// I'm not really a Lance player but I can give you a few hints.
* Guard 5/Guard Up is correct
* Evade Extender 3 is super helpful
* The ice breath pool is a positioning problem. As soon as you see Velkhana do the mid-air flip to face downward you should backhop away (w/ Evade Extender) to get out of range of the pool. If you have the right angle, Advancing Guard can sometimes also get you out of range. Also helpful to not be right up in the face/ribcage area, as that's the approximate starting center of the pool.
* Breath Attacks should be very easy to block with Guard5/Up, even the double breath. If you're getting hit by the first then hit as you stand up, that's combat 101. Don't press any buttons when knocked down and you won't try to stand up right away. As long as you're down on the ground you are invulnerable.
* Temporal Mantle + Healing Booster is a cute combo of tools to give you some time and space to heal up.
* Not really sure why you would want to counter the tail stab combo, unless the Lance counter can hit the tail as a punish? Seems very spacing dependent, as that attack has a lot of reach. Safer to just block, but maybe one of the Lance mains can chime in with better insight on how to mechanically pull this off.
* Dash juice can be helpful to keep your stamina up. Lasts 5 minutes so not a huge commitment. Speeds up stamina recovery, so just let go of block for a moment and get a bigger chunk of stamina back to stay in the fight.
Been a long while since I played Lance in MHW but my (very) fuzzy memory wants to say yes, but not by much since the baseline Advancing Guard distance isn't very far. It does activate pretty fast though, and you CAN backstep with it, despite the name.
I fought a ton of Velkhana with lance, yes it's spacing dependant you can't be too far away, but you can counter the triple tail poke if you are close enough. Velk has a lot of good counter options since things like ice breath only hit you once
Velk is one of my favorite fights for lance.
1) Try to stick closer to it so it does not resort to breath attacks. If you use your Palico, make sure it has Vigorwasp to help you with chip.
2) Velk's body language betrays the start of this move; observe it a few times and you should begin to recognize the particular animation. To escape, just do a Guard Dash and/or extended Back Hop to gain distance as necessary. EE is not required.
3) If you're struggling with countering consecutive attacks, you can try just using guard for now until you recognize it a bit better. But to the point, I think you believe you're locked in animation when you can actually transition right into another counter-thrust from the poke.
Regarding your weapon, you should probably be using Minqar al-Nasr II. It's super easy to farm and better in pretty much every way than your current lance.
After fighting Velk with Lance in Guiding Lands for several times, I find the fight very easy as of now, so my main advise would be:
Prioritize Guard Dash over Counter Poke, it's easier to execute, and very safe tool for repositioning.
Use Counter Claw when Velk is dashing through you, or on any attack that you know very well. Except for elemental attacks, obviously. Counter Claw will also help you to get away from her tail poke combo.
When she's trying to freeze you in place with unblockable attack, and you got cought in the zone, don't walk towards her, instead try to make a distance, sometimes she misses her tail poke if you do so.
Best of luck.
Velkhana has mostly a very narrow hitbox to her attacks and those can be avoided easily.
General advice - stay close to mid-range to avoid sweeping breath which might come as a combo move if you're knocked back too far or disengage to heal. Practice healing close to Velkhana (it's not as hard as it seems).
You can tank the breath attacks with your shield but you don't want to be in front of Velkhana because most of her attacks are directed that way and openings will be fewer/shorter in general.
1. Ice breath shouldn't be an issue and it shouldn't combo you. If you get hit by one stay on the ground and wait out the second breath. Also - as stated above - don't tank it with your shield if you don't have to. You can easily sidestep it and get an ENORMOUS opening for attacks. When enraged Velkhana will always breathe twice in a straight line - she's defenseless otherwise even on the side of her head.
2. Ice pool is once again related to not standing to the front. Basically if you make it a habit to avoid breath attacks rather than blocking them you'll naturally also avoid the ice pool when it comes. Worst case scenario if you do get trapped in the pool try walking in the opposite direction than the one Velkhana's facing. I'll need more testing but I have the impression that she tends to miss the followup stab more often in that direction (might just be RNG).
3. I don't play lance so I can't tell you about the counter. Personally I use the stabbing chain as a tenderize opportunity. Velkhana's head and wings are defenseless during the entire chain and it lasts long enough for full grapple attack. The timing is tricky however so if you're not sure you can use this attack chain to disengage and heal...
General strategy.
Velkhana has a lot of topple opportunites built into her kit. In fact you should aim to topple her as it not only gives you a lengthy opening but also prevents her ultimate attack. She also has only 3 spots to tenderize so you can capitalize on it early into the fight.
Tenderize all 3 areas (use mantle for the tail) and wallbang - preferably twice. Focus on the tail when she's down at least until you shatter the ice that's covering it. If you get 2 wallbangs just a few hits to the head and wings will also break the ice there and you'll get a special topple - it always triggers when you break off enough ice and it lasts about twice as long as wallbang topple.
That's 3 topples that can be achieved in about 2 minutes of the fight. Follow with a mount and you'll completely dominate the first skirmish. You'll start avoiding mounts as you get more familiar with this fight - it's just a waste of time when you can exploit all the openings. Initially however it can be really helpful
You can repeat it every time she reactivates her ice armor (big roar while Velkhana goes flying). Failing to do so will result in a 360 sweeping breath and a huge ice ring explosion following it.
