Yet Another Weapon Guide - Lance
Lance has one of the strongest shields in the game, letting you perform blocks extremely effectively. Lance’s moveset is simple, yet effective, capable of precise strikes on a monster. Pros can take Lance to the highest levels of play through the ability to chain in and out of Counter Thrust attacks, or you can even charge towards the monster to perform the powerful finisher. The one weakness that Lance has is a lack of Super Armor, which does leave it open to trips, but Lance can shrug off many hits despite this flaw.
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This guide is meant for new players of Monster Hunter Generations Ultimate (MHGU) or for players who haven’t played Lance before. Note that this guide will not assume any prior knowledge, regardless of games played before in the Monster Hunter series.
This guide will contain a comprehensive guide on Lance controls, commentary on Lance styles and combinations, recommendations on progression Lances, and a final note on matchups against most monsters in the game.
Two Hunter Art slots (1 SP Art), access to the multitude of Charge Finishers and a varied moveset featuring the Wide Sweep and Strong Thrusts.
Guild Style is a classic style with access to all of the classic Lance moves and thrust combos. Or, well, they used to be classic until they added the Strong Thrusts. Due to the addition of the Strong Thrusts, it’s not necessary to combo into them anymore, since they’re slow and only apply three smaller hits. If you have an elemental Lance though, Strong Thrusts might be good ideas.
Recommended Hunter Arts:
Anywhere there’s X, you can replace that with X+A or A and it’ll be the same.
Standard Thrust Combo
X, X, X
Thrust -> Thrust -> Strong Thrust.
The basic thrust combo that Capcom wants you to use. I mean, I won’t judge you if you use it either.
Infinite Thrust Combo
(loop) X, X, R + A (end loop)
(loop) Thrust -> Thrust -> Counter Thrust (end loop).
The power of the infinite combo, but on Lance, and without the icky sticky infinite thrust.
Block-Advance Lead-In
Forward + R + X, X, X, X
Block-Advance -> Shield Bash -> Thrust -> Thrust -> Strong Thrust.
Start your combo off right with blocking and gapclosing at the same time!
Guarding Easy-Out
While Guarding: R + A (don’t hold A), X, X, X
Counter Thrust -> Thrust -> Thrust -> Strong Thrust.
An easy way to cancel your way out of the guard without standing awkwardly around waiting to put down your shield.
Three Hunter Art slots (1 SP Art), access to a powered up Charge Finisher at the cost of losing various moves.
Striker Style removes the clunky Strong Thrusts in favor of the old 3rd Thrusts, which are faster but overall weaker than the Strong Thrusts. It also removes the other Charge Finishers to power up the standard Charge Finisher. The combination of these two attributes make Striker Lance a powerhouse, since you can infinitely chain the Charge Finisher combo. Even without the combo you can quickly perform a standard three-poke combo and hop out of it quickly. The three HA slots are just icing on top of the cake.
Recommended Hunter Arts:
Striker Standard Combo
X, X, X
Thrust -> Thrust -> Striker Thrust.
Now here’s a classic combo. No fuss, no muss, just your classic three-hit combo string.
Striker Infinite
(loop) X, X, R + A (end loop)
(loop) Thrust -> Thrust -> Counter Thrust (end loop).
Yeah it’s just the Guild infinite. Sure the third hit might be good but it doesn’t let you combo into itself.
Striker Charge Chain:
(loop) R + X + A (or Sp. Attack Button), X (end loop)
(loop) Charge! -> Striker Charge Finisher -> Thrust (end loop).
Now here’s the degeneracy you wanted to see. Charge chaining is pretty great and is the optimal DPS, so if you wanted to role play as a train, here you go.
One Hunter Art slot (1 SP Art), access to a forward Aerial Hop rather than a backstep, able to guard midair after you jump and can Strong Thrust from midair.
Aerial Style on Lance actually allows Lance to perform a quick forward hop rather than the back hop it normally has, and it also allows you to clobber down enemies with the Aerial Strong Thrusts, which deal three hits a pop. It otherwise doesn’t have anything of note other than the fact that you can’t perform any other step evades in Aerial Style, which can screw up the typical Lance playstyle. But you’re playing Aerial, you can’t expect anything typical.
Recommended Hunter Arts:
Aerial Hop Stabs
B, Boost Jump, X, X, X
Boost Jump -> Aerial Strong Thrust -> Thrust -> Strong Thrust.
The simplest ever combo for Aerial Hopping. You can opt to end the combo early if the monster moves.
Aerial Charge!
