A proposal for Spears & Halberds in Elder Scrolls Online

Forvet

With the re-arrival of Morrowind onto the field of battle, and most importantly the addition of a brand new class to the game, it's become apparent to me that the possibility of further game-changing additions might come along the way for Elder Scrolls Online. In light of this I've decided to write up a proposal for Spears and Halberds. They existed in Morrowind, and I am confident that their existence could be put into Elder Scrolls Online in a straightforward manner. This is especially true due to the existence of "Weapon skill trees" rather than tried and true class skill trees with class specific weapons that we see in other MMOs. This existence of these weapon trees and the ability for players to interchangeably use any weapons they choose or care to with impunity allows for the developers to really expand upon the idea of these weapons.

Furthermore in regards to Motifs, only the standard motifs have materials-based appearance changes while most other motifs and the modern ones being released now have a single look (Though perhaps a different "Skin", but the model appears the same.) across every material. This would allow for fast, easy integration of new weapon models to the game to supplement the current armory we possess. Thus we lead into what I am proposing.

Spears were an integral part of medieval combat, and existed all the way up until the arrival of firearms - whereupon we see the creation of bayonets to allow soldiers to have essentially "Gun-Spears". It is not a leap to say that perhaps after the application of large rocks and sticks to smack people with (E.g. Maces) that spears were created second in the long line of Human weapons development. Polearms have been vital to humans ever since the bronze tipped spear of the Spartans, to the Roman Pilum, to Frankish Pikes, and Japanese Naginata. They were the staple of choice of just about any army as wood was easily turned and spears were highly effective, have a better chance of keeping the user safe, made it capable to engage targets on horseback, and used a smaller amount of metal on -average- than a sword.

So, this brings me to Elder Scrolls online.

***Proposal Starts Here***

Ever since Morrowind many players have been begging for the re-arrival of weapons in the Elder Scrolls franchise. With Skyrim we finally got to reacquaint ourselves with crossbows, but polearms have sadly been lacking. In Elder Scrolls Online we have magicians staves, but nothing of "Reach" other than a bow. My proposal is to provide players looking for "Reach" the opportunity.

This proposal involves three weapon types, and two weapon trees. First you have Halberds and Pikes (Or Long Spears if you want to use different names and the like.), and the you have the Short Spear and Shield. Both groups would have separate but linked playstyles that once understood should allow the application of the weapons easily without much difficulty to the player but while still offering a challenge to master.

The general basis of a spear build would be a "Control" playstyle. It would be a mix of knock-backs, stuns, and roots that allow you to control the target's movement and ability to deal damage at the sacrifice of pure damage you see with swords or bows. In addition to suppressed damage, players using either "groups" of spears would find that keeping a target at medium range allows for enhanced damage while having a target within a certain distance provides less than optimal damage (But! Importantly, still damage.). Furthermore, spear wielders would not have any 360 degree AOE attacks and for the price of -controlling- a target ahead of them any targets flanking them would get a buff to damage against them. This buff would be slightly negated over time through passive skills on the skill tree.

As for weapons characteristics and damage each of the three weapons would be unique and have it's own 'style' of play.

**Pikes**
Pikes and Halberds would have the best range of these weapon types, but the damages and damage types given would be notably different. Pikes would be a piercing weapon that would in effect be used to counter enemies with high armor, providing lower standard damage but bypassing a certain percentage of the enemy's armor. To balance this, the weapon would only have a 30 degree cone of effect and perhaps a "One character height" distance (approx. 6 feet/2 meters) between them and the enemy for it's optimal range and reach perhaps out to 9 feet/3 Meters before it's damage disappears. Anything inside of 6 feet suffers perhaps a 50% to 75% damage loss. This would allow players going up against characters who keep pushing or breaking free of their stuns/roots/dodging knockbacks to continue do damage and not be completely helpless. You could see this as how some spearmen would "Walk up" the haft of the spear to negate the enemy from getting inside of their attacks but it also mirrors how doing so would be unwieldy and not provide the same amount of damage.


