I'm terrible at PvP melee combat

[Grumbs]

I think if you're new taking anything less than 15 will be a bad idea. I'd go at least 18/18. 21/18 or 18/21 if you don't use a shield

[Screaming Idiot]

call me if you need some tutoring baby

steam ID is Screaming Idiot

pls call

i so lonely

[WITCHCRAFT]

Lots of good advice so far. Practice on the duel server will increase your skill faster than anything else. Don't just join and fight whoever shows up though. Most of the regulars who hang out on the duel server are top-tier players and you will get stomped. Asking on the battle or siege server for someone to help you won't get much response but sometimes a nice guy will help you out.

Get teamspeak installed if you don't have it already. Pretty much every crpg clan uses that for voice communications. I don't know whether you are NA or EU, but if you are NA (or don't mind NA ping) then try weshould.servebeer.com teamspeak server. It hosts a ton of different clans, so there will be several channels with people hanging out at any given time. Just ask if anyone wants to train you on the duel server. Can't speak for EU servers, but I'm sure someone else in this thread can suggest some.

The biggest advantage of being in teamspeak is that your tutor can talk to you. It's a pain to write everything you are trying to teach with the in-game chat.

I have been playing for a long time, but when I just started I played range only. Before I was any good at melee attacks, I learned to block proficiently. Just bring a light cheap weapon along and fight defensively when you are forced into melee. When you die, spectate the best players and watch their technique. Find the playstyle and build that is the most fun to you. Then get good at it. Don't pick a class or build because "it is strong." Pick it because you want to play it.

[StonedSteel]

'Skill' = Success in crpg

High level + gear also = Success in crpg

So Success in crpg does not necessarily = Skill, as high level and gear can be a substitute for skill.

LOL

I say the exact same thing and get hated for it.

but sure...if heskey says it...lol, i love you heskey, you are like, thee one and only actual honest non delusional crpg player. For the love of the people King Heskey, keep up the good work, your honesty and sanity are highly refreshing.

[Falka]

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.

That's exactly why str builds are better for newbies. If the very first mistake gets you killed you cause of low hp pool, then this is shitty build for new players. Dead people will learn nothing.

Also, with agi build and long weapon people are more inclined to rely exclusively on their footwark, instead of learning how to block properly.

[Zerkain]

You are terrible because you don't use Autoblock.

[The_Bloody_Nine]

#1- Don't play Battle, play siege or duel. Battle might allow 15 seconds of actual fair combat every 10 minutes. The rest of the time is spent dead, zerging, or being zerged

#2- Find out what the most exploitable mechanic of your class is, and 'sploit the hell out of it. On my shielder I exploit dragging 1h stabs around combined with shield neutral nudges. With 2h you get lolstab and various ways to do annoying sideswings in facehug range (i.e. bend down to put your torso inside your opponents' body). Pole stabs have all sorts of potential exploits, like wiggling to make your holds seem like thrusts, combined with the jerky right swing and overhead animations that make fast 4d poles much harder to block than other weapons. And every class can exploit s-keying, potentially combined with kicks.

Worst advise here, imo.

#1. Really find out for yourself what you like the most. Some prefer siege, some battle for various reasons and the above description is just one-sided biased from obviously a siege-fan.

#2. A bit what Molly said, just find out how to have fun. But that doesn't mean you can't get any better. There are tons of great players out there with their own style and good tricks that don't use the "most exploitable mechanic" of their class just to win.

[Huscarlton_Banks]

Outside of heirlooms, good ping, good fps, good reaction time, footwork/positioning, and teamwork, a lot of "skills"/ways to improve performance are hard to distinguish from blatant exploits if the standard for an exploit is that it wouldn't make any sense in real life. Pretty much all of the top performing players use them.

