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  1. #1
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    Garuda (Hard Mode) Strategy

    Related Threads:
    Ifrit (Hard Mode) Strategy
    Titan (Hard Mode) Strategy

    -----

    Garuda (Hard Mode)

    General Party Setup
    One or two tanks
    Two healers
    Remainder DPS

    Requirements
    Complete "Ifrit Bleeds, We Can Kill It" (Hard Mode Ifrit). Activate “In For Garuda Awakening” in The Waking Sands. Continue the quest to attune to the aetheryte which activates "The Howling Eye (Hard)" in Duty Finder.

    Garuda's Abilities

    Slipstream
    Conal wind attack (used frequently); used by Garuda, Chirada, and Suparna. Damages and briefly stuns all targets in AoE. Avoidable (move to the side/behind during ability readying).

    Downdraft
    Moderate conal damage (instant, unavoidable)

    Wicked Wheel
    Moderate AoE damage, centered on Garuda (instant, unavoidable)

    Friction
    Moderate AoE damage, centered on one random target (instant, unavoidable)

    Mistral Song/Mistral Shriek
    Only used during phase one (but can be used by Chirada/Suparna in phase two if left alive for too long). Garuda disappears, then reappears at another position on the battlefield (first north, then center, then east). After several seconds, she generates a powerful burst of wind which damages anyone who is not standing behind a rock pillar so that it breaks the line of sight to Garuda’s position (either radially outward from the center, or in one direction across the arena).

    Aerial Blast
    Special ability, used only once. Deals very high AoE damage to everyone depending on the number of rocks remaining when utilized. Essentially impossible to survive if fewer than three rocks are remaining, ideally six or more remaining to make it relatively easy to survive.


    Battle Strategy

    Note that throughout the fight, if at all possible, no one but those tanking monsters should ever be in front of Garuda, Chirada, or Suparna. All three of these have a conal ability called Slipstream which does high damage and stuns every target in the area of effect for several seconds. Garuda's AoE damage abilities can damage the rock pillars, so she should be tanked towards the border of the arena during the first phase.

    If you become disoriented at any point, there is a large visible rock pile just beyond the border of the arena at compass north. Note that during the final phase, there are other safe areas which can be used, but the ones I listed below are the ones most commonly used.


    First Phase

    Tank should pull hate and start tanking Garuda at the location where she spawns, as far north as possible with Garuda facing north so her AoE attacks are out of range of the rock piles. Healers and ranged DPS should spread themselves out to either side, away from the pillars (typically the northwest section of the arena). Friction targets a random player, so being spread out and away from pillars helps to minimize damage taken by both players and pillars.

    After a certain amount of time, Garuda will teleport away then reappear on the north side of the arena. At this time, everyone needs to immediately reposition to the south of one of the rock pillars (blocking line of sight to Garuda) to avoid taking damage from Mistral Shriek, a powerful directional LoS wind blast attack. Note that the rocks simply need to break the line of sight to Garuda, you do not need to be directly next to the rock for the damage to be blocked (staying farther from the rocks will help to avoid hitting them with additional AoE damage when she returns to the battlefield).

    She will then continue to fight normally and spawn several “Razor Plumes” after a few seconds. These will ignore party members and move to the rock pillars and immediately begin to attack them. They have low HP and must be killed quickly to prevent too many rocks from being destroyed (each rock pile begins with three rocks and will lose rocks one by one as its health decreases). A well-timed Tridisaster from SMN targeted on Garuda can bind the plumes in place before they are able to begin attacking any columns. A timed Holy from WHM can similarly Stun them for a short time and a timed Flare is useful to do a significant amount of initial damage, but none of these are necessary to getting through this phase as long as DPS quickly refocus on defeating the Plumes.

    As this phase continues she will next teleport to the center of the arena with damage radially outward (stand opposite of the center behind any pillar), and later to the east of the arena with damage from east to west for Mistral Song/Shriek if DPS is somewhat slow (stand west of any pillar). As long as a pillar has at least one rock, it will completely block the damage from Mistral Song/Shriek. If your DPS is not fast enough to end this phase by this point, you will likely be failing DPS checks later in the battle, but she will continue to alternate between the center and one cardinal compass direction. Each time she returns to the arena after using the ability, she will spawn new Razor Plumes which must be defeated before they deal too much damage to the pillars.


