Please buff spears

[MiTHMoN]

I love spears thematically, but in 7 Days To Die they just don't quite stack up to the other weapon categories in effectiveness. So, here are my suggestions for buffing them, to help bring them in-line with some of the other weapons, and to give them a more clear mechanical identity. 

1) Allow "Spear Master" slow to apply to all enemies. It even says in the description that it does, but for a long time now it has only affected humanoid zombies. Allowing the slow to apply to all enemies would help solidify it as a viable kiting weapon. 

2) Give "Spear Master" the bleed from "Deep Cuts". It's basically a knife on a stick anyway. Just copy the bleed progression from "Deep Cuts", and add it to "Spear Master". This would add to the spear's identity as a kiting weapon. 

Where does the spear currently shine?
Right now it's in a weird place where it's trying to be an anti-armour weapon, while also seemingly being designed for camping behind a barrier and penetrating multiple enemies per stab. If you want to hide behind a barrier and melee enemies, all of the melee weapons can do this. And in most cases, spear isn't even the best at it. 

What am I suggesting the spear should become?
The spear should be the kiting weapon. Keeping enemies at a distance, poking them to apply a slow and bleed, allowing the player to make use of open space. This would make actual sense for spears (and polearms in general from history), because in reality they work well in hallways and in open spaces. The bleed would also help the spear with its secondary identity as a hallway / choke-point camping weapon, because you could juggle bleeds on multiple enemies. 

How would this fit with the other melee weapon identities?
Stun Baton, Sledge, Club, and Knuckle class weapons have much better knock-down for defensive players, so spear wouldn't "step on their toes".
Bone Knife is a harvesting tool for both plants and animals, as well as being very stamina efficient with its power attack in the early game. Machete has a high dismember chance. All knife class weapons have high sneak attack bonus. 

So these changes to the spear wouldn't hurt the other weapons. The knife class weapons have other features besides the bleed that make them unique. 

Going into more detail of the other melee weapon categories:
Stun Baton "does it all". It has the ability to stun-lock enemies, can AoE (multi-target) knock-down and scatter enemies. It has damage-over-time (similar to bleed), and it has the 10% insta-kill. 
Sledge has the highest per-hit damage, good reach, AoE knockdown, high knockdown chance. 
Club has good knockdown, can perma-stun an enemy by stopping them from getting back up. 
Knuckles has self-healing, has moderate knock-down. 
Knife is a great early-game weapon category, big sneak damage, but honestly falls off in end-game. But it's also a tool, not just a weapon. 
So my suggestions for updating the spear's identity allows it to fit into the hit-and-run kiting playstyle (which knife currently occupies). 
 

 

[warmer]

I think spears at end game are nearly OP. Once you get the ability to stab through enemies if they are in a line, and you have a lvl 6 steel spear, I can 1 shot 3 zeds in a line with a single attack. It makes kiting REALLY powerful.

Once you have Rad remover, serrated blade, flaming rod, and fortifying grip they are SO powerful

 

[Riamus]

I agree with warmer, though not sure I'd necessarily call them OP.  Spears are very powerful if you know how to use them.  I can run through most tier 5 POI with only a spear and never touch a gun.  I do end up needing a gun at certain points in that really large prison POI, though.  It definitely stands up to the other weapons.

You know that you can add a mod to the spear to make it cause bleeding damage, right?  Though it really isn't necessary.  Neither is kiting, for that matter.  I go toe to toe with zombies with my spear without any difficulty.  Especially as you unlock the different perks and books.  You'll be able to hit many zombies at once, instantly refill stamina on a kill, knock down most zombies with a single headshot power attack.  If you add the mods that add fire or bleeding damage, you'll do damage over time, though I've never let them stay alive long enough for that to matter.  Make sure you are using the power attacks and it is really a good weapon even in end game.

Consider the spear:

You can attack through things like broken doors.  You can hit multiple enemies once unlocked.  You can instantly refill all stamina on a kill with the book.  You can use mods that cause bleeding and fire damage over time effects.  You can knockdown enemies, usually with a single headshot power attack.  You can hit enemies at a greater distance, keeping them from having much chance of hitting you.  And it has a decent attack speed when compared to other weapons.  Those are some pretty good stats.

