Is it doable at all to earn an elite PVP set as someone who almost never pvped and never did ranked before? And am i reading correctly that you can’t earn the elite gear set in solo shuffle?
Also how do I find people to play with as someone super new if I don’t have friends in game?
That’s right, any rated bracket (2v2, 3v3, rated battlegrounds or solo shuffle) will do.
Yes, it is, although you’ll have a way to go. Which spec are you interested in playing? 
Wait, so I’m wrong, I CAN get the elite (season only) set from Solo shuffle?
Something mage. I don’t care which spec. I’m starting to learn the hard way to just follow guides, I don’t have enough free time to figure out my own build that’s effective XD.
If you’re looking to get the mage elite set through solo shuffle, frost is the best way to do it
You’ll face a lot of melee as you climb and playing frost gives you instant damage that also slow down your opponents and as frost you’re typically not a kill target which gives you more freedom to control the game
Any recommendations on where I should go to find a good build? Should I grind out gear from dungeons before starting? My mage barely hit 70.
id do bgs to get honor gear, square away ur crafted gear and go from there.
If you are going for the pvp honor set comp stomp is this weak which is free easy honor. Warning tho it’s against bad ai. So it could form bad habits.
Mmr is super weird right now and they are adding inflation soon. Early games have a weird impact on your rating. It may be wise to gear up via comp stomp with full honor gear then que 2s or 3s and skirmishes to get used to fighting some players before you hop in to shuffle. Your rating may climb way quicker if you have solid performance in the first couple lobbies you play.
Also, you can hit 1600 on a character and buy a tier piece from the vendor to get helm, then hit 1600 on another character to get the shoulders rather than having to hit 1800 if you find yourself hitting a wall. That will at least complete the set.
best way to improve is to always ask questions.
Definitely do not use PvE gear unless you’re using the most up max ilvl. PvP gear scales up in PvP content so it will always be the best option (with very rare niche exceptions). For this season, honor gear scales up to 437 and conquest gear scales to 450. You’ll notice all gear PvP gear has Versatility because that’s the most important stat for staying alive in PvP. Outside that I recommend Wowhead/icyveins for beginning reading about how your spec works in PvP.
After you finish your light reading (and I mean light seriously cause there is like nothing thick out there really for written PvP guides) you’ll want to find some videos of people who know how your spec works for the current season.
Don’t feel like you have to watch a ton of videos or whatever before you jump into battlegrounds and start gaining honor and conquest though. Those are great times to start getting a feel for how your spec works in PvP. Note: without PvP gear to start with, you’ll get the crap kicked out of you at the start (likely because you are in PvE gear), but don’t get discouraged; you’ll get honor and conquest which you can get gear with, and the tables will indeed turn.
Lastly, there is also the ability to craft PvP gear this season which is great. You should get two free items after your first battleground win or whatever that you can use (sparks of shadowflame not included, but needed). They come out at 450 PvP ilvl, like conquest gear. And you can choose your stats. You’ll probably want versatility on them lol.
Once you have your full honor set (and likely some conquest piece(s) by then just from getting conquest) you can hop into ranked at your own leisure. I recommend trying some skirmishes prior just to see how it feels to be fully geared and to get an idea of how fast people can nuke.
At the end of the day, once geared, there is only so much prep you can do. Just be honest that you’re new in 2s and 3s and people will be nice. Solo queue is a wild west, but can be fun. RBG are great.
The same could be said about RSS, honestly.
The first time I tried rated arena (specifically 2s) was in season 3 of Shadowlands and I got to 1791 the day before the Creation Catalyst came out in what didn’t really feel like all that much time
I prob could’ve finished getting to 1800 but I didn’t want to ask the person I’d been queuing with, or anyone else really
Supposedly you’re supposed to do it in LFG. I haven’t really tried that.
You could also just do lots of unrated PvP or world PvP and eventually you might make friends and get invited to stuff. Being a healer if possible might help
just wait until mmr inflates and r1s get 1200 more rating than what they’re at now and earning 1800 means you have successfully placed your full rotation from your spellbook to your action bars
Solo shuffle has made getting elite sets a lot easier. I recommend finding a easy op class and spamming it. Might want to wait a week or 2 for the mmr changes to take effect on the ladder