Melee Fighters - how do you play yours?

[teriodin]

I'm fairly new here and only have a 49F/33Mage but currently I use Heavy armour and 2 handed weapons, with parry rather than dodge owing to the armour penalties.

I solo a lot, but am happy to tank in a group too.

I usually taunt to start combat and am planning on editing all my shortcut bars to minimise stamina use today. It will be a bit trial and error, but I have a few ideas.

I saw a post from one guy who said he uses light armour and dodge - may have to try that just to see what happens

Anyone else care to share their Melee ideas?

[geala]

To fight as melee is as boaring as the other possible class, mage. The big fortune for melees is, you can double-click in the beginning and then you have time to chat during the fight.*g*

Most important: keep your Hp and Stam and the regeneration always at max.

I started my "career" as a melee shortly before Patch 1 using accurate attack, increased damage, attack after dodge, bloody attack etc. After it I only used increased damage and accurate attack. Nothing more. Mark the Mob, double-click your attack stanza and take a break till it is dead.

Using heavy armour and 2Hand weapons seams to be the most favoured choice for a melee. If you have to bring down a mob, it is the best choice, I think. If you are in a group with ele off mages, using 1 Hand weapon and carry a shield may be a better choice. I'm Lvl 57 in 1 hand weapons and Lvl 170 in 2 hand sword, so for me it's not so much to consider, but if I would start again as a melee, I would develop both skills.

Using light armour and dodge is not my favorit choice; you can also dodge with heavy armor if it is optimized for dodging (strange but fact). The last time I only played as a mage (I like it to make damage over 2k), using light armour and acting as a "tank": I don't dodge much more as when I am using heavy armour.

Have fun as a melee! Even if you change later to be a mage like I did you will love the additional Hp you have gotten as a former melee. By the way I'm a Tryker but I love Zorai armour. The best for hot climates.*g* And sorry for my strange English.

[borg9]

I only started up the melee tree a month ago ... I am a humble digger and maker of things.

I have found the follow:

Accuracy is king. If you can't hit it there isn't any point fighting it.
HPs next as you need them to survive.
HP reg - if you are solo (reduces down time)
Stam is important to use higher ql weapons.
Stam reg - if you are solo (reduces down time)
Taunt - if you want to be a tank taunt is a must.
Inc damage - nice as it reduces the length of the fight.


Attack after dodge/parry based on you preference in defencive stance. (I used parry against melee targets and dodge against magical creatures)

Attack after Fient - useful if you are a heavy hitter. (becuase of the credit)

My golden rule is I dont hunt without a healer.

With a healer the downtime is reduced to a very short break to top up the healer every few pulls. 2 healers means zero downtime.

When I fight with a healer, I watch their HP and SAP not mine, thats their job Their HP/Sap lvls dictate the speed of the hunt.

I use (when not dualing) max HP credit and Stam credit to top up the difference. This means even if the mob is a 2 hit wonder they always get one heal in per fight and qualify for the XP. Young healers may only have HP heal and they like fighters who are not heavily dependant on Stam.

Ignore armour is useful if you want to use then 'wrong' weapon on a mob ... I tend to fight with the right weapon for the mob, so don't use this at the moment. Things change and I may find it useful later on.

Circle attack is great for clearing low lvl mobs in groups or dealing with add in a larger team with good healers.

I haven't used bleed, but any extra damage is always a good thing .... it does however limit you to slashing weapons to get the benefit.

Auras they are great but expensive ... I plan to get these as I level my sub branches.

I don't find hunting boring at all. This is purely down to the way I hunt.

I hunt in a team... minimum (1xtank+1xhealer) ... I have regularly hunted in teams of 9 but balance is often an issue ....team balancing is much to complex an issue for this post.

Why don't I get bored as main tank in a hunting team....

1. I select mobs to fight that will drop in 3 rounds max (from the damage team) and give between 2.5-3k a kill. (exception double pulls if in a good team 2 mobs can be handled 1.5-2k is an acceptable XP amount at this point) or We pull the next mob prior to the first one being killed. We aim for 5-20 secs a kill.

With monitoring the healers, pulling mobs, controlling the add with taunt, etc. I rarely have chance to chat as main tank, and I my healer can chat, I am going to slow and up the pace or change mobs.

Aim @ part - under used skill, very useful for high dodge mobs - kinchers are weaker in the legs than any other body part!

I never have spare SP as a fighter, unlike magic when I often store around 50-100 skill points waiting for the next upgrade.

How this helps...

