Guide to Iceborne Lance for New and Old Hunters [Monster Hunter World Iceborne] 

Glad to know you learned something. Thanks for watching!

This is a very useful guide. Just started a new game and new character. Purely a lance main and im having a blast! Such a great experience!

I wouldn’t call it “difficult” or “optimal”because I don’t want to turn ppl away… But the FEELING is very different! And anyone can do it! Just have to change your mindset Thanks for your comment! I can tell that you get it.

@@jyugwat2952 exactly.. the more you use it, the more u understand about it.. especially play in solo.. learning about your own weapon is much more faster than doin quest with party..

What do you mean with Bow?

The powering through the game.. *cough* *cough* longsword *cough* *cough* *cough*

Thanks for watching! Enjoy the lance!

Diablos. That thing is how I cut my teeth with Lance.

@Warpded Diablo was also my cb training partner

Glad to hear it! Your lance skills will improve! Thanks for watching!

I spend a lot of time writing the script and editing! Thanks for watching to the end!

Love to hear it!

It was a lot of work! Thanks for watching!

I wonder what Lance will be like in Wilds…Thanks for watching! Thanks for your comment!

Thanks so much! Though my guide wouldn’t be here without all the other smart and skilled lancers on RU-vid. Thanks for watching!

This one took a lot of time! Thanks for watching!

Thanks for watching! :)

I was planning a lance tip video but you are stealing my tips!!! Shhhh!!!! (Keep posting more tips) I finally applied this guard trick at 8:56. I knew this move was possible but my habit is clutch claw counter out of regular guard with counter, but I could not do the trick for this video. I realized I had to guard with slinger guard and the secondary input for clutch claw counter to have low knock back for the trick to work. Fatalis really makes you learn the lance thoroughly. I can tell you understand the lance. Cheers my friend.

I was scared this video was too long since it is text only… All these comments about my boxing comparison… means ppl are watching to the end. Thank you!

I condense a lot of the info from other smart and skilled lancers on RU-vid, and include my own *tips* ;) Thanks for watching!

Enjoy the lance! Thanks for watching!

Yes positioning is everything! Thanks for watching!

DO IT!! DO IT NOW!!

The critical hit in World is just so crispy. In addition to the offensive guard flash it makes the poke playstyle so satisfying! It’s just not the same…

@@jyugwat2952 Yeah, I did a lot of offensive guard when messing around on my Playstation account. When I do Iceborne from scratch it'll be with an old character on Steam. Should be fun, I've missed it.

Hope you find a weapon you love! Enjoy!

@@jyugwat2952 Probably sticking with Lance. It was my main in GenU and RiseBreak, so I figure I'll continue that into World

Join us. The one true lance.

I hope I showed the right picture to allow for a good transition from your weapon. I believe the common tank stereotype for Lance is a terrible representation of how it was designed to play. Enjoy the Lance and good luck! Thanks for watching!

No you’re cute

Join us.

One of us. One of us.

Lance is the least played because most ppl do not know how to use it. Good luck on your first adventure! Thanks for watching!

@@jyugwat2952 So far progressed as far getting the quest to defeat Legiana. Have never failed a mission once with Lance because of your tutorial (and other lance guides). I just keep blocking and countering/poking constantly lol.

Yeah I saw a speed runner do that and had to dig up everywhere to find out how to do that… I recall it being easier to perform in sunbreak

10:38 if you can get a hang of positioning then your hunt time will decrease a lot! Lance players get an uncomfortable itch when we are out of position for even 1 second, this is how important it is. I love shields! And the spear is the king of weapons! Nergigante lances are my favourite! I’m glad you learned something! Hope you get that shield jewel. And thanks for watching!

@@jyugwat2952 Do you have any tips for how to better position? Against for example Barroth, it seems really easy to stay where I need to be, but when I’m fighting Brachydios I struggle to keep up. Not only is he moving around very quickly, I find myself getting stuck in his slime puddles, and I’m constantly trying to cleanse myself of his slime. I still end up finishing the hunt, but it feels like an uphill battle. Is there anything in particular I should be doing against faster monsters or monsters that put gunk on the ground? Anything would help! I really want to get better.

