So, no such thing as fun melee? (Subjective)

[klinwen]

Wow, this is a great thread!

 

Here's my situation. I'm a very casual gamer with only a little bit of time in any week to devote to my games. As such I don't like having to spend a lot of time and effort doing a lot of buffing etc. I love playing a melee character that can just dive right in and deliver a lot of damage while also being able to withstand some damage. And I don't care for playing monk or rogue.

 

So, what would be best for me? Fighter, barbarian, paladin, ranger?  Also, two-hander versus two-weapon? Build recommendations would be greatly appreciated.

I wondered similar things myself when I first came here - what class to pick? I didn't want anything too micro, but I also wanted something interesting.

 

Then I learned that your main character is only one sixth of gameplay. Each of your team members contributes equally to combat. This is not a game where your main carries all the battles and the henchmen mop up the blood. You're not playing one character, you're playing an entire party. And you're also equipping an entire party, so even if you play a monk, all that cool loot will find its way to someone who appreciates it, and makes a real difference in combat.

 

Barbarian is useful in many situations, but a bit squishy and you have to keep an eye on yours to get the most out of it. The barbarian needs to be guided to positions where they're not hit, but can hit as many enemies as possible. A barbarian is actually less useful on lower difficulties, because there are fewer enemies per battle.

 

Fighter is a fire-and-forget character. Plonk a fighter down, and then you can focus on controlling the rest of your party. The AI does well with fighters.

 

Paladin is kind of in between - the buff aura of your choice is always active, and you don't get too many special abilities, but the ones you get are quite strong. Plus they make naturally good conversationalists.

[kanisatha]

Yeah, I do find the paladin class attractive for the NPC interaction benefits. The story and roleplaying elements of this game are what I love, whereas I approach the combat elements with much dread.

 

I've already played the game quite a bit in its 1.0 incarnation and Eder is easily my favorite NPC so he must be in my party. So may be I should cross out fighter for my PC.

 

I'm so glad I posted here because now I'm really psyched about experimenting with a monk. I would never have even considered it prior to this exchange.

[AndreaColombo]

A two hander would go up from 30 to 45 frames.

 

Two-handers actually have a 45-frame recovery time on a naked character (or, to be more precise, it takes 46 frames for the bar to go from full to empty, then there's a 4-frame delay until the attack animation starts again.) Wearing plate it brings it up to 75 (plus the 4-frame delay, for a total of 79 frames before the next attack animation.)

[Boeroer]

See, even worse.

[AndreaColombo]

Heh. Yeah, two-handers are pretty slow. That's the price you pay for the higher damage output. If you build your character correctly and use the right buffs, you can bring that down to 15 (11 frames + 4-frame delay) frames recovery while using plate armor and vulnerable attack, which leads to a remarkable DPS. Of course that means you also lose flexibility