Since I am using a phone the formatting may be bad. Bungie your gear progression should look something like: Vanguard > VoG = TDB Vanguard > H VoG > Crota > H Crota It should continue as: Crota = HoW Vanguard > H Crota > HoW > H HoW Now it should be Crota gear lets you do normal HoW content day 1. Crota Hard would let you have an easier time of it. Also vanguard marks should be converted to glimmer on HoW release. No reason you should be able to buy the full set of vanguard gear on day one. Also the new story missions should culminate with your last reward being a choice(as in different slots) of different gear equal to HoW Vanguard with the other missions rewarding blue gear to prepare you for the new strikes. The new strikes need to be challenging and reward blue gear with light level and defense high enough to get you to the new raid but lacking the perks of legendary gear. It should be a pretty decent chance of you getting the blue gear. At least your first run a day should be a definite reward. There should also be a smaller chance but not abysmal to get a legendary or materials that is separate from your blue gear chance. When you finish TDB story missions you should be able to start the HoW missions asap without having to farm lots of gear. The missions should remain challenging but doable. As you are farming the strikes to get ready for HoW you can still do Crota and VoG for materials and gear as the perks might be better than the overall defense of the strike blue gear. Overall a system like this would make everyone happy. The elite raiders get an easier start and newcomers can get into current content without having to grind through too much out of date content.