All of the gear problems are easy to solve. Make a path for gearing both PvE and PvP that end up the same power level, and about the same time investment.
I absolutely hate having to PvE for BIS PvP gear, and I’m sure people that hate PvP feel the same way about having to do that.
I really don’t get why this is so hard for them to figure out?
They’re raiders.
That makes no sense. They aren’t forcing anyone into warmode. If you don’t like how it operates, don’t turn it on.
I’m sure it has nothing to do with a lead designer who primarily raids and is seeking to give advantage to PvE geared players… How dare you suggest that 
I really don’t get paid enough to explain basic things on this forum
You don’t get paid at all, so…troll elsewhere.
You’re in my thread and everyone else seems to get the concept.
They’re just looking to win by being the last one to post, just ignore them.
Raider IO is just a continuation of Gearscore. And GS only died because Blizz made item level part of the default UI so people didn’t need the addon anymore. Players have always tried to find some way to screen people in a pug, and that’s not something Blizzard is ever going to be able to stop.
The problem nowadays is that there’s just more raiders on the Horde side. So people keep moving to the faction that has the larger pool of players to recruit from.
The concept that gear matters, and somehow warmode is a conspiracy to get more people raiding, which once again, is ridiculous. Gear mattered before on pvp servers, the difference was you couldn’t turn it off now you can.
The general point that I’m trying to make is that the number are FAR too important, to the point it’s causing a detriment to the overall health of the game. Severely restricting stat inflation and keeping the difference between advanced players and casual ones needs to be drastically reduced to make any progress towards solving that problem.
Players are using whatever numbers they can to gain an advantage, which quickly turns into an excuse to use them against other players one way or another. PvP is a bit more direct about the “dominance” factor, but through systems like Raider IO it gets applied to everyone.
Because of the aforementioned “numbers game” problem, that 10% imbalance snowballs considerably further… arguably to the point it’s far more than that.
Heck, 10% is probably below the point the imbalance reaches critical mass and explodes.
Perhaps not completely stop, but it’s not unreasonable to say they can find a way to keep it mostly under control.
Of course, it does come at the expense of ostracizing people who want to exert dominance over others… the issue is that it feels like Blizz is CATERING to that crowd at this point.
I’m a PvP’er, and I see no issue with Raider IO. There’s a very obvious counter to Raider IO and that’s to find a guild and like minded folks to participate in content with. Barriers to entry only exist for people who refuse to network and find other people to play with. And this is an MMO. Such a barrier will always exist. If not Raider IO, something else will pop up. The pug world has no interest in knowing you, it just wants to take the statistical best chances of winning.
This is born of other issues too, but I agree with this. Which is funny considering Rael and I never agree on anything. But we do agree this once. Titanforging and Warforging are going away with this patch. If this patch is successful with gearing / corruption being something Blizzard can mold into a long lasting system, we might see this be addressed in some form or another in an expac or two.
If item level can mean something again, it would also mean raider IO would be less of a problem (for those that view it as one). Raider IO is born from this major issue because if stats don’t matter, the pug world wants another metric of ‘skill’ to go off of.
The problem goes beyond just accessibility of content, there are effects on the players and the general culture of the game… WoW is simply not a pleasant place to BE, nevermind the issue of trying to get into various bits of content.
I think you’re speaking too soon on that matter. You certainly wouldn’t agree with how far I’d go to resolve the issue… at least from my perspective.
Case and point… the problem is that it is ALWAYS reduced down to a number.
Pugging, unless there is forced grouping or the content is trivialized, will always be reduced to a number. The only way to guarantee you have a good experience is to run with a guild or community.
If gear doesn’t matter then what is the point of actually progressing your character and is there any real progression? Gear must matter in PvP if you want to have anyone who does PvP to stay interested in the game. Blizzard decided there should be no difference in PvP vs PvE gear thus this is what they came up with. Elite PvPers will be geared similar to elite raiders so I fail to see why any of this is an issue?
Entirely false. Average casual PvE players will have as much gear as mythic raiders / 2100+ players, and people who only PvP will only achieve comparable gear (which it’s not) if they hit duelist and maintain it. To do a M10 is miles and leagues easier than hitting 2100 and maintaining it long enough for an entire set of gear. There’s so much less effort involved in doing a simple M10.
Let’s use the current 430 heroic and 445 mythic values for our argument here. Getting an entire set of 445+ gear from M+ requires A LOT of M10 or higher keys. Dungeons cap at base 430 with warforge/titanforge possibilities. The weekly is a base 440 with the same warforge/titanforge potential. I agree that the average geared PvPer vs PvEer will definitely have a disadvantage because like you said M10 is a lot easier to farm and gear from than PvP. This post said ‘elite’ though and that implies the groups that get cutting edge. That is similar to the number of people who can maintain a 2100 rating.
You and I disagree here too. As I’ve mentioned in this very thread, I’m a 2300 experienced, eight time multi-classer of various specs above 2k+ and multi-time BFA duelist. I don’t mythic raid. And the gear from hitting and maintaining those values isn’t even worth the amount of stress. Why would I go through any of that, including both PVP and Mythic raiding when I can get what I get from M10’s?
The only avenue that is super lucrative for gearing is M+, where you can get fully decked in heroic - rival gear in a day, and get Duelist - Mythic gear every weak for failing +10 by 6 hours.
Before M+, its pretty rare for raider to bother to reach duelist, or pvper (when i say pvper i mean someone that queue rated, not spamming random BGs) that reach final M raider boss.
I prefer WM to PvP servers as sometimes I don’t mind the flexibility to turn it off versus always on.
Getting 25% bonus as Alliance and Against Overwhelming Odds is just icing on the cake.