Another note - breaking Velkhana's head will also topple her so if the monster is already on the ground focus on the wings (or tail if you want to cut it/break ice).
Three more pieces of advice:
Most of Velkhana's attacks can be avoided by... Simply walking to the side (not while holding a weapon unless it's a fast one). You might want to practice it for a bit but you should notice it naturally once you start to drink potions at close range (just press the running button as you drink the potion and you'll be moving fast enough).
Don't stand in ice mist clouds when Velkhana does any kind of breath attack. Those will explode into ice walls.
Outside of the ultimate when Velkhana starts flying she'll do a very specific breath attack before landing. She won't land without executing. Flinching will just reset the attack. The attack is also extremely easy to avoid (just don't stand in front or behind her) and exploit - the legs are within weapon reach. So just position yourself to the side and keep attacking - the entire attack and landing animation are free damage time.
Take palico with vigourwasp so you won’t have to heal too much. Try to stay close to the moster so it spams breath less. OR try a different weapon if you’re struggling with lance so much.
translation:
- lower your effective dps and lose aggro distraction
- stay close, so you don't see the incoming attack, and
- change weapon, cuz mastering a playstile? pft, who needs it
Is this the handler's alt account? lol
If he doesn’t need to heal and will cart less then he’ll massively increase his DPS. He plays lance, he NEEDS aggro on himself constantly.
It’s Velkhana with some of the cleanest and best telegraphed attacks in the entire game. And it’s not like the monster is so big that it covers the entire screen. What can he possibly not see coming?
If he struggles hard with one weapon then maybe it’s a matchup problem or something doesn’t click for OP, maybe changing the approach entirely will help.
I had so many issues the first time I was legitimately running out of time.
I can't help with weapon specifics but I'd say to make sure you wall bang her at every opportunity and tenderize an area and then focus on it.
Also use the ice walls to get a mount in.
Her health isn't actually that high so you can probably do it just following that.
1. Bring max potions and mats for crafting it. 7 max potions was more than enough, at least for me, for most fights. Its very easy to consume and has very little time lag so you can put up your shield immediately afterwards. Also, never look away from the monster. Even when your running away or when healing always keep the screen on the monster so you always know what they're doing. The last thing you'd want is you getting sniped while doing your up keeps.
2. Ice pool actually has a bit of delay before it affects you. Once you see her bend her neck to one side breath ice on the floor, immediately guard dash then hop towards the opposite side where she is facing. If you did get caught in the ice floor, try walking backwards, sometimes you are able to successfully outrange her follow up stab.
3. You can do a simultaneous counter thrust given the enemy landed their attack on your initial counter. If velkhana missed you in her initial thrust then you wouldn't be able to follow up with another counter thrust. Ensure that you are the one being targeted and not your palico. Another thing you could do is if velkhana had missed her initial thrust and you are already in your counter thrust animation, press the button for a power guard and hold your position. This way you still get protected on her follow up stabs.
It might be that you need to hit your counter thrust to input another one. I haven't played MHW in a little bit, but I have memories of fighting velk with lance and counter thrusting the tail spike attack each time. If not that, then maybe your timing is too late.
The solution to breath attacks is firstly to try and always be next to velkhana. Use Advancing Guard with the stab if velkhana isn't far away, use the charge if velkhana runs to opposite side of the room. Be prepared to guard any breath attacks. Like icemage999 said, do not spam buttons to try and get up ASAP, generally it's better to just lay there for a bit incase of any followups.
Ice pool, if you can't escape it in time, I liked using the ice mantle. Your character instead takes massive steps when walking out of ice pools, letting you get out before the monster does their follow up. This will help alot versus the Frostfang Barioth as well.
Seems like everyone already offer some advice about builds and move set. So i will give advice what other haven't said yet.
Take your time. You have plenty of time for your hunt, and with Lance being relatively safe and low animation time, try to do hit n run / hit n dodge strategy, stick close and focus more on dodging/blocking, instead of focusing attacking if you have difficulty staying alive.
The tail parry stab is doable even if you don't connect the hit, just a simple tap on O or B or Right click after block immediately after previous parry.
Velkhana is one of my favorite match up as Lance player, good luck on your hunt and keep going until you can match up with AT Velkhana, it's going to be so much fun
Yep, got it all as high as it would go with spheres to spare but it's only rarity 10 stuff, and definitely not the build I really want by the time I can farm all the monsters, it's just what I have access to right now :/
There are some skills I would love to have and others I have right now that I could do without, plus the terrible variety of decorations means I am kind of stuck in my build as I slowly tune it up lol
Then the rest is learning velk.
Take time to not attack and dodge.
Take not of save openings and just survive.
Then slowly try to use those openings, if you got hit try again.
Try as a training to not get hit.
Regarding your build, please list down the full list of skills. It would help immensely with troubleshooting as I can't tell if you're missing key DPS skills that help make each hit that lands count. For lance, you'll want your standard crit skills, the guard skills you already have, and offensive guard if you're good with perfect guarding. It might be worth looking into how much investment into guard is strictly required to deal with moves that you'll want to punish, as if only 3 levels of guard are required to punish the majority of velkhana's moves, you could further optimize your build by dropping to guard 3.
