OSRS Nex Predictions from an RS2 Veteran


Date	2021-11-16
Type	news-opinion
Video	youtu.be/fQySZrGmyOY

Summary

Gnomonkey, who says he did a ton of Nex in RuneScape 2, predicts how Nex will work when Jagex brings her to Old School RuneScape. He recalls how the fight worked in RS2 phase by phase, compares her mechanics to the Great Olm and the Nightmare, and predicts access, kill count, gear choices and drops such as Torva armour, the Zaryte crossbow and Blood essence.

Outline

0:00 Intro: Nex in RS2 and her history of profit and difficulty
0:31 How accessing Nex will work: frozen door, key mini quest, kill count
1:36 PKers in the Wilderness God Wars Dungeon, ancient ceremonial robes and the death reclaim NPC
2:08 Nex as a mix of the Great Olm and Nightmare
2:41 Phase order, health and max hits
3:12 Gear: ranged, bow of Faerdhinen, twisted bow, rapier, scythe, specs, crossbows
4:46 Predicted defence-drain mechanics
5:13 General fight structure: magic attack, tank, bodyguards
5:43 Smoke phase
6:44 Shadow phase
7:48 Blood phase
8:50 Ice phase
9:52 Final phase and death explosion
10:50 Loot rules and room exit
11:18 Torva armour and other predicted drops
14:18 Blood essence and conclusion

Topics covered

Nex

(0:00) Gnomonkey says Nex was the most difficult God Wars Dungeon boss added in RuneScape 2 and by far the most profitable and difficult boss at release.
(0:00) In RS2, Nex dropped new best-in-slot armour sets for every style plus a powerful wand and bow; the Torva platebody fetched over 600 million GP after release and the Pernix body over 800 million.
(0:00) In RS2 Nex required the best items available and large teams, and was completely unsolo-able for months after release.
(0:31) Gnomonkey says bringing Nex to Old School is an update he has been begging for, and that he did a ton of Nex in RS2.
(2:41) Nex is a general of Zaros, so each phase represents an Ancient Magicks spell; in order the phases were smoke, shadow, blood, ice, then one final phase where Nex activated Turmoil and Soul Split.
(2:41) Gnomonkey says RS2 Nex had the Old School equivalent of 3,000 health, auto melee attacks with a max hit of 36, and many special attacks hitting over 70.
(3:12) People mainly used ranged to fight Nex in RS2, although this changed a bit as the boss was updated.
(3:43) Roughly a year after RS2 release, Nex was updated to randomly use Deflect Ranged on any phase, protecting her from ranged damage and deflecting part of it back, so a melee switch was needed.
(5:13) Throughout the RS2 fight Nex used a magic attack that hit everyone in the room, and chose a tank based on range defence to hit with melee attacks that hit very hard but only a single target, so it was often optimal to end within melee range of her.
(5:13) The RS2 fight involved lowering Nex's HP to a threshold where that phase's bodyguard became vulnerable, with four bodyguards in the room's corners, and the bodyguard had to be killed before the next phase began, similar to the Nightmare's pillars.
(5:43) Nex's special attacks were always used in the same order, often after a certain number of attacks in each phase, similar to Verzik's phase 3.
(10:50) In RS2 Nex's drops went to the player who dealt the most damage and the room could only be left by teleporting out or dying; Gnomonkey predicts Old School will give everyone their own drop like the Nightmare, possibly with an MVP mechanic for more loot.
(11:18) In RS2 roughly one-third of Nex kills dropped a huge pile of brews and restores; if that drop exists in Old School it will make longer trips very possible.
(14:18) Gnomonkey says he is incredibly excited for the release of Nex and asks viewers to comment what they expect to see.

Update: Nex

(0:31) As of November 2021, Jagex announced it would bring Nex to Old School RuneScape.
(0:31) Gnomonkey predicts Nex will be behind the frozen door in the God Wars Dungeon; in RS2 it required collecting frozen key fragments from killing monsters of each faction, which shattered after five uses.
(1:03) Because the news post said access would be unlocked from a mini quest, Gnomonkey assumes it will be a permanent key gained after the quest, likely still involving killing monsters in the God Wars Dungeon.
(1:03) Gnomonkey says Nex will require kill count like any other boss and will almost certainly be the most difficult kill count in the dungeon, as the news post said it consists of spiritual creatures and blood reavers, neither of which are easy.
(1:03) Gnomonkey expects ecumenical keys to work for Nex, preferable to getting kill count, and recommends collecting some before release because getting them will be awful afterwards.
(1:36) Gnomonkey tells PKers to sharpen their pitchforks, since a lot of wealthy PvMers will be in the Wilderness God Wars Dungeon.
(1:36) Gnomonkey says Jagex will add the ancient ceremonial robes set, which in RS2 let you access Nex without kill count, but in Old School it will not bypass kill count and is practically just cosmetic monk robes.
(2:08) Gnomonkey notes the news post mentioned the NPC guarding the door but no bank, so he expects no banker there and the ghost to be a death reclaim NPC like Torfinn for Vorkath.
(2:08) Gnomonkey warns that if you die at Nex and run back you should take ancient protection, and predicts another 'Hydra day of release scandal' where people lose their gear to stupidity.

