lost to time; however, she possesses physical traits of the Icyene, Demons, Aviantese and Vampyres. Her history and origin are equally mysterious, but whatever they are she has aligned herself with Zaros and was the leader of his last army. She has over fifteen unique combat moves, and is cited as being RuneScape's most powerful and intelligent boss to date.

History
Following Zaros's downfall in the Second Age, the Mahjarrat Azzanadra was defeated by the armies of Zamorak and Saradomin. He was imprisoned inside of the great pyramid of Jaldraocht. Before his imprisonment, Azzanadra was working at Senntisten to reestablish contact with Zaros. The other Zarosians were working to secure the area around the Mahjarrat ritual site to gain the upper hand. The leader of these Zarosians was Nex. Gaining even more power whenever she battled, Nex was considered unstoppable. The forces of Saradomin were eventually able to imprison the powerful Zarosian army around the beginning of the Third Age. After great effort and sacrifice, they managed to lead Nex and the Zarosian army into a large ice cavern and then enchant them into a frozen sleep. Afterwards, the Saradomin forces built a temple around it.

Many years after that event, a flock of aviantese were ambushed by an army of demons while transporting a newly created Godsword through the mountains. Because of their small numbers, they were forced to retreat into the temple. Eventually, reinforcements arrived from each side and the battle grew. Thus the battle of the godsword began.

Much later, Saradomin priests, one of them being Ashuelot Reis, were approached by a mysterious figure who spoke of Guthix. He taught them that Guthix was the only god who could end the chaos and stop the war. The priests abandoned the cause of Saradomin and became followers of Guthix. Their new leader taught them the ways of druids, including an ancient ritual that had the power to awaken Guthix itself. The priests and their leader performed the ritual, but the result was unexpected and devastating. The priests accidentally reopened the prison, releasing Nex. Their leader, who had taught them the awakening ritual and the ways of Guthix revealed himself to be Sliske, a Zarosian Mahjarrat.

Due to the length of the enchanted sleep, Nex was not at full strength. Despite this, she quickly laid waste to vast numbers from all sides. She was rapidly gaining power and soon she would be at full strength once again. For the first and last time in history, all sides stood together and, after an intense battle, managed to seal Nex behind the massive frozen door.

When the God Wars Dungeon was reopened to the world in modern times, the number of adventurers that entered it seeking the godsword had an effect on the prison of ice. The tremors of battle, coupled with some seismic activity, caused the Ancient prison to once again be opened, and adventurers can now descend to the depths of the prison to do battle with Nex and her army.

Battle
NOTE: All damage done to Nex is capped at 500. Nex moves very quickly; she can jump across the room in 2 ticks. This, coupled with the fact that her conventional attacks can hit over 200 through prayer, makes even a second of inattentiveness very dangerous. As she loses life, her four mages will become increasingly vulnerable and it is important to kill the mages when you can, to disable her attacks.

Nex has five phases: Smoke, Shadow, Blood, Ice and a final phase. All of her spells are based on the Ancient Magicks spellbook.

Smoke phase: During this phase, she will use Smoke spells which deal up to 250 damage through prayer, poison for 88 damage and disable prayers. She can also cast a virulent cloud on players which lowers combat stats drastically, is transmitted from player to player and lowers prayer points at a rate of two a second. After she reaches 4/5th of her life points and her mage Fumus is killed, she will go to the next phase.

Shadow phase: During this phase, she will use Shadow spells. Nex has also two special abilities in this phase: firstly, she can lay "shadow traps" on the floor (which deal up to 650 damage if not moved away from in time) and darken the room drastically. If you stand close to Nex when she says "Embrace darkness!" you will get a warning message and will be dealt constant damage, so melee attacks are advised against in this stage. After she reaches 3/5th of her life points and her mage Umbra is killed, she will go to the next phase.

Blood phase: During this phase, she will use Blood spells which will heal her. She will also have two special abilities; for the first one, she will crouch, cover herself with a Siphon and summon various Blood reavers. Any damage that was supposed to be dealt to her will heal her instead. She will also demand a "Blood sacrifice" which causes a player to glow red. The player will be damaged and everyone's prayer points will be halved, if the targeted player remains in the same spot. After she reaches 2/5th of her life points and her mage Cruor is killed, she will go to the next phase.