 

[FranticDan]

The spear book that adds bleed should be 100% chance, not 25%. It only adds 1 stack.
The serrated blade mod is worthless IMO, a 10% chance to add 1 stack of bleed for non-power attacks, it should add 10% dismember chance instead, or at least a 50% chance to add 1 stack regardless of power attack or not.

With these changes, 1 point in deep cuts will buff the spear plenty as you'll have up to 3 stacks of bleed and slow them down 10% more.

Also would be nice if zombies didn't stagger towards the player, because that breaks the laws of physics.

 

[Riamus]

I don't think it should get bleed on every hit even with that book.  That's a bit much.  25% is a good level for that.  The extra 10% from the mod gives you an extra bump if you want more and aren't using power attacks.  And if you are using power attacks, you shouldn't have any need for the bleed DoT.

In any case, the spear has a lot to offer already.  Making it more powerful doesn't really make much sense.  And I always use the spear, so it isn't that I don't want the spear to be better than my favorite weapon because it is my favorite weapon.  I just don't see any need to make it stronger.

 

[FranticDan]

The amount of damage that bleed does with the spear will be lucky to save you 1 hit to kill. A 25% chance to deal 1dmg/sec from bleed while your raw damage roughly 100 to the head doesn't make much of a difference, you're better off doing a power attack with a knife first (even without deep cuts) to instantly add 2 stacks of bleed 100% of the time, and then swap to the spear to keep refreshing the bleed duration.

The strongest part of the spear is the crippling effect, turning a deadly radiated biker into a non-threat.

 

[MiTHMoN]

I think spears at end game are nearly OP. Once you get the ability to stab through enemies if they are in a line, and you have a lvl 6 steel spear, I can 1 shot 3 zeds in a line with a single attack. It makes kiting REALLY powerful.

Once you have Rad remover, serrated blade, flaming rod, and fortifying grip they are SO powerful

What difficulty are you playing on? If you're on the lower difficulties, then yes, every melee weapon is "OP"... Which means none of them are. 
If you consider killing 3 zombies with 1 attack to be "kiting", I'd disagree. Other weapons are capable of multiple kills per attack (Sledge, Club, even Pipe Baton). For you to be close enough to zombies to skewer 3 of them at once, you're probably not kiting them. 
 

I agree with warmer, though not sure I'd necessarily call them OP.  Spears are very powerful if you know how to use them.  I can run through most tier 5 POI with only a spear and never touch a gun.  I do end up needing a gun at certain points in that really large prison POI, though.  It definitely stands up to the other weapons.

You know that you can add a mod to the spear to make it cause bleeding damage, right?  Though it really isn't necessary.  Neither is kiting, for that matter.  I go toe to toe with zombies with my spear without any difficulty.  Especially as you unlock the different perks and books.  You'll be able to hit many zombies at once, instantly refill stamina on a kill, knock down most zombies with a single headshot power attack.  If you add the mods that add fire or bleeding damage, you'll do damage over time, though I've never let them stay alive long enough for that to matter.  Make sure you are using the power attacks and it is really a good weapon even in end game.

Consider the spear:

You can attack through things like broken doors.  You can hit multiple enemies once unlocked.  You can instantly refill all stamina on a kill with the book.  You can use mods that cause bleeding and fire damage over time effects.  You can knockdown enemies, usually with a single headshot power attack.  You can hit enemies at a greater distance, keeping them from having much chance of hitting you.  And it has a decent attack speed when compared to other weapons.  Those are some pretty good stats.

The mod (and skill book) that you're referring to, as FranticDan points out, add only 10% chance and 25% chance respectively (and I believe they roll separately, not additively), and as far as I'm aware they add up to 1 stack of bleed. 

