You are missing the point I'm afraid. Is Black Hole obsolete? No. Is Campaign? Dreadguard? Nope. All that gear is still available, although it has become lower tiered. But even that isn't the point trying to be made here by those of us who have dedicated pvp toons. The point is that it's not WH/EWH is becoming lower tiered, it's that it is now GARBAGE. The bolster system released with 2.0 made playing naked better. This new patch makes WH/EWH better than playing naked. That's the tier it operates at now. Better than Naked. Thus, new MMO slang is born. First there was "afk", followed closely by woot, brt, bbl, otw, dps, dots, spank, etc... and now we have "btn." Dude 1: "Hey bro, how's that new light saber?" Dude 2: "Meh. Btn." It's not that there are two new tiers of PVP gear to grind for now. No one is upset about that. We want that gear and despite this debacle, we are going after it. It's that now, after hundreds of hours, the gear WE HAD to grind for the new tier is BTN. It's not better than level 33 green gear, it's not better than the rank 25 common drops, or the craftable PVE 28's. It's BTN. Even though the stats on the Elite War Hero Relic of Boundless Ages read as it being STILL the BiS relic for DPS, it is suddenly, immediately worthless. And some of us, who are pure pvp'ers, are a little miffed because that's the gear we have. And we regret not picking up and equipping the green drops in our run through Makeb, because we would be much better off than we are now. If the goal of the PVP patches were to level the playing field, then 2.0 and this most recent patch failed. The playing field is no longer level. There is a significant slope to the field, and it is all uphill if you are a dedicated pvp'er, because your gear has been rendered BTN. The new patch rewards those non-pvp focused toons and severely penalizes the pvp-focused toons.

Nailed it. Nicely said.

Sorry friend, but you don't have a clue. One gear level off was non-competitive? If you had put in the time, you could have had your EWH weapon at level 50, or EWH earpiece and implants - as soon as you dinged 50. Optimized WH was only a few points off of full EWH standard set. If you couldn't compete one gear level off, there is no help for you, and it comes as no surprise that you are a fan of this patch. This "fix" didn't raise the skill level. What a completely ludicrous thing to say. It's a free pass to PVE'ers like yourself in your awesomesauce recruit gear, who didn't put in the time to excel in PVP while penalizing those that did. That's what it does.

This is a very odd take on the issue. I'm sure "the majority of players" who decided to enter a level 50 warzone in green PVE gear got face rolled. They should be face rolled. Fail. Learn. The same thing would occur if a level 50 in greens tried to take on Nightmare Pilgrim. The same would be true for two equally skilled players, one in fully aug'ed EWH and the other in recruit gear. Fail. Learn. The dichotomy of gear vs. skill can be argued until we are all blue in the face. The simple facts are: You shouldn't be able to make up large skill deficits with gear, and you shouldn't be able to make up large gear deficits with skill. Pre-2.0 wasn't about gear. it was about dedication. To dominate in PVP, you had to think about it at level 1. You had to research your class and build, and que up ad nauseum, forgoing all but class missions in PVE so that when you dinged 50 you'd have max WZ and RWZ in the bank. Then you had to continue grinding warzones while you painstakingly geared your toon. Most folks who ended up in fully augmented EWH were competent. PVP isn't really that hard. Most people can figure it out if you invest the time to get to EWH. Now it appears that despite the PTS comments and feedback, BW has chosen another tact. Now PVP is going to be an interesting diversion, similar to space missions. But there is an exception. In space missions, the gear your wearing doesn't bolster your ship mods. You can't run upper tier missions in a naked ship, or a ship outfitted with green mods. You would be face rolled. Fail. Learn. Your new bolster system is fundamentally flawed. In an effort to please everyone, you've penalized dedication. For some of us, it's the reason we play, and for a lot of us, it's a reason we still have a founder title available. There are some of us die-hards that became interested in PVP when you couldn't keep the game alive - when there was only one instance and single digits (and often, a single player) on fleet. So I hope you'll forgive me if I don't gush with thanks for making my EWH "better than naked". New bolster system? Fail. Learn.