Summoner questions!

[T0rin]

point 1: "the tank can pull forward further"... problem solved. the best place for dps/heals is also behind the boss as well, so this is by far optimal. also, the bombs travel to the edge of the fire, right near ifrit. Ifrit is great in that fight, your tank not as much.

So now we're relying on the tank to position in such a way to prevent our pet from dying? Sounds like an awful thing to rely upon. Most tanks in DF or PF groups are going to simply sit on the edge of the flames when they spawn, since they don't need to move back towards the adds until more flames spawn. In this case, Ifrit is an additional liability. Plus, any situation where you have to rely on another player's positioning simply to justify something as 'being ok' is an obvious sign that it is not 'ok'. The only thing you need to do in this fight to make Garuda _easily_ a superior alternative is hit Heel twice throughout the entire fight. Not to mention Ifrit is _still_ doing less DPS than Garuda, is no easier to position (even if you do move him ahead of the boss, which is the only complaint people ever make about Garuda in that fight) and still doesn't have Contagion. I still haven't seen a single shred of actual evidence that Ifrit offers _anything_ in that fight, that Garuda doesn't. The only thing he does is less DPS.

point 2: it's "very rare" to lose a pet that much. ergo it's "very rare" that titan would be helpful at all. If you go too overboard on heals, that itself can be a dps liability.

Overboard on heals? You heal when your pet needs healing. In every scenario, it will always be better to heal occasionally instead of re-summon from scratch. It is never a DPS liability compared to the alternative.