Impressions / Questions from a New PVPer Post-2.15

[Wulfgang]

Heya,

I decided to give PVP a whirl this past weekend to fill the downtime associated with all meaningful PVE content being done for the week within the first two days. I have actually been having a lot of fun. I came in with i90 PVE BRD gear, thought I'd give 50 a shot, got absolutely raped several times, unplugged and read up on PVP progression here and elsewhere, and have since been solo queuing 30/40 matches. I'm rank 9 now and closing in on a hundred matches with a ~33% win rate roughly. I'm not sure if they've addressed bots or if they are just more uncommon at the lower queues; I've seen two obvious ones thus far (both on the other team). I bought one piece of i70 gear and am close to my second, but am starting to have second thoughts on BRD because the queue time for ranged DPS seems terrible since they bifurcated the DPS into ranged / non-ranged. Overall, I find the 30/40 bouts enjoyable and I think I'll continue the grind to R30. Almost none of my friends PVP though, so I was hoping to get some questions answered if possible. I have actually read around here / Reddit / elsewhere for as much info as I could, but I apologize for any stupid questions:

• JOB SELECTION: Gear takes a long time to get, so I'd like to focus on one job long-term here. I am BRD main, PLD sub, and can have a ~i80 WHM. I enjoy BRD and I think I play it well, but the queues just seem to be brutal. Average solo queue is 5-7 minutes in primetime but can spike to 13+ randomly. Outside primetime is a disaster; I think I was queued for like 45 minutes this morning. Is PLD feasible long-term? Spirits / Bash offer some decent utility and Cover, while tough to manage, is nice as well, but PLDs just seem to be outclassed by MRD/WAR. I could give WHM a spin, but healer definitely seems to have the sharpest learning curve. TLDR: Is it worth changing jobs to shorten queue times? Or is the difference not that big? It seems melee DPS is the best solo queue option as most groups run healer/tank/ranged, but I don't have a melee at all.

• DUO vs. SOLO QUEUE: 1) I play with a friend sometimes who is a solid i70 PVP BRD; I go PLD in this case. We seem to get through the queue much faster that way, but I haven't been able to isolate exactly why. Does queuing as a duo expedite the process for anyone else? I'll queue solo PLD tonight for a while and see how it goes. 2) You get the same bonus for solo queue as duo queue right? I believe so given the patch notes, but someone said in another thread here ("PvP in this game will not succeed with its current model.") that duo is much slower (the only other variable would be queue time, which seems faster duo).

• CAPPED GEAR SELECTION: Given I'm going to be doing 30/40 for a long time yet, I'd like to gear out as best I can, but I seem to have trouble figuring out ideal gear with the sync system. Someone in another thread here mentioned doing LV 40 leves for the i43 Aetherial weapon. Do items such as the ones listed below provide greater stats than the i90 PVE equivalents? Also do they drop from any LV 40 battle leve? I can't seem to find drop information on XIVDB, but I assume it's any leve.

http://xivdb.com/?item/1933/Aetheria...lt-Cavalry-Bow
http://xivdb.com/?item/3173/Aetherial-Ranger%27s-Tunic

• LV 50 BOUTS: I try to be a friendly player in this game and I hate dragging a group down. When can I begin to do this while participating in a meaningful way? My thought was to give it another shot once I picked up my 4th i70 piece (head, body, legs, 1 other).

Think that's it for now; appreciate any feedback.