TERA - Lancer PvE & PvP Guide

Game: Tera
Time: 2023-02-13
Views: 16379

Lancers are a tank class in TERA whose role is to mitigate damage from other party members unto themselves, buff allies, debuff enemies, and position monsters so the DPS classes can put out more consistent high damage from behind targets to complete dungeons more quickly and smoothly etc. U4gm will be doing a quick overview about PvE & PVP aspect of Lancer. The data is from Essential Mana to share with U4gm users, we paste it here. U4gm is a trustworthy seller. U4gm mainly offers service for selling TERA gold. We do our best to provide the best service and help you solve your problems with the game so that you can enjoy TERA thoroughly.

 

Lancer PvE Guide

 

First let's go over the gear that you would want to aim for to avoid any confusion in later information.

 

Gear

When doing PvE content on Lancer the optimal stats you want to get are the following:

 

Weapon:

 

* Top Line: Decreases skill cooldowns by 7.2%

* Increases damage by 9.3% when attacking enraged monsters.

* Increases damage by 6%

* Decreases skill cooldowns by 7.2%

* Fourth Line: Increases damage by 8.6% to the target with the most aggro toward you.

 

Ideally you want to use Icreases da mage by 6% as your fourth line but in the off chance that you struggle holding aggro, getting it back with this roll will be slightly easier.

 

Armor:

 

* Top line: Increases Spring Attack damage by 15%.

* Decreases damage from enraged monsters by 10%.

* Decreases damage taken by 8.7% from the monster with the most aggro towards yo

* Decreases damage taken from frontal attacks by 6.9%.

* Fourth line: Decreases damage taken by 6%.

 

Gloves:

 

* Increases Power by 5.

* Increases Crit Factor by 9.

* Increases Attack Speed by 2.25%

 

These are your typical DPS Glove rolls. Every single DPS class uses these.

 

Boots:

 

* Increases Endurance by 4.

* Increases Movement Speed by 6%.

* Replenishes 2% of total MP every 5 seconds.

 

These are your typical Boots rolls. Every single class uses these.

 

Crystals

 

When using Crystals it's important to use the highest available level for your weapon, so at level 65 this means you should use Fine …. Niveots. Ideally you want to use Dyads, which are crafted by using Dyad Niveot Structures of Smart Dyad Niveot Structures.

 

Non-Slaying

 

* 1x Fine Wrathful Niveot

* 1x Fine Focused Niveot

* 2x Fine Pounding Niveot

* 4x Fine Hardy Niveot

 

Slaying

 

* 1x Fine Wrathful Niveot

* 1x Fine Focused Niveot

* 1x Fine Furious Niveot

* 1x Fine Slaying Niveot

* 3x Fine Hardy Niveot

* 1x Fine Resolute Niveot

 

Accessories

 

* 4x Keen Vyrsk

 

Accessory

 

For Lancers you want to normally get all Crit Jewelry, due to it not being possible (at this moment) to hit the 100% crit chance on Lancer for any skill that isn't Shield Counter, building Crit Factor is always useful.

However if you are getting close to Best in Slot jewelry, including etchings. You would want to use power Earrings when running with a Mystic. But if you are not sure what you'll be running with most of the time, I suggest just going full Crit Factor.

 

Accessories

 

Stats for each piece of Accessories should be taken as following:

 

EarringsNecklaceRingsBelt
4% Max HP4 Power4 Crit Factor6 Crit Factor
4 EnduranceN/A4 Power3 Power

 

Mask

 

For the Mask, which is obtainable as a rare drop from high tier dungeon, Cooldown Reduction stat should be taken. However, note that Mask's stat cannot be chosen, so this may take a while to obtain.

 

Etchings

 

The etchings you'll want to use for PvE are:

 

WeaponGlovesArmorBoots
EnergeticEnergeticGroundedGrounded

 

PvE Glyphs

 

For PvE you'll want to use a glyph page that looks like this:

 

PVE Glyphs

 

if you need more information on how to get the Glyphs with the Blue highlight, you'll have to farm Island of Dawn for Glyph Boxes.

 

Priority List

 

Lancers don't have a real "rotation" so to speak. Since every boss attack will interrupt us. Even if we were to try to create one, it's instead better to remember priorities. Lancer is a class where you can actually /run out/ of DPS skills to use, so played correctly you'll occasionally find

yourself with nothing off cooldown except for your combo attack. This is also a reason why we build so much CDR.

