Garuda Strategy.Follow

Hello everyone,

So I realise a lot of people are having a bit of trouble with Garuda. Too many a time I have gone into the fight and no one Knows the strategy. So I searched for one online, and realised one didn't exist - at least for ARR. If one does exist I couldn't find it, so I thought I would make my own to help out.

Its understandable that people don't know the strategy, as up to this point the game has been very easy, so most people just jump on Duty Finder and try their luck.


Well here some news!
This fight cannot be beaten without everyone performing very well and knowing the strategy 100%

Ok lets get started.

**I apologise for the low resolution and unreadable text, please bare with me while I fix the images.... I didnt preview them like a moron...**




As a back up I will say:

Tank is the Light Blue spot
DPS Ranged is the Red spot
DPS Melee is the Dark Blue spot
Healer is the Yellow spot
Garuda is Green, and the most north square is what im going to call "Her Rock"
^^^^
(I will fix the images and remove this section later)




Part 1: Tank, Spank.... and Hide!

[img=242355]

Ok you will start the Battleground and be at the South, with Garuda in the North.
Nothing unusual here, buff up with normal things and engage when ready. Note I highly recommend having a Bard, as Mages Ballad and ranged AoE is insanely useful for this fight. I know this is not always possible as you cant choose your party members (usually) - but queue as Bard and you will be loved.

**Another Note - there seems to be a very strange glitch with Healers here. For some reason Garuda seems to generate hate when the Healer is buffing.... making the Tanks job very hard on the initial pull. I once spammed my entire MP pool casting flash and didnt get hate at all. If you get this bug, do not let your Healer cast Regen before the Tank has pulled. This doesn't happen every time, but you need to re-enter to stop it happening...



[img=242367]
Ok next, the Tank must make Garuda face Garuda's rock.. This is because her AoE is conal and will hit the Pillars (more on this later). Her line of sight is represented by the Red area.
Melee DPS get up close, without getting in her AoE Cone. Behind her is fine (Maybe too fine >.>).
The Healer and ranged DPS must stand as shown on the image above.
Note: do not stand close to the pillar, Garuda seems to choose a random target and throw an AoE at them, hitting anything else near by, including players so its not optimal to hurt more than one player/pillar from this move.

Carry on doing what you do best, and Garuda will disappear.


Part 2:Pound Dem Plumes!
.
[img=242369]
Rightio, now cometh the tricky parts.
As soon as Garuda flies away, run like hell to the nearest pillar, as shown above.
Essentially you are hiding from a very harmful, and very wide range AoE - demonstrated by the Red area in the image.

As soon as Garuda does the AoE move fast! This is because she will again throw a smaller AoE at a player, which will damage nearby people/pillars. The tank should react quickly and get her back facing Garuda's Rock as soon as possible. If he/she doesn't, Garuda will wander towards you and her basic AoE skills will hit the pillars (bad thing).

Ok.... now this part is imperative and pivotal to insta-wiping, or not.
Several "Plumes" will spawn at Garuda and head directly for the pillars.

Now, firstly lets just get this in perspective. The pillars are destructible. The MORE damage they take, the MORE damage you will take from Garuda's skills. Think of them as an "absorbing shield"...the more HP they have remaining, the more they can absorb when Garuda uses her Main skills. Hence this is why you must kill the Plumes ASAP, as they go direclty for the pillars. Do not even try get aggro on them.

Everyone IMMEDIATELY drop what they are doing except the Tank and kill them. You cannot move as Garuda would move and her basic AoE would hit the pillars. If the Healer is confident they can pop Cleric stance and nuke. This is optional as the tank will still be getting his face smushed up. Use your judgement based on MP remaining ect.

The Plumes will blow up and deal massive damage to the pillars (very bad).

The pillars begin at ''3 stacks" high. they will lose height after taking so much damage. NEVER hide behind a pillar that only has 1 "stack", as you will take lots of damage. Aim for ones that are 2+ stacks high.

Once they are dead, return to the normal formation - DPS behind Garuda, Healer and Ranged DPS near pillars but away from anything/anyone. (shown eailer in an image).


Garuda will jump again.

Ok this time she will appear south (opposite side). Do exactly the same with the Plumes and pray to Dorothy you have some pillars remaining with 2+ stacks.

