Gartell Strats

Hi everyone. My group has defeated Gartell in Sortie a few times now using a mage setup, but we're still sometimes getting caught out. I was wondering how other groups are doing this, specifically with mages? We're not ready to try it any other way yet.

And yes, we're aware that damage is a huge part of it. We know this and are working hard to improve. I'm just looking to ensure that it can be a smoother fight, so we would appreciate any detailed strategies from those who are killing this regularly. Thank you.

General setup:

Walk in, see hands. Mages should have haste.

Sch accession Hailstorm2 on wind hands, sandstorm2 on thunder. Tabula rasa, accession barthunder regen5 embrava. Dark arts, manifestation klimaform, Run puts valliance on the group with some FC merited and runs in to engage.

Stoneja/blizzaja first thing and keep spamming it. Burn won't land. Impact if you have it. Sch put up frazzle1.

Indi-int, geo malaise (bolster). Entrust whatever. Mage cor rolls. Cor spams ice/stone quick draw with empy feet in between volleys (big boost).

Run puts up Gambit and Rayke, sch starts SC immediately. Two step level 1 SC is fine, no helixii (helixes). Big bursts. Keep putting up stoneja/blizzaja on recast.

If he switches sch/blms do their own storms. Rest is the same.

This should be fine for a clear. To make it quicker Sch can make a 0 damage helix set to make distortion with on wind hands, Cor can close that with Leaden for darkness that can burst either ice or stone if he switches mid SC.

The part about making your helix on your SC is important so you and your tank don't blow up.

Is your problem kill speed or survivability?

Seen some say that doing a level 2 sc with helix is better than doing level 1. Why is the helix being avoided? Is it just to help the tank? And we know Shell can get taken, so everyone takes it off before, but could it take something else from the tank that would hurt damage?

Also seen to avoid any kind of enfeebles, so why would frazzle I and Impact be acceptable?

Helix is better because you can do level 2 SC which gives higher dmg bursts and can continue to darkness as above.

The reason you want a 0 dmg helix set if you are to use it is to avoid helix being reflected on to everyone within range and wiping the party.

Wind hands - steals buffs from everyone in range.

Thunder hands - reflects debuffs on Gartell to everyone in range (20`).

Frazzle is meva down, Run won't die from it. Same with impact, there is no dot, just a strong stat down. Don't do dia though, the defense down can be trouble.

From wiki:

Zap: Copies one debuff from Gartell to all party members in range on each use.
Because of this avoid applying strong DoT effects as Gartell may transfer them to anyone in range. It may be especially dangerous to use a magic bursted Helix, this practically guarantees a 1-shot kill on anyone inflicted with the DoT effect.

Closing sc with a helix extends the burst window considerably (level 1 or 2 sc, doesn't matter) but can also be transferred back onto the tank, so you make a set to have the helix do as near to 0 dmg as possible for the tank's sake. If you don't have such a set probably just avoid using helix in the sc.

Dodik already mentioned it too, but you need helix for both gravitation and distortion from sch, for the transfixion and compression parts.

How do you purposely get a helix to hit for zero? Unequip all gear?

this isn't BIS, but is an example of an immanence set with subtle blow and 0 dmg and plenty of FC:

"Zero" dmg. Damage in the 10s or 100s is fine, won't kill tank with all that regen on.

Are there any other enfeebles you could get away with? My group has a RDM and they only really have WHM as an alternative (for now). What would be better to bring?

Only frazzle3 would help in a mage strat, but if you can land spells without frazzle3 it's not doing anything either.

Rdm can burst (poorly). Blm or sch would be better.

The standard mage setup is RUN COR GEO SCH with the last two slots being some combination of BLM and SCH. Personally I prefer double SCH so you don't run out of strats.

But what if you haven't got a choice? Would you bring Rdm or Whm as 6th?

Rdm. Whm is just eye candy in a mage strat.

I was wondering about Phalanx on the tank. Couldn't Gartell steal it with Chokehold and gain some resistance to nukes? We have been giving the tank a Phalanx II with Embolden and a decent Phalanx set (DM augments).

No, any dmg mitigation phalanx gives is not going to hurt nukes much. We're talking 10dmg or so off each nuke.

Would help if you explain what the issue you are having is. Low bursts? Sounds like lack of magic accuracy and master levels (which directly impact magic accuracy).

When we were doing mage strat we would have our tank drop Shell for the B and F bosses because if it stole shell we really saw a reduction in damage.

RDM is a good one to bring along, not specifically for Gartell, but because as your team improves you're likely going to start looking at Aminon and RDM is critical for that fight.

As Dodik said, stealing Phalanx isn't a huge issue, because it is a flat reduction. With embolen and a gear set, I think it's only about 80 damage reduced, which actually helps make sure your helix closers aren't going to land for as much, but won't affect the bursts by anything meaningful.

What was helpful for us, was figuring out how to best "extend" the life of the burst window. RDM with tact roll can help make all your skillchains 4-step. Requiescat off of Distortion and Chant du Cygne off of Grav will close darkness, and frees the cor to just close double dark with wildfire. It also meant we didn't have to force the run, who is very busy already to deal with Ruinator shenanigans (or Fimbulvetr) for gravitation closers.

