ELDEN RING – Halberd Weapon Guide (PVP)

Guide to Halberd

Halberds are excellent STR-scaling, DEX-scaling, and ARC-scaling weapons in Elden Ring PvP, positioned in A-tier of weapons overall. Their strength lies in what is essentially the best running attack in the game, combined with offhand attacks, ashes of war, and follow-up attacks which produce a devastating vortex.

Halberd Movesets Introduction

Unlike other weapon classes, the R1 attack differs significantly between individual halberds, changing how it is played. There are three movesets:

• Vertical Slash Halberds (e.g. Nightrider Glaive)
• Thrusting Halberds (e.g. Banished Knight’s Halberd)
• Swordspear (Guardian’s Swordspear and Loretta’s War Sickle)

The Swordspear moveset is arguably the best, because it has extremely fast follow-up R1s after RR1 both in the one-handed and two-handed moveset. These are excellent anti-air and protection against opponents who roll into you. It also has a JR2 R1 true-combo in the one-handed moveset, which can deal approximately 1000 damage, 1100 with Claw Talisman. The only downside is the comparably low range and lack of pierce damage on R1.

The Thrusting moveset is the next best option, as more attacks deal pierce damage, resulting in counter-damage on trades and whiff-punishes. However, the R1 chain is considerably slower, entirely reactable, and vulnerable to jumps.

The Vertical slash moveset is even more reactable and just as slow as the thrusting moveset, and doesn’t deal pierce damage. Its only redeeming quality is that it acts as anti-air.

Halberd Tier-List and Comparison

The following comparisons are all made with 60 stats of investment starting with a wretch character. The Running R1 Damage is an approximation which assumes 140 defence and 30% damage negation for all damage types, with no buffs applied to the weapon.

	Weapon	Moveset	Optimal Stats	Attack Rating (AR)(one-handed)	1H RR1 Dmg	1H RR1Counter	Weight
S	Guardian’s Swordspear	Swordspear	17 STR 63 DEX	Keen 719 / Lightning 720	442 / 393	574 / 448	9.0
	Nightrider Glaive	Vertical	70 STR	Heavy 683 / Fire 746	415 / 399	540 / 456	12.0
	Commander’s Standard	Thrusting	58 STR 22 DEX	641 physical	384	500	11.5
	Banished Knight’s Halberd	Thrusting	68 STR 12 DEX	Heavy 621 / Fire 703	370 / 369	480 / 422	8.0
A	Ripple Crescent Halberd	Vertical	12 STR 12 DEX 66 ARC	618 physical	367	477	8.5
	Halberd	Thrusting	68 STR 12 DEX	Heavy 627 / Fire 688	374 / 340	487 / 388	8.0
B	Golden Halberd	Vertical	56 STR 14 DEX 20 FTH	819 physical+holy	458	554	13.5
C	Vulgar Militia Shotel	Vertical	14 STR 66 DEX	Keen 618 / Lightning 710	368 / 387	478 / 440	8.0
	Vulgar Militia Saw	Vertical	67 STR 13 DEX	Heavy 618 / Fire 701	367 / 368	477 / 421	8.0
	Glaive	Vertical	65 STR 15 DEX	Heavy 629 / Fire 724	376 / 384	488 / 439	10.0
D	Loretta’s War Sickle	Swordspear	22 STR 48 DEX 20 INT	687 physical+magic	361	438	10.0
	Pest’s Glaive	Vertical	13 STR 67 DEX	Keen 593 / Lightning 672	349 / 360	454 / 410	7.0
	Dragon Halberd	Thrusting	55 STR 25 DEX	619 physical	368	479	10.5
E	Lucerne	Vertical	15 STR 65 DEX	Keen 596 / Lightning 653	351 / 348	457 / 396	7.0
	Gargoyle’s Halberd	Vertical	70 STR	Heavy 688 / Fire 743	419 / 396	545 / 453	12.0
F	Gargoyle’s Black Halberd	Vertical	56 STR 24 FTH	761 physical+holy	412	478	12.0

Weapon Hitbox Range Comparison

Weapon Range Data for Halberds in Elden Ring

Discussion

To understand the following discussion better, note that physical damage is most desirable on halberds. 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 defence calculations, resulting in less effective damage.

