For anyone who needs shards and can't do the raid to get them. You can use your vanguard marks and crucible marks to buy legendary gear and dismantle them. You get 3 ascendant shards each time. Same thing for legendary weapons, but you get ascendant energy instead. So far I've only dismantled the legendary gear I've gotten from cryptarch that wasn't for my class. Using this method, you'll at least get to upgrade your legendary gear at least once per week (assuming you have maxed vanguard and crucible marks).
-
Yep, was just coming to write the same thing. The bestway I found was to do public events. If you know the schedule you can get at least one or maybe more shards plus about 16 or more Vanguard Marks in less than an hour. You get 4 marks for each event and it takes much less time than a strike, plus you can combine bounties and patrol mission with them while you do it.