So we get nothing on launch. Despite the 1.12 patch having a complete pvp system and gear, it is being omitted, probably to not compete with raid gear as Ion has a strong pve preference in gearing.
phase 2 (some months later and new pve tier) gets an honor system without battlegrounds and a colossal grind for pvp gear using only world pvp kills. Again this is completely different than existed at this time in classic.
phase 3 (more months later and another new pve tier) we finally get a couple bg’s to generate honor for the pvp gear and ranks. Along with the bg vendors for AV/WSG but they are delaying some of that vendor gear as well.
why they gotta treat classic pvp and rewards as something that needs to be nerfed and held back?
Because the honor system wasn’t available at vanilla launch. Same reason Naxx isn’t available to raiders right away. It’s designed to feel like the flow/progression of actual vanilla.
The content phases are designed to give a somewhat more authentic feel to the release of the game. That’s why they’re not using 1.12 loot tables right away either.
Delaying BGs also gives world PvP some time to shine before it’s dealt the heavy blow of BGs being more efficient at ranking up.
They just need to shift DHKs to phase 3 and then we can get some proper city raids going on.
Content release schedule isn’t meant to mimick 1.12. It’s meant to mimick a vanilla content release schedule similar to how it went down between 2004 and 2006.
1.12 is the baseline for spell values, talents, etc. It has nothing to do with Ion, it has everything to do with trying to make the content release as close as possible to being authentic. Only reason to be upset is you can’t poopsock rank 14 at launch, and more people will be geared, so there will be less of an advantage to poopsocking the grind.
Edit: Super awesome they are releasing that in the buckets I thought they might. Not because it makes me right, but because it is closer to actual Vanilla and there are ‘reasons’.