Could a weapon like the War Glaive be used effectively in real-life?

[TheFirstOnes]

*Buys A Warglave*

Sweet...

*Uses it*

*Cuts himself*

*All Bubbles are on CD*

FUUUUUUCCCCCCCKKKKKK!!!!!


*Meanwhile, Illidan, And Sargeras are laughing at him, while they battle it out...only for sargeras to win with a look....cause...titans and plot*

[Kantoro]

no.

There is a reason sword and spear are the most popular melee weapons in history, they are effective. Even then, there are ridiculously simple counters for each weapon. The samurai, one of the most proficient swordsman in history was taken down by a weighted chain.

A war glaive would just be a weapon that crippled its own user.

[Tack980]

Nope. Best real world weapons involved piercing/ stabling weaponry. More range, and all you needed was a quick blow to disable opponents. Hence why fencing became popular.

Even two handed swords in real life were designed with the intention to stab through specific armor pieces, not to slash.

[Lumineus]

The issue with a weapon like the warglaive is that weapons are tools, and tools are made to solve problems.

The problem with knives is that they were too short to fight tigers and mammoths. So we made spears.
Then we made shields to counter spears.
Then we made swords to counter spears and shields.
Then we made armor to counter swords.
Then we made maces, halberds and greatswords to counter armor.

Where is the problem that the warglaive is made to solve?

[Nurvus]

I'm going to assume the Warglaive has proper weight so it can be wielded effectively:
With a conventional fighting style? I don't think so.
Could a fighting style be based on it? Possibly.

- - - Updated - - -

Where is the problem that the warglaive is made to solve?

Warglaive has various functionalities.
It has a huge guard that can serve at least as a Buckler.
It can be wielded almost like a Tonfa.
Requires minimal movement to attack in front or behind you.
Has the advantages of a Sword, Axe and Shield combined into one.
So it doubles as defense and offense.

[Revik]

There are a few problems with the war glaive as a whole. Firstly it is only arm's length's range or just alittle above arm's length in range. This means anyone with a sword or spear would be at a great advantage over a glaive user. Another issue is that it extends to the sides greatly which means that it is very prone to be disarmed very easily. If one side gets caught on something the glaive can be rung from your hand with little effort. Another disadvantage is the huge amount of room one would need to fight with such weapon. You can't soldiers standing shoulder to shoulder using war glaives. At best it could be used in 1 on 1 combat but could not be employed in any kind of army use. Another disadvantage as someone pointed out is that the only way to attach with a war glaive is slashing and medieval armor like chain or ring mail are very good at nullifying any kind of slashing attack.

[SirCowdog]

And I don`t see how saying "Darth Maul /thread" is relevant, you do realize that those were staged fights between actors, and that if it was really a lightsaber vs a duel lightsaber, the single blade would win, because in REALITY that`s not how the movements in that type of fight would come close to being done.

Additionally, for the sake of argument, lets say that lightsabers were real. The way in which you fight with a lightsaber is completely different than how you'd fight with a bladed weapon, or even a blunt staff.

Even a super-sharp samurai katana that can cut a square of silk that's dropped on its blade would still need a relatively high amount of physical strength directed at the right angle and technique to make a good cut. There are numerous documented cases of those swords breaking during testing if a cut against a dense bone was done wrong.

And a staff relies on clubbing someone fairly strongly with raw force in order to do damage. You can also use a staff to trip or grapple someone(there are many european sword techniques for this as well). The staff allows you to use the entire length of the weapon either for leverage or range as well, meaning you can make attacks in many unepected ways.

But a LIGHTSABER? All you have to do is touch someone with ANY part of the "blade" to do terrible damage. It would be more like using a willow switch than an actual sword or stick. There would be no need to cut or slash in any traditional path like human beings do with normal swords, and the only reason why we see them do so in the movies is because it LOOKS GOOD!

So...Darth Maul using a saber-staff in the movies is...quite frankly...ridiculous. Would such a weapon work with traditional blades? I guess. I mean, a person can train to fight using almost anything, given enough time and practice. But such a weapon would be giving up almost every advantage that a regular pole-arm type weapon is designed for. You'd lose range, leverage, and versatility. Using a weapon like that in ONE HAND?! Sure...looks good for twirling around to look fancy. But for actual combat? Sorry, but no.

