Monster Hunter Wilds – Tips for New and Returning Lance Players

Lance Players Guide

Ву Sehnder.

This guide contains some tips/warnings/ways of thinking that may help you with playing the lance in Wilds. Since most players are coming from World, I’ve contrasted how some things work in World vs. Wilds so the changes trip you up less.

The information here should all still be true/relevant on launch, and you will just need to fill in the gaps with whatever new changes there are. If you are looking for a rotation/damage guide, this ain’t it. But it will help you hit the ground running day 1!

This guide also presumes some familiarity with general lance gameplay and Monster Hunter. If “power guard” doesn’t mean anything to you, you probably want to check some other guides first.

On Block Stun

World:

Other than power guarding in specific situations, in world you never want to be in block stun. Block stun is effectively a timeout from being able to do the stuff you want to do.

Wilds:

Block stun is a brief moment for you to make a decision. There are attack options only available to you in blockstun, and you have until blockstun ends to make your choice. Block stun isn’t a penalty anymore- it is the half a second for you to choose the right move for the situation. Be aware that you do have limited options out of blockstun (and you do take chip damage), so you should be mindful of when to block!

Note that depending on the strength of the hit, the time to leave blockstun varies. As such I find it useful to “spam” your chosen option while in blockstun. Think of it as two steps- recoil and then reaction. During recoil nothing happens if you press buttons, only during the reaction step. It is a lot easier just to press your chosen option a few times than try to guess how much recoil you are in.

I’m intentionally not telling you what to do out of block stun since we just don’t know enough until release. Note that you have different options out of block stun depending on how you blocked the attack!

On Perfect Block, Block, and Power Guard

The mathcrafters will figure out the percentages and such on these. Here is what we can tell you:

• Perfect Block: Blocking just before you get hit gives a perfect block. Reduced damage/stamina/knockback and you whack the monster with your shield for some damage/stun.
• “Regular” Block/Guard Dash: It blocks the attack.
• Power Guard: It blocks the attack, you move the least of any block, but you take the most chip damage.

Note again that each option above gives you different counter options out of block stun.

On Guard Dash

World:

You would block any number of attack during the animation and always land a set distance away (unless something is in the way).

Wilds:

As soon as you block an attack you will plant your feet to the ground and enter block stun. This block stun is identical to if you just blocked an attack normally, meaning you can do all the usual follow-ups out of block.

On Riding

Your Seikret dismount and jumping dash attack do mount damage. If you are in a flat area with no insect glaivers in sight, I tend to open the hunt with you a few jumping dashes to get an early mount.

Due to the scaling I’ve never found in worthwhile to try for a second mount. Dash attacking for mount damage is a DPS loss for you (and unsafe), so if your team is going to get a mount anyway don’t go out of your way for it.

On Stunning

Your perfect block and shield bash do stun damage. In practice, it seems perfect block is not enough to trigger a stun in a lot of cases. If you have a hammer bro or minstrel with you, let them do their thing. Otherwise, you have two choices.

• Pretend shield bash / stun doesn’t exist for you.
• Intentionally try to chain a bunch of shield bashes together in a short time frame to trigger a single stun (and then pretend it doesn’t exist).

You are definitely losing DPS while trying to chain shield bashes. But a stun your team would otherwise wouldn’t have makes up for it (and a stun in solo can be helpful if you want to setup a trap for a capture or something).

On Focus Mode

In short, you will probably want to be in focus mode 99% of the time so you see wounds and hit your target. Some considerations for you though.

• Dash Attack: Dash attack behaves… weird… in focus mode. Since it always wants you to run towards the camera, you spaz out trying to turn on a dime if you move your camera. Also makes reversing direction act strange. Your mileage may vary, but you may want to disable focus mode while dashing if it feels weird to you,
• Shielding: While you are in slinger aim mode you cannot guard nor enter dash attack when dismounting your Seikret. I really hope they change this for launch, as a dozen cats have had to haul me off when I sat there looking stupid while trying to raise my shield. Let Capcom know we want to shield out of slinger mode and maybe this can change!
• Focus Attack: No special / extra mechanics for lance when using focus attacks.

Hey My Counter Attacks Are Going in the Wrong Direction!

This is an issue I hope they look into and fix by launch. This related to focus mode behaving inconsistently when you are in block stun. You can test this in the training area by doing the following. For this example we will use payback thrust (which worked as an example in the beta)

1. Go into focus mode and do a payback thrust our of power guard. While doing it, press your movement key / analog stick away from the camera. You will launch your attack in the direction you pressed.
2. Set the training dummy to attack. Block an incoming attack, and try to payback thrust like you did earlier. It will force you to launch your attack forward toward the camera / reticle.
3. Repeat step 1 again, but while being hit by the dummy. You will release your attack in the direction you pressed.

This isn’t great. This forces you to have to really quickly swing your camera during blockstun in order to release in the direction you want. And it doesn’t behave consistently even within the confined of being in block stun. For now the only solution is to be real quick on swinging your camera, or real quick on dropping focus mode. Make some noise on this so Capcom is aware!