Bal'lak the Pummeller

Bal'lak the Pummeller is one of the Kal'Gerion generals summoned to this realm by Bilrach and is a boss of Daemonheim, requiring a Dungeoneering level of 65 to encounter and fight. He held the title of the boss monster with the highest Dungeoneering level requirement until 19 August 2010, when Yk'Lagor the Thunderous took over, who in turn has since been superseded by Kal'Ger the Warmonger. However, Bal'lak is still the boss monster with the highest Dungeoneering level requirement in F2P. Bal'lak is a brown demon with dual warhammers and a large horn on his head. He can use it to charge at his victims if he doesn't try to smash them to a pulp. In addition, he can send forth magical skulls from his hammers, which deal magical damage.

Bal'lak will use melee and magic, often dealing 200 or more damage with each hit. He also has a special attack that will damage everyone around him in melee range two times in one attack, whilst also briefly disabling their protection prayers. This boss has very high lifepoints but low defence for its level - but if his defence bar is allowed to rise he will begin to take significantly less damage. Standing under him for too long will often result in over 300 lifepoints of damage.

When entering the room, players will see an orange bar begin to fill at the top part of the screen. This is his "defence power"; every second it will gradually go up and when it fills completely damaging him will become impossible. As Bal'lak is attacked he will split rifts in the ground and cause bubbling pools of noxious fumes to appear on the floor. Each pool causes rapid damage to players standing in the 3x3 square surrounding it, similar to the effects of poison. Bal'lak should be lured near one of these pools to weaken his defence, with each being able to reduce up to 30% of his defence bar. However, it drains players' defence as well. It is important to note that this bar determines how much damage is reduced, rather than how accurate your attacks are against him. However, it appears to be reversed after the Evolution of Combat, with his defence lowering the player's accuracy instead of damage. Occasionally, one might find puddles clustered together. If the player can successfully lure Bal'lak over the cluster of puddles, his defence will be reduced at a relatively faster rate. Note: Bal'lak holds a grudge against one player and will always attack them.

A strategy for teams is to agree before entering that whichever player Bal'lak targets has the responsibility of leading him towards these pools. By this method a good team can stop his defence ever rising past 30% and will find he dies rather quickly. Be careful not to stand on or near the portal itself.

A safer but slower strategy is to continually attack him (without worrying about his defence bar) and then use Gatestone Teleport if his defence bar rises over half. Waiting outside of the room reduces the bar, allowing players to enter the boss room again and continue the offensive. ALL party members must leave the boss room for the bar to reset. Many cosmic runes are recommended. Alternatively, the Group Gatestone teleport may be dropped in the room adjacent to the boss, and players use Group Gatestone Teleport instead. This eliminates the possibility of players forgetting to set up a new gatestone after teleporting.

The ideal strategy is to ignore the pools and just attack with melee. If soloing, you may only have to teleport out if the difficulty is set to 5:5. Otherwise, the boss should be dead long before its defense ever becomes an issue.

Protection prayers and deflection curses are frequently blocked by this boss, but he cannot deactivate any other prayers and curses.

Drops

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Trivia

 * The Smuggler says that Bal'lak's weapons "split rifts in the ground, causing noxious fumes to rise from the level below."
 * Yk'Lagor the Thunderous and Bal'lak seem to have a personal grudge against each other, as Yk'Lagor states in the Postbag from the Hedge that Bal'lak's name is pronounced "Nuck-kul-head"- that is, the insult "knucklehead".
 * Bal'lak the Pummeller's multi-target magic attack resembles Iban Blast.
 * Bal'lak received an audio update on 18 October, 2010, applying an audio voice to his special attack.
 * Players received XP for hits on Bal'lak that had been blocked by his defence bar. Therefore, seeing one's XP counter increase does not necessarily guarantee a hit on the demon boss. This is a glitch that has been indirectly fixed after the EoC.
 * The portals may be examined, and they say, "Strange energies are flowing out of the portal."
 * Bal'lak's name could be derived from the Mayan god Buluk, the god of war, violence, sudden death, and human sacrifice. Buluk was often seen as a fire spitting demon.