B, Boost Jump, X + A, Back + X, X, X, X
Boost Jump -> Aerial Charge! -> Reverse Charge Finisher -> Thrust -> Thrust -> Strong Thrust.
A variant of the above combo that uses the Charge! and its back attacking capabilities.
One Hunter Art slot (1 SP Art), loses the ability to chain into and out of Counter Thrusts in exchange for the hard-to-use Adept Guard, which allows you to counterattack much better than the Counter Thrust.
Adept Style trades the capability to infinitely extend your thrust combo for an extremely powerful Adept Guard, which, if you land it within its stringent activation frames, lets you perfectly guard an attack without any loss of stamina, chip damage, or knockback. Afterwards, you can follow up with a powerful 77% damage attack or you can keep on Adept Guarding, which allows you to chain multiple Adept Guards in succession. This lets you block multi-hit moves, like Yian Garuga’s beak peck, or Shogun Ceanataur’s jumping strike.
Recommended Hunter Arts:
Adept Guard Follow-Up
R, Adept Block, X, X, X, X
Adept Block -> Adept Counter Sweeps -> Thrust -> Thrust -> Strong Thrust.
Your standard counter-attack strategy. Keep in mind that you can Adept Block multiple times in a row to effectively respond to attacks with multiple hitboxes.
One Hunter Art slot (1 SP Art), Valor State allows you to launch forth guarding Shield Smashes which can chain into other Lance attacks.
In any state:
Outside of Valor State:
While Valor State is active:
Valor Style provides a measure of aggression which normal Block-Advances from other styles cannot do. Shield Smashes in Valor State can chain into several moves, and the Shield Smash itself has a Guard Point at the beginning of it, allowing you to ignore moves if they connect with you. Use Shield Smash then Counter Thrust for true guarding potential, or Shield Smash to Charge to quickly gapclose into an enemy, or simply follow up with thrusts.
Recommended Hunter Arts:
Valor Gauge Charging
Y, then X.
Valor Sheathe -> Valor Sweeps.
The simplest way to charge your Valor Gauge. These swipes deal a lot of damage in their own right, so don’t underestimate them.
Valor Gauge Charge!-ing
Y, then X + A.
Valor Sheathe -> Shield Smash.
A good way to transition into a Charge! Useful for gapclosing on a monster who’s downed.
Valor Smashing Thrusts
While in Valor State: X + A, X, X, X
Shield Smash -> Thrust -> Thrust -> Strong Thrust.
A combo for immediately counterattacking an incoming attack, or to quickly gapclose slightly.
Valor Smashing Charge!
While in Valor State: X + A, X + A, X
Shield Smash -> Charge! -> Charge Finisher.
This combo goes from the Shield Smash into the Charge! Useful for using the Charge Finisher.
Valor Smashing Counter
While in Valor State: X + A, R + A, A, A
Shield Smash -> Counter Thrust -> Thrust -> Thrust.
This combo stacks multiple Guard Points in a row, allowing you to more easily block consecutive attacks. Be sure to vary up the timing depending on what attack is incoming.
Three Hunter Art slots (3 SP Arts), use Strong Thrusts to charge the Alchemy Barrel.
Alchemy Style is weird, but you can at least go from a guard to a thrust combo more efficiently and effectively than other styles. With that ability, you can guard an attack, then immediately go into a thrust combo, rather than use a slightly-slower back step or Counter Thrust. Keep in mind that any Alchemy Earplugs you make are slightly redundant since you have a shield and can presumably use it.
Recommended Hunter Arts:
Alchemy Chain-From-Guard Thrusts
While Guarding: X, X, X.
Low Thrust -> Thrust -> Strong Thrust.
This combo lets you immediately attack after a block, unique for Alchemy Style.
The Style Hierarchy goes Striker > Everything Else. Lance’s HAs are genuinely great, and the buff as heck Striker Charge Finisher can just work over many monsters. Everything else with the Strong Thrusts are either awkward to use or awkward to work around. Alchemy or Guild are perhaps the least-bad styles as they have the HA slots to compensate. Adept at least has some strong damage output behind the counter thrusts. Valor is extremely awkward to use, and Aerial, well. Is Aerial.
Charges forth with your shield in front of you, automatically guarding any incoming attack, negating knockback and with no consumption of Stamina. After reaching a certain distance, you’ll stop, or if you cancel with an attack beforehand, you’ll perform a unique finisher which can lead into the typical Lance thrust combos.