 

The priority list looks something like this:

Debilitate*

Shield Counter**

Super Leap

Spring Attack

Wallop = Onslaught

Lockdown Blow

Combo Attack

 

*Debilitate is a situational priority. If the boss does not have three Debilitate debuff stacks, it is the very top priority skill. At any other time it's your very lowest priority skill.

**Shield Councter, on the other hand, is the one skill you never have a reason to not use. If you have to block something (preferably with a dps-skill such as Wallop, Onslaught, Super Leap) and Shield Counter is available then you should Shield Counter, no matter what else is off cooldown. It's

almost instant damage, cancels animation locks, and can chain into some of your higher priority skills. During your Adrenaline Rush burn this becomes even more important, as with perfect blocks its cooldown is non-existent.

Shield Barrage, Charging Lunge and Shield Bash intentionally aren't listed. Their purpose is to chain to other skills.

 

Chains (prioritized):

Charging Lunge -> Super Leap

Wallop -> Super Leap*

Shield Barrage -> Spring Attack

Shield Counter -> Spring Attack

Spring Attack -> Wallop

Shield Bash -> Onslaught

Combo Attack -> Onslaught

Debilitate/Lockdown/Shield Counter -> Wallop**

 

*Wallop can chain into Super Leap, but must first be chained-into itself.

**Veeery situational. Acceptable if for some reason you have no better options.

Basically you're just putting the skills from the priority list on cooldown by whatever means possible in order of priority.

Shield Barrage is Spring Attack's best bud though. Try not to chain into anything other than Spring Attack with it.

 

In Adrenaline Rush it's basically the same, but since you have a monstrous amount of CDR within Adrenaline Rush it's easier to think of everything as revolving around the Shield Barrage -> Spring Attack chain. Opening up during Adrenaline Rush, you always start with Charging Lunge into Super Leap. This is to put Super Leap immediately on cooldown so that you can fit four into one Adrenaline Rush. After that though, think of it as [Shield Barrage]->[Spring Attack]->[Highest Priority Skill/Chain Available] and just loop like that repeatedly until Super Leap forces you to break the loop again. Though, don't forget Shield Counter. If you perfect block, use it.

 

Lancer Tips and Tricks

 

Don't Wallop too fast. A lot of lancers wonder why they don't do much damage, and why their Spring Attack hits-per-minute is so abyssmal. It's because you wallop too fast. Spring Attack has four damage ticks, but by spamming wallop before spring attack finishes you reduce that to three, or even two. You're essentially nerfing your own potentially highest damage skill.

 

Learn boss mechs and get used to tap-blocking. Tap-blocking is as it sounds – instead of holding block, you only tap it. Even if multiple attacks are coming at you, if possible, it's best to individually tap-block all of them rather than hold block. This used to only be a quick way of gaining

 

Hold The Line stacks, but now with perfect blocks it even deals damage, and buffs your shield counter thanks to the Retribution Shield passive. There's no reason not to!

 

One Shield Barrage is all you need. Lancers are a class based around speedy reactions, and dpsing in the short intervals between boss attacks is how we both deal serious damage and maintain aggro. Sacrificing the second hit of Shield Barrage allows you to get your Spring Attack out in full before you have to block the next boss attack. This used to be one of the key things behind the discrepancy in Lancer DPS. Some were amazing at "block-cancelling shield barrage" – that is, to "tap block" between the first and second hits of Shield Barrage, creating one instant skill – and some weren't. This meant that the former could do much more damage during tinier intervals of time than the latter. An example would be the latter just barely getting two hits of Shield Barrage off before having to block, while the former would get both hits of Shield Barrage, all ticks of Spring Attack, and then maybe even block the incoming attack with Wallop. The damage just wasn't comparable. That's no longer true as you can chain from one hit of Shield Barrage now, and though you are in effect sacrificing 5% of your damage by not using the second hit, the benefits outweigh that.

 

Contrary to popular belief, unlike Adrenaline Rush, Guardian Shout is to be used off of cooldown and not necessarily saved for enrage.

 

It wasn't mentioned, but block cancelling should be habitual. Tap-block after every "chain" to eliminate any animation locks.

 

Consumables

 

Prime Battle SolutionBattle Solution

This is a consumable you should always have active. On every single classs.

