melees skill needed?

[chrisgina39]

ok i play mainly casters but i was woundering is there any skill needed to play them seems like its go up to a monster with auto att on and wait till hes dead is there something i missed
casters and rangers kite monsters around and try to avoid there atts
healers need to keep everyone alive
stealth need to be carful not to get detected by them

is there ANY skill needed as a melee?

mabye this is why more casters solo than melees

[weewoo0]

there is skill needed to play a melee. to solo as a melee is a different set of skills than what is needed to raid on a melee.
to play a melee in a raid boss situation you need: timing for your attacks as a monk or paladin. knowledge of when to use boosts as a rogue or fighter. and building yourself properly and flipping weapon sets as a ranger. similar skills if multiclassed
to play a melee in a solo situation you need: to know when you can survive an encounter or not and to be able to sustain your hit points without a healer

the reasons that casters solo more often than melees is because the casters often have AoE spells and a more powerful form of self healing making it so that they can kill multiple monsters at once (saving time) and have a bit of insurance in case of damage (also saving time)

it takes more skill to solo a melee in 9/10 cases. in raids however, it all depends on the jobs that that person is fullfilling for example an arcane in shroud doesn't really need much skill whereas a divine needs quite a bit of skill should the party not be "very" good or well put together. In ToD the kiter must be very good because the raid literally rests on their shoulders whereas a melee just goes from point a to point b to point c.

[chrisgina39]

there is skill needed to play a melee. to solo as a melee is a different set of skills than what is needed to raid on a melee.
to play a melee in a raid boss situation you need: timing for your attacks as a monk or paladin. knowledge of when to use boosts as a rogue or fighter. and building yourself properly and flipping weapon sets as a ranger. similar skills if multiclassed
to play a melee in a solo situation you need: to know when you can survive an encounter or not and to be able to sustain your hit points without a healer

the reasons that casters solo more often than melees is because the casters often have AoE spells and a more powerful form of self healing making it so that they can kill multiple monsters at once (saving time) and have a bit of insurance in case of damage (also saving time)

it takes more skill to solo a melee in 9/10 cases. in raids however, it all depends on the jobs that that person is fullfilling for example an arcane in shroud doesn't really need much skill whereas a divine needs quite a bit of skill should the party not be "very" good or well put together. In ToD the kiter must be very good because the raid literally rests on their shoulders whereas a melee just goes from point a to point b to point c.

pals need to click 1 thing (smite) you rarely need to know when to use youre boost (when the boss is near dead/ tough fight) i do agree about the weapon sets(sort of) as for monks ya they need some skill

[Dandonk]

pals need to click 1 thing (smite) you rarely need to know when to use youre boost (when the boss is near dead/ tough fight) i do agree about the weapon sets(sort of) as for monks ya they need some skill

No, paladins need to click smite, divine sacrifice, and keep divine favor and divine might running. For instance.

Oh, and Zeal, too. Did I forget anything else?

[English_Warrior]

Most fighters use trip and stuning blow...it takes a bit of skill to decided who and when to trip and stun. You also still need to know how much aggro you can handle just like any character. And you also have to keep your eyes peeled for any squishie who is out of their depth.... which brings me to intimidate, another ability that needs a bit of skill to use effectively.

Im not saying MUCH skill is involved...more common sense...but if you are just running up to a monster and left clicking until dead then you are not being all you can be as a fighter.

[lord_of_rage]

pals need to click 1 thing (smite) you rarely need to know when to use youre boost (when the boss is near dead/ tough fight) i do agree about the weapon sets(sort of) as for monks ya they need some skill

You are quite wrong. Paladins have to keep a ton of things running. You need to keep divine might(1min duration 2-8 dmg per swing depending on dm lvl aquired), divine favor and zeal for spells, and toggle between divine sacrifice and exalted smite. This is as a basic kotc melee build. I you are a defender build its more. You need to know when to use your stances. When to use power attack vs combat expertise. Youll want ac so make sure you have shield wands or clickies going. Or if you are intiming keeping intim spammed. I really hope you dont run a paladin if all you think is needed is smites. Oh and you run out of those btw. Divine sacrifice will last as long as you have sp.

