General Graardor/Strategies


 * The following lists several strategies and methods for fighting General Graardor and his minions. For the monster, see General Graardor.

General Graardor is the most popular of the five God Wars Dungeon bosses to kill, as he is arguably the easiest, but players should not take him too lightly. To enter Bandos's Stronghold, players must have at least 70 Strength and a hammer (the hammer in the tool belt can be used in this situation). To get to the boss room, players must kill 40 minions of Bandos in Bandos's Stronghold or the main God Wars Dungeon area.

Getting the Kill Count


In the past, goblins were very low level and therefore frequently used to make up the Bandos killcount very quickly. These have since been buffed considerably, and are now more in line with any other of the Bandos minions. The best monster to build killcount on now is the Spiritual rangers in Bandos's Stronghold, providing you have the required 63 slayer. If you do not have the required slayer level to combat Spiritual rangers, it is recommended that you fight Bandosians in the Northwest corner of the main room, as these are generally lower level than the minions within the stronghold.

Popularity
Because Graardor is the easiest of the five bosses, he is commonly killed. It can be difficult to find a world in which he is not being killed, especially at peak times. Once players get 40 killcount, they will then be able to kill General Graardor for a chance to get his helmet, boots, gloves, tassets, chestplate or his belt buckle as a shield, and the bandos hilt. Players new to fighting Graardor may have to hop to find an empty world, as Graardor is often killed by high levelled players in groups of 2-4.

The best way is to go north of the big door to the chamber room, and hop there so a misclick won't make you lose your 40 killcount. A Zamorak item is optional but it will save you food from the constant Bloodveld attack.

Attacks
Here are General Graardor's basic attacks:
 * Melee attack: He thrusts his right arm for a bone-crushing blow. This can deal extremely high damage, up to 1200 but doesn't tend to hit over 600 (300 with Melee prayers)
 * Ranged attack: Graardor only uses this when he is attacking a player outside of melee range. He smashes his hand into the ground creating shockwaves. This is not as accurate now, but can still deal over 500 lifepoints of damage occasionally.

Strategies
Whether a player decides to solo General Graardor and his minions, Sergeant Steelwill, Sergeant Strongstack, and Sergeant Grimspike, everyone will attack Graardor first. When Graardor dies, some players attack Steelwill first, while others attack Grimspike because of his higher damage rate. Strongstack is usually left for the tank (if they can use Soul Split) because of his relatively low defense against players.

After the Evolution of Combat update, Graardor has no weaknesses to any point of the combat triangle. This allows for players to range, mage and melee him at their own accord. A player with 80+ combat stats and a reasonable prayer level (60+) can expect to prevail against Graardor at least once before having to bank.

Solo
As of late, Soloing for high level players is very common. It requires high stats for effectiveness. ​
 * Helm: Void melee helm > Torva full helm > Bandos helmet > #REDIRECT Barrows helm > Helm of neitiznot
 * Body: Elite void top > Torva platebody > Bandos chestplate > #REDIRECT Barrows platebody
 * Legs: Elite void bottom > Torva platelegs > Bandos tassets > #REDIRECT Barrows platelegs
 * Weapon: Chaotic maul > (Z, S, B, A) Godsword > Drygore > Chaotic longsword >Chaotic rapier
 * Offhand: Spirit shields > Drygore > off-hand chaotic longsword > Off-hand chaotic rapier
 * Boots: Steadfast boots > Torva boots > Bandos boots > Dragon rider boots > Dragon boots
 * Gloves: Void gloves > Golliath gloves > Torva gloves > Bandos gloves > Dragon rider gloves
 * Aura: Reverence aura]] (any tier) > Penance aura (any tier)
 * Cape: Tokhaar-kal > Fire cape > Skill cape(any) > soulwars cape
 * Amulet: Saradomin's whisper > Amulet of fury > Amulet of glory
 * Ring: Ring of wealth > Berserker ring (i) > Berserker ring > TokKul-Zo > Ring of life
 * Ammo: Zamorak arrows

Abilities 2H:
 * Attack: Slice, Sever, Smash, Whirlwind, Overpower
 * Strength: Dismember, Cleave, Fury, Quake, Assault
 * Defence: Anticipation(no shield or adrenaline required)
 * Health: Regenerate

Duo/Trio teams
Duo and trio teams tend to be common. These teams require high stats, such as maxed or near-maxed melee, as well as the prayer and herblore level requirements to use Turmoil and Overloads.


 * Helm: Torva full helm > Helm of neitiznot
 * Body: Torva platebody > Barrows platebody> Dragon platebody
 * Legs: Torva platelegs > Barrows platelegs > Dragon platelegs
 * Weapon: Chaotic maul > Drygore > Chaotic longsword > Chaotic rapier > Abyssal vine whip
 * Offhand: Divine spirit shield > Off-hand drygore > Off-hand chaotic longsword/rapier > Dragon defender
 * Boots: Steadfast boots > Torva boots > Bandos boots > Dragon rider boots > Dragon boots
 * Gloves: Dragon rider gloves > Ganodermic gloves > Grifolic gloves > Culinaromancer's gloves 10
 * Aura:
 * Cape:
 * Amulet: Saradomin's whisper > Amulet of fury > Amulet of glory
 * Ring: Ring of wealth > Warrior's ring (i) > Warrior's ring > TokKul-Zo > Ring of life
 * Ammo: Zamorak arrows

Note: The Ring of Wealth will not work in LootShare/CoinShare. Due to this, it should only be used in FFA teams.