 

Braverybravery potion vs Canephoracanephora

Bravery Potion is superior as it adds more attack speed to allow you to put out your combos faster. Allowing you to get more skills off in between boss attacks.

 

Other Consumables:

 

Other optional consumables consist of Noctenium Elixir, Lamb Bulgogi, Feast, and Lein's Dark Root Beer. These are considered more of luxury, but they provide buffs that will help you maximize your performance.

 

Noctenium Elixir improves skill's Noctenium effect as well as skill damage. The duration varies by the tier of the item used.

Lamb Bulgogi grants additional 20 Crit Factor.

Feast grants various buffs at once, including Lamb Bulgogi. However, note that "Friendly Feast" does not include Lamb Bulgogi.

Lein's Dark Root Beer grants 20 Attack Speed for 10 seconds, but note that this will distort your screen a bit.

 

This concludes the PvE part of this Class Promotion.

 

Lancer PvP Guide

 

This is where we'll cover the PvP Section of the guide.

 

Gear

When doing PvP content on Lancer the optimal stats you can get are the following:

 

Weapon:

 

* Top Line: Increases Attack Speed by 9%.

* Increases Crit Power by 0.3.

* Decreases skill cooldowns by 7.2%.

* Increases damage by 6%.

* Fourth Line: Increase damage by 6.9% when attacking from behind.

* (Optional) Increases Attack Speed by 4.5%

 

If the weapon only has 3 bottom rolls, take the 6% damage, 7.2% cooldown reduction, and 0.3 crit power rolls.

If you choose the attack speed roll, it would replace the Increases damage by 6.9% when attacking behind roll. It shouldn't be necessary, but some people prefer the extra attack speed.

 

Armor:

 

* Top line: Increases damage of Spring Attack by 15%.

* Raises max HP by 8%.

* Decreases damage taken by 6%.

* Decreases damage taken from frontal attacks by 6.9%.

* Decreases damage taken while knocked down by 6.9%

* (Optional) Recover 1.2% of total HP every 5 seconds.

 

If the armor only has 3 bottom rolls, take the 6% damage reduction, 8% max HP, and 6.9% frontal damage reduction rolls.

The HP regeneration roll would replace the Decreases damage taken while knocked down by 6.9% roll and should be taken if you prefer dueling over battlegrounds and mass PvP.

 

Gloves:

 

* Increases Power by 5.

* Increases Crit Factor by 9.

* Increases Attack Speed by 2.25%

 

These are typical non-healer rolls for gloves. Some people may prefer an endurance roll or a HP recover on hit roll, but that is only beneficial in duels.

 

Boots:

 

* Increases Endurance by 4.

* Increases Movement Speed by 6%.

* Decreases duration of slowing effects by 24.0%

* (Optional) Recovers 0.6% of total HP every 5 seconds.

 

The HP recovery over time roll may be used if you prefer dueling and would replace the decreases duration of slowing effects by 24.0%. Generally, the slowing effects reduction roll is more useful.

 

Etchings

The etchings you'll want to use for PvP are:

 

Jewelry

 

There are two accessory builds that lancers like to follow: Hybrid Power/Crit or Full Power. The general consensus is that hybrid power/crit is better for group PvP whereas full power is better for dueling. This is because although full power has better damage over time, the added crit factor gives you a higher chance to burst a target, which can quickly turn the pressure during a prolonged team fight.

 

The two builds are as follows:

 

Hybrid Power/Crit

 

WeaponGlovesArmorBoots
EnergeticEnergeticGroundedGrounded

 

Full Power

 

Carving Necklace2x Carving Earrings2x Pumped RingsBeltCirclet
Increases Power by 4Decreases duration of stun effects by 10%Increases Power by 4Increases Power by 3Increases Crit Factor by 8
N/ARaises Max HP by 4%Increases Crit Factor by 4Increases Crit Factor by 6N/A

 

Mask

 

For the Mask, which is obtainable as a rare drop from high tier dungeon, Cooldown Reduction stat should be taken. However, note that Mask's stat cannot be chosen, so this may take a while to obtain. Using anything you can get your hands on is fine until you get the Cooldown Reduction one.

