I feel like that’s kind of bullshit. None of the other skills require a certain weapon, so what’s the issue with Serpent Strike? That’s what POE2 is doing, and it’s absolutely baffling to me.
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Agreed 200 million percent.
I didn’t even know Serpent Strike had that requirement…
But to be fair, there’s Bow Attack skills, and all of them require a Bow equipped to use.
There’s Shield skills that require a shield. And There’s also Void Cleave, which requires a 2-H sword or axe.
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PoE 1 does the same thing… as do quite a few ARPGs in general. Specified weapon skills aren’t anything bad in itself, only if they’re overabundant and heavily constrictive.
As for Serpent Strike? Makes sense, since the spear represents as Serpent when it bites, stretching itself straight. Hence Serpent Strike and hence related to Spear. Much like Multishot is for bows, because kinda can’t shoot that well with a sword.
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To be honest, this kind of lunging attack feels like something a one handed sword could do as well.
Fair, but they lack the respective reach and speed if we want to take the ‘realistic’ aspect into consideration.
And unlike a spear swords generally aren’t compared to serpents, that’s usually only the spear (for the similar form of an attacking snake) or curved daggers (representing the fangs).
While a niche exception, if you take Swarmblade Form from druid there’s a node that allows you to use Serpent Strike without a spear. I’m going to assume it’s only for that form though and you’ll need a backup if the form falls off (either swap to bear/spriggan form or run like crazy while waiting for swarmblade to come up again).
Another restriction that has a niche exception is void cleave and Aberroth’s Command, which lets you use it despite being a scepter.
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And they didn’t even add Spear requirement to it… Spears can cleave too, you know. Also for a class that utilizes spears to not have it, kinda baffling to me.
Eh… I don’t think so…
Maybe you mean “sweep”? Because if so, yes, spears can sweep too. But not cleave.
Unless you consider a Halberd a spear, which it’s not… It’s similar, but definitely not a spear.
Both are polearms, but they’re not the same.
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I guess the reason why this is weird and some people may not see it is that there is no category for spear required skills. Its just that single one. Imagine only 1 skill in the game would require a bow and then you can use heartseeker while having a two hand axe equipped. So either remove the requirement for the spear or add more spear skills in the future 
Void Cleave is also the only skill that requires a 2H sword or axe and no one had any issue with it so far.
In truth, neither did anyone have any issue with serpent strike until now, but that might be because it’s an underpowered skill in comparison.
I honestly see no issue with this. This is no different from D2 where the amazon had skills for javelin or for bow, or even D&D where many skills are also weapon restricted.
EHG makes many decisions based on the theme and serpent strike being a spear skill makes thematic sense.
There is absolutely no issue with that and honestly I never knew void cleave had a specific weapon requirement. For me it was weird to see one single spell having such requirement. This makes it less weird but still kind of throws void cleave into the weird pile. I do not mind such things but to see only one of them being so special about it just eh yknow? That is why I said maybe add more skills that require spear only not to leave Serpent Strike be the only one. That is the weird thing. You have like an entire class with x abilities which require x weapon and so on and so forth then you see this goofy lil guy all by himself in the corner “spear please”. Like where did you come from?
Apart from Void Cleave. And while you can use Javelin without a spear it does get a lot more flat damage with a spear so I’d say that’s a “soft” weapon requirement. And Shield Rush requires a shield though you can spec out of that, Shield Bash also requires a shield. Dancing Strikes & Shadow Cascade require dual wielding so that rules out 2h weapons, though you can get Shadow Cascade proc’d without DWing plus as Folk says, all the bow skills require a bow.
I’ve always been a bit confused that Serpent Strike can’t be used with a dagger by default as well.
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There are only 2 skills that require shield as well.
To be fair, Rogue is the outlier. They have a few skills that require dual wielding and a bunch that require a bow.
Both Mage and Acolyte have no weapon restrictions for their skills. Primalist has only Serpent Strike and Sentinel has 3 (the 2 shield ones and Void Cleave).
I personally see no issue with having the odd skill requiring a specific piece of gear for thematic reasons.
I always assumed it was because of what Kulze said: daggers/swords don’t have enough reach for the skill.
If it’s lunging, yes, but as far as I’m aware (& I’m not into snakes), snakes can bite without trying to fly across the room.
True, they don’t fly, but they do lunge every time they bite. A snake always coils together/rears back to then shoot forward to bite, even when the food is directly in front of their snout.
Source: We had a terrarium with snakes in high school.
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Sure, but it’s not called “Serpent Bite”, it’s “Serpent Strike” so it evokes the lunge they do. 
A spear can’t cleave… only a halberd or bardiche can. Spears don’t have a large edge. So nah. Polearms are not implemented as a separate weapon type in the game, they are simply ‘2-handed’ versions of axes… which yeah… kinda the case.
Sweep - as @F0lk mentioned - is a option. But a sweep is a blunt arcing attack, a cleave is a arcing cutting attack.
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Polearms are not a separate weapon type. It’s a category.
Among others, there are Ranseur, Halberd, Glaive, Spear, Bardiche and Poleaxe, they’re all Polearms.
What you mean by “2-handed version of axe” is actually a Poleaxe.
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Not sure it helps but im playing serpent strike swarmblade and I am dual weild swords - might be a swarmblade thing (not like I read skills) but you can shield / 1 hander too. But I know what fair few classes/skills that pidgeon hole/force you to play them a specific way, not sure why shrug