Guardian’s Swordspear

It has the arguably best moveset and the most physical damage with a massive 757 AR at 73 DEX. The benefits of the swordspear moveset have been explained above. However, its range is considerably lower than the other S-tier halberds.

Nightrider Glaive

One of the highest damage, and highest range halberds. It has an extremely low DEX stat requirement, making it great for builds that dump everything into STR. Unfortunately it is also one of the heaviest halberds, and has the rather weak vertical slash moveset.

Commander’s Standard

The longest halberd, and slightly more damaging than Banished Knight’s while having the same moveset. Unfortunately, it can not be infused and is stuck with a buffing weapon art which does almost nothing in PvP (2.5% extra damage). It is still very useful as an offhand weapon.

Banished Knight’s Halberd

Considerably less damage than Nightrider, but a thrusting moveset. The extra counter-hits on R1  can compensate for the lack of damage. It is much lighter, but a little shorter than the Nightrider Glaive. Due to the decent scaling with virtually any infusion, the low weight, the high range, and low stat requirement, this weapon is often preferred on FTH or INT hybrid builds.

Ripple Crescent Halberd

This halberd is very special because it has inherent ARC scaling. This means that any status effects such as sleep are boosted when applied to this weapon. Drawstring sleep grease on Ripple Crescent can proc extremely fast with high ARC. Unfortunately, this weapon is not infusible and stuck with Spinning Slash, which is not a great weapon art on halberds.

Halberd

Basically a clone of Banished Knight’s Halberd with slightly less range.

Golden Halberd

The halberd with the highest AR. However, it has the vertical slash moveset, has split damage, a high STR requirement, and high weight, making it only useful on high-level STR/FTH hybrid builds. All of these high requirements make it more viable at RL150; it is very rarely used at RL125. It is also not infusible and stuck with a buffing weapon art which does almost nothing in PvP.

Vulgar Militia Shotel

Shorter, and worse moveset than Banished Knight’s, with comparable damage. The key benefit of this halberd is that 40% of its damage goes through shields. A Cold Shotel can be a strong option against shields.

Vulgar Militia Saw

Same range and moveset as Shotel, but it has a different special property: it has innate 50 bleed buildup. This can be further boosted by Seppuku or drawstring blood grease, resulting in a fast bleed proc. Powerstancing multiple saws with a combination of different status effects can be a strong option.

Glaive

Similar range and damage to Banished Knight’s. However, it is heavier and has the less desirable vertical slash moveset. Overall, there is rarely a reason to use this weapon, even though it’s not horrible.

Loretta’s War Sickle

Slightly heavier and much longer than Guardian’s Swordspear, and shares the same moveset. Sadly this weapon has very high stat requirements and a horrible weapon art, making it unattractive for almost all INT builds, which it is intended for. It can be a strong option at very high RL, e.g. RL200, because it has C scaling with three stats.

Pest’s Glaive

Basically like Glaive for DEX builds, but less damage and less range. No good reason to use this.

Dragon Halberd

Basically a much shorter Banished Knight’s Halberd. Its weapon art is a special variation of Spinning Slash that buffs the weapon with 130 lightning and 80 frost. This is pretty good, but the short range of this halberd holds it back.

Lucerne

Short range, low damage, vertical slash moveset. Overall, there is no good reason to use this halberd.

Gargoyle’s Halberd

Almost identical to Nightrider Glaive, but dramatically shorter. It is the shortest halberd in the game. This makes it useless in all cases.

Gargoyle’s Black Halberd

Complete garbage, just like Gargoyle’s Halberd, but has high stat requirements, deals split damage, and is stuck with Spinning Slash. Unfortunately there is no tier below F, because that’s where this halberd belongs.

