Ill start by asking for providing input on the matter, sugestions and ideas. I know about all your "cool story bro" and "/thread" responses, keep it out of here please. Try not to say "i prefer X because Y sux" and explain your ideas in a constructive way. Wall of text ftw.
So how do you think of the idea of bringing back the old rank system AND using the same requirements of gear, the armor-type modelled, faction specific, class colored rare and epic sets. Each 1-2 pieces per rank just like it was. The armor sets use the same models as 60 but with lvl 80 or lvl 90 stats acordingly of course. But the problem here lies in implementing a working ranking system so i ask you to share your ideas on how to implement a mostly fair (because its impossible to make a 100% fair, beat it) system. Ill start by proposing my ideas on it.
(the numbers asume lvl 80 unless specified, the numbers should scale down depending on wich lvl bracket you are. Dishonorable kills are simply the "green" and "gray" kills, it does not grant any penalties of sorts, it will simply give you a 1-minute unremovable debuff that does nothing, honorable are "yellow" and up, the debuff from dishonorable kills in enemy territory only lasts 5 seconds. Weeks start and end at maintenence as usual.)
Upon reaching lvl 10 you can talk to an NPC in your capital barracks to enlist into the war effort. You pay 1g to recieve an enchant on your neckless (yes yes) that gives you a permanent buff, the enchant can be repurchased much like talent respecc payment and to purchase it you need to have the quest completed. The first quest is Recruit quest that simply requires you to win a battleground, when you complete it you gain Private rank. That buff is THE buff wich works similar to Wintergrasp rank telling wich rank you are and giving a specific class buff. The buff depends on actual rank and the tooltip says something like this:
-Sergeant. Rank 3. Grants 30 aditional stamina and increases range of shouts by 10 yards.
-General. Rank 11. Grants 100 aditional stamina, 5% chance to reflect spells and increases the range of your Frostbolt, Fireball, Frostfire Bolt and Arcane Blast by 5 yards.
-Grand Marshal. Rank 14. Increases your Attack Power and Stamina by 10% and the duration of your Cloak of Shadows by 2 seconds. Your Deadly Throw and Fan of Knifes attacks bouce to an aditional nearby enemy target. The jump reduces the damage by 30%.
It is important to have that so you gain further increase in rank and do specific pvp quests related to it. The rank buffs should have effect only when a player is PvP flagged and remove the abillity to flag inside instances so its not OP in raids or something.
The queueing system will balance the matches so it would try to match up people with same rank or not have too many high ranked with low ranked unless its a premade.
Gaining the ranks will consist in completing 3 aspects of PvP with a quest. There are two separate quests, 1 for damage dealers, 1 for healers.
1. You need to simply farm X kills/heals in X battlegrounds.
2. Do PvP-related stuff.
3. Pay X honour/marks.
Each next-rank quest can only be completed in the next week after you gain a rank.
Only the first 10% of players that completed the quest will gain the rank. The rest are only elegible to get it next week, its basicly a queue. <--- of this im not sure, probably bad idea
Some examples:
-Grunt
1. -30 Killing Blows in any winned battlegrounds.
2. -Have 15 Honorable Kills without dieing in a single winned battleground.
-Defeat 5 honorable players in any Contested or Enemy Territory. (means dishonorable kills dont count)
-Complete 10 Battleground Objectives.
3. -Pay 15000 honour and 30 WSG marks.
For a healer:
1. -Help 30 friendly targets in combat by keeping them above 40% health untill out of combat in any battleground. The combat must last at least 10 seconds. (their health must fall below 90% to count and damage shields count for that)
2. -Survive at least 1 honorable player attacking you without any assistance for 10 seconds in any battleground.
-Save a friendly target by healing him from below 10% health and keeping him alive for 10 seconds in pvp combat without dishonorable kills in any battleground or enemy territory.
-Complete 10 Battleground Objectives.
3. -Pay 15000 honour and 30 WSG marks.
-Field Marshal
1. -50 Killing Blows without dieing in each winned battleground. (you can do 15 KBs in one WSG, then do another 10 KBs in the next WSG, if you die inside any WSG before reaching 50 the count resets(you can still die in any other BG without resetting), this applies to other BGs ofc, only counts in BGs that you win)
2. -Kill Sylvannas Windrunner.
