Tom's General Grievous Guide

Tom's General Grievous Guide including handy tips, Star Cards, bugs, play styles and tricks so you can top the scoreboard!

Introduction

Heyo, this guide will be part of a set on various heroes, sharing some bugs/exploits that are basically necessary for these heroes to function well, aswell as how to play them (because some people just don't know how, and there is some terrible misconceptions like Grievous being UP, lol.)

Play Style [Supremacy]

Grievous is actually the most powerful hero in the game [in my humble opinion], being able to deal with swarms of troops like no other hero can in enclosed spaces [such as second-phase Supremacy], tanking absurd amounts of damage and well capable of dishing it out. You need to play him aggressively without over-extending yourself, relying on claw-rush to take out ordinary troopers while remaining wary of commandos and arcs or any other enforcer, which can tank it. I don't recommend you waste claw-rush moving around the map or just to run away [although there are certainly some situations that call for it.]

Claw Rush is the most powerful ability in the game. Don't waste it on stupid things.

Use saber-thrust to catch pesky jet-troopers and finish them off with a quick swing. Do not let them get away [unless it means over-extending yourself in enemy territory] or they will keep harassing you.
Remember to spam that alt [dash] button to move around quicker and get the gain on your foes, or run away from them. Then would also be a good time to use your weak block to avoid damage.

Sometimes you'll catch a couple of guys unawares because you're flanking, maybe shooting at your teammates. You don't *always* have to claw-rush groups but sometimes it can be even more effective to spam jump + attack. This allows Grievous to attack very quickly although it consumes his tiny stamina quite fast. You can use it on heavies and enforcers who resist your claw-rush.

Alternatively, since that technique can be quite hard you can time your swings by attacking as soon as the reinforcement dude rolls [alot of them will roll which is quite annoying, but some don't so don't do this right away unless you want to eat laser bolts] and if Grievous does a lunge attack you'll end up hitting them as soon as they get up.

Unrelenting Advance is the least useful of all of his abilities, despite being his coolest. Commando grenades and Arc alt-fires render the 'E' button wanting, don't even get me started on cheap reinforcement day.

EDIT: Having actually come back to this game, Unrelenting Advance isn't that bad. I've developed Unrelenting Advance as part of my playstyle, and everytime I've done it people have just tried to shoot me while backpedaling hopelessly. I think a few bad experiences caused me to discredit this ability altogether - An Arc Trooper could easily run instead of backpedaling and use his painful alt-fire on your block. Even commandos can't really do anything if their grenades are on cooldown. In a sentence: It's better on nooby people, and sometimes you have to learn the hard way if the enemy team is full of good players or noobs and adapt accordingly - You'll get away with charging straight into battle mindlessly much more often playing against a nooby team.

NOTE: I just had that traumatic experience this year with a Leia [and a clone maybe?] jumping behind my unrelenting advance. Beware of chonky boys who can afford to get hit, I guess.

Against enemy heroes you encounter? Well, take a gander at my next section.
This hallway has been the victim of many claw-rushes.

En Guarde [How to deal with enemy heroes]

There are 3 main things you need to get down to succeed in [lightsaber] hero combat:

• Parry
  Learning how to parry will basically allow you to destroy anyone who doesn't know how to parry.
  Learn how to parry.
  If you don't know what parrying is, it's blocking, and then attacking as soon as the enemy players saber hits yours. This will allow you to attack an aggressive player without taking any damage.
  I will include every other little hero tip and need-to-know with this section, like the fact the first block never works after someone uses an ability like 'Pull dominance' if you get grabbed, which means you gotta dash out of there. I recommend you watch a youtuber like Ahsoka Tano to learn these weird bugs.
  
• Dashing
  Dashing is an integral part of hero combat. It allows you to move around without exposing yourself to hero abilities as long as you hold m2 [block]. You can try and get behind your opponent for extra damage or, in more advanced combat, predict where your opponent is going and use it against them.
  
• Abilities
  Abilities are the chilies in the extra-hot Vindaloo that is lightsaber combat. Some allow you to bypass enemy blocks, freeze people in place, knock em, send em flying like ragdolls, buff people etc. general rule of thumb is to learn how each of the heroes works, so you can watch out for their abilities and know how to fight them. Some heroes can also disable abilties altogether leaving an opening [looking at Obi-Wan forward + mind trick combo].