    Aerial Blast

    As Garuda’s health falls to about 60%, she will teleport to the center of the arena and summon one additional set of Razor Plumes in a circle around the arena, which must be destroyed quickly. Continue to DPS Garuda until she jumps one more time. Note that depending on the timing at which her HP fell to the proper level, this set of Razor Plumes may be skipped and she may go straight to Aerial Blast (the message from Garuda will say "THE RECKONING COMES" just prior to Aerial Blast). At this point you have about 10 seconds to prepare for Aerial Blast by putting up any damage mitigation that you have available to you. Aerial Blast will do damage based on the total number of remaining rocks from all rock pillars, and destroy all of the pillars. As long as about 5 rocks were left, it should be survivable. With any fewer than that, it may instantly wipe the party unless multiple defensive buffs are stacked (Adloquium, Stoneskin, Sacred Soil, etc.). It does not matter where you are standing when Aerial Blast is used, but the group should be relatively stacked for AoE cures. Quickly heal up with AoE cures after the ability goes off and prepare for the next phase.


    Second Phase

    Once Garuda returns to the battlefield, the fight completely changes. The tank should quickly pull Garuda to the north/northwest portion of the battlefield. A few seconds later, large tornados which deal massive damage will spawn around the battlefield, leaving only small safe areas (a feather will drop from the air to the ground at the center of a tornado just before it spawns), one of which will be to the northwest. The tank should position himself on the north side of the safe area with Garuda facing away from everyone, with ranged DPS and healers to the southwest of the tank, as far away as possible within the safe area. Note that all steps in this cycle are precisely timed and there is exactly two minutes between spawns of Chirada and Suparna (four minutes for one complete cycle).

    Part 1: Chirada/Suparna (NW)
    As DPS continues, Garuda will summon two additional enemies: Chirada and Suparna. These two enemies are linked to Garuda with beams of light. One of them (connected with a red beam) bestows a large damage (determination) boost to Garuda while alive, and the other (green beam) grants Garuda a strong HP regen effect. DPS should immediately refocus on killing the green beam add first to eliminate the regen effect, then the red beam add. Utilizing defensive abilities, the tank should be able to hold both the red beam add and Garuda for the short time that the other add is alive (the second tank should hold the red beam add if two are present). DPS can "tank" the green beam add for the short duration that it lives. Note that Chirada and Suparna are a moderate DPS check, and will teleport to the center, then perform Mistral Shriek which will likely wipe the party if left alive for too long. Also note that to avoid Slipstream, no one except those tanking Garuda, Chirada, and Suparna should ever be in front of any of them.

    Part 2: Plumes and Rotate (NW to E)
    A short time after both Chirada and Suparna are dead, tornados will cut the battlefield in half and will continuously disappear and reappear, rotating slightly clockwise around the battlefield with each shift. It is extremely important once this begins that the tank continues to move clockwise around the arena within the safe area without stopping unless absolutely necessary, otherwise DPS and healers will either be trapped against the advancing tornados or have to move out into the Slipstream AoE. As the tornados rotate around the field, a number of Razor Plumes and a single Satin Plume will spawn and move to the group. The Satin Plume must be killed immediately before it explodes as that will sleep everyone in range which can result in death by tornado. DPS can return to Garuda after destroying the Satin Plume as the Razor Plumes only explode for low AoE damage.

    Part 3: Chirada/Suparna (Center)
    Once the safe area has rotated to the east side of the battlefield, a temporary calm will occur with no tornados. At this point, the party needs to quickly move to the center of the arena as a very large tornado will cover the entire arena with the only safe area in the center. Continue DPS until Garuda summons Chirada and Suparna once more. Defeat the green beam add again quickly, then the red beam add.

    Part 4: Plumes and Rotate (S to NW)
    Once the large storm disappears, bring Garuda to the south/southwest portion of the battlefield. Tornados will again spawn and cut the battlefield in half, leaving safe areas north and south which will begin rotating around the field again clockwise. Defeat the single Satin Plume when it spawns, ignoring the Razor Plumes. Starting from the south, the safe area will eventually return to the north portion of the battlefield. Keep Garuda in the north/northwest area as the tornados will briefly disappear, then reappear in their original positions from the start of part 1. The entire phase then repeats from part 1.

    Depending on the group’s make-up, a three bar limit break can either be used by a BLM or SMN to quickly defeat Chirada and Suparna when spawned the third time, or can simply be used by a DRG or MNK to bring Garuda down faster. Defeating Chirada/Suparna faster with BLM/SMN LB is preferable as the HP regen effect from the adds can easily outdo the increased damage that would be yielded from DRG/MNK LB.

    Loot

    Each player receives:
    15 Allagan Tomestones of Philosophy
    10 Allagan Tomestones of Mythology

    The final treasure chest will add one of the nine Garuda weapons to the pool at random:
    Garuda's Gaze
    Garuda's Scream
    Garuda's Talons
    Garuda's Beak
    Garuda's Spine
    Garuda's Wile
    Garuda's Van
    Garuda's Will
    Garuda's Embrace

  2. #2
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    It's random which sister heals.

  3. #3
    The Once and Future Wamoura
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    It's random even within the fight. The first set Suparna might heal, the second set Chirada might heal. Changing mid-fight only happened very rarely though.

