Ancient Spear
Ancient Spear is a Barbarian Tier 5 skill unlocked at level 14. The Barbarian fires a mystical spear to snare his foes and haul them back into melee range.
This skill is commonly referred to[1] as "Ancient Harpoon" for fairly obvious functional reasons. Spears are not barbed and do not have ropes or chains attached to them. Harpoons, on the other hand, are barbed and tethered, since they are used to reel in aquatic life forms. Why Blizzard didn't just call the skill "harpoon" isn't known; perhaps they didn't like the maritime connotation, since the Barbarians are not seafaring folk in the official game lore?
Contents
Background
Diablo III Skill [e] | |
---|---|
Ancient Spear Active, 5 ranks | |
Used by: | Barbarian |
Fires a harpoon to snag an enemy and pull it into melee range. | |
Type: | Grapple |
Quantity: | None |
Effect: | Target |
School: | Physical |
Fury cost: | Unknown |
Cast time: | Instant |
Duration: | None |
Cooldown: | Unknown |
Synergies: | None |
Requires: | N/A |
Prereq of: | N/A |
The Barbarian throws an ancient spear that sinks into his foes, and he pulls them into his blades.
Skill Design
Ancient Spear first appeared at BlizzCon 2010.
The skill is a ranged attack that spears enemies and pulls them into melee range, where the Barbarian, should he react quickly enough, can chop them to bits.
This skill is highly viable in the Battle Arena where slippery ranged attacking Wizards and Witch Doctors are in desperate need of some "Get over here!" as far as the Barbarian is concerned.
The skill can also be used effectively in PvM, ideally on back row attackers like archers or shaman, who the Barbarian wants to kill but can not reach through their defending meat shields. Enemies all the way to the edge of the visible screen can be skewered and pulled in, when targeted accurately.
Skill Rank Table
- Rank 1: Throws a spear with a maximum range of X feet, pulling each target back to the Barbarian, slowing movement speed and dealing X-X damage.
Trait Synergies
Ancient Spear benefits directly from the following traits:
- Intimidation: Increases damage done and reduces vendor costs.
- Cruelty: Increases your chance of dealing critical strikes.
- Weak Spot: Increases critical strike damage.
Ancient Spear may benefit from the following traits:
- Frenzied Attacks: Increases the chance to deal critical strikes and increases critical strike damage when the Barbarian is wielding two weapons.
- Thunderous Blows: Increases damage done when the Barbarian is wielding a two-handed weapon.
- Beast Hunter: Damage bonus against Beasts.
- Demonsbane: Damage bonus against Demons.
- Just...Stay...Dead!: Damage bonus against Undead.
- Massive Blow: You have a chance to hit all nearby targets with a single hit. Requires a two-handed weapon.
- Pig Sticker: Increases damage done when the Barbarian is wielding a polearm, spears or when he throws weapons.
- Die by the Sword: Increases damage done when the Barbarian is wielding swords.
- Axe Murderer: Increases damage done when the Barbarian is wielding axes.
- Brain Basher: Increases damage done when the Barbarian is wielding maces.
Note: The current trait list is very out-of-date and will no doubt be overhauled before game release.
Skill Rune Effects
Only one is known; the runestone socketed in the pre-made, PvP Battle Arena characters at Blizzcon 2010 allowed the spear to skewer multiple targets and pull them both into range. Unfortunately, it's not known if this was the Indigo rune effect, or if it was the Alabaster or Obsidian wildcard rune bonuses.
Crimson is assumed to boost the damage of a successful spearing (or perhaps boost the damage of hits landed on a harpooned enemy for some duration?), and Golden is presumed to lower the Fury cost of using the skill, though these are not confirmed.
Development
Ancient Spear made its first public appearance at BlizzCon 2010, where Wyatt Cheng briefly discussed its development [1]:
We knew that he needed a ranged attack so here is an example of Ancient Spear. We don't want to turn the Barbarian into a ranged class so this is something that feels very appropriate for him. We want to sell the theme that he's strong, he's tough, he's melee so we had to come up with something that felt appropriate for that.
Flux found it difficult to use in the Battle Arena:[2]
...Ancient Harpoon for ranged attacks (though I never actually saw this successfully used, since hitting moving targets was tough)...
He did, however, suggest that it could be useful against Wizards who rely too much on Disintegrate.
