Wear everything light with a medium chest piece. This maxes your defenses while letting you remain in the ‘light’ category which has further dodges, 30% bonus healing and 20% bonus damage.
Lots of melee users in my group use light armor, even in wars and they top scoreboards and live just fine. They’re just good at stamina management, target priority, dodging, and kiting.
I’ve done M10 laz/gens in light armor PVP gear just fine and so does my company. With a tank who knows how to pull/maintain aggro, dps who know how to protect themselves, and healers with good positioning, there’s no issue.
Light armor has good incentives. High risk and high reward.