I haven't run the raid yet, but I've gotten a lot of nice drops from the Heroic playlist. It's worth running a lot in my opinion.

A good sniper would be more useful than a shotgun. I can think of a few places where my snipers saved me. Solar would probably be the best flavor.

At 287 you should be fine. My 290 Hawkmoon was dropponents enemies pretty quick.

I've got 180+ marks so I need to buy something. I'm lacking on Legendary Specials (like my sidearm, though), so I'm considering buying a sniper or shotty. Any recommendations? Maybe I should stick to the strike playlist tonight and see what drops. I'm close to ranking up in Crucible.

What would you do to prepare?

I think a sniper would be an excellent purchase.

Hopefully this doesn't qualify as a spoiler, but you get normal loot drops in the raid (blues, greens). It's reasonable to assume that as you progress, you'll get some drops at a higher light level than you currently are, just as during normal play.

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Sniper would be the way to go, then a good LMG if you could swing it.

Look at my warlock. (Caveat: I don't know why this link shows me as 265--I'm really at 287.)

I've got 180+ marks so I need to buy something. I'm lacking on Legendary Specials (like my sidearm, though), so I'm considering buying a sniper or shotty. Any recommendations? Maybe I should stick to the strike playlist tonight and see what drops. I'm close to ranking up in Crucible.

What would you do to prepare?

Sniper. Definitely a sniper…

Look at my warlock. (Caveat: I don't know why this link shows me as 265--I'm really at 287.)

I've got 180+ marks so I need to buy something. I'm lacking on Legendary Specials (like my sidearm, though), so I'm considering buying a sniper or shotty. Any recommendations? Maybe I should stick to the strike playlist tonight and see what drops. I'm close to ranking up in Crucible.

What would you do to prepare?

I'm at 287 (288 with my Sword, but I don't see that being all that useful). Hit me up if you see me online, I'll run strikes with you.

The only Sniper I have is Hereafter at 290, but it's Arc. I think all of my useful things are Arc or Void, maybe I'll luck into some decent Solar stuff today.

Apparently arc + sword is good for something. I've yet to see evidence of the value over any other sword, though.

As others have mentioned, a high impact sniper rifle will come in very handy. A decent machine gun is useful as well.

Aside from gear, I have 1 other piece of advice, since I think your group is going in blind:

The combat sections of this raid seem are very carefully designed for 6 people. Keep that in mind as you're figuring out how to handle each encounter. If anyone in the group ever finds themselves without something to do, you're missing something :)

Looks like I'm buying this. It's the highest impact I can find.

I appreciate the advice.

EDIT: The one from the Vanguard Quartermaster is solar, which is good.