Its not like long spears or pikes have been nerfed recently, so nothing has really changed. Or well, more levels i guess, but im not sure that changes much. Im sure they would still perform just as well with those weapons, but the weapons are lacking now that playernumbers have gone down.
I did a bit of piking with my 12-39 main, was okay but damage is shit with that build. I might just respecc my stf to some decent piking build and give it a shot.
Everything changed with rejuvenation patch (or whatever its called). Even if pikes didn't change that doesn't mean they were affected. Only pikemen I saw since then was Makelele and he was doing it for a day (he usually fool around) and and that Kalmarin dude (can't remember the full nick) but he was online few times only. Crojo also use spears but not pike/longspear.
What is the real issue with couching on EU side? Matthaus or Riddaren who wears plate, have extreme agi riding build and coloured lance. He's skilled at cav and was creating a havoc whenever he was on. Even Fin admitted he can't chamber him successfully because of high speed and even when you do it, bump-couch is about to happen. After him, other players tried that build and it worked for them as well. It doesn't involve skill at all, anyone can do it and have awesome k/d and points and that is what is bothering people in the first place.
At this point we don't need to generalize, very few active players left. Easy to identify a player people are talking and complaining about. Like Xanor, like ShokyTheRat (someone mentioned thrower who changes to melee and hits like a truck, that is him). People are bothered when non-conformist builds do well and I support them because I prefer native way where everybody starts the same way.
Each time ive ventured into NA theres been 2 or 3 people who knew how to block
That is true but works both ways. You see, having high ping is both a blessing and a burden. You can exploit in a way, to get the first hit. But you can't block well fast weapons with high ping. I and many other players have a hard time fighting NA players on our EU servers, guess that goes the other way as well. There's a member of Hobo guild, nick Nee, who play on EU whole day. When I'm fighting that dude feels like we're in dense mud and our hits are 2 seconds late. But only when I'm fighting him. Dunno what's the case there, but fighting NA guys on EU isn't easy as it seems. For example, today dude in full plate nick Egad was creating a havoc on EU2. So it's not just the case of EU players visiting NA and doing well. It can go both ways.
Many players on EU can't block just like many can't on NA. For example I can't block for shit, partially because of lag and because of my build (45/3, 45 2H wpf). My weapon reaction time is atrocious. On native servers with good ping I can block even the fastest feints they can pull off.
