Gear level, the final nail in the games coffin.

[Abraxai]

It's a bit of an elitist system, but I understand it. Having said that however, I tanked Garuda hard mode around 5 times so far, and I joined a group yesterday that disbanded before the fight even began because my item levels "were too low". It's a situation that needs approaching carefully, because skill can make up for a bit of the disparity between level and item level.

Also a bit of diversity with item stats would be well appreciated too. Bit sick of finding a new item only to find it has the exact same stats as the last item, just with a little more. There's no mystery. You know from the get go that the next item equippable has the EXACT same stats, just improved.

PLD armor > VIT+5, then VIT+6, VIT+7 etc.