Elden Ring - Great Spears

Great spears bolt the longest reach in the game to a shield, but only Lance and Messmer Soldier's Spear accept an Ash of War, so committing to the class means committing to one specific weapon rather than to flexibility.

Combat

Pros

• They share the Spear's ability to attack through a raised guard, with far more attack power behind it, as Lance reaches 301 and Messmer Soldier's Spear 298 physical when fully upgraded.
• Guard boost is the best of the polearm classes. Serpent-Hunter has 50 at +0 and 55 fully upgraded, with 72 physical guard absorption, which makes it effectively a shield that attacks.
• Reach is the longest of any polearm class and extraordinarily long by any measure.
• The infusable pair has a real Strength ceiling, with Lance and Messmer Soldier's Spear both reaching A Strength at full Heavy (277 and 274 physical), and Serpent-Hunter reaches A Strength fully upgraded (271) with no stat requirements at all.

Cons

• Only Lance and Messmer Soldier's Spear can take Ashes of War, and every other great spear has a fixed skill, which is the single biggest reason not to commit to the class.
• Each swing is slow and expensive, with fully upgraded stamina costs of 146 for Serpent-Hunter and 128 for Mohgwyn's Sacred Spear and Siluria's Tree, against 68 to 88 across the whole Spear class.
• They are heavy, from 7.5 (Barbed Staff-Spear) up to 12 (Serpent-Hunter), with most sitting between 8 and 10.
• All great spears share the same light attacks and only the heavies differ, so the choice of moveset is thin.

Builds

The weapon comes first and the stats follow.

• Strength or Quality builds take Lance or Messmer Soldier's Spear, with A Strength at full Heavy (277 and 274) and B Strength and B Dexterity at full Quality (241 and 239).
• Pure Strength with no stat tax goes to Serpent-Hunter, which needs nothing to equip and reaches 694 attack rating one-handed and 747 two-handed at 80 Strength and 12 Dexterity.
• Arcane builds take Mohgwyn's Sacred Spear (27 Arcane), where Arcane beats Strength despite both showing C, because both its physical and fire damage scale with Arcane.
• Faith builds take Barbed Staff-Spear (22 Faith, A Faith when fully upgraded, 210 physical and 210 holy).
• Dexterity and Faith builds take Spear of the Impaler, which wants 35 Dexterity and 18 Faith, the steepest Dexterity bill in the class.

Best Weapons

Weapon	Image	Attack	Weight	Str	Dex	Int	Fai	Arc
Lance		123	9	20	14	-	-	-
Messmer Soldier's Spear		122	8.5	19	16	-	-	-
Serpent-Hunter		111	12	-	-	-	-	-
Mohgwyn's Sacred Spear		96 + 62 fire	10	24	14	-	-	27
Barbed Staff-Spear		86 + 86 holy	7.5	14	18	-	22	-

Notes

• Heavy attacks split four ways: a thrust (Lance, Mohgwyn's Sacred Spear, Bloodfiend's Sacred Spear), a horizontal sweep (Vyke's War Spear, Serpent-Hunter, Siluria's Tree, Barbed Staff-Spear), a double poke (Treespear, Messmer Soldier's Spear) and a thrown projectile (Spear of the Impaler).
• The uncharged first heavy attack is faster on every great spear except Serpent-Hunter.
• Treespear breaks the Somber pattern. It uses normal Smithing Stones and cannot be infused, but weapon buffs work, so Bloodflame Blade, Electrify Armament or Order's Blade double up on its Faith scaling for a Faith build.
• Bloodfiend's Sacred Spear reaches B Arcane by +3.
• The class deals Standard and Pierce damage even though the item descriptions do not say so.

All Great Spears

The table below lists all Great Spears in Elden Ring.

Name	Image	Physical	Magic	Fire	Light	Holy	Crit. Boost	Weight	Str.	Dex.	Int.	Fai.	Arc.	Sell Price	Skill
Barbed Staff-Spear		86 42	0 31	0 31	0 31	86 45	100 37	7.5	E 14	E 18	0	C 22	0	1000	Jori's Inquisition
Bloodfiend's Sacred Spear		115 40	0 25	0 25	0 25	0 25	100 30	8	E 22	E 12	0	0	C 13	200	Bloodfiends' Bloodboon
Lance		123 57	0 36	0 36	0 36	0 36	100 44	9.0	D 20	D 14	0	0	0	100	Charge Forth
Messmer Soldier's Spear		122 56	0 35	0 35	0 35	0 35	100 43	8.5	D 19	D 16	0	0	0	100	Impaling Thrust
Mohgwyn's Sacred Spear		96 55	0 38	62 38	0 38	0 38	100 46	10	D 24	E 14	0	0	D 27	1000	Bloodboon Ritual
Serpent-Hunter		111 72	0 42	0 42	0 42	0 42	100 50	12	B 0	E 0	0	0	0	Unsellable	Great-Serpent Hunt
Siluria's Tree		90 51	0 36	0 36	0 36	90 55	100 46	10	D 27	E 13	0	D 20	0	500	Siluria's Woe
Spear of the Impaler		85 48	0 32	102 32	0 64	0 32	100 45	9.5	E 14	C 35	0	D 18	0	1000	Messmer's Assault
Treespear		122 55	0 35	0 35	0 35	79 45	100 45	9.5	D 15	D 22	0	D 18	0	500	Sacred Order
Vyke's War Spear		103 52	0 33	66 45	0 33	0 33	100 42	8	E 16	C 20	0	D 18	0	500	Frenzyflame Thrust