Advice for Garuda Extreme?

My FC has been trying to learn the Garuda fight and after some hair-pulling we think we are going to go with what I believe is referred to as the triangle strategy as described here.

Our issue right now is that the DPS tanking Chirada is getting one-shot by Downburst by about 1k of their HP. Is there any way to avoid it, are they just undergeared, or do our healers just need to be more proactive with adloquium, Stoneskin, etc?

the only advantage this method got is spiny will be on OT nearly always rest will be same

better do it the regular way as its require a good kiter DPS

Who do you have tanking Chirada and what are they doing to survive it? Downburst has a pretty large tell (her aggro gets painted with a target sign).

Keen Flurry (bard or dragoon) should let whoever is tanking survive the hit, assuming they're geared enough.

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Originally Posted by ProxyTooMuch

Who do you have tanking Chirada and what are they doing to survive it? Downburst has a pretty large tell (her aggro gets painted with a target sign).

Keen Flurry (bard or dragoon) should let whoever is tanking survive the hit, assuming they're geared enough.

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Right now we have a BRD tanking it as they seem to be able to grab hate the easiest as our DRG seems to lag somewhat when tornadoes start flying around. We figured out the lock-on tell, but never thought to use Keen Flurry. Thank you very much!

I'm assuming if a BLM ends up tanking it can be blocked by one of either Mana wall or Mana ward?

And has anyone using this method had any success with Titan tanking Chirada?

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Originally Posted by Estellios

I'm assuming if a BLM ends up tanking it can be blocked by one of either Mana wall or Mana ward?

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I don't know, because I've never done it that way. But I assume they can just hit Chirada with Virus as well for good measure.

To be honest, just get a tank to grab Garuda and one add. Wicked Wheels are predictable enough that you can time a big cooldown (Vengeance, or Ramparts + Bulwark) for them.

PLD (MT)

WAR (OT)

PLD holds Chirada and Garuda in sister phases.

WAR uses a Wrath V attack such as Steel Cyclone + Tomahawks to pull Suparna. WAR uses Provoke + Tomahawk on the Spiny Plume.

Suparna should be dead - or near dead by the time the 2nd debuff is stacked. When Suparna is down draw the Plume within range of the MT and have them Provoke. Add your DPS to Garuda; or Chirada if she is still alive.

Rinse repeat - MT should always take the Spiny plume second. You do not need to be using your taunt on Suparna - Steel Cyclone or Inner Beast with a Tomahawk is more than enough if DPS don't immediately open up on it.

DPS "triangle" method relies on gear pretty heavily.

So apparently no one knows that Downburst damage is split between number of people who are hit, just like the relic Hydra fight and Cactuar's 1000 Needles?
With 4 DPS standing in front of Chirada during Downburst, it is survivable by all jobs, even if you have all mage setup. (tho 2 melee at full should be enough)

Further, Downburst is a timed move. When it's about to come, as others have mentioned, a reticule will mark one DPS (presumably the one with highest hate). There are a few seconds for others to rush in front of Chirada to split the damage.

Splitting only between MT and OT is a bad idea because this puts extreme stress on the tanks and healers. If a tank doesn't time and rotate defensive cooldowns properly he will die easily even if in full ilv 90 gear. The healers also becomes stressful because they may become too focused on the MT's Health.

Of course, the most ideal situation is when there is enough DPS power (+LB) to just burn down Chirada even before Downburst comes.

Is this really the most popular strategy going around?

All groups I have been in do it this way:

MT: Takes Garuda+Suparna to the NW corner.
OT: Takes Chirada to the SE corner.
DPS/Heals: Go to the SW corner, so you can easily target all mobs.
Spiny: Let it go where it's going to go, MT/OT communicate to decide who will grab it and when.

Kill Order:
IF you have a melee: All ranged attack and kill Suparna (on MT) while the melee starts on Chirada. Once Suparna is dead, ranged switched to Chirada. Chirada should be almost dead by this point (she seems to have less HP than Suparna).
IF you do NOT have a melee (all ranged party): All ranged kill Chirada, and then Suparna.

After both mobs are dead, work on Garuda until she jumps. Whoever has the Spiny can start running toward the center so that it 'drops' closer to the center of the vortex, making it easier for whoever is going to grab the Spiny in vortex phase to get it ASAP. The quicker your dps can gather/kill the plumes, the more time you have to 'burn' Garuda before she jumps again.

