Please don't get mired down by a specific example I cited. Focus on the meaning not the content. Fact of the matter is that gear matters. No caster was wearing parry gear if that's what you're thinking. It's true that I don't know all the details about how people were playing their assigned jobs. Generally I do rate getting the mechanics of fights down as harder than knowing the 1-2-3 rotations of a job a player has played for 50 levels though.

Also, I think it's insane to want more of a challenge from Titan HM. 1) There's 7 other players to think about. 2) He's plenty challenging enough for most people. and 3) Isn't that what Titan EM is for? I've already done Titan w/ 2 other jobs. Now I'm helping FC mates and gearing alts. I'm not looking for an insane fight to be more challenging, I'm just looking for a quick clear, as are most players who do content or help others clear content.

Furthermore, full DL does not make the fight a cakewalk anyway and my statement is based on the fact that since you're going to get DL or better gear anyway and Titan is already hard for most people, why not ease the burden on everyone, yourself and the folks who might be helping you?

Lastly, I want to say that we don't know what the Devs tested. They said WAR was fine remember? They priced housing exorbitantly. They released a game that people had trouble logging into for almost 2 weeks. I could cite more examples but it seems to me that they're human beings and they're capable of mistakes. There's rampant distrust of them here in the forums, so now you're going to say you trust that their ilevel requirements have all been tested extensively? Did they test with 2 tanks, 2 healers, 4 dps? Did they test with some unconventional configuration? Were the dps all melee? Were they all casters? We don't know any of this. It's also possible that they found it was possible at i60 or some higher difficulty but left some room for skilled players to try the fight with less gear rather than fully limiting what we're capable of.

Maybe it was player skill that failed us. Maybe it was party composition. Maybe you question my specific example. But how can you question my central point:

You need a certain minimum level of gear to even be capable of winning a fight. I don't know the exact number. I think it's almost always going to be higher than what the Devs have set but they also want to give people a chance to try unconventional ways of winning with lesser gear. But maybe it's even lower. Maybe you can beat Titan w/ a group in all AF. That still doesn't disprove the central point that GEAR MATTERS.

If gear didn't matter, Devs wouldn't set any limits at all and neither would players doing shouts for Primals, Coil, or whatever. Gear so blatantly and obviously matters, I don't know what kind of maniac would dispute it. I like helping people but it'd be a little nice if they could help themselves a bit first, rather than creating a situation that, while perhaps not impossible, is exceedingly and unnecessarily difficult. I don't want to spend 5 hours on a fight I've already won if I can spend 1 hour (or even less) because the fight is easier? Doesn't that make sense?

I thought we didn't just want to hand people things? Isn't that the sentiment I see here all the time? Get geared or go home. That is all.