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Lancer PvP Guide

by Yadori 

Ahura edited and added content everywhere

Rinako edited and added content

Taws edited and added content

Wyze added discussion

Tsumori edited and added content 

1. Introduction

The lancer is a pretty straight forward class when it comes to purpose and mindset in pvp. You are the mad dog, king of position and the lockdowner which can turn the tides of a battle within a second. As a lancer, you want to stick onto a target and never let your target move.

So, why would you choose this class for pvp? Here are some pros and cons.

Pros:

• Very viable in all pvp-oriented content
• Have a wide set of crowd control abilities
• Fairly easy to learn
• Does a decent amount of damage considering it’s a “tank” class

Cons:

• Hard to “master” 
• Requires aiming skills
• Playable with bad ping, but requires a good ping to play at top levels
• May need a specific race to reach “its full potential” 

What I mean with “tank” class is that in TERA, there isn’t any way to force someone to attack you. There is no real taunt in pvp. A real tank-class, in my opinion, is a class which can force others to attack it. A “tank” class, in this case, means it can take a beating.

What I want to say with “its full potential”, is different races have different animations for certain spells. Leaving you to choose what advantage you want to have by choosing race.

This guide will include the following:

Introduction – Purpose, mindset, pros and cons, content, my words and opinions

Knowing your class – Crowd control knowledge, spells, glyphs, gear, etchings, crystals, race

Control your lancer – Animation cancel, lancer mechanisms, combos

Lancer in duel – Lancer, warrior, slayer, zerk, archer, sorc, gunner, reaper, priest, mystic

Lancer in Champions’ Skyring Arena 3v3 – Compositions, positioning

Final words – Summary, my words and opinions (again), links and description to things worth mentioning

*NOTE: PLEASE READ EVERYTHING DOWN BELOW*

Steam users/beginners should probably not start by reading this guide because there are many other guides that explains the basics and other useful things which are not included here. I will try to link stuff that are useful and can help your lancer gameplay down below. If you happen to have found this guide first then you should look for another. Also this guide is a clusterfuck because I am updating it slowly. Not experienced players might not notice if something is outdated or up to date.

I haven’t really set a “level” on the guide yet, which I will have to go through. Whether it’s a beginners guide, advanced guide or a mediocre guide. I am a big fan of bolding text by the way (hopes this gets buried). This will drastically change the need of content written here. At the moment, I would say you need to be at least level 65 ingame and understand some of your spells as well as a brief knowledge about other classes.

*NOTE: There are people holding a grudge against lancers executing their available mechanisms well. Some people say that all lancers macro, which I believe is wrong. If these mechanisms shouldn’t be in the game or you believe they are totally broken, DON’T complain here. Report it to your publisher so they can further report it to BHS. I personally don’t macro and there is no macro, whatsoever, in the footage shown in this guide.

(Purpose, mindset, pros and cons, content, my words and opinions)

1. Knowing your class

Crowd control knowledge

In TERA there are different types of crowd control effects. Some effects break other effects and applies the new effect. You could say that some crowd control effects are superior to others. I use the term “CC” for crowd control in the description below. Inflicting damage on targets affected by sleep, fear or Time Gyre will break the CC. The three listed on top are not CCs, but you need to understand what these terms are. 

I’d have to do so much research to complete this CC table 100%. Do keep in mind I won’t do that which means specific CC explanation might not be accurate. For example, “What happens if you get KDed and Pushed then knockup happens while also being leashed ” or something similar.

iFrame (Invulnerable Frame): There are a lot of Invulnerability Frames in TERA. Each class has at least one. The invulnerable duration depends on what kind of iframe it is and your current attack speed.

Cleanse: This is a healer’s skill which removes harmful effects/debuffs/CCs. Some debuffs aren’t cleansable; “Plague of Exhaustion (Priest spell)”, “Menacing Wave”, “Giga Leash or Chained Leash”, “Burning Breath (Sorcerer spell)”, “Curse of Exhaustion (Mystic spell)”,“Restraining Arrow”, “Mangle (Warrior spell), “Inescapable Doom (Berserker spell)”, Mystic “new spell” and Fear effects.

Dispell: This is a healer’s skill which removes buffs from targets hit. Everything can be dispelled with an exceptions of Retaliate buff and some item buffs.

*NOTE: I choose to use the word “Dispell” because I personally am used to it, others may refer to this word as “Regress”, “Plague” or “Purge”. Sometimes this word is also used for the term above. In this guide, I chose to use these terms.*

Stagger: This is the first of the two most common CCs in TERA. It’s an uncleansable ministun. Being staggered has a cooldown of roughly 1 second.  You cannot stack staggers. You cannot stagger on stunned, knockdowned or knocked up opponents. When the stagger cooldown is gone a new stagger can be applied. Stagger works on slowed targets. If stagger is used on a slept or feared target the damage from the stagger will break the sleep or fear and stagger said target. Applying a damaging stagger on a Time Gyre’d target (sorcerer root) will break the root as well as stagger the target.

Slow: This is the second of the two most common CCs in TERA. It is what it says, it slows your movement speed or attack speed depending on what kind of slow it is. Most slows can be cleansed however there are a few slows which can’t. Some slows stack with other slows. Slow can be applied on any CC without breaking the first CC, however if the slow deals damage, it will break sleep, fear and Time Gyre.

Knockdown: This is the most powerful CCs in TERA because it is uncleansable and it overwrites any other CC (except the “knock up” CC) applied to the target. This CC is very common but stronger than slows and staggers due to its duration.The two most common cures for this CC are, Arise: Priest Skill and Retaliate. It has a decent long duration and it turns the front of the knocked down target to the caster’s front while also moving it 3m. Being pulled or knocked back by some spells will also cure the knockdown state.

Stun: This is a strong CC which makes the target unavailable to move and use spells. The duration is somewhat RNG. Applying a stun works on all kind of CCs except the knockdown CC. Applying a damaging stun breaks sleep, fear and Time Gyre. However, if you stun a slept target, the target will get stunned but will not wake up, unless the stun deals damage. Stunning a feared target will make the target stunned regardless of damage applied to target. All pvp stuns can be cleansed with an exception of Giga Leash.

Sleep: Has the same effects as the stun effect. If a slept target takes any damage the sleep is interrupted. Sleep is not affected by Stun Duration effects of the target’s earrings (which will be explained further down). Warriors’ Cascade of Stuns works on sleeping targets. Sleep can be applied on slept, stunned, staggered, rooted and feared targets.

Knockup: This CC makes you go up in the air while applying the same effects as the stun/sleep CC. A knockup can be used on all kind of CCs except the knocked down CC. You could say this CC is a stun which nullifies the character collision, so when you go up in the air people can still walk below you. You can resist this CC by using “stun immunity buffs”. Uncleanseable.

Knockback/Pull: Your position changes very quickly towards either way. You can’t move or use spells while “changing destination”. Uncleanseable.

Root: A root makes the affected target unable to move by using “wasd”. There are different types of roots. 

The slayer’s backstab is considered a root.This root allows you to iframe, it allows you to use charging/teleport spells such as Teleport Jaunt (Mystic and Sorc spell), Charge Lunge, Headlong Rush, etc. This CC ends if the target is knockdowned.

Mire (Mystic spell) allows you to use iframes and the skills mentioned above. Moves you a very minimal range when using other abilities. Also ends if knockdowned.

Time gyre does not allow you to use iframes or Teleport Jaunts (Charges can still be used). However, using skills allows you to move around. The CC ends if the target receives damage.

All roots can be applied to all kinds of CCs.

*NOTE: Some may argue that Mire isn’t a root. Because Mire is affected by your slow duration stat on boots. But the fact that you can use charges and jaunts and your spells don’t move you was the reason why I stated this as a root. Let’s say you are slowed by 90%, same amount that Mire slows for, by hailstorm and glacial retreat. If you use spells under this condition you will still move more than if you were mired.* 

Fear: A fear moves you randomly until the duration of the spell has ended or you take damage. Fear can’t be applied on stunned, slept, knockdowned or knockupped targets, however fear works on targets with retaliate buff. Fear also works on staggered targets. Fearing a rooted target will apply the fear effects without breaking the root, the target will not move randomly though because it’s rooted.

Increased cooldown duration: It increases the cooldown of used abilities. This effects is applied with  “Plague of Exhaustion (Priest spell)”, “Exhaustion Blow (Slayer spell) and “Curse of Exhaustion (Mystic spell)”.

*NOTE: “Plague of Exhaustion (Priest spell)” adds more cooldown duration only to, what’s considered melee spells.*

Spells

Damage

Combo Attack: Poke your lance in front of you. This spell has three consecutive attacks and is your main attack, AKA auto attack. It gives you mana when it hits a target and does not need mana to be casted. 

First attack hits 3 times. Each hit slows for 50% for 3 seconds and has a fairly fast attack animation. 

Second attack hits 2 times. Each hit slows for 50% for 3 seconds and staggers, but has a slower attack animation.

Third attack hits 3 times and allows you to activate Spring Attack faster but has the longest attack animation.

Shield Barrage: Swing your shield in a 180 degree angle. This spell has two attacks.

Both attacks apply a 50% movement speed slow for a very short duration (approximately 1.2 seconds). First attack staggers. Second attack staggers and has a small chance to stun.

Spring Attack: Pierce your lance in front of you. Your main source of damage. This spell hits 4 times and each hit slows movement speed by 50% for 4 seconds. Activates faster if used after the third consecutive hit of Combo Attack, second hit of Shield Barrage or Shield Bash.

Wallop: Flips your lancer to perform a backflip MLG bazooka to the ground and blast everything to oblivion. This is your highest single number hitting ability. This spell hits once and knockdowns. Activates faster if used after Spring Attack, second hit of Shield Barrage, Debilitate, Shield counter or Charge Lunge.

Lockdown Blow: Turn 360 and slap your shield in front of you. This spell hits once and slows by 30% for 7 seconds. Has a pretty long range and a fast position change.

Utilities

Leash: Magically summon a chain to pull and stun a target for a short duration up to 18m in your crosshair. Gives a buff for 4 seconds which makes the Master Leash available.

