They give you 10% bonus to the faction as opposed to 10% more for Vanguard or Crucible points. However since every point you gain from doing w/e you get 1/2 the points you get on Vanguard or Crucible which effectively cuts that 10% down to pretty much 5%. With that said the only actual time you'd wanna use these is if you were turning in faction stuff for points which overall is a terrible way to represent your faction. The gear should either be 10% to all 3 Vanguard, Crucible, and the faction you're in or it should give a 20% increase to make up for 1/2 gain for doing stuff to get points for the faction. While one can argue that it'll make it easier to turn in items and get 20% more points instead of 10% as you do get full points for turning in stuff, still... It's an EXOTIC piece that took you 25 faction levels to get. It should never be more negative to wear it compared to the Vanguard/Crucible class items. If anything it should be slightly more useful/convenient than the normal class items. Yes I'm aware some people wears them because they like the look better but a majority of us don't wear it(other than when turning in faction items) because it hinders your point gain compared to the other class items. *Edit* - Just to avoid future comments regarding the math since someone brought it up with no other contribution to the thread whether be ideas or their opinion on the matter. [quote]I'm aware that's it's technically not 5% gain as opposed to 10%(it does give 10% rounded down though, not up). However point wise, we are effectively getting nearly half less than we do normally with other non-exotic class items. Notice I said "pretty much" instead of just pointing out the exact math?[/quote] And [quote]For example you could do a vanguard bounty that gives you 50(vanguard)+25(faction) and with a vanguard class items totals up to 50+5+25 = 80. Now if you wear the exotic class item(which the points are rounded down) you'll be getting 50+25+2 = 77 rep points. You effectively lost 3 points just for wearing the[b] Exotic[/b] class item. This pretty much means that the class item hinders you than actually help you which should most definitely not be the case since it's an exotic class item.[/quote] [b]*Edit* - Added idea from a poster.[/b] [quote]Or just switch the Vanguard/Crucible points with the Faction points. You earn Double Faction points, but half of the regular points. (The %10 bonus may also apply.)[/quote]