A pvp server that does not seperate pve gearing and pvp is not really pvp at all, also a good pvp system should have gear accessible to all that way gear is not a deciding factor for success.
-
No Raiding, all pve endgame should be completely disabled on a hardcore pvp server.
The best gear easily accessible either by a simple crafting system everyone can access and afford without much trouble just from leveling. -
Arena, with your current gear system arena is a highly flawed system that is meant to be presented as pvp, however with how you reward players gear based on ranking is not only flawed but also unfair, for that reason arena should not be on hardcore pvp servers since it’s not really pvp and it would simply split the pvp community between arena and open world pvp, if people want to pvp they should prepare themselves for chaos that is the purest form of pvp, groups, solo players, stealthers, zergs and so on, it may be intense but it’s fun.
-
Battlegrounds: Far too much running around because of those silly objectives. Make a map with keep systems instead where Horde and Alliance fight against eachother and can take over keeps, no objectives period it makes people run around like they are questing, it does not belong in pvp period. I don’t know who made your pvp system but i can tell you right now they have never played a proper pvp game like Dark Age of Camelot for example which is widely considered the best large scale pvp game.
Now onto the exciting part World pvp, this should be in the same zone as your battleground system, the old world pvp system where people fight in different maps are far too much spread out, there needs to be a zone dedicated to pvp, no objectives! the only events that should exist is that you can take over towers and keeps. People are smart enough to make their own goals and objectives, they don’t need to run around capturing flags to do that.
Pvp harbor it’s very own rewards and every pvp player knows or should know this, they don’t need rewards to feel like playing pvp, if the system is great then that speaks for itself.
Instead of giving players ranks that add exclusive gear, you should make a ranking system like honor that allow people to unlock cosmetics for their gear to give them bragging rights, no exclusivity for gear period, it creates unfairness and thus a poor pvp implementation.
30 years of pvp experience, i have played the best there is such as UO and DAoC.