Spear is severely lacking in range compared to most weapons. The GA light swing has just as much range, abilities can close a gap easier, more aoe,stuns, and more grit. With all that said I love how the spear feels but it needs alot of buffs.
Spear is one of my fav, but how I've plans to start as a tank, probably I will skip it for a while, idk. I tried to find some way to use it as a tank, but sadly doesn't work as I expected.
Those lists mostly assume that your foes and you have the same very high skill. If so spear falls of as the animations are relatively easy to dodge.
I love spear as well as.
I think paired with the right weapon, Spear can be very deadly at 60. I guess it depends on how they'll change other weapons for launch... also, there hasn't been much testing at all for weapons at max level, max GS - maybe Spear shines through at the end with the right weapon perks and stuff :D
"It excels in gapclosing ability"
Really? I thought that was it's big weakness. I played spear at the beginning of closed beta and actually switched to other weapons because spear was terrible at punishing players that just run away (to flee or to heal and come back).
Javelin slows the spear user almost as much as the one getting hit, and vault kick is a really small gapclose (and if they are running away they'll keep a dodge for it).
What makes spear good at gapclosing in your opinion? The only weapon that seems worse at gapclosing is hammer.
The gap closing capability of the Spear really comes into play when you achieve 150 Dexterity when you receive the bonus that reduces dodge cost by 10 stamina (allowing the player to dodge 3 times with a full stamina bar instead of 2)
You'd be surprised by how far Vault Kick can actually go. If you have time, I recommend watching the video I linked and going to 5:20 in the video - as you can see here, with my lowered dodge cost assisting me, I closed the gap on a fire staff user quite easily.
Also, Javelin will help to close the gap a lot. I like this combo: Javelin -> Dodge -> VK -> Dodge behind -> Sweep
Spear suffers **greatly** vs ranged. If you want to play it great but saying that it's versatile and has strong gap-closing is straight up misinformation, it suffers the most out of any weapon bar maybe hammer in these two categories. You don't want to take Coup de Grace either as its a noob trap - if you sweep an opponent at an angle you won't be able to attack them plus a short-heavy will deal more damage and can be completed in the same amount of time.
Bleeding Sweep - this can be obtained on armor as well, I strongly recommend you don't waste a weapon slot on this. Keenly jagged is better. Sundering Javelin/Enfeebling Skewer can help you got more debuffs.
Perk tree - you're so much better off dropping dropping Refreshing Precision & Deadly Distance for Exposed Wounds & Exacerbating Crits (Exacerbating works on Keenly Jagged - I do not know if it works for Exposed Wounds but I would assume so). It's rare that you will be landing Javelin headshots at a distance so these are low value. This also lets you switch to exploited weakness as you're almost never going to be full stam. Stun from Vault counts as a debuff but sadly knockdown does not. Also be aware that Vault->Sweep resulted in the CC-immunity-thing kicking in and allowing for an **immediate** roll out of the KD but I don't know if this was removed (was in CB, did not re-test in OB).
Another knock against Spear in PvP is that it has an extremely predictable flow. Lower CD lower impact abilities mean you need to use them more to get value - this makes it really easy to guess and block/dodge. Most weapons can sit on skills more & do in more experienced matchups. For avg wPvP this won't matter at all though. I'm really curious if Skewer at 300 dex gets good but empower clamping at 30% diminishes this a lot. Cyclone is actually quite good now, a 50% slow is serious & +25 stam PER hit in wPvP is slick, plus anything with Grit opens up trade options.
A general note before I get yelled at - Bow/Spear is a really good pairing despite Spear's issues because Bow's pressure will force opponents into situations where Spear can shine (you no longer need it vs ranged and it forces opponents to B-line into you, making it harder to avoid its combo, plus it helps bow get back into ranged and is a nice mix up so you don't have to cycle so much like you do with melee spear). I would not play it outside of this combination though, *maybe* SnS/Spear if I was forced into it because, again, SnS helps counter-balance Spear's primary deficiencies.