**Halberds**
Halberds on the other hand would be like spears but would lack the armor penetration factor, retain the reach, but more importantly... would have a 45-90 degree cone of attack rather than the narrow cone of attack that comes from a pike. This would result in less average damage done by the player due to armor negation even compared to the Pike, but would allow the player to apply his reach and control over the battlefield across a much wider spectrum. This would look to the 'swing' and 'slash' that Halberds (And naginatas, which would be included model-wise in this class) were capable of due to the axe-blade. The trade off is direct and noticeable, with players either gaining better damage and armor negation with the Pike, or a wider area of effect to attacks but lower damage provided by the Halberd.

**Short Spear/Shield** (Spear & Board)
Short Spears and Shields are a mix between the sword and shield playstyle and the Pike Playstyle. Halberds require two hands to effective swing, which means that you would not see any paired with a shield. Short Spears would gain the ability to use a shield to defend themselves, while retaining the 30 degree cone of attack you see with the pike. This is balanced by a lowered attack range of 3-6 feet (1-2 meters) instead of 6-9 feet (2-3 meters). The Spear and shield build would negate flanking damage quite noticeably compared to the Pike and Halberd but retain its ability to pierce armor. Other aspects of the Spear and shield -could- be that while hunkered down and defending any attacks done to you cause a minor amount of damage to be 'reflected' towards the enemy due to the spear poking them when they attacked. I would say that blocking with a spear and shield would use significantly more endurance compared to the sword and shield, were the damage reflection the case. This could be mitigated again through the use of passive skills.

**Active Skills**

Now standard attacks with spears of any type would not do anything but your normal damage. Heavy attacks however would allow players to briefly root or 'stun' targets (IE what happens if you block a heavy attack, though perhaps shorter.), to allow for multiple quick jabs with the spear. Otherwise, combat is relatively standard save for the range and angle limitations.

Active skills for the Halberd/Pike/Short Spear tree would include a Knockback akin to the Bow's knockback ability, allowing for the player to push a target back were they able to get inside of his reach so that he could reengage and try to control the target again. This however, obvious comes with the same caveats as the bow's knockback in terms of enemies. If a target isn't capable of being knocked back, you can't knock them back. This skill would be present on both trees.

Both trees would have skills designed to root, knockdown, or stun a target. I would propose a Cone AOE attack for the Halberd and Pike tree that would hit any target perhaps multiple times within the cone of effect depending on the equipped type of weapon (30 degrees or 90 degrees.). The second skill I would suggest for the Pike/Halberd tree would be a "Shield Breaker". This would be a knockdown attack that punches through any enemy block for significant damage, but tied to a noticeable cool down and endurance price. As stated above, there should be no 360 degree AOE attacks for any character using a pole-arm.

For the Short Spear/Shield tree I would propose the same standard skills designed for rooting or stunning. But instead of a shield breaker attack I would propose a "Shieldwall" ability, this would allow the player to hunker down behind his shield at the sacrifice of mobility... but automatically block hits for a few seconds while still being capable of doing standard attacks. This would be just as dangerous as the Pike/halberd shield breaker, due to it lasting longer and protecting the player during it. I would guess that it would take the same amount of endurance and cool down as the Shield Breaker attack. Another thing about short spears is that they were often thrown like Javelins. I would suggest another skill to keep the Short Spear/Shield tree different from the Halberd/Pike tree different by adding a ranged attack skill where you chuck your spear like a Javelin to get in some licks if the target is at range and you are closing or running away and not making it capable for you to settle in and fight.

**Passive Skills**

Passive skills would be your standard fare of lowering cool downs, but they would include negation of bonus flanking damage done to the spear wielder, raise the chance for a heavy attack to do a stun or perhaps lengthen the time the stun lasts. Perhaps increase the reach of a the Halberd/Pike class, or mitigate the loss of damage brought about due to the target being inside of their reach. For the Short Spear/Shield class I would expect one of the passives being the ability to move faster with your shield up or mitigate the amount of stamina needed to block hits.

