Finally beat Rax

So I know this is inconsequential for a lot of people but I finally managed to beat Rax. On paper, this should have been no issue for me, I’m max combat on everything except for necro, have BIS gear for all styles outside of magic and have an account that’s almost 19 years old. I never really got into bossing much though, everything I always played was focused on other skills or if it was combat just doing slayer. I messed around with some of the bosses over the years, got a few hundred kills in the GWD, did some QBD but nothing that really ever required skill or learning. Those were always just something you would grind out, turn on soul split and just rinse and repeat. Finally decided about a year ago to try and start the “real” bosses and boy was it an eye opener. I was woefully unprepared and quite frankly overwhelmed by all the little minutiae that went into these bosses. After watching countless videos and reading guides and fighting/dying to Rax at least 40 times and paying death costs, I just decided at the time it wasn’t for me and gave up. Finally came back, worked my way through the fight caves, got a lava cape after having this account for so long, moved on to fight kiln and managed to grind that out. Paid for an hour practice instance at Rax, and finally managed to beat it on my last try before my hour ran out. Tried it immediately after and managed to finally do it and it felt so rewarding, and actually fun to see this new part of RuneScape that I’ve not really gotten to experience after so long of playing. It wasn’t anything impressive, had a bit over 5:00 minute kill but it was still just the sense of accomplishment at finally being able to beat the gateway boss to the rest of bossing. Planning on working at it more, and I know this will sound silly to a lot of people but the clan I’ve been in for 15 years now doesn’t really have many active players anymore and I don’t really have anyone else to share with. Also, for anyone that bothered to read this far, thank you and perhaps I can ask a question? Is it necessary to do an instance at Rax if I have the pheromone? I don’t want to accidentally join the public instance and duo with somebody but the way it’s worded when you try to enter is confusing.