Edit: Hot take about storms/weather. SCH should not stop skillchaining mid fight to change storms if element changes. Throw up a storm 2 on itself. BLM is /sch, can do just fine putting their own storm 1 up and just continuing to burst.

My group basically just ran with tactician's roll the whole time for the most part. Our RUN also was /sam, just cause. But in the event that SCH is out of strats, and it happened to be in Ice Mode, we could do the following:

Sekkanoki => Ground Strike => Ground Strike (Distortion) => Leaden Salute (Darkness) => Wildfire (Darkness).

Also required cor have Triple Shot up.

Ground Strike => Leaden also just makes Darkness

It didn't always work, because of the propensity for Ground Strike to miss, but it's there.

Edit: Regarding the subtle blow/low damage helix set. Something that has been brought to my attention recently is ternion dagger +1. No magic damage, 9 subtle blow.

At one point during mage strat runs we had geo /sch and handle storms, but this was before Aminon. If you're just working on clearing consistently it's not a big deal, but saving strats anywhere you can adds up quick.

I guess one question is which NM(s) are you using tabula on? Are you aiming for 8 NMs? At the very least you should have two tabulas per run with WC/cutting.

For 8 boss strat that is always going to be Aita. By far the most important one to have no down time on.

Definitely the RDM. If they work on their gear + gain INT they can hit for decent numbers and they can extend SCs like shadowmeld was saying.

You still haven't told us if your problem is gartell killing your tank abruptly or if you just take a long time to kill it because your damage is low and the fetters get out of control. You can proc blue after he does the inhale animation to lower his damage and DT stacks from increasing. It has to be high damage of whatever element he's weak to currently. I think if he has both hands then it has to be ice.

If they haven't solved Gartell I don't think they are doing Aita yet. But we don't know what they're trying to do.

One of the issues you can run into with Gartell (which I haven't seen mentioned) is he will enter doublehands mode if you take too long to kill him, in which case he will take severely reduced damage. You can still nuke him during this window, but it will be a lot weaker.

In a mage setup, the best advice I can give is to try to plan on dealing the most possible damage as quickly as possible. Don't waste unnecessary time or stratagems beforehand as this will just make it harder for you to kill him in time. You really need to be: engaging, throwing up bubbles/rayke/impact, and bursting fast. if he switches element, COR runs in for RD, and RUN repeats Rayke cycle (he should get it back if he didn't spam JAs prior). Technically, you should throw Gambit on asap and then Rayke with 3 runs just before SC goes off, since Gambit will always last longer than Rayke. Gotta be fast though.

Also, you haven't really given any details as to how you are approaching this fight specifically. Are you multi-stepping? COR RD/WC reset to get Rayke back? Using Subtle Sorcery when Rayke window is down? Is Impact on with ES for full duration? SCH running low on strats? Walling each other? Gotta be specific, there's a handful of things that could be reducing your clear ratio.

This is a casual group so we were doing A+E and naakuals for a long time. Good friend of mine pushed us to do 4 bosses, so we subbed the naakuals for Leshonn and Gartell.

When we first started doing this, survivability was a major issue, so I jumped on tank and learned how it goes. I can usually survive for a long time if I'm on it. We have won with it constantly switching hands, and when it has stuck with one. Sometimes the damage just plummets and we can't get it staggered. Sometimes it just melts, and other times it is a struggle and we go down.

I didn't want to come out and say exactly what the issues were right away, as I was looking for some ideal strategies for ideal setups. This way I could learn what we are missing, and I feel like I have an idea now. We're going to have make some changes and fingers crossed, the wins become more reliable. Thanks for the feedback everyone.

We do double SCH, F/H get 2hr treatment by each sch. Wiz mnk roll, appropriate QD for boosting MB… all information fairly available or drown in the forum, but fairly clear explanation up here. It’s not stressful, we do it with 2 alts and still have time for 8/8+mini NM. There’s no difference between casual and “pro”, they both generally talk ***, football and stuff.

C/G are WAY easier than B/F IMO, I would do him first before moving on to B/F.

The advice others have posted here is gold, do that and you'll be OK. Make sure to take full advantage of SS as well, it's absolutely nuts. Between that, Rayke/Gambit, RD, WC, etc. you should get a lot of damage off very fast.

C is way easier than B, but G has a time limit. If their issue is with killing F quickly and consistently but they can still get it done while it's dragged out then they can't do that to G. I agree that G is easier once you hit a gear threshold but points are points if they are below it.

CG is easier but yeah time limit. How many dia do you need to cast for Setting the Stage to be manageable? Also with RDM you'd have a good frazzle and even a distract on it so you can extend your skillchain.

3 minutes is a long *** time, it's your entire TR, Bolster, and at least 1 SS/Manafont.

If you're running out of time, you can run away and have the RUN use ES.

C/G is the way to go. Plus you can Helix him, he doesn't change modes, you can easily make 3-step or 4-step SC.

I would absolutely never do F before G.