Year one was not wasted lmao. Anyone who thinks that doesn't understand actually progressing in a game. As of now we haven't been progressing, it's been a complete standstill for the last year. Once I got to lvl 26 I don't feel any stronger than I am now at lvl 34. That's because it was solely based on the level of the gear. You said Bungie has take one step forward and two steps back. I would argue that they have taken one step back so they can take multiple steps forward. This is how the progression should have been to begin with. Any game you play you must part ways with your beloved weapons at some point. Whether it be Destiny, Skyrim, Borderlands, or any MMO. You can't expect the weapons and amour you earned at level 20 to be on par with the ones earned at 30, and so on and so on. Vanilla weapons shouldn't be as good as TTK weapons. That would halt progression as I won't have to do much to reach max level. HoW I had all 3 of my characters at lvl 34 on the very first day. I should have to level up my character and then get better gear. Not just use some magic light to make it stronger. But this goes to show that you can't please everyone. Even if they allowed you to ascend your weapons and amour, do you think they would do it with Etheric light? No because so many people have a surplus amount of Etheric light in storage. I haven't done any PoE or Trials in little over a month and still have too much Etheric light because it's extremely easy to get. Any decent player can get over 10 a week without including the random drop chance of the NF... They would implement a new currency thus making Etheric light pointless, like they did with ascendant and radiant material.