Survey on Lance usage

[AyyLmao]

Among the changes done from EBF4 to EBF5 (with the balance team at the official Discord server contributing a ridiculously huge part to it), it is pretty clear that the changes did to Lance was the most drastic: All of his base skills were changed to have incredibly high power at a cooldown, and his arsenal got quite a lot of touch on both the physical and magical side. I am interested to see how much impact those changes have on the average player's perception of Lance compared to the disaster he was in EBF4, so I would like to ask the following questions:

- How much do you use Lance (at all)? Do you have a lot of fun using him?
- What role do you usually use Lance for (physical/magical damage, buff, debuff...), and how does he compare to other characters at the role in question?
- What strengths and weaknesses do you think Lance have? Should he be buffed or nerfed in any way because of that?
- Is Lance's physical moveset viable now? How does it compare to his magical moveset?

[/_Psychotic Gamer_/]

i use him alot in most of my fights for debuffs or magical damage he is better than anna
i personally think lance'S magical moveset is VERY powerful i never used his physical moveset
lance is perfect in my opinion other than not having enough physical moves

[Evildrake]

He's best at debuffing. For the skills, if you really just need 1 element, charge Hyper Beam in-between. What he lacks is physical AoE damage, at least if enemies have bomb resist or even absorb it. And if Hyper Beam would have damage boosting gear it probably would be the best AoE magic skill.

[Diablos]

I use Lance about as frequently as the other characters. His abilities are fun to use (I really like M.O.A.B, Unload and Hyper Beam. Health Strike is very useful, I feel the 3 turn cooldown is very necessary to keep it balanced).

Strengths: Health Strike skill and dealing Bomb damage (There's probably more strengths but those strengths stand out to me the most).

Weaknesses: Not having base skills that deal Water, Ice, Earth, Wind and Holy damage. You could give Tempest and Bubble Blast to Lance but I gave them to Matt and Natalie respectively. Snow Cats and Power Metal don't deal a lot of damage. (There's probably more weaknesses but those stand out to me the most).

It's been a while ago since I played EBF4. I don't remember how "bad" he was in EBF4 but I can safely assume that he is much better now in pretty much every way.

I love using Unload but it has a 5 turn cooldown so I just ended up using his magical moveset more often(using equips that boost Lance's magic).

[Meddyan]

I used Lance a fair bit on my first playthrough, on Epic, about as equally as anyone else (by the time I about 100%'d the game, only Lance + Matt weren't friends according to the fortune teller, for reference). He ended up being part of my core team/strategy for most random encounters, actually. I would open with Anna using Arrow Rain + Crossbone Pins with Chieftan's Horns to spread Curse + M.Def Down, Lance would follow up with MOAB for the AoE 100% Stagger, and Natz would come in for the kill with a double elemental boosted AoE spell that best fit the enemy composition.

His most used skills tended to be his Dark Magic (stronger ST than Natz), Bomb Magic (especially MOAB for its stagger), Health Strike, Poison Gas. He tended to play a support role, only taking the lead if I needed massive Bomb/Dark damage. Also got good use out of his Bioblaster for Virus strategies.

I think the biggest change to Lance's usability didn't from a change in moveset but rather a change in the steroid system. In EBF4 you'd be mad to not give all Bacon to Matt and all Cake to Nat, leaving Anna and Lance to lag behind in damage and relegating them to support roles (which Anna beat him at by far). Now that you aren't 'forced' to optimise steroids and also a few other changes (like party buffs extending to those in backup) it's a lot easier to swap characters around as the situation required so Lance has more opportunities to shine than he did in EBF4.

As for his moveset balance etc, I think it's fine. Like anyone else he has his strengths and weaknesses and situations he fits best in. I would peg his role as a sort of 'Red Mage', a secondary attacker that has a spread of useful support moves but doesn't always take the spotlight himself.

[jkevo]

If i didn't need to use him for true ending i wouldent. He just dosen't beat out the others. He cant do the massive single target damge matt can do; he can't lock down enemys like anna; he dosn't have the atabtiblity of natalie.

[Vagrant]

Definitely useful, but as befitting his moveset not really someone you have in your party all the time. I swap him in whenever his really good skills are off cooldown (Health Strike / MOAB / Debilitate), and whenever I have someone that needs a neutral status applied so my damage can skyrocket. I like him more than Anna because he gets stagger reliably which combines with everything, and can punch a lot harder than she can when he doesn't have a bead on a weakness.

[jqh47]

I used him quite a lot during my Epic Mode Playthrough, (at least as much as the others, sometimes more) since he was a vital part in many of my combos. For example, the Mystic Woods area was still early enough in the game that a significant number of fights had just one wave. In these fights, I would often have Natalie use Star Power on Nolegs, have Lance (with cardboard box) debuff enemy Magic Defence with his Antimatter, and then have NoLegs (with knight armor and Steel Buckler) wipe enemies with Star Blast, then save, load, and repeat.

In the Frozen Valley, his fire, dark and bomb skills came in handy a bunch, and he was my main hitter there since he could usually rotate multiple effective elements for devastating power.

In the Rapture, he was also a vital part of a combo in which Matt (with Devil Fork and Flame Suit to boost buffs) would temper Anna to 90%, Lance (with cardboard box, Spine Snapper and Necromancer Cloak to boost debuffs) would use debilitate to debuff enemy defense to -80%, then have Anna rain death from above.

