I think the US will hold up on its own. We have the lag issue on our side, and I think you will see some hardcore PVPers return. I think it might be time to leave set for tyranny.
Look at other games for inspirations.
League of Legends does it right. There is no grind other than just playing the game for influence points which let you buy new champions and minor boost items called runes. However at level 30 (max level in LoL) everyone gets 30 rune slots and in a week you can make enough IP through just playing games to kit yourself out in a decent set of runes. In fact you'll have likely made plenty of IP along the way to 30.
Past that, it's ALL about skill and nothing else. There is no pretense of balance - come up against certain classes and you have almost zero chance of winning 1 on 1. But that is why you have a team - swop with someone else and all of a sudden you're back competitive again.
It's not perfect but it does exactly what I've said to do in AoC countless times. You CANNOT BALANCE every class against every other class. You also get away from any significant grind. If you're more skilled than the opposition (and your team is more skilled) you win. End of. I used to play PVP a lot in AoC in the early days but after various points it just became painful. LoL has restored my enjoyment in PvP again and AoC could do a lot worse than to steal some of their approach to a fun PvP approach.
Buff
I really like gear idea, i don't like vanity, emotes or some other things...
My thing more simple..
part1.
Increase xp and tokens reward in pvp of course and AA xp. In this case new people will get faster gear.
part2.
Add more pvp gears (same like in kithai for faction pve, but here with pvp start and different stats..) Make them tier 0.5 (for newcomers) and tier4 for those who have tier 3.
Make two instances of pvp mini games, those who have pvp lvl 6 and higher, and those who are below pvp 5. Simple and easy. After one serv tech. it wont be to long when peps will join mini game...
He does, he's right, and you've been defending the power creep PVP system for years... You're the PVE minded player that PVPs. You want your gear to equate win.
You never seem to grasp that we are not taking away rewards, we are taking away the power creep from those rewards and making them cosmetic at best. Keyboard turners shouldn't be able to beat a seasoned PVPer just because their guild gave them t3-4 gear.
You can get much closer balance when gear is not a factor. Right now, certain classes benefit more from top end PvP gear than others. Soldiers are very OP with top end gear, while other classes don't seem to compare. It would be much easier to tweak classes from a position where items stats are already capped for everyone. It's much easier to see what classes rise to the top, in an even footing environment then make adjustments.
I would say classes are best balanced at about PvP lvl 5. Sure some of them have upper hand like Conqs, Guards, PoMs and Sins but still overall balance is pretty good and even i.e. HoX is not UP that time at all.
Xuhotl - arcimage of the city of Xuthal in service of great army Futilez - HoX PvP lvl 10
Bordhi - Khitai legionary - DT PvP lvl 7
Bahary - vampire and your nightmare - Lotus Sin PvP lvl 7
Shiwan - the last of Corrags - retired noob Barb PvP lvl 8