Master Leash: Magically summon a secondary chain to pull and stun a target for a short duration up to 18m in your crosshair. Can only be activated once the buff from Leash is active.

Giga Leash or Chained Leash: Magically summons a chain to magically pull a maximum of 6 targets within 15m of the target’s range and applies an uncleansable stun to them. Distance to aimed target is 15m max. Will also pull jumping, stunned and knocked down targets. Will not pull targets affected by the Retaliate buff.

**NEEDS TO BE TESTED OUT MORE**

Backstep: Jump 6m backwards in fear of dying…? This is your only iframe. Costs resolve. Will jump a shorter distance if you have a slow debuff(s).

Debilitate: Punch your shield in front of you to reduce endurance by 4.5% and reduce the target’s received heals by 50%. The endurance debuff stacks up to 3 times.

Charge Lunge: Rush 20m forward. Isn’t affected by your slow debuff(s).

Onslaught: Puts your lance and shield up and sprint forward 18m. This attack damage is weak. It hits many times and the last 3 attacks deals more damage. You are less likely to be knocked down and you only take half the damage while in animation. Can also be used to become Jesus and walk on water.

Shield Bash: Punch your shield in front of you to stun. Debilitate and Shield Bash has almost the same animation. Shield bash has a slightly shorter animation lock.

Menacing Wave: Open yourself up and release a wave around you in a 7m radius. Applies a non-cleansable debuff to your target(s) that slows their movement speed and attack speed by 15% for 5 seconds.

Second Wind: Put your hands in the air and replenish xxxxx Health and 750 Resolve.

Health received is affected by your healing received level. This spell can crit heal and the crit chance is affected by your crit rate/chance.

Challenging Shout: Scream manly with passionate hate and put everyone in combat within a 11m radius. Regains resolve for each target hit.

Infuriate: Scream manly without passionate hate and put everyone in a 11m radius of you in combat. 

Stand Fast (Block): Blocks any kind of attacks except for Blacksmith Hammerstrike (VM stun) and various glyphs. May also block an attack for someone by reducing the damage significantly. Knockdowns can also be blocked for an ally. Takes away 50 resolve every 0.5 seconds the skill is held or active.

Costs resolve to block attacks depending on how strong your weapon and the blocked attack is.

Shield Counter: Punch with your shield and poke with your lance in an attack in front of you. This spell hits 2 times. First attack deals damage. Second attack staggers. Can only be used after a successful block. Restores a good amount of resolve.

Buffs

Iron Will: Put your hands in the air to activate a shield that absorbs xxxxx damage.

Pledge of Protection: Put your hands in the air to activate a buff for 12 seconds. Allies within a 20m range gets a buff after 2 seconds of being in range or spell being casted, which grants 35% reduced damage. You take the 35% reduced damage for your allies, however the damage you take is reduced by your defense.

Guardian Shout: Rapidly shouts with an intention of saving everyone’s lives… An instant buff that adds 91% endurance to your team members within 20m for 40 seconds. This buff vanishes if you are knocked down. Your team members will receive the graceful buff after 2 seconds of being in range or spell being casted. Shares cooldown with Rallying Cry.

Rallying Cry: Same animation as Guardian Shout. Gives a buff to allies hit within 11m which grants knockdown and stagger immunity for 7 seconds. Shares cooldown with Guardian Shout. 

Adrenaline Rush: Put your hands in the air to become fast and gain 20% attack speed and 50% cooldown reduction on Shield Barrage, Wallop, Shield Counter, Spring Attack and Onslaught for 20 seconds.

Retaliate: Spins on the ground like a windmill to return back from the knocked down state and give you a 2 seconds buff of immunity towards stuns, sleeps, knockdowns, and staggers. The animation will begin slightly before you get the immunity buff, leaving you vulnerable to stuns and sleeps for a split second.

The reason I put the exact slow duration and not the exact stun duration considering both of these numbers are affected by factors in the game, boots and earrings, is because stuns in TERA are RNG and slows are not. Even though I could have included a stun duration number decently accurate, I chose not to. 

Cooldown timer on the spells isn’t included  because it’s easy available ingame or any other website. The cooldown timer is also different depending on gear roll and/or etchings you may have.

Glyphs

I will list the efficient glyphs for Lancers and I will explain why they are an important part of pvp. The glyphs left out are the ones I don’t think are viable at all in pvp.

*NOTE: This is a master glyphs’ list*

* = Master glyph

Green – Very viable
Orange – Situational

Red – Not viable but can be in some cases. Test it out for more information. 

*Combo Attack: Glyph of Spirit (3) – Increases MP regeneration by 20%.

This glyph isn’t viable because you will have other ways to regain mana which will be covered later in the crystal section. Why I included this is because you can remove the mana crystals and then have this glyph as your mana source. However I do not recommend using this glyph. Lancer is actually a very mana consuming class though.

Stand Fast: Glyph of the Pump (4) – 30% chance to increase power by 15% for 10 seconds on a successful block

This glyph adds 7.5 power, 15% of 50. This glyph is situational because more damage is never bad but it isn’t green because it needs a successful block, the chance to proc is pretty low and the damage given by 7.5 power is also low.

Stand Fast: Reinforced Stand Fast (4) – Increases max resolve by 500

Why would you use this? Ever? Well since the damage overall is so much higher now then guess what happens to your resolve in the process. Blocking Eviscerate from a slayer or something similar can eat more than half your resolve. You might find yourself having a lot of resolve problem when you are blocking for your teammates (Explanation further down) which is a really good defensive mechanism. A lancer without resolve can do close to nothing, no iframe, no animation cancel. 

Backstep: Glyph of Energy (3) – Decreases cooldown by 25%

1.5 less cooldown on your only iframe is never bad. You will use this spell a lot to get out of certain CC chains or bad positions.

Spring Attack: Glyph of Power (5) – Increases skill damage by 25%

Add 25% more damage to your main source of damage can’t possibly be a bad thing.

*Spring Attack: Glyph of Numbing (3) – 30% chance to decrease opponent’s attack speed by 30% for 7 seconds

This is one of the reasons why lancer is such a good lockdowner against damage dealing classes. Put this effect on a target and it won’t be able to combo properly. This works through block, a must have.

*Shield Bash: Glyph of the Resounding (4) – Increases effect duration by 25% 

Shield bash is one of your combo opener. Without this glyph many of your combos might not be available. Right now the stuns are very, very short compared to what they used to be. Using this is always a must.

*Shield Bash: Glyph of Energy (3) – Decreases cooldown by 25%

As stated above, Shield bash is your opener and less cooldown is a very good thing so you can do more combos in less time.

Shield Bash: Glyph of Blaze (4) – Speeds casting by 25% for Onslaught, the next skill in the chain

Even though Onslaught is a very crappy damaging spell the usage of Onslaught becomes viable as an utility spell, hence why the spell is in the utility section. Onslaught moves you forward while taking reduced damage. With this glyph this spell becomes very fast and with a decent amount of attack speed, is almost equal to your Charge lunge making it a good escape ability. This glyph isn’t viable in all of TERA pvp content since this is just a decent escape tool.

*Challenging Shout: Glyph of haste (3) – Increases cast speed by 50%(?)

Now back to the resolve talk. If you run with this and hit multiple targets with it your resolve will instantly go to its max. Resolve cost in the current patch/gameplay is extremely high compared to the vm3 patch where the damage was super low. You will need resolve. This glyph might not be that viable as an orange glyph at the moment but will probably be after the lancer resolve nerf coming next patch (End of July 2015). Same goes for “Reinforced Stand Fast glyph (500 more max resolve)”

Charging Lunge: Glyph of Energy (4) – Decreases cooldown by 20%

The reason this is green is because this is your only movement spell that is not affected by your slow debuff(s). Some may argue this should’ve been orange since the movement of a lancer is drastically different from race to race. However, as I’m trying to be objective, I will say that many other lancers would consider this orange. Keep that in mind.

Charging Lunge: Glyph of Fleetfoot (5) – Speeds movement by 10 for 7 seconds while in combat

As stated above, a lancer’s movement is different from race to race so using this could be viable. With both this glyph and the one above you will have almost always have 10 more movement speed if you use Charge lunge on cooldown, however this glyph has a high cost of 5 points.

Retaliate: Glyph of Energy (4) – Decreases cooldown by 20%

Reduces the cooldown by 3 seconds can be viable in cases when you are against classes with many knockdowns. A lancer shouldn’t need this glyph because you need the points for damage and/or utility.

*Guardian Shout: Glyph of Energy (5) – Decreases cooldown by 35%

I could see some cases where this glyph is good, mass pvp being one of the cases. This spell protects your allies by giving a huge amount of endurance, lowering its cooldown wouldn’t be a bad thing. This glyph has a high cost though and this is one of the reasons it’s orange. The others being, as a lancer, you already have pledge and on top of that, a lot of defense. You would want more damage and more tools to CC and lockdown your targets.

*Leash: Glyph of Energy (4) – Decreases cooldown by 20%

Leash can be a good opener for some of your combos. It is range, it moves a target to up to 18m(?) and stuns for a short duration. A good tool for many things such as to get someone out of position, catch someone off guard or open a combo.

Leash: Glyph of wat (4) – Increases range by 3 meters

Good glyph for mindgames. Most players assume your leash range is 18m, which makes the 18m range a safe distance from a lancer. With this you could catch players off guard.

*Leash: Glyph of Numbing (4) – Decreases opponent’s attack speed by 40% for 4 seconds

This glyph is very viable, 40% attack speed is huge and 4 seconds is enough for you to make something happen. This glyph also goes through block, even if the leash doesn’t stun the target. However considering CC glyphs and damage glyphs, I chose to put this orange. I know many would put this green because it really is an awesome glyph.

Master Leash: Glyph of Persistence (3) – 30% chance to eliminate cooldown

This could be a viable choice considering Master Leash has a very long cooldown. However the chance to reset is fairly low and you must have the buff given from Leash to use this spell. The point cost is low, though I can see this viable in mass pvp where you can leash for your team.

Debilitate: Glyph of Lingering (6) – Increases effect duration by 100%

This glyph is included purely for 1vs1 options. Debilitate effect can be cleansed and already has a long duration. 36 seconds with the glyph will not matter if the target gets cleansed after X seconds. The point cost is also huge. 

