Quote Originally Posted by fusional View Post
nah, already covered this at length on page 15. skipping plumes 2 and phase 2 are examples of game design working as intended, to make sure you're still forced to deal with the harder parts of the fight, no matter how fast you burn her. that's a mob AI HP check, and it's intentional.

the AI for her aerial blast HP check, however, is bugged. which has been acknowledged by devs. which is why you can skip it, even though you can't with any other primal.
Amazes me how you still don't know the quirks of Garuda after killing her so much.

100%-90% = Normal attacks + WS. At 90%, Garuda immediately jumps in the air and does Mistral Shriek.

90%-60% = Normal Plumage + Mistral Shriek or Song. There is no set amount of plumes. She will repeat this combo until her tits shrivel or you die/timeout if you never take her below 60%.

60% = This is where she is buggy and inconsistent. Below 60%, she does her mass Plumage set which consists of the greater deal of plumes followed by Aerial Blast afterwards. The timing on this phase varies anywhere from 1min to 1min 50secs depending on when exactly she summon plumes since it's not instant and if she already had a set out while taken to below 60%. After Aerial Blast, it's Phase 2 until 40%.

40%-0% = Phase 3 shenanigans. South winds lasts 1 min, the other two 1 min 30secs~.

Knowing this, -everyone- that has fought Garuda has benefited from this bug where she doesn't auto Aerial Blast. PUG groups, groups that skip phase 2, BLM zerg groups. The 1min+ allotted to everyone at 60% of pure unadulterated DPS before Aerial Blast is the problem. If you've taken her to 40%, 30%, 15%, death, you've benefited from the bug no matter what setup you used. The equivalent for Ifrit would be if he was able to be killed in the 1 min window from when nails pop with no HP check to force him to Hellfire. I've no clue what % SE will finalize her auto Aerial Blast or if Phase 2 is wholly considered part of the Plumage + Aerial Blast combo to begin with.

I hope in the future we continue to find these bugs anyway. SE can only learn from it.