Nex Solo Guide (Obsolete)

Nex Solo Guide

The title explains it all. I know quite a few people have been wanting/meaning to start soloing Nex, but have had trouble doing so. I'm making this guide to help them out, as well as anyone else who wants to get into it. Equipment, inventory and tactics will all be covered here. Keep in mind, this is only the setup that I personally use. Setups/ability bars/equipment will vary from person to person.

Equipment:


Substitutions:
Armour - Tetsu > Torva > Bandos^.
Weapons - Drygores required. Cannot be substituted.
Boots - Steads > Torva > Bandos > Dragon.
Gloves - Pneumatic > Torva/Goliaths > Culinaromancer 10's.
Cape - Completionist > Max > TokHaar-Kal > Fire Cape
Amulet - Desert Amulet 4* > Amulet of Fury > Amulet of Glory.
Ring - Onyx (i) > 6th Age Circuit > Ring of Vigor
Shield - Arcane/Divine > Farseer/Chaotic > Anything else. A magic shield is preferred, as it will be used primarily on the Zaros phase.

^ Keep in mind Torva has 30% more armour rating than Bandos, and Tetsu has 30% more than Torva.
* Desert amulet provides unlimited teleports to Nardah, where you can fully restore your HP and Prayer at the altar then bank to the south.

Additionally:
Auras - Penance is by far the best aura to use, it almost eliminates the need for prayer restoration. Vampyrism is also useful.
Scrimshaws - Vampyrism is the best scrimshaw to use, and can be bought for <1m now, meaning it only costs ~330k gp per hour to use. Extremely useful, especially when first starting out.
Ammo - If you aren't wearing a Torva/Pernix/Virtus item, wearing a Saradomin Arrow prevents the Saradomin followers from attacking you on the way to the frozen door.

Inventory:


- Rocktails are better than shark, especially if you're just starting out. After you become more experienced you can drop down to sharks to save money.
- Be sure to food-brew whenever you're eating. By eating a piece of food then a brew straight after, the effects of both will stack allowing for faster healing.
- As a side-note, there are two additional boosts that may come in handy: The bonfire hp boost, and the Glacor cave boost.

Summoning Familar:
- Use the best Beast of Burden you have at your disposal. Fill it with rocktails/sharks.
- If you have a Champion's Tacklebox, it might be worth bringing a bunyip also.
- Have your summoning icon set to "Withdraw BoB" for easy access to food.

Action Bars:

Offensive:


Defensive:


Offensive abilities are pretty straight-forward, everyone has had experience with them. A few tips, however:
- Nex cannot be stunned, although stun abilities still deal the massive 188% weapon damage to her. Kick also still pushes her back a square.
- If you use Slaughter, use Kick straight after to push her back a square and make Slaughter deal 3x damage.
- Nex has a tendency to spin on the spot - This breaks combo abilities such as Destroy and Assault. Destroy stops after one spin, Assault stops after two spins. She uses this the most on Blood Phase.
- You will only need the Berserk ultimate for Blood Phase - Otherwise keep your adrenaline bar as high as possible to unleash as many thresholds as possible.
- Dismember and Slaughter should NOT be used on Blood Phase - This will be explained in the Blood Phase section.

Defensive abilities are the ones people have less experience with, yet are very easy to use.
- Anticipation will only be used on Smoke Phase to prevent you from being dragged by Nex, whilst Freedom will be used to escape drags and unstun yourself from ice prisons.
- Resonance ensures that the next hit you take heals you instead of hurting you, whilst Preparation reduces the time Resonance takes to recharge. Always use Preparation straight after Resonance.
- Guthix's Blessing is also a useful ultimate, healing you 40% of your hp without needing a shield equipped. The butterfly can die seemingly randomly, however, but more often than not you will be healed the full amount without it dying.

Phase Strategies:

Smoke Phase:
Action Bar: Offensive
Protect Prayer: Defect Melee -> Deflect Magic for Fumus
Difficulty: 1/5 (Easiest)
Weapons/Shield: Dual Drygores.

