Thinking of re-speccing my cav as polearm, need advice re: wpf

[Bill The Butcher]

I've heard pole users talk about putting WPF in to 1 hand, is that only if you use shield? Am I safe just pouring all WPF into pole? I'm thinking of going pure polearm - couch and spear from my 2H char...if you can't beat them, join them right?

[Murmillus_Prime]

I'm pure polearm, and I've seen many others who are pure polearm. I'm sure most of us are satisfied with our build. You can be a spearman, cavalry, mauler, spammer. I love riding around as much as I love outspamming my opponents while on foot.

[PhantomZero]

I've heard pole users talk about putting WPF in to 1 hand, is that only if you use shield? Am I safe just pouring all WPF into pole? I'm thinking of going pure polearm - couch and spear from my 2H char...if you can't beat them, join them right?

You don't really need any polearm wpf to couch. It really only helps on horseback if you plan on using your lance against other cavalry, since you can thrust decently against footmen with just 1 point in it.

[Bull]

Well, I'm no expert, but I've always put all my points into polearm. I seem to fare pretty well against cavalry. Foot is a different story, but that's a matter of skill, not stats 

[Bill The Butcher]

Right, but pure couching and then fail on the ground is not what i'm looking for. So i'm thinking pure pole, then on cav only maps i can switch to a more "2h like" pole.

You don't really need any polearm wpf to couch. It really only helps on horseback if you plan on using your lance against other cavalry, since you can thrust decently against footmen with just 1 point in it.

[Bull]

Trust me, you won't fail on the ground if you're any good. Plenty of good secondary weapons besides a lance to choose from when you're on foot. I used a hafted blade as secondary and win ~50% of my foot duels.

If I had skillz, it'd be different.

[Joker86]

Actually I have the theory - and please correct me, if I am wrong - that for unexperienced lancers a LOW WPF would help more on horseback, by getting you more hits.

Explanation:

- WPF increases weapon swing and stab speed
- higher swing speed meens a faster stab animation for lances
- a faster stab speed means a smaller time window in which you can hurt an enemy
- a smaller time window for hitting enemies means stabbing the air more often

Conclusion: slow WPF helps actually hitting people.

Could I be right? 

[kongxinga]

2nd time I read your theory, but in practise I don't think it is the case. I think the WPF affects the time it takes for the lance to get into "dangerous" position, not the amount of time it stays in "dangerous" position. So a hit would be say .5 seconds chamber release (swing), .2 seconds with the weapon able to do damage with 1 wpf, and .2 seconds chamber release, .2 seconds dangerous with 200 wpf.

[Joker86]

Yeah, I already posted it in the TW forum once.

You might be right about the swing, to be honest, I don't know. I always thought the whole animation would become faster with high WPF, but it could also be only the chambering animation. 

[Blondin]

I agree with Joker, low wpf is easier, if i remember well it was the same for the morningstar. Slow swing meaning more time to hit?

[Oberyn]

Real cav use heavy lance when they get dismounted. We don't need no secondary weapons!

[Phazey]

(...)
Conclusion: slow WPF helps actually hitting people.

Could I be right? 

Nope, not in my experience. But i guess that's subjective.

But try this: buy both a light and a heavy lance and see which one you prefer. The heavy lance is much slower, which makes it harder for me to stab heads. But it does have a bit of extra reach.

Going 'polearm only' is a good choice for cav.

Think about what playstyle you prefer. Test it out. Do you like long, straight runs with a couced lance? Then heavy lance and a courser is great. Do you stab at heads while dodging arrows and pikemen in the mids of a chaotic battle? A light lance or even a militairy fork with a steppe horse is great for that.

It all comes down to personal preference and playstyle.

My personal prefence: 1h + shield and a steppe horse. Or if i go pole, i'd use a steppe horse and a light lance probably.

I'd allways go for max wpf in pole though. More is better. A faster stab = more stabs = more kills for me.

[MrNicklebe]

I play primarily as cav with a heavy lance and a shortened spear for when I fall off. I have 172 Polearm WPF and out spam nearly everyone when I'm not on horse back. I find it very quick to take down other horses as long as I can catch up to them (I'm on a Heavy Rouncey). The only problem I find is that due to my choice of horse I sometimes don't get the required speed for the instant kill in tight spaces. But that's a horse thing not a WPF thing. Overall I'm happy with my skill/horse/weapon choices.

I think you'll have to experiment a bit. I started as a 1h/polearm cav but realised I wasn't really using my sword for cav kills which was a massive waste of 140 (ish) WPF so I retired and piled everything into polearms. Only problem with this was I've had to learn manual blocking lol . But I'm pretty sure I'm getting maybe sort of alright at it now, so it's ok 

On urban maps I upgrade by armour slighty, ditch the horse and use a long axe in polearm mode which seems to hit mega hard. So the build is pretty much a good all rounder map-wise. I'd say go for it and make the switch.

[PhantomZero]

Right, but pure couching and then fail on the ground is not what i'm looking for. So i'm thinking pure pole, then on cav only maps i can switch to a more "2h like" pole.

Oh, right I misread your original post I think. You are 100% fine not taking any 1H and pouring it all into polearms. Most cav like a sword so they can run around slashing peasants or runners and to have a weapon if they get stuck someplace and aren't able to move. It is mostly just a style thing, i've seen a few guys put everything into polearms and use the hafted blade so the can pretend they are Lu Bu or something on horseback from the ROT3K duels.

[KaMiKaZe_JoE]

My build is similar to MrNicklebe's, and it's very effective. I sort of messed up my skill points, but I've dedicated WPF to polearms, and can fight well on foot or on horse back.

Alas, I'm poor, and must slowly save up for a real infantry polearm. Until then, quarterstaff ftw!