Tutorials/Killing Nex
Nex is one of the harder bosses in the game with a combat level of 1001, and is located in Zaros Section of God wars dungeon. She is usually killed for the chance of dropping Torva, Pernix and Virtus armour drops.
Requirements
- 70 Agility (Required to reach the Nex chamber, can be boosted from 66 Agility with an Agility potion)
- High Defence and Hitpoints levels (99 recommended)
- High Attack and Strength levels (99 recommended, only if using Melee)
- High Range level (99 recommended, only if using Range)
- High Magic level (99 recommended, only if using Magic)
- 75+ Prayer (for Piety, higher recommended)
- 96 Herblore for Ironmen (optional, required for Overloads)
- 71+ Invention (optional, required for Poison heal aura)
- 3 other players (having 1 tank is a MUST)
Getting there
To get inside God Wars Dungeon, it is recommended to use Ferocious ring or GWD tablet. Once there, head straight south and open the frozen door, and climb down the hole that is inside. Once down, squeeze-through the obstacle pipe (70 agility required) go further into the room and use the Big Door to join an instance. While you can go through without joining an instance, killing the boss there is not recommended due to risk of being crashed (only 4 people can get a drop) and longer respawn times.
Role: Tank
Each party should have 1 tank in their team, since it's the most vital role for Nex. A tank's job is to taunt Nex and keep it in a precise position, so she doesn't dash through one of the four lanes and potentially inflict massive damage upon the team, meanwhile soaking up the melee attacks of the boss.
Equipment
Items that are classified as for experienced are things that maximize your damage output, which leaves you with way less defensive capabilities, meaning prayer flicking its melee and ranged/mage attacks become a necessity.
For inventory, you should be bringing overloads (amount depending on how many kills you wish to go for), prayer renewal potions (bring the same amount of renewals as you have overloads, with 1 extra potion. For example, if you're taking 1 overload, bring 2 prayer renewals, and if you're taking 2 overloads, bring 3 prayer renewals), saradomin/zamorak brews, around 6-8 super restore potions and optionally, one of the spirit shields(except for the regular spirit shield) to negate damage caused by overloads. If not using Poison purge or Poison heal auras, take super antipoison. Below is an example inventory.
The fight
The image below shows what place you should be standing at to stop the boss from dashing, with green squares signifying where you're supposed to be standing and red squares signifying where the boss should be standing.
It is ideal to kill the boss on the North side of the arena, which allows for your team fast access to the first two minions and avoids the 5th phase's minion from freezing you.
Start of the fight (Phase 1)
Nex HP = 2100. First thing you should always do is pray magic, taunt the boss and go straight to the green squares. If you're using melee, wait for Nex to come to you, and if you don't have a mage in your team, use Statius's warhammer special attack on the boss.
Phase 2 (Smoke phase)
Nex HP = 2000. In this phase, the boss will poison you. Just keep attacking, Nex doesn't have any special attacks.
Phase 3 (Shadow phase)
Nex HP = 1600. At the start of the phase, pray range and taunt the boss immediately. Once the boss uses a special attack that summons a bunch of shadows on the floor, if you're not using chrysos armor, you should dodge it by moving diagonally. DO NOT SIDESTEP ONTO ANOTHER GREEN SQUARE FOR ANY SPECIAL ATTACK! This will mess up Nex's positioning and you'll have to re-align her with red squares again! Instead, move diagonally onto a red square, then back.
Phase 4 (Blood phase)
Nex HP = 1200. Pray magic, and whenever the boss says "I demand your blood!", immediately dodge it by moving diagonally onto the red squares as before, then move back.
Phase 5 (Ice phase)
Nex HP = 800. Taunt the boss. In this phase, if Nex does an animation where she punches the ground, you must dodge it like you would any other special attack from previous phases.
Phase 6 (Zaros phase)
Nex HP = 400. Pray range and taunt the boss for the last time. This phase has no special attacks.
Role: Damage, Melee
Using melee to kill Nex has a its upsides and downsides - it has the 2nd highest potential DPS when killing the boss on-task and the lowest potential DPS when killing Nex off-task (assuming using best gear it's 10.87 DPS off-task and 12.14 DPS on-task). It also allows you to bring Bandos Godblade and hit with it reliably enough, and using melee is also the cheapest method to kill Nex with in terms of gold lost in repairs/supplies per hit. The downside of using melee is that you can't effectively help your teammates kill minions.
