NorthSaber
First Post
4e has some obviously powerful and cool weapons, like the glaive (heavy blades are awesome), the longsword (extra +1 to attack, the basic weapon for shield-users), the maul (great damage and hammer rhythm rocks), and the scimitar (high crit and scimitar dance) just to mention a few.
One of the weapons that gets the least lovin' is the longspear. You're denied a shield, which is pretty important for a defender; the damage isn't that great for a two-handed weapon; and most of your powers and features don't utilize reach at all. To add insult to injury, the only spear-specific feat Spear Push isn't as useful with a longspear since you can't use Tide of Iron (which requires a shield).
So what good are longspears? I think they're really cool, so I'd like to collect ideas and strategies on how to make longspear-wielding fighters an attractive (if not optimal) choice.
I've played a couple of sessions with my eladrin fighter who wields a longspear and here are a few things I've noticed:
- The paladin with the heavy flail does more damage when she hits, so I've tried to come up with situations where the reach gives me some advantage.
- Reach can be used to attack through an ally (not literally, hopefully), allowing for fighting in narrow corridors and confined spaces, or over an obstacle like a rock, a barrel, or a tree trunk, so that the enemy will be penalized when he attempts to reach you.
- Longspear may be a better choice for fighters who aren't the only defenders of their team, as they tend to favor a strategy where you don't just sit there and take the brunt of the enemy attacks, but move a little bit more and strike the enemy when they can't strike you back as easily.
- Reach can allow you an attack when your move or shift (or charge!) would otherwise fall 1 square short. For example, my fighter used Passing Attack to attack one enemy, shift 1, and then attacked another enemy 2 squares away, marking them both. This allows the fighter to spread the marks around easier, forcing the enemies to accept penalties or concentrate their efforts on you. (It's just unfortunate that if you mark someone at reach, you can't benefit from the Combat Challenge unless they do something really stupid.)
- The longspear has one of the largest power selections of all the weapons, thanks to being both a spear and a polearm. I think only the glaive has as much, and perhaps the halberd. For example at level 3, there's only one power you wouldn't get the extra benefit from.
The benefits of the longspear will become more tangible at paragon levels when you get Polearm Gambit, and there will probably be many strategies that involve forcing the enemy (minion, preferably) to enter your threatened space. It just seems that the glaive can benefit from pretty much all these strategies - and more - but I'll try to concetrate less on comparing glaives and longspears and just finding the best longspear strategies there are.
What are your experiences and strategies?
One of the weapons that gets the least lovin' is the longspear. You're denied a shield, which is pretty important for a defender; the damage isn't that great for a two-handed weapon; and most of your powers and features don't utilize reach at all. To add insult to injury, the only spear-specific feat Spear Push isn't as useful with a longspear since you can't use Tide of Iron (which requires a shield).
So what good are longspears? I think they're really cool, so I'd like to collect ideas and strategies on how to make longspear-wielding fighters an attractive (if not optimal) choice.
I've played a couple of sessions with my eladrin fighter who wields a longspear and here are a few things I've noticed:
- The paladin with the heavy flail does more damage when she hits, so I've tried to come up with situations where the reach gives me some advantage.
- Reach can be used to attack through an ally (not literally, hopefully), allowing for fighting in narrow corridors and confined spaces, or over an obstacle like a rock, a barrel, or a tree trunk, so that the enemy will be penalized when he attempts to reach you.
- Longspear may be a better choice for fighters who aren't the only defenders of their team, as they tend to favor a strategy where you don't just sit there and take the brunt of the enemy attacks, but move a little bit more and strike the enemy when they can't strike you back as easily.
- Reach can allow you an attack when your move or shift (or charge!) would otherwise fall 1 square short. For example, my fighter used Passing Attack to attack one enemy, shift 1, and then attacked another enemy 2 squares away, marking them both. This allows the fighter to spread the marks around easier, forcing the enemies to accept penalties or concentrate their efforts on you. (It's just unfortunate that if you mark someone at reach, you can't benefit from the Combat Challenge unless they do something really stupid.)
- The longspear has one of the largest power selections of all the weapons, thanks to being both a spear and a polearm. I think only the glaive has as much, and perhaps the halberd. For example at level 3, there's only one power you wouldn't get the extra benefit from.
The benefits of the longspear will become more tangible at paragon levels when you get Polearm Gambit, and there will probably be many strategies that involve forcing the enemy (minion, preferably) to enter your threatened space. It just seems that the glaive can benefit from pretty much all these strategies - and more - but I'll try to concetrate less on comparing glaives and longspears and just finding the best longspear strategies there are.
What are your experiences and strategies?