    You also don't mention she uses Friction on random targets. This is the main reason why your non-tank should spread out and be away from Monoliths, as it'll do damage to players and the Monoliths alike. Not that it isn't easily recoverable HP, but a penny saved is a penny earned etc

    Might as well mention Holy's stun if you mention Tri-disaster!

  4. #4
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    OK, I'll just fix it to say green/red. Thanks for the correction!

  5. #5
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    Quote Originally Posted by Rocl View Post
    You also don't mention she uses Friction on random targets. This is the main reason why your non-tank should spread out and be away from Monoliths, as it'll do damage to players and the Monoliths alike. Not that it isn't easily recoverable HP, but a penny saved is a penny earned etc

    Might as well mention Holy's stun if you mention Tri-disaster!
    Mentioned that Friction is a target-centric AoE at the top, but good point that it's not targeting the top of the hate list, didn't really mention it anywhere else. Not that it really matters, but do you know if it's random, or second on hate list, or what?

    On plumes, I never had a setup with WHM trying Holy to stun, is that something people have been using for the Plumes? I'll add it. Not really sure how relevant either Tridisaster or Holy is as I've never seen a successful group have any trouble with killing the adds fast enough even while they are attacking the pillars.

  6. #6
    The Once and Future Wamoura
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    It's what we do for plumes when the White Mage is bored, I haven't run Garuda DF though. Stun/Bind etc definitely aren't necessary but I guess are helpful when learning.
    As far as I can tell Friction is pretty much random-- I've never seen a pattern to who she hits though admittedly I haven't looked hard.

  7. #7
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    I'm pretty sure it's random... I've actually been hit by it before I even got in position to start attacking.

  8. #8
    Mr. Bananagrabber
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    Quote Originally Posted by miokomioko View Post
    I'm pretty sure it's random... I've actually been hit by it before I even got in position to start attacking.
    Truth, seen this a lot.

  9. #9
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    It's a small thing, but it helps:

    When she's using Mistral song/shriek, Target her (or use Shift+F to focus her), and move away from the rocks as soon as the cast timer is done. You do not need to wait for the animation to go off, all that matters is where you are when the casting bar finished. This gets you away from the rocks when she likes to throw out random damage afterwards, which I've very often seen break the rock.

  10. #10
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    Quote Originally Posted by TheDirtyHobo View Post
    It's a small thing, but it helps:

    When she's using Mistral song/shriek, Target her (or use Shift+F to focus her), and move away from the rocks as soon as the cast timer is done. You do not need to wait for the animation to go off, all that matters is where you are when the casting bar finished. This gets you away from the rocks when she likes to throw out random damage afterwards, which I've very often seen break the rock.
    Actually, you're better off just not being next to the rocks in the first place. I don't see many people taking advantage of it, but these abilities are line of sight. Being directly next to the rocks is not what protects you, the rocks simply need to break the line of sight between you and the direction the damage is coming from. For example, when she's in the middle, you could be all the way up against the border of the arena, as long as you are directly blocked from her by one of the rocks. I added a note about this in the first post now.

  11. #11
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    Quick tip for plumes (during phase 1) IF you have 2 BLM

    When she teleports cast Fire III to enter Astral Fire III
    Then use Swiftcast
    As soon as she pop plumes pop Flare

    If 2 BLM time this right almost all plumes will be dead or almost dead

  12. #12
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    What's the recommended strategy in dealing with the sisters as a main tank and off tank?

    It might have been the one person in the group making it seem like no matter what I did was wrong, and he may have been right but I find it easier as a main tank to grab chirada since she spawns almost right next to you, and the off tank grabs suparna.

    In my group the off tank kept grabbing chirada, and I also think he positioned bad because everyone was getting hit.

    We switched to me being off tank, I grabbed suparna, main tank I don't think grabbed chirada but we got to the next phase. We're in the middle now, I grab suparna again, I have no idea what the main tank was doing, but he died and a lot of others died as well.

  13. #13
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    Main Tank grabs Chirada since it spawns on top of him in stationary tornado phase, Off Tank will grab Suprana and tank it where the two tornados cross just East of the Main Tank. In center phase, Mank Tank will take Garuda to the SW portion of the area and tank her and whichever sister pops on the West side; Off Tank will grab the sister that pops on the East. This phase can be a clusterfuck if a Cure or Medica goes off with bad timing, so really mages need to be ready to move to get behind the sisters if necessary.

  14. #14
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    Being a little nitpicky, but each rock pile starts with four rocks, not three. You need eight rocks to realistically survive Aerial Blast without using a tank limit break to reduce the damage.

