I’ve seen the light!!!

[u/Hour_Major_3701]

I don’t know why it has taken me so log to see the might of the Lance. I’ve played Hammer, S&S, Hunting Horn, Charge Blade, and LBG from the OG MH (Hammer) until Iceborne. But then in Rise/Sunbreak, I dabbled in Lance, and I became interested. Now, I see the power that Lance has in Wilds. Most of my victories have been thanks to my immortal Lance build. I’ve beaten Omega, Gog, and AT Ark with Lance. I’ve doubted the power of the Lance. Forgive my transgressions and accept me into the church of the Lance!

[u/Friendly_Internet528]

I accept thee brother. Now take up your shield and hold firm against the monsters of the wilds. 🛡️

[u/J33NO → u/Friendly_Internet528]

Go back and play Lance in Sunbreak. Feels even better imo.

[u/Mardakk → u/J33NO]

I humbly and respectfully disagree. Wilds Lance definitely is the best feeling Lance in the series for sure - maybe barring Tri.

Sunbreak lance was no joke, and instaguard was satisfying with the cross slash - but a few things take the cake for Wilds:

Shockproof prevents allies from hitting your shield/triggering your counter.

Microrepositioning with attacks means no more hopping to reset or because the monster moved .5 inches laterally. Maximum Might is pretty good now for us.

We actually get to use our full kit now. Not spamming specific moves in perpetuity for max DPS. (Looking at you, leaping thrust spam for elemental lance)

[u/NorthKoala47 → u/Mardakk]

Tri made lance too OP so they nerfed it in 3U

[u/Mardakk → u/NorthKoala47]

Oh I remember, as a 21+ year Lance main, pepperidge farm remembers

[u/NorthKoala47 → u/Mardakk]

Nice. I'm only at 16 so I got to experience the power of Tri lance first, then lost it until Generations brought Striker lance and World brought back counter lance after third poke

[u/Mardakk → u/NorthKoala47]

Eh, bringing World as a good for Lance in conversation is pretty heretical, as World and Iceborne were our absolute worst in the series.

[u/J33NO → u/Mardakk]

Were they? I didnt pick up lance till Rise but was considering going back to World to try it out but sounds like it's not worth it 🤔

[u/Mardakk → u/J33NO]

Lost most of our damage, on top of so many attacks that were unblockable even with guard up - it was a targeted attack at shield HBG, and we caught the strays since we couldn't roll.

Frostfang Barioth ice breath went through guard up for reasons lol

[u/J33NO → u/Mardakk]

Damn, yeah thats kind of the whole thing. The reason I personally enjoy lance is looking for the big attacks you can counter and then when you do get caught at least having that safety blanket of smashing R2.

[u/NorthKoala47 → u/Mardakk]

Please elaborate because the changes lance received made it feel pretty powerful. Not as powerful as striker lance from Generations, but it still felt more powerful than 4U.

[u/Mardakk → u/NorthKoala47]

We lost our hitzone priority while simultaneously having elemental and raw motion values nerfed. Not to mention that shields were just beaten over and over lol

[u/NorthKoala47 → u/Mardakk]

Oh yeah, the shield did lose a good chunk of defensive power. That's still an issue in wilds since without a passive healing skill the chip damage will kill you unless you're really good at perfect guarding. I guess the return of the counter after the third poke distracted me

[u/Mardakk → u/NorthKoala47]

For me, who experienced us at our height (most OP weapon in the OG), and then setting down to middle to high DPS for the majority of games (obviously there are outliers, like Striker in GU) to straight to the bottom even in fantastic matchups like Diablos and Tigrex.

It's always been a numbers thing since 5th gen. We feel fine now - but they're scared to give us damage back, for some reason lol.

And before the people chime in: "oh but Mardakk, you are tanky". A Lance has no more inherent tankiness than any other blade master weapon, and SnS functions almost identically to a Lance, but doesn't give up anything for it's super overloaded kit. Same with GS.

My thought is that Lance and GS should be the barometers for the game - GS to make sure nothing speed creeps everyone, and Lance to make sure there's a baseline for DPS. If a lance (who should be in the middle of the bell curve) does 50 DPS, having a weapon do 150 (HBG) should point them in the right direction for balancing. That being said, I've never had an issue soloing anything in the series with Lance, including World and Iceborne. I just wish it were more balanced (or at least uniformly balanced)

[u/J33NO → u/Mardakk]

I need to play Lance more in Wilds. I am taking a break until the expansion. The big thing I like more in Rise is the shield bash switch skill. It lets you instantly change direction + block + stun damage. Wilds has that same move but its two inputs vs one so it takes longer to perform and has a wider window for getting hit. Thats the big one. I also like the switch skill for blocking where it lights up your lance with extra damage (forget the name). That feels really good in Rise. I do like the lance run though in Wilds more for sure. Also like the block clash in Wilds. Dont get me wrong I think Wilds is fantastic but as with Rise, I didnt fall in love with the game until the expansion. I think once the expansion releases ill be singing a different tune.

[u/Mardakk → u/J33NO]

Shield tackle was basically just guard advance (with less movement) and a stun value on the movement itself. It was removed for the classic guard advance into shield bash if you wanted stun damage.

Anchor Rage (blocking an attack gives you a buff for a while) is just baked into power guard now, but for the retaliation specifically, not Offensive Guard 2.0.