Anyone tried a fighter with reach yet?

[KidSnide]

If there was a feat that allowed you to have an reached threat area that would allow attacks of opportunity then it would be more beneficial for fighters to use reached weapons. Without the extended threat area reached weapons are most usefull for back tier characters.

I think this is right. I don't think polearms are a disfavored fighter build per se, I just don't think we have the rules that effectively enable it yet. A polearm fighter needs slightly better reach OA abilities and some powers that take advantage of the longer range. Whether these are feats, changes to the class abilities or new powers, it's hard to say.

I've heard that two-weapon fighters are a build that is enabled in the martial power splat book. Maybe the book will enable polearm fighters too?

-KS

 

[Stalker0]

Stalker0, are you the tank of the group?
Maybe you could make a reach Fighter work if you weren't the tank of the group. I've been thinking, while Polearm Gamble + Combat Superiority is a bad combo when you're trying to hold the monsters attention, it could work quite well if you were just standing there while other players push monsters at you for extra damage. Plus you could use it to hold monsters in damage zones.

To my mind, any build that requires a paragon feat is not really a build at all. I can easily see the game I'm playing in never getting to paragon level. Not all games play higher levels, so if it takes that long to make a build work, then the build doesn't really work in the first place.

 

[OSD]

I have a glaive fighter and I'm loving it. He's using Heavy Blade Opportunist with Polearm Gamble. With a tank, we make a 3x5 wall of mobile hazard. Being able to Cleave or Reaping Strike on a OA makes the fight a lot faster since monsters die 2-3 round earlier. In term of damage output, I'm on par with a rogue, per encounter. In term of stickiness, I guess I'm closer to being a paladin. With my various push-pull encounter powers though, I'm a hazard to all those that are within my reach. And if you get flanked, Reach allows you to aim behind the people adjacent to you with a Cleave attack and cleave those around you. This does wonders against the inital wave of minions since they don't clump up the way you would want to most of the times.