8 Reasons the Lance is NOT a Defensive Weapon | MHW Iceborne

[@TheGameconomist]

I've heard everyone's anger that I've called the Lance out for being bad at defense, what I *havent* heard is any good arguments for why the lance is good at defense - it simply isnt - let the salt flow!!! 1. Gunlance has many of the same mechanics that Lance has, yet it does more damage, doesnt require softening the monster, the shells cant be deflect, has built in flinch free, heals better, and has more room on its build for defensive skils, bc it doesnt use a crit boost build 2. Heavy Bowgun - actually one of the highest damage weapons in the game, can shoot sticky from like a mile away which is much safer than being an inch away, yet it also has enormous range with its roll, and superior s, and similar to the gunlance you can build explosive damage and be able to add extra defensive skills to your build. The funny thing is, when players are given the option to guard with sword and shield, they choose not to, bc i framing and outspacing are superior to guarding.

[@knocturnalegend]

You didn't hear anything because you didn't bother to listen. Your ego is gotten so big that you refuse to care about anyone elses opinions expect the bs you spit out for click bait videos for views. You claim this 4k hours but you not even good with most weapons. You use this 4k hours to back up your stance but you not even maxed out your MR to 999. I only have 2k hours and I will break 700MR. The hours you put into this game and how good you THINK you are do not justify that your opinion should be correctness. People are not mad because your are saying the Lance needs improvements, most weapons do. People are hating on you because you lacked a great deal of understanding about the Lance. The game play in the video shows that. You played this game so long to the point where you don't have anything good to say about it now. I watch your streams dude all you do is complain about the game, load time is too long , not enough content , monsters suck. What other game have you played for 4k that cost a total of $100? An entire Reddit post was made just you , not just about the Lance but about the lack of understanding you have for the game. There are 14 weapons for a reason, some weapons connect with player better than others, in your case you suck with the Lance. You being bad at the Lance does not give you the right to take a dump on it. You are a Content Creator that made some ready bad content and people on multiple platforms Reddit , you tube and your own discord spoke out (Thank God). And if you ready say you really don't care about what people say about your opinion then stand by it (I hear you say that you don't care everyday of your stream). Cause what's the point of commenting here and the replys on Reddit? You just mad at people because the don't agree with you, move on bro. Shit....

[@Buzzzerino]

@@knocturnalegend well your talking to someone who uses mostly bow guns which mostly don't require much skill.

[@BBBerti]

As alot of commenters before me said, you seem to think that you're skilled enough to be in a position to evaluate the weapon and i hate to break it to you, you're not. Next time you should definitely collaborate with an actual Lance player and do a video with pros and cons about the weapon and how to play it properly. Btw the HBG is by far the most unbalanced weapon in the game, so i would never use it as a comparison for anything in the game, it was Capcoms mistake giving the weapon a shield at ALL which i hope will be removed in the next game. This is not meant to be a hate comment but im just letting you know that you're starting to have a really bad rep amongst experienced players, speedrunners etc. Try sticking to more positive videos for the future 👍😁

[@gatekeeper6720]

Damn dude you got destroyed

[@knocturnalegend]

@Amari Christopher Clyde Game Con is that you? You need to stop this.

[@Trib273]

As a lance main I honestly came to this video expecting you to be like "The lance isn't a defensive weapon because its a weapon capable of being the absolute most aggressive weapon in the game with the ability to put out tons of constant easy to hit weak/break points damage!" For those of you wondering about this weapon, this is how this video could have Easily went: 1) It has one of the most versitile reposition skills in the game, the Guard Dash. It can help you move large amounts of distance easily while 100% shielding you during it, and gives you two different options to go for after it, allowing you another large distance with decent damage, or a quick stunning shield bash if you hit the head that can quickly combo into your normal 3hit reset combo! 2) Get good mounting damage by using the Shield Charge! This is one of the only skills in the game that allow you to get mounting damage without the need of a ledge after you get it started simply by pressing your rolling button during it, moreover your attacks also will not bounce while jumping. 3) Shield charge also allows you, if you're sliding down a hill, or just running on flat land for long enough to get to a speed that will easily allow you to catch up with *most* monsters running to the next area! If you're sliding down a hill you can chain several chunky two hit lance attacks that do a good amount of damage each thrust! 4) This weapon allows status buildup like crazy! Due to your constant chunky attacks of your 3 hit reset combo, status effects on your lance like poison or paralysis will be constantly popping out! 5) Your infinite 3 hit reset combo has extreme versatility in its use, because you can either aim high or low, allowing you to hit the weak points of the monster with ease! 6) Your strongest attack, a dangerous powered thrust can be charged quickly after a power guard to unleash on the monsters! It has no other pre-requisites to use, like combos or whatnot, so if you need a wake up attack, its quick to use, and will deal some tasty damage numbers! 7) A shield block with the lance will nullify most roars, tremors, or wind gusts the monsters throw at you, and Guard+ will nullify nearly everything most monsters do! This allows you to forgoe many defensive skills like Earplugs, or Flinch Free, in favour of more offensive skills! 8) The Defensive skills you do need can both be easily acquired as well! Guard Up can be gotten by 2 piece set bonus or a single 2 slot gem, and Guard can be completely filled by its charm! You rarely need any other defensive skills other than these aside from maybe Health Boost to give you some wiggle room based on skill. This allows you to focus mainly on damage boosting skills such as WE3, CB3, CE7 and AB4, and then some maintenance skills such as Marathon Runner, (to help power guarding, counter clawing, or shield dashing) Quick sheath for when you do need to heal or swap mantles, Tool Specialist to almost always have a tool up, etc! Overall, this is a easy to use, hard to master weapon that will allow you to safely learn enemy patterns while being in the midst of all that danger without taking a scratch, if played well!

[@jokes_on_me3482]

Ok, to be honest I tune out the video and start reading Yours comment and I couldn't agree more. I don't think autor Play a lance if he said it's immobile and bad at defence. You can stonewall anything and counter any attack, while still repositioning pretty well over small or large distances lance only bad at moving moderate distance 🤷 Btw You did far better job explaining lance in first few sentences than this video for its entire length. It's like I would say Bow is trash because I always die on it and can't really dodge anything and am always out of stamina 🤷 Which while true is a me problem, not a weapon

[@owieuychiat6420]

Favorited the video because of your comment good sir.

[@vengeflyking2722]

Yeah, the Lance isn’t nearly as bad as this video stated. It’s the weakest it’s ever been, yes, but it’s not like you can’t win at all. And, there are still other advantages besides defense, like that you have an easier time hitting certain parts, for example if you want to cut the tail of a tall monster like Rathalos or Deviljho. But my mind gripe with this video would be the section where he says that it’s useless without any skills. Which, ironically, is also the case for the best dps weapons like Bowgun.

[@wesley6442]

I am a lance main also, favorite weapon since Tri, it is so cool and medieval plus a bastion of defense. is it perfect? definitely not! sure it has a lot of draw backs but what I have realized much like any tactical situation, certain approaches, weapons in this instance, are needed for different scenarios. The lance got me through fighting nergigante and ruiner nergigante with relative ease, there were a few close moments for sure but standing toe to toe with a brute wyvern such as diablos and black diablos is so exhilarating as a lance wielder. Sure, it can fall short for some monsters but that just means you have to approach the fight differently or switch weapons for that particular fight, which is a great way to pick up new weapons skills and learn new fighting styles. I admit it isn't strongest in terms of damage output but it's consistent and what I have found comparatively is though the stronger weapons obviously deal more damage, its really DPS that's an issue, as I said the lance is consistent and when I have used the great sword or any other weapon, the monster was too quick to really land attacks on, they'd be elsewhere before I even swung the weapon. There's some strong variants of the lance on the crafting trees and you can use elements to your advantage for specific monsters. But I whole heartedly admit, though I was bulwark of defense, there was a few fights I couldn't dish out enough damage in time to beat the monster and had to switch to using a weapon that was their weakness this was a gunlance with dragon damage for the black veil vaal hazaak for me. I probably could of beat him with my normal lance if hadn't played so evasively/strategically to avoid his miasma attacks but I just decided to switch to the gun lance and use its dragon element and just played more aggressively instead,which as a lance user is kind of frustrating, I much prefer countering and taking a more defensive approach and just absorbing attacks, like with nergigante and diablos, which some of my favorite fights. I know it works because I have seen countless hunters faint while I stood tall battling it out with powerful monsters, these are your average players so this is the norm, sure it falls short with more mobile opponents and ones that deal unblock-able damage but as with any squad or tactical situation, every weapon/play style has its place. Were the defense platforms dealing consistent damage, others are the more heavy hitters or distance fighters, every player, every weapon has its time and place

[@crossfitnerd1085]

I love Lance. Nuff said.

[@dexterbarlow-busch4127]

"slow walk speed" SIR YOU ARE CURRENTLY GUARD SHUFFLING

[@crackedegg2558]

Dexter Barlow-Busch Guard shuffling 🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣

[@flatulent_d9374]

It's faster than Gameconemist's thought speed.

[@dragonspit77]

I find it hilarious that he uses 2 or 4 levels of guard when those are the most inefficient levels of guard to have. Usually you either have 1, 3, or 5 levels. The difference between level 1 and 2 guard is negligible so you rather stay at 1 for the extra slot, and if 1 guard isn't enough you go up to 3. Its the same story for guard 4.

[@Rentzanimanera]

WTF is this. Lance is supposed to be played constantly charging, attacking and parrying the monster, without sheathing. And yes, lance is indeed the worts weapon.. in speedrun. For generale play is one of the most consistent and safe weapon in the game, better than GL for monsters with good hitzones, and that even with the real problem of the amount of mandatory core skills required.

[@BombaJead]

I love lance, it carried me through base game, but if we are talking about safest weapon it's definitely hbg with shield mod, that shit is easy mode.

[@TheGameconomist]

I dont speedrun at all btw, I consider this the worst weapon for general play. Bad at damage and defense

[@hariman7727]

@@TheGameconomist Have you considered that your preferred method of play is incompatible with the lance?

[@zanbamon4162]

@@hariman7727 are you saying his method is bad for playing Lance? impossible, its clearly the weapon's fault Kapp

[@Rentzanimanera]

@@BombaJead The difference is that with hbg you have half physical defense. One mistake and you are in serious trouble.

[@terradraca]

This sounds like "I can't play a blocking weapon like a dodging weapon" which really makes no sense. I just starting using the lance recently and loving it. Yeah, less damage but more uptime on DPS which balances it out nicely since you don't have to keep stopping to dodge attacks like other weapons have to.

[@BBBerti]

Exactly, you hit the nail right on the head, there is a reason lance can keep up with GS speedrun cleartimes. Most of these argument arent really well thought out

[@madestro]

Except that the damange is subpar. Yes sure you can do constant DPS, and that is the core of lance but for that you HAVE to build guard 5 AND guard up, that's 6 slots on armor or a full charm plus a level 2 slot (if you're lucky enough to have the deco), so that leaves very little room to dmg boosting skills that you also NEED for the lance. Try to compare this to the Long shelling GL, for that GL to max out its dmg all you need is artillery 5, focus and bingo, you're done; you don't need to soften shit and you barely ever need to sharpen. All the rest of the armor and skills can be devoted to QoL things like Evade Extender, Earplugs, Guard, Guard Up, etc. You have so much freedom on long GL i even use protective polish and item prolonger. Meanwhile a lance build requires Masters Touch, Crit Boost, Crit Eye, WEX and all of that JUST to do some dmg, if you want to do the dmg continuously (as you should) you would need Guard Up and Guard 5, less than Guard 5 is useless for the lance. And we're not even talking about MP hunts where you also MUST build flinch free if you ever want to hit the monster and you have to way of having the monster on top of you for a set time, that is reserved for special monsters like Behemot and Safijiva. You just started out using the lance, I have around 2k hours in MHW, of those I would say about 300 on lance alone; you know how many GC has? Way, way over the amount I have. Do yourself a favor and keep playing the lance, also try other weapons like the GL and the HBG, once you do that you will be able to understand this video

[@tymak9582]

@@madestro ​ Idk how you make your builds but even with guard 5/guard up/health boost i have plenty of place to build damage. Also you're comparing it to the most comfy playstyle in the game which is long GL and comparing shelling-only builds to any other build is kind of unfair in terms of QoL skills. And what you're saying about master's touch and crit skills being required applies to almost everything that relies on crit (the actual problem with lance builds is that they're inflexible). I'd also like to point out that 1: DPS doesn't matter in most hunts and if it does lance can do enough damage to pass the DPS check if you play well enough and 2: if you think playtime/weapon usage directly reflects your skill look at this video's gameplay or play a competitive game for 1000h without actually training and see how you don't get better past a certain point. But i agree that wasting a skill slot to avoid getting flinched by other players is kind of lame.

