Hello!

I have just returned from doing the Sapphire Star's Guidance quest and it was quite a blast. Especially Teostra; it carted me twice.

But this is not what I wanted to say at all. I just wanted to show my appreciation of the Datura Pike III, a rarity 6 weapon for the Lance family, and the Poison status -- both of which have helped me through a lot of tough quests from pre-Tempered to "No Faint" tempered EDs. While success isn't only due to the Datura Pike and Poison, I have to admit that I have a newfound respect for the status and how useful its chip damage is.

Since I started the game, I have been avoiding most status weapons like the plague due to the tolerance building, thinking that because of it, status are heavily awful. Not to mention the fact that poison does so little damage! Oh, golly gee. However, it wasn't really as bad as I made it out to be for myself and I found using the Datura Pike more and more especially when I was able to access Poison Attack 3. Sure, the damage was small but it kept on adding on and on and on to the point that poisoning Kushala or Nerg or Teostra 6 to 7 times in a fight was common occurrence. It became such a big help with damage that I found myself killing more comfortably than I did when I was using a Handicrafted Love's Sorrow.

While I know a lot of people prefer DPSing their way through things, I've really appreciated the slow yet consistent pace of the Lance, even more with the Poison status. While my hunts would take around 5 or so minutes more than a DPSer's, the close-to-assured approach really makes it more fun for me.

If you haven't actually tried the Lance, especially the Datura Pike and Poison, give it a go and take a slow hunt. Maybe you'll find yourself (begrudgingly) liking it from time to time!

Thank you all for reading, and also thank you to the people who have helped me by answering a lot of my answers in this sub!