Lurker King
Self-Ejected
- Joined
- Jan 21, 2015
- Messages
- 1,865,419
DEX
Spears -> I found these hard to use. The large spears can't hit in front of you normally, so it's not good if you get surrounded. Hastas don't get extended range but can hit corners, which is good. Unfortunately Hastas have terrible damage. Also the Spears have probably the worst counterattack for both dodge and for the special ability. So actually I found Spears to have the most worthless special.
I don't recommend Spears for any build.
Has the only special that works on Demons, who are some of the hardest fights.
Bows -> Longbow is the most OP weapon by far. King of head shots. Advantage over crossbow is that you get fast shot and heavy shot as well. Plus you can buy an endgame longbow in Maadoran. With a longbow and Fulvio's training (assassin), you can clear all the hard fights in act 1 and act 2 with 0 points spent on bow skill, including taking on the Teron assassin's guild solo and the Antidas/ Dellar fight (if you go Assassin betray to IG route).
You are a bit harsh on spears - they were nerfed in Dungeon Rats for a reason. Melee opponents are utterly helpless against you, later you can even forgo doing anything(for lulz) and they will still kill themselves, quite entertaining. It does require proper switching between a hasta, trident and Kadmos' spear to modify interrupt range, but allows you to skimp (heavily or completely, depending on balls size) on defense.
Bow is the only weapon I didn't try yet in AoD or DR, but after such a testimonial I'll be sure to give it a go.
DEX
Swords -> best for charismatic builds since you get Dellar's training and can get a good unique sword in act 3. The bad is that Dreamweaver (the act 2 blue steel sword) is a huge rip off. Covers the largest range of weapon speed choices, from Gladius that you can hide in your bag to 2 handed scimitars. Scimitar's counterattack is pretty good.
Dagger -> good for Praetors and low combat skill investment, also good for high Dex, low Charisma thieves (since you get Aziz's training). Good for Max Crafting builds, as you can boost the damage with cutting stones, and can craft high end daggers much earlier than other weapons. Best if you have some strength or else you wont be able to penetrate armor. Has a crappy counterattack for dodge. Disadvantage is that there's no 2 handed version so counter-intuitively not as good for dodge builds. Dagger is bad for the hardest fights like the Pass. If you want to be King of the Pass, don't take Dagger.
Spears -> I found these hard to use. The large spears can't hit in front of you normally, so it's not good if you get surrounded. Hastas don't get extended range but can hit corners, which is good. Unfortunately Hastas have terrible damage. Also the Spears have probably the worst counterattack for both dodge and for the special ability. So actually I found Spears to have the most worthless special.
PER
Crossbows -> good for dumping strength builds, no combat skill alchemist builds, power armor space-marine builds, thieves (since they can purchase the cool bows like double xbow), and low strength poison assassins. Can hide a pair of poisoned hand crossbows in your bag. You can also keep several loaded crossbows in your inventory to save some more AP on reloading.
Bows -> Longbow is the most OP weapon by far. King of head shots. Advantage over crossbow is that you get fast shot and heavy shot as well. Plus you can buy an endgame longbow in Maadoran. With a longbow and Fulvio's training (assassin), you can clear all the hard fights in act 1 and act 2 with 0 points spent on bow skill, including taking on the Teron assassin's guild solo and the Antidas/ Dellar fight (if you go Assassin betray to IG route).
Throwing -> minimum strength loremasters need to invest in this so it seems an ok weapon for them, but not really worth it for anyone else. It allows you to use a second hand for a shield or for bombs or nets. Unfortunately these are much worse than crossbows and long bows since they can't choose between AP/ Barbed/ normal ammo, which is a significant part of what makes xbows and long bows OP.
STR
Axe -> Has the only special that works on Demons, who are some of the hardest fights. Has the best counterattack for Axe+Dodge builds. A good benchmark weapon.
Hammer -> Has the ability to knockdown, which is Hammer's main advantage over Axe. Armor crushing is kind of useful in some fights but generally not as good as Axe's special. You can loot a blue steel light hammer in Teron, so you are all set for most of the game. I would say that Axe is better for 2-handed STR+Dodge (due to the counterattack) while Hammer is as good if not better for STR+Block.
Tier 0: Longbow
Tier 1: Axe
Tier 1.5: Sword, Hammer (honestly not much difference between Axe, Sword and Hammer)
Tier 2: Dagger, XBow
Tier 3: Throwing
Top 15 Generic Weapons:
