Hey Cado! I too prefer not to play cookie-cutter builds. However, in the t2a era there were sort of some standards for having a character that can pvp. I'll go over the basic t2a templates...
Tank Mage/Swords Mage/Hally Mage
Swords (Determines chance to hit)
Tactics (Determines damage)
Wrestling (Determines chance of being hit while casting)
Magery
Meditiation (Determines mana regeneration)
Resisting Spells (Decreases spell dmg from offensive spells)
Evaluating Intelligence (Determines Spell dmg for strictly offensive spells such as Energy Bolt, Explosion, Flamestrike, Lightning, Fireball, etc)
100 str
100 int
25 dex
This is the most common pvp template. As such, your build has to be prepared to take this one on, as the majority of pvpers you encounter will be using this build.
The idea of this template is to have the full effect of playing a mage with all the bonuses, but to use the slowest/heaviest hitting weapon: the halberd. As weapons' swing times are recharging even when not equipped, the tactic of the mage is to hit with the halberd, cast spells in between, then when that slow halberd is ready again, equip it and hit.
Dexxer/Warrior
Melee Skill (Fencing, Macing, or Swords) (Determines chance to hit)
Tactics (Determines damage)
Healing (Determines chance to heal with bandages)
Anatomy (Increases your dmg and determines how well you heal)
Resisting Spells (Decreases spell dmg from offensive spells)
str 100
dex 100
int 25
This is the core of any warrior build. I often tell members that if they plan to play any type of warrior, do not deter from this.
The idea is simple, do as much melee dmg as possible, while being able to use bandages to heal, so that you can stay on the offensive at all times.
Is there a point where I can bandage myself in combat with out the "your fingers slipped!" everytime or is self-healing during melee not a good idea?
The fingers slipped! message only let's you knw when you've been struck while trying to heal. At lower levels of healing it will hurt your chances of healing successfully. However at higher healing, near gm, you'll still get these messages but you'll always be able to heal anyway (you'll seldom receive the message "You apply the bandages, but they barely help...")
Bandage healing is the norm for warriors, as it allows you to heal whilst in the middle of combat without trying to breakoff or drop your weapon to cast a spell.
As for equipping weapons and shields....
Equipping weapons is pretty simple. If you want to use magery with your build you can check "Auto Unequip hands before casting" in "More Options" in Razor. However you'll still need a hotkey method to toggle your weps, as dragging means you have to stop to arm/disarm.
The best way to do this is to go into Razor, under the tab Arm/Dress. On the left side hit "Add..." and put in the name for the type of weapon you wish to use, such as "Broadsword" then to the right hit "Add(Target)" go ingame and target a broadsword. Then go back to the Arm/Dress area and you should see a broadsword in the box, rightclick that and select "Convert selected to TYPE" so that it will then use any broadsword you have in your equipment (saving you from setting this up every time you get a new broadsword). Now go into Hot Keys, open Dress and find "Toggle: Broadsword" and set it to a key. Now ingame, whenever you hit that key, it will either arm or disarm a broadsword.
Now the type of weps you should use will depend on how you want to play your warrior. Shields can be very effective, but if you plan to use any magery on the fly, know that you'll have to disarm both your shield, then your weapon, then cast a spell, then reequip your weapon, then your shield. Making magery hard to use.
When fighting mages, you want to be as quick as possible. The idea is to be able to disrupt his spells as effectively as possible. When using a quick weapon with high dex, he'll constantly be on the move, trying to evade your hits. If you have low dex or are using a slower wep, he'll be able to cast with ease. You really want to have 100 dex to be able to swing as fast as possible. Likewise, most warriors do not use platemail armor as the lossed dex is not worth the handful of additional armor points.
I always look for only the faster weps, generally something
at least 40 speed or higher, tho you may want to look at only weps of 45 or higher. Here's a chart with all of the wep stats..
http://www.uosecondage.com/stratics/arms.html
While this may seem like playing a warrior is beginning to look like a cookie-cutter build, it is far more flexible than the tank mage, which requires all 7 skills to be used up, the dexxer only calls for 5, leaving you two gm skills to choose in order to customize your build a bit.
If you want to play an archer, take the same build and add archery as a 6th skill. If you want to use a shield, take parry, etc.
Personally, I like to have magery as a skill for the same reasons you stated. Additional heals, buffs/protection spells, utility spells like recall/mark, etc. Some people disagree with taking gm magery on a warrior build, but I find that for a single skill, there are none as useful and versatile as magery. I do not use any other mage-related skills, so I'm left with no med, no wrestle, no eval and only 25 int.
While this might seem like you're not getting the most out of having gm magery, your non-damage spells will work at full potency (such as heal/greater heal and debuffs like weaken and clumsy.) However damage-based spells, such as fireball or energy bolt are utterly useless.
Anyway, I know I rambled on about a few different areas, but I hope that helps.