I've been a evade lance main since 3U and I can tell you: do not be deceived about the mobility of this weapon. It is easily one of the most offensive weapon in MH, beaten only by peak CB usage. The bread and butter of the lance is the triple sidestep. With evade extender, you can close gaps in seconds and run circles around the monster without ever letting up. The sidesteps are already explained quite well in the video, however, I think he missed the extended back hop. If you attack then pull back on the left joystick and press X, the back hop covers a bit more ground. Regarding closing gaps, you can do this in 3 ways. The defensive way is guard advance into sidestep into guard advance ad infinitum. The offensive way is the charge ended with the poke. The no bullshit way is to turn AWAY from the monster and back hop towards the monster. Consider your armor skills when lancing. Guard+ and Guard Up for guard/counter lancing, or evasion+ and evade extender for evade lancing. Lance is a fast hitting weapon, so do use status and elements to your advantage.
Rurikhan Thanks! I really appreciate all your guides videos so far. I do find them very useful to help people new to MH. The only other thing that I might add is whether the weapon damage is Raw biased or Element/Status biased because it really matters for weapons like SnS and DB.
Bouncy Tsu Yes, the counter guard can only block one hit. When you enter a counter and the monster hits, you immediately exit counter guard and execute the counter poke. The counter is good mostly for a point-blank single fireball and tailspins which both hits once and combos slowly in other moves. Other things about the counter: -Some monster attacks are "heavier" than others. If an attack is too heavy to counter, your hunter will enter the knockbacked guard animation, thus cancelling the counter. I believe the new power guard solves this, but that does require timing. -I'm not really sure about this (since I forego the counter in most cases), but the counter poke has at least two levels. The uncharged counter hits forward while the stronger charged counter hits 45° up.
Bouncy Tsu You could break body parts with all weapons. You can only cut tails with cutting damage. The lance is special, its the only one dealing piercing damage. Piercing damage counts as both Cutting and Impact damage. As hitzones have different defense values for these damage types, Piercing switches between Cutting and Impact depending on which has lower defense, if the difference is above a specific threshold. However, even when switched to impact, the lance attacks can always cut tails.
However you can VERY easily change the counter thrust into Powered guard to block an infinite amount of attacks Without losing stamina as long as the attacks don't let up. Another handy tip is using the Powered Guard instead of the Counter thrust to redirect your lance attacks if the monster circles you.
As someone who has been maining lance in Monster Hunter I don't think enough emphasis was put on the dash attack (charge). There are some things to note that I'd like to add. Charge is INCREDIBLY effective to use on a monster that has been KO'd or knocked over from a mount. A good tip is to sharpen as your teammate is getting a mount as the monster will not he agro'd on anyone and will focus on the hunter stabbing him in the eye. Once you've sharpened, get ready to line up your charge. Running into a monster with a charge will NOT stop you. You will simply be running in place dealing ticks from 15-20ish damage much faster than you can thrust. This is incredibly effective at cutting LARGE monster's tails or breaking faces, wings, etc. It is less effective on smaller monsters as you tend to phase through them mid charge and lose out on DPS. Another fantastic feature of the charge is hitting either thrust button while mid-charge will net you several massive ticks of damage. By massive I mean one of about 60 or 70 and another of 100+. So give or take 170 damage for a very simple move that then combos into your thrusts. Very easy 400+ damage can be dealt on a monster through this method. One last pro tip is that your charge will stagger your teammates so be prepared to hear a lot of "what the fuck" as you run past them like you're headed to a Sonic convention.
Rocking the Bone Lance and having a blast with this game. So glad I bought it last night. Very impressed with the visuals and how free you are to do what you want. I’ve been working on getting as much info on creatures like the Great Jagras so I can poke them with impunity and cackle maniacally. This game has made me laugh out loud which is truly a treat. Keep up the excellent guides Ruri.
You can also chain your triple pokes together by initiating a dash attack (r2 triangle and circle) after the third poke. Cancel it with the finishing thrust immediately, then go right back to the triple poke. Hits low, but you'll be topping out on raw damage dps. It's a great way to take advantage of a k.o or a mount.
Me and my friend found the other day that Long sword users can run up your heavy shield for thier jumping demon slash or whatever its called lol, kinda cool reminded me of Dragons Dogma.
I adore how much love and detail was given to each weapon. Even the seemingly simple greatsword has more depth in it than most games with their full arsenal
The triangle + circle move is there to make a wider sweeping attack. Say ur surrounded. Most attack’s are in a straight line. His one covers more lateral space
Hey Rurikhan Great vid as always! I do think 1 thing you missed is that the guard dash has guard point too so it has the ability to negate damage with the right timing as well. So people can use that to position themselves for a hit and take no damage in the process. Still a wonderful breakdown of the lance. Keep up the good work!
Remember after a power guarded block you can counter attack in an almost 360 degree fashion using the left stick to aim where you want to poke. Awesome video, thanks Rurikhan.
Damn! keep up these type of weapon reviews man, very well made and very in depth. Thank you much. Those of use that only get a few hours a week to play appreciate you.
Playing 3U until I get my PS4, been using Lance and Gunlance in my underwater fights. So good. Otherwise I usually don't use Lance. Will main Lance and Bow in world to give GS and LS a break. I always cycle through HH, SnS, CB, SA whenever I can make good ones.
I have to add that the mobility of the lance is my personal favorite you can constantly stay face to face with the monster without letting up, as soon as you learn to walk again you'll see and you don't have to sheathe.
I haven't played MHW but I know in previous games lance you can go block or evade and both are valid for defence since there is so much movement with the side steps it's not just a pure block weapon. It used to also be one of the better ones to mount with but they have made other weapons better now.
It is still one of the weapons outside of glaive that can mount with no need for jumping off cliffs, using hills for sliding, and or wall running as you can do a jump attack from lance charge. It's aerial attack is also redirectable, so you can run by its head, jump to it's right and turn in the air to stab the tail.
Recently I just said fuck it and made a Thunder Lance. I fell in love with the lance instantly and couldnt believe ive been avoiding this weapon for so long. Im glad it works the way it does in World.
Lance/Gunlance + Uragaan set bonus "Guard Up" = Block anything and everything. Add a little bit of the regular "Guard" skill and even the mightiest unblockable attacks in the game will only reduce your HP/Stamina by a tiny tiny bit when blocked.
