Gunlance Advice

In my quest to become proficient in all the weapons of monster hunter I have begun learning the gunlance.

So I would like to ask the gunlance users here if they have any advice to give on how to use the gunlance.... especially with multiple people.

I should mention that I am currently in the HR using a brachy set and am making a Zinogre set for general use.

The gunlance is one of my favorite weapons. It's slow and powerful, but can also evade quickly.

One thing that makes gunlances different from all other weapon types is shelling. There are three types of damage in this game: raw, element and neutral damage. Gunlances are the only weapon class that can use neutral damage. This type is unaffected by defence or resistance, which makes it a great weapon for breaking parts.

There are three types of shelling: normal, wide and long. Normal has five weak shells, which makes it better for full burst but decreases charged shell power. Wide shelling is opposite: powerful charge shell, weak full burst. Long shelling has mediocre charge shells and full burst, and increased wyvern fire damage.

Gunlances can be a great addition to the party if the user attacks where no-one else is attacking. That way you won't blow people away with your shots and you will truly be a help breaking whatever part that needs breaking. Off course, an added bonus of this weapon is blocking, which all in all Makes it one of my three favorite weapons

Gilgames wrote:

The gunlance is one of my favorite weapons. It's slow and powerful, but can also evade quickly.

One thing that makes gunlances different from all other weapon types is shelling. There are three types of damage in this game: raw, element and neutral damage. Gunlances are the only weapon class that can use neutral damage. This type is unaffected by defence or resistance, which makes it a great weapon for breaking parts.

There are three types of shelling: normal, wide and long. Normal has five weak shells, which makes it better for full burst but decreases charged shell power. Wide shelling is opposite: powerful charge shell, weak full burst. Long shelling has mediocre charge shells and full burst, and increased wyvern fire damage.

Gunlances can be a great addition to the party if the user attacks where no-one else is attacking. That way you won't blow people away with your shots and you will truly be a help breaking whatever part that needs breaking. Off course, an added bonus of this weapon is blocking, which all in all Makes it one of my three favorite weapons

All I know is, is that Wide shelling is the best, especially if you can get level 5 wide shots.

Wide shells are okay. Personally, I never use the charge shots. I like Long-type the best for the boost to Wyvern Fire, the medium-sized clip, and the good damage on shells. Normal is okay, but the shotgun attack burns up your sharpness like no other.

Just like using lance, I find that I like the diagonal poke best most of the time. Just hit XA + X + X (and then fire a shell to continue attacking). The running attack is super-helpful, too.

Eh, i just remember gunlance from doing Crimson / White fatalis solos, the third round was always an armor mode round until a certain % of his health, so taking the Large Popcorn gunlance with shelling level 5 with wide shots just wrecked through his defense and health, and using the Wyvern Fire shot as soon as it was available helped make it easy. Sharpness never mattered there, just keep shelling.

If you can, always shoot up (X+A then shoot) that way you avoid hitting everyone and you can shoot as much as you want

edit: wow i must have been tired. i saw your sigs and thought they were part of the post.

aninymouse wrote:

Wide shells are okay. Personally, I never use the charge shots.

W-wh-what? ... I can't. I simply can not.

I just don't use charge shots. Yeah, I get that they do the most damage of any shot with wide shells. I don't really care. I want speed and efficiency when I use Bow, because I'm not always doing consistent damage. With Gunlance, I'm doing some leisurely poke attacks and some fixed explosive damage. The pokes usually do more unless you're attacking things you maybe ought not to be, so I just have a good time of it. Gunlance is a really laid-back weapon, in my estimation. I use it when I want to relax and not stress about performance. That doesn't mean I suck, it just means I'm not min/maxing when it comes to Gunlances.

Charge shells are a lot like Greatsword charge attacks, in that you need to predict your target's movements... and you get 2 before you have to reload. I dunno, It's an odd mental switch for me, between a pseudo-lance attack pattern and a pseudo-greatsword attack pattern. It's a bit fancy and involved. If I just do normal shells, I can get in more pokes, and thus more slicing, element, etc.

It's my style.

aninymouse wrote:

Charge shells are a lot like Greatsword charge attacks, in that you need to predict your target's movements...

