It took me many many tries to pass Garuda EX, and even that was like pulling teeth. There's just so friggin much that can go wrong in that fight (most of which you as healer can't really affect outside of keeping everyone alive) that it's not even funny. I'm sure now that I've passed it, doing it again would be much easier but that first time was just ridiculously hard and I haven't had any inclination to go back because of it.
I know a lot of people actually move to more populated servers for things like statics. I dunno how entrenched you are in the community as far as friends and FC and such go, but there's possibilities there. :3
