Melee

Melee Attack Pipeline

Pipeline is used here in its standard engine/documentation sense: it is the ordered path from a player-controlled attack opportunity to server-side combat resolution. No reviewed EQL source names this sequence as a distinct in-game mechanic.

1. Timer Becomes Ready

   A weapon hand or combat ability reaches its next legal execution time.

2. Validate Eligibility

   The equipped weapon, active class skills, target, range, facing, resource cost, and reuse rules must permit the action.

3. Generate Additional Attempts

   Dual Wield, Double Attack, Triple Attack, riposte chains, or an ability-specific rule may add physical attempts.

4. Submit Each Attempt

   Every generated attack enters the engine-controlled defense, contact, damage, critical, proc, and threat sequence documented under Combat Rules.

Primary & Secondary Hands

Characters can equip items in both weapon hands when the items' class and slot restrictions permit it. Equipping a secondary-hand weapon does not by itself guarantee that the hand will attack: the active loadout must supply a usable Dual Wield skill, and EQL uses the best Dual Wield skill available from the equipped classes.T1

Because the timers are independent, a fast secondary weapon can attempt more offhand checks than a slow primary weapon produces main-hand rounds. Hand placement should therefore be evaluated by actual per-hand contribution, not by treating dual wield as one synchronized round.

Weapon Types

Weapon type controls which skill is used, which classes can equip the item, which special attacks are legal, and which Exaltations remain compatible. Current physical categories include one- and two-handed blunt, slashing, and piercing weapons; hand-to-hand; archery; and throwing. Ranged systems share some physical-damage concepts but are not treated as ordinary melee swings.

Class and slot tags remain decisive even when an Exaltation is transferred: inserting an effect can narrow the destination item's usable classes or legal slots.

Weapon Skills

Every physical attack uses the skill associated with its weapon or ability. For a multiclass loadout, the character uses the best available cap supplied by the active classes for each skill.T2

• Weapon proficiency matters to contact. The weapon skill in use is an input to Accuracy; changing to an untrained category can sharply increase misses until the skill advances.T2
• Offense and weapon skill are not interchangeable. EQL's displayed ATK combines Accuracy and Offense components, while the actual weapon skill is still tracked separately.
• Skill access is loadout-dependent. Equipping a weapon does not create Double Attack, Triple Attack, Backstab, Bash, or another class combat skill when no active class supplies it.
• Skills improve through use. A low-delay weapon can create more opportunities to train its associated attack and Dual Wield checks, subject to the game's normal skill-up rules.T2

Attack Attempts & Multi-Attacks

An attack timer becoming ready creates an opportunity for one or more attacks. Double Attack and Triple Attack do not shorten weapon delay; they add attacks to an eligible hand's event after their own checks succeed.

Minimum Damage

The current reference model treats a normal melee hit as a roll across twenty damage intervals. Mitigation shifts the probability distribution toward lower intervals but does not redefine the interval endpoints. A target can therefore make minimum or near-minimum results more common without changing the weapon’s displayed damage.

• The lowest interval is the attack package’s damage floor, not automatically “weapon damage × 1.”
• Main-hand damage bonus is a flat addition and does not apply to the off hand.
• Criticals, special attacks, stance multipliers, and skill-specific formulas may transform the result at another stage.
• The exact server order for every additive and multiplicative modifier remains incompletely published.

Use parsed hit distributions rather than a single low hit to infer minimum damage.T2

Dual Wield Calculations

The secondary weapon has its own delay timer. When that timer is ready, the character performs a Dual Wield eligibility check; passing the check creates an off-hand attack attempt. The off hand does not automatically swing every time the main hand attacks.

The form above is inherited from current community references, but the correct EQL denominator and any class modifiers are disputed. Treat it as T4 until controlled logs or an official formula resolve the denominator.T4

The second expression assumes weapon delay is measured in tenths of a second and ignores haste-floor, latency, misses, Double Attack, and encounter downtime. It is useful for comparing candidate weapons, not for claiming an exact parse.

Current references state that off-hand Double Attack requires at least 150 Double Attack skill. Verify that threshold against current logs after balance changes.

