Three Spears class guide and strategy for Gloomhaven

[@JarredJuett]

I wanted to come here and say THANK YOU for creating these- Gloomhaven love is at an all time high and your dedication and useful information have helped keep the fire burning among my playgroup. You have singlehandedly helped our group of 4 continue through hours and hours of enjoyment and I don't know if we'd kept at it without your combo/hand-building tips and general thoughts. Keep at it mate.

[@MandatoryQuest]

Awww you’re making me tear up a bit! glad your group has found the guides useful and has kept playing this awesome game! Thank you so much for the nice comment :)

[@erinnerung15]

Very timely guide as my husband just unlocked this character. Thank you for the info as always, and a special thanks for pointing out differences between the table top version and the digital one!

[@MandatoryQuest]

Yeah I think it’s a pretty substantial difference for optimising damage. I think it’s a bit too “gamey” to loop power potions personally, so it doesn’t bother me but I’m sure others really liked that element of play. Thanks for the comment hope your husband finds some useful info 😀

[@jaysonburke6839]

My favourite end game build is using a Cloak of Pockets to bring 7 consumable small items. After using 6-7 of them you use Oversized Pack to get them all back. After using 6-7 again you pop Bag of Holding to get them all back. Use 6-7 more and pop Reforge to get your Bag and Pack cards back. In the end you are able to use 35 Small consumable items as well as using Reinforced Steel to get Eagle Eye goggles / Boots of Striding refreshing every turn. Crazy times. 5 Major and Minor stamina potions makes your first deck cycle incredible long and gets Scroll of Lightning and Hastened Step back almost every turn which is Light generation as well (unlockable class would be very grateful.)

[@MandatoryQuest]

Phew that was long one, and I'm not just talking about Walking Ballista ;) What are your favourite builds to go with the QM? Become a Patron for early access to videos - www.patreon.com/mandatoryquest Grab some sweet merch - www.mandatoryquest.com

[@dtnuh]

Well a ballista is a giant arrow basically, so if you enhance it with the hexes it pretty much has the same shape, ha. 🤓

[@MandatoryQuest]

@@dtnuh oh yeah! I really need to get my mind out of the gutter....

[@grit1]

I hate to say but I can't imagine when designing the Quartermaster class the devs didn't know that refreshing a stamina potion could loop for infinite turns. Like...it's THE small item most if not every class packs. Maybe, but I feel like it's intentional. Like...I don't think that people do do it unless solo, I think most people would say its lame. But, that's just how I see it.

[@justincburns]

Just unlocked Three Spears in Campaign! Excited to try him out!

[@MandatoryQuest]

Awesome you won’t be disappointed

[@crumbum2]

What is the secret? Nobody will mention how they unlock the character.

[@RationalOrc]

1. Add poison or wound to the bottom of scroll of annihilation 2. Just play Scroll of Recall and Scroll of Annihilation the entire game. Yes the entire game.

[@Luchs06]

Continual Supply can be used to get Bag of Holding and Oversized Bag back. Now you can use all your 7 small items(with Cloak of Pockets) 5 times, even without drawing your item refresh perks. At that point the three spears more or less breaks the game. Creating 10 summons with only 2 small items makes him basically also the best tank in game. (The summons are only here to eat attacks and die immediatly). And he is not a glass cannon in the first place and can take some damage himself. With repeatable Catastrophic Bomb+Portable Ballista Bottom+Eagle Eye Goggles and Power Potions he also takes the damage dealer crown. I would also not pick Scroll of Lightning, maybe on low levels, Hastened Step is the better Single Target attack. You will always use Power Potions and a 2x5 attack is better then an 8 attack with range. You have enough movement and no problem standing in meele against that last boss or elite which survived your aoe. Dont try this build on paper or your friends will more or less sit there watching you solo scenarios at highest difficulty.

[@MandatoryQuest]

Yeah there is definitely some self policing required with this character, or at least there is if you ever want to be invited back to game night.... How would you create 10 summons though, as when you summon with an item you use that item as the active area indicator for that summon, so you would have to discard it and the summoned monster in order to replay it? Also the hastened step trick doesn’t work unless you can guarantee refresh the power potions between attack 1 and 2 to play them again right? This character throws up so many rules nuances

[@Luchs06]

​@@MandatoryQuest 10 summons over the course of a game, 2 at the same time at maximum. Usually a summon will die after one hit from an enemy so you can just recast it again after refreshing the item. So 10 hits from enemies are eaten away. You can also discard it, if it did survive too long. Yes, my quartermaster was cruel to his pets ^^ I still need to play him digitally, The nerf too stamina potions was definitely the right direction to pull the character down a little

[@MandatoryQuest]

Right gotcha yeah avoiding damage on a couple of attacks each round adds up, I’m going to try a tank build next on digital as stam pots aside the other nerf was to the damage build really.