Ice phase: During this phase, she will use Ice spells which will target all players, freeze them and lower prayer points; however the damaging effect of the spell can be somewhat lowered if Protect from/Deflect magic is used. Her special attack will lock a player in an ice prison which will deal heavy damage unless the stalagmites are broken by a teammate's melee weapon and the trapped player runs to safety in time. Her containment spell causes a larger ring of ice stalagmites to surround her, causing damage and disabling the prayers of those caught inside. After she reaches 1/5th of her life points and her mage Glacies is killed, she will go to the last phase.

Final phase: During this phase, she will activate Turmoil (giving her greater attack, defence, and strength as well as lowering those stats from ALL players) and cycle between no overhead, Deflect melee and Soul split prayers. Her other attacks will become far more accurate and powerful, hitting massive damage even through prayer, and while the frequency of her "No escape!" attack will decrease, it will be far more dangerous when performed, consistently hitting over 500+. When Nex is killed, she will activate Wrath, which has a bigger radius than the curse available to players but a longer activation time. Her wrath can hit up to 600, so it is highly recommended to keep near full health when Nex's health is critical.

The Four Mages
There are four level 285 mages in each corner of Nex's chamber which represent the smoke, shadow, blood, and ice spells of the Ancient Magicks spellbook. Nex draws on their power to perform her special attacks, but can't use the effect of any mage that you kill. When Nex uses the attribute of a mage, she can use barrage spells of that mage's element and unleash the special attacks listed below:

Fumus (Smoke): Nex will create smoke clouds which cause poisonous magic damage and jump to adjecent players.

Umbra (Shadow): Nex will slowly darken the prison, heavily damaging all stationary players when maximum darkness is attained. She can also create shadow traps under nearby players which explode and deal massive damage after a few seconds.

Cruor (Blood): Nex will target one player, who will glow red. If they don't move away from her, Nex will unleash a multitarget blood spell that will damage, halve prayer points, and also heal her.

Glacies (Ice): Nex will create an ice prison which traps one player for a few seconds before disintegrating; when this happens, the player will be hit for colossal damage. Nex can also create an ice barrier around her which will deal constant damage to all players standing on it.

Every time she takes enough damage, Nex will say, "(Mage name), don't fail me!" This can be useful for finding out when the mages can be killed and estimating how many lifepoints Nex has left.

Attacks
In addition to conventional prayer-negating magic, melee, and ranged attacks which hit up to 360 each, Nex has the following special attacks:


 * "There is... NO ESCAPE!" - Nex will teleport and fly through one of the paths of the central symbol, disabling protection prayers and damaging for up to 400 (550 if Nex is in her final phase). if a player is still on the targeted path when the attack commences, they will not be able to escape.
 * "Let the virus flow through you" - Nex will create a cloud which reduces stats, spreads to adjacent players and deals damage. Can be nullified by standing away from other players.
 * Smoke barrage - Poisonous.
 * Dragging a player - Draws a player to the central crossway, disabling prayer and stunning for a short period of time.
 * "Embrace darkness!" - Turns the boss area darker. This attack is usually followed by shadow attacks which hit everyone within 10 squares of Nex; damage is calculated based upon how close the player is to Nex when the attack is launched.
 * "Fear the shadow!" - If anyone stands on the same place for over 3 ticks, they are hit by a very powerful shadow barrage and lose 400-800 LP.
 * "I demand a blood sacrifice!" - Nex will target a player, who will glow red. If (s)he does not move away from Nex in time, She will cast blood barrage on everyone, halving prayer points and healing.
 * "A siphon will solve this!" - Nex will summon blood reavers and kneel down for about 8 ticks. During this, all damage she receives instead heals her, shown by purple hit splats, any blood reavers from the previous siphon will instantly die, all remaining health healing Nex.
 * "Die now, in a prison of ice!" - Nex freezes a targeted player using an Ice Barrage attack, rendering them immobile. When the ice recedes, the trapped player will be hit for heavy damage (usually 600 life points or more). Therefore, it is recommended to keep one's lifepoints near their max if trapped. However, it is possible for other players to destroy the icicles that make up the prison, allowing the trapped player to avoid damage.
 * "Contain this!" - Nex creates a barrier of ice around her. Getting caught in this can result in up to 350 lifepoints of damage.
 * "NOW, THE POWER OF ZAROS!" - Nex will activate Turmoil, Leech Defence and switch between Soul Split and Deflect Melee and heal herself for 6,000 Lifepoints.
 * "Taste my wrath!" - Upon death, Nex will activate Wrath (with a larger radius than that of players' curse), dealing damage to everyone around her.