Abilities:
 * Attack: Slaughter, Massacre, Slice, Berserk, Backhand, Sever
 * Strength: Fury, Dismember, Assault
 * Health: Regeneration

Dharoking
Ever since the Evolution of Combat update, Dharok's greataxe has extremely powerful stats (1599 slash bonus), and so, can deal extremely high damage against Graardor and his minions. As before, the damage is better when your health is low, but even then, you can still hit over 2000 quite frequently with your abilities.


 * Helm: Dharok's helm
 * Amulet: Saradomin's whisper > Amulet of fury > Amulet of glory
 * Body: Dharok's platebody
 * Legs: Dharok's platelegs
 * Weapon: Dharok's greataxe
 * Boots: Bandos boots > Dragon boots
 * Ring: Ring of wealth > Warrior's ring (i) > Warrior's ring > Ring of life
 * Gloves: Ganodermic gloves > Dragon rider gloves
 * Aura:
 * Ammo: Zamorak arrows

Abilities:
 * Attack: Slaughter, Backhand, Smash, Sever, Hurricane, Meteor Strike (not usually recommended because your opponent needs 50% or more lifepoints remaining)
 * Strength: Quake, Cleave, Assault, Pulverise
 * Health: Regeneration

Using these suggest skills above, when Graardor spawns, make sure you have all three Sergeants on you and near each other (one space from you any direction will work). Unleash some abilties on Graardor. Remember to use Cleave so you can deal damage to the melee and ranged sergeants. When you reach 50% on the adrenaline bar, remember to use Hurricane, as it is quite effective and deals heavy damage fast. Sergeant Strongstack and Sergeant Grimspike tend to die fast from your barrage of multi-hitting attacks. When Graardor dies, kill off any remaining sergeants, and leave Sergeant Steelwill last as you should be praying from magic attacks, and the other two tend to hit harder when this happens.

Maging
Since the Evolution of Combat, General Graardor no longer has any weakness. This opens up the ability to mage him. This has proven to be very effective if opting for a barrage spell. Because of the multi-hitting nature of the barrage spells, the sergeants can be killed more than once per boss kill. This typically results in 7 killcount per boss kill, instead of the usual 4. This means more chance at loot, which is very desirable.
 * Helm: Ganodermic visor
 * Amulet: Arcane Stream Necklace
 * Body: Ganodermic poncho
 * Legs: Ganodermic leggings
 * Weapon: Master wand
 * Shield: Ward of Subjugation and Damaged book(bandos) for kc
 * Boots: Dragonrider boots > Ganodermic boots
 * Gloves: Ganodermic gloves
 * Ring: Ring of Wealth
 * Cape: Zamorak cape or Saradomin cape
 * Ammunition: Saradomin arrow or Zamorak arrow

Tips and Tricks

 * Killcount is slightly harder now. When grabbing the killcount, you should do it in Bandos's Stronghold because it is full of Bandosians and a few Zamorakians. If you grab the killcount outside, avoid using your multi-hitting attacks (Dharoking only). The Spiritual rangers inside die very fast. If you run low on health, avoid eating your Rocktails and instead use the Regenerate ability when your health runs low.
 * Avoid killing Spiritual mages for the killcount unless you are ranging, as they are now more resilient to melee attacks but weaker to range attacks.
 * Since Graardor will not hit often (melee armour is strong against respective melee and ranged attacks), the use of Saradomin brews and Super restores are usually pointless when killing him. A set of Prayer flasks and Rocktails is good enough to last for over 20 kills if you are lucky with food drops.
 * The Bandos altar is useful for recharging prayer. It will recharge your Prayer points completely, and also +10 (1) Prayer points for every Bandos item you have. After recharging your Prayer, you must wait 10 minutes to do so again. Remember you cannot use this while in combat!
 * The tank should stay near Graardor's spawn point.
 * When waiting for the boss to respawn, stay on the altar corners. When Graardor spawns, only him and Sergeant Grimspike will attempt to attack you. The other two Sergeants will not attack you unless you get too close to them or you manage to hit Graardor. This is useful as Sergeant Steelwill's attack is short-ranged.
 * Organize drops carefully. Unless you have a Pack Yak to deposit all Graardor's drops, it is not recommended to pick the bones up unless you bury them.

Drops
General Graardor is known for his common Rune platebody, Rune 2h sword, Rune pickaxe and Rune longsword drops. Many of his lower value drops are conveniently noted. Graardor is known to have a higher drop rate of Bandos armour than his bodyguards. His non rare drops can also be valuable, with the average kill worth between 15,000 and 40,000 gp. His special drops are of quite high value due to the  large defence bonuses associated with each piece. Graardor's bodyguards are known to drop a decent number of Chili potatoes, Sharks, noted Limpwurt roots, Nature runes and Cosmic runes quite frequently. As with all bodyguards of their respective general, they also drop Steel darts and Steel arrows in high numbers often.

Gallery


Tank Gear:



Common solo setup (Melee):