Spears. The second most boring
weapon type in Terraria. I mean, they get the job done, but sometimes
I want something a bit more than the old forward facing reciprocating motion. Some spears
compensate by shooting additional projectiles, whether that be ghost mushrooms, toxic
spores, or snowflakes, but in the end it's all the same - thrust, thrust, thrust.
The only spear that breaks this mold is the Ghastly Glaive, which uniquely doesn't
just thrust forward, but makes a swinging figure eight motion as well. It also has a
special ability, which spawns a golden Ghast whenever it hits an enemy. This projectile
moves slowly and pierces enemies repeatedly during its 1-second lifetime. In my opinion,
these all make it the coolest looking spear, a respite from the rather old and boring spears
that largely hail from Terraria's 1.2 era. So why don't we use it? Well, this spear is
obtainable after defeating a mechanical boss, through the Tier II Old One's Army. It's dropped
from the Ogre mini boss, and here's where its first problem starts. It has a low drop rate,
just 10 or 20% from the Ogre. This means you'll likely have to do multiple events to get it.
This, combined with the fact that half the community would rather shit themselves than do
a solo Old One's Army with a true melee weapon, means that most people will write off
even trying to get it. I know I would. Then, there's the competition. There are only
two spears in competition with it - the Gungnir and the Mushroom Spear. Here, the Gungnir has the
advantage of being immediately obtained after a Mechanical Boss, while the Mushroom Spear takes
a little bit more effort to get, requiring the Truffle and all. Both of these are still easier
to get than the Glaive though, which wouldn't be a problem if the Glaive was good. And yes, it's not
actually that bad - at least in ideal scenarios. Here in the unshadered land of 1.4.4, the
Glaive has received a massive i-frame reduction, so it's probably better than you remember. In
single-target it beats both the Gungnir and Mushroom Spear, though not by a massive margin
or anything. When gear and buffs are introduced, the Gungnir falls way behind since it can
no longer double hit, and the Mushroom Spear actually pulls ahead by a little bit.
As for multi-target, which would be its specialty, the Glaive does better. Here, it's almost able
to match the Gungnir despite only hitting five of the eight targets, showing its raw DPS potential
per target. Meanwhile, the Mushroom Spear becomes hopeless in this scenario. When gear and buffs
are added, this trend also continues as previous, with the Gungnir being a bit more consistent.
Overall though, so far it seems like the DPS improvements it provides aren't massive
enough to justify getting it over the Gungnir. What about its performance on bosses though?
Well here, you begin to realize truly why it's not used. You know how I said that the Glaive has
similar DPS to the Gungnir despite hitting 3 less targets? Well, that's because it has piss-poor
range. Especially compared to the Gungnir, which obviously got this little spike
thing. Now that's not a lot, but try to melee bosses with the Glaive and you'll begin
to appreciate every millimeter of reach you get. With the Gungnir, you can stay at a relatively
nice, far range from the Skeleton, while with the Glaive your asscheeks have to basically be
touching him. Not to mention that the slow moving ghasts are less effective against the fast moving
boss, and you see why this isn't exactly ideal. As for events, I tested using the Old One's Army,
which is close to the most clustered enemies get. And yes, it was definitely effective, though
with the Gungnir's better piercing ability and massively improved range I almost immediately
switched to using it. This is especially true for later stages, where you get these massive hordes
of enemies that the short spear really isn't the best at. Can't even win at its own event.
So, it's difficult to get, and the performance of the Glaive isn't that great. The fact that a
tedious boss drop such as it can only sometimes equal the Gungnir, a weapon you literally get for
free after a mechanical boss, doesn't look great. It's not competitive, even with the
i-frame buff, since the Gungnir spear got a much larger buff than it did in 1.4.4.
Not to say the Gungnir isn't cool, but I'd love to see OOA weapons get some love, especially
for the toil they require. Like, it should at least be as long as the Mushroom Spear, right?
All I can say is... godspeed, dear spear. Maybe one day, you can make people actually
want to do the Tier II Old One's Army. Hello, if you're part of the 80% of my audience
who has not subscribed, I advise that you go through that action right now. If you like my
content, here's some more similar content on both the left and the right. Regardless, thank you for
watching until the end, and good day and good bye.
