New to pvp

[Kazraan]

Hello pvpers!

So, after having limited time I. The past to play ffxiv, I had generally not hadthe time for pvp. Things change, and now I do! Regardless of the things I hear about ques amd lack of players, I still want to dive in. Hopefully you guys can help answer some questions for me to help me get started.

1) what classes are somewhat easier to play to help ease in?
2) I keep seeing that pvp gear isn't needed. Is this true, and I should instead focus on vermin secondaries?
3) what selections should I take for ques?

I thank you all in advance for helping me not go in completely blind! See you in the ring!

[Februs]

1) what classes are somewhat easier to play to help ease in?

-This depends on the specific job and the game mode you play, as well as your own personal experience. You'll have a much easier time picking up a job you are comfortable with, regardless of what class it is. That said, most people find Dps to be the easier role to fill, because they have a simpler focus on using maximum damage to score kills. Tanks, on the other hand, are swapped to a support role in PvP and play very differently than in PvE, requiring more awareness and tactical savvy decision making to fully realize their potential. Healers are widely considered the hardest job to pick up, by far. The pace is much faster, and the dmg can be insane. Ranked game modes, in particular, put extremely high demands on healers. They have the steeper learning curve, by far.

Of course, everyone is different. What one person finds challenging might be easy for someone else. It's not a bad idea to start with a job you are already familiar with to help ease your learning curve.

2) I keep seeing that pvp gear isn't needed. Is this true, and I should instead focus on vermin secondaries?

-Yes and no.

PvP is sync'd to item level 150, but the secondary stats you will find useful in the arena are different than PvE. If you want to minimize the stats you don't need and maximize the stats you do, then a good mix of PvE and PvP gear will be the best way to go about it. For example, the accuracy cap in PvP is quite low, and Parry is next to useless, but most PvE gear slot Parry and Acc as secondary stats. PvP gear, on the other hand, is tuned to slot additional Det and Crit instead of useless stats like Acc and Parry. So, when sync'd to level 150, you will be closer to the caps for Crit and Det with a PvP set than you will be with a PvE set. It's a give take thing. Morale, as well, is applied before sync, so it allows you to artificially inflate your stats to the caps while minimizing the stats you don't necessarily want.

That said, PvP gear is NOT required for PvP. Most PvE gear slots high enough secondary stats now that it is comparable to PvP gear when under level sync. You will not be specifically customizing your stats if you just use a PvE set, but you won't be miles behind anyone either. You can competitively run with PvE gear. The only thing you have to make sure of is that your PvE gear is AT LEAST item level 180 or higher. Level sync is only at 150, but actual 150 gear will put you WELL BELOW the stat caps for a 150 sync. To remain within comparable levels, you must at least have 180 gear or higher. 190 is actually better, but 180 will at least get you to the lowest caps. After that, if you feel like putting a bit more effort in, you can start working on a custom gear-set which has min/maxed stats.

3) what selections should I take for ques?

-This depends on what you want to play, and when you want to play it.

Right now, 4v4 solo-ranked Feast is the most popular queue. A fresh season just started, and people are going at it pretty strongly. That said, 4v4 Feast is a RANKED game mode. It is by far the most serious PvP setting in the game, and people are there to climb the rankings, not baby sit new players. There's nothing stopping you from queuing for it, and if you'll have to play it if you ever want to learn it, but you should be warned about the environment you're getting into. A certain level of play is expected, especially by seasoned players in the mid-high rank range. If you don't meet that standard, then don't be surprised to get chewed up a little. That's not to say you shouldn't queue for it. I fully support new players who want to get into Feast, but bring a tough skin. People in 4v4 don't play with kid-gloves, and they can be cruel if you cost them a rank. You should also be willing to learn in that mode. If you're not committed enough to study your own matches, read the results page, admit your faults, and grow as a player, then you should stick to something more casual.

-Of the casual game modes, 8v8 Feast and Front Lines: Shatter are the next most likely to queue. Right now, the queue will be very slow because a lot of players are busy trying to farm ranks in ranked modes; however that changes later in the season. Players often flip flop back to 8v8 to protect their ranks late in the season of Feast, so queue times could improve in a couple of months. Further, anyone who doesn't like a serious mode like 4v4 will be in one of those two modes. 8v8 tends to fill out faster, because it's smaller, but there are still some dedicated Front Line players out there. Shatter is the most recent of those modes, so it tends to queue fastest. I'm not going to lie to you, though. It's a long queue.

One last thing is to never bother wasting your time on the FL roulette. It's essentially broken and can get stuck. If even 1 person is trying to queue for a dead game mode (like the past lvl 50 content), then the roulette will try and slot anyone using the roulette into that match. You'll could get stuck waiting forever while it tries to fill in the remaining 22 spaces, so it's much faster to just go through the FL list and directly queue for whichever mode happens to have the shortest wait time that day.

[Chaelyn]

Starting out I recommend to stay away from healing as your first job in PvP. PvP abilities for dps are extremely potent and does a lot more damage than your regular PvE abilities so until you are comfortable with other job burst you want to stay away from healing probably.

Gear for PvP is based on what secondaries you want. PvP gear not necessary.

Feast Soloq is the most active mode.

[Kazraan]

Okay, thank you all for your input. I was looking forward to trying whm in pvp, but maybe will start with brd or mch. Thanks again, see you on the field!

[ShaluaLie]

Bait purify then go ham. Done. Watch for healer invulnerable ability and time things accordingly.

[Noutaja]

Firstly and most importantly, prepare for the flames. This is the reason why the community is so small.
Secondly, go in as a PLD preferably, stay alive and CC away. Maybe a warrior if you feel confident you can stay alive. Or maybe a ranged dps other than BLM, so you dont get targeted right away in the start.

Please dont let the general attitude ruin the experience for you, just ignore the flaming the best you can and keep a cool head. Eventually you will notice you have gotten better and get less negative comments. It is what it is, mainly due to certain folks and their pvp linkshells/discords; shared and enforcened mindsets, sadly.

Hope you manage to enjoy it like I have, Its great if you can bear the mentality of ranked pvp. I love it even though it can be hard at times.

Edit: As people have stated, you will get rekt as a healer by both enemy team and your team. That is one tough thing to pull off as a new feaster. Whatever route you choose to enter the feast, I welcome you with a positive attitude. There are SOME people who are still capable of such. Dont forget that while you plunge through the trial of flames. Personally, great to have a new person with us, welcome.