Strategies for Nex: Angel of Death

This article is a strategy guide for Nex: Angel of Death. Information on mechanics, setups, and tactics is on this page. For the normal mode strategy guide, see here.

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Starting out at Nex: Angel of Death

Arena centre
Instakill safety zone is in pink ring around X
Surge lines are in blue trim

Nex: Angel of Death (AoD) has the distinction of being the most damage centric boss in the game. Therefore it is recommended to have a thorough understanding of ability usage and rotations, and employ niche tricks that increase DPS. The average high level AoD preset is notably low in adrenaline or stat-draining foods (such as sailfish or Saradomin brews), and will have a significant amount of blue blubber jellyfishes and Guthix rests instead, as those do not cause any stat or adrenaline reduction upon use. Additionally, it is highly recommended to learn the boss with Magic, as it provides the most flexibility and ease of learning compared to ranged or melee.

Unlike her normal encounter, the Angel of Death is not susceptible to the damage boost obtained from visiting the Glacor Cave.

Mechanics

Nex has 3,000,000 life points and attacks with melee and magic, following a similarity to her normal encounter. Her melee attack is a standard melee attack, but drains prayer points and adds one enrage stack against her current target whenever it hits. This stack is placed on the debuff bar as , with the following messages at specific stacks:

• Start-up (1 auto-attack) - Nex lets out a slight hiss as she lands a hit on you!
• Set 1 (5 auto-attacks) - Nex starts to lose control with anger!; resets defensive abilities
• Set 2 (10 auto-attacks) - Nex begins to scream with rage as she hits you!; resets defensive abilities

After 15 stacks, all of her melee attacks will start to reset defensives. Unlike Beastmaster Durzag and Yakamaru whose enrage stacks can be reduced with Freedom, Nex's enrage stacks are only removed when she has not attacked her target with melee after 30 seconds have passed since the last melee attack. This is indicated with the message Nex has begun directing her full attention to someone else...

Her magic attack hits everyone within range (which is the range of one quadrant in her arena), meaning that she hits everyone in the arena when attacking directly from the middle. Her magic attack also possesses 100% hit chance against her main target, but the damage registers 3 ticks slower compared to another player in melee range, which is instant. This provides adequate time for her main target to switch to magic protection prayers/curses. This does not apply to projectiles fired from a distance however, so the damage will register before the projectile even lands, so the base tank should keep this in mind when luring in the final phase.

In terms of defence, Nex possesses a Defence level of 99, with 55 affinity towards all combat styles. Like the original encounter, she is susceptible to the effects of the inquisitor staff. 100% accuracy can be maintained with supreme or better overload, tier 99 curses, a berserker aura and an affinity stack of at least 5 or higher, assuming black stone arrows are not being used.

In addition, a passive enrage stack is also present throughout the fight, indicated as a Zaros icon underneath her health bar. This stack increases as Nex stays still and draws power from nearby pillar(s), indicated with the message You notice Nex's power is being increased by the nearby pillar. for the base tank. Moving out of the quadrant in which Nex is drawing power from will prevent stacks from accumulating. This stack is usually not of a concern for any team however, as the encounter should end before the stacks become too much for the team to handle.

Phase 1

HP

	All sizes	Effect when met or depleted
Nex (start of phase)	3,000,000	N/A
Nex (damage cap)	2,100,000	Begins next phase

Attack rotation:

• 4 autoattacks
• Power from the elements
• 4-14 autoattacks (random)
• Shadow orbs
• 4-14 autoattacks
• Repeat from power from the elements until 2,100,000 HP

Nex always begins by using four autoattacks, at which point she uses her first special attack.

• Elements - Nex yells The elements... they call to me..., looking at one of the four quadrants while she flies up before landing in the centre of the arena. Any players within a 3x3 area of the centre will take typeless damage from her landing. After a few seconds, ice stalagmites appear, dividing the quadrants and dealing moderate damage if stood on. 3 blood reavers with 50,000 life points spawn at the corners Nex is not facing. These reavers do not attack the players, instead advancing towards Nex. If the reavers touch Nex, they will instantly die, heal Nex by half of their remaining life points, and add 3 enrage stacks for each reaver that reaches her. After dividing the quadrants, she will attempt to take power from the crystal she is facing, yelling WITNESS THEIR TRUE POWER and unleashing three projectiles on all players in that quadrant that deal 3,500 soft typeless damage each. If no players are in the quadrant Nex is facing, her dialogue will be slightly modified and she will gain 20 enrage stacks.
  • True Blood Sacrifice - If a reaver reaches Nex, Nex yells Taste the true power of a blood sacrifice, resetting and disabling every player's defensive abilities. It also deals damage equal to 50% of the total health the reaver had remaining when it reached Nex, which is then divided between all players in the arena. An undamaged reaver with 50,000 life points that reaches Nex deals 3571 damage to each player in a 7-player team. If all 3 reavers reach Nex with full life points, the team is dealt a total of 75,000 damage. Additionally, Nex is healed by half of the reavers' remaining health (up to 75,000). Nex will also perform this attack if the reavers have persisted for more than a minute in the arena.
• Shadow orbs - After Nex yells Let the shadow engulf you. Give in to it., Nex creates three red shadow orbs for each player, placing them on the tiles they currently stand on, dealing 300 typeless damage every tick if the player is on top of one. Moving one space away from your location for each spawned orb is enough to avoid taking damage. These orbs remain on the floor for some time as highly-damaging objects, even after being initially evaded. It is essential not to step back on them until they disappear later in the fight. However, they will disappear much faster if they were placed in one of the four cardinal directions, as a straight line (be mindful not to place them too close to where the Base Tank will be, however).

Nex alternates between the elements and shadow orb specials until she reaches 1,800,000 life points. She uses a special attack after 4-14 autoattacks at random.

