I've played HA as well as dedicated crossbow on foot, both with 0 PS and 1 WPF in melee weapons. First rule: don't use a cut weapon. You will deal nearly zero damage against anyone but a naked dude. Many of your hits
won't even get a chance to do zero damage, since they will glance off the enemy's armor. This is
worse than not attacking at all. When you recoil from your attack glancing on the enemy, you can't block. Pierce and blunt damage also suffer from glancing blows with 0 PS, but if you have a decent speed bonus (running thrust, turning with your side swing) you can somewhat reliably hit people in light to medium mail.
So, no cut damage. 1 slot, since our HA bow and 2 sets of arrows takes up 3 slots. 0 slot items aren't needed, since you can carry 4 weapons/ammo at most. Your bow & quiver will never hit 4 slots unless you have 3 stacks of arrows. Then you can't equip a melee weapon at all (or a shield or more arrows etc.). Learn to block down against spears at the very least. If you can manual block well enough, it is possible to hold off your attacker until an ally can come and help. At that point you can support your savior by circling the enemy and chipping away at them. Using your melee weapon offensively should be a last ditch effort. Unless you are fighting someone much less skilled than you are, going 1v1 (don't even think about fighting a group solo) is a death wish.
Since this is barely even a secondary weapon, cost is a big deal. You don't want to pay high upkeep for something that you will never even use some rounds. Even when you do use it, your tactics and player skill matter more than the numbers on the item. 0 PS is 0 PS, whether it's a wooden stick or a steel pick.
Here's my suggestions:
Poor man's friend:
Light Spiked Clubvisitors can't see pics , please
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login70 Length
99 Speed
20 Pierce damage swing / no stab animation
16 gold to repair if damaged during a round
"A baseball bat with nails in it" is a cool weapon model. 70 reach is pretty much the standard for all 1H clubs and axes. Even the really expensive ones. 99 speed means that even with low/no WPF investment, you can actually swing the damn thing before getting slaughtered by a dedicated melee fighter. Many of the weapons in this price range are unable to manually block. You won't have a shield because you're a horse archer, so you definitely want a weapon that can block. Also note that this item has the "knockdown" modifier but can't actually knock an enemy down. Knockdown only triggers for attacks that deal blunt damage. This weapon deals pierce damage, so it will never knock down anything. Except your repair costs (
). Note that the (regular) spiked club costs a little more and adds 2 damage to your attacks. This is the budget option though, so we want the cheapest thing that isn't 100% useless.
I want a 1H with more reach but I don't want to go bankrupt:
Fighting Pickvisitors can't see pics , please
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login80 Length
97 Speed
25 Pierce Swing / no thrust animation
107 gold to repair if damaged during the round
Okay length, good speed, and swing attacks that can actually hurt an ememy! You can also use the alt mode to switch to blunt which will have a chance to knockdown, unlike the spiked clubs. Good value for the price, HA or any other build.
and
Short Swordvisitors can't see pics , please
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login81 Length
103 Speed (woo!)
26 Cut swings (almost always a bad idea)
26 Pierce stab
125 gold to repair if damaged during the round
Just stab stab stab. It's a giant dagger, or maybe a sawed off spear. Swings are best used to feint an enemy who has not yet realized you have puny little child arms and can't hurt them. Both the fighting pick and this weapon are long enough to hit people on horseback, but you will need to get dangerously close.
If you can take a little more in upkeep without going bankrupt the
Flanged Mace,
Military Sickle, and
Short Arming Sword can all be used with the same strategies as their discount versions I've already covered. You really don't want to spend more than this much on an emergencies only weapon.
Scottish Sword got a nasty stab, though.
BUT WAIT WHAT ABOUT POLEARMS?
You get three options here, since few polearms are 1 slot. They are more useful on horseback than most 1H weapons, but you will still get murdered by someone with a lance if you try to have a jousting tournament with them. When sheathed on your back, they can get in the way of your vision when you are trying to shoot an arrow. Not really a big deal IMO but it bugs some people. Note that none of the 1 slot polearm weapons are long enough to rear a charging horse, so be ready to get trampled even if you do thrust the horse right in the face.
Shortened Spearvisitors can't see pics , please
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login120 Length
102 Speed
18 Blunt swing damage
26 Pierce thrust damage
110 gold to repair if damage during a round
A shorter, faster version of Real Spears For Real Men
tm - but unlike those spears, you can carry this one with your bow and 2 quivers of arrows. Swings are weak but if you can make an enemy flinch then your teamate can get a killing blow. Trust in the thrust.
Military Forkvisitors can't see pics , please
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login135 Length
94 Speed
28 Pierce thrust
19 Blunt swing
229 gold to repair if damaged during a round
Wow, this thing is a straight upgrade from the shortened spear! And still cheap! Why would you ever take the shortned spear over this? Because it's a 2 directional polearm like lances and awlpikes. It only stabs and overhead swings. Something about the animations and footwork of 2D polearms looks goofy when the weapon is so short. It's a solid choice for our backup weapon though.
Quarterstaffvisitors can't see pics , please
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login137 Length
99 Speed
21 Blunt thrust
21 Blunt swing
Knockdown
139 gold to repair if damaged during around
The weapon of choice for monks both western and eastern. It has the greatest length of any 1 slot weapon in the game. It can be used to thrust on horseback, if needed. On foot, it's a well balanced weapon for any situation. And it's really funny to kill some dude all dressed up in knightly attire by just hitting him with a 6 foot pole until he stops moving.