Wallop: Glyph of Power (5) – Increases skill damage by 25%

25% more damage to your highest single number hitting spell, can’t be bad.

*Lockdown Blow: Glyph of Slowing (4) – Decreases opponent’s movement speed by an additional 30%

After some long testing and what not (6 months testing…..???), I decided I have to stop being as ignorant as I am sometimes and put this orange. It is a 60% slow total for 7 seconds and it also stacks with other slows. Another strong slow as a lockdowner is not too bad. However there are occasions where you will need other glyphs since the gameplay changed since 60 cap gameplay. Remember that an unglyphed lockdown blow + Combo Attack adds 80% slow already.

Lockdown Blow: Glyph of Power (4) – Increases skill damage by 20%

Your third hardest hitting ability gets 20% more damage, isn’t a bad thing. This spell is hard to hit from behind though which makes this glyph often a sacrifice for utility glyphs. Aswell as the base damage isn’t as high as Spring attack and Wallop the 20% given is also smaller.

Menacing Wave: Glyph of Lingering (3) – Increases effect duration by 50%

Attack speed slow is incredibly good in this game. The duration of Menacing wave is pretty low and the spell has a long cooldown. Increasing the effect duration can be a decent pickup in some cases.

Iron Will: Glyph of Warding (5) – Increases damage absorption by 25%

As mentioned earlier and here and there, lancers are already tanky and can take a beating. You want to use your points for damage and utility glyphs. This could be a good glyph if you plan on running solo pvp without a healer or just want to become a bit tankier.

Iron Will: Glyph of Lingering (4) – Increases effect duration by 50%

Kinda the same as above. This glyph is a little better than the above in my opinion, since if you stack a little of CDR (cooldown reduction) this spell will have almost no downtime if the shield is not broken.

Second Wind: Glyph of Energy (6) – Decreases cooldown by 25%

Same reason as on the other parts. This could be a somewhat okay glyph if you want to experiment with your resolve and/or are building your lancer for HP recovery (Heal over time build).

Second Wind: Glyph of Heartening (4) – Restores 20% more resolve

I included this for the simple fact as above as well as if you are lacking resolve. However, your lack of resolve can be fixed with the other resolve glyphs explained above this; stand fast and shout glyphs.

Pledge of Protection: Glyph of Energy (3) – Decrease cooldown by 20%

Pledge shines almost everywhere. 12 seconds reduced on a 1 minute cooldown is significant and the spell is one of many reasons you are a good asset to any group. I wanted to put this green but after a little debate I decided orange, since sometimes you sacrifice this glyph for other things and you might not even need this in every scenario.

Pledge of Protection: Glyph of Restoration (5) – Increases amount of caster’s HP recovery by 20% for 20 seconds

20% more received heals is pretty huge but using pledge just to increase your received heals isn’t why you should pledge. The cost is high and the duration is actually decent. Personally I did never test this glyph. QQ

Adrenaline Rush: Glyph of the Swift (3) – Increases attack speed by an additional 10%

Attack speed on lancers are in most cases very good. With this glyph you get a total boost of 30% attack speed which is very high. The duration of 20 seconds is decent. Adrenaline Rush without this glyph is already incredibly strong because of the CDR it gives to some of your spells as well as you often sacrifice this glyph for other utilities depending on what kind of pvp you are doing. Which is why this is orange.

*Rallying Cry: Lingering Rallying Cry (4) – Increases effect duration by 30%

*Rallying Cry: Energetic Rallying Cry (3) – Decreases cooldown by 20%

*Giga Leash: Glyph of Lingering (4) – Increases effect duration by 50%

Giga leash is the joker of lancers. It’s “The” spell that can turn the tides of any battle in this game. This spell is well-known as the main source of “Cheese Comp”. Lancer without this would lose a lot of its power. Without this glyph, the Giga leash stun duration is roughly 1 second. Using this glyph gives time to actually do something with the CC given by Giga leash.

Giga Leash: Glyph of Energy (4) – Decreases cooldown by 20%

As mentioned above. This spell is almost always on cooldown because you will need this in any pvp content you participate in.

Gears

I personally believe that gears is not that big of a factor in this game. Don’t get me wrong, difference in gears can change a game, but the difference in skills makes up a lot more than the difference in gears. I will not go into detail of the different pvp gears and how to obtain them. Information about recommended stat rolls and why they are viable will be included.

Brooch and belt are not included.

Weapon rolls:

• Do 6% more damage when you attack. – Higher damage overall also means higher crit damage. Always viable.
• Attack speed increases by 4.5% – Viable.
• Increase crit damage by +0.3 – Crit damage modifiers are good on classes that hit many times but not that hard and because you hit many times you have more chances to crit. Always viable.
• Increases your crit rate by 14 – Optional in most cases.
• Decreases cooldown by 7.2% – You can use more skills in less time. This roll can unlock more combos. This stat with the energetic etchings, can bring up quite a debate.

Chest rolls: 

• Raise max HP by 8% – Always viable
• Reduces damage by 6% – Always viable
• You take 6.9% less damage from frontal attacks
• You take 6.9% less damage from attacks while knocked down 
• Increase Spring Attack damage by 15% – Spring Attack is your main damaging skill. Always viable.
• Restore 1.2% of your HP each 5 second – Is a must if you choose to go for the HP recovery build as lancer. If you are doing so I recommend getting all the “heal over time” stats there are since they stack.

Gloves rolls: all three stats are always viable and also the best choice for pvp.

• Attack speed increases by 2.25%
• Increases your crit rate by 9
• Power increases by 5

Boots rolls:

• Movement speed increases by 6%. – You are the lockdowner so you need to stick onto someone. If your target has this roll and you don’t, then guess what. Always viable.
• Decrease duration of slow effects by 24% – Because slows are one of the most common CCs in this game, this stat roll is viable. However this effect does not reduce the attack speed slow duration.
• Increase endurance by 4  – The endurance factor on lancers works at a very high number, meaning you still get a lot of defense with a high endurance factor. Other classes don’t stack endurance like lancers do because their base endurance is high. Lancers have a low base endurance.
• Restores 0.6% of your HP every 5 seconds – Heal over time stat, only recommended if you are going for the HoT build.

Earrings rolls: 

• Decrease duration of stun effects by 10% – Stun is a very strong CC and this reduces the duration of the stun, even though stuns are RNG the duration is shortened overall. Always viable.
• Raises max hp by 4.5% – Usually viable.
• Heals an additional HP by 3.2% when receiving HP recovering effect
• Restores 0.48% of your HP every 5 seconds – Heal over time stat, only recommended if you are going for the HoT build.

Rings rolls: Both stats are always viable. If you were to choose I would choose crit damage. In this case however, you can have both stats which makes these 2 stats the only viable stat roll choice on rings.

• Increase crit damage by +0.04
• Increase your crit rate by 4 

Necklace rolls:

• Increase crit damage by +0.04 –  Both stats are almost equally viable but crit damage is a better stat in pvp and also as a lancer. Almost always viable.
• Increases crit rate by 4 

Innerwear rolls: If 1 power equals 2 crit rate then it wouldn’t matter which you would choose. But that isn’t the case. The difference between pumped 3 etching and carving 3 etching isn’t 1 power = 2 crit rate. Which leaves the crit rate innerwear slightly superior. However this logic doesn’t always work and besides, power is slightly better since crit resist is lower in pvp. 

*NOTE In the current patch or the so called current “meta” people get a lot of crit resist items and etchings. Means what I stated in the above isn’t reliable. I will not go into the debate whether crit rate or power is greater. Personally I have and would choose the crit rate innerwear.*

• Increase your crit rate by 12 
• Increase your power by 6

Etching

This list will only include the permanent etching level 3 and why they are a good choice. There are some etchings not listed which I believe are not viable enough to mention.

*NOTE: This section will be covered more later*

“You probably never want to go power over carving or energetic in any circumstance for PvP” – Tsumori

Weapon etchings (Offensive etching)

Carving – Increases crit rate by 18

Energetic – Increases attack speed by 4% and decreases cooldown by 2.5%

Pumped – Increases power by 10

Glove etchings (Offensive etching)

Carving – Increases crit rate by 18

Energetic – increases attackspeed by 4% and decreases cooldown by 2.5%

Pumped – Increases power by 10

“You could build your own etching build but be sure to keep in mind that your main source of damage will come from your critical hits, and your critical hits increases depending on your crystals. Pumped will give you way more overall damage, but Crit is the reason why you would deal damage. Energetic is there for an overall different kind of gameplay.” – Ahura 

Chest etchings (Defensive etching)

Grounded – Increases endurance by 8

Unyielding – Increases crit resist by 20 

Boots etchings (Defensive etching)

Grounded – Increases endurance by 8

Unyielding: – Increases crit resist by 20

“Both etchings are viable. It really depends on you because endurance gives you way more defense, thus it makes you a lot tankier and you will be able to be called as an “Independent Class” because your healer can trust you to be a “free-spirit-do-what-you-want”. Unyielding adds you a great amount of crit resist, which means that there will be a lesser amount of chance that your enemy will hit you with crits, thus this is viable because critical is the main source of damage burst.” – Ahura

Crystals *Not updated*

Weapon Crystals

Main (Must have):

Fine Savage Crux – Increases your critical damage by 1.20 from behind

Fine Forceful Crux – Increases your power by 19 for 10 seconds when crit from behind

Fine Salivating Crux – Immediately regains 81 MP when attacking a player

Secondary (As fourth crux):

Fine Carving Crux – Increases critical chance by 3%: Very useful as forth crux if you are against enemies with high crit resist. Like mystics or opponents you know went for crit resist etchings. This crux gives you 3% crit chance regardless of your crit rate and their crit resist.

Fine Cruel Crux – Increases your crit modifier by 0.44 on a successful knockdown for 7s: Useful against melee opponents. This is a good crux overall because 0.44 crit modifier is a very high number.

Fine Swift Crux – Increases your combat movement speed by 15: Good against kiting classes and healers. This doesn’t add any damage and is very situational. Personally I’m a big fan of this crux.