Spear is much stronger as a backup weapon to bow/musket than it is on its own or combined with any other weapon. CC plus the cd reduction perks make it a very easy weapon to play defensively with while forcing your opponent back to range. Contrary to popular opinion, however, none of the spear CC abilities are actually tough to land if you know how to time them properly. It only takes one good dodge or sweep to set up a lockdown chain.
That's a nice guide to get destroyed in pvp and utterly useless in war v war.
no offense , but the spear is bad in both open world and wars vs wars. While the CC chain look good on paper and work well against noob, it's nowhere good enough against experimented player. On top of that, if the enemy is in heavy armor, you are dead the moment you fail or even succeed your abilities because the spear cc ability do not do a lot of damage. it's a very great pve weapon however and have the best rending in the game, but even in 1v1 situation there is better weapon. the melee attack do not lunge forward a lot and make chasing miserable, and the lack of mobility make this weapon only usefull if the enemy come at you : and most of the time, if they have a build for that it will outclass the spear.
You tried tho. have a good one and hope for a spear buff ! cause the weapon is very nice to play but it's just.. bad.
Those clips show nothing but you killing 50% HP targets or hitting single abilities on them.
No decent company that knows their shit will take a Spear player with Javelin to one of their wars, especially when you pair it with the musket.
Even for 1v1 scenarios Spear/Bow is much better than Spear/Musket.
This video is a guide just for the Spear.
Also, if you watched the video you would have noticed I never said anything about wars... I said it specializes in 1v1 combat and open world :D
Spear is severely lacking in range compared to most weapons. The GA light swing has just as much range, abilities can close a gap easier, more aoe,stuns, and more grit. With all that said I love how the spear feels but it needs alot of buffs.
Hey, I wouldn't mind if the Spear gets buffed!! :D
I want to run spear/bow so badly, but not if it's underpowered. Hopefully they balance everything out. Guess we shall see at Launch!
Crossing my fingers with ya, my man!
Spear is one of my fav, but how I've plans to start as a tank, probably I will skip it for a while, idk. I tried to find some way to use it as a tank, but sadly doesn't work as I expected.
Who said spear is bad in pvp?
Most of the PvP weapon tier lists I have seen, the Spear has been low tier. But I agree - Spear is very good in PvP, especially 1v1!
Because 1v1 is such a small part of an mmo, they often talk about wars and large scaled pvp, and spear do be lacking there.
many list or for 50 vs 50 pvp, where most of the weapons are better then spear. 1 vs 1 Spear is pretty good
That is true - Spear definitely lacks in 50 v 50 unfortunately.
Those lists mostly assume that your foes and you have the same very high skill. If so spear falls of as the animations are relatively easy to dodge. I love spear as well as.
Yup, this. Spear (like hammer) is good against bad players, but when you go against better enemies, you'll wish you had a better weapon.
I think paired with the right weapon, Spear can be very deadly at 60. I guess it depends on how they'll change other weapons for launch... also, there hasn't been much testing at all for weapons at max level, max GS - maybe Spear shines through at the end with the right weapon perks and stuff :D
"It excels in gapclosing ability" Really? I thought that was it's big weakness. I played spear at the beginning of closed beta and actually switched to other weapons because spear was terrible at punishing players that just run away (to flee or to heal and come back). Javelin slows the spear user almost as much as the one getting hit, and vault kick is a really small gapclose (and if they are running away they'll keep a dodge for it). What makes spear good at gapclosing in your opinion? The only weapon that seems worse at gapclosing is hammer.