HA Rank | To Charge |
I | 250 (500 SP) |
II | 330 (596 SP) |
III | 420 (704 SP) |
With higher ranks, distance traveled increases. Each charging hitbox has 10% damage, while the Finisher has 30% damage, Impact-type and 50% damage, Cut-type.
Shield Assault isn’t particularly useful as an actual damage HA, but it can see use as a defensive HA. Since you travel a lot of distance while guarding, this HA is useful for gapclosing or getting out of the way of an attack without automatically sheathing your weapon. It charges quickly too, lending to its usefulness.
Your hunter charges up a powerful thrust, then unleashes it in a particular direction. The power of the thrust deals multiple hits, but can knock away ally hunters. The thrust generated also has additional range compared to normal Lance thrusts.
HA Rank | To Charge | Total Damage |
I | 1080 (1496 SP) | 45 * 3 = 135% / 3 hits |
II | 1170 (1604 SP) | 32 * 5 = 160% / 5 hits |
III | 1250 (1700 SP) | 27 * 7 = 189% / 7 hits |
With each level, time taken to charge the thrust also increases.
Corkscrew Jab is the best Lance damage HA, since it executes quickly and deals a buncha damage over multiple hits. You can potentially sever monster tails using this HA as well, and since it has range on it, you can stand a bit away from the part you want to hit while doing the HA too.
Your hunter begins a powerful guard. If an attack connects with your guard, then your hunter will perfectly block it (so long as it’s guardable with your skill setup) without any loss in Stamina, Health, or knockback. Then, your hunter gains a damage buff based on how powerful the attack was that hit your hunter’s guard.
HA Rank | To Charge | Duration |
I | 670 (1004 SP) | 60 seconds |
II | 750 (1100 SP) | 120 |
III | 830 (1196 SP) | 180 |
HA Effect Color | Attack Modifier |
Red | +10% |
Orange | +20% |
Yellow | +30% |
Contrary to what the game says, attack doesn’t increase with rank, only duration. To execute the art, you must have at least 25 Stamina to begin guarding.
This is usually the art taken when you’re playing Striker Lance simply because it’s useful both as a utility and as an offensive art. Since you don’t take any ill effects from guarding attacks at all when using this, this can be used reactively, or if you’re particularly aggressive, you can wait for a monster’s stronger attack to use this art, gaining maximum damage buff.
It is important to note that you will not guard successive attacks or other effects once you block the first attack, so make sure that the incoming attack doesn’t come packaged with an additional tremor effect or an explosion. If you’re interrupted in any way, like being hit from behind while guarding, or being hit after you guard successively, or if no attacks hit, then you will waste the HA Charge and you’ll have to charge it up again.
Spread medicine onto your shield during a brief animation. Afterwards, guarding attacks (Adept Guard and Guard Point-boosted attacks work too!) will scatter the medicine on your shield, healing nearby teammates as well as yourself.
HA Rank | To Charge | Duration |
I | 670 (1004 SP) | 30 seconds |
II | 750 (1100 SP) | 60 |
III | 830 (1196 SP) | 90 |
Healing is reduced to 2/3rds for ally hunters. Healing performed is based on the overall strength of the attack that you absorb.
Healing Shield is very underwhelming even though you can heal up while guarding. You’d basically have to turtle, which, while Lance can guard, you should never do. It’s a fun gimmick but the effects aren’t impactful enough to justify use.
Lance can go for pure raw or element, it’s usually up to player preference and playstyle. If you like Striker Charge Chaining you’ll tend towards more raw. Any other playstyle can go either or, but if you prefer the Strong Thrusts for whatever reason, you can choose to get more element. Due to the frequency of Lance’s hits you’ll need to invest in weapons with a long Sharpness grade and not necessarily a higher Sharpness grade. Investing in Razor Sharp is usually a no-brainer for the majority of Blademaster weapons, including Lance. Sharpness +2 is also an important option for some Lances, though can be foregone depending on the weapon.
Low Rank (Village 1-6*, Hub 1-3*)
Lance whose Sharpness and Raw make it a good LR Progression choice, especially since it upgrades into the universally-better Obsidian Lance. You won’t use this until you have Green Sharpness on this though but when you do you’ll be using this a lot until late Low Rank.
Gains Green Sharpness incredibly early when you can craft this with Iron Ore, which is obtained easily anywhere, and a Disc Stone, which is obtained when you get to Verdant Hills. You won’t be using this for that long, since the upgrade to Petrified Lance at level 4 will give it Green Sharpness too, but it will get you through those early vestiges of Low Rank without the Low Sharpness Modifier on your butt.
