Battle time!
Melee vs Caster, Which one do you prefer and why?
Do you like the up close and personal approach or the firing off spells from a distance method, again, you can only pick one, go! ;)
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Historically this has been quite the debate for me.
When I was younger, I REALLY liked the idea of being a caster - but HATED not really being "in combat" - and so actually enjoyed melee more. I'd TRY caster / ranged... and then usually flip to melee.
Getting a little older, I REALLY like the idea of being melee now - but find that I USUALLY perform better when I can do that which I hated when I was younger... keep combat out in front of me as a caster / ranged class. I TRY melee... and then usually flip to ranged / caster.
I've enjoyed playing both through the years. Unfortunately for many MMORPGs it is the developers that dictate which is more fun. Their use of changes to the current game (in the form of nerfs) in order to bring things into balance forces people to switch it up to stay competitive. Also certain bosses tend to be favorable to either range or melee. Rarely are they treated equal in raid encounters.
For example, I loved playing wizard and enchanter in EQ right up 'til Omens of War, then Enchanters got nerfed hard and casters couldn't land their nukes on raid targets so EQ became completely melee-centric until TSS and later. (My opinion) The one thing that recurs time and time again across big name MMORPGs is melee is always solid, range not so much.
I love playing melee characters, especially tanks. I think it takes the right kind of person to play a tank. You need to be a leader, know where you're going at all time, and have a knack at learning quickly on the fly. There is nothing worse than a bad tank that's lost or doesn't understand the concept of holding agro. But all tanks got to start some where. Everyone remembers that nerve wracking time tanking there 1st dungeon, what a rush!
Melee, avoidance tank for small groups as well as competitive dps. I also love tanking, so I'd say melee across the board. One of my quirks about Everquest that I didn't like was the fact that starting off as a melee was an incredibly hard journey, without friends to keep your items up to par you were generally behind everyone in usefulness, that is until you got to end game and got geared out, then everyone wanted you.
Caster, but good at melee skills.
in EQ1 I learned the mage backwards, thinking the elemental was the "surprise, saving, big spell" so I would only cast it like if I was close to death and losing. As a result, all my melee and defensive skills were maxxed, I was rarely accused of overaggroing with DD spells because I would "dodge"-if I got aggro- heh. Except for hand to hand. On a raid in the demi-plane, the final boss was a fairly long and drawn out fight, and I asked the leader if I could spar with the boss since the tanks had such good aggro. They let me, which was nice and allowed me some skill ups. Neat thing was other casters wanted t do it too, so imagine like 10 robe wearers, casting, but in between casting spells, boxing with the boss- lol. Melee skills also allowed me to use weapons with effects, to have them proc more often if I was low, or out of mana.
