Am I being elitist? Honest question.

[Velo_Vandore]

That's not elitist. That's in so many ways telling the smn here's some ways you can get good as smn. anyone i've sucessfully run titan ex with back in 2.1 and myself wouldve said the same thing. If I saw a smn do that, that would tell me that their smn skills are still on story mode level and they've made little to no attempt to master their class. Why? 'Cause usually people figure out on Titan HM that garuda can stay outside of the ring. They also use shadow flare.

The persons knowledge / experience aside, would you like to be told you're "on story mode level"? Personally I'd rather choose a less insulting approach, since this players owes me nothing and has not intentionally done anything to upset or offend me. Positive encouragement is more effective than riddicule, but then there are some more interested in the spiteful satisfaction of putting others down rather than actually contributing their advice in an effective way.

EDIT: not implying anything about the situation in the original post, but rather Kuro's idea of fair play.