How does Grievous fit into all of this? Well...
He can't parry much at all before running out of stamina, which means we need to rely on dashing to keep alive against the enemy heroes. I have gone toe-to-toe with both the enemy heroes before [and some backup] and won. The trick is avoiding getting sandwiched, use the environment to your advantage [jumping on the Seppie tanks in cruiser phase for example] to buy time to regen or use your abilties, and most importantly, take out their backup first.

If their backup is 3 or more reinforcement-classes, I don't really think you're going to win it no matter how good you are, unless you caught them blind as bats or this is their first video-game. Even 2 is doubtful. I still recommend you ambush them with a claw rush and then run away, but make sure you have the support of some of your team before taking on odds like that.

Sometimes the heroes will leave an opening for you to deal some risk-free damage to one of them, and if so you should take it. You'll become a better duelist with time and practice, and maxing your Star Cards.

Blaster heroes are a gray-area. They are total push-overs sometimes if you can close the distance, but watch out for enemy troops, and generally [heh] do not charge at people over a long distance as Grievous if they have noticed you. If you have to close the distance, always remember to dash in a random/zig zag pattern and not a straight line. Chewbacca can break through your block and has a nasty ground slam ability. Unrelenting Advance can actually have a use here against other blaster heroes, though be quick to disable it if they get behind you.

In hero-only gamemodes, Grievous is less of a powerhouse in 1v1s but he can incapacitate groups of heroes quickly and make a getaway to the rest of his team. You can either cancel claw rush after the first hit in a 1v1 or let it go all the way through, either is acceptable. If you see a hero jumping high, always use thrust-surge on them, as it will successfully hit and stun them for you to attack. I recommend you deal with blaster heroes first as they will be the bane of your existence at long range.

If you're feeling brave, making friends of your enemies is a great way to get their guard down before you stab them in the back, Grievous-style.

Star Cards [Buggy Funny Time]

These are the Star Cards I use, and why;
#1. Flesh Is Weak

Flesh is weak's damage reduction essentially gives Grievous 200 extra hp at max lvl, boosting it to a thousand. The slower health regen is negligible at this stage because I am used to it, plus more survivability for one encounter is more useful anyway.

Line Up Weaklings

#2. Line Up Weaklings.

Line Up Weaklings says the bonus damage to Claw-Rush applies after hitting one enemy, but it this is actually false. Insta-eliminate all the specialists, officers and assaults you want to your heart's content!

Cowardly Retreat

#3. Cowardly Retreat

This, combined with Line Up Weaklings is the reason I brag about Claw-Rush so much. You basically have an ability that grants you effective invulnerability and increased speed for exactly 3.2 seconds, while also insta-killing ordinary troopers in your path. In short, it could be called OP if this game was balanced.

Alternative Star-Cards? And a tip

Claw rush is good for blaster heroes because it can hit twice, it just has a 1.5 second hit rate. That's it.

There's also a bug that can bypass hero block with thrust surge, you dodge backwards, Thrust Surge at the same time + turn atleast 90 degrees or more. Increase the degrees for pro players and don't use it at all if they know how to counter it [you block in the direction Grievous is facing] to avoid getting double parried. I honestly have no idea if this even still works or not because I can sort of half do it but not consistently. Needs more testing before I can consider it viable. It can be done consistently as I have played against players who have used it effectively. Look it up on youtube if you're still curious.

• Edit number dos: I have actually learnt how to do this myself. Without it, Grievous has 3 options aside from dash to break enemy blocks - Jump behind behind them, use Claw-Rush and do the parry bypass [You have to let yourself get parried once, then slightly delay your next attack.] So it would be wise to learn this. A tip for the timing - You look in a smooth motion behind you and press Q while the reticle is still there. Hard to learn at first, but really easy to do once you have it learned. This exposes you for a moment, so be careful especially of Skyboy.
  
  It is also worth mentioning that Sith-Trained is probably a far more viable card for duels then the ones I have mentioned, allowing you to really capitalize on your limited knockdown/block bypass ability with some much needed lightsaber damage. It could even be viable for Supremacy as well, allowing you to destroy those dreaded reinforcement troops, though I personally am hesitant to part with any of my wombo-combo incase I get mauled.
  Having actually used Sith-Trained, I can confirm it is not a good card for Supremacy. I don't even like using it in Heroes vs. Villains because I can't really even notice it's there. Something else I noticed, it doesn't seem the card consumes extra stamina (which really wouldn't be unusual for a Grievous card).
  
