Lack of Melee Oriented High-End gear

[Exodus]

Now that I have a few hours under my belt, I have noticed a gap in the custom armor sets and their leaning toward a caster style setup. Lets start at the bottom.

Star Hunter - Gloves are great for melee with hit chance and atk speed, 10 Dex! Hard to beat these for melee. Rest of the gear is FC/FCR, LMC mostly. Ive even heard Ghost call it a caster focused set.

Dark Rose - 10 Defense Chance between the legs and gorget, no mage armor but a lot of caster stats. Also, the sword/shield combo makes you have to put bushido on a soulstone in order to not nerf your parry chance.. Bushido being the central skill for AoE melee builds, it forces a single target non-champ build.

Crusader/Tainted - Best set out there right now. 100LRC, Mage Armor, lots of spell damage... no defense chance, no hit chance, nothing melee related. great resists though! Again, sword/shield combo makes you drop bushido if you want to maximize your defense.

Solution - I'm not delving into how it should be obtained, but a set with a decent amount of hit chance / defense chance / Good regens /+parry skill bonus /perhaps mage armor if it's not OP. Probably low LRC as melee typically use tithing. This would go a long way in catering to the melee crowd. A custom two handed weapon with whirlwind or another AoE special move / Hit Lower Attack would be wonderful. I realize people have been successful in clearing content as melee in the current gearsets, myself included, but I see a gap in the melee oriented gameplay style as it pertains to custom gearsets. Let me know your thoughts.

[merchantmace]

I guess my thoughts... First go about using a caster for all of these things your using melee currently. Take away the special attacks... all of the leeching and the bonuses from the sword/bow. Complete all of the champs you complete with melee... without pets and do it as a pure caster. Go after the dungeon bosses and higher beasts that you currently do with your bow and sword and just use casting.

All the caster bonuses... almost all apply to the melee char as well...

I would like to hear the results of this experiment given the thought is we are caster heavy.

I would also say i have put together set of gear with the following stats
112 hit chance (could go higher)
84 def chance (could go higher)
56 reflect phys (could go higher)
154 damage increase (100 cap)
55 swing speed increase on top of the weapon item speed of 55
36 lmc (40 seems to be cap)
Regens all around 20

the gear is also 1100 luck and 100 % lrc 4/6 casting

This does not include any leech or special abilitie.. this is gear buffs

More is needed?

[Exodus]

That's just it, I have switched to a caster and that's how I'm now doing peerless and champs, but I really liked playing a melee character. The spell dmg and caster bonuses on tainted gear are too good to pass up, so I do most everything as a caster now (Chuck aside because his mechanics are funky). I'm not saying that the server is caster heavy, but that the custom gear is caster-oriented and leaning heavily toward one playstyle.

I am speaking specifically to the custom gear, not really the inability to create a set using spellcrafting or other classic items. My point is that I was surprised that the high end custom sets all lean toward magic users.

[merchantmace]

I think staff has given us all the ability your looking for... Other than standing in front of a peerless and just swing a sword. No offense.. but that ability would just seem silly and far too over the top. And in my opion... would end the game. If you can stand in front of anything and just swing a sword... where are the tactics?

I think we are as well balanced as a shard could be.... but to get to these higher end places... you have to play.... you have to earn it... few have and thats what makes it special. And in fact... even the ability to achieve that has been made easier. To get your hands on the items to surpass the drops... the drops are sufficient to get there.

I have seen a bow devastate champ spawns in a way i never could casting... and on the same turn.. my choice to go only casting... has made my ability at peerless better than most...That has a lot to do with that is the only style i can play(by my choice)

I dont want to start a rift here... so i guess i will close my thought in this thread with... People really need to explore the WHOLE offerings of what wp has to offer. Lately it seems some people (not directed at you exodus) have been asking for things and abilities we already have in game.. Even people that i know have been here for some time. Im sure many of you have seen them posted in other threads. Its an onion out there...

