Introducing: The Spear!

Not that I think there's a chance in hell GGG will ever implement a Spear-type weapon, because the headaches involved in doing so would be too enormous. Can you imagine? QQers about nerfed drop rates, QQers about passive trees screwed up, QQers about this and that.

But it's fun to imagine, so let's dive right in.

The spear class of weapons is 75% STR/25% INT. There are two subclasses of spears: 2-handed spears, which are 2-handed, and javelins, which are 1-handed spears.

All spears have the implicit mod that attacks made with the spear ignore 8% of the target's armor.

Javelins have +1 range compared to other 1-handed weapons, and spears have +2 range compared to other 2-handed weapons. (Mechanics thread doesn't seem to cover weapon range, so hopefully this makes sense). This stacks with the Duelist's "Master of the Arena" passive.

Spear notable passives, aside from damage, accuracy, or attack speed, could offer % chance to knockback enemies on hit (critical hit?).

Spears have 6% base critical strike chance.

Possible spear keystone: Critical strike chance is converted into chance to inflict Puncture and critical hit effects. (this causes critical strike multiplier to go to waste, of course, since you can't crit anymore, only Puncture. However, elemental status effects are inflicted as usual).

Spear is pretty much synonymous with "Staff" in skill usage. ... Not sure if we should allow Spear uses to use Ground Slam, though; it's a bit unintuitive.

Spear grades:

Javelin
Stone Arrowhead
Jade Bore
Hunter's Harpoon
Steel Javelin
Bayonet
Shining Javelin - 10% armor ignored
Night Javelin - 6.2% base crit chance
Variscite Bore
Keen Harpoon
Phalanx Javelin
Dire Bayonet
Radiant Javelin - 10% armor ignored
Depth Harpoon (Death Harpoon?) - 6.2% base crit chance
Karui Javelin
Penetrating Harpoon
Ezomyte Javelin
Vaal Javelin
Tyrannical Javelin - 10% armor ignored
Null Javelin - 6.2% base crit chance

Spear
Huntsman's Spear
Jade Spear
Iron Spear
Lance
Impaler
Golden Spear - 10% armor ignored
Night Lance - 6.2% base crit chance
Halberd
Sarissa
Dire Impaler
Radiating Spear - 10% armor ignored
Death Bill - 6.2% base crit chance
Karui Spear
Giant Partisan
Ezomyte Pike
Vaal Spear
Tyrannical Lance - 10% armor ignored
Null Spear - 6.2% base crit chance

"Nightmare" would also be a good adjective for some of the death/void/darkness spear/javelins.

Why int?
surely, it better fits a str dex hybrid? Probably DEXstr
I dont think templars should be the main selling point. Sell it to the duelist or ranger

See, that's another one of the many reasons why spears will never be implemented. Mostly, I'm trying to fill niches here, and since INT is supposed to represent critical hits, I decided to fill that niche.

Currently, we have swords (50% dex/50% str), thrusting swords (100% dex), and axes (75% str/25% dex). While the 75% dex/25% str niche is currently unfilled technically, spears don't really fit cognitively between swords and thrusting swords. There's not really much of any weapon that would be considered halfway between swords and thrusting swords.

Staves and maces are already pretty much large sticks, so if you stick a sharp pointy thing with the potential to pierce important vitals (crit), then it fits right in.

Javelins are thrown weapons, though. I agree with dex/str.

Where even do people get the idea of "two handed spear" from? This seems to be almost exclusive to video games, as the spear as a weapon was designed specifically with a shield in mind, sometimes even being a part of the actual shield itself. This is why they are long stabbing weapons, and not slashing wapons that require you to move your arm in such a way that makes it more vulnerable.

Think about how much of a dumbass you would look like in a medieval battlefield using a spear with two hands.

Spear is probably not the best choice of word for this in terms of a two-hander. Much better might be a bardiche, voulge, or a glaive, the glaive especially being a better choice since its design is suited for either stabbing or slashing.

Yeah, glaives and halberds are much more suitable for two handed use than a spear.

Could have Glaives/Halberds as the 2h version and Spear as the 1h version. This also removes the problem of javelins as 1h version, because javelins are throwing weapons.

I'd implement polearms (spears and other pole weapons) as a weapon-type. They'd have a wide range of attack speeds (0.8-1.4) and melee range as its implicit modifier. The slower the attack speed, the longer the melee range. There'd be both one-handed and two-handed versions, but I'm not sure about attribute affinity.

When it comes to throwing weapons, it should be a skill gem, not an item category. I'm sure we'd all want to throw our axes as well!

Introducing: The Suggestions Forums!

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Xendran wrote:

Where even do people get the idea of "two handed spear" from? This seems to be almost exclusive to video games, as the spear as a weapon was designed specifically with a shield in mind, sometimes even being a part of the actual shield itself. This is why they are long stabbing weapons, and not slashing wapons that require you to move your arm in such a way that makes it more vulnerable.

Think about how much of a dumbass you would look like in a medieval battlefield using a spear with two hands.

2handed spears are called Pikes. They kill horses. Which makes it hilarious to watch in the Total War games.

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Anywho, I like the idea of spears in the game, since spears can be hand made a lot easier than any other weapon, and being an exile you kind of start off with items that aren't exactly forged by master smiths. Get yourself a long stick, add a point rock and ta-da!

I would prefer 1handed spears over 2handed "spears", would need to add new skills for spears though. Only skills I can think of off the top of my head that would suit spears are Puncture, Frenzy, Leap Slam and Cyclone.

Shouldn't be THAT hard to implement spears in. Too many weapon nodes aren't used anyway, so replace a few with spear nodes and buff the other nodes to compensate (yay another melee damage buff). Which will then allow people to spend more points on defensive nodes! Winning.