Twin Spear Lann Guide

This guide was created for the VindictusWiki Contest by User:beastlink. Some formatting borrowed from Tamaki's Hammer Time! Fiona Long Hammer Guide with permission.

= Twin Spears =

How to Get
Twin Spears are the alternate weapons for the character Lann. You can obtain the quest to get Twin Spear Mastery at level 24 after completing the story quest "Excuse"; Complete the Ainle mission Hell Beyond the Door, obtain the Broken Wand (Item) from it, and give it to Ellis. Marrec will then have the quest Skill: Twin Spear Mastery available, which requires you to get a title by Spearing 15 Wisps.

Twin Spears VS Twin Swords
Before just deciding that "Twin Spears r teh uber leets" and/or using them because they come later and so "must be an upgrade" (they aren't), you should examine the pros and cons of Spears.

Spear Pros:
 * Higher damage output than swords, only when critical hitting is excluded.
 * Spear Dash, which inflicts a smash attack and can be used to cancel out of attacks. Has 0.66 invulnerability frames at Rank 6.
 * Longer reach than swords.
 * Grand Hurricane has MASSIVE range and allows for more mobility than swords.
 * Fury Infusion, a self buff which fully restores stamina upon use, greatly increases Critical Hit rate, and gives a MASSIVE DPS increase whenever it is active. It's Spear Lann's most important skill. The skill can also be used infinitely at 1 HP.
 * Belclaire further amplifies Lann's DPS.

Spear Cons:
 * Potentially less opportunities to attack, as swords can remain close to a boss, slipping through its attacks and counterattacking with Thousand Needles or Double Crescent and then slipping again, while spears must wait for an opening as Spear Dash has some delay and does not have moves that can be linked reliably to (Belclaire can't be used if Blood Pact is in effect). This, however, largely depends on the skill of the player to exploit openings during a fight.
 * Spear Dash's invulnerability frames start up much later into the animation, making it much more difficult to utilize.
 * Swords have significantly higher boosts to critical rate and cap than spears and also have massive critical damage which spears do not have. This allows swords to potentially out-DPS spears should they constantly land critical hits.
 * Extremely strict and repetitive play-style for spears, which generally only consists of running in with Fury Infusion and Belclaire and attacking with either Grand Hurricane or Moon Splitter, then possibly throwing in Gliding Fury and Lightning Fury, then evading/rolling through the enemy's attacks, and repeating over and over.
 * Belclaire has a side effect of increasing spear's damage intake. Or the player can be pro and never get hit.

'''Overall, Twin Spears and Twin Swords are balanced. Choose based on your playstyle.'''

'''Spears lend themselves more to party play and Swords lend themselves to solo play. This does not mean that Spears can't be used to solo and Swords can't be used to party. It means that each shines during certain situations. There will be bosses where one has the advantage over the other and vice versa.'''

Right, now that I've hopefully put to rest some misconceptions about Spears VS Swords, we get on to what you probably started reading this guide for: SPEARS.

Spear Smashes
Lann has five Spear Smashes, compared to Swords' six (Swords have a smash for Smashing while standing still or running [not sprinting]). They are:


 * Tail Piercing: Sprint+R - Useful for when you don't have a lot of time left to attack but could still get in a Gliding Fury if Tail Piercing were to crit. Basically, as a last attempt to get a crit for Gliding Fury.
 * Silent Hawk: LR - Hits three times (each hit slows down the hits following it, unfortunately); holding down the button allows a jump to link for a jump attack. Fairly weak, but it's fairly good to get a quick crit in. Generally, you're better off using Sudden Shock, IMO. Its effectiveness increases the higher your crit rate becomes (because it's extremely fast if the first or second hit crits and you Gliding Fury out of it), so at higher levels it can be a decent alternative to Sudden Shock.
 * Sudden Shock: LLR - Fast and powerful. Its AoE is good for clearing the space directly around you (though it will miss short monsters), and its power gives it great utility during solos where your attack windows are limited.
 * Moon Splitter: LLLR - Excellent for getting crits to follow up with Gliding Fury. It has limited range to the left and right, but it has ridiculous forward and upward range, and hits behind you as well. It also inflicts high damage. Any hit that crits can be followed up immediately with Gliding Fury, but you can't dodge roll out of the attack until the last hit has been dealt. Can be enhanced with Moon Splitter which allows continuity for said skill, and can even outdamage Grand Hurricane.
 * Grand Hurricane: LLLLR (hold the R) - Second highest DPS attack next to Rank 6 Moon Splitter. Spin with great mobility, great range, and great damage in the form of fast, weaker Smash attacks. Gliding Fury out of Hurricane takes some getting used to. Dodge roll works at any time during this attack.


