Exodus of the Storm Queen: General Grim
Adds prior to General Grim
There are add packs prior to General Grim.
You only need to deal with two ranged adds and one melee add and can skip the rest by jumping over the railing when going downstairs to the second boss, General Grim. Stairs are located to the sides of the next room after the Dominax encounter.
Blackstorm Executioner
The purple, melee add right in front of the library is called Blackstorm Executioner. Non-tanks should not be in front of him and the tank should face him away from the party. He casts Thunder Strike which is a large red cone AoE ability.
Do not be inside this AoE by the time his Thunder Strike cast ends or else you will take ~17k damage.
Blackstorm Sorceress
There’s two Blackstorm Sorceress’ on either side of the entrance to the library. The Tank should pick them up and both Tank and DPS/Support can interrupt their Razor Wind AoE attack so the healer doesn’t have to worry about that ability.
General Grim
The General Grim encounter begins when you attack or are in range of General Grim. General Grim has two phases. He starts off in Phase 1 until he drops to 40% when a player will have to duel him in a 1-on-1 fight for the rest of the encounter.
Phase 1: 100% – 40%
Auto Attack
During Phase 1 General Grim auto attacks the tank a lot for around 6-8k physical damage per hit.
Inactive Adds
The entire encounter is surrounded by adds fighting each other. The Storm Legion adds will attack you if you go near them but will pull back if you leave their small aggro range. Although they deal minimal damage, it’s best to avoid them anyway.
Reaper’s Touch
Throughout the encounter General Grim will cast Reaper’s Touch, summoning two rotating scythes that move around the room, bouncing off walls/the encounter. You will take ticks of approx 1.5k damage when you are touching the scythes. The tank also receives approx. 10k damage when General Grim initially spawns the scythes.
Killing the scythes by DPSing them down will cause them to drop a red AoE called ‘Reaper’s Boon’. Whoever goes into the red AoE will receive an outgoing damage buff that will increase their dps.
These scythes can be ignored as they disappear a short while after they spawn.
Lightning Edge
General Grim casts Lightning Edge approximately every 8 seconds during Phase 1. It does approx 10k damage to the tank and approx 20k damage to other players. It is a short-range, wide cleave indicated by a wide-cone lightning burst with barbs shooting out from in front of him.
The tank needs to face him away from the party and non-tanks should avoid being in front of him.
Phase 2: Duel Phase (40% – 0%)
When General Grim is at 40% hp he will go into the middle of the room and emote “Are any of you brave enough to face me in single combat? Pick up the banner, or die where you stand.”
One of your party members must click on the banner in the middle of the room within a few seconds or else the whole raid wipes.
Once you pick up the banner you will receive a ‘Brutal Strike Counter’ reactive ability that is used to deal with Brutal Strike. You will also receive a ‘Subjugation Resist’ ability when General Grim uses Subjugation on you.
Note the following:
- Once someone clicks on the banner, the middle circle area will become sealed off. The person inside cannot leave this area and party members on the outside ring cannot enter.
- Those on the outside cannot DPS General Grim or heal the party member inside.
Reaper’s Touch
Throughout this phase the Reaper’s Touch scythes will spawn and spin around the outer ring of the encounter. Avoid them. If you do get hit by them, make sure you aren’t running in the same direction as the scythe or else you’ll take several ticks of damage and potentially die.
Sinister Aura
Sinister Aura is a 30sec Aura that General Grim places on himself during Phase 2. It deals approx 3.7k Air Damage to anyone near General Grim (in this case, the person dueling him) every 5 seconds whilst the buff is up. He will refresh the buff when it drops, but only after he has finished casting his current ability.
Brutal Strike
Brutal Strike deals 75% of your maximum HP. General Grim alternates between casting Brutal Strike and Rolling Thunder; occasionally interrupting the pattern to cast Subjugation.
The person dueling General Grim will need to hit the Brutal Strike Counter reactive (the sword icon reactive ability) whilst General Grim is casting Brutal Strike to reflect the damage onto General Grim.
Rolling Thunder
Rolling Thunder is a red cone AoE attack that he casts facing his current target (in this case the person dueling him). Anyone who gets hit by Rolling Thunder is almost guaranteed to die.
The person dueling General Grim should make General Grim face a single location – and not one where there are active adds to make it easier for the other party members outside the dueling circle to dodge the AoE.
