Spears vs. Halberds

[SoundsOfNight]

I've been playing a Wild Hunter/Shaman, and admittedly only have used a handful of polearms.

Against one enemy, it seems Spears are vastly superior, however my Poison spear from the Marshes (can't remember the dinosaur name) breaks too easily.

On the other hand, the Beast Golem Halberd isn't all the great unless there are two or more enemies, otherwise it's slow with not enough stagger - but it doesn't break easily.

So I guess I'm torn a bit. The Poison spear is REALLY good so far, even in the swamp, but I don't use it against more than one enemy. And it already broke!

What are everyone else's thoughts/experiences? And please, let's keep this about polearms and not "don't use em". It's my choice, regardless of how non-powergamey they may be :)

[SkilledZero]

So I’m guessing your question is which to use between the two? I think both have their places and I wouldn’t consider the early weapons as a good example of their durability. Weapons that have a lot of damage or a way to increase the damage to high magnitudes tend to last longer due to the fact you’re using it less per kill plus they usually have higher durability.

My suggestion is to get both weapons skill, moon swipe and simeon’s Gambit. Get used to the skills and find new weapons to find good combos to use with your other abilities. If you’re a wild hunter/shaman I’m guessing you’re doing improved rage with savage strikes/predator leap? Along with wind infuse? That’s a pretty good combo I think and with polearm/spear I think you can go far with that build.

Look into getting the dreamer halberd. You can get this without too much effort, just tons of exploring. It’s fast, hits hard and does tons of damage.

Welig spear for the spear is a good upgrade.

Spears typically have a good moveset but suffer from impact damage (makes sense to do the wildhunter/shaman to make up for that) and not too much top end dmg but makes up for it with that long poking reach. The spear you mentioned, phytosaur spear, the poison is weakish, 200 durability and 26 impact. Which doesn’t stagger to well.

[twpe]

Keep in mind that Beast Golem Halberd is tied with the Tsar Halberd as slowest halberd (unless I'm mistaken). I would stay away from weapons with a speed of 0.8 unless you have wind infusion. But that's just my suggestion.

[SkilledZero]

Wind infusion i think works better with weapons that already fast, like the dreamer halberd. Along with improved rage boon you can get some nice stagger.

[SoundsOfNight]

Thanks - when you say Improved Rage Boon? I have all the associated Hunter talents, but I don't remember an Improved version.

Also I realize the speed of the Golem Beast (isn't that an oxymoron?) is what's killing it for me. Luckily it works decently well with Feral Strikes and bleeding.

[SkilledZero]

If you have the shaman passive shamanic resonance, cast rage and look at your positive status. It’ll say that effect. Normally it’s 25% impact damage increased. Improved is 50% combine it with wind infusion and to have greater impact damage and speed of the weapon.

[Oura_in_flames]

What’s the durability on the weapon?
Are you doing regular repair maintenance?

The reason I ask is I’m currently using weapons with low durability (around 100~150) but never had my weapons break unless I went days and days without camping for repairs (and sleep)

The only thing I’ve had break is my armour, and even then it was only due to the fire damage from the face of the ancients dungeon, or certain enemies that caught me off guard and beat the hell out of me.

[SkilledZero]

I wouldn’t use that halberd just for the fact it is so slow. You need something quick, at least quicker than that thing. Also feral strikes applies extreme bleeding anyway, they don’t stack just so you’re aware. So it’s a waste with that halberd.

[BirdFeeder]

Spears as a weapon are VASTLY superior both in speed and range.
Halberds are extremly slow but they have 2-3 legendary (Unique) weapons with good damage and also you use weapon skills like perfect strike and leap with them anyway so weapon moves are irrelevant.

Thrice halberd and dreamer halberd are amazing with infusions, boons and active skills. One or two shots enemies...

[twpe]

Originally posted by Oura_in_flames:

What’s the durability on the weapon?
Are you doing regular repair maintenance?

The reason I ask is I’m currently using weapons with low durability (around 100~150) but never had my weapons break unless I went days and days without camping for repairs (and sleep)

The only thing I’ve had break is my armour, and even then it was only due to the fire damage from the face of the ancients dungeon, or certain enemies that caught me off guard and beat the hell out of me.

Using certain skills will drastically reduce the durability of weapons. If you're just fighting normally, and not running a skill heavy build that spams a lot of hunter/monk skills, then your weapon will last longer.

Edit: Even something like Elemental Discharge from the Kazite Spellblade will use 5 durability every time you cast it (just tested this).

[robruckus65]

They missed the mark on halberds in this game their attack animations are far too slow and it defeats the purpose of their decent attack range. Spears have that same range and attack way faster with shorter attack animations so you can attack and move keeping your range. WIth a halberd you attack at range and the enemy can run up to you and hit you still before you can even react since you are locked in your halberd swing animation. The way the game doesnt let you end an attack animation early is why most pf the melee weapons feel so horrible and you end up almost always trading a hit. It is also why the greataxe and spear are superior to pretty much all other melee weapons.

[SoundsOfNight]

Thanks ya'll. I'll check out the Thrice Halberd but otherwise will look at Spears. Didn't realize the bleeding didn't stack.

On a side note - if something is destroyed, it's gone for good? ♥♥♥♥ haha.

[Tymon]

Items that break from durability loss are never gone for good. In fact they can even still be used, just at like... 1% effectiveness. Lantern toss is one of the only things I know of that really permanently destroys things. Of course, there is still that bug that exists where stuff from your bag is randomly gone.

[SoundsOfNight]

I slept and repaired and it's still broken tho :/

[Thaxlsyssilyaan]

Originally posted by DragonSoundxSG:

I slept and repaired and it's still broken tho :/

You have to equip it to be repaired, backpack item doesn't get repaired.