 * Note: Grand Hurricane has Super-Armor. This means that while using it, you cannot be stopped for the duration of the attack unless the attack is too powerful to withstand or incapacitated (or you run out of stamina, but that's just the attack ending :D).
 * Note2: Grand Hurricane uses 18 Stamina per second. This allows for 6 seconds of continuous use before you stop with 12 Stamina remaining. You can also use it for 5 seconds and then Dodge Roll to cancel the animation, which will leave you with exactly 0 Stamina (1 with rank F Stamina Mastery).
 * Note3: Dodge Rolling can cancel out of most frames of Lann's Smash attacks (and any frame whatsoever of Hurricane). Use this to quickly zip in, Smash a boss, and roll away before it can retaliate. Gliding Fury can also be used to dodge, but Dodge Rolling is faster. Gliding Fury (to both dodge and hit the enemy at the same time) is preferred when you have time for it, though.

Unnecessary Skills for Spear Lann
These are skills that only benefit Sword Lann, and so should be avoided.


 * Twin Sword Mastery*
 * Slip Dash Proficiency**
 * Nimble Dash
 * Gust Sting
 * Rising Crescent
 * Pummel Storm
 * Blade Tornado
 * Fanning Slash
 * Double Crescent
 * Thousand Needles
 * Cloth Armor Proficiency
 * Active: Raging Fever
 * Critical Damage
 * Risky Wind
 * Lightning Fury: Twin Swords

''* Note: You will require Rank D in this skill to obtain Spears. In addition, Spears are weaker than swords until you get the Blood Lancer Spears, so you might consider ranking this skill up to obtain any other swords until level 32. I wouldn't recommend it, though.

''** Note: Since AP is unlimited, and you have to wait until level 24 to use Spears, it is OK to rank this skill up to rank D to get Nimble Dash, which is extremely helpful for beginning players. It helped a lot with teaching me how to maneuver my Lann. If you don't want it or can do without it, however, that is fine.''

= Investing AP = You will want to invest AP 3 ways:


 * First, as you require skills to be unlocked or to wear new equipment.
 * Second, as you wish to increase your non-immediate needs.
 * Third, in extra nice-to-have skills.

Please don't consider this as a mandate on which skills you must invest in. This guide tells you what skills are essential for Spear Lann; that is, what skills boost his damage, which is the primary purpose of any Lann player. It also tells you what skills can be ignored, put off for now, or aren't as essential. If you want a skill, by all means, get it. It's your Lann, and you can't break your character like you can in many other games. There's always more AP to spend.

Primary Skills
Spear Lann is much more open than Sword Lann in terms of what must be maxed. While Sword Lann has several skills that require other skills to be at a certain rank, Spear Lann has none of these. He can focus on damage-increasing abilities. '''Note that if a skill only costs 30 AP to rank to E, feel free to do so, even if it's not that great of a skill. 30 AP is cheap and rank E of most skills offers a fairly good buff.'''

Note: Please do understand that you don't need to max every skill all the way before starting on another. That's impossible, as skills start to obtain restrictions at certain levels (usually requiring you to level up to a certain level before the next rank can be obtained). And if you decide that you don't use the skill enough at the moment to justify maxing it, switch to another skill.

Fury Infusion
IMMEDIATELY upon gaining this skill, dump every single point you get into it until it is maxed at Rank 9. It is the reason Spears are so powerful. Using it fully restores Stamina, meaning that a Lann who was panting a moment ago is once again ready to wreak havoc. It also gives such a massive Critical Hit rate and DPS increase when maxed that the difference between a Spear Lann with it and a Spear Lann without it is not even worth comparing. While it consumes 7% HP on use, attacking under Fury Infusion will restore health, but only up to the amount that was consumed by Fury Infusion.

Spear Dash
The next best thing after Fury Infusion, IMMEDIATELY max this at Rank 6. It is a godsend evasion, giving Lann from a 0.3 invulnerability frame to a humongous 0.66 and a significant drop in stamina usage! This makes Spear's invulnerability on par with a single Slip Dash!

Belclaire
The third most important thing a Spear Lann needs. This is an attack out of Spear Dash that causes a "Blood Pact" between Spear Lann and his target, increasing Lann's damage to his target by 20% at Rank A, bolstering his damage capabilities even greater. However, the pact also works against Lann, as the targeted monster will also do 20% more damage to him, but this wouldn't be much of a problem if Lann plays his cards right and never gets hit.

