I join pick up party for this a lots. And generally almost 90% of the party (jp) can get garuda below around 40% hp before AB to skip the middle phase.

But even so, the failing rate is still high. Because this fight is really zero tolerance. 1/8 in the pt did something wrong because of lag, gf aggro or just stupid will guarantee a wipe. Like for the clones, not kill them fast enough then you get wipe by one hit death penalty.

This fight is asking ppl with high dmg and keep focus with no mistakes. It sure is a difficult fight but also it's a very boring fight. You just need to follow the strategy, with good equip and do all the steps correctly to beat it. Anything goes wrong, you start over and repeat again.

Ifrit and moogle on the other hand are more player friendly. Many of you should have experience that you had face an almost wiped situation but still manage to come back to victory.

But for Garuda, you are just playing with time bomb.