Have you fought Garuda?

[Elcura]

Phase 2 is pretty simple if you watch the minimap and tank her in the middle while dodging the plumes.

Even doing that, I still get hit by song every so often. Shriek is easy to dodge, she gives you plenty of time to get the hell out of the way. Song is just bullshit most of the time though.

[zzapp]

and suddenly int materia, mages earring/ring prices goes through the roof!

dunno if all servers are like this now, but int IV materia on gungnir is 500k+ each

and some guy has 63 int IV for sale, 550k each

wonder how much time this guy spent getting those, for me these are so rare..

Yep, same on Gungnir now. IV's start @ 500K+, and there are tons for sale. The sad thing is people are willing to pay this price. I remember, not too long ago, when I used to say, damn, not another int materia ><. Just not willing to try triple stacked gear @ this price. I guess I'm destined to be a double stacked lolblm until better gear comes out, or people get sane about materia again.

[Drako]

Yep, same on Gungnir now. IV's start @ 500K+, and there are tons for sale. The sad thing is people are willing to pay this price. I remember, not too long ago, when I used to say, damn, not another int materia ><. Just not willing to try triple stacked gear @ this price. I guess I'm destined to be a double stacked lolblm until better gear comes out, or people get sane about materia again.

its really funny because they are as rare as other stat materias (except MND and STR maybe), but all stat IV materias cost around 60-100k, while INT is over 500k..

[Aratharn]

its really funny because they are as rare as other stat materias (except MND and STR maybe), but all stat IV materias cost around 60-100k, while INT is over 500k..

Not really when you look at the amount of people stacking DEX vs the amount trying for those double+ INT melds.

Supply and demand!

[Toth]

Okay....after trying Garuda a few times last night, I am stunned by the constant stream of JPN BLMs going in and out of the fight all wearing insane melded gear. I frequently saw gears melded twice with INT III and IV materia. I even saw a JPN with a TRIPLE MELDED INT IV weapon!

The worst part is that this makes even single melding a piece of gear or trying to double meld a complete disaster. Your double meld goes poof and you need to spend almost 100k for a new wand / leg piece plus 200-500 for the materia. It's just insane.

If you are BLM main with double melded wands, why even do Garuda at this point since you have already made weapons that eclipse what she has to offer.

[djjohnson13p]

1) Achievement aka E-Peen+1

2) Garuda doesnt just drop BLM weapon

3) What other NM actually requires a tremendous amount of skill on BLM, this is the first fight I actually have to pay attention! It is def NOT JUST GEAR!

[Hiroishime]

because garuda weapon pretty

[Stanislaw]

Someone in the official forums posted a video of JPs doing Garuda with all jobs, with BRD being the stacked job:

[Toth]

1) Achievement aka E-Peen+1

2) Garuda doesnt just drop BLM weapon

3) What other NM actually requires a tremendous amount of skill on BLM, this is the first fight I actually have to pay attention! It is def NOT JUST GEAR!

Yeah I know, I was just musing.

And that new video is quite nice. Some good info for traditional party setups.

[Enygma55]

Gardua can be done with any party setup really. I think you just need maybe 2xBLM or a MNK (did people forget mnk can use magic atks on fist?) to handle Chidara and the rest can be anything, as long as people know their role and use aoe strategically on plumes. The design of the fight doesnt limit anything as long as you understand how to stay alive.

My LS has beaten Garuda the traditional way. I believe the setup was 2xBRD 3xBLM 1WHM 2xWAR or soemtimes 1War 1MNK or 1BRD trade for another melee.

After they patch the BLM abuse, people will return to the more traditional setups. That video shows how smart those players are at not taking any unnecessary dmg in alot of those phases and PLD tank was very useful in the Twins phase.

I would say the safest setup would be 2xWHM, PLD/WAR tank, BLM, MNK, 2xBRD, WAR/DRG. (*gasp* all jobs represented). If the WHM is good can go 1WHM and grab another DPS.

[Sigmakan]

Even 2BLMs arent needed. MNK can replace BLM for magic damage.

[Raldo]

Sooooooooo random thought...

Has anyone tried to incapacitate her in any way, or noticed that their [weaponskill] was hitting [body part]? I'm rather disappointed that this mechanic seems to be neglected so much.

[Enygma55]

I don't think she has any body parts that take any dmg. We've used all kinds of melee and we would have noticed something by now, unless its something obscure that really isn't worth using.

We do use MNKs on Chimera to break tail with dragon kick to make it friendly to our melee players but other than that, yea body parts is pretty neglected by the dev team as a viable tatics to slow the enemy down.

[Niiro]

I don't think she has any body parts that take any dmg. We've used all kinds of melee and we would have noticed something by now, unless its something obscure that really isn't worth using.

We do use MNKs on Chimera to break tail with dragon kick to make it friendly to our melee players but other than that, yea body parts is pretty neglected by the dev team as a viable tatics to slow the enemy down.

Don't wanna go off topic but I hadn't heard about this before, what does breaking the tail do in particular?

[Enygma55]

Just stops him from using Poison Sting from behind. Nasty aoe Poison makes it hard to handle so it opens up the ability to combo from behind without reprecussions.

[Nilheim]

Hey everyone, I've been doing Garuda for a few days and we can't skip phase 2. Avoiding Shriek (I think? the one where she appears on the edge of the arena) is simple enough but I really don't know how to avoid Song, she disappears, and then reappears somewhere random (at least it seems to be random) and uses it within a second, so we get raped. Any advice?

