What Kookez said is exactly spot on. Every point. All I feel the need to add is make sure your gear is as upgraded as I can be, as that will add light. However, I would caution on upgrading fully (weapons included) until you've found item you know you'll keep and not dismantle. It's a journey, especially the Raid.

Ok, I'm thinking the "current" hierarchy for gear is as follows: 1) Vault of Glass Class Specific Gear From my experience, generally raid type gratis what can push you from greatly equipped to Best in Slot. So I'd say this gear is what's gonna be the bridge hypothetically from 27->30 2) black Market vendor So this mother -blam!-er (who only appears Friday and Saturday) needs Strange Coins, and I honestly don't remember if the items cost 13 or 25 of these. This guy is gonna give a guaranteed exotic PLUS an exotic engram. Get these strange coins by either A) doing the weekly raids at given levels, which can add up to 9 a week B) crucible drops or C) the postmaster rewards for getting a gold rating on your first event of the day ***Note for people, you CAN ONLY HAVE ONE PIECE OF EXOTIC GEAR AT A TIME, so don't save up for all exotics. Your gear set is gonna include a mix of legendary and exotic 3) faction, vanguard, crucible So this is gonna be the gear that makes the vault of glass even attempt able. YES you can get drops and stuff and let it be luck based, but the stat allocation on these legendaries is what will make your character the ruthless killer, unbreakable walk, or sun singing canary you want them to be. In terms of numbers, I'll let the vanguard gear be my example. FYI, you need to be rank 2 You can get 100 points a week Gauntlets, chest, boots are all 65 each Helmets are 120 or something close So in 2 weeks, assuming you cap to 200, you can buy ALL 3 non face pieces, this will take you to 26 easy more than likely. Add that to crucible gear, and faction sets, and now you can mix n match like an alchemist 4) ENGRAMS Try your luck, but don't count on much, I do believe though that at crypt arch levels 3,4,5 you get a 3 engram reward. So that'll help. PS hopes this helps, sorry if formatting sucks