As for any design on skillsets posted on the forums, they should be viewed as thought exercises and not meant to be indicative of anything that is actually under consideration, even if it is posted by a god (unless it's me). That said, we certainly have used ideas off the forums as inspiration so feel free to brainstorm--just don't get your expectations up!

Complete wishful thinking perhaps, but I would love to see a polearm specialization for warriors, especially since halberds are supposedly part of Sentinel Company regalia. Tried to put this together using existing afflictions that might suit, so took some ideas from the Tahtetso monk spec. and existing warrior affs.

You would essentially aim for Tahtetso's shattering heart instakill, but actually have to build wounds and land it on a swing to pull it off. Alternatively, you could go for the only new ability, PierceThroat, a timed insta similar to Pureblade decapitation.



AB POLEARMS
Polearm Master Mastery of the two-handed polearm.
DislocateArm Master +25% A well-placed blow can dislocate arms from the shoulder.
DislocateLeg Master +50% A well-placed blow can dislocate legs from the pelvis.
Maneuvers Master +75% Refine your attacks with more focus.
SliceForehead Gifted Slit the forehead open.
PierceArm Gifted +20% Pierce the arm with the tip of your polearm.
PunctureChest Gifted +40% Puncture the chest with a piercing thrust.
Wind Gifted +60% Knock the wind out of someone with a weighty blow.
FractureSkull Gifted +80% A blow from the shaft can fracture the skull.
Cleave Expert Cleave through shields into flesh in one stroke.
OpenChest Expert +20% Slow down foes by laying open their chest.
OpenGut Expert +40% Split open the gut.
PierceLeg Expert +60% Pierce the leg with the tip of your polearm.
SlitThroat Expert +80% Incapacitate communication by opening the throat.
PierceChest Virtuoso A pierced chest causes heavy chest pain.
Knockdown Virtuoso +25% Send a person tumbling to the ground.
Thrust Virtuoso +50% A focused thrust pierces many defenses.
PoleVault Virtuoso +75% Use your polearm to vault over any obstacle.
SliceThigh Fabled Inhibit your foe from running.
CollapseNerve Fabled +25% Send the nervous system into complete disarray.
WeightyShaft Fabled +50% Use the weight of your polearm against parrying.
Impale Fabled +75% Impale someone on the shaft of your polearm.
Concussion Mythical Use the weight of your polearm to cause a concussion.
Rend Mythical +20% Viciously rip an impaled polearm from your opponent's body.
CrackElbow Mythical +40% Cracking the elbow joint prevents defensive moves.
ShatterAnkle Mythical +60% Cause extreme pain by shattering the ankle.
ShatterHeart Mythical +80% Faltering hearts are susceptible to shattering.
PierceThroat Transcendent Sever the spinal cord at its most vulnerable point.


What we need is a 2H blunt weapon spec.

I was thinking this would be a bit of a mix of both. Blunt strikes with the shaft, piercing/cutting ones with the tip.

Right on track!

I like this alot!

I especially like the trans skill.

Dumb iphone

I like this a lot too! Chest-based wounda insta is cool.

Add in Trip as a flavour/combat move to truly prone someone. Another possible flavour skill might be to plant the weapon in the dirt against someone specific. Think Waylay, but instead of entangling/proning/stunning people, you damage them on their entry with a chance for an impale/punctured/pierced x-body part, maybe.

Edit: And yes, I, too, think this is neat.

I have Knockdown in there for the sprawling, and SliceThigh/OpenGut would also help to keep someone sprawled. The flavour one I went with was PoleVault, just because I think it's cool, and would also be of use in getting around icewalls etc. Could make it more like Tahtetso polevault in that it allows you to leap in and attack straight off, but I was thinking about the useless Furrow etc., so kept it simple.

I'm glad people like this.

Certainly don't have to limit yourself to only one flavour skill!

One of the whole point of pole-arms, especially the pike, is to be used against cavalry and to deny a charge. I think at least one skill should reflect that. Maybe you can disrupt a beast from trampling, for instance, or counter a damaging blow from some all-out attack.

To give it a Lusternia flavor, maybe you can have each community have a different weapon focus and one special attack for that specific weapon. For instance, perhaps the Halberd is Celest while the Voulge is Magnagoran, the Pike from Hallifax, etc...

Or have a skill for different pole-arms not community based but based on countering one specific other weapon attack--one is good against the axelords, one is good against bonecrushers, etc.

Halberd=Sentinels. It's their traditional weapon per HELP SENTINELS.

Hmm, never saw that before. (I chose the pike out of the blue because I'd think that the pike is probably the most "perfect" pole-arm, in terms of looks and symmetry as opposed to the more blade-like ones).

I'm still for pure 2H hammer spec. Much more flavorfly cool to bonk things with a hammer than some semi-hybrid polearm thing. Not to mention that a pure blunt 2h hammer spec would do a bit to offset the cutting/blunt discrepency!

I imagine if it was introduced, it would follow the existing pattern for warrior weapons. A choice between damage/precision/speed/average weapon types. Existing polearm patterns are for halberds, lances, tridents and bardiches.


To each their own I guess, but perhaps if you tried put a skillset together it might be considered? It would be cool if adamantine lucidians could get a natural weapon bonus for using halberds to offset their poor dexterity. Similarly, you might posit that a two-handed hammer spec would be favored by the dracnari as their natural weapon, since it would be suitable for bashing in those silly lucidian crystal things?

Has anyone tempered down polearm designs to check and see which are speed/wounding/damage/balanced or are they all the same?

Did a brief test of my own. It appears, from my single sample, that bardiche is damage, halberd is balanced, lance is speed, and trident is wounding. That could be wrong due to RNG, but that's what it's looking like.

I would switch my templar to polearm in a second if it comes out as a spec. I really like the sounds of the skillset.

From a total non-com perspective... This looks really sweet. I would love to see Sentinels walking around with halberds!