[@tuckerbird7514]

My brother played this guy for a long time, and he was running one of the most terrifying tank builds I’ve ever seen. He constantly had a shield up, and could take 8 attacks in a turn with no problem! A very cool and OP character.

[@tuckerbird7514]

And sharpening kit + quiver of arrows can get extremely fun when paired with angry face.

[@MandatoryQuest]

I think I'll try the tank build next as he might actually be the best tank in the game with all that shield refresh!

[@timblighton6216]

@@MandatoryQuest did you do this? How did it work for you?

[@MandatoryQuest]

@@timblighton6216 I haven't yet actually. This has reminded me to start up weird builds again.

[@timblighton6216]

@@MandatoryQuest yesssss!!! I’m excited for both of us!

[@anthonyc4951]

Another great video! I'll definitely use a lot of your recommendations when playing this character.

[@MandatoryQuest]

Thanks Anthony appreciate ya!

[@anthonyc4951]

@@MandatoryQuest For your personal build what card(s) did you swap out in order to put Proficiency in?

[@michaelwhatley]

People commenting that such and such should be burners and what not…. Playing a quartermaster before level 6 watching a scoundrel run around and blast stuff and loot everything and having a bear in the group smash everything and a bard that makes everyone tanky through curses is a SLOG! The brokenness of quartermaster at level 6 is warranted and deserved. You just feel useless before then.

[@kleen8803]

Only had endurance footwear left for lvling this,you can do some emergency healing with hastened step and scroll of recall(major sta potion+)/reforge. But dont do this outside of solo. You will get all the loot and kills,but your buddys would have to wait 10-30 rounds for you do finish:P

[@MandatoryQuest]

Yeah we all know ‘that’ QM player....

[@danhayes2456]

Would love to see the video you alluded to making of class and item combos that synergize with Quartermaster. While you're at it, how about some Chimeric Formula tech as well!

[@ZBSBACANLOLER]

Yes! Thank you! Great work again

[@MandatoryQuest]

:) thanks!

[@koenigTiamat]

Perfect time! Opened him yesterday in tabletop =)

[@joshuawilliams4695]

Great video but there was a mistake with the discussion on advantage and the refresh item perks. You said that if you draw a +1 or a +2 with the +0 refresh item you will take the +1 or +2 instead. This will only happen if you draw the +1 or +2 before the +0 refresh item. This is because “all added effects should be considered to have a positive but undefined numerical value” so it is ambiguous which card is better and “If there is ambiguity about which card is better or worse, use whichever card was drawn first”. (pg 21 rule book)

[@MandatoryQuest]

I’ve never heard that one before, the rolling item refreshes are consider as having numerical value 0 and advantage should always be determined by higher number value first and ambiguity only occurs when the values are the same. I think that rule would come into effect if in theory you were to have drawn a +0 stun and a +0 immobilise. That would be an ambiguous draw even though stun is clearly better, there is no numerical value given to the different effects in the game based on how good they are but damage always trumps.

[@joshuawilliams4695]

@@MandatoryQuest that is a common rules misunderstanding but damage does not always trump because it has an undefined “numerical” value which means the value is greater then 0 but we are not sure how much greater, could even be greater then a x2. If you look back at the Reddit post on the topic that you referred to you will find the sentence “In particular, the issue is whether advantage increases your chance to trigger the refresh item attack modifier since it is a +0 effect card which makes it ambiguous when compared to a +1, +2 or crit.” In fact, if your interpretation was correct the entire calculations would have been completely different and advantage would would greatly decrease you chance of drawing a refresh perk and you should avoid using eagle eye goggles.

[@MandatoryQuest]

@@joshuawilliams4695 Hmm interesting I had always taken that as gospel, never actually questioned it , but that does make a lot of sense. You learn something new everyday! Thank you so much for pointing that out. I'm collecting more small rules clarifications to do a follow up to my rules mistakes video, would you be O.K with me using this and crediting you?