[@Rentzanimanera]

@@madestro Actually, dash guard and counter guard get a natural +2 on guard, so guard+3 is enough most fo the times.

[@beardofwar]

While everybody is deciding whether Lance is a defensive weapon or not, I'll be over here soloing MR KT while standing directly in the fire XD. (Every weapon is a good defensive weapon if played correctly)

[@endbosseleven8907]

As a lance main myself, I'm really insulted by this. You weren't supposed to sheath your weapons every now and then, just wait for monster to come to you and block its attacks. The weapon is not the problem, you are

[@rudgesanders9268]

Delete your game lance scrub! Per TheGameconomist

[@mugen3603]

Oh, is that how it is? Lancers waits for the monsters to come to them? Ok, good to know. I don't use lance, but I play with a lancer all the time, and he never tells me these things. I will try to lure monsters over to my lancer more often in hunts so he can poke it to death.

[@laszloe.lawless4853]

@@mugen3603 HE IS YOUR SHIELD

[@andresnyman580]

@@mugen3603 late reply but no a lance is very mobile if the monster has gone far enough that a hop lunge combo wont get you to him then you charge back to it. You only need to sheath to heal.

[@IsaSaien]

@@mugen3603 eh, a lance player can just charge anytime a monster is aggroed towards another player, they only need to wait for the monster to run at them when hunting solo

[@seahdamian8357]

Lance players, stop proving TGC’s flawed reasoning backed up by his bad gameplay wrong by making well-constructed arguments. I can’t like all of them.

[@seahdamian8357]

Lol he got upset in his live-streams because people said he was spreading misinformation when he was just “giving his opinions”. The fact is that he’s representing his opinions as facts on a weapon that he’s not even well-versed in.

[@codysykes5568]

Lance main here, can confirm.

[@davlar9714]

Well. Saying its not a defensive weapon is exactly right. Its one of, if not THE most aggressive weapon in the game.

[@samiel992]

I truely agree with you the lance is definitely the most aggressive weapon in the game

[@Youkakun]

Exactly that! Not even get hit with dodging is always a better defense than blocking with potential chip damage. BUT after a block you're often near the monster, dodging means going on distance. Lance players can attack way more often and do damage all the time.

[@Noieter]

Totally agree, you can do damage while monster attacks. If timing correctly you can non stop damage the monster.

[@Calcos323]

This guy doesn't even know how to do a Shield Dash, the Lance's defining tool. It's the only move in the game that allows you to reposition and be completely defended at the same time. How do you play for thousands of hours and not know this? How is this guy a voice of wisdom in the community? Everything he says is ignorant and poorly researched, and he brushes off helpful criticism by saying we're salty

[@agrillhasnoname]

The Shield Dash allows you to be completely defended you say? Wrong. You have no clue what you're talking about. Go learn Lance lol. While doing a Shield Dash, you're never defended, if a monster attacks you, he will interrupt your Shield Dash and hurt you. Gameconomist is actually right about many of his points. You even said he doesn't know how to do a Shield Dash when this video proves you wrong, we see him doing Shield Dashes lol you must be a toxic hater from the other channel. Grow up, kid, stop being a toxic sheep controlled by whatever another channel says.

[@azimamri2902]

@@agrillhasnoname the dude above was referring to guard dash when he said shield dash. Its the forward/backward/sideward hop while guarding that can be executed mid combo. It allows u to reposition easily with no risk of being attacked. Gameconomist did not do a single guard dash in the whole video. Seriously dude go watch other pro lancers and u'll see the difference between their skill with gameconomist. Its literally night and day. Many people are offended because while gameconomist did point out "some" legit issue, but most of them are pure crap and not even a "problem" at all if u know how to lance correctly. To give an example, a PE teacher craps about mathematical problems being "too hard" when he cant even do his math rights. Imagine how the actual math teachers would feel. Worse part is, said PE teacher happens to be loved by the students and they blatantly absorb false knowledge from an unqualified personnel.

[@SpacedogD]

"Lance is one of my most played weapon" And imagine being so bad at the weapon that you don't even understand how to play your most played weapon.

[@blackjezus7235]

This video is filled with misinformation

[@ZANZR0]

Imagine playing this game as often as he does and then imagine being so bad at a weapon and completely missing the point and then imagine making a video on it and trying to tell everybody all this misinformation

[@barrymacdonald3439]

Lance is the worst weapon in monster hunter. the bottom of the speed run list and the popularity list. The majority of people would agree with TGC most comments here are butt hurt Lance users that can't except that the Lance is just shite.

[@stephenjohn2131]

@@barrymacdonald3439 Gemeconomist die hard fan defending him in every comment section even when he is wrong? well if you like him that much i don't blame you. Please carry on.

[@dragonspit77]

@@barrymacdonald3439 Lance being a bad speed running weapon and being at the bottom of the popularity list doesn't indicate its a bad weapon. It just shows that the majority of the MH player base don't like its play style and would rather hit big numbers with flashy combos like the LS. Btw speed running is done by a very small portion of the community, so lance being at the bottom of that list doesn't take into account the rest of the MH community.

[@crackedegg2558]

Barry MacDonald Any weapon is the best weapon if you’re having fun you dibshit

[@Roy_In_A_Safe_Space]

@@barrymacdonald3439 there is no "Worst weapon" the tier of the weapon is based on the skill and experience of the individual using said weapon. Things like HBG may require less skill but it still requires skill like the rest. Every weapon is fantastic and every weapon has their flaws this includes lance. Solo fatalis with lance then come back and say its a shit weapon ass wipe.

[@reesebohm4541]

I’ve been a lance main since the beginning of MHW and haven’t looked back. if you’re sheathing when the monster is in the same sector as you.. you’re playing it wrong. The Lance is the only weapon that allows you to stay under the monsters nose the entire time while taking no damage if you’re using it right. Watching your video makes me think I should make a lance video just to give that weapon some justice. I do agree we need an attack buff big time but if you’re using the lance right you shouldn’t have any problems giving enough damage.

[@wesley6442]

It just isn't meant for some players and I totally understand, it instantly became my favorite way back during Tri. There is no greater rush than standing toe to toe with nergigante, diablos or glavenus as a lance wielder. My friend kept dying to a tobi kadachi and I dread to think how he'd face an aggressive nergigante or glavenus, he also used all our faints against a coral pukei pukei, where I had zero issues with it. Certain playstyles/weapons work great for different instances, the lance is great for most situations but it can certainly struggle in other areas, it's far from perfect but it has carried me to the end game so I would say its reliable.

[@Prowz4ssin]

"You have to waste decos to have a functioning weapon" have you ever played charge blade or gunlance?

[@Asuraemp]

He only talks about long gunlance so he dosen't know how starved for decos wide gunlance is

[@prawn1717]

@@Asuraemp And even wide isn't nearly as crazy as Normal holy hell. Full average offensive skills along with artillery plus guard/evade window, depending on how you play. Normal is so hard to play and extremely difficult to build for.

[@joesheridan9451]

Yeah but charge blade dishes out massive damage, also has a strong sheild and is very mobile so you can just i frame and move out the way... Thats his poiny

[@oniblight9092]

@@prawn1717 Don't forget about the Sharpness management.

[@amberhanscomb7191]

@@Asuraemp lol yeah wide do be op tho

[@MaverixHunter]

For any newer players watching this or his other videos, do not take his information seriously. This dude is wrong about almost everything he spews and is extremely hypocritical. Move onto a different channel.

[@barrymacdonald3439]

No I agree with everything he says about Lance.

[@Qballiz2kool]

Barry MacDonald Then you clearly didn’t watch the video closely enough, allot of what he says on this video about lance is just wrong...

[@rudgesanders9268]

Delete your game scrub!

[@footedpancake4443]

Rudge Sanders fuck off

[@alwest4472]

@@barrymacdonald3439 well, you're wrong

[@silverhawk923]

How does slow walking speed mean it’s not a defensive weapon? I feel this your gripes are more about how lance is not efficient for your play style. Lance has has the strongest guard with a counter after guard. That means it is a good defensive choice. I think you should have started with what your definition of “defensive” is. SnS has a weak shield. You would need a lot more than what the game gives you to get the SnS shield to match the lance shield. If you use no skills on a weapon, would the lance by itself have the best shield or not? It does, but yet you think it’s shield is weak. Your points are just why the weapon is not efficient and not about defensive. Fair play that you have played lance a lot, but it’s wrong to assume that would make you an expert on it. Because by that logic, I should be more of an expert on the weapon because I played lance in every MH game. Just to clarify, your view of defensive is quite different from just being able to block moves whenever you want. You should clarify what you think defensive means. I’ll say again, you are right it’s not efficient but it is a great defensive weapon for blocking moves and attacking in between openings. You ended by saying it’s not a good defensive weapon because others are better. That’s negates your whole point because you’re saying it is defensive but not the best. Sorry if my comment comes across rude, because I don’t mean to be. I just strongly disagree with your opinion of measuring defensive capabilities with a weapons attack efficiency

[@wesley6442]

He said he comes from the souls games, I see this a lot with those type. my friend is an avid souls player, which is why he goes for the long sword he can't block worth shit lol he likes to dodge and swipe at his opponents and it often gets him killed. The lance just isn't fit for players coming from or more experienced with the souls genre but it works for me, I imagine its too slow and frustrating and I feel the same way with the greatsword it's so miserably slow and anyother weapon makes me feel fragile and defenseless, so that is why I personally prefer the lance. I love standing toe to toe with formidable monsters while other players dance around the monster, it's a badass feeling being the unkillable thorn in its side lol this isn't a jab on dark souls or players immigrating from there and who are hard wired for combat styles similar to it, we each have our preferences and for me it's the lance

[@23NinjaSniper]

I disagree. I’m a Lance main. The Lance is pinpoint accurate when attacking a monster putting Offensive Guard makes blocking at the last minute very rewarding and have it activate multiple times. Now with Clutch Claw Counter you can have monster parts weakened majority of the fight. The Lance isn’t the highest damage but always applying pressure to the monster. Everyone has an opinion. I love The Lance and will continue destroying majority of the monsters.

[@tom8636]

Thankyou for speaking up and also lance isn't a slow weapon you have lots of mobility with guard hops and lunges I'm not even a good speed runner and managed sub 6 min runs

[@raythetiger7701]

@@devildante9 not lance main but same here. played lance in almost all of the games that made it to the west. it never was a good dps weapon but it was always fun.

[@ACSMEX]

Lance is my most played weapon (cuz I find it the most fun to play) and my go to choice when facing a difficult monster (except lunastra, cuz fuk her), but I have barely touched a bow, my aim is horrible (I can´t reliable hit Teostra´s head, nuff said) and I can still get better times with bow than with my lance on some monsters. I agree top play bow should have better times than top play lance. But high level lance play should at least compete with low to medium bow level play. It does not.

[@ricr.8861]

also main lance in the games. i've found lance as a counter weapon more than defensive. but i guess the best offense is a great defense.

[@tilly3702]

I think numbers got real inflated in iceborne. All the weapons damage got buffed and now everything has the capability to do like 500 in one hit (in many cases more) the lance with its poke poke poke type combos though, doesnt have a big move that can do this. Ls has the helm breaker. Gs has the tcs. Hammer the big bang, bows spread shot is trully a big boy move in itself. Even hunting horn has that weird spinny move that can easily dish out hundreds of damage in one blow. What does lance have? A counter attack thats triggered by your teamates. I love lances skills, but after iceborne and all the buffs to weapons, lance is simply conpeting with weapons that have, imo, too much damage capability. I mean you can do 600+ damage with just the last hit in the sns perfect rush combo. That's absolutely absurd and lance, even though its a lot of fun and unique, has no move or combo that could rival that. But hey im a big believer of playing whats fun for the player. If your willing to look past the clearly inferior damage, i think lance can be a lot of fun and contrary to what TGC is saying, a great defensive weapon that easily allows you to apply the most consistent preasure on a monster. TGC has a very meta kind of mindset. So play what you like. It is a game after all 👍

[@itz_kamui12]

This right here got me more angry than the IGN Xenoblade Review

[@crackedegg2558]

Adrián Villalobos Or the PC gamer Iceborne review?

