2-Reaper: This is the first style you will get. It is also the most useless of them all, it has absolutley no effect, ultra low damage bonus, high endurance usage, and did I mention that is useless? The only time you should ever use this style is if your Scythe spec is below 6.

4-Sawgrass: This style is your first good style. Use it after you parry to lower your enemy's resistance to Slash by 15%. Having used this style for a very long time on many monsters, both those resistant to slash and weak to it, I have seen no increase in damage after the effect is applied. I think that this may only work in PvP. I really love this style because of its potential against another player, and the animation looks darn cool. Its followup is Thorny Shield at 15 Spec.

6-Taunting Scythe: This will be your anytime style until you get 34 in scythe. I don't want to see any of you with 6 or more in Scythe to be using Reaper. Use this style as an anytime!! Being a taunt, like all others, it has fair damage, but no unique effects on the enemy. This shouldn't not be on your bar.

8-Arboreal Fire: An awesome style (after you Evade) that gives you a 30 second heat damage add. This augments your damage even more. Its swirling flames should strike fear (and pain) into your enemy. I personally love this style very much, coupled with the higher level damage add in Arboreal Path, the two combined close in on 50 damage, which is a pretty nice bonus. The style on average seems to do slightly more damage than Sawgrass. The followup to Arboreal Fire is Flaming Scythe at 39 Spec.

10-Stunning Blade: Yet another awesome style; side positional, 5 second stun. Usually you can use this one twice before the stun effect wears off. In later levels this will be the most feared 2 hit side chain in existance, becasue of its followup style Blizzard Blade at level 29.

12-Foxfire: A good low level rear positional with a good proc attached to it. This style procs a 18 point heat Damage over Time. The only drawback is that it is a level 12 spell and doesn't scale in damage at the higher levels and chances are will be resisted a lot by higher level players/mobs. The growth rate on it is fairly decent though. If you are grouped with somebody who can tank and you can assist, use this style until you can get Blizzard Blade (29). The followup to Foxfire is Winter's Scythe at level 18.

Your Style Chains (at 50):
Anytime: Taunting Scythe (6)
This should be your anytime chain until you get 34 in scythe.
Frontal: Grasping Roots (34) -> Conflagration (50)
This should be your anytime after you hit 34 scythe.
Parry: Sawgrass (4) -> Thorny Shield (15)
Evade: Arboreal Fire (8) -> Flaming Scythe (39)
Side: Stunning Blade (10) -> Blizzard Blade (29)
Rear 1: Foxfire (12) -> Winter's Scythe (18)
Rear 2: Damaging Grasp (44)

Arboreal Path

This is your spellcasting line. It has 2 parts, baseline, and spec line. They both merge in the same menu on your spell window. Always have the self buffs up, because if you don't you will drop in a few melee hits.

-----Baseline:
Armor Factor Buff:
This will be your primary unspecced defensive buff. It will add a great deal to your Armor Factor, and believe me, as a cloth wearing hybrid, you will need it. Your AF will be extremely low, and even with this buff it won't go above 500. With AF cap increases, you can make this a tad higher. The last one at level 50 delves for +250 AF.

Damage Shield:
This will be yet another way to deal damage to your opponent by taking hits. Each time you are hit, this does a small amount of damage to them. At 45 you will not need this line anymore, as you will get a group-castable Damage add* that delves slightly higher than the 48 "Nature's Heart of Wrath." This damage shield will stack with the Thorny Shield (15) style, making your enemy regret hitting you.
*Note: I think that the group castable is intended to be in the Arboreal Mastery Spec line, but for some reason it isn't. Perhaps the Camelot Herald messed up?

Lifetap:
This will be your ranged weapon. Always start a fight with at least one lifetap to regain some health that you lost if not for the extra damage. The last lifetap in this line comes at level 45 and delves for 164 energy damage and returns 50% of the damage done in life to you. At level 50 you will get a spell that was recently introduced to the Valewalker. It is called Immolation and delves as a 180 damage lifetap that also has a group heal attached to it (210 delve). This should be your opener in any fight, but you can only use it once because it is on a 10 second recast timer. 10 seconds really isn't all that long, so don't fret.

