Time to share strategies: Garuda

[Kenseto]

Setup I use most is: Pld, Whm, Blm x2, Drg x2, Brd x2

First part before AF is pretty simple. Brds and Drgs(keen flurry Ring of Talons) kill the plumes. Dps to around ~65% hp and she'll jump for the AF plumes. Take care of plumes and Dps garuda down to around ~40% hp so after the AF she'll skip her second phase and go straight into spawning Chirada and Suprana.

Pld flashes group and vokes Suprana. Pld tanks Suprana and Garuda at the same time while a blm is most likely to be tanking Chirada. Pld covers Blms as needed. Rest of the group stand behind them so they don't get hit/stunned.
Kill clones and Dps garuda.

A) If Clones spawn again. Determine if you can kill garuda within the minute or again kill the clones before they blast you.

B) 3 tornadoes cover the arena(2 on the outside and 1 in the middle). Run to the outer rim of the arena and start moving in a clock-wise direction with the tornadoes. Kill the plumes that spawn during this phase.

The main thing you need to do for easier wins is skip the second phase after AF and have Suprana/Chirada spawn right away.

Kinda tired writing this. Let me know if anyone has questions. May post a video later of our garuda fights as well from a Pld point of view.

This is the most common setup that we've used to beat her. Ambuter covers it all here in detail, it's very similar to ours so I'll just copy-paste his because I'm lazy :P. Just some learning points we've taken from our fights.

*In order to avoid a lot of unnecessary heartache, she must be brought down to less than 40% health in order to avoid Phase 2 and move on to Phase 3. Invest in your BLM gearing and skill to get that DPS up, food and pots help.

*DRGs should ensure that keen flurry and ring of talons is up after her last jump during Phase 1, as there will be substantially more plumes to take down. Assigning primary pillars to each "plume killer" helps avoid wasted AOE skills

*DRGs save Dragonfire Dive for Chirada in the event that a BLM goes down during a clone wave.

*Go get the GC tonic/expectorant, each person have one of each on their person, it's an instant raise. No brainer here. 215 seals total for both.

*PLD covers your highest DPS BLM during clones. There will be more than enough people on Suparna, you can't afford to lose that BLM with this setup.

*PLD voke/flash Suparna as quickly as possible. If she goes for and kills the WHM, it's a wipe. Hate may get pulled off of the PLD by the DDs who are on Suparna, that's fine. The name of the game is to get her attention first to keep her off of the mages.

*Don't face Garuda or the clones at the rest of the party...please?

*When clones die, DPS Garuda as best as you can within the time-frame, but after one or two WS combos, save that TP. You'll need it to AOE the plumes for South Winds, or to burn down the next set of clones. Throwing weapons help with TP generation in between auto-attacks.

*If Garuda is less than 20%, we usually just ignore the clones and burn down Garuda. Be wise about this, as this depends on your party's own level of DPS.

I see a lot of concern on the thread about "how much DPS do I need". I don't have an answer to that yet, but next time we fight I'll take note of it. I'm sure that a lot of people may disagree, and others may side with me when I say this, but I feel that these are the necessary elements in any high DPS BLM, in order of priority:
A well-geared/skilled tank > BLM Skill > BLM Gear > Food and Pots.

*Get protection. You've got to have a tank that can QUICKLY generate and hold hate. A BLM with all 5 meld/BIS gear with a high degree of skill won't produce much DPS if they're dead due to pulled hate, or if they have to hold back their DPS the entire fight. Need a tank that can support that level of DPS. Overall level of potential damage is proportional to the amount of enmity that can be generated by the tank.

*Get skilled. Doesn't matter how great your gear is if you can't quickly and efficiently move through your dmg/hate rotation.

*Get geared. A highly skilled BLM with great gear will outperform an equally skilled BLM with nothing but full AF or worse. It's a numbers/stats game when the skill is equal.

*Get support. Food, potions, and songs all help to make a great BLM amazing, but they aren't much without a good foundation.

This turned out to be a little more lengthy than I intended, but hopefully it helps some of you out. Cheers.

[Cidel]

Okay, I need some advice here- as we are literally taking Garuda down to phase 3 (skipping phase 2) and then hell breaks loose.

Our current set-up is WAR(tank), WHM, DRG, BRD x2, BLM x3 (sometimes we have a THM for AoE Sanguine pre-AB)

This is what usually happens at the opening of phase 3

Garuda summons the West Winds:
BLMs approach the rear of Garuda to time-Flare her and Chirada. DRG, and 2 BRDs handle Suparna. The only issue we have on this phase is Suparna bouncing around between the BRDs (we were told DRG should be "sorta tanking" Suparna), since BRDs are saving up quick nock and barrage on her. Biggest issue we have here is that people get bounced around due to the uncertainty of the clones' hate.

The winds begin to warp and bend:
This is the other of the 3 phases we can start out with and it's the one that messes us up the most, it seems. WAR runs to Garuda, and tanks her with his back to the wall (roughly the center), while Chirada is also handled with timed Flares and the 2 BRD and DRG are in charge of taking down Suparna. As a BRD, the biggest issue with this phase is that there is seemingly no room to get a combo off on Suparna if she isn't at either end of the safe area to get some range on her. What is the best way to handle this situation? While we do manage to take them down majority of the time, the AoEs are wrecking havoc on people, sometimes from Garuda.

