It's ridiculous that some people still think Garuda is the only good pet. As someone that has admittedly only been a SMN main for less than a month and has had t9 on farm for almost 3 months I think I do pretty well with Ifrit.

While I do find Garuda better for certain fights, like Ramuh ex, I go with Ifrit for most others. Ifrit is quite good in all of second coil. I've tried all the fights with Garuda only, Ifrit only, and also pet swapping. Pet swapping would be starting with Garuda and swapping to Ifrit after the opening RS + int pot contagion. Ifrit only or pet swap has generally gotten me the best results.

Maybe I'm just bad. Was around 390 - 400 in t6, t7, and t8 this week. 360 in t9. That was at i108 with the soldiery book. Not sure how that compares to those with similar gear proclaiming Garuda to be the only good pet, but it seems reasonable to me. And lucky me finally got the HA book this week so it'll be interesting to see how well my damage scales.