[@joshuawilliams4695]

@@MandatoryQuest absolutely! I think everyone gets some rules wrong here and there and I am sure I am still playing some stuff wrong that I am unaware of so I would definitely be interested in that video too lol. I just learned recently that I wasn't supposed to be taking retaliate damage if I finished the monster off with my attack.

[@MandatoryQuest]

@@joshuawilliams4695 haha the number 1 rule of Gloomhaven always stands true. If you aren't playing a rule wrong, you aren't playing Gloomhaven!

[@DimmerswitchDan]

Excellent stuff! Haven't tried proficiency in my build yet, but that's gonna change today!

[@MandatoryQuest]

Nice! I Love it so much extra power, although it can be tricky to fit it in with so many other awesome passives.

[@DimmerswitchDan]

@@MandatoryQuest Couldn't get the squad together to test it yet, but I figure with a cloak of pockets filled to the brim with goodies, proficiency and +4 move boots activated and refreshed every turn + sharpening kit on turns where I plan to drop some bombs, I'll probably start competing with my Berserker for most damage dealt in a game!

[@MandatoryQuest]

@@DimmerswitchDan nice it can take a couple of plays of bomb to beat out the flurry of axes big attack, but yeah I think you can top the damage especially on scenarios with lots of enemies.

[@danielcaldas332]

Thanks for the guide videos!!!!

[@MandatoryQuest]

No problem!

[@xethnyrrow]

Another great video. Thanks!

[@MandatoryQuest]

Thanks matey

[@vincentmealing4417]

Not sure how much you've been asked this, but I'd love to see a Plagueherald and a Doomstalker guide. I'm completely on the fence about what to take after having just retired my Tink. Love your vids even though I always stop watching after level 4 haha. Cheers x

[@MandatoryQuest]

They are both on my to do list as next videos I’ve just been moving house so videos have taken a back seat. Glad you love the videos and I don’t blame you for stopping at level 4 😉

[@jacobjett5783]

This was great. One thing that I think might tone down some of the brokenness if additional cards were non-recoverable burns: specifically Oversized Pack Bag of Holding bottom; It would make sense Scroll of Recall top becomes a burn too. I think having extra turns for self and party is a feature of this class but can see how it can easily get crazy, especially when comboed with Tinkerer. Thinking about a how a certain something extra was recently re-engineered; I wonder if Isaac and co. could be persuaded to kickstart a new edition of the original GH that rebalances this and other classes and addresses how terribly bad heals that are burns are.

[@MandatoryQuest]

I know Rage badger has done a few videos about a possible rebalance. The problem is it's a lot of work and the demand for a GH 3rd edition will be limited after Frosthaven hits. I think now digital exists they could maybe do a digital exclusive rebalance though.

[@jacobjett5783]

@@MandatoryQuest Yes. I've started contemplating a total overhaul mod that would also clean up and make the overarching storyline more coherent.

[@ZBSBACANLOLER]

Ring of haste can be used for passsive effect of portable balita into sharpening kit+cat bomb combo

[@MandatoryQuest]

seems balanced and totally doesn’t break the game in any way haha :)

[@croma2068]

No it can't, Ring of Haste plays the card at the end of your turn. Your attack will not benefit from the extra bottom action.

[@wehubbard]

Easily the best Three Spears guide I've seen online! Awesome! Any thought to using helm item #045 and adding Strengthen to the bottom of Crushing Hammer instead of using Eagle-Eye Goggles?

[@MandatoryQuest]

Glad you liked the guide :) you would need another easy way to trigger proficiency when the bow is down or melee if you wanted to go all in damage, but yes I think that could work well if you just wanted to loop even more small items. There are quite a few “win-more” options with the QM as it’s crazy broken, so it becomes a pick your poison type deal.

[@danhayes2456]

In this case you can just get strengthen from Lucky Eye.

[@mottly213]

Idk if digital will be changing to updated rules, but frost’s new advantage rules seem really really good for 3 spear. I love this class 🏹

[@mottly213]

To elaborate; you may now choose which card to take when attacking with advantage rather than always forced to take numerically higher. Because refresh an item is on a +0 it nearly always gets skipped when attacking with advantage at high perk counts.

[@MandatoryQuest]

It's very unlikely you get the choose with advantage rule put into digital unfortunately. It would require a complete re-code of the combat. Maybe in FH digital if that gets made though.