The difference between the 'no melee' and 'melee' strategy is very important to note. Damage done is divided equally either way, and with the melee on Chirada... they don't need to worry about dying to Wicked Wheel OR having the OT/melee run across the tornadoes. DPS never needs to 'stop' because ranged/melee are ALWAYS hitting something. Similarly, the OT never needs to grab Suparna to make it 'safer' for melee to attack. The 'melee' strategy may also make the fight easier on healers, because Suparna will be dying relatively quickly... and so the MT will not need 'spam heals' like they would with the 'no melee' strategy. LB is not necessary with the strategy, unlike the linked post where it is required to get Chirada down in time. We prefer to save LB for a melee kill at the end, or a VERY CAUTIOUS caster kill (don't accidentally kill the spiny UNLESS Garuda is a hair away from death...)

I think the triangle is the default, "intended by devs", just like in HM. I doubt an Item level 65 tank can take two harpies at the same time... same with healers, who'd have to deal with that bizarre damage.

2 useful tip here people might have mention

I believe the skill Garuda use will only hit healers (slip stream or friction, i forgot which), so having your healer stand away from dps helps a lot) - especially with the omfg tornado lag i can't see crap

Keep spinny plume around 60%, no more, no less. This allows enough mess up by some players, but this also allows enough time to kill it even when 1 people might be nervous and forgot to hit it when garuda left

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Originally Posted by UNSF

So apparently no one knows that Downburst damage is split between number of people who are hit, just like the relic Hydra fight and Cactuar's 1000 Needles?

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This right here! Our dps stacks every time Downburst comes up and the resulting damage is minimal.

Don't be tempted to LB3 when Garuda is nearly dead but the two sisters are still alive... I've been in enough parties where a DPS uses it at the wrong time and ends up wiping the entire party because of being so hasty. That specific player usually ends up getting the boot from the party leader too lol.

Tanks:
Paladin: 6k+ HP or really good with cooldowns
Warrior: 7.8k with defiance or really good with inner beast, holm gang

Have someone use macro the instant adds spawn, and again after wicked wheel is used (right after)

/p Wicked Wheel in 25
/wait 20
/p Wicked Wheel in 5 <se.1> Please get away from boss and adds!
/wait 5


--Engage--
Main tank (Paladin preferably) shoudl shield lob garuda to the pillars so shes between them and just barely in front of them and turn her around so she is facing north. This gives you 2 extra seconds of dps when she jumps. All ranged and healers should be in the EXACT center of the 4 pillars so the pillars do not get frictioned.
-First Jump
Hide, wait for feathered rain, then wait for the animation to start for the shot, then run back out, MT should be able to do this without her moving and turn her back around

-First set of adds
The 2nd the adds spawn someone should press the wicked wheel macro above.

Have the main tank shield lob suparna and flash her as he moves as far due north as possible to the wall. Off tank gets chirada and moves her due south as far as possible. All dps should zerg chirada. DPS'ing chirada fast enough will trigger suparna and garuda to teleport and do feathered rain. Main tank should move east or west to avoid feathered rain and move back to get them picked back up when they return. The boss will Double Wicked Wheel within 5 seconds of coming back teleport, main tank should use Forsight + rampart, or sentinnel. IF it's a warrior they should burn inner beast immediately and save thrill of battle for right after it lands to get instant health back and use second wind, it hurts.

Let the main tank keep both suparna and garuda, it's easier. Kill suparna then get on garuda.

-Phase 3
Garuda goes to the center to destroy the pillars. The MT should be north between the 2 pillars, and everyone else should stack in a tight pile south between the 2 pillars. This will cause all the plumes to stack together except 1 or 2 on the main tank. The MT should get the spiney plume so the group can AOE the plumes (WHM Holy, BLM Flare, should kill them instantly). Finish off plumes on MT, Have the OT Provoke the spiney plume when it gets to 1 stack and move it dead south to the wall of the tornado (Why, because when people run to it, they will simultaneously dodge feathered rain without thinking about it).

When she jumps, finish the plume, get in the shield.

