Rated BGs
Rated Arenas
PVP gear based on your rated ranking
Actual balance
EOTS and AV
More mog gear!
they have all that at 90 (apart from No3) and it's still shite.
IMO two simple things would make this game a whole lot better.... class/spec caps in BG's, and ilvl requirement at all lvls.
You're right, the problem isn't just at low level, it runs right through the game. However, I think for PvP to really shine, a more drastic measure needs to be taken:
A separation of PvE and PvP, so that the level and gear progression that goes hand in hand with a storyline and raid progression, doesn't make winning in PvP regularly come down to something other than player skill. I'm talking no levels as far as PvP is concerned, and an almost complete removal of gear options. Abilities too would be cut down, so that each class has only it's core, class defining abilities.
That would give you PvP that's available immediately after character creation, without having to do any levelling up, or gearing up to be able to compete on equal terms. This would also include being able to use all the classes in PvP from the off.
Balance would actually become possible, because the devs would be dealing with a much smaller range of capabilities from any one class, instead of there being a near infinite variation thanks to the huge range of gear items, enhancements. Seriously, they can't balance classes, when the capability of someone playing a class varies so much depending on what gear they have.
A smaller set of abilities would also help with balancing, as the number of interactions between the classes and their abilities, by being much smaller, would make it easier to consider the implications of a change to any one ability. Player skill can mean making use of a limited set of abilities, and having to compensate for not being able to do something, just as much as learning to effectively use a huge number of abilities requires skill.
Blizzard are chasing an impossible goal, and wasting their time trying to balance high level PvP. It can't be done, because the system, and the number of variables are just way too complex. If they did what the players have been suggesting for a long time, and had a hard split between PvE and PvP, with progression in PvP consisting of just your ranking, and what league you play, then the game's PvP would rival it's PvE.
I've seen brief moments of something like that in the past, in 19 twink BGs back in TBC, when somehow, by some miracle, the balance managed to be pretty much spot on. Back then there were still so many other problems, some of them have gone now, but instead the balance is ****ed. Bliz should take low level PvP, split it off, and make the effort to balance it, then it would be better than any PvP they've managed before.
That's why I like Firefall so much. The devs listened to their players, realised that PvP couldn't work alongside gear/talent/level progression, and made the hard split.
You start the game with access to all 5 classes with your 1 character, with all your abilities unlocked. In PvP there is no level progression, and no gear choices. You're given the exact same equipment as everyone else, regardless of how long they've been playing. The only progression that exists in PvP is the ability to unlock variations of a class.
That would be like the starting mage being arcane, and then getting to unlock frost or fire as you progress in PvP, but that would be the same frost or fire as everyone else gets, and because of the removal of gear/levels, and limiting specs to a smaller set of abilities, both specs and classes can be balanced more effectively (they only made the split a couple of months ago, so balance will come once the feedback has happened). One spec could be more of a glass cannon, one could be about survival, and one could be control. People play the class and spec that suits their playstyle, not what happens to be the most OP, thanks to the impossibility of balancing them.
One major benefit that will come out of this is freeing up developer reources. Without a constant tug of war between what the PvE people want, and what the PvP people want, which results in conflicting back and forth changes that repeatedly fix one thing and break another, there will be more dev time to put into things like making extra PvP maps, as well as fixing the existing ones. Meanwhile Bliz's WoW team appears to be stuck with a 'shut up PvP guy' attitude, where instead they could be all 'Yeah sure PvP guy, do whatever you want, it won't affect our raiding'. The 2 groups could be working on making their content better, instead of fighting each other to try and get balance that can't be done across 2 very different play styles.
Anyway I've got an "Extended Community Q&A to watch":
Firefall Live is a community show that covers all the latest Firefall news, community news, interviews with Firefall developers, and live call-in Q&A sessions. Join Matt, Tony, and Frank [ed. on the dev team] as they discuss anything and everything Firefall related.
Engaging with the players would be another thing Bliz could do.