I'm a polearms user who formerly was planning on making a build around the english bill... My plan for level 31 was as follows...
S/A=18/21 IF=6 PS=6 Ath=7 WM=7 Pol=160 [con 6]
My Armor consisted of a Chapel De Fer, a Haubergon, Mail Boots, and Mail Gauntlets, so it was a medium to medium-heavy armor build.
I got used to the English Bill when I was at level 25 and found it to be a superb weapon. The high piercing damage for thrusts and swings meant that I did not have to hit my opponent more than 3 times to kill him and very often could kill him in 2 hits. [my powerstrike at this time was either 5 or 6, and my strength 17-18] Also, because I wore relatively light armor, had a decent agility and athletics, and was a competent at dodging and blocking attacks, I didn't have to rely on armor or a shield to defend myself, I would simply maneuver out of attacks and exploit the longer range and higher damage of my weapon.
I was actually doing great with it [slightly less than 1 week ago] But then i accidentally respeced my character twice, and so it took about 4 days or so for him to get back to level 26.... I came back to using using the English bill [after going back to level 18] starting at lvl 24-25 and I noticed that I was using the weapon terribly, and the mechanics of the weapon also felt different. I heard other people saying the same thing.
The overhead swings felt much slower than before, and if the overhead swings are too slow, the English Bill becomes too predictable [thrusts are fairly easy to block after all, if you can't surprise them with anything else] I also noticed a change in the hit detection of the overhead swings. I tried compensating this by using more feints with the weapon, but most people are able to detect the feint in time so it ends up just wasting time.
Note that when I was at the top of my 'game' with respect to using the Ebill, my level was 28, my agility was 18, my ath/wm were at 6, and my WPF was about 150, however I had gotten used to the Ebill and became good at it as low as level 25. I am currently at level 26 and still find the English Bill to be a completely different...
So when I got into combat with my English Bill again, I noticed players with heavier armor than me and 2h swords were as fast as I was, so I made my armor even LIGHTER:
- kettle hat
- white tunic over mail
- leather gloves and boots
Total Weight: [Including English Bill] 15.8
And of course, lighter means more vulnerable.... But I still felt slower than a lot of these guys. And after blocking one of their side swipes, my english bill was not fast enough to deliver an overhead swing before they were able to attack a SECOND time with their 2h swords... And I couldn't get away from them in time either.
Now I'm not here to argue/complain against the changes if they were actually made, it might just be my imagination. But I am saying this to explain that I need to focus on a different polearm weapon with roughly the same speed and range... and since that polearm weapon would not require 17 strength, I could focus my points into WM/ATH and Agility at a lower level.
Here's what I came up with...
Level 32: S/A=16/24 IF=5 PS=5 Ath=8 WM=8 Pol=173 [con 6]
Level 25: S/A=15/18 IF=5 PS=5 Ath=6 WM=6 Pol=149 [con 6] <--- I make my builds in 5 level tiers so that I can keep track of my progress... and I tend to stop at level 32
Level 25:
Any strength lower than this and the character would be a ninja, and I do not want that. with spear weapons PS doesn't matter as much
The Candidates for my preferred Polearm are the Awlpikes [regular and long], the Swiss Halberd, and the Glaive... I haven't tried the Bamboo spear but it looks like a very weak weapon, even though it does have length and speed.
The problem with the Awlpike is that it is only slightly longer [feels unnoticable] than the Ebill, and is no faster, plus it lacks the piercing overhead swing. The regular Awlpike has good speed but feels restrictively short and often times it feels like you end up having to be as close to the enemy in combat as a 2h swordsman would have to be against another 2h swordsman... [hence defeating the purpose of range entirely] In spite of being shorter, the swiss bill does feel slightly longer than the regular awlpike, but i'm not sure why. It's mechanics are almost the same as the old english bill
The glaive is an odd weapon and I have used it before in the past. I'm not comfortable with side-slashing weapons, although they tend to feel faster. on a few occasions i have killed multiple people in a single turn with it, but it's not as good as the other weapons at warding off cavalry.
Any shared thoughts would be good.