I recently got back into MHW and was struggling to get back on the saddle with the lance. This clarified what I was doing wrong and now I am able to learn from my mistakes. Thanks for the helpful video it really helps 👍
+Rurikhan There are two other very useful tidbits about the Lance that you didn't mention. 1. The jumping thrust after the guard advance hits 3 times but most importantly it ignores sharpness, very useful to avoid bouncing off certain monster parts when you need to avoid bouncing by all means. You still do reduced damage as if you had bounced though. 2. The lance does either impact or slash damage depending on what the monster is weakest to on the particular spot you are hitting. If the monster is weakest to impact on the face, the lance does impact damage to the face. This does not mean you do KO damage in those instances.
I like these videos, I’m new to MH. I was wondering... would you mind making a playlist with all your MHW videos? Well specifically the weapon guides that way I can save the whole playlist
Best lance tip I can give is once you get the jest of it, slow down. Be methodical. At least when I first picked it up after playing a lot of the smaller more agile weapons, I tended to button mash, jab X3, hop, repeat instantly. Now, I've slowed it down so that I'm lining up those vitals much more efficiently and also leaving myself the opportunity to react with a block if I when I need it and not being stuck with a previously entered command.
Probably not the first one to say this but... Sweep does have one good use, I’ve used it on Anjinath’s and if you hit them in the legs you can knock them over.
Chris Tuffley yo, thought i was the only one that noticed lol. I used wide sweep accidently and the monster fell over. I was so confused but got free hits either way XD
Y+B is good for hitting your teammates to un-stun them if theyre paralysed ir holding their heads. You can also poke and block simultaneously but it does less damage.
As others have pointed out, there are several important points not covered by this guide. 1. The backhop on the lance travels considerably further than the other hops. 2. The lance can chain 3 hops in succession. 3. There are two optimal styles of lance play. The first is guard lancing, which involves an emphasis on blocking and taking the Guard skill. The second is evade lancing, which involves an emphasis on evading attacks and taking the Evade Extender skill, which hugely improves the lance’s mobility. I would also disagree that the lance is simple, as it has an above-average amount of moves in its moveset, and you will probably use most of them frequently. The lance is also usually regarded as being one of the trickier weapons to use.
story of my life. used to main IG, suddenly do peanut damage on diablos while carting 9 times on an expedition, switched to lance, beat the fucker no sweat, never looked back lmao
Just wanted to put a heads up that you are able to turn your character using the counter thrust from the power guard. This is extremely useful for adjusting without stopping your combo.
The Wide Sweep is another attack you can fit into the tripple combo anywhere. It is indeed most useful for taking out groups of small fry, but it also serves as a turn-around attack when accidentally charging past a monster. If used, it will immediately attack behind you (or possibly even any direction you're pointing at, can't remember) and leave you free to continue with another two thrusts. The other thrusts out of the charge have some leeway to the left or right (especially the jumping attack you use to mount can rotate about 90° in either direction), but sometimes neither will actually hit, nor do they immediately stop you in your track. They do make you take a few extra steps, unlike the Wide Sweep.
Other people who have been maining lance for longer than I have seem to have done a pretty good job of going over the strengths of the lance you didn't cover, but there's one thing I didn't see. The sweeping attack can actually have great utility if paired with the charge. Because the attack that you end the charge with is buffed, the sweep damage goes from "eh" to about double a normal headshot. If you're charging at a monster and it sidesteps at the last second, instead of charging past and turning around like you did in the video, you can actually finish the attack with a sweep that will hit behind you for a good amount of damage. The most important thing when it comes to doing damage with the lance is being super sticky and never letting the monster get too far away from you unless absolutely necessary, so utilizing the sweep in this way has been pretty effective for me!
The wide sweep has some useful, but not for every situation recommended moves: - as the lance is a high precision weapon, the wide sweep has a wide range to still hit the monster, something like "ima hit you before I reposition myself - after a lance charge, turing around 180 and attacking results in a wide sweep, which is again an additional hit - you can also chain combo the wide sweep into your three hit combo, for example: mid thrust -> wide sweep -> high thrust, but only once per three hit move - use the wide sweep to smack away something annoying in your way like small monsters just some examples for the wide sweep. not the best move, but as all of the lances attacks are pretty much thrusts, the wide sweep is a sweep which has a larger hitbox.
You are very skilled at teaching how to use these MHW weapons, I learn so much from you. Also, there is something about how you talk that is funny ^^ Keep up the great job on covering this stuff for us MH-newcommers!
3:39 - This move is useful for when the monster has dodged aside but you have no time to reposition. Or for when your target is to the side, which is something a mid thrust and a hi thrust can't quite do.
There is a hidden and rarely spoken type of damage called "tripping damage" that is only apparent on the legs of monsters and not all monsters at that but, it does exist. Wide Sweep does extra tripping damage on legs.
The lances single hardest hit is to go into counter block into super guard into a high thrust counter (e.g full counter block will do 45 if you wait or you get hit if you go into super guard into high thrust it will do 73 and roughly over 110 if you hit the head while monster is asleep) That being said it is quicker than waiting for full counter block and you can tank from any direction while its there
That sweep attack used to be pretty handy way back in the Freedom Unite days because instead of just sweeping it had the added bonus of making the hunter jump back a bit as an evasion technique.
You said this so well. Now, about the sweep not being particularly useful- it’s basically an aoe attack for crowd control like you said... BUT you can actually use this sweep at the end of a charge by chaining off of turning around in a charge, instead of taking off again you can opt to swing behind you. Great if you want to get behind your target fast / overshooting and still boasts the full power of the final hit.
Nice! I've spent 200+hrs on the lance and I did NOT know you could do that one! And testing it was cool... It's like 250% more damage than the regular sweep as well! Regular sweep was doing 45, reversal sweep 127.
A neat thing I found with sliding down a hill while dash attacking, if you guard you stamina will regen, but it wont cancel the dash attack if you stop blocking by the bottom of the hill retaining the speed you built previously. Very good for stamina control, and chasing down those pesky running mons
The wide sweep can also hit behind you so if you somehow in the middle of a combo end up in front of your Target and you know the third hit won't hit with just the forward or up thrust you could use the sweep to get the last hit in other than that it's good for clearing little guys that's about it.