-Phase 4
Main tank gets suparna, off tank get's chirda. They should position Main Tank north west and off tank south east. Have all dps focus chirada asap. Let the spiney plume go wherever it wants to. If it's on dps or a healer, leave it there, do not kill it, do not aoe it, do not bane it. Doing so will give you an extra 2 stacks and free up a provoke for an o shit moment. Suparna and garuda will jump before wicked wheel again if dps is high enough. Main tank can try hugging as far back as possible to dodge feathered rain (but will likely get hit, esuna him/her asap). Main tank should pop sentinnel or foresight + rampart again, etc. Smack (double wicked wheel). Kill chirada. If you have more than 1 melee your screwed, forgot to mention that. If you only have 1, they can run to suparna between tornado pulses, but you should have the dps to kill suparna with the melee just standing with range. When the spiney plume get's 2 stacks the Off tank should pick it up and hold it where chirada was tanked (avoids feathered rain). If your dps is on par suparna should die and garuda should jump before ot spiney gets to 2 stacks if not have main tank provoke spiney plume and just be quick to not get hit by feathered rain. When boss jumps kill plume, get in shield, move back to center

Repeat Phase 3, Repeat Phase 4.

Garuda Dies

Reminder:
There are three ways to predict Wicked Wheel:
1: Use macro, it happens 25 seconds after the previous wicked wheel
2: It happens about 5-8 seconds after she frictions
3: It happens RIGHT AFTER Suparna and Garuda teleport in the add phase

Important note on #3:
The trigger for her to teleport is the DPS done to Chirada. If you use the melee on chirada and range on suparna strategy she will not teleport before the 25 seconds expires, in other words she'll wicked wheel before the teleport, unless your melee dps is doing like 900+dps (um nope). As such tanks need to use #1 or #2 to predict wicked wheel to have cooldowns up for it. A tank can go down in a wicked hurry without rotationg cooldowns for wicked wheel. Healers should save swift cast and benediction for such an event. IF the MT dies in add phase, it's a guaranteed wipe.

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Originally Posted by Ri_ri

I think the triangle is the default, "intended by devs", just like in HM. I doubt an Item level 65 tank can take two harpies at the same time... same with healers, who'd have to deal with that bizarre damage.

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Yup. While learning the fight our main tank wasn't around so I filled in. War at ilvl 73 got smacked for 4k x2... wicked wheel is nasty if you don't have cooldowns up and even if you do it still is a lot of damage at that gear level.

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Originally Posted by UNSF

So apparently no one knows that Downburst damage is split between number of people who are hit, just like the relic Hydra fight and Cactuar's 1000 Needles?
With 4 DPS standing in front of Chirada during Downburst, it is survivable by all jobs, even if you have all mage setup. (tho 2 melee at full should be enough)

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Wow, this will make it so much easier. Thank you for the info and for actually providing relevant information.

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I think the triangle is the default, "intended by devs", just like in HM. I doubt an Item level 65 tank can take two harpies at the same time... same with healers, who'd have to deal with that bizarre damage.

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Yea with the whole Garuda < > Suparna hate/position swap it just feels like it's how it is meant to be done. We also figured out doing Garuda HM with the DPS taking one of the adds so this is, funny enough, just like our HM strategy but using the entire arena.

It's a easy fight not much to dodge it's really a tank skill check.

At start Mt takes her till she jumps

When the sisters appear the first time off tank takes chirda South and Mt take supra North, then in the VortexiI was ot and grabbed the spine plume, then Mt grabbed it, when the sisters spawned again I usually end up with the plume as well. Take one sister Se and one NW. The reason we liked for me to take it because chirda died just as I got two stack most the time so a I ran to get sup the Mt would take the plume from me but we didn't separate them then we just burned them down its very easy fight just remember it's not really a race but just a tank check like Titan is a dps check.

I've never seen a DPS try to tank one of the sisters. One of the tanks usually holds Garuda and a sister and the other offtanks the other. MT with Garuda + Chirada and OT with Suparna seems to be the way that's had the most success for my groups. That way your MT doesn't eat two Wicked Wheels. Wicked Wheel is easy to detect as you'll see a target reticle be placed on a tank prior to it being used. Tanks just have to eat the damage, it's too large of an area to try to run out of. This is why melee have a lot of trouble in this fight because they have to anticipate when Wicked Wheel is coming.


The successful runs of this I've done has went as follows:

Phase 1:

Garuda tanked in the north part near the solitary rock. Hide behind frontmost rocks to the sides facing away from the middle of the area to dodge her line attack. Satin plume killed after jump then razor plumes killed. If DPS is high enough you won't get a second jump. If DPS is low, you get a second jump and have to hide behind the two easternmost rocks to dodge the line attack again and kill the plumes again.

