Are polearms good at AOE? or 1v1?

[ScumWatcher]

trying 2 round out my group and i want at least 1 polearm in my squad 4 animals but if they have good Aoe i'll make it 2. (never seen it in fight)

[Calheb]

I think AoE wise the top weapons are in this order:

- Fragment axe
- Plank
- Naginatas, Polearms
- Naginata-Katana, Heavy Polearm
- Nodachi, Topper, Falling Sun

[Greb]

Polearms are good at both, although as expected smaller and faster weapons will usually win in a 1v1 situation unless the skills are quite unevenly distributed. The double tapping stunlocking of a light weapon means even a Rusty Ninja Blade can destroy a weak person holding a Meitou, etc.

Polearms seem like a more common and less demanding version of your typical heavy weapon though. Same kind of wide damage from longer ranges, big openings for other enemies to land hits though. I usually give my turret users polearms (favouring the Naginata overall) but definitely the frontline guards use Falling Suns. Favourite heavy weapon group slayer, that.

Polearms are neat. They're definitely annoying in groups, especially when the user is also already a tank...the Crab Raiders use them to annoying effect, anyway.

[KiuKiu]

pole arm good at both but they can't deal damage late game or useless again heavy amor enemy. Use pole arm and katana when ur character still weak

[ScumWatcher]

so the armor penetraion becomes usless?

[iGoblin]

You will find conflicting information all around because the game has been on dev for a long time and many changes were made.

But to answer your question - yes! Polearms are great, if you want to use it, you will not gimp your char with it.

No weapon class will gimp you char, except for blunt if you don't have a way to train dex. All kinds of things can happen, for example, the strongest char early game that i had in one of my playthrougs was a heavy weapon user - something that people will say that is the worst thing for chars with low skills/stats. I gave the guy a plank at all stats 1 and soon he became a beast, just because of RNGjesus. The guy lucked out in most fights and ended being the last survivor early plent of times, which made him have quite strong and the guy in which i relied to survive raids. A naked hiver with a low quality plank. So there you have it. Crazy things can happen, don't worry and play how you want to play. Learn a lesson from dwarf fortress - "Losing is fun" and go out there and lose limbs! hahaha

[Calheb]

Is not useless, but with good strenght, heavy weapons (raw damage) or paladin cross may be better options.

Edit: I agree in what iGoblin said, you don't really need to minmax in this game, just playing all characters will become strong eventually.

[Majo]

For a start up Polearm is an excellent AoE weapon, for 1v1 it depends how much can you proc the quick swipe attack, but switch to a heavy weapon like Fragmented Axe as soon as you can.