PVP help needed

Complete PvP Newbie here. What is the best place to start learning PvP? I have looked around and yet to find much info on specifics of PvP. I tried going into the Arena at Yaks and it doesn't work...I met a friend there and still didn't allow us to engage in PvP? Do I need to create a character specifically for PvP? I thought I could use my PvE character for both?

Would someone be willing to meet me in-game sometime to show me the basics. Thanks in advance for any help you can provide

btw - I am a level 15 E/W

Until you get to level 20 make a pvp character and go to random arenas
You can bring whatever bar you want but in general people either try to bring large damage, interrupts/shutdown, degeneration(hexes/condis), or healing.... so try to do one or more of those in a useful way and you'll be good

Go to gw wiki and get some builds from there. Sure they might call you a wikinoob, but there's a reason why those are the most popular builds: they're generally the best and most effective.

You may want to read through this aswel.

You might wanna focus on PvE before even thinking about PvP. Good luck!

I'd just start playing FA/JQ/AB and see what happens. RA/TA/GvG annoys me to no end due to how small or coordinated teams are lol.

AB/FA/JQ are usually the best to start out with. RA is full of idiots who will report you for stupid reasons, and other general griefers and leechers. TA is pretty dead. You need rank to HA, and you need to HA to get rank (vicious little circle). GvG requires experience, which doesnt work for a first time PvPer.
AB/JQ/FA are great when you work out what builds are good, and how to play them.

I agree with fa/ab/jq it's a great place to start, because it's not strictly pvp. A lot of your fighting is against npc enemies. From there, you can go to ra which is more strict pvp. It's often frustrating but a good way to learn. Also hb, since nobody will get angry at you for losing or doing poorly (at least, razah never complained when I sent him solo against an entire team) After that, you should have enough rank in pvp titles to get into a pvp guild and learn to do ha/gvg.

a pvp guild or a pvx guild. gw pvp is a team-based format--interaction with other players will help greatly.

a guild ab group imo is one of the better places to start learning.

ab = alliance battles
fa = fort aspenwood
jq = jade quarry
ra = random arenas
ta = team arenas
ha = heroes ascent
hb = hero battles
gvg = guild vs guild

yea you can learn in ra/jq/fa, but i dont think randomway is the best environment for learning (its much harder to learn when the variables are always changing). also, jq/fa has a lot more to do with individual performance vs npcs--if you learn such a role, it will not help you much in the end for team-based organized pvp.

ab, while still very random, still provides a means for a somewhat team-based organized pvp format. play it with friends and guildies. first of all, ask them what builds to run and what equips are good to play. then do your best to try to understand your role, and the means to playing it effectively. the only downside to this, is that if your friends and guildies are nubs or bad players themselves, you wont learn much from them.

understanding roles and playing those roles effectively is one of the key aspects to success in pvp. but that is another topic to discuss.