  However, I still consider a viable alternative to replace a card in your set for lightsaber duels, just because 30 damage could mean a extra hit worth of damage against an enemy hero. All of my cards are good so it's loathsome to choose one to take away, but maybe Flesh Is Weak as that extra damage reduction probably won't matter against lightsabers.
  
  Yet another edit: Having given Sith Trained some real practice, it's actually not that bad of a card. Now your swing attacks one shot regular troopers too. I still HEAVILY recommend Flesh Is Weak over it because you can really feel the loss [Supremacy usually means large groups all looking to skin you and I struggle without it]. {Like REALLY, I have had alot of times where I made it out by the skin of my neck on a sliver of HP} But not the worst card, as it can outshine Flesh Is Weak in certain circumstances.
  
  

The Holy Grail of Tips

I finished this guide last year, however there are some key things I failed to mention:

• Use your radar, obviously - Did I mention that? It's basically wallhack and tells you where your team needs the most help aswell as letting you ambush poor normies - like lvl 3 Anakin Skywalker getting a saber thrust in his back
  
• Listen to some epic music while playing: This sounds really stupid but the game is 10x more fun if you're listening to an epic remix of Grievous's theme or whatever slaughtering a bunch of clones. Especially if the game is just so tightly balanced you're the one difference between your team winning and losing - *Oomph.* Look up Star Wars tributes of your favourite characters and listen to music you like while playing. I am literally tone deaf for most matches because of the music blaring through my headphones and I'm pretty sure I got a 200+ killstreak once as General Grievous - Listen, the fact that you can't listen doesn't matter because you're pretty much always rolling the dice as a hero, even as GG with his claw-rush, if you're rushing into an unbeatable and unescapable situation. You will get much, much better as you learn from your mistakes how to mitigate risk and avoid biting off more than you can chew. It's also noteworthy to mention that certain sounds are very distinct like lightsabers and you can hear them even over music.
  
• I hope this is obvious to most of you, but holding down spacebar will make you jump for longer. Use shorter jumps for obstacles and abuse Grievous's quick jump compared to Jedi's slow drop where needed, though be careful as it lets your block down.
  
• On Republic ship in Supremacy, you can jump into the windows on the first cruiser phase at the end from the ground by jumping on that 45 degree slant built into the wall on the side. It'll take some time to master the jumping but you can do it pretty consistently. Honestly, I usually mess up the first time but when you get it, it's free kills on the snipers. Just get out before things get too hot.
  
• Following up on that cruiser tip, beware that enemy saber hits will GLUE YOU TO THE GROUND. It is impossible to escape that place if you overextend and an Obi-Wan spams m1 madly on you while the clones flood in like mice. Best you can do is try and dash away to another window.
  
• On the jungle map (I can't remember the name somehow) Felucia on point B you can climb on the rocks to terrorize the clones by jumping down and breaking their necks. [Don't take that literally Grievous doesn't have an ability to break their necks] There's a good point for climbing as you get out of point C, though there are certain notches you can jump up on to get away.
  
• On Felucia aswell, there is a really cancerous spot near Point A where it looks like you can jump up onto the cliff to get away but be wary of it. I think I made it work before but I say go further down the path before trying to jump onto the cliff. The movement in this game on edges in general makes them not just your best friend, but your worst enemy sometimes. If you get stuck on an edge, that's a few seconds of vulnerability.
  
• Coming off my 2nd point - If the beat in the song drops, you just gotta mindlessly get in there - It's okay, I understand.
  
• Anakin Skywalker is the absolute worst - You can be on a 60+ killstreak of pure destruction and at basically full hp and this guy will Pull Dominance you into a crowd of clones who somehow drain 600 hp in the span of two seconds after you avoided crowds of them for over 10 minutes: Though that 60+ killstreak probably explains why they hate you so much. Oh, and Anakin freebie stabbed you in the back for 200 hp aswell. My advice? Don't play nice. Even if this guy just bought the game he can kill you through that alone. Always block where possible and alt-dash back to prevent him using this fearsome ability on you. Jumping is allowed and always encouraged as General Grievous, though in this case I recommend you only jump out of his range or out of his line of sight.
  In general he has the most dangerous force abilities out of any of the Supremacy heroes. It's impossible to predict if he has his special ability charged up so I personally presume it's not there most of the time.
  
• Use Unrelenting Advance on Anakins who hold down Heroic Might, it will damage them and you will be immune to stun.
  
