Returning player, feeling confused

[Malianna]

Hey guys, took a break from here a little while ago due to RL stuffs. Now that it has passed, I'm probably going to roll from scratch, which brings me to my little problem.

I'm having trouble on what to pick. I dont have a favorite class, I'd want to play melee over a caster and it just seems like a very long hurdle due to most of the melees have an exp penalty (which I know goes away in Velious).

Anyways, with Velious in mind, which melee should I pick? Or perhaps if I can be persuaded, caster.