Nex gear and weapon predictions

(3:12) Gnomonkey says the shadow phase requires staying very far away to avoid constant damage ticks, so a long-range weapon would be useful and he could see the Bow of Faerdhinen being ideal for that phase.
(3:12) Gnomonkey doubts Jagex would make the twisted bow good at Nex since it is already so good in many places; he expects her to have a lower Magic level so the twisted bow is bad there.
(3:43) Gnomonkey says the chaotic rapier was very common in RS2 Nex and is almost the same as the Ghrazi rapier in Old School, and he expects the rapier to see at least some use.
(3:43) Gnomonkey says the scythe of Vitur should not work well at Nex because she is a relatively small 2x2 target, giving only two hit splits instead of three.
(4:13) Gnomonkey expects heavy-DPS special attack weapons like dragon claws and dragon halberd to be used in the blood phase; claws saw a lot of use in RS2.
(4:13) The news post said Nex would be vulnerable to crossbows; in the RS2 fight only her mages were weak to crossbows, and Gnomonkey says crossbows are relatively awful in Old School and would only be useful if she has damage reduction against everything but crossbows or a higher bolt proc chance.
(4:46) Gnomonkey expects Nex to have defence mechanics similar to the Nightmare, either undrainable (like against a dragon warhammer) or drainable only to a cap that resets each phase, such as 150 down to 120 defence.

Nex

(5:43) In RS2 the smoke phase used a smoke rush attack that poisons everyone in the room, so Gnomonkey expects Sanfew serums to see a lot of use in this phase.
(5:43) The smoke phase's first special was the virus: Nex shouts 'Let the virus flow through you' and infects a player, draining their stats and prayer and damaging them, spreading to adjacent players and resetting its timer if spread; Gnomonkey says this is verbatim the Great Olm's burn attack.
(6:14) Her next smoke phase special was a dash: Nex shouts 'There is no escape' and rapidly dashes across the room, heavily damaging anyone in her way, but damage dealt to her while dashing was completely nullified; Gnomonkey says it is almost the exact same as the Nightmare's surge special.
(6:44) Her final smoke phase special was a drag, where she grabbed a random player and dragged them to melee distance, disabling their prayers and stunning them in place for a few seconds.
(6:44) After enough damage, the bodyguard in the northwestern corner had to be killed before the shadow phase.

Nex

(6:44) In the shadow phase Nex used a Shadow Rush attack that drains prayer points if it hits; it was magic but counted as ranged damage, so this is the one phase where you pray ranged instead of magic.
(6:44) Her first shadow special, 'Fear the Shadow', placed shadows under every player that damaged you if you did not move in time, which Gnomonkey says is the exact same as the Nightmare's Grasp and Claws.
(7:16) Her second shadow special, 'Embrace Darkness', made the room darker the closer you were to Nex; within melee range you took constant damage that wore off only if you stayed out of her range for ten to fifteen seconds, with ground shadows also accompanying it.
(7:16) After enough damage the bodyguard in the northeast corner became vulnerable, and killing it started the blood phase.

Nex

(7:48) Gnomonkey says the blood phase is what will make it incredibly hard to kill Nex solo or in small groups.
(7:48) In the blood phase Nex used Blood Blitz auto attacks that directly heal her for damage dealt, similar to P2 Verzik after 35% health.
(7:48) Her first blood special, Blood Siphon, summoned two Blood Reavers after a short delay; attacking Nex at that point healed her for 100% of the damage dealt, and the reavers rapidly healed her until killed.
(8:16) Her second blood special, 'I demand a blood sacrifice', marked a random player red; if they did not run at least 7 tiles from Nex she sapped 10% of their HP and healed for 10 times the damage, and it also halved all other players' prayer points, similar to Olm prayer orbs.
(8:16) Gnomonkey says in the blood phase you want to keep your prayer points relatively low.
(8:16) After enough damage the southeast bodyguard became vulnerable, but Nex kept using specials and healing, and her health carried over to the next phase, so you often had to do about two phases' worth of health.

