I’d like to counter a couple of points and I hope I don’t cause offence.

You say that people are abandoning raiding because they are enjoying PvP more than PvE. In my experience this is only true for some people. I know plenty of people (probably half the active PvPers in my guild) that don’t like PvP but grind it out for the loot. I think if PvP stopped being a good route to getting gear it would see a massive drop off as well. It’s clear to me at least that a lot of players enjoy getting the rewards and don’t enjoy the effort to earn them at all. They will do whatever the minimum amount to get the shinies is.

The problem with people not raiding the T4 instances but doing BGs instead for their loot is a bit overstated I think (in general, not here). To the extent that it exists the actual problem is not that a person with T4 will be turned down in favour of a person in S2 but that a person who only wants to PvE may not be able to get a group for those instances at all.

One of the commenters said that the PvPers don’t really care about the gear but just want a level playing field. I can understand this but I do see people wanting to know when S4 will be out, presumably so they can get the better-than-T6 loot.

Blizzard has clearly already considered this and put in the Resilience stat but I think they probably didn’t go far enough. I don’t think it would be too terrible if S3 gear was only as good as T4 if you subtracted the PvP only stats on it as it currently stands it seems slighly better than T5 for most classes. Please bear in mind that the majority of PvE players will never see any T6 gear so slightly better than T5 is pretty good. As you correctly pointed out the PvP gear is not as good for PvE as actual raiding drops but it’s close enough for most classes.

I’m perfectly happy that PvPers can get nice gear. I don’t like PvP but it doesn’t impact me at all. I am currently raiding in T5 instances and so long as I can still find 24 people to join me it won’t impact me. I don’t see any danger of raiders completely drying up in the future. The only reason I decided to go searching was that I was slightly peeved to find that there was two sets of gear for locks in S2 & S3 and only one set for PvE (a set that does not suit my build very well) and I wanted to find out if there was any pressure as a result of this to give locks two sets of T5/T6 gear.

Out of interest, what you guys think of the idea of making the best PvP gear the equivalent of T4 (after all you don’t need better to farm) but also banning PvE gear in Arena and BGs? Each player would have to earn their entire set of PvP gear. This would have the effect of removing the problem you mentioned with the badge based trinket as well as ensuring that pre-mades in top end raiding guilds could not jump in and crush the opposition. Extra storage space could be created (essentially a second character sheet) where you pvp gear would be stored and auto-equip when you entered an arena or BG. I guess this solution sucks for PvP realms, but would it work for PvE ones?

So off I went to AV and enjoyed it very much, despite kitted out in PvE gear but my DPS was very, very high on two levels: taking out the horde (whenever I can get a fireball off) and my Death Per Second (me dying). Consequently, I am working towards a full set of S1, strictly for PvP as I tend to do a lot more of it but I will also use the shoulders and chest pieces for PvE to help improve the stamina, and of course there are other items useful for both PvE and PvP.

Therefore for me, a “casual” player, PvP opens up doors and other possibilities for my game play without having to hopelessly wait for raid invites but as with anything in WoW, one still has to work hard for it.

I can relate from that “entry point” point of view. That is, is this the route I have to, or could, take given my playstyle to continue on in my progression?

Yes, I toiled away in Alterac Valley for days, and got 20 marks from Eye of the Storm, and have my Season 1 Gladiator’s Gavel to show for it, a weapon I’d never have gotten access to in PvE. (The guild’s at Kara, and I don’t have their required Arcane Resist to join them yet. 31 Primal Manas to go). This Gavel is better than the Exalted-with-Lower-City weapon I could get.

But to then attain the Season 1 armor set? It’s not that much of an improvement over my DS3 and some of those Heroic pieces I’ve picked up now. Not worth it, from a time investment point, whatsoever.

Will I be owned in the BG’s by folks in the top-end raiding gear? Yep. In the top-end PvP gear? Of course. In auction house greens? You got it, nothing new there.

P.S. Yes, the gear look should have changed. I thought it sucked that the Rare 60 Warrior gear was identical in form to the Epic 60 Warrior gear. And when I saw the Rare 70 Warrior gear looked the same too… And the Shaman stuff hadn’t changed either. What a rip off. That’s just lazy.

Dajay
http://nerfmyshaman.blogspot.com