There was a time, in the way back when, in the long-long ago where a new-ish player could enter into the rotation of battlegrounds, and even arenas and find an experience that was NOT like running into brick wall. Sure, it was somewhat difficult, but there were glimpses of rewards for diligence that made the gear progression pay-off all the sweeter.
Now, not so much. It seems that the total stat-growth across every power-gain metric tends to self-synergize to a point that an item-level jump over a single season translates into a power spike that means: “Oh - thought you could do ANYTHING ELSE than log in every week? You’re now trash. Screw you.”
Ok. Fine. It’s a hazing period. I’ve been here before… right? No. Over 90% of my Horde random battlegrounds are total shutout losses with Alliance to Horde kill rations of 20 to 1. Over 90% of the War crates in random zones are swarmed by alliance in every zone. My damage/ healing output in skirmishes is anemic compared to current level gear and I’m insulted for having the audacity to try to earn points.
So - where am I supposed to go to gear up? Is this the final wake-up call that Blizzard hates me and wants me to uninstall?
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you can gear up in epic bgs pretty well. once you get honor gear its not as bad
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Try join nacho party crate farm its the best conq per hour.
Random BGs are sweaty and Epic are just rigged. I suggest gearing up in crate farm and then hitting some blitz / shuffle.
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Honestly the best thing to do is world quests in world pvp mode to get bloody tokens for gear that’s basically conquest gear. Completing all the world quests in a day should get you like 3 - 4 pieces.
Next easiest thing is 2-3 pieces of crafted Algari gear on the crafting order (this is Conq equivalent gear and after one BG win you get the tokens for free, can make both rings and an amulet for the free tokens)
Don’t try to solo crate farm, join a horde raid group for it in LFG.
Once you have one character geared you can also transfer honor to other characters as well.
Epics are hit or miss, depends on how bad the queue syncing premade are, but probably easier than reg BGs.
Also buy vicious flasks for your BGs to get a little extra honor, they are very cheap on the AH.
Sooo many ways to get gear, probably the easiest it’s ever been really.
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Crate group.
I took my alt DK from 440 ilev from TW leveling to 683 PvP in one afternoon/evening watching Andor. 
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telling people epics are where they gear is why so many complain about premades. might as well tell them to start with solo shuffle or 3s.
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Here’s what I do and usually takes about a week, but with minimal play time. Do all the bloody token quest and the bloody token weekly. That will get you 3-4 pieces of gear. Get your one BG win for your rings and neck. That alone will put you more than half of the way there.
You can do the crate farm groups, though I find them to be incredibly boring. They are quick for getting gear. Do that for 2-3 hours and you’ll be 70-80% there.
in terms of the OPs main question of can one catch up without hazing, and the answer is mostly no. pvpers got full honor gear sets day/minute 1 of the season and got 1-2 conquest pieces every week. you are trying to catch up mid season after everyone is already done gearing, so everyone else has an ilvl advantage.
pvp ilvl is a long complicated story, but it basically revolves around keeping pvp gear the best for pvp and preventing mythic raiders and M+ from having a gear advantage over full time pvpers, as a result you can’t really gear for pvp outside of pvp and jumping in mid season will always be painful, even if you are in pve BIS.
Epic bgs is an ultra-casual meme mode that nobody takes seriously due to insane balance issues and rampant cheating. Randoms and epics are literally the entry points into PvP and under-geared players are to be expected.
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Same here! Easiest way to gear up.
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I think ashran and wg quests for seasonal conq/honor are good, or first win bonuses, and weekly brawl, etc, but yeah if you wanna just grind bgs ain’t it I fear
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Instanced PvP is not the way to gear anymore. World PvP/crate farms skip honor gear completely, are way faster and don’t involve you throwing games because you’re wasted space
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Crate farming works but it’s mind numbingly boring. Low mmr shuffle and blitz has pretty short queues and gives ok conquest even with losses.
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nah, randoms and epics are just different tents under pvp, its not a progression system as epics and randoms reward a different style of pvp than is useful in rated arena. the “meme” of thinking its a progression system where all rated players are better than unrated players is just how 1400 players cope with being 1400.
No you’re definitely just cheating against noobs and no-gear ultra casuals. Sorry.
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how? noobs are in their own bracket, if you reach the point where you see my name in your game, you can’t really call yourself casual anymore.
You’re a casual Inemia, it’s why you need to exploit to win the casual bracket.
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With sixteen comments, you should have been told sixteen times…Spend one day crate farming with a raid. Fly around with the group, you get all the conquest you can use.
In LFG just seach in the custom area for “crate”. Any active groups will pop up and you can ask for an invite. They will want you to be on the isle of dorn and not in queue for anything else when they accept you into the group.
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Pvp communities but especially wows pvp players usually live and breath off of “cruel and unusual hazing” So no probably not.