It works very differently than in Destiny. Through the quest chains, you'll be getting BLUES with higher defense / attack than the legendaries that the vendors sell. Keep them, then when you get or buy a legendary you like, infuse.

I really like the new system. Remember back in the vanilla destiny days when you had to do strikes over and over and over, and progress was super slow? You'd do a lvl 16 strike and get lvl 14-15 armor pieces, lvl 18 strike for 16-17 pieces, and so on. Yeah, this is that, but more polished. It happens anywhere, so play what you like, don't neglect quests, and you'll be fine.

At 274, I have 2 legendaries equipped. My shiny new scout rifle that was a legendary engram drop during a mission and the class item I bought that I shouldn't have.

Greens apply thru about 225, then blues take over. I thought they stopped around 240 when I had mostly legendary gear, but I was very wrong.

I noticed pretty quickly that on average, turning in 3-4 engrams in a slot would get me about a 10-15 light level increase for that slot. The above is great advice, decrypt and have a look, especially for slots you feel are low.

Originally I thought it would be about faction rewards and such (which definitely helps), but I no longer think that. The faction rewards can get you a boost to get started, but that's all they will do in the short term. If you love a piece of gear, keep it and expect to infuse it with blues. I have a defense 288 pair of blue boots, which was a big upgrade from 272. If I infused some 220-ish boots the 200 would infuse up to around 265 with that. So keep that in mind.

Relics suck, I've only gotten 4 of them other than the quest. They jumped 30 or so light each time I upgraded.

2. You can infuse Armor with armor for a different class, i.e. you can infuse a legendary warlock helmet with an EXOTIC titan helmet.

#2 is big, b/c with Xur coming tomorrow, you have the chance to buy high level exotics for a different class, and infuse them into your legendary gear. This is great if you are trying to get 1 character leveled up to raid. You can then always buy the gear you dismantled back b/c you have the blueprints.

NICE! Now I just need Xur to sell a different category of armor for each class :)

-Disciple

The two biggest takewaways

1. Do engrams 1 at a time and equip to get higher light gear (already discussed here)

2. You can infuse Armor with armor for a different class, i.e. you can infuse a legendary warlock helmet with an EXOTIC titan helmet.

#2 is big, b/c with Xur coming tomorrow, you have the chance to buy high level exotics for a different class, and infuse them into your legendary gear. This is great if you are trying to get 1 character leveled up to raid. You can then always buy the gear you dismantled back b/c you have the blueprints.