Operation Guide: Hive of the Mountain Queen

1 Story Mode

While there are many mechanics, most of them can be ignored on Story Mode.

Summary

The boss should be tanked in the middle. The many adds spawning throughout the encounter should be stacked up under the boss and killed through AoE and DoT spread. When the Geonosian Royal Guards spawn, the group must kill them fast as they shield the Queen. Players targeted with circles should move away from the group.

In Detail

The room is circular shaped and littered with eggs. The ring of green goo (the dark blue torus on the map) is toxic; players should not stand in it.

Before entering the room, a bunch of trash mobs have to be killed. The mechanics appearing there are also present in the actual encounter.

The entrance (or rather a hole in which you jump) is in the south of the room. There is also the option to unlock a shortcut before jumping by clicking on the loose rock formation, in case the group wipes.

The Queen initially stands in the Northern part of the room but should be brought to the middle. The adds always spawn at either the eggs or the respective circles on the map. Apart from the Caustic Drones, they should be brought to the middle as well and killed through AoE.

The Eggs

There are four different types of eggs, blue and red, cracked, and uncracked.

Blue eggs are the default eggs. They hatch Bantling Lacerators. The left picture shows an intact egg, the right picture a cracked egg.

Red eggs only appear when a blue egg has been empowered by View on swtor.jedipedia.net Growth Hormone. The hatch Geonosian Berserkers.

After an intact egg gets attacked by the Queen, it cracks. If it gets attacked by the Queen again, it will break and hatch an add. Eggs attacked by Geonosian Royal Guards or Caustic Drones will be destroyed without hatching an add.

The Adds

The fight features a lot of adds. There are four different types of them. Two are hatched from the eggs, the other two are summoned by the Queen herself.

Bantling Lacerators are hatched from blue eggs. They do not have any special abilities, but usually spawn en masse. Cannon fodder if you wish.

Geonosian Berserkers hatch from red eggs. They come with the ability A melee swing that hits all targets within a 4m, 90 degree cone. Targets take melee / kinetic damage, and receive a stack of the “Reft” effect, which deals internal damage and over time, and also each time it is stacked.
Attack and Damage Type: Melee, Kinetic (DoT)
View on swtor.jedipedia.net Reave, a frontal cleave, stacking the DoT [Physical] Taking internal damage per stack over time. Also deals damage whenever additional stacks are received.
Attack and Damage Type: Tech, Internal (DoT)
Duration: 18s
View on swtor.jedipedia.net Reft, on the affected players. They are very nasty and therefore should die fast.

The other two adds are summoned by the Queen’s 3s cast
View on swtor.jedipedia.net Royal Summons:

Two Geonosian Royal Guards spawn with the first (53s), third (2:54min) and fifth (4:47min) 3s cast
View on swtor.jedipedia.net Royal Summons cast. Each guard applies a stack of the buff Damage taken reduced by 50%. Melee damage dealt reduced by 50%. Movement speed greatly reduced.
View on swtor.jedipedia.net Guarded to the Queen, reducing her damage dealt and received by 50%, as well as reducing her movement speed. Due to their passive Threat against this target decays by 10% of the current total every second.
View on swtor.jedipedia.net Focus on the Present their threat decays very fast, making it more difficult for the tank to keep the aggro. They also come with a cleave which damages players and instantly destroys any eggs without hatching any adds.

Two Caustic Drones will spawn at the second (2:07min), fourth (4:09min) and sixth (around 6:00min) 3s cast
View on swtor.jedipedia.net Royal Summons cast. They cast Attack and Damage Type: Tech, Kinetic (AoE)
3s cast
View on swtor.jedipedia.net Caustic Blast at their target which applies a stack of Taking internal damage over time.
Attack and Damage Type: Tech, Internal (DoT)
Duration: 12s
View on swtor.jedipedia.net Caustic Acid to anyone hit by it. Eggs in the cleave will die shortly after they got hit. The easiest way of dealing with them is by sleeping them.

