Spears seem like they could use a little boost.

[G0dsend]

So I guess part of the issue here is that other melee weapons can reliably chain these staggers on a zombie until it is dead. Spear cannot because it is unreliable with regular attacks, and power attacks remove the weapon from your inventory. (Not to mention less accurate as a projectile)

 

[bloodmoth13]

I can get behind tap to power attack and hold to throw. Good idea!

I agree with BFT2020 though on the point that knives and spears are separate weapon classes, so giving both the same abilities may break the mold. For example as much as I'd love to get stealth kills at spear range like I can with a knife, I can see how that'd probably be OP.  :boink:

In my opinion the more places you can use tech the better, especially since it can help justify the cost of development.

Knives as stealth weapons compete with bows. Being free is honestly not such a great deal when you can recover bolts and arrows, so it would just be 'more free' but with a higher risk (losing your melee weapon) for the skill check and the reward being using less arrows (which aren't super expensive).

On that note I'd like a military combat knife that feels more like the iron knife for t3 that you can throw and leave machete as hack only. Machete for normal combat military knife for stealth. 

 

[zztong]

I tend to carry a spear as a 2nd melee weapon in the early game when durability is a more frequent issue. I tell myself it has more reach so I can stay further back from a Z and its pretty good for running down chickens and rabbits. I never throw it. I wish I could turn off the throw feature and replace it with a more committed lunge where you get an even longer reach but have a longer recovery time.

I do like the suggestion of letting them poke through bars. That's a suggestion with significant value.

Here's a YouTube video where a Spear Master talks about spears and movies. It has a bunch of really cool observations.

 

[namjjman]

I definitely agree the spears need changes, but the bungee rope is a bit silly. Spears don't really work as a weapon for a lone person.

I would suggest the following.

• spears can hit though bars
  
• Two weapons, spears and javelins.
  
  Javelins would have an ammo capacity of say 3
  
• (Javelin bag mod increases),
  
• reload involves getting more out your bag.
  
• Reduce current stamina cost for throwing , but they break easily.
  

Currently a thrown spear has a higher stamina cost, shorter range, and less damage than a primitive stone arrow. That has got to change.

I do like that idea but how about have 2 classes of spears. One is melee use, longer hit reach, higher damage, power attack would be a big thrust that would guarantee a knock down if hit at cost of huge amount of stamina, half stamina loss if misses. 

Throwing javelins, you would have something like a quiver of some sort, have a stack of 3 or with mods 5, Give it zoom like the bow does. For mods for it, large bag, allows 2 additional Jav's to be thrown, not sure what to call it but a mod to allow quicker reload speed, grabbing the next jav quicker, sturdier shafts, allows higher chance of recovering jav's from bodies or hard surface cause they have a high chance of breaking. Pretty much treat them like arrows but make the materials more expensive then what arrows make.

I am a huge fan of the spear but it falls off so fast once I get a hold of pipe weapons. One thing I do use them for is for stealth attacks. They are silent like a bow, they are nice so when you are low on ammo. But they are obsolete the first few minutes of game play and is forgotten. If they don't get a update then what's the point in having a useless weapon that no one will ever use on horde nights.  Would love thought to have a spear as a main weapon like a club or 2H hammer.

 

[Adam the Waster]

I see a lot of people in-game and on forums disparaging spears because of their power attack being a throw. It's strong and penetrates armor but leaves you wide open when facing multiple zombies at once, or if one hit doesn't immediately kill the zombie. I think the throw is a good idea which gives the weapon variety and makes it stand out from the other weapons out there, but I think it could be improved with one simple weapon mod :

Bungee cord mod. Spears only. Effect : Automatically returns spears to the owner's hand after a brief delay (1.5-2s delay).

i wish they added a power attack like you hold both buttons and you do a power attack

then again, 7DTD Melee combat needs TLC

 

[Riamus]

The spear is one if my two favorite melee weapons in the game.  It's long reach makes it possible to kill 5-6 enemies coming at you at once with melee without getting hit if you are good at timing your attacks and moving.  Sure, one you have a decent gun that's better (I ignore pipe weapons most of them time except if it's all I have for the first horde night), but until I have a good ammo production, I stick to melee most of the time.  The other melee weapon being the stun baton at least at level 4 (less isn't really any good).

For the spear, the power attack being a throw is annoying and it had gotten me into trouble when I get jumped unexpectedly by a large group of zombies and accidentally click RMB instead of LMB and then have to try and grab my spear again or switch weapons, which is very inconvenient.  I support any change that let's me never throw my spear.  There will never be a reason I want to do so.  A one shot weapon that you have to chase down is useless to me.