Another Primal Battle that everyone needs to fight in order to take on Bahamut in Final Fantasy XIV is the hard mode version of Garuda, the Lady of the Vortex. Compared to Ifrit’s fight, Garuda is much tougher as there are multiple adds that every DPS needs to take care of.
For this fight, party members need to pay attention at every move she does as she will have attacks that can wipe out a single party member or everyone in the group. When the group takes down Garuda, they will get the following reward:
Rewards:
– 15 Allagan Tomestones of Philosophy
– 1 Garuda weapon (randomly for every class)
Important Details
Garuda is one of the Primal fights where using a duty finder might not be a good idea. This fight requires everyone to pay attention and coordinate with one another. In my playthrough, every time I find players through the group finder, it’s always ended up with someone quitting since the group is sometimes not balanced, or there are just people new to the fight. It’s highly recommended to look for group members in your FC or someone on the server.
Be sure that a group should have: Scholar, White Mage
Strategy
First Phase
The first phase of this fight is somewhat similar to the story mode where the group will have to hide behind the rock to evade Garuda’s frontal wind gale attack. Have the tank always hold Garuda to where she’s standing regardless where she teleports. Have the range DPS stand on either the left or right side, which is away from the pillars. The rule still stands in terms of preserving the stone pillars since that will help negate Garuda’s AOE attack during the Reckoning transition phase once Garuda reaches 50% of health.
The four stone pillars is still a priority and DPS should take down the razor plumes as fast as possible. Maximizing DPS output is recommended, that way they can take down the adds fast and focus on Garuda. Here is the order where Garuda will teleport:
1st: North, the spot where she’s originally at.
2nd: Middle of the four pillars
3rd: East (to the right of where she initially spawned)
4th: Middle, No raid damage here but expect her to summon razor plumes.
5th: Middle, this is the Reckoning transition to Phase Two.
