Garuda's Difficulty

[Vanguard319]

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'

Our last run got Garuda down to 50% in ~5 minutes, problem that time was that we lost a war mid way through to D/C, and were wiped for 8k.

[Kinseykinz]

Our last run got Garuda down to 50% in ~5 minutes, problem that time was that we lost a war mid way through to D/C, and were wiped for 8k.

Then it sounds like you're getting close...just more practice...50% in 5 mins does still mean you'd have to survive phase 2, but parties do it. Although, it is easier to skip it if you have the DPS in the front...but either way, sounds like you're making forward progress.