1. devs don't care about us
2. yes all archetypes can be useful in competitive pvp BUT NOT ALL POWERSETS, most powersets can though and the only ones I believe are useless is any kind of ice blast or sonic ressoinance or however it's spelled haha
3: no u don't need to be 50 or be IOd to do well in zones, it certainly helps but it by no means required, I'd reccomend staying away from doms and VEATs till I can afford building it..IMO the best toons to learn pvp on is a x/nrg blaster or a /therm or pain corr...
4.and yes psy/em and mind/fire are still super winall builds and will remain so for a while I believe..tho I wreck both of em with my fire/elec 
1. devs are busy with the other 95% of the game which is PvE, but almost every change done in PvE is indirectly transfered over to how it affects PvP.
2. Damage dealing archetypes are the most competitive ATs in pvp. Buffing/healing comes next. Then debuffing sets, and finally disruption sets are the least important sets but are still sometimes needed. (Seach the this forum for what power sets work best in PvP)
3: You do need to have IOs that exemplar down like purples or PvP IOs, and also accolades to be competitive across all lvls. So its safe to say you'd want to get to 50 and get at least ur accolades and also a cheap set of IOs.
So...
I'm fairly new to CoH. A friend of mine has been playing for a quite a long time and has finally roped me into playing with him. He is a great resource and has been able to answer most of my questions with one exception. PVP
He doesn't follow the pvp scene and he suggested I come here to ask a few questions from the pvp pros.
After spending many hours searching/reading these forums I still have a few questions/concerns.
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It would seem from what I have been reading that the PvP scene isn't very balanced. (I'm hoping that I've reached a false conclusion after reading all the post about X powerset being horrible in PvP). This leads to my first question.
Are all Archetype/Powersets able to be competitive in PvP?
I understand that for PvP in MMO's generally there is a FoTM and that some classes/AT/skill choices perform better than others. What I have always enjoyed is picking an underplayed class and I take pride in the fact that if I play well that I can win over people that aren't as skilled that are playing FoTM builds. These forums would lead me to believe that there are very few options if you want to have even the slightest hope of being competitive. (With the exception of FiGhTkLUbS which everyone seems to think are lawlworthy)
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So it would seem that there are multiple PvP Zones and that they are at different lvl ranges. I was told that if you enter one of these zones and you are higher lvl that your lvl will be reduced to that of the current PvP zone that you are in which will debuff your character in certain ways. My friend gave me a list of things that are effected by this reduction in lvl and he told me that are certain ways around some of these debuffs. (Some sort of enhancements that still get max effectiveness even when your lvl is reduced, etc...) This leads to my second question.
Can I be competitive in PvP prior to being lvl 50 and spending billions in Inf?
My friend seems to think that I should start PvP'ing as soon as it is available to my character and thinks I'll be able to hold my own. I haven't ventured into a PvP area yet so I can't verify this. Is pvp something I can do as I level up my character or is it something I should save till I'm 50?
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So I've definately noticed a trend in players suggesting that Psi/Em is the "OP" build atm. Why would vet players suggest that new players try this build? By the time a new player lvls up this character shouldn't there be various nerfs/balances that would reduce the effectiveness of this build? Which leads to my third and final question. (a two part question)
How serious is the Dev Team on keeping PvP fun and balanced? How often are balancing changes made?
How long has it been known that Psi/EM is the ultimate build? How big is the gap in effectiveness to say AR for example?
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The reason I hope to find answers to these questions is that if I'm going to spend a large amount of time investing in a PvP character for CoH I'd like to know what I'm getting into. I'd hate to spend hours upon hours of time only to realize that my build will never be able to compete. I'd also hate to spend the time only to realize that PvP is an afterthought for CoH and that it isn't taken seriously. I'm sure I'll have more general questions about PvP but this seems like a good start.
Thanks!