@@ethanboone2816 what I do to learn positioning against tough matchups is watch speed runners. For your case watch raging brachy, regular brachy speed runs aren’t good for learning positioning. Power guard, and guard dash are your tools for positioning, sometimes they even face backwards for a moment, and realign their shield when the monster is preparing to attack again. Make a conscious thought on what guard they use to deal with what, when they chase, and when they let the monster approach. Second, sounds like you know blast is taking you out from being in position. Respect the blast and remove offence skills for blast resist. Staying in position far out-damages some attack boost or crit eye, or crit boost etc. Finally there are a lot of bad matchups in iceborne. I hate to say it but some monsters are really miserable to fight with lance and I wouldn’t even recommend it. For a long time I had to switch weapons to clear some fights, or refuse to fight with lance. I only now am returning to world and clearing some terrible matchups that I’ve never done with lance before, like furious rajang and AT velkhana. Good luck!

@@jyugwat2952 Thank you very much for the advice! I unfortunately don’t really have a lot of decorations, so I may just have to wait on some fights for later. I really appreciate it!

@@ethanboone2816 sorry I couldn’t give you a better answer… but your positioning will improve with experience! Someone like you is sure to improve because you like the weapon. Great questions! Thanks for asking!

Yes! Lance is great for solo play because the monster attention is always on you. I also love the sword and shield! If you’re coming from souls you might like the hammer or greatsword too! Thanks for watching!

My first game was World and I loved the lance and never once picked up the dual blades. Maybe next gen I’ll be a dual blades main who knows HAHA

I was initially drawn to Lance before even owning the game because it was advertised as a tank LOL my first play through it was definitely my favourite, but as a new hunter there were times I had to rely on SNS to clear because of its versatility. After finishing sunbreak I feel like I am returning to World as an experienced hunter to clear with my favourite weapon with my new skills. Cheers!

Sounds like you got the idea. Thanks for watching! Good luck on your adventure!

Thanks!

YEAAHH WAHOO

Tu es sérieux

Dragon king eye patch (high rank nergigante) Fellshroud Vaal hazak top (deep blue green colour) Gold rathian gloves (i now prefer azure starlord arms here from the event quest) Azure era waist (event quest) Oolong pants (lunar new year event) Guild palace lance 11:58 charge blade outfit I switched the shirt for gold rathian 11:15 great sword outfit I switched the shirt for guild palace My secret is the hair is a mod called Elise hair ;) Thanks for noticing!

Wow ty for the fast and detailed replay!

There shouldn’t be anything that chips too much until late game. For now guard 5 should be okay even without health augment. Maybe your cat can be your fake health augment hahaha Good luck on your adventure!

1:02 tap the button and your counter is quick. 4:27 hold the button and you will hold your shield out. It looks seamless in montages because they know the button timing very well. Thanks for watching!

Exactly! Pick the one you think is cool! If you think it’s cool you will learn a complicated weapon. If it’s weak you will learn to bring out the damage. Thanks for watching!

It's been a while but I'll give it a shot. When I mention "set" you'll have to google the armour set and set bonus effect yourself, and have a look at what it does. The following should be valid for all the weapons that use sharpness except for gunlance. ALWAYS take as much health boost as you can (max 3). Before iceborne: The general path for armour is anything with high defense until you can build odogaron set. Odogaron set should be good until you can get Teostra set. You only need to wear 3 armour pieces of Teostra to get Master's Touch: the best set bonus before fatalis. The path for weapons I recommend kulu yaku tree, or the furthest right weapon that has your elemental advantage. This should be good until you can get weapons from the nergigante tree. I think the paths are the same for master rank in Iceborne. At that point you should be able to decide on your own. This is the general path if you do not want to think too much, but you should take your time to discover which armour and skills you like yourself. Do not just listen to me or some guy on the internet. Good luck!

Yes that’s correct. You will take damage from whatever the monster is doing but you will not be thrown off. Ppl call it hyper armour This is a problem when fighting rajang, alatreon, and fatalis in most situations

Maybe it will return in Wilds! My prediction is they will make the power guard thrust a charged attack and we will be spamming power guard thrust all hunt. Ppl will hate it.

This is exactly it. The lance is severely misrepresented and it’s a real shame that it is 14th in popularity. I hope Lancers can have a revelation like you, or non-lancers give the weapon a proper chance. Thanks for your comment! Thanks for watching!