Good Sharpness, decent raw, and good Affinity to back it up. The Hidden Stinger will let you deal more damage than the Petrified Lance, since upgrading it requires High Rank materials at this point. Hidden Stinger even gains Blue Sharpness when you upgrade it with Seregios parts.
Has slightly higher raw than Hidden Stinger and has Thunder-elemental damage in exchange for no Affinity and no Blue Sharpness. Can turn into the best Thunder Lance in the game at endgame so I suggest you maintain this weapon.
Rathalos’s Lance. Very similar to the Acrus Lance but with Fire-element damage, and also turns into the best Fire Lance, though it can be upgraded fairly early in on High Rank with a little Yian Kut-Ku farming. It’ll gain Blue Sharpness this way.
Mizutsune’s Lance is similar to the last two recommendations, but for Water. Not much else to say, other than this can cover High Rank transitions as well.
High Rank (Village 7-10*, Hub 4-7*)
Great Sharpness at level 1, gaining Blue Sharpness at level 2. It gains quite a bit of raw when you upgrade it, gaining 180 raw relatively early on in High Rank. If you’re progressing in HR Hub, you can even get up to 200 raw by doing a Hyper hunt. Great to get through most of High Rank with.
Upgrading the Nargacuga Lance fully requires both Hyper Nargacuga and access to High Rank Akantor or Ukanlos, but it has natural White Sharpness and the raw isn’t bad. Very solid for the majority of middle High Rank.
Upgrading Mizutsune’s Lance to the appropriate levels gains you quite a solid block of Blue Sharpness, backed up by solid raw and Water to boot. Not a bad Lance.
Part of the club of old Generations meta, the Hellblade Lance is a great choice for anyone planning to remain in High Rank for extended periods of time. Solid 200 raw backed up with Blast is nothing to scoff at.
G-Rank (Hub G1-G4*)
260 raw is greater than anything else you can craft at this point, plus this Lance only requires a few easy-to-get materials from G-Rank and a few tickets from High Rank. It even has natural White! You can’t go wrong when making the Elder Lance.
Nargacuga appears early on in G-Rank and the Lance gets Purple Sharpness whenever you get to G3. Also has great raw and two slots for your set building pleasure. This is simply a great Lance to pair with, say, Rathalos X.
Strangely upgrading Stormy Doris to its G-Rank incarnation requires G-Rank Rajang, which doesn’t exist until G4… but the level after that only requires Astalos and Hyper Khezu, which is available in G3. Oh well, this Lance gains natural White after you get it that far as well as a respectable 320 raw and 21 Thunder, making it good against the final boss.
Main Recommendations:
Has a great 330 raw as well as triple slots to play with. The thin Purple on the Ahtal-Ka Lance doesn’t mean much to those who would spam the Striker Charge Finisher all the time, since Readiness will charge up incredibly quickly and maintain Sharpness for you. For other playstyles, consider using RS and at least S+1 on this Lance.
This Elderfrost Lance, though it requires use of both Sharpness +2 and Razor Sharp, has an incredible 380 raw to play around with letting you Striker Charge Spam easily with Readiness in tow. Dips into Blue more often if you don’t do that playstyle, so I’d suggest choosing a different Lance for other playstyles.
The Hellblade Lance remains as one of the better Lances despite the nerfs to progression that Hellblade weapons in general got in GU. Doesn’t require Sharpness +2 to use, and only possibly Razor Sharp if you don’t want to Charge Finisher spam. This Lance is great for multi-monster hunts and Deviljho.
Can ignore both of the typical Sharpness skills due to the massive amount of White that the Rustrazor Lance has, and has a great 330 raw to boot. If you want to thrust frequently and not necessarily use the Charge Finisher spam, this is a Lance to look out for.
A Lance with a grand total of 350 raw and one that only requires Razor Sharp and either Sharpness +1 or +2 to get Purple Sharpness. Can effectively be used as an alternate Elderfrost Stampede, though most of this Lance’s niche is already filled by that Lance.
The Lagiacrus Lance is in the same boat as the Great Ogre Tusk, though it sacrifices 10 raw for a sizable 22 Thunder instead. Use Razor Sharp and either Sharpness +1 or +2 on Thunder-weak monsters for the best effect.
Off-Meta Recommendations - Don’t Use Unless You Really Want To!
Elemental Lance Recommendations
With the power of Strong Thrusts you can apply element on Lance relatively well, so because of that the Lances recommended here tend to focus on larger amounts of a high-grade Sharpness and assumes that you won’t try to Striker Charge Spam.