-----Spec Line:
Absorb:
This is your primary defensive buff. Having only cloth, you have exactly 0% damage absorption. Coupled with low life, this makes you very, very weak. To make you more sturdy, you get a nice absorption buff. This buff starts at 5% at 5 Spec, and ends at 33% at 34 Spec. As a Valewalker, you should always have at least 34 Spec in Arboreal Path for the 33% absorb buff. 33% is the same as Alb Plate armor, except Cloth doesn't have the same Armor Factor.

Haste Buff:
I condider this to be an "emergency use" haste. This is because it only lasts 30 seconds, but the amount of haste it gives is great. You are able to dish out much mor damage because of the swing speed of your weapon has increased. This will allow you to get off your side chain multiple times with a fast enough Scythe. It scales from 16% at level 3 to 39% at level 48 and has a recast timer of 2 minutes (120 sec) and will not stack with druid haste. Note that druid haste will win out over your self haste, so whenever you try to cast it and have druid haste, it will fail to affect you.

Snare:
This will be your main tool to stop those pesky runners. In the event that they try to flee from you, cast this on them and they will slow down by 35% allowing you to chase them down and stun them from the back. Or you can cast your lifetap on them. Be warned that it breaks when they take damage, so if you are the one who has to flee, make sure to turn off your damage shield or it will break if they hit you before you can get out of range. It ranges from 7 seconds at level 2 to 70 seconds at level 47. It is on a 20 second recast timer.

Disease Proc:
This buff gives you a chance to proc a disease on your opponent every time you hit them with your weapon. The chance is 15% at level 7 to 35% at level 46. The disease effect also goes up with the higher level buffs. Disease is an annoying poison type thing that lowers strength by 15% and lowers run speed. Also helps you escape from battles, or keeps your enemy from fleeing too fast. The snare effect will not break when damage is done making it a bit more effective than the insta snare. This buff will not stack with any other offensive proc buffs.

Ablative Proc:
This is a wonderful tool that has a chance to create an extra absorption shell around you when you are hit. The shell has a certain hit point limit (30HP at level 13 to 130HP at level 50). This buff will Absorb 25% of a hit (stacking with your other Absorb Buff of course). Say your shield procs and you get a 50HP buffer (level 19). The next time you are hit this buffer will tell you exactly how much damage it absorbed (we will say it took 20 damage). That means it now has 30HP left (50-20=30). Once it reaches its 50HP limit it will go away. This buff does have the chance to proc multiple times in a row, meaning that t will refresh the HP buffer. If you are hit and it procs, hit again and lose 20HP of the buffer but it procs again it will be back at 50HP. This makes you live longer, and giving you 58% Absorption if you have the level 34 Absorption buff (33% + 25% = 58%). This buff will not stack with any other defensive buffs such as the Shades of Mist /use2 effect.

Damage Over Time:
Here is your low-damage, insta cast Damage Over Time spell. This is good to use as a caster interruper while charging them. It ranges from 2 damage-per-tick at level 1 to 23 damage-per-tick at level 49 and lasts 24 seconds and ticking every 4 giving you 6 ticks. It's not the most powerful DOT around but its okay if you want a little bit of extra damage. It has a recast timer of 30 seconds.

Group Damage Add:
Here is a wonderful new spell that will allow you to even more damage than you already do. This will affect your whole group, assuming they are within the 1000 range. This does 5.4 DPS at level 29, 6.4 DPS at level 39 and 7.8 at level 45. The level 39 Damage Add, along with the procs from Arboreal Fire (8) or Winter's Scythe (18), I was able to near an extra 50 damage per hit.

Disease:
Valewalkers also get a castable Disease spell at 40 spec. It's AoE too! Whee! Then at 44 spec they get an insta cast Disease. I think both last 3 minutes.


Specializations:
Here is my current Spec:
50 Scythe
39 Arboreal
18 Parry
This gives me the uber level 50 style Conflagration along with the level 39 damage add. Go 50 Scythe if you really want awesome melee damage.

I'm thinking of respeccing to this though:
50 Scythe
40 Arboreal
15 Parry
I go for 40 Arboreal for the AoE disease. Disease has a lot of cool effects, and it helps in 8v8, because a diseased opponent can't chase down your healers as fast. I do lose out of 3 parry, but it's not like Mastery of Parrying can't make up for this.

