If you're looking to use a lance seriously, you're going to wanna pump up your dex quite a bit since lances have low balance. Good thing you love range so much, eh? If you're just looking to train your lance skills for the stats then you should get a beginner lion claw lance, and you'll just need to get lance counter to rank 8, while the rest of the lance skills go to rank 1. That should get you to master knight talent. Otherwise, all lance skills will have to go to rank 1 to make the most out of Secret Penetrating enchants. Train lance charge at "Shadow Cast City" or "Other Alchemist."
earlier on, I'd say the lion claw lance is better than a knight lance, since you won't have that much damage to notice the difference between lvl 6 and lvl 8 pierce, it has more balance than a knight lance to ease balance issues for you, and enemies you face earlier on have less protection, allowing you to totally null defenses of enemies you face with less pierce. Later on when you have tons of damage, the difference in pierce levels will show when you fight tankier enemies and you may want to switch to a knight lance. I personally use a lion lance and still smash 17k in elite taillteann missions with only a lvl 2 elemental, so I feel pierce levels don't matter that much beyond lvl 6 and is kinda overrated. But that's just my opinion and someone else may feel different.
[FONT="Palatino Linotype"][SIZE="3"]If you have any plans on using heavy armor (which reduces dexterity to humans and elves with the mastery ranked), you might be better off getting a blacksmithed lance from another player and/or using balance enchants to raise your lance balance.[/SIZE][/FONT]
[FONT="Palatino Linotype"][SIZE="3"]If you have any plans on using heavy armor (which reduces dexterity to humans and elves with the mastery ranked), you might be better off getting a blacksmithed lance from another player and/or using balance enchants to raise your lance balance.[/SIZE][/FONT]
Adding on to this, I'll give you an idea about balance. The only reason I'm able to reach 80 balance on my knight lance with my 700~800 dex is because it's an x-grade one and 1 balance from reforge. Meaning highest balance possible plus the reforge. And I still use elegant as suffix only because I haven't found good substitute yet (or just too lazy), and I plan on re-rolling my lance for better elemental reforge. Chance is, you probably won't get the x-grade one nor the balance reforge (because you'd be rolling for elemental reforge, I just happen to be lucky).
So you're gonna need some dex, and yes, you'd have to train range to get dex. There are other ways to get dex, it'd be much grindier.
Once you start range, you probably won't hate it. I don't know why you would even hate range with passion. In fact, range can provide you more than cause problems. You can also transition right into puppets.
So realistically... you should be looking at 340~420 base dex (dex in white numbers), just so that you can reach 80 balance with the help of elegant enchant. If you're going to be using thames set, you can add sight for more balance. If you're using clothes, you can have swarming accs to help as well, or glass fragment enchant.
You can keep your armor. You'll use it less as you play more, but it's not completely useless, I still use my thames for solonogi once in a while.
TL;DR Rank range and life skills at some point. No matter how much you hate range, it'll help with your lance balance, plus easier transition into puppetry, which is immensely helpful. And don't forget enchants and weapon grade.
Thanks for the input, and No, I'm not thinking of using it just for the stats, I plan on keeping it as my main combat role.
I'm willing to train range if it means raising my dex, what is the minimum dex I should need in order to use lances efficiently?
you should be fine with 300 base dex, probably a little less. My lion claw lance is a special grade with 17% balance, and I have 310 base dex. I'm at 79 balance with just elegant. If you use a lion claw lance and add strider onto your boots, you should be fine with balance.
Except that 1 percent balance actually matters too. Also, 17 balance is what you get with upgraded x-grade Knight Lance. We're assuming OP probably won't have access to this. As for prefix on boots, I wouldn't recommend strider. You can get the same balane on sight on armor for more damage, while putting stronger enchants for prefix for boots.
Good thing that 1 percent doesn't matter to me cause I use a rebis cylinder guard. I was just being considerate of OP being a human. Also, I use a lion claw lance, not a knight lance. I'm just giving him options that you didn't list.
There really aren't many other options for lance if you're going to use them seriously. There are really only three lances you should be using end game: Knight Lance, Demonic Lance, and the bone breaker. Lion Claw lacks the full piercing potential which is really the point of lances. The OP can use lion claw lance while training knight skills, but it's definitely not a weapon that I'd recommend for long time use.
I'd really hate to use a personal experience as a rebuttal, I use a lion claw lance and I'm doing just fine. I'm seriously out-damaging demonic lance users in elites. I argue a lion lance is just as good as the three you listed.
I'd really hate to useces a personal experience as a rebuttal, I use a lion claw lance and I'm doing just fine. I'm seriously out-damaging demonic lance users in elites. I argue a lion lance is just as good as the three you listed.