Moveset Data and Discussion

There are three movesets to discuss: two-handed (2H), one-handed (1H), and powerstanced (PS). The following tables refer to the data for Banished Knight’s Halberd. The data for other halberds may slightly vary, but is very similar in most cases. Other than the differences in R1 and R2, all halberds have identical movesets.

Regardless of whether you are one-handing or two-handing halberds, they have an excellent, extremely fast and extremely low recovery RR1 with pierce damage. With spear talisman, expect to deal approximately the same damage as your physical AR, e.g. a Keen Swordspear with 700 AR would deal around 700 damage on a counter-hit (assuming no buffs).

After landing a RR1, you can use weapon arts, offhand weapons, R1, or another RR1. The opponent is staggered for a long time and your recovery is short, resulting in a devastating vortex. On sufficient latency, you can spam running attacks at your opponent and they will get early-hit or phantom-hit every time, due to how fast halberd RR1 is. Ripple Crescent Halberd with sleep grease is the most disgusting way to exploit these phantom hits on high latency, but not the only way.

Two-Handed

Move	PvP Poise Dmg	Attack Motion Value
R1	101.5	103
R2 No Charge	110	130
R2 Full Charge	55 + 275	50 + 150
Running R1 (RR1)	101.5	110
Running R2 (RR2)	110	125
Rolling/Crouch R1 (CR1)	101.5	95
Jump R1 (JR1)	101.5	110
Jump R2 (JR2)	220	135
Backstep R1 (BR1)	101.5	95
Guard Counter	330	130

In competitive matches which are restricted to 100 poise, this moveset has the notable advantage of breaking poise on every single attack. Opponents will often use 99 poise builds against 1H halberd, making this a good fallback option.

The 2H and 1H R1 chains are mostly slow and reactable, except for the swordspear moveset. The swordspear moveset contains a series of extremely fast vertical upwards swings, easily catching rolls and providing anti-air.

2H RR1 has slightly less range than 1H RR1. The Swordspear 2H RR1 does not combo into R1 2, making the follow-up slightly slower. Additionally, 2H JR2 R1 is not a true combo for Swordspear, making the 2H moveset much worse than the 1H moveset for that weapon. On the other side, Banished Knight’s 2H CR1 is faster, and 2H RR1 R1, and 2H JR2 R1 are faster. In short, the swordspear moveset is much worse when two-handing, the thrusting moveset is a bit better.

BR1 sadly has a low motion value, but it is a very fast and long-range thrusting move, somewhat compensating for this. It is especially useful on non-thrusting halberds.

One-Handed

Move	PvP Poise Dmg	Attack Motion Value
R1	92.5	100
R2 No Charge	100	125
R2 Full Charge	300	160
Running R1 (RR1)	92.5	105
Running R2 (RR2)	100	120
Rolling/Crouch R1 (CR1)	92.5	90
Jump R1 (JR1)	92.5	107
Jump R2 (JR2)	200	130
Backstep R1 (BR1)	92.5	90
Guard Counter	300	125

The upsides and downsides of using the 2H moveset over the 1H moveset have been explained above. Usually the 1H moveset is preferred, because it is never much worse than 2H, and it grants access to offhand weapons, which synergize very well with one-handed halberds. See more regarding offhand weapons below.

Even though RR2 deals more poise damage, it is slow and obsoleted by JR2, especially on Swordspear with the JR2 R1 true combo. CR1 is the fastest move, but faster in the 2H moveset.

The swordspear RR1 R1 is an extremely fast combo because it uses R1 2, although it is not a true combo. However, it is fast enough for R1 to interrupt Raptor of the Mists which was activated on the RR1, against almost all jump attacks. The R1 will almost always phantom-hit if RR1 staggered, making it useful to apply status effects.

