A question for our gunlance mains!

[Tarkus]

So after thinking I hate the gunlance for a whole while, I tried it again a few days ago and once I really got used the combos is actually pretty awes♥♥♥. big explosions, big fl♥♥♥s, big numbers. All the stuff I love about the CB, and now that I figured out that artillery jewel really is a must I can look past the sort of clunky mobility.

But what's confusing♥♥♥, is that I often bounce on stab attacks (using Magda Lahat, guard stab bounces off s♥♥♥ pink rathian parts) but never really bounce with the smash attacks (which also deal massive damage) And weirdy enough, the Wyrmstake and the smashing attacks seem to be able to cut off tails? It's happened very consistently fighting Rathians right now.

Compared to the lance, most of it's attacks have minds eye naturally. So bouncing never really happens, except on the dash using the lance.
Is it sort of backwards on the gun lance where the smashes have minds eye but the stabs don't?
And the shots are supposed to deal impact damage (at least that's what I read), which can break parts but supposedly not sever tails right?
So why can the smashing attacks and wyrmstake cannon break tails like it's black friday?

EDIT:
I will sum up some of the things mentioned in the post up here, to help other players find it faster. Sorry if it is a bit unsightly, I've never written a "guide" if you can even call it that.



Shelling:

-Shelling damage is affected by: Shelling level, Artillery Skill, Feline Bombardier

-Shelling does neither piercing, cutting or impact damage. It cannot sever tails or stun monsters but it is able to break all other parts (like heads and wings)

-Charged shelling speed is increased by the focus skill.

-Shelling ignores all resistances (Tregrenos)

-Shelling cannot crit

-Shelling does not apply status effects or deal elemental damage. (Otaconnor)

-Shelling damge is not affected by: Things like Demondrug and all the other ATK ups

-Shelling damage recieves a damage boost from green sharpness, with no further improvements at blue and white. (Eru and Undertale: "CENSORED" edition)

-Magazine size is increased by the capacity boost, which increases the damage potential of full burst. (Otaconnor)

-Full Burst damage potential of long and normal are very similar (JebKerman)
(keep in mind that normal gun lances will use up more sharpness, due to the larger magazine)

Wyvern's fire:

-Wyvern's fire cooldown will be reduced only by the Artillery skill (a whopping 50% at level 3!)
not affected by the focus skill

-Wyvern's fire damage is affected by: Artillery, Felyne Bombardier

-Wyvern's fire can be aimed quickly by pressing (LT on XBox. L2 on PS4. C on M&KB, V does not work in my experience) (Tregrenos)

-Wyvern's fire hits 3 times, but only one hit will get the bonus damage on a sleeping monster.

-Wyvern's fire charge time (the time it takes to actually fire it) is not affected by the focus skill, it will take about 2.5 seconds.

Wyrmstake:

-Wyrmstake ticks deal cutting damage, the explosion deals the same damage as shelling.
their damage is affected by anything that affects normal damage (food buffs,demondrug etc. not artillery or felyne bombardier) (Tregrenos)

-Wymrstake's final explosion damage is affected by the Artillery and Felyne bombardier skill.

Physical Attacks:

-all physical Attacks deal cutting damage and can sever tails. (Tregrenos)

-affected by the usual things.

-smashing attacks have innate minds eye, they will not bounce. (wide sweep, overhead smash)

General (Defensive/Mobility etc.):

-Blocking is fun.

-Guard Up will allow you to block attacks that usually cannot be blocked (e.g.: Xeno laser)

-Guard reduces stamina consumption, and decreases chip damage (the damage you take when blocking).

-Mobility can be enhanced greatly with the Evade Extender skill (Tregrenos)

-Backstep (neutral dodge) covers slightly more distance than directional dodges (Otaconnor)

-Health Augmentations are the most profitable on wide and long gun lances.

-Gun Lance Playstyle is massively affected by the shell type:

Long Gun Lance is great for charged shots, benefits the most from shelling damage upgrades.
(Focus allows you to fire off your charged shots much faster, a must if you want to focus on that playstyle)

Normal Gun Lance is great for full bursts and mounting damage (Tregrenos)

(keep in mind that full bursts eat your sharpness for breakfast, use skills like protective polish or razor sharp to counter that (Fat Pigeon))

Wide Gun Lance is great for normal shots

Deviljho Gun Lance is great, if you don't want to gun your lance at all. (Otaconnor)

[Tregrenos]

The physical attacks and the ticks of Wyrmstake deal cutting damage. The explosions aren't really impact damage, they are their own category of damage type that bypasses all resistances for consistent damage. The shells blasts are very good at breaking parts, but do not deal cutting damage. As for the smashing attacks having Minds Eye I assume this was done so that Normal Gunlance main attack "Full Burst" didn't seem nerfed compared to Wide and Long, which don't actually have to use attacks that have a chance to bounce.