[@RavinGlover]

"bad defensive weapon..." followed by "You have to guard everything, why cant I just Iframe!" I am sure you dont need another person to tell you how dumb this video is but it is clearly apparent from your gameplay you make terrible decisions with what moves to use and when, just use a different weapon and try to make comments on weapons you actually understand, just switched to lance and I understand it far better its laughable, sure if you dont appreciate or fit well with a weapon then dont use it but making a misinformed video was only going to get you anger. Perhaps watch some people good with the lance and pick up some techniques, or use a weapon you are good with :)

[@iansethwinkler7711]

Man in on the same side as you, the lance should get a buff, but some points you make just dont vibe with me. Blocking is abselutly preferably to dodging, because its faster and you can stay on the Monster. Sadly the depicted gameplay doesnt show that, because you use the slow powerguard. The damage, which the lance can output is sadly still lower than all the other weapons, there a buff is of course needed.

[@Tekka579]

No it's not Blocking in Lance is slow because of slow movement speed so in that instant he's correct. Miss a poke or the monster resets and your left with your Lance slowly returning while the monster is in full swing..

[@nhall129]

Also chip damage is better mitigated by avoiding powerguarding all the time

[@NinthYard]

Well not for long range elemental attacks, let’s say safi’jiva in this case. There are very few times when you would want to block. It takes time and you will likely get hit multiple times if you want to block one shot. It’s much better to just dodge and walk towards it than stay immobile losing sharpness and taking chip damage. Of course Safi’jiva is a extreme example but let’s say silver rathalos or golden rathian both have easily dodged “ultimate” attacks you can just walk away and get to them after they ult if you don’t block. Or if you’re in danger just Superman dive you don’t lose anything. Even close range elemental attacks like yian Garuga just dodge around taking no damage and attack him than just staying put. Sure for physical attacks I can see your point but not for everything.

[@BBBerti]

@@Tekka579 thats bullshit, the guard dash comes out instantly, can be done in any direction and you barely take chip dmg if any at all

[@Tekka579]

@@BBBerti Except that's not true and chip damage is still damage.

[@zorgon641]

9:35 When you were building guard on the lance, I studied the blade. When you're building guard on the lance, I mastered the blockchain. While you built guard on the lance, I cultivated inner strength. And now that the world is on fire and the monsters are at the gate you have the audacity to come to me for help?

[@Centurytactics1]

This weapon simply doesn’t fit your play style, and that’s fine. The lance is a great weapon, striking a great balance between extreme aggression and safety. Yeah, it won’t be breaking speed run records, but personally I don’t think it needs to. It’s the full “tank” weapon, it would be too strong if it got a major damage buff. Plus the clutch claw has given every weapon, including the lance of course, increased mobility (AND EVEN BETTER STICKINESS THAN IT HAD BEFORE). And that clutch claw counter fits so perfectly with the lances move set, being one of the few claw moves that doesn’t have that obvious feel of being added in later on. So that mobile disadvantage went basically out the window. It’s the best weapon for hunters who not only want to be a tank that, if utilized properly, never dies, but also for the hunters who are struggling on monsters. The lance will carry you to victory. Slowly, but surely (and its beginner friendly). Edit: There’s even offensive guard that remedies that lower damage. A 15% damage buff! Master the weapon and you’ll straight up have 15% additional damage lmao.

[@wesley6442]

Couldn't agree more, I always go for tank builds so the lance is a great fit for me. I have nearly 1k in defense due to my armor plus having the lance is the perfect combo, very tanky build and I can just eat the damage if I do get hit

[@BingusPalico]

Lance is one of the most precise and consistent weapons in the game, when used properly. This gameplay footage shows that it is NOT being used properly, which I think might be why you have all these grievances with the weapon. You have tons of utility, most of which negates the need for any defensive skills other than Guard/Guard up. I would say the only other defensive skill you 'need' is Health Boost. Although Lance's raw tends to always be on the low side, your armor set will almost always be able to make up for that, which is true for a lot of weapons. It doesn't take a master at Lance to understand that the weapon simply can not be played like anything else in the game. As a Lance you should NEVER sheath your weapon, unless you need to fly to a camp or survive Safi's ult. That misunderstanding alone could probably credit why you have all these other issues with the weapon.

[@badred3955]

king diamond rules dude

[@agrillhasnoname]

"As a Lance you should NEVER sheath your weapon" lol all you sheep heard that bullshit so you keep repeating it like parrots without a brain. That's false and bullshit. Try picking up a drop you need without sheating. Yeah right, Mr. Bullshit copy & paste without thinking. Try using an item you need to use without sheating. Yeah right. Bullshit. "Survive Safi's ult" lol it's time for you to find a new game if you defeated all the monsters in this one. You elitist selfish pricks don't get a LOT of new players are progressing through the story still and didn't reach Safi yet so Safi up your elitist arrogant ass you moron. Go learn to be a human being.

[@BingusPalico]

A Grill Has No Name well yeah, no SHIT you need to sheath it when you need to interact with the game outside of using your weapon 😂 common sense is expensive these days huh? Take it with a grain of salt. Also, where is the connection between me wanting to survive Safi’s ultimate attack, which is unblockable and requires you to RUN BEHIND COVER, and me needing to quit the game just because I can beat every monster? And somehow that makes me elitist and selfish, just because you think i’ve failed to account that there are newer players who maybe haven’t reached that point? Well of course there are! I am clearly speaking in terms of endgame hunting, with optimized gear loadouts. Seriously, you have zero points being made here. I encourage you to go waste your energy elsewhere, instead of this months-old video.

[@strix4609]

As an OTP Lance on Iceborne, and "full offensive build" player I can say : - You have to build Guard 3 or 5 AND Guard Up, but once you get this, you really good at protecting yourself. - "Forcing a regen augmen" has almost every weapons in the end. Moreover, lance are probably one of the weapons that is really efficient with Peak performance ( sweet reminder that Peak Perf 3 gives as much Traw as Agitator 5). - Lance can be always under the effect of Offensive guard. (Fews maths : On a 300 Traw Lance, such as the new Brachy one, it worths as an atk boost 15. Yep, 15.) - Chip damages are more important on Power guard, you should use this only for attack that multi-hits, threatening you to break your guard, and kill you. - Lance is mobile, but it requieres to use all the movepool that it offers, such has "Dash Guard forward + Leaping Thrush + repeat"or "Dash Guard Backward + Empowered back-hop + repeat" - Lance are one of the weapon that have well-integrated usage of the Clutch Claw, with the Counter-Claw mecanic. On top of that, I would add : Lance seems boring, because it doesn't have a cool offensive moveset. It has a lot of defensive options to face any situations, it just requieres to learn which one it the best against one attack/monster. Lance definitly "lacks of DPS" compared to other weapons. (Will it be fair for a good defensive, assuming that you are running Guard (And Guard Up), that you have the same DPS ?). With that, playing lance online feels unfair because of DS/LS breaking your guard by flinching you. Lance is weapon that depends a lot of talents, it's not beginner-friendly. It requieres decoration/talents to feel good playing it. I advise to get Guard 3 ( 5 when needed, as well as Guard Up) to start playing it. If you plane on playing online, invest in an embrace jewel. I know that sucks, but those edgy players aren't going to stop flinch you, someone as to be the clever one. Be this one. Sorry for this long text, I hope this will interest some people paying attention to Lance. See yah Hunters. HAPPY HUNTING !

[@WisdomCat21]

You absolutely DO NOT need to build Guard Up. Guard Up is such a noob trap. There are MAYBE 3 monsters in the game that Guard Up makes significantly easier. Every other unblockable attack is either easily avoidable without guarding, or you don't need to worry about. The three it is useful on are Velkhana, MR Black Diablos, and Rajang. You should always have at least 2 armor sets, one with Guard Up, one without.

[@strix4609]

@@WisdomCat21 You forget about lunastra grounded flames explosions, Kulve lasers, and Lava pool. You can add few Namielle attacks. So in late game, you need this Guard Up, to "stay in the race".

[@WisdomCat21]

@@strix4609 i did forget Kulve, true. You don't need it on Lunastra. Don't stand in the fire. And literally nothing Namielle has is relevant to guard up. Like I said, you absolutely should not ALWAYS equip guard up. It's a waste of a gem slot on 90% of the fights. Equip it only for fights where it is relevant

[@strix4609]

@@WisdomCat21 I totally agree, I wrote it on my first message. "Guard 5 if needed, as well as Guard Up".

[@JR-wq1vg]

I used to think you spent time to actually know what you’re talking about. Now I don’t think you do. This video is all kinds of wrong. 1. Walking with lance is not how you move with lance...wow. Lance is one of the faster mobility weapons in the game. 2. Why are you even sheathing your weapon. The whole point of the lance is do consistent damage. When do you ever have to sheath as lance? Lance can block or dodge everything in the game. Bro... 3. Forced to guard? Its a lance! You combine defense with offense and gain damage bonus via offensive guard!! Health augment is standard...wtf. 4. Guard up is a two slot deco. That plus its mobility makes it the single most survivable weapon in the game. *sighs* 5. If you need guard 5 with lance your not playing it right. I seriously doubt that you know how to play lance at all. 6. The lance is forced to build crit boost? All weapons use wex crit boost. Unless its explosive. What are you actually talking about..seriously? 7. What the f dude. The lance does more damage over time because you never stop attacking. you never have to stop. 8. Friendly fire has been in the series since the old games. Again, you are playing lance wrong if you are getting sucked out of you counter guard by other players. You can out range and out maneuver almost any other melee weapons and if you must use counter guard you can hold it. It does not have to trigger.. This video is full of wrong info.

[@Laolin521]

Guard 5 is fine is your not min/maxing . I use guard 5 for everything because I don’t have to change gears base on monsters.

[@Sygmus6]

Right on everything, except the standard counter does automatically trigger from friendly fire. It's avoidable if you just reposition away from teammates before fighting again, but accidents happen. Also, I wouldn't go that far about Guard 5. Not super essential, but very handy and worth running in a lot of situations.

[@marshallmathers9342]

Dude pls even i can see that youre having some misconceptions about lance (and gunlance) and i dont even play lance that much im a gunlance main positioning, knowing what to guard with what block is important and if you block efficiently you dont need any other defensive skills different blocks receive different chip dmg (as far as im concerned) you dont even have to sheath the weapon if youre good (minor point: hbg thinks its soooo great bc its shield is op) and i would gladly get rid of my crappy wsb on gl for the clutch counter honestly for all the time you spent playing lance you havent actually learned a thing

[@spacetaco048]

"reasons why lance isn't a good defensive weapon" **immediately starts showing clips of him holding the shield up and then stabbing the air about 100 feet away from the monster**

[@josuecharles1439]

Imma have to disagree buddy, I suck at dodging and I can say that the lance has carried me 600 hrs and hundreds of ranks from being one shotted.

[@mugen3603]

My brother and I picked up the lance for the first time yesterday in one of the arenas. Man, is it hard to use! We were so bad at it. Lol. I now have a lot of respect for my friend who uses lance as his main. He is so good with it. This is definitely not a weapon you can just pick up and wield efficiently without proper practice.

[@abgamer784]

"Not many defensive skills" Me with all 12 Rare decos: What are you talking about?

[@MrCrypto137]

I am a lance main since the first MH. i agree that a dmg buff would be nice and the lance maybe have guard up included. But i think you don´t really know how to actually play the weapon. Most of the points in this video can be answered with a simple "git gud". Seriously just look at the gameplay he is showing. And the statement lance is not a good defensive weapon is ridiculous. Usually i like his videos but this one is really bad, just learn the weapon.

[@NeoArmstrong.]

"You're Force to Build a Crit Boost Setup" Ok, I'm done. This video is garbage What wrong in you mind bro. You can attack monster with a 100% Affinity. Why didn't you use Crit boost? Just tell me WHY NOT TO USE CRIT BOOST?

