So, I'd like to start by saying that I have really enjoyed the House of Wolves (HoW) Expansion. I say expansion not because it's labeled as such but for the amount of content included, unlike the anemic Dark Below (DB... Dumpster Baby?), which is a poor excuse to call an "Expansion" and more of a DLC (whether that content is Downloadable or Disc-Locked is still debatable) hardly worth the $20. I feel that Prison of Elders (PoE) is one of the best additions to Destiny, save for the Eye of Qodron still not being marked. I swear, every time I face him we have to wipe the first attempt because the Eye doesn't poke his socket out (See what eye did there? Okay, eyem done. No, seriously). We always move to the back left, so I don't know if it's clumsy spawning or Bungie expects every player to Rambo it center stage like headless chickens. Which would make sense as to why Cult of the Worm is an absolute cakewalk as being locked down behind cover isn't the worst thing to happen and would only hinder careless players (chickens pecking for worms?) out in the open. Although, I was very impressed with most of the dialogue in the HoW story missions and it shows that Destiny has potential to actually have a concrete narrative within game, because the Grimiore cards are a complete joke. Moving on from this Dead Horse... To the main point, the 1.2 update. Minimizing the upgrade system is a nice idea, but I feel it was implemented very haphazardly. Why? Because it seems Bungie wants to make Ascendant Materials (AM) obsolete, yet they are still needed for Vault of Glass (VoG, *cough*cough* said the Hawaii-born OP) and Pre-HoW gear. Why not update those as well with the new system? Shouldn't be hard as they did the same with all the Exotics when Exo-Shards were introduced. Now that the new HoW Legendary gear dismantles into scrap and a single mote, it's not as easy to get AM. For example, I recently got the Fatebringer and had to dismantle old, fully upgraded Legendary Weapons (LW) for the required Ascendant Energy (I like to call them Ascenergy for short during conversation). Now, I know you can still get AM in the Daily Heroics (DH), but more often than not, I get Motes, which cannot be reverted to A-Shards. Furthermore, as an overachiever who goes the extra mile, I always maxed the experience on throwaway LW to dismantle into more Ascenergy. Increasing the measly 2-3 you get from unleveled LW to 5-7, If that system was kept, I could turn those into about 3 Motes if I didn't need the Ascenergy. Now sometime soon, I will be upgrading to the PS4. So that means I'll have to reacquire all my VoG Weapons and again scrounge for the required Ascenergy to upgrade them without any old LW to dismantle. Now some of you may say, "The Raid weapons are special and should be harder to upgrade." Well, here's a preemptive counterargument. With the accessibility of AM prior to 1.2, upgrading VoG great wasn't terribly difficult. Yeah, now they're almost on par with the tediousness of upgrading Crota gear, which isn't that hard anymore because I can solo the first two CPs without breaking a sweat (Dammit, I killed a dog by sweating). Let me point out though, that the new PoE gear, yes, even the elemental primaries that your get from defeating Skolas, fall under the simplified 1.2 upgrade system. With that in mind, there is no reason, besides possible oversight, to not change all Pre-HoW gear as well. Then we wouldn't have to keep running to the Trait-*cough*, I mean, the Speaker to keep exchanging AM into Motes. We'd just have the option for when we no longer needed them, hence, if you had completed your intentions in making them obsolete. This in between thing is not working. Added note: When I'm maxed out on Rupees (Glimmer) and Marks, have all the ammo synth (AS) that I could need (other note, we need an option to trade or dismantle AS in non-combat zones. I'm sure there are those who abused the Ether Chest farming enough that they're still overwhelmed with Special-S), but I'm going through a famine for scrap (Weapon Parts) to due rerolling and ascending Exotics, then we have a problem. We need a better way to attain scrap without having to buy engrams. I honestly haven't done this in so long prior to HoW, that I forgot that about a fourth of my bought Greens turned into Whites, which don't get you any scrap. Thanks, Bungie for not fixing that as well when patching our Legendrarey engrams. I burned through all my Rupees for about 80 scrap. This game is a grindfest enough without having to scrounge for Greens and Blues to dismantle. Furthermore, we need more ways to spend our marks, but that's for another thread as I have a very detailed idea on that. To anyone that wants to respond to this thread, please be respectful and without bias. This is intended to be a mature discussion. Thank you, that is all.