Subjugation
Subjugation is a channel ability that General Grim uses on the person dueling him. The person dueling him will receive a second reactive called “Subjugation Resist”. The dueler will need to spam this button because Subjugation does 15% of your Max HP every second of the channel.
A successful ‘Subjugation Resist’ cast will heal you for 7.5% of your Max HP and absorb a tick of Subjugation.
Active Adds – Grimblade Arbiter
Throughout Phase 2 adds called Grimblade Arbiter will spawn in waves of 2 outside the dueling circle. Killing 2 adds will provide you with a reactive ability that will make you immobile for a few seconds where you are unable to use any abilities, but will heal the person inside the dueling circle.
This can be vital to keeping the person who is dueling General Grim alive.
It is vital to kill these adds not only for the healing reactive but also because if you leave them up for too long they can cast a channel on the person dueling General Grim that will eventually freeze that person. This is bound to cause the dueler to get hit by Brutal Strike or Rolling Thunder.
Failing the Duel
If you fail the duel phase (where the person dueling General Grim dies), he will temporarily ‘enrage’ where he deals extra damage. He will also regain full hp.
The tank will need to pick him up asap and use CDs on stay alive.
If you fail the duel phase, once he hits 40% he won’t go back into the duel phase and you can simply dps him down.
Strategy – General Grim
No Interrupt Required
No Cleansing Required
Prior to starting the encounter, communicate with the party as to who will be picking up the flag. If there is no communication prior to starting the encounter, it is usually assumed that the tank will pick up the flag.
It is not recommended to have the tank pick up the flag because if they fail (die) during the Dueling Phase, there will be nobody to tank General Grim and your party will quickly wipe.
- Phase 1: 100% – 40%
- During Phase 1 just DPS General Grim. Tank makes sure to face the boss away from the other party members – non-tanks don’t stand in front of him.
- Phase 2: Duel Phase (40% – 0%)
- Dueler:
- At 40% hp the dueler needs to go into the center of the room and click on the banner in the middle.
- The dueler needs to hit the Brutal Strike Counter reactive whenever General Grim casts Brutal Strike.
- The dueler should face General Grim away from players. It is preferable to face him in the same spot for each Rolling Thunder conal AoE cast so that the other players know where the ‘safe spots’ are when casting their healing reactive.
- The dueler needs to spam the Subjugation Resist reactive when General Grim casts Subjugation on them.
- Other Players:
- Make sure to pay attention to where General Grim is facing an to avoid Rolling Thunder.
- Kill the two adds that spawn per add wave to get the healing reactive. Use the healing reactive when the Dueler is less than 100% hp and when you are in a ‘safe spot’ away from any potential Rolling Thunder AoE.
- Try to avoid the Reaper’s Touch scythes that travel around the outer ring. If you do get hit by one, make sure you aren’t running in the same direction as the scythe otherwise you’ll take several ticks of damage in quick succession.
- Dueler:
Alternate Phase 2 Strategy
There is an alternate Phase 2 strategy from the normal version mentioned above. If you pick up the flag whilst outside the circle, all the mechanics of Phase 2 will still be there (Brutal Strike, Rolling Thunder, Subjugation/etc) but General Grim will leave the dueling circle and become targetable to all players.
You will also be able to heal the Dueler this way as they will be outside the sealed-off dueling circle.
Tank-specific
- There’s no interrupt required.
- Face General Grim away from other party members.
- If another dueler fails the Duel Phase (dies), quickly pick up General Grim and use a CD or two until his temporary enrage buff disappears.
- Unless you are confident that you won’t fail one of the mechanics, it is not recommended for the tank to pick up the flag.
Healer-specific
- There’s no cleansing required.
- To help the dueler, throw out a large shield or other CD just before the dueler picks up the banner to help them out with the initial Brutal Strike or two.
- It is not recommended for the healer to pick up the flag.
DPS-specific
- There’s no interrupt required.
- You can choose to DPS the Reaper’s Touch scythes if you want and run over the red AoE they drop to gain a DPS boost. However this is completely optional and it is unlikely that you will hit General Grim’s enrage timer.
- During Phase 2, make sure to DPS the adds that spawn – failure to do so will cause them to eventually freeze the Dueler which can be fatal.
You can check out the other bosses below:
You can also find other useful information related to the Exodus of the Storm Queen dungeon below:
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