I was under the impression that the boss no longer casts the flame thingy when the Animus is up?
Granted I've only done the 10-man hard mode, but pretty sure when the general goes invulnerable he stops his flame casts and the only things you have to worry about are the shadow crashes and the enrage.
I know I tanked both General and the Animus (single tank FTW) on our last hard-mode kill and it was pretty easy. I kited every time as well and just used CD's after a kite to help save healer mana and make re-positioning easier.
Plz correct me if I'm wrong about the flame thing though, if I am we were amazingly lucky
P.S. One thing I will mention is that deadly boss modes screws up telling you when the general is casting shadow crash unless someone is actively targeting him. We solved this by having 1 healer target him and heal using raid frames since I was facerolling threat on the Animus at the time.