I'm the tank, and initially I thought she would just appear in front of where I was when she disappeared, but it seems I was wrong. Is her landing position related to my position as the tank? It feels like we're missing something simple that would make avoiding Song a lot more simple.

[Carraway]

Okay....after trying Garuda a few times last night, I am stunned by the constant stream of JPN BLMs going in and out of the fight all wearing insane melded gear. I frequently saw gears melded twice with INT III and IV materia. I even saw a JPN with a TRIPLE MELDED INT IV weapon!

The worst part is that this makes even single melding a piece of gear or trying to double meld a complete disaster. Your double meld goes poof and you need to spend almost 100k for a new wand / leg piece plus 200-500 for the materia. It's just insane.

If you are BLM main with double melded wands, why even do Garuda at this point since you have already made weapons that eclipse what she has to offer.

A double INT brand sacrifices m.acc vs. Garuda's Van and trades -enmity for m.atk; a double m.acc brand sacrifices INT and trades -enmity for m.atk. Essentially Garuda's Van is the most interesting of the Garuda weapons because it provides a -enmity option where there wasn't really one before.

For people who have been playing for a while, gil accumulated quite easily through leves and other means. I never actively tried to make money and I had plenty to play around with when I realized I needed to catch up with my BLM's gear, and double-melding isn't as crazy an investment as you might think. With a ~28% meld rate going from III to IV, I was looking at an average 1-2m per double piece (BLM-related materia was a lot cheaper before people started using the BLMburn to circumvent Aerial Blast). You can also SB full sets of gear quite easily; I see plenty of PUG shouts for leveling and SBing if you don't want to do it solo.

At the beginning of 1.21, it took me about two or three days to outfit my BLM in applicable double melds (brand, headpiece, legs, shoes). Eventually I tripled a headpiece. After 1.22, when not running Garuda/AV/CC/Hamlet, I took some time to make some money back and dropped about 3.5m to triple a pair of pattens. This is on Durandal, which is one of the servers closed to new character creation.

If the costs seem insane, try upgrading your gear by farming your own mats, doing your own SBing with full sets of gear, etc.

Hey everyone, I've been doing Garuda for a few days and we can't skip phase 2. Avoiding Shriek (I think? the one where she appears on the edge of the arena) is simple enough but I really don't know how to avoid Song, she disappears, and then reappears somewhere random (at least it seems to be random) and uses it within a second, so we get raped. Any advice?

I'm the tank, and initially I thought she would just appear in front of where I was when she disappeared, but it seems I was wrong. Is her landing position related to my position as the tank? It feels like we're missing something simple that would make avoiding Song a lot more simple.

My understanding of phase 2 Mistral Song is that she spawns at one of four points inside the perimeter of the arena, facing inward. On the few occasions in which we've activated phase 2 by skipping the second plume spawn in phase 1, we avoided Mistral Song by tanking her in the middle and running towards her for Song, ending up on her ass.

[Nilheim]

My understanding of phase 2 Mistral Song is that she spawns at one of four points inside the perimeter of the arena, facing inward. On the few occasions in which we've activated phase 2 by skipping the second plume spawn in phase 1, we avoided Mistral Song by tanking her in the middle and running towards her for Song, ending up on her ass.

Thanks for the reply. I think I tank her in the middle but can't say for certain that I always do (knock-backs are a pain). However, and I don't know if that's because we're from Europe (I know this sounds like an excuse, but reaction time for us does really seem to be shorter), when she appears, she uses it within a second, which isn't enough time for us to get on her ass most of the time. We will keep trying to do that now that I know for certain where she can appear thanks to you, but does anyone know if there is a more reliable way to avoid it? At least for mages, because I can take the damage as the tank most of the time but mages definetely cannot

[Fievel]

Song is the difficult thing to dodge in phase 2 for sure, shriek is pretty easy once the group gets it down.

For song, I suggest watching your minimap. When you see her disappear check your map, she'll pop there before she actually does on the screen, this gives you a couple extra seconds to bum rush over to her.

[Toth]

A double INT brand sacrifices m.acc vs. Garuda's Van and trades -enmity for m.atk; a double m.acc brand sacrifices INT and trades -enmity for m.atk. Essentially Garuda's Van is the most interesting of the Garuda weapons because it provides a -enmity option where there wasn't really one before.

For people who have been playing for a while, gil accumulated quite easily through leves and other means. I never actively tried to make money and I had plenty to play around with when I realized I needed to catch up with my BLM's gear, and double-melding isn't as crazy an investment as you might think. With a ~28% meld rate going from III to IV, I was looking at an average 1-2m per double piece (BLM-related materia was a lot cheaper before people started using the BLMburn to circumvent Aerial Blast). You can also SB full sets of gear quite easily; I see plenty of PUG shouts for leveling and SBing if you don't want to do it solo.

At the beginning of 1.21, it took me about two or three days to outfit my BLM in applicable double melds (brand, headpiece, legs, shoes). Eventually I tripled a headpiece. After 1.22, when not running Garuda/AV/CC/Hamlet, I took some time to make some money back and dropped about 3.5m to triple a pair of pattens. This is on Durandal, which is one of the servers closed to new character creation.

If the costs seem insane, try upgrading your gear by farming your own mats, doing your own SBing with full sets of gear, etc.

Good points lancaster but the price of gear for SBing has also doubled and tripled ; ; (at least on Ridill)