Garuda Hm -- Gear or Skill?

My dungeon static (4 man) has been cranking out dungeons for darklight gear and recently beat Ifrit for kicks and giggles. Now I'm hooked on Primal fights though. Does the Garuda HM fight have a hard and fast gear requirement (e.g. Titan HM ilvl 70) or is it more of a skill based fight so the gear isn't as critical? I really don't have to do 40 more WP runs to finish out my darklight set.

It's definitely more of a mechanic fight, but there are DPS checks. If the adds arent brought down soon enough, they teleport to the center and do a huge AOE. Its possible to recover from it, but it wreaks havoc on the healer's MP. So the answer is, its kind of mixed, I first healed it with my ifrit cane, a couple pieces of DL gear (belt and ring), a couple of AK pieces and 3 left over AF pieces.

It's definitely not as low gear friendly as, say, Ifrit.

Mostly mechanics with a small gear check "the add phases" If you have a good wep and not wearing whites your ok.

mechanics. it can be run with AF1, GC weapon and a tiny amount of DL/AK.

Depends on the make up. If everyone is in AF; it is going to get rough. However, if people have a mix of AK/WP maybe a DL piece or two and a GC weap everything should be just fine, it's mechanics at that point.

For tanks and healers, you can have them in full AF1 set and win easily, it's just skill, while DDS need to deal a little more damage, so a higher ilvl gear would really be nice.
But, even with Titan, it's all about skill. I don't mean you can do it as full AF1, but I got to the last phase with 2DL + 4AK +2AF1 + blank gear lv40-45 (no, I wasn't carried).
Definitely, the most important thing is skill, you just need to know how to dodge AoEs and maybe even the tornado rotation (for Garuda), just to be sure you can avoid them easily.

from a healing perspective in DF groups

gearing here just allows for things to go not-so-perfectly imo

whm can throw up cleric stance and holy in the center it helps make sure the feathers arnt a problem
dont stand near the rocks when its not necessary
have above 3000hp
lb on the clones can really take off the pressure, not needed though
having a brd can really help out if youre with 2 whm, theres a lot of medica to be used in most groups and its nice to save SoS for aggro-dumps

It's pretty easy to do as a healer as long as you learn the fight. When she does all her big moves it's obvious so the only thing you should get hit by is that wind attack she randomly throws at people damage can be reduced with stoneskin. As long as the DPS have a half decent weapon and the healers don't get themselves caught between a triple team attack when the clones spawn it's pretty simple with some AoE heal spam to get through everything.

All the runs i've been on that failed happened because people were standing in the wrong place or the clones were not handled correctly.

Quote:

---

Originally Posted by MXMoondoggie

All the runs i've been on that failed happened because people were standing in the wrong place or the clones were not handled correctly.

---

This is my experience. I don't know why it's so hard for people to learn to get the hell away from Garuda and never ever stand anywhere near the front of her.

it is a tank check. Idiot tank who aim slipstream at party will always wipe

Quote:

---

Originally Posted by Sterob

it is a tank check. Idiot tank who aim slipstream at party will always wipe

---

agree

Titan is a DPS healer check. Garuda is a Tank/Offtank check. Not really gear check, just understanding mechanics, positioning for the MT, and the ability to grab the correct add, very quickly, for the OT.

Also a blm who can drop the plumes to almost nothing as they spawn is also very nice, but not necessary.

Garuda tests everything. Tanks have to be on point so they don't hit the party with slipstream, long enough for DPS to burn down Suprada and Chirada. DPS have to be correctly positioned so as to move their target away from the tanks and minimize the chance of being hit with slipstream if the tank messes up. The last phase is also a dps check (not race, check.) if you don't have enough dps, the phase will keep repeating itself and if you find that you are using multiple limit breaks then it's a clear indicator you don't have enough dps. Healers have to deal with incoming heavy damage, healing between phases and being mobile.

Garuda is both a gear check and a skill check. As I said in the other thread (relics too easy to get) we need a gearscore or ilvl requirement before entering the dungeon. Garuda is minimum ilvl 55-60 (you need AK gear at least) and Titan is ilvl 70. Note that the fights go in order of ilvls, for example, Ifrit can be done ilvl 45-50 (AF1 gear with some whites or greens from AV/WP) and then Garuda goes up to the next tier of loot (AK) and Titan at ilvl 70 (DL)

Garuda is NOT a gear check. its a tank check if anything

i healed it with an ilvl 45 weapon on my SCH.... and it was EASY with a pair of good tanks

@coffeerox, we don't need that kind of snobbery in this game. its not nessaccary

Garuda is a light dps gear check and a mostly mechanics fight after that. More gear certainly won't hurt, but it's not required so long as you position well and don't stand in tornadoes/in front of adds.

Titan is a bit more of a gear check, or at least that's what I've heard (currently don't have enough of an hp buffer to feel comfortable trying it yet). You flat out either need either some amount of hp to survive later phase tumults, or skilled enough healers to prevent them from killing you. That said, Titan also has a dps check (the heart), a tank check (Mountain Buster), and most importantly, a ton of mechanics to deal with, some of which are instant death. Some of Garuda's death mechanics MIGHT kill you (I've kept all eight up through letting an add pop Mistral Shriek before, though I was NOT HAPPY). If you get hit by landslide, that's not outgearable - you are dead.