The best (and probably only) advice I can give is to stick with your circle of friends and continuously quest with them. Avoid Duty and Party Finder like the plague and do the content together. You seem to be the leader of your own FC, so plan events that you and the people in your FC can do together as a group, like Coil and CT. (Sadly for the latter, there's still two other pug alliances you'll have to deal with)

Just keep your chin up and don't let the elitists bring you down. Not all of us are like them.