Time to share strategies: Garuda

I'm seeing a lot of x3BLM setups, is that mainly for the clones? Or to skip phase? We still haven't defeated her but have been able to skip phase 2 using PLD WHM X2BLM X2DRG BRD MNK. Of course, knowing what to do after AB is another story ;-;

Phase 2 is just so random and annoying that most people shoot to skip it. But the more I do this fight, the more I start to realize that gear really DOES make a difference. Knowing what to do means nothing if you cant deal the damage/take the hits required to even get to that point.

Garuda really is a gear-check fight.

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Originally Posted by Griss

No no. you bring her down to 70. the blm's rest up mp while the dd's do there thing and get her to the pre af plume spam(third jump with competent dd's). Blm's go beast mode and burn her down as much as possible. The goal here is to drop enough damage on her so she will skip straight to the clone phase after astral. At minimum it will shorten the time she is in her second phase.

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We've tried something like this. Our BLMs are really well geared and would just pull hate far too easily though if we went all out at the start, maybe our PLD needs even more +enmity gear or something. We opted to take it easy until after the 2nd set of plumes is dead and then zerg her down from there with a spell cycle, similar to how people used to BLM burn before they patched it.

Usually get her down to 30% ish once Aerial Blast goes off, sometimes she starts in phase 2 but it always takes us a mere few seconds to get her straight to phase 3. All BLMs are in red enmity for most of it. We've not beaten it yet though, Chiralda drops in no time at all but Suprana in particular giving us all sorts of problems since BRDs finding it difficult to bring her down without dying. Setup we're using atm is PLD BRDx3 BLMx3 WHM.

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Originally Posted by Req

Another big thing you need to do is make sure that the bards are getting 3000 tp to do rain of death out of combo.

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I'm assuming everyone knows this but exorcism beans (or any cheap throwing item) are a godsend for getting to 3k TP quickly. Just alternate throw and light shot.

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Originally Posted by Kagato

Well I did a Garuda run all day today. Seems we can never deal enough damage to skip phase 2. Also, we seem to have the hardest time with plumes.

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you want to make sure of 2 things. 1. your BRDs can get the plumes down fast and none of them blow up. (melee can help them if they need it but generally you want to shoot for 2 bards handling plumes until her last phase of plumes which is a bit much for BRDs only sometimes) 2. BLM should have at least 465 M.Acc unbuffed (this with brd buff should ensure you have very very minimal spell resists which will be the biggest killer of your DPS)

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Originally Posted by Kaizlu

I'm seeing a lot of x3BLM setups, is that mainly for the clones? Or to skip phase? We still haven't defeated her but have been able to skip phase 2 using PLD WHM X2BLM X2DRG BRD MNK. Of course, knowing what to do after AB is another story ;-;

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you can usually skip phase 2 with 2 BLM and melee on her, I guess it depends on what jobs are available and the fact that BLM can stay out of harms way much easier.

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Originally Posted by Kaizlu

I'm seeing a lot of x3BLM setups, is that mainly for the clones? Or to skip phase? We still haven't defeated her but have been able to skip phase 2 using PLD WHM X2BLM X2DRG BRD MNK. Of course, knowing what to do after AB is another story ;-;

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Might be the underlined bit more than anything. BLM have the best amount of sustained damage in Phase 1 since they're useless against plumes. Your melee can mop them up while BLMs just keep tagging away at Garuda.

Here's the video with my LS doing Garuda. It's from a BRD point of view, so I don't know how well it'll capture what the tanks are doing:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_1jty...ature=g-user-u

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Originally Posted by Alkimi

Usually get her down to 30% ish once Aerial Blast goes off, sometimes she starts in phase 2 but it always takes us a mere few seconds to get her straight to phase 3. All BLMs are in red enmity for most of it.

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If you are sometimes hitting P2 you are probably hovering around 37-42% when she astral flow, and not 30%.

BRD 3x is rough since theres no one to really tank Suprana, and BRD requires 8 yards for combo. BRD can do huge burst with Quick Nock comboed and Barrage but it requires some threat built on her by someone else (WAR DPS is usually a preferable offtank) to continue doing WS's etc.

Side dupes are probably incredibly difficult with that set up. I'd suggest dropping 1 BRD for a WAR DPS that can offtank her, or assigning positions for BRDs so they are spread out enough so Suprana is always running around.

I've read that you can avoid damage to the pillars if the tank stands between pillars and Garuda during AOE. What exactly does this mean? We've been trying to position our tank accordingly, but it doesn't seem to work. Any hints?

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Originally Posted by XaveStern

I've read that you can avoid damage to the pillars if the tank stands between pillars and Garuda during AOE. What exactly does this mean? We've been trying to position our tank accordingly, but it doesn't seem to work. Any hints?

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You mean during her teleport WS move (this is the only one of her moves that should hit the pillars anyway)? I don't think you can do this. Based on my personal experience, I would recommend the tank runs behind a pillar (or behind Garuda, depending on her position) and bravely hides there like the rest of the group. I would think it's a bit safer as tank won't take damage and won't be in any possible danger after the move. Other than the tele moves, our tank tanks her where she pops, tanks back and Garuda's face towards the outer border of the area. In phase one, that is.

Anyway, wanted to say thank you to all the people who posted tips about holding her in phase 1 so that you can skip phase 2. We tried this on our latest run and succeeded to skip the phase 2 a lot more consistently, so it helped a lot! :)

Quick question: Anyone know the chat filters for knowing when garuda summons west wind , south wind , and bend and warp? I forgot :x