Lance

**Lances** are powerful, single-use mounted shock weapons that can break shields and deal large amounts of damage(4+500%) with `KNOCKBACK I` on the target. The lance's unique abilities can only be activated when a player has reached top speed on a horse for quite some time - otherwise, using a lance on foot is not only useless, but a detriment to the player as it has an automatic slowness debuff, low durability and low damage with an extremely slow recovery rate after every hit.

The attack does not come from the player, but rather from the mount itself as its forward vector becomes deadly. Anything in front of the horse whilst it is moving at top speed may suffer massive amounts of damage.

Lances' offensive powers function only horseback and must have the following conditions in order to activate special effects.

`1) The critical bar is full.`

`2) The lance is on the right hand.`

`3) The user must be mounted.`

`4) The user must be faster than 40% of walking.`

If these conditions are met, the damage inflicted on the target is substantial and the user’s lance immediately breaks upon contact.

If the target has a shield, and is active - the target’s shield will instantly break along with the lance.

While the lance is held on the main hand, the user is given `SLOWNESS`. If the lance is held offhand, the user receives no slowness. *Slowness does not affect the mount’s movement speed.*

A lance also has the ability to dismount and deal `KNOCKBACK I` to other mounted players if they are not killed.

## Advantages and Disadvantages

A lance is a weapon that is only useful if a player has acquired a horse, which renders it a very niche employment as a cavalry weapon. Otherwise, lances are relatively simple to construct and do not require too much specialized infrastructure and resources than a spear to make.

Its powerful attack can one-hit even a full-iron clad player when used properly. If the target is blocking with a shield, using a lance can break the shield on contact, though this does not harm the target itself, requiring another cycle charge to finish them off, assuming they have no other shield available. On both occasions, the lance can deal KNOCKBACK I damage, even to a player with an active shield. Lancers can also dismount mounted enemies and throw them from their horses.

For all this power, the lance is however a skill weapon, as it requires the user to be moving at full speed towards enemies unimpeded while at the same time maintaining a fully charged bar.

The spear and poleaxe can also outrange the user's lance and stop the player's mounts from moving for a second, leaving one vulnerable to their attacks. In addition, a lance once successfully hitting a target immediately gets destroyed on impact as it has 0 durability.

Knowing all of this, lancers should be employed on relatively flat terrain by the brave and skilled but should avoid hostile polearms who have their attention. Blocks or routes can either slow down or make a cavalry approach too predictable. When deployed on favorable terrain, they can be used en masse to disrupt a prepared enemy's formation at the very least or perform flanking attacks when they're not looking. They are best used to finish off and ride down enemy units that are already practically broken and looking to retreat.

Lances being powerful weapons when employed make them a threat-in-being, as such they can also simply be used to divide an opponent's attention without even charging, lest they risk opportunistic flank attacks by the horsemen carrying these weapons.