Now...something like Chinese Butterfly swords or Tonfa are fairly similar. Smaller, lighter weapons that can be used one in each hand. But those rely on speed mostly. Something as large and heavy as a Demon Hunter warglaive would require INSANE strength. And if you had that kind of strength you'd probably be better off wearing extra heavy or dense armor for protection, and going all out offense with your weapon. Using such a large, heavy weapon as a warglaive in each hand while wearing almost no armor at all? I don't know...it would be weird. Like using a spiked or bladed shield in each hand.

I think that while a person might be able to use a warglaive in combat, it would not be effective. You'd give up the leverage of a two-handed weapon, and the speed of a one-handed weapon. The glaive itself can only be gripped in one place, wouldn't have the range of a spear or pole, and the size of the blades would make only certain attacks viable. It would be predictable, slow, and unweildly.

[taek]

Yeah I know it's a necro but still...

The closest might be some Indian daggers with two blades, which are much smaller than the DH "glaives".

Haladie, A rare Rajput weapon and another curiosity from the Indian arsenal: Usually, a dagger with two opposite blades on a central handle, but here, a rare triple blade form. The side recurving blades are 6 1/2 inches each, fullered and well made with a thickened tip for armor piercing. The third perpendicular straight blade is 2 1/2 inch long. The handle is steel with bone grips. Total length 20 ½ inches.

[Raven]

The wow size no, smaller versions of them yeah with enough training.

[SirCowdog]

Yeah I know it's a necro but still...

The closest might be some Indian daggers with two blades, which are much smaller than the DH "glaives".

Looks like a primary stabbing weapon, while Warglaives are primarily a slashing tool.

I think that the entire idea of a warglaive would only work in a world where "magic" is a thing. Maybe without enough cybernetic implants maybe a person could use something like them, but at that level of technology a gun probably be more effective.

[Kuntantee]

No. If they were effective, they'd be crafted and used up to medieval times.

[Gadzooks]

Nope. Best real world weapons involved piercing/ stabling weaponry. More range, and all you needed was a quick blow to disable opponents. Hence why fencing became popular.

Even two handed swords in real life were designed with the intention to stab through specific armor pieces, not to slash.

Not really, two handers were for cutting the heads off pikes, and hacking off hands, arms, feet, legs, and heads. They were brute force blades, very heavy, and only the larger men could wield them. Single hand swords are for piercing. Have you ever held a replica 2 hander? They're fucking HEAVY, the amount of room you need to pierce, and the strengh...yeah, not a good use of a 6 foot sword. In later times, only some soldiers wore them, as a specific tool for a specific use, like fending off large groups at a castle gate or on the wall, or going up against pikemen.

[iamthedevil]

The vengeance type glaive could work.

[starlord]

an actual glaive is a spear with a long blade attached.

in practical use & form the wow warglaives (sorta) resemble chakrams, which were used in india.

[Lillyth]

Kaldorei are creatures of exceptional agility, skill and strength. Those weapons only work for them.

[snackfeat]

Did you really just necro a 5 year old thread to quote someone who haven't been active since 2013?

[Jastall]

Not really. It has almost no range, is dangerous to the user, can only slash which is highly ineffective against any sort of armor, needs a lot of room to manoeuvre, and requires a lot of training to use for no real advantage.

Its only advantage over a real weapon is that you can parry with it quite easily, I suppose. But then why not use a shield? Much strudier, easier to use, much better at blocking, and you can also use it to bash some heads in a pinch.

And about the point of elves being faster/stronger/more leet than real world humans: yes, but then why wouldn't they wield normal weapons more effecively, rather than burden themselves with a badly designed one?

Don't get me wrong, Warcraft is fantasy so I don't much care. I have a Demon Hunter and she's using glaives with reckless abandon. But as real-life weapons, they are so niche as to become almost useless.

[Stormspark]

You COULD use it but it wouldn't be very effective. It falls under http://tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pmwiki.ph...ButImpractical

[soulzek]

Did you really just necro a 5 year old thread to quote someone who haven't been active since 2013?

[Sierra85]

to use a war glaives effectively i imagine you would need to be very skinny, with big arms