Phase 2

HP

	All sizes	Effect when met or depleted
Nex (start of phase)	2,100,000	N/A
Nex (damage cap)	1,800,000	Begins next phase
Amalgamations	40,000	Summons weakened praesul

Attack rotation:

• Amalgamations spawned
• 4-14 autoattacks
• Power from the elements/shadow orbs, depending on previous phase
• 4-14 autoattacks
• Repeat from power from the elements or shadow orbs until 1,800,000 HP

Minion	Umbra	Glacies	Cruor	Fumus
Image
Pillar location	SE	NE	NW	SW

Crystals are susceptible to Flanking perk from the north (highlighted green) when standing in circle

As soon as Nex reaches 2,100,000 life points, Nex will yell Hahahahaha, you've done well to come this far, but it ends here. Come fourth my Praesul, aid me. Show these intruders the true meaning of pain.. If Nex is not in the centre of the arena, she will move back while summoning four amalgamations of the Ancient Magicks; Shadow, Ice, Blood and Smoke, each one being placed diagonally across from her to their respective crystals. Any player who stands within a few squares of where they spawn when they spawn takes 4000 soft typeless damage. Each one has 40,000 life points and an orange/blue bar over them. While Nex is summoning the amalgamations, she will take reduced damage.

If the amalgamation is not destroyed when the bar fills, it will despawn, and the appropriate praesul user will emerge from the amalgamation with a combat level of 1,000 and 300,000 health. The praesuls have level 99 Magic, 3031 magic accuracy and level 90 Defence. Despite having no weakness, they have 45 melee, 65 ranged and 55 magic affinity, essentially making them weak to ranged attacks. They are also susceptible to poison.

Should the amalgamation be destroyed before the bar fills, the praesul will appear shortly afterwards. They will be weakened, possessing a combat level of 750, 150,000 health, and their Defence level drops down to 85. Their offensive stats and defensive affinities remain the same however. The praesul will yell one of the following quotes below if their amalgamation is destroyed in time:

• So be it. I'll do what I can.
• Too soon, but more than enough to crush you.
• I do not feel complete master, my contact with the elements have been cut short.

Their adrenaline is considered a PvP situation so Siphon and Natural Instinct will take their adrenaline as needed. However in most cases they will be generally stuck on thresholds. Freedom and Anticipation are highly recommended as the praesuls frequently utilise Impact and Asphyxiate. The praesuls are aggressive and will target the nearest player next to them when they appear, initiating combat with Combust.

When each praesul dies, they will say Master, I have failed you.... Each praesul has their own colour associated with them to help identify them immediately; Umbra has violet, Glacies has blue, Cruor has red and Fumus has white text.

Killing all praesuls is mandatory, as their deaths are tied into the mechanics in the final phase of the fight. If a praesul is still alive when Nex has reached 600,000 health, the final phase will not start until all praesuls are killed. They should be killed as quickly as possible to allow minion tanks to use Freedom if Nex decides to ice them in the next phase.

Phase 3

HP

	All sizes	Effect when met or depleted
Nex (start of phase)	1,800,000	N/A
Nex (damage cap)	600,000	Begins next phase

Attack rotation:

• 4-9 autoattacks
• Smoke walls, smoke pool, or icicle (random)
• 4-9 autoattacks
• Random, different special attack from previous special
• 4-9 autoattacks
• Repeat until 600,000 HP and all mages are dead

Freeze effect

After reaching 1,800,000 life points, Nex will yell Understand this mortals, you know nothing of the power you meddle with. Feel the uncontrollable nature of it overwhelm you. These are the very elements of my creation... This is everything... EVERYTHING!. Nex discards her previous abilities for a new set of abilities shown below. She initially chooses one special attack at random and uses a different, random special attack after every 4-9 autoattacks. The same special attack is never used back-to-back.

• Smoke Line - Nex announces this attack with the line Feel the smoke all around you. LET IT CONSUME YOU., targeting two random players, with one line coming from the north and another from the east respectively. This is indicated with the message Nex begins to draw smoke from the north/east towards you!. Three auto-attacks after this attack is initiated, the wall of smoke will appear in the direction as indicated beforehand. If only one player is in the arena, this message is instead changed to Nex begins to draw smoke from the edges of the arena. - the smoke still comes from the north and east. Players hit by the smoke wall will be dealt with rapid hits of 2000 magic damage, which can be mitigated with Devotion or Enhanced Devoted. Upon receiving this message, take note of which direction in the smoke has targeted you and run to an adjacent wall that is opposite the direction of the smoke. For example, if you are targeted by a smoke wall from the north, stand next to either the east or west walls of the arena; for smoke from the east, stand on the north or south walls. If the players stand directly next to the correct wall, the smoke will not appear at all. Players who are targeted by the smoke walls should indicate which direction it is coming from to allow other players to quickly change positions if they cannot move, especially the base tank.
• Smoke Pool - Nex announces this attack with the line Even I can not control the element of smoke... Let us see if you can. This is followed by the following message in the chat interface: Nex casts a thick black smoke towards the centre of the arena.. Nex sends a small black cloud in a random direction. Upon landing, a smoke ring spawns. When someone moves into the ring, an unstable crystal will appear in the middle, which can be clicked on. If no one activates the crystal, everyone will be hit for damage equal to 37,500 split over the number of players in the arena. Grabbing the crystal will deal 14,000 damage split evenly to everyone that was in the smoke ring when it was grabbed. Defensive abilities are reset regardless if the crystal is activated or not.
• Ice Prison - Nex picks and stuns one or two targets (based on the amount of players in the arena); these players have a warning message when this occurs with the message stating Ice begins forming around your feet, locking you in place., which applies a 6 second bind and 9 second stun. Five ticks after this message, an icicle from above will slam onto the player, accompanied with the message An icicle falls from the ceiling, locking you in place., placing most defensive abilities, Surge, Escape and Bladed Dive on cooldown. Other players in a 3 square (7x7 grid centred on where it lands) will take collateral damage - 5,000 damage to players in a 1 square (3x3 grid), 2,500 in a 2 square (5x5 grid) and 1,666 in a 3 square (7x7 grid) and be stunned momentarily. The icicle possesses 20,000 health and will apply a very strong Dismember shortly after landing, dealing around 2,000 damage per hit. This is a simple melee attack that can be reduced accordingly. The initial stun can be countered with Freedom or Anticipation in advance, but has no effect on the icicle or its bleed.

