Edit, I understand this post might a bit difficult to understand, however if you give it a good read you will find out that this way is the best way mathematically for everybody to be able too succeed and do the events they enjoy. You can run nightfall without ever setting foot in a raid using this method, raid gear never becomes irrelevant, and only the true Hardcore players hit the level cap early on. The proper way too setup the light level of gear in this game is to have the max light level of the gear set you at one level above that of the raid it drops from, or one level below the next normal mode raid, why? Gear should be acquired from one raid to prepare you for the next raid. You get no damage bonus from being over leveled so why does it matter. You should be able to run the raid that the gear drops from at its maximum difficulty at the same level as the enemies with 2 pieces of that raids gear and an exotic. Lower the drop rate of the gear and increase the light level. You should be able to run the next raid on its normal difficulty with 3 pieces of raid gear and one exotic. This gives people a reason to keep running the previous raid. Before anybody flames me just sit and think for a moment about the aspects of this method and realize everybody wins. Vanguard gear max level 27 gets you past vanguard roc and Into vog. Vog gear level 31, gets you past vog and into crotas end normal, crotas end gear level 34 gets you out of crotas end and into house of wolves. The drop rate of the gear should be as such that it takes almost the entire time until the next dlc to get all 4 pieces, this isn't that bad because you could run crota on hard mode at level 32 with only 2 pieces of raid gear and an exotic. And one piece from vog. What's that you got the boots another helm from both vog and crotas end and only have exotic helms so you can't quite hit 32. Better go back to vog and try to get the chest piece. This method works bungi. Please read this and understand. edit: the weekly nightfall has been set at a level 2 levels below the maximum level cap so far. The nightfall is supposed to be the most challenging thing we do every week aside from the raid. You can gain access to any mission or event in this game by being 3 levels below the level of the mission. That's a total of 5 levels below the current level cap. Every 12 light is one level above 20. How the light level adds up in my method Vanguard 21 Adds up to 84 which makes you level 27. Vault of glass 33 Adds up to 132 with makes you 31 At that time the nightfall was only level 28. The exotic gear is always the same level as the raids. So you would have only needed one exotic to be the same level as the enemies in the nightfall. 21 vanguard 21 vangaurd 21vangurad 33 exotic. That's 99 light level 28 and a smidgen. Expansion the dark below launches now the nightfall is bumped up to 30. Well under my current light level system the level cap is now 35 so the raid gear and the exotics would now be light level 45. For a whopping 180 light total. With three pieces of only vanguard gear and one exotic you would be sitting at level 29. Only one level below the current level 30 nightfall and you would only need 12 more light to match that level. I find it very hard to believe that in 12 months you would not have acquired a single piece of gear from the vault of glass.. Keep in mind I'm not suggesting bungie changes anything about the current difficulty levels, only that they change the light level of the gear. Enemies in vog hard mode would still be level 30. So under my leveling system after the expansion dropped and the exotic gear light level increased you would be able to face Athion on hard mode with a full team of level 29 guardians without single player in the group having a single piece of raid gear. If you wanted to that is. If you had one piece of vog raid gear already plus your exotic you would be level 30. Let's say that by now you have only been lucky enough to get on stupid piece of gear from the vault and one piece from Athion so your gear looks like this now Head exotic 45 Arms vangaurd 21 Chest vault of glass 33 Legs crotas end 45 Add that up its 145 light Divide by 12 that's 12 light levels above 20 So under my leveling system you would be sitting at the current level cap with only one piece of raid gear from each raid one exotic and a vanguard drop. You could go run freaking crota Hard mode... Now let's quickly address the iron banner, let it drop light level gear comparable to the previous raid only two pieces. That's 33 light under my system, puts you at light level 29. It's equal to one drop from crotas end. Now let's assume you got the exotic helmet a vault of glass chest and iron banner boots and gauntlets Head 45 Arms33 Chest33 Legs 33 That's 144 light That's level 32. With only one piece of gear from vault of glass and nothing from crotas end. You cannot tell me that there is a massive portion of the community out there with absolutely no-brainer gear from either raid, not even one piece. Come on. edit: if you don't think running the current nightfall at level 29 is fair that's what we raiders have to deal with in crotas end hard mode, this game is not fair, this is destiny