Lances and jousting were commonly used in the middle ages for tournaments and combat.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lance
They were pretty awesome.

To use one, a knight generally rode a horse, but there is a sad lack of horses in Dark Souls 2. Who knows where they ran off to. Perhaps they were all turned into those terrible lighting freaks in that stupid blizzard thorn-in-the-side no good...nevermind. The point is, any use of lances without a horse is technically strange and improper (to my knowledge), but tough luck cus there aren't horses in Drangleic.

Without further delay, here's how a true knight uses a lance.

Now, lances in Dark Souls 2 are powerful weapons. But is any weapon worth using if you can't use it the way it was meant to be used?

Knights often participated in jousts in the middle ages of Europe, and so can you. Just keep in mind these things when you do so.

1. Set up the field. Knights rode around on horseback in jousts, circling posts that were set up on opposite ends of a field, charging each other down, and then moving to the opposite ends of the field to circle around the posts and do it again. If you can't visualize how stunningly brilliant and radiantly honorable that is, here's a video.

Take note of the horses and how sad it is that we can't ride them in to glorious combat.

To account for the lack of wooden posts in Drangleic, I generally have a set of prism stones handy, and they do the trick. If you are on the bridge of the Iron Keep, you can place one at one end and another at the other end and you have yourself a great jousting field.

2. Knights didn't joust with swords. Or staves. Or clubs. Or anything other than a lance. So if your friendly rival knight doesn't have a lance out, that's a problem, as the odds are probably incredibly in your favor. If they have a lance, try to get them to take it out and fight you in honorable knightly combat! or if they don't, hm, that's...that's a problem. Maybe give them one? Or don't joust? I don't know, figure that one out on your own.

3. Fight with honor. Once there is a hit, go all the way across and circle the post before attacking again. If the opponent doesn't get it, oh well, that sucks. Knights fought each other with swords and shields when they got mad about a joust, so I carry a longsword and a shield (blossom kite is good for jousting) for when things get hairy. No magic shenanigans, no healing, no foul play, just joust or fight to the death and see which knight is more knight than the other knight.

Remember, jousting isn't about winning.

...it is about winning, but there's more to it. When you joust, you resign yourself to taking a hit. When you take a hit, take it, and wear it like a blood red badge of honor! When the opponent gets knocked on their rear, or you on yours, that's that, so just go to the post and hope you get a better hit next time. If your opponent (or you) gets a little low on health and is mad about their situation, and they pull out a sword, they mean to do honorable knightly combat, so you had better pull out your sword too or the jousting gods will be VERY displeased. Trust me.

But above all else, Dark Souls 2 is a game. Have fun, please. PLEASE. It's what games do, they make fun. So don't take the fun out of fun, and try to come up with cool stuff to do (preferably honorable stuff). Maybe have a friendly joust while you are at it.



Good luck out there.