Very Situational:

Fine Virluent Crux – Critical attacks will inflict a Poison VI effect against knocked down targets

Fine Brutal Crux – Inflicts 9.3% more damage on a knocked-down target

Armor Crystals

Main (Must have):

Fine Relentless Crux – Increase maximum HP by 4,808: Equip at least two of these. Max HP is good in pvp.

Secondary:

Fine Grieving Crux – Instantly regains 106 MP when attacked by a player: Part of your mana source, a must have in contents where “Charms” won’t be available.

Fine Resolute Crux – Decrease damage received by 9.5% when your HP is below 50%: This crux is very good at the moment due to everyone having a very high max HP. I haven’t tested this to oblivion though, which means I can be wrong when I say max HP matters. I have heard from people around me that this crux only affects your base max hp. 

Fine Warding Crux – 50% chance to provide Shield VI when knocked down

Fine Vigorous Crux – Regenerates 321 HP every 5 seconds. Good for solo plays.

Very Situational:

Fine Fleetfoot Crux – Increases your movement speed by 30 while out of combat

Accessory Crystals

Main (Best option):

Fine Griefing Zyrk – Increases pvp damage by 4

*NOTE: I have not gone over the mathematical factors that matters in the “power” or ”pvp damage” section. Because I simply do not know much about it.*

Secondary:

Fine Powerful Zyrk – Increases power by 2. Secondary replacement for the option above. This is viable in battlegrounds such as Corsair Stronghold, Kumasylum and Fraywind Canyon if you want to increase your damage, not only against other players, but to NPCs such as Gates, Tanks, Turrets, Nagas, Teraliths and Kumas.

Fine Swift Zyrk – Increases your attack speed by 0.8%. If you want to try another kind of build, go ahead. 

Fine Indomitable Zyrk – Decreases pvp damage received by 5. Good crystal if you want to be tankier in pvp. 

Fine Carving Zyrk – Increases critical by 2. This was a decent crystal but it is not recommended at the moment because 2 crit rate is a very small amount in today’s gear progression. You may want to have 16 pvp damage more than having 8 crit rate.

Race

Having a specific race doesn’t guarantee you a better player, obviously. You can be as good as other people no matter what your race is. But some of the races do have an advantage over others, making battles seem unfair. 

I will list the two better races and what their advantages are and I will list the two worse races and their disadvantages. 

For short I would personally put it this way. 5 being the best and 1 being the worst:

Elin-5 Popori-1

HighelfM-4 HighelfF-3

CastanicM-3 CastanicF-3

HumanM-3 HumanF-3

AmanM-2 AmanF-3

Baraka-2

Elin: Elins are cute and have an extremely long range with certain spells than other classes. Their Combo Attacks and Shield Barrage hit farther and moves them forward. One downside is that Shield Barrage first hit might not always hit in super close range, 2m-3m. Another thing to keep in mind here is that the smaller your character is the more vision you have on the enemy you are targeting. If the enemy you are sitting on casts something you can see what very clearly. Compared to other races.

High Elf Male: This race is fancy and has a very fast Shield Barrage, though doesn’t move them that much compared to Elins (can be debated further). I also think this race has a faster Shield Bash. Compared to Elins, Shield Barrage first hit does most likely hit in very close range, 2m-3m. As mentioned above, if your character is “too big” or something in that matter you might struggle with knowing if you are doing back crits or knowing what the enemy is casting when you are on top of him, blocking your own sight because how fat you are. Though this doesn’t concern high elfs as much as an Aman with a big head + bunny hat…

Popori: The Popori may be cute and fluffy but isn’t a good race as lancer for pvp. Combo attack and Shield barrage has very small range compared to other classes. They also don’t move much when performing these spells. 

Baraka: Barakas may be castles… But have almost the same effects on Combo attack and Shield barrage as Poporis have. Though their first hit of Combo Attack is very instant and almost doesn’t have an animation. 

(Crowd control knowledge, spells, glyphs, gear, etchings, crystals and race)

1. Control your lancer 

Animation cancel

This is one of the main reasons why lancers are good lockdowners. Animation cancel lets you have more free time, it cancels unnecessary animation of your spells. You need to do this in order to do most of your combos and moves properly. Doing this will make the duration you are animation locked much shorter. Animation canceling will also reduce the chance of you being CCed because you can block anything at almost any time.

Some of your spell combos will break if you were to animation cancel them, such as second Shield Barrage -> Spring Attack. Doing that will result in a normal slow-cast Spring Attack. Animation canceling other spell combos will give the same effect, not activating the “Activates faster…..” described in the spell section. To list a few more examples: Charge lunge -> Wallop, Debilitate -> Wallop, Shield Bash -> Spring Attack.

Tap your Stand Fast skill when you want the animation to end. Almost all lancer spells can be animation canceled in the very end of the ability, some spells can be animation canceled midcast. Here below you can see the difference between when you animation cancel Spring attack  and when you don’t in the spell combo, Shield barrage -> Shield barrage -> Spring attack.

This is just an example of one of many animation cancels a lancer needs to do properly.

[Without Cancel] [With Cancel]

I felt the need to include the Charge lunge animation cancel as well. When you apply it to Charge lunge, your lancer stops where it is, breaking the charge.

[Without Cancel] [With Cancel]

As mentioned, animation canceling needs to be used all the time in order to lessen your animation lock. I choose to not make a gif out of every possible animation cancel because that would make too many gifs. 

The following animation cancel is one of your most important to learn and understand (Topic can be debated as elins can take advantage of this more than other races), first hit of Combo attack animation cancel. 

This animation cancel is also crucial to learn and understand in order to do things explained in the “Lancer mechanisms” section. The gifs below show the animation of the spell as well as demonstrating the distance you move when you use the spell, as an elin. Notice the animation lock you suffer at the end of the spell without animation cancel.

[Without Cancel] [With Cancel]

Tap blocks & resolve talk

You can block without losing resolve, tap block. Doing this is very hard but should be in the back of your head when you animation cancelling your spells. Try it out by tapping your block as fast as you can (press block only once). This “mechanism” is used in the “Bskip” which is explained further down. Bskip is technically the only mechanism where you need to be decent at this. Now don’t get me wrong, bskip can be done with a normal block. Other mechanisms are just a lot better and gives you a huge advantage if you apply tap blocking to them.

I will try to give an explanation of what happens and why, if I am wrong somewhere please correct me since I am not a game designer nor a network engineer or what it’s called: 

When you block normally, two elements of information are sent to the server which is “block” and “resolve cost”. The block element registers on the client side much faster than the resolve cost. Which leads to when you tap block, the only information registered and sent to the server is the “block” element because the tap makes the resolve cost element not register. 

Isn’t this broken and a glitch? Well lancers overall are broken, but the discussion whether this is a glitch or not, can be taken somewhere else. I’m stating facts here. There were a few fixes to this “glitch” as I can gladly refer to it as, such as the infinite mana pool which can be seen here in a video not made by me. The mana roll that gives mana on spell usage used to give mana on blocks. The video and a few other reasons is why that’s no longer the case. Another case where the tap blocks can be abused is with the help of a macro is the same as in the video but with another purpose. You see since block doesn’t have a cooldown you can spam it as much as you want. Lets make a macro that blocks every 0.001 second. How many blocks do you think the server has to handle in one second? Yeah, doing that will result in everyone on the server (Not server like “MT” but the players that are close to you and need to load your information) freeze lag or even disconnect.

Turn rate & ping talk

First off, TERA is a really, really ping dependant game. Spiking to 150ms from 30ms by half a second can determine whether you live or die. The queue system in TERA is also very weird designed and I can’t get a grasp of how it really works. Here is an example of how a high ping archer queues his spell compared to a low ping archer doing the exact same.

Ping will affect everything, including your animation canceling. Animation canceling some things may even be unnecessary because the end animation of said spell is the same as your ping. Like animation canceling Leash, Lockdown blow or Wallop.

Turn rate? Ping > Turn rate in terms of what actually makes the biggest difference in gameplay. The importance of turn rate is almost non existent in TERA, however there are a few occasions where they do matter, and in these moments it can save your life. Most noticeable is when backsteps and/or rolls are used.

Lancer mechanisms

Skating / Pokeshield

This term is used for the “Combo Attack animation cancel” done repeatedly until satisfied. Elins benefit the most from Skating since their Combo attack moves them further compared to other races.

There are different kind of Skating:

Mechanism one: This is the least used of the Skating mechanisms there are. You only use this mechanism as a movement tool. This is mainly used combined with other spells/tools. Where the animation cancel is used before the hits of Combo attack are initiated. Which means this will not trigger any damage nor slowing effects. Best used when you want a fast position change, or kind of like a quick dash in any direction. This is also combined with alot of things as well as when you want to block things explained in the Block mechanism section.

Mechanism two: Most commonly used. You use this mechanism as a gap closing, slowing, mana and damaging tool. This is the type of Skating you normally would see people doing. It’s mainly used if you are close to your target, both want to stick onto it by moving yourself faster as well as slowing your target.

(Both mechanisms demonstrated below. In these gifs the “wasd” buttons aren’t used.)

[Skate mechanism one] [Skate mechanism two]

There are downsides for both of these kinds of skating. One type of Skating may be more viable than the other in different scenarios. Mechanism one has more advantage in quick mobility and in animation lock, but doesn’t apply any debuffs nor damage. The quick dash or quick position change caused by this is also useful. Mechanism two generates slow debuff statuses on the target as well as moves you faster and further overall, but has a slower animation lock as well as a slower initial position movement. Can be slower in some cases. Both of these types of Skating are situational and depends on how well the player executes it.

How to Skate/Pokeshield: I will assume you have Combo Attack on your left mouse button and Stand Fast/block on your right mouse button while explaining this. This mechanism is very easy once you get the hang of it.