Holy shit man..after seeing this and actually seeing how badass the lance is..I'm gonna restart my game and become a fkn tank. Thank u for this video. I just subscribed 👍👊
Did I miss it or did you not talk about finishing thrust during dash. its 2x the damage of a normal thrust. So getting into dash often is pretty cool, still situational, but I find myself hitting that quite a bit on big mobs
Your guides are awesome, just your voice alone is cool haha I know you said why you aren’t doing the rest of the weapons but if you learn them over time please make vids!!
It might not do as much big numbers, but the strength of the lance is staying toe to toe with monsters and becoming a thorn in the monsters side. Where other weapons have to evade monsters attack as a lance you stay on the monsters ass and keep hitting it over and over.
I'm here because after nearly losing my mind to the Black Diablos/Diablos Arena challenge, I tried the Lance preset. I've never touched the Lance prior and I absolutely creamated the both of them. They couldn't touch at all, it was nutty.
I’m no veteran, but maybe the sweep is for: 1: Smaller monsters in a crowd 2: if you aren’t sure you’ll hit your mark with a thrust (or treat it as a hit check, idk.)
First time using the lance in MHW and I love it, the counter thrust does a lot of dmg together with the power guard I can counter anything even if they're quick and past me, the lance has good reach for that counter thrust. It seriously takes a lot of practice to quickly go into powerguard and then pressL1 into counterthrust the moment it hits, its hard to do but very cool when you pull it off. Feels good!
The lance may not be a strong offensive weapon but the fact that you can stand tall against almost all melee attacks combined with its guarantied clutch claw counter makes it a very valuable weapon
Charge attack makes you pretty much immune to stagger from allies. You forgot running you can do a complete 180 turn and continue running. A charge attack against a downed monster can net you a lot of damage at the cost of sharpness if you can position yourself in a space where you don't pass through the monster, perhaps not as much as regular attacks but still consistent. Love lance to mount monsters. Also tank everything. Who needs to dodge when you can block everything!
Seems to me that the counter thrust is more manageable than the long sword's foresight slash. When you time it right, you just block the hit and shrug it off, while as with foresight slash, it's not guaranteed that you dodge the hit especially if the monster's attack is a wide sweep or far reaching.
on that poison attack from pukei pukei, i hope you're using herbal medicine instead of just antidote. you get the poison removed and some health back. In any case, thanks for the video. I just started the Lance as a change of pace and your tips are great.
As a lance main, my favorite thing to do mobility wise, is to guard dash/jump thrust aroind the monster as my primary means of mobility. Fought night shade paulumu, and he Hardly even hit my shield, using those two moves makes you exceptionally mobile, followed with the choo choo train you are untouchable
Barroth armor is very good for lances, surprisingly. Anti-stamina drain effects, and bonus exhaustion effects. Although I do not necessarily know how to cause exhaustion. Guess he will just get tired from the fight.
Just stab em with the pointy end. It builds up like all the other status effects. They stand still more often which equal more stabby time for you... YAY!
I went from IG to gunlance, and now i've started to make gear for lance as well. i must agree thats it is really satisfying to stay on target, even though i thought i would be bored with the combos of it, but seems like thats quite the contrary. it actually requires a decent amount of skill to be able to stay on target at all times, something im still working on. health regen augment will help me a long way in that regard. just noticed that the time combined im getting away with the monster to regain health with the gunlance, I am almost constantly in the monsters face with the lance and thats pretty cool. im glad that im able to combine both GL and lance without messing up a run, because those weapons doesnt have the same playstyle at all tbh. Both entertaining in their own way ^^,
What is generally the best skill for Guard Lance?? I wondered a lot about this but let's talk about defense boost first, if I take it to level 5-7 is it an overkill since I've the best shield in game?? What about hunger resistance, do I need it for power guards or just stamina surge will do for normal blocking and repositioning?? In terms of attacking, I know attack boost is important but is there any status skills like, poison attack, paralysis attack, slugger or even stamina thief that might be useful to lance?? Sorry if I asked too much questions, I'm a noob but all answes are appreciated :)
The most important skill for guard lancing is very appropriately called guard. it reduces the knockback and stamina depletion from being attacked. Defense boost might help while learning but eventually you should be taking very few hits and it wont help you much. Hunger resistance just makes it take longer for your maximum stamina to decrease so it isn't very useful as you can just take a ration to counter the effect. Attack up and weakness exploit are the bread and butter of lance offence as you will have a pretty easy time hitting weak points.
Been trying this class and the no steed won't stay still. I had that rex prick running back and forth hitting every single team member ones. By the time I got to him and was swinging he was already moving to the next person. I been seeing this so much I can't get a rotation in.
To be honest, MHW has been my first MH game, and I started with bow, loved the high mobility and snappy dodging and kiting, then started to try the HBG just because I wanted to force myself to not rely on the same playstyle too much and loved it. Decided I became too accustomed to that one and found the hammer to be hilarious, there's just something extremely satisfying in whomping a big creature up the head with a boulder on a stick, wasn't for me but I still wanted to step away from using range as my greatest ally and go with a melee weapon. I decided to give the Lance a shot since it seemed like a good idea (personally a love for tanking and been a proficient Tank in multiple MMO style games and there just is something with staring the creature in the eye as they unleash hell upon you, and then stand smiling). Since then I just can't put it away. It's just way too hilarious having them bounce off and practically literally poking them to death. Add the fact that you can literally poke their tail until it actually falls off all the while they keep trying to chew through my bunker is an added bonus. And with this weapon I actually have the feeling it comes down to my own decisions whether or not I take way more damage than I know I should have instead of having to rely on a significant part of luck. So many times I've died or nearly died using a bow or HBG due to dodging correctly, but the game just throwing a curve ball and have an attack right after, or getting stunlocked after dodging so you eat the full brunt of everything they decide to throw at you. Only problem I've really had was the mobility. Mostly against flying enemies, they hop around like a grasshopper on steroids from one side to the other, leaving me to hobble after them like a lost penguin. And that it takes time between guard dashes before you can do it again without risking your hunter trying to smack that one fly out of the sky he knows is there someone with his shield.
