Ifrit does do more dps in this fight, even with the lost of Contagion, but the difference is so small, its doesn't really matter. In almost all other fights, even the rare ones where he can pull more dps, he is just too much of a headache to bother. Ifrit vs Garuda was built around the old melee vs range system (before the melee buff), where they do similar damage, with the melee pulling ahead in ideal situations, but melee have so much crap to deal with, they often fall behind. Ifrit, however, is even worse cuz at least a good melee could work around all the crap they have to deal with and come out on top. I guess this next buff is just bringing things up to date with the current melee vs range system.