So, I discovered Lance. Need tips!

[Netsa]

I was never all that psyched about Lance, but its Iceborne updates were pretty awesome. Guard Up-able Power Guard sounds great in theory, and the counter-claw is absolutely badass. So it's time to round out my weapon masteries.

I rolled into Guiding Lands with it, but my kill times seemed low even though my damage seemed constant. A few questions:
1. How do I maximize dps? Should I be counter-guarding between pokes instead of hopping?
2. What's the proper usage of the cavalry rush? I assume it's not "all the time".
3. What does the horizontal swing do?
4. What kinds of lances are best? I'm currently using Lost Babel.

(I use M+KB)

[Remi]

On openings ideal dps is triple poke into charge finisher and loop. Horizontal swing is kinda useless from idle, but you can also do that move as a charge finisher that also turns you 180° and deals great damage. The input should be back and main attack so lmb.
Best lances are Velkhana for ice, Los for Fire, Guild for Water, Rajang for thunder and raw, Garuga for chadness. Dragon is bad and so are the dragon lances.

[Katitoff]

1. By using counter well, both regular and counter claw, you should have literally no downtime from stabbing monster.2
2. I use it as a gap closer if monster isn't willing to return for acupuncture by itself, its also pretty strong attack if you use stab, if monster tries to run, you can convince it to stop and lay on the ground a bit.
3. Kills all the effin vespoids.
4. Depends on you if you want to use raw or elemental lance. I'm currently using the new event lance and its very reliable, I'm hardly a lance pro, but tempered rathalos on guiding lands doesn't last 12 minutes with it.

[lexilogo]

Minor thing, high thrusts deal more damage than straight thrusts.

Anyway, counter-guarding or counterclawing is definitely what you should be doing instead of hopping to reset pokes. Hopping has its place but the counter is the default fastest reset.

The cavalry rush is either as a gap closer, a strong attack for when the monster falls over, or to run across the map like an idiot absolute legend screaming nonsense about trains.

[Netsa]

I probably should have asked about skills as well.

Originally posted by Remi:

On openings ideal dps is triple poke into charge finisher and loop. Horizontal swing is kinda useless from idle, but you can also do that move as a charge finisher that also turns you 180° and deals great damage. The input should be back and main attack so lmb.
Best lances are Velkhana for ice, Los for Fire, Guild for Water, Rajang for thunder and raw, Garuga for chadness. Dragon is bad and so are the dragon lances.

By "charge finisher", are you talking about the counter-guard charge, or the running charge? You can use the horizontal swing as a charge finisher?

Originally posted by Katitoff:

1. By using counter well, both regular and counter claw, you should have literally no downtime from stabbing monster.2
2. I use it as a gap closer if monster isn't willing to return for acupuncture by itself, its also pretty strong attack if you use stab, if monster tries to run, you can convince it to stop and lay on the ground a bit.
3. Kills all the effin vespoids.
4. Depends on you if you want to use raw or elemental lance. I'm currently using the new event lance and its very reliable, I'm hardly a lance pro, but tempered rathalos on guiding lands doesn't last 12 minutes with it.

Down with vespoids! The lance's hurtbox seems massive when it comes to flies for some reason. I do a regular forward stab and half the bugs in the room all die at the same time.

Which lance is the new event one, so I can compare?

Originally posted by lexilogo:

Minor thing, high thrusts deal more damage than straight thrusts.

Anyway, counter-guarding or counterclawing is definitely what you should be doing instead of hopping to reset pokes. Hopping has its place but the counter is the default fastest reset.

The cavalry rush is either as a gap closer, a strong attack for when the monster falls over, or to run across the map like an idiot absolute legend screaming nonsense about trains.

Thanks for an answer to the hopping vs countering question! Do I fully charge the counter, or do I just stab out of it?

[lexilogo]

Originally posted by Netsa:

I probably should have asked about skills as well.

Well, for Lance specifically there's only a few that matter specifically.

