29 Attempts of Garuda Ex - Raise ilvl Req or Fix

The past week I tried very hard to clear Garuda EX as an ilvl93 Monk that practically memorized the fight using the Duty Finder, eventually I was forced to use my own FC to clear this joke of an encounter.
Of the 30 times the following had to not happen in order to stand a chance of winning:
1.) Healers had to have at least 4.3k HP
2.) Tanks and Healers cannot be new
3.) DPS had to be smart and on their game.
4.) Echo 20%+ had to be active

In what colorful world does a group ever meet the above requirements? ALMOST NEVER. This damn encounter has given me such a cynical outlook on human intelligence and the average incompetence you can expect to find from Duty Finder.
Definitely needs a nerf, a disclaimer, a higher ilvl req, or needs to be removed from the DF.

I'm sure you can imagine the hell that was "Free Weekend" for this encounter.

I don't think raising the ilvl would help. If you kill spiny you're still gonna die. If anything I feel they should add engame guildhests that explain primal/coil mechanics like the 1-50s do for dungeons, so players can recognize them and pick up the basic mechanics of the fight without having to watch a video.

I had a similar situation with Garuda EX. I also have yet to beat Titan EX. XD I both like and dislike the difficulty in the EX encounters. It makes sense that they would be hard, but the only thing that is a bit frustrating for me is that the DPS check for the sisters in garuda and the heart phase in Titan is cut so very close if everyone is geared up with the "recommended" ilvl. I started all these with ilvl 90 but when I finally got my win for Garuda, everyone was geared at the minimum requirement aside from myself and one of the healers. Sure we won, but we wiped more times than I care to remember. We needed to be near perfect with the DPS checks and it got to the point where some just stopped moving when they felt we already lost too much time. It is hard to say if an Ilvl increase would be a fix here, but I do know as it stands now, it is doable, just requires perfection. XD

Raising the iLvl requirement or stacking echo aren't gonna fix stupid. When are people gonna realize this.

Edit: Also Duty Finder in 9.9779/10 cases for EX primals and T5 are gong to be a fail. Most people just use DF for practice or just don't know any better. Use the party finder if you want a 4.4796/10 chance of winning

You could have 100% echo with i100 minimum and it wouldn't change anything.

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Originally Posted by InVizO

eventually I was forced to use my own FC to clear this joke of an encounter.

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Why not do that from the beginning? Or any group of friends in place of FC.

At one time Garuda/Titan/Ifrit EX were some of the hardest content in game. And it had to be hard to keep coordinated groups interested (think - like your FC). Since then Echo has been added to scale it down to a less advanced audience. That doesn't mean it's for everybody though.

I'd say you just joined something more suited for more advanced players. DF is quite handy, for example, when you have 6/8 of a static group and just want to jump in with any random person in the last spots. And if randoms just happen to want to put in more than the usual effort, it's possible to win.

Find a group to play with regularly (FC, or other) and forget DF if you want to do anything challenging in this game. DF is mere convenience for easy content.

I usually try to fill at least half the group with FC friends for EX Primals. I go in as tank myself so I know at least one of the two tanks is going to know the ropes. Lately I've been getting a lot of first timers through DF but I've found many of them to be very much competent and attentive to instruction. The painful thing is when a good group times out and you need to get a new crop of randoms.

ya last night I was running couple garuda ex, ppl just not knowing how to do the mechanics and not even run inside the popup spinny to stay alive( or even killed by the aoe of it cuz he stand inside too early lol).
Also, they didnt follow the strag I told them. I said lb right after suparna appear so that the range can burn it before chi hit 50% and sup with gar do the double wicked wheel, but seems like... this statement is being ignore lol( I am mt).

well maybe next time I just tell them to all down sup first leave chi alone and focus on killing gar. This is both easier for good and average player as long as healers good.

i disagree with the item level being higher. it wouldnt change anything, really. i got into duty finder and got to phase 4 consistently. i didnt know the fight and one of our dps was having connection problems. i died a lot. when the little dome of protection pops and being outside of the dome is a one-hit kill area, is usually where i died the first time. i was il73 at the time.i had less than 4k health, not by much. the requirements you gave dont have to be met to be able to win, people just have to know what to do. the OT was also knew, so they marked where he was supposed to take the adds and the main things in the fight. we made it to phase 4, and probably the main reason we kept dieing is because i couldnt recognize some things until it was too late.

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Originally Posted by RhazeCain

Why not do that from the beginning? Or any group of friends in place of FC..

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Gonna have to go with this. DF in most cases is used for people who:
1. don't have a FC for w/e reason (or FC is busy)
2. haven't done the content and is their first time

2 being the most popular, if you didn't try to get your FC and or friends to help you from the beginning, you were sadly kinda asking for it.