Guess here's my opportunity to advertise for Team Polearm; Atgeirs are incredible crowd control weapons, they're two-handed pierce weapons with a noticeable reach advantage, but get a 2x parry bonus, so the lack of a shield hurts less. Their power attack interestingly does NOT get more damage, like many other weapons, but it does get cleave, AND a 6x stagger bonus!

Atgeirs are my go to for a lot of the run for crowd management as well as being fantastic combat openers, because you don't have to wait for the enemy to initiate an attack to parry; you just go in swinging with that power attack and most of the time anything within reach is staggered allowing you to pick off enemies as desired.

One caveat; because they do pierce damage, there are some important enemies with significant resistance to pierce, like abominations or stone golems( and bosses), but you should always carry at least a second damage type that you are comfortable with.

Worst comes to worst, you can always use your axe as your 1h sidearm, as it pairs well with a shield and does slash, which tends to have fewer enemies resistant to it compared to blunt and pierce.

Spin to win, baby!