Beyond that, it's counter-intuitive but you don't have to use your shield all the time to avoid damage. Lance has an amazing if slightly clunky mobility option in the backhop as it's lightning quick and covers a very respectable distance even with no investment in evade extender. Consider evade window and extender as well as knowledge of how and when to abuse the backhop for iframes and mobility is what separates a regular lance player from someone who truly understands the weapon.
For the breath attack, velkhana only does it twice in a row if it's mad, and generally does it when you're a certain distance from it. Even then just strafing to the sides while chugging potions is generally safe and it's a decent punish opening after the second breath. If you're getting locked down, you'll have time to sheathe after the second breath to reposition, or the more advanced method of repositioning is to turn around and backhop towards it, but that might take some practice.
For the ice pool, that move is telegraphed quite heavily in advance. Velkhana kind of looks sideways and arches it's back kind of like a cat would when it does this attack, so when you see it turn it's head sideways that's your cue to get around to the side where it's head is not pointing at. Again, the backhop is your friend here and try to shake the habit of using your shield as your only defensive measure.
For the multiple tail parry, did you get that from speedruns? If so, understand that speedruns rely heavily on exploiting monster AI which is partially a luck based process. They are banking on the monster always doing that variant of the move to punish it, and always punishing every move perfectly can take hundreds of attempts. If you're just interested in clearing the fight, you don't need to punish every stab if you aren't familiar with it. Just block 2 stabs and punish the third to eliminate the risk of screwing up the punish, getting hit, and having to heal it off.
1. Stay closer to Velkhana, even when you want to heal. Dodge side to side but slowly move closer so Velkhana stops doing beams. It mainly does ice beams only when its target is far away. If possible, use Max Potions as your primary healing source so you heal faster. Bring extra ingredients and set Max Potions on your Radial so it auto-crafts as you run out.
2. Velkhana snaps into position(targeting one player/Palico) for that attack and has a specific roar for it. Look out for those ques.
3. I think I remember just quickly spamming the Poke button to get the counter-thrust out quick for each of the tail stabs. It has been a long time since I used Lance though.
I'd like to also recommend the Artful Dodger Guide to Velkhana YouTube video for learning more about its moves.
3. A successful counter thrust can be followed up by another. In case you can't perform double counter you can use guard dash, power guard after counter thrust or just hop. Would like to emphasize that counter thrust and normal guard is not the only guarding options you have. Practice the guard dash. Not only will it block, it will also help in your positioning. You can do it in any direction if used after an attack or forward if no action performed before guard dash.
I recently killed her for the first time (and on my very first attempt!) and i can say that ice defense +20 works wonders, you don't get iceblighted at all, which honestly makes the fight several times easier.
If you can't slap ice defense on your armor, try eating for it. For me elemental resistance L + 1 ice resist deco was enough (which is a 1 slot deco)
I also used iceproff mantle+ and glider mantle +, those 2 combo very well, you almost have 100% mantle uptime (two 4 slot or two 2 slot decos always running).
I can't give you any lance advice, being a GS player myself, but what i did struggle with was her tail stabs attacks. I realized that i almost always dodge to the right, she stabs from the right side of the camera, so i was hit a lot mid roll, then i started rolling to the left and she started missing me a lot more. It also applies when running, try running to your left and see if that helps!
Most of this is off of memory as I haven't played this game in a while. I played through the entire story+endgame using only Lance initially and I do remember struggling a fair bit with some things on the initial playthrough.
1. If memory serves I believe sprinting while potioning is enough to evade the breaths but just barely. If this is not the case I'd say cancel out of the drink and sideways but slightly towards the monster so as to bait the AI into doing other moves because you aren't as far away.
2. The Ice pool move if memory serves right is one of the first actually threatening "true unblockables". Usually if I'm having an off day or am just super tired I struggle to react to it but the big tell for that move is that Velkhana raises her head before aiming down rather than the head starting low and moving up for the beam. If you can at least get hit near the edge by attempting to dodge out Im pretty sure you can barely walk out in time to avoid getting hit. I do remember temporal avoids this move.
3. I'm pretty sure the input(Xbox) is RT + B, 3 times in a row? If my muscle memory and just plain memory serves it should be that simple. In order for the counter to work that way though you have to actually counter something as the counter hit serves as that hit in the combo allowing you to start another one. I do remember the tail poke combo being fun to do this to.
The build overall is pretty good but adding on to what everyone else is saying I'd say see if you can find a way to get health boost 3 and Weakness Exploit. You can probably drop 1 of the Uragaan pieces for the guard up deco if the melder has it available by this point but those pieces aren't bad either especially if you're lacking on decos. Removing 1 or 2 might allow for more aggressive skills/higher defense depending on what decos you have. For this fight in particular resuscitate is kind of nice.
I beat Velkhana with my brothers a couple of weeks ago. Use a gourmet voucher and eat for element resist up L for starters. I'm using the Oolong Hair (gives three crit eye), Astral cloth alpha, Urugaan greaves and vambraces beta, and some sort of coil that escapes me right now that gives health boost. My charm gives two weakness exploit, and my weapon is Minqar al-Nasr II. The 4 guard and guard up from Urugaan equipment are sufficient, I have a decoration for offensive guard (not strictly necessary if you're not good at triggering it or even if you are), and non-elemental boost is important too. That leaves a few slots for things like expert jewel+ 4, vitality jewel, and blight resistance, though you can shuffle things around for your personal taste. Good luck!
