Either you didn't read or you didn't understand. Doesn't matter as this point has been made a billion times:
[quote]For those of you saying "It has always been like this", it hasn't. I've been here since week one (Sign of Founders on my Hunter) and I'll tell you why. Before you got shards and / or energies. You could use those to upgrade your initial gear and make it more powerful. You got something out of it if you remembered correctly. Now, since you don't need ascendant materials to upgrade anymore, the equivalent could be seen as weapons or gear. You use high light stuff and upgrade your initial gear and make it more powerful. [/quote]
English
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Oh I was talking about the gear not shards, and I had alot of shards, all i needed was the gear, but it never dropped.
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Reiterating what OP said, we no longer need shards or energies to upgrade our stuff. But now, gear / weapons serve the same purpose. We use them to make our current gear more powerful. If that makes any sense. Also, even shards and energies had a good use later on. You could exchange them for motes and buy exotic engrams off Xur. Just because something has always been bad doesn't mean you should leave it that way.