Tera Online Level 65 PVE Lancer Build and Strategy Guide [Endgame]

Here's a guide written by BowlingBall on an Endgame Level 65 PVE build, and strategy on how to play Lancer in Tera Online.

General PvE Lancer guide for level 65 patch. I’m not going to hold your hand 100% of the way and tell you there is only one way to play it; what you use should depend on the situation. I’m also not always right, but here’s my opinions:

Important things:

1) Gear, Accessories and Stat Rolls

2) Crystals

3) Glyphs (and master glyphs)

4) Skills and Rotations (will depend on glyphs)

5) Consumables

Each of the aspects above play an equal role in your overall effectiveness with any class so don’t neglect any of them. But your skill and hands-on experience is by far more important than your equipment. Item level is also not a representation of skill.

1) Gear, Accessories and Stat Rolls:

This is not a guide on getting gear itself, do your own research on what you want to get - there are a lot of resources out there.

The key to Lancer (how I play it anyway) is being aggressive (but not face-tanking) and balancing the ratio of power:aggro bonuses. I generally ignore crit rate and crit dmg rolls where I can, I don’t like depending on RNG for aggro. And some bosses have good crit resist. Combine aggro and power jewelry sets. Make sure you roll your gear correctly. No matter what gear you have it will suck unless you have it rolled to suit your needs.

Intense is the best weapon type for PvE. Don't choose Keen for PvE unless you are an Archer or Sorcerer and you need to compensate (low base crit rate DPS classes).

Here are some good rolls for your gear:

• Weapon: Enrage dmg, aggro, CD reduction (and overall damage or attack speed if you have 4th roll).

Highest aggro damage is a trap unless you're soloing. Also, do not roll for crit dmg.

• Chest: Max HP, decrease enraged dmg, decrease (overall) dmg, (and increase incoming healing if you have a 4th roll).

• Chest (Class Skill): Spring Attack dmg.

• Gloves: You NEED aggro gloves for tanking. This is non-negotiable. The aggro gloves are the best trade-off from power:aggro out of anything. And +12 aggro gloves (even outdated ones) are simply amazing for their raw aggro generation. As for the rolls, get aggro, crit rate, attack speed. If you do not have these rolls, re-roll your gloves. Endurance is not something you want to rely on and you definitely don’t want it taking up space on your gloves.

• Boots: Movement speed, endurance (it’s fine on boots), for 3rd I would get MP regen since balance is worthless.

• Necklace: Aggro roll. Make sure you have a necklace with built-in +6% attack speed.

• Rings: Crit rate and crit dmg if you can use semi enigmatics. Aggro rings have built-in aggro rolls.

• Earrings: Max HP and Reduce duration of stun (or decrease poison damage - either is fine) if you can use semi enigmatics.

• Brooch: Aggro. If you have a good brooch, you can use power on it.

• Belt: Preferably double power.

• Innerwear: The best power bonus you can afford although I use MP regen personally. Either is fine.

2) Crystals

Weapon: 1x Focused, 3x Threatening.

Armor: 4x Hardy

Jewelry: 4x Powerful

3) Glyphs

First thing’s first, get Master Glyphs. To earn Master Glyphs, simply run Sabex Armory (level 61) and Macellarius Catacombs (level 64). Master Glyphs are so easy to get now, and you should never ignore them. Get them, there is no excuse now and they help you significantly.

Here’s my build, done manually since glyph builder is bugged:

Stand Fast: Pump (4) + Powerlink (6)

Backstep: Energy (3)

Shield Barrage: Threat (3)

Spring Attack: Power (5)

Challenging Shout: Threat (6) + Haste (3)

Shield Counter: Threat (2)

Wallop: Power (5)

Iron Will: Warding (5)

Lockdown Blow: Power (4) + Threat (3)

Rallying Cry: Energy (3) + Threat (3)

Reasons: Damage = threat, and threat = threat. Make sure you are using the skills that are glyphed. Debilitate no longer becomes an issue to keep at 3 stacks since at level 65 the base duration is 18 seconds. You do not need RE regeneration or the 2000RE glyph for PvE. If you’re running out of RE you’re blocking too long. I also put the CD glyph for Rallying Shout so I can spam it. Remember that these aggro glyphs are only being applied to base aggro for each skill. I believe in having this consistent stream of aggro so that it’s harder to lose it in the first place rather than spiked aggro generation - so keep everything flowing continuously. I glyph Iron Will out of preference to negate DoT and AoE damage to take the stress off of healers in those situations.

