Cobalt Naginata

You hold the button down and it stabs on a loop, which frees you to think about where you are standing rather than about your clicks. Reach is what you are paying for: stand behind a platform, a doorway or a lip of terrain and hit things that cannot reach back. Melee speed gear stretches the reach as well as quickening the thrusts, which is a bigger deal on a spear than on a sword.

This is one of the two first ore spears of hardmode, and your world decides whether you get this one or the Palladium Pike. Neither is a real step up over a good sword of the same tier in raw output. The reason to carry one is the safety the range buys you against anything that has to touch you to hurt you.

A naginata is a Japanese polearm with a curved blade on the end, built for wide sweeping cuts. The version here only ever thrusts.