[psymun]

You are quite wrong. Paladins have to keep a ton of things running. You need to keep divine might(1min duration 2-8 dmg per swing depending on dm lvl aquired), divine favor and zeal for spells, and toggle between divine sacrifice and exalted smite. This is as a basic kotc melee build. I you are a defender build its more. You need to know when to use your stances. When to use power attack vs combat expertise. Youll want ac so make sure you have shield wands or clickies going. Or if you are intiming keeping intim spammed. I really hope you dont run a paladin if all you think is needed is smites. Oh and you run out of those btw. Divine sacrifice will last as long as you have sp.

To add to this, you also might be the type to be using Divine Righteousness, Prayer, and Angelskin...

And if you're an exceptionally good Paladin, (and an unselfish one) you need to know when and how to target someone, use a lay on hands to keep them alive, remove diseases, curses, help rebuff people etc.

Like LoR said, there is a LOT to being a Paladin, if you know how to use all of your abilities, you can be a major help to a party.

Saying the phrase "All a Paladin has to do is use Exalted Smite" is like saying "All an Arcane has to do is throw firewalls and kite," or "all a Divine has to do is sit there and click mass heal."

In my opinion; Casters, Bards, Paladins, and Monks have the most work to do if you're talking from a pure abilities standpoint. This is also, IMO why they are the only classes I play because I find them to be the most fun. Archers and Fighters also have quite a bit to do, but less to do with Party Support, and Barbarians are the only ones that have a "simple" point-and-click interface, but even they need to know when they can use their abilities, when they need to save them etc.

The main issue here is knowing all of your character's abilities, and deciding how much of them you want to use. The less of your abilities you use, the less helpful you are to the party, but the easier the character is to play.

[chrisgina39]

ok i see now guess i have stuff to learn about melees ty all 4 explaining

[Stitch78]

And if you're an exceptionally good Paladin, (and an unselfish one) you need to know when and how to target someone, use a lay on hands to keep them alive, remove diseases, curses, help rebuff people etc.


Drives me nuts when I finish a tough quest where the party gets knocked around, couple of rezzes, etc. and I look to see the paladin has a full mana bar. I mean, at least throw a couple of Virtues on the group if you're not eveing going to buff yourself man!! It stacks with Aid fer cryin out loud.

[hermespan]

ok i play mainly casters but i was woundering is there any skill needed to play them seems like its go up to a monster with auto att on and wait till hes dead is there something i missed
casters and rangers kite monsters around and try to avoid there atts
healers need to keep everyone alive
stealth need to be carful not to get detected by them

is there ANY skill needed as a melee?

mabye this is why more casters solo than melees

There's a little more to it than that.
Weapon sets:
Know thy enemy. If you use the right weapons for a given job, it's the difference between waltzing through the content or running for your life and draining healer mana. Knowing what you need to bypass DR can mean a LOT more DPS output.

Timing and cool downs:
Often the difference between **** dps and good dps is staying on top of your special attack and boost cooldowns.

If you have haste attack boost, staying on top of it means max dps. Hit it too soon or too late and you lose serious DPS potential, especially without quick draw. If you are still on cooldown and hit it, you just stand there for 2 seconds and don't swing at all. That's just one melee ability. There are a lot of them.

I have a wizard I've played to cap (well almost, as of yesterday I need around 3000 more xp to hit level 20) and several melees to cap and 19+

A caster is a lot easier to solo on mid to around level 18 because most of your spells are effective in that level range and you have enough levels to do a ton of damage. Come level 18+ and your effectiveness as a nuker begins to seriously wane and it becomes about maximizing the party and glueing stuff down to reduce incoming dps.

At that point your group is relying on melees more for DPS and a lot of the time, the only thing that works is raw dps.

Melees seem rather simplistic to play, but the rabbit hole goes pretty deep. Like most things there's a lot lurking below the surface especially for DPS optimization.

Saying a melee is only about running up to mobs and hitting autoattack is like saying the only thing to playing a caster is dropping firewalls all over the place and kiting mobs through them.