I am getting irritated with Summoner in endgame content

[xxalucard]

Kind of feeling like I should have leveled Black Mage; no pet reliance, and stronger AOE. :\ Advice?

I suggest you read one of the many threads that explains how to DPS as a summoner.

For Garuda's adds, you can refresh your dots on Garuda right after she does mistral shriek and bane onto the plumes. You can start an early Aerial Slash or Enkindle and hit them with Miasma 2 before they disperse. You can also set up shadowflare somewhere in the middle of the rocks they go to. You have plenty of effective AoE skills at your disposal.

Having said that, most groups these days are geared enough to just skip the razor plumes.

I'm not really sure what to say about your pet dying-- I don't think my pet ever died in any of the hard modes, even when I first started playing the game and had terrible gear. If it actually takes a lot of damage you can use sustain to keep it up.



TL;DR: Play black mage

[Strawberrycocoa]

TL;DR: Play black mage

Even with all that advice the TLDR is still to play Black Mage... XD