Damage Bonus

The Damage Bonus is a flat physical-damage component associated with the primary hand. It is added separately from the variable weapon-damage roll, so Mitigation changing the distribution of that roll does not proportionally reduce the flat component.T2

• The ordinary bonus is primary-hand only; the secondary weapon does not receive it.
• Eligibility and amount are level- and weapon-profile dependent.
• Because the bonus is flat per qualifying hit, primary-hand frequency can matter independently of raw weapon ratio.
• Some ranged or special systems can reference the primary-hand bonus through their own explicit rule; this must not be generalized to every attack type.

Attack Speed & Haste

Weapon Delay is expressed in tenths of a second: a delay of 20 represents an unhasted interval of approximately 2.0 seconds.T2 Haste reduces that interval; it does not increase the weapon's printed damage.

• A standard haste cap exists. The July 7 patch removed a separate low-level item haste cap while explicitly retaining standard haste-cap rules.T1
• The Inventory/stat interface displays current Haste and its cap; that displayed cap should override community rule-of-thumb values for the character's present level.T2
• Current reference documentation reports a minimum player attack delay of 5, equivalent to roughly 0.5 seconds before additional attack-generation mechanics.T2
• Each weapon hand applies haste to its own base delay. Haste therefore preserves independent main- and offhand timing.

Weapon Ratios

A Weapon Ratio compares damage with delay. Rank upgrades can improve the ratio when they add weapon damage without increasing delay; developers demonstrated an upgraded weapon's ratio increasing alongside its damage.T1

Ratio is a screening metric, not a build verdict. A lower-ratio weapon may win because of a strong proc, superior class access, a needed damage type, a useful Worn effect, a favorable Exaltation restriction, or better interaction with a stance or special attack.

Positioning & Combat Abilities

Facing changes which defensive gates and special attacks are legal. Parry and Riposte are documented as frontal defenses, so rear positioning removes those frontal checks from ordinary attacks where the target and encounter geometry permit it.T2

• Backstab: positioning-sensitive Rogue attack. Developers explicitly highlighted Striker Stance combinations producing very large Backstabs, but the exact Backstab formula remains unconfirmed.T1
• Kick, Bash, Cleave, Frenzy, monk kicks, and similar abilities: use their own class access, skill, reuse, resource, and target rules rather than inheriting the equipped weapon timer.
• Bash and Cleave: no longer share a timer as of the July 7 patch.T1
• Secondary-class NPC abilities: the July 14 patch enabled NPCs with secondary melee classes to use skills including Bash, Kick, Cleave, Frenzy, Backstab, and monk kicks.T1

Striker Stance was demonstrated multiplying weapon-skill abilities by three and non-weapon-skill combat abilities by five at that point in beta.T1 Stance values are balance-sensitive and should be checked against the current tooltip before using the multiplier in a final damage model.

Weapon Procs

Weapon procs are attached triggered effects rather than part of the weapon's printed damage/ratio. A July 14 patch fixed an issue that had prevented weapon procs from triggering.T1

• Proc value depends on trigger frequency, effect strength, resistance, target type, and any proc-level or Exaltation restrictions.
• DEX is associated with proc frequency in current reference models, but the exact EQL coefficient is not developer-published.T2
• At item rank +4, an eligible weapon proc can be extracted as a Proc Exaltation and placed into a compatible destination weapon.T2
• Spellblade is a separate invocation-driven proc system and is documented under Invocations → Spellblade.

Melee Optimization

A robust weapon comparison should evaluate each hand separately and then add interaction value. The following is a decision sequence, not a universal best-in-slot formula:

1. Confirm eligibility. Check active-class weapon skills, class/slot tags, and any Exaltation restrictions.
2. Check skill readiness. A superior item can underperform while its weapon skill is substantially behind.
3. Model each timer. Apply the current haste cap and the weapon's own delay.
4. Add attack generation. Include Dual Wield reliability and eligible Double/Triple Attack behavior.
5. Add hand-specific damage. Include the primary-hand Damage Bonus only where applicable.
6. Add non-ratio value. Procs, Worn effects, focus/click utility, damage type, special-attack requirements, and stance interaction may outweigh printed ratio.
7. Test against the intended target. Target Mitigation, resistances, positioning access, and fight duration can change the ranking.

Open Verification Questions