Ah, this post has been brewing a while. Forgive me if I mention something others have (probably influenced me, hehe) or if I ignore something that applies....
General Melee-
Regional skills at lvl 125. Can be just adding elemental damage to the hit, but would be more interesting if was effects: Fire burn that decreases targets damage ability, poison slows their attack rate for the duration and causes slight DoT, electric stuns for a moment, shockwave causes madness for a moment. Make them very effective, but on a timer (can't have people using it as a basic attack and straining the healers) But make the timer malus/penalty dependent. So someone in medium armor can use it more often then someone in heavy, and someone in light even more.
The elemental weapons need to do something besides look good. Maybe like a 1% chance to cause the above mentioned things on strike, or better yet increased effectiveness when using one of the above with a matching weapon. Could at the same time make a portion of the damage (25%?) into elemental damage of the appropriate type. Same max possible as regular weapons, just delivered different. If the bonus is too much no one would ever want to use the non-elemental weapons.
Edit: I see someone mentioned having regional weapons that were extra effective at their regional spell but not as good as the others. That would be perfect for melee weapons. Someone coming at you with a burning axe is going to have an awesome fire attack but the others not so hot. But someone coming at you with a Zorai sword can do them all equally well.
Melee needs an AoE taunt that pulls everything in a radius of the user, but on a long timer. Don't give it until say lvl 150 and increase the radius at 200 and 250.
Slashing-
Boost bleed a little. I'd like to see a system where once the target is bleeding, occasionally an opening of some sort will show like a dodge or parry, and if you successfully hit with a special "Old Wounds" skill in that opening (time window would be shorter than "after dodge/parry"), it renews the timer on any bleeds that are currently going. That way by good timing, you can stack them a lot longer (if your attacks land)
New skill "Duel." Extra effective taunt skill. Credit usage on your melee attacks are reduced to 25% for the duration. Both yours and targets damaged are increased for the duration. On a timer.
Piercing-
New skill. "Find weakness" Using it has a chance to find a weakness in the opponents armor. Once successful, fur a duration afterwards you'll see new openings pop up like dodge/parry. Can use a regular attack in those openings and it will ignore armor without using an IA brick in the attack. Saves you stamina.
New skill "Skewer" Thrust the weapon into the opponent and hold it there for decent DoT. But neither you or the opponent can move from that spot for the duration, you're stuck together. On a timer.
Smashing-
Boost slow. I can't even notice it now, I hear it debated whether it's working or not. Maybe just set it to stack if you do it successivley, going up to a max of the target attacking at half rate.
Introduce a new skill, "immobilize". If successful, target is crippled and can't move for a short period of time. On a timer. Melee can cripple it's target and then run after an add or use it to try to escape a fight they can't win
Daggers-
Can use all 3 attacks slow, bleed, ignore armor. Imagine you do all three with it- stab, slash, and bash with the pommel. (base armor reduction on pierce still)
Add a new skill of "Flurry" where each successive successful hit increases in damage. Adds a bonus to your ability to hit and to your dodge for the duration, while decreasing stamina cost of each successive attack. Can break any time by switching to another attack. Dodge/parry decreased below normal for a short period (based on how long your flurry was) afterwards. On a timer.
Edit: It would be nice if instead of having the increased chance to hit, it relied more on hitting certain body parts in the correct order. Every type of mob in the game would have like a 5 part code that needed to be learned. Once you know a code, just repeat hitting the 5 parts in the right order and do a long Flurry
Shield-
Users would be good to have a shield bash attack. On a timer. Maybe chance to stun. Damage based on level of the skill and if it's a buckler or large shield. (i.e. no need to make a damage stat on shield crafting) Either can't be dodged or parried or make it very difficult to, like add 50 levels to th effective attack level.
Also, "shielding" doesn't need a timer, let it be active continuously as suggested earlier.
2h - General-
New skills, "impale/crush/cleave" depending on your branch. Mega damage attack (300% on top of inc damage?) but takes twice as long to recover from. Decreases your effective dodge/parry during use. On a timer.
1H General-
New skills "Counter/redirect/block" (slash/pierce/smash) Increases your effective parry (more at higher levels) modifier while in use, but can not be used with increase damage or any other special melee stanzas except accuratte attack. Forfeit damage so you can avoid more hits.
Stamina usage on 1H and CC should be decreased. Simple way would be a negative penalty modifier on 1H weapons (not able to drop it below zero though) but there's probably a better way.
Dual Wield-
New skill , "distract" Allows you to feint with the dagger and get a guaranteed hit with the sword (undodgeable) in the same action. On a timer.
Armor
Light- "Duel" skill duration used against wearer is cut in half. Also reduces Bleeding damage to 50% or cuts the timer in half. It's cloth, absorbs the blood and helps it clot faster?
Medium- Ignore Armor and Skewer attacks on it have an added chance to miss completely. 20%?. (seeing as they can just not use IA and only have 25% damage absorption) I see IA as sliding into chinks in the armor.Can think of MA of being made up of strategically placed extra hard panels, if the IA hits on a panel it won't penetrate but instead slide off to the side harmlessly
Heavy- Either 50% immune (duration reduction probably better than chance to hit) to "immobilize" , "slow" or both. Heavy is heavy, it'll absorb the shock of a big blunt thwack and minimize the effects of your body being crushed.
Aim Stanzas
Either keep the credit costs the same and make the following happen frequently, or decrease the cost and make them infrequent.. or 50/50 hehe
(only when these stanzas are used, the following don't happen if you hit that body part naturally)
Legs- Target incurs slow movement if hit
Arms- Target damage output is slightly reduced if hit
Chest- Knockback,targets is pushed away from you if hit
Head- Cancels its current or next action if hit (very short stun)