 

The spear book that adds bleed should be 100% chance, not 25%. It only adds 1 stack.
The serrated blade mod is worthless IMO, a 10% chance to add 1 stack of bleed for non-power attacks, it should add 10% dismember chance instead, or at least a 50% chance to add 1 stack regardless of power attack or not.

With these changes, 1 point in deep cuts will buff the spear plenty as you'll have up to 3 stacks of bleed and slow them down 10% more.

Also would be nice if zombies didn't stagger towards the player, because that breaks the laws of physics.

I agree that the 25% and 10% aren't useful. One thing I think you misunderstand is how the bleed works. Spear bleed isn't affected by Deep Cuts perks at all, currently. Your spear bleed can't get 3 stacks, nor can it apply the slow. 

To address some confusion:

I see this line of thinking a fair bit when the spear is brought up, "it's already strong" type of comments. 
If it's so strong, go fight a zombie bear on Insane difficulty. Seriously. 
The spear is abysmal at taking on real enemies. 

Anecdotal examples of the spear performing well when you're playing on default difficulty aren't relevant to weapon balance discussion. 
Anywhere you're one-shotting zombies with the spear, any other equivalent melee weapon would do the same thing. 
 

If you are one-shotting zombies, the bleed I'm suggesting doesn't affect you, nor does fixing the slow.

Weapon balance doesn't matter to people who play on the lower difficulty settings, because every weapon is strong and "OP".
Weapon balance does actually matter when the enemies are strong, and you'll quickly find out that the spear lags behind from day 1 all the way to full build. 

During my play time, I have done several "melee only" playthroughs on Insane difficulty, and fundamentally some weapons aren't as good. 

For reference, here is two (separate but relevant) tier lists I have made. 

Early game (day 1, no mods, no books, no perks):
Bone Knife
Stone Sledge
Pipe Baton
Wooden Club
Stone Spear
Knuckle Wraps

End game (full build, all books, perks, mods, t6):
Stun Baton
Steel Club
Steel Sledge
Steel Knuckles
Steel Spear
Machete
Hunting Knife
Steel Axe

Both of my tier lists put the spear at #5 (relative to other melee weapons in the same situations). 

Back to the actual topic of the spear:

Currently, the bleed effects from Deep Cuts do not apply to the spear. The slow doesn't apply, the bleed doesn't stack. Check the XMLs, test it in gameplay. 

If anyone is playing on low difficulties, where they're 1-shotting zombies, my suggested changes will not affect them. So if you have no problems with weapon balance, these proposed changes aren't going to hurt you in any way. 

These changes I am suggesting are for actually balancing the spear to be mechanically in-line with the other melee weapons. This only really affects gameplay on higher difficulties, because the changes I am suggesting are fairly minor overall. 

 

[MiTHMoN]

I don't think it should get bleed on every hit even with that book.  That's a bit much.  25% is a good level for that.  The extra 10% from the mod gives you an extra bump if you want more and aren't using power attacks.  And if you are using power attacks, you shouldn't have any need for the bleed DoT.

In any case, the spear has a lot to offer already.  Making it more powerful doesn't really make much sense.  And I always use the spear, so it isn't that I don't want the spear to be better than my favorite weapon because it is my favorite weapon.  I just don't see any need to make it stronger.

Do you have any reason for feeling this way? Because from my perspective it seems like you have no idea what you're talking about, so I'm just trying to understand where you're coming from. 

Do you know what the bleed from a spear does? 

Why are you against adding more bleed to the spear? 

If it doesn't affect the way you play the game, then why are you against it?

I'm trying to be generous, but it just appears as though you troll the forums more than you actually play or understand the game. If you don't want the game's weapon balance to improve, then why comment? I've been playing this game on-and-off for over 11 years, and I've got under 20 posts on these forums, because I don't come on here to post low-effort troll replies like you apparently do. 

The main way I play the game when I play single-player is I play on insane difficulty, using melee only (I pick a melee category at the start of each playthrough). So I have a pretty good grasp on the strengths and weaknesses of each of the melee weapons, at different stages of the game, and in different scenarios. 

