Faction Class Items? (Destiny)

by stabbim , Des Moines, IA, USA, Wednesday, October 19, 2016, 02:55 (3050 days ago) @ Xenos

IIRC, there was a time where wearing a faction class item was how you GOT faction rep in the first place. And IIRC again, doing so totally redirected rep from the original thing it would have gone to. So if I was wearing a Dead Orbit Bond, all the rep that would normally go to Vanguard or Crucible or whatever went to Dead Orbit instead. Consequently, back then you could only (for example) rank up Vanguard OR Dead Orbit, not both at the same time. So it wasn't so much that class items BOOSTED faction rep, it was that they enabled you to get ANY in the first place (this does not take the exotic faction ones into account, which apparently did boost gains for that faction and were special in that regard).

That changed a LONG time ago, maybe with Taken King? It's been so long it's hard to remember specifically when. But what it changed to is the current system, where you pledge to a certain faction, and then whatever Vanguard or Crucible rep you gain, you ALSO gain some toward the pledged faction (without it taking away from the Vanguard/Crucible rep gains).

So yeah, currently they don't really do anything special other than look good (in some cases).