 

PvP Crystals

 

Weapon:

 

1x Fine Savage Niveot

1x Fine Forceful Niveot

1x Fine Salivating Niveot

 

Armor:

3x Fine Relentless Niveot

 

Pick one of the following 2:

1x Fine Resolute Niveot

1x Fine Grieving Niveot

 

Pick one of the following 2:

1x Fine Swift Niveot (Used in battlegrounds to chase healers or squishy DPS)

1x Fine Cruel Niveot (Honestly only useful in open world when we have access to awakened skilled)

 

Jewelry

 

4x Pristine Griefing Zyrsks

 

Combos

 

In combos, you should maximize the damage you can fit in each stun's duration. Here are some variations of effective combos for lancer. Note that lancer is extremely ping dependent and these combos may not be possible if you have high ping:

Shield Barrage > Shield Barrage > Shield Bash > Debilitate > Spring Attack > Lockdown Blow > Leash > Shield Barrage > Shield Barrage > Master's Leash > Debilitate > Spring Attack (3 ticks) > Wallop > Righteous Leap

 

Leash > Debilitate > Spring Attack (3 ticks) > Master's Leash > Shield Barrage > Shield Barrage > Shield Bash > Debilitate > Spring Attack > Lockdown Blow > Wallop > Righteous Leap

 

Chained Leash > Charging Lunge (to close the distance) > Shield Bash > Debilitate > Spring Attack > Lockdown Blow > Leash > Shield Barrage > Shield Barrage > Master's Leash > Debilitate > Spring Attack (3 ticks) > Wallop > Righteous Leap

 

Your combos are long enough so that, by the time you finish your combo, if you catch your opponent in a combo soon afterwards, your cooldowns should lineup so that you can do another full duration combo.

 

General PvP Tips

 

Lancer is considered an extremely difficult class to master, but has relatively high potential in comparison to the other classes. This means that, especially in smaller forms of PvP such as 1v1 and 3v3, it is required to thoroughly understand your class and minimize your mistakes in order to keep up with the other classes.

 

A stagger is a form of CC from certain skills that make enemies stumble in place for .85 seconds (850 milliseconds). Lancers must be able to chain staggers together effectively to keep enemies in place. This is a fundamental CC that should be the first thing a new lancer practices when starting out, or else they will be completely useless. Thankfully, practicing chain staggers will carry over and be beneficial for all classes you play in the future. Lancers have 4 ways to stagger: Shield Barrage part 1, Shield Barrage part 2, Combo Attack part 2, and Shield Counter (2nd hit only).

 

Almost every single skill a lancer has is block-cancellable. The only exceptions are buffs such as Adrenaline Rush and Pledge of Protection. Learning when to block cancel will drastically increase the speed of your combos.

 

Outside of shield bash, lancers have three leashes that also stun: Leash, Master's Leash, and Chained Leash (commonly referred to as Giga). All of the leashes stun for 2.249 seconds (2249 milliseconds — these durations take into account the 20% stun reduction from earrings and 5% stun reduction from guild skills). Leash and Master's Leash reach 18 meters, whereas Chained Leash reaches 15 meters, but pulls up to 6 enemies that are 18 meters from the initial target. Chained Leash can be used in combination with Challenging Shout to pull up to 30 enemies 15 meters away from you.

 

Landing leashes is incredibly important, to the point where if you miss a single leash in a duel, you might lose. Think about it this way: a miss or resist on leash means you just missed a >40% damage combo. Leashes in this game are hitscan. This means that if you want to increase your overall accuracy with leashes, you should try to keep your crosshair at a height where you would only have to move your mouse sideways to hit your leashes. Cloth classes have a pretty decent chance of resisting your regular Leash. No matter how good you are at aiming leash, some will end up getting resisted even without an anti-stun buff. This can get extremely frustrating, so you might have to practice some sort of stress relief. Newer lancers that are starting to get the hang of it end up giving up on the class because they become too frustrated with this. My only tip is to land every leash so that the only leashes you miss are resists and to have insane pressure without leashes.

 

Lancers are able to "skate" to move faster in combat. While Elins are still the most effective at skating, a race re-balance made it possible for all races to skate. In order to skate, you tap Combo Attack and Stand Fast (block) at an even rhythm while holding a directional key. Skating is very ping dependent. You may have difficulty skating if you have over 120 ping.

 

Resolve management is incredibly difficult. Lancer awakening has made it a little easier but you may still run into some problems. You generate the most resolve by attacking enemies, so to best manage your resolve, you want to land the most amount of hits possible and miss the least amount of hits possible. You need to be very precise with your stagger timings and maximize your combos. A single stagger or stun should lead into a ~10 second long combo.