Phase 4

HP

	All sizes	Effect when met or depleted
Nex (start of phase)	600,000	N/A
Blood crystal	200,000	Stops Nex from healing off her attacks
Ice crystal	200,000	Stops Nex from applying a freezing effect
Shadow crystal	200,000	Stops Nex from laying shadow traps
Smoke crystal	200,000	Stops virus effect
Nex (damage cap)	0	Ends encounter

Attack rotation

• Elements instant kill
• Magic autoattacks
• Repeat until all pillars are destroyed and 0 HP

Elements dome safe area in blue

Elemental bomb

Once Nex falls below 600,000 life points, all four of her praesuls have been killed and successfully attacked, Nex will yell Noooo... you cannot defeat me.. and become invulnerable, harnessing the power of her crystals to protect herself. However, this has also made them vulnerable to attacks, and thus they must be destroyed. Nex no longer uses melee attacks, meaning that she can no longer reset defensive abilities, and will only use magic attacks for the remainder of the fight, casting magic attacks whenever she is within 3 spaces of her target. She will also gain enrage stacks if she is near an attackable crystal.

In addition to this, the abilities from "Escalation" are replaced for the following:

• Elements instant kill - Nex targets a random player with the message Nex has marked you to take the full force of the elements. with large amount of smoke, shadow, blood and ice energy. A blue bar will appear above the targeted player. This is also indicated by a distinct audio cue that sounds like Nex whispering something to the affected player, along with an initial elemental pulse. When the bar fills, energy from all four pillars converges on the player. If the player is not inside the dome when the elements impact the player, they will be instantly killed. Immortality does not work against this attack, as doing so will cause the message The sheer force of the pillars smashes through your Immortality effect! if the player is outside the domed area. If the player dies to this attack, or triggers a sign of life, then the follow-up attack does not occur. Note that on some graphic settings, the energy will not appear.
  • Bomb follow-up - If the player survives the initial burst, a follow-up message will appear stating The shield blocks most of the damage, but you feel the elements boiling up inside. Like the instant-kill attack, a second blue bar appears over them, filling over time. Once this bar fills and disappears, a large elemental bomb will appear at the location the player was standing, dealing 3,000 soft typeless damage every two ticks if its radius is entered. This damage can be reduced/blocked with defensives. The bombs last indefinitely until Nex is killed. It is important to note that the pulses deal no damage if they are far from Nex - basically, if her magic attacks cannot reach the player, the pulses will deal no damage either. After this second bar fills, Nex automatically loops the elements instant kill mechanic.
• Virus (Smoke crystal) - The smoke crystal allows Nex to send viruses out at players, which drains their stats and overload timers. The virus has three stages; low, medium and high, with each stage indicated with a message in the game box. The state of the virus gradually increases as soon as the player obtains one; there is no way to cancel the virus, and after reaching the third state, a message will appear stating The virus drops your prayer slightly!; this message is highly deceptive, and actually drains much more prayer points than it suggests. The virus drains prayer based on the player's current prayer, so having less prayer will mitigate this effect significantly. Nex's magic attacks can also poison players, which deals around 1600 damage per poison hit at maximum. Antipoison potions or the Venomblood perk are recommended, as the total damage exceeds 12,000 health.
• Shadow traps (Shadow crystal) - The shadow crystal allows Nex to place 3-4 shadow traps (similar to the shadow phase traps from the original encounter) underneath players, which will follow them around. 3 ticks after the traps are placed, they will go off, dealing around 4,800 hard typeless damage if a player is standing on top of one. Multiple shadow traps are placed for set players, so one should continually move until they ensure there are no more shadow traps under them. There is no notification if the player is subjected to these traps, so they should look carefully on their screen to avoid being killed.
• Freeze (Ice crystal) - The ice crystal allows Nex to have the ability to use an attack similar to the icicle prison from the previous phase. An icy overlay similar to the wyvern's cave will gradually appear. If fully opaque, the player be stunned and bound for six seconds and cause a Dismember-like bleed which applies 2,000 melee damage every few ticks until cleared. Using Freedom at any stage of the opaque overlay will revert the screen back to normal, and also removes the bleed if one is being applied. Nex's magic attack will also bind players for 3 seconds if Protect/Deflect Magic is not active. If the crystal is destroyed while the screen becomes more opaque, then the screen gradually reverts back to normal.
• Blood crystal - Until it is destroyed, Nex will be able to heal herself from her attacks, around 500-700 health for each successful attack regardless of the damage it inflicts.

Finishing the Encounter

Once Nex dies, drops are placed in the middle of the arena, and a teleport shard spawns just north of the center. The shard will drop you back into the lobby room in the Ancient Prison, where you may rebank for another kill. This teleport crystal can also be searched by right-clicking it to obtain The Praesul and The Promised Gift books.

Solo base

Solo base is the more popular method of doing AoD and is beginner-friendly as each role takes on more basic responsibilities compared to duo base. The method involves a single tank (base) holding the boss's aggression for the entire fight, typically with a pack mammoth or pack yak familiar. The remaining roles are covered in the next section.

Roles

• Base tank - Holds aggro of the boss during the fight. Responsible for staying alive, and debuffing if using magic. Also responsible for positioning the boss optimally for Flanking, as well as dragging the boss away during the final phase.
• Chinner - Clears minions after they're stacked in the middle. Responsible for holding aggro of the boss in the event that the base dies.
• Hammer - Responsible for maintaining the Statius Warhammer affinity debuff. Apply at the start of phase 1, 3 and 4 (after last pillar is destroyed).
• Minion lure - Binds reavers with Entangle or Ice Barrage during Phase 1. Additionally responsible for killing Amalgamations at the start of Phase 2, and luring the minion into the centre of the arena.

Minion lure

It is encouraged to learn AoD as a minion lure, as learning the most common role will allow for being able to fill teams more often. Additionally, minion lure will have exposure to mechanics, allowing for the fight to start making more sense quickly.

