A problem that stems from Demons Souls but somehow seems much more prominent in Dark Souls since a lot of the bosses are quite big and bipedal.

I liked spears a lot in Demons Souls and in Dark Souls they made it even sweeter since they changed the Halberd regular attack to a thrust as opposed to it's previous downward swing.

My biggest gripe - and I'm sure my fellow pole users can relate is how you're fighting a boss, in a the thick of it, rolling and dodging and you thrust at his/it's legs and your spear just swishes through thin air. This happens over and over again to me and it gets so completely aggrevating. Even Smough proved to be annoying. On top of that I'm a Halberd user so if I don't hit something with my thrust I stagger a bit leaving myself way too open.

Sif was a nightmare for me and I just ended up tanking him with a Great Axe that I never use.

When I see people hack away with sword swings it just brings a tear to my eye..

oO weird. I'm a big big fan of Scythe's (+15), Lifehunt Scythe, Spears (Silver Knight Spear +5) and other polearms. Never noticed that though so far, especially the Scythe proofs to be very efficient against bosses since the targetting system (in the rare occassion i use it at all) often fucks me up between the crotch of big bosses making me hit air. It heavily depends on the moveset though, the scythe is killer against bosses with its sweep attacks while the silverknight spear flat out fails since even with its sweeping attacks it seems only to damage on the outer circle of the swing. (which seems alright)

The Bell Gargoyles and Maybe the Capra Demon are the only bosses i could think of where my spear was the right weapon of choice since i want to block their hard to spot attacks in a narrow spot.

Maybe your halberd is borked, i dont know really but try the scythe (Sen's Fortress i think ?) for a laugh and test it on some mobs, it has a HUGE hitzone with all it's swings, easily became my favourite Weapon at the Moment.

(I'm SL90, Dex build, killing all Npc's now to get ready for NG+ ;) )

It is annoying that the most natural camera angle, as well as the default locked on camera position makes you swing towards the ground, yes. I had to always remember to pull the camera up when cutting off Gaping Dragon's tail with a spear.

@Humanity: Oh, fuck yeah. I predominately played through Demon's with a spear and it was a pain in the ass sometimes, and it's even worse now.

I've switched to a Zweihander now, for that exact reason. "*Swish*, *swish*, oh fuck this, where's my sword?" Total god damn shame, as I just hit 50 STR and can use Havel's kick ass shield....I just can't stay behind it if I want to do any damage.

@RockmanBionics said:

It is annoying that the most natural camera angle, as well as the default locked on camera position makes you swing towards the ground, yes. I had to always remember to pull the camera up when cutting off Gaping Dragon's tail with a spear.

Kudos to you I couldn't even do it with my halberd and just switched to a sword

@Mirado said:

@Humanity: Oh, fuck yeah. I predominately played through Demon's with a spear and it was a pain in the ass sometimes, and it's even worse now.

I've switched to a Zweihander now, for that exact reason. "*Swish*, *swish*, oh fuck this, where's my sword?" Total god damn shame, as I just hit 50 STR and can use Havel's kick ass shield....I just can't stay behind it if I want to do any damage.

I'm a STR build too and I hate all the big weapons. I mean it's a mistake on my part but I heard rumors that increasing strength would make you swing faster at certain levels, hah thanks rumors. So the halberd is pretty good it's not the WORST scaling and I put lightening on it anyway.

for PVE it's amazing but boss fights are the fucking worst.

While not in the same context as you, I've had second-swings with my Black Knight Halberd completely whiff when it totally should have connected.

Something funky going on there.

I'm a big pole-arm-ist, and I wiff attacks between legs all the time. Its a pretty annoying problem. Sometimes the roll-light-attack works better, but it takes a lot longer to come out. The partizan has a big sweep for its fiierce attack, so that is another option, but it would be best if they just cut us a break and expanded or filled in the hitbox between big foes' legs.

@Stahlbrand said:

I'm a big pole-arm-ist, and I wiff attacks between legs all the time. Its a pretty annoying problem. Sometimes the roll-light-attack works better, but it takes a lot longer to come out. The partizan has a big sweep for its fiierce attack, so that is another option, but it would be best if they just cut us a break and expanded or filled in the hitbox between big foes' legs.

I just think they need to revamp the targetting system for larger bosses. Just give bosses multiple lock-on "nodes" that you can flick between like you do for enemies (which is kinda half broken in Dark Souls) At least let us lock onto legs for some giant bosses since thats what you're hitting. This seems like it's a minor thing to patch in but it will never happen I bet.

When I was fighting Stray Demon I literally had to only use my heavy 360 sweep because 90% of my regular attacks would miss regardless of my position to the boss.

