About to hit 40 and debating what I want my final spec to be. I'm kind of leaning towards 44 scythe. 43 Arb. Rest parry (think it's 23). I'm aiming for solo/small man rvr. Is that spec pretty decent? I'm hearing go 50 scythe for the weapon skill since VWs seam to miss frequently but is it worth it dropping arb to 38 and parry to 10 for the extra weapon skill? I doubt I'll land the 50 style in rvr a ton so the 50 style doesn't seem worth it. Any suggestions?

Also regarding anytime styles. I'm currently using the taunt style for my anytime but I'm hearing the defensive penalty makes it iffy to use. Is that still the best anytime style? Someone told me to use the evade style backed up with the parry style just in case I evade or parry, plus that saves endurance.

Any advice would be greatly appreciated! Thank you!

I made a post there about the spe I recommend. Basically even if the last style won't see much use, 50 Scythe increases your damage by a much larger amount than going >38 Arbo.

As for the anytime in PvE, yes you should use the evade + parry instead, but maybe not at lvl 40 since you probably don't have anything in parry yet. The taunt also has no hit bonus and does quite low damage.

So you think 50 scythe 38 arb is best solo rvr spec?

I think that is the best spec overall. One other advantage is that interrupts cost less, which is nice since your power poll is pretty low (running out of power is very frequent in 8vs8 for example).

For solo / small groups, Parry is obviously more important and you could get the next ablative proc (+20 HP) by going 43 Arbo, 23 Parry, 44 Scythe, which is a fine spec too, just more specialized (even though it looks "balanced").

Here's the thing. 44 Scythe is the absolute minimum, you need that back stun (even in solo, unless you plan to do duels only). It's just one of the best style in the game, maybe even the best (very high damage, very low fatigue, medium hit bonus, 8s stun). Guides that suggest you to go lower than 44 don't deserve to be read. Then, you should put points in Arbo only to get spells because the damage increase between 50 composite and 60+ is VERY low. The spells that are worth getting are the Absorb buff, the Hate buff and the Ablative proc. Thus, there are 4 stops:
- 34; last Absorb buff, makes getting 50 composite difficult so not really recommended (higher damage variance), especially since the next stop is very close and the Parry chance increase isn't that huge.
- 38; Haste buff (+4%), good especially on Uthgard since Druids might not be able to give you a good permanent Haste buff. Viable in all situations. My recommendation.
- 43; Ablative proc (+20 HP), good only for solo / small groups, where it might get a chance to proc more than once. You can still get 50 Scythe here but that would require gimping your Parry completely.
- 48; even better Haste (+4%), but that's a big investment, it doesn't allow 50 Scythe (why getting a better haste if it's to lower your overall damage?) and forces you to have a relatively low Parry.

I'm currently playing a Thane (43) and I kind of wish I made a Valewalker instead, but maybe that's just nostalgia speaking.

50 scythe 43 arb (cast your self abla and go full af proc on your armor since self abla > crafted abla)
or 50 scythe 38 arb (don't cast your self abla and do a mix of abla/af proc on your armor)

That's the 2 real options you'll have.

More in weapon = more weapon skill = more defense penetration = more hit chance.

With very high RR you can try the 50 scythe 34 arb (you'll gain +3% more parry)

Torn between 44 scythe 43 arb 23 parry and 50 scythe 38 arb rest parry. I think I'll mostly be running solo/small man so the 43 arb looks kind of nice, but is the extra weapon skill/50 style more important for 1v1?