Couple of questions

[Aryssa]

I am thinking about becoming a soldier/warrior for my village, I asked my village mates the same questions but they were unsure, I did use the search button but everything I saw co-relating to my questions just confused me worse.

Questions:

What Skills should I focus on more, Unarmed or Melee, or should I go half and half and keep them even?

Is the Cutthroat Knuckles any good for unarmed or should I just bare fist?

What attacks should be used in combat, Unarmed and Melee?

Should I use a shield?

[TeckXKnight]

Go for mostly Unarmed, a little bit of Melee.
Most of your actions in combat will be maneuvers, moves, special moves, and punching. You'll still be stinging and valor striking though.
Use Cutthroat Knuckles or Gauntlets. Both add UA damage.
Not worth bothering with a shield.

[Zampfeo]

Melee is pretty fail because your melee is likely to be much lower than your opponents UA making it bad for lowering defense bars. It has no armor penetration either so you're unlikely to do much damage. It's better suited for people killing noobs, but then you have to account for the fact that you have to gain initiative before actually getting an attack in when it would be much faster to just use strangle.

I would keep your melee below 100 for the rare chance that you're fighting someone with no armor or bad armor and they happen to not run away. UA is superior because it gives you relatively more defense, speed, maneuvers, defense damage, and damage against armored targets.

As for stats, focus on agility, but don't let your strength or con fall behind.

[Aryssa]

OK, thank you both, you have been very helpful.