1. Check your ping – Around 50ms = Very doable.  Around 75ms = still doable but can fail here and there. Around 100ms = most likely to fail the most Skatings. Above 150ms = almost not doable at all. You performing CASkipping is a higher chance than you performing Skating. So basically having over 100ms will be a really frustrating experience while doing this.
2. Press left mouse button then at the end of the Combo Attack animation, press right mouse button. Don’t hold any of the buttons pressed. The tempo you press/tap these two buttons depends on what kind of attack speed you have as well as your ping. Practice this while standing still will show how far you move by the spell itself. Once you are familiar with your character’s animation and attack speed this will become easier.
3. Now you should apply your Skating in combat by duelling people or simply asking someone to be a dummy for you. While doing this in combat you should always move by using “wasd”. It’s good to practice while standing still though. Practice until you can Skate as fast as their combat speed or even faster. *NOTE: The last sentence will mainly be aimed towards the Elin race*
4. This part is where you should be familiar with Skating itself and you should now be able to use different Skate mechanisms. Practice this by blocking at different times at the end of Combo Attack and get used to where/when the attack starts doing damage and when it doesn’t as well as applying it in combat. 
5. See more information about this in the “CASkip” section / explanation.

Bskip

The term we would like to use are also known as “Shield Barrage Skipping” or “Barrage Cancelling”. This mechanism is a super fast double hit and will make the two hits of Shield Barrage look like one or look like you only performed the second hit of Shield Barrage. This mechanism works with warriors’ Rising Fury and the new berserker tank spell as well. Some combos requires you to know Bskip. See youtube link.

How to Bskip: There will be a second explanation of this down below by Ahura. Here is my explanation. This mechanism involves two spells – Shield Barrage and Stand Fast.

1. Check your ping, once again. At this point you might understand the statement I put in the “Cons” list. “Playable with bad ping, but requires a good ping to play at top levels”, is sadly true. Around 50ms = fluent and fast Bskip. Around 75ms = somewhat fluent but a little slower. Around 100ms = pretty slow Bskip but at least faster than normal Shield Barrage. Above 150ms = the Bskip will look very slow and almost the same speed or maybe even slower than your normal Shield Barrage, thus there is no reason to Bskip.
2. The physical part / the clicking / comboing with mouse and keyboard, is Shield Barrage -> Stand Fast / block -> Shield Barrage. This is the order of the buttons you need to press.
3. This is the tricky part. Keep in mind that the ping you have while practicing this will affect everything. The timing you press block after Shield Barrage #1 matters and the timing you press Shield Barrage #2 after block matters in relative to each other. When your ping is around 50ms, the delay you press block after Shield Barrage #1 is very small, near below one second or even almost at the same time. Same goes for the delay on Shield Barrage #2 after block. They are all relative to each other. It has the reverse effect when your ping is high (Above 100ms).
4. While practicing this, you should only tap your block. If you hold it in too long or you don’t tap it fast enough, the Shield Barrage will be completely interrupted. Watch your character as you are doing this, get used to when your character’s animation is where and what it’s doing. 
5. When you have succeeded a few times you should look over #3 and #4 again. “What’s my ping?”, “Am I delaying things correctly?” and “Am I tapping block fast enough?” are the questions you need to ask yourself over and over again in order to better improve your success rate of performing Bskips.

“You press the Shield Barrage and Block at the same time, except the Shield Barrage comes first before you block but the delay should be very minimal. That would trigger a Shield Barrage into Block (First Shield Barrage will be invisible but will hit and stagger the enemy) while the second Shield Barrage will be available to activate, allowing you to use Shield Barrage twice without a delay for a faster way to deal damage.” – Ahura 

CASkip

Stands for “Combo Attack Skipping”, “CASkipping” or “AAskiping”. I added a term for this kind of mechanism because it would be annoying if everytime I refer to this, I would have to explain it. This is basically using your Combo Attack, however this mechanism allows you to skip the first Combo Attack and start using the second Combo Attack. It will look like your first hit of Combo Attack is the second hit of Combo Attack. Some combos explained in the “Combos” section requires you to know CASkip. Good CASkipping will only look like the second hit of Combo Attack as well as it almost won’t move you forward. Decent CASkipping however, is and looks like a combination of Skate mechanism one and CASkip. This will also move you forward a further distance than “Good” CASkipping.

This mechanism also works for warriors and berserkers.

(Gif below is a good / half decentish CASkip. Notice the second CASkip is a pretty good one.)

(The gif below is a combination of Skating mechanism one and CASkipping in combat)

How to CASkip: I will assume you have Combo Attack on your left mouse button and Stand Fast / block on your right mouse button while explaining this. This mechanism involves two spells – Combo Attack and Stand Fast. The way / explanation to perform this can vary. Here I will explain my way of executing this. Another way will be explained down below by “Ahura”. 

1. Check your ping, once again yes this is very important since ping affects this and all of the mechanisms mentioned above. Around 50ms = Really good CASkip, though harder to execute. Around 75ms = Still good / decent CASkip, easy to execute. Around 100ms = Decent CASkip. The CASkip will be somewhat slower, easier to execute. Above 150ms = Still decent / okay CASkip and very easy to execute.
2. Hold left mouse button -> double tap block very fast before the first hits of Combo Attack are initiated -> Keep holding left mouse button until the hit(s) of the second Combo Attack are done.
3. Practice out of combat by doing the #2 repeatedly until you understand the timing of your button mashing and its connection to your ping.
4. Take your practice into combat by having someone be a dummy for you. Now you can really see when your second Combo Attack is initiated in CASkip aswell as the slows and staggers the second Combo Attack brings to the table.
5. Now you should have discovered by yourself if it is easy or hard for you to perform and from here adapt your timing in this mechanism accordingly. Aswell as you should have noticed if you need to double tap or single tap block. Double tapping is a lot “safer”
6. A little repetition of #1, Low ping will result in fast and fluent CASkip, however is hard to execute. High ping will result in somewhat slower CASkips but is much easier to do. At this stage you should also have discovered how Skating and CASkipping are linked together. Hence why your Skating with high ping will most likely become CASkip.
7. Once you get here you should have understood that you have to adapt your play style to your current ping. By doing this you will also become a lot better at Lancer overall.

“There are two ways to perform this action:

Assuming that your Combo Attack is on your left mouse button, and your Stand Fast/Block is on your right mouse button, you can perform this move easily if you practice it enough.

Just like in Shield Barrage, you tap both left mouse button and right mouse button almost at the same time, except the left mouse should be a head by a very minimal delay before you click the right mouse button.This will trigger a very very fast way of Skating, except, you did it fast and your second Combo Attack will trigger afterwards instead of the first Combo Attack.” – Ahura

Block mechanisms

There are different kind of block mechanisms.

Block mechanism one is well-known because of the Kelsaik Nest dungeon whereas you need to block for someone else. This can be used in pvp and is a very viable asset of anti-cc and defense. To block for someone else in pvp you actually do not need to be in front of him/her. As long as you also block the attack and is in range you will block it for your teammate, if he/she is to be hit (see gif #2).

(The slayer in the gif below might have missed his heart thrust, as it is hard to see. This is a good illustration of how this kind of block works though.)

(In the gif below, the enemy lancer blocks a wallop KD for his priest)

Block mechanism two is used to block archer traps. This is useful for yourself by being able to remove the trap and not getting stunned, however when the trap is removed it is also triggered which means your allies in range of said trap will be affected. This mechanism can be a combination of Skate mechanism one and Stand Fast / Block and takes practice to learn, since if your position is wrong when you try to do this, you will end up eating the trap. Notice that when blocking traps, you turn your block towards the center of it not to the caster.

How to block archer traps:

1. By this stage you should’ve figured out that you need to know your ping before performing most moves. Now I assume you know your ping and how to adapt to it.
2. Find an archer dummy. Have him drop all kinds of melee traps.
3. You should have your shield over or a little right over the edge on the trap when you start blocking. If done right, you won’t get stunned/slowed. Take notice that it’s harder to see if you succeeded if you practice with the red/orange damage melee trap. 
4. If your position is too close to the center when you block, you will take the CC effect / you will eat the trap. If your position is too far away from the trap or not close enough to the edge, you will take the CC effect / you will eat the trap when you stop blocking.
5. Combine the Skate mechanism one and block or walk up to the trap and block. In my opinion it’s easier to walk up to it. When your shield / position reaches the edge, block.
6. This takes practice. Do it over and over again. You can also practice this on range traps, but the position on where you start blocking differs a little to the melee traps.
7. You really have to walk up “with confidence”. If you take a step by step the position where you are will be a bit “messy” and it will end up being a lot harder.
8. Which you may have noticed by now, it still says “Block successful” when failing to block a trap. But that’s not the case since if you take the CC effect from the trap, you failed.

(Gif is melee stun trap blocking by walking up to it. Tried to show the position you need to have in order to success.)

Thank you, Dawls and Rinako for helping.

Block mechanism three is used to block sorcerer traps. This is very useful while targeting a sorc. You take away his option by camping traps not only by having your Leash spell but the fact that you can ignore his trap. This mechanism can be a combination of Skate mechanism one and Stand Fast / Block. You can also simply walk up to the trap and block, however that is harder to do. As mentioned above, when blocking traps you turn your block towards the center of it, not to the caster. 

How to block sorcerer traps: There are more ways to block sorcerer traps but this is the one I will include in the block section. 

1. I will not do a long one here since this is easier than blocking archer traps. As stated above in archer trap block mechanism section, adapt to your ping.
2. Combine Skate mechanism one and block.
3. Press block whenever you reach the very edge of the trap.
4. Practice by having a dummy as usual.
5. This is a much easier movement than in the archer trap mechanism, because you can’t be “too close” to the center.

(Gif below shows what it looks like when you succeed.)

Charge lunge

The spell Charge lunge can be used very accurately and precise. It can be a tool for many things. It’s a very important spell to be familiar with and to be using wise. Charge lunge is not affected by slow debuffs, compared to all your other movement spells.

Charge lunge mechanism one: 

There is an “inbuilt aim mechanism” in this spell. Which means if you aim at someone when you use this spell, it will somewhat charge and follow its target until impact or interrupted. I will give you an example by words – If you aim and charge at someone and said person starts using a spell which moves them in a direction, your charge will change direction towards this person.

This is important to understand because if you didn’t aim at the person the moment you used Charge lunge and then expects the charge to readjust its angle, the possibility of you being mispositioned is high.

(Gif demonstrates the above when a sorc uses glacial retreat after I charged him.)