---

Anyhow, here is my proposal. I think I've thought it through well enough to keep it balanced and easy to use but harder to master. I think I've come up with a good balance of actives that provide chances for the player to really be capable while still keeping it fair for players not using the weapons.

Thanks a lot!
Forvet

ForsakenSin

YES!!!!! i want to have two handed long spear with 20% penetration

Hanzus

Spears and Halberds, YES!!! I AM FOR THIS!!

Where do I sign up for this...(looking frantically for a pen)

Whatelse73b14_ESO

Great ideas, especially seeing them fleshed out and explained so well. Good work.

CountEdmondDantes

Spears!

That moment when I can create an underwater-breathing Argonian and give him a spear, before sending him to Balmora ... again.

It would be like going home.

Cpt_Teemo

Also a glaive would be pretty cool

Forvet

@Kyle1983b14_ESO
I would probably put those along with "Naginatas" and the like under the Halberd category as they are swinging polearms. I could see those as Akaviri weapons! ^^

Azurulia

I very much like the idea of spears, polearms/axes, and halberds as a type of weapon to fight with.

Attacking with an added thrusting action, rather than just a swing, would make for some very interesting adaption of play on both sides of the pointy end.

Lynx7386

You know that 2h weapons have a 7 meter range right? Even daggers are 5m

Forvet

Lynx7386

I don't actually know the ranges at which the weapons are ranged, but I'm certain that the devs will look at it and consider how to handle actually ranging the weapons.

Cpt_Teemo

Since Ranged is like 30-35m, 2h is 7, 1h 5

Maybe make polearms 15 or something

Forvet

Kyle1983b14_ESO

Considering pikes were about 7.5 meters alone, add your lunge to spear someone as another... 2 meters? then the fantasy factor? I'd say 12-15 is a "Reasonable" number for range. Perhaps 12 for short spears and 16 for halberds/long spears/pikes?

redspecter23

New weapons sound good from a lore and RP standpoint. From that point of view, I think it's totally amazing. Then I realize that I already have major issues pulling appropriately traited weapons right now. Adding 2 more would make my head explode from all the grind. That's an issue that could be solved separately if ZOS can realize that too much grind is a deterrent instead of a means to keep players on the hamster wheel.

Forvet

redspecter23
While I agree that working on traits is difficult, I've found that in a way you need to specialize your production of weapons or have friends help you. I have 2 or 3 friends helping me collect traited items so that I can easily research them and in return I help provide them with said items down the road.

I think have more of a broad spectrum of weapons would perhaps allow for specialization on the player's case for weapons production. But maybe that's just me.

redspecter23

Forvet wrote: »

redspecter23
While I agree that working on traits is difficult, I've found that in a way you need to specialize your production of weapons or have friends help you. I have 2 or 3 friends helping me collect traited items so that I can easily research them and in return I help provide them with said items down the road.

I think have more of a broad spectrum of weapons would perhaps allow for specialization on the player's case for weapons production. But maybe that's just me.

As far as trait research goes, yes that would add quite some time to fully maxing out your research on your crafters. That wasn't really what I was thinking though. That's a one time grind with an achievable goal with a set time to reach that goal. I can deal with that. I'm talking about the grind it takes to find bind on pickup weapons like Burning Spellweave or Infallable Aether staves with sharpened for instance. Diluting that already large weapon pool with 2 more variations would be very frustrating, especially if both of those are also only useful in sharpened.

Panda_iMunch

What we really need it a war scythe!

Just imagine hooking someone and slashing them to bits. Glorious

Avran_Sylt

I would love to see them implemented in the game. Though my idea is to make it another damage dealing class. to combine the Halberd and Pike into one weapon tree, and have the short hafted pike to be included in the one hand and shield category.

