cRPG is fun, but the going is rough.

[San]

That's definitely hard to say, since both reasons you mentioned are valid. When I played on EU servers with a shielder, I had to turtle up much more than what I was used to before. It might be more fun to use other melee classes or play support such as a hoplite. As long as you're careful, I found cav to do decently well with higher ping as long as you don't attack other horses head on that often. I would at least try shielder for a bit and see if it works out in the end.

[Kalam]

I'm getting tired of archery, and ready to switch to melee; however, the only problem is that my ping is constantly high (ranges from 119 to 130).  Would you say that shielder is easier on a person with a higher ping, or worse due to the slower speeds when attacking?

If you can adopt an extremely erratic playstyle, any long fast (miadao; long hafted blade) 2h or polearm will work, too. Unfortunately, it involves learning to play the game a completely different way from the way we with low pings play it, so it's harder to find people to give you tips and tricks.

[stryker montgomery]

There's not much reason to retire anymore; just level up or skip the fun, join a big clan, and use looms from the clan armory.

Really care to expand on this? You suggesting new players live off the looms of other clan memembers who been retiring for years or are looms acquired in clans via other methods? (I also realize that too many looms on equipment = impossible upkeep.. is that part of it?)

[rufio]

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[//saxon]

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[Phew]

Really care to expand on this? You suggesting new players live off the looms of other clan memembers who been retiring for years or are looms acquired in clans via other methods? (I also realize that too many looms on equipment = impossible upkeep.. is that part of it?)

Heirlooming does not affect the upkeep cost of equipment. I'm not in a big clan, but I assume that most people that are keep their heirlooms in the armoury when they aren't using them. So you should have a pretty wide selection of heirloomed gear to use. Obviously you'd want to stick to the lower-upkeep items (medium armor, longsword/war spear/italian sword are highly popular weapons that are probably in most armouries and have <500g upkeep). Keep your maximum upkeep under ~2000 gold, and you should make money.