Powerstanced

Move	PvP Poise Dmg	Attack Motion Value
L1	55.5 + 55.5	92 + 92
Running L1 (RL1)	55.5 + 55.5	100 + 100
Rolling/Crouch L1 (CL1)	55.5 + 55.5	85 + 85
Jump L1 (JL1)	75 + 75	115 + 115
Backstep L1 (BL1)	55.5 + 55.5	85 + 85

Powerstancing halberds is a good option that completes the moveset in a way that offhand weapons can’t. Any paired attack will deal over 100 poise damage, making it a good option against high poise opponents.

L1 is very slow and consists of two separate hits. It is useful as a roll catch, but otherwise too risky. L1 1 consists of a swing and a very poor tracking thrust. L1 2 swings twice, which hits more reliably. JR1 and JR2 combo onto L1 2, making this move accessible. L1 3 swings both halberds simultaneously, which is very good, but you will very rarely get to use this final move in the L1 chain.

RL1 is similarly slow. It can be useful for roll-catching opponents, because if they roll through the first swing with suboptimal timing, the second swing will roll-catch them.

CL1 obviously does more damage than swinging a halberd once, at least if it hits with both halberds. The damage could be better and the tracking is extremely bad, resulting in frequent half-hits. It consists of two vertical swings, granting decent anti-air to thrusting halberds, but the active frames start too late into the swing so that some jumping opponents might be missed. In short, CL1 is a strong attack when it actually lands in full, but has major reliability issues.

JL1 deals massive damage. It will easily achieve 1000 damage with claw talisman. The tracking and range are somewhat limited, so it is best as a defensive jumping attack. Both halberds are swung vertically downwards, which makes it excellent for air-to-air and air-to-ground combat at the same time. Neutral jumps into JL1 can be a massive punishment for aggressive opponents. The JL1 is much better than JR1 and JR2, enhancing the halberd moveset significantly.

BL1 is similar to BR1, but thrusts twice. It is a slow and low-damage move, making it rarely useful. At least it deals pierce damage on both hits.

Summary

The 1H moveset has a slightly greater range and allows powerstancing halberds or using offhand weapons. This makes it much more desirable, usually. However, opponents may use builds with 92 poise or higher, who are capable of poising many of the attacks in the 1H moveset. In that case, 2H halberds become useful. Powerstancing halberds significantly enhances the halberd moveset, although it requires a high weight investment, and many of the PS moves have limited use cases.

Offhand Weapon Options

Shield

In some cases, shields can be useful in combination with halberds. For example, Silver Mirrorshield can be used to close distance against sorcerers without taking much damage from projectiles. Halberds are not capable of shield-poking, so overall, there is little synergy.

Thrusting Sword aka. Offstoc

Move	PvP Poise Dmg	Attack Motion Value
Estoc Offhand L1	40	100

Thrusting swords synergize very well with halberds. After landing RR1, you almost true-combo into Offstoc L1. It is a very fast and hardly reactable attack, so opponents may have to panic roll after RR1 to avoid it. This gives you the opportunity to roll-catch them with halberd attacks instead and keep them in the vortex.

The Offstoc is also essential for punishing whiffs and catching rolls, which is something that halberds are often too slow for, on reaction. If you are using a physical halberd, you are probably using Spear Talisman, which will also benefit the Offstoc. Overall, this is the most traditional and one of the best offhand setups.

Unfortunately the Offstoc is very easily jumpable, just like thrusting halberds are. This is a major vulnerability. It also deals little poise damage, requiring three hits to break 100 poise. Unless it lands a counter-hit, it will lose many trades.

Nagakiba aka. Offkiba

Move	PvP Poise Dmg	Attack Motion Value
Nagakiba Offhand L1	50	100

On DEX builds, it may be a good option to use an offhand Nagakiba. It has diagonal swings which give you some anti-air capabilities, and roughly the same range as Cleanrot Knight’s Offstoc.

Offkiba is tremendously better than Offstoc against poise-restricted setups, such as UGS and PS GS which are presently restricted to 49 poise. Those setups can poise Offstoc, but will always be staggered by Offkiba.

