Hero Guide: Spear Hero

Overview:
Strengths & Weaknesses of the Spear Class

The Spear is a medium-armored spear class known for its exceptional reach and mobility, making it a formidable hero-killer in skilled hands. Spear players excel at bursting down enemy heroes – especially when mounted – by chaining fast attacks and dps combos. Key strengths include:

• Long Reach & Hero Disruption: The spear’s long thrusts and sweeps let you hit enemies from a relatively safe distance, often outranging shorter weapons. This makes spear an ideal duelist and hit and run class in PvP skirmishes, able to isolate and eliminate high-priority targets.
• High Mobility: Spear heroes are extremely agile. They can dash, leap, and somersault around the battlefield to engage or escape. This mobility enables quick flanking maneuvers and rapid repositioning. On horseback, a spear is “god tier” – capable of devastating lance charges and hit-and-run tactics. Spear users also have excellent mounted attack autohits, allowing for lethal cavalry play in open field battles
• Burst Damage & Buff Stacking: The spear delivers explosive burst damage with its multi-hit skill combos and a unique stacking buff mechanic. Most spear skills apply a “Hard-Hitting” effect, which increases your armor penetration by 2% and reduces damage taken by 2% (stackable up to 10 times). With max stacks, a spear gains 20% bonus armor pen and damage reduction, significantly boosting both offense and survivability during extended fights. A well-executed combo can melt even tanky heroes in seconds.

Despite these advantages, the Spear class has notable weaknesses to consider:

• Fragility & Medium Armor: As a medium armor class, spear lacks the raw toughness of heavy armor heroes. You have decent defenses when “Hard-Hitting” stacks are up, but you’re still not as durable as a true frontline tank. If caught in hard crowd control or focus fire, a spear can be eliminated quickly. Sustained melee brawls are dangerous – a spear must strike decisively and avoid getting bogged down. In sieges or large unit clusters, spear’s survivability can feel “meh”, as its damage and tankiness fall short of heavy classes like the Poleaxe or Glaive.
• Reliance on Mount for Full Potential: The spear truly shines in open field and cavalry-centric combat. On horseback it can deal massive charge damage and chase down targets, but on foot its performance is more “mediocre“ even more on the worse side. A spear hero without a mount is essentially “an additional pikeman” with limited crowd control. Losing your horse (common in sieges or tight spaces) significantly weakens your offense and mobility. Spear players often need to invest in good horses and horse armor, and play carefully to avoid being dismounted at inopportune times.
• Limited AoE vs Units: While spear skills can hit multiple targets (e.g. the spinning Hurricane’s Edge skill), they are not as effective at wiping out large clusters of soldiers compared to classes with big sweeps or explosive attacks. Spear is best used against heroes or small groups, rather than as a unit-clearing powerhouse. For example, its whirlwind attack can kill some weak units and knock around a formation, but spear lacks the wide cone damage of weapons like the Poleaxe’s Maelstrom. Thus, spear must rely on allied units to handle large enemy armies while it focuses on disrupting heroes or key targets.
• Skill Ceiling and Positioning: Maximizing spear’s potential requires skillful positioning and timing. You must weave in and out of combat, strike at vulnerable targets, and know when to disengage. A spear that dives too deep or stays in one place too long can be easily stunned or burst down by enemies. Situational awareness is key – you need to avoid braced pikes (which will stop your charge dead) and watch for crowd control like grapples or bombs that can pin you down. Spear has tools to escape (as we’ll cover), but if those are on cooldown you are vulnerable. In short, spear is a high-mobility skirmisher that rewards hit-and-run tactics and smart target selection over brute force.

Summary: The Spear is a versatile PvP class with excellent reach, hero-killing burst, and mobility, balanced by its moderate defense and reliance on momentum. A well-played spear can dominate duels and peel for teammates, but it must avoid prolonged slugfests and make the most of its mount and combo potential. Next, we’ll dive into how to build and play the spear to leverage these strengths.

