Question about Melee characters

I am new to the game and deciding on what class to make. From what I have seen in several threads it seems ranged chracters are the most powerful. So my question is, as a new player, would playing a melee class be a bad idea?

It is true that melee characters are somewhat underpowered in Player vs. Player combat.

Ultimately it comes down to what you like playing. If melee suits your playstyle then go melee. otherwise you'll get bored and re-roll or quit.

Well don't mind being a little underpowered in pvp, assuming still have a chance in fights, but would leveling be a lot more difficult as well? Thinking about going gladiator or warlord by the way.

At the current time, ranged attackers, especially nukers, have a significant advantage over all over classes. Necromancers in particular have a unique combination of very strong attacks, strong debuffs, and assorted summoned pets which are fairly strong and gives their owner transfer pain.

Personally, however, my favorite toon to play is my dagger, specifically a treasure hunter. Even though I have a similar level spellhowler, I just find the melee combat style more satisfying, at least for pve.

PVP for a dagger is painful because we are not ranged and our land rate for specials was nerfed fairly badly. Warlords are strong but shine in select situations (meaning AOE) which doesnt come up very often in PVP.

You'll be able to solo untill probably sometime in your 40s with the Gladiator - not sure about the warlord.
After that, you'll have to group with others to xp efficiently, or make yourself a buffer on another account, depending on the clan you're in.

I am new to the game and deciding on what class to make. From what I have seen in several threads it seems ranged chracters are the most powerful. So my question is, as a new player, would playing a melee class be a bad idea?

It's not a bad idea, but your not going to UBEROWNAGE! like mages currently do.

CAVEAT EMPTOR! NC Soft Korea has hinted that a big 'rebalancing' is coming for the next chronicle...so if your just looking to get the current Reroll of the month club benefits you need to do it now. (No indication yet if this will affect pve grinding at all.)

I've played a mix of both melee and Ranges, and even the hybrid classes. And here's some of the lowdown.

1)Whenever you 'research' a class for 'power' everyone is going to assume that you are spamming BSPS and SS ALL THE TIME. (Fine for PvP....but cuts deeply into your income while grinding.)
Some even assume your quaffing buff potions and scrolls constantly too.

2)Body to Mind (Btm) and a "Two-Boxed" recharger make mages rediculously fast pve levelers. Even a Melee with an out of party healer/buffer simply can't kill fast enough to level as quickly. (Archers come closest however.) Not every class has this skill, nor does everyone have the ability or desire to two-box either...

3)Most people assume your going to have all your equipment "right away" (tm) If this is your first character....be prepared for sticker shock when it comes to buying equipment. (Its possible to make the money in a reasonable amount of time if you work smart and worry about XP later though.)

4)Mages are lonely pve'ers. They make uber gank/pvp chars, but their ability to level from 1-78 solo without much difficulty means your not going to interact with people as much unless you like 'drama' and constant clan wars/pvp/pk.

5) Mages can two shot mobs all the way up to top levels....melee can not. For NG/D grades (L1-L40) you will notice that you will overpower most mobs with top grade equip if you have it as soon as you level, and that your ability to do so falls as you reach the next grade. This pretty much ends after 40. At this point even with top grade equip your just not able to own mobs anymore with just your equipment. By the time you reach L52 (B grade) its pretty much a flat line for difficulty in melee. (Uphill both ways, in the snow!)

My advice is to abuse your 'newbie' bonuses as much as possible. Keep your first char below L23 to abuse the free buffs and use the 'exchange' option to get a top NG set of each type of equipment. If you don't want to delevel that char, just make another and hand the money/equip to the first to upgrade it. Once you level past the newbie bonuses, they are gone forever though.

With a good set of NG equip you can try playing each class type and get a basic feel for each. Pick the one you enjoy the most, NOT the one that is the 'uberest'! (Unless of course that's what you like the most.) =D

Thanks for the info everyone. Think I will just go with the human fighter for now and decide on gladiator or warlord when I get there.