Greetings fellow Hyborians.  Jeboyb has put together a great guide on Polearms and why you want to use one basically.  It is easy to tell that Jeboyb put a bunch of time into this guide so we be thankful that there are good players out there like Jeboyb that are willing to share and make us all a bit less newbish in the process.  The following is all Jeboyb's writings:

Why should I use polearm?

Polearm is very fun to level with. I tried a couple of levels with the sword and board builds, but it can get very repetitive, hence why I always respect to polearm. Polearm is very dynamic, you need to check for enemies abilities (stuns, knockdowns) to properly use an opportunity that is given to you (using frenzy at the right time). I am in a PvP server and without being overpowered I just feel like I can beat anything if I time my things right. This is why I like the guardian : if I micromanage good, I can kill and if I play stupid I die. The more I play this class the more I seem to enjoy it since there is so much tweaking that you can do.

Anything I should know before reading this?

This is a polearm guide that is to generally guide everyone that needs helpful hints. I mostly did this to cut the newbie threads on the guardian’s forum so that everyone can talk about things more intricate than : Should I switch to polearm?

Correctness :
- You should know that I consider inacceptable to distribute false information, hence if anything I say is not true, please tell me so everyone can enjoy a clean guide.
- My mother tongue is not english, so I would greatly appreciate any relevant corrections to my WALLOFTEXTLOL.

There are terms I’ll be using the whole thread :

Priming : Priming consists in starting a combo only to keep the last hit for further use. You can keep each hit for about 5 seconds and the combo will disappear if you go above 5 seconds.
SS : Means Sword ‘n’ Board meaning the Juggernaut Guardian, the sword user.
Frenzy : The frenzy stance plus all the offensive tactics and strategems if you have quick fingers.
Defensive : The defensive stance plus all the defensive tactics and strategems if you have quick fingers.
Tempest : The guardian Tempest tree.
Soldier : The guardian Soldier tree.
Juggernaut : The guardian Juggernaut tree.
Mob : monster


2. Leveling :

The rule of thumb is to follow the quests and if by any mean you feel bored, change areas and get clean fresh air. That’s what I did, but I must say if you want to grind, I would look for Ciderhelm's Grinding Guide on Guardian's forum. Because of the reach of your polearm as a tempest guardian, you aren’t forced to fight tiny (humanoids) targets like the SS build would to be effective in grinding. However, humanoid seems to drop more money, so that is still a plus.

Stance, Tactics, Stratagems and Maneuvers

During enemies encounters, I suggest you always be in Enduring Defense Maneuver ( since you’re polearm -10% damage is nothing versus the extra protection you’ll get but go Unguarded if you want to DPS more), Hold the line Stratagem (if you’re soloing / not tanking in a group). The only one you’ll need to change depending the encounter is the Tactics :
- If you’re not tanking and in a group, use Elusive Daring,
- If you’re solo (or tanking) melee mobs (or melee and casters), use Wall of steel (you’re not draining that much stam so it’s a big help)
- If you’re solo (or tanking) caster mobs ONLY, use Mental Barrier.

As for the stance, I'm always in defensive stance, then I'll hit my combos and I'll hold the last hit only to switch to frenzy stance and hit it right after, to get the frenzy damage bonus, then I go back in defensive so I won't take useless damage by staying frenzy. Keep in mind that if you spec into “Guarded Frenzy” you won't have to change so fast. Also if you’re tanking, you stay in defensive! =)

Before I explain the procedure to follow during a mob encounter, I will explain a bit about the guard ability : The guard ability, when the combo hits an enemy, triggers a shield of your level and a counterattacking buff. Each time an enemy melee strike you, he has a chance to get hurt for X damage (10-20 for the first one?). But this damage is really useless when you think of all the damage you will do with Flashing arcs and Skewer. So UNLESS you prime your guard outside of combat and you hit the mob with the last hit OR the mob is full shielded on the right side and you’ll need to rebuff yourself in some time, I will always use Guard I since it’s the same shielding buff as Guard 2,3,4,5 (it’s based on your level). It’s so much faster and really less stamina draining (it’s about a Flashing Arc stamina worth that you’re saving).

