When a man and a weapon love each other veeery much…

The Lothric Knight Longspear has always met a mixed reception. It got some praise for being a pretty, if unoriginal, “spear-like”. But it was always followed with ire: mocked for being a poise-antenna in a poiseless game, and failing to perform where spears often could. Perhaps unsurprisingly, few people ever understood the wonderful weirdness under the hood – the qualities that turn this simple pokey stick into Fromsoft’s crown jewel.

So, join me on a final, feverish rant as I explain everything you never wanted to know about my favorite weapon in Souls history.


FAQs:

- Q: 40 minutes wasn’t enough for me. Do you have anything else to share?
- A: Yup! Here is the “Longspear Bible”. In it, you can find the Poise Calculator I wrote for easier buildmaking, all my poise/hyperarmor testing data, and a list of combos/pseudocombos. Enjoy! https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/...

- Q: I wanna try the Longspear. What build should I make?
- A: There are a lot of options! Dex is best, but you’ll also want Endurance. The Longspear is a combo-based weapon, and depriving yourself of stamina means your combo game… finishes early. And nobody likes that.

Below meta, I would never go over 40 Dex – put the spare points in Endurance. My SL 90 build actually has 36 (!!!) Endurance for endless combos (also optimal for my beloved Valorheart). At meta I get 70-75 Dex for those post-60 Dex damage returns.

At 90 and meta, I’d also consider a Quality build (for weapon variety, plus guardbreaking options like offhand Demon Fist) or an elemental build (for shield chip and hybrid spellcasting).

- Q: So what IS the deal with the Pike?
- A: Think of the Pike as a weaker, shorter version of LKLS. It shares all the same properties, aside from the extra poise. It is worse on its optimal build (Dex) but its stat reqs actually make sense for Raw and elemental builds (which are often stat-starved). In fact, it is competitive damage-wise with LKLS on raw and elemental infusions, specifically! So if you can’t spare the stats, go ham with the Pike, baby.

- Q: Uh, why 2024?
- A: Sorry for the wait!! I crunched really hard in 2022 to get this video out before ER, but I stopped because it was compromising quality (along with my sanity). Then ER took over for a while. It’s fine though, because revisiting DS3 in 2023/2024 gave me a lot of good clips and a different perspective.

- Q: Is this really your last video?
- A: Probably not! But it will be the last thing I make of this scale. ER isn’t the best game for this type of content (imo), and I can’t just make DS3 videos for the rest of my life. So I’ll have to wait and see what Fromsoft will cook up next.

- Q: Why do you call it the Longspear and not Long Spear lmao
- A: Longspears are a thing! And “Lothric Knight Long Spear” just looks wrong man, it totally violates the rules of adjective order. It’s DOSA-SCOMP, not DOOSA-SCMP! (Three people understood that and even fewer cared.)


Chapters and Music:


— PART 1: INTRODUCTION —

0:00 The Intro
🎵Colin Stetson – “All the Colors Bleached to White”
🎵Death Grips – “Death Grips (Next Grips)”

2:37 The Comparison
🎵Raffy Bushman – “First Man”


— PART 2: MOVESET —

4:59 The R2
🎵Asturias – “Reincarnation”
🎵Louie Zong – “Turnstile Hop“

8:47 The R1
🎵Okvsho – “Kamala’s Danz”
🎵Caldera – “Guanacaste”
🎵Coolio – “Gangsta’s Paradise”
🎵Louie Zong – “A Statue’s Lament”
🎵Louie Zong – “Power Line Boogie”
🎵Unknown Artist – “Nine Monks”

12:44 The Charge
🎵Marcos Valle Azimuth – “LP O Fabuloso Fittipaldi”

17:10 The… Other Charge
🎵“Attack on Vah Ruta” from The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild OST
🎵“4 Minutes Before Death (Variation)” from the Ghost Trick OST


— PART 3: TACTICS —

19:47 The Advantage
🎵Indigo Jam Unit – “Danza Eterna”
🎵Tom Jobim – “Chega De Saudade”
🎵Mark Lockheart – “Jagdish”

23:13 The Fisha
🎵Asturias – “Soul Trees”
🎵Piero Umiliani – “Crepusculo sul mare”


— PART 4: SUBVERSION —

27:23 The Pain
🎵Aldo – “Random Jam 48”
🎵“Molduga Battle” from The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild OST
🎥(Credit to Miles John for his animation “MBMBAM Animated: Guy Another Day”)

31:47 The Counter
🎵Norio Maeda Meets Tin Pan Alley – “Laia Ladaia”
🎵Laurence Mason – “Golden Brown” (Cover in the style of Dave Brubeck)
🎵“Kitsch” from the Smash Ultimate OST
🎵The Fearless Flyers – “Vespa”


— PART 5: FINALE —

38:24 The Point
🎵Aldo – “Random Jam 46”
🎵Ray Charles – “What’d I Say”



Thanks to Prynne, Pinco, and everyone else for the coinvasions and help testing. Cheers also to Yeetomato, LostAlternative, Jello, Errel, and all the other unsung LKLS enthusiasts. Hugs to the Gyrm’s Respite Discord for always supporting my silly enthusiasm for these games. And most of all, my love to RAB for her endless support as I played/worked too long to complete this project.


#LKLS #ds3tube #invasions