I'm rank 14 with New Monarchy and I have received multiple legendary items. Every single time I ranked (passed level 2) I got a crucible commendation and a legendary item with it. Through all the ranks I've acquired Admonisher III (x2), Purifier VII, Judgement VI, Prudence II, Vanquisher VIII, Orders Boots, Shroud of the Order, Shroud of the Justicar, and Amalthea (Red and White shader). The others were shards which can be useful at times upgrading the armor you got in the previous package There are pros and cons to leveling both. Leveling crucible to level three allows you to purchase both weapons and armor even as new DLC's bring new armor styles and weapons. This however is contradicted by the slow pace that leveling crucible takes after rank 3. You are limited to 6 crucible bounties a day which can give you anywhere from 725 experience (Radiant Light) to 0 if not completed. Leveling New Monarchy also has its pros and cons. Some pros would be that leveling a New Monarchy or any faction is much faster because both vanguard and crucible bounties can be applied to whichever faction you choose (yes even iron banner bounties give faction experience along with iron banner experience). This gives you a possible total of 1450 experience (Radiant Light) or no experience if you choose not to do them. The cons to leveling a faction outside of crucible is that currently the armor and weapon styles will never change (subject to change with future DLC). This means your stuck with the justicar/order set of armor as long as you keep leveling that faction. It also means that your also gonna learn to love your Vanquisher VIII or Red Hand IX a lot because I don't see an update to any of the faction weapons other than there attack value (again subject to change) in the near future. Another pro would be that you still would receive crucible commendations allowing you to be able to buy weapons as you see fit from the crucible quartermaster. Which ever path you choose is your own. I still haven't reached rank two in crucible as I poor all my experience into New Monarchy. My recommendation would be to get to level 3 in crucible and find a faction you like. If you don't like any than stick with crucible. Factions also give what I would call true legendary shaders. They are not seen very often and I have yet to see someone with Amalthea although I've heard others have it. Other example could be bittersteel or super black. Ether way it's your choice and I hope this helps you decide.

The crucible gives legendary packages at 3 and for each level after.

Make three characters, rank up each faction.

Leveling up a faction is very quick as ALL reputation you earn goes toward it when you wear the mark/cloak/bond. So even if you do all your bounties you can still earn more from patrol missions

Hit rank 3 with Crucible, then level New Monarchy to Rank 3. If you get there, level Dead Orbit to 3, then FWC to 3. Why? Well, in (probably) 3-4 months we will get a new DLC and ALL Vendors will have new weapons/gear. Maybe FWC has a sick Machine Gun, Dead Orbit has a cool Sniper, NM has a sexy Hand Cannon, and regular crucible has the must have AR. Congrats! You have Rep with all of them, so its just a matter of farming marks! Pro tip: if you have multiple characters, try to spread rep around on each (ie Hunter does NM, Warlock does DO, Titan does FWC) until you hit rank 3, then start another faction. If NM or the other 2 factions have 2 of the "must have" guns, you'd have to have 200 marks banked plus grind the additional 100 marks to get both in the first week, otherwise the grind seems to take FOREVER. That's my advice, hope it helps :) Edit: if you have a main and 2 alts, the best thing to do the 2 weeks prior to a dlc launch is make sure you max out comms on all 3 characters, buy guns and such on your alts so you can buy armor on your main and be raid ready day 1

If you don't care about shaders, go with regular vanguard and crucible. The packages you receive have a chance of dropping faction rewards anyways

Crucible and Vanguard are the only ones that are guaranteed to give you legendary gear. New Monarchy has disappointed me every single time. No weapons and only some legendary legs I didn't want.

If you like scout rifles do crucible first and buy the sat rapier. Best buy able scout in the game right now. Maybe one of the best buyable primaries period.

Any rank up above three will result in legendary package. Dosent matter if it's vanguard, factions, or crucible. Just FYI....if u rank up a faction, you still need crucible marks to buy their gear. So only really worth ranking vanguard and crucible.

New Monarchy is faster to level up because you can run pvp and pve with the class item equipped. NM also has the Vanquisher which is probably the best Legendary AR in the game. The other weapons they have are solid as well.

New monarchy first, unless you do nonstop crucible

Here's what I did and recommend get van gaurd and crucible to 3 ten whatever faction. I say this because if vangaurd or crucible sell something good next expansion or so or higher armor you can buy it

New Monarchy, reason being is the vanquisher outclasses shadow price and suros if you get the right perks. The crusader 1 also destroys the VOC in every aspect.

New Monarchy will go faster if you also PVE... if you only PVP then it will go the same speed. the vanquisher is the best auto rifle impact wise that appears to be on sale, but also consider what stats the New monarchy upgrades... it may not be the ones you want and you may find yourself wishing for that piece from the other faction. as for your first gun...It will depend on what you like to use. this is a personal preference, and the crucible has two of every primary and 1 of each secondary and heavy that never change. The new Monarchy only has 4 in total that never change.

Well.....if you're anything like me then you'll get nothing but shaders, special, and heavy weapons from new monarchy. I have never been rewarded a primary from them and I'm rank 29.5 It's all luck I guess, but I literally joined them for the shaders and looky looky I have all three. I will probably never take them off just because I like the colors that much.........but yea no primaries.

If you want a gun I say stick w. Crucible until 3 then switch to NM. You have a bigger selection w. Crucible quartermaster. The rapier scout rifle is beast. But if u want an assault rifle then the NM vanguisher is really good too. Just inspect everyone's inventory and find what you want more

New monarchy why because the vanquisher VII is the best legendary auto rifle you can get right now and a shader

Crucible to 3, vanguard to 3. Then focus on other factions. All factions give you a legendary item every rank after 3 from the postmaster.

Get to three in crucible and vanguard them look at the factions. There is no guarantee of a legendary from ranking anything though. Last seven faction ranks all gave me one ascendant mat and one also gave me a coin. That's it.