Charge lunge mechanism two: can be used to charge after a jaunting target instantly. By using the mechanism explained above you can charge after an enemy using jaunt and the charge will “aim” for you. This means it doesn’t matter if you don’t know your target’s new position after he jaunted, your charge will adjust its direction. This can only be used if you are almost on or right in front of your opponent. You also have to use Charge lunge right after he uses jaunt, which makes this a hard tool to apply in combat. You will have to know exactly when your target is going to jaunt.

This will be demonstrated in this video.

*DOES NOT WORK/FIXED WITH GUNNER PATCH* Charge lunge mechanism three: Is used to disarm/trigger/remove range archer traps. This is a very easy tool to apply in combat. If you see a range archer trap you can simply just use Charge lunge to pass over it without getting CCed. Keep in mind that you have to charge over it. If an archer is camping the trap and you charge to him, you will most likely eat the trap. Charge lunge isn’t a “charge” if it hits its target. Disarming a range trap won’t trigger CC effects to your allies (not enough tested). 

(Gif below removal of range stun trap in combat.)

Leash

Leash overall is a very useful tool everywhere you go. It can be used as a tool to open your combos, play defensive by interrupting enemy combos 18 meters away, make enemies CCed, get enemies in a bad position, leash targets into your teammate spells… Leash is just a powerful spell. I won’t divide the Leash spell into mechanisms because there are way too many ways to use this spell. Leash can be used as the Charge lunge mechanism two though. I will show some gifs that can give you an idea of how leash can be used. 

It’s worth mentioning that if you Leash someone into a KD spell, it will make them desync. Could be if you leash someone into a KD trap or the leashed target gets KDed while being leashed.

“(Desync is when your opponent got kded/leashed and afterwards not being able to get hit. This is a common thing in TERA and can occur on a KD randomly. Desync can even be forced by jumping around and using the “profile” button.)” – Rinako

What is desync?

It does work to leash someone on backstep, same function as Charge lunge mechanism two. However to make that happen, you have to cast leash when your target uses backstep and the leash has to hit when your target isn’t in iframe. So, if your target has enough attack speed or if you lack attack speed, this can occur.

Demonstration of Leash used as Charge lunge mechanism two in this video.(Same video):

(Gif below shows when leash is used on Glacial retreat. Same function as in “Leash on jaunt”. By the way, using Lockdown Blow’s hitbox as shown below can give you some more options.)

*WTB GIFS HERE ;_;*

Backstep

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Combos *UNFINISHED*

In here you will need knowledge about the stagger cooldown.

Pick a dummy for you and practice the stagger cooldown by using your Shield Barrage -> Delay -> Shield Barrage until you are familiar with when enemies can be staggered after you just staggered them. This takes time and you will need this knowledge in every part of your lancer life. Many combos listed down below will also require an attack speed of around +21 or higher. This also depends on so much but I stated this because without any “+” attack speed, you probably can’t do as many as you can do with around +21.

This section will explain and discuss combos including “applying staggerers right after stuns end”. You need to know and understand the stun duration in this game. It can be practiced by doing Shield Bash -> Delay until stun ends -> any stagger ability. The timing will be different every stun due to the stun duration being RNG.

As the above it will also include “applying staggers right after the KD effects end”. This can also be practiced by using a dummy. But tell your dummy to not use retaliate so you can practice the timing. Use Wallop -> delay -> any stagger. As soon as your dummy/target gets up, you should apply a stagger effect.

Staggers, Stun duration and KD timing will, as explained above, be in almost all of these combos. Make sure to know the stagger timing especially, since this is the most important part in this section. Doing the Shield Barrage staggers properly will already make you a really strong lancer in pvp.

The must learn/most common combos will be listed here. A more detailed list of combos is down below. You will have to understand the animation locks / canceling, spell combos and movements while practicing these combos and tools. Make sure to learn these combos first before taking a look at any of the ones below:

Shield Barrage -> Shield Barrage -> Wallop: Really strong short combo that ends in a KD. 

Shield Barrage -> Shield Barrage -> Bash: A really good way to initiate a bash, often from behind.

Bash -> Spring Attack -> Debilitate -> Wallop -> Lockdown Blow: Most common and the “easiest” combo there is. Deals decent amount of damage.

(Shield Barrage x2 -> Wallop)

(Shield Barrage x2 -> Shield Bash -> Spring Attack -> Debilitate -> Wallop -> Lockdown Blow)

Was lagging horribly when recording both these gifs so the stagger timing might be very fucking bad.

*NOTE: Shield Barrages movements! Move to the back of your opponent while you are waiting for the stagger cooldown in between your Shield Barrages, giving you 

back crits.*

Basic starter tools/combos (Note: x2 are optional)

Block -> Shield Counter: Used to stagger after a successful block.

Shield Counter -> Wallop: Used only if you manage to stagger with your Shield Counter.

Shield Counter -> Shield Barrage (x2): Only used if your Shield Counter staggers and you want to prolong the staggers.

Shield Counter -> Shield Bash: Use only if your counter staggers. Decent, but in my opinion a bad way to open up a Shield Bash combo, since it often won’t be from behind.

Skate -> Shield Barrage (x2): Mobility into stagger.

Skate -> CASkip: A slick and fluent combination of mobility into stagger and slow.

Skate -> first Combo Attack -> second Combo Attack: Almost identical as above but abit slower.

Skate -> Lockdown Blow: Gap closer into instant stacked slow debuffs combo.

CASkip -> Shield Barrage (x2): x3 stagger combo.

CASkip -> Shield Bash: Stagger into stun.

CASkip -> Giga Leash: Stagger into mass-stun.

CASkip -> Leash / Master Leash: Stagger into leash (stun/attack speed slow debuff).

CASkip -> Lockdown Blow: Stagger into a stacked slow debuffs.

CASkip -> Debilitate: Stagger into healing debuff.

Shield Barrage (x2) -> Block -> Shield Bash: Stagger into stun.

Shield Barrage (x2) -> Block -> Debilitate: Stagger into healing debuff.

Shield Barrage (x2) -> Block -> Leash: Stagger into leash (stun/attack speed slow debuff).

Shield Barrage (x2) -> Block -> Giga Leash: Stagger into mass-stun.

Shield Barrage (x2) -> Block -> Lockdown Blow: Stagger into a slow debuff. Hard to hit.

Shield Barrage -> Shield Barrage -> Wallop: Stagger into knockdown.

Shield Barrage -> Shield Barrage -> Spring Attack: Stagger into damage + chance to attack speed slow.

Shield Bash -> Spring Attack: Stun into damage + chance to proc attack speed slow.

Spring Attack -> Wallop: Used as an ending to combos. Damage into KD.

Debilitate -> Wallop: Healing debuff into knockdown. Also used as an ending.

Wallop -> Menacing Wave: Useful follow up after a KD if you want to CC by slowing attack speed.

Wallop -> Lockdown Blow: Good tool to keep your target slowed for a little longer after he gets up.

Wallop -> Spring attack: Decent with a high attack speed if you want to deal damage or need to proc attack speed slow on target.

Wallop -> Leash / Giga leash: Stun on retaliate. Needs abit of practice and is unexpected. It doesn’t waste your target’s retaliate though.

Charge Lunge -> Block -> Shield Barrage: Instant mobility into stagger.

Charge Lunge -> Block -> Lockdown Blow: Good to slow a target from far away.

Charge Lunge -> Wallop: Useful to catch a far away target into knockdown. 

Lockdown Blow -> Block -> Shield Barrage x2 / Bskip -> Spring Attack: Good “Kaia Shield” breaker combo without the use of Shield Bash. Situational.

Leash -> Master Leash: Stun into more stun. Good if you are waiting for cooldowns, good to prolong a longer stun for your team member to deal damage.

Leash / Master Leash -> Shield Bash: Can be a good opener. Be careful with stun duration here. ¼ of your Leash stuns won’t last long enough to use Shield Bash as a follow up.

Leash / Master Leash -> Lockdown Blow: Stun into slow to control your target easier or to waste its escapes.

Leash -> CASkip: Stun into a timed stagger. Can be good to use if you have cooldown on other staggers or just don’t want to waste them.

Leash / Master Leash -> Shield Barrage: Stun into a timed stagger, good way to start a combo or to just control someone. Harder to perform than the one above, since 1st Barrage hits only once.

Leash / Master Leash -> Giga leash: The basic way to get a controlled and aimed Giga Leash off, very predictable though.

Giga Leash -> Shield Bash: The most basic and common way to follow up a Giga Leash.

Giga Leash -> Bskip -> Shield Bash: Is a way to delay your Shield Bash, in case you are afraid your Shield Bash will be cleansed instantly afterwards. Also a way to prolong the CC.

Giga Leash -> Bskip -> Wallop: Good to use if you have Shield Bash cooldown.

Giga Leash -> Debilitate -> Wallop: Same as above. This does put a healing debuff though.

Longer Combos built by the basic starter tools/combos

Shield Bash -> Spring Attack -> Debilitate -> Wallop: Most common and generic combo. Puts a healing debuff on your target.

Shield Bash -> Bskip -> Spring Attack -> Wallop: Can deal more damage than other Shield Bash combos. Is harder to perform due to Bskip and stun duration. The damage depends on how many Spring Attack ticks you can get off with the stun duration.

(Gif below. If this was a good combo choice in this situation can be discussed. This gif is only to demonstrate the combo)

CASkip -> Bskip -> Wallop:

More advanced combos:

(Animation cancel, lancer mechanisms, combos)

1. Lancer in duel *UNFINISHED*

I won’t and can’t go into depth in this section because I can’t tell you doing this or that will always work against certain classes because well, it’s a mindgame in the end since it’s pvp. I won’t use many gifs in this section. I will go over a few things to keep in mind of as well as “things to look out for”.

The importance of being “good” in 1vs1 scenarios is really high when playing lancer. In the current meta people do focus lancers in both arena and fraywind. That means if you suck in 1vs1, you will probably also have a hard time pvping overall. I don’t believe in the “Giga leash and win” because that was 2013 meta. Now people are way more experienced and being good in duels and even 2v1 scenarios will net you insane strenght.

Lancer

In a lancer vs lancer setup you don’t need a lot of mechanism knowledge to win. However there are some mechanisms and spells you need to do very much and execute properly in order to win. 

