Spear vs. 2 Handed Sword

[Silverwing]

So, i'm about to make a new War-Rage Hybrid fully offensive and i don't know which one is better to use? As 2 Handed Sword has better damage output, low on bleeding trigger and slow initiative, but has bash/slash as options (bash gets bonus vs medium armor and slash gets bonus vs light armor [two main enemies of war Theatrics and Rages]) and Spear has a bit lower damage output, triggers a very good amount of bleeding (useful against War Tanks) and faster initiative (means more attacks each turn/ usefull because i'll probably drop light as a feather for adrenalin rush), better in armor pierce than 2 Handed Sword but only has Lunge as option (gets bonus vs heavy armor). The last thing i wanted to ask is if anyone knows anything about the bonus long weapons (spears) gets vs shorter ones (daggers/claws), as a long weapon keeps "at distance a glad fighting with a shorter one" cause if that is true it gives a special bonus versus speed Theatrics/bleeders which is the main enemy and equates the bonus from bash that 2 Handed Sword has. Masters of War Specialisation and Old ones i call your help and wisdom on this matter! :)

[Adoede]

My vote is for both.

Because at the moment, both are equally effective and equally handicapped. Both will do fine against just about every other build...except true tanks. In that scenario, no one has yet figured out how to give them enough offensive firepower to overcome the tanks defense. That said, since blood gods is a game of style match-ups, it is entirely possible to win with an offensive hybrid war if you get lucky with your match-ups down the stretch and manage to avoid the tanks. This last season, there were three or four builds that were well represented at the top - True tanks, 2H Ragers, Hybrid Wars, and a few highly skilled Theatrics. The tanks beat just about everyone but the Ragers. The Ragers were great against tanks...not so great against the Hybrid wars and Theatrics. The hybrid wars handily beat all comers...except the tanks. And the Theatrics often beat the Ragers but had some trouble with everyone else...with an occasional win over a tank here and there.

My point is that every build can be effective - especially against styles it has natural advantages against. But the way to win in blood gods is to play the percentages and hope for good match-ups. There is no unbeatable build as of yet. And with endurance draining shadows on the way, tanks may lose a bit more of their luster in the future. Even with the current meta-game, 2H Rage seems to be the build to beat for the foreseeable future. I guess Hybrid war would be a good way to challenge that hegemony.

[Stormcloak]

If you want to make a hybrid warrior, you might consider taking two handed for the rage tree (both heavily rely on strength) or polearm for the theatrics tree (both rely heavily on agility). Either one is viable.
As for the war/rage hybrid, I'm of the opinion that light as a feather with heavy armour will give you more than taking medium armour with adrenaline rush. Adrenaline rush gives you a short, but significant boost to damage resistance -> it's great for rages with high damage output that plan on overwhelming and quickly finishing off an opponent with high damage output (ie a shorter match), but warriors tend to need a bit more lasting power.

[Stormcloak]

(double post)

[Kreegan]

I've been intending to train a Spear-wielding bleeder for some time but right now all my high level gladiators are interesting enough to remain in service and I want to try another Theatrics build before that. In theory, such a fighter should perform decently vs. tanks with good activity management but will probably suck vs. 2H Rages.

2H swords can't bash by the way. They hit hard but the tanks won't be impressed if you don't get Devastating Power, Brute Force and Blood Drunk (even then you'll need a bit of luck). Adrenaline Rush doesn't seem to benefit Wars all that much, better go for Light as a Feather as Stormcloak suggested.

[Silverwing]

Thanks for all the tips as far guys! Adoede, trully, both are equally effective, and every build can be good or bad against another one, but those two are giving a very different style, as a 2 Handed Sword gives good hits/crits and a Spear gives lower hits/crits but way more attacks. So basicaly it's a big impact on his fighting style. Stormcloak i find your idea good and maybe i'll drop adrenalin rush for light as a feather. At the moment i have a test glad (non hol) dunder and using adrenalin instead of light as a feather and a 2 Handed. My glad attacks pretty good hits (Dev. power, blood drunk, brute force + dunder) but attacks 1 time each round (and very very rare 2 attacks) most times it's an activated attack (death from above or AR) and have a pretty good record 450-250-28. As you said 2H wants str and polearms wats agil, but at the moment i'm aiming for both for my glad (atm 120 str 110 agi on test glad) so that won't be a problem i think, the problem is what is going on with slash/lunge 2H has (bonus on light/heavy armor) and lunge polearm has (bonus on heavy armor) and if that thing about having a long weapon keeps a shorter one at distance is true. Kreegan i want to try myself a Spear-wielding glad as i never used that weapon before. I think that it gives a pretty good bleed so it will be usefull against tanks but what it will be against rages and theatrics?

[Ogornomus]

I have experimneted with a spear gladiator and I found it underwhelming. Though to be fair the gladiator was one of the old ones (from before I took a break from the game) and had horrible stats for a war gladiator (62 size and also Elaar...ouch).
I will how ever try to find a better one and test the build with him. My only concern is right now as I looked over the stats of weapons that the trident is almost better than the spear in every way. Same damage range/hit but attacks a bit faster and it is one handed weapon. It weighs a bit more and is probably a bit shorter but... it is still one handed with more damage/round, and also better bleed.
The problem with pole arms is that they use agility and a lot of war skills require strenght instead, also strenght helps to wear heavier armor. But in theory all pole arms have better damage/round then 2H weapons, though that requires more turns as they won't always attack twice (though first turn double hit can cripple opponents).

My only question is should a pole arm gladiator take Hamstring from the theatric tree or not? So it only has 5 pionts in Light as a Feather.

[Kreegan]

The Spear should do better than the Trident in the initiative fight. Fighting with a 2H weapon deals more consistent damage than dual-wielding one-handed weapons and is certainly better than any one-handed weapon + shield combination in the offensive area (except maybe with the smallest shields, haven't tested that) so you shouldn't underestimate the Spear based on raw stats.

Pole Arms hit more often but aren't as good against armour as the 2H weapons, at least most of them.

Training Light as a Feather to 5 won't give you anything substantial, better skip the skill altogether if you want to go for Hamstring and train everything to 10/10.

[Stormcloak]

I think hamstring could combine nicely with Polearms due to the reduced number of attacks your opponent gets if they have a smaller weapon length. If I ever get the inclination, I might try running Polearm, Grim Determination, Battlehardened, Death From Above, Armour Movement, Never Say Die, with Feint, Crowdpleaser (defense to help balance off using some medium armour if required to manage encumbrance), Hamstring, and either Called Shot or Grat Violence.