There must be some HORRID miscommunication here. Why is everyone tossing around insults? All I said is that it should not be given out on low level activities. 1: And they can, it however does require tenacity as your essentially worse of than players were at the start with the unforgiving drop mechanics of VoG, but your limited to 3 drops a week instead of 3 drops a run per character. I do agree the drop rate for it on the nightfall is stupid low, I've gotten all of one from it and I've done the nightfall every week with all my characters since the expansiion dropped. Getting lucky and having even one drop by itself is enough to bring you to level 33 with an exotic. But without the expansion, there is no pressing need for it. Could there be another avenu for earning etheric light? yes. [u][b]But it should be tagged to an endgame activity in some shape or form, not dropped on a low level activity. This is bad game design as it make people just steer entirely clear of their real endgame activities. I'd have give VoG and CE a new difficulty where there's some chance you get Etheric Light. Keeps the raids relevent, players coming back not only for the Light, but as well as getting some fine weapons and armor to SPEND said light on. Maybe add it into the Exotic Drop list. I mean it's not like people have stopped running them. [/b][/u] Or something to THIS effect. Other examples could be Nightfall automatically drops one every few/several nightfalls as a "Nightfall package reward". They should.. you know.. just add optional matchmaking into the game for all activities, period. Even if it's too hard for you to do with Randoms, you at least start getting a feel for it and might friend and come back more organized with the people you played with. Which would create more opportunites naturally than leaving people to the forums and getting stuck behind massive pages of "Gally Only" or having assholes leave or even BOOT you in outside 2: I thought IB was you needed the most current expansion.. huh.. 32 vs 34? I used to be in that boat. Save for shoulder charge and anyone using Timur's Lash level impact weapons, I never noticed a difference back when I was 28 fighting for 30 before any of the expansions (as VoG refused to drop anything for me armor-wise). IB is a grind, and I hated it back in the Dark Below era. But if it indeed is accessible for anyone, it's at least doable. I'd just highly suggest not doing more than the bounties in a day, else you just get reaming mad. 3: I do understand the mechanics. You do recieve a damage reduction for being a higher level, but 2 levels difference? it is however miniscule, you only really start noticing it at like a 5+ level gap, if that. A Minion of the darkness wielding a sniper will still 2 or 3 shot you. Especially if a Burn is on. A level 32 or a 34 is still gonig to get 2 shotted by most artillery enemies like Minotaurs or Knights, or one or two shotted by melee enemies. maybe take one extra shot from a Shock Pistol or like weapon, still get one to two shotted by a Wire or Line Rifle, etc. It's easily, very, very miniscule. You'd only notice it if you stopped to count shots against a single attacker, and seem just as fast as normal against multiple. Now, Ascended weapons make a larger difference than ascended armor (providing your not below the level). Since ascending a 300 attack weapon to 365.. I think with Fatebringer it brough up up a few hundred points? I think from 1500 to either 1800 or 1900. Even the 1500 would still be one shotting Acolytes, Dregs, thrall, etc as that's scout rifle damage at 365. A 365 Hand Cannon will start one shotting some larger health level 32 enemies like Vandals and Cabal which would survive a 331 version. They make a much larger difference on bosses, granted, since they have health pools that the.. 20ish-% damage increase would be meaningful, but there's a workaround for this, explained below with exotics. But by no means game changing, as 331 attack was what you were using in Crota's End, a 32 level activity so it was already balanced for that. But you can ascend an exotic weapon as well to aid here too, or even multiple and swap as you deem necessary, usually up to the boss use a 365 exotic primary then switch over to a 365 exotic heavy or special to deal with the boss. A 365 Ice Breaker or Invective could effectively be used as primaries anyway with their ammo regen. If you don't have any DLC, I'd even suggest you ascend weapons first, since the level difference is less far less significant.