 

Accept the fact that you aren't meant to do damage (unless you have an Everful Nostrum and have access to Righteous Leap). Therefore, the damage you "deal" is directly correlated to how many heals you can stop/cancel.

 

Chained Leash is uncleansable. Outside of the general usage of Chained Leash, you can time your chained leash when you think an enemy healer or enemy thrall will cleanse their teammates.

 

Dodging Plague of Exhaustion is absolutely required. If Plague of Exhaustion is not dodged, you are essentially useless until the duration of the buff is gone. Plague of Exhaustion applies a debuff that increases your cooldowns, which makes it harder for you to CC your target, which makes it harder for you to keep your resolve up, which makes it harder for you to chase and "skate" towards your target, which makes it harder to begin your combos, etc. It's an endless cycle of suffering for that whole 20 second duration. Practice timing Backstep to dodge Plague of Exhaustion.

 

Every class has a different chained leash combo. It is necessary to learn the efficient combo for each class so you can coordinate with them properly or communicate to them what to do when you land Chained Leash if they are unfamiliar with it. "Follow up on giga" is not sufficient if you want to truly be competitive. This information should be ingrained both in you and your partner.

 

Stand Fast allows you to block for your teammates by standing in a ~3 meter radius of them. It mitigates 90% of the damage dealt. When your teammates are in a bad spot, you can easily save their lives by blocking in front of them. This is an absolutely overpowered feature of Stand Fast and should be abused whenever possible. Brawlers and D-Stance Berserkers and Warriors also have a similar feature on their blocks.

 

Battleground Related Tips

 

Champion's Skyring

There are essentially two ways to win in Champion's Skyring with lancer: pressure the enemy healer until you can land a triple giga, or when in a losing situation, peel for your teammates until the enemy team gets cocky enough to where you can triple giga and turn it around.

 

Your primary goal isn't to do damage, but it is to force the enemy team into a position (either by stopping heals, or shutting down the enemy DPS) where they can get triple giga'd so you and your teammates can kill them in an extended stun combo. Note that this is definitely easier said than done.

 

Make sure to always /select the enemy healer so you can watch for Guardian's Sanctuary and Retaliate buff. These skills make enemies immune to stuns, and is especially important to look out for before using chained leash.

 

Use your buffs to the fullest potential to apply the most amount of pressure or save your teammates when in a bad spot.

 

Fraywind Canyon

Your primary role is to land a juicy 15-man shout > chained leash combo to wipe the entire enemy team. Note that if a different lancer on your team has used shout > chained leash on the enemies, they will be unaffected by all forms of your Chained Leash (regular cast and shouted cast) for 40 seconds. Because of this, if you have many lancers on your team, it is possible that multiple regular 6-man chained leashes will be better for your team rather than a single big shouted chained leash.

 

Outside of that, your role is to give support buffs such as Rallying Cry, Pledge of Protection, and Adrenaline Rush for your team.

 

When Chained Leash and your support buffs are on cooldown and if your team is in a good/neutral position in the current team fight, you should leave the team fight to capture a nearby pyre. You will contribute way more to the team by capturing a nearby pyre than hitting the enemy team with a wet noodle. If your team is in a losing position in the fight and your main skills are on cooldown, try your best to minimize the amount of deaths, either by CCing enemy DPS, by giving support buffs when they come back up, or by blocking in front of your teammates.

 

Corsair's Stronghold

Lancers are infamous in Corsair's Stronghold for their effectiveness in cheesing ladder climbs when attacking. When climbing, have your teammates climb up the ladder. When they reach the midpoint of the ladder, use both Pledge of Protection and Guardian Shout and start climbing up. You do this because Pledge of Protection doesn't last long enough for you to cast it and climb with your team, but letting your teammates climb up to a certain point and then casting Pledge of Protection will allow your teammates to benefit from the buff. Also, Pledge of Protection makes you take some of your teammate's damage, so it puts you at a high risk of dying if you are taking your own damage plus your teammate's damage at the same time.

 

When defending, coordinate with your teammates that are on the outside for huge Challenging Shout > Chained Leash combos. If Chained Leash is on cooldown, you might consider supporting your team with the cannons instead of being on the front lines.

