by roanispe Sun Oct 28, 2012 11:42 pm
Any weapon can beat a good Spear user, but, for many of them, the only consistent way would be Dark Wood Grain Ring roll backstabs. You can land a punishing backstab from maximum range with appropriate timing, and reflexes. I can't do it all the time, but it is always an option: just strip down, throw on the ring, and go for broke. Weapons that don't need to do this to beat a competent spear-user are the quick, forward moving attacks like those of the Katana, or Halberd. Although Spears have low commitment, they have commitment nonetheless; you take the hit, and the motion will carry you through to land the attack. If you don't have the poise, nor the ring, you can still try to do a strafe hit coming from an angle to avoid the attack. This is unwieldy, but it is still possible.
One major weapon that will have exceptional trouble against the Spear is the Greatsword, and you should think quickly of switching weapons if think you are in for a tough match. Running Spear attacks should not be used against another Spear, even though it is a forward running attack; the low damage makes getting counter hit not worth it most of the time. Generally, when I faced "for the win" Spear users, I switched to a Silver Knight Spear to secure the first kill over a long frame of time, then went back to the Chaos Blade to get faster kills at higher risk. The most important bit of advice I can give is to avoid panicking during a fight; you can make a comeback against the low damage output of the Spear with a different weapon the moment you start getting hits. Turtles are a non-issue for the most part; they aren't hard to deal with if you have the patience required to get the right spacing to punish their attempts.
