The Weapon's Refrain (Ultimate) Guides Garuda (2024)

Last updated on Feb 09, 2022 at 10:00by Clees1 comment

This page contains detailed information and strategy about the high-end Duty"The Weapon's Refrain (Ultimate)", commonly abbreviated as UWU,specifically for the portion of the fight dealing with Garuda.

Garuda is the first Primal you will face in the encounter andthis fight can be split into two phases. The first phase consists of mechanicsinvolving Plumes, which are adds that must be dealt with in specific ways, followedby a cleansing mechanic. The second phase revolves around mechanics dealing withThe Sisters, Suparna and Chirada.

• Slipstream:Frontal cleave with a 2.5s cast time dealing significant magicaldamage and inflicting a stun. As Garuda stands still during this cast, it can beavoided by moving through her to her back. Consider it an unmarked cone AoE thatshould be avoided.
• Mistral Song:A green marker will be placed on a healer. Garuda will thenturn around, face the target, and fire off a line AoE in that direction, dealingheavy magic damage. Must be mitigated by having a tank stand in front of Garuda,taking the first hit. Garuda then will summon a cyclone under where thefirst player in line was hit.
• Downburst:Heavy physical tankbuster with no cast time that cleaves. WhenGaruda is Woken, it becomes an AoE tankbuster that the whole party can soak.
• Feather Rain:Garuda will shriek loudly, jump in the air, and spawn multiplesmall circle AoEs under players. Being hit by these will deal heavy magic damageand apply a "Windburn" dot, dealing massive damage for 18 seconds.
• Aerial Blast:Raid buster dealing massive magical damage to all players.
• Friction:Garuda will face a random player and hit them with a small splashAoE dealing magic damage. Inflicts a stack of Thermal Low to all players hit.
• Eye of the Storm:The outer ring of the arena will glow purple to signifya cyclone appearing on the edges of the arena. Stepping on the edge when thiscyclone is active will deal lethal magic damage.
• Wicked Wheel:Small circle AoE dealing lethal physical damage to all playersin melee range. When Woken, it is immediately followed up by Wicked Tornado.
• Wicked Tornado: Instant raid-wide donut AoE dealing lethal magic damage. Onlyappears when Garuda is Woken and immediately after Wicked Wheel. There are twosafe spots: one in melee range and one very far from Garuda.

For the entirety of the phase,please reference this Toolboxfor a detailed view of how each mechanic is handled.

Begin by pulling Garuda to the center of the arena. Shortly after, shewill cast Slipstreamand mark a random healer for MistralSong. Make sure to have a tank in between Garuda and the healer as shownin Toolbox slide #3.

Alternatively, you can also forego all healer movementand just have the tank stack in front of the party, with the marked player in theparty stack, but this will result in significantly more damage on the raid. Youalso have the option of simply using Cover on the healer, if you have a Paladinin your party.

Garuda will follow up with a second Slipstream, followed by aDownburst, andspawn four Satin Plumes,tethering to random DPS; and oneSpiny Plume, which willtether to the first person to attack it. Have your tank pick up the Spiny Plumeas soon as possible. If left alone the Satin Plumes will explode,inflicting all players with a sleep, meaning they must be killed as soon as possible.Make sure to group up and AoE them down. The Spiny Plume, on the other hand, will periodically castCyclone on the tank, dealing significant magic damage and inflicting a stack ofThermal Low. Before killing this Spiny Plume, it is very important that your tanktakes two hits of Cyclone in order to gain two stacks of Thermal Low. While youare fighting plumes, Garuda will use Feather Rain.Make sure you listen for herscream, which will indicate when players will have to move to avoid it. Garuda willimmediately follow up with a Mistral Shriek.

When the Spiny Plume is defeated, it will use Gigastorm, exploding for a smallAoE circle around it, and leaving behind a large green bubble. Stepping insidethis bubble will give players Thermal High (heavily reducing all wind damage),dispel any Thermal Low stacks, and deal magic damage to the raid correspondingto the number of stacks in the form of Super Cyclone(one stack will deal smallmagic damage, two stacks will deal significantly more magic damage, and three stackswill deal lethal magic damage that will wipe the raid). It is important to notethat whenever a player dispels two stacks of Thermal Low that Garuda will gain a stackof Aetherically Charged.

Garuda will then follow up with two Frictions, targetting random players, andsplashing everyone hit for damage and inflicting stacks of Thermal Low.

