My experience has been that I get more weapon drops from killing bad guys in the strikes and more materials / coins in the end mission roll. But dude, to get exotics and legendaries just level the vanguard or a faction and keep leveling your Cryptarch so he sends you mail packets. Do the nightfalls and farm PE's and save coins / motes for Xur to buy him out on the weekends. Also turn in as many bounties as you can for the chance at an exotic bounty. Queens missions will also give you legendary gear. Sadly you can't shard it anymore but it has high light levels once leveled... That's it!!