Pre the DLC, I would make sure I did the daily in an attempt to get Ascendent Material to level up my armor and weapons. Post DLC there's really no point to do the daily missions especially if your weapons are already maxed out and you have the new Raid Armor. I haven't done a daily in a while and the only time I do is when one of my friends is doing it, but I just usually join for the conversation
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I do it for energy as i still try and max out weapons i'll probably never use. Shards are now completely irrelevant and bungie should implement a system to swap them for radiants along with sapphire wire, hardonic, plasteel.