Intro

Lancer Mentality

Lancers are very ping reliant. The class has a lot of input, meaning there are many times where you’d take ping tax, and zero supercancels. In addition to this, one of your main skills, Onslaught, tends to desync your character into unwanted places if your ping is too high.

In my opinion, lancers are one of the more experience-based classes. For most players it may be difficult to pick up and perform optimally, as there are many small things that come with experience. Things like knowing exactly when to Wallop because you know the boss will attack, or knowing to use onslaught when it won’t be interrupted are things that come with becoming accustomed to the class.

Lancers have very big mana issues, meaning I find myself spamming mana potions during every encounter. Having good healers can help alleviate the pain a lot, but it is still a problem that lancers face, so every lancer should always enter dungeons with this in mind.

Your top priority is to position the boss correctly so that your DPS can hit the boss safely; the lancer is the tank of the party, after all.

Because of the damage and aggro reworks, lancers should try to play as aggressively as possible, and squeeze in as many skills between boss attacks as we can manage. It’s not ideal to hold block for longer than a second in most scenarios, and if you find yourself holding your block for any longer than that, you likely are playing too defensively.

As a tank, having good gear plays a huge role. In particular, having a VM chest for the additional damage reduction roll gives players a huge margin of error, and makes certain mechanics manageable which would otherwise kill you.

Gear

Weapon

Top:

Increased damage by 9.3% when attacking enraged monsters.

Increases Attack speed by 9%

Bottom:

Increased damage by 9.3% when attacking enraged monsters.

Increases damage by 8.6% to the target with the most aggro towards you.

Increases damage by 6%

Decreases Skill Cooldowns by 7.2%

Attack Speed vs Enraged

To make Attack Speed worth it, you absolutely must have a flawless rotation. However, because a perfect rotation is possible using the Enraged roll, Attack speed is not optimal. I’d suggest the Attack Speed roll on entry gear like Slaughter or Guile if you do not have etchings.

Armor

Top:

Increases damage of Spring Attack by 15%. – Spring attack ends up at roughly 30-40% of our overall damage, significantly more impactful than any of the other bonuses given by armor rolls.

Bottom:

Decreases damage by 8.7% from the monster with the most aggro towards you.

Decreases damage taken by 6%.

Decreases damage taken from frontal attacks by 6.9%.

Decreases damage from enraged monsters by 10%.

Gloves

Increases Power by 5.

Increases Attack speed by 2.25%.

Increase Crit Factor by 9.

Boots

Increases Endurance by 4.

Increases Movement Speed by 6%.

Replenishes 2% of total MP every 5 seconds.

Crystals

Standard: Wrathful

Focused

Pounding

Pounding Slaying: Wrathful

Focused

Slaying

Furious Back Crit: Focused

Bitter

Savage

Pounding

If your gear isn’t quite perfect yet, you may want to consider using a Carving instead of the second Pounding. However, when considering best-in-slot I’ve found that Pounding is more consistent.

In addition to standard front crit crystals, I urge every lancer to carry back crit crystals as well, because there are many encounters that you can safely back crit without causing too much of an inconvenience to your DPS players.

Hardy Crystals for Armor

Keen Vyrsks for Accessories

Weapon Dyad secondary – Try to get Poised or Relentlessly, but not having these isn’t the end of the world.

Armor Dyad secondary – Aim for one Glisteningly as this is a huge qol buff whenever we get to back crit. For the other three, try to get Brutally. The reason we want Brutally is because after many shield phases, bosses have moments where they’re “staggered.” While they’re staggered they’re considered to be in a knocked-down state. A primary example of this is Shandra Manaya, and there are shield/stagger phases in the 30-man raid as well. Brilliantly and Swiftly are also viable.

Etchings

Energetic IV for Weapon and Gloves

Grounded IV for Armor and Boots

Keen IV vs Energetic IV The current rule of thumb is that all lancers use Energetic etchings for all content. Energetics perform well in all encounters, active or inactive. However Keen etchings should outperform Energetics in ideal situations. They especially shine during inactive fights like Desolarus. There are a few reasons for this: During Inactive fights, you can expect lower usage of Shield counter and lower Hold the Line stacks. This makes our overall crit a lot lower. During Inactive fights, both cooldown reduction and attack speed become slightly less valuable as you cannot use Shield Counter as much. Higher Attack speed leads to more cooldown locking, which means we are forced to spend more time using Combo Attack, which deals very low DPS. During absolute ideal situations, you can expect bosses to die significantly faster. This leads to higher variance in your overall crit chance, and these can help you tip the balance in your favor. It is possible that, moving forward, we may see more encounters where Keen is preferred. I believe that Keen etchings still need more ingame testing against different bosses, which is why I recommend Energetics.

