Just starting playing again, mainly because this is the only game that is so muscle memory that I can play it with zero concentration needed whilst on long work phonecalls.

I've rarely played melee, can anyone advise on something to play either pure melee or hybrid that is fun to play 1 to 20 at R1, mostly solo, that won't feel like a slog compared to my usual nuke everything approach.

I know there's not a lot of vault activity these days but you guys know your stuff - apart from Noam of course.

Binkey wrote on Feb 6^th, 2025 at 6:18pm:



LMFAO!

If you want to go full melee Dragon Lord is the way to go. Since you're pushing R1 and going solo, you can almost invest point thinking with your dick and you will still stomp content. As long as you have Feywild set at level 5 and Sharn at 15 (what I use on my main completionist every life and it can easily cover most toons with a few past lives on their backs) you are gold and won't have the slightest issue from 1 to 20. It's hard to mess things up unless you willingly do so. I have seen DLs rip things apart with Greataxes, Swords and shield and dual wielding. They are extremely solid choices and very popular at end game

If you want to go hybrid...EK? I have played EK for a very long time and in many different styles. Again, if you are soloing on R1 you can either take 1 level as fighter and wizard up to 14, take 1 more fighter level at 15 and wizard all the way to 20. 2 fighters levels to get bonus feat and start with martial weapons (also allows to take attack speed action boost at 15) and armor. at 15 you will have enough BAB to take Improved Critical of whatever you are using. Go full int if you are using a SWF style so you can use an orb to boost spell power and saves and also benefits imbue damage (scales with spellpower and affected by spellcraft ranks) and have a higher DC for spells. I could go into more details if you want but int based EK are NOT a good class for cap. You will totally destroy 1 to 20 on R1 though. You'll have EVERYTHING
DPS
TANKINESS
CC
SELF HEALING via death aura and negative energy burst
RANGED DAMAGE

Highest I've managed to push with this solo is R4/5 on END GAME (I'm not a pro and there's totally better players here on the vault).



TL;DR
Melee such as Dragon lord or good old barbs are slightly worse to play in heroics than EK but are way better in end game

EK are easy win in heroics but not ideal on end game (especially on high reaper where they become next to useless if using imbue builds).

Artificer should be a viable hybrid too but I've only played full melee or ranged so I'm not going to comment on that.

Totally. I didn't posted entire builds as I assume you have a working brain and know not build a charisma based monk (I will let you fucking guess who on this forum is guilty of this and it was WAAAAY before sacred fist was a thing).

Dragon lords are easy to learn but will still require some effort and skills (and gear) to challenge high reaper. 1-20 on R1 will be a nice tutorial on how to play them. Good luck and welcome back

For your next life, I would choose a bio-tech billionaire. Great survivability, completely owns almost everything else.

Not sure what you are trying to do, but you may want to consider 6 Draglonlord for the 5 melee power and +1 imbue die (plus crit damage and stronger aura).