I am deciding between stabbing and slashing weapons for my dwarven warrior, I kind of feel like doing something different with him though. So I was leaning towards stabbing. It seems that mobs (spirit-soldiers) hit me ALOT when they are wielding them, and I have 125 defence. BUT I need some more info, please contribute!

125 defense isn't something great.
Stabbing is good vs riding and when you're on low hps you can keep enemies at bay and hit them back nicely. Ofcourse good spears ain't too easy to get.

Actually, you can't just compare them simply by statistics. The question you're asking depends 80% on your playstyle and 20% on the weapons themselves. So, tell us, how are you planning to play that character in general?

Spears are much better imo small scale pk imo, but if you have high str, claymore seems to be very nice, and if you manage to get a glowstick or blacksword(which really has no equal for ob and dmg) you're good to go.

Slashing will get you more defense than stabbing, but not by much, but the ability to keep people at bay with spears can be invaluble sometimes.

To Androg- My playing style is a bit cautious, not brave enough to be a smiter :p I like balanced.

Oh and my primary weapon is an axe, if that matters at all.

imo , poleaxe rocks when u want to xp around fornost and GH..

Not much of a difference really to other weapons unless you're into that 'keep at bay' feature. It's a shame that in a game in which thousands of hours a week are put into development, the weapons are just basic collections of numbers with no unique fighting styles for each weapon.

Perhaps the management should spend a bit more time improving the combat system and a bit less time making more unwanted 10x10 open-area zones. But then again most of the management are only capable of writing room descriptions and don't have a clue about coding the game.

Zain, most management don't have any access to the code.

As to spears, surprised nobody mentioned it before: I don't think you can get a defense spear with any magic saving bonuses on it, unlike with slashers. But then, defense slashers don't really do much damage, and keep-at-bay feature is so damn nice that it alone might be worth it...

Actualy i can tell you alot about spears :)

1. Keep at bay is something realy nice, but if enemy hitflees you with weapon with lower weapon delay, he will probably hit you because, keep at bay is like approach (takes time to recharge), so switch to other weapon.

2. Keep at bay seems to be OB dependant, more OB means greater chance to succes so you have to be aggr (means you get more dmg)

3. If you dont have 18 str with +2 ring/spell it isnt worth of taking stabbing weapon class, best spears are giant (easy to get), blackened and steel-tipped (wich needs only 8 str but is hard to get imho)

4. If more enemy hits you, switch to other weapon :p but agains 1 stupid hitfleeer with a slow weapon its great (Actually i have stabbing as weaponclass cause i think hit flee is stupid)

5. Mostly enemies are riding, so you do great dmg, but when enemy dismounts, switch to other weapon :p

And last comment...Spears for dwarves are gay imho :p

Oh and, as a sidenote, no artifact spears are :( and stats of spear generaly sucks, with few above mentioned exeptions :(

Spears rock unless you want to kill someone. Great to flee-let hit when wielding spear, but when you're winning it's hard to finish anything with a spear.

You're right, but on the other hand it is quite hard to finish anything with a defense slasher as well, so if he was planning on wielding an engraved broadsword...

Giant spear's pretty good for chasing down and killing mounted enemies, and after the bob changes, more people started riding, and with dwarf carry nerfs, they ride too, so that made the weapon much more popular. I know when I first started playing, my first real charcter(newbie char doesnt count, it was a 16str warrior), I used spears, rarely, if ever, saw anyone else use them, and giant spear was working wonders on mounted orcs. Delay though.. *shudder*

not exactly sure on the stats of blackened spear, but giant/steel-shafted(maxchanted) are each only 15 ob iirc. that's the only real problem I had with them.

Actually, max enchanted steel-shafted has 10 OB,0 PB :P

But blackened...

270 24000 20 -5 11.5 120 9.6 Magic, Eff vs riding/spell, Silver

erm, are you sure? because it seems to me that weapon stats have changed a lot... or are all the stats on gray's page for chantable weapons given for maxchanted weapons?

arh, yep. I are stupid, it really says so on the page :P

Well i posted copy from another page...but you can use the weapons,con and see the differenc :)

P.S. I see that someone's english is worse then mine :p

I are stupid, coz I are Gollum!
gollum, gollum! *cough*

I never had much luck with spears, expecially for dwarf chars. I tend to lean towards axes.

He did say steel tipped, not steel shafted, 2 different weapons. Max chant steeltipped is 20 ob, -5 pb, 11.3 or so damage, eff vs ride, 120 delay iirc.

Giant spear is a decent weapon, except the crappy ob and the fact that it doesn't keep at bay all that well since it is slower than most hammers axes etc. Still hits harder than ornate vs a riding target.... which are still less common than a metalwearing target.

Blackened and steeltipped are great weapons, but yes, you'd rather have a hammer when trying to chase something down. Even a slasher would be better due to lower delay.....you know the 5x approach on awful target really sucks.

Orkish battle standard has decent defense I think, something like 0 ob, 5 pb, enchantable, really crap damage... still a 9pb spear...