A detailed guide on how to build the best Lance set in MHW Iceborne. This is aim for both PC and Console Player

The main difference right now between the two platforms is the Safi’jiiva Siege (Which opens on PC on 12 March) If you are on PC, basically, everything related to Safi’jiiva before 12 March is not relevant.

If you just want a quick view of the best Lances in the current meta (regardless of platform) check out my previous guide below

http://18.191.70.34/2020/01/02/mhw-iceborne-best-lances-dec-2019/

Iceborne Lance Guide

In MHW Iceborne, the Lance got the new counter clutch

For Lance, instead of shooting Slinger Burst mid-attack, the Shield allow the hunter to enter Guard Shot with L2, a special stance that brings up the shield and can fire out Slinger ammo in a safety position. From this stance, you can also transition to either a Leaping Thrust 

[gfycat data_id=”thriftyvapidbeagle”]

Clutch Claw Counter

As a habit of trying the Clutch Claw, I tried the combination of  and  , But instead of firing the clutch claw right away, our hunter simply holds up the shield while readying the Clutch Claw. The stamina bar is also depleting during this. This is the counter stance similar to the True Power Guard (performed by    during Power Guard)

This will allow the hunter to get on the monster if it performs an attack. From this position, you can then unleash a devastating stab with your Lance and safely get back on the ground. 

MHW Iceborne Build Lance – Armor Skills

[gfycat data_id=”incompleteevilkakarikis”]

Offensive Guard – This is the first and foremost skill you need to grab in Iceborne.

At level 3 Offensive Guard provides you with a 15% boost to attack. Given the nature of Lance play, this is a must for an optimal Lance build.

The usual Armor Skills are still needed in Lance Build.

• Offensive Guard – Level 3 is needed to max out the attack boost
• Guard Level 3/ 5 – This depends on your comfort level. There are builds which focus more on the aggressive
• Guard Up – Same as the above, if you love damage more than defense, you can ditch this as well.

Iceborne Lance Build Jewels and Charm

Ironside Charm V is your best pal! This will max out your Guard 5 and leave the rest to the customization

With all that said, below are the jewels that you need for a decent Lance build

• Ironwall Jewel – Guard Level increase
• Guardian/ Attack Jewel – A combination of Attack and Offensive Guard

For Resentment Focus build, you will need the following:

• Furor Jewel 2 – For Resentment (mostly when you used Safi’jiiva Armor set)

The rest is still the classic for all melee weapons

• Tenderizer Jewel 2 (Weakness Exploit)
• Attack Jewel
• Critical Jewel (Affinity)
• Challenger Jewel (Agitator)

MHW Iceborne Build – Lance Build Compilation

MHW Build – Early Iceborne Armor Set and Lance

At the beginning of Iceborne, you can use the Banbaro Armor set for some HP Boosts as well as a taste of the Offensive Guard Armor Skill.

However, it is best to have the Offensive Guard via Jewel (Which is pretty common to drop) Your main focus is still the sharpness boost. As for weapons, you can start off with the Defender Lance and switch to the Kulu weapon tree.

Follow by the Shara Ishvalda Lance and finally, the Ruiner Nergigante Lance is your best bet before the like of Safi’jiiva

Check out the best Lances in MHW Iceborne here!

MHW Lance Build – Armor Set

After Early master rank, you can quickly rush to the Teostra by joining Investigation, or start out the hunt yourself. This is to get you at least three pieces of this armor set for Master Touch.

As Affinity is easier to build in MHW Iceborne, Master Touch will guarantee an unlimited Sharpness boost if you use it right.

The typical Armor Set for End Game build is as below

MHW Iceborne Build Lance – Elementless

Royal Grace Pike – The Guild Palace weapon is now the king of Elementless weapon. To get this weapon, you will need to finish the following quest

• Fifty Shade of White

After killing the Barioth, you get the material for the base Royal Pike.

If you just happen to have some materials lying around after the quest, you got yourself one of the comfiest Lance out there

Below is a build using this weapon

Hard to get Jewels in this build

• Challenger Jewel
• Critical Jewel

If you don’t have the Challenger Jewel needed for this, try this build out with the Buff Armor set!

Alternate Lance for this build

• Unblinking Gatekeeper – This Lance also syncs with Elementless, and is easier to craft compare to Ruinous Perdition.

MHW Iceborne Build Lance – Ruinous Perdition

If you don’t have the material for the Royal Grace Pike yet, then the Ruiner Nergigante Lance can be your best pal

However, this requires Master Rank 100 to unlock (Both for the quest and to fight Ruiner Nergigante) which is quite harder than the above!

MHW Iceborne Build Lance – Elemental

Elemental Lance is fun to use and kind of easy to pick up. This is thanks to some of the Lance used above already had Hidden Element in their stat

MHW Iceborne Lance Build Fire

Weapons – Silver Prominence

Rajang Beta (Golden Headdress) is used for WEX

MHW Iceborne Lance Build Water

This reused the Royal Grace Pike as it has 540 Water as Hidden element.

Hard to get Jewels in this build

• Guardian/ Release Jewel – This is … How to say, I have never seen it in my latest 50 hours of gameplay 🙂

MHW Iceborne Lance Build Dragon

Unblinking Gatekeeper is used here for 510 Dragon Hidden Element, the same build as the above. This Build is a

MHW Iceborne Lance Build Ice

MHW Iceborne Build Lance – Safi’jiiva Armor

The Safi’jiiva Armor set and weapons provide you with some customization, Here is the full list of Safi’jiiva Lance you can get

The Safi’jiiva armor set provides you a new interesting armor skills

• Dragon Vein Awakening – This increase the damage while you unsheathing (Attacking) while reducing your HP

As your HP will reduce periodically, this sync well with Resentment – which give you +25 Attack at Level 5

Below is a Resentment with Safi Armor lance build

Armor Set

• Safi x 3
• Teostra x 2 (+1 Weapon Awaken Skill for Master Touch)

This is full-blown damage focus with Agitator/ Resentment. However, expect to see your HP at the red level at almost all times. This also requires some good skill to not carting while dealing damage.

Prefer something safer? Here you go

This is still the classic Master Touch set with the Safi’jiiva Lance (Use either the blast variant or Dragon for Comfy) This has higher damage than the classic Royal Grace Pike set.

The best MHW Lance Builds?

If you love damage, the Resentment and Safi’jiiva build may worth your attention. This build forsakes all the sustainability for the glory of offensive. However, playing this require some skills to master. If you are just trying out Lance, I recommend the classic comfy build with Master Touch and the Royal Grace Pike.

The builds above are based on the MHW Build Reddit community builds as well as some of my personal input.

Builder Link buttons are linked to Honeyhunter awesome MHW Builder tool. Be sure to check out his/ her Patron!

Check out my best weapons compilation here

MHW Iceborne Build Guide for all weapons