Originally Posted by mofidik
Erm, your entire first paragraph is about outgearing. But I agree the weapons make a huge difference at lower ratings, and that people with shoulders should _probably_ not be bellow 1.9k-ish.
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He's not talking about the weapons per-se, although S1 v. S3 isn't that much of a fair fight in terms of gear. Baring gross class or skill differences, the 4/5 S3 team with S2 weapons should put the hammer down on a newly formed S1 geared team every time.
He's talking about the fact that teams with S3 weapons indicate true strength of 1850+, and teams with shoulders indicate true strength of 2000+. Most people should not be fighting 1850/2000+ teams because most people aren't anywhere near that strength bracket, and if they do fight them in a 1600 match, they shouldn't be penalized as if they lost to a 1600 strength team, because what they fought sure as hell isn't.
*That problem* is not about gear. If you are fighting some point buyer, you can tear them apart 1v1, even if you are 1.5 tiers of equipment lower. I've done this routinely in battlegrounds and world PvP since I reactivated my account. My gear is improving, but it's a slow process because of my outside time demands. I still mop the floor with people who have flashy gear but clearly didn't do anything for it. When you are fighting people with legtimate Arena ranks, weapons and shoulders, that's a different issue entirely.
The first problem, gear proliferation and no gear better than S1 available outside Arena, will go away with next season as S2 will be on the honor vendors and S4 will be much more difficult to come by. The difference between one tier of Arena gear isn't nearly as significant.
The broader abuse of what was supposed to resemble an ELO system (and you don't compete with people grossly out of your strength range in an ELO system, or if you do, it's all reward and no risk for the lower-ranked person, and all risk and no reward for the higher) is a different question and one that Blizzard is trying to address.