Straight Sword aka. Offsword

Move	PvP Poise Dmg	Attack Motion Value
Broadsword Offhand L1	50	100

Similar to Offkiba, but less vertical moveset and much lower range. Prefer Offkiba if you meet the stat requirements. An offhand Coded Sword can be a good emergency option for incantation casters who ran out of FP and normally use a sacred seal in their offhand.

Pike aka. Offpike

Move	PvP Poise Dmg	Attack Motion Value
Broadsword Offhand L1	50	100

A pike can be a decent offhand weapon, even if your opponent can poise it. It is not much faster than thrusting halberd R1, so it makes very little sense for thrusting halberds. It is most useful for Guardian’s Swordspear, which has a very low-range R1 and can usually not whiff-punish or catch rolls at a distance easily. Offpike allows Swordspear to do these things at a huge range. Other spears might also be viable, such as Bolt of Gransax, if your opponent has used Black Flame’s Protection.

Sacred Seal

Spell	PvP Poise Dmg	Stamina Dmg
Catch Flame	70	30
Bestial Sling	50	40

FTH casters usually need access to their incantations. This goes well together with halberds. You can switch between Bestial Sling and Catch Flame depending on whether the opponent is close or far. Catch Flame can deal a huge amount of damage on each flame (~450) and can be integrated into the halberd vortex.

Powerstanced Straight Swords (PS SS) are presently poise-restricted to 65, making Catch Flame a very annoying incantation against them, as it will always break poise. Bestial Sling can be similarly annoying for UGS and PS GS, which are restricted to 49 poise.

Glintstone Staff

Spell	PvP Poise Dmg	Stamina Dmg
Carian Slicer	30	40

Sorcerers will usually cast various spells using a glintstone staff while using a mainhand halberd. Carian Slicer can be a high-damage sorcery which integrates into the halberd vortex. However, it deals extremely low poise damage, even less than Offstoc.

Ashes of War Data and Discussion

Meta Ashes

Halberds have amazing synergy with the meta ashes of war. This is mostly because RR1 staggers opponents long enough, and has short enough recovery to create roll-catching combos with these ashes.

• Glintstone Pebble can roll-catch after RR1 when timed correctly. On a magic halberd, this will basically one-shot any opponent.
• Flaming Strike will roll-catch combo after RR1 for massive damage. It also solves the issue of people jumping and rolling into you when you’re using a thrusting or vertical halberd.
• Storm Stomp can roll-catch after RR1. Thrusting halberds are best when used with stomp, because they reach the opponent no matter how far away they were staggered. This solves the issue of people rolling into you, just like flaming strike.
• Quickstep is rather weak on halberds and does not enhance the vortex in any way. Halberd rolling attacks are also not great, making this a mostly pointless ash.

Note: Flaming Strike, Storm Stomp, and Glintstone Pebble are banned on halberds under the current ladder ruleset.

Melee Ashes

There are no melee ashes of war that synergize amazingly with halberds. This is largely because halberds have slow variants of double slash and spinning slash, which are much worse than the fast versions for smaller weapons.

Note: The following tables show the motion values for status and stamina damage. For reference, 1H R1 has a motion value of 100 for everything.

Spinning Slash – Anti-parry and roll-catch

Move	PvP Poise Dmg	Attack MV	Status MV	Stamina MV
Spinning Slash 1	62.5	105	100	125
Spinning Slash 2	37.5 + 62.5	60 + 110	100 + 100	75 + 125

Halberds have a slow version of spinning slash, which deals much less damage and is a bit slower than the fast variant. It does not compensate for this by dealing much damage.

The main use case is to punish opponents who roll into you or attempt to backstab you, as this attack hits everywhere around you. It is also not parryable, making it a good tool against shields and parry attempts.

Double Slash – No poise damage, but decent roll-catch

Move	PvP Poise Dmg	Attack MV	Status MV	Stamina MV
Double Slash 1	37.5 + 50	92 + 105	75 + 100	75 + 75
Double Slash 2	37.5 + 37.5 + 50	84 + 86 + 115	75 + 75 + 100	75 + 75 + 100
Double Slash 3	100	145	100	150

Just like Spinning Slash, Double Slash has a slow variant for halberds. While it is slower and consumes more stamina, it is identical to the fast version in damage, status, stamina damage, and poise damage.

