I'd echo what a couple of others have said. Level up legendaries and exotics that you like until they need energy then decide which you like best. Level your armour until you're 29 then save shards for your raid/iron banner gear. Unless you're very lucky you'll save plenty of shards before you ever get a full set of lvl 30 armour. I'm still a chest piece short and I had 98 shards before I levelled my alt to 28. I still have 78! As weapons take energy not shards you can spend them as you see fit without effecting your level. While the raid weapons are great for oracles they're not the be all and end all. I only have the sniper and never use it in VoG. I suspect that when moving on to hard mode they would help more. I've never bothered soloing the nightfall as there always seems to be someone around. However decent weapons of the burn type are a must I imagine. I always seem to be short of arc weapons.