[genod]

I tend to use heavy armour and a 2-handed sword when out meleeing. I used to go with light armour and dual weapons (1h sword and dagger), but since I usually end up tanking for people, it's not practical to do that anymore

I also used to use full stamina credit in all my attacks, and used the attack after dodge/parry/critical hit stanzas to create cost-free attacks. Now, I'm not shy about putting a little hp credit in there, and including the accurate attack stanza to go alongside my inc damage. My effectiveness rose quite a bit there. Also, I now use the attack after opening stanzas to create even stronger attacks rather than free ones. Being able to bring a mob down quicker is cheaper in the long run.

Oh, and ditto to the melee not being boring. Getting a constant stream of enemies coming one after another can be pretty exciting. And profitable

[teriodin]

I enjoy melee immensely, don't get me wrong - I'm just working on honing my tactics.

I think that working on both 2H and 1H once I hit 50 seems to be a good idea, that should increase my effectiveness in a group.

What exact benefits does a shield confer, and what are the pros and cons of each size of shield? Has anyone looked into that?

[xenofur]

currently lvl 63 CC here
wearing light armor, a nice hp jewel set and two ql 70 root mats matis daggers
i use the following skills: inc damage(naturally), inc dmg + after dodge, inc dmg + after critical hit
i don't need to worry about accuracy as daggers seem to have a slightly higher accuracy than 2hd weapons, or it's just because they're faster, i also dodge very often and have a good number of criticals, so my stamina use is almost cut in three
next thing i plan to get is ignore armour so i can have at kitin
only mob that i can't deal with properly are bird-like ones :/

[blogie]

Some time ago i whos diggin and a guildie sed in team chat "Darn my armor is almost broken". I sed well i can give you one of my mediums.

At furst they started to laugh at me. Somting like "Yea right, i'm not a fag!" but in the end it turnd out to be just as good as his old heavy armor. But now he could dodge and cast heals when a healer whos in trobel while using a sword.

From that moment on i found my reward in crafting medium armors. More and more ppl don want to have 1 light and 1 heavy armor in there bag. Just take the "fagget armor" and you save more space 4 animal mats.

Neun explaind me how i could use medium armor. And as it seams you can use it for more then only rangd combat. You can use it as a caster and as a DD-melee (if you have a good tank aggro dummy )


Edit:
(+ if you ar female you get the look's Grrrr awhoooouuu!!!)

[teriodin]

From that moment on i found my reward in crafting medium armors. More and more ppl don want to have 1 light and 1 heavy armor in there bag. Just take the "fagget armor" and you save more space 4 animal mats.

Now, I saw a post in the combat forum saying how useless medium armour would be for melee and I'm sorry to say that I just took it at face value and believed it - as your guild mate must have.

I'll try some medium in the game later today - it's only dappers after all.

[borg9]

Now, I saw a post in the combat forum saying how useless medium armour would be for melee and I'm sorry to say that I just took it at face value and believed it - as your guild mate must have.

I'll try some medium in the game later today - it's only dappers after all.

Why Light armour (currently) no restriction on QL wearable, so if you can find a crafter that makes ql250 a new char can start with +625 stat from day one.

Why Heavy, 50% protection factor + HP boost is effectively equally to 2 x your boosted HP. (except crits of course)

Thats the obvious out of the way....

The great undersestmated medium armour

The stat restriction is much less, (hvy con+10, medium con+40 [can I get a comfirmation plz]) so you can get better boosts.

[blogie]

Why Light armour (currently) no restriction on QL wearable, so if you can find a crafter that makes ql250 a new char can start with +625 stat from day one.

Why Heavy, 50% protection factor + HP boost is effectively equally to 2 x your boosted HP. (except crits of course)

Thats the obvious out of the way....

The great undersestmated medium armour

The stat restriction is much less, (hvy con+10, medium con+40 [can I get a comfirmation plz]) so you can get better boosts.

Con rec on a q110 is 73con

con rec on a q100 is 60con O.o

I dont get the calc but its a bit odd.

Personaly i think that medium will give a low level figther bether protection at his level when his con matshes the rec on the medium. But its speculation. So mats that ar used for q130 in a q130 med will be mutsh bether then a mat used in a q70 heavy. This is the way i think but i'm sure the more expiriancd crafters can elaborate this one. The stats will be higher (more +hp) and the penalty to cast and stam use will be mutsh bether then heavy.

So all in all med armor has its uses but also its restrictions. Personaly i still think its an armor for healers and low level melee fighters.

I have started to hend out medium armors to ppl so they can test it. For now i dont have enny complaints. But i think Drizz is the specialist on med armors he is the one who crafts the highest q on the server (i think)