The scarcity of etheric light is a side effect of Bungie simplifying the upgrade paths of the weapons and armor. One etheric light has essentially replaced 18 ascendant/radiant materials.. The problem now is that you can no longer slowly accumulate materials over time via guaranteed drops through PVE activities like the daily story missions. In Vanilla Destiny, if you were a casual player who enjoyed playing solo you could at least grind ascendant materials and feel like you were slowly making progress upgrading your character. Because just one etheric light has such a high in-game value, it is untenable for Bungie to have them drop frequently like ascendant shards used to. The solution? Introduce Etheric Light Fragments to the game that can be exchanged by visiting Variks or the Speaker. The exchange rate would be 18 Fragments for 1 Etheric Light. One fragment would replace the currently useless Ascendant Material rewards given for the level 30-32 Daily Heroic Story Missions. SUMMARY: Etheric Light is exceptionally rare and stunts player progression for non PVP players. Introducing an intermediate material called Etheric Fragments will give players a slow but guaranteed path to leveling gear and weapons. Daily Story Missions are currently obsolete and award useless ascendant materials. Adding Etheric Fragments as an award for high level daily story missions will help breath new life into a game mode no one plays anymore. Thoughts? EDIT: Since some of you keep saying that Etheric Light isn't hard to obtain and that they have plenty, I wanted to clarify that it isn't hard for YOU to obtain because you either A.) Love playing PVP or B.) Are able to get a group together to tackle Prison of Elders on 34 and 35. As of now there is currently no guaranteed way for solo players to obtain upgrade materials without either playing the excruciating Iron Banner or by using LFG sites for POE and hoping you don't get kicked for not having a Gjallarhorn. Most of you also seem to be missing the point that daily heroic story missions are now completely USELESS because they reward obsolete upgrade materials.