I think your not quite understanding my point. My suggestion is more that no gear AT ALL would have any effect in a Warzone. You want to raid? thats just fine. If you bring that gear into a PvP match, you will look fancy but will get no bonuses from it. So your skill, teamwork and ability to play is more important than what raid you've reached or how long you've been playing. It also stops people skipping gear progression on raids by PvP gearing up first then skipping the earlier raids. Open PvP doesn't neccesarily have to be effected either, but thats a different conversation altogether.

In all honesty...PvP gear in this game really isnt that hard to get. The problem is to get it you have to throw yourself up against a pool of fully-geared people which gets tiresome. I suppose eventually most people would have it and things will level out...but all that does is push new players hitting 50 to be at an enourmous disadvantage. If you like the game, surely you want more people to play it and for it to be healthy. More players is nothing but a + for everyone. Do you really enjoy PvP against people massively undergeared compared to you? Where is the challenge or the fun in hitting your usual rotation to crush a few newbies who are not only new to warzones but are also significantly undergeared? There is some acheivement to out-smarting or out-playing your opponent, simple +StatX. 'Oh look, I've been playing for 3 months over your 6 so I win...' well there is no acheivement there at all. I'd be far happier to see versatility in PvP improvement over power increases.

I'd have thought PvP is part of the reward in itself. People play shooters for hours on end (for example Battlefield or CoD). You could easily look at them as being 'Warzone' style play. Initially you may unlock a few weapons to improve your versatility, but in general all your gaining is a 'Rank' and simply enjoying the game. Perhaps if the PvP was less gear based people would enjoy it more and play more because of it. Leagues and ranking stats keep people playing just as much as improved gear, and they damage the game far less. If I play a game for 3 months, fully gear out and as a result new players simply dont stand a chance against me, why the hell would they keep sticking their head in a meat-grinder? My experience as a player is enough of an advantage over a new player. Some prestigious items or titles and a decent league/rank system I feel would be enough to keep people PvPing. I have to say, it worked very well for the original Guild Wars, the more you play, the more versatility you get in PvP but you never become out-right stronger.

Apologies for the wall of text in advance – There is a TL/DR at the end. I’m starting to come to the conclusion that PvP (Or more specifically, Warzones) would be far improved by stripping gear from the equation completely. Literally by entering a warzone your gear stats would be outright ignored. PvP could still reward the player with Orange moddable gear with unique appearances (not just colour changes) as you gain valor. Specific colour crystals, speeders, outfits and titles all available as prestigious items. Requiring regular PvP to keep certain high-end titles or high ranks to make them all the more prestigious to keep, without making the player automatically face-roll their opponents due to a steep wall of gear-differential. Quite simply, why should PvP gear make your character stronger? The idea of fighting another player is that you’re pitting your ability against theirs. If they play better than you, the fight will lean in their favour. If one has a ton of gear however, he will naturally have a large advantage over other player. This strips most of the skill out of the situation. Although not impossible to overcome in a 1v1 situation, when groups are involved this imbalance can greatly swing and in some cases are so great the battle is nigh impossible. PvP gear puts those who have more experience and playtime logged on top of the barrel instantly, despite usually already being there due to organisation and skill gained through time spent playing. This discourages new 50s who have to pass through the meat-grinder before getting the gear to be competitive. So less players PvPing, thus longer queues. PvP is now simply another grind, systems put in place are constantly exploited because the benefits give players a serious advantage. No one wants to be the bottom of the barrel and they act on whatever they can in-game to get to the top. PvP is there for people who WANT to PvP, it shouldn’t be a grind to get gear to be competitive. Adding more brackets seems to be a popular demand, but surely this just makes our already small PvP pools even smaller. Since the 50 bracket was implemented I've noticed 11-49 PvP to be far more enjoyable, yet the 50 pool still suffers if your team is gear deficient. I believe this more to be that bolster does of the job of basically making the gear of a majority of players completely inconsequential. Level 50 Warzones will become a more challenging and interesting playing field for all if gear was simply a non-issue. It also makes PvP-balancing far easier as you dont have to worry about the scaling of the spike-damage classes. TL/DR – In my opinion, PvP gear does far more harm to a Warzones & PvP community than good. Jasec Usoko, 50 Jedi Guardian on Bloodworthy Currently as of posting, Valor Rank 43 and 3 pieces short of a full T2 PvP gear.