The Queen

The Mutated Geonosian Queen’s abilities consist out of attacks and summoning adds.

Kicks your current target, knocking them back considerably, dealing melee damage, and zeroing their threat against you.
Attack and Damage Type: Melee, Kinetic
View on swtor.jedipedia.net Kick Out knocks the tank back and zeroes their threat.

From time to time, the boss will cast Here it comes...
Attack and Damage Type: Tech, Internal (AoE)
4s cast
View on swtor.jedipedia.net Pheromonic Blast on a DPS. Everyone inside the yellow circle will be damaged, those standing in the red circle will receive the DoT [Physical] Taking heavy internal damage over time. Threat generation increased by an order of magnitude. In addition to being toxic, these pheromones also make this target an exceptionally salient stimulus. Attack and Damage Type: Tech, Internal (DoT)
Duration: 15s
View on swtor.jedipedia.net Toxic Pheromone Coating This debuff also causes the player to generate significantly more threat. The debuff can be cleansed. The inner circle will immediately destroy all eggs inside, regardless of whether they are cracked or not, and hatch adds. The outer circle will crack intact eggs and destroy cracked eggs, thereby hatching adds.

View on swtor.jedipedia.net Growth Hormone is a 1s cast turning a blue egg red and replacing destroyed eggs by blue ones.

3s cast
View on swtor.jedipedia.net Royal Summons spawns either Geonosian Royal Guards or Caustic Drones, see above.

After the first and third 3s cast
View on swtor.jedipedia.net Royal Summons cast, where the Geonosian Royal Guards spawn, the boss will cast 30s cast
View on swtor.jedipedia.net Rallying Call for 30 seconds. This gives the group time to kill remaining adds and the Royal Guards. When the cast is finished, the Queen will crack all intact eggs and destroy all cracked eggs, hatching adds. The Queen will receive the debuff Unable to act.
Duration: 11.4s
View on swtor.jedipedia.net Rallying Call Recovery, stunning her for 11.4 seconds. Should there still be Royal Guards when the cast finishes, they will enrage.

Why have one Enrage when you can have three of them?

The first soft enrage starts roughly at 4:00 minutes. Instead of Here it comes...
Attack and Damage Type: Tech, Internal (AoE)
4s cast
View on swtor.jedipedia.net Pheromonic Blast, the boss will cast Here it comes...
Attack and Damage Type: Tech, Internal (AoE)
5s channel
View on swtor.jedipedia.net Pheromonic Multi-Blast, putting the circles on two players. The next times it is being casted, three will receive the circles. More circles mean more adds hatching.

The second soft enrage starts at roughly 6:30min. 1.6s channel
View on swtor.jedipedia.net Save the Queen hatches eggs in an increasing radius.

The final enrage is at around 7:45. The Queen will cast Well now you've done it... Damage massively increased.
3s cast
View on swtor.jedipedia.net Royal Indignation, increasing her damage by 300% (400% on HM).

2 Hard Mode

New Mechanics – Queen

The Queen now does Attack and Damage Type: Melee, Kinetic
View on swtor.jedipedia.net Overhead Skewer, stunning the tank for 4s. This happens at around 35s, 2:30min, 4:15min and 4:50min. Her new ability Kills the target. Only usable on stunned targets.
Attack and Damage Type: God Damage
0.8s channel
View on swtor.jedipedia.net Guillotine kills the target but can only be used when it is stunned. To prevent the tank from dying, they must either use their stun breaker or have another player taunt.

View on swtor.jedipedia.net Growth Hormone now turns three (instead of one) eggs red.

New Mechanics – Geonosian Berserkers

Geonosian Berserkers now come with the passive Damage taken from area of effect attacks reduced by 80%.
View on swtor.jedipedia.net Hardened Carapace, reducing their damage taken from AoE by 80%.

New Mechanics – Geonosian Royal Guards

Royal Guards standing closer than 25m to the Queen receive Standing near the Queen. Alacrity and movement speed increased by 25%.
View on swtor.jedipedia.net Inspiration, increasing their Alacrity and movement speed.