Equipment
For the highest DPS when doing Nex off-task, it's recommended to use upgraded elite void set. On-task it's best to use a slayer helmet and upgraded bandos set.
As for inventory, bring overloads (the amount depends on the length of the trip), prayer renewals (bring the same amount of renewals as overloads, with 1 renewal extra), your special attack weapon, super restores (8 should do), optionally a spirit shield (blessed spirit shield or better, regular spirit shield won't work) to negate overload damage and the rest saradomin/zamorak brews. Don't forget a super antipoison if you're not running poison heal aura! Optionally you can also bring 2 pieces of regular food if using Saradomin godblade as the special attack weapon to make space for drops from the first kills of the trip.
The fight
The start (Phase 1)
Nex HP = 2100. Using melee is pretty straightforward. Before the boss spawns, pray magic. At the start, don't attack the boss right away. Instead - let the tank taunt her and wait for her to come closer. That's because the boss might do the dashing attack immediately, which could potentially kill you if you're not careful. Once the boss is away from the center, start attacking.
Phase 2(Smoke phase)
Nex HP = 2000. Keep attacking. The boss will poison you, but a super antipoison or poison heal will make quick work of the poison.
Phase 3(Shadow phase)
Nex HP = 1600. Switch to range prayer. Once the boss uses the special attack which summons shadows on the floor, just move to a place without any shadows.
Phase 4(Blood phase)
Nex HP = 1200. Switch to mage prayer. When the boss shouts "I demand your blood!", move a square or two. Don't stand to the side of the boss, else the tank might get hit with it.
Phase 5(Ice phase)
Nex HP = 800. When the boss hits the ground with its hand, move a square. Be sure to not stand to the side of the boss else your tank might run into the special attack that was targeting you.
Phase 6(Zaros phase)
Nex HP = 400. Pray range and hit the boss until it dies.
Role: Damage, Ranged
Ranged damage dealer is the bread and butter of an average Nex team. They're the best at killing minions due to a fast travel speed of their projectiles and their long range. The potential DPS of a ranger is also quite high - they have the 2nd highest potential DPS on the boss off-task and the best DPS on Nex on-task (10.96 DPS off-task and 12.51 on-task). However, reaching these numbers requires using Lava cape (range), which doesn't save any arrows, meaning that to not lose a lot of money/supplies one has to collect all the arrows off the ground.
Equipment
As for inventory, bring overloads (the amount depends on the length of the trip), prayer renewals (bring the same amount of renewals as overloads, with 1 renewal extra), your special attack weapon, super restores (8 should do), optionally a spirit shield (blessed spirit shield or better, regular spirit shield won't work) to negate overload damage and the rest saradomin/zamorak brews. Don't forget a super antipoison if you're not running poison heal aura! Optionally you can also bring 2 pieces of regular food if using Saradomin godblade as the special attack weapon to make space for drops from the first kills of the trip.
The fight
Your job as a ranger is to kill minions first and deal damage to Nex second. Below is a picture of the Nex arena and the minion spawn locations/Nex hp threshold to spawn the minion.
If you don't kill a minion in time before Nex attempts to enter the next phase, she kills the minion and heals 300 HP. Sometimes that will happen because of bad RNG, but try to minimize those instances that happen due to human error!
The start (Phase 1)
Nex HP = 2100. Pray mage, and attack Nex.
Phase 2 (Smoke phase)
Nex HP = 2000. The first minion has spawned, kill it. Nex will poison you during this phase.
Phase 3(Shadow phase)
Nex HP = 1600. Pray range, and kill the minion that spawns. Nex will use the shadow special attack this phase, and it doesn't matter if you're away from Nex - it'll still hit you, like every other special attack. Just don't stand in the shadows that spawn on the ground.
Phase 4(Blood phase)
Nex HP = 1200. Pray mage. When going for the minion and killing it, KEEP MOVING! Nex can use the special attack that attacks the square you were standing on that deals massive damage, and since you're killing the minion you can't really look at Nex for the special attack cues. After killing it and going back to attack the boss, move when Nex says "I demand your blood!".