Ma'iq the Liar Do read my comment on moving with the lance. It is deceptively mobile once you get used to back hopping to where you need to go. Evade Extender is a must have if you need to keep up with monster movements. It also has the best evade in the game, with Evasion +3, you can evade along laser attacks with the triple backhop.
Perverted Poképuffs I've definitely read it and it definitely helps, however I've tested with back hopping and it consumes a heck of a lot of stamina. Of course I'm not yet accustomed to the playstyle and I obviously don't know the monster mechanics yet, and maybe I'm missing a crucial part, but as I've noticed, during longer fights I've found the stamina drain on blocking an attack also becomes higher and higher so it seems to be either block or evade and that's the point I often play safe and turtle up or die. That said, still rather early up in the game (actually just killed Diablos after failing the quest twice, where I've actually tested out the new info) so I don't yet have the freedom or ability to really get the gear traits lined up perfectly, but with that said, definitely felt the grace Divine Intervention gives (I think it was called).
Ma'iq the Liar Back hopping definitely eats up stamina fast. My suggestion is to try to eat for Felyne Black Belt. You might need to look for the combination that gives you that. You do get used to managing the stamina bar as you become more proficient with the lance and can go for other skills.
Perverted Poképuffs Felyne Black Belt. Got it. Often just go for the Chef's Choice for the beefy HP boost and stamina boost but definitely will go see how that one works. Thank you.
One question, when attacking anything my charge attach bounces off of everything and only deals like 6 or so damage. I understand that you can go into a thrust to do good damage, but how do you go about charging through the monster instead of bouncing off of it like a rubber ball? I noticed it happen in the video when he was attacking barrels and one of them bounced him back, but the other ones he went right through.
PoisonedDemon24 it probably has to do with sharpness, the duller your lance and the harder the monster bit you're hitting the more likely you'll just bounce.
on Xbox, sometimes when I am charging towards a monster I hit something and do very minimal damage and get knocked back, other times I run through them doing tons of damage. am I hitting the environment? their plated skin? I really really want to love the Lance but as much as I practice with it, currently on quest to kill trex flame chicken, I still feel like I am playing crappy. Cheers!
That first 2 minutes intro got me laughing hahaha and wanting to try this weapon out good job on the tips and easy explanation maybe it’s time for me to put down the charge blade and bow down and try something new
I've used the sweep to break armor some how it would knock the enemy over I'm sure that it might not work on stronger monsters like elder dragon haven't tried it yet on them
I'm new to MH and i'm loving the lance, I tried getting behind an evasion lance but i just couldn't do it so i'm happy it has a very strong shield. Now to try and get Guard to level 5 without messing up my current armor lol
I couldn't get the hang of Evasion Lancing either. For one, the extended back hop was throwing my jabs out of sync. Instead of stab, stab, stab, hop, stab, stab, stab, it was stab, stab, stab, hop, whiff, whiff, stab. I got around it by side hopping more and working my way up and down the body. But I prefer to just pick a spot and destroy it before moving onto the next target area.
The one thing about power guard countering thats annoying is that even though you don't move, the monster often hits you and just keeps trucking so that your counter won't land. Even if I spin around real quick with power guard I often still miss the counter most notably with teostras aerial dive
I just made my first lance build and went to hunt a Kirin... I didn't remember it to be that easy to fight: it has always been a pain in the unlighted one, even whenever I hunted it with the bow, it was always a matter of evading that lighting, then those other ones, but with the lance, wow...
I've been a evade lance main since 3U and I can tell you: do not be deceived about the mobility of this weapon. It is easily one of the most offensive weapon in MH, beaten only by peak CB usage.
The bread and butter of the lance is the triple sidestep. With evade extender, you can close gaps in seconds and run circles around the monster without ever letting up.
The sidesteps are already explained quite well in the video, however, I think he missed the extended back hop. If you attack then pull back on the left joystick and press X, the back hop covers a bit more ground.
Regarding closing gaps, you can do this in 3 ways. The defensive way is guard advance into sidestep into guard advance ad infinitum. The offensive way is the charge ended with the poke. The no bullshit way is to turn AWAY from the monster and back hop towards the monster.
Consider your armor skills when lancing. Guard+ and Guard Up for guard/counter lancing, or evasion+ and evade extender for evade lancing. Lance is a fast hitting weapon, so do use status and elements to your advantage.
+Perverted Poképuffs thanks for adding that info, really appreciate it! I'll be pinning this comment.
Rurikhan Thanks! I really appreciate all your guides videos so far. I do find them very useful to help people new to MH. The only other thing that I might add is whether the weapon damage is Raw biased or Element/Status biased because it really matters for weapons like SnS and DB.
Bouncy Tsu Yes, the counter guard can only block one hit. When you enter a counter and the monster hits, you immediately exit counter guard and execute the counter poke. The counter is good mostly for a point-blank single fireball and tailspins which both hits once and combos slowly in other moves.
Other things about the counter:
-Some monster attacks are "heavier" than others. If an attack is too heavy to counter, your hunter will enter the knockbacked guard animation, thus cancelling the counter. I believe the new power guard solves this, but that does require timing.
-I'm not really sure about this (since I forego the counter in most cases), but the counter poke has at least two levels. The uncharged counter hits forward while the stronger charged counter hits 45° up.
Bouncy Tsu You could break body parts with all weapons. You can only cut tails with cutting damage. The lance is special, its the only one dealing piercing damage.
Piercing damage counts as both Cutting and Impact damage. As hitzones have different defense values for these damage types, Piercing switches between Cutting and Impact depending on which has lower defense, if the difference is above a specific threshold.
However, even when switched to impact, the lance attacks can always cut tails.
However you can VERY easily change the counter thrust into Powered guard to block an infinite amount of attacks Without losing stamina as long as the attacks don't let up. Another handy tip is using the Powered Guard instead of the Counter thrust to redirect your lance attacks if the monster circles you.
The Wide Sweep is to slap the bow and the longsword at the same time for tripping you when the monster was down. Also, it staggers small monsters.
+awa lol
If the boss monster is small enough can catch multiple hit boxes
also good online to knock people out of stun, sleep, etc... or just for trolls
Ran with a lancer the other day that spammed it after the kill to prevent people from carving.
honorbound12 bow users are the wimps of mhw
"Thrusting all over their face"...demonetized...
