Thinking of finally starting PvP... need advice

[Kimbles01]

Hey everyone, as the title suggests, I'm thinking about going into PvP. I've been really discouraged to do so thus far, but I think it could be a nice change of pace considering the past couple months has been the same 'ol stuff.

I've done some talking with friends and researching on classes with pvp, and at this point, I'm most inclined to pvp on Archer, Marauder, Thaumaturge, White Mage, or Scholar; I want to focus on a single one for right now. I'd love to hear some ups and downs from people who pvp as these classes!

And now for the gear. When I start, I understand I'm going to be at a SEVERE disadvantage and will most likely lose every 19/20 matches I play, but... What I really want to know is, starting off fresh, do I want to go in with my pve gear and i90 weapon? Or should I be instead crafting wolf gear and affixing them with materia?

Aside from all that, I'd love to hear any general advice regarding pvp. Any big what-to-do's and what-not-to-do's, tactics that come in handy, etc.

[Reishi]

I'm doing perfectly fine with my full i90 brd. Think is, ranged dps queues are very long.
Apart from that I'm doing PvP on whm and pld (lower levels); queue times significantly shorter here, almost instant. Downside: Less marks as rewards.
Top priority for blm would be swift-sleep the enemies, most of all the healer. And run. You'll probably be main target.
Same es healer, swiftcast is absolutely necessary. Try to hide whenever possible, watch out for stuns/sleep and ranged attacks. If you're going sch, watch the fairy. There are parties who focusing the fairy first instead of the healer. If your fairy goes down, be sure to have swiftcast off cd to summon her again immediately.
When you're tanking, either make perfectly clear which one you're targeting or if you got the time, mark the enemy which you want to be downed first.
Also certain PvP only actions will become unavoidable, but you have to unlock them in doing PvP.

[Kimbles01]

Bump
/10char

[Kimbles01]

Afternoon bump T_T

[ulti_19]

I don't play any of the classes you mentioned, but would like to give you some advice if you're looking for it.

If you're playing in the level 30 bracket. If you play the healer, run like hell around the map and try to survive the best you can. Most groups just zerg the healer because at level 30 it is quite easy to kill them and move on. If you're the dps, just go kill the healer with all of your team, with all 3 of you on him there's no way he can survive long, unless everyone's making mistakes.

Stay away from level 50 bracket unless you have ilvl 70 pvp gear or at least some of them. You will find very quickly that without it, you don't do much damage, or as a healer you tend to drop like a fly for the most part. I've seen some players survive quite well with some ilvl55 pvp and a mix of their pve 90, but if you're up against 4 ilvl 90 pvp, you're most likely not going to have a chance.

In the 50 bracket it's usually good to have your tank chase the healer and if there is a black mage, have your dps cover him. By this point many healers have learned and are good enough to survive well. Once the blackmage or even summoner dies, it's good to blitz the healer at once. If you know your team and feel good enough, nuke the healer at once and see if he goes down, if it becomes a chase, let the other 2 dps switch over to the ranged dps while the tank stays on the healer to avoid letting him free cast.

I didn't really get lot's of queues for the lv 40 bracket but same strategy as 50 would apply to kill the ranged dps sometimes then healer while tank was bothering healer. And if no ranged dps the straight for the healer. I've seen some nice plays by taking your tank and healer behind the wall opposite of where the enemy healer is. Have one dps chase the healer on that side, while the tank covers and testudo's the healer on the other side while killing the enmy tank and dps on your healer. That is if you play Pala, can make some unique strategies sometimes.

Other than stuff like this, no one can really teach you how to play, you have to go in and learn by yourself, even if it means wiping a lot. And don't let anyone get you down, for the most part people are really nice but you sometimes get yelled at for making a mistake or two Just learn from it, and keep grinding.

[Seraphe]

Many healers don't know what to do. It's very easy though. Run around corners. Heal yourself. Run again. All will be following you and you can just heal yourself. As BLM it may be a bit more tricky but you can still manage to do it in a similar way