"Cookie Cutter" Spec:
50 Scythe
38 Arboreal
20 Parry
This one seems popular on the forums. it has 2.5% more parry than my to-be spec but you miss out on the 39 Damage Add and the 40 Disease.

High Arboreal Spec:
44 Scythe
46+ Arboreal
17- Parry
I also found this one on the forums. There was a large range of Arboreal Path specs ranging from 44-49. While you get more tools, you lose out on Conflagration and some more Parry. They don't seem to miss Conflagration. Nobody seems to ever go below 44 Scythe though. Most people say that conflagration isn't really worth it. I'm not most people though. You could check out the class forums at Catacombs and see what they have to say about it.

---

Toolbars:

A good player doesn't just have an awesome spec, and uber gear, but a well thought out and learned toolbar. Or three. Being a Valewalker means having a lot of toys, but thats okay, you have 300 slots to put them in. 300!? Thats 100 per bar (10 scrollable sub-bars per bar) with 3 different bars. This means that you can have 30 slots at once, which is good because you will need them all. At level 50, you will have Styles, Spells, and various items to put on them.

I always put styles on the first bar, filling it up if there are enough. With so many neato styles, how can you not want to use all of them? I always put my anytime style in slot 1, first parry style in slot 2, first evade style in slot 3, evade followup in slot 4, and then the parry followup in slot 5. Then I put Damaging Grasp in slot 6, Stunning Blade in 7, and its followup in 8. Slot 9 holds Conflagration, and slot 10 has my lifetap.

This bar has worked for me for years, and I always use this style for all my characters. I put all the other spells on the second toolbar. This includes but is not limited to: All of the self buffs, offensive tools, and a few Realm Abilities. The Thrid bar usually contains items and potions (for the /use charges), more Realm Abilities, Master Levels and Champion Level stuff. This is a lot of stuff, and I often run out of room. I usually put the out of combat items on the second part of toolbar 3.

Where does /face and /stick go? That's an easy one. I have them bound to - and =, respectively. These normally take up 2 valuable spots on your combat toolbar that could otherwise go to a style or a spell.

My PvE Bar is pretty much my RvR bar, with the exception of the 3rd bar. The 3rd bar is always changing; I may get a new ability, see the need for a certain one, or not need another. The 3rd bar will change depending on whether I'm in PvE or RvR.

Slot	Bar 1	Bar 2	Bar 3
1	Grasping Roots	Absorb Buff	ML1 Ability
2	Sawgrass	AF Buff	Taunting Scythe
3	Arboreal Fire	Ablative Buff	Nature's Shield
4	Flaming Scythe	Disease Buff	Water Potion
5	Thorny Shield	Damage Add	Snakecharmers /use2
6	Damaging Grasp	Group Damage Shield	Bind Recall Stone
7	Stunning Blade	Nature's Shield	Protect III
8	Blizzard Blade	Immolation!	Intercept
9	Conflagration	Insta DoT	First Aid I(RA)
10	Lifetap	Insta Snare	Self Haste

---

Leveling:

There are 3 ways to go about leveling to 50 as a Valewalker. The super easy way, the boring way, or the hard way. leveling is made easier by the /level 20 command, but not everyone has this available to them.

The Super Easy Way: If you know some high level people who like you, or you have a ton of money to spend, then you can probably get a Power Level. This is the quick and easy way to 50, but you won't really learn your class as you level. Thats all I have to say about this.

The Boring Way: Not everyone finds running through task dungeons over and over and over and over and over (and over and over and over...) again until you finally hit 50 boring. Or do they? I'll tell you one thing though, it sure gets repetitive. If you can kill monsters fast without much downtime, then you will not have too much trouble here. At the lower levels, one Task Dungeon will usually get you a level if you kill a fair amount of the monsters in it before you complete it. In the lower level dungeons, the monsters will occasionally drop randomly generated armor, weapons, and jewelry what is good for your level, but will quickly become outdated. When you get enough money, you may want to drop in on housing and do some bargain hunting on armor and weapons and jewelry. You would be surprised what you can find for a nice low price. If you have some higher level friends/guildies, you can always ask/beg them for money/items. At the higher levels, you may want to find a good Task Dungeon group, because a group that can power through these levels up fast. The money isn't bad either.

