Best lance for maximum defense?

[Camelfall08]

So I wanted to make a joke build for maximum defense, and what better weapon to use than the lance! The purpose of this isn't to crank out damage. Quite the opposite, actually. I want to be able to relax on the battlefield with my palico, during combat. I'm wondering if anybody knows what weapon could provide the most built-in defense bonus, so if defense augmenting the MR babel spear would do the trick, or if I should use a spare Safi lance with full def V upgrades.

And before anyone gets the horrible idea that I'd respond to your SOS flare with this bad boy, I promise I won't use this with randos. And again, this is just for fun.

[Zhou Yu]

I think I’d run the safi lance for that max defense, or you could get some deco slots in for the defense instead, combined with the palico boosting decos.
Edit: Hold up, how much defense can you get with the custom augments on other weapons? Might need to do some looking around.

[GosuCab]

It would be best not to focus on defense on the weapon. it has almost no impact. You would do better with a weapon with more slots or maybe a status if you fancy that QoL time where you the monster can't move or poison is picking away at its health. If you want the defense though go for Safi. Please be aware that Defense awakening can't be stacked just like Slot Upgrades. So maybe take in some sharpness too.

short example why defense on a weapon is not the best:
Defense calculation: 80 / ( 80 + Player Defense )
Let's say your set is around 1000 Defense with armor charms & Talons.

80 / 1080 = 0.074
The Monsters attack basically gets multiplied by that amount. So If you get hit with an Attack that usually hits for 1000 it gets reduced to 74

Now if your weapon gets you like 60 Defense more it looks like this:

80 / 1140 = 0,070
1000 / 0,07 = 70

In other word. On all but the biggest of attacks you will not even notice the added damage reduction (if there is any at all especially if you compare a weapon with base +40 defense against a +50).

- Try to focus more on armor skills like Defense boost which can give you a lot more defense if you want to go that route.
- Fortifiy for good measure
- Divine Protection and health boost are a no brainer
- Vaal Hazaak set bonus for Super Recovery by equipping 2 Blackveil Vaal Parts and recovery speed
- Other than that maybe throw in some blocking skills or constitution

[Fregi]

I'd advise against using lance for this one, chip damage is a ♥♥♥♥♥.

You're better off using insect glaive for the orange essence defense boost, and bringing a kinsect only build. Kinsects aren't affected by most skills, so you can just stack a bunch of defense and spam the kinsect harvesting attack. Make sure you feed them monster slinger pods!

[Camelfall08]

Thanks for the feedback everybody, I'll have to play around with defense skills and augments to get this running to see how much of a difference it makes compared to no def buffs, just to see what happens.

[RedViper]

The best weapon to make an 100% damage proof build is Insect Glaive, I think it's the only weapon that actually gives you an extra buff in defense during combat.

[Tregrenos]

IMO, Lance already has the best defense in the game by playing offensively. Masters Touch combined with a Saffi weapon you can hit up to 100% Affinity with and a Health Augment means you pretty much never have to put your weapon away, which when combined with Minds Eye, Guard and Guard Up is far better than stacking your defense stat. Why bother building to take any hit when you can build to counter any hit?

For teamplay the Lance is a stable option. When the monster targets them it tends to not move much, when it targets someone else Lance is quick to close the gap and an extremely good mounter. It's great for softening parts as the Counter Clutch is not only extremely effective, but a generally fun addition with Iceborne.

[Papah]

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=refL4NvwggE

[Papah]

Originally posted by The Legend:

Originally posted by Papah:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=refL4NvwggE

Gunlance does more damage with loaded defensive skills.

Yeah, that build could work with on any weapon, as long as it's safi's.

[Skeleton]

How does 4x Shield mod HBG compare to [Gun]Lance's shield?

[Giallombardo]

my all-for-one lance build is 3 pieces of safi, 2 pieces of teostra 1 safi blast with teostra essence with 100% affinity or replace one jewel to get 90% affinity with brace

[Polaris]

Originally posted by Skeleton:

How does 4x Shield mod HBG compare to [Gun]Lance's shield?

4 shields on HBG is about as strong as a gunlance or lance shield (it may even be slightly ahead, I don't remember the exact numbers), but since HBG takes more.damage in general as a ranged weapon, it's not as defensive (that defense applies to chip damage as well, lance and gunlance will take less chip damage then HBG)

Also, the HBG shield is narrower, which usually doesn't matter too much, but still a factor to consider :)

[arcmos]

Gun lance is your best defensive option, if you use a shells only playstyle you only need artillery ( and artillery secret) and slinger capacity (and slinger capacity secret) as your main damage boosting skills + focus if you wanna use a long GL but recommend a wide GL for this, all the rest can be defensive skills.

You can even go further defensive by ignoring artillery secret and slinger capacity and use :
Light break GL double health augment + def augment
BV Hazak B+
Ala B+
BV Hazak B+
Ala B+
Ala B+

With the appropriates decos you can have :
Alatreon divinity 2 and 3, mostly for 3 that boost your elementals Res
Vaal Soulvein that passive regen your hp
Def boost 7 for the memes and the small def and eles res
Guard 5
Health Boost 3
Recovery Up 3
Recovery Speed 3
Fire Res 3
Ice Res 3
Water Res 3
Thunder Res 3
Dragon Res 3
Artillery 3
Flinch Free 1
Guard Up
And maybe have some slots left for Divine blessing 3

Edit: i'm close to have that set (missing some decos for it) but at the moment it give me 1193 def (with charm and talon) and 54 / 58 / 50 / 61 / 48 elementals res after eating a veggie platter L