It is somewhat useful to punish people for rolling into you and running around you, as it sweeps the halberd back and forth in more than a 180° arc. This allows you to catch pesky opponents who are dancing around you with quickstep and such. It is also useful after RR1, since RR1 into double slash is a roll-catching combo. Namely, the second hit of L2 will connect.

In theory, it is extremely parryable and easy to jump over, but opponents will very rarely attempt to do so in practice.

Sword Dance – Okay on halberds

Move	PvP Poise Dmg	Attack MV	Status MV	Stamina MV
Sword Dance 1	65 + 65	130 + 130	75 + 100	130 + 130
Sword Dance 2	75	150	100	150

Once again, halberds get a slow version of this weapon art. Thankfully, the slow version is not much slower, and also deals more poise damage, damage, and stamina damage. Due to the high range of some halberds, it can reach opponents from very far away, making it one of the better ashes for halberds. It can also give halberds anti-air capabilities, which are especially needed for thrusting halberds.

It is best used against poise-restricted setups that would be poise-broken by one-half of L2 1, namely PS SS, UGS, Moonveil, and PS GS. Otherwise, the risk of trading becomes significant. Just like the fast variant, Sword Dance can be strafed, react-parried, and backstabbed.

Impaling Thrust – Based

Move	PvP Poise Dmg	Attack MV	Status MV	Stamina MV
Impaling Thrust	300	170	100	200

On most weapons, it would be almost impossible to land Impaling Thrust. However, in both the 1H and 2H moveset, RR1 into Impaling Thrust is a roll-catching combo. It only works if your opponent panic-rolls somewhat straight away from you. Impaling Thrust has surprisingly good tracking, but an opponent who rolls diagonally into you will avoid it.

You can condition your opponent into panic-rolling, so that Impaling Thrust will land at some point in the duel. For example, you can use your Offstoc after RR1 or you can use RR1 R1 on a Swordspear. The second time you land RR1, your opponent has likely been conditioned to panic roll away from you.

Impaling Thrust ignores 80% of shields, making it a great option after RR1 against shields, assuming your opponent didn’t block the running attack.. If your opponent tries to escape the halberd vortex by blocking, or rolls and blocks, it might also guard-break them, almost certainly resulting in a one-shot.

Impaling Thrust is also a good “huge punish”. You can punish some slow attacks like Chilling Mist, Golden Land, etc. with it, or trade into them. You can also land Impaling Thrust if you read your opponent’s use of Storm Stomp. A counter-hit with Impaling Thrust on Spear Talisman can even deal 1400 damage.

Regardless of how good all of this sounds, it is essentially a much better charged R2, with similar speed but more damage. You will rarely land it, and often won’t find an opportunity to use it for an entire match.

Piercing Fang – Theoretically Useless

Move	PvP Poise Dmg	Attack MV	Status MV	Stamina MV
Piercing Fang	100	185	100	200

Unlike Impaling Thrust, there is no roll-catching combo into Impaling Thrust, making this ash of war much less useful by comparison. It deals less poise damage and only a little bit more damage than Impaling Thrust, rendering it a very bad option overall.

Other Ashes

Cragblade – Niche, possibly useful

Move	PvP Poise Dmg	Attack MV	Status MV	Stamina MV
Cragblade	75 + 50	100 + 80	100 + 100	150 + 100

Cragblade can be a useful attack/buff for 1H halberds against high poise opponents. It increases damage and poise damage by 10% for 30 seconds. Attacks which used to deal 92.5 poise damage will now deal 101.75 poise damage, guaranteeing poise breaks for the entire 1H moveset. The 1H moveset is considerably better for Guardian’s Swordspear, so getting it with 100+ poise damage is very nice.

