Neo Steam Online Vanguard Spearserker Guide

Neo Steam Online Vanguard Spearserker Guide by A Paperback Hero

::PvP changes at botton::

Here is how I have been doing my Vanguard Spearserker spec. May help you out when the official release hits.

The four skills I would keep capped off always are Berserker Rage, Vengeance, Blood Spiral, and Gale Force. These are your primary farming skills. Berserker Rage to buff damage, Vengeance for damage reflection (does more damage than Hurricane Counter), and Blood spiral and Gale Force are your AoE spear skills.

After these skills are capped off go for Pin, Wounding Strike, and Reckless Assault. Pin is helpful for controlling monsters that are especially tough. Wounding Strike is great for adding a dot debuff to your main target which will increase the damage of Gale Force. Reckless Assault is amazing DPS when your fighting boss monsters or much higher level mobs in a group. However, if your mainly a solo’er feel free to swap Reckless Assault for Guillotine Chop which is an extremely powerful blow if you’re getting low on life and need to finish off something quickly.

All the above mentioned are the 7 skills to stick with for a while as you farm up your levels. I chose to stick to 7 skills because its easier to manage and you can cap off most of your moves quickly at every interval where the skill level maximum goes up. If you don’t mind having to wait to max out skills after the intervals go for 8 and I suggest getting Reckless Assault or Guillotine chop. Whichever you chose not to get yet.

Over time when extra SP frees up you will want to start grabbing your PvP abilities and maxing or getting as close to max with them as possible. Starting with Guillotine Chop (or Reckless Assault) if you haven’t already gotten it. Next is Shock Wave. You’ll have to get a good two-hand war tool to use this skill, but the benefit of it in pvp can not be over looked. A decently long aoe stun that hits very hard on the targetted enemy when used. Also having a two-hand wartool is great for switching to when using Reckless Assault and Guillotine Chop because it has better weapon damage than the spear and those skills only hit a single target. However, your spear is very important! Without it you don’t get your two amazing aoe attacks and the spear does aoe with its white damage as well, so don’t go thinking you will just go pure wartools instead! Finally the last major skill is Charge, but its not a skill to max out just get it up enough to have a decent run speed bonus for getting the jump on your foes. Even if you only ever put one SP in it, its still very useful for the immunity to stun, root, and slow. I suggest 3-5 points. The rest of the points on your way to the top at 99 (though the level cap will probably be increased to 110) Is mostly preference between Hurricane Counter, Spirit Sheen, and Scorpion Tail.

As for the last bits of advice, always keep a Gear Pet. You’re a class with no other way to heal than potions and having a pet that gives a decent heal increases farming efficiency and save your butt in pvp. Also, like any other melee class try to have the most upgraded weapon you can possibly have and keep that armor upgraded! Any extra armor is amazing since this is a class/spec based around aoe with a buff that steals precious armor for even more damage. The more armor to mitigate damage the better. Finally, when picking the race for this class the best choice is Lupine because of their CON racial and higher base STR and CON stats. However in my opinion Lyell are a very close second (and my preference) because they get a racial run speed bonus which is great for keeping up with the Elerd-antelopes you will be hunting and the racial HP regeneration is amazing for increasing health efficiency especially if your utilizing equipment that has extra HP regeneration as well. In the end its up to you what race you choose whether for racial stats and abilities or role play preference.

I hope this is helpful for you other aspiring DPS Vanguards and if you have any opinions or ideas that you feel should be reflected, please PLEASE reply to this post

::PvP Changes::
Some alterations I have made for the more PvPcentric (like myself) I dropped Vengeance to get Charge earlier on. Though the above spec is still very valid for those interested in mainly farming. Put 1 point into charge for stun, slow, sleep, and root immunity maxed out Scorpion Tail for rooting runners. Also if you don’t mind starting to weapon switch early on you can pick up shockwave (though this not a route I am taking because I plan to get Impact Cry special) or if you feel you fight a lot of melee and need to get the upper hand get bone snapper.

This is basically my attack order with my skills. I prefer to hit and run. IE run in and take someone out then get out before I am noticed (or at least before everyone can target me). Fairly easily done as a Lyell with racial runspeed +10% boots +20% and a rune for +20% more. Comes to be about +50% run speed, 60% if I am with a Justicar with the run buff. Usually as I advance I will pop charge to have my 10 secs of stun resist and as soon as I am on my target I hit with First Pin (stun), Second Blood Spiral (def debuff), 3rd Wound Strike (decent hit w/ poison) and then Gale Force (poison from WS improves damage). If the target is still left standing by some miracle I finish them off with Reckless Assault. This can all be done in seconds now all my moves are on CD. Run out if I have a chaser I turn back root them in place with Scorp then keep moving away til Pin is ready then I stun the chaser and rinse repeat whatever skills are ready to kill it. This strategy is based currently off of 4x skills. You just gotta remember that its not worth it to stay in if your target gets a big heal and you have used most of your moves. For this reason I usually will either go for killing Templars first to clear them out or go for the really fast kills. Wardens, Assassins, Arcanist, Crusader, sometimes Artificers and Gadgeteers depending on how they play. Evokers are a last resort target since you have to basically go in with all your abilities to reduce the hps of their summon enough to start making them take damage. I usually wont attack evokers unless I am a pvp group that is ready to all pounce at once. (Why are Crusaders easy to kill? Because if you use charge smart you always get the first stun just like any other fight)

(At this point is where customization can be useful) You could instead of getting Scorp Tail, Get Shockwave so you can run in and stun multiple opponents and do a mega hit to your target and switch to spear to finish off. Or you could get bone snapper instead to debuff melee targets or have a finishing blow if someone gets a heal but is still close to death. Didn’t mean to be redundant with this just wanna make sure its understood.

Key thing in this strategy though is that your relying on being a Lyell with run buffs to make sure your always as fast as possible. Though I am sure it can be pulled off just fine with a Lupine.