The Armsman will never have a place in a group. The Merc does more dps, and can slam. The Paladin has the almighty endu chant, and can slam. Where does the Armsman fit in?

Speaking of which, how's this for a group Arms spec:

50 pole
42 shield
30 slash (auto-train)
30 thrust (auto-train)
7 parry

This gives you access to thrust and slash for maximum damage against Mid and neutral or max against Hib. The higher RR you get, the better your base damage gets. At RR10 you'll do as much base damage as an Arms with 50 spec slash or thrust, and you'll have access to both damage types.

Templating it would be a pain, but otherwise pretty boss, imo.

why go through all the trouble of that kind of template if youll never have a place in a group?

Arms could be playable with OF RAs. OF Charge is a joke and Paladins without Det get ditched (LOL@U DISDAIN). That spec wouldn't be hard to template if you ignore parry (you're in a group, you don't need it).

Even with NF RAs I think the Arms is a great tank. Its his realm-mates that are screwing him out of a group.

not really haha, unless you got some really nice items to throw into the temp and lots of money for mps

Sine you're swapping pole weapons (and possibly main-hand?) that makes it easier to template than it appears.

still think you would need nice items + some mps to cap Str, Con, Dex, Qui, Hits, all resists, Shield Skill, Thrust Skill, Slash Skill, Pole Skill

@Seyha

With highRR the spec might be good but at low RR your benefits against armor types will get lost in the high variance.