Daddy Cthulhu Lol. Yeah, that whole sentence was a smidge on the dirty side. 😂
The difference between acne and pedobear is acne waits until puberty to come all over your face.
As someone who has been maining lance in Monster Hunter I don't think enough emphasis was put on the dash attack (charge). There are some things to note that I'd like to add.
Charge is INCREDIBLY effective to use on a monster that has been KO'd or knocked over from a mount.
A good tip is to sharpen as your teammate is getting a mount as the monster will not he agro'd on anyone and will focus on the hunter stabbing him in the eye. Once you've sharpened, get ready to line up your charge. Running into a monster with a charge will NOT stop you. You will simply be running in place dealing ticks from 15-20ish damage much faster than you can thrust. This is incredibly effective at cutting LARGE monster's tails or breaking faces, wings, etc. It is less effective on smaller monsters as you tend to phase through them mid charge and lose out on DPS.
Another fantastic feature of the charge is hitting either thrust button while mid-charge will net you several massive ticks of damage. By massive I mean one of about 60 or 70 and another of 100+. So give or take 170 damage for a very simple move that then combos into your thrusts. Very easy 400+ damage can be dealt on a monster through this method.
One last pro tip is that your charge will stagger your teammates so be prepared to hear a lot of "what the fuck" as you run past them like you're headed to a Sonic convention.
Teach me, sempai!
Is there any way to take aggro from teamates? I like playing tank and spank builds and my friends are looking for anew game to play together.
if you wear the challenger mantle almost all aggro will go to you. the effect wears off if you get hit though
Which includes blocking if you have a lance, btw
It doesn't include blocking if you don't take any chip damage from what I have seen.
Wide Sweep is useful at hitting your teammates, if they're stunned, stuck, or if they just piss you off.
This is true. I use it more than enough for smacking the annoying long sword user constantly hitting me.
Alex Gallegos Or if theyre just simply trying to carve after the monster died. God lance users are great
I'm sad that the dash can no longer deparalyze teammates, but I understand that being sent flying by a dashing lancer is usually just annoying.
The wide sweep smack of justice
Alex Gallegos lol
Rocking the Bone Lance and having a blast with this game. So glad I bought it last night. Very impressed with the visuals and how free you are to do what you want. I’ve been working on getting as much info on creatures like the Great Jagras so I can poke them with impunity and cackle maniacally. This game has made me laugh out loud which is truly a treat. Keep up the excellent guides Ruri.
The wide sweep attack of the lance is mostly used for breaking your teammates stunlock. It has a very niche use it hitting lots of tiny monsters.
You can also chain your triple pokes together by initiating a dash attack (r2 triangle and circle) after the third poke. Cancel it with the finishing thrust immediately, then go right back to the triple poke.
Hits low, but you'll be topping out on raw damage dps. It's a great way to take advantage of a k.o or a mount.
Me and my friend found the other day that Long sword users can run up your heavy shield for thier jumping demon slash or whatever its called lol, kinda cool reminded me of Dragons Dogma.
Mewtlyon
Oh cool, I'll keep that in mind
"1, 2, 3, side step" dancing lessons... with a lance.
Next up, Charleston with a Lance while avoiding the angry pickle
Man everytime i watch your videos i want to test the weapons myself
Yeah very good explanation. Keep them coming!
Yeah same.
TheoneandonlyB0b me too.
Lol watching him, I started using lance and sword + shield.
I feel you
Gotta say I love these videos and the comments.
Monster Hunter has been one of the best community experiences I've had in a game.
I adore how much love and detail was given to each weapon. Even the seemingly simple greatsword has more depth in it than most games with their full arsenal
The triangle + circle move is there to make a wider sweeping attack. Say ur surrounded. Most attack’s are in a straight line. His one covers more lateral space
Hey Rurikhan Great vid as always! I do think 1 thing you missed is that the guard dash has guard point too so it has the ability to negate damage with the right timing as well. So people can use that to position themselves for a hit and take no damage in the process. Still a wonderful breakdown of the lance. Keep up the good work!
Remember after a power guarded block you can counter attack in an almost 360 degree fashion using the left stick to aim where you want to poke. Awesome video, thanks Rurikhan.
Just wanted to say ruri that I appreciate your vids. Lance is my main weapon but your vids are really helpful to me when trying other things
Damn! keep up these type of weapon reviews man, very well made and very in depth. Thank you much. Those of use that only get a few hours a week to play appreciate you.
"thrust your mighty Lance all over their face" such a lewd boy
Playing 3U until I get my PS4, been using Lance and Gunlance in my underwater fights. So good. Otherwise I usually don't use Lance. Will main Lance and Bow in world to give GS and LS a break. I always cycle through HH, SnS, CB, SA whenever I can make good ones.
Primordial Lionheart nice
Deviljho: I feel like theres a wall between us...😢
(Its called a lance biatch!)
Love how passionate this video was
I have to add that the mobility of the lance is my personal favorite you can constantly stay face to face with the monster without letting up, as soon as you learn to walk again you'll see and you don't have to sheathe.
I haven't played MHW but I know in previous games lance you can go block or evade and both are valid for defence since there is so much movement with the side steps it's not just a pure block weapon. It used to also be one of the better ones to mount with but they have made other weapons better now.
Scott C Slap on evasion +2 and evade extender, you get the most mobile weapon in the game.
It is still one of the weapons outside of glaive that can mount with no need for jumping off cliffs, using hills for sliding, and or wall running as you can do a jump attack from lance charge. It's aerial attack is also redirectable, so you can run by its head, jump to it's right and turn in the air to stab the tail.
Recently I just said fuck it and made a Thunder Lance. I fell in love with the lance instantly and couldnt believe ive been avoiding this weapon for so long. Im glad it works the way it does in World.
The iceborne changes to the Lance are so cool
Man, I use to hate this weapon with a passion. One day, I decided to try it out and just fell in love with it
Lance/Gunlance + Uragaan set bonus "Guard Up" = Block anything and everything.
Add a little bit of the regular "Guard" skill and even the mightiest unblockable attacks in the game will only reduce your HP/Stamina by a tiny tiny bit when blocked.
I recently got back into MHW and was struggling to get back on the saddle with the lance. This clarified what I was doing wrong and now I am able to learn from my mistakes. Thanks for the helpful video it really helps 👍
+Rurikhan There are two other very useful tidbits about the Lance that you didn't mention.
