This thread is about Era, as denoted by the [Era] in the title. The new ranking system works just fine when the game has population to sustain it. The sole issue on Era is that the populations are dwindling, which is perfectly fine and normal, but it’s closing off the PvP ranking aspect of the game.
If you want to talk forward looking, larger scale changes I’m open to the idea of separating the rank from the gear, but I do think that the gear should remain accessible to players. Again, you have to consider what Era is and what it represents for its players. The R14 gear puts you somewhere in the neighbourhood of mid-to-late BWL and early AQ40 levels of power. Weapons from Nef are still higher in DPS than R14 weapons.
Given the maturity of the player base, it’s a good thing that PvP can get you a decent starting set of gear, especially for solo players. You’re still going to replace those slots with other items, even from MC, but in general it reduces the gap between players coming into Classic for the first time (or on fresh toons) and the guilds that have been running for as much as 6 years now.
Having said all that, my proposal above is the easiest possible change that Blizzard could make to address the core issue of ranking accessibility. They are unlikely to make a change that separates the rank title from the gear and make the title more competitive. They’re pretty unlikely to make the change I proposed, but at least it’s in the realm of possibility.
For Era only!