Spears...

[Iron Ben]

... they suck balls!

I used to put them on my tanks, thinking that since I usually top them at around 70-75 matk spears would be best to mitigate their low % to hit. Problem is the abysmally low damage and they still had a hard time hitting anything that sports a shield.

This time around, I tried 3 headed flails on my tanks instead...

Duuuude, best move ever!!!

Since they now ignore shields they're actually much more useful than just the damage sponges I usually used them for! On top of that, they can vaporise the undead unlike before when they used to tickle skeletons with their puny pointy sticks...

Next game, I might try cleavers/whips on my tanks and see what happens.



TLDR: spears suck, flails better!

[UnluckyNoob]

3H flail weight is 10, famed goblin spear weight is only 2. 8 fatigue difference = half of brawny perk.

And why you bring tanks in fights where you do not need tanks? When tanks are useful they do not hit with their weapons.

[The Duck Knight]

spears are the best early game weapon. That 20% chance to hit is insane strong during the first few fights. And on a thug the damage is still good enough to injure or kill them with a decent chance.
and they shine when you just want to block a certain area with spearwall, since you can just spearwall and cover a chokehold point.
But in general: yeah, it's a tactical niche weapon.

[Mr Majestic]

Spears get me through the early game. Honestly, I would hug them... but, you know. Spears.

[A5G_Reaper]

Why'd you want your tank attacking? Their job is sit there spamming indomitable or shieldwall, while having just enough melee skill to prevent enemies from trying to walk through their ZoC.

3-headed flail (and 1h weapon in general) without doublegrip and duelist will only tickle anyone with the slightest bit of armor, while is heavier, and have no utility to speak of. At least spearwall is situationally usable.

[Heron]

3h flail is really good in terms of stickiness, has better armor damage, works against skellies and counters shields. Tank damage can matter for origins restricted to 12 bros. Also depends on campaign length and goals.

Spears have the weight advantage for prolonged indom spam, hitchance bonus and spearwall.

I'd say they both have their use cases on a dedicated tank.

[kevin_63643221]

This is how you supposed to use spears

https://youtu.be/OQEmNi_MzXE

[SwampDragon]

You can't really gauge the usefulness of spears by damage output ... Spears are about battlefield control. With spears most AI can be funnelled to where you want them. And those too stupid to know what a spear is can bounce off for several turns with chip damage.
That said, I personally phase them out by first crisis or so.