Lance is one, if not the best early game heroes. The damage reduction that he gets from his passive on Gythian Wall makes him extremely tanky. Lance has great synergy with all heroes that require skillshots to deal damage. Paired with assassins and you can hunt down any opponent. He's great against most assassins and any squishy hero, or heroes that need to get in close like krul. He is extremely tanky and has the highest armor/shield in the game, not to mention one of the best passives in the game, and one of the best overdrives.

Lance is almost always seen as a Roam hero. The 2.1 tier list by Broken Myth seen here puts Lance as the best roamer in the game. He hasn't been changed since so it leads to believe he is still the best. With great peel and shutdown, as well as high mobility, he has no glaring weaknesses.

The second most common build path is the WP Jungle/Lane Lance. Jungle lance is more common than a lane lance just because melee heroes are better in the jungle, and Lance is amazing in the jungle due to his roll and impale, I will talk more about this later. He has great burst damage from his impale and although he has a slow attack speed, can do alot of damage.

A pretty much unheard of build, though effective, is the CP Lance. Now, Lance in general has a great early game, but CP Lance not so much. During level 1-2, depending on what you bought, Lance has a good early game. I would recommend picking up a weapon blade and Oakheart if your team is planning to invade. This isn't a terrible idea as CP Lance has a bad mid game so he needs as much farm as possible to get his late game build. However, once Lance gets all 3 of his offensive items, he is literally impossible to beat. He has the cooldown reduction from his Stormcrown, Aftershock, and Halcyon Boots. He also has the highest armor and shield in the game, has extra health from Stormcrown and his boots, he has Aegis and Atlas which give even more defense. His passive ability gets him a 50% damage reduction, when it's active it has a 90% damage reduction and a 1.4 second stun. That's not good? Yeah, right. I fought a full health Alpha and Cathrine, mind you this was a really good Alpha, in a 2v1. The Catherine had a fountain and the Alpha had Aegis and a Metal Jacket. Yeah, I 2v1'd them. The thing about CP lance is that unlike WP lance, CP lance is sustain based. He reduces so much damage that, no matter how little damage that Lance does, he will still win. So what inspired me to talk about CP Lance other than it's a good off-meta build? Well, in the Vainglory discord, link here, they are obsessed with CP Lance and Roam Celeste. Two very off meta and crazy builds that actually work.

When should I invade and when should I play conservative is what you should be asking yourself. To invade, you need to check these boxes. 1. Is my jungler or laner an early game hero? 2. Does the enemy team have less than 2 early game heroes? Is my laner and jungler aware that we are going to do a 3-man invade?
If you said "yes" to all of these options, then you should invade! If you said, "no" to any of these options, play conservatively.

When playing as a Roam Lance, you want to put your scout trap on your side of the mustache bush. This is key so your laner doesn't get ganked on that side. However, if you are playing against a very early game aggressive team comp or you have a very weak early game hero *cough cough krul* then putyour vision in your tri-bush so you and your allies know if they invade. If you leave right when the sanctuary unlocks (for lack of better word) then you should reach the double minions near the jungle shop 1-2 seconds before the match starts. The minions spawn at 0:35 seconds so at 0:34 use your impale. Every half second matters in vainglory. If you can gank their enemy laner 1/2 second before the enemy Ardan uses their vanguard to keep them alive, that could change the game.

You are tanky, you can deal alot of damage, you are the king of early game. You invade them. Right when the game starts, use the meet up or target ping on the enemy tri-bush. If you beat them in your team fight, take their front heal camp and their front double minions, then clear out your jungle. Congratulations! You now have more gold and are more powerful than the enemy team is! Do it again! This is called snowballing. The team that is more successful early game is usually going to win unless you have a really long game where everybody has a maxed out build and they have all late game heroes.

Stay in the front of the fight and attack their lane carry as they will usually do the most damage if you are playing WP or CP. If you are a roamer, just move around the fight and provide peel and setups for your allies.

I talked about this earlier. Well, Lance the best mobility in my opinion of any roamer. With his roll and impale, you can go anywhere extremely quickly in the jungle. This is why Lance is so good at escaping and catching up with other heroes. He has a stun and impale to lock down escaping heroes, or to keep people chasing him away, an extremely fast "energy" regeneration, and one of the most mobile moves in the game. Combat Roll. I marked out everywhere on the map that Lance can roll through. (I only did it on one side as I was too lazy to do it on the other)I recommend going into the jungle and just rolling around with 5 clockworks and journey boots just to practice as it does help.

Great Synergy

Baron
You can stun and impale your enemies so they get hit by his cannons, and you can knock them into his ultimate and they will take big damage. Baron is also slow so you can provide good peel for him.

Celeste
Another character without a good escape, all of her abilities are skill shots and when you can lock the down, an impale and two stuns between the both of you while she's raining down stars and using her ultimate, that's on dead enemy.