 

Tips vs Each Class

 

The tips below follow a general pattern: you should understand all of the ways that classes can engage and start their combo. Based on these skills, there is a "safe-spot" where you can safely stand and react with a sufficient amount of time. This concept is called "spacing". Try not to hide under your shield too much and block only when you need to. If you walk around/skate towards this safe zone makes it awkward for your opponent to fight you and puts them in an uncomfortable spot, making them easy to counter. In open world, you can use Challenging Shout's buff, which grants you immunity from stuns and staggers for 2 seconds when you feel at risk of getting engaged on. This is useful against all classes.

 

Pumped Necklace2x Pumped Earrings2x Pumped RingsBeltCirclet
Increases Power by 4Decreases duration of stun effects by 10%Increases Power by 4Increases Power by 3Increases Crit Factor by 8
N/ARaises Max HP by 4%Increases Power by 2Increases Power by 2N/A

 

Archer

Believe it or not, it's actually safer for you to be far away from archers than close. You should rarely engage without using leash. A safe distance to stand is around 12-15 meters to land leashes and also be relatively safe from their stagger > kick combo. It is crucial to not miss your leashes on this matchup

 

Berserker

Berserkers need to get close and get around your block to do any damage. They have a few tricks to get around block: raze to the side, lethal strike to the side. When knocked down, hold your retaliate until they are about to knock you down again or when they are charging cyclone. This maximizes your Retaliate buff and forces them to get close so you can abuse your retaliate buff. It also makes it harder for them to cheese with their fear. A safe distance to stand is just outside their lethal strike range, which is ~7 meters. They can walk up and lethal strike, but it should be reactable from this distance.

 

Brawler

Brawlers have three ways of engaging on to you. If you are careful, they only have two. The three ways are: Roundhouse Kick, Ground Pounder, and Counterpunch. Try to bait them into using these skills. When they use all three of these skills, try your best to catch them — good brawlers will start to play extremely defensively. Try your best to not get caught. If you get caught, it will often lead into Rampage, which brawlers like to use to regenerate HP. A good distance to stand is ~12 meters. When you get close, you will have to worry about them dashing behind you and Roundhouse Kick to your back. Unfortunately, there isn't much you can do about this and you'll just have to practice reacting to it.

 

Gunner

You basically have to chase them down. Be careful of Point Blank > Stun Grenade. This leads into a lot of damage. You are safe from this combo at 5 meters, but you should be trying your best to close any distance. Arcane Barrage, their main damage, is a two part skill: cast and detonate. They can cast the skill until it is behind you and then detonate it. Be wary of this. Because of how Arcane Barrage works, it is best to engage from the side, which will make it very difficult for them to aim.. Note that you cannot leash the Gunner if their robot is directly in front of them, however, you can cast Chained Leash on the robot and pull the gunner in if they are within 18 meters of that robot. Watch out for the robot detonating and stunning you after you wallop.

 

Lancer

In the mirror matchup, you need to watch out for all of the ranged leashes and shield barrage. Every other method of engaging should be fairly obvious to react to. Chained leash is an instantaneous stun. If you happen to block one of their leashes, you should be able to let go of block and cast chained leash before they are able to move/block. A safe distance to stand is ~5 meters, which is just outside their shield barrage range and is also an awkward range to leash for most players. You should hone your leash aim so you are comfortable to landing leash at this range, because standing at 5 meters makes it awkward for you as well.

 

Mystic

Your goal is to CC them to the point where they cannot heal anyone. If they are even remotely decent, they should never get soloed by you if they only have to watch for themselves. Maximize your combo duration and staggers. Never miss a leash — if you do, they will somehow end up across the map. Stun their Thrall of Wrath to prevent them from killing your team, and watch out for Thrall of Life, which will interfere with your stuns.

 

Ninja

TNinjas only have one real way to engage: Double Cut. A good distance is ~7 meters. At 7 meters, Double Cut will still hit, but they won't be able to angle it to the side and hit behind your block — they can only engage directly from the front. Outside of that, they may engage with One Thousand Cuts, or try to get around block with Jagged Path, but these are relatively easy to react to. Getting caught once from Double Cut will lead into a 40% damage combo and also heals them if they are using an HP regeneration build. It is crucial to not miss your leashes on this matchup. It is also possible to use Chained Leash on their wood log from their Backstab, but good Ninjas are extremely wary of this, so try to bait them into using their iframes instead of instantly casting Chained Leash on the log. Challenging Shout is also very helpful in this matchup.