1. The jumping thrust after the guard advance hits 3 times but most importantly it ignores sharpness, very useful to avoid bouncing off certain monster parts when you need to avoid bouncing by all means. You still do reduced damage as if you had bounced though.
2. The lance does either impact or slash damage depending on what the monster is weakest to on the particular spot you are hitting. If the monster is weakest to impact on the face, the lance does impact damage to the face. This does not mean you do KO damage in those instances.
I like these videos, I’m new to MH. I was wondering... would you mind making a playlist with all your MHW videos? Well specifically the weapon guides that way I can save the whole playlist
Best lance tip I can give is once you get the jest of it, slow down. Be methodical. At least when I first picked it up after playing a lot of the smaller more agile weapons, I tended to button mash, jab X3, hop, repeat instantly. Now, I've slowed it down so that I'm lining up those vitals much more efficiently and also leaving myself the opportunity to react with a block if I when I need it and not being stuck with a previously entered command.
The jest of it? Oh for gods sake. Whats even the POINT?
Probably not the first one to say this but... Sweep does have one good use, I’ve used it on Anjinath’s and if you hit them in the legs you can knock them over.
Chris Tuffley yo, thought i was the only one that noticed lol. I used wide sweep accidently and the monster fell over. I was so confused but got free hits either way XD
Y+B is good for hitting your teammates to un-stun them if theyre paralysed ir holding their heads. You can also poke and block simultaneously but it does less damage.
As others have pointed out, there are several important points not covered by this guide.
1. The backhop on the lance travels considerably further than the other hops.
2. The lance can chain 3 hops in succession.
3. There are two optimal styles of lance play. The first is guard lancing, which involves an emphasis on blocking and taking the Guard skill. The second is evade lancing, which involves an emphasis on evading attacks and taking the Evade Extender skill, which hugely improves the lance’s mobility.
I would also disagree that the lance is simple, as it has an above-average amount of moves in its moveset, and you will probably use most of them frequently. The lance is also usually regarded as being one of the trickier weapons to use.
Thought lance looks boring compared to other weapons -> tried it because i had trouble killing my first diablos -> new main weapon :P
story of my life. used to main IG, suddenly do peanut damage on diablos while carting 9 times on an expedition, switched to lance, beat the fucker no sweat, never looked back lmao
@@Jc_12368 Insect Glaive on Diablos is a nightmare, unless you learn to overcome the number of ways that monster "counters" insect glaive.
Just wanted to put a heads up that you are able to turn your character using the counter thrust from the power guard. This is extremely useful for adjusting without stopping your combo.
The Wide Sweep is another attack you can fit into the tripple combo anywhere. It is indeed most useful for taking out groups of small fry, but it also serves as a turn-around attack when accidentally charging past a monster. If used, it will immediately attack behind you (or possibly even any direction you're pointing at, can't remember) and leave you free to continue with another two thrusts.
The other thrusts out of the charge have some leeway to the left or right (especially the jumping attack you use to mount can rotate about 90° in either direction), but sometimes neither will actually hit, nor do they immediately stop you in your track. They do make you take a few extra steps, unlike the Wide Sweep.
Dude YOU and your videos rock! Anytime I’m looking to try a new weapon I immediately go to Rurikhan! Keep up the great content Iron Breaker!
Other people who have been maining lance for longer than I have seem to have done a pretty good job of going over the strengths of the lance you didn't cover, but there's one thing I didn't see. The sweeping attack can actually have great utility if paired with the charge. Because the attack that you end the charge with is buffed, the sweep damage goes from "eh" to about double a normal headshot. If you're charging at a monster and it sidesteps at the last second, instead of charging past and turning around like you did in the video, you can actually finish the attack with a sweep that will hit behind you for a good amount of damage. The most important thing when it comes to doing damage with the lance is being super sticky and never letting the monster get too far away from you unless absolutely necessary, so utilizing the sweep in this way has been pretty effective for me!
Loved the video man. Your enthusiasm made me try this weapon and I have not regretted it! Actually the first melee weapon I can hit anything with :)
The wide sweep has some useful, but not for every situation recommended moves:
- as the lance is a high precision weapon, the wide sweep has a wide range to still hit the monster, something like "ima hit you before I reposition myself
- after a lance charge, turing around 180 and attacking results in a wide sweep, which is again an additional hit
- you can also chain combo the wide sweep into your three hit combo, for example: mid thrust -> wide sweep -> high thrust, but only once per three hit move
- use the wide sweep to smack away something annoying in your way like small monsters
just some examples for the wide sweep. not the best move, but as all of the lances attacks are pretty much thrusts, the wide sweep is a sweep which has a larger hitbox.
You are very skilled at teaching how to use these MHW weapons, I learn so much from you. Also, there is something about how you talk that is funny ^^
Keep up the great job on covering this stuff for us MH-newcommers!
Fuck! I ve been watching your MH videos thinking " from where I knew this dude" and was from HOTS matches with the Squadron!! Good job man!
After you mount the monster at the end of the stabbing part, is the final attack a charge attack? Or do you just spam triangle?
professional lance user always reserve cart for the others on tempered monster quest ayy lmao
pitwan desu
..
"One, two, three, sidestep. One, two, three, sidestep..."
Still better than most club music.
Ok. I'm just about to start MHW in PS4. Chose the lance as my weap. This video helps alot. Subbed and bookmarked. Thank you.
3:39 - This move is useful for when the monster has dodged aside but you have no time to reposition. Or for when your target is to the side, which is something a mid thrust and a hi thrust can't quite do.
You had me sold after a minute, 18 minutes of my life saved. Lance here I come.
+AcrobaticHamster lol :D
There is a hidden and rarely spoken type of damage called "tripping damage" that is only apparent on the legs of monsters and not all monsters at that but, it does exist. Wide Sweep does extra tripping damage on legs.
The lances single hardest hit is to go into counter block into super guard into a high thrust counter (e.g full counter block will do 45 if you wait or you get hit if you go into super guard into high thrust it will do 73 and roughly over 110 if you hit the head while monster is asleep)
That being said it is quicker than waiting for full counter block and you can tank from any direction while its there
That sweep attack used to be pretty handy way back in the Freedom Unite days because instead of just sweeping it had the added bonus of making the hunter jump back a bit as an evasion technique.