Yeah, I use the halberd for my everyday exploring and monster killing. But when it comes to bosses, or mini bosses, I use a faster weapon that can get more strikes in before I have to dodge/roll away.

@TekZero: For big bosses, I wait for them to whiff by being super close and then hit them with 2hand-R2. works really well for Iron Golem which is super easy to miss between the legs.

@McQuinn said:

@TekZero: For big bosses, I wait for them to whiff by being super close and then hit them with 2hand-R2. works really well for Iron Golem which is super easy to miss between the legs.

Thats ironically the only large two legged boss I didn't have that many problems with. I got him to wobble early on and in that wobble animation it was easy to target his legs and after a few thrusts he fell back, and straight off the bridge killing him instantly - it was the fastest boss battle in the game so far for me. (Smough and Ornstein being probably the most time I spent on)

Well I got no trouble with the haldberd .... as I usually hit with the r2 on boss fights , or my favorite hit and run tactic .... run towards the enemy r1 and get back , it hits hard and I can manage to get away from the enemy's attack. Altho the ones I had a lot of trouble with and prompting me to totally not use it was the 4 kings ... I just crystal shielded those son of bitches , it took me half a day to finally defeat them >:3

I don't think theres anything wrong with halbers and spears (using thrusting attacks) having a small hitbox. Thats the price they pay for the reach and quickness of their attacks.

@Humanity: At STR 50, I see no difference in swing speed from when I first was able to wield it, but I guess you've already figured that one out. :D I put lightning on it as well as even at STR 50 the scaling would still be far below the lightning damage.

I like my Zweihander, all things considered; it has a pretty fast heavy 1h overhead attack, and it staggers on impact. The 1h weak attack is great for Fog Ring wearers as it hits a very wide arc and can catch people when they are dodging, although I'd still take a spear that can hit things first.

@Humanity: ya, im at 50 Str also and my swing have no difference in speed. Also dex is at 42 so that isnt helping much.. I know i just killed a guy who was using a halbred and i was using the black knight great axe and everytime he rolled and swung his attack would go through my shield but that can also be due to the pvp lag. Either way, at least the halbread attack patterns make more sense :D

@Humanity: Just poked Gaping Dragon to death with a Halberd +2, and 16 Strength - it seems alright for me. I missed a few times but I reckon it was my fault rather than the tracking on the Dragon's legs.

@Mirado said:

@Humanity: At STR 50, I see no difference in swing speed from when I first was able to wield it, but I guess you've already figured that one out. :D I put lightning on it as well as even at STR 50 the scaling would still be far below the lightning damage.

I like my Zweihander, all things considered; it has a pretty fast heavy 1h overhead attack, and it staggers on impact. The 1h weak attack is great for Fog Ring wearers as it hits a very wide arc and can catch people when they are dodging, although I'd still take a spear that can hit things first.

Yah I've since come to realize those are bogus rumors I have 50STR as well, probably will not sink anymore points into it for a while.

I think the Zweihander is still too slow for me and the size makes it unusable in certain situations. I tried the claymore and I like that more but the damage output wasn't as good at the time.

@McShank said:

@Humanity: ya, im at 50 Str also and my swing have no difference in speed. Also dex is at 42 so that isnt helping much.. I know i just killed a guy who was using a halbred and i was using the black knight great axe and everytime he rolled and swung his attack would go through my shield but that can also be due to the pvp lag. Either way, at least the halbread attack patterns make more sense :D

As I told Mirado I've come to realize that stat thing isn't true. I think it should be though! I can dream of a magical patch that will probably never come out. PVP lag is awful so anything goes in those situations - I recall a few awesome situations where this guy is attacking me from the front, my shield is up, his weapon is CLANKING against it then all of a sudden I'm getting backstabbed..ahh..good ol' lag..

@Chavtheworld said:

@Humanity: Just poked Gaping Dragon to death with a Halberd +2, and 16 Strength - it seems alright for me. I missed a few times but I reckon it was my fault rather than the tracking on the Dragon's legs.

Gaping dragon isn't bad at all, it's a huge body. Fighting Sif was the turning point where I just had to switch weapons.

@Nentisys said:

I don't think theres anything wrong with halbers and spears (using thrusting attacks) having a small hitbox. Thats the price they pay for the reach and quickness of their attacks.

Maybe reach but there are swords that are faster and drain way less stamina. I dunno about the spear but the Halberd takes a large chunk of stamina for just a regular attack, can't be used from behind a shield like a spear, you can't chain attacks, and if you miss you enter a short stagger animation - thats a lot of things that already balance it somewhat.