Each weapon category *can* function against *most* content in the game, if you know how to use the weapon, if you know the area, and you prepare beforehand. Yes, the steel spear can kill a few radiated zombies in a POI. 

But if you decide to walk up to a zombie bear and fight it, the steel spear (on any difficulty) will prove to be lacking. Yet if you walk up to a zombie bear with a Stun Baton, Steel Sledge, Steel Club, or Steel Knuckles, you will have a much better time, and a much higher likelihood of surviving. 

So the balance of melee weapons is very relevant to me, because if I play spear, I'm basically locking myself out of certain fights simply because the spear will not perform very well. That is purely a balance issue. 

The Bone Knife is the #1 best starting melee weapon, overall. The Machete is the worst of the main 6 "steel tier" melee weapons, overall. That's balanced, because it trades early-game strength for late-game weakness.

Yet the Stone Spear and the Steel Spear are equally "less than average" when compared to the other melee options. How is that balanced? 

If people think the two changes I'm suggesting won't change anything for their gameplay, then that means I've made a really good suggestion. It won't affect casual players, but it should very much help lift up the spear where it matters.

The spear is lacking in knockdown power, lacking in the ability to slow animals (bears, wolves, boars, etc), and isn't very impressive for damage-to-stamina ratios. Extending the slow it already has to animals, and giving it a full bleed, should fix its issues, without making it too much stronger. 

And I'll say it again: If you don't understand what I'm talking about, fight a zombie bear with each of the melee weapons, and it will become clear to you. 

 

[Riamus]

Not all weapons have to function equally.  There are times when one weapon will be better than another.  Sure, killing a bear isn't going to be as easy.  It shouldn't be.  And maybe other weapons work better in that situation.  But that doesn't mean the spear needs to be changed.  And I wasn't talking about one shotting anything.  I was talking about knockdowns.

And if you're talking about a stone spear in a normal fight (I'm ignoring bears because that's an intentional choice to pick something that will obviously be difficult), I can fight against multiple zombies and keep them from hitting me because of the reach of the spear as I back away from them.  Many other weapons don't work as well for that because the reach is too low.  Maybe you can knock them down and stun them so they aren't able to hit you very many times, but I can keep them from hitting me at all if I don't make a mistake in my timing (or the game doesn't decide to stumble them all forward at me, getting them close unexpectedly).  And that's just with the stone spear.  Once I have the steel spear, just as easy, though the zombies do of course get harder.

You want the spear to be changed to work better than any other weapon for the specific tactic you are trying to do (kiting).  I think it already has its niche and is good there.  You are welcome to disagree, but it doesn't change my opinion that the spear is already in a good place.  It works great and I'd choose it over any of the other weapons.  Stun batons are nice and have a great AoE crowd control.  But they just don't interest me.  Sledges have great damage and knockdown, but I hate the slow attack speed.  Knives have great attack speed and are perfect for stealth gameplay, but I don't do stealth.  Knuckles are also very fast and do good damage, but you have to be really close to the enemy and I prefer not getting hit as much.

It's all about preference.  Everything has its use and everything has pros and cons.  For me, the spear works great and I like it as it is.  I don't see a need to make it stronger.  I wouldn't necessarily care if they made changes to it, but it would just become too easy.  It's already really easy to use well.  But it depends on the player.  Someone I play with has seen how well I use it and has tried multiple times to use it and they just don't do as well with timing attacks and hitting the zombies in the right places to have the best effects with the spear, so they don't use spears and do better with other weapons.  That doesn't mean the spears are bad.  It just means they have a different way of playing the game that doesn't work as well with spears.

 

[theFlu]

How is that balanced?

By range. The rest of your bear-killing-tools rely on a 100->0 stunlock on the bear. The spear doesn't do that, but it'll allow you to prep a position where you're entirely out of reach for the duration of the fight.

Is it a great balance? Nah. Spear could be buffed, or the stun capacity of the other weapons could be reduced. Let the bear have a 30% uptime against your club, and suddenly you'll love the spear

 

[MiTHMoN]

Not all weapons have to function equally.

That's just bad game balance. I don't want the game to have janky game balance. 

