Is there a good compiled guide somewhere for how to get your LL up on your first character? I found
this guide and following suggestions in the thread, but I feel like I'm missing things (like when to turn/when not to turn tokens in).
The post linked in the OP is wrong (not the ideal way). It tells you to use token rewards early on and start your final stuff at 260. Better to save tokens and use them to go from 250 to 265 fast and THEN do the final stuff. See my posts below. Reposting yet again....
repost...........
The only important milestone is the final one in the chain, the one with 'POWERFUL GEAR' as the reward.
Got my first character to 284 nearly 285 in about 30 hours of play time. Here's my method:
Always decrypt legendary and exotic engrams right away. They dont increase in power level when you do so if you dont use them they become worthless for power level gain. This does NOT include the engrams that are REWARDS feom quest chains/milestones. Those scale, so save them for the end. Mainly referring to the guaranteed exotic from the main story for this.
DO NOT do milestones until you are over 265. They are the best way apart from Nightfall to get gear over 270.
1. Once you are level 20, get to around 250 Power from blue drops from public events and any engrams you get along the way. Stockpile all the faction rewards turnins during this time. Lost sectors are good too for blue farming up to 250, and quick/easy. Strikes are fine but not time efficient.
2. 250-265 - Use your faction rewards turnins one at a time (tokens on planets, weapons parts to Shaxx). Check the gear you get against your current gear and wear it if its higher. If your current gear DOES have a +5 mod on it and the new gear DOES NOT, infuse the new gear into the current gear to get the highest light possible. This should get you to 265-267 easily if you stockpiled faction rewards. Try to make sure your energy weapon and power weapon arent exotic due to next step. If you got any +5 purple weapon/armor mods while turning in faction rewards, put them on any gear slots that dont have one if possible. SEE MY OTHER INFO BELOW THIS LIGHT GUIDE FOR AN EXPLANATION ON MAXIMIZING +5 MODS FOR LIGHT GAIN.
3. Once 265-267, claim the exotic from beating the campaign, then do your first exotic primary weapon quest.That will bump you to 267-269 assuming you have a few 270 pieces already (265 gear with a +5 mod).
4. NOW do 1-2 milestones. Again, only turn in one at a time and check the rewards against your current gear, making sure to maximize based on any pieces that have the +5 mods. Make sure to join a clan for the clan milestone.
5. Do a 2nd exotic weapon quest after 1-2 milestones if you didnt get a higher light primary than the 1st exotic. SAVE your favorite exotic quest for last. There are four, one from each planet, but the final one requires the raid to finish. I waited to get my mida muti tool (my 3rd exotic quest) until I hit 283 light and it dropped at 293. That is what brought me to the upper half of 284 (and allows me to USE my trusty mida).
6. Finish off your milestones and claim them, again one at a time to maximize gains. This includes the nightfall, which drops high gear once a week per class in addition to being the end of a milestone path as well.
7. Do your 3rd and final (for now) exotic primary quest. Ideally you saved your favorite for last. See step 5. I saved my MIDA quest for this step.
Doing this I was able to get to 284, two points shy of 285, on my first character without creating alts to re-do nightfall and whatnot.
I'm at 265 now, can someone explain to me the whole exotic infusing progression tip I keep reading about?
I don't fully understand what to do.
INFUSION EXPLANATION TO MAXIMIZE GAINS-
First off it doesnt matter if its exotic or not. Any legendary can have the +5 mod too. Exotics are just guaranteed to have one.
Lets say I have two scout rifles. Both are 265 light. One has a +5 mod on it (purple mod on the item detail screen with a 5 on it). The one with the +5 mod is ACTUALLY only a 260 light scout rifle. The item's true light level is whatever it would be without the +5. So a 273 with a +5 is actually a 268.
So, if my scout rifle with NO +5 mod is 265, I can infuse that into the other 265 scout rifle that HAS the +5. That will make it a true 265 rifle, and the +5 mod will bump it up to 270.
This is why its so important to look at every legendary gear you get and keep the ones with +5 mods, and maximize which items you are infusing into others as you go along. Theoretically you could get every gear slot to 270 before ever touching milestones and exotic quests, although that is unlikely.
Once you get to 280 light you can create +5 mods at the weapon vendor.
ALSO make sure if you max out 99,999 glimmer, UNLOAD it all at the weapon vendor by buying the 'random' blue mods for 2500 each so that you stockpile them to create loads of +5 mods when you hit 280 light.
The only thing about exotics is they always have a +5 mod on them, so their true light level is always 5 below what you see on them. I learned that the hard way when I tried to infuse a exotic INTO a legendary and got zero increase from it.
4vs4 is pure madness for me 
