I hope it gets easier at lvl28, which I have just now hit. Up until now, both legendary engrams/items and shards have been pretty scarce.

Once you hit 27/28 and can start raiding, there is no sense in spending shards on any armor that isn't raid armor or an exotic. At that point you start to accumulate a lot, just waiting for some raid gear to use it on.

I'm having trouble understanding your logic.

If you're accumulating a lot, why not use it to upgrade what you have now? It'll make getting through the raid easier, and maybe get you MORE raid gear - which you can then upgrade with the materials you're accumulating at such a fantastic rate.

I don't get the hoarding mentality at all.

I guess I just view any piece of armor that isn't exotic or Raid as temporary; a waste of resources if it isn't essential to get you to the minimum level to start acquiring Raid gear.

I'm missing 3 pieces of Raid gear which will ultimately require 54 Ascendant Shards to upgrade. So it's not like I'm at the point of just holding on to things for no reason at all.

However, I think drop-rates are directly tied to level, since I have stayed frozen in each level for a very long time and have seen the drops getting consistently better.

I hope it gets easier at lvl28, which I have just now hit. Up until now, both legendary engrams/items and shards have been pretty scarce.

Once you hit 27/28 and can start raiding, there is no sense in spending shards on any armor that isn't raid armor or an exotic. At that point you start to accumulate a lot, just waiting for some raid gear to use it on.

I'm having trouble understanding your logic.

If you're accumulating a lot, why not use it to upgrade what you have now? It'll make getting through the raid easier, and maybe get you MORE raid gear - which you can then upgrade with the materials you're accumulating at such a fantastic rate.

I don't get the hoarding mentality at all.

Yes. 5 chests. 3 of them always give Ascendant materials. The others can too, but can also drop good gear. You can get ascendant materials from any of the boss drops. That's 9 chances at materials, 3 guaranteed. You usually get three per drop.

Good to know! Thanks.

Is there any reason to work so hard on hitting 30 besides the raid on hard mode? My hunter is level 29 with fully upgraded non-raid armor and I haven't had any problems playing everything else.

5 of the 6 on the DBO Hard mode Raid team were 29. You can beat the raid on hard at 29, but it's a bit more challenging.

The only legendary weapon I have maxed out is Atheon's Epilogue, which is also negatively impacting my ability to kill things. I feel like I'm just not quite where I need to be to effectively pull this off without dying.

Is there any reason to work so hard on hitting 30 besides the raid on hard mode? My hunter is level 29 with fully upgraded non-raid armor and I haven't had any problems playing everything else. Plus I like the look of the armor I have a lot more than the raid armor. Plus the raid armor I've gotten so far didn't have the stats or perks I wanted. I really haven't understood the drive to be 30. Is there more to it than hard mode raid?

I don't imagine so.

Sure, ideally if your enemies are lvl 30, you'd want to be 30(+) to take them on, but being a 29 is just as fine, especially since it adds a *slight* challenge to your battles.

The skilled player shouldn't have much of an issue being -1, maybe even -2 to the enemies lvl, at the understanding that it may take you an extra shot to down an enemy, which leads into how much more important it is that your weapons are fully upgraded, as opposed to your armor.

That's been my experience thus far.

It's akin to being a glass canon: You can deal lots of damage, but you can't take much, so play conservatively and you'll be OK.

-This isn't directed at anyone in particular on these forums- But I think the whole "I need to get to 30" mentality is similar in some ways to how people felt they "needed" to get to level 50 in Halo 2\3.

Is there any reason to work so hard on hitting 30 besides the raid on hard mode? My hunter is level 29 with fully upgraded non-raid armor and I haven't had any problems playing everything else.

5 of the 6 on the DBO Hard mode Raid team were 29. You can beat the raid on hard at 29, but it's a bit more challenging.

Are ascendant mats that abundant in the raid?

Yes. 5 chests. 3 of them always give Ascendant materials. The others can too, but can also drop good gear. You can get ascendant materials from any of the boss drops. That's 9 chances at materials, 3 guaranteed. You usually get three per drop.

I hope it gets easier at lvl28, which I have just now hit. Up until now, both legendary engrams/items and shards have been pretty scarce.

Once you hit 27/28 and can start raiding, there is no sense in spending shards on any armor that isn't raid armor or an exotic. At that point you start to accumulate a lot, just waiting for some raid gear to use it on.

Ran the Raid for the first time last night. Found 7 Shards and a handful of Energy (I don't keep track of Ascendant energy because I have way too many already)

I have 44 Ascendant Shards in my inventory, just waiting.

Are ascendant mats that abundant in the raid? I haven't run it yet (only opened the door), and outside the raid, it seems that these are painfully slow to accumulate. So much so that I've been sitting at 27 for probably two weeks, because upgrading anything with shards seems like an irrevocable commitment.

I'm only allowed to do that once a week.

Multi-character? I'm strongly considering it.

I've elected to use the character slot I had set aside for a Hunter to run a second Warlock for this exactly. It's level 6. I don't exactly want to grind it out, but I have a feeling that this will continue to be an issue in Destiny's future and it may be worth it to just go ahead.

I don't plan to play any other class anyway.

And, of course, multiple Chatterwhite emblems.

Being a PvE player, I wasn't interested in trying Iron Banner this time around and haven't even played PvP since the week of launch. So even when Iron Banner offers level 30 gear, the likelyhood I'll be willing to play enough to get the rep necessary to purchase anything is highly unlikely. I just don't enjoy PvP, and I know I'm not the only one who feels this way.

I won't ever hit level 30 until the RNG pops out worthy gear via the raid. That's a bit depressing.