Nex

(8:50) In the ice phase her auto attacks froze you in place if not prayed against and drained prayer with each hit, so it was common to get smited and frozen.
(8:50) Her most iconic special, the Ice Prison attack ('Die now'), trapped and stunned a random player in a square of icicles and instantly disabled their prayers; if not freed by others attacking the icicles it dealt 60 to 80 damage, and with her autos continuing they were typically killed; Gnomonkey says it is extremely similar to the Great Olm's firewall.
(9:18) Her other ice special, 'Contain this', blasted icicles diagonally out from herself that hit for roughly 35, froze you in place and disabled your prayers.
(9:52) After enough damage the southwest bodyguard became vulnerable, and killing it began the final phase.

Nex

(9:52) The final phase had no special attacks but increased the effectiveness of all her regular attacks, buffing her max hit across the board; she immediately healed roughly one sixth of her health and activated Turmoil and Soul Split.
(10:19) Turmoil made her attacks drain your stats with each successful hit and transfer them to Nex, similar to the bats in the Inferno, while Soul Split made her heal for damage dealt.
(10:19) In the final phase she randomly activated Deflect Melee, which blocked all melee damage and could reflect it, and more rarely Deflect Magic or Ranged; her melee attacks hit anyone in front of her in a 3x3 square.
(10:19) Gnomonkey says he hopes the Turmoil and Soul Split phase is added to Old School because it would be so cool.
(10:50) In RS2 the tank would often use a staff of light special attack to negate some of the massive melee damage in the final phase.
(10:50) When killed, Nex shouted 'Taste my wrath' and exploded in a huge area around herself for massive damage before being defeated.

The Nightmare

(2:08) Gnomonkey says the Old School team pulled many mechanics for the Great Olm and the Nightmare from Nex's old design.
(2:41) Gnomonkey says the Nightmare is actually based on 'Nex: Angel of Death', which is basically Nex 2 for RS3.
(5:13) Gnomonkey says Nex choosing a tank by range defence for heavy single-target melee hits is very similar to the Nightmare.

Torva armour

(11:18) Gnomonkey predicts Torva armour (helmet, chestplate and legs) will be Nex's main big-ticket drop, each piece giving a dramatic strength bonus increase over Bandos, for a total of +8 strength, along with higher defence stats.
(11:50) Gnomonkey predicts each Torva piece requires shredded Bandos armour: the body needs three components, legs two and helmet one, with a Bandos chestplate giving three components and tassets two; he expects the components and the repaired Torva to be tradable.
(11:50) Gnomonkey doubts this will dramatically increase the price of Bandos but expects it to help keep it at its current price.
(12:20) Gnomonkey expects Torva to be best in slot anywhere Bandos was used and to replace Inquisitor's armour in many places, such as challenge mode raids, the Kalphite Queen and Cerberus, and to be her most valuable drop.

Nex

(12:20) Gnomonkey predicts Nex will drop Zaryte vambraces, the new best-in-slot ranged gloves with a ranged strength bonus of +2, sought after but not her best drop.
(12:49) Gnomonkey says the Zaryte crossbow is the new best crossbow with a ranged attack bonus of +110, a passive that increases bolt proc effectiveness by 10% (for example ruby bolts from 100 to 110 damage), and a 75% special attack that guarantees a bolt proc if it lands.
(13:18) Gnomonkey says the Zaryte crossbow could be useful in speedruns for the near-guaranteed ruby proc special or on Nex herself, but is generally not powerful anywhere and he is underwhelmed, hoping it is adjusted after release.
(13:18) Gnomonkey says the ancient godsword hilt is the only reward he voted no to; its 50% special attack has double accuracy and 10% extra damage, and if the target does not move more than 5 tiles in 8 ticks it hits a 25 and heals you for that much.
(13:50) Gnomonkey says the ancient godsword special is designed as a PvP spec weapon, he sees no PvM use for it as the Saradomin godsword is always better on average, and he expects it to be her least valuable drop.
(13:50) Gnomonkey says he would not mind Nex dropping a godsword but the special definitely needs a rework.
(13:50) Nex will also drop Blood essence, which can be activated while crafting blood runes to increase runes by 50% until its charges run out, allowing 1,000 additional runes; multiple can be stacked, and Gnomonkey calls it a great idea that helps curb the cost of blood runes.