The only thing that keeps me going is a group of 6 friends to play coop with. I can put up with it as I help them level up. But the glacial pace of this upgrading is borderline absurd. I play pretty hard, putting in 4 or 5 hours minimum, and sometimes a full work day. But it will still take 2 or 3 months to level up a full set of gear. Don't get me wrong...I love the game. But I have no idea how a casual player who gets on maybe 1 or 2 hours a night will ever get to experience what this game has to offer.

If you've invested that much time, and still are having trouble leveling up, and leveling up your gear, then you are doing something wrong. First and foremost, start with the weekly nightfall every tuesday. This ensures you get more XP for the entire week for everything you do. Secondly, you need to make bountys your priority. Also, doing hte daily on the hardest difficulty will ensure you get ascendant materials every day. Finally, the raid is your friend, this is where I've received the most progress in leveling up If you spend simply 10 hours a week doing those things, it won't take long at all.

Thanks for the tips. My level would probably be higher, except I'm hoarding all my ascendant shards while I wait for the rest of my friends to catch up. I keep thinking if I hold onto them, I might see a better piece of gear. I'm curious...why does the weekly heroic ensure that you get more XP for the week?

Not the weekly heroic, the weekly nightfall. Upon completing it, you get bonus xp for everything you do untill it resets on the next tuesday. For example, instead of getting 25 crucible rep for winning, i get 31 (or 32 can't remember) this also applies to XP bonuses for lvling up your gear and weapons and even glimmer. It's also a good idea to save your shards for raid gear, as it's the only itmes in the game that will allow you to reach lvl 30. The advantage of raid gear is it gives you the same light bonus and defense as exotic pieces. Where all the other legendary gear isn't as good. So, good move on saving your shards!