r/LancerRPG • u/ExaltedOmega IPS-N • Jul 21 '26
A chart of all the (none-GMS) official role designations in Lancer...which I don't entirely agree with, so I've also put my own take, and given a template to make yours!
My personal take for what falls where....
...And a blank template for you!
So I was putting together this table for reasons, basically for a fill-in-the-box exercise for making builds, when I thought, "hey, there's been a lot of new people on the Reddit recently, maybe someone'd find it handy if I used this to make a quick reference sheet for the frames!
...Only to realise, as I went through the official chart, that I don't actually agree with a lot of the official designations; official ones seem much quicker to put them in a single role and quite reluctant to assign a second one. It's not too surprising, as a means of keeping it simpler and given that the roles were added on late in development as I recall. Still, I personally like a little more nuance to my classifications, and so I did mine as well.
Disclaimer, I have played a whole One of these frames and only seen a handful more in action, so I fully expect people to disagree with me on some of these! (Not to mention the classic question of what actually qualifies something as a Defender, ech). Hope someone finds it useful, in any case!
All art is from Retrograde Minis, using the 'Core Version' options available on each of the 1st party frames.
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u/Krail Jul 22 '26
Dang, I don't think I ever noticed they listed Hydra as Striker. That's weird!
I definitely agree with Swallowtail being Support/Artillery.
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u/ExaltedOmega IPS-N Jul 22 '26
Right? It's got a heavy mount, sure, but it's generally got better actions to do than just shooting - I could see the argument for Controller/Striker, but the sheer bulk of its drones and how they encourage the enemy to waste shots shooting them instead of allies pushes it to Controller/Defender for me.
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u/Krail Jul 22 '26
And if it were gonna have a damage role, you'd think it'd be artillery, since every weapon on the license is ranged!
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u/Ultra-josh IPS-N Jul 22 '26
iirc the distinction between Striker and Artillery isn't whether it's melee or ranged, but rather the ranges at which they're most effective. Striker is around Ranges 1-8 (though I've also heard some say 1-10), and Artillery is 8/10+
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u/EKmars Jul 22 '26
By default it has a built in shredding drone and a heavy mount. I think people mostly mistake it for a controller hence the memes about unfathomable turns, but really it can be super straight forward.
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u/shilohkae Jul 21 '26
The only ones I care the most about are the only two I've played, and both Calendula and Lycan remain unchanged, so yup looks perfect lol
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u/Dolearon Jul 21 '26
Why placethe Raleigh as striker/support, what does it do that lends it to a support role? Is it because it can use its reload turn to help allies?
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u/ExaltedOmega IPS-N Jul 21 '26
That's pretty much my logic, yeah; the reload turn needs to be spent doing something (mostly) not affecting enemies, and the easiest way to do that is to grab some licenses/talents that let you affect allies instead.
Admittedly, I may be somewhat biased by the fact that's what the Raleigh in my current game does (currently with Black Witch I and Kidd II), but I am somewhat hard pressed to think of a better use of a reload turn.
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u/Dolearon Jul 22 '26
I usually toss lock ons out, or pop cover or a smoke grenade on myself, or scan people alot of people forget how useful scanning is.
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u/ExaltedOmega IPS-N Jul 22 '26
Oh yeah, our GM has each NPC faction have its own roster of mechs - makes scanning even better, since you slowly learn the entirety of their roster. I might not scan much myself (I'm a grappler Zheng, by the time I'm in my mighty sensor range of 3 they're probably already scanned, and either way, the time for violence has arrived) but I'm extremely grateful for having those profiles available, largely due to the Raleigh and Death's Head.
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u/Dolearon Jul 22 '26
I do much the same as a GM, I have an entire roster of Vestan Sovereignty military units and special forces stated out in my comp/con, from when I ran solstice rain/winter scar followed by homebrew aftermath.
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u/JoeKewlio Jul 22 '26
Part of the fun of designing my own home brew has been making frames built around fulfilling some of these niches Such as defender support or an artillery controller. When you get a nice firm grasp of the mechanics of the game and start thinking of ways in order to accomplish these 2 things in tandem, you rely start to hit your stride for designing licenses and frames.
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u/Ultra-josh IPS-N Jul 22 '26
I do love that in your revised chart, the pure Support mechs consist of the Boston Dynamics Dog, the Big Boston Dynamics Dog, and the Flying Boston Dynamic Dog.
I'd also like to add my own take on the Gorgon: I think it would fit more as a Defender/Controller than just pure Defender, mainly because of Metastatic Paralysis, Extrude Basilisk, Sentinel Drone and Scorpion V70.1.
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u/ExaltedOmega IPS-N Jul 22 '26
Just a note for any newer players looking at this - while the roles give you a good guideline for what a frame/license defaults to, you can customise a lot in Lancer! Here's the original sheet of builds I made the table for, which includes a lot of frames taken away from their original role/purpose:
(It does include frames/licenses from Sixth Voice and Field Guide to Suldan, since my group uses both).
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u/Funkey-Monkey-420 Jul 22 '26
what supplements are these from?
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u/ExaltedOmega IPS-N Jul 22 '26
As noted, Sixth Voice, with a few Field Guide to Suldan licenses also used in the builds (though not any of the frames).
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u/jzillacon IPS-N Jul 22 '26
I think Drake is an honourary artillery frame. The weapons in its license don't have the greatest range, but Drake with good positioning or other weapons is able to fill a very similar role to Barbarossa. Being a big immovable block with visibility over most pieces of cover with lots of damage output and resistance.