Procedures

You need to damage your enemies fast since the longer they hit you, the slimmer your chances are. Such statement is not necessarily true with a SS build (counterstrike, strike and guard, high hp regen). When I kill (up to 3 or 4) mobs, I have two sets of combos that I use alternatively :

Guard / Flashing Arc : This is the procedure I will use the most often. You hit Guard and prime your highest Flashing Arc in defensive, unleash the combo and go back in defensive like I said. The Flashing Arcs animation and Stance cooldowns are both 3 seconds so you can switch to defensive at the same time your combo finishes. When they are low on health, I stay in frenzy to white damage them until they die (dead in 2 or 3 hits, if not, just crank a lower rank flashing arc). I will talk about this later, but you can change the directional damage by an instant combo called Riposte.

Impale / Skewer : Both Impale and skewer are on a 1min cooldown so it’s a perfect mix. I usually do this combo on a lonely target or a caster in a mob group (up to 3, but try to only hit the caster so the damage doesn’t get reduced). I switch to frenzy stance, then hit my Impale ability. When I’m next to the mob, I just hit my skewer and finish off with directional damage or Riposte (even if I don’t have the Attack Evaded buff). The lonely mob will be dead like the caster in the group. You can then use the Guard / FA procedure I talked about to finish the group (keep in mind to hit the defensive and guard ability faster if the mobs around the caster are hitting you hard, you’ll just have to hit him a couple of times for him to die right after).

If a group of mobs is giving you a hard time, be sure to hit stagger and give yourself 2 – 3 free hits or to flee (remember, you can’t win them all!).

When killing mobs, be sure to check your next targets. I usually check for my 2 next bunch of mobs to kill : If I feel they are weak or not hard, I will use my skewer a lot more to save stamina (Skewer is using 131 stamina where flashing arcs are about 3 to 4 times more costly) and to shorten my grinding time.

Another quick note, switch to SS if you’re getting attacked and you don’t have you Guard buff on. I switch to SS when I’m fleeing or going through mobs I don’t want to fight.

RANDOM TIP(s) :

- Use Disarming Aggression when you change to frenzy stance (last combo hit). In the worst case, you can crank up 2 Flashing arcs, a skewer and a riposte while you would have done 2 flashing arcs max if you started it when you started your combo.

Food, Drinks and Potions :

Buy food, drink and Stam/HP potions as they are cheap and will shorten dramatically your downtime. As for the pots, I will often use a hp one when I fight 3-4 or more mobs together. Just take a quick look at your health when you’re doing the first procedures you know by heart; if your hp drops faster than you like, chew a potion up.

3. Builds :
I found that a good mix of Tempest and Soldier is the way to go with Polearm leveling. Tempest will give you mostly damaging feats, where Soldier tree will be more about upgrading your survivability. I’m going with survivability first so you pretty much can use SS before 26 if you want to. I’m a Lifesaver freak so if it doesn’t fit you, change it.

Level 26 : http://www.conanarmory.com/feat.aspx...f48efef2ef8ef3
Level 44 : http://www.conanarmory.com/feat.aspx...f15efef2ef8ef3
Level 56 : http://www.conanarmory.com/feat.aspx...f10efef2ef8ef3

Now the tricky part : depending on your playstyle, you may chose a different path.

I would go with impale and 1 in Toughness and then get Cunning Deflection / Volcanic Rage but I prefer to get Redoubt first, a skill that I love. Either way, you end up with Riposte, Cunning Deflection, Impale and Volcanic rage.

After it’s easy, just go with Guarded Frenzy or Stone Skin depending on your playstyle.
At level 74 : http://www.conanarmory.com/feat.aspx...2ef2ef2e2fe2f2

The last few points are up to you : If you wanna suck up everybit of DPS, go Master Pikeman but Iron Skin in Soldier is more important IMO.

Notable Feats (not in order)

Cunning deflection : Many people will agree that this feat is very important against casters as there magic is 50% less effective until you are melee struck.

Life saver : I personally still use Lifesaver even if I'm Tempest in case something goes wrong (as they often do, like aggroing more than 3 mobs, hard hitting guys, caster, etc...). Plus, it shortens my downtime (hp regen after the fight).

Riposte : This is really personal, but I really like the Riposte combo. With this feat, you get a stamina free (well, only 100 stam), instant attack that does 750-800 at 70 (scale it down a bit for your lvl). Plus, it gets the 30% damage increase of the "Disarming Aggression" if you have it on. I found out that if I evaded an attack (see the little boost that says you evaded an attack on top of your screen) while priming or hitting my Flashing Arc, I would only need to hit the Riposte button to kill the mob, resulting in a really fast grind.

