Well, it definitely was kind of tough getting that first Relic completed. However, I made sure I had full DL and even some i90 accessories before I even attempted Titan, as well as my Garuda weapon. Honestly, you kind of need to have at least that in order to boost your HP (if you are a mage) and defenses so that you can reasonably survive stomp damage and perhaps a missed dodge on WotL, or even a missed bomb. It's needed in case you make a mistake so that you don't automatically bite the dust, even if you do everything perfect it's still needed so you don't croak to Stomp damage.
It's not as if Philosophy tomes are hard to obtain, specially now that you can get them with almost, if not all endgame content. You can slide with Ifrit HM and maybe even Garuda HM with having AK ilvl gear, but when it comes to Titan HM people expect you to be geared for it and know the fight. This is because when you have people that don't gear up appropriately and aren't prepared for it, more often than not it ends up being a frustrating experience because those people could be doing that much more dps, or healing that much more or taking that much less damage. As a whole making the fight go more smoothly.
Titan isn't even that difficult once you've done the fight enough with other skilled/geared people. The main this is knowing the patterns and avoiding aoe damage. But if you don't have enough dps the fight will drag out too long and it's possible that the heart won't even be killed during that phase and if it isn't then that's instant death/loss/wasted-time. Nobody want's to do runs that are going to simply just waste their time and not be rewarding.
Hence the whole "Elitism" attitude. Thing is, it isn't even that. Sure some people take it to that level with rudeness, but in all honesty it's just the way the game is designed. You should gear yourself up so that you are well prepared to tackle the content with what is expected of a "good", decent player. Whenever I'm using the Duty Roulette it's a shot in the dark. I might get lucky and have a well geared and experienced group, or maybe I get 1 other person who is geared and knows their job, 1 guy who's not geared but knows how to play his/her class (these folks usually work out well enough, with the others who are geared covering their shortfalls), and the complete noob who doesn't seem to know how to run an instance or play their class/job (they could be DL geared, or worse, or better.. but that's not as likely except for myth gear). The latter will always cause an issue for the party at some point during, if not for the entire run, simply because they are f*&$ing morons.
Needless to say, I really hate those kinds of people. They waste other people's time. I don't appreciate that, nor do I think most people do.
But Titan HM (as well as the new EX battles, Ultima, Moogle King) are different than most normal dungeons. There's a very specific learning curve, and yes.. there are gear requirements. Now.. according to the DF those requirements are listed as far below what most actual players expect when tackling that content. If I'm doing a Titan run, I would want everybody to at the very least be in full DL with a Garuda weapon. Ifrit weapons and below aren't going to cut it, unless you're a healer. When I see people not in DL, Myth or Coil gear doing a Titan run, I wonder why they are even bothering to get their relic weapon if they can't get better gear first.