Rathalos’s Lance is a lot like Perfect Storm Doris, except that this Lance is Fire and you need Sharpness +2 to get a sizable amount of Purple. Use it on something like Duramboros or Zamtrios or Snowbaron.
Soulseer’s Lance not only packs a good amount of raw, with 310, but also a high amount of Water at 27, has 20% Affinity and has Deviant Boost, perfect for Striker Lance. You will have to use Sharpness +2 with this Lance to get a large chunk of Purple though.
Gore Magala’s Lance is like Okimi Kaisei, but gives up the Deviant Boost in exchange for a slight element boost at 34 Dragon and a slot. Also needs Sharpness +2 to get a good amount of Purple Sharpness.
Status Lance Recommendations
Remember that Status is only applied a third of the time, but Strong Thrusts mainly get past the problem. I hope you like being relegated to support….
Yes, this Lance’s name really is that. No, I’m not sure why they tried to stick a name that long into that space, which is already pretty large. Anyway, this Lance has a high amount of Poison with 46 Poison and a decent 310 raw. You’ll need Sharpness +2 to get Purple Sharpness, but if used in combination with Strong Thrusts you should be able to apply Poison relatively quickly, making this nice for fighting Kushala. Just… get out of the way of the nados.
Basically the only Paralysis Lance that will allow you to deal actual damage in the fight and not be relegated to pure support. Has the lowest amount of Para damage amongst Lances and forces you to use Sharpness +2, but hey, you’re dealing damage and getting a few Paras in the fight at the same time, so win-win?
Welcome to pure support town. You may as well be using Healing Shield if you’re gonna use this Lance because your damage is gonna be underwhelming as heck if you keep this up. Anyway, this is the best pure-Paralysis Lance, so you’re gonna be paralyzing the monster a lot more with this weapon. I hope you have good teammates.
Has a decent amount of sleep with an average 310 raw, and actually gains Purple Sharpness with Sharpness +, unlike a certain other Deviant Lance. Surprisingly good as far as Sleep Lances go.
We’ll go over skills and armor sets for progression in this section. Since Lance’s usual dual styles of evasion versus guard are somewhat obsolete in this game, Lance mainly takes standard Blademaster skills. Affinity stacking and Sharpness boosting are the classic ways to put on Lance armor. You can also opt to go for Evasion or Guard Lance in this game too, but they’re less accessible due to the fact that you cannot get any of the important skills on XR equipment, more or less forcing you to use standard armor parts in mix sets. Furthermore, you can only go up to Evasion +2 in this game, meaning you cannot backhop chain through attacks like you would in other G-Rank games.
Low Rank (Village 1-6*, Hub 1-3*)
BuJaBu is the classic beginner’s set built for maximum damage in the early game. Simply use a Bulldrome Cap, Jaggi Mail, Bulldrome Vambraces, Jaggi Faulds, and Bulldrome Greaves along with some Attack Jwls to get Attack Up (L) pretty early in the game, and fairly easily too.
Ceanataur has Critical Eye and Razor Sharp instead of Attack Up, which is slightly less damage but you get slightly more utility from Razor Sharp. Only change if you don’t like running BuJaBu or if Ceanataur would get you more defense, really.
The Rathalos set grants Attack Up (M) as well as Weakness Exploit which boosts your damage significantly. Lance has a little bit of an easy time hitting weakspots since your thrusts are precise, and hit the same spot in the same combo, though moving around to hit those weakspots can be difficult.
Created from Rathalos Cap, Rathalos Mail, Ceanataur Braces, Rathalos Faulds, and Bnahabra Boots. Provides less points in Attack than the normal Rathalos full set would give you, but this provides Razor Sharp in addition, giving this set more utility than Rathalos. This set does have slightly less Defense as well, but that’s marginal.
High Rank (Village 7-10*, Hub 4-7*)
Like BuJaBu but a High Rank version. You should really only build this if you refuse to make the Rathalos set for some reason.
Ceanataur S provides more Critical Eye as well as the Razor Sharp that its LR version provided. This is a fine upgrade to the Rathalos sets that you made in LR if you’re starting to get uncomfortable with the defense provided by the sets.
A unique progression choice for Lance, provides Attack Up (S), Defense Up (S), and Guard +1 by default. This set is weaker than the traditional progression options but you, as Lance, can at least make use of the set’s Guard boosting capabilities.
Provides more Attack than the LR Version and is just a solid progression armor if you want to deal more damage. ‘S pretty simple.