[@Slightly_Mad1335]

Easy combo 1: Sun 9 lvl Divine Intervention top + Continual Supply top + Item #130 Helix Ring (from scenario #81 Temple of the Eclipse) = endless HP for a party. Easy combo 2: Summoner (Circles) 6 lvl with Strength in Numbers bottom build (u can check it below Circles Class Guide video) + Quiver of Arrows top + Reforge top for Item #33 Volatile Bomb = 7-8 damage on average for 9+ rounds, up to 11-13 dmg per shot to 1 target. Easy combo 3 (not so easy btw): Plagueherald (Cthulhu) 7/8 lvl Baneful Hex/Grim Bargain build + Quiver of Arrows top + Item #128 Black Censer (from scenario #90 Demonic Rift) = 2-4 targets with curse per round, enemies do not deal dmg to u at all.

[@Timlagor]

When you upgrade the Portable Ballista you add explosive/shrapnel bolts that hit the sides at the end I find it weird that you keep saying "this is a straight upgrade" as if you would never eve want a second copy of the effect. The *immediate* follow-on consideration every time is "do I still want the toned down version anyway?" but you never seem to address that.

[@edwardguzman77]

I don't think you should take dust on digital. Yes it keeps your deck slightly thicker but it keeps 4 cards in that your item refresh will proc off of with advantage. Taking them off leaves your deck too thin and you will lose item refresh to +1 or higher at a higher rate.

[@MandatoryQuest]

I haven’t looked into the maths of it, but yeah that sounds reasonable to me.

[@michaelwhatley]

I was thinking the same thing. But I think you want the larger and lower modifiers to be used ASAP due to how many targets catastrophic bomb hits. You can easily get rid of a null, a -2 and -1 card in 1 cluster bomb and then turn around and have a ton of positive modifiers left. Then use crash lightening with cluster bomb for a high chance at a 10x or greater hit. Play the attack deck, don’t let it play you.

[@chaslyndrilling7380]

Taking the loot at level 9 just to piss off the scoundrel players!

[@crimsonavalon8177]

Thx for video

[@toeletsgo69]

Are you going to do jaws of the lion class guides?

[@MandatoryQuest]

Yes I’m hoping too

[@Turtlewax88]

This character really shows how bad the advantage rule is in this game. We really should be able to choose our modifier when attacking with advantage because of the different perks we're adding in our deck. We've houseruled this when playing the tabletop version. It's not like we're playing D&D where rolling a 20 is always better then a 14 when rolling with advantage.

[@MandatoryQuest]

Yeah very common house rule and has been fixed now in Frosthaven officially.

[@Turtlewax88]

@@MandatoryQuest Didn't know it was like that in FH, good news!

[@technosauruswrex]

Yeah my group has swapped to using FH Advantage rules entirely, especially when it comes to considering rolling modifiers.

[@worshaka]

Rolling modifiers are a free draw, adding them shouldn't be an issue coz they essentially had 0 net cards to the deck. What am I missing?

[@brunolecompte3159]

You didn't want to make the calculation to check for deck size when playing +0/reload and advantage, making it, you are finally better with 16 or 17 card than with 15, as long than you didn't add any +1 or better card without redraw. Note than it's only slightly better, but still better (15 card 18%, 16 card 18.12%, 17 card 18,1%, 18 card 17.97%) so adding either or both the stun/redraw and the two +1/redraw should be advised in the context of: i want to get the reload even with advantage

[@CoryFleury]

Just started the video, and I may be wrong here, but when you pull your refresh attack modifier, you can't refresh a consumed item like a Power Potion, it has to be a non-consumable, like some weapons, etc., no?

[@MandatoryQuest]

Nope, that’s the power of that particular attack modifier. It does allow you to refresh a consumed item.

[@CoryFleury]

@@MandatoryQuest Oh wow.... Yeah that seems completely broken. Can't wait to start playing this guy. :)

[@MandatoryQuest]

Haha yeah that’s why I dedicated a whole section to it really. The power potion stacking potential in physical is pretty nuts!

[@CoryFleury]

@@MandatoryQuest Yeah, it really would be! I was confused because the perk only says spent items, but found a BGG thread where Isaac confirmed it included consumed items. Even more excited to play around with this guy now.

[@piarew8841]

I got pretty lucky in finding a spoiler head item (#066) that can ensure you always get the benefit of Proficiency on every melee attack. Terrifying! Tried the same combo in digital and it got buggy though.