Optimal PvP Skill Builds

• Standard PvP Build (All-Rounder):Hurricane’s Edge (Q), Lugh’s March (E), Procris’s Gift (R), Dragon’s Roar (T Ultimate). This build is popular for its balance of area damage, survivability, and hero-killing power:
  • Hurricane’s Edge: A spinning polearm sweep (press up to twice) that slashes enemies around you. This is your main AoE clear and buff builder – each hit grants a Hard-Hitting stack (2% armor pen + 2% damage reduction) and Hurricane’s Edge in particular can stack up a large armor bonus when hitting multiple foes. It also staggers or enemy heroes hit by the whirl, disrupting their actions. Use it to soften groups of units and to armor-up before engaging enemy heroes. (Note: A past bug that prevented Hurricane’s Edge’s buff from stacking was fixed, so you can reliably gain the full benefits now.)
  • Lugh’s March: A forward charging thrust that deals piercing damage and has multiple utility effects. Lugh’s March is invaluable for its crowd-control immunity – at higher levels it can instantly recover you from stun/knockdown and even be activated while knocked down. This makes it your emergency escape tool when enemies CC you. It also grants armor per enemy hit (buff stacks) and slows enemies, so it’s great for closing distance on a foe or escaping a tight spot. Always keep this skill in your arsenal to avoid being chain-stunned – a true lifesaver in PvP.
  • Procris’s Gift: A quick spear thrust and kick combo that deals high piercing damage in a line. Procris’s Gift excels at poke damage and has a long reach to hit multiple enemies in a straight line. It also pierces through targets (hitting those behind) and can stagger down enemy heroes with the kick. Use Procris’s Gift to finish off wounded heroes trying to flee, or to interrupt foes from a safe distance.
  • Dragon’s Roar (Ultimate): A devastating single-target strike that impales the enemy, dealing massive damage. Dragon’s Roar has a relatively fast animation – your hero lunges forward and delivers a powerful blow. Enemies hit by Dragon’s Roar also suffer a debuff, taking extra damage for a short time. This makes it a great opener or finisher on tough heroes: e.g. initiate with Dragon’s Roar to burst an enemy and make them vulnerable, then follow up with Hurricane’s Edge and other skills while they have the increased damage-taken debuff. Dragon’s Roar is also harder to interrupt than Heaven’s Fury (the alternative ultimate) due to its quick execution and slight forward movement. Overall, this build gives you one CC-break skill for survival, a strong AoE + buff (Hurricane’s), and a high-damage ult to secure kills. It’s well-suited for both beginners and veterans in siege battles, providing tools for most situations.

Gear Recommendations (Armor, Weapon, Traits)

Armor Set – Carnifex (Medium): The Carnifex set is a popular choice for spears, as it provides excellent balanced bonuses. The 2-piece set bonus adds +150 to all damage types (slashing, piercing, blunt), immediately boosting your DPS. The 4-piece full-set bonus grants +10 to all core attributes (Strength, Agility, Armour, Toughness) – essentially a huge stat boost equivalent to 30-35 extra attribute points spread out. This means more damage, more defense, more health, everything. With full Carnifex, your spear hits harder and you’re tankier at the same time, which is ideal. This set is obtainable via Rare Armor Schematics and is widely used by medium-armor classes (it’s noted as the standard set for muskets as well).

Recommendation: Use 4/4 Carnifex if possible to get that juicy +10 all-stats bonus. If you’re still gearing up, even a 2-piece Carnifex paired with other decent gear will help your damage. The general principle is to stack medium armor with high defense values – avoid any light armor pieces, as those lower your protection (and mixing in heavy armor isn’t allowed for spear).

Weapon – High Piercing Damage Spear: Your weapon is your primary damage source, so invest in the best spear you can craft or obtain. Look for a Purple (Epic) or Gold (Legendary) spear with high base piercing damage.

Key stats to prioritize on the spear are: Piercing Damage, Agility, and Piercing Armor Penetration. For example, a perfect roll might be “+X Piercing Damage, +Y Agility, +Z Piercing AP”. Piercing Damage and AP directly scale your thrust attack power (which is most of your kit), and Agility further boosts damage as described. If you can, also seek Critical Value (crit chance) on your weapon – with the recent updates, skills now benefit fully from crits, so a high crit rate can significantly increase your burst. Some players also like rolls like “Damage to Heroes +%” on weapons for PvP – this is a powerful stat for a hero-hunter like spear.

In summary, the latest season has been kind to spear mains – you gained more combo flexibility, damage, and staying power, pushing spear higher in the weapon tier list. Player feedback long held that spear was underperforming against heavily armored foes, and these buffs (extra armor pen from runes, crit changes, Gungnir buff) directly address that, turning spear into a true “anti-heavy armor weapon in its own right”. You should feel more confident engaging frontline heavies now. Just be aware that with power comes responsibility; you might find more enemies wary of you or focusing you as a result. Use your improved tools to survive those focus attempts – with all skills able to break stun and quicker cooldowns, a spear can slip out of many dogpiles that would’ve been fatal before.

**Silla Season Runes nerfed the overall DMG from Spear a bit but increased survivability.