These things include:

Kicks being able to land while the character is retracting their leg.
Wibbly wobbly timey wimey dragging stabs into people for massive damage even though it looks like there's no momentum (2h, 1h), or even though it doesn't make sense for a stab to land since you're so close (polearm)
Feints moving impossibly jerky/fast (mostly a polearm thing since their animations are less "smooth")
Hiltslashes

I'd say pick a weapon type that you like, then try to find a few people who do really well using the same weapon type with similar lengths/speed and just spectate them for a while.

Alternatively, try dueling but make sure you're both using STF builds and unloomed weapons/armor.

[Dooz]

If you've spent more time reading all this than playing the game, you're doing it wrong. You'll just end up overwhelmed with information that's years in the making, instead of just playing and figuring out what you like and don't like for yourself, and getting better at whatever those things are because you're spending time doing them. Everything else is mostly just other peoples' opinions, as opposed to fostering your own through experience. But yeah there's some good info among all the posts here too, just adding more noise to the mix cause I'm a bad boy.

[Umbra]

We need more noobs to register here. One genuine new player comes and immediately gets swarmed by everyone with info. 

[Digglez]

A shame there is no vassal system, so mentors would get some sort of credit!

If you want to learn the art of medium infantry shielding, pm me. I've taught more than a few.  Teamspeak use is mandatory

[Falka]

We need more noobs to register here. One genuine new player comes and immediately gets swarmed by everyone with info. 

because

Besides our over all pretty harsh tone, we're actually a pretty friendly community.

[StonedSteel]

Outside of heirlooms, good ping, good fps, good reaction time, footwork/positioning, and teamwork, a lot of "skills"/ways to improve performance are hard to distinguish from blatant exploits if the standard for an exploit is that it wouldn't make any sense in real life. Pretty much all of the top performing players use them.

These things include:

Kicks being able to land while the character is retracting their leg.
Wibbly wobbly timey wimey dragging stabs into people for massive damage even though it looks like there's no momentum (2h, 1h), or even though it doesn't make sense for a stab to land since you're so close (polearm)
Feints moving impossibly jerky/fast (mostly a polearm thing since their animations are less "smooth")
Hiltslashes

I'd say pick a weapon type that you like, then try to find a few people who do really well using the same weapon type with similar lengths/speed and just spectate them for a while.

Alternatively, try dueling but make sure you're both using STF builds and unloomed weapons/armor.

OMG!!! another actually honest non delusional crpg player!??! ITS A MIRAC---

ohh wait a sec, i know banks, hes from native. sigh...i should really just go back there, where people are sane. if i read even one more dishonest delusional completely BS macropus\tydeus post and i swear ill snap.

[Dooz]

Sounds like you might have already snapped.

[Teeth]

Now I am not sure what exactly is the problem, but if you aren't a good blocker you should probably address that first. I highly recommend following the steps below. As with anything that relies on building muscle memory, practicing very focused and very slow is key to getting it right and will in the end teach you blocking much faster than just jumping into full speed multiplayer combat. Many players develop very bad habits to supplant blocking skills and never get good. Spend some time with this and you will be able to have a much better time ingame.

If you want to learn blocking properly and quickly I recommend starting up Native and clicking the tutorial. There are bots in there of various ranks, they have varying wpf levels. Start with the novice one, and put combat speed to slowest in the options. Focus on blocking only until you can block atleast 9 out of 10. Then go to the next bot who is called regularI think, do the same again. Work your way through the bots from low to high and if you are confident on blocking them all, you turn the game speed up one notch. Start while standing still, if you get somewhat comfortable doing it stationary, start moving around while blocking as you need to be able to do both at the same time.

If you can block the highest rank bot confidently on normal game speed, then you should have servicable blocking good enough for multiplayer cRPG. Although you also might want to practice blocking and then attacking back. You can also try blocking them on the faster and even fastest settings to get really comfortable with blocking, but don't forget that blocking players with wiggles, feints and holds is gonna take practice even if you can block normal attacks at the speed of light. Try to block with as small mouse movements as possible and hold down your blocks, don't just click them. With this procedure you can most likely develop the required muscle memory for blocking in like 1-5 hours. Took me a 1000 hours of just playing before I could properly block back in the day.