The Howling Eye (version 1.0)

The Howling Eye is a trial the original release of Final Fantasy XIV. It saw players battle the primal Garuda as part of the quests "In for Garuda Awakening" and "Taming the Tempest". The first fight was balanced towards level 40 characters, while the second one, known as "The Howling Eye (Hard)" was for level 50s. Both difficulties returned in A Realm Reborn.
==Strategy==
===Howling Eye (Regular)===
This version of Garuda is a slightly weaker version of the fight described below. The first phase of the fight is nearly identical, but the later phases lack the duplicate Garudas and some of the other complexities of the hard version; instead, the final phase simply consists of Garuda permanently summoning an Eye of the Storm (effectively shrinking the arena), using her "standard" ability rotation, and occasionally leaping up for a Mistral Shriek. If she leaps to the center of the arena, move behind her to avoid the Shriek; if she leaps to the edge of the arena, the Shriek can be out-ranged by moving to the opposite side of the safe area.
Despite being a "simpler" fight, this is still the most challenging fight up to this point in the Main Scenario, especially due to the fact that only a light party (of four) can participate and, unlike the "Hard" version of Garuda, gear will be level-synched, so her abilities remain dangerous regardless of the player's actual level.
===Howling Eye (Hard)===
It is advisable to have as much materia-melded gear as possible, and be particularly geared towards maximizing damage. The party composition has to include a healthy distribution between physical and magic damage, due to Chirada and Suparna's resistances.
During the beginning of the fight, Garuda only uses physical attacks; use this period to position all ranged attackers near one of the four stone pillars in the arena, and Garuda near one of the corners.
After some time, Garuda will randomly teleport to a point in the arena and cast a powerful conal AoE move, Mistral Song. This ability can deal 2.000+ damage, but can be avoided by hiding behind one of the pillars. Once her HP is down to 80%, she will cast Plumage to summon four "Razor Plumes", an ability that will be used every minute after this point.
The Razor Plumes are small enemies that will target the stone pillars in the arena, and must be killed as fast as possible; they take very low damage from spells, so it's advisable to quickly use weaponskills such as Steel Cyclone or Aura Pulse (no elemental fist ability should be activated, or the damage will be low). Protecting the stone pillars is extremely important, since their height determines the damage of Aerial Blast.
Once Garuda's HP reaches roughly 30%, or she has used plumage a certain number of times, she will use her strongest ability, Aerial Blast. The spell can easily deal 3000+ damage and has the potential to instantly end the fight (dealing 9999 damage) if there are not stone pillars left in the arena; Aerial Blast will destroy all remaining pillars regardless of their size.
After Aerial Blast, her behavior changes; Razor Plumes will now attack the players, whirlwinds will appear all over the arena, and the message "Garuda summons the -cardinal direction- winds" will appear every once in a while. This is a hint telling the players where she will teleport for Mistral Song / Shriek, and also repositions the winds on the arena; these winds will randomly deal damage to players standing on them.
During this stage, survival is the main focus. Players should gather together to make it easier to get heals, and move as a group whenever the winds change direction, to avoid the whirlwinds damage and Mistral Song. This forum thread has useful images that can help with positioning.Garuda strategy on the official forums
After dealing enough damage in this phase, Garuda will summon Suparna and Chirada to the battlefield; they are clones of her in both appearance and abilities, and must be killed in under 45 seconds or else the trio will teleport together and cast 3 Mistral Shrieks at once, making it extremely hard to avoid the damage. Suparna takes only 10% damage from magic, while Chirada has similar resistance against physical attacks.
This is the last change in the fight, and as long as the group stays together and manages to avoid Garuda's strongest attacks, the wind primal should not last long.
===Howling Eye (Extreme)===
==Musical themes==
"Fallen Angel" is the theme that plays during the battle against Garuda and the cutscenes in which she appears. It opens with an organ section accompanied by a haunting chorus, and becomes increasingly faster until it suddenly stops, a female voice says "Now fall...", and a heavy guitar starts playing for a few seconds, giving way to a softer riff as the proper song begins, combining the initial chorus with faint lyrics that can be heard on the background. The chorus is sung by members of the development team.
===Lyrics===
:Now fall...
:Falling too far from the light
:Deeper into the night
:Lost here inside my own hell
:I am a broken angel
==Gallery==
FFXIV Garuda Battle.jpg|Garuda in version 1.0.
FFXIV Aerial Blast.jpg|Aerial Blast (1.0).
FFXIV Mistral Song.jpg|Mistral Song (1.0).
FFXIV Razor Plume.jpg|Razor Plumes (1.0).
FFXIV Garuda Artwork.jpg|Artwork.
==Etymology==
==Citations==
Category:Trials in Final Fantasy XIV (version 1.0)