Accessories

Rings Manorborne & Blubred Rings



Rolls: 4 Crit Factor & 4 Power Earrings Manorborne & Blubred Earrings



Rolls: 4% HP & 4 Endurance Necklace Manor Necklace or Blubred Necklace



Rolls: 4 Power

Belt

Ambush Belt or belt that best matches your set bonus

Rolls: 3 Power, 6 Crit Factor

Innerwear

Crit is the best innerwear.



Brooch

Quatrefoil Brooch is best-in-slot, followed by Quickcarve, then Empowered. If you choose to use the 9% attack speed roll on your lance, you should use an Empowered Brooch.

The new Wyvern Brooch is available to lucky raiders which gives the same stats as Quatrefoil Brooch with a 20 second duration instead of 15. This brooch shares a cooldown with Quatrefoil/Empowered brooch.

Skills/Glyphs

For this guide, all glyphs will be assumed to be master/uncommon.

All Essential Glyphs are irreplaceable, you’d use them in every PvE Lancer build.

Also, all Situational Glyphs are either for survivability, or their damage benefit is fairly insignificant, so if in future patches we happen to get better glyphs (please bhs crit glyphs i beg) these would be the first ones we replace.

Ineffective Glyphs are ones that either currently do not have a use, carry only small benefits considering the point cost, or are more oriented towards PvP.

Adrenaline Rush Increases Attack Speed by 20% and increases damage to monsters by 5% for you and all party members within 40m for 1s. Your attacks draw more aggro. Decreases cooldown of your melee attack skills by 50%.

This is our main DPS Cooldown. Be ready to use mana potions with this one, as casting Guardian Shout and Adrenaline Rush costs a huge amount of mana, plus we’ll be spamming our skills as much as possible throughout its duration.

[3] Swift Adrenaline Rush. – Increases Attack Speed by an additional 10% – Note that the attack speed given by this is applied BEFORE gear/other Attack Speed sources, and AFTER Adrenaline’s baseline has been applied. The glyph should be renamed “Increases attack speed by an additional 12%” for clarity. Nonetheless the effect applies to your entire party, so this is a very important glyph.

Backstep Quickly back up without turning around.

[2] Affirmative Backstep – Reduces RE cost by 100 – This glyph isn’t absolutely necessary, as there are very few encounters that require you to iframe twice in quick succession. However it is very useful if you are back critting, and also if you actively position the boss by using your iframe for mobility.

Chained Leash Throw a chain around a target within 15m and pull up to 6 enemies within 15m together into a tight group. Chained Leash stuns the target.

Similar to Leash, this skill has very few uses, primarily in interrupting boss mechanics via a stun, but is still quite useful for grouping mobs in trash pulls.

[4] Energetic Chained Leash

[4] Lingering Chained Leash

Challenging Shout Draw the attention of enemies within 10m and maintains it at maximum for 5 sec. Gains Unwavering for 20 seconds.

This skill was recently reworked to give the caster maximum aggro for a time, making this skill very useful for snatching back aggro from our DPS, or for the 30-man Aggro mechanics. This skill also gives us Unwavering, which isn’t necessarily useful for any encounters.

[5] Grounded Challenging Shout – Increases Endurance by 21 upon successful hit – If you’re extremely undergeared, you may want to consider this glyph. Ideally you won’t be using Challenging Shout though.

[3] Ardent Challenging Shout

[3] Threatening Challenging Shout

[3] Brilliant Challenging Shout

[2] Hastened Challenging Shout – Because of the changes to Challenging Shout, casting this skill gives you maximum Aggro for a time, making this a very good glyph choice.

Charging Lunge Charge a short distance and impale your target.

This is our main mobility skill, and should cover enough distance for any encounter currently in game. Keep in mind that it finishes with an attack, which, ideally, you would cancel before it lands a hit. Because of this attack, when you’re retreating from bosses, make sure to move a small distance away from the boss to prevent yourself from charging the skill back into the boss. This skill also chains into Wallop.

