Right, if you can't DPS Garuda and the plumes quick enough, there are issues with your BRDs and melees. I also haven't had much meaningful practice on her post-patch for reasons beyond my control.

I'll even say from experience that you can take down all the plumes each time they are summoned, but if the actual DPS on Garuda isn't big enough, she'll just take down the pillars herself with her Mistral Shriek and Song before she even decides to Aerial Blast... Or has this changed after the patch?


The biggest problems that plague parties pre-Aerial Blast seem to be overzealous DDs getting hit with attacks that are quite avoidable, those who are in charge of taking out plumes are not efficient at it, and DPS in general sucks because people are undergeared and/or 5/5 in AF. Some people need to realize that this isn't like Ifrit where you can auto-pilot it just because you got her behaviors memorized/figured out.