I tanked Garuda for the first time in a mix of hoplite and AF gear with a couple DL accessories + Ifrit blade. Dodge slipstream and she doesn't hit that hard.

If you're MTing Garuda its far more important to KNOW where you need to position her at all time as there is a lot of movement.

If you're OTing Garuda its far more important to be able to GRAB the red add as this is the #1 point of failure from my experience. The red add isn't handled and healers can't deal with it (they shouldn't have to).