[4] Empowered Charging Lunge

[5] Fleetfooted Charging Lunge

[3] Energetic Charging Lunge – Decreases cooldown by 20% – Personally, I never use this glyph. However it can be useful on certain fights that require a lot of movement.

Combo Attack Strike one or more targets in front of you, and gain MP with each hit. Successive strikes do more damage, up to four hits, with the fourth hit dealing substantially more.

One of our fillers. This gives us back some mp, and also makes our shield barrages faster if used enough. Always use only the first attack.

[3] Threatening Combo Attack

[3] Spirited Combo Attack

Debilitate Briefly weaken the Endurance of your foes by 4%. Effect stacks up to three times.

One of our fillers. One thing that makes an excellent lancer is being able to keep this debuff up 99% of the time, which is fairly easy using the Lingering glyph.

[4] Impelling Debilitate

[5] Lingering Debilitate – Increases effect duration by 100% – This glyph has never been necessary, and always has been fairly QoL. It’s very good in this patch due to mechanics like Imperator’s Target.

Guardian Shout Creates an aura which increases Endurance by 91% and Power by 30% for you and group members within 40m. Lasts 45s. Effect ends if you are knocked down.

This is our second group party buff. It lasts a very long time so you can feel safe using it shortly before the burn. Be careful though, as being knocked down removes the buff from you and your party.



[3] Brilliant Guardian Shout

[5] Energetic Guardian Shout – Decreases cooldown by 35%

Infuriate Enrages all monsters within 10m and increases your aggro to the maximum amount.

I consider this to be another party “buff.” With the changes to Enraged bosses, this skill can enable your party to burn down bosses quickly whenever your team finds it optimal to do so. More on this skill later in the guide.

[3] Slowing Infuriate

[6] Energetic Infuriate – Decreases cooldown by 20% – This is a glyph I’d strongly recommend, and one I use in every glyph page. However I do not think it is absolutely necessary.

Iron Will Your iron will absorbs 32834 damage, consuming 1 MP for every 100 damage absorbed. Effect ends when you absorb damage beyond the limit, when you run out of MP, or after 1s.

This buff is excellent for surviving damage-over-time effects. The drawbacks are the long animation and the mana drain.

[4] Lingering Iron Will

[5] Warding Iron Will – Increases damage absorption by 25% – This glyph is extremely situational, as very few situations would call for the additional shielding. If you find that you’re having trouble dying to damage-over-time mechanics (like Queen’s debuff or Krakatox’s debuff) this is not a bad choice.

Leash Throw a magical hook and chain that pulls one enemy within 18m toward you and stuns them for 3 seconds. Not effective on huge opponents.

Very few applications for actual boss fights, but it is a very reliable stun on a fairly short cooldown, especially useful for bosses that require you to interrupt certain mechanics.

[4] Energetic Leash

[4] Longshot Leash

[4] Slowing Leash

[4] Numbing Leash

[5] Threatening Leash

Lockdown Blow Deliver a crippling attack in front of you, briefly decreasing the target’s Movement Speed by 32%.

Another filler skill. Fairly low in priority but has some nice uses, primarily in that it is a very quick gap-closer that does damage. As an Elin it moves you forward 5m.

[4] Empowered Lockdown Blow – Increases skill damage by 20% – Lockdown blow counts for a low amount of overall damage, but any damage increase is still an improvement, which is why I recommend this glyph.

[4] Slowing Lockdown Blow

[3] Threatening Lockdown Blow

Master’s Leash Throw another hook to pull the target nearer. You can use this skill only after using Leash.

This skill is used very infrequently, as it does the exact same thing as Leash.

[3] Persistent Master’s Leash

Menacing Wave Blast a wave that briefly decreases Movement Speed and Attack Speed of all targets within 7m by 15%.

Not gonna lie, I cannot recall any point in the past 3-4 months that I used this skill with any regularity, as it is a pvp skill.

[3] Brilliant Menacing Wave

[3] Lingering Menacing Wave

Onslaught Rush your foe and lunge repeatedly. You take only half damage while using this skill, and are more resistant to knockdown and stagger. Activates faster if you first use Shield Bash.