Supreme overload salves are especially useful at AoD, as they save inventory space and also prevent the poison effect during the last 600,000 health of the boss if Venomblood is not one of the perks in the player's augmented gear. An amulet of souls or amulet of souls (or) is used as you reach very high accuracy at AoD. If you do not 4 tick auto attack at AoD (highly encouraged to learn to 4 tick for this boss), then switches can be removed. Bladed Dive and Mobile are also useful for moving to each pillar and the centre of the arena as needed.

Each kill should be started at 100% adrenaline, which is why the presets contain an equipped ring of vigour and a wand of the Cywir elders or ancient lantern (Planted Feet switch).

You do not need more than one super restore flask as the encounter should be cleared within 3-4 minutes, and the additional prayer provided by replenishment potions and supreme overload salves will be more than enough.

10	2

• Bringing both dual-wield and 2h is optional, and should only be done if the player is comfortable with 4 tick auto attacking. If not, simply bring dual wield or 2h, though dual-wield is recommended for faster casts of Vulnerability and Entangle
• Supreme overload salve or supreme overload
• Super restore flask
• Blue blubber jellyfish and guthix rest flasks for healing
• One or two pieces of solid food such as sailfish or sailfish soup for panic eating
• Saradomin brew flasks only if absolutely necessary, generally not needed in solo base
• Dominion mines to help with clearing blood reavers
• A shield or defender, mainly used to stall adrenaline before the fight
• Ring of vigour
• Deathtouch bracelet is the best dps gloves-slot for AoD
• Virtus book or any other offhand Magic weapon for Flanking switch
• Guthix staff for applying an Affinity debuff, only necessary if superior Statius's warhammer has not been used
• Enhanced Excalibur and any mainhand Melee weapon for Bladed Dive
• in large rune pouch for Air Surge and Vulnerability
• for Entangle

Minion lure setup (advanced)

2

• Saradomin brew flasks only if absolutely necessary, generally not needed in solo base
• Spiritual prayer potions to maintain steel titan special attacks throughout the fight
• A shield or defender, mainly used to stall adrenaline before the fight. In this case, a defender with Planted Feet can be used to save an inventory slot
• Seismic singularity or any other offhand Magic weapon for Flanking switch
• Dragon rider amulet switch for increased damage when using Dragon Breath
• Enhanced Excalibur and any mainhand Melee weapon for Bladed Dive
• Pouch 1 =
• Pouch 2 =
• Pouch 3 =
  • The above combination of runes allows the user to use the Ancients spellbook, giving access to Blood Barrage, Ice Barrage (for binding reavers), Disruption Shield for damage mitigation, Spellbook Swap to access lunars, and Vengeance for extra damage.

Hammer setup (advanced)

As hammer, your primary job is to maintain the superior Statius's warhammer debuff, and to deal as much damage as possible to ensure good phasing of the boss. This involves knowing when to hammer the boss, as well as when to focus on doing single target damage to ensure that phasing checkpoints are hit without receiving too many special attacks.

50

2

2 rune pouches should be used to allow for Group Vengeance and Disruption Shield to be cast. Additionally, knowing how to do good damage with Melee is critical. Summoning flasks can be replaced with food if needed. Erethdor's grimoire is best in slot, but can be replaced with Saradomin's Book of Wisdom or Armadyl's Book of Law, including their illuminated variants. A vampyrism scrimshaw is strongly discouraged, but if needed, can replace a piece of food as a switch.

• Superior Statius's warhammer is necessary for the role
• Zaros godsword is extremely important for Melee dps and is almost necessary to have
• Off-hand Melee weapons, drygore weaponry being a cheap option, for Flanking and Lunging switches
• A Melee defender to increase hit chance of the hammer spec, not necessary if you have Malevolence unlocked
• Armour spikes for free thorns damage
• Pouch 1 =
• Pouch 2 =

Chinner setup (advanced)

As the chinner, your job is to help phasing along, and clear the minions while calling the order they die in. Ranged is used in conjunction with mechanised chinchompas to do this as efficiently as possible. Additionally, the chinner is expected to Provoke the boss if the base dies for some reason, as they use the least food during the kill overall (especially due to the ability to soul split minions).

40

2
		5
		40	40
			2

Rune pouches are used for Disruption Shield and Group Vengeance. Hydrix bakriminel bolts (e) can be used either on Ruby bakriminel bolts (e) cooldown, or for only the last 600,000 health, depending on how sweaty you'd like to be. Food and summoning flasks can be adjusted as needed.

• Mechanised chinchompas are necessary for the role
• Seren godbow's special attack hits extremely hard on pillars
• Eldritch crossbow is useful as the chinner does not take much damage, and can proc bolt effects while DW/2H swapping
• Ruby bakriminel bolts (e) for extra damage
• Hydrix bakriminel bolts (e) are more useful when targets are low hp
• Erethdor's grimoire improves ruby bolt and Shadow Tendrils damage, can be replaced with a scrimshaw of cruelty
• Enhanced Excalibur and any mainhand Melee weapon for Bladed Dive
• Nightmare gauntlets are used, as they are best in slot for range due to increase accuracy on minions.
• Ancient repriser is used as a Planted Feet switch as well as a shield switch, saving an inventory space.
• Pouch 1 =
• Pouch 2 =

Solo base setup (advanced)

Responsibilities as a solo base are, positioning the boss to provide flanking, keeping the boss relatively centred, staying alive (THIS IS THE MOST IMPORTANT), and dragging the boss away during pillars phase so that teammates are able to Soul Split as much health as possible without getting hit by magic attacks.

	2
			20

A pack mammoth should be used in conjunction with its scrolls to allow eating solids (food that drains adrenaline) without losing adrenaline. Blue blubber jellyfish and guthix rest flasks are used to be able to combo eat when burst healing is not needed. Summoning flasks are used so that your Mammoth Feast scrolls have available when needed.

• Spiritual prayer potions to Pack mammoth special attack to eat from its inventory without adrenaline loss.
• Enhanced Excalibur and any mainhand Melee weapon for Bladed Dive
• Pouch 1 =
• Pouch 2 =
• Pouch 3 =
  • The above combination of runes allows the user to use the Ancients spellbook, giving access to Blood Barrage, Ice Barrage (for binding reavers), Disruption Shield for damage mitigation, Spellbook Swap to access lunars, and Vengeance for extra damage.

