I have been playing Asheron's Call off and on since release, and after many years away I recently came back and started over completely with a new account. I always wanted to play a melee character, and I found it to be lacking compared to mages and archers, usually resulting in me abandoning my "gimp" for another character completely. During my latest break in the game, many changes were made that I felt made melee seem more viable now. I have tried many different combinations of skills and am now at level 270, with some input to give on a few points.
1. Summoning
This skill is almost essential for a melee, in my opinion, especially if you intend to solo. Used effectively, it can be positioned behind your opponent to cause sneak damage, and it can distract enemies to take heat off of you, and it can cause enemies to turn their backs to you (especially helpful against shields, combo with sneak attack). With willpower aug gems, luminance skill augs, legendary equipment, a good cloak and the wise set, I will be able to summon lvl 200s very soon (I am still working on the augs), but lvl 180's are fine, and actually for now I only wear two wise pieces (soon none) in favor of defender. I am just proof that a 10 end 10 will melee can actually summon lvl 200's - it just takes work. The 180's kill just fine in places like Hoshino's though, especially if they are behind your enemy. Combos will with dirty fighting (melee d debuff), helps summons hit more frequently. Part of me wants to only bother with 180s and use my set pieces for thinks like defender and soldier. Literally ~anyone~ should be able to summon 180s eventually.
2. Heavy Staff
I have several staves that hit 53-54% melee d without any tinks just waiting to be brassed. Melees get a pretty big bonus to melee d. I have 12 more points of melee d to gain through augs, but right now it is already 589 (it will be 611 eventually with cloak) and a 64% melee d staff would push my effective melee d to 1002 with 611 melee d. How much higher should we reasonably expect it to go? I think my quickness is an Epic, so this isn't even max. You could find a few other way's to shoehorn on a few more points with other set items.
3. Shield
You get to have 1500+ effective armor on top of your actual armor, or 25% extra damage soak on magic on top of protections and legendary wards, or like half-and-half on both at once. This is awesome. Why complain? Because of hollows? Shield ignoring creatures? My shield works against ~almost everything~. I am OK with there being exceptions. Should I expect there not to be exceptions? If there were not exceptions, I would be invulnerable. Having over 1,000 effective melee d will make up for it. Again, I can't expect to be invulnerable.
I was able to do all 8 Hoshino kill tasks solo in 45 minutes, and I can count the number of months I have been playing on one hand. I do Hoshinos - I get lots of legendary keys that way. I don't really want more than that per day. What am I missing out on if I cannot ~solo~ at some place like Rynthid? Does that mean I am "gimpy"? I bet I could solo ~nearly~ anywhere, if I built a set of special equipment for it. If I cannot solo 100% of the game I am OK with that. I am far from feeling like melee is underpowered or unable to compete. I feel like my template is working well, and I feel powerful. Is this just because I am not frequenting the latest/hardest zones and expecting to solo there with my everyday equipment and setup? People talk almost as if melees are unplayable. This most recent change to healing in combat fixed one of my few weaknesses and made the character even more playable. I am able to solo things like Ninja Academy. My expectations were met. Am I not expecting as much because of the "newness" of returning after being away for years? Why is my perspective so different than the general attitude of other threads here? What am I missing?
1. Summoning
This skill is almost essential for a melee, in my opinion, especially if you intend to solo. Used effectively, it can be positioned behind your opponent to cause sneak damage, and it can distract enemies to take heat off of you, and it can cause enemies to turn their backs to you (especially helpful against shields, combo with sneak attack). With willpower aug gems, luminance skill augs, legendary equipment, a good cloak and the wise set, I will be able to summon lvl 200s very soon (I am still working on the augs), but lvl 180's are fine, and actually for now I only wear two wise pieces (soon none) in favor of defender. I am just proof that a 10 end 10 will melee can actually summon lvl 200's - it just takes work. The 180's kill just fine in places like Hoshino's though, especially if they are behind your enemy. Combos will with dirty fighting (melee d debuff), helps summons hit more frequently. Part of me wants to only bother with 180s and use my set pieces for thinks like defender and soldier. Literally ~anyone~ should be able to summon 180s eventually.
2. Heavy Staff
I have several staves that hit 53-54% melee d without any tinks just waiting to be brassed. Melees get a pretty big bonus to melee d. I have 12 more points of melee d to gain through augs, but right now it is already 589 (it will be 611 eventually with cloak) and a 64% melee d staff would push my effective melee d to 1002 with 611 melee d. How much higher should we reasonably expect it to go? I think my quickness is an Epic, so this isn't even max. You could find a few other way's to shoehorn on a few more points with other set items.
3. Shield
You get to have 1500+ effective armor on top of your actual armor, or 25% extra damage soak on magic on top of protections and legendary wards, or like half-and-half on both at once. This is awesome. Why complain? Because of hollows? Shield ignoring creatures? My shield works against ~almost everything~. I am OK with there being exceptions. Should I expect there not to be exceptions? If there were not exceptions, I would be invulnerable. Having over 1,000 effective melee d will make up for it. Again, I can't expect to be invulnerable.
I was able to do all 8 Hoshino kill tasks solo in 45 minutes, and I can count the number of months I have been playing on one hand. I do Hoshinos - I get lots of legendary keys that way. I don't really want more than that per day. What am I missing out on if I cannot ~solo~ at some place like Rynthid? Does that mean I am "gimpy"? I bet I could solo ~nearly~ anywhere, if I built a set of special equipment for it. If I cannot solo 100% of the game I am OK with that. I am far from feeling like melee is underpowered or unable to compete. I feel like my template is working well, and I feel powerful. Is this just because I am not frequenting the latest/hardest zones and expecting to solo there with my everyday equipment and setup? People talk almost as if melees are unplayable. This most recent change to healing in combat fixed one of my few weaknesses and made the character even more playable. I am able to solo things like Ninja Academy. My expectations were met. Am I not expecting as much because of the "newness" of returning after being away for years? Why is my perspective so different than the general attitude of other threads here? What am I missing?