Lets assume you have one piece of etheric light. You have a choice between raising your level once, or ascending a legendary gun. Which gives you better return? I realized that ascending a legendary gives it a nice bump in damage, but are you also getting a bonus from going up by one light level? This stuff is pretty rare, so I'd like to know where it's better to use it. EDIT: Thanks for the replies and the advice. So far it seems that the majority of players feel it's better to raise your light level to open up more endgame options, which does give more shards anyway.