Read this Monster Hunter World: Iceborne guide to know the best & recommended armor skills for the melee weapon - Lance!!!
Table of Contents
Related Lance Articles
 How To Use | Best Builds |
| Best Skills | Endgame Tier List |
Lance Features & Overview
Can Guard Against Powerful Monster Attacks
The Lance is known for its high defense and impenetrable guarding capacity. When you're able to guard well & build up your charged attacks, you can deal massive damage to monsters without losing HP.
DPS Can Be Staggered During Hunts
The Lance attacks very slowly and combos need to be made to deal continuous damage. Make use of Guard steps and counters to keep your damage up during hunts.
Recommended Skill List For Lance
| Skill | Recommendation Criteria |
|---|---|
| Guard | Lessens stamina depletion when guarding, letting you guard for longer & prevents knockbacks |
| Guard Up | Allows guarding normally unblockable monster attacks, keeping you safe from dangerous situations |
| Attack Boost | Increases attack power and affinity at later level, allowing you to deal more damage to the monster |
| Weakness Exploit | You'll deal more damage and have increased affinity rate when landing hits on monster weak spots |
| Handicraft | Longer sharpness gauge will let you sharpen less & prevent damage loss when weapon becomes blunt |
| Critical Boost | Damage of critical hits is increased, letting you deal more damage to monster's health when landing critical hits |
| Constitution | Lessens stamina drain of moves such as evading, etc. |
| Resentment | Increases attack power when there's red in your HP bar, good to combine when countering |
| Evade Window | Elongates your rolls & dodges, helping you miss enemy attacks or place yourself properly for an attack opening |
| Mind's Eye/Ballistics | Lessens chances of your attacks to be deflected, letting you deal more damage to your target |
| Flinch Free | Lessens knockback & reactions to small damage, leaving your attacks uninterrupted |
| Master's Touch | Lessens sharpness loss when landing critical hits, allowing you to retain weapon sharpness longer in hunts |
Best Lance Skills To Equip
Guard
| Lvl | Effect |
|---|---|
| 1 | Very slightly decrease the impact of attacks |
| 2 | Slightly decreases the impact of attacks and reduces stamina depletion by 15% |
| 3 | Greatly decreases the impact of attacks and reduces stamina depletion by 15% |
| 4 | Greatly decreases the impact of attacks and reduces stamina depletion by 30% |
| 5 | Greatly decreases the impact of attacks and reduces stamina depletion by 50% |
Reduces Stamina Consumption Of Guarding
This skill lessens the stamina you consume when you guard, allowing you to keep sticking close to the monster to deal close-range damage to it.
Guard Up
| Lvl | Effect |
|---|---|
| 1 | Allows you to guard against ordinarily unblockable attacks |
Can Guard Against Powerful Monster Attacks
With this skill, you'll be able to protect yourself from deadly monster attacks, especially from those that can easily bring down your HP bar. A must-have skill for Lance users!
Attack Boost
| Lvl | Effect |
|---|---|
| 1 | Attack +3 |
| 2 | Attack +6 |
| 3 | Attack +9 |
| 4 | Attack +12 and Affinity +5% |
| 5 | Attack +15 and Affinity +5% |
| 6 | Attack +18 and Affinity +5% |
| 7 | Attack +21 and Affinity +5% |
Critical Skill To Have For Any Weapon
Since this skill increases a weapon's raw physical damage and then increases affinity rate at later levels, it's a very important basic skill to have in any loadout or build.
Weakness Exploit
| Lvl | Effect |
|---|---|
| 1 | Attacks that hit weak spots have 15% increased affinity |
| 2 | Attacks that hit weak spots have 30% increased affinity |
| 3 | Attacks that hit weak spots have 50% increased affinity |
Allows For Efficient Hunting
Weakness Exploit gives you bigger chances to deal more damage to monster weak spots, making it easier for you to break monster parts or lower monster health.
Alternative Sword And Shield Skill List
Handicraft
| Lvl | Effect |
|---|---|
| 1 | Weapon sharpness +10 |
| 2 | Weapon sharpness +20 |
| 3 | Weapon sharpness +30 |
| 4 | Weapon sharpness +40 |
| 5 | Weapon sharpness +50 |
Elongates Your Sharpness Gauge
Having the Handicraft increases your weapon sharpness. This lessens your need to sharpen your weapon and prevents you from being open to monster attacks.
Critical Boost
| Lvl | Effect |
|---|---|
| 1 | Increases damage dealt by critical hits by 30% |
| 2 | Increases damage dealt by critical hits by 35% |
| 3 | Increases damage dealt by critical hits by 40% |
Combine With Attack Boost & Weakness Exploit
When you combine this skill with Attack Boost, Weakness Exploit, and Critical Eye, you'll be dealing a whole lot of damage to any monster you encounter in any hunt.
Constitution
| Lvl | Effect |
|---|---|
| 1 | Reduces fixed stamina depletion by 10% |
| 2 | Reduces fixed stamina depletion by 20% |
| 3 | Reduces fixed stamina depletion by 30% |
| 4 | Reduces fixed stamina depletion by 40% |
| 5 | Reduces fixed stamina depletion by 50% |
Skill To Further Elongate Guard Use
This skill also reduces stamina consumption when you use your guard capabilities. This is great to have for all Lance users in Monster Hunter World.
Resentment
| Lvl | Effect |
|---|---|
| 1 | While active, grants attack +5 |
| 2 | While active, grants attack +10 |
| 3 | While active, grants attack +15 |
| 4 | While active, grants attack +20 |
| 5 | While active, grants attack +25 |
Good Combo With Counter Attacks
Resentment increases your attack power when you have recoverable health in your HP bar. This is good to use when you've mastered countering, letting you deal extra damage to monsters when you counter.
Evade Window
| Lvl | Effect |
|---|---|
| 1 | Very slightly increases invulnerability window |
| 2 | Slightly increases invulnerability window |
| 3 | Increases invulnerability window |
| 4 | Greatly increases invulnerability window |
| 5 | Massively increases invulnerability window |
Increases Invincibility When Dodging
Evade Window is nice-to-have when you're using a Lance. Since the weapon is slow, this skill gives you extra invincibility time when you're rolling away from any monster attack.
Mind's Eye/Ballistics
| Lvl | Effect |
|---|---|
| 1 | Slightly reduces the effects of weak monster roars |
Can Prevent Attack Deflects
Having this skill will lessen the chances of your attacks deflecting on a monster's tough hide. You'll be able to deal more consistent damage and lessen the stagger caused by the deflects.
Flinch Free
| Lvl | Effect |
|---|---|
| 1 | Prevents knockbacks |
| 2 | Prevents standard knockbacks. Tripping is reduced to a knockback instead |
| 3 | Prevents knockbacks and tripping |
Keeps You Moving & Prevents Knockbacks
Essential when playing multiplayer mode, this skill prevents you from getting knocked back or staggered when you suffer small damage. It'll keep you moving and let you move around quicker.
Master's Touch
| Lvl | Effect |
|---|---|
| 1 | Prevents your weapon from losing sharpness during critical hits |
Heavily Prevents Sharpness Loss On Critical Hits
With this skill, if you keep landing critical hits, you will greatly lessen your need to sharpen. This is a perfect skill to combine with Critical Eye & Critical Boost.