Garuda summons the south winds:
This phase is hit or miss. When she isn't immediately pulled to one of the safe areas, someone or several people might eat a dust tornado. Otherwise, it seems like we do this phase like how we are supposed to, kill Satin plume asap (is there a set place/timing it spawns from or is it random?), tank leads Garuda, everyone else do their thing. We never seem to get this as our starting phase of phase 3, is that normal? I've seen a youtube run where the group got this south wind phase right after Aerial Blast, was that adjusted?

Something that recently happened in a run where we nearly killed her was she went into her warp and bend phase after her south winds. What does the tank do afterwards? Do the tornadoes spawn in different locations? According to him one of the tornadoes spawned on top of him and he proceeded to run with Garuda to a safe spot on the otherside of it, leaving half of the party either stranded at another spot or forced to run through the tornadoes to him. What was the deal with that and what should've been the appropriate action to take?

Any relevant help would be appreciated.

[Chardrizard]

Okay, I need some advice here- as we are literally taking Garuda down to phase 3 (skipping phase 2) and then hell breaks loose.

Our current set-up is WAR(tank), WHM, DRG, BRD x2, BLM x3 (sometimes we have a THM for AoE Sanguine pre-AB)

This is what usually happens at the opening of phase 3

Garuda summons the West Winds:
BLMs approach the rear of Garuda to time-Flare her and Chirada. DRG, and 2 BRDs handle Suparna. The only issue we have on this phase is Suparna bouncing around between the BRDs (we were told DRG should be "sorta tanking" Suparna), since BRDs are saving up quick nock and barrage on her. Biggest issue we have here is that people get bounced around due to the uncertainty of the clones' hate.

It's not so much of uncertainty, it just means the BRD are doing better DPS than the DRG, ask if the DRG has issue getting combo off. Otherwise to prevent Suparna running all over, make sure whoever have hate don't move around and just tank it.

The warrior should also be DPSing the Suparna if possible, but don't quote me on this because i have only been using PLD for this fight for along time

The winds begin to warp and bend:
This is the other of the 3 phases we can start out with and it's the one that messes us up the most, it seems. WAR runs to Garuda, and tanks her with his back to the wall (roughly the center), while Chirada is also handled with timed Flares and the 2 BRD and DRG are in charge of taking down Suparna. As a BRD, the biggest issue with this phase is that there is seemingly no room to get a combo off on Suparna if she isn't at either end of the safe area to get some range on her. What is the best way to handle this situation? While we do manage to take them down majority of the time, the AoEs are wrecking havoc on people, sometimes from Garuda.

There is a room for combo for BRD, the tornadoes on your left and right turns on and off every few second, that is your window to start a combo and then you run back in to finish the combo, same thing here, whoever have hate on the clone needs to pay attention and move to where their AoE won't hit your party member, especially the WHM. Don't just stand there and keep nuking

Garuda summons the south winds:
This phase is hit or miss. When she isn't immediately pulled to one of the safe areas, someone or several people might eat a dust tornado. Otherwise, it seems like we do this phase like how we are supposed to, kill Satin plume asap (is there a set place/timing it spawns from or is it random?), tank leads Garuda, everyone else do their thing. We never seem to get this as our starting phase of phase 3, is that normal? I've seen a youtube run where the group got this south wind phase right after Aerial Blast, was that adjusted?

Usually people get slept if you are too slow to kill the Satins, BRDs usually saves 3k tp before every phases starts to preemptive this particular phase. DRGs can also pull a very quick keenflurry RoT

Something that recently happened in a run where we nearly killed her was she went into her warp and bend phase after her south winds. What does the tank do afterwards? Do the tornadoes spawn in different locations? According to him one of the tornadoes spawned on top of him and he proceeded to run with Garuda to a safe spot on the otherside of it, leaving half of the party either stranded at another spot or forced to run through the tornadoes to him. What was the deal with that and what should've been the appropriate action to take?

Dont really understand this question.


Any relevant help would be appreciated.

.........................

[Cidel]

Dont really understand this question.

How does tank transition Garuda from South Winds to Warp and Bend?

[Chardrizard]

I dont really recall which one is south winds which one is warp and bend but this is how i handle transitions as a tank,


If Garuda runs east, i runs east, 2 clones pop. Pay attention to tornado around you, if it stops, you runs to middle zone.

1. If he decides to go to clones phase again, middle area is always safe since he never repeats the same pattern in a row.
2. If he decides to go to plumes phase, as soon as you see plume, run to the outer circle immediatly, this should be the same as everyone in your party, as soon as they see plumes, run to outer circle. It doesn't matter if you run to wrong direction from the tank because the middle tornado turns on and off every few second and you have window to run across.

Just make sure you run to outer circle first, people usually panics when they run wrong direction and they takes damage from tornado from trying to run back in rush.

Her patterns are also predictable, it will never be the same one for 3 turns.

If he summons clones for 2 cycle in a row, plumes are guarenteed for the 3rd turn.
or clone>plume>clone, clones phases are also never same in a row, if she runs east on the first turn, she will not run east again for 2nd clone.

[Cidel]

Thanks for the input, we just scored our 1st win with only a couple of members standing (she did clones twice), as we decided we wouldn't try and take down clones twice and go all out on her if she did.


But it seems like South Winds (plumes) should be the phase that gets the most free damage in.

[Chardrizard]

Congrats on the win, most parties goes through 2 phase of clones though and go all out if he decides to do 3rd clones.