[@MandatoryQuest]

I've discussed with the digital dev's if this combo is even legal. Its a bit of a grey area as in digital you have to 'activate' the item to use the effect, but in tabletop it could be treated as just a passive effect so wouldn't work with proficiency. Its a corner case one for sure and I haven't found the answer yet, but I love the combo its freaking awesome.

[@Yodonoz]

Thank you for that another good video. I can't manage to reuse my damage potion between attacks resolutions, it seems that you get your potion back at the end of the entire attack...

[@Yodonoz]

Ok, doesn't work on digital, sorry...

[@MandatoryQuest]

Yep sorry they changed the way damage is drawn in digital so it stops that.

[@govetenko]

I went back for quiver of arrows in a party that had cthulhu angry face and note. I was popular

[@MandatoryQuest]

Not all heroes wear capes

[@billyscenic5610]

I think the quartermaster is a shoutout to Soul Calibur.

[@mel_from_hell]

Very late to the party and thank you for your guide, I may have missed it but isn't scroll of recall very important to increase stamina by refreshing the stamina potion?Or the curse pendant (ew getting a curse but well...) is sufficient to substitute it?

[@MandatoryQuest]

It depends on if you plan to draw the refresh modifiers or not. The problem I find with three spears is sometimes you focus so much on getting the refresh value you end up not having a lot of impact in the mission. Scroll of recall should be an early go to though until you can do some more crazy stuff.

[@kikukusanagi]

@MandatoryQuest In a solo campaign play, which mercenary would pair better with Nightshroud? Would it be Three Spears? Or Sunkeeper? And would your answer be different for solo play in Guildmaster mode?

[@MandatoryQuest]

The problem with eclipse is it is a very self sufficient solo class. I think the Sunkeeper is the better pick because she can tank hits while the Nighshroud is invisible. A tanky 3 spears build would still be ok though. It's pretty much the same in campaign and guildmaster.

[@tbone9474]

Here's a question if that's OK. I personally grind 1 scenario to unlock the mercs my party will be playing, but in the normal gloomhaven campaign, do you have to do the same ? Or are they all unlocked from the get go? Also I can imagine using the scroll of lightning, with the grenade... sounds sweet

[@MandatoryQuest]

In the regular campaign characters are unlocked by completing life goals which are assigned to you randomly, and they usually aren’t as farmable as they are a complete “x” scenarios or do “y” “x” times which isn’t possible in a single scenario. When you complete these you retire your current character making them unavailable, and can then select the new one or any other unlocked character (even the same class as before) to start again, but there isn’t really too much point to actively grinding unlocking characters in the campaign as you can’t hot swap between them like in Guildmaster. You only have a single active roster at a time if that makes sense. Your campaign progress remains the same but it’s kind of like you re-rolling a new character in D&D

[@tbone9474]

@@MandatoryQuest sounds nice then, definitely looking forward to the campaign being released by end of the year. Thanks for that

[@jgjertsen]

The attack modifier that lets you refresh an item - does this work on a consumed item (potion?) The icon looks like it would only work on a spent item.

[@MandatoryQuest]

Yes it does it works with either consumed or exhausted items!

[@jgjertsen]

@@MandatoryQuest Yeah I checked BGG and saw that Isaac Childers himself confirmed as much. My OP Quartermaster just got more OP!

[@justinmaynard8305]

Does the music note have an execute, you mentioned everyone having one.?

[@MandatoryQuest]

Actually no, she might be the only character without one.

[@hellodarkness5644]

Did they nerf Quartermasters Reforged? looks like you can refresh your armor only one and two hand items

[@MandatoryQuest]

Not sure what you mean? the card has always only refreshed hand items

[@Soonzuh]

Another small criticism: you tend to repeat the same point for a card several times.

[@MandatoryQuest]

I improv a lot of these videos and just try to hit on key points from my notes on each card/section. This means sometimes I go back to reiterate something important. I do try to edit any duplicate bits out, but due to length some might slip through.

[@dtnuh]

Absolutely broken in tabletop, very slightly less broken in digital haha. 😁

[@MandatoryQuest]

yep pretty much

[@fugitiveunknown7806]

Good old Paulie Threespears. They call him Paulie threespears because he found three spears that fell off the back of a wagon. The other players are very sick of my Simpsons mafia accent.

[@myhandlewastakenandIgaveup]

This class looks broken!

[@MandatoryQuest]

It most definitely is!