If I remember correctly, that patch was introduced to deal with the problem of power creep from Sov or higher geared players. Worn Sovereign was by no means the endgame gear, like the RvR set would be here.
In fact you could say we already have that system, with everything lower being buyable with coin and the last set not being.
Penril wrote:
In a PvP game, why not? There are other things people could grind for. As Morf suggested in a different thread, maybe have RR go all the way to 100 and as rewards you would get Doomflayer/Warpforged as appearance only gear.
You want to grind? Fine, collect 1000 fashion tokens so you can buy Darkpromise, Tyrant, etc. sets for appearance. Maybe some trophies too.
Traditionally PvP games have risk vs reward, you don't grind for you items, but you can be looted on death and lose all your stuff. The reward for killing a player in those games is looting their items. In those PvP games the grind is a lot less, because items can be lost. Needing to replace your gear was the grind.
In DAoC, you had to craft for you gear. You had to template you set and if you were really into decked you would get 100 quality items. Gear in that game again wasn't permanent, it would have durability and break. People wouldn't use their good weapon on doors, because they didn't want to take the durability hit. Needing to replace your gear was the grind.
In WAR we have permanent items, pride and ego is the only thing you risk when you lose a fight. So getting new items, not replacing old ones is the grind available.
You ask, why have grind in a PvP MMO?
People want to see their character getting stronger, they want their hours of playtime to mean something. Renown Rank is a great alternative to do this and i look forward to seeing RAs added.
If they just wanted to have fun and kill people they could play a MOBA (Like Smite), an FPS or any other game you jump into and start killing people and get the best stuff quickly.