Smash Mastery and Critical Hit
Both Smash Mastery and Critical Hit should be ranked to E immediately upon obtaining them, as each one only costs 30 AP for rank E and gives a huge bonus. It is your choice whether to work on maxing Smash Mastery or Critical Hit first. Smash Mastery probably offers the statistically better DPS increase, however, and though both cost the same up to rank A, Smash Mastery is cheaper to rank beyond A.

Battle Respiration
Rank this up ASAP. The stamina regeneration is amazing at Rank A, and it makes you do more damage overall because of the reduced downtime waiting for stamina to recharge.

Starting from Rank 9, this becomes a pain-in-the-ass to level up; it costs over 1k AP for each of the following ranks with not much benefits, only adding 0.3 stamina regeneration in combat and 0.4 stamina regeneration out of combat.

Secondary Skills
Yup, there are only a few skills we focus on as Spear Lann. Next, we move on to less essential skills that should still be maxed.

Gliding Fury
The most important Secondary skill. Gliding Fury increases damage by a large amount. It is placed under Secondary mostly because it requires Critical Hits or a knockback to perform, and though Spear Lann does obtain a large amount of critical hits, the critical hit skill should come before Gliding Fury.
 * ! Note to XE players:
 * Gliding Fury is a Sword-only skill on the XE version of Vindictus. Leveling it serves no purpose for a Spear Lann playing on XE servers.

Lightning Fury
Requires Gliding Fury Rank 9 (obtained during Skill Challenge: Gliding Fury).

Spear Lann enjoys more benefits from Lightning Fury than Sword Lann because of Fury Infusion. Thus, this should be maxed. It grants another Gliding Fury if your first Gliding Fury crits. Plus, the skill is fairly cheap.
 * ! Note to XE players:
 * Lightning Fury is a Sword-only skill on the XE version of Vindictus. Leveling it serves no purpose for a Spear Lann playing on XE servers.

Strength Mastery
Gives 163 Strength at rank A. While some people will tell you that it offers only a paltry DPS increase, I say different. Strength offers a fairly large bonus to damage, and as a plus, you can pick up heavier objects to bash bosses over the head with. It's a bit of an AP sink, though.

Light Armor Proficiency
Add as you need ranks to wear Light Armor. Although Lanns often wear Heavy Armor, you will need Light Armor Proficiency Rank E for the Savage Leather Set, Rank B for the Royal Cadet Heavy Armor Set, and Rank 6 for the Apocryphal Set.

Heavy Armor Proficiency
As Lann can eventually wear Heavy Armor, this skill is a necessity...but only when you need more ranks to wear Heavy Armor. Your first full set of good Heavy Armor is at level 32, which requires rank D. Get this skill ready for that point, and then only raise it when the next set demands. You could also raise it to A immediately, which would allow you to equip your first Heavy Armor set a bit early, but it's not necessary thanks to the next skill.

Plate Armor Proficiency
Lann's sets eventually become part plate (level 38), and later, entirely plate (level 56). As such, you will have to add points into this skill to equip plate pieces. Beware that this skill beyond Rank A will eat a massive chunk of AP (Plate Armor Proficiency Rank 7 requires exactly a thousand AP and Rank 6 will consume another thousand plus two hundred fifty), so Rank only when needed.

Twin Spear Mastery
Simply rank this skill as you need it to equip new Spears and/or cut down the weight of Spears.

Moon Splitter
A Smash enhancement for Moon Splitter that allows not only increases its damage but also lets it to be used consecutively. It is another godsend for Spear Lanns to the point where it can deal more damage than Grand Hurricane, but is less safe to use.

Grand Hurricane
A Smash enhancement for Grand Hurricane that increases its damage by a fairly large amount due to repeated uses. Since its the fairly most used smash attack next to Moon Splitter, rank this whenever possible.

Accelerate
A buff that gives 1 Attack Speed when attacking an enemy and stacks up to 10 times, for a total of 10 or 5% additional attack speed. Though spears often strike multiples times in rapid succession, all accumulated stacks will disappear when hit. However, the bonus is very negligible and is very unnoticeable, even at max stacks, but this skill only has one rank.

Windmill Boost
An enhancement that allows Windmill to be chained into two normal hits or Sudden Shock. Simply offers a little more versatility to knockdown recovery. This skill only has one rank.

Critical Break
A unique passive that increases Lann's critical cap beyond 50%. Critical cap means that there is only a maximum fixed rate of scoring a critical after Critical Rate and Critical Resistance are calculated. At Rank A, this makes Lann's critical cap rate at 65%, giving him a bigger chance to score critical hits if the critical rate supports it.

