Nomad



Nomad is a non-player character who wanders around the Soul Wars minigame area. When players first arrive on the island, they will encounter Nomad and his imp familiar, Zimberfizz. Nomad will offer players a tour of the battlefield along with a short explanation, or a book that explains fighting in the Soul Wars minigame.

Nomad built the Soul Obelisk. There is speculation that he might be a Mahjarrat in disguise due to his very high combat level of 699 in Nomad's Requiem, and being the strongest NPC and the highest leveled quest monster in the game. He also appears to suffer from Dissociative Identity Disorder, one minute being collected and calm, the next being maniacal and chaos craving.

Rewards
Nomad may reward players by exchanging Zeal points for:


 * Experience in Slayer or any Combat skill except Summoning. This amount varies upon your level in that skill. Saving 100 zeal points and spending them all at once will give a bonus to the experience received.
 * Charms
 * Other - Bringing Slayer monsters back from the dead as pets.

Nomad (monster)
In the quest Nomad's Requiem, Nomad is immensely powerful with a combat of level 699 and 1000 Hitpoints. He must be killed as he is the boss battle of the quest. Vengeance cannot be used to recoil huge amounts of damage back to Nomad. Also, prayers can NOT be used to protect against Nomad's attacks (although Protect from Melee or Deflect Melee will partially block out the rapid melee attacks that Nomad uses when he falls to 1/4 of his health). Additionally, the dragonfire attack from the Dragonfire shield does not damage him. Nomad has an arsenal of many attack styles. The order of Nomad's special attacks is as follows:


 * Mines are laid all around the player
 * Nomad charges the 75-damage attack
 * Nomad creates 3 illusions of himself
 * Nomad teleports the player to the centre and freezes them - followed by an attack which deals the player's Hitpoints level minus one

Between these special attacks, Nomad uses melee which can deal damage in the high 20s and low 30s. This is the standard attack that players will face most of the time.
 * The mines that are laid around the fight area deal 40 damage and drain the player's run energy to zero when stepped on.
 * The 75-damage attack is evadable. Before Nomad launches the 75-damage attack, he waits a few seconds. This gives the player time to find a safespot to evade the attack.
 * The 3 illusions that Nomad creates of himself will all attack the player at once, constantly hitting 4 or 5 damage. The player has to pick out the real Nomad by attacking them. If the player hits an illusion, he disappears. If the player hits the real Nomad, all illusions disappear. This attack CAN be avoided entirely by hiding behind a pillar. His clones will disappear after about 30 seconds and he'll come for you again.
 * The most dangerous attack is the one which will hit the player for an amount damage equal to their Hitpoints level minus one. Before launching this attack, Nomad teleports the player a few squares away from him. He hen casts a spell similar to Ice Barrage, freezing the player, but not damaging them. This makes Nomad's strongest attack unavoidable. After freezing the player, Nomad stores energy in his hand for a few seconds before unleashing his attack, which looks like a lightning bolt. The player should use this delay to restore their hitpoints to full, otherwise they will die when Nomad uses the attack.

Strategy for Defeating Nomad
Nomad has been reported to be prone to stab attacks. Armour has been shown to be completely ineffective during the fight, so the player should focus on the offensive side of their gear. It is recommended that the player fills their inventory with Saradomin brews and super restore potions at a 3:1 ratio, replacing up to one set of potions with combat boosting potions as preferred. It is important always to take 1 dose of super restore for every 3 doses of Saradomin brew, in order to ensure that range/attack/strength levels remain sufficiently high to damage Nomad. If you fail to do this, you will waste Saradomin brews and will almost certainly die. While frozen, you should quickly drop all the empty vials, in order to have space to withdraw more supplies from your Beast of burden.

When Nomad creates illusions of himself, the player may stand behind the pillars in the room, completely avoiding all attacks, upon which the illusions will disappear of their own accord within thirty seconds. If Auto retaliate is turned on, the player's character will usually pick out and attack the real Nomad.

When Nomad performs his 75-damage attack, exclaiming "you cannot hide from my wrath!", blocking yourself from his sight by hiding behind an obstacle blocks his attack entirely. The player should be careful not to step on the flame vortexes since their drain their run energy.

When the player is frozen just before the most dangerous attack, the player must be sure to be at or well above their maximum hitpoints. However, they should not drink a super restore potion, as the player needs to use Saradomin brews again after the attack. This makes better use of their super restore potions.

On the final 1/4 of his health, Protect from Melee/Deflect Melee, seems to have a good effect of slightly reducing the attack the player sustains.

Finally, don't panic. The worst thing to do is constantly being above your hitpoints, wasting Saradomin Brews, when they could be better used during the battle. Also, if you die, don't be disheartened, just learn from your mistakes and retry.

