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Well, I think I'm gonna focus on using a combination of Magic and Melee to fight, but I keep giving myself this mindset that I have to pick one or the other because, that's how it was in most MMORPGs. Just to make sure, is it like that in Ryzom in any form?

Anyways, I usually don't pick any magic class in MMORPGs because they don't give much appeal to me. If there isn't a magic class that's fitting to my playstyle, it's the style in appearance that doesn't fit me, such as: Robes, staffs, only 3 elements to work with, etc.

It's different in Ryzom, if I exclude some of the caster clothing I've seen.
Doing a bunch of awesome and sometimes weird hand and arm motions and casting spells from a pair of cool and bulky magical/technological gauntlets is much more awesome than using a wand of a staff. Especially since in a lot of games mages fire the spell from the palm of their hand anyways.

To get to the point, I read something about hand to hand combat, and the magic amplifiers are technically fist weapons.

I'm pretty sure that casters aren't meant to be within melee range of enemies and are suppose to keep a distance from enemies and that I can change to melee in a pinch, but is it possible to efficiently use melee with magic amplifiers in hand to hand combat? And what is hand to hand like?

I also find it much easier to fight a lot of enemies using melee than using magic, but this is just so far. I'm still in the beginning land. It just seems much easier and efficient (but not as challenging and not always as fun IMO) to run up to an enemy with a sword and shield and use increased damage a few times than to try and balance a cycle between acid/rot and fear until the enemy is dead.

Hand to Hand skill can be useful, but not for the reason you mention. The damage from Hand to Hand fighting is simply too low for serious combat. However, training Hand to Hand will raise your base Parry skill. A mage that can Parry is better than a mage that can only Dodge, all other things being equal. That said, raising Hand to Hand to mastery is not for the faint of heart. I would not consider it an essential skill.

More to the point of your post, Ryzom is different from most MMOGs since it is a "sandbox" instead of "class based" skill system. If you have sufficient time, you can master every skill in the game on a single character. Most high level players here will have more than one Mastery. Flexibility is often key in team combat situations. I personally consider Melee mastery, Elemental mastery and Healing mastery ALL essential skills.

Ah, ok. Thanks for the help. Still would have been nice to be able to cast magic AND punch the heck out of things with magic amplifiers.

and you can, just not during the same action :)

As to healing, I beg to differ that it's essential to master it. But a reasonably high level (depending on the content being played, obviously) is certainly very handy (150+ when playing "endgame" groups is the least you need to make an effect, 100+ very handy at all times to quickly rez a fallen comrade).

caveat: my healing's been stuck at around 210 for the last 2 years :)

There is a way to do something very close to what has been initially suggested.

It's not H-2-H though, it's a lot better with daggers. Faster, with a higher damage.
You take 2 daggers and lvl the skill to a decent lvl. Make sure you have a high dodge MA and the Dodge lvl of your daggers is also high so you would use dodge instead of parry.

Then in your stanza you use: Bypass armor and specific "aim". The "aim" skills can be collected at the fight trainer. Critically hitting a specific area produces interesting effects: Stun on head, Slow on legs etc.

It depends what you are after since human, plant, kitin and quadruped anotomy differs.

Then as the icing on this Close range fighter "class" you would imbue the daggers with a specific spell, pump it up with sap and then use it with rightmouse button during combat. You can use a variety of spells but only one at a time:
- Fear
- Blind
- Rot or Acid with a vampiric effect (this again will depend on the target)

Fear successfully cast on a player immobilizes him and you can start your dance going for his head.

At OP fights usually the first thing to do is to understand what protections are highest on enemy tanks\cannons and then try to bypass them.

Lvling this is tricky but it's a great deal more useful than H-2-H.

Kind of like a ninja :)

That sounds cool. The last time I tried using dual daggers, I kept doing the damage of one dagger instead of two. Maybe I hit twice with dual daggers? Idk. I kept using increased damage a lot. Does that have something to do with it?

Anyways, now I use a sword and shield, which is cool, but I like daggers more. What did I do wrong?

Most likely one of your daggers kept missing.To lvl the "class" described above you need really good daggers that can never be made on Silan.

However lvling daggers as your first melee is really hard.
The best way would be to go at least as far as 230 with 2 handed sword or axe (which is comparatively easy) and only then take up daggers.
In this case you will have a lot higher increased damage and a lot more stamina to back up additional options such as accuracy.

Still even in that case lvling daggers alone is tough - pick a nice guild and lvl in team with a high damage dealer and a healer...

Failing that go to trykerlands and lvl on Stingas provided you have anti-cold jewelry. Stingas won't be able to damage you and you can do whatever you want.