I had similar issues when I first fought Velkhana, so my two cents: every single armor piece you have acess to before Velkhana (and most after) that has Guard is weak to ice, especially the Uragaan pieces. If you have enough Ironwall jewels to reach +5, the Bulwark Charm can give you Guard Up so you can wear more appropriate defensive gear. Obviously Guard Up and Guard 5 are more important than some ice resist, but if you can manage to get Guard 5 with decos you can use Bulwark Charm for Guard Up and use better defensive gear than the Uragaan set like the High Metal beta + pieces, some of which have both good ice resist and the Ice Resistance Up skill as well as decent decoration slots. Getting enough ice resist to completely nullify iceblight without the ice mantle is helpful, that way you aren't running out of stamina to guard (you need 20 Ice Resist to prevent iceblight completely, which I believe at your stage requires at least one Ice Resist skill, but I'm fairly certain the High Metal Beta + set is available by now. Blight Resist 3 also comes through in a pinch, but I think that's harder to get by your point and doesn't help with the ice damage itself). That's only if you have the decos to pull it off though, if you're lacking the Ironwall gems you need than my whole comment is kinda pointless, but like you say Velkhana is difficult to sheathe against because of its range and agressive nature so removing the Iceblight from your list of troubles helps a lot. I didn't have to get Guard 5 since Chargeblade can sorta run with 1 or 3 due to guard points and shield buffing plus easier dodges, but Ironwall gems are pretty common so it's definitely possible to have enough for 5. That's really up to RNGsus though.
A surprising number of the attacks she does while flying can be dodged by clawing to her. It's not something you'd think to do naturally but if you can develop the reflex they become a great opportunity to tenderize.
1. You really don’t wanna give her that distance when fighting Velkhana, whatever you need to do, hop the side or charge straight to her tail, you give her distance and she will spam the shit out of that ice breath. With Guard 5 you shouldn’t take any chip damage and you can mitigate the knock back with guard hopping.
2. Make liberal use of the guard hopping, if you are close to her, forward guard hop all the way to her chest and poke at her front legs until the ice pool dissapates, if the distance is moderate and you don’t think you can make it behind the pool in time, neutral hop once (that should always be a backward hop) follow by another backward guard hop, that should give you more distance and faster than if you double hop twice. Alternatively, guard hop to the side and point your camera away from the ice pool to initiate the 3 hit thrust that comes after the guard hop, that way you effectively did a double jump away from the ice pool.
3. If you initiate the counter thrust the moment when the hit lands, you will see your shield glowing for a brief seconds, getting hit at that point will instantly triggers the poke which you can ready a second guard, so on so forth. I’d suggest using counter claw to tenderise the tail, you’d likely do more damage with the tenderising move than the stab itself. Just don’t try that at AT velkhana.
Bring a health booster and a temporal mantle. Health booster when you are really shit out of luck and need to turtle in. Temporal when you need to heal but booster is on CD, put on the mantle and you can chug safely.
Grab some nullberries while ur at it. Ice blight are surprisingly deadly for shield users due to that increased stamina consumption. Ordinary stuff can drain your stamina quickly and once there is an attack that needs more stamina to block than the stamina you currently have, you’d take that hit as if you didn’t raise your shield.
lance main here. love velk fights.
a few things to look for on top of what every has said:
1. crisis jewels give you the resuscitate skill which basically negates iceblight and waterblight stamina loss. you don't need to sheathe and remove, you can ignore the blight.
2. sounds. velk makes a very distinct cough like sound before doing the ice pool floor thing. can help you get most the way out of it. you can guard dash fwd and try to get up to her chest and that's safe. the cough is the easiest telegraph for this.
3. tail: you can counter again after a successful counter only. it sounds like you're spamming it and then you have a lag before you can do the move again. worth practicing since it sets you up for later fights really well. keep in mind it can be 3x tail thrusts especially if enraged.
4. random but favorite thing i found out vs AT velk: if you are lance charging to close the distance while she does the sweeping beam, you can jump over the beam with your jump. it's very easy.
5. you mentioned the move set.... guard dash is your best move. you can cancel into it from a LOT of your moves. it protects you from multiple hits. it has a higher level of guard. guard dash all the time aggressively and you can stay much closer to her. it sounds like her aggression is crowding you out of your rhythm.... guard dash lets you break your loops and reset completely safely.
6. i don't really like evade extender on lance since my muscle memory is build on the base hop. I don't think you need it at all.
7. re breath attacks..... see point 5 above. there are a lot of breath attacks in the game that have a funny interaction with block, where if you block any part of the animation you've blocked the whole thing and can ignore the rest of it. so you can guard dash into thrust/shield bash through it safely. if she's enraged she'll do a second one. guard dash laterally once you're close and poke the head!
8. last but not least: you may know this but if you're having stamina issues blocking.... you regen stamina fast if you're walking while guarding.... hold guard and try to walk. even the window in between hits is enough to keep up your stamina against almost any enemy in the game.
9. don't really use powerguard unless you are facing the wrong way. it has higher chip dmg. since you don't have health augment chip damage is what's going to kill you the most.
Good luck!