Cragblade is not a very fast buff, making it difficult to find a good moment to apply it. Both slamming the weapon into the ground and pulling it out deal damage, possibly allowing you to integrate it into the halberd vortex after RR1.

Chilling/Poisonous Mist – Insane status pressure

Move	PvP Poise Dmg	Attack MV	Status MV	Stamina MV
Chilling Mist	100	170	100	200
Poisonous Mist	100	170	100	200

Especially on higher latencies, the phantom hits on RR1 can become nearly unavoidable for your opponent. This means that you can apply lots of status by spamming running attacks at them. Chilling Mist and Poisonous Mist buff your weapon with cold and poison respectively. You can even put these ashes of war onto a cold or poison halberd. Against many opponents, a poison halberd with poisonous mist will proc poison in just two attacks at 10 ARC. Unfortunately, the buff only lasts for 20 seconds.

These attacks are slow though, and normally it can be hard to find a safe moment to use them. You can integrate them into the halberd vortex. RR1 into mist is not a roll-catching combo, but if your opponent panic rolls after RR1, they will usually get phantom-hit by a mist attack. Mist attacks also have a small amount of hyper-armour, making it more likely to trade.

Note: Seppuku on a blood halberd can also build up over 200 blood loss per hit, but there is no safe way to apply it in the middle of the fight, it is self-damaging instead of being an attack, and frost is an overall better status. This makes Chilling Mist a significantly better option.

Glintblade Phalanx – Completely overpowered in theory

Move	PvP Poise Dmg	Stamina Dmg
Each Phalanx Blade	100	25

The potential of the Phalanx is massive, once you manage to cast it. It is most powerful when you precisely control when the blades should fire towards the opponent. You can strafe diagonally towards them, or backstep towards them to avoid having them fire prematurely. You can also just cast phalanx and run directly towards them, exploiting the fact that it’s difficult to tell when exactly they will fire.

There are four ways in which running attacks can synergize with Phalanx:

• The opponent gets hit by Phalanx, is staggered, and you land RR1
• The opponent rolls through RR1 and is roll-caught by Phalanx
• The opponent rolls the Phalanx blades and is roll-caught by RR1
• The opponent is hit by RR1, then hit by Phalanx blades while they are staggered

When played optimally, it is theoretically impossible for your opponent to avoid running attacks in combination with Phalanx. The higher the latency, the easier it becomes to cast Phalanx without being punished. It is by far one of the best ashes for halberds.

Flame of the Redmanes – Works a lot better than it has the right to

Move	PvP Poise Dmg	Stamina Dmg
Flame of the Redmanes	400	100

With Flaming Strike banned for halberds, this ash can be a discount alternative. It can interrupt and roll-catch opponents as part of the halberd vortex. It is stronger in practice than in theory, since it is very slow and reactable, so there is no good reason to get hit by it. Most times you land it, it will simply be a mistake on the side of the opponent.

It can be a good offensive option. You can cast Flame of the Redmanes and use it as a cover for a subsequent running attack. Should your opponent be late-staggered by Flame of the Redmanes, you can combo into RR1. It plays a very similar role to gravity fans, but may deal upwards of 600 damage on high STR builds.

Ice Spear – Powerful defence

Move	PvP Poise Dmg	Attack MV	Status MV	Stamina MV/Atk
Ice Spear – Startup Spin	100	80	100	80
Ice Spear	250	N/A	N/A	150

What makes this ash so powerful is the startup spin. It is barely reactable and spawns a large hitbox in front of you, dealing 100 poise damage. Should the opponent be staggered by this startup spin, Ice Spear will combo into the projectile, dealing ~1000 damage on an optimised build.

This is particularly useful as a punishment for people walking very close towards you, or rolling into you. Many opponents will do this, especially against 2H halberds, because the R1 chain of halberds is entirely reactable.

The range of this ash of war is very low though, so it can hardly be used offensively, unless you walk into your opponent while blocking with a shield. It is mostly a defensive tool. The projectile is not very fast and can be strafed, making it comparably easy to punish whiffed ice spears.