[LordSkie]

Ranged all the way, certainly early on.

The reasoning is fairly simple- better gun=better damage. Better melee weapon=better damage.

On the surface- both are the same. But guns have a set damage rating, the only thing that then affects them is how often you hit with them- their set damage rating it WAY higher than melee weapons, and generally more consistent. If you train with guns, excluding stat requirements for the big ones of strength and endurance, the only stat you need to train for efficient usage is accuracy- train that high enough to hit regularly, and you're sorted. For melee though, you need to train accuracy to hit often enough, AND strength in order to do proper damage.

If you're prepared to sacrifice a chunk of accuracy to train strength, go for melee- but be warned, strength needs to be HIGH in order to outmatch guns- I'm guessing lv 16 strengthwould be absolute minimum to just break even with the AK. Until you're hitting the high character level 20's I'd stick with guns, personally.