  15. #15
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    Quote Originally Posted by Ratatapa View Post
    Quick tip for plumes (during phase 1) IF you have 2 BLM

    When she teleports cast Fire III to enter Astral Fire III
    Then use Swiftcast
    As soon as she pop plumes pop Flare

    If 2 BLM time this right almost all plumes will be dead or almost dead
    We do a variation on this. As soon as she gets back in front of north rock, I start casting tridisaster, then run in to hit w/Miasma2 as soon as our blms get a Flare off. The survivors usually fall fairly quickly.

  16. #16
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    Quote Originally Posted by Obsidian View Post
    Being a little nitpicky, but each rock pile starts with four rocks, not three. You need eight rocks to realistically survive Aerial Blast without using a tank limit break to reduce the damage.
    From full HP, I've had full parties survive with five rocks without tank LB without any issues on more than one occasion; everyone had low HP after the attack, but you have several seconds to cure up before Garuda really starts up again. I've heard you can survive with four, and maybe you can survive with even three using tank LB, though I assume the damage starts ramping exponentially at some point. Also, I know each pile starts with four rocks, but the top two (the top being the very small rock) break off at the same time, so I assume that they are counted as one rock if present for Aerial Blast.

    I also added a note which may or may not come in handy that the cycle on phase two works on a strict timer. There's exactly two minutes between spawns of Chirada/Suparna, and the whole cycle is four minutes (I noticed from the 120s Eye for an Eye CD coming available just as each successive set of Chirada/Suparna spawn when it gets used as the first set spawn).

  17. #17
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    Quote Originally Posted by Slycer View Post
    From full HP, I've had full parties survive with five rocks without tank LB without any issues on more than one occasion; everyone had low HP after the attack, but you have several seconds to cure up before Garuda really starts up again. I've heard you can survive with four, and maybe you can survive with even three using tank LB, though I assume the damage starts ramping exponentially at some point. Also, I know each pile starts with four rocks, but the top two (the top being the very small rock) break off at the same time, so I assume that they are counted as one rock if present for Aerial Blast.

    I also added a note which may or may not come in handy that the cycle on phase two works on a strict timer. There's exactly two minutes between spawns of Chirada/Suparna, and the whole cycle is four minutes (I noticed from the 120s Eye for an Eye CD coming available just as each successive set of Chirada/Suparna spawn when it gets used as the first set spawn).
    I can confirm surviving with 4 with a pre-cast Succor and Sacred Soil

  18. #18
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    Quote Originally Posted by Slycer View Post
    From full HP, I've had full parties survive with five rocks without tank LB without any issues on more than one occasion; everyone had low HP after the attack, but you have several seconds to cure up before Garuda really starts up again. I've heard you can survive with four, and maybe you can survive with even three using tank LB, though I assume the damage starts ramping exponentially at some point. Also, I know each pile starts with four rocks, but the top two (the top being the very small rock) break off at the same time, so I assume that they are counted as one rock if present for Aerial Blast.

    I also added a note which may or may not come in handy that the cycle on phase two works on a strict timer. There's exactly two minutes between spawns of Chirada/Suparna, and the whole cycle is four minutes (I noticed from the 120s Eye for an Eye CD coming available just as each successive set of Chirada/Suparna spawn when it gets used as the first set spawn).
    I haven't paid enough attention whenever I've done it but I'm pretty sure the top ones can break on their own without taking down the second one. Usually the plumes that break them I think.

    Also I'm dumb and the eight rocks was based on the story fight where everyone is capped at less HP.

  19. #19
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    As a paladin tank, the hardest part of this fight is definitely when Suparna/Chirada spawns. Everything else is gravy.

    Fought her three times via Duty Finder to learn the fight, and defeated Garuda on the first try as an off-tank, but I'm gonna go ahead and said my party of randoms carried me because it seems every other time since then I've been slipping up on this phase and usually 1 DPS dies from an AoE from the Red add because I can't get it to stick on me. If I'm the Main tank, my key failure moment is when Garuda moves over to me and does a long-range Slipstream, which I have no idea how to dodge in time and again 1 or 2 DPS dies in the process. I'm usually positioned at the corner right beside the tornado at an MT, and I'm positioned in between the two tornados as an off-tank.

  20. #20
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    as main, if you're tanking in the corner on the north side, there's a couple things you can do.

    first, you can preempt garuda by moving up to the corner in between the top and middle tornado (as close to them as possible without getting hit). make sure it's targeted so you can see the cast bars, and the moment you see it going (or when you see garuda stop moving) run as fast as you can back to the corner. if you react fast enough then slipstream won't hit you. the caveat to this is if the rest of your party isn't already out of the way they'll get popped.

    alternatively you can just sit in the corner and run straight through and behind garuda the moment it stops. this is a little safer for the rest of your pt but really it's still all about them being smart about positioning.

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