Nomad/Strategies

Defeating Nomad and completing the Grandmaster quest Nomad's Requiem is an aspiration for many players. Because he is widely regarded as one of the most difficult quest bosses in the game, it is very common for players to ask for advice on fighting Nomad. This article will attempt to provide a complete, thorough understanding of Nomad's capabilities, as well as common strategies and tactics for defeating him.

Offense
Nomad is an extremely powerful warrior and battlemage who is able to cause massive amounts of damage. In addition to his basic Magic attack, he has a number of special attacks that he will frequently use during the fight. These attacks are used in the same order in which they are listed below.


 * Nomad's basic attack is an at-range Magic attack that is capable of hitting up to 322 damage. It deals typeless damage, which means that Protect from Magic and Deflect Magic have no effect whatsoever on it. However, your Magic defence does affect the attack's accuracy; for this reason, armor with high Magic defence is strongly recommended when fighting him. Nomad will begin using this attack immediately when the battle begins, and will use it in between his special attacks.


 * His first special attack is to lay a number of flame vortices in a pattern around you. Each vortex occupies one square. If you step on a flame vortex it will explode, dealing 400 damage and draining your run energy to zero. After about a minute, they will explode on their own; if you are next to one when it explodes, you will take between 400 and 700 damage. Avoid these at all costs! The pattern in which Nomad deploys the vortices leaves a gap to the south; if you run directly south when the vortices appear, you will safely get away from them. If you are meleeing Nomad you will want to turn off Auto Retaliate when he deploys the vortices, or else you might accidentally wander over one.


 * Nomad's second special attack, Soul Blast, is a powerful Magic attack that deals 750 damage. Before using Soul Blast, Nomad will teleport to his throne (or to roughly the center of the battle arena in the Dominion Tower). It is strongly recommended that you hide behind a pillar in order to dodge this attack, because otherwise it does not miss.


 * Mirror Image is Nomad's third special attack. He teleports to the center of the arena and creates three copies of himself. These copies will attack you along with the real Nomad, although each can only hit up to 50 damage. If you attack a copy, it disappears; if you attack the real Nomad, all of the copies disappear. You can easily tell which is the real Nomad by waiting for them to attack; the real Nomad will attack last, just after the three copies.


 * Nomad's final and most powerful special attack is Disintegrate. He will teleport you and himself to the center of the arena, then hit you with an Ice Barrage-like attack that won't deal any damage, but will freeze you in place. He will then spend several seconds charging an immensely powerful Magic attack that will deal an amount of damage equal to your maximum life points minus one. For example, if you have 80 Constitution and 800 life points, this attack will deal 799 damage. You will have time to eat while he is charging the attack, and will have a few moments to heal after he unleashes it.

Berserk
The first time Nomad is reduced to 25% of his maximum life points, he will heal himself 2,500 life points. The second time, however, Nomad will go berserk and switch to using a melee attack with his staff. Although he loses access to all of his other attacks when he goes berserk, his melee attack will hit very rapidly and for high damage (200+). Protect from Melee and Deflect Melee appear to have some small effect against his melee attack, and the staff of light's special attack will further reduce its damage.

Defence
Nomad has very high Defence against all forms of attack, although he is weakest to stab attacks and Ranged. Additionally, he is immune to damage from a number of sources, including Vengeance, poison, deflect curses, dragonfire damage from the dragonfire shield and dragon bolts (e), chinchompas, and rings of recoil. Dwarf multicannons cannot be deployed in Nomad's arena. Damage from ruby bolts (e) is capped at 750.

While Nomad has a maximum of 10,000 life points, he will heal himself 2,500 life points the first time he is reduced to 2,500 life points. This effectively gives him 12,500 life points.

Skill levels
Players who wish to fight Nomad are encouraged to have the following skill levels. However, the higher these skills are, the better.
 * 75+ for surviving his Soul Blast attack
 * 80+ and  for resisting his basic attack
 * 70+ (if using Ranged)
 * 80+ and  (if using melee)
 * 44+ if using standard prayers, or 80+ if using Ancient Curses
 * 52+
 * 80+ is optional but helpful, as the chaotic rapier and chaotic crossbow are both very effective against Nomad.

Magic
NOTE: Defeating Nomad with Magic is extremely difficult, and should not be considered by players who are attempting to complete Nomad's Requiem.