I got my first Legendary Gear..(yay)

We were all beginners once. I personally level up to 20 first by beating all the stories on the moon and earth. Then I go back to the first mission on the moon and farm experience from it because it has pikes. You can simply start the mission do the first couple objectives but then instead of going to the hive fortress, hope on a pike and play as if it's a patrol. Just drive around everywhere killing as much as possible. It's easier because the pike will deal damage your unable to at the lower levels. Then I go back and finish the stories to earn xp for my gear and weapons. EDIT: I forgot to mention doing as many bounties as possible YOUR QUESTION: For the gear and stuff I personally save up marks and buy it from the vanguard, then buy exotic gear from Xur. Max all that gear out and this alone will allow you to get to level 29 (almost positive, otherwise it leaves you a point or two away). From there though you are now high enough to run the tiger strikes with ease, and the raid as well. Hope this helps.

There is no reason to wait for RNG Drops. Use the currencies to create a legendary loadout. Make your own Destiny. : )

You are getting quite a bit of good advice. Here is my two cents...Save ascendant shards for raid gear (purple gear obtained from VoG, but with a max light of 30 just like exotics) or new gear from DLC since it is so close to dropping. With one exotic maxxed and regular legendaries upgraded without spending any shards, you should be able to barely hit 28, which is enough to do the normal VoG. Additionally, with the new DLC and level cap increase, I have the feeling that normal vangard legendaries are going to be obsolete (though we don't know this for sure, but there will be other ways to get raid level gear apparently), so it might be worth it to save shards for those.

Spend marks on vanguard armor and then when u level up enough with the faction buy a gun. Xur only takes strange coins or motes of light not vanguard/crucible marks.

I was in your situation not too long ago. I asked the question here as well and got some great advice. Right now I’m a level 28 working my way up to 29. So: 1. Only do something you enjoy. Want to patrol, go ahead, want to do strikes, strike away! Just have fun :) 2. When in doubt, see rule 1. 3. Don’t trust the random drops too much, I had a bit of luck but still, don’t trust them too much. Guardians make their own faith :) I worked my way to vanguard rank 2 first, and with my marks and ranking I bought legendary armor (chest, boots & gauntlets). Xur happened to appear with a helmet engram shortly after that, I took a risk and blammo: exotic helmet for a warlock. I was all fitted and was working to upgrade it all. 4. while upgrading I reached rank 3 vanguard and was able to purchase a legendary gun So basicly, have fun. If the random drops favor you, all the better, if they don’t: purchase armor with the marks you gathered, level up and get better drops/access to better gear.

If you are going to buy gear from the vendors (you should) start with boots, then hands and then get the chest. Xur doesn't sell boots and you are statistically more likely to get chest/head pieces from him because their are more exotics of those types. Doing this will reduce the likelyhood that Xur will offer an exotic armor piece that you already have a legendary for.

Just a quick tip. When you eventually make another character you can vault all of your guns so [i]that[/i] character can use them. At least you won't have to start over with your weapons.

Edit: SAVE ASENDANTS. Make sure you are sure that your armor is exactly what you need before you spend any asendants on it. Also: MAX LEVEL your legendary weapons BEFORE sharding them. You don't have to fully upgrade them, just get their xp to max. Doing this is the difference between 6 shards and 2 shards when you dismantle them 1, rank up vanguard. At rank 3 you will get a Legendary weapon. That is how I got my first legendary weapon. Save 150 Vanguard marks and buy a Legendary weapon if you don't get the one you like. The Devil You Know is a beast of a handcannon and Shadow Price is a very respectable AR. 2, Think about what weapon and playstyle you like and buy legendary gear that makes it better. Vanguard armor rotates quickly so if you want a set of gloves with strength and scout rifle reload speed, it shouldn't take too long. 3, max your weekly marks and spend them. When you can run Tiger Playlist for PvE or run Crucible if you like PvP and spend the marks. You can earn a max of 100 per week and can carry 200 per type as a Maximum. So spend them before you hit 200. 4, when you can run Nightfall do so. Its a good chance for an exotic and gives you a 20% boost to all xp per week. Run it early after the reset to max gains. 5, Save strange coins. Xur sells 1 exotic weapon, 1 exotic armor per class and 1 exotic armor engram per week. Armor costs 13 strange coins, weapons cost between 23 and 17 strange coins and the exotic lottery costs... 32 motes of light? Don't buy telemetry or ammo if you have 23 or less strange coins. 6, run weekly heroics when you can. You get strange coins from weekly heroics. This is your Xur candy 7, run daily story missions. They give you a chance at a Legendary engram and now mats. 8, run Tiger Playlist. 2 blue engram every 15ish minutes add up. Also a slight chance for a Legendary or exotic, although I have never seen one.

