So Ive been testing leveling on Hero, and I must say, its somewhat miserable. Granted I've been mostly solo testing. So some questions for my more experienced heroes and heroines.

1) Do you typically put points into slashing 1-5 to help the leveling process?
2) Do you level using s/s in groups and just play tank? or do you use LW?

Side note, what spec are you guys using? I know I plan on 50 LW/42shield/6CS, but how much you guys putting in slashing?

If I play hib I will be going to 42 shield, 50 LW, 38 Spear, 10 Blades.

Personally I think that if you designate yourself as a s/s tank for levelling you'll find it easier to get into groups for xp and farming. You can spec from 1-5 in blades, it doesn't really matter - just remember there is no free respec at 5, only at 20 and 40 which are single line only.

I am gonna do hero too, this is my point of view :

1) I will go for blades/shield, maximize point in each, with priority in blades/shield depending which style is coming soon.
Until level 40 then /respec 1h to get my final Template.
1-5 doesnt matter but why not up 1h and make the life more easy I would say ?
Yes it's quiet difficult solo, even a yellow mobs can be hard.

2) the hero is the hibernia tank so I would say let's focus on the job. guarding/protecting and using my taunt in leveling phase. We take already so hard without stuff then tanking without shield I would say good luck.
Futhermore even without much shield spe and stuff, the blocking is not too bad and could already save your ass.

There is already a topic about final spec but I will personally try 50shield/50CS/12 (12 just for the bleeding styl for pve)

I was 50 LW/50Shield/6cs/15blades on genesis but the guard was pretty much bug until the nearly end so I was playing fully offensive mainly in assist with bm. https://youtu.be/7hlXTbsT2IQ?list=PLBgAlhXFUBtA1iDQTmNLCM6iskM7VXCh

Making the switch from BM to hero for launch due to fulfilling a similar role in 8v8, but Hero just doing it better with stronger burst while also being able to provide some much needed tankiness in a leveling party.

My current level 50 spec looks like: 50 LW/10 blades/38 parry/42 shield which gives you side snare from blades or frontal snare from LW, slam or Annihilation to peel with and decent defensive stats so you can fulfill the tank role in a leveling group. Only other thing I could see doing to this spec is taking a point out of parry and putting 6 into cs for the back snare, but that would lead you to having to manual weapon swap your CS weapon in for your LW and then LW back in for Annihilation spam, I think slam+side snare from blades is sufficient enough. Depends how hard you want to work.

You would level as blades/shield while guarding other melee and keeping protect on healers or bombers/nukers that may be stealing aggro.

You could realistically task from 1-20 if you are planning to level on your own time and not group, but most people do 1-5 tasking and then look for a group to level with. When soloing in this game your aim is to basically kill blues, it isn't very realistic to kill yellows unless you are geared to the teeth, being buff botted (which isn't legal on Uthgard) or one of the rare classes that can do this (primarily casters). Soloing as a melee is pretty rough, task to 5 and look for a group if you want it to be smoother.

Have fun penetrating enemys parry block and evade with low weaponskill.