Strategies

AoD is considered a DPS race with various mechanics in effect, primarily focused on area denial. In experienced teams, essentially every mechanic can be ignored, outside of icicles and elemental pulses.

In less experienced teams, the mechanics should be dealt with appropriately as they can be disastrous for the team if ignored. As more experience is gained, these mechanics can be skipped.

Elements

Do not Debilitate. When Nex starts the element spec, she will choose a quadrant, and that person will receive roughly 3500 x 3 damage. The optimal means of dealing with this spec is to turn on Soul Split , tank the first two hits, and Resonance the third. Generally, by this point, the boss will be phased. If not, switch back to Deflect Magic and finish the phase.

Reavers

An example of how to freedom entangle, including inputs.

Dominion mines should be placed before the kill to help clear the reavers, as they are below 138 combat. Depending on how many mines the team uses and where they are placed, it may be necessary to deal some damage to the reavers before phasing the boss. For higher health reavers, replace an auto attack with Entangle or Ice Barrage and deal with them appropriately. In even faster teams, it is worthwhile learning how to freedom entangle. This involves hitting your Entangle keybind and then quickly hitting your Freedom keybind, forcing an offhand auto as Entangle, binding the reaver. See Freedom entangle for more information.

Shadow orbs

Most experienced teams will not have to deal with shadow orbs as Nex is usually phased before the orbs even have a chance to appear. If they do appear, place them away from lure spots so the minion tanks can all lure the praesuls into the same tile Nex is on.

Second elements

As with shadow orbs, experienced teams should not experience a second elements attack. If this happens, it should be dealt with using Debilitate or Resonance. In the very rare chance that reavers end up spawning, it is recommended to take them out immediately to prevent Nex from healing herself and reflecting massive damage onto the team.

Flanking Sun

An example of where to stand in order to perform the flanking surge.

In the event that you are opting for the slower Onslaught based rotation, it is encouraged to do a Flanking sun. By luring a minion directly to the middle of the octagon via Surge, the Sunshine is placed on the edges of the octagon. While this is a learner friendly tactic, the resulting Sunshine is placed too far out on the edges of the octagon whereby some minion tanks can no longer utilise Flanking in their Sunshine. In a solo base team where Nex faces west, the Umbra and Glacies minion tanks cannot Flank after they Surge without moving out of their Sunshine. Instead of standing in the octagon to line up your Surge, stand two squares diagonally away from the octagon towards your respective pillar.

• If you are the Umbra lure, stand two squares SE away from the octagon edge.
• If you are the Glacies lure, stand two squares NE away from the octagon edge
• If you are the Cruor lure, stand two squares NW away from the octagon edge
• If you are the Fumus lure, stand two squares SW away from the octagon edge.

After your minion spawns do the following: Surge then Sunshine, then walk two squares diagonal to the octagon's edge. Walking to the outer octagon edge after you Surge and Sunshine is crucial as the minion will not be mid-lured by the Surge (thus, you must ‘manually’ lure it). With your new sun, you can walk freely within your octagon quadrant to get a Flanking angle.

The primary kill order should be U > G > C > F. Umbra should be hit with a vulnerability bomb by her lure upon spawning and dealt some damage. As the chinner, their role is to kill the praesuls as fast as possible in the most optimal order. The chinner still targets the intended praesul order. Do not worry if they end up dying out of order, but make note of the order to go through so that the entire team can adjust themselves accordingly. The rest of the team can assist the chinner with AoE abilities; as a base tank, the only way to do this is with a halberd-range weapon, but they should be focusing more on Nex than the praesuls.

Smoke lines

This spec is best avoided by counting Nex's attacks; she performs 3 auto-attacks before the smoke line appears. She performs one of these attacks while in her crouching animation, so count two visible auto-attacks before moving away.

In slow/low experience teams, it is recommended to place the lines away from the rest of the team; it is not necessary to move so far to prevent the lines from appearing. In faster teams, simply call out which direction the smoke is coming from, especially if you are the base tank. This allows your teammates to quickly move before the smoke can hit them. The call-out phases for the smoke is "N" for north smoke and "E" for east smoke.

Note that a smoke line occupies two squares width adjacent to the direction they are coming from.

• For the North smoke, the smoke line will occupy the north line you are standing on as well as the North line one square west of you.
• For the East smoke, the smoke line will occupy the East line you are standing on as well as the East line one square South of you. Knowing this is crucial in safely placing a smoke line away from your teammates if you intend to stay near the octagon to continue DPSing.

Ice

If you are targeted for an ice attack, call out that you have been iced (referred to as "I"). Use Freedom and immediately move away from your teammates to avoid damaging and stunning them from the crashing icicle. If you have a powerburst of acceleration, use it when the icicle appears to immediately reset movement abilities (Surge or Escape) and break out of the icicle yourself without having your teammates having to free you, as you only take damage while stuck inside the icicle.

As the base tank, if you are targeted by the attack, call out you have been iced. It may be necessary to move if melee DPS players will not do so to avoid friendly fire.

Shadow pool

This mechanic is generally ignored because of their erratic spawns around the arena, which would result in lower DPS if the team went to each pool to cancel it out normally. In a seven man team, each player will take around 5357 hard typeless damage (more in smaller teams) when the pool explodes by itself. If the shadow is grabbed, then it deals 14000 hard typeless damage split across every player in the pool's radius. Regardless, the pool disables defensive abilities so be prepared to quickly burst eat to avoid being combo'ed out.

Alternatively, a player using a powerburst of vitality can eat up to max health and tank the pool, but this is seldom used as it is generally unnecessary and can harm other players if they won't move out of the pool's radius.

Pools that persist into the final phase should be indicated with a simple "pool" to alert your teammates to quickly eat up if they're at low health.