4) Skills and Rotations

Lancer has a very easy layout of skills that require only a few chains to use effectively. First of all, when a BAM is about to hit you BLOCK IT and use Shield Counter. Reasons for doing this:

• So that you don’t die (because this is bad) and losing buffs and charms makes it a nightmare to be a tank.

• Shield Counter produces a lot of your aggro output.

• It regenerates lots of RE.

• It avoids you being KD’d - a Lancer on their back is not generating any aggro.

• Remember that little red-colored “Glyph of the Pump” on your block that you probably questioned? The Power boost on block will proc really often and give you a huge boost in power which means more threat. If you're blocking, this buff will pretty much be in swing 95% of the time. Boosting your damage and therefore threat.

• The 65 patch also added a “Hold The Line” threat buff to stack once per use of block when the shield is hit. So learning when to block incoming attacks will greatly increase aggro generation. However, this will go away when you are hit for damage.

* You can also use block to cancel the recovery animations from most attacks. Takes practice but it helps especially if you're lacking attack speed bonuses.

• Rallying Cry - I usually use this immediately when I get up to the BAM to make sure I'm it's first target and it's quick to cast. You should be using this as it comes off CD to try and avoid aggro switching in the first place. It also provides temporary IMMUNITY to KD and staggers for you AND your party members within 10m. That’s awesome. Remember, while this is on CD, Guardian Shout cannot be used. Spam it, it’s fast and sounds cool.

• Use Challenging Shout until your Lancer has no voice left. If shout is off CD and you have a moment to squeeze it in, do it. This requires master glyphs to be truly effective. It not only increases your aggro but it also reduces all other party members’ aggro which means you will lose aggro less. I don’t save it for when a DPS strings out lucky crits. If you keep shouting they will not be in the competition for you for the aggro ceiling in the first place. Keep your aggro sustained and not spiked. It also regenerates lots of RE.

• Infuriate is for when you are desperate to regain aggro. It’s also amazing for re-taking aggro if you die. Most bosses enrage on their own and quite quickly so the enrage feature is not as important. Note: Infuriate will not put you at max aggro by using it, it simply gives you the most aggro out of everyone in the group +1 point of threat. Which means if you start a boss fight with this, the second someone lands a hit on the BAM they will have aggro.

• Other than shouting, use Shield Barrage (both hits) into Spring Attack (faster activation) this is the main attack of Lancer and you should have already learned this combo while leveling. Use it as often as it comes off CD.

• Wallop is risky, use it after Debilitate or Spring Attack to make it smoother. It has a slight animation lock so use it when you think you can. It can also KD some bosses - and is very good at doing it.

• Debilitate only as often as you need to keep 3 stacks up for the DPS. Once you are at 3 stacks, try not to spam it as it comes off CD. But don’t risk losing all stacks by waiting too long. That’s 3% reduction in endurance per stack and cuts healing in half for the target at any stack. That means it’s up to +9% in party DPS. But spamming this too often will cost you damage and threat output. This will replace any warrior’s Combative Strike debuff, which is fine if you maintain your stacks. Fun fact: Sometimes a BAM that normally would take this debuff will straight-up resist a Debilitate cast (very rare) which is why you don’t wait until the last second.

• Lockdown Blow is easy to ignore, but with the glyphs it actually generates good threat and deals pretty good damage. The only downside is the slight animation lock at the end so prioritize other skills over this. Use it when the other skills are on CD.

• Lancers are a stun powerhouse. Your stuns are Shield Bash (can hit more than one adjacent target), Leash (and follow-up Master’s Leash), and “Giga” Leash. Your Shield Barrage also has a chance to stun. Remember to only use these on open-world monsters or during mechanics that require a stun since most end-game bosses have resistance.

• If you do everything right you should rarely need to use your auto attack for MP regeneration (only use the first 2 hits, 3rd one takes too long). If you find yourself having starving for MP, ask your Priest to mana charge more or closer to you (they may be out of range). If you have a Mystic, make sure they are using proper auras and they can drop you MP motes which restore a lot.