Innate polearm passive: polearm attacks and skills used on a target within 3m of the player deal 60% less damage. a scaling damage reduction of between 60% - 0% at ranges of 3m-6m with the sweet zone being from 6-10m with 10m being the max range

While the cone attack is a good idea, I think that should be reserved for halberd heavy attacks. Light attacks would be reaching jabs, and heavy attack type would be reliant on weapon type. Cone sweep for Halberds, while for Pikes, just a stronger poke.

Let's take a look at some potential passives:

Prowess:
The first tier:
decreases heavy attack charge time by 5%
Halberds: Heavy attacks have a %20 chance of setting an enemy off balance.
Pikes: Heavy attacks ignore 2500 Physical resistance.

The seconds tier:
decreases heavy attack charge time by 10%
Halberds: Heavy attacks have a 50% chance of setting an enemy off balance.
Pikes: Heavy attacks ignore 5000 Physical resistance.

Pushing Precision:
The first tier:
dealing damage with a Polearm skill or attack to an enemy has a 10% chance to knock an off balance enemy down. Polearm damage Deals 10% increased damage to knocked down enemies.

The second tier:
Dealing damage with a Polearm skill or attack to an enemy has a 20% chance to knock an off balance enemy down. Polearm damage Deals 20% increased damage to knocked down enemies.

Balanced Shaft
The first tier:
reduces stamina cost of abilities by 10%

The second tier:
reduces stamina cost of abilities by 20%

Reaching Weapons
The first tier:
Pikes increase Weapon critical by [x]
Halberds cause all Polearm damage to have an 8% chance of inflicting bleed

The second tier:
Pikes increase Weapon Critical by 2[x]
Halberds cause all Polearm damage to have a 16% chance of inflicting bleed

Continuous Assault
The first tier:
Chaining light attacks in the sweet zone increases the damage of the next Polearm attack by 1.5%. Stacks up to 10 times, stacks last for 5 seconds, refresh time and add to stack on light attack. Heavy attacks set stack counter to 4 if above 4, and refresh time.

The second tier:
chaining light attacks in the sweet zone increases the damage of the next Polearm attack by 3%. Stacks up to 10 times, stacks last for 5 seconds, refresh time and add to stack on light attack. Heavy attacks set stack counter to 4 if above 4, and refresh time.

So, what about active abilities for the Halberd/Pike?

Ultimate:

Furious Assault:
Rapidly strike 10 times over [x] seconds

morphs:
-Encroaching Assault
each strike increases your Physical penetration by 315 for the duration
-Unrelenting Assault
decreases the ultimate cost

Basic Skills
Shove:
Push back an enemy 5m.

morphs:
-Trip
Also applies a snare for 2 seconds
-Kickback
if target is closer than 2m from you, pushes you back 3m as well.

Sweep:
Cone attack.

morphs:
-Crippling Sweep
snares enemies hit
-Quick Sweep
reduces stamina cost

Jab:
Channel for [x] seconds, then deal a high damage reaching strike that ignores 25% of the targets Physical resistance.

morphs:
-Power Jab
high chance of knocking an enemy down
-Biting Jab
applies a bleed to the target

Edit:
Gouge
Stab and twist your Polearm into the enemy, dealing moderate damage over 10 seconds

morphs
-Rending Gouge
applies minor fracture to the enemy for 10 seconds
-Exposing Gouge
Target takes 10% more damage from your light and heavy attacks for the duration.

Focus
Concentrate on your movements and increase weapon attack speed by 15% for 10 seconds

morphs"
-Floating Focus
Increase light attack damage by 5%
-Hardened Focus
Increase Heavy attack damage by 10%

ThePonzzz

What would be the downside to use a polearm over twohander? Right now, seems like not much with the suggestions. Better range, better skills, only thing missing is a Rally knockoff. I'm all for more weapon skills to be added. I think they should up us to 10 traits and add a new weapon type to get people researching again. A mid range weapon would be slow though, so that is one downside.

Malnutrition

YES please to polearms & spears!

