I have been playing mmo's for a good 10 years id say now. Im a very big fan of the hard to play but very good class. I much apreciate a good hybrid that takes alot of work but in the end is basicly woopass all over. Im also a big mele fan so if there are any suggestions pls let me know, im also thinking human for the race if that helps.
You will get a dozen "right" answers in response to this sort of question.
Biggest challenge with this game is money. To get past that I recommend considering starting off with a Dwarf Scavenger and learning to spoil basic materials to sell in Giran, plus using the manor system to get even more materials. Basic materials are used for crafting upper end weapons and gear that you can not get in the NPC stores, so they sell way higher to players than you would get from vendoring to an NPC.
You will also experience the worst damage dealing race in the game this way, so it only goes uphill from there.
Once you have some money to properly equip your real choice for a class, you can begin. For a hybrid class that is melee, you can go with Warcryer (Orc Mystic) or Overlord (Orc Mystic) or one of the true summoner classes (Human Warlock, Elven Elemental Summoner, or Dark Elven Phantom Summoner). Necromancer will be too expensive as a first class.
Warcryer is party buffer (each spells buffs the entire party)
Overlord buffs an entire clan and/or alliance
Those two Orcs mainly use Blunt weapons like a hammer or Axe
The true summoners (start as mystics) start using a summoned pet after level 40 to assist with killing mobs because they no longer advance with more damage dealing spells. They buff and heal their summons while assisting with melee weapons.
If you don't want to do a mystic class, there are lots of melee classes to choose from. Tanks who are defensive, damage dealers like dagger and archer classes.
There are also the Swordsinger (Elf) and Bladedancer (Dark Elf) who are Fighters but are bardlike in that they "sing/dance" to provide party buffs.
Im a very big fan of the hard to play but very good class.
and then say:
I much apreciate a good hybrid that takes alot of work but in the end is basicly woopass all over.
The answer would be an Orc Overlord. Orc WarCryer is easier to level, etc than the Overlord.
im also thinking human for the race if that helps.
Humans are actually quite the opposite of what you're talking about, humans have some very very good classes, Gladiator, Necromancer, Hawkeye, Dark Avenger, then there's a Sorc which is now a gimp AoE nuker and lastly the buffer/healer and pally.
But the hardest class to play and the most versatile are the Warcryer and Overlord. Either of these 2 classes are highly desirable for parties/pvp groups past lvl 60's where the grind starts going into the insane areas :p
The answer would be an Orc Overlord. Orc WarCryer is easier to level, etc than the Overlord.
Neither a Warcryer or an Overlord is 'woopass' at pvp. They can (usually) kill exactly one person, and then they are free pvp points. (Can't do much when you don't have any MP on either class. And one fight is all it takes to suck up all your MP.) The OL just has a better chance of winning that one fight.
Of the two, the OL is significantly harder to level due to their weak buffs. (Basically might, shield, accuracy and berserk are their only 'useful' buffs.) The inability to buff anyone who isn't clan/ally is also more restricting than you would at first think.
WC gets better on a steady rate with their buffs. It takes more levels than a PP or SE, but they get all the useful melee buffs. (Haste, VR, DW and Focus.) OL on the other hand has a HUGE gap between their buffs, 56 is the last update to their 'normal buffs' and all they have after that is Windwalk at 58 and 68. For an OL to finally get their last buffs (Empower and Death Whisper) they need to be 3rd class Dominators (L77). Which is just 3 levels from max level.
In fact, none of the 'hard to level' classes are 'woopass' pvp chars. All the good pvp classes are EASY to level. (High attack = easy to pve as well.) What they aren't is cheap. (Well very few are in L2.)
About the only semi-hard to level, but decent at pvp class is the summoner. And even then they are still less woopass than the nuker or archer classes. (Very strong/self sufficient in pve...not quite so much in pvp.)