why the current arena system is lame

As a player in general - not just a raider - I have an issue with the current Arena gear distribution system.

Its not that I consider them welfare epics. If Arena gear is welfare epics then that makes all reputation reward, crafted, and badge reward items welfare epics. The only real welfare epics were the things Headless Horseman dropped in my opinion, and that new item they added in Scarlet Monastery. And I'm pretty sure the latter only exists because they wanted to fuck around with people who make BG twinks. Back on point: from what I understand, having a set of Arena gear is necessary to compete in there, and I dont want them to change it so only the best teams have the best gear. Thats stupid.

Its not that I'm bitching about the stats. New seasons are necessary to prevent Johnny Q. Raider from coming into Arena's and being unstoppable because stuff he got from the latest instance is too powerful compared to Arena gear. Furthermore, for all of the Arena's +stats, the Arena gear really sucks for raiding. It doesn't have avoidance stats, so you can't tank in it. It doesn't have enough of the required stats for raid healing. And it doesnt have enough +hit to make it useful for DPS on anything beyond Gruuls Lair. It can fill gear gaps a raider might have in the middle of SSC, but with the new badge gear, ZA gear and various professions these gaps should have been filled by now. Similarly if you desire epics for grinding mobs or doing 5-mans, heroics and badge rewards fill out the armor slots quite nicely and easily.

The only Arena gear that can really interest raiders are the weapons, and now that weapons are getting ratings locked, its really more of a problem on Blizzards end with not properly itemizing encounters. One well documented case is that sword rogues pretty much have to PvP to get decent swords for raiding. This is not the fault of the Arena system having too good of items, but the fault of the itemization team for not including enough swords. Its easily fixed: there needs to be more loot tables like Prince Malchezaar, where you are gauranteed an armor token, a nice weapon, and something extra. On a more extreme side, Blizzard could reintroduce raiding weapon quests, where a quest item can drop that multiple classes can use and then assemble tradegoods and raid drops to create a nice weapon.

My problem is the cosmetics. With raiders, having unique looking gear is one of the side benefits of fighting bosses. Dont get me wrong, I'm not "raiding for the items". The items themselves become the battle trophies of the amount of effort you put into raiding. And while WoWJutsu is nice, its not nearly as built in as Arena ratings. I think this "gear as a trophy" mechanic is an important mechanic. Blizzard thinks so too, which is why S3 shoulders are ratings locked.

But in Arena, after a certain point, everyone starts to look the same from all scrambling to get the same, best gear. My proposition is this: allow gladiator/pvp gear to be upgraded stat wise at a discount, while at the same time ratings lock the newer items. The upgrade itself is a special kind of enchantment that takes up a special "arena enchantment" slot the item has, that doesnt overwrite standard enchantments. The discount should be great enough that it is cheaper for a newcomer to grab the oldest season items and upgrade them to the current season. The discount could be at least some sort of Arena point reduction, but perhaps contain a gold and/or honor point component. To not trivialize getting the newest Arena gear entirely, the "arena enchantments" only apply in Battlegrounds and Arenas -- perhaps only a weakened amount in the Battlegrounds.

This has 3 intended effects:
Removes the barrier for new gladiators even more.
Removes gear gaps that shouldnt exist in pure PvP competition faster.
Enhances the "items as trophies" mechanic on the newest season of items.

There also really needs to be a difference between the Arena gear and Raiding gear. I'm not saying Arena gear should look crappy, I'm saying it should look different. Raiding gear should and does look like you ripped it away from whoever was holding onto it and took it for your own use. PvP gear should look like it is worn by battle hardened elite, who are victorious in the field of battle. A good example of PvP gear models are the old High Warlord/Grand Marshal plate armors. They're a little simple compared to todays current super-cool-animated-glowy-armor, but they're a nice starting point.

At the very least, if they are going to recolor raiding tiers for arena gear, at least make them look different enough that you can readily visibly tell if somone is wearing arena gear or a raiding tier. Good: Priest T5/S2 (though honestly I think the shadow set for T5 should look like S2, make S2 have red highlights or something). Bad: Warlock T5/S2.