Love HalberdFollow

Strictly for bird merits, I see people mention that this is good but all the polearm discussion is centered around Tomoe and Engetsuto.

Is this a worthwhile weapon and how do you get the most out of it?

With low delay (396) do you still stack the 29 stp (assuming 5/5 merits) for a 6 hit, or do you settle for a 7 hit?

Mainly my question is what's the best setup for this weapon assuming it has a place in merits? My gear is mostly limited to AH pieces except for a few necessary items, rajas, brutal, b.haidate and swift belt, and a few other easy to get items. So, a few options that I could come up with: sam/drg, 25% haste, 7 hit, (can also get 7% DA from brutal and pole grip, since i wouldn't need rose strap) or sam/war 20% haste, 7 hit, etc.

Realistically I can't see a 6 hit with this weapon until usukane feet and body, maybe askar body and usu feet but I'd hate to loose the acc from hauby. And I'd hate to have to get askar body.

I've done very well as SAM/WAR with L.Halberd, but never as well as my LS mates who had Tomoe or Levi's. Granted, I didn't have any PLM merits and my PLM gear was far from great, but still I have my doubts I could have matched their DMG output.

Yet, it seemed to me like a very solid choice, slightly better then GKT.

While with the Halberd, I never bothered with sTP other then SAM's natural + merits, I just went straight to ACC, haste and DA.

All I can provide are these empiric arguments tho. Hopefully someone will have much better answer for you.

i'd like to have a better answer... i did some math about tomoe vs l.halberd a long time ago, but i think it was probably flawed, and it was also likely before you could get as much sTP without dropping haste. i can say that i've outparsed 5hit tomoe/engetsuto SAMs using love halberd, but parsing doesn't mean anything. i will say that whatever projected advantages you get with love halberd *aren't* unrealistic, and you shouldn't drop too much with speculation of "losing damage from hits past 100%TP". it's not actually that hard to WS @100%~ TP with 70% haste. but is it better than a tomoe 5-hit?

my gut feeling is no. sTP is something you'll have from merits and passive traits (+ good gear like rajas, usu feet, etc). it's also the case that going from an 8-hit to a 7-hit is a smaller damage increase than 7-hit to 6-hit, 6 to 5, 5 to 4, etc. it's a given that you'll likely shave a hit off to 100%TP as a samurai with some further gear and of course your traits. with this disproportionately favoring tomoe, there's a good chance tomoe will win. this is just a guess though. i haven't done math i trust yet, nor seen a good comparison that i remember.

if it were just anecdotal evidence i were going off of, i'd say love halberd too. i seem to parse higher with it, and like i said, it's been > other 5-hit polearm SAMs for me in the past. i'd like to see/do some good math, but i'm lazy.

oh wait nvm, you took x-hit in consideration already

Edited, Jan 20th 2010 6:37pm by sbrubles

depends on buffs. i'd only /DRG with polearm if i had 2 BRDs or BRD+COR expecting chaos roll. the 2 marches is the positive thing making /DRG attractive, and the extra ATT from chaos roll or 2x min is what makes /WAR less attractive.

you'd want to do some math for polearm outside of bird camp though. specifically, you'd want to see how pizza+1 fits into the equation buffwise, looking at the DEF and EVA of the other mobs (probably mamool) you'd be facing.

Love halberd i guess would be like the Soboro of polearms... good, but cant really compete with the others at higher level monsters. But i would see how it would be fun :).

I aint got one... i wish i did... aha

as for the /DRG thing... i'd only consider that for a BRD(double march) RDMorWHM(Haste) and Cor(Stp+Attk) and possibly a DNC for haste samba- then completed with the soboro and the wyvern earring with full haste setup.

Ultimo zerg GO :P