k. first off youve clearly never played an MMO of any kind before. WoW, Rift, ect everyone ends up with 1-3 sets of armor available as endgame. and guess wat. that armor is generally from some form of raid, with the faction armor being a stepping stone. now with that out of the way maybe you should also think into the future. the max light lvl is almost certain to go up with the DLC's meaning you might be able to skip even the raid gear. they arent going to require you to beat VoG multiple times AND level the armor to 30 just so u can play the DLC. if ANYTHING they need to give some form of matchmaking to VoG so that its easier for players to get a group. i know how frustrating that is. as for your #2 point. it doesnt take long to grind rep/marks. the quickest way is to only do vanguard. you can go from rank 0 to 3 in 2-4 days depending on how much time you have available. and the marks are really fast.