1 point in Toughness : to get some more hp regen / invuln. It's pretty cheap for what it gives you, I highly recommend it.

Volcanic Rage : This feat is just great since you can mow down mobs really fast, but it's a 2 min cooldown.

Guarded Frenzy : Without this feat, you will take more damage than usual when staying in frenzy stance. This can be easily countered by Stance dancing effectively (prime in defensive , unleash in frenzy, go back in defensive, finish off mob or redo a combo like I told you). I did most of my leveling without this feat, so without being necessary, it will give you a second chance if you stay too long in frenzy stance. Some people claim they grind in frenzy non-stop with this feat though.

4. Key binding :

I’m using a pretty basic setup, but that have worked for me. I’m just putting it here just so you get a general idea of my setup if you are either a groupie (yay? ^_^) or unsatisfied by your key bindings :

WASD to move forward, backward and strafe
123QE : Directionnal attacks
# : Impale / stunning charge
R : Brutal Enraging Strike, though I don’t use it (only for a little damage boost on the left side)
T : Highest Flashing arc (I use T so I didn’t have to think about the last hit of flashing arc when I started, so the left attack is R and the right attack is T)
4 : 1 level lower rank than my best FA
5 : Stagger
6 : Basic Charge
F and Ctrl + F : Thoses are my stances, F being defensive and Ctrl + F being Frenzy
G : Riposte, instant attack so it’s right next to my fingers
Ctrl + G : Overwhelming Shout, that was my WoW setup so I didn’t change it
V and Ctrl+V : Thoses are my damage booster, V being Disarming Aggression and Ctrl + V Volcanic Rage
C is Guard I
X is the active shielding that I NEVER use.
Z is Skewer
Ctrl E and Q are Wall of steel and Mental Barrier (Elusive isn’t key bound, I just click it)
Alt + 1,2,3 : My maneuvers
Alt + R,T,C : Stratagems
Alt + E,Q : Brutal Wound and Highest level of Guard
Shift + R : Switch to Sword and board (if I need a Javelin, I open inventory right click when I have my polearm, shoot it and right click right after)
F1, F2, F3, F4, F5, F7, F8 : In order, Hp pot, stam pot, Cunning Deflection, Rest, Search, Horse, Path of Asura

***Note*** : 7,8,9,0 are Z,R,T,C


5. PvP Polearm Builds :

I will give more time in this section later on, but I will at least give you some viable build to try out with your polearm spec. This is to give you a general idea, be sure to tweak it to your liking like I did.

Tempest/ Soldier Build : http://www.conanarmory.com/feat.aspx...2e2fef2e2fe2f2
Disable is great to get fatalities in PvP and you still have lots of survivability.

Hybrid Build :
http://www.conanarmory.com/feat.aspx...e3f5ef2e2f2ef2
This build is great if you can micromanage both SS and Polearm abilities and there’s still a bit of survivability.

Juggernaut / Tempest:
http://www.conanarmory.com/feat.aspx...fe2f2e3f2e2f28
A great burst and group build, just a lot less survivability.


A quick tip to polearm PvP better :

You need to stop moving when you unleash any combos. I don't know why but if you're moving sometimes it doesn't connect even if you're close and everything is perfect.

Thanks to :

I just would like to thank some people that have, with or without their consent, helped me going through all of this guide.

Ciderhelm : For writing such great guides through WoW and AoC and always being very helpful the #1 source of information for everything PvE related. Without him, my guide wouldn’t have been half as clear than it is now. =)

http://forums.ageofconan.com/showthread.php?t=69489

TheUnnamed : For his great insights in the polearm specs mostly directed in PvP. He has been quite helpful mostly in the PvP aspect of the game.

http://forums.ageofconan.com/showthread.php?t=42656

travail02 : As Ciderhelm, he has a great knowledge of the class and the informations he shares are amongst the clearest (is this a word?) I’ve ever seen.

Lusain : For always making me laugh with his sarcastic and clever posts, I just love reading this guy. Plus, he's always helpful.

~~  Thanks for allowing this to be posted and shared here with the community.(lifebane)