Lancer is a playable character class appearing across the Final Fantasy video game series.
Heavily armoured, dragon-themed knights have been a staple of the Final Fantasy series almost since its inception, first appearing in Final Fantasy II and gaining their signature abilities in Final Fantasy III.
Typically called Dragoons, these units are sometimes referred to as Dragon Knights or Lancers. Typically they specialize in the use of polearms to deal heavy melee damage, and are able to Jump great heights to attack enemies from the sky. In some games, Lancer does not appear as a class but does appear as a special magic used by the Dragoon class.
Appearances of Lancers in Final Fantasy Games
Final Fantasy V
Called Ryūkishi (Dragon Knight) in the original Japanese release, the class was initially localized as Lancer before being referred to as Dragoon in subsequent remasters. In FFV Lancers are not restricted to using only polearms, also being able to equip knives. However, the power of their signature Jump ability is double when a spear is equipped.
FFV is also the first game where the Lance magical ability appears. It has a low MP and deals middling damage, but drains HP and MP and never misses.
Final Fantasy Tactics
In an identical case to Final Fantasy V, the Ryūkishi class in Final Fantasy Tactics was initially localized as Lancer before being changed to Dragoon in remasters.
As before Lancers specialize in polearms and have access to the Jump ability, but as a class they function very differently due to FFT being an isometric turn-based strategy game and due to characters being able to equip skill sets and traits from other classes they've leveled.
Jump is functionality is changed dramatically - instead of targeting an enemy the Lancer's jump targets a tile, allowing enemies a chance to move out of the way of the attack and potentially wasting the Lancer's turn. They also have the lowest magic power of any class in the game, which limits Lancer's options for secondary skill sets. This effectively limits the class to basic attacks for their offensive options.
However, they remain one of the strongest martial classes in the game. Lancer's attacks are very powerful, and their polearms give them a reach of two squares (potentially hitting two characters as well). At a minor sacrifice to physical durability, they can also pick up the Two-Handed trait from the Samurai class to boost their physical attack in exchange for no longer being able to equip shields. By doing this, it's relatively simple for a Lancer to deal the maximum possible damage with a basic attack. Lancers also have high durability against both physical and magical attacks, and despite being heavily armoured their innate Ignore Height trait allows them to be one of the most mobile classes in the game.
All in all, Lancers in FFT have their setbacks but are able to easily overcome them and be useful well into the endgame, and match up well against nearly any other class in combat.
Final Fantasy XIV
FFXIV is the first Final Fantasy where both Lancers and Dragoons appear as two (kind of) distinct playable classes. Lancer is one of the available starting melee DPS classes, and players who reach level 30 as a Lancer, complete the Lancer class questline, and progress a certain way through the Main Story Quest can obtain a Job Stone to become a Dragoon.
In story, Lancers are primarily associated with the Wood Wailers of Gridania. Gridania is one of the primary city-states of Eorzea, governed by an Ancient Racist Tree that controls The Elements, and the Wood Wailers basically function as city-guards and cops. The Lancer storyline involves tracking down and fighting a rogue Lancer who instead of wanting to serve the Ancient Racist Tree is into lancing for the love of the game.
Stranger of Paradise: Final Fantasy Origin
Stranger of Paradise is the second game where Lancer and Dragoon appear as distinct classes. Here, Lancers maintain their high mobility and efficacy at mid-ranged combat with their Lance Hurl ability allowing them to attack and knockback enemies at range and their Swayback ability allowing them to quickly dodge backwards away from enemy attacks. In Stranger of Paradise leveling Lancer is required to unlock the Monk and Dragoon classes, and in the Trial of the Dragon King DLC unlocking all Lancer abilities gives access to the Errant Champion and Restless Champion classes.
War of the Visions: Final Fantasy Brave Exvius
Unlike in other appearances of Lancers, in War of the Visions certain characters have Lancer as their static primary or secondary job. Here Lancers (shockingly) focus on piercing damage, and are able to place different debuffs (called enfeeblements) on enemies.
Games in which Lancer appears as a specific magic or ability
In Final Fantasy IX the party member Freya Crescent has the Lancer ability as part of her Dragoon Skillset. As with FFV above, the Lancer ability deals physical damage while draining MP from the target.
In Final Fantasy Tactics Advance, Dragoons have access to the Lancer ability. Unlike previous instances, Lancer in FFTA does not drain MP but rather absorbs health.
In Lightning Returns: Final Fantasy XIII, the player is able to unlock the Dragoon garb which grants the Lancer ability when equipped. Lancer once again absorbs HP from targets struck, and can hit multiple times.
So, uh, yeah, that's Lancer I guess. I really love polearms, so Lancers are pretty cool to me. I'd love to hear about everyone's polearms!
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