User blog comment:Lord Loss/Discussion of the Week: Lances/@comment-96.42.26.192-20120610134342

The first weapon I ever tried using, and I have never looked back since (translation: I never regretted choosing it). Lances are one of the most defensive weapons in MH, and it can perform strategies that other weapons can only dream of (though I will admit the SnS comes close). The Lance's guarding ability is only matched by the Gunlance (which is still a Lance), and it's evasive ability outstrips that of the Gunlance. The ability to block roars makes the earplugs skill less of a neccessity on lances as opposed to other weapons.

The Lance offense is no slouch either. Lance's long reach helps attacking monsters that have extreme close range attacks and against certain monsters (Agnaktor) it is simple to precisely target areas you want to break. The Lance's charge is perfect for attacking fleeing monsters and has a psuedo ESP against tougher shelled monsters.

I find that Lances work best against most charging monsters, like Tigrex, Diablos, and Barroth. Other monsters with tricky attacks become easier like Plesioth (TAKE THAT HIP CHECK OF DOOM!), Lavasioth (U-turn Land Swim), Khezu (Electric Force Field), Agnaktor (Its variations of the Land Swim), etc. The counter ability introduced in try is great.

Lances, like all weapons, are not without their faults. They are crippingly slow when drawn, which can make faster aggressive monsters more difficult (Barioth, Blangonga, Rajang :. Frankly every weapon can outspeed a lance/gunlance when drawn. Though lances are precise, high tails are difficult to reach (Barroth). This is truly unfortunate with Los and Ian, due to the fact that their tails hold their rarest items. Lances are a stamina reliant class, so if you run out of stamina while guarding a monster's assault, you are going to die very quickly. Lances can also be difficult to finding appropriate armors for. Guard+1/Guard+2 are immensly helpful on Lances, but they are not always the easiest skills to gem in. Only a select handful of armors actually have the skill, which detracts from the versitality of other classes. Finally while lances evading skills are found on only a few other weapons and most certainly usable, transitioning from lances to other weapon classes can be difficult, due to other weapons being evasion reliant and having a different evasion style.

Overall, lances are a great weapon, with top notch defensive abilities and great offensive abilities, many monsters that could be described as difficult with other weapons, become child's play to a lance. Try one out!