Lance High Rank and Endgame Builds for Monster Hunter Wilds

Your weapon is covered by simply upgrading to Balahara Lance IV when possible, upgrading to White Sharpness and Offensive Guard III. For Armor, this set quickly pivots to the 2-piece of Guardian Fulgur Anjanath and transitioning to the 4-piece after unlocking Mizutsune for the additional Stamina gauges provided by Fulgur Anjanath's Will. While this isn't strictly an offensive skill, the extra flexibility it provides with your Stamina management when paired with Maximum Might (present on the set) adds a lot of efficient Affinity into your build. Add onto this the points of Agitator and the build can cover any hunts deeper into HR with a surprisingly strong offense.

Initially when starting, you should prioritize crafting Guardian Ebony Odogaron Waist and Guardian Rathalos Legs until you unlock Mizutsune. After this, switch to the full 4-piece and wear the Mizutsune Legs. This is to make sure you maintain efficient points in Burst at all times. Your Talisman option is mostly up to you, with Exploiter for Weakness Exploit, Challenger for Agitator or Chain for Burst depending on preference.

• Offensive Guard - Level 3
• Agitator - Level 3
• Maximum Might - Level 3
• Burst - Level 2
• Stamina Surge - Level 1
• Weakness Exploit - Level 1
• Fulgur Anjanath's Will - 4-piece

After unlocking Gore Magala and High Rank Arkveld you can start gathering Hunter Symbol III, opening up crafts to move toward a much more focused offensive setup. At this stage, you should have access to a good amount of Decorations which can now start to be included to round out builds closer to Endgame setups.

As soon as Gore Magala becomes available, builds actively want to pivot toward activating at least the 2-piece bonus, and in some cases the 4-piece. This paired with Sane decorations give consistent access to a high amount of Attack and Affinity when recovering from Frenzy, making it extremely efficient relative to other skills. Ideally you use the Waist and Legs, alongside two 1-slot decorations.

It pairs this with the 2-piece Guardian Fulgur Anjanath 2-piece to maintain the comfort of extra Stamina, and giving more room to play around Maximum Might which fills out your 2-slot decorations. The Guardian Arkveld chest is used to pick up Weakness Exploit, which is finished to level 5 with your Talisman and any 3-slot decorations. Your final 3-slot is then spent on the ever-efficient Burst as a one-of.

The Gore Magala weapon Fieberschild is also your best monster-related craft, giving a high amount of raw, white sharpness and affinity. It also comes with Dragon element which is a more universal counter. You really want to be looking for any combination of Offensive Guard and Critical Boost here, and can be split between a level 3 and then both your 2 and 1 slots. Alternatives to consider if you don't have these are:

• Expert - Adds more consistent Affinity, but with the build you should be close to 100% with Maximum Might and Antivirus.
• Attack - really needs you to reach 4-5 points to get the full value out of it, but is a solid offensive alternative.
• Razor Sharp - simplest way of extending your sharpness bar, but needs 3 points to really feel it.
• Master's Touch - provides very consistent Sharpness retention due to the high Affinity on the build, but takes up your 3-slot.
• Ironwall - this can give a lot of extra defensive power if you're struggling to deal with certain attacks, but by this point in the game offense to keep monsters locked down should be your goal rather than just survival.

• Weakness Exploit - Level 5
• Offensive Guard - Level 3
• Critical Boost - Level 3
• Critical Element - Level 3
• Maximum Might - Level 3
• Agitator - Level 3
• Constitution - Level 3
• Antivirus - Level 3
• Burst - Level 1
• Counterstrike - Level 1
• Flinch Free - Level 1
• Gore Magala's Tyranny - 2-piece
• Fulgur Anjanath's Will - 2-piece

The current recommendation for Endgame sets as Lance combines both the Lord's Soul effect from Rey Dau and Uth Duna Gamma pieces with the Lagiacrus 2-piece. This gives a good balance between offense and uptime, while also having some comfort skills to back it up.

The efficient Waist provided by Uth Duna's Gamma set mixed with the Rey Dau Gamma Helm and Gloves allows you to the comfort of 5 3-slot decorations, giving room to max out both Agitator and Weakness Exploit when combined with Lagiacrus pieces. It uses Challenger Charm II to open up the extra two slots, allowing for that skill combination and leaving room to still pick up the efficient first point in Burst.

This activates the Lord's Soul effect easily, and leaves you enough 2-slot decorations to still finish Maximum Might. There are limited 1-slot decorations here though for comfort, with our recommendation being Divine Blessing, but these can be switched based on preference.

With the increasing value of weapon slot decorations, there really is no replacement anymore for Skyscraper, especially as it can be customized by element depending on the hunt. Decoration choice should be spent on Offensive Guard and Critical Boost in your first two as a priority, and the third on either Master's Touch or Razor Sharp.

• Offensive Guard - Level 3
• Critical Boost - Level 3
• Master's Touch - Level 1
• Handicraft - Level 1
• Agitator - Level 5
• Weakness Exploit - Level 5
• Maximum Might - Level 3
• Stamina Surge - Level 2
• Evade Extender - Level 2
• Latent Power - Level 1
• Burst - Level 1
• Lord's Soul - 3-piece
• Rey Dau's Voltage - 2-piece
• Leviathan's Fury - 2-piece

This set provides a strong all-rounder option that can be accessed as soon as you reach the endgame to set you up for efficient hunts. It relies on the extremely efficient Gore Magala 4-piece paired with Antivirus to build around your stat requirements.

The core of the set focuses around the Gore Magala 4-piece Black Eclipse bonus, granting guaranteed access to Frenzy that can be cured to trigger Antivirus, gained via Sane decorations in 1-slots. This pairing provides a consistent amount of both Affinity and Attack so long as you can clear the virus by attacking. While the individual pieces aren't too exciting, this skill on its own provides so much up-front power that the set hinges on it.

It pairs this with both the Zoh Shia Chest for its efficiency, Challenger 3-slot decorations and your Talisman to max out the Agitator skill. Alternatively, you can switch to a Weakness Exploit Talisman to max that out instead of leaving it at 3 points - the choice is up to you based on your consistency of hitting key monster parts.

The set also comes with a high amount of Consitution skills to help with stamina management, Evade Window 2 to increase your i-frames during rolls, and the standard efficient single point in Burst via a remaining 3-slot decoration. The 3 2-slots are used on Maximum Might which, while it can be awkward to maintain with Lance guarding, is so efficient for your Affinity that the payoff is worth it for your standard combos.

The Zoh Shia weapon is a great all-rounder as a non-Artian craft, although the Lagiacrus weapon has extra power with the set's high base Thunder Resistance, making it especially potent against monsters weak to Thunder. Artian weapons are still your go to if you have a decent roll however, due to the value of 3-slot decorations. This is covered in the Artian section underneath this.

Decorations are fairly locked in though, with Offensive Guard being a high value pickup due to the amount of time spent Guarding and the high payoff. The remaining 2 slots are used on Critical II and Critical I respectively.

• Agitator - Level 5
• Constitution - Level 4
• Offensive Guard - Level 3
• Critical Boost - Level 3
• Maximum Might - Level 3
• Antivirus - Level 3
• Weakness Exploit - Level 2
• Evade Window - Level 2
• Whiteflame Torrent - Level 1
• Burst - Level 1
• Handicraft - Level 1
• Coalescence - Level 1
• Flinch Free - Level 1
• Gore Magala's Tyranny - 4-piece
• Scale Layering - 3-piece