OK so let's get started here.
Why are spear champs obsolete. With this question I'm going to disprove a mind set that Spear champs have a purpose over other types of champions.
1: "They're the best AoE PvM Champs".
This is wrong. As a matter of fact it is HORRIBLY wrong. For starters, They only have 4 Passives in their weapon tree that even apply to AoE's. Attack Power and AoE Radius, yet AoE Radius doesn't increase the damage. Attack Speed doesn't contribute to AoE's, and Dodge rate is the most useless stat for tanking while pulling that many mobs.
Now, the statement "attack speed helps for strikes between AoE's". That would be true IF the spears damage wasn't so small and spread to so many AoE's that by the time they finish casting their 6 aoes + 1 debuff, the CD's are done. Meaning if you want to waste a AoE cast for a melee strike [which reduces your DPS and provides no stacks or benefit in any way] then that's you're call.
As far as AoE's go, the Sword champion is the dominant force and here's why.
Swords have 5 Aoes in their tree to support damage [as compared to spears 2]. They also have 4 AoE's at their disposal. Not only do they have more passives that increase their AoE damage, but the base %'s of those AoE's are significantly more effective then the spears and have a higher static # to boot. This primes a Sword Champion to dispatch a group of localized mobs in 1 rotation of 4 skills, vs 1-1.2 rotations on a spear.
So not only can a sword champion out AoE damage a spear. So can an Axe Champion with a small amount of effort or cash.
An Axe Champ has 7 passives that directly influence AoE damage potential. However they're limited to 2 AoE's on large cool downs. That being said here comes the cash/effort portion. If you invest into the 3 PvM Shouts, you now have 5 AoE's, 2 of which are total group busters. The other 3 add debuffs [reinforcing those primary 2..]
Here's the real jaw dropper. Axe's massive AP, Crit damage bonus and Enhance damage bolsters a load of offensives capability, combines into those 3 pvm aoes as magic damage. And as we all know magic damage is HUGE.
2: "So why can't a spear use those pvm shouts for the magic damage?"
They can, but then they're going to lose casts of their other 6 aoes... So it's a relatively useless trade off.
PvP AoE:
Well the core problem here is almost the same
1: Swords + Axes having more passives that affect the AoE's then spears.
This problem trickles into PvP via the fact that the less AP you possess, the more effective def + reduce damage become. And because spears lack the ability to really get a good AP without completely ruining every other stat they need in the process, it's a pointless struggle.
2: "Spears are good at CHA AoE debuffs"
They're absolutely 100% no different then a Sword or Axe Aoe on CHA for debuffs. The reason they're chosen for such a build is because when built offensively, they're laughable and present no threat. The other reason is their AoE radius increase. Aside from the AoE radius, they have 0 statistical advantage to a sword or axe debuff. As a matter of fact, I find Swords + Axe debuffers more threatening because they both possess hard CC, either a stun[s] or mute.
So there you go, as AoE built, they're less effective then other builds. Even when both weapon styles are built the same way, with gear etc the Sword will win an AoE damage fight.
I'm not sure I need to list why they're weak as they are in 1v1. So if that info is requested then I'll edit this and post it.
If there's any statements or ideas about spears you'd like me to look at, test or discuss, post them and I'll get to it.