By DeepT

Section 1:

In this first section I'll explain some basics, but I won't go into specifics of each sub melee class. This section should just be considered a common introduction to the concepts of advanced melee class construction common to all sub-types. Also this guide is for Player VS Monster combat. I will make a separate guide for PVP characters since the rules are vastly different then making a good one for PVM. These guides are also designed for the self-contained character, one that does NOT rely on a mule for some other service.

One big question is weather or not to specialize or diversify. Currently it seems lower-level characters get more benefit from specialization then higher level ones which is the opposite of how turbine intended it to be. It is a very gray area right now, however Turbine has stated that it is on the list of issues to address so in the future the benefits of specialization may become much more apparent. With this in mind, I recommend the specialization route.

Two Common Mistakes People Make:

1. People do not plan their characters out. You get skill credits for leveling and you should always have them planned for an intended purpose from level 1. You also need to realize you do not need every skill at level 1 either. Arcane lore is OK to pick up at level 5 since your not going to need it at level 1, and even if you had it, your not going to be able to use anything since your skills will be so bad. You should, from conception, have your first 20 earned skill points planned out on what to buy and when.
2. People diversify way too much. There are some with unarmed, sword, and archery, and maybe even war magic thrown in. You need to be focused. You want ONE offensive method and that's it. If you're a melee type, you get in close and your smite something. You rely on your skills and armor to carry you through the fight. If you diversify, you will not be good at any particular thing which means you wont be killing tuffer monsters and that means less xp and less loot. If you want to snipe at things from a distance, plan an archer or mage. As for specialization in multiple melee skills, this makes no sense. It's a waste of credits and xp.

Magic and The Warrior:

Magic is very useful to everyone. Just because you want to be a tank doesn't mean you can't dabble in the arcane arts. Just realize although you will never be very good compared to your mage peers, you will benefit greatly from its use. Don't be shy about it and even for role-playing reasons don't fret about it. To many people keep thinking D&D and say that warriors should not be casting spells. You can do this, but your life will be far more difficult then someone who has spell ability. Also from a role-playing standpoint some schools of magic are only really useful to warriors, namely Item magic. Although the porthole part is nice for any mage, the vast majority of the spells only help melee types. This is the warrior's school of magic. If you go with the non-magical route, you will be only hurting yourself in the long run.

The schools of choice for a warrior are Item and Life magic. You don't want War Magic because it's expensive and redundant since you want to focus on only one offensive skill. Creature Magic is worthless IMHO. The reason being is that even the level 6 buffs are not that good AND finding creature magic items doesn't seem to be that difficult. You can replace this skill with just a few items to help you along. Also you do not want to many magic schools because you wont have the manna to keep them all going. You should just stick with Item and Life.

Item Magic will get you the standard weapon buffs: Blood drinker, Swift Killer, Heart Seeker, and Defender. If you doubt the power of these spells, get a high level person to power up your weapon and you will be amazed at the results. Further spells are the Impenetrability spell. Casting this on your shield (and some other armor) at higher levels will make an immense difference to your defensive power. And lastly, there is the drug of choice, porthole magic. These spells alone make the school of magic worth it for everyone.

Life Magic has 3 main functions for you: Protection, De-buffing, and a few misc. spells like Stamina to Manna and Stamina to Health (overlooked). You should be using a ring for your basic Armor X spells, but the special cases of knowing a monster casts lightning and acid will let you cast the appropriate protections ahead of time. This can save you a lot of pain. The de-buffs, namely Imperial Other, and Vulnerability other will make monsters very easy to kill. At certain levels its even possible to one-shot a monster who has been de-buffed. The misc. Spells of stamina to X are very useful. Because you're a warrior, you won't have much manna, so those higher level buffs will require you to be casting stamina to manna. When you're hurt badly, a spell that is well worth its manna cost is Stamina to Health. Most people try and cast heal self 10 times, when just one stamina to health can net you 70pts of healing for 10 manna. This is very useful because the healing skill will fail a lot of your really hurt, with this spell you can get yourself up to the point where you wont be failing 9 out of 10 healing attempts.

Section 2:

Skills:

Specialized: Melee Defense, and your weapon of choice.

Must Train: Healing, Item magic.

Recommended to Train: Life Magic and Arcane lore and yes Mana conversion.

Depending on your weapon choice you may or may not be able to afford all these skills at level 1. If your left with a few skill points pick arcane lore, if your left with a lot and can afford it, train life magic. Whichever skill you get, the other skill you could not get should be your first goal. If you skipped life magic, you will need to get to level 16 before you can acquire this skill. You wont be particularly hindered by this because getting to level 16 isn't a big deal nor will life magic be particularly useful to you by then either. Remember it's the LONG TERM that's important, not what you can do at level 1, or even at level 20. Mana conversion should be the last of these skills to get. Higher level spells take LOTS of manna, and even lowering their cost by a small percent can greatly help you out.