Standing Endurance
Has a chance to cause knockback rather than knockdown. This is actually extremely useful since Gliding Fury can be used during a knockback, allowing for counterattacks, or its Rank 9 effect could be used into a safe roll. It is also very AP inexpensive.

Tertiary Skills
Yes, there's a Tertiary set of skills for AP. These are skills that are nonessential but are "nice to have".

Combat Mastery
Most of Spear Lann's damage comes through Smash attacks. Combat Mastery is nice to have, however, because it IS extra damage, even if it is extra damage only on normal attacks, which aren't that powerful to begin with. I would almost put this under Secondary skills, and I would definitely consider putting AP into this at some point. In fact, since it's a starting skill for Lann, you probably will have to just because you have nowhere else to put AP. :D

Do note that Combat Mastery Rank D is a prerequisite for Smash Mastery and Rank C for Active: Berserker Spirit.

Silent Hawk
A Smash enhancement for Silent Hawk that increases its damage by a fair amount. It isn't used that often compared to Moon Splitter or Grand Hurricane, so it holds much less priority.

Sudden Shock
A Smash enhancement for Sudden Shock that increases its damage by a fair amount. It isn't used that often compared to Moon Splitter or Grand Hurricane, so it holds much less priority.

Lightning Fury: Twin Spears
A humongous boost to Lightning Fury that causes invulnerability for its entire duration, ignore physics collision, and reduces its stamina cost. This is a mandatory thing to have as it significantly makes Spear's survivability even better, but is not really worth ranking past F as at Rank A it only decreases stamina cost by 5.

Willpower Mastery
Willpower adds critical hit rate. According to this thread, willpower actually adds 0.016% critical hit rate per 1 Will (or in simplistic terms, 1.6% crit rate for 100 Will, making this skill more useful than I originally thought. Definitely max this skill at some point; however, the Critical Hit skill will be a better investment of your AP initially.

Agility Mastery
According to the aforementioned calculations (found here), Agility actually benefits Spear Lann by a rather large amount. Every 40 Agility grants 1% extra damage on all spear smashes, and every 47 Agi is +1% damage to Gliding Fury. I would recommend that, when you begin maxing Willpower Mastery, you alternate between that mastery and this one.

HP Potion Proficiency
This skill is actually pretty godlike. It's cheap to rank up and increases potion healing by 40% while standing still at rank A. It's not a necessity, especially if you avoid damage more often than take it, but it's very nice to have.

However, the problem is that the effect isn't entirely passive. Its all about timing. You must hold the HP Potion quickslot button to drink the potion and let go when the character begins to put his/her hand down. Shouldn't be too hard, right?

Life Flare
It has a set rate to prevent you from becoming incapacitated when a hit would normally make you incapped. It's pretty nice, actually, but not a necessity. It's also expensive: it costs the same per rank as Smash Mastery.

Campfire
Gives a free repair station and a small bonus to attack and restores unbroken armor durability over time. This is less essential for Lann than for, say, Fiona, who has a shield which she has to avoid breaking. However, Campfire's buffs are extremely awesome all the same, and it's inexpensive, so if you want it, definitely go for it. It won't offer that much of a damage increase, but it helps prevent armor breakage if you get hit during a fight. Arguably unnecessary, as Lann is supposed to avoid damage more than anything, but it's a useful buff nonetheless and I've never turned it down.

Quick Fury Infusion
Allows Spear Lann to instantly execute Fury Infusion during Moon Splitter and Grand Hurricane, with the addition of 1 SP bar. However, HP is still consumed and duration and effects are still based on normal Fury Infusion's rank. Ultimately useless, since the player can simply just dodge roll and use normal Fury Infusion then resume attacking without an extra SP cost. This skill only has one rank.

Active: Slashing High
Skill get.

The best SP skill for Spear Lanns. For 3 SP bars, gives a high speed buff, unlimited stamina, and super armor for 19 seconds, making this a totally badass boss mutilator when combined with Rank 6 Moon Splitter. Plus, it's cooldown is only 1/4th than Furious Seven (30 seconds), and since SP is really easy to get, it can be re-used continuously.

Active: Berserker Spirit
Requires Combat Mastery Rank C.

A pretty decent skill. It's not expensive in terms of AP, uses only 1 SP bar, and gives an attack buff for you and your team for a decent amount of time. There is a 500 attack difference between Rank F through 6, which really isn't too bad. Still, it's not the worst place to spend your AP. Has a cooldown of 2 minutes.

