Amazon spears review

[zaphodbrx]

Hi guys. I'm currently playing a spearazon, and she's level 63. I couldn't find a decent spearazon guide, so let me share some opinions about spear weapons for the amazon. Some of them I have use, some planning to use..

Bloodthief brandistock
pros- great twinking weapon. fast, LL, OW, +life, got through most of normal with this
cons- not an endgame weapon

The Impaler war spear
pros- ITD, decent damage, low level reqs
cons- not an endgame weapon

Soulfest Tine war fork
pros- fast, dual leech, decent damage
cons- not an endgame weapon

Lycander's flank ceremonial pike
pros- +skills, fast, leech, stat boost, only clvl 42 reqd. this is what I am using currently
cons- Not enough dmg for endgame ( only 162 ED on mine ), needs upping
Suited to lightning skill based builds ( fend as LI backup )

E hone Sundan yari
pros- very damaging, hefty 45 cb and three sockets for full customization.
cons- not easy to find one, needs upping, no +skills
Suited to fend based builds ( charge strike as PI backup )

Stoneraven matriarchial spear
pros- great defensive bonuses ( +defense and resists ), +skills, decent damage
cons- varies on so many parameters it can be impossible to find a perfect one

Arioc's needle
pros- +skills, fast, 50% deadly strike
cons- Ridiculous clvl req ( 81? wtf ) , low damage, low range

Steel pillar
pros- indestructible, high damage, CB
cons- slow, no skills

E BOTD
pros- almost every mod you could want on a spear
cons- very expensive ( atleast for single player )

My top rated
Lightning build ( fend as backup for LI ): Arioc's needle, Stoneraven, Lycander's flank
Physical build ( CS as backup for PI ): EBotd, EHoneSundan (upped ), Stoneraven

Some ballpark figures for dmg ( what I have and some researched )

Arioc's Needle: 100-342
Lycander's flank ( non upped ): 136-314
Stoneraven: 220-340
Steel pillar: 110-560
E upped hone sundan: 100-737 ( not counting sockets )
E BOTD war pike: 237-1291
E BOTD ghost spear: 132-1139

ghost spear hits WW breakpoint , which is an important consideration if you have only 1 Zod to use
( ie single player )

Thanks for looking, any comments?

[droid]

For a lightning build, how does Ariocs compare to Tstroke/Spirit?

I know its a spearazon, but if a jav+shield is better...

[zaphodbrx]

Funny you mention that, because I have the exact same setup on my other amazon ( tstroke+spirit)
Tstroke+spirit is better, no questions asked, and infact her whole setup is geared towards +skills. The disadvantage is that you can't use fend ( well you can, but it isn't effective ), but have to go with poison skills.

[Mrjones]

Yea but doesn't fend suck?

[zaphodbrx]

No, not really when you get used to it.
The key is to use decoy and slow missiles properly. And rely on lifeleech.

There are certain advantages to using spears over bow javelin combos. Such as, you can have a CtA switch ( call to arms ).
Also, fend is arguably better at dealing with LIs than plague javelin ( if you were going pure javelin ), specially the immune problems.

P.S. don't use D/A/E/valk

[slayer37]

D/A/E are not the only problems which causes the whiffing of Fend. Hit recovery causes this also. I vote for Jab for LIs.

[zaphodbrx]

Hit recovery stops the fend strikes altogether, which is different from whiffing.
Anyway the point was what are the good spears for an amazon, not whether one should use spear amazon or not.
Jab is terrible btw ( damage wise ).

[Pyrotechnician]

Hone Sundan is arguably one of the best pokey sticks when up'd. Also if you have the zod rune to waste (i.e. not single player) you can consider making ebotd in a zon specific weapon such as the matriarchal spear or pike if you want additional skills to go with its massive damage.

[zaphodbrx]

Matriarchial spear and pike both have less damage than Ghost spear/War pike, I don't know if +3 to fend would make up for it.

[Pyrotechnician]

It would add an additional 30% off weapon ed, which is probably worse off then in that case, sorry I did not check the damage comparison before posting.