They also have an instant kill on stun mechanic:

24s after spawning they cast The next attack Melee Attack will instead be a Staggering Strike, which will deal extreme damage and incapacitate its target. Staggering Strikes cannot be avoided, but are always shielded if the target has a shield generator.
View on swtor.jedipedia.net Concentrate for 1s. The next attack will then be A fully committed strike that trades any semblance of finesse for overpowering force, dealing massive damage to the target. This attack cannot be dodged, but if the target has a shield generator they are guaranteed to shield it. This attack invokes triple the normal Global Cooldown.
Attack and Damage Type: Tech, Kinetic
View on swtor.jedipedia.net Staggering Strike. It deals massive damage to the target but will be shielded if the player has a Shield Generator. The player will be rooted for 1s and then receive Rooted. Stunned. Silenced. Hindered. This effect cannot be removed. Also ow.
View on swtor.jedipedia.net Staggered, stunning them for 6s. This stun cannot be broken at all. The Royal Guard receives Recovering balance. Unable to act.
View on swtor.jedipedia.net Swing Recovery, increasing the next global cooldown to 4.5s. After the 4.5s GCD (the player will still be stunned for 2.5s at this time), it will channel Only usable on stunned targets. Take advantage of your target’s helpless state to deliver a lethal blow. Deals massive absolute damage to the target, most likely killing it outright.
Attack and Damage Type: God Damage
0.8s channel
View on swtor.jedipedia.net Execute for 0.8s, killing the player. To have the tank survive, the group must stun the Royal Guard before the Only usable on stunned targets. Take advantage of your target’s helpless state to deliver a lethal blow. Deals massive absolute damage to the target, most likely killing it outright.
Attack and Damage Type: God Damage
0.8s channel
View on swtor.jedipedia.net Execute channel is over or have someone generate enough threat to have Royal Guard be on them ( Only usable on stunned targets. Take advantage of your target’s helpless state to deliver a lethal blow. Deals massive absolute damage to the target, most likely killing it outright.
Attack and Damage Type: God Damage
0.8s channel
View on swtor.jedipedia.net Execute can only be used on stunned targets).

Strategy

To make the DPS check easier on 8-person HM, the group can go with only one tank. DPS need high uptime on the Queen (the small adds should be killed with AoE) and the Queen should die before the third set of adds to not get overrun by adds.

The biggest threat the group is facing are too many (of the wrong type of) adds. Especially having too many Berserkers up can easily lead to casualties.

In the beginning, when almost no adds are up, the player targeted by Here it comes...
Attack and Damage Type: Tech, Internal (AoE)
4s cast
View on swtor.jedipedia.net Pheromonic Blast can go to a red egg (so that it is in the red circle), hatching one Berserker that can be killed easily. The Berserkers spawning throughout the encounter can be killed by ranged DPS before they even reach the group. It is also possible to use the Caustic Drones’ Attack and Damage Type: Tech, Kinetic (AoE)
3s cast
View on swtor.jedipedia.net Caustic Blast, too many Taking internal damage over time.
Attack and Damage Type: Tech, Internal (DoT)
Duration: 12s
View on swtor.jedipedia.net Caustic Acid stacks are dangerous, though.

When the Royal Guards spawn, the tank can take one of them and use Attack and Damage Type: Tech, Energy (AoE)
View on swtor.jedipedia.net Cleaving Strike to destroy two of the (red) eggs (the first Attack and Damage Type: Tech, Energy (AoE)
View on swtor.jedipedia.net Cleaving Strike can happen after 6s, the cooldown of it is 6s as well and at 24s the stun mechanic starts). The rest of the group focusses the other Royal Guard so it dies in under 24s and then switches to the tank’s.

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Written by Syseea. Images taken from Star Wars: The old Republic. Additional information taken from swtor.jedipedia.net. For questions or complaints, contact me.
This page was last updated on 7 January 2022.