WW Spear Barb

[Xiamet]

I have both a viperfork and an Arioc's (+4 to skills)...which both do pretty decent damage, Arioc's having a nice chunk of DS, IAS and Poison for even better damage.

Yet I never hear these particular spears mentioned when it comes to a WW'er with a polearm/spear weapon. Why is this so? Are these not viable for a WW barb? I would think given both weapons' base weapon speed, that only a little ias is needed, and with the damage, one could find their barb doing some nice damage and hitting that 5 hits per BP.

or am I totally wrong about these two items?

Thanks for the input guys...

-X

[xtc_sazabi]

i use a shael ariocs (also with +4 skills) and it works just fine. Sure, its not a cruel war pike of quickness, but with all the deadly strike, it works out to be pretty effective.

[memememe173]

Simply has to do with the drop in popularity with Titan barbs do to the increased Vit days of 1.10

Arioc's wins by a mile with a sheal. Pretty much has all the useful mods of Viperfork...but better

[davew2040]

Ethereal cruel great poleaxes / ghost spears of quickness must've been a ton better than non-eth war pikes, but I don't know as if I ever heard anyone speak of them. Ever. They're rarer, of course, but still...

[sorcyone]

I believe Ariocs is only slightly better than Viperfork, and higher ed Viperfork would be better than an average Ariocs.

1. Arioc's range is only 4, so with a shael Arioc only gets 7 hits per whirl vs Viperfork 8. Range also has many other advantages. The WW speed is one reason why you see BOTD Ghost Spear/Great Poleaxe instead of BOTD War Pike. Speed is not just more damage. It's more hits, which mean more effects such as CB, more chance of minimum leech, more kills against small creatures, and killing quicker.
2. Viperfork is already at 3rd breakpoint so you can socket it with what you like, Ohm, Ber, pskull.
3. Viperfork usable at level 71 vs Arioc 81.
4. Ariocs ITD is nice, but remember doesn't work vs bosses/champions etc. The +200-250 AR is better on Viperfork.

I say this factoring in the deadly strike and +2-4 skills you get.

[davew2040]

Just an FYI, even though I've heard about the range speculation, I don't believe I've ever conclusively seen a maximized WW weapon ever actually get 8 hits on a single target. I don't know who determined that.

[Xiamet]

Thanks for the input guys...

Since I have both...I may test these weapons once I get my Whirler up to speed. Right now it looks like I'll be going with the IK set though...even with the shorter range of the maul...the mods are too juicy to pass up. But...since Mastery will be the last thing to max, I still have some room to play with spear weapons for a bit...

-X

[tpiercymtv]

Thanks for the input guys...

Since I have both...I may test these weapons once I get my Whirler up to speed. Right now it looks like I'll be going with the IK set though...even with the shorter range of the maul...the mods are too juicy to pass up. But...since Mastery will be the last thing to max, I still have some room to play with spear weapons for a bit...

-X
Load up on the Crushing blow too..it's very nice.

[memememe173]

For me a WW char either has too have too things: Huge damage, or lots of effects CB, high leech, Freeze, OW

[Xiamet]

Figure since I can't really upgrade my Hone Sundan (I'm NL), I'll use that til I can switch over to maybe a Ribcracker or one of the unique exceptional mauls.

I plan on pumping Str anyways...since I'll need it for the IK set, and this should give me some good damage with any weapon really...even without the Mastery. Enough to check out Viperfork or Arioc's at least...

-X

[sorcyone]

Don't use a ribcracker with WW - range 2 and average damage 115 yields you 575 damage per whirl vs unupgraded Hone Sundan gets 1296 - more than twice the damage.

If you were on ladder though, upgraded Ribcracker is nice, the average damage jumps to 411 !! because the base damage goes from 17 for Quarterstaff to 91 for Stalagmite.