Hi Jarviko! Hope things are going well for you here. As far as pvp goes, i don't do regular pvp much, but occasionally i'll pop in if someone calls in Main chat for people to go to pvp. After WoE tends to be a good time. more often, i enjoy faction-based pvp (Prontera Assault or Direct Assault) when enough players participate in it.
I know what you mean about being motivated to get better gears by pvp. For quite a while, i thought i had good enough gears, but the pvp-based event last summer made me realize i was not up to par so i went about fixing that!
Hope to see you around!