[@spiritwyrmk8622]

Although I understand with the fact that lance does need a dmg buff to compete with other weapons... the rest isn't that important. You can easily have crit7(or less depending on affinity), crit boost 3, Wex 3, offensive guard, HB3, agitator, attack boost 5 and at least guard 3. It's even easy to run agitator secret because Brachydios head a has 2 guard and wex 1, plus the brach legs b are broken with wex 2 and good slots. The main drawback on lance is that it requires Master's touch (I find whetfin polish tedious on lance) Yes guard is needed, but not guard 5. Safi'jiiva, both rajang, raging brach and kulve are the only monsters that require guard 5. I agree that guarding still consumes too much stamina and should be buffed. If you're evading instead of guarding with lance, you're playing lance wrong and you're missing out on offensive guard. Guard up is not needed on lance, just learn your timings and use power guards. Counter claw is situational... I use on moves that have long cooldowns and moves that i know I'm safe after if I need to keep tenderize up, and moves that the monster ends out of reach (zinogre's back slam and tail swipe, kulve's naked tail swipe, Diablos and banbaros charge, glavenous overhead tail slam, ect.) Yes, the move should be buffed significantly in dmg so people use it, You should be invulnerable to dmg when latched to the monster so its useful, It should have a high stagger/flinch value And the move's activation should consume less continuous stamina. Power guard should be buffed in both dmg and stamina consumption as well. Power guard should deal dmg depending on the move it blocks and stack dmg with each hit it blocks in one activation for continuous attacks like kulve's lava pool. Power guard has a drawback in which yes, you block unblockable moves but you take a lot of chip dmg in return... with these buffs its seems fair. Lance should have innate flinch free... You're using a weapon that is supposed to make you an immovable force. Sheathing is slow... but you should only sheath when a monster leaves. If you get hit just once while using lance, sorry but you're not using it right... It has the ability to block every move in the game except safi'jiiva's emperor, Ecliptic meteor and leshen's crow nova(dont remember).

[@Digitalcanvas77]

Lancer Main. The most aggresive and mobile weapon in the game.

[@Sully109]

😂😂😂😂😂😂

[@shafir2]

😂😂😂😂

[@pheww81]

I agree for "normal monster". But for high tier monster like furious rajang the chip damage is ridiculous and the impact of some attack is so big you cannot counter (and that with Guard 5). You need to use power guard in those case and take even more chip damage.

[@BingusPalico]

@@pheww81 nah, to counter the big attacks like Furious Rajang's, you want to take the hit with just your normal shield (no power or counter), let it push you back, then you can power guard instantly out of that knock back by pressing X/A while holding r2. This lets you take less c[h]imp damage, and you can then charge or thrust right out of the power guard.

[@JoseKvar]

@@BingusPalico Yep, and you should have health augments at that point. So you just keep attacking and recover health.

[@fatesmessage3271]

Okay but it IS a defensive weapon though. It IS good at defense. It has freaking power guard FFS, a defensive move which no other weapon has. Are you seriously just making these kinds of videos to be contrarian or what?

[@hariman7727]

I think Lance Playstyle is incompatible with Game Economist's playstyle.

[@barrymacdonald3439]

Nah the Lance just sucks.

[@felonmelon3736]

@@barrymacdonald3439 nah YOU just suck

[@felonmelon3736]

@@Fataliese ay I'm right if you think a weapon sucks that means you suck that weapon like I'm bad with the gl but I know it's a good weapon

[@crackedegg2558]

Barry MacDonald Pretty sure you liked your own comment

[@Kragehul]

Hello everyone, I just wanted to share my Lance Build as it is my main (Not here to bash anyone). Weapon: Safi's Shattersnout w/ awakenings 2x Sharpness V, Attack V, Teostra Technique, & Slot upgrade lV. Augments are Health Regen l and Slot Upgrade l. Armor: Safi Crown beta Kaiser Mail beta Safi Vambraces beta Kaiser Coil beta Safi Boots beta Charm: Attack Charm V Deco's: 2x Guardian/Attack 4, Guardian/Expert 4, 3x Ironwall 1, Brace/Vitality 4, Critical/Vitality 4, 4x Expert 1, Expert+ 4, 2x Mighty 2, Mighty/Vitality 4, Mind's Eye 2, & Shield 2. [Main] Skills: Attk boost 7, Crit Eye 7, Health Boost 3, Crit Boost 3, Guard 3, Max Might 3, Offensive Guard 3, Flinch Free 1, Mind's Eye, Guard Up, Master's Touch, & Dragonvein Awakening. Edit: I have 100% crit (on full stamina) no matter where I strike monster with purple sharpness and because of Teostra skill it stays that way. If I strike with under full stamina it's 70% crit so I pay attention and play patiently, tactically and aggressively. I do not have to rely on WEX and have more dps uptime than builds that have to rely on WEX to reach 100% crit...and every eight pokes the Safi armor skill heals me for a big chunk of health if I need it. This may sound controversial, but I consider myself a Master Lancer.

[@Kragehul]

Btw for you non-Lancers a lance poke doesn't use any stamina, so I charge to Monster and then Block, wait for stam to get back to 100 (which isn't long), and then proceed to poke at full 100% crit no matter where I strike; weak spot or not! Edit: much more manageable than challenger, peak performance, or any other power buff setup.

[@josesaidwhat]

I saw this and I decided to try the lance for itself and I guess I honestly don't understand the complaints. I built a full tank build with the lance and I've gotten addicted to tanking hits and being in the monsters face dishing out constant poke damage, and countering when needed. And I came from insect glaive.

[@kazuki_the_hyena8229]

You're gonna get lots of hate on this. And from what I've seen, it's well deserved.

[@plus-delta4477]

Honestly, this seems like more of a "Why I don't like playing Lance" video. He literally said that "when playing lance, you are forced to guard!" Dude, it's a LANCE, guarding instead of dodging is the whole point 😂

[@rudgesanders9268]

Pretty sure he said to delete your game lance scrub!

[@seahdamian8357]

Rudge Sanders How about you take some time to process info with your room temperature equivalent iq and actually come up with a comprehensible sentence against the numerous arguments in this comment section that prove TheGameconomist wrong. Kissing TGC’s ass with your blind devotion does nothing for you when he doesn’t even understand weakness exploit of all things

[@rudgesanders9268]

@@seahdamian8357 is your game deleted yet lance scrub?

[@crackedegg2558]

Seah Damian TGE said that in a live-stream and Rudge is mimicking him

[@BB-vp4qx]

Just because you play all the weapons doesn't mean you know how to use them properly. When it comes to lance, you clearly show a lack of understanding and skill in using this weapon.

[@spiritwyrmk8622]

Its called the best defensive weapon because it blocks almost everything and it's the best at it... it's not about how much dmg you take in doing so... By those standards, long sword is the most defensive weapon because you evade through almost everything without dmg... but you're not blocking anything, so no

[@Oninzuka_Badjula]

Love the hate you are getting from this vid. Hope you learn from it. 😂😂😂

[@negentropyagent7337]

There is nothing to learn. I believe that is his opinion and he has some good points

[@Oninzuka_Badjula]

@@negentropyagent7337 yup, that's he's opinion and he's getting roasted for it. If you compare this vid to the others he's made, this one gets a lot of people triggered for all the "points" he's made and if you read them, they have a lot of good points too. Even better than what's in the vid.

[@oscarfernandes1349]

Back in the day there was this thing called Evade Lancing it abused both the Lance back-hop wich lasts 18 frames and Evade Window Up wich gave 18 I-frames to every roll in the game so, basically, every frame of the back-hop of the lance had I-frames, pair that with Evade Extender and you got yourself Evade Lancing, it was fun and stylish

[@johanneswolbert3821]

Did Lance use to have more I-frames on its hops? In this video he said that the Lance I-frames are very strict.

[@oscarfernandes1349]

@@johanneswolbert3821 The i-frames are the same but, you can prolong the i-frames making the whole back-hop invicible

[@Tu-Li-Oh]

Yup, and my MH teacher told me that the Lance could auto guard in older games. Basically you could leave the PSP, make a life, get married, have a family, and after living your life and retire, your character was still there and had beaten the game with 0 deaths.

[@LuxZoltan]

I miss mh4u Lance

[@oscarfernandes1349]

@@LuxZoltan Me too man, me too

[@Sygmus6]

Lance main here and only two things really bother me while playing it that feels unfair. First, Guard Up doesn’t block pins. This can get you killed against savage deviljho or furious rajang, where you usually have too little time to sheathe and superman dive. It's kind of unfair already that lance has no other option than to block, so if I use a skill that says “block unblockables,” I’d like that to be 100% reliable. Last, clutch claw counter should work on monster’s attacks that are physical but have that wind stagger effect. I’ve tried to clutch counter a swooping gold rathian so many times; the counter just blocks the air while rathian soars right through my body. Come on, that should count!

[@lawlkn]

In my opinion the points you have made only _really_ apply to *1)* early game and *2)* what you're trying to get out of your weapon mechanics. In my 7-800 hours of gameplay I main LBG and Lance but I can confidently play all the other weapons except GS and HH. If survivability is the issue, then while in theory picking up the lance _can_ be a stepping stone to achieving that goal, the only way you're actually going to survive is by learning monster attack patterns, no weapon is automatically going to stop anyone from carting. I mentioned early game because if you want max DPS, then go with the current meta (brachy). And if you want defence then Divine blessing secret, vaal soulvein and nergi amibition will do. This correlates with what you mentioned about being deco greedy but for new players coming into the game, or the average player, the objective isn't to get Team Darkside level clear times. As for weapon mechanics, this is very broad because everyone has their own playstyle and reason why they are using said weapon. But using myself as an example, I use the lance because of the thrill I get from powerguarding moves that would otherwise cart my whole party and my team asking me "how did you survive that". It's like I'm physically there, holding the shield, gritting my teeth trying to withstand the pressure as my stamina is getting drained from my body and the ground beneath my feet starts to rupture. And don't even get me started on the euphoria from counter clawing at the very last moment. That split second between life and death then overcoming it. It's the same feeling I get when I pull off a wyvernblast counter at close proximity when I would literally die if i was one frame closer, or foresight slash without waiting around for the monster. I don't stand around holding guard or preparing the claw trying to preemptively guess the next move because that's slow, boring and totally not my playstyle. And in my HBG builds I don't run shield because I don't see the point of blocking with a gun. The same way someone who loves mounting and airbourne battles picks up the insect glaive, it all depends on what you want from your weapon. That's just my two cents

[@dragonspit77]

I like how he mentions that hops have worse I-frames than rolls, but doesn't mention that hops have shorter recovery frames than rolls and they don't mess with your positioning as much because you don't move that far.

[@Qballiz2kool]

You can also slot in evade extender to remove the issue of the lance and Gunlance being so immobile while the weapon is out since he kept bringing up the point of the lances “slow walk speed with the weapon out”, and you should never have to sheath the lance/Gunlance for any reason so I don’t get his point of “slow sheath time”. What the duck is this video....

[@heart3460]

You're the best example of the Dunning-Kruger effect and your replies on Reddit reek of "kid ego typing".

[@dragonspit77]

ikr, I once thought that TGE was a cool guy, but then I saw some hate comments talking about him and decided to look deeper. Found out hes actually a huge asshole and loves throwing misinformation out there and thinks hes better than everyone else.

[@jet-blackjo2455]

@@dragonspit77 how to be better at monster hunter as a beginner Normal people: if you learn and play long enough, you'll naturally become better TGE: PLAY META YOU FUCKING CASUAL

[@Sygmus6]

I'm not a pro, just a regular lance main, but here are my thoughts on your points: 1 and 2 are relating to lance's poor evasion and movement, but you should be using counters and blocks instead. For maneuvering, the advancing guard is invaluable for the ability to reposition while staying safe. Hopping and walking is almost never needed. The dash has a large windup but it's still a safe option to close distance since you can immediately block any time during it. Anyway, you shouldn't NEED to get out of the way of attacks with the exception of particular moves, like Shara's laser. 3. You should be guarding most things. With health regen, the health lost through chip damage is negligible on the majority of monsters, unless you power guard too much. On endgame monsters like Furious Rajang, well, everyone struggles with him. And yes health regen is required so you don't have to sheath and heal, but most people use health regen for regular hunting anyway; the difference is that the other weapons use it for the full-on hits they're taking. 4. Agreed. Well, maybe just give power guard innate Guard Up from the start instead of waiting a couple seconds, and I'd be satisfied. I never liked the concept of unblockables. Side note: Guard Up should block pins. 5. A lot of weapons need their essential utility skill (like GS and Focus), so I've never complained too much about this one. And because guarding/countering is relatively safe, Divine Blessing and Stun Resist are more or less optional. I also want to point out that S&S and CB don't build for Guard because their shields are (mostly) for emergency protection, while Guard fosters the lance's ultra-aggressive playstyle. 6. I agree that the lance's skill needs can get in the way. Capcom really should give the lance a minor attack buff just to bring its overall damage in line with other heavy weapons in place of those extra skills the lance can't have. I mean, the honest truth is you'll never hear me complain about my hunt times, I don't care that much. Just tired of my weapon being called shit. 7. I don't know what to tell you other than I'm not having as much an issue with managing chip damage as you have. I took a break from World before Behemoth released so I didn't experience AT Nerg. The only monsters I really struggle with regarding chip damage and/or stamina management are tempered/Furious Rajang, and AT Namielle's big attack. Sometimes Raging Brachydios and MR Kulve in unlucky situations. I have to mention here, you make it sound like the lance has it so much worse than other weapons. "Other weapons just avoid the damage entirely, but not the lance..." In a perfect run that's true, but people get hit all the time. 8. Agreed, one thousand percent agreed. Friendly fire adds nothing enjoyable and there's no skill that can stop people from absolutely screwing you over. I've learned to just turtle in place until the guilty teammate goes away. While the lance isn't without issues, I do find it to be a pretty darn defensively-capable weapon. I mained CB in 4 Ultimate and Generations, and I play SA and a little LS as well. Even compared to other shield weapons, lance lets me play the most aggressively and from relative safety. It just needs a damage tweak and let me guard the stupid Rajang pins.

