Holy balls this Agnaktor armor is the best thing i've ever found

Agnaktor himself can't touch me anymore. It's amazing.

Now maybe gem it with Windproof and see if i can't find a full-scale talisman for Guard Up if possible (though Guard Up is limited in use)

Thanks for your advice. After I got not much help here I searched on other places and found the following:

 The videos show a lancer doing the arena in 12:38. I think I might try to learn to use the lance.

tangled with Jhen Plus. Two attempts, two repels, nothing to complain about

Kinda confused though, i suppose because i fought Jhen the first time with Guard Up, and now that i lack it, certain attacks were knocking me about.

Used my sharq attaq lance for the first time against offline barroth to learn some lancing yesterday. The poke, poke, poke, hop strategy seems to be easy. Hope it will work in the arena too. I still don't know how the countering works. But maybe I will find it out.

Before I went to work today there was still some time left. So I started a Ceadeus Quest. Got 2 crooked horns and 1 deep dragon gem. Nice start in the day.

Doesn't jhen plus have more health?

What do you mean by countering?

I would guess so, but at the same time guess it's roughly equilateral, in the sense that Jhen Plus's health boost is roughly even with the boost in attack for available weapons in High Rank (depending on how far you've advanced, anyway)

we got really close the second time, mostly because we started the showdown with one leg already damaged, but someone disconnected shortly after the start of showdown, so i had to take up some Melee responsibility (and i'm quite dismal at meleeing Jhen, though i think i have the rest of the fight down pretty well)

You may be right. Would still be nice to be able to do it.

I tried the arena yesterday with the lance. I took down barroth and nearly killed barioth. I ran out of lives, but I had enough potions. My main problem was I couldn't heal myself fast enough, when it was necessary. Putting away the lance seems to take more time as the weapons I normally use. And the snow and mud attacks hit me too often. Shaking the mud/snow off seems to take also more time with the lance. However, with a bit of training I may master this arena.

The lance itself is a good weapon. However I doubt I will use it too often in non-Arena fights. Lancing is very defensive and seems a little bit boring to me. The other weapons are somehow more fun for me. (Still need to try the SA and BG)

Before my work started I had a little bit extra time again. So I fought Ceadeus again. I wanted to do the reset trick in case he didn't give me anything usefull. However I carved a deep sea dragon gem from him. So it was another good start in the day.

I really can't see how lancing can become more exciting than the other weapons I use. I mean with a Longsword I can cut the tail of a monster, which is fun. With the Hammer I can KO a monster by hitting it on the head which is also fun. With the Sword and Shield I can do both.

You can do all of those things with a lance, too. Shieldbashing and body-part-targeted attacks (really any weapon can sever body parts that it's possible to sever).

I tend to favor Lance simply for its defensive capabilities, which is why i've been striving for armor to augment that. I want to be a tank, and i think i'm pretty close with Agnaktor.