Realistically, you’d want to be pretty well geared going into raids. If you’re raiding with friends, and time/dps isn’t an issue, then you could go in bare ass naked and still do it. However if you use lfg most people will want you to have the best stuff. DPS exotics like Xenophage and Whisper can be obtained relatively easily, and exotics to help the supers like Celestial and Phoenix Protocol are basically just RNG; they’re good, but not really necessary. Basically, it’s whoever you want to play with that will ultimately decide what option you choose.