Heh, interesting read this was.
Since I started playing this mod, I've basicly only been using the GLA. It's been nerfed a couple of times over the last year, to the point of where the cheaper axe (long war axe) is now a better choice. People complain about the GLA, but I'm gonna tell you now: be thankful more people have not "discovered" the poleaxe and glaive. The two ultimate 4 direction polearms. Does anyone disagree? -->
if you do - you will realise it soon. The combination of reach, good damage output, and more people discovering the power of reach advantage + kicking makes these the best polearms. Or, put simply, if you have a longer weapon than your opponent, your always at an advantage. As players improve and time passes, you will notice.
What is all this fuss about hiltslashing? Yeah, I practiced it, others do, and they start to use it. The GLA is not good at hiltslashing, the player your facing is. When I play on my HBS character, I can hiltslash more than I could ever dream of with my slow axe. I can kill people by being faster and actually "outskill" them, and not in the "who gets bored first" fashion of a GLA fight. So much that I've seriously considered respeccing to a longsword build, but the axe carries to much nostalgia for me at this point.
The statistics show that the DGS, longspears and GLA's are a common sight on EU1. You cant only blaim that they are good weapons, since there are other, less used and much more potent weapons available out there. (Long spear is always powerful though) Some of the high usage could surely be blamed people trying to copy a player they like or are impressed with. What about all the Phyrex clones back in the day? Or people seeing Cooties ripping up 20 people by himself with a DGS, well, I wouldnt be surprised if some players picked up after him. Take Chase and Gurnisson for instance. They were ripping up everything with awlpike / long awlpike, and suddenly it seemed like every other polearmer had one. When I started I was happy when I saw another GLA user, since they were far in between.
inb4 people calling me a bragger or whatever - I dont care, I'm just stating facts
TL;DR - players and their weapons change all the time, stop nerfing, start buffing the lower tiers if you want to see a increased variety on the battlefield. A slight speed increase on all weapons wouldnt be to bad either, but we all know that's never gonna happen. Annoyed by hiltslashes? Try to do the same yourself, see how "easy" it is with a 91 speed weapon, and learn to spot it.
