The current weapon system in Spiral Knights is relatively flat, with only guns, bombs, and swords of various designs but the same overall functionality. I would like to propose a new weapon type, something that adds a new style of combat to the game.

As we have right now, swords are generally the best single target weapons to use when possible. Guns tend to be considered best used for situations in which the players need to kite with some minor splash damage (or the occasional long range firefight, and of course not counting the folks that have specialized in gunfighting with the gear and UVs for it to count). In between those you have bombs which tend to have a focus on weak AoE, but great effects. However, between your shots and blows, the player tends to be putting up his shield for the extra protection because it is there. I would like to propose an introduction of a melee type weapon actually takes advantage of the player actively blocking enemy mobs.

The polearm class of weapon, thanks to the graphic style taken by OOO in the design process of Spiral Knights, can be of any design ranging from the simple and effective pike to the stalwart halberd. In either case, these weapons are single handed weapons much like sword, with much slower attacks and ‘reload’ times. This is offset by the polearm’s special overall use. When the player has his shield up and an enemy mob has its melee attack blocked by the shield, the polearm deals a quick counter attack to that enemy. This will be given more detail below

As I said, the polearm can be used as a normal melee weapon, and as such will have charge attacks ranging from strong forward single thrusts, sweeping attacks, multiple forward thrusting, ect. The core melee attacks will not be much different from swords, in that they will be standard single target, but with longer cooldown timers, making them more a kin to guns if ‘spamming’ attacks. When melee attacking normally with his polearm, the knight will have to time his attacks or leave himself open, unable to bring up his shield for decidedly longer period of time compared to a sword user.

The special move of the polearm is what separates the polearm from the other weapon types currently available in game. As it currently stands, blocking is extremely important for many uses, but little to no offensive purposes. The polearm using knight focuses on the use of his shield, blocking enemy attacks and hitting them with a quick counter attack before pushing the enemy away. The limitations to this of course if that the knight has to have a shield in which they can use that is not recharging, and this ability only works against melee combat attacks against the knight’s shield. Because of the way the polearm’s ability works, this means the knight needs to balance out his offensive and defensive use of his shield. Blocking to many attacks will break his shield and rend the ability useless during the recharge period.

With the addition of the polearm class of weapons, players can now choose from an ever wider range of combat choice, each requiring a level of skill and tactics that differ from the others. The sword will remain the strong single target beast you see in game today, the gun will continue being the weapon to go to for kiting, and bombs will continue be the wide range AoE. The polearm will bring to the table a new close range, more defensive, style of combat.