Master these skills above and you will have no problem with any PvE content.

Optional Skills:

• Iron Will is basically a free Warding scroll and will mitigate damage at a very low cost of MP, it will also resist KDs. Great skill when you're learning a boss or you're stuck in an AoE (like Bathysmal Rise orbs).

• Pledge of Protection is great but make sure your healers are paying attention or you’ll end up being the one dead. And don't use this when there is a heavy-hitting DoT in effect, it will kill you as you're taking on multiple DoTs.

Guardian Shout is never a bad choice to use. Remember that if you get KD’d while it’s up it will cancel. The effective range is also 20m, not 10m (which is depicted by the circle on the ground). Remember that this skill can only be used if Rallying Shout is off CD, and using it will trigger it's CD. The best time to use this would be right before a hard-hitting mechanic - I like to use this and Iron Will together before I go to block for the party at the gate in Rift's Edge, myself and the party takes almost no damage at all.

• Adrenaline Rush will consume a lot of MP (don’t use when under 50% MP). Start your fights with it to build aggro quickly or to keep up with fast bosses. It will halve CD time on melee skills as well. But I would try to reserve this for if you die or during a burn phase. MP elixirs (restore MP over time) used at the same time will help with this. Also, I wouldn't try to use this when you need to pull aggro back. It takes time to cast - time that the boss is using to get away from you.

• Onslaught (if you choose to use this, chain it after Shield Bash to speed it up) deals good damage and mitigates incoming damage (by 50%) and improves KD resist. It can be useful for it’s mitigation, but I’d avoid using it while in the front of a BAM as it can make you teleport through them, causing them to turn around. Best used when tearing into mobs. Use wisely.

• Second Wind is a skill you should reserve for when you need it’s RE regeneration or are super desperate for a heal.

• Charging Lunge can trap you - it can lock on to nearby enemies even if you're not facing them. In a dungeon where you need to reposition/evade a mechanic quickly, this can kill you.

• Menacing Wave is pretty useless in PvE as most bosses resist it.

5) Consumables

• You should have your own set of charms: Power, Enduring, Infused.

• Bring HP potions & draughts as well as MP elixirs & restoratives. I don’t care who you are, you should bring a handful of these always. Each has a separate CD. Tier VIII or better, only use them if you need them.

• Nostrum of Energy V and Scroll of Savagery V (or better) should always be active. Savagery Scroll will outdo any other scroll for all non-healer classes in most cases.

• Noctenium Infusion is not a MUST in most dungeons but it will help you greatly in any case. It boosts your Challenging Shout aggro generation by a lot. So these are nice if you're in a pinch.

• You can also bring Scrolls of Dash to give you extra combat movement speed if you need to relocate in a hurry.

• Warding scrolls are nice, but not needed.

• Bring Panaceas, don’t be a scrub.

Closing notes:

• Know your enemy and how to position them. If you know the attack patterns you’ll be able to time your blocks and become more confident in fitting in more attacks between the blocks. It’s a hard learning curve when fighting new enemies as a tank, so don’t get too frustrated if you do terrible on your first few runs. But you don't want to hunker behind your shield longer than you have to, hesitation is what will cause you to lose aggro more than anything.

• Practice Wall Tanking. Positioning is important for tanks to avoid unnecessary movement for the entire party. Which will boost DPS. Aim your camera straight down and adjust if needed (shift+arrow keys by default). For some bosses that move around and push you a lot, this will actually make them easier to deal with as tank. This can be tricky if the wall has a curve and some walls will really screw with your camera and aren't worth using.

• Don’t worry about complicated aggro calculation and formulas. If you have aggro, you’re doing it right. You aren’t going to be number crunching in your head while tanking. All you need to know is that there is a “threat ceiling” - a cap at which you cannot gain anymore threat, and that there is “threat decay” - you lose threat over time if you are not generating it.

• I’d also like to point out that no tank can hold aggro 100% of the time. There are times that you WILL lose aggro to a good crit or to someone who is more skilled or geared than you. In fact, if you have aggro 100% of the time I’d ask your DPSers to step up their game because they aren’t doing their job.

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