I can Pike and so can you.

[Relit]

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People have always asked me to write up a post about how I pike and why my preferred method of piking is the support style/agi piker. I will start with the why and hope that it helps people understand the ‘how’ better, with a dash of Ravens of Valhalla clan play style information tossed in as well. I hope you enjoy the read. Note: All this information I am posting is not the absolute best way to be a piker, I do not presume to be the best piker ever or even that others should only use my style, I am just putting up my thoughts about piking and general play style info in hope that people will enjoy the read and maybe glean some information they can use from it. I hope you enjoy the read.

Why I am a support piker:

I like helping my teammates. It’s really that simple. The fun in this game is not necessarily winning but seeming like I and my team have accomplished a goal. In Raven we generally try very basic tactics to accomplish some random goal, “Hold the doorway” or “Push the archers”, it really just depends who is on and what weapons/loadouts we have at our disposal.

Why Raven play style makes me a better piker:

Raven is all about teamwork. Back to the very beginning of Norse Horde, teamwork was emphasized over everything else. Defend the guy next to you, do not fight alone, and try to stick with the plan. Those three “rules” are the basis for every single Raven member, except the piker. It was decided very early that the piker would be the floater. The go between of the members as they separate on the field, fighting in pairs, it is the pikers job to jump in and out of the fights hitting the enemy when you can and distracting when you cannot.

Why speed makes it happen:

You have to be able to get to the men fighting quickly and dart in and out. Higher speed equals more of the field you can cover, which has the pleasant side effect of making enemy cavalry feel like more area is off limits to them. With higher speed, I can pick and choose where and when I want to hit the enemy. If I notice teammates getting destroyed nearby, I will zip over and poke the enemy flank, seeing if I can get some pressure off them.

Side note on cavalry: Heavy cav are the bane of my existence. Unless they are charging straight at me and I get a gigantic speed bonus to my stab, they take forever to kill. I can stop them in their tracks but the rider just stares at me as he turns and rides off, giving no fucks to my pathetic attempts to kill his horse.

[Relit]

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Let’s move onto the ‘how’ now. This section explains the in-game applications of the above information.

How to find the “right” target and battlefield positioning:

Is the enemy engaged with a teammate? Can you position yourself to the immediate right flank of your teammate? Are enemy cavalry not nearby? If the answer is “yes” to all three of these, then you have your target. Now you are probably asking yourself, “Relit, why be on the right of your teammate, what does it even matter?” Well the easy answer is that if you are on the right side of a teammate, you are less likely to accidentally to stab him in the back/shoulder when you try to stab around him.

When you are holding a pike stab in this game, you hold it down and to your right side. If you are standing to the back and left of a friendly, you will have to put the pike “through” your teammate to hit the target. Teammates and enemies are constantly moving. The reason I stay to the right is because a “stab through” is extremely hard to pull off in the chaos of battle. If you are literally humping the ass of the guy your supporting you can easily pull off one (due to weapon length) but what if he/she moves forward unexpectedly? Now you just stabbed him/her in the back as they are actively fighting somebody.
When shit really hits the fan, then I will sometimes try the more risky stuff like a “stab through”, but I generally avoid them. I really dislike stabbing my teammates and try to not do it ever. I noticed very early in my “piking career” that many pikemen teamwound a lot. So I decided to find a way to still be effective and not take unnecessary risks with my teammate’s life bars.

Side note for people who want to make it easier for a piker to help them: Do your own thing and let the piker react to help you. Nothing makes me more annoyed than a teammate who constantly spins around to check on me or tries to stay directly next to me. You do your thing, be it shielder/2h hero/pole spammer/whatever, I will try to find a way to help. It sounds strange honestly but I prefer a teammate who is self-confidant and not holding anything back. In Raven it is sort of a unspoken agreement that the piker is considered “less valuable” on the field, so it’s better to concentrate on doing your own job and let the piker fit in where needed.

How to “Hit the weak point for massive damage”:

No helmet? Stab in the face. Leather boots? Stab in the ankle. It always brings a smile to my face when I kill a tin-can with a foot stab. The pike is good at hitting a precise target, so do it. Aiming low at the ground can sometimes backfire though, the cursed “ground bounce” is always a possibility but stabbing that tin-can in the chest 5 times gets tiring.

With some of the recent changes to polearm stabs, hitting specific spots was made slightly harder. It is a little harder to “slide” your stab into hitting an enemy without a glance. So when aiming for a head shot I sling the pike to the immediate right of the head and twitch it into their face. For hitting that cloth legging fool, aim at the space between their feet and slide it into their ankles. The ankle stab is also really fun to pull off when you are 1v1 versus an agi-heavy character, jump at them and to the right, then stab almost immediately down and slightly left. Even if they are down blocking you have a chance of hitting their trailing ankle, thereby going “around” his block.

