elf spear VS spear & shield ( handmaiden )

[the Kraken boss]

hii everyone, can i ask your opinions please !!!??

im new with the Handmaiden and i love it, i play only legend & cata sometimes.
Which one you prefer between the elf spear or the spear & shield.
I love them both but i i want to focus on one for legend.
explain de pros & cons

[Fudman_OhTu]

they both SUCK

pros:nothing
cons: S&D do everything better.

but for real tho, just use them and make up your own mind ;)

[Sticky Mick]

There are lots of weapons that are viable for HM and I like trying them all to keep game play interesting. The great thing about HM is that she has 100% stamina regen so you can spam push-stab attacks almost endlessly.

Sword + dagger is the best IMO- its has great crowd control and good armour piercing with excellent attack speed and mobility - for crowd clearing repeat (light, light, block attacks), for armour use push-stab attack which chains into heavy attack 2 (the head shot attack).

Spear - it's fast and great for crowd control but it's heavy attacks are a bit slow - if you want to be good against armour you need to learn to headshot opponents with light and/or heavy attacks. Crowd control is INSANE, just spam a few push-stab attacks and that wide sweep will destroy hordes.

Spear + shield - is pretty good - for crowd control just stagger the horde with push and spam the light attacks. If you have space the 1st heavy attack is a wide sweep that cuts through hordes but I use it pretty infrequently as the light attack is enough and the safer option. For armour piercing the push-stab attack chains into the 2nd heavy headshot attack.

The only drawback with the shield + spear is that the shield occludes your vision so you won't be as aware of the battlefield. The spear alone is more efficient at crowd control (with its push-stab attack) but you are more exposed. The great thing about the HM is that if you find yourself in a tight spot you can reposition with your ult. If you find that you are constantly being downed then I'd recommend spear+shield as it gives you more protection. If you are capable of staying upright without a shield then I think the spear is better - you have better battefield awareness and can more efficiently clear hordes.

2H sword is also fun as hell. It's quick and you are still mobile (not like X-sword). The little known secret with the 2H sword is that the push-stab attack has a +25% crit chance so if you have the swift slaying trait you can pretty much keep it activated during hordes by spamming push-stab attacks until it activates and then just destroy hordes with ligh attack. The only downside is that the only armour piercing attack is the heavy attack and it takes practice to get used to. To really be efficient at armour clearing you need to learn to headshot opponents with the heavy attack - then if you tap a light attack quickly you will do a small swing that is also armour piercing.

[RastaBlasta]

Spear is alright with great reach, speed and push attack.
S&s is trash. Elf dont have any talents and skills for tanking and crowd control. And you dont need shields on legen anyway

[Murmurniel]

@Blacky The shield is more for helping the team. 90 block cost reduction +100% to stamina recovery. Excellent handmaiden`s mobility talents. All this means that the handmaiden with the shield is a great assistant to the team, she can hold the horde, stun the elite enemies and revive allies with incredible efficiency. But you sacrifice the damage you can do compared to a normal spear.

I suppose the spear has little problems against large groups of armored enemies due to slow strikes, but it doesn't limit your vision, has a better dodge bonus than the shield, although it's fine against unarmored enemies without shields due to its good attack radius and breadth

[Benedetto]

A bit late to this, but I play HM quite a lot. surely you already know this, but don't listen to any of the whiners who say that you should use some kind of dual weapons or nothing. They don't know what they are talking about.

Personally, with HM, I use GS for a crowd clearing build, spear for an elite-killing build, and spear/shield for a CC build.

So, both spear and spear/shield are a little difficult to do good sweeps with, making it difficult to manage a whole horde if you aren't practiced. Both do decent damage to armored enemies, even with the light attacks. Both are highly mobile (which is kinda the whole point of the HM, really).

Spear has a higher crit multiplier, which is why I use it for a crit chance based elite killing build. Also, the reduced defense isn't as much of a problem if I'm not exclusively worried about hordes. And another interesting thing is that the defensive cone is wider with the basic spear, so you can protect yourself slightly better while elite hunting.

With the shield, I actually feel like it has more versatility. The attacks are fast and light attacks are definitely enough if you aren't getting surrounded and just need to take out an endless stream of new rats. If you start to get surrounded, though...this is where most people stop connecting with the spear/shield...but I think that is because the ideal combo is a little bit awkward feeling. You need the lvl 10 talent "Asrai Alacrity", then you need to push (NOT push stab), heavy attack 1 (the big sweep), block cancel, heavy attack 1, repeat. Once you get used to it, it has a decent flow to it, and it can stagger the crap out of huge numbers of enemies.
And then when elites do show up, you have an awesome combo for dealing with them. Push stab, heavy attack 2, repeat. Heavy 2 is easy to get headshots because it is a downward vertical swing, and if I get a headshot on the push stab also, then you can easily take out SV on legendary in 2 attacks...not 2 cycles, 1 cycle with 2 attacks. Also, I find that the push stab has surprisingly high stagger potential. I can sometimes even keep CWs stun locked with this combo.
People complain about the reduced visibility, but I have never even noticed that as a problem. Never even crossed my mind until I looked at forums, to be honest. I don't think it's a big issue.

Basically, the spear/shield shines when used for crowd management. As a result, you will not stand out in the end mission reports. If that's ok with you, then the weapon is totally worth it to focus on. The key is going to be picking the right talents, which require you to think a little bit differently than most players are used to thinking. I see people complaining that the HM talents don't synergize with a shield build, but that's not true. They don't synergize with a Kruber or Bardin shield build, but Kerillian is different. The high stamina regen means that block cost reduction isn't as vital. You want a bit with you gear, sure, but especially you want a couple extra stamina shields from gear, and extra damage to infantry to help your sweeps be more effective so you can do a little crowd clearing.
Bladedancer is easily the best lvl 30 choice for spear/shield. Again, good crowd management. You won't get tons of kills from it, but it will help your team kill faster.
I find the 15% max health from Heart of Oak at lvl 25 to be WAY more useful than the 30% block cost reduction. Running out of stamina is almost never a problem with spear/shield HM. Unless you get surrounded and can't push stab your way out...which leads us to the third and most controversial talent choice...
Wraith-Walk at lvl 20. NOBODY picks this talent for anything, and that is a mistake. Attack speed from Willow Stance is not necessary with this weapon. The extra dodge range/10% damage on next hit from Dance of Blades is essentially meaningless for a CC build. But the ability to dodge THROUGH enemies? I cannot tell you how many times that has saved me from being dogpiled (EDIT: ratpiled) and helped me continue to play my role as essentially a sheepdog, hemming in the edges of the horde and separating some from the pack so they can be beat down by my damage dealing friends. The other fun thin is that you can get the attention of a horde, pull it into a corner, then dodge out (maybe using dash if absolutely necessary), and now you have a nice little rat pen for easy killing. Ace.
If you couldn't tell, I'm a spear/shield advocate haha.

[CureAga Wine]

Originally posted by (PG)Pinkerton:

A bit late to this

You, sire, are the master of understatement.
But since we're already here - weapons that don't offer a reasonable anti-armor capability are basically garbage and only masochists like me try to use them.