Melee Fighters - how do you play yours?

[iwojimmy]

my original intent with Gillayne was a durable, defensive fighter, before patch 1 I could duel a scowling gingo long enough for my self heal to recycle, been a few changes since then but the concept still works..

Primarily, I use a 1-handed spear and shield combo, (parry selected) with mixed medium and heavy armour - there is no medium helmet, and since im forced to use some heavy armour, i also use boots and gloves. These can be quickly dropped for serious casting. Appearance is a major factor here.. it is a point of personal style

my normal attack is a combined acc/inc dam at about half my capable level, with a max power/credit attack set for 'attack after parry'. I adjust my hp/stam costs to balanced or hp heavy, depending if im soloing or with a team. If Im babysitting newbs, or fighting something above the capability of the party (eg named mobs higher level than me B) ), i use feint / attack-after-feint. this gives the lowbs a chance to get hits in and get xp..Im so nice
I also have an 'ignore armour' attack set up, for when fighting armoured mobs


a couple of points. Some have been covered earlier.
heavy armour requires con + 10 to wear
medium armour requires con * 150%..
so at con 100, you can wear heavy q110, or medium q150

the max bonus you can have in a stat, is equal to your natural stat, so with 600 hp, you can only benefit from another 600 hp from equipment.

Attack after parry/dodge/feint only works if you are the mobs target. if you are secondary fighter, you wont get to use them. Taunting the mob away from someone who is trying to use them..will annoy that person.

If you are going to team with anyone, as a fighter, learn taunt.
If you are going to play the game with other people at all, know how to heal

[geala]

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?

A shield adds protection. A heavy armour Ql 200 supreme can deflect 1000 dmg; a shield ads 250 dmg-deflection. This can help the healers in long fights (named mobs fe) to keep you alive. It may be useless if you get a 5,5k crit but normaly for me it seems to be helpful.

Don't worry about making less damage with your 1 H weapon. Otherwise some of the mages would probably laugh at you.

For me only big shields (heavy) make sense.

Heavy-medium-light armour: in a normal group fighting normal mobs it is of no great interest because of healing. If there is no healer or you are alone, heavy armour should be the only choice for melees.

Being not the most consequent, I like to use medium vests (Zorai or Fyros) with my heavy armour because they look so strange and fit my Trykerbody perfectly.*g*

But as a professional melee, wear heavy armour. If you see that your stamina went down uring a fight and there's no good healer with double-rocket or the double-rocket is needed to double-Hp-heal, get rid of some of your heavy armour to save stamina.

[richaden]

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?

Hail, Teriodin.

I've been watching this thread progress for a while with interest, though I thought now would be a good opportunity to give my experiences as a dedicated Melee'er.

First and foremost, understand one thing. There are two very different types of Melee'ers, and you would be best to pick one and go for it full-steam. I'm not talking 1hand or 2hand either, I'm talking Damage Dealer and Tank.

It is my personal belief that a Melee Damage Dealer is no substitute for any Nuker (i.e. offensive mage) worth their salt. Therefore, I follow the path of the Defensive Warrior. I am the immovable object to my Lady Ailish's irresistable force, the wall of armour to which damage output is -always- secondary to damage resistance.

To begin with, Melee'ers are strong in all areas. They can solo easily, they can travel easily, they can soak up lots of damage -and- deal out lots. However, as you progress to harder areas, and come across invasion forces, you will find yourself falling more often than not unless you hone your tactics into that of the true tank.

Mostly I hunt with my Guild, in which I am the most experienced Homin, but from time to time I hunt with Homins more experienced than I. However, more often than not, it is I who gets the role of main tank and of mob puller. To a certain degree, tactics are much more useful to a tank than physical attributes.

As mentioned before with regards to group fighting, the most important skill for a Tank is Taunt. Without this, you are useless. You're just another mediocre damage dealer, and you are not protecting your casters. Healers keep you alive, if they die, so do you. Nukers make taking on strong enemies so much easier. As well as being used to "Pull" a mob to a safe area for your group to dispatch, Taunt's more important use is during an 'Add' situation. If a mob breaks off from attacking you and runs for the casters, taunt it, and bring it back to you.

Melee Protection Aura, Speed Up, Self Heal, Invulnerability and to a lesser extent Magic Protection Aura (from the Defensive magic tree) are all essential skills for a Tank. One important thing to note is that no other Aura actions should be used other than Melee Protection Aura, as Auras have a long recharge time, and once you use one, ALL auras are deactivated.

These skills are used for various occasions, ranging from damage spikes (i.e. a mob hits you with a special attack while you are pulling and still out of range of your healers), to no-win situations (to run to guards, water, or even through a portal).

As a note, for these no-win situations, which happen to the best of us, you should also have a decent healing ability. I only have Defensive Magician ability, but it is more than enough for reviving party members once agro has passed.

Now, the age-old question of 1hand or 2hand...

In an ideal world, Tanks would use 1hand and shield, and Damage Dealers would use 2hand. On my arrival on Matis Island, and subsequently on the mainland, I spend a considerable amount of time in the discipline of 1hand and shield. However, eventually I could continue no longer, so I reluctantly switched to the 2-handed Pike.

My reasoning is this:
1handed weapons deal less damage, but posess a higher attack rate. So, you may think it all balances out. One important thing to note though, is for every single attack, you are using HP and Stamina (if you are combining Increase Damage and Accurate Attack, as you should). So, for a 1hand kill you will generally have to use twice the HP and Stamina of a 2hand kill. This puts a strain on your casters, if they have to switch to healing your stamina, unless they posess doubleheal and can heal your health AND stamina at once, you are at risk of dying, and possibly bringing your party down with you.

A shield increases your parrying ability, and also increases the amount of damage you can soak up. Both of these points are -very- useful. Eventually though, I found I could not find any shields with a parry modifier above 22. With this figure seemingly stuck, and the extra action penalty gained from a shield increasing your HP and Stamina usage even further, I reluctantly had to put my Sword and Shield into storage.

I hope one day shield crafting will improve, and I can again take up my sword and shield, but for now I use a Pike.

So there you have it, my very opinionated and rather experienced look on the Melee Fighter profession. I have great respect for all different Melee fighters, and as such all points in this post are purely my educated views. If you wish to know any more, feel free to contact me. I am always happy to give friendly advice.

One final point... if you are main tank for your team, FOR JENA'S SAKE, WEAR A HELMET! I tire of seeing healers struggle to keep their tanks alive just because they want to look pretty while fighting a Kincher...

-Yamcha