Joule
Thunderstrike isn't that hard to land, but you can still miss. With a WP joule if you land an impale, she can land a Thunderstrike, and you can land a Gythian Wall, then she can land a Rocket Jump, then she can land another Thunderstrike. With a CP Joule, if you can get a stun, and she uses her Ultimate, they are dead. Seriously, have you ever survived as a non roamer by standing in a CP Joule's big red button? I didn't think so.

Kestrel
Just like with Joule, if you can get a stun and impale, your Kestrel can spam all of her arrows and absolutely devastate the enemy team. I even had a CP Kestrel use Active Camo on top of them and use her ultimate to one shot them from the stun and OSOK

Rona
Rona's one issue is getting in range to use Red Mist. For some reason, the enemy team keeps running away! I don't know why, but if they're stunned and impaled, they can't do that! #FortifiedHealthForever

Samuel
If you can provide Samuel with peel so he can stay in his drifting dark and just land 10 malice and verdict shots, he wins. Basically what comes down to winning the fight is, "Can we keep Samuel alive and in his Drifting Dark?" Impale + Oblivion = True Combo (Unless they bought Aegis or Reflex Block :(

SAW
[[Usually best with CP saw but does work very well with WP, keep them in range of Saw. Knock them away if they are running in with an Atlas, then impale them so Saw can melt their HP. If he uses Suppressing Fire keep them in it. If he uses Rodie Run, make sure he can reach them by locking them down. If he uses his Ultimate, keep them in range of his basic attacks.

Skaarf
Every Skaarf's true dream, be paired with a Lance. Skaarf has one of the slowest and worst (in my opinion, please don't hurt me I still love skaarf) skill shots in the game. But when Skaarf can use Goop and spitfire, and they can't move out of it, they are dead. Like, really dead. The most important thing is, DON'T HIT THEM OUT OF GOOP IF SKAARF USED GOOP. YOU TAINT THE NAME OF LANCE WHEN YOU DO STUPID STUFF LIKE THAT!

Decent Synergy

Adagio
When paired with Adagio, you can use your Impale and Gythian Wall to lock people down so they can't escape from his Verse of Judgement. Adagio can also heal you up when you are playing as a carry to make it even harder to kill you, especially as CP Lance, and you can peel for him as well as he doesn't have a very good escape.

Alpha
Your impale and stun allow for Alpha to easily land her Prime Directive and Termination Protocol.

Blackfeather
You two have some of the jungle mobility as you can both easily go through walls meaning that nobody can escape from you, especially because you are some of the best chasers in the game. Other than that however, not much synergy.

Catherine
I have only done this once with a Catherine, but you can absolutely lock down an opponent. Impale + Gythian Wall Stun + Merciless Pursuit + Blast Tremor = Dead Enemy

Flicker
Flicker can use his abilities to slow them down so you can easily land an impale and then flicker can land his fairy dust at the same time for a long slow/root.

Glaive
These two can make a scary combination. Two of the best gankers on the same team? Afterburn followed by a impale and gythian wall?

Grumpjaw
After Grumpjaw eats somebody, you can easily lock them down with an Impale and Gythian Wall

Gwen
Another lockdown combination, Gwen's slow lets you land an impale, which allows her to get her stun which has a weird travel path so it's a guaranteed stun, and you can follow with a stun!

Idris
Together, you have some of the best mobility in the game and any skillshot hero is going to have a nightmare trying to deal with you. Chakram does alot of damage but can be dodge fairly easily so with an impale and gythian wall, that's alot of damage.

Krul
Keep them close so Krul can build up his stacks. As simple as that. However, if you really want to be nice to a Krul, play Ardan.

Lyra
Knock them into Bright Bullwark. Simple as that. Restrict their movement in it and impale them so people like Blackfeather, Koshka, and Taka are all screwed. Basically everybody who needs mobility.

Petal
Keep the enemy team away from her as Petal is super squishy, and make sure they get rooted or stunned when she uses her ultimate.

Phinn
Lol hook, impale, quibble, polite company, and Gythian wall all just trash the enemy team. What's better than hooking their carry, rooting him, stunning him twice, and getting fortified health? Playing with a CP Joule ;)

Reim
Hold them in place so he can land his Winter Spires. Make sure they shatter before you stun them against a wall so he can get maximum damage and fortified health. Also, double root ( ͡° ͜ʖ ͡°)

Skye
Just provide peel. That's literally all that Skye needs to go ham on the enemy team.

No Synergy :(

Ardan
When playing as a carry Lance, Ardan doesn't have any synergy :(

Fortress
Come join the pack of no synergy :(

Koshka
Go play with Ozo

Lance
For some reason I have never played with a Lance on my team as a Lance for some reason so I don't know how I can compare them

Ozo
Go play with Koshka

Ringo
Ringo doesn't need anybody. He's too good. Although he might need a hand *self hi-five for bullying Ringo mains* in peeling.

Taka
Taka just runs around being a foxy guy. Taka either kills the enemy team or kills himself on Catherine's shield.

Vox
Like Ringo, Vox is a sound pick. He could always use help peeling though.