Active: Fury No.7
Somewhat decent but is arguably poor. Using a hefty cost of 4 SP bars, Gliding Fury is executed seven times in a row, with the first hit forcing the enemy to flinch and all with controllable direction, and invincibility for the entire duration of the skill. However, Furious Seven is extremely flawed: it has a very short range and is very slow which often allows many later bosses to easily jump out of, has a very long animation at the end that doesn't allow any movement until it completes. and it has a two minute cooldown, which completely crushes the usefulness of this skill. The only real reason it would be used is for its burst damage and short invincibility.

Transformations
You can unleash incredible power. For two minutes, your stats will increase dramatically, all of your weapons will have increased range. Destruction will only increase with every skill point added to the pact skills. But which should you choose? The holy might of Paladin, or the dread power of Dark Knight? The answer is fairly simple: Choose which one you think looks sexier. The differences between them are so minor in the end that unless you're min-maxing HARD you won't notice the difference.If you like things specific go with your playing style. If your good at strategy go with dark knight. If you just throw yourself at the boss use paladin to survive. Go PWN some bosses.

Transformations gain experience when you use them (exp gain is based on damage dealt during the Transformation; max exp in one Trans is 100), and level up once you reach 2,000 exp (means you need to transform at least 20 times to level up once). Each level-up gives you a single point to add to your Transformation skills, which are located in a skill tree much like in World of Warcraft. Both transformations have similar skills.

At the second pact, it will cost 2 SP bars and 10 AP. It gives even more attack with a special move different for each pact (Paladin or Dark Knight). A Dark Knight gets to make a spike come from the ground and rush towards the enemy. In the trailer, it shows that it can do the break-off of a boss.Paladin gets a holy barrier and make magical missiles of light hit the enemy. It lasts one minute unless you use it with less than 1 minute left of the first pact transformation. Now go DESTROY something!

Intelligence Mastery
Worthless. It is ONLY useful for decreasing Meditation's AP-gain time. Ignore.

Meditation
The usefulness of Meditation is debated somewhat. Basically, for an initial AP investment, your previously-hourly AP gain comes slightly more often. According to calculations, it takes just under a year of gameplay for Rank A Meditation to pay for itself in AP gain. In my opinion, not worth it. However, I have heard that ranking it only once pays itself off fairly quickly, so you might consider doing that.

Other Skills
These are skills you don't have to add anything to at all. They offer little benefit, and are generally just not worth your AP investment. These are skills you should save for when you've ranked everything else up.

Windmill
A full spin with very high knockdown rate, though it can only be used when knocked back/down. Though it can lead into combos with the help of Windmill Boost, Standing Endurance allows the use of a stronger Gliding Fury or an evasive and much safer roll at Rank 9.

Stone Skin
Increases Defense from per armor piece broken. Defense isn't that great; I mean, sure, it prevents damage, but your main 5 equips should prevent most of your damage anyways, and even if they break there shouldn't be anything stopping you from repairing it. Defense is probably not worth it either, as Lann is purely based on dodging.

Defense Mastery
Permanently increases Defense. Once again, you get plenty of Defense from your main equips. This skill does offer more bonuses than Stone Skin unless you armor breaks often. However, this skill is quite an AP eater for a small amount of Defense, so it probably has no worth.

Secondary Weapon Proficiency


This skill allows the use of Light of Palala (at rF), Fine Spears (rE), Fine Small Bombs (rD), and Sticky Bombs (rC/max). Personally, I would get the skill, and hold off on getting rE until you feel your normal Spears aren't worth using because it takes too many to knock down a boss. Fine Small Bombs can be useful for less mobile bosses with their massive knockdown chance, but it's not a priority.
 * Light of Palala is basically like a flashbang grenade and a Small Bomb combined: it is thrown and has a timer like Small Bombs, but instead of damage, it explodes in a bright flash of light, temporarily blinding/stunning the enemy/boss, which can be extremely effective VS some enemies.
 * Fine Spears and Fine Small Bombs are basically more damaging, higher knockdown chance versions of the original items.
 * Sticky Bombs are basically sticky grenades and Small Bombs combined: it is thrown and sticks on enemies and explodes with a timer similar to a Small Bomb. It does not, however, stick to any other surface.

Health Mastery
Permanently increases Health. This skill is too expensive to be worth it. Get the skill for it's rank F bonus. After that, you could add AP into it, but it is definitely not a priority.

