Yes, there's always poison, as well. And most bosses have 5 minions so you're better off with a bow, yes. But there might be a tricky situation somewhere, or spears might really be useless :P As for losing a round with Arcane Armor, the way I see it is like this: my Warrior tank always went last, getting his first attack after all the enemies went, whereas my Mage usually goes before the enemies, so if his first turn is spent armoring up, it simply bumps him to the back of the line and evens him with where the Warrior would be in the order. The Warrior starts at the back of the line, the Mage always gets bumped to the back of the line. The other guys get to attack first either way. The Mage also doesn't -have- to armor up, giving added flexibility.
Barmaley: I am going to try something different; Warriors are fun and all, but I am going to go Warrior-less and instead stick a Mage (yes, a Mage) on the front row and see what happens... As for the spear, I have come to the conclusion that it is a specialty weapon that, used properly, is very effective (and perhaps might even be necessary to beat hard bosses), is only useful is a few specific situations though, such as for Rangers against a group of two monsters, or a boss that is immune to stun---somewhere you can't shoot multiple people at once -or- stun them. In this case it will do more damage than a bow or a crossbow. Keep one on hand in case...Not good for everyday use, though.
Or what about this one: dwarves, and their Gawd-awful annoying Punishing Blow or whatever melee attack it is that reduces your damage by 50%--you give your Cleric a shield, make him be the tank, and give your Warrior the spear and put him in the back where he safely melees at full strength. Hmm..?
Yeah, I guess that is a bad idea. So is there any situation you can think of where a spear is an ideal weapon? By definition it has to be a Wanger or Warrior, and I'll further say it has to be either a Ranger, someone on the back row, or both, because a Warrior on the front can just use an axe and get better damage even if you ignore the shield issue. The only situation I can think of is heavily armored opponents, and the Ranger's Force of Nature skill (melee attacks that ignore armor.) Spears using Force of Nature would tear a heavily armed opponent right up, compared with a bow. That seems very specific, though.
I had some success using a vampirical warrior with an axe; a bit tricky when he took concentrated fire, but worked pretty well .
What about a Warrior with good speed and all points in strength, equipment that stuns/instant kills as often as possible, given a spear, and put in the back row?
I wasn't saying that I was getting bored of an easy game, I was saying I have a short attention span. :P Anyways, the whole point of the spear is being able to make melee attacks from the back row, and I am trying to figure out under which circumstances, and using which characters, you would want to do this. If at all. It seems to me that both the Warrior and the Ranger (the only classes allowed to use spears) usually do better with other weapons, but I suspect they wouldn't be in the game if they weren't useful for something.
Also, is a spear *ever* an ideal weapon choice? It seems it would not be, because only Warriors and Rangers (if I remeber correctly) can use them; Warriors will either 1. Have a axe with almost certainly higher damage, or 2. Have a one-handed weapon and a shield and thus be better off, (and don't want to hide in the back row anyway)...Rangers have skills that involve shooting multiple people...hmm...Ranger with high accuracy with spear, using Force of Nature skill? Still doesn't seem to be worth it except maybe against a lone boss.
Personally I like the flexibility that comes with playing on a lower difficulty,(125-188%) but I certainly don't see a point in setting it -too- low, as then it becomes drudgery. You have to find a balance, which will be different for different people I suppose. And I am still learning the game...
338% seems too hard to be fun. Also, it goes without saying that the strategies that work well on lower difficulties wouldn't be the same ones that work well on harder ones.
For example, on ~75-125%, four archers makes a fearsome team that slaughters small parties in at most two rounds, and for large parties and even 5 + bosses, Hail of Arrows x4 before they even get a chance to hit you = comic slaughter.
I wouldn't even think of trying that on on 338%, though.
Haha hhamans aren't more than a minor nuisance if you have a couple of units with ranged attack capabilities (and you *really* should.)
Pow, pow. Mop up. Loot. Get bored. wander off and look for food. Come back. Repeat.
The Doomed Heroes Badge is (relatively) easy if you pay attention to the skills and how they work.
The Super Spelunker should in my opinion be worth more, if only for the reason that it'll take a lot longer.
The fact that you can't save in survival mode is annoying.
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