You said this so well. Now, about the sweep not being particularly useful- it’s basically an aoe attack for crowd control like you said... BUT you can actually use this sweep at the end of a charge by chaining off of turning around in a charge, instead of taking off again you can opt to swing behind you. Great if you want to get behind your target fast / overshooting and still boasts the full power of the final hit.
Nice! I've spent 200+hrs on the lance and I did NOT know you could do that one! And testing it was cool... It's like 250% more damage than the regular sweep as well! Regular sweep was doing 45, reversal sweep 127.
A neat thing I found with sliding down a hill while dash attacking, if you guard you stamina will regen, but it wont cancel the dash attack if you stop blocking by the bottom of the hill retaining the speed you built previously. Very good for stamina control, and chasing down those pesky running mons
I love your intro on the lance. "Toe to Toe"
The wide sweep can also hit behind you so if you somehow in the middle of a combo end up in front of your Target and you know the third hit won't hit with just the forward or up thrust you could use the sweep to get the last hit in other than that it's good for clearing little guys that's about it.
Holy shit man..after seeing this and actually seeing how badass the lance is..I'm gonna restart my game and become a fkn tank. Thank u for this video. I just subscribed 👍👊
Did I miss it or did you not talk about finishing thrust during dash. its 2x the damage of a normal thrust. So getting into dash often is pretty cool, still situational, but I find myself hitting that quite a bit on big mobs
Excellent guide. In the thrust we trust!
Your guides are awesome, just your voice alone is cool haha I know you said why you aren’t doing the rest of the weapons but if you learn them over time please make vids!!
It might not do as much big numbers, but the strength of the lance is staying toe to toe with monsters and becoming a thorn in the monsters side. Where other weapons have to evade monsters attack as a lance you stay on the monsters ass and keep hitting it over and over.
I'm here because after nearly losing my mind to the Black Diablos/Diablos Arena challenge, I tried the Lance preset. I've never touched the Lance prior and I absolutely creamated the both of them. They couldn't touch at all, it was nutty.
I’m no veteran, but maybe the sweep is for:
1: Smaller monsters in a crowd
2: if you aren’t sure you’ll hit your mark with a thrust (or treat it as a hit check, idk.)
First time using the lance in MHW and I love it, the counter thrust does a lot of dmg together with the power guard I can counter anything even if they're quick and past me, the lance has good reach for that counter thrust.
It seriously takes a lot of practice to quickly go into powerguard and then pressL1 into counterthrust the moment it hits, its hard to do but very cool when you pull it off. Feels good!
Its a helluva lot easier than parrying in Dark Souls. And its basically the same principle
The lance may not be a strong offensive weapon but the fact that you can stand tall against almost all melee attacks combined with its guarantied clutch claw counter makes it a very valuable weapon
I never knew how dirty this weapon was till I tried it. Face tanking Tempered Teostra's supernova made this my favourite weapon.
Charge attack makes you pretty much immune to stagger from allies.
You forgot running you can do a complete 180 turn and continue running.
A charge attack against a downed monster can net you a lot of damage at the cost of sharpness if you can position yourself in a space where you don't pass through the monster, perhaps not as much as regular attacks but still consistent.
Love lance to mount monsters.
Also tank everything. Who needs to dodge when you can block everything!
And the little felyne bringing out fresh barrels to help his meowster train.
Use L2 (LT) while guarding to accurately guard and stay facing one direction while you're moving, it makes sidestepping much easier
Flat out, great video. Keep them coming.
Seems to me that the counter thrust is more manageable than the long sword's foresight slash. When you time it right, you just block the hit and shrug it off, while as with foresight slash, it's not guaranteed that you dodge the hit especially if the monster's attack is a wide sweep or far reaching.
on that poison attack from pukei pukei, i hope you're using herbal medicine instead of just antidote. you get the poison removed and some health back. In any case, thanks for the video. I just started the Lance as a change of pace and your tips are great.
Freaking fantastic man, love your tutorials!
Nightmare Blade. Raw
Thanks for the help
As a lance main, my favorite thing to do mobility wise, is to guard dash/jump thrust aroind the monster as my primary means of mobility. Fought night shade paulumu, and he Hardly even hit my shield, using those two moves makes you exceptionally mobile, followed with the choo choo train you are untouchable
So, Poise isn't something you have to worry about in Monster Hunter? You can tank hits pretty easily?
1 2 3 sidestep
Can I have a little more?
1 2 3 sidestep
Maaan I love you
- All togherikahn now
Are you going to give us the TIP of the lance?????
Just the tip though
Disliked. Bad
When there are jokes like this out there, i just don't see the POINT in life.
I want to die
Don't be so HARD on him guys.
Finally a video that gives me a reason to try the Lance
I want to try a secondary weapon to master and this might be it. The idea of being the iron wall is a very cool one.
Wide sweep is easily the best move to never miss (unless distance is miscalculated) hitting a stunned ally.
Breaking news, moving forward and backward by doing a hop has now been renamed to side step!
Barroth armor is very good for lances, surprisingly. Anti-stamina drain effects, and bonus exhaustion effects. Although I do not necessarily know how to cause exhaustion. Guess he will just get tired from the fight.
Just stab em with the pointy end. It builds up like all the other status effects. They stand still more often which equal more stabby time for you... YAY!
I went from IG to gunlance, and now i've started to make gear for lance as well. i must agree thats it is really satisfying to stay on target, even though i thought i would be bored with the combos of it, but seems like thats quite the contrary. it actually requires a decent amount of skill to be able to stay on target at all times, something im still working on. health regen augment will help me a long way in that regard. just noticed that the time combined im getting away with the monster to regain health with the gunlance, I am almost constantly in the monsters face with the lance and thats pretty cool. im glad that im able to combine both GL and lance without messing up a run, because those weapons doesnt have the same playstyle at all tbh. Both entertaining in their own way ^^,
Though gunlance is still the funlance
Your video kinda wanna makes me switch my gunlance with this one! Looks pretty cool!
What is generally the best skill for Guard Lance?? I wondered a lot about this but let's talk about defense boost first, if I take it to level 5-7 is it an overkill since I've the best shield in game??
What about hunger resistance, do I need it for power guards or just stamina surge will do for normal blocking and repositioning??
