Board Thread:Questions and Answers/@comment-30575144-20150831173639/@comment-1419424-20150831175558

My personal playstyle uses a Variant Scythe with Mortal Divide BA. VS lets you hit from a moderate distance away so it's good for avoiding short-range attacks, and Mortal Divide deals multiple hits of VERY high damage when it hits a weak point.

Firm Stand, Prepared, Guard Exposure Down, Guard Speed Up, [B] Half ST Guard, Expand Guard Area, JGHP/OP/ST, Athlete... these are all good guard-related skills to have for the reasons Roi explained. However, I would highly recommend going with Bucklers due to the faster guard speed if you aren't absolutely sure of your guard timing. In that case, you'll definitely want Auto-Guard. Auto-Guard lets you do some pretty silly things like slipping through a Sariel's light wall or a Hannibal's sweeping breath. since those things only actually hit once, and of course it takes some of the stress off of guarding (you can't get Just Guards this way, though).

If you have neither Lifesteal Blade nor Evolved Blood Arts in your build, you should go with the Blood Plus CU, because Evolved Blood Arts is a flat 15% damage bonus to all BAs. Lifesteal Blade is good but you don't NEED it. It's better for survivability but what you want is higher damage for faster kill times and easier unbounding. Of course, if you can get both, that's great too. The weapons derived from Rachel's Aragami (Rakshasa Kongou, Mukuro Kyuubi, Caligula Xeno, Einherjar) all gain either a compound skill containing Lifesteal Blade or Lifesteal Blade itself at their final evolutions.