As for Gunlance Mobility, the Evade Extender skill is a massive improvement on Gunlance. If you have Evade Extender on a Lance you'd not really notice much difference, but the hops Gunlance use are greatly extended. This is most effective if you're using a Wide 4 because you can reliably stay on top of most monsters.

As a fun note, when you're using the Wyvern Fire attack you can additionally hold down the Left Trigger and enter First Person mode, which not only allows you to quickly aim the Wyvern Fire away from any teammates, but also you can angle it upward and in any other direction. Turning in First Person mode is actually much faster than slowly adjusting your aim in Third Person mode.

Lastly, an important note on Health Augments. If you're using a Wide or Long Gunlance where you will do much fewer physical attacks than you would a Normal Gunlance it's best to stack as many Health Augments as you can IMO. Your shell damage is based on your shell level, so if you have a level 4 shell on a level 6 maxed weapon you could use 3X Health Augments for massive returns from your shells which are already bypassing the monsters resistances. If you have the Kulve Wide 4 (level 6) and the Kulve Wide 4 (level 8) you'd get more use from the Level 6 than you would the Level 8 just because you can stack more augments on it and your shell damage wouldn't be effected since both are Wide 4 shells.

https://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=1711021489

Very few skills effect Gunlance Shells. Artillery, Part Breaker and the Xeno gears set bonus that reduces weapon sharpness drain. The above set is my favorite Gunlance build so far.

[Tarkus]

Thanks for the tips, after looking at the other gun lances it seemed a bit more reasonable that they do cutting damage, instead of piercing damage. It's not as obvious using Magda Lahat, since there isn't really a blade attached to the end. Also explains the bounces of stabbing attacks, since this one only has green sharpness (very weird when you've been using Dantes Devil Sword since forever heh)

I haven't tried the wide lances yet, right now I am gathering Materials to get Royal Burst to see what the burst playstyle is like, I'll try the wide ones after that. (That Kulve one seems pretty awesome, especially since it's only rarity 6, I have to do that one at some point).

And thanks for the tip with Evade Extender, I don't have anything with that skill on it yet but I will put it up there on the list of things to try. Closing the distance with a Monster is what bugs me the most on the gun lance, since it lacks the charging attack of the lance.

[Fat Pigeon]

Fullbursts (Normal) actually is pretty enjoyable, my favorite Gunlance style, but cause each fullburst eats your sharpness in no time, you have to use something to counter it like Protective Polish or 3 parts of Xeno Jiva Set Bonus for longer sustain (i would use y for gaining slots and crit boost you need it for overheadsmash)

But it also have a downside, your Overhead Smash into Fullburst takes a longer time to get then spamming Wide Shells or Poke Shelling from Wide's but it feels so good to unload your entire magazine into your foes :D

[Tregrenos]

I still prefer Lance when facing Kulve or Greatest Jagras. Masters Touch and high crit Lance go well together. With the Empress "Styx" Lance that comes with Xeno's skill that halves sharpness loss and decent crit I really only sharpen after Kulve moves to the next area. Breaking her armor is pretty reliable since you can angle your attacks to hit where you need to hit and you can charge her tail. During the final phase Lance is a very easy weapon to get an early mount with. As for Greatest Jagras, chances are most of your hits on him are gonna be crits anyway. If you're against a monster you can easily hit weak spots for Lance deals more damage, but for monsters that have few weak spots or parts that need to be broken to reach weak spots then Gunlance deals more overall damage IMO.

The different shell types really alter how you play the Gunlance. I'm not a fan of Normal Gunlance, but Kulve does drop a Normal 4 that has the Sleep Status which is fun to play with sometimes. If Long 4 didn't require useless input to use charged shells I might like it. Overall, I find Wide 4's twitch combat the easiest to grasp. It's style isn't too different from Lance in that both wants to be practically on top of the monster. It eats through sharpness fast though, but your shell damage doesn't lower until you hit Yellow sharpness. With White, Blue or Green sharpness the shell damage doesn't change.