Avran_Sylt

ThePonzzz wrote: »

What would be the downside to use a polearm over twohander? Right now, seems like not much with the suggestions. Better range, better skills, only thing missing is a Rally knockoff. I'm all for more weapon skills to be added. I think they should up us to 10 traits and add a new weapon type to get people researching again. A mid range weapon would be slow though, so that is one downside.

eh, two hander has a gap closer, a knockup, an execute, heal, shielding via cleave morphs, and a non restricting empower that only needs one heavy. oh, stam regen from kills too.

Recremen

Polearms in general would be a great addition to melee weapon skills as their own skill line. In terms of motifs, I think that they could easily be divided up into Axe, Sword, Mace, and Dagger, just like they are now. There are an immeasurable number of polearm type weapons of all of these types. Axes would be halberd style, Swords would be a bit more like a glaive, there are a few blunt polar weapons that would be cool to expand on in an Elder Scrolls context, and of course Daggers would just be your standard spear. No need to add any new motifs to the game, just new art files for all these glorious new weapon types!

Lynx7386

I still think that polearms as a hybrid weapon type could help bring hybrid builds up to par. Polearms are literally a staff with a blade, no reason we can't capitalize on that and make them hybrid physical/magical weapons.

Avran_Sylt

Lynx7386 wrote: »

I still think that polearms as a hybrid weapon type could help bring hybrid builds up to par. Polearms are literally a staff with a blade, no reason we can't capitalize on that and make them hybrid physical/magical weapons.

Separate that from Polearms and create a Battlestaff perhaps?

Logicbomb00

I've been mentioning the introduction of spears for well over a year by now, but no joy as of yet. My main argument was that the animations for several 'spear skills' are already in the game and can be viewed by looking at the guards training outside the Skywatch Fighters Guild in Auridon. My idea was that spears would be a mixture of ranged AND close combat skills, so you could throw it and pin an enemy simply by using the animation already in the Templar Skill line, along with sveral other Spear like abilities they have (jabs etc). It's almost all in the game already, they just need to change the animations and make them different in effect somehow. I would LOVE spears etc in the game so +1 from me.

Avran_Sylt

Continuing this Comment:
Polearms - Passives and Actives
but for Short Spears.

Short spears would be a one handed weapon, used in the one hand and shield class. It would extend the auto and heavy attack range by a few meters, as well as augmenting the range of Puncture, Low Slash, and their morphs by a few meters as well.

Handling the case where a player would try to equip two short spears or use a sole short spear would require more discussion.

Integral1900

Why not, I mean the animations for these weapons are already in game, don't believe me? Just go to Skywatch in auridon and go to the outside of the fighters guild, there are npcs there using spears

MakoFore

it would be a cool weapon - no doubt but the issue i see is that a halberd is a ranged melee weapon- and the heavy attacks in eso have stupid range. you can practically strike someone from 15 feet away with a 2hander- the animation dosent even have to appear to be close. if they could somehow repair it- so that the hit box of the other weapons was tighter and accurate to the animation- then id welcome a ranged melee like halberd s and spears. otherwise- assuming the melee range is realistic- - it'd either be the same range as what we already have- or a unrealistic and a stupid range like draining shot for bow.

Richard_Ralh

Ok, I release that this thread is a almost a few years old and I am sorry for the 'necro'. But..., I was wondering if the Eso developers have ever or are giving thought to this type of weapon and skill line yet? I know we have Templars that can use those 'holy spears' using magic or stamina, but it's not the same thing as wielding an actual spear or halberd and using it as a regular melee weapon.

zergbase_ESO

Forvet wrote: »

With the re-arrival of Morrowind onto the field of battle, and most importantly the addition of a brand new class to the game, it's become apparent to me that the possibility of further game-changing additions might come along the way for Elder Scrolls Online. In light of this I've decided to write up a proposal for Spears and Halberds. They existed in Morrowind, and I am confident that their existence could be put into Elder Scrolls Online in a straightforward manner. This is especially true due to the existence of "Weapon skill trees" rather than tried and true class skill trees with class specific weapons that we see in other MMOs. This existence of these weapon trees and the ability for players to interchangeably use any weapons they choose or care to with impunity allows for the developers to really expand upon the idea of these weapons.

