The Spear Idle combat stance is goofy and should be changed [Merged]

[silentninja.2615]

The Flourish for the record looks fine. I just have a problem with the ways it's held by all sex's and all races. Each character should have their unique way of holding like they do for the other weapons. The spear is a 2 handed weapon. They should hold it with two hands at least for the melee heavy characters. 

 

[Quench.7091]

I think they hold it the way they do while idle so that it looks more fluid when players start to stab or throw with it. However, I noticed that spears aren't being used as stab weapons. My "Puncturing Jab" ability on my engineer character is doing a slash attack. Slashes aren't jabs! I'm more upset over the active animations.

[silentninja.2615]

I think they hold it they way they do because of it looking more fluid and they probably just altered the underwater animation into the land one. I was excited for engi, ele and thief spear but came out loving mesmer and necro as my favorites.  

[Noidea Incognito.9607]

The Dev's always have to strike a balance between Idealism and Realism.  In a perfect situation they would make usage of real-life examples which embody perfect spears/staffs movement.

Spears and staffs are pretty similar; one just has a pointy end. that's all.

For example: In martial arts there are certain teachings which have multiple spear/staff forms... it would have been a wealth of ideas on natural spear/staff movement that could have been tweaked into unique animations for all professions. I said perfect situation; They might not have the time to go all out on doing that because of other priorities. 

Also... i think they animate/rig everything  from scratch. That can be a lot of work if you want to make it look natural. If they used Motion capture it would save a lot of time i recon.

They might even be forced to recycle existing rigged animations to gain some precious time to spend elsewhere.

 

[Laughingman.9537]

Have not seen anyone mention this, but the initial position characters are holding the spear just looks wrong.

They should be holding it in front of the character with both hands if they use it in melee or with one hand over the shoulder if ranged. 

The way they hold it now it's kind of like a martial arts staff stance.

[keyokku.5412]

doesn't seem goofy to me, it seems martial artsy, though it can be a better martial artsy

but it doesn't need to be medieval armored knight with a heavy halberd kind of stance

[purp.1806]

A spear's blade should always be stanced blade side down. The combat stance is genuinely one of the dumbest looking things in the game.

[Vavume.8065]

Most of the auto attacks look wrong also, spinning it like a staff....

[anninke.7469]

On 6/27/2024 at 10:32 PM, silentninja.2615 said:

I think they hold it they way they do because of it looking more fluid and they probably just altered the underwater animation into the land one. I was excited for engi, ele and thief spear but came out loving mesmer and necro as my favorites.  

Hey, that's it! I was wondering why they hold the spear in such a weird and awkward way while running. It certainly does look like the underwater animation.

[Bris.7984]

4 hours ago, Laughingman.9537 said:

Have not seen anyone mention this, but the initial position characters are holding the spear just looks wrong.

They should be holding it in front of the character with both hands if they use it in melee or with one hand over the shoulder if ranged. 

The way they hold it now it's kind of like a martial arts staff stance.

I think someone had a pleasant unortodox weekend and our stances got in this form.You can think on many things.Do some dirty searches and you can see it clearly.

[Supernova Starr.2069]

Male human have some scoliosis going on

[Weindrasi.3805]

I honestly like how it looks on charr, however I do think it should be different for each class. There should at least be a different stance for melee spear professions verses ranged ones.

[Arianth Moonlight.6453]

my Female Human looks like she's carrying a briefcase, especially while running. Instead of looking like she's rushing into battle, she looks like she's missing her flight.

5 hours ago, Supernova Starr.2069 said:

Male human have some scoliosis going on

also this. I mean WTH?!

[TwistedAlga.4235]

9 hours ago, Arianth Moonlight.6453 said:

my Female Human looks like she's carrying a briefcase, especially while running. Instead of looking like she's rushing into battle, she looks like she's missing her flight.

also this. I mean WTH?!

Lmao 🤣 🤣 🤣 

I have to agree... humans looks very weird running with that stance.

Norn and Charr looks OK. 

[Lumenex.5389]

Imo the stance of the spear should be the way a female human character holds it when moving backwards. Shaft is pointed upwards behind the characters back spear head is pointed down. Since it is being wielded 1 handed not two handed (like melee staff) you would thrust forward with it putting your characters full weight into it.
Another take for this would be breaking the stances into how the weapons are used. Slicing / throwing so on.
The fact that its just the idle underwater stance where it makes sense your arms would be flouting doesn't really transition well onto land.

With the expansion only being a month out I doubt we will see any real changes to the overall stances.

Edited June 30 by Lumenex.5389

[VaegaVic.6394]

It's because they're just the underwater stances when holding spears, especially noticeable on human.

My Human thief just holds his spear almost right at the tip and then twirls it like a batton.

I was honestly all for Spears, but I find myself unable to use them due to the copy-paste animations that look ridiculous 

[Shuzuru.3651]

On 6/29/2024 at 3:57 PM, Laughingman.9537 said:

one hand over the shoulder if ranged.

This look like an awful way to hold a spear for a default stance, you would have your arm tired before any fight is happening.

[Arianth Moonlight.6453]

9 hours ago, TwistedAlga.4235 said:

Norn and Charr looks OK. 

Asura, or at least, female looks amazing.

[Laughingman.9537]

11 hours ago, Shuzuru.3651 said:

This look like an awful way to hold a spear for a default stance, you would have your arm tired before any fight is happening.

It's a video game you character does not get tired! Just needs to look cool, in combat no one hold a spear like they are holding it in game, unless you are also holding a shield. The moment you unstow your weapon you should go into a combat stance position over the shoulder if ranged and holding it with two hands if melee.

[Noidea Incognito.9607]

Some things are what they are because a lot of times Dev choices need to be weighed on a scale called Idealism vs Reality.

Idealism= what we would like to have. Reality = what can be achieved within limitations/constraints.

Suggestions can always be great addition/have value, but those still need to be put on that same scale as well. Its pretty much a literal balancing act to make sure one doesn't outweigh the other.

Example Idealism: we should do extensive research on martial arts that have multiple staff/spear forms to create natural move sets yet make them visually cool for all profession. 

Example Reality: we have to recycle and tweak  animations from the database to the spear system so we can allocate some free resources to other segments that take priority, we will look into updating the spear animations after Release.

It is what it is. o7

Edited July 1 by Noidea Incognito.9607

[Eloc Freidon.5692]

The idle animation of switching how it is held looks so much better in reverse.

[Ashantara.8731]

On 6/27/2024 at 10:27 PM, Quench.7091 said:

My "Puncturing Jab" ability on my engineer character is doing a slash attack.

That's awful. I hope they rework those things before JW releases.

[Shuzuru.3651]

15 hours ago, Laughingman.9537 said:

It's a video game you character does not get tired! Just needs to look cool, in combat no one hold a spear like they are holding it in game, unless you are also holding a shield. The moment you unstow your weapon you should go into a combat stance position over the shoulder if ranged and holding it with two hands if melee.

Well, that's one more reason then, I always found the "over the shoulder" stance they got in gw1 silly and not cool at all.

And for the two handed stance for spear, i'm kinda neutral to it, I probably won't be silly, but I don't think it would be cooler than the current stance.

So that's 2 point for the current stance for me

- Realism

- Cool rule