Garrison/Strategy

Although up to 18 people may participate in a Garrison event, it is not recommended. There are a number of people that have had sucess with 18 people, but the more people there are, the more mobs that you have to fight. 12 people, forming 2, well rounded parties is an excellent setup. Each party should be similar to what you would look for in an xp party. Since the number of enemies is based on the number of parties, an alliance of 13 will have a much harder time than an alliance of 12.

Do Garrison events with people you can trust. It is an excellent opportunity for a linkshell to have fun together. Random pick-up parties are a bad idea. AOE spells and weaponskills should be avoided, or used with the most extreme caution.

Melee
All melee should sub war for extra provokes. As the waves of Beastmen come in, they will go after the NPCs. Provoking off NPCs saves lives. Some macros that can really help: The reason for these macros, is so that your party can keep focus on a single mob, and you can still provoke other mobs that are not yet claimed. Food is also a good idea to help boost damage or defense, or whatever would be useful to your job.
 * /assist
 * /ja "Provoke"

White Mage
Each party should have one White Mage that focuses on their party. One of the parties should have an extra White Mage to focus on the NPCs. Juices are highly recommended as MP regeneration will become a big issue.

Black Mage
Depending on the level cap, Black Mages should focus on using elemental debuffs and finishing off mobs. Having more than one Black Mage per party is not recommended. Once again, juices are highly recommended as MP regeneration will become a big issue. AOE spells should not be used in Garrison events. If you and your group decide to use them, use extreme caution. -GA spells will cause the mage to get a lot more hate than they probably care for. There is also a chance that you will hit a mob that is not part of the Garrison event, causing it to aggro you and your alliance.

Red Mage
Enfeeble and fill in the holes. Help healing. Your role will change with the different level caps. Keeping the mage Beastmen silenced is a very good idea. They may be weak, but their spells will become very annoying and may get people killed. The incoming mobs will come fast, and if your alliance is doing well, they will die fast. At higher capped Garrisons, stay on top of Refreshes. Also, juices are very useful.

The Kite's Sleep Trick
To buy more time between waves, a mage with Sleep, or a DD with Sleep Bolts (lv.20) or Sleep Arrows (lv.35) can lure a mob far away from the outpost. Bards or just about any DD with Ranged Attack work well for this because they don't require MP to keep the mob slept. Sleeping the mob, keeping it at a distance from the outpost will stop the NPCs from attacking it, and can buy time between waves. Clear the rest of the wave and leave the mob sleeping. It can give the mages time to rest. Once you are ready to continue, wake the sleeping mob. Note that the final NM is immune to sleep.

If you try kiting with a Bard for 20 cap Garrisons, using Warrior or Beastmaster subjob helps to claim a mob quickly and pull it away from the outpost.

Kiting in General
People have had much success with kiting the mob around. A Warrior/ninja or Ninja/Warrior with sleep bolts or arrows seems the most efficient for this purpose.

As an alternative, having a BST main or subjob can be interesting. Using Charm on the mob being kited will Bind it momentarily, giving the kiter a few moments to put some distance between him and mob. This does work on the final NM, though it may take 2 or 3 tries before it sticks. If a BST is kiting the mob, he may want to use a pet to tank the mob until the group is ready for the next wave. You can charm mobs in the zone before the Garrison begins, but pets will come uncharmed when the level cap is imposed and you will need to charm them again.

Treasure
Each group can handle treasure and lotting however they would like, but this is what has worked for me. Mannequin parts are free lots. Dragon Chronicles are also free lots, but cannot be lotted upon until the end of a run. Doing it this way prevents someone from lotting on Dragon Chronicles mid-run, using it, and winning lot on another page of Dragon Chronicles. The person who trades the item to start the Garrison gets first pick on the remainder of the drops. They decide what they want at the end of the run, lot on it, and everyone else passes. The rest of the items are free lots for everyone else. If you are doing multiple runs, the people who have already won lot on an item on a previous run, should pass until everyone has at least one item.

Lotting System
The editor of this article section recommends 2 ways to share the drops, but not guaranteed in success:


 * Each attendant is required to have the Garrison item, and will receive all the drops in the end of the run (except Rare/Ex clones, such as Dragon Chronicles) or,
 * Some of the attendants will have the Garrison item. After each run, attendants with the item can lot one drop of their choice and a Dragon Chronicles if it drops, leaving the rest to random out to the party.

Other

 * Turn off all game effects and turn on chat filters. Garrison events are known to be laggy, and anything you can do to speed up performance will only help.
 * Don't get angry if you are KO'd. Scrolls of Instant Reraise may be a good idea.
 * Once the Garrison is finished, the person who started the Garrison event should not talk to the Guard until all members are raised so everyone has a fair chance to lot on items.
 * Only players who are capped may interact with each other. Players who are not capped will not be able to help.
 * Garrison events cannot be started while a Ballista match is commencing. This lasts from the start of accepting entry applications, to the end of the match, whether the actual match started or was cancelled. Please note that one full game day must pass after Ballista match ends in order to start Garrison.
 * A player can only trade the item to start a Garrison once per real-life week regardless of zone.
 * If you KO'd during a Garrison event you will lose your level cap status and no longer be able to participate even if raised, but you can still take part on the rewards if raised before triggering the event off.
 * Any party member can disband / rejoin the party / alliance if he/she still has the level cap status.