Garuda and the Duty Finder: Mini-Rant

[The_Last_Dragoon]

So last Saturday I finally beat Garuda's story mode, and am excited to continue, but I feel something needs to be addressed about this fight. Specifically, I'm talking about players who use the Duty Finder to group for it and don't have a super-awesome guild with enough players who are willing to do a lv44 trial with no drops, minimal exp, and a repair cost from hell.

These can be summed up like so:

1) No one wants to group for this duty more than once, and has an even smaller pool of players to pull from since it's so close to 50. My waiting times during that entire week was over 2 hours and I only grouped up a total of two times.

2) This fight is extremely difficult and requires practice beyond just "knowing the fight." On average a group of four new players (which is what it will normally end up being) will have to wipe an average of 3 times before they are competent enough to complete it smoothly.

[The_Last_Dragoon]

3) This is the first dungeon to really "require" adequate gear, mainly due to when Garuda decides to blow up all of the surrounding towers since any player under 2k hp or just barely over will die instantly if they don't hide behind an undamaged tower. This is where not killing the adds and letting Garuda hit the towers when you don't need to be near them comes back and bites you in the butt. Dps needs to be extremely competent in downing the adds and prioritizing at least one tower being at max height, or it's very likely that your healer won't survive, and that is a guaranteed wipe.

Hopefully the new patch will fix the duty finder so that people won't have to spend a week trying to get into this particular duty. :/

[BlossomRose]

Huh... no?

1. GEAR: Garuda should be completed when you have your artifact armor, sans chest. That's more than enough and in fact it's what the fight is meant for. i.e. do it at level 45, but you COULD do it at 44 like I did and it wouldn't change much.

2. DIFFICULTY: It's not complex. DPS Garuda, hide behind towers, DPS feathers, DPS Garuda, hide behind towers, DPS feathers, DPS Garuda, hide behind towers, DPS feathers, stack up in middle for aoe healing, fight Garuda in middle. The end.

3. AERIAL BLAST: You cannot hide from it. It does damage based on how many rocks are still "alive". Even so, it shouldn't be one-shotting people unless your DPS is extraordinarily bad at killing the feathers, which isn't a fault of the encounter but of the bad players you ran into.

I'm going to be brutally honest: if you think Garuda is hard, you will not enjoy the rest of the game, and you will definitely not enjoy the endgame. It's a really easy fight, as long as someone in the group, anyone, can explain it. It takes five seconds to look up a Youtube video of the fight or read a short guide.

[The_Last_Dragoon]

The boss isn't hard per se, but waiting for over 2 hours and not getting a group for it is very depressing. This coupled with the fact that you'll probably be playing with new players and that some players will drop after ~3 wipes doesn't help the situation. I also don't like to "over-level for something" and being in your class set makes this boss a little too much of a cakewalk since that means every member would be at least lv45.

You should also never tank the boss in the middle since that could make the dps or heals get too close to a tower and end up letting it get hit when Garuda targets them with "Friction." While aerial blast is unavoidable, it is reduced in damage by the current "rock" you are hiding behind, not all 4 of the rocks as a whole. Of the three stages of damage the rock goes through, I know for certain that the second stage, where it has been damaged enough to lose the top, deals ~2k damage, and if you're lv44 you might be right at that amount.

[BlossomRose]

Sorry, but you're wrong.

Aerial Blast damage is calculated using the total amount of rocks left. If you don't believe me, try having a run where one tower is intact, and another run where each tower only has one rock left. It'll do the same damage. YOU CANNOT HIDE FROM IT. Hiding behind a rock does absolutely nothing to the damage output of Aerial Blast. You hide from Mistral Song (or Mistral Screech, I forget) three times, then she uses Aerial Blast to destroy all remaining rocks, dealing damage based on how many rocks are left. So if you've been telling your group that it's OK to let three towers get completely destroyed, look no further on why you're wiping.

This is true for story-mode Garuda, and it's true for hard-mode Garuda.

As for not fighting Garuda in the middle, during the phase with the towers, she should be tanked where she started. During the final phase you have to fight her in the middle, you don't have a choice, so once again if you've been telling your group "NEVER to tank Garuda in the middle" look no further on why you'll wipe during the second half of the fight.

It's starting to sound like the issue isn't anything but your personal lack of understanding of the fight. I'll put it down for you here, as clear as I can:

WHILE TOWERS ARE UP:
Tank Garuda at her starting position. Do not stand near rocks or have her facing rocks.
When she teleports, hide from her.
When she spawns feathers, kill them.
Rinse and repeat until:

AERIAL BLAST:
Don't bother hiding. Damage is dealt to the entire party based on how many rocks are left. You want at least 4~6 rocks to survive, but more is better. THIS PHASE IS EQUIVALENT TO IFRIT'S HELLFIRE AND TITAN'S EARTHEN FURY. Where Ifrit's Hellfire deals damage based on whether or not you killed his Nail, and Titan's Earthen Fury deals damage based on whether or not you killed his Heart, Garuda's Aerial Blast deals damage based on how many rocks are still on the battlefield. I don't have the damage values for you, but again, try to have as many up as possible. If you manage to have 10~16 rocks up when she fires it off the damage is trivial. At 3~5 it gets dangerous for lower health party members.

TOWERS ARE DOWN:
Tank her at the edge of the safe zone in the middle. Party stands away drom her.
Occasionally she'll aoe for pretty hefty damage, but less than Aerial Blast.
Just kill her.

[The_Last_Dragoon]

That is extremely weird because we've had a total of 8 rocks up vs 6 rocks up and I still got hit for 2k when I hid behind a 2 stacker. I don't know if you've never noticed because you've never hidden behind a rock or what, but every guide I've seen on the net says you should put the rock between you and her when she ports to the middle and initiates phase 2. This is because, while the attack ISN'T AVOIDABLE it still mitigates damage. Or maybe you're right and it's just a case of mass misinformation.

As for where she should be tanked, I thought you meant that she should be tanked in the middle during phase 1. XP (For those who don't know the fight, she should be tanked on the edge during Phase 1).

I went off of Kira Yakami's guide before I did the Trial. Garuda Guide video

IGN Guide

[Avalon_Albrook]

Just to emphasize how much you cannot dodge Reckoning in any way, shape or form, I sometimes make it a point to run right next to Garuda and jump up and down in front of her during Reckoning while others hide behind rocks, just to show that hiding means nothing. In fact, for Garuda HM, if you hide behind a rock for her Reckoning then instead of just booking it south, you will be mocked. Well, you will be if in a party with me. With love, of course.

[Sinth]

Yeah, when the reckoning comes, its damage is based on the total stones left, not your position.

[nekomtl]

I know its useless to hide behind rocks during reckoning but it so habitual. The rock is there so I hide :P

[Lunavi]

Well, a fight in which a new party wipes ~3 times is not a hard fight in my books... Garuda is not so hard as soon as you get the mechanics.