Simply an upgrade to the Rathalos Mixset described earlier but with High Rank parts replacing the Low Rank parts. Still provides the same benefits, but this mix has more Attack than the LR version.
If you really want to suffer, you can grab this set. This set provides Weakness Exploit and Critical Boost by default, boosting those critical hits you get from Weakness Exploit and making them deal more damage. This set is entirely optional though.
The legendary Hayasol mixed set from Gen meta returns as a great progression set. You can, in fact, make it through G-Rank by just using this set, so if you have the desire to farm this set up it’ll take you far. You don’t need this set though if you don’t want to completely clear Low Rank Village.
G-Rank (Hub G1-G4*)
A unique progression option for Lance, this set has Guard +1, Attack Up (S), and Anti-Theft by default, and can be gemmed for additional Guard and Attack power. Certainly weaker than traditional progression sets, but provides an early way to gain G-Rank Defense power.
Has Critical Eye and Razor Sharp, though the defense, slots, and skill point distribution will be different for each set. Perfect for taking you to G-Rank Defense without sacrificing any offensive capabilities.
Like Barroth’s HR set, but with more points in Attack and Guard, and it also sacrifices the points in Defense for points in Bind Res and Guard Up. You’ll have to gem in Guard Up yourself, but otherwise this is an okay set for Lance progression.
All the power of Rathalos with G-Rank power. This incarnation has a few points in Earplugs, but you’re Lance and you can guard roars anyhow. Note that the game will check if you’re guarding in the roar’s direction before it checks for Earplugs, so you’ll be taking stamina damage if you guard roars anyway.
Sacrifices the ability to get Earplugs but grants you more Blademaster-relevant skills like Attack Up (L), Weakness Exploit, and Razor Sharp. Comprised of Rathalos X/Rathalos X/Rathalos X/Vaik X/Bnahabra X. More useful for Lance users because of the loss of Earplugs.
Sharpness +2 and RS are recommended on most of the Lances you use by default, so this set simply provides those skills and more. Very useful after Ahtal-Ka.
For maximum effectiveness, you’ll generally want to tailor your set to the appropriate weapon, and sometimes even the specific monster you’re gonna be tackling. In general, the priorities for Blademasters goes Sharpness-related skills (Sharpness +1 or 2, Razor Sharp), then weapon-specific core skills, then skills that boost Attack as appropriate. Take a look at the following section to get a good idea of what you’ll want.
Grants +50% Affinity when striking a hitzone of 45 or more. Due to Lance’s unique ability to calculate damage from either the Cut or Impact hitzone, you can take advantage of this skill even more than most other Blademasters can.
Lance hits a lot even when you’re just spamming Striker Charge Finishers into the monsters, so Razor Sharp is generally recommended on Lances.
Only certain Lances will need this depending on what their own Sharpness gauges are. In general you’re looking to gain either White or a sizable amount of Purple after a sliver of White when it comes to making the most out of this skill.
Damage boost to crits. Since the meta revolves around stacking crit this skill is pretty great since it amplifies those crits.
Standard Affinity Booster. Used to round out a set, so don’t go for this as a focus.
Popular since the monster is often enraged in G-Rank. Provides a sizable damage boost while the monster’s enraged, though due to the nature of this skill, should only be gotten if Critical Eye is unavailable.
Useful for Evade Lances, since they step-evade a lot for their playstyle. Double distance on each evade means a lot to them.
Evasion + skills when used in Evade Lance can let you hop through some attacks, and since you can do three hops in a row, you can easily go through multiple attacks. Do note that even with Evasion +2, you aren’t completely invincible when you chain multiple hops together.
Lets you defend against attacks more effectively, reducing the amount of Stamina lost, knockback, and chip damage received. Most effective against multi-hit attacks since those can eat up Stamina. Will work with Counter Thrust but not with Adept Guards.
Lance got the buff stick in this game with its above-average HAs and potency of the Striker Charge Finisher, which can chain into another Charge. It’s a shame that it basically had the Strong Thrusts, well, thrust upon it, ruining many Lance main’s timing and rhythm, but at least Striker also doesn’t have that. This makes the other styles weird to use in comparison, but hopefully we’ll see either people get used to the Strong Thrust, or it just being removed in the next game. The matchups vary wildly for Lance, mostly based on if the monster’s attacks can be efficiently guarded or not at base Guard level. Lance is a great weapon in this game, and despite the centrality of Striker, other styles can be useful without sacrificing too much in the way of other things.
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