I wrote this a while ago, but felt like refreshing it, and placing it in feedback. Patch notes in the edits. Imagine having a great run through the vault of glass hard mode. You anticipate your sweet drops from the RNGesus, and you wonder why your sweet new gauntlets are "cursed gauntlets" in a black box, and have a crappy name like "rust worn gauntlets". You open it up to see a red ability tree loaded with bad news. "Fumble Fingers" - weapons fire at half speed with double reload time "Throw the Pin" - grenades explode instantly upon throwing 'amateur brawler" - melee attacks do less damage, and are slower. Discipline negative 200 Light 27/33 As you open it you notice a new black bounty has popped. It says kill 200 vex majors/ ultras at level 29 or higher. (All cursed bounties have to be completed while wearing the cursed item. Removing the item will reset the bounty.) You take it to task, and grind it out popping a gear level up as the bounty is completed. Checking the gauntlets "fumble fingers" has turned white and changed to... "Duelist" - weapons fire much faster and reload much faster. A new black bounty pops. The next upgrade an armor upgrade reveals that it wants you to complete a nightfall grade Nexus strike... Solo (strike provided just as the thorn bounty). You snail crawl your way through the strike. No grenades, and nearly dead at every turn, but you do it. Again an ability level pops. Your light rating is raised by 2. Armor increases as it does, and discipline is now -100. A new bounty for "Throw the pin" now reveals that killing 1000 level 30 or higher enemies with your new "melee" grenades will level it up to... "Fast Ball" - throw grenades at double the normal distance, and travels much faster. "Amateur brawler" becomes "Golden Gloves" melee attack speed is significantly increased. The bounties that follow will gradually raise the light and armor up to normal standards, and discipline to +150. Changing them into "Gauntlets of the light bearer", and upgrading them from cursed to blessed, and being in an illuminated yellow box. The final armor bounty will be a special run of The Black Garden that has you fighting all 3 bosses at once. Defeating them will kill (unrevivable) any members from your fire team, and transport you to a specially modeled Atheon fight meant to solo. (I haven't worked out the full logistics of the battle modifications) It serves you well, but of course you eventually come across The Dark Below gear that makes it obsolete, and you might feel a little defeated from the grind of leveling it up, but you earned it, and at least it's super rare right...? You progress through the game like normal, and grind through crota. Full raid set equipped you're ready for crota hard. The run is a bit hairy, but your sword bearer drops him. You were hoping for crux of crota ( haha yeah right) but among your drops you see a black cursed. "Blood stained boots". Light 30/36 Armor a low value Strength negative 200 "Swamped in Sadness" - you have weight of darkness. In darkness zones you have weight of darkness x4. (Unsaid but having a full super clears weight of darkness, or in a darkness zone reduces the penalty to x2.) Becomes "Falcors Wings" +2 agility. Slightly increased jump height. (Glide/lift lasts significantly longer. Hunters gain an additional jump. "Unstable ground" - your weapon stability and range drop significantly, and has a chance to jump sporadically. Becomes "Unshakable" - weapons have significantly increased stability and range. "You Dropped Something" - your weapons hold less reserve ammo, and you pick up less ammo. Reloading has a 20% to "lose" ammo from your reserves. (Ammo type currently being used) Becomes "Perfect load" -magazines hold more ammo, you can hold significantly more reserve ammo. Same deal as before the first armor upgrade is a special strike on summoning pits that must be soloed. The last upgrade is a special run on The Wakening. Destroying the crystal kills your fire team if you have one, and forces you to do a special run against crota solo. Upon defeating crota you would see two equipment level ups. The first your cursed boots are changed to "Greaves of the Light Bearer". Full armor value, light 36, strength +150. The second level up is your gauntlets of the light bearer. They are now light level 36, and the armor rating is brought up to par for the new level. This trend would continue with a chest piece from house of wolves. "This Thing Loaded" - impact from weapons is significantly decreased, and damaged enemies become faster. Becomes "You Feel Lucky"- impact to weapons increase greatly. Damaged enemies may be staggered. (If combined with a weapon that staggers enemies may drop as if stuck with a grenade.) "Who needs 'em"- grenades don't recharge over time, and have a chance to have a random throw trajectory. (Gain a grenade every time your super fills) Becomes "Two in the hole"- you have two grenades. (If your super is full you throw a pair of offset grenades with each throw.) "Like Paper Machet"- damage from all sources are treated as if under a burn affect. Becomes "Over 9000"- damage from all sources are reduced. Of course maxing the armor raises the gloves and boots to the new light level. Assuming a 4th cabal based raid would drop the helmet (which I have ideas for but don't have time to spec out.) The final piece would raise all other pieces to light level 37 or 1 level higher than the raid armor would bring you to. Signifying you as a PvE badass. Having all pieces maxed maybe the key to special items or starting bonuses for destiny 2? Or the key to acquiring the new set of cursed gear? Edit: no you would absolutely not want to allow these in a normal crucible match. But special matches/ events heck yes. Why not a crucible equivalent set of gear though? Edit 2: with new house of wolves information available, and it being easy to upgrade equipment to light 34, I think that cursed gear light level should take you to 1 above whatever the current "max" is. So gloves alone would be a light 33 item. Gloves+boots would be light level 35, and ect.