Ashran is lame but it's almost kind of a rite of passage if you want pvp gear, in my server Allies focus on the missions while the Horde chases rares to turn in frags.
I'm almost full Wild Combatant atm.
I quit wow right after WotLK but i came back about 2 months, the pvp sure has changed, the ilvl thing is weird and the scaling is kinda unfair since pve-ers can totally do pvp with their gear but not the other way.
IMO the pvp and pve gear should max out at 650 should you try to do instances or raids with gear not intended for that game type, kinda like the war games gear but not that extreme.
They dumbed down pvp enough for everyone to jump into it and i'm ok with that, but the rewards for dedicating time and effort into it are way less attractive than in pve.