Spearcaster Questions

[Slintail]

After playing almost 400+ hours I've actually never tried to use the spearcaster.

I've head Maia does really well with it but I'm not sure on what gear and enchants (With spearcaster) to use.

Or mayhaps a MC with it? The firing arcane missiles sounds fun but I'd assume it doesn't scale well with PL.

 

Thanks all.

[Boeroer]

Spearcaster is good with an Arcane Archer because its ACC bonus via the Arcana skill stacks with the one the Arcane Archer gets for his Imbue shots. If you have 20 Arcana then an Imbue shot with Spearkcaster will have 25+25 = 50 ACC. I also think Arcane Archer and Spearcaster fits very well thematically. 

For non Imbue/non-elemental shots the Arcane Archer gets a -5 ACC penalty which is easily outbalanced by the +25 ACC bonus from Spearcaster then. Even with 0 Arcana Spearcaster already has +5 ACC so it gets  actually balanced out right from the start.

I played an Arcane Archer/Bleak Walker with Spearcaster once because

a) Flames of Devotion counts as elemental attack so the Arcane Archer gets no -5 ACC penalty on it

b) Eternal Devotion's 10% lash works with all direct damage abilities, including the effects of imbue shots (e.g. Fireball)

c) Ring of Focused Flame gives FoD-shots +20 ACC (instead of +10) which stacks with Spearcaster's ACC bonus from Arcana (+45 ACC for FoD shots)

d) Zealous Focus stacks with the Ranger's other ACC passives like Marksman, Stalker's Link, Survival of the Fittest etc.

So I got a superaccurate sniper who did great dmg on hit, could heal himself, Party Members and his Animal Companion a lot (Lay on Hands) and also do support. 

The Missile enchantment does not scale with PL like the original spell would - but it gets bonus PEN and damage from the weapon quality (exceptional-->superb-->legendary) and also counts as weapoon attack itself - so it would also profit from stuff like Sneak Attack. For example if you played a Scout. It procs more often with Driving Flight of course. Still I think the lash enchantment is superior and more reliable.

With an arbalest pay attention to the modal: hits will always interrupt. While a Ranger has Concussive Tranquilizer to reliably interrupt this modal can also be used to interrupt enemies without any resource cost. For example to prevent certain Oozes from merging back together of prevent a certain Dragon to cast Llengrath's Safeguard.

As nice class combos I can imagine Arcane Archer/Assassin, Arcane Archer/Bleak Walker, Assassin/Bleak Walker and maybe Arcane Archer/Helwalker

Maia is better off with the Red Hand imo. Her Gunhawk passive brings Red Hand's shorter range back up. Also Gunhawk's passive interrupt-chance is good. Both effects don't work for Arbalests, so...