[@EndOfHeart20]

I disagree with most of these points, except maybe others triggering counter thrust

[@Kanoa99]

This actually made me seriously considering learning to pay more attention to teammate's moveset in order to proc offensive guard, crazy as it seems, it's gonna be crazy hard to master I think, but probably well worth it.

[@EndOfHeart20]

@@Kanoa99 I don't think I've ever had someone else trigger counter thrust in an actual hunt since they usually try to get out of the monster's hit box during its attack startup

[@ZhouTie47]

The times I get my counter thrust triggered is usually by longsword users too big for their britches and not knowing they should be running away.

[@miracle6950]

i mean, friendly fire is nearly all weapon problem.

[@ryanthelancemain3871]

I wanna start this off by saying Hi I enjoyed watching your video. Saw the title, and thought it'd be an interesting watch. I have been a Lance main ever since I started in Generations, and I have always had a lot of fun with the class. One very important thing to point out, is that I am more of a casual player, and play more for fun rather than for efficiency, that being said, i have a few polite disagreements with some of the things you mentioned in your video and I'd love to hear from someone who has a lot more experience in this series. You mentioned that it doesn't make sense that you should have to build guard on your character, because that is a thing that the lance should already have and shouldn't rely on a slot to fill that capability. Wouldn't that be the same thing as an offensive class filling slots with weakness exploit, attack boost and critical stats? The greatsword always hits hard, but you put these skills in your slots to make it better at hitting things. The reason I've actually loved playing the lance, is being able to plant myself at the feet of a monster and being able to use precise attacks in between well timed blocks. Building into the guard skill increases your offense because it allows you to not get knocked back, and counter attack more quickly. Another thing is that while being forced to guard all attacks gives you a some chip damage, it allows you to be able to continue attacking immediately after the strike. You may take chip damage, but it allows you to keep up the pressure. In the end, I think this more boils down to what we define as defensive. I would argue that being able to place yourself in the most "dangerous" spot always under the monster and being able to be safe there is very defensive. The ability to keep a monsters attention and agro with the appropriate skills/meals is also another big reason i find it a defensive class. It's one of my favorite parts of being a lance main. That being said, I think I see where your main argument in this being that this play style requires you to take chip damage, but I feel like its just a part of the classes style. You need to be smart with the lance and absorb agro and damage so your team can reap havoc on your opponent. Anyway, I really enjoyed your video! If you get this message (or even better yet, read this ENTIRE message) please get back to me! I aspire to grow into an amazing Lance user and show my friends its true potential!! THANKS AGAIN!!!

[@gharms2516]

more to this point when you're playing the game consistently with a group of friends being able to plant yourself and draw agro is one of the most defensive assets you bring to the party. If I'm sitting there under the monster consistently putting damage into the monster while all my friends get to play agro from either distance or like you said weaving in and out it gives chances for a buddy using switch axe to be able to drop his full combo on the mob no worries as I'm drawing attention. Yes, I'm getting chipped in the process of guarding the mob but at the same time, the monster is focusing me, giving my team free time to hit back without having to worry about an attack coming their way.

[@ryanthelancemain3871]

@@gharms2516 percisely, also, being able to counter guard allows you to consistently attack the monster provided you know what attacks are coming, making it more defensive then gunlance.

[@lordofsinner2224]

Some of your point is fair, however i occasionally outdamage my fellow teammate damage using lance. On the right hand lance can perform as well as GS, CB and HBG.

[@abouken6434]

On a full dps or comfy setup with HBG and Lance, HBG beats it by a mile and probably has more defensive/evasive tools too

[@zilches]

Hi. Heres 10 reasons why the lance IS a DEFENSIVE and in turn EQUALLY OFFENSIVE weapon. 1. It uses certain guard skills mentioned in this video to benefit its moveset. Offensive guard actively encourages you to time your blocks and you are rewarded with damage boosts when you do. This is extremely useful as you are always counter guarding. Guard is also a very valuable skill as the higher your guard level, the less you are knocked back, and in turn, the more DPS you can dish out. 2. It has the fastest walk speed in the entire game. It should be no surprise (but apparently it is seeing as our friend here uses this argument quite often, even to back his other "arguments") but you can guard dash with the lance to run faster than any other weapon possibly can. If you are smart, you can use this to escape big attacks, to reposition, and to close distance. 3. It can counter monster attacks and immediately return punishing, accurate blows. Counter guard allows for immediate attack returns when a monster hits your shield, making your DPS on par with dual blades. Not only this, but the lance is a long reaching, single motion weapon, which can make targeting certain monster parts seamless. 4. It does not need to dodge but if youd like you can easily work evade window into your build. Evade lance builds are uncommon but feasible. Guarding works usually 8/10 times (9/10 with guard up) so if you do need to dodge you can always use that to your benefit. 5. Guard Up is built into its moveset. As mentioned, power guard gives you the guard up skill after about 2 seconds of power guarding, and while i do somewhat agree that it should be inherit in the lances shield i also think you should just... git gud. 6. It does not require much retreating after dealing attacks. Health augment is more of a boon to lance than any other weapon imo because of chip damage over time. I mention this because that means you rarely need to heal if you are good enough with the lance. The shield protects you from most attacks, so you should glue yourself to the enemy. 7. It allows you to guard while jumping from ledges, advancing forward, side to side. To my knowledge no other weapon can do this aaand you can dodge midair. Its a small boon but a boon at that at is even more of a reason why lance IS a DEFENSIVE weapon. 8. It has the strongest guarding capabilities in the entire game.... Duh. 9. It makes taking on multiple monsters at once much easier than other weapons. I never realized this until i completed the silver rathalos / hold rathian quest the other day but man... when everyone is laying ham on you... you just cook it up and eat it for breakfast. You can easily guard through 3 monster taking you on all at once. 10. You have access to slinger burst while benefitting from the safety of your shield. I think this is the most overlooked ability the lance has. Combine this with flashpods, bomb pods, scatternut, ect. and you have full access to spam flinching monsters for your team safely and efficiently.

[@TheGameconomist]

It’s literally so bad

[@zilches]

@@TheGameconomist cmon man 😭

[@FallenEvaneskyro07]

I've only played Lance since i started monster hunter and some changes that i would love to have to the weapon are the following: 1: Innate Guard Up Too hard to build it with the critboost, especially if u dont have the fricking decoration 2: Innate Health Augment It should be building Recovery Up or Sharpness, not a Health Augment 3: Innate Flinch Free Lvl 1 4: Guard Skill should only be 3 levels not five 5: Elemental Motion Values should be 1.0 not 0.7 Elemental its so unefficient to build in even with the Kjarr weapons that unless u are using Safi+Kjarr there's virtually no reason to build it 6: Counter Clawing should give some invulnerability to damage, at least until u are clutching onto the monster's hide & Should not waste that much resistance & Should combo with Power Guard The chip damage of the counter clawing or the softening can get u killed just the same as the rocksteady Maybe its because i played so much with this weapon, but i felt confortable with most of the moveset, i dont know, this are the thing that i would love to see as new changes, that and that its not mandatory to run master's touch or 200 units of "usable" sharpness

[@OrAngelicBlitz8633]

I find that using kjarr lances against the appropriate monsters to be rather effective compared to a blast lance in those same cases. I'm still experimenting to see if safi+kjaar is more worth it than master's touch (except the thunder lance because of pure blue sharpness), however I can get more raw damage from the master's touch build and that feels more effective so far. I'm not exactly sure on all of this, but I felt like sharing.

[@darkdaysahead01]

Agreed. There’s just too many skills you need to slot in for Lance. I still love this weapon though.

[@FallenEvaneskyro07]

@@OrAngelicBlitz8633 Yeap, thats exactly my problem, cause the only way to get results that are similar or better than just building master's touch with as much raw as u can is using Safi+Kjarr, Element should always be an asset not a liability to build effective damage

[@bobnewkirk7003]

@@FallenEvaneskyro07 I completely agree. IMO the guard up decco should just be removed, and the guard up skill baked into lance and gunlance; SnS should not be able to block as well as lance period. I like the 3 level of guard idea, just bake the two levels into L and GL baseline, and leave it so CB, HBG, and SnS are capped at 3. this would actually necessitate a big shield to block big attacks, and force small shields to roll (which they can). i think the chip damage on the counters should be removed, and just scale the damage of the counter attack accordingly. I don't see a reason for a 100% counter playstlye to not exist. at this point in the game's life-cycle its not "if we finish a hunt" its how fast we finish a hunt. If a player is willing to invest twice as long as other players to guarantee success let them; its basically where sticky ammo is already (which is think should be nerfed but that's a different topic). I also believe that the lance lacks a big bursty raw favored damage attack. the poke is fine in critical situations and for uptime, but the lance misses out on taking advantage of downs. Having a "power thrust" type attack with wind-up and big damage would allow most players to use downs/CC and skilled players to bake it into openings. give it a motion value of like 60-70 to give players something to use that's above the ~25 poke.

[@FallenEvaneskyro07]

@@asshatzeppeli208 The Guard Up is mostly because there are some attacks that are too fast for the Power guard charging time for example Velkhana's rapid ice breath. As for the non-existent chip damage on counters i havent noticed it before thx for the tip

[@jovelove2115]

BRUH the audacity of posting this video in 100 percent confidence. Never even come across your channel before l, just popped up in my recommended and I can honestly say that I never want to see your videos pop up again

[@louisgrafenstine6699]

Blocking is hard, i recomend perfect dodging all attacks.

[@louisgrafenstine6699]

Naw, 4 real tho. Next game, Lance dose need some buffs

[@riptoys]

Blocking is hard that's funny

[@mr.chaidir4766]

Lance is slow? Lance is hella mobile now. You can dash guard by pressing R2+triangle or sprint charge pressing R2+triangle+circle. I agree that this weapon is desperately need buffs.

[@keretaman]

Seeing "Slow walking speed" and "Slow sheathe time" already shows that the player doesn't know how to use the lance. Walking and sheathing are two things that lancers don't do.

[@Richard-mo1nc]

The lance is probably, in my thoughts, the most skill-decoration demanding weapon. Would love to have the provoker skill as a decoration so that I can draw monsters' aggression towards me because I don't want to chase monsters when playing lance. Even though I have the cavalry charge attack, I would still prefer to stay where I am and attack. Boosters in place (affinity, health, and cleansing)? I don't want to move. I want to fight here in the booster zone. In most of my lance use builds, I bring the vitality mantle and assassin's hood together to solve the issue of chip damage from guarding.

[@thesquonk1954]

Richard Charge Blade is way worse when it comes to being decoration hungry. It needs all the skills a standard melee weapon needs + capacity boost +artillery + guard +guard up (optional tho) + offensive guard (optional) +focus. Its so many skills that there is no way you can fit everything you want

[@wesley6442]

As an avid lance user, being my favorite weapon I can totally understand people's problems with it. It has gotten me through all the monsters in MHW, I've blocked so much damage with it, countered countless attacks so I am proficient with this weapon for sure. I agree, there has been fights where I seriously considered switching weapons because I took unavoidable damage, this was black-veil vaal hazaak for me, nearly all of his stupid miasma attacks are unblock-able and that fight was absolutely unfair against lance wielders and extremely frustrating I hated that fight so much. What I learned was I had to be more mobile and attack when vaal was susceptible/open this is pretty damn hard as a lance wielder, you cannot sheath in time to avoid anything, you have to rely on the monsters behavior/attack patterns and predict when it's time to sheath and get the hell out of the way. On the other side, this weapon has carried me through some tough fights with diablos and ruiner nergigante, I agree chip damage is an issue but I always have a rule that if my health is at 3/4 it's time to top it off and so I bring a palico capable of dropping vigorwasps and I also use the vitality mantle and health booster. With my current set up I rarely need to use any healing items, I almost solely rely on my palico, mantle and booster. I agree, the lance is very slow thankfully you can kinda get around quickly by dashing but it does consume a lot of stamina, you would think bringing dash juice or eating wiggly lichti would help mitigate that issue but I find it's just extra time consuming items/looking for them. There is a neat trick to manage stamina as a lance user,each time you take step with your guard up you replenish stamina, so I sometimes just guard walk in circles to gain stamina back to full. I've noticed with MHW, there are weapons to be used for different occasions, the lance is good in situations with aggressive monsters and you need to be on guard a lot, for more mobile/cheap monster that deal damage no matter if you block that's when you have to adapt and change tactics I am considering this for the final boss in iceborne, "shara ishvalda" I just got to this point, fought ruiner nergigante then the armored version of shara and got the final stage with him and the sand attacks got me. This is a fight where lance user at a huge disadvantage, his armored version is a cake walk but his mobile form is very difficult as a lance user. A lot of attacks you cannot block but I feel I can beat him I'll just have to do what I did with vaal hazaak, "predict" a lot of moves and also bring stun defense jewels. All in all, lance is my favorite I think it has ludicrous defensive capabilities, I've seen this in action playing solo and with a friend who kept going down where as it was no problem for me. Like I said, each weapon has its situation and the lance is no exception sometimes you have to adapt and change it up given a particular situation or play differently with it if somethings not working..