One of these things is taking stagger control. You will need to be the one to stagger, not be staggered. You need to be the one who blocks staggers. Because yes, lancer vs lancer is pretty much only about who “out staggers” the other. This means knowing the stagger timing is crucial. As mentioned above, when you know your stagger timing on your Shield Barrages you are already a strong lancer.

Things to look out for

Shield Barrage is your main stagger ability that can lead to almost anything. In this setup you want to be the one to hit the stagger of course, which comes down to when, where and how you use it. You need to know how far your Shield Barrage hits. You need to know what angle and when you block to successfully block it. Melee classes will try to go around your block, lancers no exception. Learn how to block Shield barrage and countering Shield Barrage becomes so much easier. Shield barrage is something that is very, very hard to explain. You need to practice over and over again. If I would try explaining Shield Barrage it would make 1 page on its own, maybe I will give my perspective of if but not for now.

CASkip can be very unpredictable when it does happen. But then again, you are also a lancer and you should know that whatever you wish upon your enemy, he wishes upon you… So to speak. If you happen to successfully hit a CASkip, you are in control already. Many lancers do use CAskip backwards, meaning they use Skate mechanism one (Quick dash) backwards and then CA. So it goes Dash backwards -> CA. This move is a really good counter to Shield Barrages. Same goes for CAskipping to the side. Keep your eyes open when they skate like that.

Leash can be used anytime the enemy lancer is free, which you need to watch out for. Not just to block the stun but the potential attack speed slow that comes with it. Many lancers usually use leash when you are 10-15m away from each other. Avoiding a leash can also be done by walking unpredictable and/or take sharp turns, taking advantage of the fact that you need to aim leash. Take in consideration that using leash or giga leash on retaliate is common. If you successfully blocked a leash, you can counter leash him since he is in an animation lock.

Giga Leash is very instant and is useful to prolong stuns/combos or interrupt enemies when you don’t have a lot of time to cast anything. This spell is really hard to block, but easier to avoid by walking unpredictable.

Charge lunge can be used as an escape tool when you are slowed, it can be used as a tool to not let the enemy breath and it can be used as an angle changer. When you are attack speed slowed, low on resolve or need a certain spell off CD is usually when you would want to use it as an escape tool in a lancer vs lancer duel. As an offensive tool you would want to use it if the enemy lancer uses it as a defensive tool. Switching angle with Charge lunge can be done by tapping it and animation cancel it instantly after. This gives you a really quick position change/dash.

Spring Attack will most likely be the follow up after Shield Barrage staggers if your Shield Bash and Wallop is on cooldown. It is also used when you know the enemy can’t escape during the attack to well, deal damage. Spring Attack comes with a glyph that reduces attack speed by 30% for 7 seconds which is huge. If you get this debuff on you, you suffer a lot more animation lock and your attacks are also much slower. When you have this debuff on you the best options would be to 

1. Get some space by using Charge lunge and/or backstep.
2. Block attacks since block isn’t affected much by attack speed. 
3. Counter stagger and then get some space. 
4. Use Adrenaline Rush if you have it up to even up your attack speed loss.

The actions above should probably also be done if you were to get the Leash attack speed slow debuff on you. This Leash attack speed slow debuff only lasts for 4 seconds though.

Rallying Cry gives you room to breath from staggers. However you are still not immune to stuns. If your enemy casts this you can still stun him with bash or leashes. Leashing him isn’t recommended though because of how short the stun is at the moment which can backfire on you if your leash stun is really short. You can either use rallying cry yourself if you have it up or kite like a bitch.

Iron Will is a shield which absorbs around xxxxx damage. If you see your enemy using this you should wait it out if you can, otherwise you should just ignore it. If you wait it out, 10 seconds (15 if glyphed), you will deal damage to him instead of Iron Will, however waiting it out can be hard because when he uses it, he probably wants to fight and the duration is fairly long. If you want to wait it out make him play passive by trying to “out stagger” him. This isn’t a big “look out for” since this is just something to keep in mind. It’s also worth mentioning, using Iron Will and Second Wind will also cause a small animation lock leaving you vulnerable. Which leads to when your enemy is recovering there is a big chance he will use either of these two spells giving you the advantage.

Lockdown Blow isn’t as powerful against lancers as against other classes. The thing to look out for here though is when you use it, you suffer a decent long animation lock which can be punished very easy. If you use this, the enemy can easy Leash/stagger/Shield Bash you. Using Lockdown Blow after Wallop in lancer vs lancer is probably the best option. Same goes for if he uses this you can punish him by using Leash or Barrages. Lockdown blow also has a fast position change which can be used to reangle or readjust.

Warrior *not updated*

In my opinion warriors are the hardest to fight as a lancer. As a lancer you need decent amount of mechanism control as well as the other knowledge we have already talked about which I assume you know. Warriors are strong against lancers because you can’t block warrior Combo Attack staggers. By saying warriors are hardest for lancer is not the same as saying lancers are bad vs warrior, it’s just harder in comparison to other classes. 

A warrior has two ways to deal “safe” damage, which are Cascade and Counter. Eating either of those spells will guarantee that you will take a lot of damage. Staggers are often an opener to combos, as you may have noticed by now. So warriors want to stagger you into either of these spells. Keep in mind Cascade can be used on stunned targets, which means warriors can open up into a Cascade combo with different tools.

In this setup, your damage comes from your Wallop and mostly your Bash combos. Warrior vs lancer is pretty much who gets these keys spells in the most, which leads to if you get staggered more than the warrior, you will eat more combos than him. So once again, it’s all about the staggers. Below I will explain how I fight warriors in Assault Stance, since personally I can’t beat a Defense Stance warrior.

Most common scenario

As you approach each other you will have to keep in mind he can use Backstab at any moment in the 10m radius. He most likely won’t because he wants open up the Backstab combo with a stagger since if he fails the backstab, nothing good will happen for him. As you gets closer into Barrage range keep in mind that his Combative Strike has a further range than Barrage. Barrage hits wider range though.

You are now in Combative Strike range and Barrage range and you will wait for his action. Because yes if you were to miss your Barrage you will get punished for it. His action at this moment will most likely be Combative Strike or Roll on top of you. Why he rolls on top of you is because he wants to stagger you. You can’t block his Combo Attack stagger when he is on top of you which leaves you with a few options. Counter him when he lands or backstep and play defensively.

You will also figure out soon enough that you don’t always have to avoid his stagger if he already wasted his key stuns. Then he can’t deal that much damage, he just wants to stagger you to control you and reduce your chance of hitting a combo.

It’s a lot of waiting for his mistake so you can punish it. If he does the same then you have to make sure he takes your CCs first. Once one of your stagger hits you will have to hit either Wallop or Bash from behind. Using spring attack after Barrage against warriors will most likely only be 2-3 hits of Spring Attack and if you aren’t careful they can counter you if you don’t animation cancel in time.

Things to look out for

There are tons of things you should look out for but I won’t mention all of them.

Evasive roll into Combo Attack is the most aggressive and effective way to guarantee the warrior a stagger unless you Backstep or counter him in some way. By counter him I mean if you use Bash or Shield Barrage before his Combo Attack hits you. This is a lot harder to do than Backstepping out of it because his Combo Attack is fast and you will have to know exactly when he has landed. If you Backstep it and he does it again, you have no choice than to counter it with staggers or stuns.

Combative Strike is his secondary stagger. This spell hits further than your Barrage, hence why it’s harder to initiate the stagger since his has further range. This is where CASkips are effective. If you feel like he will open up with Combative Strike instead of the roll into Combo Attack, you can time a CASkip so your stagger hits before his stagger. Be careful with it since CASkip only hits in front of you.

Backstab is the most common tool to open up a Cascade from behind and is also the safest damage in game. This spell has 11m – 9m range depending on how you are turned. If you are turned to him the range is 9m and if you are turned away from him it’s 11m. Backstab is instant but can be blocked. This means every second his Backstab is up you are vulnerable if he is free. There isn’t any way to prevent him from casting it other than constantly having him CCed.

Counter is a very strong tool of warriors. Once they take damage they get a buff for 5 seconds which allows them to use Counter. Keep in mind if he gets the buff and you hit him again, the buff timer for him won’t refresh. Counter has enough duration for him to deal decent amount of damage. If you don’t give him this Counter buff he can’t use it, means if you eat a stagger when he doesn’t have the buff. His other option to deal safe damage is Backstab. So if he has Backstab on cooldown and you never gave him a Counter buff when he staggers you, he most likely will use another spell after the stagger which could be Knockdowns or Shout. Shout is another way to open up a Cascade combo. It’s a range 10m radius AoE stun. It isn’t as safe damage since opening with Shout doesn’t guarantee him that he will hit in the back.

Slayer *UNFINISHED*

Are easier to face than warriors because they can’t hit through block as effective as warriors can. Slayers hit high but a fewer times, compared to warriors you can’t take as many hits against slayers. Stagger immunity is also something that makes it harder to target and control the slayer compared to non-stagger immune classes. Slayers play with knockdowns combos and stuns. They also have Tenacity which is a stun resist buff for 5 seconds, which you will have to keep track of. All in all slayers aren’t a class you can go head on with since their anti CC abilities will force you to give them a short break.

Slayers have many ways to start a fight.

Things to look out for

Combo Attacks through block can happen against slayers. If you are very close to each other and he does Combo Attack, it’s most likely it will hit through your block. It is a lot harder for slayers to come close to you though because they are very vulnerable there as well. One way slayers can open up a Combo Attack through block is by using headlong rush towards you and then stagger you. Since Headlong rush gives them a 100% attack speed boost to their next attack the Combo Attack is hard to avoid if you aren’t prepared when you see him charge.

Fury Strike is a medium medium range/wide stagger.

Eviscerate/Jaw Breaker, the slayer’s newest spell with the 65 update. This spell is really fast and has a range of 10m (Minimal race dependant) staggers or knockdowns, depending on how the spell is used. Jaw Breaker is a link spell, when used after another spell, knockdowns. If it’s used first/on its own, it staggers.

Backhand strike is a 360 degree melee stun.