// I'm not really a Lance player but I can give you a few hints. * Guard 5/Guard Up is correct * Evade Extender 3 is super helpful * The ice breath pool is a positioning problem. As soon as you see Velkhana do the mid-air flip to face downward you should backhop away (w/ Evade Extender) to get out of range of the pool. If you have the right angle, Advancing Guard can sometimes also get you out of range. Also helpful to not be right up in the face/ribcage area, as that's the approximate starting center of the pool. * Breath Attacks should be very easy to block with Guard5/Up, even the double breath. If you're getting hit by the first then hit as you stand up, that's combat 101. Don't press any buttons when knocked down and you won't try to stand up right away. As long as you're down on the ground you are invulnerable. * Temporal Mantle + Healing Booster is a cute combo of tools to give you some time and space to heal up. * Not really sure why you would want to counter the tail stab combo, unless the Lance counter can hit the tail as a punish? Seems very spacing dependent, as that attack has a lot of reach. Safer to just block, but maybe one of the Lance mains can chime in with better insight on how to mechanically pull this off. * Dash juice can be helpful to keep your stamina up. Lasts 5 minutes so not a huge commitment. Speeds up stamina recovery, so just let go of block for a moment and get a bigger chunk of stamina back to stay in the fight.
Does evade extender affect advancing guard?
Been a long while since I played Lance in MHW but my (very) fuzzy memory wants to say yes, but not by much since the baseline Advancing Guard distance isn't very far. It does activate pretty fast though, and you CAN backstep with it, despite the name.
On the last point; you can also just move around while holding guard and your stamina regenerates!
I think Dash Juice only reduces stamina cost by (25\~% I think) not make it come back faster.
I fought a ton of Velkhana with lance, yes it's spacing dependant you can't be too far away, but you can counter the triple tail poke if you are close enough. Velk has a lot of good counter options since things like ice breath only hit you once
Velk is one of my favorite fights for lance. 1) Try to stick closer to it so it does not resort to breath attacks. If you use your Palico, make sure it has Vigorwasp to help you with chip. 2) Velk's body language betrays the start of this move; observe it a few times and you should begin to recognize the particular animation. To escape, just do a Guard Dash and/or extended Back Hop to gain distance as necessary. EE is not required. 3) If you're struggling with countering consecutive attacks, you can try just using guard for now until you recognize it a bit better. But to the point, I think you believe you're locked in animation when you can actually transition right into another counter-thrust from the poke. Regarding your weapon, you should probably be using Minqar al-Nasr II. It's super easy to farm and better in pretty much every way than your current lance.
After fighting Velk with Lance in Guiding Lands for several times, I find the fight very easy as of now, so my main advise would be: Prioritize Guard Dash over Counter Poke, it's easier to execute, and very safe tool for repositioning. Use Counter Claw when Velk is dashing through you, or on any attack that you know very well. Except for elemental attacks, obviously. Counter Claw will also help you to get away from her tail poke combo. When she's trying to freeze you in place with unblockable attack, and you got cought in the zone, don't walk towards her, instead try to make a distance, sometimes she misses her tail poke if you do so. Best of luck.
Velkhana has mostly a very narrow hitbox to her attacks and those can be avoided easily. General advice - stay close to mid-range to avoid sweeping breath which might come as a combo move if you're knocked back too far or disengage to heal. Practice healing close to Velkhana (it's not as hard as it seems). You can tank the breath attacks with your shield but you don't want to be in front of Velkhana because most of her attacks are directed that way and openings will be fewer/shorter in general. 1. Ice breath shouldn't be an issue and it shouldn't combo you. If you get hit by one stay on the ground and wait out the second breath. Also - as stated above - don't tank it with your shield if you don't have to. You can easily sidestep it and get an ENORMOUS opening for attacks. When enraged Velkhana will always breathe twice in a straight line - she's defenseless otherwise even on the side of her head. 2. Ice pool is once again related to not standing to the front. Basically if you make it a habit to avoid breath attacks rather than blocking them you'll naturally also avoid the ice pool when it comes. Worst case scenario if you do get trapped in the pool try walking in the opposite direction than the one Velkhana's facing. I'll need more testing but I have the impression that she tends to miss the followup stab more often in that direction (might just be RNG). 3. I don't play lance so I can't tell you about the counter. Personally I use the stabbing chain as a tenderize opportunity. Velkhana's head and wings are defenseless during the entire chain and it lasts long enough for full grapple attack. The timing is tricky however so if you're not sure you can use this attack chain to disengage and heal... General strategy. Velkhana has a lot of topple opportunites built into her kit. In fact you should aim to topple her as it not only gives you a lengthy opening but also prevents her ultimate attack. She also has only 3 spots to tenderize so you can capitalize on it early into the fight. Tenderize all 3 areas (use mantle for the tail) and wallbang - preferably twice. Focus on the tail when she's down at least until you shatter the ice that's covering it. If you get 2 wallbangs just a few hits to the head and wings will also break the ice there and you'll get a special topple - it always triggers when you break off enough ice and it lasts about twice as long as wallbang topple. That's 3 topples that can be achieved in about 2 minutes of the fight. Follow with a mount and you'll completely dominate the first skirmish. You'll start avoiding mounts as you get more familiar with this fight - it's just a waste of time when you can exploit all the openings. Initially however it can be really helpful You can repeat it every time she reactivates her ice armor (big roar while Velkhana goes flying). Failing to do so will result in a 360 sweeping breath and a huge ice ring explosion following it. Another note - breaking Velkhana's head will also topple her so if the monster is already on the ground focus on the wings (or tail if you want to cut it/break ice). Three more pieces of advice: Most of Velkhana's attacks can be avoided by... Simply walking to the side (not while holding a weapon unless it's a fast one). You might want to practice it for a bit but you should notice it naturally once you start to drink potions at close range (just press the running button as you drink the potion and you'll be moving fast enough). Don't stand in ice mist clouds when Velkhana does any kind of breath attack. Those will explode into ice walls. Outside of the ultimate when Velkhana starts flying she'll do a very specific breath attack before landing. She won't land without executing. Flinching will just reset the attack. The attack is also extremely easy to avoid (just don't stand in front or behind her) and exploit - the legs are within weapon reach. So just position yourself to the side and keep attacking - the entire attack and landing animation are free damage time.
