Damn, OT7! Thread got locked when I was writing this reply. Don't mind this, it's just another complaint about the loot system!
I mostly play PVP, and I like the idea of Iron Banner making your loot more useful (though I'm happy it's not the main PVP mode). I would like to be able to get to 30 through IB if the armor defense levels mattered a lot (they don't seem to *that* much, although I haven't fought any 30s before the servers went down yet). I don't think having a 30 light path for PVP is that important though, as you said the only content that requires that level is the raid. Considering I'll probably never play the raid, I don't need to be level 30.. but if there was an alternate path to 30 that aligned with the part of the game I do play, that would be nice.
I understand that people don't want to trivialize the raid rewards. Fundamentally though I just wish the game had way more rewards in general. Every time I play with my friends they're bummed out because they feel like we wasted an hour doing strikes or something for no reason. My friend is level 23 or 24 and every time he gets a legendary engram it's for a different class. Getting a couple of shards isn't exciting. I feel like my friends are on the verge of quitting the game (although I think they're complaining a bit prematurely -- the horrible grind doesn't really start till 25 or 26 imo). So yeah, I'm not exactly dying for 30 light armor drops. But why not drop legendary weapons a little more frequently just so I have some new stuff to play around with. The various weapons are cool but the differences between them are subtle for the most part, so finally getting a better weapon after a long grind/ lucky drop isn't always that exciting. I've gotten some good drops and earned good gear as well, but these moments are far and in between. If they happened a little more frequently I think it would only make the game better. It shouldn't upset the game's balance. It's not like you just trivialize PVE damage if you can upgrade your armor.
The strikes and patrol missions to me are becoming barely tolerable. I'm glad they upped the rewards slightly but you can still play the same missions for hours and get nothing of real value. Farming chests is legitimately more fun when you are doing it with some friends but I still wish I had a chance of a relic iron drop on a Mars Crucible match, for instance. It's taking forever to go from 27->28 so I can start doing Nightfalls, and the only way to get there is to play the worst parts of the game over and over.
So yeah, I want more rewards in general but in the Crucible in particular because that's what I mostly play. I don't need to get an exotic weapon every day. But give me something more often to keep it fresh. I wanna see green icons when I go back to the Tower!
