Bandos GWD Guide

PLEASE NOTE : Bandos mechanics are currently bugged and waiting to be re-written so you can pray range and tank 100% damage from the boss and worry about the minions only : this message will be REMOVED when it is FIXED.

This is a guide for killing General Graardor with Melee and Ranged. It will take you through the basics of attacking and tanking, as well as provide a few examples of what equipment to bring.

Note that Melee is the most straightforward combat style to use since it suffers no penalties from tank armour. Ranged setups can also deal significant damage, but are less feasible for tanks.

## Contents

* Requirements
* Mechanics
	+ Attack Styles
	+ Bodyguards
* General Strategy
	+ Solo
	+ Team
* Tips
* Suggested skills
* Equipment

## Requirements

* Bones To Peaches (recommended)
* Guthans Set (recommended)
* At least 43 Prayer for access to the protection prayers (70 recommended)

## Mechanics

### Attack Styles[edit

Graardor attacks with both Melee and Ranged:

* The melee attack consists of a simple punch that deals up to 60 damage. He has a 2/3 chance of using melee whenever he attacks.
* Graardor slams the ground to emit shock waves to all players inside his chambers as his ranged attack, dealing a minimum of 15 damage and a maximum of 35 damage if it hits. He has a 1/3 chance of using ranged whenever he attacks.

### Bodyguards[

Graardor is protected by three goblin sergeants:

* Sergeant Grimspike is the ranged bodyguard, who throws axes at the his target, dealing up to 21 damage.
* Sergeant Steelwill is the magic bodyguard, who launches yellow projectiles at his target, dealing up to 16 damage.
* Sergeant Strongstack is the melee bodyguard, who attacks his target with his flail, dealing up to 15 damage.
* The sergeants tend to target the player who last damaged Graardor (on the minions' 5th tick), and the player who deals Graardor's final blow will likely be targeted. Effectively, players with a faster attack speed will tend to be targeted as their attack is more likely to land on their 5th tick. This also means a tanker with a Dinh's bulwark on defence mode will never be focused on, allowing you to prioritise ranged defence.

## General Strategy

Graardor's combat stats consist of 280 Attack, 350 Strength, 250 Defence, 80 Magic and 350 Ranged. Both his melee and ranged attacks possess accuracy and strength bonuses, with an additional 120 Attack bonus and 43 Strength bonus for melee, and 100 Ranged bonus with 40 Ranged strength bonus.

After Graardor is dead, the goblin sergeants will all focus on a single player, typically the one who landed the killing blow on Graardor. For this reason, Steelwill should be killed immediately, allowing the targeted player to switch to Protect from Ranged once he is dead, as to block Grimspike's attacks, who hits the hardest.

### Solo guide

In solo encounters the player has the option of choosing between all three combat styles; however, Ranged is only used for advanced methods that involve kiting Graardor due to the armour's terrible ranged defence. Melee is the simplest way to fight Graardor.

Without Justiciar armour, the player will need to bring a ranged body as to protect from Steelwill's attacks as much as possible. Protect from Melee is mandatory to avoid getting killed by Graardor's melee attacks. The player should keep their health above 60 to prevent getting combo'd by Graardor and another sergeant as they will be frequently hit by ranged attacks. With justiciar, the full set can be taken with a spectral or elysian spirit shield, as it provides very high ranged defence and minimises the damage taken from any that should hit, along with reducing Steelwill's accuracy/damage respectively. Grimspike is unlikely to hit as hard in the process. An amulet of blood fury is usually prioritised over an amulet of torture for the sapping bonus. After killing Graardor, kill Steelwill and then use Guthan's or barrage stack Grimspike and Strongstack as needed.

Graardor has an attack speed of 6, or 3.6 seconds between attacks. 4-tick weapons attack once every 2.4 seconds, so the player can attack Graardor twice before he can attack. After attacking Graardor twice, walk under before attacking him again. If using both a shield and defender, the defender can be used on every odd-numbered attack, provided there is no interruption.

As magic, the player will need to be on the Ancient Magicks and cast Ice Barrage to freeze Graardor. While Graardor's Magic defence was lowered following the introduction of the twisted bow, he does have reasonably high magic defence bonus, although he is still relatively easy to hit. The player will use Protect from Missiles, with Protect from Melee only if Graardor is too close to the player. Steelwill and Strongstack are usually unlikely to hit. After killing Graardor, kill Steelwill, then stack Strongstack and Grimspike for barrage spells.

Graardor and his bodyguards drop bones upon death, so bones to peaches can be used to restore 32 health after each kill. Graardor drops Super restores and his bodyguards drop kebabs, Chilli potatoes and sharks as food to help prolong trips.

### Team

Team settings allow for more flexibility at Graardor as more players will be damaging him, reducing the frequency of ranged attacks in general. Tanks can follow the conventional or justiciar melee setup to tank; due to the extra DPS, they will typically prioritize ranged defence over magic as the bodyguards prioritise those that damage Graardor. An ideal form of tanking is to bring full justiciar with Dinh's bulwark for even more ranged defence, although they are unlikely to gain any personal kills doing so.

Attackers can also prioritise offensive capability over defensive, although they will probably have to watch out for Steelwill who will hit more frequently. Do not attack Graardor until the base tank has obtained his attention, or you will likely have to tank for the duration of the encounter.

After Graardor dies, kill Steelwill, Grimspike and Strongstack in that order. It is common courtesy for the base tank to fight Strongstack alone with Guthan's; unless requested otherwise, Grimspike is also killed by the DPS.

A useful strategy for teams is to drop an item underneath Graardor's spawn spot and have everyone fight him in melee distance. When Graardor focuses on a player, that player will rapidly click on the dropped item. Due to unique mechanics similar to the chinchompa method for Kree'arra, Graardor will be stuck on the spot and be unable to attack. Everyone can attack Graardor in turn until he focuses on another player, in which that player goes under and rapidly clicks on the item until Graardor is killed. This is restricted to melee only, however.

## Tips

* Goblins are an easy target for Bandos killcount, and also have a chance to drop a hammer (approx. 1/15).
* Walking under Graardor can buy a tank some time to eat food without taking unnecessary damage. It can be also done at certain intervals to make Graardor "miss" an attack.
* Experienced players can "tick eat"; tick eating is healing on a critical level of health right before taking damage, essentially surviving a hit that would have normally killed the player.
* Bones to Peaches can help extend trips; each kill rotation yields 32 Hitpoints worth of bones.
* The minions will drop chilli potatoes and sharks. If there is an excess of food, continually pick up and drop food again to prevent it from disappearing.
* Guthan's equipment may be used to heal on the melee and ranged minions if desired. Cooperate with your team to maximise healing opportunities. Bring fewer brews and more restores if you choose this method of healing. Guthan's armour also doubles as good primary equipment for tanks.
* If you are assigned General Graardor as your slayer task, use your Slayer helmet variant of choice to take advantage of its accuracy and damage boost.
* An Amulet of blood fury is generally ideal for tank setups as it emphasises healing, defensive and prayer bonuses.
* When bringing a dragon warhammer, you do not need a hammer to bang the door.
* During the fight, the bodyguards will target the most recent player who attacked Graardor. Because of this, weapons with a slower attack speed will result in the player being targeted less often in a team. This can be useful in a team where some players have significantly lower defences.

## Suggested skills

* HP 80+ (90+ Tank)
* ATK 80+
* STR 70+ (Required, 80+ Recommended)
* DEF 70+ (90+ Tank)
* RANGE 80+
* MAGE 70+ (75+ Recommended)
* PRAYER 44+ (Eagle Eye, 70+ Piety, 74+ Rigour)