Garuda's Difficulty

[DarthTaru]

I have been in some very skilled parties, and still have yet to get a win, So I doubt it has anything to do with a party's skill, and the reason no one does groups is because most manaburned thier way to all the weapons.

and if Garuda can be beaten, what working strategy did you use?

"Skill" is a relative affair.

[morpheus]

No it can't. What's to learn? Watch the you tube videos. You need to know how to play. Period. Plus you need to have decent gear. That's all there is. Your talk of step by step is just a way to lie to yourself. Oh we died 9999x for AF, ohh we manage to pass it now(by luck) ohh we died again 9999 for AF, /party disband. Skill, that's all there is. And gear.

Decent gear is NOT needed! " You need to know how to play." Yep that's it.

[Kaizlu]

Decent gear is NOT needed! " You need to know how to play." Yep that's it.

I think decent gear is needed. Or at least a good combination of gear. Sure you can do all the attacks that you want but there's a limit on how much you can do on skill alone.

[Kinseykinz]

Very well, our biggest problem are the plumes, we have the DDs on plume duty, same as anyone else, and we do very well at getting them down quick. However, people get hit by AoEs even when they are clearly behind the pillars, We also are getting overwhelmed by the final plume barrage at 50%. We're lucky if anyone other than the tank survives AB.

As I said before, our gear is reasonaly fine for the fight, and eveyone knows what they are supposed to do. So what pray tell is the fatal flaw?

Well are you getting to AB in under 5 mins? I ask b/c Garuda might be the one taking out your stacks...Plus, you deal with more 'waves' of plumes the longer the first stage lasts.

When we had trouble with this we changed our strat:

1. We now use 3 War's/1 Bard. They take plumes out fast and furious BUT also can keep the DD up on Garuda. (3/blms 1whm round out the rest of the group).

2. The 2 War/ 2Brd setup works as well, BUT the bards are VERY busy due to the nature of needing to keep songs up, the 'recast' timer on light shot and Rain of Death either requiring a combo (on a long timer for this battle) or 3000TP. War's need TP too for Steel Cyclone, BUT they can easily get that tp by bashing on Garuda between plume pops...which helps the BLM's hit that critical 40% HP before Astral Flow to skip phase 2btw.

3. A Bard with Battle Voice is SUPER helpful...not sure if you have a bard in the group or not.

4. Our group currently has a mix of gears ranging from single-triple melds. While in just about every other battle, I've been our Main Healer, in this one I end up being Bard and more recently BLM. My BLM with modest single meld gears rides red the majority of the battle...and We ARE meeting the DPS check to hit phase 2 now. So single melds are plausible, but they need to be the correct single melds for this fight...and you need to eat food etc.

Like I said earlier, we got past the hard stuff in the battle, now it's just a wee bit more practice and timing and we'll get our clear...I have no doubt on this. And when we get it, unlike the 'BLM burn'...which by the way wasn't exactly an 'easy button' either, we'll be able to teach other people in the ls who are ready for it...even if they are DRG or PLD...which is what is most important to me. Instead of saying 'BLM only'

[JackDaniels]

Not sure if this video has been posted yet or not but, enjoy.

The setup is WHM BRD BRD WAR DRG MNK PLD

[Neptune]

I'm wondering if anyone has beaten Garuda since they fixed the manaburn exploit, because it seems like she is unbeatable now. If someone has done so, would they be kind enough to explain how they did it? If not, are there any plans on the devs part for additional adjustments?

What the hell you talkin' 'bout? You do know Blue Gartr beat it within a day and posted the video on the forums? Just watch the frickin' video.

[Eliseus]

The strat me and my friends use it's pretty easy but heavily relied on good bards. If we do a /sh and get bad bards that can't get the plumes we lose. Other then that, Garuda really isn't that bad.

[Lux_Rayna]

Very well, our biggest problem are the plumes, we have the DDs on plume duty, same as anyone else, and we do very well at getting them down quick. However, people get hit by AoEs even when they are clearly behind the pillars, We also are getting overwhelmed by the final plume barrage at 50%. We're lucky if anyone other than the tank survives AB.

As I said before, our gear is reasonaly fine for the fight, and eveyone knows what they are supposed to do. So what pray tell is the fatal flaw?

1) Ppl are dying because they don't get behind pillars fast enough. It's just like Ifrit, if you are a hair slow at reacting then you will die regardless of what you see on screen. This is because the dmg check is done before you see the animation play out. The first critical step is for ppl to not die. And not dying is a function of skill, so practice makes perfect.

2) My PT would always get overwhelmed by that final plume wave. Thats because your dps is not good enough. The fight is designed that way, the longer it goes on the more plumes she sends out. In other words if you don't do enough dps to force her into AB, she will kill you with a barrage of plumes no party can feasibly handle. The only way to dps fast enough, is again, skill. Everyone in the party has to be able to maximize their weapon skill use AND stay alive. It's not easy. You actually have to be quite good, and not walking around in trash gear.


The fatal flaw is just skill and practice. Basically it comes down to two things: Dying and dps. You shouldn't be dying, so the first step is to get everyone in the party to stay alive. They need to understand how to get to the rocks without being too slow..how to read the battle log, or do whatever it is they need to do to get behind a rock before the server does the dmg check. Its like Ifrit and cracks. Next is to maximize your dps. You can do this by changing up party setups, changing who is on plume duty, or just being better at your class/job. It usually comes down to being better. I stopped doing Garuda because I wasn't good enough to keep up enough dps. Thats a reality you have to accept with your group.

[Myrhn]

Have it done many times before and after manaburn nerf with 1 whm, 2 brd, 2 war and 3 blm not all triple/double meld gear or DL gear just know where to move and how to play

[Anonymoose]

The progression of threads like these is rather frustrating; they outline a paradox. Those with enough free time to acquire the resources to obtain the most expensive equipment come to the forums and whine that "this game is easy mode," and that they want something harder - then they exploit their way to 7/7 and never go back, leaving the average community as the sole patrons of the difficult fight they asked for. It just reeks of hypocrisy and entitlement.

I'm all for overcoming a challenge, but why not nerf the dps check a bit at this point? It's not like the people who begged for this fight are going to even notice being that they easymoded out of it months ago. Philosophically speaking, there'd be literally zero impact.

(That said, I really don't think the requirements are anywhere near as bad as people say; there's just say too much, "I shouldn't have to learn how to clean plumes, you should be out-DPSing my lack of skill!" going on.)

Regardless of the difficulty, I'll learn the fight and win legit and static my way to what I want; however, at the same time, I think this is a great example of why the last people you ever want to listen to when developing your game are the minute percentage of people who have never stopped paying subscription fees for a service they claim to hate, instead choosing to remain so invested that they spend even further amounts of time becoming the loudest voices on said game's official website forums: claiming to despise an activity they never stop partaking in.

You stay classy.