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Ifrit (Hard Mode) Strategy
Titan (Hard Mode) Strategy
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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