1. Longbow ( 7 AP bow) - The most OP weapon
2. Shadhavar (6 AP axe) - best dodge melee weapon
3. Scimitar (6 AP sword) - 2nd best dodge melee weapon
4. Sledgehammer (6 AP hammer) - 3rd best dodge melee weapon
5. Spiked Club (5 AP hammer) - Best block melee weapon
6. Shashmir (5 AP sword) - 2nd best block melee weapon (for Dex build)
7. Heavy Crossbow - Good to start combat with this
8. Double Crossbow (thief only) - Good to have some loaded in your inventory
9. Gladius (4 AP sword) - good to hide in bag
10. Khanjar (4 AP dagger) - good to hide in bag
11. Hand Crossbow - good to hide in bag, take some free head shots if you knock someone down.
12. Krokspar (6 AP spear) - good damage, long reach
13. Hasta (4 AP spear) - can hit corners but can't hide in bag
14. Marculus (4 AP hammer) - has knockdown and whirlwind but can't hide in bag. Good for crushing armor.
15. Pugio (3 AP dagger) - good to hide in bag, sometimes you pull it out for 2AP attack.
In Summary:
STR 7+: Dodge -> Axe, Block -> Hammer
STR 5+, 8+ PER: Longbow
DEX 8+, STR 6+: Dagger
DEX 8+, CHA 7+: Sword (either block or dodge)
STR 4: XBow
STR + DEX = 12: Throwing
Power Armor + Blocking: Hammer (STR 7+), Dagger (STR 6+), Crossbow (STR 4) or Sword (CHA 7+)
I don't recommend Spears for any build.
For the investment it takes to make Spears good, you can do just as good if not better with axes, swords or hammers.
All of the weapons deal the same damage based on their AP class. The main differences between them are their special ability and some of their tactical attack options.
The inability of large spears (or any spear besides Hasta and Kadmos' special spear) to hit enemies in front of them is a huge disadvantage. They basically have the disadvantage of bows without having the range of bows (or the ability to load different ammo).
That said, in many of the hardest fights, raw damage is extremely important. In both the Pass and the Mountain village fight, you must be able to kill at least one opponent each turn, or else you'll be overwhelmed.
2-handed spears are gimped, and 1-handed spears are limited to hastas- unlike the others, there is no 1 handed 5 AP spear in AoD. For this and other reasons, spears aren't in the same class as axes, hammers and swords. The spear special ability is a gimmick that doesn't have any tactical value in many of the hardest fights.
That’s the fallacy of considering the costs and ignoring the benefits. In your reasoning you are ignoring that: (1) players with two-hand spears have different tactics that require some distance that is just the same as bow and crossbow users. If the fact that a bow user can become incapable of shooting because he is surrounded by enemies doesn’t make it a terrible choice, the same can be said about spear users. (2) two-handed spears have long range, decent damage, interrupt attacks (that can also save your buddies) and can inflict poison left and right. They are perfect in tough fights, especially in the Pass and the Mountain Village fight. I think you made a bad spear build once, or didn’t play with a spear user, and you are trying to rationalize why is such a poor choice. They are the most fun and interesting build by far.
As a spear user, you only have to eliminate enemy ranged combatants, afterwards the combat is over.
The raider camp, for example, you start next to one archer, kill him, run to the other, kill him - you won. If you aren't a spear user the four other raiders will not be as easy. This is assuming you don't waste points on defensive skills, if you do it's trivial.
The mountain village, you can clear the raiders the same way, kill the archers in two rounds, afterwards it's over, melee guys can't touch you. The villagers you kite(or start combat) to the chokepoint near the vault entrance, they get locked by interrupts at the two entrypoints and you don't get felled by archers.
2h spears can hit enemies near them with whirlwind, but you simply switch weapons to hasta or Kadmos'.
That's true. I was very excited to use spears, got slaughtered at Raiders camp, Aurelian outpost and Aemolas village, and said to myself: "Yeah. Spears suck, compared to Axes, Hammers, Swords, Longbows and xbows. Why am I using this dinky shit?"
IIRC in the Mountain Village raiders fight, you start completely surrounded so I'm not sure how you get to their archers first.
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That's true. I was very excited to use spears, got slaughtered at Raiders camp, Aurelian outpost and Aemolas village, and said to myself: "Yeah. Spears suck, compared to Axes, Hammers, Swords, Longbows and xbows. Why am I using this dinky shit?"
You start surrounded if you text kill the leader, you can initiate combat manually next to the archers - works for both camps (RIP Esteban +1cs ).IIRC in the Mountain Village raiders fight, you start completely surrounded so I'm not sure how you get to their archers first. In the Mountain Village villagers fight, there are some safe spots where you can hide from the snipers, but eventually you have to go out and kill the snipers so I'm not sure how you do that with spears instead of bows.
There's a bug with 10 Dex that still isn't fixed in the latest AoD patch. A 10 Dex character can't loot the woman with the necklace house in Teron, but it works with 9 Dex and the same Str. So I would start with 9 Dex.
Jason Liang : is the stat - weapon synergy mentioned anywhere in the game? Until I read your post I had no idea that weapons gain benefit from specifics stats, apart from the global modifiers that are listed under the stats themselves on the char sheet (damage, accuracy, AP).
In any case, very useful info.
It didn't work for me even with climbing hook/ ropes/ ropes with hook but I will try again next time I reinstall.
Silly game, make you care so much about 1 dumb stat point! 4/10/4/8/7/7 didn't work but 4/9/5/8/7/7 does.