First time physical spearzon here, SSF HC, so far level 28, in Act 2 tombs.
I am very impressed how well she is doing so far. Fend is an absolute beast when fighting crowd. It does look a bit off when there are too many targets in range (thanks to the long range provided by spears), as the animation of each attack is replaced by a quick shake of the spear.
However, I find the spears break too fast. My weapons broke twice during combat already. The repair sign comes up quite often (like with each map clearing or so). This has persisted since Act 1. I am not using impale and probably won’t be able to use it often for the same reason. I can only imagine, in hell, as fights drag on much longer, would this become a real issue?
Arreat Summit shows that all spears have quite low durability. 35 for low end spears, and 25 for high end ones.
I am not complaining about this feature. It makes me aware of a need and go back to town more often, which isn’t a bad thing (except Act 3 maybe. The armorer is too far). I am just curious how people with more experience with this setting deal with it.
Thanks in advance.
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An update.
I am level 60 now in NM act 1. So far the durability hasn’t been a problem.
When I was running normal Baal on p8, after each run my lance (total 25 durability) would still have 1 to 10 durability left. For Eldritch and Shenk run I would have 18 to 20 left. For 1 Baal run I had 23 left, but I could not replicate it.
It seems clearing speed plays a big role. For people with top tier weapons this may not matter at all. For SSF people playing through the game as physical spearzon, just repair more often.
Once the repair sign comes up, there is only 5 durability left, which does not last long. I engaged Izual when the sign came up. My pike broke before Izual was defeated.
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An update No.2
I am level 76 now in Hell act 1. The durability issue is more pronounced, but nothing too troubling.
NM Baal runs on p3 normally required 1 repair around Baal’s minions. My lance broke a few times when I ignored the repair sign.
In Hell I forgot to switch to p1. Clearing Blood Moor and Den required 2 repairs.
So far I am very impressed by the lances. The reach is great. Stand behind decoy and Valkyrie fend can still hit pretty much every target. This is perfect for HC play. Looking forward to fully clearing Hell.
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An update No.3
Guardian’ed at level 85. Full clear. 20 fend, 20 Valkyrie, 20 Decoy, 20 Penetrate, in that order. Rest in critical strike, dodge, avoid and evade.
Conclusion: The spear is the king of all weapons.
Physical spearzon performed way beyond my expectation. She was extremely safe and yet killed a lot faster than most of my other characters. With decoy and Valkyrie in the front line, she was almost never targeted by anything. With the long reach and high damage of the pike, she could decimate anything that is not PI.
Valkyrie is so reliable as always. She only died once, in Act 1, to several boss packs of ghosts that piled on top of each other. Decoy survived very long too for the most part, and was free to cast.
The only danger came from those who knockback/charge. They often broke decoy/Valkyrie formation and exposed the amazon. My only close call was at Pindle. One charge almost killed me.
As to the repair, I had to frequently go back to town just to repair my spear, about 4 or 5 visits per map. But I am more than happy to do so. It is a small tradeoff for such a powerful character.
I was extremely lucky with the drops this time. My other guardians finished with way lesser equipment:
-Lycander’s flank. Couldn’t believe my eyes when it dropped. Carried me to the end. I was originally hoping to make an Honor in an elite spear class weapon (which never dropped anyways) for hell.
-Pul. Upped Lycander’s flank.
-Titan’s revenge. Too bad I am all melee this time. But +2 skills is great on swap.
-Lidless wall. On swap with Titan.
-Thunderstoke. Same as Titan, but put in stash.
-Laying of hands. +350% damage to demons is amazing.
-Goblin toe x2. Made boss fights so much shorter. How I wish merc could use it.
-Peasant crown x2.
-The Impaler. Dropped after Lycander, thus never got much love. But prevent monster heal + open wound was my only way in hell to kill PI + poison immunes. OW was very underwhelming. I don’t remember it was this weak in the original game. It took me very long to kill Thresh Socket. Durability went from 30 to 1 for this fight alone.
-Vipermagi. Godsend for resistances.
-Mara’s Kaleidoscope. Too good to believe.
-String of ears.
-Kuko Shakaku. Never used it before, but it did very well with my cold rogue. She was my PI killer.