And if you're talking about a stone spear in a normal fight (I'm ignoring bears because that's an intentional choice to pick something that will obviously be difficult), I can fight against multiple zombies and keep them from hitting me because of the reach of the spear as I back away from them.  Many other weapons don't work as well for that because the reach is too low.  Maybe you can knock them down and stun them so they aren't able to hit you very many times, but I can keep them from hitting me at all if I don't make a mistake in my timing (or the game doesn't decide to stumble them all forward at me, getting them close unexpectedly).  And that's just with the stone spear.  Once I have the steel spear, just as easy, though the zombies do of course get harder.

... You can fight multiple humanoid enemies with any melee weapon without being hit. This isn't a trait exclusive to spears. How do you think people use the Bone Knife? 

It's all about preference.  Everything has its use and everything has pros and cons.  For me, the spear works great and I like it as it is.  I don't see a need to make it stronger.  I wouldn't necessarily care if they made changes to it, but it would just become too easy.  It's already really easy to use well.  But it depends on the player.  Someone I play with has seen how well I use it and has tried multiple times to use it and they just don't do as well with timing attacks and hitting the zombies in the right places to have the best effects with the spear, so they don't use spears and do better with other weapons.  That doesn't mean the spears are bad.  It just means they have a different way of playing the game that doesn't work as well with spears.

So why are you on these forums then? If you want the game to be unbalanced and jank, why not just go edit your XML files and jank it up however you want?

You're not here to be reasoned with, clearly. You're not here to spread knowledge. You're here to troll people?

It's your preference to play on low difficulty settings and you don't care about game balance. Cool, fine, you do you. But don't ruin the game for everyone else. 

By range. The rest of your bear-killing-tools rely on a 100->0 stunlock on the bear. The spear doesn't do that, but it'll allow you to prep a position where you're entirely out of reach for the duration of the fight.

Is it a great balance? Nah. Spear could be buffed, or the stun capacity of the other weapons could be reduced. Let the bear have a 30% uptime against your club, and suddenly you'll love the spear

Exactly my point. If you have to go to huge extra lengths and do a whole lot of extra prep-work just to get similar results, then the weapon isn't balanced. 

In my opinion, if the changes I'm suggesting were implemented, if you got jumped by a bear you could hit it and actually apply a slow, maybe allowing you to escape if you're lucky. Currently the spear just doesn't slow non-humanoids. 

 

[MiTHMoN]

Sure, killing a bear isn't going to be as easy.  It shouldn't be.  And maybe other weapons work better in that situation.  But that doesn't mean the spear needs to be changed.

So when should the spear "be good"? Never? 

Spear sucks early game (relative to the other options), and it can't take on zombie bears (which are fairly common in the wasteland), and what does it have to offer?

Extra range, for players with slower reaction time? No, because if you've got slow reaction time or laggy connection, a knock-down weapon will serve you way better. 
Hit-and-run, or kiting? Sure, if you're using it in mid-late game (which is what my proposed changes aim to reinforce). 

If you want to be underpowered, why don't you just play on a higher difficulty?

 

[Dead Smarty]

First: Personaly I like my spears with all books, perks and a few mods. Not objecting if it got a few more buffs but no big deal if they don't
But why this stress on balance? No one forces you to stick to one weapon only. Pick your weapons according to your mission, always have a back-up plan.

and no need to get so personal if someone has a different opinion.

 

[MiTHMoN]

But why this stress on balance?

Because it's the topic of my post. 

You're asking why I'm focusing on the topic of my post, in my post, and why I'd want other people to keep to the topic of my post while replying to my post?

Not sure how to answer that. 

No one forces you to stick to one weapon only. Pick your weapons according to your mission, always have a back-up plan.

? What? 

Are you aware that in vanilla 7 Days To Die, you spend skill points? 

Are you aware that playing with a certain goal in mind is where the fun can come from?

"Pick your weapons according to your mission"??? What? Like just spend no skill points and carry 14 different weapons and just switch between them? 
How about I play the game how I want to play the game? I think I'll do that instead. 

