Link to Article

The most interesting tidbit to me is this... "But player gear is still very significant in measuring each player's power. Do you still see raids as the gateway to gaining the best gear as it was in the past?
We believe the highest gear level is a little less important to the game now. We hope that players see their light level as a tool that allows them to climb the mountain they want to climb in the way that's most interesting to them. If they look at a raid and they see it's recommended light level is 280, then we want them to think, 'I want to get my light to 280, so I can climb this mountain in front of me.' In the same way, we want players to look at the PvP activities they want to do and say, 'I want to get there, so I can go into that activity and have a great time.' Post-launch, we've created a bunch of ways for players to chase progression, chase creativity, and look how they want to look. That's all stuff we want to carry forward. But the gear you have is just a tool to reaching those activities and not the end goal.

Very interesting... I wonder how this will impact the game overall. I do raid because it is fun, but I raid a lot more chasing gear - which is still fun, because the raids in and of them selves are well designed, particularly VoG. Does this mean that Raids won't drop the highest light gear? Or maybe that the highest light gear will be attainable via several avenues?

It seems to be an extension of what is already in place. You can get to the highest level now through:
PoE gear,
Trials Gear,
Random Etheric Light Drops (guaranteed in certain PoE and Trials rewards),
And by purchasing an Etheric Light/Armor piece in Iron Banner.

From what they said in the stream (without spoiling anything) yesterday, you'll be able to obtain specific coveted gear/weapons from specific bosses (yet another thing Warframe did well from the get-go, but I digress). That seems to mean that there will be max-light armor from the Court of Oryx, from the Raid(s?), from the Strikes, and possibly from the random Patrol chains on top of the existing ways to get it.

Which sounds great to me, assuming the new armors all look distinct.

From launch on, raid gear has had two functions. The first is gating progress into the end game hard mode. You needed all the raid armor to complete the hard mode. You needed those weapons with bonus damage to oracles, you needed to be 30 on the level 31 raid, or you just couldn't do enough damage quickly enough.

The second was status. Having that full set of raid gear and equipment made your character unique in the tower. Walking around with a hunter in full crota gear and shader got you numerous invites (at least for me). The Mythoclast is a status weapon, even post nerf. People hate on the Necrochasm precisely because it is so hard to get and yet is outclassed by purples.

HoW and PoE gave us armor that is high level and easily accessible, but not really having any benefits outside the raid. Having a full set of gear makes PoE much easier, but by that point you are really only chasing status items anyway.

So separating gear from that gating function is a welcome improvement. The initial promise of Destiny implied lots of different ways to max out. You could PVP, PVE or some combination there in, and whatever path you took there would be a way to reach that top level. What it turned out to be was you needed to farm VoG, CE to be top tier. Even after IB added top tier armor, you needed those elemental primaries to make nightfalls less of a slog.

Now that nightfalls and Xur won't be the main way to get exotics, players will have a larger diversity of appearances and gear, and you will have a better idea of what they like from the gear they have.

I hope we also see more damage types on primaries, and more variety in weapon types as well. The elemental primaries are a big restriction currently and force people to often run weapons they don't find ideal.