The Hard Way: This way is also called the long way, but is the most fun because you get to explore your realm. For this way, you can use your imagination. You can even use the above ways combined with this one if you like, making it less hard, but chances are you can't get a Power Level all the time, and Task Dungeons just get plain boring sometimes (or all the time).

The best way to level is to visit a dungeon that is appropriate for your level. My favorite is Muire, a level 12-20(ish) dungeon near Ardee and Northish of the North entrance to Tir Na Nog. This dungeon has neutral spiders, agressive mummy hags and tomb creepers and worms, which will drop decent loot sometimes. At times it can be quite dangerous, but as a Valewalker, you can pull from a distance, minimizing the danger. If you can get a group, you may be the main puller, or you will be an assist tank or assist caster. Whenever you get the chance, use positional styles to maximize your damage (and hope the tank can keep aggro, tell them to use taunt styles).

Usually around level 20, most go to Thidranki which offers great experience if you can kill people, and at 35 and up most go to Molvik, which is also good experience if you can consistantly win fights.

At the higher levels (40+) you may want to pay a visit to the Coruscating Mine to the east of Mag Mell (into the next zone) if you aren't playing around in Leirvik or are just plain bored of Battlegrounds. Consider doing your Epic quests, if not for the armor, then for the experience of the higher level parts.

The Darkness rising quests also give good experience when you complete the parts of them. When you finally get into the high 40's (48+), leveling would seem to slow waaaay down... There is a solution to this. Go to the Catacombs areas, like the Underground Forest. It really isn't hard to get there at this level. Make sure you activate any obelisks that you pass on the way there, but watch out for the one-way obelisks. Keep an eye open for any NPC that has a yellow ring around their feet. Take any of the higher level quests you can get. These quests generally give you anywhere form a fifth of a bubble to close to two bubbles of experience. Get as many quests as you can at one time so when you venture into the zones that they are based in, you can complete many at once. Be careful not to overwhelm yourself, though. Some steps may require you to group up with other players as you venture into dangerous aggro filled areas and be forced to fight tough monsters. There is usually another player also doing these experience filled quests, and don't be afraid to ask them for help.

Questing your way through the upper levels is definately the fastest way to go, unless you have a super Power Level group, which aren't in as plentiful supply as you would like.

---

Items/Gear:

The better your items are, the better you will do in PvE and RvR. Aim for items that increase your Caps; personally I went for all the Strength I could possibly get, and am nearing +100 due to item bonuses. Depending on your Stat preference you may choose differently.

Notes on gear: Always try to have at least yellow/orange gear at all times, as it will give you the best protection. On a similar note, try to get the highest quality armor you can, because that will provide better protection also. My recommendations for this would be aurulite gear; it has decent quality, and very nice bonuses, and it looks neat, too.

Recommended Artifacts:

Snakecharmer's Scythe: This is probably the slowest Scythe around, with a speed of 5.6, which means MUCH more damage. It has some small magic resists bonuses, +3 to Scythe, damage and speed increases, and a very helpful proc. The proc (level 5) does 100 damage, and of that 100 damage, 50% is converted into health for you, 30% is turned into power for you, and 20% is converted into endurance. The proc seems to range from 90 to about 120 damage, depending on the level of the monster and perhaps the resists. The level 10 ability is a /use2 which creates an absorption buff/damage shield. The Absorb is 12%, and stacks with your Arboreal Path Absorb buff, but the damage shield does not stack with your Damage shield. The extra Absorb and damage shield only last 30 seconds and are reusable every 15 minutes. I use it as an emergency buff for when things start to look bad.

Scythe of Kings: This weapon is better known as "Spear of Kings" but has had its name and changed for Valewalkers. This "Scythe" has +4 to all melee resists, +4 to matter/body/spirit, +5 fatigue, +40 to the HP cap (good for low HP classes), and +5 to combat speed. The first ability it gets at level 5 is a style damage ablative that has a chance to proc whenver you hit your enemy. This ablative blocks 50% of the style damage your opponent would do to you, which is very useful against those high growth styles, like when you are fighting assassins (this proc is generally useless against PvE, unless you fight mosnters that use styles. The second ability (level 10) is a 5% realm health/AF increase. It will increase the Hit points and Armor Factor of yourself, and any realm-mate in a 1500 or 2000 radius around you buy 5%. this is useful to have up whenever you can, and lasts 10 minutes, castable every 15 minutes. I would use this scythe instead of Snakecharmers if you want a faster scythe.

