Apparently Polearms are bad. Blades or Bludgeon?

I've been reading up, and all the information I can find points out that Polearms are simply inferior to Blades and Bludgeon in every way. A very informative post was made in September here https://www.shroudoftheavatar.com/forum/index.php?threads/complete-review-of-polearm.99769/ and nothing I can find since has refuted that.

Can the community tell me which is considered superior out of Blades and Bludgeon? I read that Bludgeon is hitting 1400 damage sneak attacks, but that Blades have a much higher critical chance.

 

September? Combat maths and skills gave changed three or four times since then. Not saying it's wrong (I play ranged, so I don't know much about polearms or blades) but I believe polearms are good now.

 

I couldn't find anything in the Release notes except that Polearms got a passive that increases their damage when they crit.

 

Polearms are your basic crowd control class. Good for taking down multiple targets. Blades are amazing for single target takedowns, with majority critical chance and great damage, but hitting less targets. Bludgeon is apparently somewhere in between, and also good because it covers wands and staves, so it's a good choice for hybrids.

 

Maybe. But just because A didn't improve, doesn't mean that B, C, and D didn't get nerfed. But I do see lots of polearms users. I'm not trying to be contrary, just pointing out that things change a lot month to month, and a thread that's five months old has a good chance of containing outdated information.

 

As far as damage goes, current pecking order of melee skills is:

Single target DPS: blade > polearm > bludgeon
2-3 target Dps: blades > polearm > bludgeon
3-4 target dps: polearm > blades > bludgeon

If you want the most dps in most situations, you should pick blades.

However, polearm and bludgeon have other abilities that are better suited for pvp than blades, like knocking down/stunning/rooting the target.

AFAIK bludgeon also scales the best with strength bonuses to its dps, but you have to have very high strength to make it viable.

 

Gm polearms and punctuary and near gm spinning attack.
I feel polearms is at nice spot now. Punctuary gives dot always and spinning attack with spelialization. I hunt in places, where I have multiple mobs around me all the time and I can just melt through them.
I like it.
Negative sides include quite high weapon prices. Every vendor sells bows and swords, spears are harder to find.
Also, I dont use push, pull or skewer ever, cos those skills are not that good in pvm.

 

Or, you can pick up a bow, and choose to suck all the time.

 

R

Sure, I can accept that. Except I can't find ANY information in the release notes.

If there were changes, wouldn't they be listed in the notes? Do the developers put in undocumented changes?

 

Not sure. But sometimes things get changed that aren't as direct as a a specific skill or tree, but still affect them.

 

Hmm yes, I see what you mean. Changes to monster resistance, armor, damage reduction, this would all impact weaponry. Hrmm.

 

Polearms is fine. Theres 100% exp back on unlearning until release. So test eveeything

 

If you really want to know what changes are being made to combat skills and the thoughts behind the changes, read Chris's blog: https://www.shroudoftheavatar.com/forum/index.php?threads/chris-daily-work-blog.85584/

He's the developer who does all the combat stuff.

 

As well as the discussion of his blog, where we all yell at him for what he posts.

 

They got nerfed pretty hard but are still a viable choice if you go for a STR build.

 

If something is superior then it's wrong!
There's no balance anyway, play what you want.
If the question aboutmost efficient can be answered you know whats been wrong.
If it cannot be answered i tell you it's still imbalanced.

 

To hit 3-4 targets with one attack, a two-handed weapon is needed. Just wanted to point that out as some people might not know that.

 

First off Welcome back to the game. Secondly thank you for making this post requesting verification of the original post. There have been Many Changes to polearm since that post and i must say that polearm is in a fairly good place now. Polearm is king dps against high armor targets like mechanical npcs and dragons. The ability to ignore armor makes polearm very competitive. Polearm is really good at controlling the positioning of NPC's ... @Sara Dreygon Who is a good friend of mine appreciates hunting with me as i easily pull npc's into a pile where the superior raw dps of swords can seriously capitalize.

In regards to what you should do. It's all about your flavor. Personally i really appreciate the range of polearm. Though if it's just raw damage swords is king.

 

The problem all melees have currently is lack of gap closers. There is only one working properly which is body slam, but due to the fact that mages have the best mobility, best healing AND best dps in PVP and PVE (if target isn't resistant) all combat schools are pretty mediocre in that regard.

 

This is not correct. There are 5 gap closers.... Shield charge which works just fine.... Engage which works amazingly well. Bodyslam like you mentioned. Nightstep which is slightly awkward to use due to the delay and finally Blink.