Here is a step-by-step guide of the recommended way of dealing with Thermal LowStacks:

• Pre-assign a tank and two DPS to gain two stacks of Thermal Low. The chosen DPSwill be cleansing their stacks via the puddle, and the chosen tank will cleansetheir stacks via Mesohigh tethers. Make sure you carefully choose these players,as your remaining players with one stack will be in charge of mechanics in theUltima phase, specifically Ultimate Annihilationand Ultimate Suppression.
• Have the chosen tank receive two Thermal Low stacks from the Spiny Plume,and immediately defeat it while avoiding Feather Rain.
• Heal up after Mistral Shriek, and have the tank with two stacks run into thepuddle. Garuda should now have one stack of Aetherically Charged.
• For the first Friction cast, have your whole party stacked for Friction,with your three pre-assigned players standing outside the bubble, and the rest ofthe party inside. Your three players should have one stack.
• For the second Friction cast, have your whole party stacked for Frictionoutside the bubble. You should have three players with two stacks and therest of the party with one stack.
• Have the two DPS (preferably melee DPS) move into the bubble one by one, cleansingtheir stacks. Make sure to leave ample time for your healers to heal damage doneby Super Cyclone in between each feed. Garuda should now have three stacks ofAetherically Charged.

If done correctly, you will have five players (two healers, two DPS, and one tank) withone stack of Thermal Low, and one tank with two stacks of Thermal Low.

Garuda will follow up with an Eye of the Storm and summon Chirada and Suparna(also known as theSisters), untargettable adds that have similar skills to Garuda.After being summoned they will immediately use Feather Rain (remember to listenfor the scream!) and mark a DPS and healer with Mistral Song, jumping to the edgesof the arena. Sisters will always jump to two of the four cardinal points of thearena.

Keep Garuda in the center of the arena as you dodge Feather Rain, leaningtowards the South-West of the map. The party should stack up South-West (but not at the edge, as Eye of theStorm will be active) to avoid the Wicked Wheel from Garuda, while the tanks intercept Mistrel Song from each Sister.It is recommended to have one tank take the first sister going clockwise starting from north,and the other tank taking the first sister going counter-clockwise starting fromnorthwest. Remember that tornadoes will spawn under the first hit players, so you mayhave to reposition the party to avoid them. Reference Toolbox slides #21 - #27 for this mechanic.

After the tornadoes resolve drag Garuda back to the middle as she will useanother Eye of the Storm. She will then summon another set of four Satin Plumesso burn them quickly as you did in the start of the fight. At the same time, thetwo sisters will appear in the east and the west sides of the arena and tetherrandom players withMesohigh dealing heavy magic damage that must be mitigatedwith at least one Thermal Low stack. Have your tank with two stacks and a DPS with one stack(preferably ranged) take the tethers while the party stacks together defeating Satin plumesand the other tank takes a Downburst. If you have been following the outlined strategyand your last two stack Thermal Low tank takes a tether, these tethers will giveGaruda her final Aetherically Charged stack making her "Woken."

Yellow dots indicate the players who willbe taking the tethers. Alternatively, if you want your tanks to take thesetethers, you can rotate the diagram and have Garuda face east or west, with theother tank taking the other tether. Keep in mind that tethers will do a point-blankAoE around their target that will cleanse Thermal Low stacks, so be careful to notstack together.

As soon as Mesohigh tethers resolve, the sisters will shriek and jump once more,using Feather Rain,followed by Garuda using another Slipstream. Garuda will thenfollow up with a Wicked Wheel (which will be followed immediately by a WickedTornado combo, as she is Woken). Make sure to avoid the wheel first, and thenmove into melee range as soon as the marker disappears as Wicked Tornado has nocast time. She will follow up with a Woken Downburst, which must be taken by atleast both tanks as a split tankbuster. She will then use a final Slipstreambefore enraging. At 2:55 after engaging Garuda, she will become untargettable,jump in the air, and use a Feather Rain followed by a lethal Aerial Blast, servingas an enrage.

If this phase was done as described, you should be defeating Garuda with fourplayers having one stack of Thermal Low (one tank, one DPS and two healers), of whichyou will need three in later phases of the Ultima Weapon. Once defeating Woken Garuda,a light puddle will appear under where she was. Make sure yourpre-assigned healer, caster, or melee picks up this puddle.