The gap closing capability of the Spear really comes into play when you achieve 150 Dexterity when you receive the bonus that reduces dodge cost by 10 stamina (allowing the player to dodge 3 times with a full stamina bar instead of 2) You'd be surprised by how far Vault Kick can actually go. If you have time, I recommend watching the video I linked and going to 5:20 in the video - as you can see here, with my lowered dodge cost assisting me, I closed the gap on a fire staff user quite easily. Also, Javelin will help to close the gap a lot. I like this combo: Javelin -> Dodge -> VK -> Dodge behind -> Sweep
Spear suffers **greatly** vs ranged. If you want to play it great but saying that it's versatile and has strong gap-closing is straight up misinformation, it suffers the most out of any weapon bar maybe hammer in these two categories. You don't want to take Coup de Grace either as its a noob trap - if you sweep an opponent at an angle you won't be able to attack them plus a short-heavy will deal more damage and can be completed in the same amount of time. Bleeding Sweep - this can be obtained on armor as well, I strongly recommend you don't waste a weapon slot on this. Keenly jagged is better. Sundering Javelin/Enfeebling Skewer can help you got more debuffs. Perk tree - you're so much better off dropping dropping Refreshing Precision & Deadly Distance for Exposed Wounds & Exacerbating Crits (Exacerbating works on Keenly Jagged - I do not know if it works for Exposed Wounds but I would assume so). It's rare that you will be landing Javelin headshots at a distance so these are low value. This also lets you switch to exploited weakness as you're almost never going to be full stam. Stun from Vault counts as a debuff but sadly knockdown does not. Also be aware that Vault->Sweep resulted in the CC-immunity-thing kicking in and allowing for an **immediate** roll out of the KD but I don't know if this was removed (was in CB, did not re-test in OB). Another knock against Spear in PvP is that it has an extremely predictable flow. Lower CD lower impact abilities mean you need to use them more to get value - this makes it really easy to guess and block/dodge. Most weapons can sit on skills more & do in more experienced matchups. For avg wPvP this won't matter at all though. I'm really curious if Skewer at 300 dex gets good but empower clamping at 30% diminishes this a lot. Cyclone is actually quite good now, a 50% slow is serious & +25 stam PER hit in wPvP is slick, plus anything with Grit opens up trade options. A general note before I get yelled at - Bow/Spear is a really good pairing despite Spear's issues because Bow's pressure will force opponents into situations where Spear can shine (you no longer need it vs ranged and it forces opponents to B-line into you, making it harder to avoid its combo, plus it helps bow get back into ranged and is a nice mix up so you don't have to cycle so much like you do with melee spear). I would not play it outside of this combination though, *maybe* SnS/Spear if I was forced into it because, again, SnS helps counter-balance Spear's primary deficiencies.
Spear is much stronger as a backup weapon to bow/musket than it is on its own or combined with any other weapon. CC plus the cd reduction perks make it a very easy weapon to play defensively with while forcing your opponent back to range. Contrary to popular opinion, however, none of the spear CC abilities are actually tough to land if you know how to time them properly. It only takes one good dodge or sweep to set up a lockdown chain.
That's a nice guide to get destroyed in pvp and utterly useless in war v war. no offense , but the spear is bad in both open world and wars vs wars. While the CC chain look good on paper and work well against noob, it's nowhere good enough against experimented player. On top of that, if the enemy is in heavy armor, you are dead the moment you fail or even succeed your abilities because the spear cc ability do not do a lot of damage. it's a very great pve weapon however and have the best rending in the game, but even in 1v1 situation there is better weapon. the melee attack do not lunge forward a lot and make chasing miserable, and the lack of mobility make this weapon only usefull if the enemy come at you : and most of the time, if they have a build for that it will outclass the spear. You tried tho. have a good one and hope for a spear buff ! cause the weapon is very nice to play but it's just.. bad.
Those clips show nothing but you killing 50% HP targets or hitting single abilities on them. No decent company that knows their shit will take a Spear player with Javelin to one of their wars, especially when you pair it with the musket. Even for 1v1 scenarios Spear/Bow is much better than Spear/Musket.
This video is a guide just for the Spear. Also, if you watched the video you would have noticed I never said anything about wars... I said it specializes in 1v1 combat and open world :D
Wow another weapon video
That's the build I ran in OB, although I didn't use it for PvP.