+5 energy Spears: A caster's new friend?

I know this sounds somewhat (hell, extremely) odd, but I've been contemplating this idea ever since I got that Firey Sunspear of Shelter from the Nightfall bonus. I've noticed that most casters have been demanding a one-handed weapon with the +5 energy mod for some time in Kaineng. After using the bonus spear with my Ele during the PvE event, I've noticed some potential perks that the mages would enjoy.

Keep in mind that this is all just ideas I have thought up on the fly. If you have done extensive research that outdoes mine, feel free to post it as well.

1. Prefix/suffix perks.
This is just somthing minor I thought of but figured it may be useful. Basically you get access to mods like Shelter, Enchanting and Fortitude while getting the offhand benefits as well (Greens especially with the +1 attribute). Though in the end the combined +5 from the spear and the +12 from the offhand only equates to a 2~7 energy difference (Depending on mods on the staff), This theory leads to my next potential benefit...

2. The Zealous mod.
The one mod that staff/wand users don't benefit from at all. Spears (from what I remember) have access to the zealous mod and this can provide some potentially great energy management when your energy runs low. The only problem is that before spears came around, the zealous mod was useless since sword/axe weapons required you to melee to make use of the zealous mod. Spears though, they work like a one-handed shorbow so you can abuse the zealous mod if energy denial or recharge on spells give you downtime.

3. Range
I mentioned this in the zealous mod but I thought it might be worth mentioning again. Attacking with a spear gives you the benefit of range. While it may not seem like much, you can utilize this for pulling under the right height conditions and still stay safely behind your tank wall.

There may be more benefits to this, but I haven't done much research on the idea. Any thoughts/speculations?

Wouldn't a zealous short bow be superior since it has a faster attack speed? IMO unless your switching when you have absolutly zero energy you're not going to come out ahead since casters... cast all of the time or kite.

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I believe that spears will replace swords/axes as the primary caster item of choice, because they at least allow the caster to attack from a distance.

If the transferrable inscription comes to pass, the most sought after caster weapon will likely be a no requirement 7-10 damage (or the like) white spear with a +5 energy mod attached to it.

Can a spear like that have the max energy mod though? I am not quite clear on the new salvage thing that's going on.

And I did well over 20 damage with the Firey Sunspear of Shelter, so that may be a common option.

The current answer is no - a no requirement item cannot have a max modifier.

However, if the speculated changes occur, you will be able to transfer any inherent modifier to any weapon (other than probably greens, quest reward and collector items). So, the +5 energy modifier would be salvagable and you could apply it to any spear.

While casters would be able to "wand" targets while also getting the benefits from weapon mods, most will not have points to spend in the spear skill so the damage done would be minimal.

I suppose you could throw spears at enemies in PvP as a chaff for Displacement and RoF, but the damage would be inconsequential. You'd still need a wand linked to one of your attributes if you wanted to do damage.

Some caster builds can take advantage of the inherent +5 or -5 energy mods on spears, as well as the ability to fit an enchantment length increasing or fortitude mod.

Adrenaline based caster builds are probably not going to become more common any time soon, but I occasionally see "Bonettis Defense" on healing monks with adrenaline built up from sword attacks and taking damage (spear should work better). Lyric of Zeal (Paragon Motivation chant) apparently doesn't require much of an investment in Motivation to get some energy from using signets, Signet of Devotion/Boon Signet/Signet of Rejuvenation. Doesn't make putting points in Spear Mastery worthwhile though...

Obviously, wanding with a specced attribute would be the best method for adrenaline gain for a caster. I don't know about the timing with wanding right now if you are a warrior. But for builds with Order of Pain/Vampire that require physical damage, spear throwing will be better than wanding.

This isn't odd, it's old mate. Alot of people have been using a combo similar to the following for PvP: [Random non-vamp/zealous prefix] Sword/Axe of Enchanting/Fort+30 and a 20/20 off-hand.

That way you get the perks of an Insightful 20/20 Staff of Fort, but you get 2 extra energy. You do, however, lack the (moderately low, but still some) damage output of your staff, sine you'll generally do 0-2 damage with the sword/axe as a caster.

+5 Energy spears do exist....

http://www.guildwarsguru.com/forum/s...php?t=10045067

Looks like the HoD sword and other +5 energy swords are now obsolete. I personally will be interested to see how the inscription thing pans out...if so, I got a lot of white farming to do.

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