If you have acquired all these skills then what should you get next? That is a good question with no particular answer. I can tell you what not to get, another school of magic or another weapon choice. Possibilities include lock picking and cooking or alchemy. I am not sure how useful lock picking is, since getting keys or others who can open doors for you isn't to hard. It would be mainly a choice of convenience. Cooking on the other hand can be a useful skill. Do you know a super-specialty pizza of healing can heal you for 60 health? These foods weight 100 units and are cheap to make, unlike the potions, which can be very expensive and weigh 35% more. All you need to do is get an alchemist who can make victual oil and healing oil for you then your in the mystic pizza (and other foods) business. You do need a high cooking skill to accomplish this though so it's a nice long term skill that when you finally get, you can dump serious xp into quickly to make it useable. Alchemy on the other hand, is a poorer choice since the potions you can make are somewhat lacking, although you can make Altan weapons for people as a perk.

Melee Archetypes overview:

Although logically the Stats section should come next, there is some differences between them that make the statistic choices a bit different, so I thought I would cover this ground first.

Type	Focus	Damage	Race
Unarmed Warrior	Speed	Strength	Sho
Dagger Warrior	Speed	Coordination	Aluvian
Everyone Else	Power	Strength	Any

The Focus represents your fighting focus, fast or powerful. Damage represents what stat gives you bonus damage. Race is the best-suited race, although staff users should chose Gharu'ndim. The reason I did not give staff users a separate entry is because fundamentally there is no difference between them and other melee classes.

Unarmed Warriors:

Arguably this is the most powerful melee type, although I do not agree. The idea behind this archetype is to do lots of small damage fast.

Stats:

Coordination	100
Strength	70 (or 60)
Quickness	90 (or 100)
Endurance	50
Self/Focus	10

The question on going with more strength vs quickness is a personal choice. I would go with the speed because even though strength can give you a damage bonus at higher levels, using speed over power will negate this. I believe the damage you do for max speed vs max power is 1/3rd. So you won't notice a big difference from going from 100 to 130 strength. On the other hand, you will notice a difference between going from 100 quickness to 110 quickness in your rate of attacks.

The big disadvantage to unarmed warriors is the fact that with an 'unarmed' weapon, their attack speed suffers a lot even with speed zero weapons. Someone who just uses their fists will always be faster. If you just stick with fists, you loose all elemental attacks, as well as piercing and slashing. The speed of an unarmed guy with speed zero weapons is the same speed (accounting for quickness) for any other jabbing weapon such as a spear or dagger that is also speed zero. With this in mind, why not play a guy who has a speed zero spear or dagger? The base weapons do more damage and are more common then unarmed weapons.

You will notice how the self and focus are 10 and also how I said you should learn magic. This again is a long-term thing. You will need to pump your stats to make magic useful. You will primarily be swing at monsters and avoid being hit, so even though once in a while you may cast a spell you mostly wont be doing this. I recommend not trying to spend time pumping any magic related skills until you get to 9th level, before that work on your endurance, health, melee defense and unarmed skills.

Dagger Warriors:

I think this type of melee warrior is the most powerful. It is also probably one of the most uncommon melee type as well.

Stats:

Coordination	100
Strength	60
Quickness	100
Endurance	50
Self/Focus	10

The big advantage to dagger warriors is that Quickness and Coordination are your only primary stats. Those two stats are used in your main dagger skill and melee defense. Coordination also increases your damage, chance to hit and chance for criticals. The only thing strength is used for is to lug loot and wear armor. You only need to focus on two stats here. Once your strength gets to where you can wear the armor you want and give you the carrying capacity you want, you never need to touch it again. With a speed zero dagger you will also attack just as fast as an unarmed guy with a weapon. This alone I think is worth playing the Dagger Warrior over any other class. Magic daggers are also pretty common to find.

The bad part is that there are not any real god weapons like the SOLL. The dagger of Tikola is just a normal dagger with BD III and HS III. Once you can cast item magic at level III or IV, this dagger becomes just convenient and not particularly powerful, any level IV+ spell you cast on it supercedes its natural magic. This is just a minor drawback IMHO.

Your initial xp should be spent pumping your dagger, melee, stamina and endurance. Again don't try and do magic till much later.

Every Other Warrior:

I do not have many comments about this type other then to play it for role-playing reasons and the fact that there are some very nice weapons out there for the different types.

Stats:

Coordination	100
Strength	100
Quickness	60 (or 70)
Endurance	50 (or 40)
Self/Focus	10

Coordination and strength are obviously your most important stats. Coordination helps your weapon and melee defense as well as those critical hits which are extra zesty if your using max power. Strength above 100 gives you 1pt of damage per 10 strength, coupled with the x3 for max power and then again x2 with a critical hit. You wont hit very fast, but when you do, your gonna carve stuff up. In this template you might even want to consider going the 70-end, 40-quickness route. You will burn endurance up quickly. However, better quickness will improve melee defense and allow you to run away from monsters better. I think the 60/50 route is a better choice.

Your initial xp will probably be going towards stamina and endurance, then weapon skills and melee defense. You should then work on running and quickness until your run gets to about 100, that's a nice, safe non-direlands run. Again don't worry about magic till later on.