Couldn't have said it better myself. Spot on

I’m glad you gained something from my video. I always try to be concise because I do not record my voice, and I thought the other RU-vid lancers had some great build guides already. I can’t give you a full build progression, it’s been a couple years since I’ve started from zero haha. In short, lance requires guard skills and sharpness skills to function. Upgrade your ironside charm whenever you can, and it should cover all the guard you need. I like the odogaron set mid game for sharpness, and teostra armour for later. If you cover those 2 things you can’t really go wrong. And build health up 3. Good luck!

I’m actually not certain on the difference between guard 4 and 5, I have never tested it my myself. Generally Lance mains believe there is a big difference between guard zero, 1, 3, and 5. There are 3 levels of knock back when you try to counter. 1. Fast counter thrust 2. Slow counter thrust 3. Block, but fail to counter thrust. The difference between counter thrusting and failing the counter thrust is huge for the lance, because it is a weapon that relies on the number of times you can poke rather than big damage numbers. You just need take a guard level that lets you effectively counter thrust everything the monster you are fighting throws at you. In iceborne master rank, Generally guard 3 is not enough. You will fail this counter 2:52 vs yian garuga, and fail to counter fatalis breath move at 10:59.

7:15 In the info tab of your pause menu you will find something called hunters notes where they list all the lance attacks including “dash attack” in weapon info. While you are running in dash attack, hold forward and press the dodge button and you will jump without stopping your charge. You can even press the thrust button and aim a mid air thrust for more damage (9:09) If you build up enough damage while mid-air (called mounting damage) you will begin a mount. Mounting damage for different weapons varies, with the lance you usually have to do this attack once or twice to get the mount the first time. Is that clear?

It is so satisfying watching a speedrunner guard dash perfectly… it looks like they are stuck to the monster

This is definitely something I've needed in my gameplay. Sticking to a mon from left or right has always been frustrating for me.

I want to pin your comment on all my thumbnails!! It hurts my soul whenever I hear ppl who have never understood the weapon tell everyone “Lance is the tank” or “Lance is only poke poke poke” and all the new or old players just listen and remember this stereotype forever. Even if you don’t love the Lance after that…I have done my job. Thank you for your comment! Thanks for watching!

It is a mod If you sort mods by most popular of all time it should be one of them

You’re sharp! This instance was an from the hop. I still recommend guard dash backwards for this attack, because the further away from rajang’s body you are the less chip damage will hit your shield. I’ve seen speed runners respond quick enough to get out of range. Nice catch!

@@jyugwat2952 thank you!

Guard up is required to block things like rajang beam, velkhana beam, teostra ulti, etc. I’m not sure the reason Reddit said don’t use it, i do not read Reddit. I like put it on always so I don’t ever worry about what I can or cannot guard. positioning and blocking will increase your damage far greater than a jewel slot. If something like blast resist lets you stand in brachydios face and continue poking, this will increase your damage more than crit boost. If flinch free lets you stand among your teammates to poke, this will increase your damage more than weakness exploit. If guard up lets me stand in rajang’s beam and continue poking him, I think that will increase damage more than attack boost. Not sure what Reddit means by that, but i don’t just listen to ppl on the internet…I need to understand the reasoning and apply it to my own game.

@@jyugwat2952Amazingly in-depth answer, thank you so much! Just picked this game up this week, so still very new to all of it. Currently trying to get the guard up jewel, but it's quite a grind- haha. I'll probably get a flinch free jewel as well, I'm constantly getting staggered by team mates! Thanks for the excellent answer! :)

@@bob_votari ahh I see. There are some great ways to get jewels, so hopefully you find your shield jewel. Those attacks are generally uncommon in the beginning of the game, so maybe you can do without it until you come across them. Teammates can trigger your counter too… so it may be miserable to lance amongst them. In either situation don’t feel shame in switching from lance until later.. Lance will always be there for you. Enjoy your adventure!