-10 Killing blows in Orgrimmar that grant honour without dieing without any assistance. (but you can die outside of Orgrimmar without starting over)
-Kill 3 honorable players in the same combat without any assistance in any enemy territory. (means dont go out of combat for more than 10 seconds to allow restealthing or invisibillity)
-Requires a bunch of archievements such as Ironman, Wrath of the Alliance/Horde, Destruction Derby, Flurry, etc... (same for healer but slightly different ones)
-Be the highest damage dealer in 2 consecutive battlegrounds without grouping. (means join BGs solo)
-Complete 90 Battleground Objectives.
3. Pay 150000 honour, 75 marks of each battleground, 1500 gold.
For a healer:
1. -Help 500 friendly targets in combat by keeping them above 80% health untill out of combat in any battleground. The combat must last at least 25 seconds. (their health must fall below 95% to count)
2. -Kill Sylvannas Windrunner.
-Keep 10 different players alive while they get 20 killing blows each without dieing in any enemy city without any assistance. Must not have more than 3 players in the group. (means cant have anyone outside of 3-person group helping, can have two DPSers but they cannot directly heal with spells)
-Save 10 different group or raid member by healing them from below 6% health and keeping them alive for 10 seconds in pvp combat in any enemy territory.
-Survive, without any assistance, atleast 6 honorable players attacking you for 10 seconds. Grants you the title "the Untouchable".
-Be the highest healer in 2 consecutive battlegrounds without grouping without dieing.
-Complete 90 Battleground Objectives.
As you can see the higher the rank the harder the stuff. You may think some of that stuff is nearly impossible but... who said it would be easy, it SHOULD be one of the hardest things to do in game, you wont see hundreds of high warlords. It SHOULD be like in the old days only one of ten rank14's in the realm and its valid even with a new expansion so no need to update stuff.Upon completing the quest you are able to request the enchant for your new rank, the cost for this is reset. You also gain the title for that rank obviously. You can request lower-rank enchant but the quest can only be made once ofcourse. The vanilla titles that you have are removed, but you retain the feat of strenght.
Once you get the rank up you can buy the gear from vendor for money, no crazy prices like 500 gold a piece, just normal vendor price. The gear itself should be different from arena gear focusing less on resillience and more on stamina, armor, resistances and movement, the set bonuses should also be appropriate (no spell or armor penetration in them).
Some examples:
-Mage: gloves increase range of Fireblast, Ice Lance and Arcane Barrage by 5 yards. Boost have a minor speed increase. (2) set bonus: +100 Stamina. (4) set bonus: Increases the radius of your area-of-effect spells and their chance to resist dispelling by 25%
-Paladin: gloves increase range of Hand spells by 10 yards, boots have minor speed increase, (2) ser bonus: +100 Stamina, (4) set bonus: your cleanse spell removes 1 aditional disease, poison or magic effect.
There is decay. A "maintenence" quest with alot less farming (easy one but it gets harder as you gain ranks) that is required to be completed. It is available once per month in the next month after you gain the rank for your maximum rank aquired and once per week for your lower ranks, you can do it when you want. If you complete the quest for next rank you cant do the "maintenence" untill the month after you get the next rank. If you do not complete the quest for next rank and do not complete this "maintenence" in that month your rank goes down by one. You do not lose the title but you lose the enchant on your neck. You need to have the rank buff to equip the gear. The next-rank quest you only do once so if you stop playing for 3 months you only need to complete the maintenence quest for each rank to get the next one... here i made it simpler:
1. I do next-rank quests each week and gain rank 10. (takes the 1st, 2nd and 3rd months)
2. I do maintenence-rank10 quest in next month for two months and im still rank 10 (4th and 5th months)
3. i stop playing for 3 months (6th, 7th, and 8th)
4. I return and im rank 7. (9th month)
5. I do maintenence-rank8, next week i do maintenence-rank9, next week i do maintenence-rank10 and i get rank 10 again (still 9th month. NOTE: i only need to do the maintenence-rank9 quest once per month if i want to remain at rank 9)
6. I do maintenence-rank10 in the next month and every month for the next 3 months and im still rank 10 (10, 11, 12 and 13th months)
7. I start doing next-rank untill rank 14 (14th month)
8. I dont do maintenence in the next month so when that month ends i lose the rank down to 13 (15th month)
9. I do maintenence-rank13 and gain rank14 again when the week ends (16th month)
An example of a rank maintenence:
Rank 4: Win 10 Arathi Basin Battlegrounds. (the BG may vary)
Rank 14: Win 3 Battlegrounds in a row without dieing and be in the top 5 in each. (top 7 honorable for AB/eots/strand or top 20 for AV/IoC)
All of this may be a precursor to guild pvp rating (much like arena ratings) requiring X number of ranked people, total number of kills while members wearing guild tabard, guild standarts (that work in pve), etc...