As a side note, I like to tell Tanks to hide behind the South pillars, as they can get back to Garuda faster, and this also stops Garuda wandering back north (as the tank might be North side of North pillar) and hitting more pillars on her merry trip.

[img=242374]

Garuda will summon more of dem damn Plumes, FU Plumes!!..... Sorry-.-

Do your jazz and return to formation after.


Afterwards Garuda will jump to the middle and summon MOAR (orz) Plumes. Kill them ASAP.

Right... next it gets even more interesting. Garuda will put some text on screen, you cant miss it. At this point the Tank MUST use Limit Break. Everyone hide behind any pillar with 2+ stacks or your dead.....simple as pea's.

Everyone will have about about 10% HP after this..

Sooooo its not over yet. Garuda will shrink the battlefield to a much smaller circle. This is pretty nice for the Healer because of AoE healing abilities.

[img=242377]

Do not, for the love of Eorzea, walk in the Red section illustrated above. It will be very obvious and a purple area on the battlefield.
Stay in this smaller circle and make sure Garuda is facing outside of the area, as again her AoE is conal and will hit everyone very easily as the area is so small. Just make sure the tank has his/her back to the "wall" and standing on the very edge.

Ok hard part is done (whew), one final thing. Garuda will jump one last time, and appear on the edge of the battlefield. she will do another huge conal AoE which takes up about half of the circle you are in. Avoiding it is very easy, just stand opposite her, making sure to be as far away as possible. Getting hit by the AoE does 3-4k, so just move away from Garuda as much as you can, without entering the red area.

OK that's it!

It's a hard fight and comes out of the blue. This was the strategy I used to win, so it does work.
BUT! I only tried about 10? times.... and above is what I observed in those tries.

I AM SURE I WILL HAVE MISSED THINGS - so if any information is wrong, please let me know and I will edit this :)

Its really hard, but do-able. Good luck!





Edited, Aug 27th 2013 4:09pm by Benji40

I will see how accurate I have been, this is simply my observations.

Thank you :)



Edited, Aug 27th 2013 4:30pm by Benji40

Nicely done (from someone nowhere near Garuda ).

If the sudden jump in difficulty is as bad as you make out, then stand by for QQing and nerf cries. Although hopefully that stops the "this game is ezymode" comments in their tracks ...

I agree, Garuda and that Sunken dungeon of Quarn, or whatever it is, is the only place you have to implore any kind of tactics. Rest has been easy. Im at the lvl 50 story dungeon now though... So that might be hard also XD

I quit 1.0 before Garuda, so I have no clue sorry :)

The fight is hard, the thing that makes it harder is people stroll in without looking at any strategy because the game is super easy up to this point - so why would they expect such a ramp in difficulty all of a sudden? They have a point really. Thats what makes it harder. Maybe people wont need to QQ once more info about the fight is released.

Edited, Aug 27th 2013 6:50pm by Benji40

Another thing to add is, as you are closing to the 3rd and last batch of plumes (Before the Aerial Blast, you'll know it when Garuda teleported to the center and plumes coming from sides), focus on killing the plumes that are nearest the biggest pillars. Leave the ones with smaller pillars and without as last priority.

you want to make sure to hide behind the biggest rock as tank pops the limit break. Hiding behind the small pillar will kill you even with 2 bars limit break on.

Aerial Blast que text is "Reckoning Comes", so watch out~

Edited, Aug 28th 2013 3:25am by wcloudxkumo

Thank you, I appreciate that :) I will stick this on the Wiki as Wint suggested. Your additional input is very viable and a good spot - thanks!
Also I forgot at about that stage you will probably have another LB ready. Mabye DPS could use that, or whatver the situation requires most.




XD! funny because it actually works.


Edited, Aug 28th 2013 7:07am by Benji40

This is so brilliant! Now if only the people would actually read this when I try to direct them to it...x.x

http://xivwiki.com/Guide_to_Garuda

i watched one vid, signed up for DF and killed her. I definitely lucked out and got a group who knew the fight, but point is, I knew the fight too just from watching one (pretty bad) video.


edit: wait this guide is for easy mode. oh.

edit#2: this is actually imo the first really challenging fight the game throws at you. i went in blind, and the group i did it with had to figure it out as we went. nice job on guide.

Edited, Sep 30th 2013 3:14pm by Llester

Well, the fact that there's only 4 characters in his guide should give that away.