Stamina Mastery
Permanently increases Stamina. While not as bad as Health Mastery, this skill doesn't offer a whole lot of bang for your AP; 18 Stamina for a total of 1070 AP at rank A. If you want to rank it, rank it to D to get 10 more stamina, for a small investment of 260 AP.

Weight Endurance
Permanently increases max weight. While somewhat useful for wearing Heavy/Plate armor, weight capacity is given in incredibly huge amounts from leveling to the point where this skill is unnecessary to have. Although somewhat cheap to get to Rank A, Rank F of this skill will still go long ways without even going close to the maximum threshold.

= Armor Progression = There are certain armors that are optimal for Lann. Feel free to use different armors than these, whether for looks or just because you prefer another armor. This just tells you what is optimum for a Spear Lann's damage. This list will update as new armor sets are released. I will ONLY list armor sets that are better than previously mentioned ones, or ones that are equally viable. Do not expect to get ALL these sets the minute you meet the requirements. You may have to skip one or two of these sets if you plan on having money left over for an even better set.

Exquisite Crimson Rage Set
Your first set beyond the starting gear and Mercenary handouts from Marrec. Obtained at level 10 from the Battle Quest Decisive Battle, it provides some great bonuses to all of Lann's main stats, as well as a decent amount of HP. The hat is obtained by breaking off the Gnoll Chieftain's helmet (can be done with anything; thrown rocks and Spears are best), while the rest of the set can be crafted via Ferghus. It is all Light Armor except for the hat and pants, which are Heavy.

Exquisite Savage Leather Armor Set
That Crimson Rage armor will last you quite a while (up to level 26), which is when you go through Dethrone the White Tyrant, craft and wear this set. It unfortunately requires a large number of Life Spirit Remnants, which have a semi-low drop rate as far as remnants go, so you may have to purchase some or most of them depending on your luck. In any case, this is the last Light armor you'll be using. It requires Light Armor Proficiency Rank E.

Alternatively, if you decided to max Heavy Armor Proficiency as early as possible, then you can begin to wear Blood Prince Set armor pieces as soon as level 20. The only way you will be able to do this is by purchasing the pieces from the market, as you wont have access to to crafting blood prince armor until level 31.

If you can hold out, getting the Sharpshooter Leather Armor Set is probably more easier than crafting, as the Sharpshooter Leather Armor Set comes free from the quest Hakam's Test. However, like the Savage Leather Armor, the Sharpshooter requires Light Armor Proficiency Rank E.

Blood Prince Set
As of the Battle Quest Blood Prince, this armor set is a VERY GOOD set to pick up as soon as you can wear it. No other armor set compares to it up to level 38 for Spear Lanns, not even with the Heavier Red Tyrant Set. While it requires a maximum level of 32 to wear every piece, you may find that, even with high Heavy Armor Proficiency and enhancements, you can't wear the full set without going overweight until level 34, which is when you obtain Weight Endurance. Until then, wear as many pieces of the set as you can. It requires Heavy Armor Proficiency Rank D.

Exquisite Spider Lord Set
An extremely powerful armor set from the Battle Raid Hidden. Though its materials are low in drop rate and it can be expensive to craft, but reasonably cheaper than buying the set off of the market, it offers a MASSIVE boost over the Blood Prince set. The hardest material to obtain for it is Red Spider Shell, and you will need 24 of them to create the pieces. It requires Heavy Armor Proficiency Rank C.

Also keep in mind that the helmet for this set requires Plate Armor Proficiency Rank C, and the pieces of this set are required to craft the next set, the Laghodessa Slayer.

Exquisite Laghodessa Slayer Set
From the Nightmare at the Ruins, this armor is a slight upgrade over Spider Lord, and it requires the armor pieces of the Exquisite Spider Lord Set to craft. It is costly to make (34 more spider shells of the green variety this time, with an even worse drop rate). It might be best to ignore the Laghodessa Slayer as it only adds a small amount of Strength, Agility, and Willpower over the Spider Lord. It requires Heavy Armor Proficiency Rank B while the helmet requires Plate Armor Proficiency Rank B.

Royal Cadet Heavy Armor Set
Going through Proof of Courage and Revived Fear brings us the Royal Cadet Heavy Armor Set. Whilst not a huge upgrade in terms of Strength, this set does increase Willpower by a rather large amount (trading out the Agility offered by Laghodessa Slayer). It's also not too difficult to farm, as all of the materials drop at fairly decent rates, compared to the Frost Peak Hard Set of Irukul. Requires Heavy Armor Proficiency Rank B for everything except the hat, which requires Light Armor Proficiency Rank B.

