"Tortoise in time" tethered bubbles unclear

[Adeacia]

First try: I ran around for a bit, then tried to save Tataru by popping the bubbles. I died instantly.

Second try: I just ran away from the bubbles trying to make sure neither Tataru nor myself were hit by them. I won the fight.

[Ekimmak]

Is it just me, or does Tataru also add an enrage to the fight? She only seems to heal you, never herself, and I recall a friend telling me that when Tataru died to the bubbles, it ended the fight.

Add those two together, and you've got an unreliable DPS check to the whole fight if you aren't a healer.

[Maeka]

Yeah, if Tataru dies, it's Duty Failed. Instantly.

Which is stupid, because again, she doesn't heal herself and she puts herself in every single AoE while risking your life ontop of that.

And that thing with the bubbles? It's not JUST the bubbles, but rather the AoE he does after the bubbles. He makes a section of the ground around him glow. This does nearly as much damage as the bubbles do, and he chases Tataru who is scripted to chase you, so she literally gets you killed unless you mash sprint and have some way of doing DPS at range while moving or you're a healer one of the two.

The fight is just so terribly scripted it's annoying. Glad I'm done with it. Glad I went in as a WHM.

[AmemeAmeklin]

Actually it is not Duty Failed if she 'dies'...from what I can tell, anyway, having seen her go down twice late into the fight. She will crouch by Genbu panting while you continue to fight.

[Bahd_Monkey]

I hated that I had to lookup how to clear this fight, but none of the previous mechanics seem to apply here. (Went in as BLM)
Can I dps the bubbles? NOPE
Can I get the tethers to attach to me instead of Tataru? NOPE
Can I stack on her to split the damge? NOPE

Finally cleared it by just staying the hell away from her, and using BLMs triple swift cast to burn down the boss. IDK if this was supposed to be a DPS check or what, but whatever the F it was it's poorly designed.

[Tinyfist]

The bubbles will pop on their own if you can buy Tataru a little time. She'll chase you, and she's faster than the bubbles. So, run for the edge, then start circling the play area. She'll be right behind you, and wind up kiting all four bubbles. Don't stop or even slow, 'cause Soroban will still be shooting those aoes at you.

I did this as RDM (so I could heal Tataru as I went), but basic heals don't do very much for her. She's an HP boat (and it's a good thing, too). WHM's Benediction would be of particular interest, though. I think overall the BRD would have the easiest time, being able to shoot while moving. SMN, too, would have a somewhat easier time. Enough of the SMN's offense can be operated without channeling, that timing shots through the dodging would be fairly efficient.

[Vodkalala]

RUN AWAY FROM THE BUBBLES.

I'm so glad I found this forum page. I ran it the first time on summoner, a class I'm quite inexperienced with, thinking it was going to be easy. I got him to about 30% health with no issues only to try and save Tataru by running through the bubbles and instantly ate it when the AOEs spawned.

No biggie, I thought, it must just be because I'm trash at summoner. Let's try it on Machinist - my 2nd DPS main. This time I tried to break the tethers, and when that didn't work I tried standing in between Tataru and the bubbles thinking it might work like Griaule in Dohn Mheg. Again, I ate it and failed the duty.

At this point I tried looking online for what I was doing wrong only to first find a page that essentially said "this is how the game exposes DPS players who do less damage than healers, if you're failing this go look up how to play your class noob". I had a mini mental breakdown thinking I was terrible at a game I've burned 1.5k hours into. Then I found this page and read through all your answers and instantly felt better.

Went in for the 3rd and final time and, instead, ran away from the tethers and bubbles as quickly as possible as Tataru followed me around the map. She actually runs faster than the bubbles and if you run continuously, neither you nor her will get hit. Cleared it easily.

So... when Tataru begs: "A little help, [Forename]?!" the answer is to make her chase you... especially if you're not a tank or shield healer.