[@MobiusOne6]

You CAN actually use the claw without countering while lance is drawn. Hold L2 then press R3 (right stick button) immediately after, then after your character stands up with the claw in left hand, press the B button to clutch. I have been out of practice w/ lance since iceborne because I had no good decos and you need to build SO MANY ABILITIES to get good dps, but I recently found this out since I'm finally getting back into it. It is hard to pull off if you aren't used to the timing for the stand up animation after R3 in the chain imo, & since most tier 2&3 monster's pants are just barely long enough to pull it off, you may arguably be better off just sheathing and meanwhile positioning yourself to not miss a head clutch. Lance seems highly relegated to support in iceborne, not really solo play (not that it was particularly better for solo before), especially given that the clutch attack tenderizes 100% of the time. Honestly tenderizing for friends is likely maximizing DPS more than actually attacking yourself.

[@keretaman]

ironically, lance is better played solo than multiplayer. you want to be in the monster's face at all times

[@zilches]

I love how hes trying to prove the point that the lance isnt a defensive weapon... and his main points... are saying you HAVE to have GUARD UP and GUARD skills. If the lance isnt a defensive weapon, why WOULDNT YOU NEED THESE?! I havent finished this video im about halfway through but watch the next thing hes gonna say is "Point no. 6, you need offensive guard 🤯"

[@kori228]

wow everyone really bashing you in the comments here edit: 1:46 why did you slinger burst his face here? You didn't claw to change where the barioth was facing

[@randomrandomnesss2188]

This is what happens when a HBG main tries another weapon that requires a brain to use lol. I’ve never seen someone try so hard to sound like they know what they’re talking about, while also showing gameplay that shows definitively they know nothing.

[@111nyg]

I saw this title at first glance as “lance it not a weapon”.

[@jayng9144]

Why am I feeling that you didn't read it wrong.

[@phipao]

1. I personally don't have a problem, as I can dance around the monster dashing while guarding, 3. Well I think thats why you got the weapon in first place, to block. Regarding the others points, definitely agree with everything, offensive guard gets a good buff just by blocking, but it's well, another skill to build. Lance is like buying a broken car, you'll have a lot of fixing to do before using it.

[@crozraven]

Your comparison of lance being a broken old car make so much sense LOL

[@dreamforger7166]

Philip Adler yeah it is ashame, cause Offensive Guard and the new guard-claw feels so rewarding to do. But in the endgame Lance do fall falt incomparisson to other weapons. That said if one really enjoy it, it will still work.

[@BBBerti]

@@crozraven if lance is a broken car then what is CB? You need alot more skills to make it work, and no the payout is not much better than on lance, so that argument doesnt make sense as it can be used on alot of weapons

[@taipham5584]

@@BBBerti CB is like sport manual cars. Skillfull ppl with get better damage than the lance(modding and min/max). Resulted in a better speed run time. Hbg is like a F1, required little skill and still be faster than everyone. I(an average player) can get speedrun time with spread hbg if compared to other weapons.

[@crozraven]

@@BBBerti It is make sense because making/building a broken old car to be a prestigious vintage car need more than just skills. You still need commitment & investments. Lance is all of that. Lance build is arguably the hardest/most expensive build to really work well. But even then, it's still a "vintage," as it simply can't outperform other newer super cars (other weapons).

[@simpson331]

I don't really know what you are trying to argue here because I don't really see a problem with the lance. Yes it does do lower damage than other weapons but that is because you are able to block all attacks and stay on the monster for the constant poking. Wouldn't make any sense when you are there poking away and do massive damage while a hammer player has to be running around looking for the right opportunity to attack now does it? The play style of the lance is to block of course you need to choose between defense and offense so building guard and guard up imo is fine you sacrifice some offensive skills to allow you to stick to the monster. Just because dodging is more preferable in some weapons doesn't mean it is more preferable for all other weapons. You are not taking their different play styles into consideration. After watching the video I am not even sure if you really know how to play lance. I don't understand how you saying that it is not a defensive weapon when all you need is guard up and guard 3 to block all attacks. You can literally just hold on to R2 and you will never die. You compared the lance to ls near to the end but have you thought about that nailing the counters every time on ls takes practice whereas lance all you do is press R2?

[@Taco_Asada]

this is not true. Saying you just need guard 3 and guard up and youll never die is complete bs. I have over 1000 missions completed with the lance I have to use guard 5 and guard up to even stand a chance of being able to block any attack. Even with those skills you die from CHIP damage. Raging brach can one shot you even if youre blocking, let that sink in guard 5 guard up are youre still getting ONE SHOT. it pisses me off when people say youll never die, when lance players who rely on their shield die for blocking. Try a run with lance against raging brach or even arch temp Nam, and tell me that you never died tell me that you didnt die from chip damage tell me that it took you less than 15mins to complete a hunt.

[@simpson331]

@@Taco_Asada So you started by saying you get one shot then you go on to say chip damage kills you? If chip damage is the problem then get health regen. If you are getting one shot I don't know what your problem is, maybe your defense is too low? As to raging brachy and at nam they cannot one shot you if you have a proper build.

[@Sygmus6]

@@simpson331 The chip damage of AT Namielle's big attack can one-shot you even with fully upgraded armor, Guard 5, Health Boost 3, and Thunder Resist 3 (I've proven it). Holding your shield up doesn't make you invincible. On tough monsters health regen isn't even close to enough to recover the damage from chip.

[@Taco_Asada]

@@simpson331 i think you are very simple minded. Even running health regen the lance doesnt do enough damage compared to how much damage you are taking. Ill make this as easy as i can for you to understand. You take damage while blocking known as chip damage right? When monster does big move you take damage sometimes the damage is so much while blocking that you just get one shot. Arc temp Nam is a perfect example when it does its big move where it flies up and comes back down and shocks the whole ground if you block that you will die in one shot. that attack is considered chip damage because you only get chip damage when you are blocking so what we are saying is that some attacks are to strong to even block because you just die. having health regen makes 0 difference to this. like i said before try the lance and tell me how far that healthregen gets you. do arch temp nam with guard 3 and guard up and tell me how that went im willing to be you wont even complete the damn quest

[@simpson331]

@@Taco_Asada i have completed it numerous times with lance just because you suck at the game doesnt mean others cant have success with the weapon. not going lie it takes longer than 15min to complete the quest but thats the trade off for the defense

[@chi7818]

you are arguing that its not a good weapon instead of a defensive weapon. technically lance is one of the best defensive weapons because the shield with guard up and guard 5 you can block literally anything while taking very little if no damage (even boss ults). dodging takes skill, parry with LS takes skill, but holding guard and being invincible can be done by anyone. instead of trying to sheathe and superman dive namielles ult, or nergs divebomb I can just stand there and block and lose maybe 1/4 my heath tops. the problem is monster hunter is based on killing things so sacrificing damage for defense is counter productive. heavy bowgun was better against extreme behemoth because it has defensive abilities on par with lance but does a bunch of damage. therefore lance is an amazing defensive weapon with shit damage making it a bad weapon for the game its in.

[@babajaga9345]

All I can see is a personal opinion of someone that does not do well with lances. Thats okay. You dont have to be good at everything. But saying that the lance is bad just because you dont know how to use it properly is ridicilous.

[@MrButz]

I agree that people shouldn't think of lance as a devensive weapon but I disagree with most points you made. The less important point but which I very much agree with is that it's bad to lock a usable shield behind the guard and guard up skills, that's just stupid and most other weapons don't have to invest skills to use the very core of the weapon. The second point and in my opinion the one single point that is the real reason why lance is just not good as a devensive weapon is that hbg just does everything better, you explained that well in the video. But I disagree with most of the other arguments, lance DOES have good mobility when you get used to the tool set (it just has a very different playstyle to other weapons) and I don't think it is bad to have to build for crit (like every other sever weapon too). I also think it's pretty weird that you never poited out that GL is a far worse weapon when you look at both defensive moves and evasive moves because lance has everything that GL has plus extra moves. The reason why you shouldn't play devensivly is because you will still take chip damage and without getting pretty agressive you won't be able to heal it back and at the end you will just die. What the lance needs is a straight up damage buff and an improved shield.

[@thecardconomist]

Butz when comparing to all 14 weapons I consider only the gunlance yo be worse at mobility, “lance is mobile” and “lance is aggresive” are two more group think ideas from the community that are both wrong. All weapons are equally aggressive - Lances dash has a windup and limited turning, and advancing guard requires an attack that does low damage and leaves you prone, as opposed to simply sheathing and repositioning, and only the back hop gets good range. Gunlances ability to build evade window with its explosive builds makes it way more defensive bc you drop guard and never take damage in the first place, it’s superior damage output also means better healing

[@MrButz]

@@thecardconomist I feel qualified to say that lance is a reasonable mobile weapon and if played correctly very aggressive. No offence but after watching some of your lance gameplay I can see that you aren't very good with the weapon and I think it's wrong to portray your opinions as facts. I also don't agree with your gunlance argument, lance players don't use evade window because there are better options and not because they can't fit it in meta sets. GL is worse in both defense and mobility than lance and the only reason why people use evade lancing on GL is because it has no defensive moves besides guard and mobility moves besides hop.

[@GucciBucci]

This vid made me realize how much you dont really know bout monster huntet compared to every other content creator. The fact that your assumption and wants come from dark souls shows you're really not used to how monster hunter plays

[@Faputa-Sosu]

Hello I wanted to address your points as a Lancer myself this video seemed weird as I’ve had a great time playing it and playing it in a that takes advantage of its strong defense to bombard the monster with a relentless offense. #1, 2, The general lack of movement you bring up. It’s misleading for example when you say low move speed, while the lance by no means doesn’t walk quickly with the hops, By the way I can’t stress this enough proper use of them can make the lance one of the best weapons for dancing around the monster and being able to properly follow up on openings. There is an entire play style called evade lancing that’s employed by top level lancers. As for the slow sheathe speed the lance is seldom supposed to sheathe. Only for sharpening or backing down for a heal. #3, 4, 5, The lance being forced to guard is as you said intentionally designed to be that way. As lance main combat style revolves around countering and staying close to the monster throughout a hunt. That being said yes the lance is almost required to use the guard and guard up skills much like other weapons use other skills to increase the potency of their biggest features. The lance being created with the shield being the focal point. So naturally it would make sense for the skills that increase a shields effectiveness would be the skills required to have an effect shield. I do agree that it feels bad when a lance cannot block an attack even with max guard and guard up it peeves me as well but in situations in which you cannot block you can most certainly hop away. #6 When it comes to the forced crit most setup if you want the best possible damage and a certain build is the meta that’s just how it is. The meta is uncompromising for any game. If it’s the best, it is the best and you cannot change that. No one of forcing you to build a certain way. Pertaining to prompt #7 the lance being an incredibly high offensive weapon I just don’t see how you wouldn’t be able to get any value from the augment. You should be able to layout a near endless onslaught of pokes counters and thrusts if the weapon is played correctly. So I’m not too sure where this is coming from. #8 I agree with this and given even good positioning you can still have a well placed counter squandered I would appreciate a change from the developers. #9 HBG Plays differently from a lance I just don’t understand this talking point.

[@darkdaysahead01]

You have some good points; however, the Lance gameplay in this video is really bad.

