Afternoon all,
Recently I have been triggered by a youtube fresh series where one tries to become rank gladiator in the game. This being quite an achievement i try to aim a bit lower than this but who knows 
I am not a very new player; in all honesty I play since TBC on private as at that time i could not afford a sub. That said I have been in long breaks and replayed a bit of classic ever since. In all this time i have never pressed pvp other than the AV grind needed in classic (but think thats an hole other topic of it even being pvp).
With the release of the next xpac on the horizon; i wanted to start PVP for real; fresh account fresh toon; but then the first questions always arise, what sever, what side? And in most cases that starts with a guild location or community;
As i could not see any clear established groups of PVP players i am typing this post; is there room for a new player that is definitely wanting to learn a new aspect of an old game?
Feel free to reach out, Boaz#21146
ps. don’t know if this is important but I am doubting between a warlock and a mage as a class.
Some quick info about retail rated arena from my personal pov.
- Retail offers traditional rated 3v3 and 2v2 (with Gladiator only available in 3v3) and solo rated modes
- Pvp guilds/communities exist but are uncommon - the lfg tool can provide you with partners
- Traditional 3v3 is a little dead - it is extremely hard to climb and extremely hard to find teammates - 3v3 is deflated
- 2v2 is deflated as well and not worth playing
- Most players focus on the solo rated modes, you dont need to find partners and can simply queue up - all rated rewards are available here except the gladiator title and mount
- Solo shuffle is the rated solo 3v3 mode - you are matched with 5 other players and play six rounds back to back - you play with each dps against each dps with each healer - a shuffle - this mode is highly active but the queue times for dps are between 10-30 min as no one wants to play healer
- Rbg blitz is the rated solo RBG - you play 8vs8 on all non epic maps - because it’s only 8v8 the BGs have different mechanics, for example arathi bases once controlled cant be tapped, but reset after ~40sec - this mode is extremely inflated which allows absolut pvp newcomers to reach beyond 2.4k rating and earn High Warlord
- Beware the pvp community is extremely toxic - i play with chat disabled so I cant get whispered and can’t write in chat
- Wait for the new addon to dive in because there will be a massive Addon API change - this will render all combat addons useless and breaks them - classes will be reworked - currently rated pvp requires a load of addons to not fall behind
- Focus on the solo modes - until you hit elite (2.4k rating) in shuffle, this will make it easier to find people in lfg for 3v3
- For guides you can use this site which compiles the builds of the top players into a TLDR guide for talents and gear
https ://murlok.io/mage/fire/3v3
Thank you for the pointers!
I decided on a lock and at this point exploring and leveling; did my first BG when i was lvl 12 but now the que is slow. Guess i need to level just a bit.
Also found a guild that i joined, but your right activity is bascially only there and end game level; but i have good hopes 
Mate, this is completely different game than Classic and TBC were. Retail is a single player game 