Before this phase starts, the base tank should lure Nex to the last crystal in the praesul kill order around 640,000 health. Nex will continue to chase after her primary target in melee distance, giving more than enough space for the rest of the team to safely attack crystals without being attacked by Nex. The most common cause of death in this phase is typically from shadow traps as a result of their carelessness for not moving out of range or the base tank reacting slowly to the start of this phase. If the base tank gets targeted by the elements instant-kill, the base tank should call out "mid" to the team so that their teammates can react accordingly if Nex ends up getting too close to the center. The Mobile perk, along with Bladed Dive and Surge and Barge/Greater Barge (if using melee) are extremely vital in catching up to each crystal as the kill order continues, minimising time to reach each one. The gap between each crystal is roughly 25 spaces each. Note that the latter ability may have a harder time to reach the crystal depending on the direction the player is approaching it from.

Bombs

First three Pillars

Bombs will be obtained at random intervals throughout the fight. When this happens, immediately head to the shield dome in the centre of the arena to block the attack. The attack only kills if the player is not within the shielded dome as the elements hit them. Because of this, a player can one-tick the attack by using Bladed Dive or Surge into the shield dome before the elements hit the player. Inexperienced players should instead make their way to the centre immediately to avoid being killed by the attack.

If the you were Soul Splitting off a pillar and are targeted by the attack, make sure to use Protect/Deflect Magic as you run back in, to reduce damage. This is also mandatory if the ice pillar is active as you may be frozen before you reach the dome.

Last Pillar

Place your Sunshine or Death's Swiftness at max cast distance away from the corner of the arena. If the entire team does this, bombs can be places on the edges of the arena without jeopardising your teammates ultimates. This allows for quick bomb placements and quick access back to your sun after you safely place a bomb.

Ability rotations

Note: If Detonate is listed twice in quick succession, this means the first instance is to start channeling to full, and the second instance is to release. See Stalling with target if learning Detonate rotations.

Phase 1

Limitless

   ▸   ▸ ▸ ▸   ▸ ▸   ▸ ▸ ▸   ▸ ▸   ▸ ▸  

Detonate

  ▸ ▸   ▸    ▸ ▸   ▸ ▸   ▸ ▸   ▸ ▸ ▸ ▸ ▸  

Alternate Detonate

  ▸ ▸ (If no Impatient Proc) ▸ ▸ ▸    ▸ ▸   ▸ ▸   ▸ ▸   ▸ ▸   ▸ ▸   ▸

Amalgamation

No Detonate

  ▸ ▸   ▸ Target Nex ▸

Detonate

▸ Channel to 100% ▸    ▸   ▸ Target Nex ▸

If Fumus Amalgamation is still low ▸

Phase 2

  ▸ ▸ ▸ Improvise to phase

Phase 3

as Damage Reduction is about to end. Time your to avoid the stun from the minion, so that remains off cooldown if you get iced. From there, do the sunshine rotation without an adrenaline potion that you can, and focus on phasing the boss as quickly as possible, while freeing teammates if they are iced.

Phase 1

  ▸ ▸   ▸ ▸ ▸ ▸ ▸ ▸ ▸ ▸ ▸ ▸ ▸ ▸

Phase 2

▸ ▸ ▸ ▸ Remove Mobile ▸ ▸ ▸ ▸ ▸ ▸ Cancel with ▸

Phase 3

  ▸ ▸ ▸   ▸ 188s/Thresholds ▸ Build to Berserk ▸ ▸ 188s/Thresholds until phased

Phase 1

   ▸ Auto ▸ ▸ ▸ ▸ ▸ wait a tick ▸   ▸ Auto ▸ ▸ ▸ ▸ ▸ ▸

Phase 2

▸ Prephase ▸ ▸ ▸ Target Umbra Amalgamation ▸ ▸ Target Glacies Amalgamation ▸ ▸ Target Nex ▸ ▸ ▸ ▸

Phase 3

During Phase 2 to Phase 3 Transition

▸ ▸ Tag a minion + DW Auto ▸ ▸

Start of Phase 3

▸ (For OH and 2H Auto) ▸ ▸ ▸ ▸ ▸ ▸ ▸ ▸ ▸ ▸ ▸ ▸ ▸ Auto ▸ ▸ ▸ ▸ ▸ ▸ ▸ ▸ Improvise

Alternate Phase 3 with Hydrix Proc

▸ ▸ ▸ ▸ ▸ ▸ ▸ ▸ ▸ ▸ ▸ Auto ▸ ▸ ▸ ▸ ▸ ▸ ▸ Improvise

Duo base

Considered an advanced strategy, duo base AoD is only recommended for those who are capable of doing the boss to a reasonable level in solo base teams. Due to Provoke juggling and near tanking, it is possible to get faster times in duo base, but this should be considered against higher food usage and difficulty. Additionally, the expectation of damage on the base 1 and base 2 is significantly higher than the expectations of a solo base. As such, it is recommended to only do duo base teams if the team is capable of getting consistent sub 3:30 times.

Roles

• Base 1 - Meleer who holds aggro of the boss during Phase 1, Phase 3, and Phase 4 after crystals are destroyed. Responsible for maintaining the Statius Warhammer affinity debuff. Apply at start, 1.8m, and last 600k (after last pillar dies).
• Base 2 - Ranger who holds aggro of the boss during Phase 2 and crystals. Clears minions after they're stacked in the middle. Responsible for holding aggro of the boss in the event that the base dies.
• Free mage - Responsible for maintaining Vulnerability on the boss and on pillars. Responsible for doing as much damage as possible to help phasing along.
• Minion lure - Binds reavers with Entangle or Ice Barrage during Phase 1. Additionally responsible for killing Amalgamations at the start of Phase 2, and luring the minion into the centre of the arena. Identical to solo base.

Base 1

The B1 is the meleer, and is responsible for holding aggression during phases 1 and 3 as well the last 600,000 health after pillars are dead. Additionally, the B1 is responsible for phasing during phase 2 with the usage of Berserk, as well as maintaining the Statius's warhammer debuff on the boss.

50

2

• Superior Statius's warhammer is necessary for this role
• Zaros godsword is necessary for this role
• Erethdor's grimoire is best-in-slot but can still be substituted with Armadyl's Book of Law, Saradomin's Book of Wisdom, or their illuminated variants
• Pouch 1 =
• Pouch 2 =
  • Access to Group Vengeance and Disruption Shield is extremely important for B1 due to the amount of hits taken

Base 2

As B2, your job is to hold aggression of the boss during phase 2, allowing the B1 to Berserk, as well as holding the boss during pillars, helping the B1 not use all their food and allowing them to Berserk the second and third pillars. Beyond this, it is crucial to clear minions quickly to prevent minion lures from getting second stuns. On phases 1 and 2 your job is to do damage and help phasing along. During phase 3, switch to mechanised chinchompas to clear minions with AoE.