Exquisite Sinister Half Plate Set
From the entire Hilder Forest Ruins comes this beastly armor set. Not only does it make you look like a badass, but it offers some great bonuses to damage. Once again, it swaps out the Agility we saw in the last few heavy armor sets and replaces it with Willpower. I would recommend skipping the Royal Cadet Heavy Armor Set and saving your money for this set (and you WILL need that money). The materials for Sinister Half Plate consist of frustratingly-low-drop-rate items from each of the bosses in Hilder Forest. This set is entirely plate, for a change, and requires Plate Armor Proficiency rank B.

Its probably your best interest to ignore the Queen's Glory Set, as the stats can't compare with the Sinister Half Plate. Also, defeating and looting the Spider Queen of the deadly Battle Raid The Weeping Queen turns out to be more hellish than raging through Hilder Forest Ruins.

Dark Crest Set
This is the one of the best sets at the moment. It's actually the set Lann wears in the ads and some concept art. You get the chest, greave, and helmet (with helmet being the rarest) as drop-offs of Titan while you will have to make the gauntlet and legs yourself. The hardest thing to get to craft is either the Jagursh's Tag, Exquisite Iron Ore, or the Titan's Ankle Guard Fragment.

Debatably, the best all-around stats for Lann at level 61+ are provided by a mixture of Swift and Black Hammer armor (2 parts Swift, 3 parts Black Hammer), mostly because of the outstanding set bonuses and the DEF of Black Hammer. Alternatively, the Passionate Debueruke Set is sometimes preferred for its Stamina boost.

Apocryphal Set
The best piece of gear for level 70s. It provides a great bonus to offensive stats and is much, much easier to make than Everlasting. It is still quite a pain-in-the-ass to acquire, since you'll need to spam The God of Fomors for Ancient Elchulus pieces or hope he drops them, though all you need are three Elchulus's Teardrops. The entire set requires Plate Armor Proficiency Rank 6 except for the pants which requires Light Armor Proficiency Rank 6.

= Weapon Progression = The weapon progression for Spear Lann's is pretty easy to figure out but just in case here it is.

Executioner
Keep the Iron Twin Spears you get once you finish the Twin Spear Weapon quest until you can buy these. The other lower Spears just aren't worth it. You can obtain these from the quest Memories, but since they are so cheap I would just buy them.

Blood Lancers
Coming from Blood Prince are the next best Spears to buy. They are cheap and have a decent damage increase over Executioner. Now while they don't look too great, they do deal more damage. You could actually skip these if you want but if you do the next set of spears are very expensive and aren't a great deal better than these.

Golden Scale Twin Spears
The Gnoll King, Ruler of the Ruins brings us these weapons, but are very costly to make because they use Gold Ore and Golden Scale Fragments. They are a decent attack increase over Blood Lancers but the price is just too high. These do look cool though. I personally stayed with Blood Lancers and skipped these because they are just too costly to make or buy on market.

Long Blade Twin Spears
Shadowed by Darkness finally comes up with some Spears that have a substantial damage increase. Going from Blood Lancers to these I noticed a HUGE damage increase. They also look awesome because they glow.

Gale Weaver
Now these things look AWESOME. Like the previous Twin Spears, the Gale Weaver glows. From Madness, they do great damage and are a big increase over Long Blade Twin Spears. However if you plan to get the Ivory Set, you might want to skip these as the Ivory Set requires you to use Ivory Twin Spears (if you want the most bonus from set) which are much better than these when taking into account the stats. I would only pick these up if your by no means hurting for money, have the materials, or just for looks as they look awesome.

Ivory Twin Spears
What can I say other than the Ivory stuff is just awesome. The Yeti God Irukul has decided to bless us Lanns with these badass equipment. This is a three set piece: a Ring, Belt, and a Weapon depending upon which character and skill path you have chosen. I actually think the Gale Weaver Spears look cooler but these are far superior. I would suggest skipping Gale Weaver and going straight for these if possible.

Braid Tassel Twin Spears
Ok, what can I say? The best spears in the game with just AWESOME look and a kick ass atk and atk speed. All what you need to craft them you get from Titan in The Giant. These twin spears are REALLY far superior than Ivory Twin Spears.

Piasraspear
Another decent spear, instead of going for the attack speed of the Braid Tassel Twin Spears you'll be going for the stats, the balance and the crit, it's made from Colru materials so it might be a bit more tough to make. But definitely worth it.

Madness (Weapon)
The best level 70 twin spears that have extreme damage and high critical. They can be quite difficult to get, since the materials are from The God of Fomors and an Elchulus's Teardrop is needed, but its worth it in the end.

