If those same noobs think they are going to PvP like that in the next expansion, they have another thing coming, they will get one shot, they will be forced to gear up, and they will be forced to learn how to play better, which helps out everyone else in the long run.
I want to address this myth specifically, because I've heard it over and over again in the years I played, and this never works the way people think it works. No offense to you, Domunique -- I appreciate you expressing what a lot of twinks think.
Yes, WoW is a gear-based game, and investing time and effort into gearing is part of the game. Moreover, gear works as a badge of honor among players, even if it only gains a 1% advantage on the battlefield. When we see another twink's hard-earned gear, we can't help but respect their dedication. But gear disparity rarely encourages people to "get better", for two reasons.
First, everyone
likes better gear, but few players enjoy
getting better gear. The hundreds of instance runs, the AH scanning, the massive mob grind, all to get BiS. That's why the twink community remains a small subset (by proportion) of WoW as a whole. Bracket-based gear perfectionists remain few and far between.
Second, we enjoy PvP as a place to show off and use our gear. But that doesn't mean we enjoy getting better at PvP. They're not tied to each other. We know it, because (as people pointed out in this thread), there are well-geared twinks who can't PvP worth a crumb. And there are lazy-ass geared twinks who could best 90% of the people who post on this site.
That's why I cringe when someone says, "hey, make gear great again! That'll make these crappy PvPers either get good or get out." It never happens. It never has happened, and it never will happen, because a passion for gearing has
nothing to do with a passion for PvP.
While I'm as excited as the next player that stats will mean something again in PvP, I have no illusions about what we're gonna see on the battlefield. Getting crushed by a twink will push players out of iPvP and extend queue times. I'm okay with that, and if Blizzard decides to segregate XP-on and XP-off again (which I doubt), then maybe it will do players some good to learn the organizational skills necessary to get games and be part of a tight-knit community. Consider that if people who haven't played in years, contacted people like me who also hasn't played in years, there must be something valuable about the dedication and respect within the twink communities of old...but that had more to do with the shared pain and respect of gearing and the camaraderie built on the battlefield, not necessarily any particular level of PvP skill.
Make no mistake -- stronger twinks will thin out the iPvP queues. Players will not be "forced" to learn how to play better, and it will not help everyone else in the long run. But it will help fellow dedicated twinks meet each other and challenge each other to grow. And in the process, maybe we'll find a few new players with the curiosity and the grit to join (or re-join) the XP-off community.