Getting there and preparations
To reach her, players must first open the frozen door. It can be unlocked by assembling a frozen key. To get a key, one must access all of the other gods' strongholds (Armadyl, Bandos, Saradomin and Zamorak) and defeat followers until they receive a key part. Accessing the boss rooms is not necessary. To get in the other strongholds, the player will need 70 Ranged, Strength, Agility and Constitution (note that some skills may be boosted). When assembled, the parts make a frozen key with five charges to open the frozen door. The key can be repaired for a cost of 50,000 coins per charge. With an update on 21 February 2011 players no longer need to reach a kill count of 40 Zaros followers. Instead players wearing a full set of ancient ceremonial robes will be able to go straight to the bank area just before Nex. Players should be careful when equipping the ancient ceremonial robes in the Nex room of Zaros followers as the robes have no stats and will not prevent the followers from attacking the player.

Unlike in the other strongholds of the God Wars Dungeon, there is a bank in the Ancient Prison, accessed via the nature spirit Ashuelot Reis. It is located between the main room and the boss room of the stronghold. It functions like a safe area where players can't be attacked and can refill on supplies before fighting Nex. However, there is no altar within the boss chamber, and the only way out of the chamber is to teleport or be slain.

Equipment
This is only an unsequenced list of suggested equipment, and will be divided into melee/ranged equipment and listed in order of preference soon.

Pernix/Armadyl Teams

 * Head: Pernix Cowl/Armadyl Helmet
 * Amulet: Amulet of Fury / Amulet of Glory
 * Ring: Ring of wealth (if FFA) / Imbued rings / Archers' ring / Seers' ring
 * Cape: Ava's alerter / Ava's accumulator / Completionist Cape
 * Body: Pernix body / Armadyl Chestplate / Karil's leathertop
 * Legs: Pernix chaps / Armadyl chainskirt / Karil's leatherskirt
 * Boots: Ranger Boots / Infinity Boots / Dragon boots
 * Ranged Weapon: Chaotic crossbow / Rune crossbow
 * Ammo slot: Ruby bolts (e) and Diamond bolts (e)
 * Shield: Divine Spirit Shield / Elysian Spirit Shield / Spectral Spirit Shield / Eagle-eye kiteshield / Dragonfire Shield

Void Teams

 * Head: Void ranger helm and Void melee helm (When meleeing)
 * Amulet: Amulet of Fury / Amulet of Glory
 * Ring: Ring of wealth (if FFA) / Imbued rings / Archers' ring / Seers' ring
 * Cape: Ava's alerter / Ava's accumulator / Completionist Cape
 * Body: Pernix body / Armadyl Chestplate and Elite void knight top / Void knight top
 * Legs: Elite void knight robe / Void knight robe
 * Boots: Ranger boots / Infinity Boots / Dragon boots
 * Ranged Weapon: Chaotic crossbow / Rune crossbow
 * Ammo slot: Ruby bolts (e) and Diamond bolts (e)
 * Shield: Void knight deflector

Stat draining attacks (such as the Statius's warhammer and the Bandos godsword) have proven to be ineffective. The void melee helm and void knight top should be equipped when using Dragon claws. When using the Staff of light, it's recommended to equip a tank shield.
 * Summoning: Pack Yak / War tortoise + Unicorn stallion
 * Special attack weapon: Dragon claws / Staff of light


 * Anti-poison potion, such as the Sanfew serum or the Antipoison++
 * 2 Overload
 * 2 Recover special potions
 * Teleport to house tablet (or any teleport item)
 * Saradomin brews
 * Super restore potions
 * Super prayer potions

Killing Tactics
Smoke phase: Before she spawns, stand beneath her spawn area and have one player stand several spaces away from her and tank the damage from the Smoke Barrage attacks, drinking antipoison as necessary. If you do this, Nex will place the virus upon the person farthest away from her. Use all of your weapon's special attacks on Nex.

After the barrier is gone, kill Fumus in the northwest corner. If you do this fast enough Nex will not use Smoke Barrage again.

Shadow phase: During this phase, no protection prayers will decrease the damage dealt by Nex. The damage from her shadow attacks (excluding the shadow traps from "Fear the Shadow!") is based upon how close the player is to Nex when the attack is launched, so it is recommended to space out from Nex to prevent constant heavy damage. The shadow traps from other players will harm you if you step on them when they're launched.

After the barrier has disappeared, kill Umbra in the northeast corner.