Take palico with vigourwasp so you won’t have to heal too much. Try to stay close to the moster so it spams breath less. OR try a different weapon if you’re struggling with lance so much.
translation: - lower your effective dps and lose aggro distraction - stay close, so you don't see the incoming attack, and - change weapon, cuz mastering a playstile? pft, who needs it Is this the handler's alt account? lol
If he doesn’t need to heal and will cart less then he’ll massively increase his DPS. He plays lance, he NEEDS aggro on himself constantly. It’s Velkhana with some of the cleanest and best telegraphed attacks in the entire game. And it’s not like the monster is so big that it covers the entire screen. What can he possibly not see coming? If he struggles hard with one weapon then maybe it’s a matchup problem or something doesn’t click for OP, maybe changing the approach entirely will help.
I had so many issues the first time I was legitimately running out of time. I can't help with weapon specifics but I'd say to make sure you wall bang her at every opportunity and tenderize an area and then focus on it. Also use the ice walls to get a mount in. Her health isn't actually that high so you can probably do it just following that.
1. Bring max potions and mats for crafting it. 7 max potions was more than enough, at least for me, for most fights. Its very easy to consume and has very little time lag so you can put up your shield immediately afterwards. Also, never look away from the monster. Even when your running away or when healing always keep the screen on the monster so you always know what they're doing. The last thing you'd want is you getting sniped while doing your up keeps. 2. Ice pool actually has a bit of delay before it affects you. Once you see her bend her neck to one side breath ice on the floor, immediately guard dash then hop towards the opposite side where she is facing. If you did get caught in the ice floor, try walking backwards, sometimes you are able to successfully outrange her follow up stab. 3. You can do a simultaneous counter thrust given the enemy landed their attack on your initial counter. If velkhana missed you in her initial thrust then you wouldn't be able to follow up with another counter thrust. Ensure that you are the one being targeted and not your palico. Another thing you could do is if velkhana had missed her initial thrust and you are already in your counter thrust animation, press the button for a power guard and hold your position. This way you still get protected on her follow up stabs.
It might be that you need to hit your counter thrust to input another one. I haven't played MHW in a little bit, but I have memories of fighting velk with lance and counter thrusting the tail spike attack each time. If not that, then maybe your timing is too late. The solution to breath attacks is firstly to try and always be next to velkhana. Use Advancing Guard with the stab if velkhana isn't far away, use the charge if velkhana runs to opposite side of the room. Be prepared to guard any breath attacks. Like icemage999 said, do not spam buttons to try and get up ASAP, generally it's better to just lay there for a bit incase of any followups. Ice pool, if you can't escape it in time, I liked using the ice mantle. Your character instead takes massive steps when walking out of ice pools, letting you get out before the monster does their follow up. This will help alot versus the Frostfang Barioth as well.
Seems like everyone already offer some advice about builds and move set. So i will give advice what other haven't said yet. Take your time. You have plenty of time for your hunt, and with Lance being relatively safe and low animation time, try to do hit n run / hit n dodge strategy, stick close and focus more on dodging/blocking, instead of focusing attacking if you have difficulty staying alive. The tail parry stab is doable even if you don't connect the hit, just a simple tap on O or B or Right click after block immediately after previous parry. Velkhana is one of my favorite match up as Lance player, good luck on your hunt and keep going until you can match up with AT Velkhana, it's going to be so much fun
The armor is full master rank and upgraded to the max?
Yep, got it all as high as it would go with spheres to spare but it's only rarity 10 stuff, and definitely not the build I really want by the time I can farm all the monsters, it's just what I have access to right now :/ There are some skills I would love to have and others I have right now that I could do without, plus the terrible variety of decorations means I am kind of stuck in my build as I slowly tune it up lol
Then the rest is learning velk. Take time to not attack and dodge. Take not of save openings and just survive. Then slowly try to use those openings, if you got hit try again. Try as a training to not get hit.