One of our most important damaging skills. Onslaught is great for many things; you can use it to cover distance, deal damage, and “tank” certain boss mechanics. It does have a few drawbacks: the damage is very backloaded, so if for any reason you had to interrupt casting this, it’d be a significant damage loss. Also, if you’re a high ping player (even those with low ping suffer from this on occasion) it’s very possible that you end up killing yourself by desyncing into one-shot mechanics (a common one being Pahoegar’s lasers, as I’ve fallen victim to this numerous times even with 40-50 ping), or desyncing through the boss. This skill requires a lot of know-how to use it in situations where you won’t have to interrupt it.

[3] Brilliant Onslaught – Reduces MP cost by 150. – Because of both the low point cost and Onslaught’s very high mana cost, this glyph isn’t a bad idea if you’re having issues with mana.

[4] Empowered Onslaught – Increases skill damage by 30%.

[4] Carving Onslaught – Doubles the chance to crit.

Pledge of Protection Absorb 20% of damage done to other group members within 20m for 1s by taking it on yourself and reduce 20% of damage you receive. Your defense stat determines how much damage you take.

I use this fairly infrequently, as sometimes it can even get you killed. I’ve found this skill useful for certain mechanics that put pressure on a single teammate, like Imperator’s double circles.

[3] Energetic Pledge of Protection

[5] Restorative Pledge of Protection

Rallying Cry Your defiant shout draws aggro while you and party members within 10m become immune to knockdown and stagger for 15s. Shares the same cooldown with Guardian Shout.

This skill was commonly used in Dreadspire due to the various knockdown mechanics, but outside of Dreadspire it has limited use, and could occasionally make Gshout usage awkward.

[3] Threatening Rallying Cry

[3] Brilliant Rallying Cry

[4] Lingering Rallying Cry

[3] Energetic Rallying Cry

Retaliate Leap to your feet while attacking your target. You can use this skill only when knocked down. You become briefly immune to knockdown, stagger, and stuns.

[3] Empowered Retaliate

[4] Energetic Retaliate

Second Wind Recovers 50945 HP and 750 RE.

It heals us and gives us RE, basically an oh shit button. If the healing crits, you get 76k hp back.

[6] Energetic Second Wind

[4] Ardent Second Wind

Shield Barrage Move forward, attacking the target with your shield. Repeat the attack up to 2 hits, and the last hit may briefly stun your target.

One of our main damaging skills, and the primary chain into Spring Attack. Shield Barrage separates into two hits, the second hit dealing slightly higher damage.

[4] Brilliant Shield Barrage

[2] Threatening Shield Barrage – Increases aggro by 200%.This glyph can be used to help hold threat against high threat classes, like DPS brawlers and DStance Berserkers.

Shield Bash Briefly stun one or more foes.

I only use this to chain into Onslaught. It does very little damage but the large boost of speed to Onslaught more than makes up for it. It is also a stun and hence can be used similarly to Leash to interrupt certain boss mechanics.

[4] Lingering Shield Bash

[3] Energetic Shield Bash – Decreases cooldown by 25%.

[4] Blazing Shield Bash – Speeds casting of Onslaught by 25% for a few (5) seconds.

Shield Counter Gain a chance to shield-thump your foe while using the Stand Fast skill, with a high chance to crit. You take half damage while using the skill, and have a high resistance to knockdown and stagger.

This skill has a very high threat modifier, with a 100% chance to crit and good base damage, chaining into Spring Attack.

[2] Threatening Shield Counter – Increases aggro by 120% – This glyph can be used to help hold threat against high threat classes, like DPS Brawlers and DStance Berserkers.

[3] Ardent Shield Counter

Spring Attack Leap to your foe and strike a hard blow. Activates faster if you first use Shield Bash, Shield Barrage, Debilitate, Shield Counter, or the third consecutive hit of Combo Attack.

This is our main DPS skill, and all of our rotations revolve around using Spring Attack as much as possible. This skill has very high mana usage, making the Brilliant Spring Attack mana glyph one of the two mana glyphs that I’d recommend.

[4] Brilliant Spring Attack – Reduces MP cost by 75.

[4] Empowered Spring Attack – Increases skill damage by 30%

[3] Numbing Spring Attack

Stand Fast Block frontal attacks with your shield. Damage reduction depends on your equipment. Reduces damage as long as you hold down the skill button. Allies behind you also get damage reduction.

