Contents
Great Spear in PVP
PvP Viability
Great spears are mostly slow, but very powerful weapons in Elden Ring, and positioned in B-tier for the 1H and 2H moveset, or S-tier for the PS moveset. Their crouch attacks are all very fast, so much so that the CL1 single-handedly catapults PS GS into S-Tier, similar to the UGS crouch poke.
The Treespear has more range and greater damage than Lightning Lance. Despite dealing physical/holy split damage, it can be buffed, both by its weapon art and by e.g. drawstring holy grease. This makes it a very good option for DEX builds, significantly better than Lance. Drawstring Holy Grease can up ~140 damage to CL1 when both weapons are buffed.
Lance is the only infusible great spear, which makes it extremely useful, but doesn’t have any major benefits beyond that. The AR is usually en par or lower than that of other great spears, and it gets out-ranged by most others. When using War Cry on a Heavy Lance, it can get similar damage to Serpent Hunter. Status effect lances are very popular. You can powerstance two cold lances to two-shot a frost proc. There are many strong options due to the massive status buildup, especially when using two Lances.
Moghwyn’s Sacred Spear is the longest great spear and it also has more AR than Vyke’s War Spear and 55 innate blood loss buildup. It outclasses a Fire Lance in both range and damage.
Vykes War Spear is the shortest but also the lightest great spear. It deals physical and fire split damage, and its AR is not impressive. What makes it usable is the innate 65 madness build up. When used in a powerstance, it can build up madness decently fast on high latency. Madness will stun the opponent even through a roll, and with two Vyke’s Spears, a madness proc can be punished with JL1 for massive damage. Overall, it is a good choice on high latency, where phantom hits are more likely. On very low latency, any of the other spears are a much better choice due to range and damage. It is the worst Great Spear.
Serpent Hunter is the heaviest, and has essentially the same range as Vyke’s War Spear. Its weapon art is all but useless. However, it makes up for this with a massive 746 two-handed AR, similar to a 777 two-handed AR on a Heavy Nightrider Glaive. Most of the moveset of great spears will deal counter-hits, making this a fantastic option when two-handing, as it also gets excellent hyperarmor on the 2h attacks.
The CR1 attack on this weapon is exceptionally fast and high-ranged, compared to crouch attacks on other great spears. It is played similar to a poking UGS. However, it has slightly worse stun and slightly worse tracking, compared to the UGS CR1.
Furthermore, it has the highest base stamina damage at 73, compared to all other great spears which have either 61 or 64.
Siluria’s Tree feels like the STR counterpart to Treespear. It is slightly longer and has basically the same damage, but falls short in many other aspects:
- It cannot be buffed, which makes Treespear with drawstring holy grease a stronger option.
- Its weapon art is way too slow to be useful in PvP, compared to the Treespear weapon art which at least buffs the weapon.
- It has a much harsher stat spread.
- It has a greater non-physical portion of damage, resulting in less damage from counter-hits.
PvP Tier List
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Great Spear in PVE
PvE DPS at Rune Level 125
L1 (Poise Damage per Second [PDPS]: 7.625)
Heavy Lance 606.115
- Cragblade 697.078
Vyke’s 589.874
- Weapon Skill 494.216
- PDPS 11.662
Treespear 601.823
- Buffed 662.006
Siluria’s Tree 591.842
- Weapon Skill 859.711
- Charged 715.239
- PDPS 25.917
- Charged PDPS 18.315
Shunter 672.405
- Weapon Skill 647.885
- PDPS 25.437
Mohgwyn’s Sacred Spear 587.172
- Status 132.126
- Total 719.298
- Weapon Skill 657.8
- Status 161.039
- Total 818.839
- 5.714 PDPS
Other Attacks DPS (Calculated with Shunter)
- Crouch l1 978
- Jumping l1 874.712
- 2h Crouch r1 615
Use this Build Planner to find the optimal stat distribution for your level, for PvE allocation change the defense and damage negation values to the following for average defense/negation:
To understand the following discussion better, note that physical damage is most desirable on great spears. Only physical damage gets extra damage on counter-hits, which is ~50% extra damage using Spear Talisman. Counter-hits occur when you hit an opponent with a pierce attack during or shortly after their attack. Non-physical damage does not benefit from this, and split damage is less desirable than pure damage in general, because it goes through two separate defense calculations, resulting in less effective damage.
Treespear has more range and greater damage than a Sacred Lance. Despite dealing physical/holy split damage, it can be buffed, both by its weapon art and by e.g. drawstring holy grease. This makes it a very good option for DEX builds, significantly better than Lance, if you don’t rely on weapon arts. This combined with the early acquisition in Lurina can make it a good starting weapon for dex builds provided you have the faith.
Lance is the only infusible great spear, which makes it extremely useful, but doesn’t have any major benefits beyond that. The AR is usually en par or lower than that of other great spears, and it gets out-ranged by most others. It is the first Greatspear you can grab, being in the Deathtouched Catacombs.
Mohgwyn’s Sacred Spear is the longest great spear and it also has more AR than Vyke’s War Spear and 55 innate blood loss buildup. It outclasses a Fire Lance in both range and damage, and has the extremely powerful Bloodboon Ritual weapon art. However, given that it is only found after beating an Endgame boss means it is most likely only going to be used for NG+.
Vyke’s War Spear is the shortest but also the lightest great spear. It deals physical and fire split damage, and its AR is not impressive. It is found after the Treepsear meaning it is outclassed even before you can access it.
Serpent Hunter is the heaviest Great Spear, and has essentially the same range as Vyke’s War Spear. Most of the moveset of this Great Spear will deal counter-hits, making this a fantastic option when two-handing. Its weapon art is powerful but very slow.
Siluria’s Tree feels like the STR counterpart to Treespear. It is slightly longer and has basically the same damage, but it cannot be buffed and it has a greater non-physical portion of damage, resulting in less damage from counter-hits. However the uncharged Ash of War brings this weapon into the top of the list due to the hyperarmor and damage it can put out.
PvE Tier List
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I hope it is useful to you!
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