[Relit]

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How to "stop cavalry and hopefully piss off the rider":

When you see a horse bearing down on you, just go for the stab to the front chest area to cause it to rear up. More than likely the rider is just going to magically block the stab by holding down block but atleast you stop the horse for a moment. Next circle the horse in the direction he turns it, while backing up slightly. Then when he starts to move in the direction hes going to escape, rush in and stab the pike slightly in front of the horses nose. This often causes it to rear up, even if it sometimes does not even look it even hit the horse. Ive been told its the netcode on the pikers POV and that the rider sees the pike nail the horses head but whatever, it still looks hilarious.

After hopefully rearing that horse for the second time, begin stabbing the legs of the horse (or just go for easy hits if you do not want to chance a ground bounce). Alternatively, completely ignore the horse now and start scanning around you for the second cavalry player who you did not even notice, who is about to run straight over you from the side. Ive often found that cav players are like raptors. There is always one waiting to rip your face off if your distracted. As mentioned above cavalry make me upset. Even as a piker I have to constantly be aware of where they are so when they are not nearby I can concentrate on helping the infantry around me. So just try to mentally track where the enemy cavalry is and see what you can do to help the team.

How to "hide like a little girl when the enemy team has a ton of ranged":

This one is pretty self explanatory. Be aware of your surroundings to protect yourself from the swarm of arrows, throwing axes, bees, or other hurtful flying objects. Raven shielders are a honorable group and will try to interpose themselves between unshielded friendlies and ranged, so remember to return the favor if you see cavalry bearing down on them. Sadly, there are are maps where you can not hide anywhere or you are stuck in a open field and about to turn into Leonidas. If you can go down fighting do so, rush their positions and try to be a distracting asshole. The gigantic pike in your hands is very distracting so wave it around and shout at your screen. Whatever it takes.

[Relit]

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How to "pole dance in a crowd of 5+ enemies who really want to kill you":

The art of the pole dance is forged on the field of battle when you find yourself completely screwed. Maybe its the end of the round or you were a idiot and ran off by yourself. Either way, you are surrounded by large, sweaty and angry men who want to hit you with things. So begins the dance. Run into the crowd of them and start doing figure eights around them, luckily we are a agi heavy build so we can move. When in a crowd like that, the enemy is likely to try to overhead a lot (exception 1hers will try to stab you), so be prepared to hold that pike block high and proud. Now hopefully you can cause at least one team kill in the dance, or maybe even a lucky stab on some poor sap who perhaps stopped to watch the dance. Shove a pike thrust in his face.

The chance of you actually making out of this clusterfuck alive is low, so try to have some fun. But if you somehow do make it out, it is a great feeling. I like to call for help on Raven TS in this situation by saying "help, oh god please help me". Other ways of calling for a adult are acceptable.

Loom guidance and gear selections:

So I have very few looms myself. Besides the Masterwork Pike, I have a +1 mail hauberk because I got bored and retired on a alt. The pike +3 I believe is really essential, you glance a lot less and the damage bonus is just good overall. Armor looms are not really needed but honestly they couldnt hurt. As the NH founder Diggles used to tell us all (constantly), "Wear more head armor". Now for gear selection if you are wanting to be more of a support style like myself, I highly recommend medium armor, you have got to stay below 20 total weight (armor+pike). Speed is the key here and if you weight too much you will not be able to preform very well in this style. Also it slows down your pole dancing, which is just sad. Imagine a ballet dancer in full plate, that is just silly.

[Relit]

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Conclusion:

So there you go, just a little insight into how I personally play in my role as piker in the Ravens of Valhalla. I have been a piker since about a week after I started playing this game. I have never used another weapon except as a joke. I do not use a side arm/backup weapon because I believe if I did, I would come to rely on it and honestly getting rusty with the pike is not something I want to put myself through. Also any extra weight from that backup will just slow me down even more. I hope you enjoyed this brief look. In the future I will be posting up other random thoughts I had about piking in this thread, so keep your eyes peeled for the updates.

Thanks for reading.

[SP1N]

One major tip from the N1PS in us all:

- Be selective in your stabs. If you just spam it, you're bound to get stunned or hit your teammate.

- Oh, also what sandy said:
vvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvv

[Sandersson Jankins]

Oh, and with the high weight of the pike, it makes for a very potent nudging instrument. If someone is all up on your jock and you want to get them off, or you manage to get behind an enemy and want to push him into YOUR band of sweaty, angry

(click to show/hide)

big strong viking men

then hold a block and nudge. The baddies will go flying.

[Turkhammer]

Nice post relit.  One problem I have with pikes and long spears is the ability to facehug stab.  I think that is silly and is an attempt to make all weapons equally viable for dueling.

[Relit]

Nice post relit.  One problem I have with pikes and long spears is the ability to facehug stab.  I think that is silly and is an attempt to make all weapons equally viable for dueling.

The pike can not do the type of facehug stabbing you are probably referring to. The long spear is a different beast all together, those things can pointblank stab like crazy and I agree it needs to be looked at. Now the pikes pointblank is extremely finicky, you have to land a kick then jump backwards while aiming at low armor spot on the enemy. So its technically not a pointblank stab but its close. If it makes you feel any better it is extremely hard to do that combo and I practically never do it and do not recommend any aspiring piker do it either.

