So I finally bought my first piece of exotic amour from Xur and to be honest I'm rather underwhelmed. I was surprised to read you can only wear one piece of exotic armour which makes me wonder what's the point of exotics in the long run. Yes I can upgrade my exotic armour but surely I'll hit a ceiling in what I can do if the only option is to buy another piece of exotic armour and have to upgrade that piece to.

I'm currently in a bounty to earn (hopefully) an exotic weapon so there's that. But I'm worried the armour and light level will reach a limit I can't surpass and leave me with nothing. Realistically Raiding is proving almost impossible so I can't see that as an option.

Am I missing something here in regards to exotics? Is level 32 impossible without raiding?

It'll be possible to reach 32 without raiding when the next expansion comes out since they'll probably start selling +36 Light gear from the Vanguard or Faction leaders like they did with The Dark Below. As of right now though you have to do the raid to get at least three pieces of +36 Light gear. The other piece can be an exotic with +36 Light. All the exotic bounties give out weapons.

From what I've understood, yes. You need Legendary gear that has a higher Light cap than what you already have, which you are meant to get from the raid. Although I believe the faction vendor stuff also has a higher cap (enough to get to 30 before the expansion).

Some of the Exotic weapons are really neat/super powerful, but besides that yeah, there's not much to Destiny after you get Ice Breaker, Gjallarhorn, and Atheon's Epilogue. Especially since the multiplayer is just kind of a more boring/less fleshed out version of Halo MP but sometimes there's some crazy powers. I had way more fun with Far Cry 4 in the end.

Also yeah, you need raid gear (which is Legendary) to get max level. That being said I had buddies who used the Destiny LFG to always have raid partners and I ended up with most of the raid armor & weapons. I ended up at 30 at a certain point and haven't touched it in months by now.

Thanks folks for the input, that's a shame to hear I've probably reached a brick wall in what I can do. Guess that's another poor design choice from Bungie. I almost wish they'd offer a better leveling system in general, the light level is sort of neat but it feels like Bungie could do I hell of a lot more with it without hurting future content. Plus I still think not offering matchmaking on raids feels like Bungie are purposely blocking a percentage of players from at least experiencing the raid content, even if they can't compete it. Destiny can be fun, but it's one hell of a poorly designed game.

I will admit I actually like the crucible stuff more than I have with Halo multiplayer (except for maybe Halo 1 multiplayer on PC which I had a blast with). However as someone who usually loves free-for-all multiplayer I hate Rumble in Destiny, just no fun at all and infuriating.

Guess I'll move on to something else, have just bought Advanced Warfare on PS4 for dirt cheap so I guess I'll dig into that. Thanks again.

Crucible is about the only part of destiny I actually enjoy, though to be honest it doesn't quite come near to Halo's multiplayer, and yes, the includes Halo 4 too. Destiny's PvP is really weirdly balanced, considering that it's a odd mix between a twitch shooter and arena-type clashes, which doesn't always work well.

Exotic gear are basically suped up Legendaries. Whereas Legendary gear might have two buffs on a piece of armour, an Exotic will have three, and those buffs will be more unique then anything found on regular stuff. For example there is a Titan helm that allows you to use both versions of the Titan super at once.

You can only get to level 31 without Raid Gear. Vendor armor has 33 light, and when you equip four piece, all maxed out with 33 light each, it will get you to level 31. Raid Gear all have 36 light, and when you get four piece of that maxed out you will get to level 32. Alternatively, Exotic armor acquired post expansion also has 36 light.

Well exotics are usually the best weapons of their type (Icebreaker for snipers, Gjallarhorn for rockets, etc.) and exotic armor has the highest possible light level (only armor outside of raid gear that does) and usually has a bonus/more OP perk than the legendary gear. Some exotics are definitely more exciting than others though, and the armor is usually geared for a very specific play style so it's about finding one that works for you.

@machofantastico: In the past buying exotics was a way to circumvent bad drops in a way. Say you did the raid a couple of times and you STILL didn't get that raid chest piece that got you to max level - well your alternate option was to buy an exotic chest piece from Xur.

This might have changed now as they keep increasing the grind in that game and invalidating past achievements so who knows.

Exotic armor has 36 light (same as raid armor) and some sort of additional ability. Some of those additional abilities are underwhelming, some are AMAZING, like Don't Touch Me, which makes you invisible for a short time if you are melee attacked. On my warlock I have Obsidian Mind which reduces the cooldown of the next Nova Bomb based on how many enemies I kill (and basically, if you can kill eight enemies you get a new Nova Bomb almost instantly)

Basically the point of exotic armor is to have the extra light (over vendor armor) and to have that extra ability. The only reason to have multiple exotic armors is to have different abilities that you can switch out. Often the abilities are for one subclass (or better for one subclass), so if you play both subclasses you'll probably need at least two pieces of exotic armor for that.

If you can do the raids, you should try them. For me it's probably the most fun thing in the game. Just find a group on DestinyLFG.net after the reset (I find groups are usually best on Tuesday nights). Actually, if you ignore light level requirements, the new raid (Crota's End) is easier than the old raid (Vault of Glass). (I wasn't sure if I was the only one who thought this, but I asked my raiding group this week and everyone agreed that CE is easier than VoG.) And CE is pretty short. I think my group went long this week but we were still done in less than two hours.

As for exotic weapons, I love the Suros Regime, Thorn, and Icebreaker (No Gjallerhorn yet). Icebreaker is probably the best weapon in the game, if you can get it.

It's a stupid game. Don't buy the DLC.

Yeah the only one exotic also was a surprise to me, but oh well. There's plenty of legendary weapons that do 331 damage (I believe the current max) and the draw of exotic armor pieces are unique abilities, so having only one equipped isn't a big deal.

Also, I'm curious why raiding isnt an option? Destiny LFG is incredibly useful and I've had nothing but good experiences with random people. Most people have been willing to help if you let them know it's your first raid also. Obviously you'll run in to some assholes with LFG, but that can't be a surprise, it is the internet.

I know people are still hurt by this game, but I'm having fun with friends, and raiding is seriously cool, especially if you were never an MMO player like me. Please at least give vault of glass a try!

Very late on this one, but Exotics are the most powerful gear in the game. You didn't list which one you have, obviously some are better than others, but an Exotic piece of armor is pretty much always better than a Legendary piece. This isn't true for weapons though. They are unique in a certain way, but not necessarily more powerful. I'm confused as to why you think raiding is impossible. It is easy to do, all the knowledge how to do it is already out there. You can join a group via DestinyLFG.net Just make sure to say you haven't done it before, and they'll get you through it.

People still play that game? :p