That would be fine if you had basic turrets, reps, armor, shields, hardeners ect.

This is actually a good idea, and a way to make up for the pitiful battle academy. Plus it would be fun to 1v1 in MLT/STD gear. But what about proficiency skills?

What about them? All passive skills have been earned. I won't suggest they be taken away. However I do think matchmaking should be in effect for these matches so they are fairly evenly matched.

Never ban gear people earn and grind to get. That is stupid.

That's one way to look at it.

Here's another.

You make the argument that having separate channels for players is hand holding. Ok. Then all you would have to do is go pubstomp in weaker gear in the low meta class if it offends you that you can't stomp on noobs. Unless you're worried that running weaker gear might get you killed by the nublets. Do you really need that proto gear to stomp new players? If you are not worried you'll get stomped by noobs if you run weaker gear, then I don't see your issue. You can play in the noob tier and make crappy rewards after every match. If you are worried you'll get stomped, then your problem isn't my proposal, it's that you need to get good.

I'm only saying that people should have the choice to fight withing the weight class they feel they are in gear-wise. People of all skill levels can still join any tier, so there is no hiding from someone who just really wants to stomp noobs, but they will have to do it in the same kind of gear the noobs are in. The fact that you wanna pubstomp noobs in proto gear who don't have the gear to properly defend themselves should be your problem, not theirs.

yes, but if matchmaking will be in place, why would the high tier arena guys not be able to use their protos, the reason i would want to have the arena is so i can 1v1 my friends to see who has the better proto suit, since i clearly know we are even with skill at the game.

Also might i suggest 2 different gamemodes for arena, one for vehicles, one for infantry. I might want to have epic dropship war with one of the "best pilots in the game".

anyway just some stuff to think about, if matchmaking is on higher teirs should be able to use anything they have.

What you seem to want is a custom game. A custom game is a different topic altogether and IMO should yield 0 isk and 0 sp

I would like a new game mode. It could be called "arena" (perhaps to imitate fighting for someone's entertainment, or for a corp to test a new players ability more easily if they lack sp) . In this game mode all advanced, prototype, and officer gear is banned to help keep from having a clear winner. A game mode with normal sp gain but half isk rewards. This will give new players a safer place to get better(with less reward), experienced players a place to relax, or practice with new weapons for cheap. If this is limited to one game mode, which I don't think it should be, it should be domination or skirmish.