Shades of Mist: This cloak is a must have if you are going to solo in RvR. It gives you +15 to STR and QUI, +10 to AF, +3 to Parry, and an extra 5% to melee speed. The level 5 ability is what is known as Stealth Lore. This gives you the ability to see stealthers at a greater distance for 30 seconds. At level 10 it gives you the ability to cast a defensive proc that has a chance of going off whenever you are hit by an enemy and casts a 200HP ablative that absorbs 100% damage that lasts 10 minutes. Important: this proc will not stack with your defensive ablative spell in the Arboreal Path line. If you have that buff up, this one will give you the shade form, but not the proc. Usable every 15 minutes.

Guard of Valor: A superb chest piece that everybody ends up getting someday. It has excellent stats; +40 hits, +18 Strength, +15 Dexterity, +5 to both Strength and Dexterity caps, and 4% to melee and style damage. At level 5 it gains a sort-of double-reverse-proc, that the chest piece is hit, it has a chance to lower your enemies over Armor Factor, and also increase your own by 50. This enables you to hit slightly harder while taking slightly less damage. At level 10 it gains another reverse proc, that when hit, there is a chance that your enemy will be poisoned... twice! It does about 40 (give or take a few depending on resists) in the form of 2 DoTs on your opponent. I usually see it hit for 38 per DoT, making it a pretty good proc. I have seen both the level 5 and level 10 procs go off in 1 hit.

Belt of Oglidarsh: I really like this belt (though it doesn't always fit into most templates), because it increases the Strength and Hit Points cap. It gives +6 to the Strength cap, +40 to the HP cap, +15 Strength, +40 HP, and 4% to all 3 melee resists. The level 5 ability is a grouped shared Ablative, that will, when /used, split a 200HP ablative between your group. If you have a 2 person group, it will give each a 100HP ablative (200/2=100). This will not stack with the defensive proc in Arboreal Path, but it will not override the buff. It absorbs 20% of damage for you. The level 10 ability is a /use2 that debuffs your opponent's STR/CON by 30, and increases yours by the same amount for 1 minute. Supposedly this is an AoE effect, so if it hits more than 1 enemy it should give you 30 times the number of enemies to you. It is useable every 10 or 15 minutes

Maddening Scalars: A truly excellent set of gloves, if they fit into your template. These basically give you +40 HP, +15 to Constitution and Quickness 3% to melee damage and combat speed, and +5 to the Constitution and Quickness caps. The level 5 ability is a reverse proc, that when it goes off, gives you a 40% Absorbtion buff which is also linked to a 40% damage shield. I'm pretty sure this will stack with your Absorption Buff. The downsides is that it lasts 10 seconds, but that 10 seconds can span 2-4 hits, and the proc doesn't go off nearly as much as you would like. The level 10 ability is a /use2 that turns you into a wolf for 10 minutes! This also gives you an offensive proc (which won't stack with your Disease Proc Buff) that hits the enemy with a 20 point Damage over Time and a disease that lasts 1 minute (?). This wolf morph is good for diguising what you are, and for being more sneaky at night when you sort of blend in with the darkness. This is useable every 15 minutes.

---

Realm Abilities and RvR:

This section will not be nearly as long as I want it to be, because of my limited RvR experience. I can recommend a few good RAs for PvE and some that may be effective in RvR. The forum-folks at Catacombs seem to know what works.

This is definately the best part of DAoC, if you can handle it. If you are playing on the classic servers, you won't have to worry too much about being stomped on by people who have bots or ultra ToA stuff. If you were to ask me, ToA makes it more fun, though it does make it seem that the person with the better Artifacts wins. Also, if you are running around in RvR without a buffbot at a Borderkeep, then you are definately going to be outmatched. Buffs make a huge difference in RvR, mainly because they come close to doubling all your stats. And ALWAYS make sure you have your self buffs up. Without them you are a twig to be snapped in two by anyone who hits you.