I got my very first legendary engram EVER yesterday, it was a special engram and I was hoping for the icebreaker. I got three ascendant shards instead, but still coincidentally enough to upgrade my boots max.

If you don't have enough gear to get you to 26, buy some armor to get raid level. Then message me and I would be glad to raid with you if XB1

It's not a stupid question at all. Gearing is multifaceted as there are a lot of paths to gearing. Since you don't look to be playing any PVP, I'd suggest focusing solely on farming Vangaurd Rep & Marks and don't worry about the other Factions; you need Crucible Marks to buy anything they're selling. I agree starting with Boots is good; but you are running a Titan and the overall best Exotic armor piece is The Armementarium (I have it; give it look). I say "best" because most Exotics lock you into one subclass, but this piece does not. It's equally awesome for Strikers & Defenders. Xur's sold it multiple times; 3 out of the last four weeks, I believe. Strange Coins do come from the Weekly Strike; 3 difficulty levels each award you with 3 Coins. But if you skip, say, the lvl22 and just do the lvl26 you'll get 6 Coins; they "give" you the 3 from the lower level version you skipped over so you aren't forced to run the same Strike multiple times just to get your 9 Coins. So run the version you can do the easiest; you'll get the Coins quickly enough.

Get to Vanguard rank 3 before any other faction. Then you can go dead orbit etc. once you are at three you can get legendary armor and guns from vanguard. As others mentioned, if Xur sells an exotic helm, you want that. The reason is to get to thirty you either need 2 pieces or raid hear and an exotic item. As others have said, helms only come fro. VOG hard mode. That being said, armaterium is the best non helm item. Use it with legendary armor and you can get to 29. For vanguard weapons: Shadow Price auto rifle is kick ass. The devil you know is also great. As is swarm. Avoid dr. Nope. Lastly, read the forums. If Xur has an ultra kick ass weapon like icebreaker or gallorjorn you want to get it. So many choices. Fun times. Just my two cents. Btw, avoid the chest of alpha Lupi Titan chest. It sucks ass.

If you wait for armor to drop you will be waiting forever. Definitely rank up in the faction whose armor has the stat boosts that compliment your play style (Intellect, Discipline, or Strength), or the perks that you want (increased reload speed with certain guns). For example, if you want the best Super and grenade cooldown times, you want to get Future War Cult Gear (they specialize in Intellect and Discipline). Once you get the gear you want and level it up (a full set of legendary vendor gear should get you to 26), and eventually purchase an exotic from Xur for your character (since exotics get the highest light levels). This will bring you to light level 27, and then you can start running the raid to try and get raid gear. My 2 cents of advice: - Buy an exotic helm. This is because the raid helm only drops on Hard mode raids, which can be pretty difficult. - If you want to level up rank in a certain faction, make sure you purchase their class item (for 2500 glimmer). This is the only way to accumulate faction rep. - Vanguard weapons are almost always the best weapons you can purchase from a vendor. - Strike Playlists are a great way to get a lot of engrams. More engrams = more chances for good gear to drop and more chances at good gear when leveling your Cryptarch rank. I'm sure there's more, but that's what comes to mind right away

Yeah buy legendary gear from the vanguard max it out then start running the raid. You need raid armor to reach level 30. Get an exotic helmet and shoot for the rest of the raid armor on normal. The raid helmet only drops in hard mode.

Use you marks for armor to get up to 26-27 then run the raid. Xur sells exotics for strange coins. You can only equip 1 exotic armor piece and 1 exotic weapon at a time. It takes I think 13 coins to buy an item so best to run the weekly heroic for the coins at level 28. You can get 9 coins a week from that or 27 coins if you run 3 characters through.

Either works well but xur only sells 1 exotic piece per class per weekend he is here. Buying legendary boots from vanguard would be most recommended since there are no exotic boots available for purchase yet