50

	5
			50
2

• Mechanised chinchompas are necessary for this role
• Eldritch crossbow is useful to speed up phase 2
• Hydrix bakriminel bolts (e) are useful for speeding up adrenaline gain in the faster-paced kills
• Erethdor's grimoire is best-in-slot but can be replaced with a superior scrimshaw of cruelty
• Enhanced Excalibur and any mainhand Melee weapon for Bladed Dive
• Pouch 1 =
• Pouch 2 =
  • As with the B1, it is also important to have access to Group Vengeance and Disruption Shield as the B2

Free mage

The free mage has no tanking role and is responsible for keeping Vulnerability applied on Nex, the pillars, and optionally the Umbra and Glacies minions. It's duties also includes speeding up phase 2, helping to clear the Shadow amalgamation, and holding aggression during pillars if the B2 dies.

	2

• More Summoning flasks to fill unneeded inventory space
• Enhanced Excalibur and any mainhand Melee weapon for Bladed Dive
• Rune pouch =

• • The free mage typically uses the Normal Spellbook to facilitate easy access to Vulnerability. However, this may be swapped out Ancients if the player is comfortable enough with Spellbook Swap.

Minion lure

Minion luring is identical in responsibility and execution in both team compositions.

Minion lure setup (advanced)

		2

• Super Saradomin brew flasks to help sustain during pillars
• Summoning flasks to maintain steel titan special attacks throughout the fight
• A shield or defender, mainly used to stall adrenaline before the fight. In this case, a defender with Planted Feet can be used to save an inventory slot
• Seismic singularity or any other offhand Magic weapon for Flanking switch
• Dragon rider amulet switch for increased damage when using Dragon Breath
• Enhanced Excalibur and any mainhand Melee weapon for Bladed Dive
• Pouch 1 =
• Pouch 2 =
• Pouch 3 =
  • The above combination of runes allows the user to use the Ancients spellbook, giving access to Blood Barrage, Ice Barrage (for binding reavers), Disruption Shield for damage mitigation, Spellbook Swap to access lunars, and Vengeance for extra damage.

Strategies

Aside from the obvious features of duo base strategies, including near tanking on pillars and having two tanks, there are some minor differences to how each phase is handled that are important to know and be able to optimise. Some of them are applicable to solo base teams as well but are listed in this section due to being far more common in duo base.

The B1 starts off tanking the boss with the B2 using Provoke right before the elements spec. The bases are then typically positioned with the B1 directly south of the boss and the B2 directly north. Upon phasing into phase 2, the B2 will maintain and hold aggression until the beginning of phase 3. During this time, the free mage helps to clear the Umbra lure's amalgamation while the B2 helps the Glacies and Cruor lures. During phase 3, the B1 will start by voking the boss back and holding aggression for the remainder of the phase. 3 Auto attacks after Nex's first spec in the phase, the B1 should Slaughter and walk the boss south 2 squares. This allows for a smoke line to be placed on top of the B1's original position, as well as for any other bleeds to be walked, considering they do this properly.

Smoke lines

With the restricted mobility of the bases, learning to place a safe smoke line becomes far more important.

A north-south line placed directly West of another player is safe

An east-west line placed directly South of another player is safe

This is the most troublesome phase for this method of doing AoD, as the boss is constantly hitting the entire team for the remainder of the kill. Nevertheless, the focus should still be on outputting damage while spam eating food. Super saradomin brew flasks are extremely good here as they provide ample healing while not having a big enough impact to drop hit chance on the pillars below 100%. Players should still look for any opportunities to drink summoning flasks whenever possible and remember to call their steel titans on each pillar. Once the shadow crystal is destroyed, it becomes much safer to stay at lower health and the ice crystal opens up the option to Soul Split flick.

Bombs

Bombs can no longer be placed on top of the DPS pile as the boss is in range for them to deal damage. A player who has a bomb should place it along the wall near the currently active pillar while the rest of the team should avoid standing near walls. Resonance can be used when moving to the middle to conserve food. Once the team reaches the last pillar, any available space along the nearby walls should be reserved for bomb placement. It's important to not waste too much time out of Sunshine or Death's Swiftness to place a bomb, so use proper judgement to prevent DPS loss or killing a teammate.

Ability rotations

Note: If Detonate is listed twice in quick succession, this means the first instance is to start channelling to full, and the second instance is to release. See Stalling with target if learning Detonate rotations.

Phase 1

Limitless

   ▸   ▸ ▸ ▸   ▸ ▸   ▸ ▸ ▸   ▸ ▸   ▸ ▸  

Detonate

   ▸ ▸ ▸   ▸ ▸   ▸ ▸   ▸ ▸   ▸ ▸ ▸ ▸ ▸  

Alternate Detonate

  ▸ ▸ (If no Impatient Proc) ▸ ▸   ▸   ▸ ▸   ▸ ▸   ▸ ▸   ▸ ▸   ▸ ▸   ▸

Amalgamation

No Detonate

  ▸ ▸   ▸ Target Nex ▸

Detonate

▸ Channel to 100% ▸    ▸   ▸ Target Nex ▸

Phase 2

  ▸ ▸ ▸ Improvise to phase

Phase 3

as Damage Reduction is about to end. Time your to avoid the stun from the minion, so that remains off cooldown if you get iced. From there, do the sunshine rotation without an adrenaline potion that you can, and focus on phasing the boss as quickly as possible, while freeing teammates if they are iced.

