This might seem a bit of an anti-garnetthread, so sorry garnetfans :p.

I'm amazed to see that so many acutally have put Garnet into their strongest line-up (see party members thread). I find her soooo weak, ok so she can heal but Eiko can do it as well + has some better white magic: holy and might. And no way she's used for physical attacking.

Garnet's eidolons are actually nothing compared to the ones eiko has, surely I cant remember actually using an eidolon of garnet in an important fight, the only good ones are Ark and Bahamut and the latter I actually dont use either while Ark is acquired real late in the game.

Eiko has Phoenix (very handy), Carbuncle (in some fights he's surely a step towards victory), Madeen (strong!) and Fenrir ( not a good one but 3 out of 4 is good enuf).

Ok I have to admit that Garnet is quite useful at start but from the moment you got eiko, she's worthless to me and then there's also that period that she can't talk and 50% of her commands fail .

Eiko's trance is better, I actually dont see a lot difference between the summon and eidolon command anyways, the damage isnt that much increased, I rather have 2 white magic spells.

Another argument of me is that eiko just seems to get her good abilities faster and easier, I mean she even starts already with auto-regen!

Can someone explain to me how she can be strong in your eyes =/ ?

I completely agree to me Garnet/Dagger is the weakest character and the most useless in the game!

Eiko is a better white mage and although she as less summons the summons she as are just as good as the ones Garnet as!

People who usually use Garnet are just fans...nothing more at least that´s what i think!

iirc eidolon command only summons the eidolon once but just adds some more damage

Um, no "Eidolon" performs the usual summon. Then, when its Garnet's next turn, it plays the shorts-animation of the summon.

----

I would hardly say Garnet is the weakest character. I never use the Might, Haste, Jewel etc abilities, so Eiko becomes equal, because I only ever use them for healing and summoning.

I know that Eiko gets more useful Eidolons, but Garnet's are more powerful throughout the game. However, the majority are useless because you get them on disk 3, and since you only have 1 of each gem, they're a lot weaker, and they take time to learn.

I say:

Garnet = Eiko in terms of power. I'm not a "fan" of either. I <3 all of the IX characters. Even Quina

Garnet isn't useless at all. If you know the basics and are good enough at fighting you shouldn't have much need for better white magic.Besides, by the time you have begun levelling up and getting rid of things post end-game Auto-Regen should be doing most of the healing, making double healing unecessary. Garnet is a better character overall. I believe she has more HP than Eiko, right? (been a while since I played FFIX) And I would place moar summoning with no MP cost above Double White.