For those who don't run regular, weekly Raids and strikes with a team, they are a good way to slowly build out a high-level arsenal.

Few of the weapons have ideal perks, but it is a known quantity, and a known path to it. Which contrasts with the RNG loot everywhere else.

Note: I still have blue rocket launchers.

EDIT: building rep has 2 purposes:
1. Receive faction gear and weapons with different perks, which may be better than what they sell.
2. Acquire armour/weapons without spending marks.
3. Faction shaders are randomly dropped at high rep

On a related note, I wonder if anyone here could explain the appeal of building faction rep? Once again, I see very little point to it. The various factions don't seem to sell gear that is particularly unique or special. Plus, the fact that they only deal with Crucible marks is a big deterrent for me, since I rarely play the crucible.

Why, to get this glorious vessel! Why else?

On a related note, I wonder if anyone here could explain the appeal of building faction rep? Once again, I see very little point to it. The various factions don't seem to sell gear that is particularly unique or special. Plus, the fact that they only deal with Crucible marks is a big deterrent for me, since I rarely play the crucible.

Am I way off here? Is there more to the vendors than I realize? Or are they actually as useless as I think they are?

I rep dead orbit because I want their shaders and faction ship. Other than that, there's not much else I want from them. Their hand cannon and machine gun are nice with the right rolls.

New Monarchy has one of the best auto rifles in the game currently so that's nice to buy.

What I did when I first started was to build up to rank 3 on all factions (DO, NW, FWC, Vanguard, Crucible). This way I can buy whatever I want from any of them with my main character and then pass stuff around if needed.

Am I way off here? Is there more to the vendors than I realize?

Yes and no. I think the conclusion that they're useless is dead wrong for a lot of people, but not necessarily for you. Perhaps your random drops have been good enough that you just haven't needed them. On the other hand, maybe you made a huge mistake in ignoring them, and some fights could have been a lot easier if you'd bought their weapons instead of waiting for RNG drops. Who's to say?

I agree the armor is more important, but I have bought a few weapons to fill in gaps. I wanted an arc shotgun, for example, so I bought the Secret Handshake from the Vanguard vendor. I don't see how that's a worse option than waiting for RNG to gift me the right item. Even I do eventually get a better item from a drop, I had something to fill that role in the meantime.

The weapon that has changed my Destiny experience the most on its own was actually a Vanguard vendor purchase. Back in the early days when we all still had mostly blue weapons and were struggling through the Phogoth strike, I decided I needed something to help with Wizards, so I bought this gem from the Vanguard, and WOW did that make a difference. With the combination of perfect balance and rangefinder, it's a laser beam compared with most fusion rifles. I'm still hoping to get one from a drop now so I can have a 331 version.

Where the system falls down for me is that there are ONLY certain weapon type/damage combos available from any given vendor. That wouldn't be so bad if some of the vendors didn't REQUIRE Crucible marks. Ugh.

I was looking through my vault yesterday, and I noticed I have 15 Vanguard commendations. I asked myself "When am I ever going to use these?" I starting thinking back through my memory, and was surprised to realize that I don't think I've ever purchased a weapon from a Vender (other than an Iron Banner scout rifle a couple months ago).

This got me to thinking about the Vendors in the Tower; did Bungie miss the mark with these shops & factions? Or am I missing out by not using them?

In my experience, there is very rarely any reason to buy from the vendors. In the early game (1-20) you get all the gear you need from drops and as mission rewards. Buying new armor and weapons at that point is all but worthless, since you don't keep any single piece of gear for more than a few missions. Everything gets upgraded and replaced too quickly.

During the 20-26 grind, I did find it necessary to buy a few pieces of armor to boost my light level. I could have purchased weapons at that point, but it never seemed wise to me; better to spend my marks on armor so I can level up and do higher level missions which will give me better weapons as rewards, right?

Now that all 3 of my character have reached end-game content (raids, nightfalls, etc) I can't see any reason to buy from the vendors ever again. I already get legendary and exotic weapons faster than I can upgrade them, simply by running the weekly content. As such, the tower feels like a pretty hollow place for me. I go from the Vault to the bounty station and back to orbit, with the occasional trip to the weapons vendor to buy heavy ammo synths.

On a related note, I wonder if anyone here could explain the appeal of building faction rep? Once again, I see very little point to it. The various factions don't seem to sell gear that is particularly unique or special. Plus, the fact that they only deal with Crucible marks is a big deterrent for me, since I rarely play the crucible.

Am I way off here? Is there more to the vendors than I realize? Or are they actually as useless as I think they are?

I have found the Vanguard and Crucible weapon vendors very useful. In Destiny's first "season" I used the heck out of the Crucible variant of the Fair and Square pulse rifle. It had a low rate of fire, a high impact, great stability, and Third Eye which I really like during Crucible matches. For my Hunter I picked up Vanguard variant of The Devil You Know pretty early on and used that until Xur sold The Last Word for the first time. Later I purchased up the Aries Nemesis X4, a powerful slow firing Crucible Scout Rifle with Firefly and love it. For the second, Dark Below, season I traded out Fair and Square for its rough equivalent Three Little Words and have replaced the Aries Nemesis X4 with the Vanguard Badger CCL. For me it has been important to have good legendaries in each slot so I could vary my play styles by swapping with Exotic I used. Crucible Pulse Rifle + Invective + The Swarm has been my go to setup for serious Crucible play for months now.

That said, the Gunsmith is almost entirely useless. Yeah, people flock to him for blue Fusion Rifles for Pocket Infinity... but he should really have a purpose beyond that. First thought would be reforging the perks on any standard weapon but as some have pointed out that might lead to specific weapon setups ruling all. Maybe that wouldn't be too bad? It's not like some guns aren't already king of the hill, after all. Maybe he could accelerate weapon leveling for a price? Or offer Raid weapons in exchange for raid materials in order to help stabilize and make up for bad RNG luck?

As for the three factions... yeah, their gear has always seemed a bit lackluster to me. Maybe they could be better differentiated somehow with stats and perks? Focusing on specific play styles like grenade users or sharpshooters or fast annoying shotgun jerks? :p And yes, their only taking Crucible Marks is a shame since it unbalances the number of vendors taking Crucible vs Vanguard marks.

Am I way off here? Is there more to the vendors than I realize? Or are they actually as useless as I think they are?

No they are in general not that good (assuming you have lots of raid primaries and exotics). The only time I can think it'd be useful is if you are in a situation where you need say, a solar machine gun or something for a nightfall and you don't want to put super good advice in your exotic slot because you'd rather use icebreaker.

I bought TFWPKY, but that is outclassed by a good roll I got on the chance, and or course fatebringer or hawkmoon.

If you play a lot of crucible some of the primaries might be worth picking up.

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This is by no means complete (im just going from memory here), but here are some weapons definitely worth checking out.

Vanguard: Up for Anything, Plug One (amazing Fusion Rifle, just wish it was Void), LDR 5001, One Way Ticket 000, Harms Way (if you like high fire-rate LMGs. Yuck).

Crucible: For the People, TFWPKY (though its 2 main perks are pretty garbage - The Chance is better), Saterienne Rapier, Against All Odds

FWC: The Chance

New Monarchy: Vanquisher VI

Dead Orbit: Deviant Gravity (though I'd spend my marks on Against All Odds unless you really want a void LMG - the roll is better IMO)

Apparently the DO Sniper is good too, but Ive never so much as seen one.