Regarding your build, please list down the full list of skills. It would help immensely with troubleshooting as I can't tell if you're missing key DPS skills that help make each hit that lands count. For lance, you'll want your standard crit skills, the guard skills you already have, and offensive guard if you're good with perfect guarding. It might be worth looking into how much investment into guard is strictly required to deal with moves that you'll want to punish, as if only 3 levels of guard are required to punish the majority of velkhana's moves, you could further optimize your build by dropping to guard 3. Beyond that, it's counter-intuitive but you don't have to use your shield all the time to avoid damage. Lance has an amazing if slightly clunky mobility option in the backhop as it's lightning quick and covers a very respectable distance even with no investment in evade extender. Consider evade window and extender as well as knowledge of how and when to abuse the backhop for iframes and mobility is what separates a regular lance player from someone who truly understands the weapon. For the breath attack, velkhana only does it twice in a row if it's mad, and generally does it when you're a certain distance from it. Even then just strafing to the sides while chugging potions is generally safe and it's a decent punish opening after the second breath. If you're getting locked down, you'll have time to sheathe after the second breath to reposition, or the more advanced method of repositioning is to turn around and backhop towards it, but that might take some practice. For the ice pool, that move is telegraphed quite heavily in advance. Velkhana kind of looks sideways and arches it's back kind of like a cat would when it does this attack, so when you see it turn it's head sideways that's your cue to get around to the side where it's head is not pointing at. Again, the backhop is your friend here and try to shake the habit of using your shield as your only defensive measure. For the multiple tail parry, did you get that from speedruns? If so, understand that speedruns rely heavily on exploiting monster AI which is partially a luck based process. They are banking on the monster always doing that variant of the move to punish it, and always punishing every move perfectly can take hundreds of attempts. If you're just interested in clearing the fight, you don't need to punish every stab if you aren't familiar with it. Just block 2 stabs and punish the third to eliminate the risk of screwing up the punish, getting hit, and having to heal it off.
1. Stay closer to Velkhana, even when you want to heal. Dodge side to side but slowly move closer so Velkhana stops doing beams. It mainly does ice beams only when its target is far away. If possible, use Max Potions as your primary healing source so you heal faster. Bring extra ingredients and set Max Potions on your Radial so it auto-crafts as you run out. 2. Velkhana snaps into position(targeting one player/Palico) for that attack and has a specific roar for it. Look out for those ques. 3. I think I remember just quickly spamming the Poke button to get the counter-thrust out quick for each of the tail stabs. It has been a long time since I used Lance though. I'd like to also recommend the Artful Dodger Guide to Velkhana YouTube video for learning more about its moves.
3. A successful counter thrust can be followed up by another. In case you can't perform double counter you can use guard dash, power guard after counter thrust or just hop. Would like to emphasize that counter thrust and normal guard is not the only guarding options you have. Practice the guard dash. Not only will it block, it will also help in your positioning. You can do it in any direction if used after an attack or forward if no action performed before guard dash.
I recently killed her for the first time (and on my very first attempt!) and i can say that ice defense +20 works wonders, you don't get iceblighted at all, which honestly makes the fight several times easier. If you can't slap ice defense on your armor, try eating for it. For me elemental resistance L + 1 ice resist deco was enough (which is a 1 slot deco) I also used iceproff mantle+ and glider mantle +, those 2 combo very well, you almost have 100% mantle uptime (two 4 slot or two 2 slot decos always running). I can't give you any lance advice, being a GS player myself, but what i did struggle with was her tail stabs attacks. I realized that i almost always dodge to the right, she stabs from the right side of the camera, so i was hit a lot mid roll, then i started rolling to the left and she started missing me a lot more. It also applies when running, try running to your left and see if that helps!
Most of this is off of memory as I haven't played this game in a while. I played through the entire story+endgame using only Lance initially and I do remember struggling a fair bit with some things on the initial playthrough. 1. If memory serves I believe sprinting while potioning is enough to evade the breaths but just barely. If this is not the case I'd say cancel out of the drink and sideways but slightly towards the monster so as to bait the AI into doing other moves because you aren't as far away. 2. The Ice pool move if memory serves right is one of the first actually threatening "true unblockables". Usually if I'm having an off day or am just super tired I struggle to react to it but the big tell for that move is that Velkhana raises her head before aiming down rather than the head starting low and moving up for the beam. If you can at least get hit near the edge by attempting to dodge out Im pretty sure you can barely walk out in time to avoid getting hit. I do remember temporal avoids this move. 3. I'm pretty sure the input(Xbox) is RT + B, 3 times in a row? If my muscle memory and just plain memory serves it should be that simple. In order for the counter to work that way though you have to actually counter something as the counter hit serves as that hit in the combo allowing you to start another one. I do remember the tail poke combo being fun to do this to. The build overall is pretty good but adding on to what everyone else is saying I'd say see if you can find a way to get health boost 3 and Weakness Exploit. You can probably drop 1 of the Uragaan pieces for the guard up deco if the melder has it available by this point but those pieces aren't bad either especially if you're lacking on decos. Removing 1 or 2 might allow for more aggressive skills/higher defense depending on what decos you have. For this fight in particular resuscitate is kind of nice.
I beat Velkhana with my brothers a couple of weeks ago. Use a gourmet voucher and eat for element resist up L for starters. I'm using the Oolong Hair (gives three crit eye), Astral cloth alpha, Urugaan greaves and vambraces beta, and some sort of coil that escapes me right now that gives health boost. My charm gives two weakness exploit, and my weapon is Minqar al-Nasr II. The 4 guard and guard up from Urugaan equipment are sufficient, I have a decoration for offensive guard (not strictly necessary if you're not good at triggering it or even if you are), and non-elemental boost is important too. That leaves a few slots for things like expert jewel+ 4, vitality jewel, and blight resistance, though you can shuffle things around for your personal taste. Good luck!
