I stopped reading when you guys were arguing on how to use a freaking spear: 1 handed, 2 handed who cares use it how you want it.

I just wanted to point out that on the last twitch they were talking about power attacks, something that they might implement.

That being said, if my warlock comes to battle with a spear/sword in my right hand and a pistol in my left hand, they are no glued to my hands. I should be able to use both weapons like i want to. Best exemple: W40k Space Marine using the Power Hammer.

So back to power attack. A good implementation would be that i can use my pistol, I can use my spear with one hand and I can use my spear in two hands (maybe as a power attack) too. Yet again, why couldn't I put aside my gun and use a power with my left hand?

I could come to battle with only my sword in my hands and use only psychic powers as range attack too...
I mean guys stop comparing too much with the TT too.

One handed sword attack slow, two handed sword attack faster. Voila!

Shuriken Pistol on his right side:

It's a good rule of thumb that long spears are harder to wield one handed.. OFC that is for a normal person without psychokinetic powers or magical boomerang spears.
However your specific measurements are a bit off.
The picture I embedded of a Hoplite with spear and shield is carrying a Dory and would be using it one handed in the classic spear and shield combo.
Dory are about 10' long, that's around 3 metres.

Long spears or 'pikes' of the medieval spear wall variety tended to be a lot longer, between 10' for the smallest types and 25' for the longest, that's from 3 to 7.5 metres in length and they really did need to be used with both hands.

Judging by the looks of it the Singing spear appears to be based loosely on the half pike or spontoon, which was an officer's weapon in the Napoleonic wars, though like most things 40k it has been scaled up.

Here's a video of a Spontoon being used in a mixed one/two handed style (plus thrown) in Dark Souls 2 and looks like a good example to use as a basis for comparison.

like the guy in the commentary says, it's a bit boring as a fighting style, so while it's a reasonable approach to fighting with a spear one handed I'd prefer it if they Wushu it up and mix in some flourishes and sweeps.
I'll take enjoyment over strict authenticity any day.

Well while I am happy that you guys are keeping this thread going, can we please, please stop making real life comparison to a universe where in 38k years later people are using chainsaws in combat... Now having all these spear length comparison, models, pictures, and your guys pissing contest put aside, I was looking more for the game balance of things if it is going to be 2 or 1 handed and I don't think any one has mentioned anything in the past page about the actual game so I'm going to try to do this again.

So even if Spears/Witchblades are two handed, does anyone know if you will keep your spear in one hand (like in the pictures) if you want top use your sidearm/spell so it can reduce the time to switch back from the spear? Or what most likely to happen is it stays one handed all the time?

The Singing Spear is a FORCE WEAPON.

If we look up the definition of 'Force Weapons' then we will find that Force Weapons can be used to channel psychic abilities through them. Therefor we would not need to change weapons for spells, if they stay true to the lore at least.

Then there is also the fact of how light Wraithbone weapons are versus whatever the Imperium can come up with.

So we can assume that Singing Spears will be one handed, since a lot of artwork shows eldar farseers with their spear AND a shuriken pistol. Just like also in Dawn of War we had seen, I believe it is even that way on tabletop.

What you mean other than the conversation we were having about whether they should count as one or two handed based on the rules of 40k.. Did you mean like that?
And how can we discuss game balance regarding one weapon when the game is in Alpha?

That obviously depends on how bE choose to realise them in the game they are making, anything else is just personal opinion, but I for one think that they should attempt to remain true to the game and the poses shown by the figures where possible - meaning yes, one handed spear plus pistol.

Because so much is uncertain we have been busy trying to establish what can and can't be done with a spear, using real world examples where possible and relating that to the 40k game rules where applicable...
I for one think that this is a necessary first step on the way to sketching out the details of how we think they could/should be used, and even if we can't all agree on this we can at least back up our personal positions with good reasoning - Sorry you don't think that this is relevant to the topic.. I however disagree.

Anyway my personal opinion is that they should be used mainly one handed, but with some amount of 2 hand use mixed in for sweeps and flourishes (The pistol can be drawn and holstered using Telekinesis making the transitions fast and fluid) and that psychic powers should be 'cast' from the off hand.. Mainly because there are loads of figures that are doing the empty hand 'force power' pose with a SSpear/Witchblade in the other hand.


Now to answer your question about how off hand weapons can be used you could do a lot worse than to look at the video I linked in my last post which shows another game's rendition of a very similar weapon (Spontoon), a game that has been mentioned as something the EC devs are aspiring towards (Dark Souls 2).
This video shows how you can mix thrown, single and two handed gameplay along with casting, though in this case the weapon is being used to cast with.

Usually two handed weapons are slower and hit harder than one handed weapons and one hand weapons should be faster and should let you have some ranged capability because you can equip a pistol, so being one or two handed would affect the balance.

Some of us should remember this topic next week for the 5th Q&A.

Ok well thanks guys for the replies, again. I guess that satisfies my question for now. Also I think its a great question for the Q&A I really hope they can give us more detailed answers.

You may have to wait a long while for some definite answers to that.. bE haven't even finished on the basic Space Marine lineup and won't be adding Eldar to the game till that is done... And even then you can expect the support classes (like Warlocks) to be some of the last added.
So I wouldn't expect spears are something they have given much thought to - Yet.

All that they will probably say regarding one handed weapons in general is that yes you can use pistols, just like in Space Marine the game.

You could ask specifically about the spear on the Rogue trader store, but since it's supposed to be used mainly by jetbike riders I would think that the answer would be pretty obvious.

The new Q&A thread is up.

Joram in that thread you said that singing spears are represented on the models as two handed weapons but in the rules as single handed.. Except that unlike Witchblades there isn't a single model that is shown using a Singing spear two handed.
Not that asking how they will be used in game isn't a valid question but the framing of the question in that way is likely to cause misunderstanding.