So many things can go wrong... You miss the kick... you miss the stab and ground bounce... you stop long enough for the swarm of (bees) archers to get you. I just do not think its a good tactic.

[Turkhammer]

Interesting.  It's too bad the mod can't move from it's present position every player being an individual Champion closer to what the weapons were actually designed for.

[Teeth]

I'd say you are a support piker because there is no other type of piker, except maybe a terrible one. Good to see a guide written for the most awesome weapon in the game. I think you got some good points overall. You seem to focus a lot on explaining the mentality required for piking which is excellent. Being good at piking is 30% technical skill and all the rest is playing smart and being aware of the battle. It has always seemed to me that nearly all players that do well with a pike or longspear, do well with any other class simply because of good strategy and awareness.

Here's some additional things that came to my mind if I would be giving advice:

• Few may know this, but at some point held bonus was changed and holding for longer than 2 seconds actually reduces damage eventually reaching 50%. Much like lancer, pikers  often chamber their stabs for a long time, so be sure to occasionally right click to refresh your stab so you don't deal crap damage after having waited for that careful stab.
  
  
• The power of the pike is not only it's ability to deal damage at range, the fear factor is often just as important. Dealing damage affects one person, the fear factor affects multiple. Always brings a smile on my face if I see 8 opponents holding a downblock in front of me. Sometimes holding your stab helps your teammates more than attacking. Don't stab at blocks or shields unless you feel like an opening will present itself. Getting blocked will give all the enemies enough time to swing.
  
  
• Horse legs have 0 armour, wink wink.
  
  
• Switching targets is essential in a group versus group fight. As a piker you rarely succeed in hitting the same opponent twice unless they are pressured by someone else, so don't try and waste time getting blocked. People instinctively downblock after getting hit, switch targets immediately as there is usually someone else that has seen you distracted and has taken the opportunity to attack.
  
  
• Already mentioned but I want to second it. Rearing one horse is usually the time to do a quick check around you for other horsemen. I have noticed this when playing lancer myself, many players focus all their build up anger on the poor horse they reared and are completely oblivious to their surroundings. Many cav know this and your pike won't deal great damage in that situation anyway, so at least check for other cav.
  
  
• Up-down stabbing is the shit. I stab through, around or over my teammates continously and contrary to Relit I am not too careful when it comes to teamhitting. Swing that camera up and slam it down to hit people in the head, no matter how many teammates surround them. You can even do a little jump to get an easier angle. You can end ganks quicker than anyone else can.
  
  
• Speedbonus is your best friend. 27p is not exactly high alpha damage but the pike seems to benefit hugely from speed bonus. I have needed 4 hits to kill a peasant archer that was running away, but I have also 1 hit melee characters with 60+ body armour. Think about speed bonus, hold bonus and targeting weak areas and the pike can have insane damage output.
  
  

The pike can not do the type of facehug stabbing you are probably referring to. The long spear is a different beast all together, those things can pointblank stab like crazy and I agree it needs to be looked at. Now the pikes pointblank is extremely finicky, you have to land a kick then jump backwards while aiming at low armor spot on the enemy. So its technically not a pointblank stab but its close. If it makes you feel any better it is extremely hard to do that combo and I practically never do it and do not recommend any aspiring piker do it either.

So many things can go wrong... You miss the kick... you miss the stab and ground bounce... you stop long enough for the swarm of (bees) archers to get you. I just do not think its a good tactic.

Since some kind of patch kicks and jumps share a cooldown so you cannot jump for like 3 seconds after a kick and vice versa. Really annoying for me, doubt anyone else noticed, as I often used to jump away from my opponent and then do a kickstab. You can still kickstab, but you gotta be fast enough to create enough distance and be on the ball with your timing. For those that do not know, the pike literally has no hit detection for like the first meter of it's reach. You can hit straight through full walls and teammates because of that. I like the challenge kickstabbing poses and the big fuck you it presents in 1 vs 1 combat, but the damage it deals is quite woeful due to a bad sweetspot.

I recorded some pike footage recently and will be making a video out of it soon, filled with glorious pike abuse. Sorry about the long post, I like talking about piking. Perhaps you can expand with some very practical advice like builds and stuff.

[HarryCrumb]

tl;dr

[Killer]

Wait until hill sees this nice job though relit what's ur build out of curiosity (im expecting 12-27 or 12-30)

[GOBBLINKINGREATLEADER]

Oh, and with the high weight of the pike, it makes for a very potent nudging instrument. If someone is all up on your jock and you want to get them off, or you manage to get behind an enemy and want to push him into YOUR band of sweaty, angry

(click to show/hide)

big strong viking men

then hold a block and nudge. The baddies will go flying.

upvoted for big strong viking men

[Sharpe]

In all honesty I read it for the picture captions, nice guide though!