Blood phase: Turn Protect from/Deflect magic back on. Melee is the most effective combat style to utilize during this phase as it allows one to react faster when Nex performs a siphon. It is recommended for players to now remain on the southeast side of the room to make killing more efficient. Do not attack her when she siphons damage - pay attention to what she says and on her hitsplats. She usually siphons after every 5th attack. Nex spawns 1 or 2 sets of Blood reavers when siphoning, IT IS ESSENTIAL TO KILL THEM AS FAST AS POSSIBLE as they will die of their own accord and all their remaining health restored to Nex during her next siphon. When she says "I demand a blood sacrifice!", she will randomly pick out a player and whomever she picks will turn red. If she selects you, don't stand still or she will use Blood Barrage on all of the players, healing herself and halving everybody's prayer points. It is recommended for players to keep their prayer points at a somewhat low amount during this phase so as to not waste potions unnecessarily.

After the barrier is down, kill Cruor in the southeast corner.

Ice phase: Stay on the south end of the room and attack her. Nex's Ice Barrage attacks drain the prayer points of everyone hit by 1/50 of the damage dealt (similar to Soul split). While attacking her, move southwest to get to Glacies quickly (if you are far away, you will likely get frozen). When she says "Contain this!", she will use an ice attack which imprisons all players standing in a four-by-four ice wall around her. This attack deals up to 350 damage and deactivates your prayer. This attack can be evaded by moving away from Nex. When she says, "Die now, in a prison of ice!" she will imprison a single player in a three-by-three ice wall, which can be attacked by a teammate. Once a stalagmite is destroyed, the player should move out of the box immediately, or be hit for heavy damage, reaching an upwards of 850 lifepoints.

Once the barrier is gone, kill Glacies in the southwest corner.

Final phase: Stand in Glacies' spawn spot and attack Nex. Because Nex sometimes uses Deflect Melee during this phase, Ranged attacks are recommended for this final phase. She will switch between Deflect Melee and Soul Split throughout this stage. It is recommended to turn off protection/deflect prayers at this point as they will not reduce the damage inflicted by Nex during this phase. If you are tanking you could use a Staff of light's special attack, which will reduce all damage taken by 50% for 1 minute.

It is important to note that during the final phase, Nex will prioritise players with low magic defence. Upon death Nex will use Wrath, so players are advised to quickly move away from Nex to avoid damage.

Drops
It is important to note that Nex's drop mechanics differ from those of other bosses while LootShare is in effect. Rather than merely dropping all of a high-quantity item to a single player, the drops are instead divided up into one, two, three, four, or five parts, depending on what the drop can be divided into perfectly. For example, rather than one player receiving 375 onyx bolts(e), the drop will be split up into five sections of 75 bolts and then distributed out through LootShare. However, it is still possible for one player to receive all five 75 bolt drops, depending on his or her potential to receive loot.

100% drop

 * }

Armour

 * }

Note that the 1-2 Rune kiteshield drops are uncommon, while the 5 rune kiteshield drop is very rare.

Weapons

 * }

Herbs and seeds

 * }

Gems

 * }

Other

 * }

Trivia

 * "Nex" is Latin for "murder" or "death".
 * When Nex speaks, there is an echo effect, the second voice could be the part of Zaros imbued within her. Nex is the first character to have this effect.
 * All of Nex's guards have Latin names related to the kind of Ancient Magicks spell they use. Umbra means 'shade' or 'shadow', Glacies means 'ice', 'frost', or 'cold', Cruor means 'bloodshed', 'gore', or 'blood', and Fumus means 'smoke' or 'fumes'.
 * The plaque memorial in the safe and banking area reads: Vita brevis breviter in brevi finietur, Mors venit velociter quae neminem veretur, Omnia mors perimit et nulli miseretur, which translated from the Latin means: "Life is short, and shortly it will end, Death comes quickly which respects no one, Death destroys everything and takes pity on no one." This phrase is strongly connected to the phrase "memento mori", which means "Remember your mortality".
 * After killing Nex, the Adventurer's Log will say, "I killed a devastating creature of Zaros, Nex." or, after killing several, it will say "I killed X devastating creatures of Zaros, all named Nex."
 * On May 19, 2011 there was a Quick Poll on which Runescape character you would like to follow on Twitter. Nex was the option with the second highest number of votes.
 * Nex is the only NPC in the Ancient Prison who has a 100% drop of bones.