SWTOR: Gharj Guide

Recommended Group Composition

  • 2x Tank
  • 2x Healers
  • 4x DPS

Notable Mechanics

  • Frontal cleave
  • Leap – AOE melee damage
  • Smashing Leap – Breaks land platform and causes it to submerge into lava
  • AOE knockback to all players
  • Adds spawn throughout encounter
  • Frenzy – Boss breaks apart the current island he is on

Normal Strategy

  • The boss should be tanked on one side of the island; Ranged will be on the opposite side; Melee should stack behind the boss for AOE heals and to avoid the cleave.
  • Off-tank will pick up adds when they spawn, these should be AOE’d down immediately.
  • Throughout the fight, the boss will knock back all players into the lava. Just run back to the platform ASAP; the lava adds a DoT.
  • The boss will also break apart the land platform you’re fighting on. You will be able to know when this is happening because a warning prompts you, saying “Gharj is about to Frenzy.” At this point, a path will open to another platform; Run to the next platform immediately; Take any adds with you, then DPS them down.

Hard Mode Strategy

  • There is no difference in hard mode, other than more damage. Use the same strategy as normal mode.

Nightmare Mode

Commando Tips

  • Save yourAdrenaline Rush for the knockback into the lava.
  • When transitioning to another island, be sure to keep your Grav Round stacks up.
  • If Gharj is between you and the path to the new island, run around Gharj, through the lava, rather than under Gharj. This will save you from a potential 1-shot.

5-second Recap

  1. Boss cleaves, keep at range if not melee.
  2. DPS adds immediately when they spawn.
  3. When knocked into lava, get back to the platform immediately.
  4. Quickly move to next platform when yours breaks down.

Accomp

Accomp is a Software Engineer by day, MMO enthusiast by night, full-time dad, and part-time content creator. He's been writing guides for MMOs for years and has a strong passion for user experience and helping other gamers improve. You can follow him on Twitter to keep up or join his Discord to hang out with his community.

4 Responses

  1. Wesleycrushers says:

    It’s possible to maintain 5 stacks of Gravity Vortexes on Gharj even through the moving by making sure to sneak in one grav round from the path between islands.

    The path that you use to enter an island is normally at the opposite end from where you leave, so some people have suggested that the tank should not run across the new island, but instead stay near the entrance in hopes of having Gharj stay away from the groups exit.

    On higher difficulties, you will take less damage running through the lava than if you run under Gharj as he is jumping to sink the island. If Gharj is in your way, don’t run under him. Instead run around him and through the lava. This is useless if you still run close enough to take the pouncing damage.

  2. Accomp says:

    You made some good points here, which I’ve added to the “Commando Tips.” As far as the positioning of the tank/Gharj, It’s really all RNG in regards to which island will open up. Just use logic and position yourself such that you are minimizing the chance of having to run through Gharj.

  3. Zidjian says:

    This is another great use for Assassin/Shadows Force shroud ability when Gharj’s pounce is about to happen click it and you can continue to DPS through instead of backing off, this can be very helpful if you are close to an enrage timer.

  4. NickyDan says:

    My guild has seen this bug a few times, where the pathway to and the second platform don’t show up. But, this is a useful bug! The first platform doesn’t disappear. All subsequent paths and platforms after the second will show up as scheduled.
    Apparently the platforms do a kind of figure 8 formation, with the starting platform being used twice in the fight? So when the platform rotation makes it back to the first platform, and the next path away from it shows up, the first platform will finally disappear and the second half of the fight will continue as normal.

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