My fire war barb Leader(charim) was ultimately killed in his near prime by a slith thief (eac). Had something like a 70/60 hit/dam(without spells), weapons of thief smiting, smoking barb L skills, and prepared up the wazoo. Of course, I absolutely refused to use poison back then, being as viri blatantly called it a bug and cheasy.
Needless to say, I was smoked.
(yes, he used blackjack--not exactly a straight melee)
BUT
In my REAL prime of melee EQ (75/70?---75/65?-Something like that), I made the mistake to agree to fight a certain ninja in a straight up melee only duel. Being my ultimate melee combo, I thought: oh yeah! fresh meat! ninja eatin time!
In reality, I chose to use a flail + some other weapon (another flail--some blinding weapon I think?) and go for a straight bashlock. Of course, this 'warlord' had his rump handed back to him on a not-so-silver platter.
So, I was a FIRE (strongest race = straight out strongest offense), WARRIOR(highest average offense/defense in game), BARBARIAN (spelled up wazoo), LEADER (ok--L skill (didn't use it here) was really buggy and actually got me killed to SOMEONE who KNEW I had it and chose to abuse it, repeatedly). Once more, perhaps the strongest(not BEST) flat out melee combo in the game. I also had about the best EQ in the game (for a warrior). Also, I'm fairly experienced with warriors.
Anyways, I got smoked. I think I got this avatar ninja sigil L (perhaps he was still using the old sigil bug++old shadowstrike) down from small wounds on the last round of combat. Straight melee--just lagging skills + caltraps--no healing, etc. I was sad. It hurt. A lot.