The steep requirement of having to maintain 2 full sets of gear to pvp is really hurting queue times. There are a number of reasons for this.
1.) Time barrier to entry - In previous seasons if you wanted to run some arenas with your friends and be even a little competitive at low to mid ranks, you really only needed a couple of trinkets. Then with time, vers gear, but with just a pvp trinket you could compete at lower ranks. Now with no pvp gear, you are often over 100k hp disadvantage in one of the fastest metas I can remember.
Gold barrier to entry - The cost of all the enchants, embellishments, and gem enhancements makes acquiring and maintaining a second set of gear cost a small fortune, making it not worthwhile to the casual pvper.
Having to choose pvp or pve in the vault. The vault provides a nice way to replace the missing pieces in your set or slowly build your ilvl… Due to pve and pvp gear not making sense to use in their counterparts, you have to pick one or the other area to improve in each week. This leads a more casual player or an alt who wants to dabble in both contents end up having to choose where they want to build a tier set or ilvl strength.
On my main I am happy to build two sets, but my army of alts where in previous seasons I would queue for fun, I find it too much work in df. Where as straight out of levelling, I can jump into raids or m+. Also trying to get pve guildies to queue pvp is more challenging this xpac for the same reason.
I think if they didn’t feel so disadvantaged, more pve players would queue solo shuffle to try out pvp and queue times would come down and there would be a much broader diversity of skill and experience levels there too.
Every time PvP has been changed to benefit players who clearly aren’t interested in it (PvE players) it’s come solely at the detriment of PvP players. Imo if someone is interested in the content they will put in the time to get the necessary gear. I do agree it’s an unfortunate situation if you like both and have to choose vault rewards for one, but aside from templates which were scrapped I can’t think of a good solution that wouldn’t hurt PvP players in the end.
I got to 1400 in 343 and a few pieces of honor gear on my Mage in 3’s… You don’t need that much gear. I did get hard stuck there without conquest though.
Crafted PVP gear is dirt cheap on my server. I know because I sell a ton of it for every type. You can even get trinkets on the AH. Also, everything but a few of the highest end enchants are also dirt cheap, those I sell too. Do a few BGs to get a few pieces of honor gear if you feel like you have to and you’ll be good to go. Plus, the sparks pvp world quest, and the other daily pvp WQs, can be completed pretty fast each week too. You’re definitely not going to be on par with a fully conquest geared player, but it’s not too far off
The requirement is extremely low now. In one sitting… one evening, I got my priest a full set of the starter gear. Between the gear you can buy, the bloody tokens quest, the weekly pvp quests, it really doesn’t take much.
I guess i could see the gold side. I have always had plenty of gold, so not sure what the answer is there.
Gear should mean something. I enjoy the process of gearing personally. By the time I have a full set, I usually feel pretty comfortable on a certain spec.
Enchants aside from weapon are pretty cheap, and as for conquest the important bits are mostly 2-4 piece and weapon and then filling out the rest is a lot more comfortable.
Now if only they’d turn on Spoils of War or BOA conquest boxes.
I have more! I mean, if I could make an orc priest I would have.
To add to that as well, I have actually made gold this expansion from only doing PvP, which is a first. Granted, I’m doing A LOT of games, but still. If people are concerned about enchants, just playing alone should be enough to cover enchants and repairs. Now the crafted pieces can be a bit pricey, but even those have come down substantially already.