Tips:
- Use anticipation after she says "Fill my soul with Smoke!". This prevents you from being dragged for the first part of the fight.
- Avoid standing inside the central platform, incase she sweeps you for 3.5k damage. It is safest to hit her several times then run outside the west side of the platform, and south several squares to lure her out.
- ALWAYS use anticipation as soon as it recharges. If you are dragged, use Freedom to break it and attempt to put your prayer back on ASAP.
- When Fumus becomes vulnerable, change your overhead to Deflect Magic.

Shadow Phase:
Action Bar: Offensive
Protect Prayer: Deflect Range
Difficulty: 2/5
Weapons/Shield: Dual Drygores.

Tips:
- Do not stand in melee distance of Nex for more than 2 abilities, or you will be hit for 300-500 damage every tick. It is safest to use 1-2 abilities, run back a square and repeat.
- Time your moving-back-and-forth to avoid being hit by her melee attacks. Her range attacks will only hit ~200, whilst her melee will hit constant 800-1200 damage. Takes some practice and extra attention, but definitely worth it.
- Upon "Fear the shadow", move off the tile/shadow immediately. Failure to move within the second will result in ~3000 damage.
- I prefer to start the phase by using Slaughter + Kick on nex, then build to full adrenaline and use Guthix's Blessing to heal.
- Whilst you are killing Umbra, always keep an eye on Nex. It's easy to be caught offguard by her "Fear the shadow!" attacks whilst killing Umbra.
- Ensure that you will have enough adrenaline to have a full bar by the time you kill Umbra, otherwise you will not be able to Berserk on the next phase and will only prolong the fight.

Blood Phase:
Action Bar: Offensive
Protect Prayer: Deflect Magic
Difficulty: 4/5
Weapons/Shield: Dual Drygores.

Tips:
- Use Berserk as soon as the phase begins and she exits her initial Siphon, the drink a sip of your adrenaline potion.
- Never hit Nex during her Siphons, always walk back a step. Hitting her on a siphon will heal her for triple the amount of damage you hit.
- Likewise, do not use bleed attacks such as Dismember and Slaughter on Nex. These will also heal her.
- Focus on doing as much damage as possible. You want to get this phase complete as soon as you possibly can.
- Assault and Destroy are very useful abilities, yet keep in mind that if you see her spin on the spot, she has just cancelled the remaining hits of those abilities.
- Whilst killing Cruor, drink another dose of overload. That is generally the halfway mark of the fight.

Ice Phase:
Action Bar: Offensive
Protect Prayer: Deflect Magic
Difficulty: 5/5 (Hardest)
Weapons/Shield: Dual Drygores.

Tips:
- Always keep Deflect Magic on during this phase. If it drops, her ice attacks will stun you.
- During her "Contain this!" run away 3-4 squares. A line of icicles will follow you and hit ~1.5k damage - You can prevent this by using the Contain ice crystals surrounding Nex as a protective wall.
- When she states "Die now, in a prison of ice!", this is the most dangerous part of the entire fight. Use freedom instantly, then heal up to your maximum HP. She *will* hit you for ~6k damage and turn off your prayer. Reactivate your Deflect Magic and eat back to full HP whilst still attacking her.
- Continue to use threshold abilities to get this phase over ASAP.
- When Glacies becomes vulnerable, be wary of Nex's "Contain this!" attack. When she says it, move a fair distance away from Glacies until Nex uses the attack.

Zaros Phase:
Action Bar: Defensive
Protect Prayer: Deflect Magic
Difficulty: 3/5
Weapons/Shield: Drygore + Shield