Again.. this is not a personal attack to you exodus... I think it is a learning point to all our blooming newer players. Everyone has a different level they play in the game. Some will forever struggle with completing the entry level champs... some will quickly get to the end of the game. Some will get so involved with "beating" the game they miss a lot of the scenery around them in WP. Myself, im here for the people.... the staff... and the environment the staff has given us. I would be happy playing naked and being involved in more games.

[Exodus]

I think I'll word of death this thread too. I didn't want it to come across as a begging or imbalance thread, but more of an observation. Merchs answer that the suit I desire is already in the game if I look for it is sufficient.

[Yordor]

I would say I'm 99% mele and I have no complaints about my gear. It's all mix-and-match too. It's a lot of the Star Hunter gear, with Crusader sleeves and a Cursed belt plus a few items I crafted myself. Evaluate gear piece by piece and put together a set with the qualities you like. At least the hue field can make sure they all are the same color

For champs I usually use a Titan's Hammer. It has 100% area damage and it does whirlwind for huge damages on many mobs at once. I also crafted an electrum halberd with +20% speed and other abilities but no area damage that I use when I need faster strikes vs. a large swath of damage. I have good jewelry that provides damage and accuracy buffs, and the Healer's Brace (in the Donation Hall) for hp regen.

I switch to a bow only for mobs that can one-shot me. Sometimes it just isn't feasible to whack away at a boss!

Also, don't forget your other abilities. Discord weakens your opponent and you can provoke most mobs to help against group situations. Use the Honor skill before attacking - it can triple your damage per swing. The easiest way is to make a macro of Use Skill > Honor because there's no icon for it. The Chivalry spell Enemy of One can be stacked on as well but it increases damage from every other mob. Got necromancy skill? Use "vampiric embrace" for immunity to mid-level poisons at the cost of some fire resistance. Got the Guardian spellbook? Use Trial by Fire to cause damage when you are struck by an enemy.

You can do all that as a mele fighter and still cast whenever you need to.

Eventually I will gather the materials needed to do some blacksmithing and I'll try to put together some useful suits. Magic reflect always seems to elude me so leather armor may be a quicker option for mages. I'm always short on runic tools because I don't have much time to play these days. Yordor's Smithy has been kind of bare for too long!

[Blue Fin]

I mostly use a bow, but haven't been on a lot lately, I was bewitched by the evil elf Laurana and am now doomed to cater to her every whim while she fights the evil thing that is trying to take her over...........(oooh could be the makings of a fantasy novel here)
I use vampiric embrace and the minor arti halberd, Blaze of Death, though I know the titans hammer is better, to despatch the spawn, embrace also leeches health from the mob so its not a problem. I use a trolls vest and the ornate crown of the harrower, the rest of my armour is really good home made studded leather. I seem to get by fine.

[KawKawKaw]

Imbuing might provide those attributes that you're looking for. I do like the sets as they appear (now if I only can attain them) that are present in the game but then I'm not for in your face fighting in the first place. I like a bit of distance between me and my foe. But what I find myself constantly doing with a lot of weapons and equipment is saying to myself 'I wish I could get this or that on this piece it would make it just right for my game style' Imbuing might be the solution to that. I don't even know if it is a reasonable possibility on a free shard but the concept sounds interesting to me.

Kaw

[Yordor]

We have spellcrafting which works like imbuing. You can pick which ability you want to add to what gear. I don't think it allows you to add to artifacts but player-crafted items are fair game. It's hard to get the book, hard to get the ability gems, and hard to get the jewels (think of them as "credits") to add properties to an item. Then there's a chance you will fail and destroy the target item.

When using this system I tried to craft an item that had most of what I was looking for and then just tweaked it via spellcrafting.

[KawKawKaw]

I'm not familiar with spellcrafting. Is there a reference to it here on the website? Or is it a standard feature that was brought into UO in the last 5 years or so I've been out of it?

Thanks,
Kaw....