So what if you aren't 50 yet and you are still hanging around in the Battlegrounds? The higher level battlegrounds often allow for a few artifacts (you start seeing the first ones in Molvik), but with the new addition of Cathal Valley, you will definately see people with Shades of Mist, and Malice and everything else all at level 10 and fully templated so they can be the best at level 49.5. And of course they have buffbots.

Good Ablilities to Have:

I like to have at least Serenity II for increased Power Regeneration, Mastery of Parrying for better defense, Mastery of Pain to increase the frequency of Critical hits, and perhaps any of the RAs that increase your HP such as Toughness or Augmented Constitution. I suppose Aug STR is good to increase your damage even more, or any of the other Augmentation RAs are good. In RvR you will want to have Purge to get rid of those pesky slams and mezzes. If you plan to solo, you will definately want Ignore Pain in the likely event that you get attacked by more than you can handle. Be warned that you will not want to blow Purge or IP when you are mezzed or stunned or ganked by an 8 man. I do think that 8 mans should leave soloers alone. Just take the death in the very likely event that you meet an 8v1 fight.

At RR5, Valewalkers get an insta cast Ablative, similar to the one that procs on the Defensive Buff. This one gives the group a 500HP buffer that takes 50% of the damage instead of just 25%. This ability will last for 10 minutes or until the Ablatives exhausts it HP.

Tips:

Thidranki:
Not all Battlegrounds are 30+, and by far the most popular is Thidranki. This Battleground definately does not reflect what level 50 RvR will be like. Some classes (such as the Valewalker) are yet to reach their full potential. If you are going to party in Thidranki, then bring a bot if you can (if at all possible, a level 24 bot), some gear that fits what Stats you want and adds to your Specs. Don't forget a couple of different speed scythes also helps. Sometimes it seems that a 4.7 Speed scythe is just too darn slow, so bring a 4.0- if you can as well. Just remember that you have a haste buff that you can use in emergencies (or anytime you meet an enemy... the timer is only 2 minutes). Realm abilities won't help you much here, because you will only get 4 points to spend, so you could increase your chance to parry (Mastery of Parrying), chance to critical hit (Mastery of Pain), any of the Augmentation parts depending if you want survivability (Aug Con), more damage (Aug Str), or you can bank those 4 points and wait til you have 5 to get any of the active RAs for the higher BGs. Just remember to be wary when crossing bridges here, as stealthers of all sorts will be in plentiful supply. Bring the Greater Nereid Potions for when you have to take that swim, because if you use plain ol Water Pots you will be outrun by anybody else because they always buy the Greater Potions (come prepared, or you are gimping yourself). When fighting casters, use your instants to interrupt their spells then cast them down with your lifetaps, but beware of quickcast. Be wary of heavy tanks, too, because they have better armor then you, can take more hits than you, and may even do more damage. You aren't the only thing around with a 2h weapon. Also, the fact that you are 20-24 here will also hinder your awesome chance to parry and evade, so you will take more hits than you really want to. Thidranki is a very dangerous place for a Valewalker. Though I am always open to being proven wrong in this respect.

Braemar:
Braemar!? I remember the good old days when this place was popular like Killaloe and Lion's Den. The same rules apply as in Thidranki, except you will have slightly better skills. I do have fond memories of this place and I was able to take out a skald and a hunter who teamed up on me. None of us had any buffs either, and the hunter made the mistake of not /facing me so I was able to get Blizzard Blade off. That's another tip, is to get Blizzard Blade off if you can. Doing the lag stun thing is unacceptable, idiotic, and exploitive. I never want to see it, unless you are outmatched, then it is acceptable. Fight a battle like a real Valewalker and if you can't beat your opponent, then try again. Ambushing them from behind a tree or a bush works wonders because you can get 2 casts off before they figure out where you are and 2 more while they run up to you. You can root them and repeat. At this level, archers are easy to beat, because you should have Nature's Shield (25) by now. Just run around with it on and block arrows. Then you can /face, use your instant DoT, and nuke away. If they turn to run, root them and come up beind them and use Foxfire.