Phase 2:

Sisters come out, ranged stay in middle. OT grabs Suparna and drags her to the southmost part of the arena with the MT tanking Garuda and Chirada in the original tanking spot. (The reason Suparna is grabbed by the OT is that if DPS is too low, the sisters will eventually do a jump and swap places and can potentially screw up the fight due to the confusion.) DPS focus down Suparna first while dodging the occasional Friction casts, then turn to Chirada. Once they are dead, Garuda will Aerial Blast shortly thereafter.

After Aerial Blast:

There's two phases that alternate post Aerial Blast.

Phase 3: Right after Aerial Blast Garuda summons razor plumes and a Spiny Plume. The Spiny Plume must not be killed until Garuda jumps in the air. Razor plumes need to be killed as they do considerable amount of damage. For the Spiny Plume, it puts a stacking debuff on people that need to be taken off of them after 2 stacks is reached. If a Spiny Plume aggros a non-tank you can just leave it on whoever it's on and then Provoke it off after 2 stacks are reached. If the OT has it they can trim down the health some with auto attacks. After Garuda jumps, everyone kills the Spiny Plume, waits until the red circle goes away, then jumps inside the area where the Spiny Plume died to survive Mistral Shriek.

Phase 4: Suparna and Chirada reappear with Garuda after she jumps after Mistral Shriek. Suparna is grabbed by the OT and tanked to the Western part of the arena. Chirada and Garuda are tanked towards the Southeastern part of the arena. DPS and healers (assuming all ranged) stand in the Southwestern part of the arena. If you have melee they will have to watch for Wicked Wheels. DPS follow the same kill order as before. (Suparna > Chirada > Garuda) There will also be a Spiny Plume in this phase that has to be bounced between the two tanks. The way to safely do this is you'll see a line that separates where the tornadoes form. Tanks can safely walk on these lines to avoid the tornado damage and run far enough to Provoke the Spiny Plume off of each other. Garuda will eventually jump, Spiny has to be killed as above, run into the area where Spiny died after the initial red circle goes away to survive Aerial Blast, and then Phase 3 repeats again.

At this point Phase 3 and Phase 4 will alternate until the boss is defeated. The groups I've usually run with usually take getting to Phase 4 the third time before Garuda is low enough to kill her. We usually utilize a caster LB3 to finish off Chirada once Suparna is dead and the OT has Spiny plume and trim down Garuda enough to finish her off.

This is a pretty helpful image for people learning the fight (more informative than watching a MrHappy video if you ask me)

I spent all day yesterday in Garuda Ex enduring multiple fails in the traditional method. I was lucky enough to get in a group at the end of the day doing triangle in the tornado phase with a single healer. 6 one-shot kills in 1 hour. Melee was 1 DRG and the rest ranged.

MT was NW with Garuda, OT was NE with Suparna. DRG took Chirada to SW and we stacked to burn it down. DRG used single bar LB on Chirada. After Chirada down, DRG would time transition through tornados (only damage when they "whoosh") to the OT position. OT needs to be tight in the tornado pocket to be in range for heals and his sister in range for the ranged DPS (who will need to be in their pocket). Normal spiny swap. Incredibly effective.

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Originally Posted by diulalasing

2 useful tip here people might have mention

I believe the skill Garuda use will only hit healers (slip stream or friction, i forgot which), so having your healer stand away from dps helps a lot) - especially with the omfg tornado lag i can't see crap

Keep spinny plume around 60%, no more, no less. This allows enough mess up by some players, but this also allows enough time to kill it even when 1 people might be nervous and forgot to hit it when garuda left

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Friction
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As long as OT takes Spiny down to 25% before Garuda teleports i agree with that, due to the fact all moves are on cooldowns from the "garuda Burn" so you cant always get a heap of hits in. unless they are all mages.

It's already been said but it's up to the DD's to figure out what works best for them. They need to plan on eating the Downburst as a group while dodging slipstream if needed. Healers also need to be aware of their positioning if they are near the DD's.

It also seemed like a good idea to always LB Chirada at 50% just before the jump swap between Garuda and Suprana. Since Suprana is no longer at max range after the jump, the damage reduction will start to kick in quickly and can easily be skipped with the LB.

Tanks will take minimal damage and can basically focus all their effort on controlling the spiny plume and dodging slipstream.