Phase 5(Ice phase)
Nex HP = 800. The most dangerous phase. Glacies, the minion that spawns, has the ability to freeze you, and with unfortunate timing you can get hit by Nex's special attack that can hit 110+. So, having a blessed spirit shield or better can save your life here. Just as in blood phase, when going for the minion you MUST keep moving. After you kill it, return to the boss and start attacking it. If Nex punches the ground, move a square or two - that's her special attack.
Phase 6 (Zaros phase)
Nex HP = 400. Pray range and finish the kill.
Role: Damage, Magic
Magic as a damage dealer at Nex can be incredibly impactful if played correctly, because of the utility it provides. Mages can singlehandedly reduce the defence of a boss to the cap (30%) without using special attacks, meaning other players, including the mage can bring special attack weapons such as Saradomin godblade for sustain. As for the potential DPS, mages can achieve the highest DPS off-task by far (however, it is incredibly costly), and the lowest on-task DPS, even lower DPS on-task than off-task with void. (11.26 DPS off-task using upgraded elite void and 10.58 DPS when on-task using full slayer helmet). This means that the only setup you should be using if you want to use magic is upgraded elite void. If you don't have it, more usefulness can be found in either Melee or Ranged role.
Equipment
As said before, the only viable armor set with magic is upgraded elite void. There are a couple of weapon options for mages - Demon wand gives highest DPS, but also costs 10 fire runes, 7 air runes, 2 death runes/2 blood runes, which means that a trip of 2 overloads at nex would cost you around 7k fire runes, 5k air runes, 1.5k death runes and 1.5k blood runes, which is incredibly expensive. Cheaper alternatives offer lower DPS - a nice middle point are elemental staves that cost only 2 death runes and 2 blood runes per cast, meaning you only use 1.5k death runes and 1.5k blood runes per 2 overload trip, which is manageable. The cheapest but lowest DPS option is using Rod of ivandis, which only has a repair cost (around 300 gp per cast) and no rune cost.
As for inventory, bring overloads (the amount depends on the length of the trip), prayer renewals (bring the same amount of renewals as overloads, with 1 renewal extra), your special attack weapon, super restores (8 should do), optionally a spirit shield (blessed spirit shield or better, regular spirit shield won't work) to negate overload damage and the rest saradomin/zamorak brews. Don't forget a super antipoison if you're not running poison heal aura! Optionally you can also bring 2 pieces of regular food to make space for drops from the first kills of the trip.
Additional preparation
Use normal spellbook. Lunar spellbook does allow you to cast Fire Surge, but your job at the start of the fight is to lower defence of Nex, which is possible with lunars (spellbook swap - normal - vulnerable), but it takes way longer, which means your team loses a ton of DPS when compared to being on normal spellbook. And now, let me introduce you to the star of the magic section: Vulnerability!
This spell acts as a statius's warhammer's special attack, doesn't cost any special attack energy, and can be casted as much as you want! Granted, the defence reduction cap is 30% (where the defence won't go any lower, even if multiple people weaken the defence), so you have to cast this spell 3 times and hit those 3 times successfully (get an exp drop). This allows for your entire team to bring saradomin godblades and save a ton of supplies. Experienced players can also bring magic switches to cast Vulnerable while using Melee or Ranged setups.
The fight
As a mage your attack speed depends on the distance between you and the target, so before attacking stand 4 tiles away or closer. This includes minions and the boss, which means you can actually choose if you want to stay near Nex and not kill minions like a melee (recommended when using demon wand + orb setup) or kill minions like a ranger (recommended with rod of ivandis setup). Also, if using Fire surge, especially with Demon Wand + Orb setup, don't forget to operate the orb in your combat style settings and refreshing it before it expires! This gives you a lot of DPS.
The start(Phase 1)
Nex HP = 2100. At the start, cast vulnerable on Nex and make sure 3 hits land on her.
The rest of the phases
As said at the start of this section, you can choose your playstyle - either stick to the Boss like a melee, and use #The_fight_2 as a guide (same things apply), or kill the minions, in which case use #The_fight_3.