I don't find those similar at all. Greatsword charging has a much larger timeframe of stalling before attacking a monster, while the charge shell doesn't even take long at all to have to predict the target's movements.

I believe this "charge shot" you people are talking about is the actual Wyvern Fire charge, you see, some of you newcomers wouldn't know this but, back before Tri, the Gunlance special fire ability aside from shelling was called Wyvern Fire because of it's potency and how it was to mimic Wyverns. Bowguns having a "Wyvern Fire" shot is the same thing essentially but they got it from the Gunlance.

So stop saying "Charge Shot", say Wyvern Fire because that's what it is.

Nova wrote:

I believe this "charge shot" you people are talking about is the actual Wyvern Fire charge, you see, some of you newcomers wouldn't know this but, back before Tri, the Gunlance special fire ability aside from shelling was called Wyvern Fire because of it's potency and how it was to mimic Wyverns. Bowguns having a "Wyvern Fire" shot is the same thing essentially but they got it from the Gunlance.

So stop saying "Charge Shot", say Wyvern Fire because that's what it is.

/palm/ 
No Nova, the gunlance can charge shellings in 3U. They all know what the wyvern fire is, they aren't referring to the wyvern fire.

Im raughing so hard at Novas post, + + + + + +

Lucas wrote:

Im raughing so hard at Novas post, + + + + + +

*laughing, and yes from my limited understanding there are 3 different types of shelling attacks with the gunlances. I also have a question of my own, if I were to pick up gunlancing what monster should i practice on?

Will wrote:

Nova wrote:

I believe this "charge shot" you people are talking about is the actual Wyvern Fire charge, you see, some of you newcomers wouldn't know this but, back before Tri, the Gunlance special fire ability aside from shelling was called Wyvern Fire because of it's potency and how it was to mimic Wyverns. Bowguns having a "Wyvern Fire" shot is the same thing essentially but they got it from the Gunlance.

So stop saying "Charge Shot", say Wyvern Fire because that's what it is.

/palm/ 
No Nova, the gunlance can charge shellings in 3U. They all know what the wyvern fire is, they aren't referring to the wyvern fire.

Why would capcom put that in the game? That's pointless, the Gunlance was fine as it was, charging a standard shelling shot? That just seems pointless. Supposed to, if shelling, spam your shells, reload, spam more, and use Wyvern Fire on cooldown.

Umm

Anyway, i use charge shots a lot in this game but only with Wide (can't see any point in doing it with normal or long). It's really great for breaking monster parts but also have some downsides. Online with group of 3 other players you need to be careful about those shots. Its range is wery 'wide' so you can hit your mates and stop their combos/GS charges etc. It works great solo as you don't have to worry about your performance. Heh i was stun locking many monsters in village (poke, poke, charge shot, poke, evade, reload etc.) You can chain it in infinite combos and lock monster in place if you're good. I think 3 gunners/bow users + GL user using charge shots marks the sweet spot for me online

So what about skills for the gunlance then?

Personally I've started to like using at least razor sharp on my armor set.

Razor sharp is a good skill indeed. A great offensive skill is artillery novice/expert, which increases your shelling damage.
Another good skill would be load up, especially for wide shelling. It essentially just adds another shell to your clip.
And of course there's guard skills and general blademaster skills.

Artillery Expert on Wide and Long (for WF cooldown time) only.

Guard+1 for guard GL-ing.
Evade+1 for evade GL-ing.

Load up only for Wide.

Sharpness+1 with Normal and Long.

I wouldn't recommend Razor Sharp but it's up to you.

On Normal and Long than comes buffing skills: Adren+2, AuL, CE+3, Challenger+2 etc.

Unless you're using Normal type GL or Long i wouldn't bother with sharpness at all. I, for instance, give up on Sharpness+1 and instead gem in Mind's Eye because shell dmg is unaffected by sharpness and it's my main dmg force on Wide.

I don't really like Long and Normal ones because it feels pretty much like using a lance. So you can go for Guard/Evade/AuL/CE+3/Challenger+2/Honed Blade/Adren+2 combo and the results are pretty good. Just combo basic pokes and you're dealing huge dmg. Not much to play with if you want to be effective. "Wides" are special on the other hand and encourage you to use shells in many different ways.