Offensive Guard was basically made for Lance and, provided you're good enough to proc it, is really good. Guard Up is matchup-dependent as to if it'll be useful or not but it's nice to have. Guard is more universal and while clever moveset utilisation can kinda minimise the numbers of levels you take, generally for Iceborne you just want to grab Guard 5 and call it a day.

Originally posted by Netsa:

By "charge finisher", are you talking about the counter-guard charge, or the running charge? You can use the horizontal swing as a charge finisher?

Remi will be talking about the running charge finisher. It might seem weird but that really is the technically best use for it, starting a run then immediately stabbing against a downed monster.

Originally posted by Netsa:

Which lance is the new event one, so I can compare?

It'll be Guild Palace something or other, just check the bottom of the lance upgrade tree and it'll be there, provided you've discovered the tickets from Fifty Shades of White already.

Originally posted by Netsa:

Thanks for an answer to the hopping vs countering question! Do I fully charge the counter, or do I just stab out of it?

From my understanding stabbing out of it is the generally best move, but charging it may sometimes be a good idea, if for example a monster is going to attack you but your counter is a bit early.

[Katitoff]

Originally posted by Netsa:

Which lance is the new event one, so I can compare?

The guild one for raw. I like the looks + its pretty strong.

[Netsa]

Originally posted by lexilogo:

Remi will be talking about the running charge finisher. It might seem weird but that really is the technically best use for it, starting a run then immediately stabbing against a downed monster.

That does sound weird, I'm going to have to try that.

Thanks for all the other tips, too!

[AfLIcTeD]

Don't forget about the guard step. You can't counter after every attack and it has a very quick guard animation. I usually use the power counter a lot as I can turn my attacks and it does about twice as much damage as a normal counter. Don't forget your health augment, it's pretty much mandatory for a lancer to heal all that chip damage.

[Waffles]

Get Ironwall 3 minimum.
It will make most of your hunts much more comfortable.

Counter Claw often to wound for the team; Lance has the best and easiest time wounding.

Charge, then jump attack often to mount for your team. You'd be surprised to learn that Lance can mount very easily.

[Shift]

Learn when to guard and when to poke.
Focus on weak spots.
Have weakness exploit and crit boost.
Have guard up and at least lv2 ironwall.
Poke until dead.
Assess dominance over longsword plebs.
...
Profit.

[Leoscar]

Remember you can mount monsters using the charge by pressing forward+dodge (your character will jump and be able to peform an attack that mounts).

[pirate]

Lance's ultimate move is the Guard Dash. Use it in-between thrust combos to block an attack/activate Offensive Guard while staying right next to the monster.

Severing tails is also one of the Lance's specialties, thanks to being able to consistently hit above themselves with High Thrusts.

You can animation cancel some moves if you use a Quick-Counter as the monster hits you. You can hold a Counter Thrust for about one second before it releases, but you can Power Guard just before it lets go to extend your block. Power Guard lets you redirect the Counter Thrust in any direction; use it to re-orient yourself when a monster moves behind you or to the side.

The highest dps combo for a downed monster is: (High) Thrust x 3 -> Dash Attack -> Finishing Thrust/Reverse Sweep -> (High) Thrust x 3. The important thing is to be hitting the monster with each attack, so don't use High Thrusts just because they do slightly more damage, make sure you can actually reach first.

[Hunny]

if you need a build, i have a lance build that gives you 100% affinity guard 5, crit boost 3, offensive guard 3, guard up plus utility skills like divine blessing 5 and health boost 3

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Originally posted by Hunny:

if you need a build, i have a lance build that gives you 100% affinity guard 5, crit boost 3, offensive guard 3, guard up plus utility skills like divine blessing 5 and health boost 3

May I have it? Hope it's doesn't need R12 deco, I don't have much of them.

[AfLIcTeD]

Don't rely on the power guard's Guard up feature. It takes about a second or so to activate. If it is a fast attack like Velkhana's ice breath, it won't activate in time. If it has a long wind up like Teostra's super nova, you may run out of stamina beforehand.