If you plan on being a spearman, you should keep in mind that the weapons you mentioned both have tremendous pierce damage on their thrusts. As long as you have your movement down, they should deal considerable damage to most targets even with comparatively low amounts of power strike (ie 5 PS). In fact, while they certainly benefit from having more Power Strike, they arguably benefit from having good Athletics as much if not more. Consider:
-Power Strike offers a straight offensive boost in the form of more damage.
-Athletics offers an offensive boost by giving you a better speed bonus when attacking and letting you get in position for more attacks more quickly, but it is also a defensive boost; it lets you weave in and out of enemy groups, disengage from disadvantageous fights, and lets you really take advantage of the range of your weapon.
You might say this dichotomy applies to every kind of melee weapon and not just spears, but, in my own experience and from what I've personally seen, spears are the one type of weapon where you particularly benefit from building in favor of agility. The problem you described of people facehugging you (and thus denying you the chance of counterattacking them with a good speed bonus) is, once you get the hang of spearing, much less of an issue with the right build.
Level: 30
Strength: 15
Agility: 24
Skill to attr: 8
Ironflesh: 5
Power Strike: 5
Athletics: 8
Weapon Master: 5
Polearm: 146
using cRPG NewGen calcThis is what I would recommend trying on an STF. If you are not used to skewering people with 8 athletics and need some more time before adjusting to it, then you can modify it to be an 18/21 build and use that with one of the many light to middle weight mail armors. Finally, when it comes to the general principles of that you should be mindful when you have a spear in your hands,
the most important thing to remember is not to have tunnel vision. Nothing is more predictable than a spearman who focuses on one opponent and fights in a linear fashion, and nothing is more dangerous than a spearman who stabs anyone in the enemy crowd who lets his guard down, who is moving in such a way as to find an angle of attack that gets around your downblock, and who is timing his attacks to cover the other players on his team.