When he performs his charge attack, exclaiming "you cannot hide from my wrath!" blocking yourself from his sight by hiding behind an obstacle blocks his attack entirely. Be careful not to step on the flame vortexes as you run for cover!

One can used ranged on him when he freezes the player, and familiars can still attack him. However, be careful if you are using enchanted ruby bolts, as their special effect (which drains 10% of your current hitpoints) may go off just before his attack that hits one less than your maximum, causing you to lose a little bit of health just when it really counts.

When hiding behind an obstacle, Nomad will run to the other side of the obstacle. Doing so may allow a "hit and run" method, attacking Nomad once, then running behind a pillar again, thus equalizing his attack rate with your own if yours is slower. However, if Nomad is ever unable to attack for more than five seconds, he will teleport back to centre, shouting "Coward!" and completely restoring his hitpoints.

If using the "hit and run" method, one should stand behind a pillar, always letting Nomad hit you once every time he says "Face me!" then running back behind the pillar the instant you see or even hear your character attack. Using a protection from magic prayer is most efficient at this time. Doing this will allow consumption of up to four potion doses but no more when behind the pillar.

When Nomad switches to the melee frenzy at the end, one should stand next to the pillar, this time, one step away from Nomad, walking up to Nomad to let him get in one attack, preferably clicking one pace back away from him IMMEDIATELY after clicking to walk up to him. Doing this method so far has reported to allow two crossbow shots per walk without Nomad Resetting his health.

The "hit and run" method DOES in fact work with melee, although requiring slightly faster clicking reflexes.

Having a Divine Spirit Shield (and quite possibly Elysian, Spectral, or Arcane) equipped seems to reduce this damage, as well as reducing his 75 damage attack. Since it takes pretty long for him to charge the attack, you will have time to restore your hitpoints back to maximum with Saradomin brews or Rocktails. In addition, if you are using Ranged, you can get several free hits while he is charging. After hitting your HP-1 he will stop attacking you for few seconds, giving you time to restore your hitpoints and restocking your food, potions, etc. from a Beast of Burden (like a pack yak). He will also heal himself to half of his hitpoints when he reaches 1/4 of his HP, though he will only do this once, and there is no way to stop him from doing this. When he has low HP left, he will attack you with melee attacks that are as fast as Throwing knives.

Trivia

 * Some medium-level Quest Cape owners were disappointed upon release, as Nomad is very difficult to beat even with high combat stats. (Players have reported defeating Nomad without having a particularly high combat however.) This has sparked some debate among the forums. Although there has been much complaint, Jagex has mentioned that they will not weaken Nomad.
 * His name derives from nomad, a community of people who moves from one place to another rather than living in the same location(though it is unknown whether his first name is Nomad or if he IS a nomad).
 * After the player shows Zimberfizz Nomad's body, he can be seen teleporting out of his lair, implying his survival.
 * Nomad's dying words are, "You haved doomed the fate of this world" this could be speculation for his return/sequel quest, or Nomad thought that only he can stop his "Master's" wrath. This could imply that Nomad is actually a good character since the dark warriors that tried to defeat him were working for Lucien.
 * His chathead resembles the real face of Darth Vader as he appeared in Return of the Jedi, with his bald head, pale face, and strange eyes.
 * His face and clothing is also very similar to Darth Malak from Star Wars: Knights of the Old Republic.
 * On the 10 January 2010, Jagex issued a hint via their Twitter feed, "Next week in RuneScape: Why did Nomad get updated last week?!"
 * Before the graphical update in association with the quest Nomad's Requiem, he looked similar to an Elite dark mage. A second possible explanation for this was that Nomad gained this appearance from devouring/absorbing souls. Or maybe he is one due to the elite dark warrior calls him a "traitor".
 * Nomad has the highest maximum hit possible by a monster in the game at 98, but the player fighting him would have to have 99 Hitpoints (boosted hp does not affect Nomad's high hit of 98). If the player's hitpoints are lower than 98, the highest-hitting monster would be TzTok-Jad with a max hit of 97.
 * Neither Vengeance nor a Ring of recoil nor Deflect Curses will work on Nomad.
 * Nomad has an interesting throne. Since the throne is located directly below the Soul Obelisk, it can be assumed he sits there to absorb filtered soul fragments.
 * Nomad's running and combat animations are different from a player's and other NPC's animations.
 * In postbag from the Hedge 43, Zimberfizz says "Be seein' you soon. Nomad's up to more mischief than a zombie impling in a butchers.", which is hinting at a possible sequel.
 * At the very end of the last cutscene in the quest Nomad's Requiem, if you right-click on Nomad as he teleports away, he appears as "Nomad(level: 699)" again, instead of just "Nomad".