My best advice on this for a new player: make it a habit to review each new armour when it becomes available. If you do this gradually as you progress through the game, you will be able to make armour sets yourself. Copied from my answer to someone else: When I mention "set" you'll have to google the armour set and set bonus effect yourself, and have a look at what it does. The following should be valid for all the weapons that use sharpness except for gunlance. ALWAYS take as much health boost as you can (max 3). Before iceborne: The general path for armour is anything with high defense until you can build odogaron set. Odogaron set should be good until you can get Teostra set. You only need to wear 3 armour pieces of Teostra to get Master's Touch: the best set bonus before fatalis. The path for weapons I recommend kulu yaku tree, or the furthest right weapon that has your elemental advantage. This should be good until you can get weapons from the nergigante tree. I think the paths are the same for master rank in Iceborne. At that point you should be able to decide on your own. This is the general path if you do not want to think too much, but you should take your time to discover which armour and skills you like yourself. Do not just listen to me or some guy on the internet. PS: The most important thing for lance is to build to allow you to stay in position. If you find you are leaving position to sharpen, you need sharpness skills. If you are leaving position because of blast blight, build anti blast. If you are leaving position to heal, build more guard. Good luck!

@@jyugwat2952 Great advise thank you and appreciated.

I have a whole video about this on my channel. ru-vid.com/video/%D0%B2%D0%B8%D0%B4%D0%B5%D0%BE-_owYPsj0e4Y.htmlsi=DYwW4bVoJNiIcpdl 9:20 my theory is the devs of iceborne took the effort to balance lance, while rise sunbreak they did not. You feel like the guard is weaker because it is: monsters chip through your shield even at the maximum guard level. 2:42 The fact that this only works with guard 5 is intentional. lance killers exist in the game so that lancers cannot sit and guard everything passively. This is all intentional to promote the true style of the lance: to aggressively heal back the health you are losing to chip, with health regain augment. It is no mistake that these monsters that chip all appear after health regen becomes available. In rise it feels like they forgot about lance. What will you guard with G5 plus embolden? Nothing in the game needs you to stack both, because there is no intention behind it. No monster has lance killing moves. Sunbreak monsters behaviour is designed to punish counters of all the weapons by ridiculous combos and follow up attacks. What does this mean for Lance? Nothing. Instablock or just counter again. Because they did not consider lance. This is why the guard feels different.

Cont.. the reason you feel like sunbreak does more damage is because it does. I feel iceborne lance is a bit undertuned compared to other weapons. You need to know where your damage comes from to feel it, which is why it is so misunderstood as a tank and I try so hard to promote the lance. When rise switched to sunbreak they arbitrarily dialed up damage on leaping thrust, and instablock counter. Suddenly everyone started loving the lance. Great question! Thanks for asking!

Lance was indeed a bit under tuned in Iceborne compared to Sunbreak, maybe Capcom was a bit paranoid of giving Lance too much power like Striker Lance in MHGU 😂 That said, you can try fitting in more Charge Finisher Thrust! This thing really do a lot of work pumping your DPS up if you know when to sneak them in. Obviously, you should already chain it with Triple Poke whenever monster is downed/trapped. But sometimes you can sneak them in actual combat too. Like when monster flinches (but not clagger), they usually give you enough time to perform a short-range Charge Finisher on them as those monsters are trying balance themselves. Or sometimes you can do a predictive Charge Finisher too. If you know where the monster's head will be after one of its bigger attack then you can just sneak in a Charge Finisher before doing a Triple Poke. I have noticed my hunt time becoming quite a bit faster the more I can successfully squeeze in these attacks, hopefully they're helpful enough 😂

@@TanegiHoneydew my biggest issue was coming from learning Lance on Rise, I relied on leaping thrust spam a lot. It seems like it does way more damage than in World. In Rise it seemed like a viable damage output whereas on World it seems like it’s mainly for repositioning. Now that I got that out of my head and focusing more on pokes, it’s going a lot better.

My wish is for an attack speed steroid. I think it would be really fun and suit the lance a lot!

You love sunbreak lance then :)

@@jyugwat2952 there is a lot to love about sunbreak lance. I do think it gets a little over the top with some things. I both love and hate some of the changes.

Minutes after writing this I figured it out 😋

@@CheeZbredDawG attaboy. Guard with this and your lance gameplay will start to feel entirely different. Guard dash is kind of like my “panic button”

Some grabs are blockable with guard up. For example rajang grab. Lance killers ignore block up. Velkhana ice barf is a lance killer that is not a grab. so they are not always grabs, and grabs are not always lance killers. Glad you enjoyed! Thanks for watching!