Our blocking skill, used to cancel the ending animations on many of our skills. Whenever we block an attack, we gain 1 stack of Hold the Line, which gives us 4 power, 6 crit factor, and increases our aggro by 4%. Maintaining Hold the Line is essential for getting high DPS as a lancer, as the resulting amount of free stats it gives you is enormous. Keep in mind that for multi-hitting attacks, you’ll have to tap block to gain more stacks. I’ll have a video demonstrating this.

[4] Reinforced Stand Fast – Increases maximum RE by 500. – This glyph, similar to the Backstep glyph, is very helpful in situations where you have to iframe multiple times in quick succession, however i find the glyph point cost to be a bit high to employ it in regular use.

[4] Pumped Stand Fast – 30% chance to increase Power by 15% for 10 seconds upon a successful block. – This glyph gives you 6 power, and on most fights is up almost 100% of the time. However, during some inactive fights you may see significant downtime in this glyph, and maybe you’d like to invest the points elsewhere.

[3] Powerlinked Stand Fast – Increases skill damage of Shield Counter by 25% for a few (10) seconds.

[2] Influential Stand Fast

Wallop Jump forward and hammer the ground with your shield to inflict damage with a chance of knockdown. Blocks attacks from the front. Activates faster if you first use Charging Lunge, Shield Barrage, Debilitate, Shield Counter, or Spring Attack.

One of our main skills, and hardest hitting attack. Wallop has a frontal block which is extremely useful for maintaining a fluid rotation.

[4] Empowered Wallop – Increases skill damage by 25%

Glyph Pages

Rotation/Skill Usage

Rotation is a tricky part, as I don’t see it as simple as Skill A > Skill B > Skill C. There are far too many variables in combat and you would do best to set up a hierarchy of skills, and set priorities to each of them. You should be able to easily use all of your DPS skills off cooldown, and have remaining time to do other things (mechanics/combo attack/movement etc.) This is how your list should look like *OUTSIDE OF ADRENALINE RUSH*

Debilitate – Maintain 3 stacks at all times, and use Debilitate off cd until you reach 3 Block/Shield Counter Spring Attack Wallop = Onslaught Shield Barrage Lockdown Blow Combo Attack Debilitate

Blocking is very high priority as it enables Shield Counter and refreshes our Hold the Line stacks, which we aren’t guaranteed to maintain during certain fights. In almost every situation, Shield Counter is the most ideal skill to use as you can chain it into Spring Attack. Doing this allows you to skip over weaker chains like Debilitate and Shield Barrage.

Wallop deals more DPS than Onslaught if it blocks something, and you’re able to Shield Counter afterwards. Otherwise, on average, Onslaught provides slightly higher DPS due to the crit glyph.

I never cast unchained Onslaught unless I’m using it for the damage reduction portion of the skill.

Example Rotation

Shield Barrage > Spring > Shield Bash > Onslaught > Shield Barrage > Spring > Wallop > Lockdown Blow > Shield Barrage > Spring > Debilitate > Combo Attack > Shield Barrage > Spring

Here’s a short video of me doing it

While fighting, the key thing is to use Spring Attack off cooldown, as every moment your Spring Attack is off cooldown signifies a DPS loss.

Adrenaline Rush

While under the effects of Adrenaline Rush, our rotation is very different, as not all skills are affected the same way by the added Cooldown Reduction. Adrenaline Rush reduces the cooldown of Shield Barrage, Spring Attack, Shield Counter, Wallop, and Onslaught. In this scenario, your skill hierarchy would look like this:

Debilitate (if you don’t have 3 stacks) Spring Attack = Shield Counter Wallop Shield Barrage Debilitate

We shouldn’t be using Onslaught in our Adrenaline Rush, because it’s very slow and leads to Spring Attack cooldown clipping.

Example ARush Rotation (0 debilitate stacks, against an inactive boss)

Debilitate > Spring > Shield Barrage > Spring > Wallop > Debilitate > Spring > Shield Barrage > Spring > Wallop > Debilitate > Spring

Here’s a short video of me doing this rotation

Example ARush Rotation (3 debilitate stacks, against an inactive boss)

Shield Barrage > Spring > Wallop > Shield Barrage > Spring > Lockdown Blow > Shield Barrage > Spring > Wallop > Shield Barrage > Spring > Debilitate

Here’s a short video of me doing this rotation

Fitting Shield Counter into your ARush Rotation

This is a tricky part and also where experience comes into play. Ideally in Adrenaline Rush you do zero manual blocking, and block all attacks with Wallop. Simply said, you replace Shield Barrage with Shield Counter. Here’s an example:

Shield Barrage > Spring > Wallop > Shield Counter > Spring > Shield Barrage > Spring > Wallop > Shield Counter > Spring

*All these rotations are what I use, but note that I play with 20-40 ping. At higher ping I believe it would be more effective to Shield Barrage > Spring and use Wallop when you can block an attack for the Shield Counter > Spring chain.