Media
You can find pictures in the Diablo III screenshot and picture gallery:
References
- ↑ Diablo 3 Gameplay Panel Transcript -- Incgamers 23rd Oct 2010
- BlizzCon 2010 PvP Hands-on Report
- 15 More Minutes of Arena Ninja-Cam from BlizzCon -- Incgamers 10th Jan 2011
Diablo III Classes [e] |
Barb skills Barb traits DH skills DH traits Monk skills Monk traits WD skills WD traits Wiz skills Wiz traits |
---|
The Barbarian - Barbarian skills - Barbarian traits - Fury - Barbarian skill archive [e] | ||||||
---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
Tier One/Clvl 2 | Tier Two/Clvl 3 | Tier Three/Clvl 6 | Tier Four/Clvl 10 | Tier Five/Clvl 14 | Tier Six/Clvl 20 | Tier Seven/Clvl 26 |
• Bash |
• Ground Stomp • Ignore Pain |
• Frenzy |
• Leap Attack |
• Ancient Spear • Battle Rage |
• Furious Charge |
• Call of the Ancients |
The Barbarian - Barbarian skills - Barbarian traits - Fury - Barbarian skill archive [e] | |||||
---|---|---|---|---|---|
Level Req: Under 10 • Bad Temper (trait) |
Level Req: 11 • Pound of Flesh (trait)
|
Level Req: 19 • Inner Rage
|
Level Req: 27 • Cruelty (trait) Level Req: 31 Level Req: 35 |
Level Req: 39
|
Level Req: 47 • Disbelief
|
The Demon Hunter - Demon Hunter skills - Demon Hunter traits - Discipline/Hatred - Demon Hunter skill archive[e] | ||||||
---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
Tier One/Clvl 2 | Tier Two/Clvl 3 | Tier Three/Clvl 6 | Tier Four/Clvl 10 | Tier Five/Clvl 14 | Tier Six/Clvl 20 | Tier Seven/Clvl 26 |
• Bola Shot
• Grenades |
• Entangling Shot
|
• Vault | • Molten Arrow | • Shock Spike
Unknown Tier: |
None yet known | None yet known |
The Demon Hunter - Demon Hunter skills - Demon Hunter traits - Discipline/Hatred - Demon Hunter skill archive [e] | |||||
---|---|---|---|---|---|
Only five Demon Hunter traits have yet been revealed, all with a level requirement under 10.
• Lightning Reflexes |
The Monk - Monk skills - Auras - Combos - Monk traits - Spirit - Monk skill archive [e] | ||||||
---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
Tier One/Clvl 2 | Tier Two/Clvl 3 | Tier Three/Clvl 6 | Tier Four/Clvl 10 | Tier Five/Clvl 14 | Tier Six/Clvl 20 | Tier Seven/Clvl 26 |
• Hands of Lightning |
• Circle of Wrath • Lethal Decoy |
• Blinding Flash |
• Dashing Strike |
• Exploding Palm |
• Breath of Heaven |
• Resist Aura |
The Monk - Monk skills - Auras - Combos - Monk traits - Spirit - Monk skill archive [e] | |||||
---|---|---|---|---|---|
Level Req: Under 10 • Precision |
Lvl Req: 11 Lvl Req: 15 |
Lvl Req: 23 |
Lvl Req: 35 Lvl Req: 39 |
Lvl Req: 43 • Thunderous Blows Lvl Req: 47 |
The Witch Doctor - Witch Doctor skills - Witch Doctor traits - Mana - Witch Doctor skill archive [e] | ||||||
---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
Tier One/Clvl 2 | Tier Two/Clvl 3 | Tier Three/Clvl 6 | Tier Four/Clvl 10 | Tier Five/Clvl 14 | Tier Six/Clvl 20 | Tier Seven/Clvl 26 |
• Summon Zombie Dog |
• Zombie Charger • Corpse Spiders |
• Poison Dart • Grasp of the Dead |
• Firebats |
• Acid Cloud • Firebomb |
• Gargantuan |
• Fetish Army
|
The Witch Doctor - Witch Doctor skills - Witch Doctor traits - Mana - Witch Doctor skill archive [e] | |||||
---|---|---|---|---|---|
Level Req: Under 10 • Toughness |
Level Req: 11 Level Req: 15 |
Level Req: 19 • Rituals Level Req: 23 |
Level Req: 27 • Assassin Level Req: 31 |
Level Req: 35 • Superior Skill Level Req: 39 |
Level Req: 43 • Fetish Leader Level Req: 47 |
The Wizard - Wizard skills - Wizard traits - Arcane Power - Wizard skill archive [e] | ||||||
---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
Tier One/Clvl 2 | Tier Two/Clvl 3 | Tier Three/Clvl 6 | Tier Four/Clvl 10 | Tier Five/Clvl 14 | Tier Six/Clvl 20 | Tier Seven/Clvl 26 |
• Magic Missile
• Charged Bolt
|
• Ice Armor |
• Frost Nova |
• Arcane Orb • Diamond Skin |
• Disintegrate |
• Arcane Torrent • Blizzard |
• Familiar • Teleport
|
The Wizard - Wizard skills - Wizard traits - Arcane Power - Wizard skill archive [e] | |||||
---|---|---|---|---|---|
Level Req: Under 10 |
Level Req: 11 • Energy Reserves Level Req: 15 |
Level Req: 19 • Blur Level Req: 23 |
Level Req: 27 Level Req: 31 |
Level Req: 35 Level Req: 39 |
Level Req: 43 • Expanded Mind Level Req: 47 |