Obviously the higher the level the better, for both character and weapon. I've ran the hard raid with two 28's and, although both good players, it seemed they were just playing piggy back with the rest of us 30's. We got thru it but it was a grind. Compare that with a Fireteam of 6 lvl 30 players on Hard Mode is a night and day difference.

I usually go into the raid with my suros auto rifle, my special ghelons demise scout rifle (enemies explode on a critical kill ftw), my final boss sniper (with some special syths. I really want icebreaker) my light beware fusion, and my hezen vegence (which only is really useful on the Templar and gatekeepers. And only if it's necessary). Raid weapons are nice, but not necessary. I can handle the oracles much faster with my fusion rifle than someone with vision of confluence.

I will only go nowdays past oracles if we have 4+ 30's otherwise I find it to dam frustrating. Monkey

Not many legendary weapons even maxed drop oracles on hard unless they have oracle disruptor.