• Play around, jump around, discover tricks, take bypaths alot of the time, jump over terrain, don't be easy to pin down, run away if the enemy is too powerful in one area, hate jet-troopers, etc.
  
• Finally, as general etiquette I don't take any hero immediately coming onto cruiser phase if I didn't have it the previous stage - simply because I don't want to rob anyone of their hero if their life isn't complete.
  
• You can damage tanks with unrelenting advance at a flat angle or otherwise by simply walking into them. It actually does a decent chunk of damage, and will kill a wounded tank. Maybe you could turn Grievous into a tank-killer by picking the extra slash damage card and troll some poor tank driver.
  
• Anakin Skywalker can pull you out of Claw-Rush when it ends immediately with Pull Dominance, this is really annoying as there is no way to block it. Beware - Try to get around corners or obstacles when ending Claw-Rush against competent Anakins.
  
• There is a trick where if you block immediately before hitting the ground after a hero stun ability or otherwise you immediately get back up. The timing takes some getting use to. I personally haven't learnt this perfectly yet but I have done it as Maul in hero duels and made someone ragequit.

Closing Thoughts.

Grievous is a powerful ambusher and flanker, capable of sustaining heavy damage while drawing the ire of the entire enemy team, the potential to stop an entire enemy advance is in his grasp. He is best used when your own team is the distraction, and you become the real threat to the enemy team, terrorizing them from above, the side, behind, under their bed, etc. Remember that there is always more to be learned from others, youtube, and your own experience.

I hope you enjoyed my guide and found something useful in it. If you have a question feel free to ask, or tell me if I missed something. I will be doing a guide for Boba Fett next, detailing a very useful and powerful bug Saying that made me feel dirty but until then I say adios, and have much fun on the battlefront.

P.S. thumbs up this guide it has 26 favourites so far but not even enough thumbs up for a rating it's quite sad lol Thanks for the ratings!
Continue to give this guide a like and favourite if you think it deserved it.

Also I have started playing again so I MIGHT get around to making that Boba guide. If not.. you want to know the bug? The Star-Card Extended Exposure gives you 3 seconds of free flight every time you activate the ability. The Augmented Gear Star-Card is also glitched I think, sometimes hitting only one or two enemies gives you 4 seconds of free flight at max level. Combine these with Born To Fly and you will have pretty much infinite flight allowing you to play cancerously if you want. Or you could be cool and use that flamethrower melee and dash to fight lightsaber heroes. Well actually I tried that experiment and it went unsurprisingly terrible really. Though it felt really great the one time it worked.

"Remember what I taught you, General. If you are to succeed in combat against the best of the Jedi, you must have fear, surprise, and intimidation on your side. But if any one element is lacking, it would be best for you to retreat."
- Dooku, Count of Serenno and Lord of the Sith

[Banzaikoowaid]

How much of this would you say applies to Coop? In Coop GG seems to suffer more with the AI's propensity to ignore everything else around it just to melt him.

[move like gremlin]

hi bob

[olliebollie13]

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[Vespasius]

Lol once the rocket guy got stuck in my lighsabre and I spent the next 5 minutes using unrelenting advance whenever I could to torture him

Although yes the commander is very annoying with that. This is why I prefer the commando droid to the clone commando
Commando droids can awloolooloo so that's a plus

I did try flesh is weak and now I literally use it whenever possible. It gets so stupid when you have purple on everything. Still, jedi killer is definitely the mvp card in heroes vs villains

[move like gremlin]

I haven't played BF2 in a long while to be honest, but no I haven't used Jedi Killer. Maybe you could swap it for Flesh is Weak sometimes to be stronger in more open areas? One of the worst problems with thrust surge though is using it on a commando and he rolls, dodges it, then bites out 400hp with his blaster, especially if your other abilities are on cooldown. People probably wouldn't expect you to use it from that far away though.

You could also combine it with that block bypass technique to be a monster in hero PvP.

And yeah, that's pretty much my go-to for dealing with rocket troopers lol, although sometimes you'll miss them or they'll get flung really far away.

[Vespasius]

Have you tried using Jedi Killer star card it means you can snipe people away with thrust surge
Also a funny glitch is if a rocket trooper boosts away into the air just after the General thrust surges he will fly into the air and home in on the rocket-guy like a missile with lighsabres

[move like gremlin]

Nice!

[Vespasius]

General Greivous is also my fave Star Wars character :)

[move like gremlin]

You are welcome my friend

[Vespasius]

You know what? This is actually helpful!