User blog:Linathan/Unit Spotlight: Earth Legend Lance

Earth Legend Lance
[Leader Skill] Earth of Lore (100% boost to Atk power and 30% increase in HP of Earth types)

[Brave Burst] Gaia's Essence (12 combo powerful Earth attack on all enemies; Cost: 25 BC, DC: 12 BC)

[Super Brave Burst] Great Tree of Ruin (16 combo powerful Earth attack on all enemies & greatly boosts Def  for all allies for 3 turns; Cost: 20 BC, DC: 15 BC)

[Ultimate Brave Burst] Unleashed Seven (21 combo massive Earth attack on all enemies & boosts all allies' Atk relative to their Def  for 3 turns; Cost: 35 BC, DC: 3 BC)

[Extra Skill] Return to the Great Tree (20% boost to all parameters and chance to reduce damage from enemies ; Requires: Drevas equipped)

About Scoring System
For my analyses, I enforce a scoring system. Each category is out of 10 points. The final score will be the average of all of the category scores. Note that my analyses are based on my opinion. You are free to agree or disagree with the points that I have here. The categories are listed below: Typing will be under stats.
 * Leader Skill
 * Brave Burst
 * Super Brave Burst (only for 6* units and above)
 * Ultimate Brave Burst (only for 7* units)
 * Extra Skill (only for 7* units)
 * Arena
 * Stats
 * Usefulness

Note: Scoring will be different for 7* units compared to 6* units due to the fact that 7* units have two more categories than 6* units. For example, a 6* unit with an 8.5 rating cannot be compared with a 7* unit with a 7.5 rating.

Summary
Lance is one of the Six Heroes reigning from the ruined Principality of Vriksha. He holds a long and legendary history as he was the wielder of the legendary Demon Pike Drevas. He was also chosen by a handful of players who started the game. He was then seen as an enemy who would destroy his enemies repeatedly in Grand Gaia Chronicles.

But even after his death and his long reincarnation by the summoner, Lance wondered when he would see his home again. As the summoner conquered Adan's Tower, Lance faced a new enemy. To avenge the fall of his kingdom, Lance takes on Zurg...

Whoa, wait... did I just retell my own story of how I went through Vriksha? Man... I gotta stop using Lance in my quests... wait, huh? His 7* form came out? Why didn't anyone tell me? Gah, whatever. Here's 7* Lance!

Leader Skill
Score: 7/10

I knew this was coming when 7* Six Heroes hit Japan. 100% boost to ATK and 30% boost to HP of their respective element. This Leader Skill provides a lot of power and survivability to your units. Units holding status-boosting Spheres are likely to reach over 10000 HP with this Leader Skill. This only gets higher if you're using double Leads.

However, the problem with this type of Leader Skill is the lack of diversity in the squad. This Leader Skill only applies to Earth units only. You would have to create a mono-Earth team to achieve the full effect of Lance's Leader Skill.

Brave Burst
Score: 6/10

This Brave Burst is relatively fair, but not good. This BB does deal high damage for just a BB.

However, this BB has no additional effects. On top of that, it's only 12 hits with a total of 12 potential BCs generated. This means that Lance won't be Sparking too well with other units and he won't be providing much support in terms of BC generation.

Super Brave Burst
Score: 8/10

Lance, like other Six Heroes, gets a nice upgrade to his stat buff. In this case, Lance upgrades from a 40% DEF boost to a 110% DEF boost. This is very helpful as 110% is one of the best DEF buffs in the game. Plus, the damage multiplier of 500% is very good too.

However, it is worth noting that enemies with ignore-DEF can penetrate through these buffs. Ignore-DEF will treat your DEF as 0, which means that the 110% boost will still yield 0 DEF. Additionally, DEF buffs cannot mitigate fixed damage attacks, like Grahden's Soul Rejection, Maxwell's Destiny, etc.

Ultimate Brave Burst
Score: 9/10

This is a very interesting UBB. Lance can boost ATK relative to 100% of the unit's DEF. For example, an Anima Lance with (ATK: 2310, DEF: 2300) will get a 2300 additive boost to Lance's ATK, with a grand total of 4610 ATK (this uses plain data without any stat modifications or Extra Skill consideration). This is very good as most metagame units have at least 2000 DEF.

Another amazing aspect of this UBB is that it includes DEF buffs. This pairs very well with his SBB. A 110% boost to DEF will add the final value of the unit's DEF to ATK. Remember the example from earlier? Lance's SBB will boost his DEF to 4830, which will add to his 2310 ATK, giving a grand total of 7140 ATK. Wow!

This also works very well with even Metal Mimics. Metal Mimics have 9999 DEF. One bite out of this metal chest can take a huge chunk out of the enemy's HP.

Extra Skill
Score: 8/10

Like the other Six Heroes, Lance's Extra Skill grants a free Medulla Gem with an additional effect of reducing damage by 20% with a 20% chance. Though not reliable, this can be a life-saver if you are lucky. This part of the Extra Skill certainly does not hurt to have and one can make good use of RNGesus to grant 20% mitigation.

Arena
Score: 9/10

Lance actually shines in Arena, unlike Eze. His normal hit count may only be 8 hits, but it actually has a very high Drop Check of 40 BC. This can help benefit the squad's BC generation.

Lance's Leader Skill can come into play. This is where you only focus on killing units using normal attacks. Remember Zurg's Leader Skill? 100% maximum boost to ATK at max HP? Lance can boost all Earth units' ATK by 100%, which can dominate most units in Arena. However, this method is not reliable as opponents may carry Fire units that can take Earth attacks.

Stats
Score: 8/10

Lance's interesting UBB can leave the player thinking about the best way to make use of his stats. Lance's ATK and DEF are relatively balanced and his HP is quite high. REC isn't too important as Burst Healers and HC buffers can take care of healing.

In terms of typing, my type preference for Lance is...

Anima > Breaker = Guardian > Lord > Oracle

Usefulness
Score: 9/10

Lance is actually pretty useful if one knows how to really use him. His UBB can provide a huge boost to ATK for three turns and with the right units and sphere setups, you can deal a ton of damage with Lance's UBB buff. In Trial 003, a Metal Mimic with Guardian Cloak equipped while below 7 HP could potentially one-shot Maxwell with double Maxwell Leads, Lance's UBB (most importantly), and an 80% Spark buff (Rosetta's or Fei and Fang's SBB) with supporting units. If one does not have Maxwell, Zedus may replace her. Depending on squad setups, Lance can hold a very special place in the squad with units with very high DEF. With more and more 7* units coming out, their stats are going to be very high, and this includes DEF.

However, this does not mean that Guardian types are the best to make the most out of Lance's UBB. Guardian also lowers ATK so the sum of the ATK and DEF won't differ too much.

Conclusion
Score: 8.0/10

Many players seem to underestimate Lance for some reason. Lance can actually become a serious damage dealer during the late-game of the battle. His UBB comes in real handy since it boosts all units' ATK relative to their DEF.

That said, Lance can really perform well as a sub-unit. As a Leader, it is highly suggested that you make a mono-Earth team to fully take advantage of the Leader Skill.

Comment below on what you think of Lance! Did you start out with Lance? Did he crush you in Grand Gaia Chronicles? Did the Drevas lead you to many victories? Leave them in the comments below!

Check out my list of analyses in [http://bravefrontierglobal.wikia.com/wiki/User_blog:Linathan/Spotlights:_Table_of_Contents! Spotlights: Table of Contents!]

Check out my recent Unit Spotlights:
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 * Thunder Legend Eze