Here’s a short video of me doing a full adrenal rotation + some other fighting stuff

Proper use of Adrenaline Rush/Guardian Shout

As I mentioned before, Adrenaline Rush is not only a huge increase of damage for you, but also very significant for our party members. Typically you use Adrenaline Rush in conjunction with Guardian Shout. In addition to this, you can have your mystic use Contagion as soon as they gain the Guardian Shout buff which is very easy to recognize as a mystic. Make sure that the boss is Enraged, and also has enough time left on the enrage for the (hopefully) full duration of Adrenaline Rush. If your healers enjoy trying hard and pushing limits, they may also use the Hurricane weapon with your Adrenaline Rush. Using Adrenaline Rush strategically is more important than just using Adrenaline Rush when you have 10 stacks of Hold the Line.

Infuriate Usage

The use of Infuriate depends on the boss that you’re fighting. Some enrage at 99% and are enraged for the entire fight, whereas others enrage later in the fight and for a brief duration. For example, all of the bosses in SSHM naturally enrage 20% after they have last enraged. This means they are first enraged at 80%. Infuriate is used ASAP on the first and third bosses so that you and your party can use your cooldowns to full efficacy, and allow them cool down for the next Enrage period. For fights that last longer than Infuriate’s cooldown, you can use Infuriate a second time to finish the boss off.

Tips/Tricks

There are a few tricks Lancers can use, and I will go over them here.

Onslaught

Onslaught has a fairly unique trait – most damage taken while casting Onslaught is halved. This is quite useful in SSHM as many of the “one-shot” mechanics don’t deal fixed damage. This lets us deal damage when otherwise we’d have to avoid certain AoE’s to not die. The recording of Nightmare Dakuryon posted later on in this guide shows a good example of this.

Skating

This is a ‘feature’ exclusive to those who are either Elin or High Elf Male. Basically you “skate” across the floor by using Combo Attack and quickly cancelling it with block. It’s slightly faster than simply walking while in combat, and it may also net you a little bit of damage. The majority of your movement will be via Charging Lunge and Shield Barrage, so I personally use this mostly for micro-movements. Here’s a video of me demonstrating it.

Note that this can be done without using RE, and probably faster. I’m not great at skating though as I don’t often have to use it; it’s more of a PvP thing.

Barrage Cancel

Of all these tricks, this one may be the most significant. Barrage Cancel is done by putting a micro block in between the two hits of Shield Barrage, in order to completely remove the first swipe animation. To do this, you “simply” have to shield barrage hit #1 > tap block > shield barrage hit #2. This saves a lot of time in long fights. It also makes attack speed a bit less important, because much of our time is invested into casting Shield Barrage. The timing is very tricky though, and it’s very difficult to master. Here’s a video of me demonstrating it.

The beginning of the video shows examples of Barrage Cancelling, and the end shows normal Shield Barrage for comparison.

Tap Blocking

When blocking, you can only get one stack of Hold the Line per block instance. So when bosses use multi-hitting attacks, if you tap your block, you can get more than one stack per attack. Be careful though, for if you mistime it you will take unwanted damage. Here’s a video of me demonstrating it.

Front-Critting from the Back

There are three hit areas to each monster: the front, sides, and back. As a lancer, we almost always use the Wrathful Crystal, which increases our critical power when attacking from the front. The Wrathful Crystal counts side crits as front crits. There are ways to manipulate your camera so that all of your attacks don’t register as back crits. Here’s a video of me demonstrating it.

Double Brooch

It is useful to have a second brooch, as you can get the active effect from both in one fight, resulting in a slight DPS increase. To get the active effects of two brooches in one fight, you equip your secondary brooch, use the active, then swap to a costume set with your main brooch before you enter combat. You cannot have two different brooch effects on you at once. Note that Empowered and Quatrefoil Brooch share cooldowns, so you cannot use those two in combination. Here’s a video of me demonstrating it.

