What's sacred to you?

Once upon a time in vanilla, PvP titles were attached to one of the most excruciating, punishing grinds that have ever been seen in an MMO. The original ladder system was interesting in theory, but in practice it encouraged players to spend every waking moment ensconced in a battleground in the hopes of somehow moving up the ranks. Let me be clear -- the original ladder system wasn't so much about how good a player happened to be at PvP as it was about how much time a player was willing to invest in the process. No time? No title for you.

I never tried to move up the ranks to High Warlord. I wasn't insane. I did, however, help my friends try and obtain the title by healing in battlegrounds whenever I happened to be online. And when my friends reached that impossible goal, their first reaction was to go purchase all of the High Warlord gear, followed quickly by their logging out for a week to go catch up on important things, like sleeping and eating. During this process, I managed to make it up to Centurion -- not because I was trying, but because I happened to be playing.

Those old titles are now able to be earned through the rated battleground system. I wasn't quite sure how I felt about that, at the time. And now, in patch 5.2, players who have earned those titles through the rated battleground system will be able to purchase all of that old gear, previously reserved only for those that had earned it the hard way. And I'm not sure how I feel about that, either.

In the end, I don't think it's really got anything to do with my wanting to deny anyone some really cool looking old gear, and it's got everything to do with my memories of those days long gone. While I remember very vividly how exhausted my friends were, how sick of PvP they were by the end of the grind, how much time they poured into the process -- those are just memories. And it's very likely that there are far more players that have no idea what the ladder system really was, than those that actually played through it.

So honestly, I guess the weird feeling I'm having doesn't have anything to do with gear, or titles, or PvP systems. It's the slow realization that all of those people I helped on that trek to pixelated glory are long gone. And honestly -- it's about time someone else got to wear all that old gear. I'd hate to see it go to waste. But I'm curious, because this was obviously something that I held onto for far longer than really necessary -- is there anything in the game that is sacred to you? Anything that you feel should never, ever be changed? Is there anything you've earned that you'd rather not see brought back, or obtainable in some other way?

And if there are any High Warlords and Grand Marshals lurking out there from vanilla days, speak up and say hello!