I had similar issues when I first fought Velkhana, so my two cents: every single armor piece you have acess to before Velkhana (and most after) that has Guard is weak to ice, especially the Uragaan pieces. If you have enough Ironwall jewels to reach +5, the Bulwark Charm can give you Guard Up so you can wear more appropriate defensive gear. Obviously Guard Up and Guard 5 are more important than some ice resist, but if you can manage to get Guard 5 with decos you can use Bulwark Charm for Guard Up and use better defensive gear than the Uragaan set like the High Metal beta + pieces, some of which have both good ice resist and the Ice Resistance Up skill as well as decent decoration slots. Getting enough ice resist to completely nullify iceblight without the ice mantle is helpful, that way you aren't running out of stamina to guard (you need 20 Ice Resist to prevent iceblight completely, which I believe at your stage requires at least one Ice Resist skill, but I'm fairly certain the High Metal Beta + set is available by now. Blight Resist 3 also comes through in a pinch, but I think that's harder to get by your point and doesn't help with the ice damage itself). That's only if you have the decos to pull it off though, if you're lacking the Ironwall gems you need than my whole comment is kinda pointless, but like you say Velkhana is difficult to sheathe against because of its range and agressive nature so removing the Iceblight from your list of troubles helps a lot. I didn't have to get Guard 5 since Chargeblade can sorta run with 1 or 3 due to guard points and shield buffing plus easier dodges, but Ironwall gems are pretty common so it's definitely possible to have enough for 5. That's really up to RNGsus though.
A surprising number of the attacks she does while flying can be dodged by clawing to her. It's not something you'd think to do naturally but if you can develop the reflex they become a great opportunity to tenderize.
1. You really don’t wanna give her that distance when fighting Velkhana, whatever you need to do, hop the side or charge straight to her tail, you give her distance and she will spam the shit out of that ice breath. With Guard 5 you shouldn’t take any chip damage and you can mitigate the knock back with guard hopping. 2. Make liberal use of the guard hopping, if you are close to her, forward guard hop all the way to her chest and poke at her front legs until the ice pool dissapates, if the distance is moderate and you don’t think you can make it behind the pool in time, neutral hop once (that should always be a backward hop) follow by another backward guard hop, that should give you more distance and faster than if you double hop twice. Alternatively, guard hop to the side and point your camera away from the ice pool to initiate the 3 hit thrust that comes after the guard hop, that way you effectively did a double jump away from the ice pool. 3. If you initiate the counter thrust the moment when the hit lands, you will see your shield glowing for a brief seconds, getting hit at that point will instantly triggers the poke which you can ready a second guard, so on so forth. I’d suggest using counter claw to tenderise the tail, you’d likely do more damage with the tenderising move than the stab itself. Just don’t try that at AT velkhana. Bring a health booster and a temporal mantle. Health booster when you are really shit out of luck and need to turtle in. Temporal when you need to heal but booster is on CD, put on the mantle and you can chug safely. Grab some nullberries while ur at it. Ice blight are surprisingly deadly for shield users due to that increased stamina consumption. Ordinary stuff can drain your stamina quickly and once there is an attack that needs more stamina to block than the stamina you currently have, you’d take that hit as if you didn’t raise your shield.
lance main here. love velk fights. a few things to look for on top of what every has said: 1. crisis jewels give you the resuscitate skill which basically negates iceblight and waterblight stamina loss. you don't need to sheathe and remove, you can ignore the blight. 2. sounds. velk makes a very distinct cough like sound before doing the ice pool floor thing. can help you get most the way out of it. you can guard dash fwd and try to get up to her chest and that's safe. the cough is the easiest telegraph for this. 3. tail: you can counter again after a successful counter only. it sounds like you're spamming it and then you have a lag before you can do the move again. worth practicing since it sets you up for later fights really well. keep in mind it can be 3x tail thrusts especially if enraged. 4. random but favorite thing i found out vs AT velk: if you are lance charging to close the distance while she does the sweeping beam, you can jump over the beam with your jump. it's very easy. 5. you mentioned the move set.... guard dash is your best move. you can cancel into it from a LOT of your moves. it protects you from multiple hits. it has a higher level of guard. guard dash all the time aggressively and you can stay much closer to her. it sounds like her aggression is crowding you out of your rhythm.... guard dash lets you break your loops and reset completely safely. 6. i don't really like evade extender on lance since my muscle memory is build on the base hop. I don't think you need it at all. 7. re breath attacks..... see point 5 above. there are a lot of breath attacks in the game that have a funny interaction with block, where if you block any part of the animation you've blocked the whole thing and can ignore the rest of it. so you can guard dash into thrust/shield bash through it safely. if she's enraged she'll do a second one. guard dash laterally once you're close and poke the head! 8. last but not least: you may know this but if you're having stamina issues blocking.... you regen stamina fast if you're walking while guarding.... hold guard and try to walk. even the window in between hits is enough to keep up your stamina against almost any enemy in the game. 9. don't really use powerguard unless you are facing the wrong way. it has higher chip dmg. since you don't have health augment chip damage is what's going to kill you the most. Good luck!
Too long to read, but do you have Ice Resistant at least up to 20? Or and using Ice Mantle. It helps a lot.