You did see properly that you were only hitting with one dagger, and/or that you were likely missing. When using an Increased Damage stanza, it will only apply to the weapon in your right hand (main hand). Your second dagger will usually do default damage with the occasional Critical Hit. That said, Daggers strike simultaneously, and therefore your damage number is shown as a single hit, even though it's technically the sum of both hits. If I remember correctly, your System Info will show the separate hit totals.
Though it's slower for both weapons, I actually recommend using a 1h Sword and a dagger to level. Each skill receives less XP per kill, but the damage being done is much faster than daggers. This system carried me to my 200's before I felt the need to separate the 2 weapons, and I was in a rush to master one at the time or I would've kept them together. A 2h Sword or Axe is a much faster way to a melee mastery though. Much higher DPS= faster kills.
The biggest reason to master a melee skill is the additional HP it gives you. Magic, however, gives you a lot more team flexibility, and, if you're interested in PvP'ing, healing is one of the most sought after skills at OP wars.
Ryzom is different from other MMO's out there because of it's sandbox format. The only thing that limits what you are doing is the tool or weapon in your hand. :D

Eh, I might skip using daggers, then. Maybe some other time.

I got two more questions. I'm asking them in this topic because I don't want to litter the general section with lots of my topics. You see, in spirit of a class that I played as that I really liked in this one other game (called a Warden), I want to specialize in tanking and using the spear and shield in Fight. I also, if possible, want to be able to do fighting DoTs sometime in the future. I plan to specialize in Offensive stuff with Magic.

So, I'm curious:

1. What's a good tanking build?

2. Why is a one-handed sword the only melee weapon that's really working?

You see, I'm still a bit unsure about what skills to get in this game. In fight, I so far have mostly invested my skill points into Constitution and Metabolism because they increase how much I can take in battle, both as a caster and a fighter. I have increased damage 2 which does a lot of damage, and I have attack after parry, but so far, it feels useless.

I also got bleed, but it also turned out to be useless for now.

Also, I crafted a fine quality 20 (same quality as the duelist blade) one-handed Tryker spear, but when I used it, I noticed that it did quite less damage than the duelist blade.

The duelist blade did damage between (I think) 45 ~ 90, and often put out 70s, which lets me kill things close to my level and even slightly higher quite easily.

The spear did damage between 10 ~ 50 and often put out 40s. As far as I remember, it had good accuracy, but I could be wrong. I also noticed how it greatly reduced my parrying, but I think that has more to do with what materials I used.

Am I doing something wrong in crafting the spear?

A good tanking build is generally Heavy Armour with a high parry. Sometimes you can achieve this with a 1H weapon and a shield, sometimes it's better with a 2H weapon with high parry. You're looking for damage mitigation and avoidance, and not so much damage itself, as long as you can hold aggro.

Different skills match up with different weapons. I don't remember where to find it, but information is out there. Basically, Pierce weapons use Ignore Armour, Blunt Weapons use Slow Attack, and Slash weapons use Bleed. The "Opening after..." stanzas only work with melee weapons, not ranged weapons.

The Duelist Blade is a very good weapon, and it can be difficult to match its stats without using hard-to-get ingredients. That, plus the mission-reward shield are a great set for Silan. Same with the Fire and Wrath.

More important than the actual level of the item are the stats it has. If you look at the spear you crafted vs the Duelist Blade, you'll probably see that the damage is higher, hits per minute is higher, dodge/parry is higher, and adv dodge/parry is lower (lower is better).

This is where the beauty of Ryzom's crafting system comes in. You have to find what materials produce the results you're looking for. Sometimes these are hard-to-get materials that you might even need to trade with others to get. All kinds of Points and Shafts and Grips are not created equally. =)

Yeah, being so new to the game you'd be hard pressed to craft something on par with the Duellist blade, that's probably your problem.

Generally 1h spear is toally on par with 1h sword.

It does do a little less damage but it has higher speed, and ignore armor is generally the best special melee ability (out of ignore armor, bleed and slow).

Well, dang. Now I wish I didn't accidentally sell the Duelist Blade. I meant to re-obtain it from resale, but I've been so busy today and I'm a bit low on money, it may be too late.

Ah, well. I'll manage. Thanks for the advice.

simple solution. level up an alt and get another one. then delete the alt when done.

That won't be necessary anymore. I managed to make a quality 20 Spear that comes very close to doing the amount of damage the Duelist Blade does, and when I learn how to craft things of quality 30, 40, 50 and beyond, I will be able to make something that greatly out-does the Duelist Blade.

Talking about the best tanking build you need first to define the most important qualities:
1. Staying alive longer
2. Holding aggro and keeping it away from nukers\healers

Damage would not be important for a tank at all. You have nukers for that.

1. Means Heavy armor maxed on HP, Stam and Parry and a large shield with similar stats (shield means no 2h weapon)
2. Means fast attack - as fast as possible in fact and that would be 1h spear. It beats 1h sword any day in speed. The stanza should be: ignore armor and high accuracy. No need for increased damage as it would simply eat away your stamina.

Tanks are used most often in Boss hunts.
However for PvP (melee rush) you would need a different sort of build - not a classical tank at all...