▸   ▸ ▸   ▸ ▸   ▸ ▸   ▸ ▸ ▸   ▸ ▸   ▸ ▸   ▸ ▸  

Phase 1

   ▸ ▸ Channel to 100% ▸    ▸   ▸ ▸   ▸ ▸ ▸ ▸ ▸   ▸ ▸   ▸ ▸

Phase 2

▸ Channel to 100% ▸ for 3 hits ▸ ▸ ▸   ▸

Phase 3

  ▸ ▸   ▸ ▸   ▸ ▸   ▸ or ▸   ▸ ▸   ▸ ▸   ▸ ▸ ▸ ▸

Phase 1

  ▸ ▸   ▸ ▸ ▸ ▸ ▸ ▸ ▸ ▸ ▸ for OH and 2H Auto, due to adren gain ▸ ▸ ▸

Phase 2

Build to 100 ▸ ▸ ▸ ▸ Remove Mobile ▸ ▸ ▸ ▸ ▸ ▸ ▸   ▸ 188s to Phase

Phase 3

DW ▸ ▸ ▸ Fillers until GCD before Phase ▸ ▸ 188s ▸ ▸ 188s ▸   ▸ Do damage to phase (Prioritise over to help manage cooldowns for pillars)

Phase 1

   ▸ Auto ▸ ▸ ▸ ▸ ▸ wait a tick ▸   ▸ Auto ▸ ▸ ▸ ▸ ▸ ▸

Phase 2

Prephase ▸ ▸ ▸ Target Glacies Amalgamation ▸ ▸ ▸ Target Cruor Amalgamation ▸ Target Nex ▸ ▸

Phase 3

During Phase 2 to Phase 3 Transition

▸ ▸ Tag a minion + DW Auto ▸ ▸

Start of Phase 3

▸ (For OH and 2H Auto) ▸ ▸ ▸ ▸ ▸ ▸ ▸ ▸ ▸ ▸ ▸ ▸ ▸ Auto ▸ ▸ ▸ ▸ ▸ ▸ ▸ ▸ Improvise

Alternate Phase 3 with Hydrix Proc

▸ ▸ ▸ ▸ ▸ ▸ ▸ ▸ ▸ ▸ ▸ Auto ▸ ▸ ▸ ▸ ▸ ▸ ▸ Improvise

Miscellaneous information

There are several niche combat tricks and game mechanics that are useful to know at AoD. These may be focused on increasing damage up-time on the boss or to prevent/fix any potential mistakes that may occur. This section is dedicated to documenting these important tactics that were either not covered or only referenced briefly in the main guide. Any phase 1 rotation in this guide that utilises a defensive ability to build adrenaline before the kill is heavily tied to Stalling with target.

Freedom entangle

Freedom entangling with inputs

Casting Freedom with dual-wield weapons equipped will force a lossless off-hand auto attack. In the case of Magic, this can be used to cast Entangle and Vulnerability instantly without having to 4 tick auto attack. This is primarily applicable on the Blood reavers that spawn during phase 1, allowing you to entangle them after you have finished your ability rotation, as opposed to giving up an auto attack. The free mage can also use this to apply Vulnerability to targets rapidly during phase 2, while the other combat styles can simply use this for faster Adrenaline gain.

Select target ▸ ▸

Select target ▸ ▸

Select target ▸ ▸

Stalling with target

Many of the phase 1 rotations given in this guide list a defensive ability after Sunshine or Death's Swiftness. This allows you to gain an additional 8% (11% in the case Impatient procs) Adrenaline losslessly before Nex becomes targetable. This can improve the quality of your phase 1 rotation and allows you to execute the Detonate rotations for Magic. However, this involves a strict set of circumstances to set up properly.
To stall with target you must:

• Not drop combat from the previous kill or a combat dummy placed in the bank area
• To do the previous step you must Adrenaline stall until you cast Sunshine or Death's Swiftness
• Do not attempt to cast an offensive ability while stalling or you will get the "You don't have a target." message, dropping your target stall
• In the 10 seconds leading up to casting your ultimate ability, you must only stall with Surge, Escape, or Bladed Dive

If you have done this successfully, you will gain Adrenaline for your first defensive ability after using your ultimate ability
If doing the Detonate rotations, you must also attempt to cast an offensive ability after you have already gained Adrenaline from your defensive ability, receiving the "You don't have a target." message. Otherwise, Detonate will cost 30% Adrenaline due to an unintended interaction. If done properly this will look like:

   ▸ 100% Adrenaline ▸   ▸ Any defensive basic ability ▸ 48% Adrenaline ▸ Any offensive ability ▸   ▸ 33% Adrenaline ▸ Target Nex ▸   ▸ Continue rotation

Off-centre minions

Diagram for showing which squares AoE abilities will hit when targeting Nex; the black square shows the area where a minion must be pulled to in order to relure it

For NPCs that occupy more than a 1x1 space, the "centre" square for said target will be the South-West square. For Nex, she occupies a 3x3 space and her "centre" square is the South-West most square. When you are attacking with mechanised chinchompas, the 3x3 area-of-effect (AoE) from the chins will protrude from Nex's centre (the South-West square). This means that if all minions are lured correctly and standing in the centre of the octagon underneath Nex, they will be hit by the chin AoE. However, if a minion is mislured standing too far North or East (away from the Nex's South-West "centre") the chin AoE will not reach the mislured minion. As the chinner, you should be aware of this and be prepared to single-target minions if any happened to be mislured.

As a minion lure, you should also be aware of this and be prepared to fix a mislured minion. This is mostly relevant to the Glacies and Cruor lures as the minions located North of Nex are at the greatest risk of being mislured. To fix a mislured minion, it must be pulled anywhere on to the 3x3 area pictured. In the common case of minions stuck too far north of Nex, simply step one square away horizontally from your minion to fix it. If you notice that another minion has been mislured, you can also opt to Shock, Demoralise, or Kick it into place, although this should be considered against losing the cooldown on their respective Flanking abilities.

Recentring

An example of a B1 recentring Angel of Death.

Off-centre Nex no longer happens randomly after an update but can still occur due to player error. In this case, knowing how to recentre the boss effectively becomes important in maintaining the quality of the kill. The consistent method of doing this is to step into the centre square of the arena and then move directly opposite of where Nex ends up. Most of the time she will end up diagonal from the centre and must be recentred by moving appropriately away. For experienced players, this can be condensed into a single movement as long as Nex is more than one square off centre.