= Tactics = As a Spear Lann, you have the highest damage output over time in the game. With it, however, you have some disadvantages, and you must keep these in mind when going up against bosses. I'll briefly cover party and solo play, with some general advice. Boss-specific advice must be found elsewhere (YouTube is a great place to find videos of various fights). Some general, all-purpose tactics:


 * Fury Infusion can grant infinite Stamina (on top of its large damage increase), but the price of it is low Health.
 * Know your bosses. Know their attacks, and what generally triggers those attacks. Some bosses will only use certain attacks when you are a certain distance. For example, The Reaper will use his smashing medium-range spear thrust almost every time you go beyond close range.
 * Know your limits. Know what you can commit to as a Spear Lann before you rush in and attack.
 * Gliding Fury can be used to both inflict damage and dodge by angling the GF to the side of the enemy. The angle itself can be hard to determine as some bosses have hitboxes much larger than their models (meaning what appears to be empty air next to a boss might actually still stop you).
 * Dodge roll can cancel out of Grand Hurricane instantly, and can cancel out the delay frames (the frames where you normally can't do anything immediately after a Smash) of every other Smash attack. This means that you can quickly get away from the boss after delivering a Smash.

Party Play
In a party, your tactics can vary greatly. There are a couple of factors to be considered when in a party.


 * Party Composition - A party consisting of all Lanns must be approached differently than a balanced party containing every character. Some general notes:
 * Fionas have great knockdown capability, but only until Hoarfrost Depths. Keep in mind that you will almost certainly be using Fury Infusion more than normal in parties with characters that can knock down opponents a lot.
 * Staff Evie has great synergy with Spear Lann. A Staff Evie can keep your health topped off while you abuse the power of Fury Infusion. Just make sure the Evie knows and agrees to this tactic before you charge in, as they won't appreciate your idiocy (and you wasting their Healing spells) in using a tactic no one has agreed to use.
 * Party Size - Larger parties mean more potential distractions for the boss. In a six-man party, you generally aren't going to be the target of the boss about 5/6ths of the time. If he's not attacking you, it means you can be attacking him. Just be careful not to get in the boss's path.
 * Party Skill - Know how good your party members are. A bad party might prevent you from using certain tactics (Ex: don't spam Fury Infusion down to low Health if your team is likely to lead the boss into you while he's attacking one of them).

Solo Play
Ah, solo play. Some consider this to be a true test of skill. Certainly, it's harder than party play, but it can get quite boring, as most solo play involves doing the same thing over and over. It's a great time to mute Vindictus and put on a playlist of epic music. Take into account that these tips are for harder bosses: the first 3 boats can be solo'd pretty much without difficulty for the most part. Some general notes:


 * Fury Infusion. This skill fully restores Stamina upon use, which means spamming it gives you an infinite Stamina pool. On easier bosses, you can spam it in a more relaxed way, as you won't need the constant stamina to avoid getting hit. On some bosses, however (such as the second encounter with the Giant Polar Bear), Fury Infusion spam is needed to successfully avoid the boss as a Spear Lann (as you will need the infinite Stamina pool it offers). Know when you need it, and if you need it all the time, know how to not get hit.
 * Know your boss. Yeah, this is a general note as well, but it's critical for solo play, whereas you can get away with not knowing your boss in party play to some extent (though it may not be pretty). In many cases, taking a hit means death while soloing more difficult bosses. Know how many attacks you can use before you have to get away.
 * Know how to do the same thing repeatedly. As that's what a solo battle eventually becomes.
 * Learn from other soloers. As time goes on, more and more videos will be posted of the more difficult bosses and their solo tactics for each character and weapon choice.

For some excellent examples of solo play, see these videos:

Red Tyrant: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mkQdAuxRHqg

Giant Spider: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LHz6VvRjPGc

The Blood Lord: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wZHFopNFa1Y

Irukul (Part 1): http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wH7KwZwjlNY

Irukul (Part 2): http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hvcuhSCB750

Spider Queen: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=G0sM-OZawiQ

Warlord Black Hammer: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Z-bYMTiHhoQ

Thor: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AY8oinpmipE

More will be added as the communities of both versions contribute them.

= Info = My first guide for any game, really. I hope this was informative and helpful. If you spot any non-typo errors, give me a poke on my talk page. You don't HAVE to, but it'd be nice because then I'd also know the correct information so I don't make the same mistake later on. Feel free to fix typos...so long as they're actually typos. Or my beard will eat you. |