[@Zedrinbot]

It's not really a defensive weapon cause that kind of categorization (e.g., "tank" "support" etc.) of weapons in MH shouldn't exist--this is a co-op hunting game, not an MMO. Naturally if you're building a turtle set, your damage is gonna be significantly lower too. All that said: I'm a lance main. The points in this video just... don't make sense or just comes off as inexperienced. Low mobility? Lance is one of the most mobile weapons in the game. The walk speed's bad, but it had the guard advance combo, the charge, side steps for days, long back hops. You have tools in your kit to get around--the advancing guard to thrust lets you actually keep up with a fleeing kirin even, while still doing damage. Sheathe time? Yeah it's bad, I'll give you that. It's not meant to be sheathed. This is kinda part of the design of the weapon cause it's meant to consistently attack through enemy attacks. You have more options out of a block and sooner than you do for another weapon would a dodge. Forced to guard? Yeah? A good chunk of its damage options come from guarding. This is way better than in 4u where the only viable lance was evade lancing. You avoid chip damage with health augment, lance benefits more from health augment than any other weapon. Also, I dunno if you know the difference between a standard guard and a power guard--power will always have chip but stops stam drain, standard will not chip unless the attack is too heavy, but always has a stamina drain. Guard up? You're the only weapon in the game that can get it innately, by doing the super guard for 3 seconds. Not to mention you don't need it for every hunt. Having to build guard? Your base guard is already higher than any other weapon. The upgrade thresholds are guard 3 and guard 5, and are easy to slot in since Ironwall's a 1 slot deco. Usually you only need 3--dunno why you're talking about using 2 and 4, which don't upgrade your levels over the previous. CB and GL are in the same boat. And if it's an issue, you don't need guard 5 every hunt either. Crit boost? Literally every (non ele focused) weapon in the game wants crit boost. It's the meta. This isn't a lance issue. The only issue I've had fitting in all skills I've needed has been acquiring some super rare decos (e.g. a Challenger 4 jewel). I've been able to otherwise get resentment or agi 5, crit eye 7, crit boost 3, weakness exp 3 (can drop if at 100% crit), offensive guard 3, guard 5, guard up, and master's touch (which is another thing almost every weapon should be running.) Sometimes can even squeeze in some attack too, but attack boost isn't the first thing you should build to (it's a bit of a trap.) Players activating guard counter? Yeah, it's annoying, but that can be solved with better positioning. (Or just play solo.) I've had some times where they've been able to help me get offensive guard active which has actually boosted my damage. We got a little bit of super armor options vs other players, but it'd be nice if a few of the other attacks had more super armor (or a way to get it as a bit of a temporary buff). It's not dominant in speedrunning (that honor goes to gunning) but still is decently competitive, and it could use a slight damage boost to its MVs maybe, but all the issues you complain about are just... so off the mark.

[@platypun]

Thank you Zedrin, completely agree with all of your points. This video comes across as being inexperienced with the lance.

[@thanawatsudruangloet6450]

I agree with a lot of what you're saying here. What I'd like to see is maybe lance can have innate offensive guard buff that can be stacked with the offensive guard skill when doing the counter guard to boost its MV a bit. This would promote good guarding plays. Lance was fun to play back in MHGU, and it was definitely a top contender in terms of damage and speedrun. Unfortunately, it's not the same anymore.

[@utaiosphere]

why would i (maybe a newer players) want to learn hundreds of hours on how to side steps and back hop just to be mobile with the lance when you can just roll. and how the powered guard is nice addition, sometimes when you're in multi and do a power guard. monster turns around and misses you leaving you in an awkward motion of recovering it annoys me. ofc you can say play solo but you can say this to all weapons I genuinely want to get into lance but most of the time i can't fit in all decos because you need to take care of its sharpness, guard, offensive guard, but also maintaining damage skills. not all players have the decos to fit all those in. Charge blade also need and become better with guard and offensive guard but it has the option to roll and sliding dodge. While side stepping and back hop feels way more inferior to me

[@Zedrinbot]

It really, REALLY is not hard to learn how to be mobile on lance. Backhop: Turn around, push back, and evade. Advancing guard: this is an attack. You can cancel any attack into an advancing guard with Guard + MainAttack (Tri) + Directional Input. After guard advancing, press Alt Attack (O) to do a thrust. You can alternate between these easy. Charge: Guard + Tri + Alt. Easy. Press back + evade to turn around mid-charge. Super Guard into Thrust: Guard + Alt to counter, Evade to Super Guard, Alt again with a direction to thrust in any direction you want, allowing easy 180's This video (as well as most newer players) seem to think that the purpose of evading is to get out of the way of attacks, rather than i-framing them. Weapons with side steps (DB, Bow, Lance, GL) will have an easier time i-framing cause of less downtime. And while the lance does have a lot of skill point commitment, it's still manageable, and you can still get most of the skills you need if you're building proper sets. For an agi set, try: Brachydium, Teo, Teo, Teo, Brachydium Or drop the brachy pieces and instead grab rajang head and garuga (or safi for CB) greaves. You can use a charm for guard then. Both of these work for almost any blademaster weapon btw. Another one: Teo, Teo, Guild Palace (a pain to get), Teo, Garuga, for easier access to offensive guard. As far as guard up, that one does require a deco, cause getting it via set bonus sucks. Bow has the same problem with Mighty Bow. Luckily not every monster requires guard up, and with the melding tickets it should be easy to get.

[@utaiosphere]

@@Zedrinbot until i got the decos i wont touch lance, but i did play it for like 100+ matches and now trying other weapons and also if youre not doing 100+ damage per poke its always not worth especially in multiplayer (most of my games) as monster always turn around. so i always spam cb nowadays

[@Geehawst]

Funny how the ones who disagree the most with you are the ones who actually have crazy lance hours. I only think the lance needs a dmg buff, guard up should be part of the weapon, and grab attacks should be blockable

[@tymak9582]

-Slow walking speed: If you need to use guard dash, this likely means that you're pretty far away from the monster, and the " " "long" " " animation isn't gonna be a problem. With the exception of some bad matchups like barioth/narga/kirin etc. that always keep moving around, you shouldn't have any problem keeping up with the monster (though i agree that it's harder to have a good uptime on multiplayer, but def not impossible). -Slow sheath time: Fair point. -Forced to guard: Also fair point although personnally i've never had chip damage kill me or break my guard with lance, but some attacks can deal as much as half of my hp bar. However if the attack is that big it probably has a long windup and lets you sheathe your weapon (yes, even with the slow sheath). -Guard up: While I completely agree that the lance should have guard up built-in, it does not make it bad at defense. The real problem with blocking IMO is that some pins are unblockable/practically unblockable (like rajang's pin is technically blockable but i've never managed to block it for some reason). -Build guard: >m-muh DPS (IMO lance should have built-in guard 2) -Forced into Crit Boost: I think what you want to say is that a good lance build is highly inflexible, because saying that you're forced into a crit boost build if you want to do very good damage is the case for everything that isn't purely explosive. Btw guard is an indirect damage increase (but only because it is required to at least have guard 3). -Less health from health regen: Makes sense. -Players can activate counter-guard: The only time this happens to me is when a monster is downed and it actually makes me attack faster. I have never had someone trigger my counter guard outside of that situation in about 400 quests with lance (outside of GL). Overall some points are fair and i agree with the fact that lance desperately needs a buff, but idk how the hell you can think the lance isn't a defense-oriented/defensive weapon (and remember that weapon usage/playtime/MR are, to a certain point, not a valid argument anymore (see competitive games or this video's gameplay if you don't understand why)). And although you're saying that you don't hate lance you're clearly hating on it and some people of your community have a clear lack of critical thinking and can't make the difference between a solo speedrun and a multiplayer hunt with SOS randoms that will miss their TCS/helmbreaker/SAED/etc. 50% of the time, which makes the lance effectively not that bad in terms of damage if you can keep up with the monster. And friendly reminder that the weapon you should use is the one you prefer and DPS only matters when there is a DPS check and even then every weapon is totally capable of doing enough damage if you're skilled enough.

[@zombehmaster]

Guard 5 reduces all damage, and walking forward replenishes stamina while guarding. Most of your damage comes from counters which is especially good against super aggressive monsters. Since most if not all monsters are programmed to attempt to stun lock you you never have to attempt to chase them. Tall monsters with high weak points can be reached with a guard stab keeping you safe and happy while the monster starts to reconsider life choices. Lances have low damage because they are the safest choice.

[@Qballiz2kool]

Ok.....but here’s the thing, your point that you have to waist deco slots to have to build guard on the Lance is a moot point because you can just use the guard charm V to get full iron wall and then that leaves you slots in your build to put in guard up, offensive guard, agitator etc. Also, SnS does not build guard into its sets because it’s a bad skill, SnS doesn’t use guard because the SnS shield is terrible for guarding attacks. And another thing, you should NEVER have to sheath the Lance in the middle of fighting a monster, it’s the same with Gunlance as well, you can just run Evade extender to make up for your lack of mobility with the weapon out. Which isn’t a huge issue for the Lance because it has the charge to close the distance on the monster quickly, and it gets a free mounting hit as well to help work on mounting dmg to get a mount sooner. Man your video is pretty bad for information on the Lance.....please do more research next time because you have allot of flaws in your video here. And one more thing about extremoth tanking, I think we’re all well aware how broken HBG is in MHW and MHW: Iceborne, the reason people used HBG to block against extremoth is because the spread HBG’s constant dmg output made it extremely easy to get his attention, as well as being able to put 3x shield mods on the HBG being able to just sit with the thing and take no dmg from attacks on top of the fact that Spread HBG has to highest dmg output of any weapon in the game makes the thing extremely broken for tanking Extremoth compared to Lance, because lance just doesn’t have to dmg output spread HBG has, and with the Lance you have to constantly reposition yourself while with the HBG you don’t have to do that as much. And your point about not being able to put evade extender in a lance build is also a moot point because you can easily do it with the Namielle coil, and then use 4 piece Raging Brachy, use the guard V charm, And then slot in the rest of your dmg skills and boom, you have a functional lance build with all of the skills you need.

[@theeconomics293]

It is called a defensive weapon, not a weapon that can keep you safe from *everything* I'm sorry to say this, i like your content and all, but i wanna state somethings The lance is meant to be the tank class just sit and block, take the hits and not flinch, no mobility, no movement, just sit and take hits, just dont flinch and return at least average damage The lance fits perfectly at that defense class, just sit and take hits, hold the defense and the monsters anger and your team takes the opportunity, single player? Lance players have learned to by pass that It wont come with built in guard up because thats in-game balancing, if they did that then whats the challenge? Yeah, stamina, but that eliminates a big reason of the guard up jewel, the lance is build for that, and guard is another example, of course, *game balancing*, no weapon can be perfect, if thet added all that, then it'd be too overpowered Thats why skills sit there, guard, guard up, evade extender and mind's eye and etc, because thats what'll challenge you to think, its what monster hunter makes us do, *think* It challenges us to think so we can get creative Slow sheathe and movement? Well, its a tank, what did you expect? Some sonic speeded giant weapon holder? Let me remind you that they are *trying* to add a small bit of realism in the craziest game i've seen by far next to anything Its meant to test our creativity and get our mind's challenged because of how each monster works, this is my opinion about it, but even so, please note it, i do not mean to offend anyone, if i did so, i apologize, it is not of my intentions

[@ADean415]

I have basically zero experience with the lance. Hell, I only just used it today for a HR Diablos. That being said, with the lance, I don't want to be zipping around, dodging and iframing. I can do that, or at least practice that with other weapons more fitting that playstyle. With the lance, I want to be able to face a monster's attacks head on, control the battlefield by forcing it to approach me, and capitalise on my weapon's ability to shrug off attacks and give me openings.

[@Toralian89]

*just sit and block Except you can't do that. Pins bypass any guard, some monster's super attacks deal tremendous amount of cheap and stamina damage on block, other monsters do area denial - you have to outheal those. Outheal with your low damage or sheathe and heal. Furious Rajang can end you with cheap damage alone if you're not lucky. *hold the defense and the monsters anger and your team takes the opportunity Except there are barely any monsters with agro system. You agroing monster randomly 1/4 of the hits is no better than any other hunter agroing him. Except when other hunters are tanking - you deal laughable damage. *Some sonic speeded giant weapon holder Because great sword has bad mobility, sheathe speed, damage and is not able to block, right? *Thats why skills sit there, guard, guard up, evade extender and mind's eye and etc, because thats what'll challenge you to think, its what monster hunter makes us do, think You need 5-6 decos just for weapon to function on top of mandatory sever weapon damage decos. What other weapon have that?