Dungeons tips

As of right now, the hard mode dungeons are Shadow Sanguinary and Demokron Factory, hence these are the dungeons I will cover in this guide. I’m not going to point out every mechanic of every fight; I just want to demonstrate and explain the Lancer’s job in each encounter.

Shadow Sanguinary

Nightmare Pahoegar

The tank’s job in this fight is very important, and can make a significant difference for your DPS. What we’re supposed to do is position the boss so that our DPS can hit the back safely without getting damaged by the totem’s aoes and lasers. In addition to this, Pahoegar himself shoots lasers that one shot players and kill the totems. You do not want your back facing the totems, as he can charge forward, pushing you into the totems and placing the boss into totems as well. I wouldn’t suggest turning the boss at a 180° to kill totems behind him, as this may confuse your party members and possibly get them killed. Try to stay in front of the boss by using your Backstep to reposition quickly and easily, and try to save enough RE to Backstep should he target you with a laser. Here is a video of me fighting him.

Nightmare Dakuryon

The tank’s role for this boss is fairly simple: just deal DPS. However, there are still loads of fun things we can do here as lancers. Thered AoE’s on the floor are not fixed damage, which means that we can tank certain patterns using Onslaught. (Note that you will definitely need a VM chest to do this safely!) In addition to tanking patterns with Onslaught, Dakuryon is an inactive boss that turns around very infrequently, so we can also back crit this boss without feeling guilty about our DPS players losing backtime. We can also help our party members live through Dakuryon’s three lasers at 90%. Our block (not Wallop) has a mechanic which reduces the damage your party takes when they’re behind you. If you stand in front of the laser and they are near you, they will take significantly reduced damage. These lasers also have 3 ticks of damage, so you can get 3 ticks of Hold the Line from each laser if you time your blocks perfectly. Note, I do not enrage at 80% because the pizza pattern is pretty bad for DPSing. If you hold infuriate he naturally enrages at 80% and does the second room-wide AoE pattern, which is much easier to back crit during. If you do this during a run, you may want to mention it beforehand, as most tanks enrage at 90%, after the three lasers. Here’s a video of me fighting him.

Nightmare Imperator

Pretty easy boss. I’d consider him to be an active boss, because we can get hold the line fairly easily here. But, when he’s not doing his triple swipe attack, we can safely back crit without our DPS losing much backtime. What I usually do during pug runs is start the fight off using front crit crystals, and if I’m targetted by a shield phase, swap back to back crit crystals after getting out of combat. You can also do this if you die on accident. Here’s a video of me fighting him.

Demokron Factory

Nightmare Vera, Nightmare Prima

This one is an easy but annoying fight. Vera puts down poison pools on the tank which decrease endurance, and when it’s stacked up to 10, you start taking some serious damage. These poison pools also last a very long time, so Vera is typically tanked around the edges of the room. Pull the boss out of the poison so that your DPS can hit the boss safely. Vera also has a really weird attack pattern which bugs the crap out of me. Prima’s knockback can be quite frustrating. If you can, try to have somebody aggro/kite her away from the main party so that they aren’t hit by the knockback attack. Here’s a video of me fighting them.

Nightmare Odon and Nightmare Verno

For these two fights, there are no special tips or tricks, as all of the mechanics are pretty self-explanatory. Odon is fun to practice rotations on, but both bosses are fairly easy.

Racial Differences

Elin – Longest reach on first hit of Combo Attack and Shield Barrage. Most of the Elin animations are quicker than the other races’. If you wish to utilize the Barrage Cancel trick, Elin is the “best” race.

High Elf (Male) – Fastest animation on Shield Barrage, which is a very important lancer skill. They also have an active which fully restores mana on a 2 hour cooldown, and a passive that allows them to resurrect with a higher mana percentage.

Amani (Male) – Passive that reduces damage taken by 10% while below 30% hp. This is very helpful for Slaying runs, as it allows the user to have near 100% damage reduction as long as you have the right gear. However, they lack the reach and speed of Elin and High Elf Male lancers, and the amount of time anyone spends Slaying content tends to be very low.

Overall, the differences aren’t very significant, and you can get away with using whichever race/gender combination you’d like. I know some exceptional lancers who are neither Elin nor High elf male, so pick whichever race you like best and enjoy yourself.