Not sure if this is a troll, or just someone that is possibly being ignorant. Really dude, you should be able to hit any faction rank 3 fairly quick, which then unlocks all of the armor they have available. Then it's just a matter of having marks to buy the gear. You can buy level 31 gear, so your complaints are pretty much falling on deaf ears in this forum. And the fact that you haven't earned enough strange coins from any activities to be able to buy at least one exotic piece of gear kind of baffles me as well.

Umm.. Buy vendor gear or play vog to hit 30.. Then play iron banner or crotas end for 32.. Its all about spending your time efficiently.. ROC strikes are good but the lower ones are useless.. Do easy bounties etc..

Pick a faction. When you reach the higher faction levels, you jump way up. It'll take a bit, but its easier than playing strikes for years at a time.

Bet you'll get a commendation at the exact moment they become useless

Well to max out to the current level of 32, you technically must have four legendary sets of armor with maxed out stats via the light level or three sets plus one exotic maxed out. If you want to simply raise your level without reaching the limit, you could buy armor from any vendor in the tower but it costs an arm and a leg to do so quite frankly plus you can only earn so many marks in one week or have no more than 200 at any given time. Raids are the most effective means of obtaining maximum light level armor but the catch is it's not guaranteed you will get it at any point or get the pieces you need as opposed to weapons or materials. Iron Banner us an alternate means of getting some armor although it requires a huge amount of grinding plus skill within only a weeks time. Plus it's currently over now anyway. According to reveals for HoW, it should be easier to reach the higher levels of light since you can upgrade certain gear. Although I imagine this works out better for those who already have said gear... As for the optional exotic, you can buy a piece from Xur using your hard earned Strange Coins if it's something that appeals to you. Bear in mind you can only have one piece of exotic armor equipped at one time so only choose the one that has the particular perks that fit your play style. If you are in fact getting HoW it should still be somewhat easier to advance when it is released. For now or if you don't plan on getting it yet, keep grinding as it's the only true way to move forward. If you are looking for raid assists there's several options at your disposal, and run them every week regardless to keep earning rewards. One last thing to remember is legendary armor engrams if decoded to your correct class while not turning into materials only have light levels up to 33 meaning you won't reach max limit with them. All of us who have a 32 have had to go through the grind so don't feel alone out there. Keep looking for friendly players, keep them in contact to make the harder activities a bit easier. I'm sure with enough time devoted to this you will in fact reach higher levels.

Spot on good luck making it to vanguard 3[spoiler]or 4[/spoiler]

just wait till the next patch comes out and you'll get the gear you need/want really quickly.

Level crucible Level vanguard Buy one piece from each Bam.

Yes. I would suggest asking ppl to help you with vault of glass. get a couple pics of armour and weapons to get a higher lvl and try crota's end. usually the helmet only drops on hard mode so maybe just buy one. Do lots of bounties to get your rep up.

You're late to the grind. I had to grind out vendor gear and fight a billion crucible matches before I could get some decent raid gear.

Oh no my rpg requires me to grind out levels. Waaaaaahhhh! So hard to take anyone seriously when they complain about core gameplay

Yes, sadly to get from 20 to raid level you have to do a lot of strike grinding for marks. This is what is currently discouraging me from leveling my hunter up.

If you've been running enough strikes you should have enough marks to buy some vender gear! Or find someone to run vault of glass with (i would be happy too)

Yes. Grind until you can buy vendor gear (run strikes, do the Vanguard bounties daily.) once you get to 26 do VoG, once you get to 30 run crota.

Run Vault. Buy gear from vendors. Get an exotic from Xur.

Strikes are not the most efficient way to rank up. Doing your bounties are. Strikes help for getting Marks. It doesn't take long to get to Rank 3 in the Vanguard, which in addition to unlocking weapons and armor, unlocks reward packages that they send you every time you rank up after that.

If you can get through some VoG runs, you can get some good gear to boost your level a bit. What system are you on?

Its all about that vanguard gear, do bounties to hit rank 2 with vanguard. Grind strikes for marks. Dont bother with anything blue lol Once your lvl 31 itll be easier to find raid groups, or hopefully you have friends thatll carry you thru crota as a lvl 28

Do the vault of glass to get some better gear, and do the weekly heroics for strange coins then buy an exotic. Grind ROC strikes when you have time, and do bounties. Those will rank you up fastest.

Dude quit playing now destiny took over my life

What system are you on?

The mid 20s grind does suck, but you're almost past it. Do the weekly stuff even if it's hard and you'll get there in no time. I'd take you through the vault of glass tonight if you want. You're pretty likely to get at least 1 or 2 legendary armor pieces in there. Also do the weekly heroic and get strange coins. You can buy an exotic tomorrow for 13 coins. Anyways this game gets a lot more fun once you start raiding.

all my friend ditched because of this. DONT DITCH IT WILL GET FUN ADVENTUALLY! never so far................

Buy vendor gear and git gud.

Vanguard rank and marks. Run ROC or whatever lvl strikes you feel comfortable with. Then just buy legendary gear from the vanguard mentor. Upgrade those and get to 31! Or have friends carry you through weeklies and NF. if you are PS4 add me. Name same as above.