Almost panicked when I saw the gear ranks again. PLEASE NOT SHADOWLANDS AGAIN!!! However, pleasantly surprised to see that the PVP il is the same no matter what rank your gear is. Honor gear is slightly lower than conquest gear, but rank 1 gear is just as effective as rank 5 or rank 9 gear in PVP.
Upgrading gear will only effect your gs if you do PVE content or turn warmode off. I’m completely cool with this. Gives me a reason to do upgrades because I still like to dabble in PVE at times, but doesn’t feel like I’m being gated from being able to effectively PVP. Skill will be my limiting factor (and balance of course.)
Overall, really happy about this setup. Think it’s a great compromise so PVPers aren’t getting free gear without a time commitment like PVEers, but won’t have to worry about being super out-geared all the time like it was in Shadowlands.