Berserker Ahura’s POV

Berserkers are somewhat hard to deal with as a lancer if the berserker knows what s/he is doing. They have the strongest CC, which is knockdown, that is mostly available in a short amount of cooldown. Their staggers are also strong and zerkers, in my opinion, is also the best peeler in-game because of knockdowns, fear, and staggers. Their stagger immunity is what gives them a great chance of fighting lancers and warriors. (jitsua halp me add stuff im bad at explaining) halp me ffs

Things to look out for

Combo Attacks of a zerker can hit through your block at some weird angle. And like in lancer versus lancer guide, zerkers would most likely counter your shield barrage.

Mocking Shout is what makes a lancer useless. This skill has 30s cooldown and gives them immunity on knockdowns, staggers, and slow for 12s. Berserkers are weak if they are really slow, hence they have mocking shout and dash to counter their weakness. “Just stun or run like a faggot if they do this shit.” – LazyJitsua2014

Fiery Rage makes the berserker really squishy. It decreases the berserker’s endurance by 40%. This is a good time to deal a huge amount of damage as soon as possible.

Tenacity makes them immune to stuns for 5s and also gives them mana. Mostly this will be used if the zerker predicts they are going to get stunned. Since it’s a mindgame, there really is no telling when the zerker will use this to protect himself from leash since a berserker can block leashes as well.

Evasive Smash is the berserker’s strongest damage output overall. It is also their only iframe. They would normally rely on evasive smash if they have mocking shout because evasive smash is easy to stagger. If they don’t have mocking shout, after the iframe, you can stagger it to delay the 5s release availability of the evasive smash and cancel their fully charged burst.

Archer Ahura’s POV
Archers are the easiest shittiest to fight in 1v1 because they do not have tenacity *yet* which makes them an easy leash target. They also have a total of 3 staggers so if they wasted it, you know what you can do against them already. They also have 1 iframe, and a breakaway bolt that is not really an iframe, does not slow you (if unglyphed ofcourse). And like the mechanics on top against blocking traps, it gives the advantage on the lancer in this match.

Things to look out for

Final Salvo/Rapid Fire/Radiant Arrow (second charge) is what you have to watch out for because this is mostly their opening for a close quarter which can be combo’d to a rain of arrows cheese asdjhkfasf combo if they executed it smoothly.

Restraining Arrow/Web Arrow makes kiting easier for archers. Just block it, it doesn’t really deal damage to be saved for resolve.

Wasting your resolve by blocking fully charged skills can be your downfall as well. Sometimes, you have to sacrifice your HP to save more resolve because without resolve, you can’t use backstep or block (skating too). So instead, you can use onslaught to not get knocked-down and receive 50% less damage instead of just blocking it.

Sorcerer (Jitsua will cover this) no i wont wtf. just do it omg stfu and do it

Reaper (fok reapers there’s really no pattern of what they’re going to do) Na man just fuck reapers yo, they are no human. nigr theyre elins. lol no they are inhjuman faggitive shitheads. k ill main reaper now need someone to make reaper guide lel. NA just fcuk everything revolging this cancerous shit class.

Priest (Jitsua will cover this)

Mystic (Jitsua will covert his) fyck off

(Lancer, warrior, slayer, zerker, archer, sorcerer, gunner, reaper, priest, mystic)

1.  Lancer in Champions’ Skyring – Arena 3v3 *UNFINISHED*

I plan to go over compositions and positioning in arena. I can’t and won’t go over every aspect within 3vs3 arena. Instead I will go over the different classes / compositions you as a lancer can play and how to execute these. Of course all these thoughts are from my own perspective and gameplay. I have played lancer and priest in separate seasons and reached maximum around 1600 rating as priest and around 1700 rating as lancer. These seasons weren’t the most active in my region but I believe I have enough experience to talk about it on a decent level. I will try to include some of my own gameplay videos as well.

Discussions will probably be made here since every lancer doesn’t play like me, obviously. I will welcome your thoughts and guidance if you feel like you can explain this better or overall, is a better player than me and would like to clear things up. Since I don’t want people to get a view on lancers from one perspective, it would be kind if more lancers out there who has more experience than me could help out here in order to help everyone improve.

Compositions

I choose to go over the playstyle with each healer class, lancer + <Healer Class>. After explaining one composition I will explain how the gameplay will change when you change healer class. Every composition will also have to be played differently depending on what composition you are up against. I will only talk about your own team composition and how to play it.

Lancer  warrior priest

This combo was “back then” a very strong combo. Don’t get me wrong, it is a strong combo at the moment too but in comparison it has been stronger. Warriors are a healer-pressuring machine and you are a mad dog. Both of you are independent dps classes with alot of stagger abilities and stuns. Neither of these classes have a real high burst as other dps classes do. They deal a lot of damage “over time” or should I say, they have a lot of stable damage. But what makes this strong is that both you and the warrior can shutdown classes good. Warriors shines on healers though since they have more safe damage than lancers do as well as easier healing debuffs.

Doing this composition can be done in two ways, preferably.

One way is to put warrior on healer and lancer on any dps and then switch when you see a good opportunity. This might sounds “easy” but its very hard to execute since switching in tera is a hard thing. I know lancers who had asked around if XXX reason is a good opportunity to switch. TERA is a very situational game and it all comes down to this particular moment. So lets say your warrior has their healer on 40% after his Cascade combo and you choose to switch. I would say that is a decent time to switch but it differs from game to game. 

The other way to play this composition is to double up on the enemy healer. This might sound stupid because it can put the game into a “healer-race”. This way of playing all comes down to your warrior and Energy Stars. Energy stars gives 43 power and 13 attack speed for 25 seconds (ES glyphs included) which will grant your warrior a lot more damage. It will of course also give you more damage but since warrior damage is more safe damage, a warrior on ES is more dangerous. If your team has ES the pressure will be on your side and the enemy team has to play defensive. You need the pressure on your side the whole game for you to be able to win this way. Lancer and warrior don’t have that much burst damage compared to other comps.

With mystic

I won’t repeat myself so pretty much same as above except that you need more teamwork. Mystic and priest have different tools for the same goal. In this comp it’s important to know that you will trade ES for a fair amount of CC which can pay off depending on your teamwork. It is also harder to focus/kill a mystic than a priest as some classes.

One of my own gameplays with this composition: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2QYagN7DVZQ

Lancer PoV. The gameplay is pretty terrible though.

Lancer  zerker priest

This can be a hard comp to pull of properly because at the moment zerkers can be both independent and dependant damage dealers (DD). An independant DD sets up things for the dependant DD in order to do more burst damage. An example is the lancers’ Giga leash plus an aoe attack from archers and sorcs. Lancers are independent DDs but in some cases like this case here, they can also be dependant. Which is why this comp can be hard to pull of, however this comp is very rewarding and is sometimes even considered overpowered. This is one of my most favorite comps but I haven’t gotten to play it alot. I will only go over the way I played this comp, if anyone wants to cover this in more details, please pm me.

Me and my zerker teammate played me as the dependant DD and him as independent. The reason is because his play style revolves around knockdown chains and almost no Evasive Smash whatsoever. We had me switching to enemy healer whenever the healer comes too close and him switching to help me if there was a good opportunity. Basically I let him combo any of them and I was there to peel (Play defensively, help a teammate get free cast time) and assist with my knockdown. My biggest “duty” was to switch to healer whenever there was a good moment to, staggering or stunning the priest. This works because zerker right now has an insane amount of damage if played properly, as well as a very strong CC. There were also moments where my zerker teammate switched to the enemy healer because there was a good moment to do so, then I depend on him by either assist in damage and KD or help him deal his damage by peeling him off. 

With mystic

What I would say about this comp is that you trade your defensive abilities of the priest for a good amount of CCs abilities. As a mystic you can do much more things when your teammate zerker KDs for you compared to what a priest can do with a KD. I can’t say much more than the above about this composition, feel free to fill this in.

My own gameplays with this composition:

Zerker PoV. Not my gameplay. I’m the lancer though.

Priest PoV. Not the best play from my side.

Lancer slayer priest

Lancer sorc priest

My own gameplays with this composition: 

Lancer PoV

Lancer archer priest

(Compositions, positioning)

1. Final Words

Links used and a few additional ones I think are good to check out:

• Mechanism demonstrations after the duels. Skate, Charge lunge on jaunt and Leash on jaunt. 
• Infinite mana exploit/glitch shown by a lancer from NA, 2013.

• Reddit’s explanation of what desync is. 
• A closer look into CASkip.

• Force Strategy Gaming is talking about why MMO combat sucks. It involves a lot of technical issues such as ping issues, queue systems, desyncs and more. This is a video about MMO, not focused on TERA. Benchmark for the discussion around TERA in the same video.
• TeraToday is a community based website and forum. Contains tons of information and is useful overall. For example the glyph calculator used in this guide is taken from TeraToday.

2015-08-02 I will not finish this guide because I lost interest in the TERA community. Me being lazy and doing other stuff are also to blame. Of course if someone would ask me to or help me to finish it etc. I would probably consider it. However as I  already said I quitted playing lancer when vm4 patch hit. If I would feel like writing a book again I would do that about the Priest class. 

2016-05-22 *In progress* Right now I am playing priest in pvp and keeping my lancer as a pve ghileglade character because I quit lancer. Lancer was very tiring to me aswell as it was seriously “too hard” for me in the long run. Even though I do see myself as a “what is considered” good lancer, I enjoy priest more. The pvp I did with the 65 patch on lancer was horrible, many things in the duel section needs update and whatnot, or I might not even be able to give an accurate enough picture of “how to 1v1”. Same goes for the arena section. What stays the same though is the combo section which to my realization was so much fucking work I left it for… Later. The mindset of the lancer class is still there, but I can’t make the decisions neither keeping my mechanical level up as I “used to” half a year ago. So right now I’m just trying to fix an old project and yeah, I might make a priest guide since friends ask me for advice. Then again this community sucks and what I ever got from writing this is more flame than support. Good thing I don’t give a fuck about that, I give a fuck about people wanting to play this fucking game. 

If you want to contact me, information is down below:

TERA EU KILLIAN:

IGN: Yadori – Priest

TERA NA MOUNT TYRANNAS:

IGN: Toffie – Sorc

(My words and opinions (again), Summary, links and description to things worth mentioning, kind of a log.)