Spear (budget)
Spear
Hunter Hood - Assassin Jacket - Plate Boots - Torch - Avalonian Cape
B Tier
Awakening trats:
Most people do not play this build at high tier, so awakening stats may not be in consideration for most people that play this build. However, if you want to play awakened spear:
The highest value common traits are: HP, DEF, Ability Damage.
Life steal and CDR are also great.
If no better traits are available, IP and attack damage are less preferred by still offer some value.
Default Abilities and Passives:
Spear:
Q1, W3* (read explanation), passive2
Hunter Hood:
Retaliate, passive 1
Assassin Jacket:
Ambush, passive 1
Any plate boots:
Rejuvenating Sprint, passive 2 (toughness)
Explanation:
This is a high utility build. The strength of the spear is in its flexibility. While it has decent ability to brawl, it can also kite extremely well against melee builds by hitting Qs from 9 meters away and using E as a gap opener. In this play style, Impaler (w5) is better for its ability to slow the enemy from long range, allowing you to catch up after you spend your E for kiting. W3 (cripple) is the default W ability because it is the safest, if someone higher IP is chasing you, you can Cripple their boots to make it hard for them to catch you. It is also better when you are the one actively chasing someone else down, as stealing their boots almost guarantees the kill against weaker targets. Deflecting Spin (W4) is very useful against builds with telegraphed abilities, such as dual swords and 1h fire staffs. Harpoon (W6) is good for catching pure kiting builds such as Frost and Warbows. However, it is not recommend against hit-and-run types such as Bloodletter and Double Bladed Staff. The difference here is that pure kite builds will lose to you in brawling even if you W does no damage, whereas Double Bladed Staff and Bloodletter will win the brawl if your W does no damage. For your jacket, the default skill is Ambush because it is safer. Ambush can be used for creating distance and wasting the enemy’s boots when escaping. It is also good for timing-out big cooldowns such as Infernal Shield and Bloodlust (merc jacket). If the enemy does not have big cooldowns to time out, or if their cooldowns are less affected by stealth (example Baddon Bow E, Stalker Jacket), use Infernal Shield instead.
Strengths and weaknesses:
High utility, Jack of all trades.
Hard to chase down hyper mobile builds, requires good game knowledge to know what skills to switch to against every match-up.
Variations:
Fiend cowl is a common choice instead of Hunter Hood. Purging boots makes chasing easier.
Helmet of valor is better than Fiend Cowl in many cases, especially when it comes to the ability to purge stealth and cleanse off cultist cowls, but it’s more expensive than Fiend Cowl.
Cultist Cowl serves a similar function as hunter hood but as a much shorter cooldown.
Stalker hood gives good damage and helps a lot against Assassin Jacket and Undead Cape.
Avalonian, Thetford, and Keeper cape are all good options for extra damage on this build. Martlock is very strong for brawling and is preferred by many Corrupted Dungeon players, but in the mist against high mobility builds Martlock is a bit less effective as it can get kited out. Damage Capes are more commonly used as it guarantees some value no matter the situation.
If you are running a more expensive version of this build, consider running Undead Cape to protect yourself against rats.
Mistwalker Jacket and Soldier Helmet are worth considering as they offer you an invincibility against burst, which is the one thing this build does not have in terms of utility.
Main Food:
Eel stew / puremist depending on match up and play style. Puremist for brawling, Eel stew for chasing and kiting. However, keep in mind that the food choice is to give you an edge in your play style, it does not mean that you cant kite when you use puremist or cant brawl when you use eel stew.
If you catch me live, feel free to join chat and ask any questions.