Tips:
- In this phase, Nex prays Soul Split, Deflect Melee, and can lower your prayer by 100 prayer points randomly.
- Always keep your prayer high, her magic attacks can hit 3k damage if your prayer drops.
- When she Deflects Melee, click on your familar or the tile below you to stop attacking her. In this time, use defensive abilities and heal up/restore prayer until her deflect drops.
- Resonance and Preparation are your best friends in this phase. Always use them to heal. Guthix's Blessing/Rejuvinate should also have recharged by this point, so use either of those to heal.
- When you become more experienced, you can start to drop your overhead prayer to gain more HP from Resonance.
- When she drops her prayers, use as many thresholds and basics as possible to deal maximum damage. Also be aware that if you use a bleed attack whilst she is praying SS, and then she uses Deflect Melee, those bleed effects will be reflected onto you and damage you.
- If you're lucky, she will pray Deflect Range during this phase. If that happens, she will not SS or Deflect Melee for ~90 seconds, allowing for you to deal much more damage. It is also advised to use an ultimate such as Massacre if this happens.
- When Nex dies she will use Wrath, which will damage anyone standing within 4 squares of her. Run out of this range as soon as you see her die to avoid the damage from said Wrath.
- Whilst you are avoiding Wrath, equip your Ring of Wealth in the process for the additional chance of better drops.


Well, I think that's pretty much it. If you have any questions, or if I've missed anything, feel free to post and I'll see what I can do.

Torva has damage boost which tetsu does not. If you are experienced I would suggest using it in favour of tetsu to speed up the kills slightly. Some people even solo in void for the extra damage. (Some without shield! )

I like this part:

Shmako wrote:

Weapons - Required. Cannot be substituted.

It's true but doesn't really mention what weapons. Brb nex solo with dual bronze daggers.

You can do without brews if you want to keep your stats high and thus cause more damage = slightly faster kills. They can be quite good during the ice phase however. If freedom has not recharged for the ice prisons then you can still drink brews, ovls and prayer restoring potions to help you survive before the imminent 5k-6k damage from the prison. You can also withdraw from your BoB during this time.

Ice phase is definitely the hardest. If you are soloing with a shield then I would strongly advise using it here. When you are trapped within the ice prison use freedom and then the barricade ultimate (shield req) to avoid being hit for 5k-6k damage. You can soulsplit for a couple of seconds while the barricade effect is active. You will be able to use barricade everyother ice prison so maybe switch to dual drygores after the first ice prison and then back to shield right before the third ice prison.

Using shield on ice phase may slow down the kill slightly but it will preserve your food. Therefore you should have sufficient food to instead use dual drygores on the last phase. Use a shield if you fear your food supply might not last, however.

EDIT: Oh and ring of wealth is for superstitious nubs.

All of that works too, ofc. I prefer not to use a shield on ice, I'd rather get it over with ASAP. Using barricade means you can't use thresholds often enough, but that's just my preference.

As for brews, I think the slightly decreased stats are worth the faster healing and healing with adrenaline being drained. And I don't really have an opinion on Torva, seems to work just as well as Tetsu.

I use a ROW just to be on the safe side. They do influence rare/unique items, and 1 less shark isn't going to have an impact at all.

That extra rocktail helps when you start going for 2 kills per trip though. Same goes for blocking the ice prisons with barricade to save food.

Shmako wrote:

- When she Deflects Melee, click on your familar or the tile below you to stop attacking her. In this time, use defensive abilities and heal up/restore prayer until your deflect drops.

Due to a recent nerf this doesn't work anymore. Using abilities such as anticipation, freedom, preparation, resonance and rejuvenate will cause you to go after your target again. If Nex's deflect melee is up then you will take damage should you accidentally attack her due to using such abilities. To counter it you can try running away at the same time as you use the ability. Oh and you typo'd "until your deflect drops", instead of until her deflect drops. EDIT: Jagex has patched it so it works like before now.

Perhaps you could add a bit about bonfire boost and glacor boost as well.

I would like to apologize to you if it seems that I'm only carping at your guide. I can assure you that that is not the case. I just want to help.

You should totally add a section on how to deal with crashers!

Thanks for the feedback, Villi.

Added a bit about bonfire + Glacor Cave boosts, and I'm glad that Jagex un-nerfed auto-retaliating when using defensive abilities. That led to a lot more damage than was necessary.

As for crashers, I've only ever been crashed once so I can't really comment. I have a nice window to solo Nex in from 4pm - 12pm my time, when all the Americans are sleeping and Nex isn't as crowded. I've had worlds stolen when I was banking, but I figured it easier to just hop, and the one time I was crashed was when I soloed outside of my Nexing window.

Neat guide, I'm going to try soloing once I get the rest of my tetsu :]