 

[ParadiseLostUK]

Because it's the topic of my post. 

You're asking why I'm focusing on the topic of my post, in my post, and why I'd want other people to keep to the topic of my post while replying to my post?

Not sure how to answer that. 

? What? 

Are you aware that in vanilla 7 Days To Die, you spend skill points? 

Are you aware that playing with a certain goal in mind is where the fun can come from?

"Pick your weapons according to your mission"??? What? Like just spend no skill points and carry 14 different weapons and just switch between them? 
How about I play the game how I want to play the game? I think I'll do that instead. 

Are you aware that all your arguments are posed as questions?

Do you realise how arrogant that makes you sound?

Why can't you accept that other peoples opinions may not match your own?

See, annoying isn't it? lol

 

[Vaeliorin]

The better question is if you realize that TFP don't really give a flying f about balance on extreme settings.  They balance for the default settings, and graciously allow you to choose other difficulty settings if you so choose.  This is like the guy that was complaining that water was too rare on 25% loot.

That said, if they change the spear, I don't really care.  I just don't think you're going to get TFP to care about this.

But you can always mod it.

 

[MiTHMoN]

The better question is if you realize that TFP don't really give a flying f about balance on extreme settings.  They balance for the default settings, and graciously allow you to choose other difficulty settings if you so choose.  This is like the guy that was complaining that water was too rare on 25% loot.

That said, if they change the spear, I don't really care.  I just don't think you're going to get TFP to care about this.

But you can always mod it.

Yeah, that's most likely the case. If they cared about attention-to-detail and balance, they would have done it. Just thought I'd take a chance and make some suggestions that would be beneficial to the game. 

But, to be clear, my suggestions are about balancing the game on all difficulty settings. Balance is just less noticeable when the game is super easy, and more noticeable when there are stakes. 

 

[Riamus]

That's just bad game balance. I don't want the game to have janky game balance. 

It isn't bad game balance to have weapons that work better in different situations.  You certainly aren't going to use the sniper rifle when toe to toe in tight corridors of a POI.  That doesn't make the sniper rifle badly designed.  It just means that it isn't designed for every situation equally with other weapons.

But since you want to get bent out of shape if anyone disagrees with you rather than having a civil discussion, there really isn't any reason to continue discussing it.  You know my opinion, and the opinion of others here as well, that the spear is fine as it is.  No one is likely to complain about changes to it, but as you can see, people using it are happy with where it is at.  Sorry if that upsets you.

Btw, disagreeing with someone isn't trolling.

 

[warmer]

What difficulty are you playing on? If you're on the lower difficulties, then yes, every melee weapon is "OP"... Which means none of them are. 
If you consider killing 3 zombies with 1 attack to be "kiting", I'd disagree. Other weapons are capable of multiple kills per attack (Sledge, Club, even Pipe Baton). For you to be close enough to zombies to skewer 3 of them at once, you're probably not kiting them. 

I play on vanilla difficulty, I neglected to mention, when you have the +10% damage for quick succession attacks, you rack up to +30%. That gets really powerful. I use spear almost exclusively unless cornered and several deep, then I will pull out gunpowder.

I could be using the word in a way you disagree with, but I draw them out in a line out in the open and back up and shoot in close. I call that Kiting. you can totally hit 3 at once, you have to shoot in right as the nearest zombies attack anything is ending, and you go up near them, and power attack/headshot, they always die, if you have another lined up, and headshot they die as well. If they don't die, they always fall. Modded out high tier steel spears have been my fav since they introduced them. Then you could throw kill. They were awesome, but you lost a ton of them. Maybe A19? It's been my go to since. Spears have insane range. It's WAY more than you realize until you get used to it.

 

[MiTHMoN]

It isn't bad game balance to have weapons that work better in different situations.

So, in what situation does the spear work better in? You never gave an answer to that. 

