Grand Stairs HM - *Spoiler*

Recommended Classes

Ward/Guard - tank
Minstrel/RK - healer

4 others from:

Champ - clobber and aoe is useful, 2nd tank
Captain - buffs, fear remove is useful and optional healer for last boss
RK - optional additional healing for last boss plus ranged damage
Hunter - ranged dps on boss is useful, good for roots
LM - roots, debuffs and ranged damage

Boss 1

The 1st boss fight happens before anything else and you will either need fear pots or a captain in the group. If you get hit with his fear attack and still have it when he does his next attack, he will heal himself which is a little annoying as you only have 10 minutes to kill him and activate the 2nd boss.

Once he is dead, head right off his platform.

You go down the stairs and straight over the cross roads where you will find a couple of warg riders then after that, at the top of the next set of stairs are a coupld of stealthed orcs. Deal with all of these and move round to the right.

Again, more stairs, a few more mobs and you end up looking down at 4 warg riders who roam around outside the kennels. Either root and move back out of range (they do ranged attack) pulling them individually or send the tank down to get all of the aggro and have them all in melle range. There are also a couple of stealthed orcs that patrol at the bottom of the stairs so anticipate 5 or 6 mobs, not the 4 that you see.

By this point you will probably only have 5 minutes remaining to activate the 2nd boss - a bit of text will appear on screen telling you of this. If you have a burg, send them in stealth to perform this task - you activate the boss by going round to the right, past a big pillar and up the stairs. On the platform is a gate - if it is up, you have missed the time limit. The boss is up the stairs to the left. You will need to go up the stairs to activate. Use HIPS if you are a burg and rejoin the group. If it wasn't a burg, prepare to die, so rather than taking the mobs back to the group and causing a wipe, accept the fact and die at the boss - retreat and catch up with the others.

So, once you have killed the 1st group of warg riders and activated the boss (or not depending on time scales) move round to the right and you will see 4 more warg riders dancing round a pillar. In between that is a stealth orc so grab his aggro and punish him! Same as before, root or charge the riders.

After these is the final set of stairs before you get to the 2nd boss - again, another stealth orc to deal with. At the top of the stairs, on the platform, are 3 groups of mobs and the boss. You can pull the group to the left and straight on without activating the boss.

In the group will be an archer plus 2 others, either mez/root the archer or get the tank on the archer quickly to get his aggro. Either way, its best to move down the stairs to the half way point so your healer is out of LoS. Pull the other group in the same way.

The 3rd group is at the bottom of the stairs going to the left, with the boss just above/very near to them. When you get their aggro, he will come too. In order to kill the mobs without having to worry about the boss, just retreat down the stairs a little unti the boss resets.

Kill these and then head up to the platform for the 2nd boss encounter.

Boss 2

The only thing you need to worry about with this boss is his kick. A well connected punt will see you falling to your doom. In order to avoid this, have everyone in the group line up against the gate/wall opposite the stairs you came up. Activate the boss and its just a relatively straight forward tank and spank.


Once he is dead, head back the way you came until you reach the platform you fought the 1st boss on. You will notice now that the bridge to the right (straight on if you looked at it from the starting area of the instance). The chances are, if you make a wrong turn on the way back up, you will aggro a mob or 2 - best stick together if not everyone is sure of the way back.


So, once you have made your way back to the beginning and turned right only a few mobs stand in between you and the final boss. A lone orc patrols the platform followed by 2 groups of mobs. These both have a berserker and 2 shadow things. Its best to take out the shadow things first or at least mez one of them, as they provide a debuff to the group and also heal each other. Rinse and repeat for the 2nd group.

You are now at the bottom of the final set of stairs going up to the final boss. At the top of them is a large mob of beserkers and shadow things. Everyone should drop back down the stairs a little, out of LoS whilst they get rooted/trapped/rain of thorns etc. Pick these off and then rest whilst you get set up for the final boss fight.

Boss 3

The fight will consist of:

- The boss
- The devoted - DO NOT KILL HIM IF YOU WANT THE RADIANCE COIN
- A couple of archers

The best scenario is to have the tank on the archers and everyone else on the boss.

As you move in to the boss area, the archers will spawn from the top of the stairs you came up. Its best if the tank moves in last, trying to keep the archers away from everyone else. Its ok if the archers die, although they will then respawn - killing them is usefull if you have a captain, ie performing enemy defeat skills but just make sure you go collect them up again.

The devoted will probably head towards the healer but will generally run around like a headless chicken. He doesn't do that much damage and he has a fair amount of health so if he does get caught up in any AoE, its not the end of the world.

The actuall boss fight will take place around his throne.

The healer should set up mid way between the tank/archers and the throne on the edge of the room. The healer cant be too close to the boss as throughout the latter parts of the fight, the boss does a severe aoe attack which you should try and dodge. With regards stones/banners - best to place them on the throne giving those attacking the boss much needed healing/power, etc.

The reason why its best to run the boss around the throne is down to a number of reasons;

- if he is on the other side of the throne and performs his AoE attack, no one gets hurt because you are out of LoS
- it gives everyone else a bit of time to regen when he is on the other side
- you naturally will take less damage if he is trying to catch you up

During the fight with him, his aggro will exchange a lot across all member of the group so when the off tank has aggro, get the range attack to stand on the healers side of the throne and when a ranged person has aggro, have the off tank standing healer side of the throne.

This way, all parties get a heal and have a better chance of swapping the aggro - but staying mobile and close enough to the throne to run around it when the AoE attack is coming.

Keep doing this is until he dies. The devoted will then run off leaving the archers which can be finished off.

Behind the throne is a door out of the instance.