Well, Hybridisation DOES need buffing, but not the polearms: The WPF curve needs reworking, or the effect of wpf, because if you google Hoplite, hit images and what do you see? Men with Spears, shields AND SWORDS. Currently, its ONLY JUST viable to make an actual hoplite, spearman, shield-brother, weapon-man, call it what you will, the weapons we have in crpg are WEIRDLY out of time with the armours in general:
2handed weapons were not popular prior to the 15-16th century, nor where the array of massive poleaxes we have, and the armours are in general much older. Prior to 2handers and halberd type weapons supporting pike formations, most hairy, manly men marched off to war with a spear and a shield, cause spears keep fuckers away from you, and shields keep you alive. But once the nasty foreigners (or nasty peasants, or nasty rebels, or nasty locals refusing to get raided) were past your spearpoint, you pulled out a sword (if you could afford it), or an axe, or club and beat the nasty man over the head with it, untill he stopped trying to expose your insides to the light. This was the way of it for thousands of years, mainly because it was effective. The rise of large 2handers and weapons like the bec were to counter plate armour. Now back to game balance:
Spear and shield is near on suicidal in any 1v1 against anyone who has been playing since before last tuesday, to fix it a/ buff wpf so you can effectively hybridise without it being a massively uphill struggle, or b/ nerf athletics in armour so spamhanders, OOOPS i mean 2handers cannot just walk around behind your shield, or c/ I dunno, increase upkeep costs so 50+ armour is not the norm?, or d/ I dunno I had more but gf just walked in and I forgot them derp.