In terms of attacking, I know attack boost is important but is there any status skills like, poison attack, paralysis attack, slugger or even stamina thief that might be useful to lance??
Sorry if I asked too much questions, I'm a noob but all answes are appreciated :)
The most important skill for guard lancing is very appropriately called guard. it reduces the knockback and stamina depletion from being attacked. Defense boost might help while learning but eventually you should be taking very few hits and it wont help you much. Hunger resistance just makes it take longer for your maximum stamina to decrease so it isn't very useful as you can just take a ration to counter the effect.
Attack up and weakness exploit are the bread and butter of lance offence as you will have a pretty easy time hitting weak points.
Armor of Thorns I see now, thanks!!
Been trying this class and the no steed won't stay still. I had that rex prick running back and forth hitting every single team member ones. By the time I got to him and was swinging he was already moving to the next person. I been seeing this so much I can't get a rotation in.
To be honest, MHW has been my first MH game, and I started with bow, loved the high mobility and snappy dodging and kiting, then started to try the HBG just because I wanted to force myself to not rely on the same playstyle too much and loved it. Decided I became too accustomed to that one and found the hammer to be hilarious, there's just something extremely satisfying in whomping a big creature up the head with a boulder on a stick, wasn't for me but I still wanted to step away from using range as my greatest ally and go with a melee weapon. I decided to give the Lance a shot since it seemed like a good idea (personally a love for tanking and been a proficient Tank in multiple MMO style games and there just is something with staring the creature in the eye as they unleash hell upon you, and then stand smiling). Since then I just can't put it away. It's just way too hilarious having them bounce off and practically literally poking them to death. Add the fact that you can literally poke their tail until it actually falls off all the while they keep trying to chew through my bunker is an added bonus. And with this weapon I actually have the feeling it comes down to my own decisions whether or not I take way more damage than I know I should have instead of having to rely on a significant part of luck. So many times I've died or nearly died using a bow or HBG due to dodging correctly, but the game just throwing a curve ball and have an attack right after, or getting stunlocked after dodging so you eat the full brunt of everything they decide to throw at you. Only problem I've really had was the mobility. Mostly against flying enemies, they hop around like a grasshopper on steroids from one side to the other, leaving me to hobble after them like a lost penguin. And that it takes time between guard dashes before you can do it again without risking your hunter trying to smack that one fly out of the sky he knows is there someone with his shield.
Ma'iq the Liar Do read my comment on moving with the lance. It is deceptively mobile once you get used to back hopping to where you need to go. Evade Extender is a must have if you need to keep up with monster movements. It also has the best evade in the game, with Evasion +3, you can evade along laser attacks with the triple backhop.
Perverted Poképuffs I've definitely read it and it definitely helps, however I've tested with back hopping and it consumes a heck of a lot of stamina. Of course I'm not yet accustomed to the playstyle and I obviously don't know the monster mechanics yet, and maybe I'm missing a crucial part, but as I've noticed, during longer fights I've found the stamina drain on blocking an attack also becomes higher and higher so it seems to be either block or evade and that's the point I often play safe and turtle up or die. That said, still rather early up in the game (actually just killed Diablos after failing the quest twice, where I've actually tested out the new info) so I don't yet have the freedom or ability to really get the gear traits lined up perfectly, but with that said, definitely felt the grace Divine Intervention gives (I think it was called).
Ma'iq the Liar Back hopping definitely eats up stamina fast. My suggestion is to try to eat for Felyne Black Belt. You might need to look for the combination that gives you that. You do get used to managing the stamina bar as you become more proficient with the lance and can go for other skills.
Perverted Poképuffs Felyne Black Belt. Got it. Often just go for the Chef's Choice for the beefy HP boost and stamina boost but definitely will go see how that one works. Thank you.
One question, when attacking anything my charge attach bounces off of everything and only deals like 6 or so damage. I understand that you can go into a thrust to do good damage, but how do you go about charging through the monster instead of bouncing off of it like a rubber ball? I noticed it happen in the video when he was attacking barrels and one of them bounced him back, but the other ones he went right through.
PoisonedDemon24 it probably has to do with sharpness, the duller your lance and the harder the monster bit you're hitting the more likely you'll just bounce.
on Xbox, sometimes when I am charging towards a monster I hit something and do very minimal damage and get knocked back, other times I run through them doing tons of damage. am I hitting the environment? their plated skin? I really really want to love the Lance but as much as I practice with it, currently on quest to kill trex flame chicken, I still feel like I am playing crappy. Cheers!
Sincere_420 that attack bounces off of the weapon isn't sharp enough
That first 2 minutes intro got me laughing hahaha and wanting to try this weapon out good job on the tips and easy explanation maybe it’s time for me to put down the charge blade and bow down and try something new
Thrust then press the roll button and high thrust and you can use counter attacks faster with full damage
*drinks dash juice*
*Becomes permanent wall*
*Profit*
For the first minute and a half of this video, my brother was questioning my choice of videos
I've used the sweep to break armor some how it would knock the enemy over I'm sure that it might not work on stronger monsters like elder dragon haven't tried it yet on them
The sweeping actual is great! Ive noticed bigger monsters it disorients them s little and some have stumbled with me doing the sweeping
I'm new to MH and i'm loving the lance, I tried getting behind an evasion lance but i just couldn't do it so i'm happy it has a very strong shield. Now to try and get Guard to level 5 without messing up my current armor lol
I couldn't get the hang of Evasion Lancing either. For one, the extended back hop was throwing my jabs out of sync. Instead of stab, stab, stab, hop, stab, stab, stab, it was stab, stab, stab, hop, whiff, whiff, stab. I got around it by side hopping more and working my way up and down the body. But I prefer to just pick a spot and destroy it before moving onto the next target area.
very useful video, Khan
thank you
The one thing about power guard countering thats annoying is that even though you don't move, the monster often hits you and just keeps trucking so that your counter won't land. Even if I spin around real quick with power guard I often still miss the counter most notably with teostras aerial dive
I just made my first lance build and went to hunt a Kirin... I didn't remember it to be that easy to fight: it has always been a pain in the unlighted one, even whenever I hunted it with the bow, it was always a matter of evading that lighting, then those other ones, but with the lance, wow...
whats the best armor set for lance for high rank ?
Great guide!