Multiple setups of mine involved giving him barrier instead of Natalie/NoLegs, and some spells that most people would give to Natalie, such as Shockwave or Bubble Blast, can be given to Lance without really losing effectiveness. Lance's Multi-Medipack can also really come in handy in a pinch. I found him quite versatile overall.

I would occasionally use unload to finish off opponents, but other than that, I did not use his physical moveset much. It could probably still be used with some effectiveness by dealing rare status effects or for elements that aren't in Lance's main skill set.

[QQinfinity]

I actually liked Lance in EBF4 better than in EBF5. In EBF4 you just throw him the magic jacket (boost item effect) and the wizard hat from early game, and he doesn't need to change equipment ever again... And he can be a very strong magic nuke in EBF4.

But in EBF5, all his skills have cool down now, and that is pretty infuriating for me. I couldn't even use a single target fire spell like in EBF4 to do constant damage output. I had to adapt by constantly switching him out. But then I realized I wouldn't even need Lance to do anything, and ended up benching him all together. Fire Thunder nuke? Send out Natalie. Bomb? Anna and her dispelling bomb arrows are very good. Debuff? The extra skills can be given to basically anyone.

[Jennah]

Almost never, on Epic.
Part of it due to practically all his skills having a cooldown, and that feeling awful.
Part due to working out a decent strategy with Matt/Natalie/Anna, and not wanting to deviate.
Part due to NoLegs being a much better character as an emergency swap-in / reviver.
And part due to him being a big 'ol Nazi Pervert, which simply makes me not care for him :p

[Sasu]

Well this is comming from a someone, who's liked Lance in all of the EBF games honestly. I used his physical attacks with buffs and stuff even in EBF4 and thought they were ok. But to talk about the present and about EBF5. I used all of the character quite equally I'd say (played the whole game on Epic BTW) so as to speak for that - good job on the balance overall.

Lance was great at dealing with big enemy waves mostly due to his skills all being AoE and the fact his Hyper Beam had no cooldown and now it was possible to unleash it the turn it was charget thanks to Encore and a lot of Haste mechanics. Another great thing is that his baseline skills had debuff effect attached to them, so whenever I was facing off against some small waves, he would always soften them up nicely egnough to let the rest of your team finish the job if he hadn't done it himself. What I appreciated the most on him was his new flexibility. His skills felt strong, but they also allowed me to easily debuff both bosses (that Stagger on his bombs is just invaluable) as well as normal creeps (killing the whole wave with just MOAB felt way too satisfying).

Another great change was the medipack upgrade (I'm not sure if this was present in EBF4 actually). Having that full heal + cure on just 2 turns cooldown and many other powerful skills on higher cooldowns also allowed him to rotate out if neccessary and keep on swapping with others. Someone above mentioned putting all the skills on other players, but I don't like doing that since what if that someone dies and you just need him there, etc. So in this regard, I was happy.

About his physical attacks, I honestly tried to look at his weapon stats, considered enemy weakneses etc. and went with both, whichever one was more favorable at a time (both felt strong, also adds up to the aforementioned flexibility).

To sum it up... I think he is incredible great and overally flexible charcter who can do both types of damages on a very good level when neccessary and is great for debuffing enemies, clearing big enemy waves and setting up destructive combos with Stagger and possibly Ice (I had the Ice cat attack on him). Also great at dealing with foes that are weak to bomb (almost a must in these fights).

So yeah, overally a great character. If there is however one major downside, that just makes me really angry about him, it's the fact that even in the end, he didn't give up on Natz and didn't go for Anna instead! Dang I ship these two so much! 9/10 for that one issue

[jqh47]

Really? I ship Lance X Hikari.

[/_Psychotic Gamer_/]

Originally posted by jqh47:

Really? I ship Lance X Hikari.

you have terrible taste i ship lance x natalie or matt x natalie

[Neosuduno]

Always. I remember to switch my team a lot, and his Medipack skill has bailed me out of many a jam. The trick is to use him as needed an never more. Keeping him in the background to heal and recharge is Vital for Epic Bosses. Even then, his weapons are some of the best in the game. Definately useful for burst damage with Unload and Snipe.

[big bungo]

lance was in my party for pretty much 95%+ of the game had lance in my party. i made him my debuffer (he was my debuffer in EBF4 so i got really used to using him this way). the main reason he was in my party though was because he was my favorite character prior to EBF5 (EBF5 lance don't interact). i always have matt, natalie, and lance as my main party, only switching one of them out when i'm in a particularly tough battle that requires stategizing. i really enjoyed their banter and relationships in EBF3, so i got attached to them all as a trio.

EBF5 lance is a massive ♥♥♥♥♥♥♥ and i don't like him much at all, but i hold on to him because of how much i adored him in EBF2-4. i feel bad always having him in the party with natalie. i just want to form a massive wall between the two of them and protect her from EBF5 lance's grubby little hands. give me back the awkward-and-shy-around-girls lance that i love D:<

i always keep matt and lance in the party together as a part of my own personal lore (they have history because of brawl royale, im telling you!!!!), so if matt goes, lance goes too, and i NEVER had matt out of my party.

also lance/anna is a ♥♥♥♥-tier ship, they have no chemistry and anna is a child. gross >_>
i already know what ship is best, but that's for me to know and for you all to wonder about.

[Gauron]

My biggest problem with lance is the cooldowns on everything what is actually valuable and that the machine gun skill doesnt have any status effect.

I find him a good and powerful char but most often i just switch him out to deal with cds, if he would have a cd tool it would be much better.