No point in lances at higher levels?

[Manhattan]

The one advantage that a lance has at lower levels is the one-hit-massive-damage provided by couching the lance.  I love doing this and I have gotten good at it.

However, at a higher level, there is no real point to it, since even a bent  spear will one-hit an enemy at a decent speed.    My question is, why not use a better weapon?  I think the awlpikes are superior to the lances.  Almost every non-lance polearm that can have a shield offers better attack points and options than lances. 

Also, a secondary question, how do you make the weapon swing or thrust (as it says it can do both types)?  At the moment I can only do one type of attack with the weapon.  X doesn't seem to be related to this function.

 

[mrdang]

The advantage of the Jousting Lance is that it deals blunt damage for taking enemies in as prisoners.

Unfortunately not all polearms that are capable of swinging on the ground can swing on a horse. It's just a mechanics thing as you'll probably want to stabilize yourself with your second hand while riding. Though I don't know why the 2handed weapon class gets a pass on this

 

[kouteki]

The advantage of the Jousting Lance is that it deals blunt damage for taking enemies in as prisoners.

don't forget the length of the jousting lance - IIRC it's longer than any other polearm (2.6m), allowing you to take out any enemy in a head-on charge.

 

[hruza]

You can't swing polearm with shield equipped and you can't swing it while on horseback. That sort of make polearms less preferable on horseback than lances as they have in general longer reach.

 

[Ada]

Hi,

if you use the "toggle weapon mode" button on horse, you can actually swing quite a lot of the bladed polearms (hafted blade, long great axe, etc) which in default mode would only "thrust".

Regards,
Ada

 

[mrdang]

Hi,

if you use the "toggle weapon mode" button on horse, you can actually swing quite a lot of the bladed polearms (hafted blade, long great axe, etc) which in default mode would only "thrust".

Regards,
Ada

GREAT FIND!!!! thank you so much!

edit: any way to get my companions to use the swing instead of thrust with their bladed polearms?