Enshrouded Melee Guide: Best Weapons, Shields & Skills

With a wide range of playstyles, Enshrouded lets you approach combat any way you like—but sometimes the simplest answer is to hit hard. We’ve already covered Mages (Enshrouded Mage Guide: Best Weapons, Skills & Spells) and Rangers (Enshrouded Ranger Guide: Best Bows, Arrows, Skills, and Build Tips) ; now it’s time to take a closer look at melee. Even here, you can mix things up and decide exactly how you want to attack. Fast but lighter on damage, or slow with massive punch—Enshrouded gives you plenty of melee options. This guide shows just how flexible you can be.

Enshrouded Melee Guide: Overview and key tips

Melee in Enshrouded feels simple at first, but there are many factors that can make combat easier or harder. It’s a class you can comfortably play from the start, but you’ll need to ensure your damage keeps up later on. There are plenty of weapons, but you should still pick what fits your combat style.

Basics and general tips for melee players:

• Find your preferred weapon type as early as possible and stick with it.
• Pay attention to what kind of damage your weapon deals and level the matching skills.
• Focus on keeping your health topped up or high.
• Stamina and mana are secondary, but still relevant.
• If you use a one-hander, always carry a shield.
• Make use of gems and enchantments to further enhance your weapons.

Enshrouded melee weapons: Best daggers, swords, hammers, and axes

Melee often means hitting as hard as possible—but Enshrouded’s system is more complex. There are several weapon types and damage profiles that let you specialize.

Weapon types include:

• Daggers (partly suited to ranged-style builds)
• Swords & greatswords
• Axes
• Clubs & hammers

Each of these splits into one-handed and two-handed categories, with dozens of options per type. That primarily affects attack patterns. One-handers are lighter and more flexible, and you can carry a shield and actively use it in combat, but they’re a bit weaker. Two-handers hit extremely hard and deal high damage, but you need both hands and can’t use a shield. They’re also slower and more unwieldy.

Every melee weapon has a set base damage, which gives you a general idea of its power. Beyond that, each weapon lists additional properties you should consider, including attack types and elemental damage.

Melee damage types in Enshrouded:

• Blunt
• Slashing
• Piercing

A weapon can focus on one, two, or even all three types. This matters when you invest in skills, since those scale with the corresponding damage type. Further upgrades include gems and any predefined enchantments.

Enshrouded melee skills: Builds for damage, tanking, and speed

Leveling the right abilities pushes your damage higher. As a melee fighter, focus primarily on the red branches of the skill tree, but there’s still a lot of choice within them.

• Athlete: Grants various boosts, including better mobility, stamina, and strength. No matter how you fight, the Athlete branch is useful for almost any playstyle.
• Warrior: This branch drives your damage. Pay attention to the damage type your weapon deals, then invest into Blunt, Piercing, and Slashing accordingly—or spread points across all three.
• Tank: Invest here for defense, even if you’re not a pure tank. More health and mitigation never hurt anyone.
• Barbarian: Perfect for two-handers. Invest in area damage and improve handling for all types of two-handed weapons.

Build your melee character as you like, but we also recommend taking some points from the Survivor, Assassin, and Battlemage branches. They add mobility and help you regenerate stamina and mana.

Best skills for melee:

• Jump Attack
• Merciless Attack
• Constitution
• Strength
• Heavy Specialization
• Bloodlust
• Dodge Attack
• Combat Healing

Enshrouded gear for melee: Best armor and shields

Beyond your weapon, your gear matters for a solid combat setup. Each biome offers matching armor pieces that gain more advantages as you progress.

As a melee fighter, you’re up close and need to withstand a lot of damage. Melee armor sets you find or craft at the Blacksmith provide solid resistances. Many sets also focus on boosting your health, increasing damage, and sometimes improving stamina regeneration.

If you’re using a greatsword with Update 7 in Enshrouded, be sure to equip the Greatsword Gauntlets. You can find them at the Goldrock Saddle Inn.

If you’re running a one-hander, bring an appropriate shield. There’s a wide selection, and most shields can be crafted at the Blacksmith. You can also use magical shields crafted by the Alchemist.

Enshrouded shields have the following stats:

• Level requirement
• Damage on parry
• Durability
• Additional effect (e.g., elemental resistances)

Shields can partially or fully block damage. You can also parry and perform a counterattack with the right timing. It’s worth swapping to better shields when you reach new areas.

Conclusion: Mastering melee in Enshrouded

As a melee fighter, you’ll constantly prove yourself in close-quarters combat against monsters and enemies. Thankfully, Enshrouded gives you plenty of ways to tailor your style to your strengths. With a wide selection of melee weapons and matching skills, you’ll be well prepared. Add a good shield and nail your parries, and you’ll be tough to beat.

If you want to try melee, rent your own Enshrouded server with us right away: https://www.4netplayers.com/en-us/gameserver-hosting/enshrouded/ Test different weapons—from fast daggers to massive hammers—to find your ideal attack style.