The problem is that most good melee defence has a huge mage penalty. If you wear Melee legs (which has a huge mage penalty) and a shield, which has no mage penalty, along with Karils or Black D hide body, and then also have every other spot for mage defence, like a Legends or Obby cape, Ranger or Mage Boots, some sort of RFD gloves, you'll have an ok Mage defence and an ok Melee defence, and I was able to melee like 150 of them in a trip.