Furthermore in regards to Motifs, only the standard motifs have materials-based appearance changes while most other motifs and the modern ones being released now have a single look (Though perhaps a different "Skin", but the model appears the same.) across every material. This would allow for fast, easy integration of new weapon models to the game to supplement the current armory we possess. Thus we lead into what I am proposing.

Spears were an integral part of medieval combat, and existed all the way up until the arrival of firearms - whereupon we see the creation of bayonets to allow soldiers to have essentially "Gun-Spears". It is not a leap to say that perhaps after the application of large rocks and sticks to smack people with (E.g. Maces) that spears were created second in the long line of Human weapons development. Polearms have been vital to humans ever since the bronze tipped spear of the Spartans, to the Roman Pilum, to Frankish Pikes, and Japanese Naginata. They were the staple of choice of just about any army as wood was easily turned and spears were highly effective, have a better chance of keeping the user safe, made it capable to engage targets on horseback, and used a smaller amount of metal on -average- than a sword.

So, this brings me to Elder Scrolls online.

***Proposal Starts Here***

Ever since Morrowind many players have been begging for the re-arrival of weapons in the Elder Scrolls franchise. With Skyrim we finally got to reacquaint ourselves with crossbows, but polearms have sadly been lacking. In Elder Scrolls Online we have magicians staves, but nothing of "Reach" other than a bow. My proposal is to provide players looking for "Reach" the opportunity.

This proposal involves three weapon types, and two weapon trees. First you have Halberds and Pikes (Or Long Spears if you want to use different names and the like.), and the you have the Short Spear and Shield. Both groups would have separate but linked playstyles that once understood should allow the application of the weapons easily without much difficulty to the player but while still offering a challenge to master.

The general basis of a spear build would be a "Control" playstyle. It would be a mix of knock-backs, stuns, and roots that allow you to control the target's movement and ability to deal damage at the sacrifice of pure damage you see with swords or bows. In addition to suppressed damage, players using either "groups" of spears would find that keeping a target at medium range allows for enhanced damage while having a target within a certain distance provides less than optimal damage (But! Importantly, still damage.). Furthermore, spear wielders would not have any 360 degree AOE attacks and for the price of -controlling- a target ahead of them any targets flanking them would get a buff to damage against them. This buff would be slightly negated over time through passive skills on the skill tree.

As for weapons characteristics and damage each of the three weapons would be unique and have it's own 'style' of play.

**Pikes**
Pikes and Halberds would have the best range of these weapon types, but the damages and damage types given would be notably different. Pikes would be a piercing weapon that would in effect be used to counter enemies with high armor, providing lower standard damage but bypassing a certain percentage of the enemy's armor. To balance this, the weapon would only have a 30 degree cone of effect and perhaps a "One character height" distance (approx. 6 feet/2 meters) between them and the enemy for it's optimal range and reach perhaps out to 9 feet/3 Meters before it's damage disappears. Anything inside of 6 feet suffers perhaps a 50% to 75% damage loss. This would allow players going up against characters who keep pushing or breaking free of their stuns/roots/dodging knockbacks to continue do damage and not be completely helpless. You could see this as how some spearmen would "Walk up" the haft of the spear to negate the enemy from getting inside of their attacks but it also mirrors how doing so would be unwieldy and not provide the same amount of damage.


**Halberds**
Halberds on the other hand would be like spears but would lack the armor penetration factor, retain the reach, but more importantly... would have a 45-90 degree cone of attack rather than the narrow cone of attack that comes from a pike. This would result in less average damage done by the player due to armor negation even compared to the Pike, but would allow the player to apply his reach and control over the battlefield across a much wider spectrum. This would look to the 'swing' and 'slash' that Halberds (And naginatas, which would be included model-wise in this class) were capable of due to the axe-blade. The trade off is direct and noticeable, with players either gaining better damage and armor negation with the Pike, or a wider area of effect to attacks but lower damage provided by the Halberd.