 

Priest

Your goal is to CC them to the point where they cannot heal anyone. They are a little easier to catch than Mystics, but you should still never be able to solo a priest if they are decent. You should try your best to always keep a slow on them (primarily from Combo Attack and Lockdown Blow). Do not stun them if they have Guardian Sanctuary. Priests like to use their cleanse to give them immunity from staggers and knockdowns. Try to instantly re-apply a slow on them while they do this, or stun them if they don't have Guardian Sanctuary. If they pop Kaia's Shield, just try your best to break it as long as they are slowed (you are free to wallop, even if it won't knock them down).

 

Reaper

Many lancers have a difficult time vs. reaper but it's actually a very much lancer favored matchup. A safe distance to keep is 12 meters. It is crucial to not miss your leashes on this matchup. You have 3 skills to watch out for: Pendulum Strike, Smite, and Cable Step. Pendulum Strike is an extremely fast stagger which commonly leads to Cable Step or Whipsaw. If you block Pendulum Strike, Backstep towards the reaper at a 45 degree angle and chase them down. Newer reapers are extremely trigger happy with Retribution, so try your best not to use Shield Barrage unless you are certain it will hit. Most reapers like to do Dash > Pendulum, so you need to practice your reaction to this. Some expert reapers know how to angle Smite to hit around block. From 12 meters, it is impossible to smite around block, but you may need to practice blocking to the side for this. Cable step may seem like it's an instant-cast stun, but it is actually reactable as long as you have low enough ping and reaction time. After I practiced reacting to Cable Step consistently and not having to turtle behind my block, this matchup felt extremely easy.

 

Slayer

Slayers have quite a few tools to get around your block, such as Fury Strike, Whirlwind, and Knockdown Strike. Disregarding savage strike (their two dashes from awakening), a safe distance to stand is ~7 meters. If you keep at this distance, they are unable to attack you behind your block and you are still able to CC from far away. If they happen to try to attack you from the front with a skill with a long animation lock, it is easy to block and counter with Shield Barrage. If you feel like you are in a bad spot, feel free to Challenging Shout if you are in an open world environment. Remember to not waste stuns when they have Tenacity. It's fine to be patient and wait until they waste all of their rolls. Note that if your reaction time is slow, with the new slayer awakening skills you may still have trouble blocking them.

 

Sorcerer

Again, this is another instance where it's actually generally safer to be far away from a ranged class than in melee range. A safe distance to stand is around ~5 meters. Sorcerers are only dangerous in melee range when they have Lightning Trap. Lightning Strike can hit behind block if you are standing 3 meters or closer to them (if you are 3 meters or closer, you have to block behind). This will generally lead to a Lightning Trap, which will lead to the rest of their combo. When they don't have Lightning Trap, feel free to chase them. They have four skills that make it difficult for you to land leash: Teleport Jaunt, Backstep, Glacial Retreat, and Warp Barrier. Sorcerers are very afraid of leash, so they will cycle between these skills until you use leash. When they use all of these skills, they are extremely vulnerable. Make sure to land leash here and combo. This is an example of a matchup where it is extremely crucial to land your leashes and where leash resists can be extremely frustrating.

 

Valkyrie

After the recent nerf to Valkyrie, Valkyries only have a few ways to engage on you: Dash, Dark Herald, and Spinning Death sideways behind block. A safe distance to stand is ~7 meters, because that distance makes it difficult for Valkyries to Spinning Death behind block. Newer Valkyries may go for a hail mary Overhead Slash without any setup, so watch out for this. Try to make sure you are always facing North when fighting them, because Dark Herald can go through block otherwise. Try your best to not get caught, because it will often lead to a Maelstrom, which heals 40% of their HP.

 

Warrior

Warrior's most common engage skill for lancers is Rising Fury. They can aim this skill around block. Therefore the safest distance to stand when dueling them is around ~7 meters. They are in a short animation lock after Combative Strike and Rising Fury, so make sure to counter after they use these skills. On the awakening patch, Backstab hits behind block. That makes this matchup much harder. Backstab has an 18 second cooldown and you can only avoid it with Backstep or Challenging Shout. One thing you can do is Stand Fast and walk backwards, this will force desync and make the warrior unable to fit in their full on a backstab.