Elite: Dragonflight Season 1

So you came here because you were wondering about rating. For people new to the PvP scene, note that since Shadowlands you can earn rating without having to get into a group by queuing for Solo Shuffle. It's a 3v3 arena mode where you are randomly instanced with five other players, swapping around to two different teammates for each round of a six round match.

The PvP gearing for Dragonflight smoothes out the pure item level discrepancies a lot better than in recent expansions because most people will be around the same effective item level in their PvP gear, and PvP gear is more easily acquired from a variety of activities. Skill is still very important, of course, to reach the highest ratings, but anyone who is making more than a token effort should be able to at least get to Combatant/Challenger through Solo Shuffle.

Here are the rating scores necessary for each upgrade level of Gladiator gear and what PvE item level they become. They all promote to ilvl 424 for PvP.

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• Combatant I - 1000 Rating, upgrade 2/9, ilvl 385
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• Combatant II - 1200 Rating, upgrade 3/9, ilvl 389
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• Challenger I - 1400 Rating, upgrade 4/9, ilvl 392
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• Challenger II - 1600 Rating, upgrade 5/9, ilvl 395
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• Rival I - 1800 Rating, upgrade 6/9, ilvl 398
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• Rival II - 2000 Rating, upgrade 7/9, ilvl 402
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• Duelist - 2100 Rating, upgrade 8/9, ilvl 405
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• Elite - 2400 Rating, upgrade 9/9, 408
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Reaching Elite will unlock the transmogrification appearances that you can purchase with [item=137642] from [npc=199720] in the PvP Hall in Valdrakken (right next to the upgrade guy, [npc=199603]). Sadly, the Elite: Dragonflight Season 1 Feat of Strength achievement is not account-wide, so to collect all possible mogs you have to reach Elite on classes with the relevant weapon/armor proficiencies. [! needs confirmation]

50 wins at Elite will also earn you the Gladiator title. There are also two unique titles at the end of Dragonflight Season 1:

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• Crimson Gladiator - End season at top .1% of the PvP ladder with at least 150 games played.
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• Crimson Soloist - End season at top .1% of the Solo Shuffle ladder with at least 50 games player.
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While you can no longer earn Elite: Dragonflight Season 1 or Dragonflight Keystone Hero: Season One and their specific rewards, I can confirm that as of today, 10.2.6 (DF Season 3), Deep Cuts From the Vault as a whole is still achievable by defeating Mythic Razzy, thereby earning [Mythic: Raszageth the Storm-Eater].

The [item=202047] will appear in your bags, and once you use it, it unlocks the Mythic/Elite_PVP visual effects for all recolors of all tier sets across your account once you've collected the base appearances (along with Mythic/Elite_PVP recolors sans effects, if you need that for a more muted transmog). Remember that the [Revival Catalyst] has infinite charges for DF Season 1 & 2 tier items, meaning if you get eligible gear at the right iLv, you can earn these appearances more quickly.

PRO-TIPS:

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• The armor appearances may not appear until you completely log out of the game client (I had to take it a step further by closing the BattleNet app as well).
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• When searching for your new appearances, remember to have "Not Collected" chosen in the filter menu, and search for the exact primary item name (not the secondary shared-appearance name; using the raid name or boss name also doesn't show these special versions, only the base items).
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• For example: On my mage, if I search the shoulders tab for [Ascended Squallspires], [Dathea], or [Vault of the Incarnates], I see just the original four difficulty recolors. However, if I search for [Crystal Scholar's Beacons], I see ten results: the four vanilla recolors alongside six other versions (LFR, Normal, Heroic, & Gladiator_PVP with effects; Mythic & Elite_PVP without effects).
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