**Short Spear/Shield** (Spear & Board)
Short Spears and Shields are a mix between the sword and shield playstyle and the Pike Playstyle. Halberds require two hands to effective swing, which means that you would not see any paired with a shield. Short Spears would gain the ability to use a shield to defend themselves, while retaining the 30 degree cone of attack you see with the pike. This is balanced by a lowered attack range of 3-6 feet (1-2 meters) instead of 6-9 feet (2-3 meters). The Spear and shield build would negate flanking damage quite noticeably compared to the Pike and Halberd but retain its ability to pierce armor. Other aspects of the Spear and shield -could- be that while hunkered down and defending any attacks done to you cause a minor amount of damage to be 'reflected' towards the enemy due to the spear poking them when they attacked. I would say that blocking with a spear and shield would use significantly more endurance compared to the sword and shield, were the damage reflection the case. This could be mitigated again through the use of passive skills.

**Active Skills**

Now standard attacks with spears of any type would not do anything but your normal damage. Heavy attacks however would allow players to briefly root or 'stun' targets (IE what happens if you block a heavy attack, though perhaps shorter.), to allow for multiple quick jabs with the spear. Otherwise, combat is relatively standard save for the range and angle limitations.

Active skills for the Halberd/Pike/Short Spear tree would include a Knockback akin to the Bow's knockback ability, allowing for the player to push a target back were they able to get inside of his reach so that he could reengage and try to control the target again. This however, obvious comes with the same caveats as the bow's knockback in terms of enemies. If a target isn't capable of being knocked back, you can't knock them back. This skill would be present on both trees.

Both trees would have skills designed to root, knockdown, or stun a target. I would propose a Cone AOE attack for the Halberd and Pike tree that would hit any target perhaps multiple times within the cone of effect depending on the equipped type of weapon (30 degrees or 90 degrees.). The second skill I would suggest for the Pike/Halberd tree would be a "Shield Breaker". This would be a knockdown attack that punches through any enemy block for significant damage, but tied to a noticeable cool down and endurance price. As stated above, there should be no 360 degree AOE attacks for any character using a pole-arm.

For the Short Spear/Shield tree I would propose the same standard skills designed for rooting or stunning. But instead of a shield breaker attack I would propose a "Shieldwall" ability, this would allow the player to hunker down behind his shield at the sacrifice of mobility... but automatically block hits for a few seconds while still being capable of doing standard attacks. This would be just as dangerous as the Pike/halberd shield breaker, due to it lasting longer and protecting the player during it. I would guess that it would take the same amount of endurance and cool down as the Shield Breaker attack. Another thing about short spears is that they were often thrown like Javelins. I would suggest another skill to keep the Short Spear/Shield tree different from the Halberd/Pike tree different by adding a ranged attack skill where you chuck your spear like a Javelin to get in some licks if the target is at range and you are closing or running away and not making it capable for you to settle in and fight.

**Passive Skills**

Passive skills would be your standard fare of lowering cool downs, but they would include negation of bonus flanking damage done to the spear wielder, raise the chance for a heavy attack to do a stun or perhaps lengthen the time the stun lasts. Perhaps increase the reach of a the Halberd/Pike class, or mitigate the loss of damage brought about due to the target being inside of their reach. For the Short Spear/Shield class I would expect one of the passives being the ability to move faster with your shield up or mitigate the amount of stamina needed to block hits.

---

Anyhow, here is my proposal. I think I've thought it through well enough to keep it balanced and easy to use but harder to master. I think I've come up with a good balance of actives that provide chances for the player to really be capable while still keeping it fair for players not using the weapons.

Thanks a lot!
Forvet

YEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEESSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSS!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

If ZoS can get off their lazy rears this be nice addition!

Sylvermynx

Eh, aside the major necro, I don't personally have any interest in this - but then again, I simply can ignore them if added.

MellowMagic

Spears should just be the 2h equivalent of daggers offering a crit bonus. No need to make it all complicated.