Best solo melee class?

[Zuranthium]

Bards are unique, of course. But casting spells through alternate means than mana, or being able to move while casting, are things that could be built into the design of another caster class.

In the dichotomy of deciding whether something is more physical or more caster, no physical class is capable of being fully effective without attacking. Bards have the same effectiveness as a caster without attacking. The height of their powers involves not attacking and not being in melee, as they want to space away from the thing they are charming (or utilize swarm kiting - very much a caster thing).

No melee class has charm, mesmerize, haste and mana regen buffs, slow and mana drain debuffs, and mass AoE spell damage. It's possible to design hybrid melee classes that do have some of this, but when you're able to "cast" high potency spells non-stop, you have to be considered more of a caster than a physical class.