I'm terrible at PvP melee combat

[MagisterMundi]

You should play a generation as a shielder before jumping into 2h. That should teach you when you can attack and when you cant, it should enable you to last longer in fights ( you wont learn much if you get roflstomped as 2h), and you should get some sense of block timing without worrying about direction.

That's a good idea. I was sort of thinking of doing that anyway after a fashion next time around - I was going to go Crossbow, so I can use what would normally be reserved for PD on Shield and PS and put a decent number of points into 1H. I've seen what look to be some pretty good hybrid templates, and I was going to try one of them out. Maybe I should go straight shielder, though.

[MagisterMundi]

Yay noobies!

-snip-

Appreciate the advice. Alas, I'm fresh out of LP, so you'll have to go without. ;-)

[MagisterMundi]

Rather than continuing to spam posts, I'm just gonna say thank you all for the help so far. I appreciate the response. For those of you offering to help me out, I'll PM you about it.

[AwesomeHail]

have you joined a clan allready? most of them have +3 items you can borrow in their armoury, plus it makes the game more fun
if you are going xbow, I suggest 15/24 xbow with ''crossbow'' doesnt have too much upkeep and still hits good, 150 wpf is enough for it (so ive heard)

put up the stones yet?

take care

-Hail

[Phew]

Yeah, join a clan so you can use their armory to run around in +3 gear all the time. Peasants United is the clan that has been set up specifically to help newbies (and I believe they have a nice armory), so that's my suggestion.

Unless you really enjoy playing it, I would stay away from ranged classes. Melee combat is cRPG's best-implemented aspect, so generally it's the most rewarding to play. I've done an xbow generation, and it was the most boring godawful experience (you spend most of your time staring at the floor while you reload). Hybrid throwing used to be fun, but throwing is super weak nowadays.

[Umbra]

There is a public clan called peasants united. You can join by applying on c-rpg.net clans page, and use their armory of loomed items

[Apsod]

Or be a mighty lone-wolf and owe allegiance to no man.

MagisterMundi, if you have the will of a warrior, make an unyielding Str build and train under some of the heroes who have offered you training here, you will be invincible. Play with a pure Str to learn footwork, then when you later add athletics you will be a god.

Going pure str to learn footwork is like going a shielder to learn manual blocking.

[AwesomeHail]

last time i was in peasants united with an alt, i saw no looms in the armoury

[Andswaru]

da is looms i promise you brother.
visitors can't see pics , please register or login

Also 1 blue and 1 green one.

All praise knitler the evil one.

[AwesomeHail]

da is looms i promise you brother.
visitors can't see pics , please register or login

Also 1 blue and 1 green one.

All praise knitler the evil one.

still like 3 available, not much

[Lord Voren]

     My advice, and i'm sure the advice you're seeing repeatedly, is duel.I'll say this to the other new guys reading these pro tips from vets. Just Duel. Duel, duel, duel, duel till your eyes bleed. And duel more, grab the best fighters you see and ram your head into them. When you come to this game from another game or even another mod, You have tendencies and muscle memories from those. You have to have those beat out of you, you're going to get mad, you're going to get demoralized, but the more you do it, the more you forget about other games and you focus on THIS game and THESE techniques. Eventually, you'll start seeing counters (if you're looking for them) Someone holds for too long, bad footwork, feints, and you capitalize on those flaws without even realizing you're doing it. You fight the best and suddenly you see the faults in the second best. Its not about the learning curve, its about how receptive you are and your intelligence and drive to be better at this game. The so called "Try hards" are people who dont have it as easy as others. Ive been playing this game for years and I have to duel everyday to get better and im not even in the top 50 players. The more you put into it, the more you'll get out of it. So keep at it bud, you'll get there.

P.S. Dont crutch on looms and armor. Learn the mechanics and game, and use those as tools to be better. Dont train without weights.

[Phew]

     My advice, and i'm sure the advice you're seeing repeatedly, is duel

Duel server is much more effective for improving if you have a friend to coach you. That server is populated with the tryhardiest tryhards in all of cRPG, and many of them would roflfeintspinlolstabkick a newbie to death without ever helping them get better. Plenty of players that top scoreboard on Battle and Siege get their face stomped on duel, so it's not a good place to build one's confidence without someone actually trying to help you.

[Apsod]

Why? I'd say it's more like learning timings and animations without 200 WPF. As 200 wpf would give you an unrealistic idea of true timings and combat and make you lazy. Playing with high athletics gives you too much margin for error, your footwork wont improve, you'll only get decent at playing with high athletics as a crutch.

Rather than learning with your crutch, learn without it, then when you use your crutch you're a better player.

The less athletics you have the more important footwork is, and the faster you'll learn to use it effectively.

If you are playing with high athletics and low strength there is little room for error. You will be much more dependent on your movement to save you and if you can't utilize that extra movement speed then you will fail horribly. However with a pure strength build there is much room for error and getting hit a bit here and there wont matter much which makes your playstyle more lazy and it will take much longer for you to learn proper footwork.

Another thing about very strength orientated builds are that they are very limited in what they can do when it comes to footwork. Many of the techniques that you can do with high athletics are simply not possible to do with low athletics and therefore you will get no practice doing them. Like I said, going pure strength to learn footwork is like going a shielder to learn manual blocking.

[Veniathan]

Man I really blew at this game when I started. Infact I didn't even play vanilla that much, maybe 2 hours in total. So I know how you feel.

The more you play the better you get. Start as a shielder for a gen or two and get used to the basics of blocking, timing. Then go on to 2h if you want. I don't, I'll stay 1h. I think it's most fun with a shield to annoy people and be a super fast fucker with a pickaxe.

You'll get better it's a matter of fact, just be patient

[Molly]

Guys, I'm terrible at PvP melee combat. Absolutely awful. I'm Gen 2, about to be Gen 3, and I'm still just so bad at melee that it's comical. I'm a decent shot, and in DTV melee I can hold my own, but against other players it's just pitiful. Like, I can take my level 30 2H build against an archer with some crappy sword and no PS and consistently lose. I'm not sure why I'm so awful - I'm pretty decent at similar games, like War of the Vikings and War of the Roses. I'm even okay at vanilla, though not great. But for some reason, I just don't seem to get PvP melee in cRPG.

I'm probably going back to ranged weaponry of some sort next gen, but I really do want to get better at melee so I can participate in that half of the game. Anyone have any suggestions for someone who's absolutely horrible?

I am bad at melee too. At least way worse than 90% of the populace.
I have to be honest tho: I never really tried much to become good or even just better. But I still enjoy my crpg-time and there are a few simple reasons to it.

First you should try to connect to all the other players on a friendly basis. This thread is already a very good start. Besides our over all pretty harsh tone, we're actually a pretty friendly community. The community is probably the part of the game that keeps most people still around after all these years.
Then you wanna look for a niche you enjoy playing, no matter how good you're at it. That's why I feel at home with the Ninjas. It's pretty much the completely wrong playstyle for my skill-level but I just enjoy it too much to really care about my deaths.

I'll tell you a secret: I am so bad, I NEVER had EVER a positive kill/death ration on any of my characters. Never! Hardly a surprise for anyone who knows me

What I am actually trying to say is: Don't allow kills and being killed to get into the way of you having fun. There is nothing wrong with wishing and trying to become better but don't try too hard. Just try to have a good time while playing with everyone around you.