If you're just fighting on flat ground (in the open, in a POI, anywhere), the spear will either:
1) knock a zombie down / insta-kill them because you're a lot stronger than they are
2) cause them to stumble towards you + gain "rage bonus" speed
This second scenario is my main focus with this post, because if you're so much stronger than zombies that you're 1-shotting them or knocking them down with your first hit, then these proposed balance changes do not matter to you. 

Other weapons (such as Stun Baton, Sledge, Club, Knuckles) have a better chance at knocking zombies down in the same circumstances. 
Zombies that are knocked down can't hurt you, and generally you get damage bonuses against downed opponents. 
But for the spear (who gets a significant damage bonus against downed opponents), you can't as reliably knock enemies down. 

So what about the slowing effect?
I love the slowing effect on the spear. I actually specifically mention (in the first of my 2 changes in the OP) that I want it to extend to non-humanoid targets (animals). 
If you are relying on the spear's slowing effect to offset the zombies' rage speed bonus, then great. I want the spear to focus on doing that. 

 

Btw, disagreeing with someone isn't trolling.

I never said it was. But you started your post saying that you "agree with warmer", who clearly didn't even read the post he was replying to. You both weren't saying anything relevant. That is trolling.

I agree with warmer, though not sure I'd necessarily call them OP.  Spears are very powerful if you know how to use them.  I can run through most tier 5 POI with only a spear and never touch a gun.  I do end up needing a gun at certain points in that really large prison POI, though.  It definitely stands up to the other weapons.

You know that you can add a mod to the spear to make it cause bleeding damage, right?  Though it really isn't necessary.  Neither is kiting, for that matter.  I go toe to toe with zombies with my spear without any difficulty.  Especially as you unlock the different perks and books.  You'll be able to hit many zombies at once, instantly refill stamina on a kill, knock down most zombies with a single headshot power attack.  If you add the mods that add fire or bleeding damage, you'll do damage over time, though I've never let them stay alive long enough for that to matter.  Make sure you are using the power attacks and it is really a good weapon even in end game.

This whole section of your post? It tells me two things: Firstly, you're describing basically every melee weapon (because they can all do what you say, bar the mod compatibility). Secondly, you play on lower difficulties.

I'm on day 6 (2 hr days) and "most zombies" are ferals with a decent amount of radiated. My level 3 steel spear one-hit knockdowns most basic zombies. The zombies that aren't a threat. The ones that aren't even feral, let alone radiated. 
 

Consider the spear:

You can attack through things like broken doors.  You can hit multiple enemies once unlocked.  You can instantly refill all stamina on a kill with the book.  You can use mods that cause bleeding and fire damage over time effects.  You can knockdown enemies, usually with a single headshot power attack.  You can hit enemies at a greater distance, keeping them from having much chance of hitting you.  And it has a decent attack speed when compared to other weapons.  Those are some pretty good stats.

The bleeding effect on spears? Entirely useless. It can stack up to 1 time (for a total of 1 stack of spear bleed), which does 1 damage per second. I don't think you're aware of how much health zombies have if you honestly think buffing a maximum 32.5% to 100% would be too much. 
 

But since you want to get bent out of shape if anyone disagrees with you rather than having a civil discussion

It's not a difference of opinion, though. It's just that you are extremely misinformed about gameplay mechanics to the point where you're spreading misinformation. That is actively unhelpful in a topic about weapon balance. Fact check yourself before you post if you don't want people to fact check you after you post. Simple as that. 

You certainly aren't going to use the sniper rifle when toe to toe in tight corridors of a POI.  That doesn't make the sniper rifle badly designed.  It just means that it isn't designed for every situation equally with other weapons.

That's exactly how I use the sniper rifle, if I ever use it. It's not bad at all. It's much more ammo efficient (damage per shot for the same ammo type) than the Fortitude guns, and it's got a decent magazine size (15 if I'm remembering correctly). 

Are you here to tell me I shouldn't play the way I want, again? 

I find it so bizarre for people to come onto a thread about weapon balance, and try to dictate to others how they should play the game. Red flag, much? Oh, that's right, I'm just getting bent out of shape, I forgot. Carry on being toxic and I'll try to just keep my mouth shut.