Wilton:
Another once popular BG. This is where Assassin classes will get Creeping Death, which has a nasty 6 second stun AFTER they perforate you doing way too much damage. Here (if you spec scythe up to your level which is what I did, because I love it so) you may get Grasping Roots, which enables you to unfairly beat down anything that stands facing you. You should also have full Evade IV by now, which gives you a pretty good chance to evade. If you have high Arboreal Path Spec, then your defenses will be good too, due to your absorption buff, closing in on 30% perhaps. I wouldn't advise going full scythe until the 40's due to the loss of that special Absorb buff. Try to keep scythe a few levels below you, like 2 or 3.

Molvik:
Here is the first big Battleground. If possible, get Orions Belt and/or Ring of Unyielding Will, unless you are a)unable to in any way, or b)have a belt/ring that gives much better stats. If you don't have good gear, a buffbot, and level 39, then you will probably be outmatched by stealthers and heavy tanks. You should definately have Grasping Roots (34) by now, and if a stealther misses his perf, he is a dead man. Chances are if you are beating a stealther, you wont kill him, because he will vanish and you will never find him. The best possible enemy you can fight is a Scout, because you can block his arrows, and they will low weaponskill. Don't expect too many blocks during the course of a fight, just beat on them, and if they run, you should know what to do by now (snare them silly!). One of the fonder memories I have of Molvik is standing 2 feet in front of this pink hunter using Nature's Shield (25) and /laughing at him as I blocked and Evaded all of his arrows. This occurred about 3 times. Watch out for Shield tanks, because they will have higher levels of block now, and the bane of a Valewalker's existance is not being able to get any hits on his target. Chances are they will have almost double your HP and AF. Don't let me decide what targets to fight for you. Take chances, learn your class, and use your strong points.

Leirvik:
This is where you will start to see your real class unfold, and your enemies will also see their do the same. Remeber the part about buffbots and gear and the like. If you can, aim to get whatever is available to you (Arties, Master Levels, but don't go over ML3 or else you can't get in Leirvik). Chances are, any stealther you fight will have Traitor's Dagger, which, at level 5, can proc a Vampiric Mist that will heal its master and be a general nusance (I really love it when a mist is called and you kill your target, let if hit you a few times, then look at the dead guys life, they can be dead and it will be going up past 50%). Remeber that if things get too hairy, don't be afraid to bravely run away (when in doubt, chicken out). Sure your enemy will laugh at you or taunt you, though you can be sure they will do the same thing in your position. I was 44 Scythe here, so in the event my enemy ran, I could hit him with Damaging Grasp (44) which stuns them for 8 seconds, then was able to get off my Blizzard Blade and kick their booties.

Cathal Valley:
I regret to inform you that I cannot offer much advice here, as I was 50 before they added this BG. You should know your class by now, and how to use it effectively. This big difference between this Battleground and the others is that you can get any and all Artifacts you want. I would recommend Snakecharmers Scythe, or Scythe of Kings (previously known as Spear of Kings, but changed for VWs). Get as many Artifacts as you can, and don't forget the Buffbots. Life here will come close to reflecting how you will do in Big-boy RvR, so perfect and/or change your tactics to suit you.

New Frontiers:
This is it, the big 5-0. If you are a fresh 50, you will probably want to spend some time finishing up your Template, Master Levels, Artifacts, and Champion Levels. This is another section in which I cannot offer too much advice in, because of my lack of experience here. Of course, you should always be careful crossing bridges, or well travelled areas, because of stealthers and zergs/8mans. If you do get in a group, you can join the assist train and get off your nice stunning positionals, especially Blizzard Blade, or you could hang back with the casters and Lifetap. Throw in Immolation whenever you can, due to the increased damage and the nice group heal that it has. In the event that your are soloing, never pass up a chance to lifetap your enemy. If they turn to run, and somehow get out of Damaging Grasp (44 Scythe) range, snare and lifetap them! It will restore your health, and drain theirs (always use Immolation whenever possible!!).

---

Special Thanks:
-Thanks to Badfuzzy for the good memories
-Thanks to Saroch HunterKiller of Merlin for helping me test the Nature's Shield Style.
-Thanks to Mythic for making such a darn fun game that won't release me from its death-grip
-And thanks to you for reading this :)

Duckwad
Merlin

And remember, always have your self buffs up!