“I encourage fools to waste their life in fantasy. ”
Gaxkang the Unbound is an ancient demon encountered in the Quaint Hovel.
Background[]
“The first of the magus cast themselves deep in the Fade in search of answers and power, always power. They found the forbidden ones – Xebenkeck, Imshael, Gaxkang the Unbound, and The Formless One. Many conversations were had and much of the fabric of the world revealed. And thus the magic of blood was born.” ―Unknown mage[1]
Stories and tavern songs tell of an ancient evil known as "the Unbound", a demon. After Gaxkang has been defeated, the quest entry will state that "the unbound revenant Gaxkang was defeated and sent back to the Fade".
Involvement[]
Quests[]
General Information[]
- Gaxkang is a level 20 elite boss who possesses the unique ability to switch between a warrior form (Revenant) and a spellcaster form (Arcane Horror), each possessing different abilities. He starts the fight as an Arcane Horror, then changes form at or below 80%, 60%, 40%, 30%, and finally 15% health.
- He shares similarities with Revenants encountered in Brecilian Forest that is not immune to nature damage but resistant to fire.
Statistics[]
Health Mana/Stamina Spellpower Attack Defense Armor
(Revenant / Arcane Horror)2140 805 100 84 80 46 / 26
Physical Resistance
(Revenant / Arcane Horror)Mental Resistance Fire Cold Shock Nature Spirit 46 / 29 100 40% 75% 15% 15% 20%
- Like all Arcane Horrors, Gaxkang has 20 innate spell resistance. As an elite boss, he receives another +10. This is further adjusted by difficulty settings.
Abilities[]
Passive traits
| Arcane Horror Properties | Demon Properties | Demon Resistance | Revenant Properties | Undead Properties |
|---|---|---|---|---|
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| Berserker Trait* | Dog Trait* | Tank |
|---|---|---|
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- *These are the hidden traits.
Revenant Abilities
Arcane Horror Abilities
Affliction Hex- Cone of Cold
- Curse of Mortality
- Drain
- Spirit Blast
- Dispel Magic
- Anti-Magic Burst
- Drain Life
- Horror
- Inferno
- Miasma
- Mind Blast
- Walking Bomb
- Weakness
- Winter's Grasp
- Misdirection Hex
Strategy[]
Generally speaking, his Arcane Horror form is much more dangerous than Revenant one. Fortunately, most of his spells can be countered by spell resistance: warriors can easily achieve 100% spell resistance via Knight Commander's Plate and The Spellward, while rogues and mages can only do so with dual-wields and numbers of Dweomer runes.
Note that even if the character grants 100% spell resistance, two of his attacks - Spirit Blast and Drain - will ignore spell resistance, bypass Anti-Magic Ward and Glyph of Neutralization, and can cause heavy spirit damage. Spirit Blast is essentially his ranged basic attack (which cannot miss), so it comes out constantly (no cooldown) and fairly fast. It does spirit damage equal to his Spellpower divided by 3.5 (about 28 damage by default). He starts using Drain after having taken damage. Drain does 25 spirit damage to everyone within a 10-meter radius. For every character hit by Drain, Gaxkang regains 30 health (1.5 times his level). This is not considered a "spell", so it is not blocked by Anti-Magic Ward or Glyph of Neutralization. Oftentimes, he will use Drain repeatedly in quick succession until his health is back to full, only to resume the next time he takes damage. It is best to deal damage to him as quickly as possible to force him to change to Revenant form.
What makes this fight trickier than fights against other Revenants or Arcane Horrors is the fact that the space allowed for the fight is very limited. Strategies like "kiting" or "staying far away" or "running around a pillar" will not work. If the Revenant decides to go for your mage, they will not be able to get away as easily. He is constantly surrounded by Miasma (it is not "toggled off" when he changes to Revenant form), which covers nearly the entire area, in addition to the usual Aura of Weakness. Characters affected by both auras will have their movement speed slowed to a crawl. This means threat management will play a more significant role here. The same can be said about support spells, including healing spells, Glyph of Warding, and Heroic Defense.
Characters using non-staff weapons may find it difficult to inflict sufficient damage on him. It is due to the fact that he has fairly high defense, high armor (in Revenant form), and most of the time your characters will be affected by Aura of Weakness and Miasma at the same time. Spells/talents like Heroic Offense, Dueling and Perfect Striking will help against his high defense, while issue on armor penetration can be solved by Telekinetic Weapons.
One of the easiest method of taking down Gaxkang is by Mana Clash: any caster with high enough spellpower and Vulnerability Hex may even be able to one-shot him on nightmare. It is not always reliable, however. As both an Arcane Horror and an elite-boss rank enemy, Gaxkang has about 40 spell resistance on Nightmare, making the Mana Clash approach a risky bet. However, after the Mana Clash he is effectively neutered unable to do anything in his Arcane Horror form besides basic attacks.
Paralyze Runes might prove very handy if you have at least two fighters in the party. Even better if at least one of them is a dual-wielding fighter.
Notable loot[]
- Keening Blade
- Fade Wall (rare drop)
Codex entries[]
Notes[]
- The Drain ability is supposed to have a cooldown of 30 seconds, but this cooldown is never set. This ability has a projectile assigned to it, but because it is a self-targeting ability, the projectile is never released, and so the cooldown is never set.
Trivia[]
- Gaxkang (sometimes) outranks even the High Dragon under "Most Powerful Foe Slain" found in Heroic Accomplishments under Character Record.
- The codes suggest the Drain ability used by the Arcane Horror form was at some point intended to also drain 30 mana/stamina (1.5 times Gaxkang's level), and heal him for a higher amount, but was "nerfed" later.
- Gaxkang is a reference to Kangaxx–a demilich from Baldur's Gate II: Shadows of Amn. Kangaxx is also a hidden boss that is hard to reach, and highly challenging.