[@Richard-mo1nc]

About realism in the game, I don’t think the developers were even trying or thinking about it. The result of realism may have been a coincident or by accident. Have you seen some of the other-worldly physics in this game? Even the hunters are doing awkward biomechanics that look inefficient in wielding their weapons. Let’s not give them too much praises for implementing physics from our world.

[@alvarorubio1993]

TheGameEconomist never heard about hop lance, funny to think that hop lance almost never used the shield.

[@kajin6509]

thats beause with evade extender and or evade window we get s for days *fuck rolling who needs it* as a slaplance player with GL those 2 combined are fking nasty

[@alvarorubio1993]

@@kajin6509 Totally agree, for lance hopping is better than rolling because it takes less time and space so you don't need to reposition as much if you end up in the same place. Or like you said if you trow in evade extend you prety much forget you have a shield and if you trow in evade distace you don't need to sheadth as much, you can follow the monster hopping.

[@kajin6509]

@@alvarorubio1993 yea the only time you would really need to block as a lance/GL user is when ur in a situation where you have NO choice to other wise for example when Nerg is comeing down with his divebomb proc full block but be warry ur stam with go cuz thats what its SUPPOSEd to do for for situations that speedruners and ect do hopping takes less time to do and has a better recover time (sorry for my bad english)

[@aurumarma5711]

I feel like your comparison of the lance to the sword and shield is looking at the weapons wrong. You're effectively saying that a spoon is bad at being a spoon, because a spork could be a spoon, but you only use it as a fork. A spork can never be as good at being a spoon, as a spoon is. But I get what you're saying. Lance is the worst defensive weapon, because all the other defensive weapons don't have to defend. Since Lance has to defence its forced into one style of gameplay, which requires a wide variety of necessary decorations, which limits build variety, and strangles offensive potential. I actually agree with this sentiment. Lance build verity is a joke. Almost every build I've made on lance has been identical. And increasing the natural defense of the lance, letting it forsake guard, and guard up, (because let's be honest guard up on power guard is great for certain attacks, but try that on Velkhana) would allow for greater build variety, and increase the amount of offensive skills that could be used. Now this is just speculation, as I've never played another MH game, but it seems like the Evade Lance builds from previous games are what you actually want the weapon to play like.

[@Eonflare55]

Lance is probably my second-favourite weapon after the Great Sword, and while I can say that all your arguments have some merit, they don't make the lance an un-defensive weapon.

[@Qballiz2kool]

So, to disprove your point that you have to sacrifice something in order to have a functional lance build I went and made the raging Brachy lance and made a build around it, and my build is this: 4 piece Raging Brachy B+ and Namielle Coil Y+, and the skills in the build are as follows: Agitator 7, Guard 5 (because of guard charm), attack boost 4, Health Boost 3, Crit Boost 3, Weakness Exploit 3, Evade Extender (to negate the “slow walk speed” to quote you of the lance when it is unsheathes), Offensive Guard, recovery speed (because of Namielle Coil Y+), Fortify, Mind’s Eye, Guard Up. So my point with this build here is to probe that your point is completely wrong that you have to Sacrifice skills to build for guard and guard up for the lance.....so that point you made is now moot.....(yes there is no Master’s touch but I made this build on the fly.)

[@tiranogt]

I think you don't know how to defend buddy, you can also use evade window and work on timing of dodges, speed of sheath is not a problem since you should never sheath while in battle, this would only be a problem if you don't have health augment on the weapon which happens in early game. If you're carting with Lance often you're playing it wrong or it don't fit your playstyle. Lance still have the best defense in game just by the fact you can cancel your combo to counter guard immediately, I agree that it should have guard up right away though, if we can't have high dps at least makes the defense even better. Another thing I think they should add is a reflect damage similar to charge blade.

[@ProjecEnvoy]

Coming back to roast this and I love how he said why don't sns use it ignoring that they have low threshold shields so they still get that psuedo guard break animation 😂😂😂

[@57wookie]

Hot take lance doesn't need a buff, hbg just needs a nerf

[@DragonuFear]

A lot of other people have explained the lance better, So I'll just summarize my opinion. Yes, lance is treated a little unfairly, and it could use some buffs imo. But it's not terrible, and offers a unique and viable playstyle. Chip damage on GL/Lance shields is getting out of hand on high tier monsters even with guard 5. and forcing players to get to MR100 to max out their guard charm is pretty silly, when it oculd happen at say rank 50 easily. The biggest issue is a lack of reliable healing before health augments, which come, at best, at rank 50 with a lower rarity lance, or mr 100 for the top tier ones. I feel letting Lance use items while unsheathed, maybe more slowly than normal to keep sns's niche, would be an excellent way to help it top up hp without using a health augment, or giving it an innate heal for pulling off 3 attacks in a row without bouncing. Play up the defensive utility more than simply adding a little more damage to keep it being a unique iron wall style of weapon, rather than trying to compete with the speedruns of harder hitting weapons.

[@nnormaln9072]

after IB, when HH, GL or SnS have huge buff, Lance seem to be left behind.

[@ghostofnamalsk6188]

bro made a 20 minute video explaining a weapon he's not proficient with.

[@Mofuroi]

Im new to this game and after seeing some reactions to this particular video i tried lance and after learning how it works almost every thing you said in this video issomething i haven't had a problem with. I don't want to say anything because i am new to lance,but i loved lance since i tried it. So, i disagree.

[@UlvenDagoth]

Hi, as a Lance main who solo'ed ALL of Monster Hunter World and Iceborne, I an safely tell you are you are wrong. In your "Slow Walking Speed" You are guard shuffling. You walk just fine if you are not guarding and you can do the charge move if that's too slow for you. You don't ROLL with a Lance, you block. Yes, you do sheathe slow. I'll give you that, it's to off set the fact you can block almost every attack IN THE GAME by putting your guard up. Speaking of "Guard UP" if you have this skill you can LITERALLY BLOCK EVERY ATTACK IN THE GAME. Guess what? Lance has that built in. Yes you are FORCED to block with the Lance. THAT'S WHY YOU HAVE A MASSIVE SHIELD! Are you worried about Chip Damage? Guard 5 for your charm. Done. Offensive Guard also gives you free attack for guarding. (Side Note: Guard also reduces the amount of stamina and knockback blocking does too) "LaNcE ShEiLd DoSn'T bLoCk EvErYtHiNg!!!" Use Guard up or hold your counter for a bit. Blocks everything. The few you CAN'T Block without Guard Up is Rajang lazers and Velkina Beams. It makes SENSE. I haven't used Guard up OTHER THAN VELKANIA and i've beaten EVERYTHING SOLO! I was 300+ Hours in before I got the achievement for even going on a multiplayer hunt! OH NO, I HAVE TO BUILD GUARD AND GUARD UP! WHATEVER WILL I DO?! Boi, those are 2 different Skills. NO DUH YOU HAVE TO BUILD BOTH! And you don't even NEED Guard Up like you think! You sound like "While you were making friends, I was studying the blade" A bit here. Sure, build all that other crap. I'll still be alive when your hammer ass is carting, cause my weapon can defend. You don't understand being a Tank at all do you? You keep saying "Forced" you arn't forced to do a damn thing in this game. I run Blackveil armor for the regen boost, with some other stuff for slots. I'll run crit when I get Teostra armor and feel like using it. I do just fine without your "Optimized" builds. Who confirmed you get less health from Health Regen? I live on Health regen and barely use potions. BUILD GUARD AND YOU ARE FREE FROM CHIP! AMAZING! As a Lance main, I am insulted, will never subscribe and will tell anyone that says you know what you are talking about they are wrong and show them THIS video. You are uninformed and spread misinformation with glee.

[@213Gremlin]

This feels like a long form gaslight. Lance is about stam management and positioning. Defense is more than just guarding, but putting yourself in advantageous positions so that you can keep pounding monster ass. If you use those THREE whole dodges to position properly, you don't need to worry about Iframes or running away. Lancers dont run. As long as you get your shield up during attacks and keep it down when they arent, youll always have enough stamina. Or position yourself that you dont get hit while you poke and they whiff. Also chip damage doesnt really matter. Guard 3 and some health regen makes that point irrelevant. Lance is so easy, I just feel like you play Monster Hunter differently as Lance compared to every other weapon. As for the damage, its low because you are supposed to stay in that monster puss for the WHOLE fight. Using everything listed above, you can stay next to a monster even when enraged and just be fine. The damage is lower because the need to dodge and run is non existent so I feel the damage is fine. Lance is the most misunderstood weapon in the franchise. Gunlance sucks. Its Lance with less options to reposition with 1 less backdash, its slower to attack, and you gotta worry about shells.

[@Ozcaty]

BEFORE YOU WATCH THIS VIDEO: I'll do us both a favor, watch the gameplay from 9:14 to 9:50 and tell me if you think this guy knows what he's talking about :)

[@squids5755]

did it ever occur to you when making this, when you are guarding a big hit, that chip damage is what your taking instead if half your health bar?

[@anngiemartinez8357]

Bouta throw hands w this guy

[@TrainingMacro]

If you bent the truth a little less you'd have had far less downvotes. Lance's advantage is that it keeps really good uptime while taking attacks from the target. Far better than most other weapons. In that sense, it functions as a defensive weapon as it can keep the monster occupied for extended periods of time while still keeping up its damage to a reasonable amount. Meanwhile your squad could be getting their dps in as long as they are not complete idiots. This is particularly good against for example safi. If you're a mouse and keyboard player then the clutch claw guard is also one hell of a gem as it follows your aim and allows you to guard behind you faster than conventional guard. It also allows you to reaim your lance faster by using CC-guard leap attack. I do agree the damage seems a bit lacking, especially in solo, but at the same time, the clutchclaw counter attack and its ability to attack almost interrupted is to be respected.

[@luissalinas9143]

Well If they buffed the lance for example no chip damage with guard 5 for most attacks then would that be an imbalance? Or the right balance?

[@TheTomHammer]

I have the same thought. If you have to invest guard 5 and guard up and maybe stamina surge, should it be rewarded with no chip damage by the strongest attacks or not. At the moment the developers favor smart dodging over standing there and tank.

[@DoctorJ1337]

Reducing chip damage would only be the beginning of balancing the lance. There's a lot more changes to be done imo

[@holyshaxx265]

TLDR: “This weapon doesn’t fit my playstyle, therefor it’s bad.”

[@modageddon2742]

Also if anyone doesn't understand how he thinks lance is bad at defense it's not that its that other weapons are waaaaay better at defensive builds than lance and better with offense along with it so technically it's bad at defense and offense so it's bad altogether

[@LonesomeDevil]

I used to be in denial about the Lance. It's my favorite weapon to play, and I have a lot of fun using it. However, up until I got to Shara Ishvalda, every single Master Rank hunt was taking 20 to 30 minutes. And Elder Dragons were taking even more time. I was trying to make the most out of its skills too, like Offensive Guard and everything. And then Shara Ishvalda absolutely annihilated me. First phase was pitifully easy, the Lance was easy to aim at the head and chest with, and most of its attacks were physical, so easy to block and counter. But I didn't stand a chance against phase 2 onwards. The wind blasts just chip through your entire stamina bar even with Guard Up and Guard skill investment, and obviously, I was too slow to run away and dodge. Quite a few monsters have attacks that you can't block reagrdless of skills, like Savage Deviljho and Velkhana aiming their element at the ground instead of at you... All of that lead me to just give up and branch out to other weapons. Best decision I've ever made on my game file. I found myself being able to kill Master Rank monsters in around 10 minutes with weapons I wasn't even as used to wield, which meant I wasn't as garbage at the game as the Lance made me thought. I still love the Lance, but yeah, it absolutely needs a buff.

[@shdwjho858]

Pretty sure the only flaw worth mentioning is the "allies trigger your counter" flaw. Analyzing speedruns for the lance damage output is just stupid, as speedruns are a very controlled environment, where you are meant to be at "max dps" for the whole run. Most weapons have a "max dps" mode (think demon dance, SAED, big bang...), but the lance doesn't really have one. The lance is all about the neutral gameplay. The thing is, if you were are any good at lance, your damage output should barely change between a knockdown and normal fighting (if solo running, otherwise you get kelbi'd around just like every other weapon), this makes a huge difference between normal play and speedruns. In an exceedingly controlled environment, of course non-stop demon dancing is brutal. But try to do that when things go bad, as they tend to do. Speedrunners reset a ton to get a good run, and reset even those to get the great one. The lance goes "oh I don't care about good or great runs, but I'm not gonna get a bad one!", so of course it doesn't match other speedruns. Also, look at the counter claw animation and tell me in what world that would make sens to proc from a fireball from across the map.