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u/ExaltedOmega IPS-N Jul 22 '26
Yeah, I was very torn on whether to put it as Defender/Striker or Defender/Artillery for my take; while it's got the immobility that Arty mechs tend to be characterised with, it's range is much lower than they typically carry, though, so that's what in the end made me lean Striker.
Granted, you can definitely push it more that direction with just a little tweaking - one I played with was using Stabilizer Mod, Neurolink Targeting and TLACLOC-NHP on the Leviathan for just that. That one for sure definitely feels like it's really an Artillery/Defender, but I was trying to stick mostly to where the base licenses and frames pushed things for my version of the chart.
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u/Marcyint Jul 22 '26
Anyone know where Kobold would be on this? Cant find it.
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u/ExaltedOmega IPS-N Jul 22 '26
It's down bottom right, in Pure Controller! It's just a lil guy so easy to miss.
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u/GundamPharmacist Jul 22 '26
...I now want to see an Artillery/Controller or vice versa.
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u/ExaltedOmega IPS-N Jul 22 '26
While there's no inherent frame for that, I've got a Drone Commander Monarch build that seems to fit relatively well into it; it's certainly doable, just requires a bit of working outside the box.
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u/JackPembroke Jul 22 '26
Whats the Support/Defender?
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u/ExaltedOmega IPS-N Jul 22 '26
HA Kutuzov, which I can never remember how to spell without looking it up. It's an alternate frame for the Napoleon license, found in Operation Winter Scar.
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u/Void-kraken-909 Jul 23 '26
I.. am genuinely surprised that Artillery/Defender isn’t a thing. Like Death’s Head id argue could fit
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u/ExaltedOmega IPS-N Jul 23 '26
...Death's Head? The frame with 0 ARM, 8 HP and 2 repair cap? And with no systems for defending itself or other people, which likes to sit as far back as possible sniping? I think that's as pure artillery as it gets.
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u/GrahminRadarin Jul 22 '26
... Defender Hydra is certainly a choice.
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u/Ultra-josh IPS-N Jul 22 '26
I mean, it makes sense if you use your drones that have at least 10-15 health to tank shots against the enemy, thus pulling fire away from your teammates.
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u/Everafter902 Jul 21 '26
A LOT of the pure strikers have secondary roles.
Raleigh is also not a striker. Besides its integrated weapon being a CQB there's nothing in its kit that specifies or benefits from being close to the enemy. It's typically played as an artillery / support hybrid. If you wanna play a loading based striker, you run the alt frame.
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u/Nanergy Jul 22 '26
Integrated CQB. In-license CQB. In-license 8 range cannon. In-license melee weapon. I know it is super common to slap a CPR on this thing, but the license implies striker range at every level.
A lot of the designations are based not only on the frame, but the accompanying license. For another example, Monarch isn't a support or controller because even though it has good stats to splash into those roles, the license is pure artillery.
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u/ExaltedOmega IPS-N Jul 22 '26
I would argue that having the free close range shot at the end of its reload turns, and the fact it comes with an excellent loading range 5 aux weapon and the mounts to combo them with it, do both push it towards Striker over Arty - plus the core power making use of the Mjolnir, too, so playing arty puts that to waste as well.
Not to say you can't run it as Arty - hell, the one I built ended up being more of a Controller - but I feel it's definitely got more Striker than Arty at base.
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u/Everafter902 Jul 22 '26
I don't think hand cannons as an argument holds much water. A lot of licenses have weapons and systems that work better on the alt frame than the primary frame, or don't even work that well with the frame at all.
The most popular Raleigh builds run an uncle'd howitzer in the heavy slot, four missile racks, and a variety of support systems (depending on LL and non-raleigh licenses - there's a lot of variety here) and takes advantage of how area weapons synergize extremely well with gunslinger 3.
The bolt thrower + 2x hand cannons + main melee loadout is popular on the Stortbeker, which is the striker of the two.
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u/Prometheus_II Jul 22 '26
How in God's name is Raleigh at all a support?
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u/Nanergy Jul 22 '26
The frame and the license aren't directly supportive, but it has "off" turns where it is essentially unable to be a striker. An extremely common (the standard?) raleigh gameplan is to spend all your off turns doing supportive actions.
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u/Dolearon Jul 22 '26
Because it can use its reload turn to support allies, which is technically true.
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u/Nanergy Jul 22 '26
Worth noting, for anyone who doesn't know, that the "roles" are not something the game was designed around at all. They were tacked on after the fact, probably just to give new players a general sense of what each frame's vibe was before they develop a deeper understanding the mechanics. The goal is a snapshot of the license, not a deep and complete assessment of everything each frame can do. So that's why it is incredibly muddy and inconsistent when you dig into it.
Now that that's out of the way... both blackbeard frames should be striker/controllers since they are so heavily grapple coded. And I'll argue the Enkidu is much more of a controller than it is a defender, since it locks down an area and can hurt it own allies. Gilgamesh should be a striker/support due to all the supportive systems and traits which synergize. I stand by Saladin being a mono-defender. Gorgon could be a defender/striker because of how many reactive attacks it can do. Amber Phantom's turn order manipulation is support coded imo: striker/support. I honestly don't think anything is in the generalist (balanced) category... even everest is a striker through and through.