Wide 4 is especially effective against Behemoth if you aim to be the tank for the fight. If you can manage to get a Wyrmstake on his face you can guarantee his aggro. With 3 Health Augments any attacks he does against your shield can be quickly healed back. It's also good against the AT Chocobo when chasing down the crystal as even hitting the tip of his tail with a quick shell damage causes the same amount as if you were to hit the crystal it carries.

[Tregrenos]

Ursprungligen skrivet av Fat Pigeon:

Fullbursts (Normal) actually is pretty enjoyable, my favorite Gunlance style, but cause each fullburst eats your sharpness in no time, you have to use something to counter it like Protective Polish or 3 parts of Xeno Jiva Set Bonus for longer sustain (i would use y for gaining slots and crit boost you need it for overheadsmash)

But it also have a downside, your Overhead Smash into Fullburst takes a longer time to get then spamming Wide Shells or Poke Shelling from Wide's but it feels so good to unload your entire magazine into your foes :D

On that note, Normal Gunlance also has the highest mounting damage of all the Gunlance because the final hit of a mount is always a Full Burst. If you're near a ledge you can spam Hop (backward, off ledge) and attack with slams (which move you forward again) to build up mounting damage.

[Fat Pigeon]

Ursprungligen skrivet av Tregrenos:

Ursprungligen skrivet av Fat Pigeon:

Fullbursts (Normal) actually is pretty enjoyable, my favorite Gunlance style, but cause each fullburst eats your sharpness in no time, you have to use something to counter it like Protective Polish or 3 parts of Xeno Jiva Set Bonus for longer sustain (i would use y for gaining slots and crit boost you need it for overheadsmash)

But it also have a downside, your Overhead Smash into Fullburst takes a longer time to get then spamming Wide Shells or Poke Shelling from Wide's but it feels so good to unload your entire magazine into your foes :D

On that note, Normal Gunlance also has the highest mounting damage of all the Gunlance because the final hit of a mount is always a Full Burst. If you're near a ledge you can spam Hop (backward, off ledge) and attack with slams (which move you forward again) to build up mounting damage.

Indeed, your Jump attack can also end in a Fullburst if you use the Shell Button instead of the Poke one.

[JebKerman]

Tbh, Long 4's Fullburst potential is pretty much the same as Normal 4s and uses 2 less shells while doing it, and having much better shelling elsewhere.

4 x 48-50 = 192-200
vs
6 x 34-35 = 204-210
(Tested against HR Great Jagras using Artillery 3 and Capacity Boost)

Melee damage plays a bigger factor in separating them. So while the Royal burst is a significant improvement over the ES Magda Lahat, the gap closes significantly when comparing Kulve Tarroth's offerings.

[Otaconnor]

Highly suggest Artillery Charm if you're lacking jewels. Otherwise guard charm if you're lacking those (underrated skill!)

Evade Extender is a must but did you know that the gunlance's neutral dodge (backstep) has relatively far range? If a monster is far you can turn around and backstep your way over super fast. If you have fast camera controls you can point the camera away and press L2+R2 to instantly snap forward, helps out with this. Also helps you instantly turn forward if the monster attacks while you're backstepping.
However 90% of the time you can get away with a couple forward dodges plus an advancing triangle attack (Y on Xbox I think)

Never forget Capacity Boost. Pray to RNGesus if you don't have the jewel yet.

Shelling attacks do NOT apply status or element, so don't bother with element up skills.

Don't bother eating for attack up large at the canteen for long gunlance. Attack doesn't affect shell damage so put everything else into utility/defense.

DO always eat for the feline bombardier skill (forget the exact name) as this will increase shell damage by a substantial amount. (About 110 damage per charged Long 4 shell)

If you want to try something super unique, check out the deviljho gunlance. Don't ever even use shells, just build drachen + handicraft and spam the slam attacks over and over. Shockingly powerful and not quite like any other weapon in the game.

... That's all I can think of right now, pros please tell me if I'm wrong (GL is my second most used weapon but I can solo behemoth with it relatively easily)

[Welkrow]

On that note, did someone has a good build for fullburst gunlance?

I'm building the last rathian sakura gunlance but Im wondering if there is better weapon. All the build I found on the net are 7-8 month old.

What armor should I forge and what kind of jewel and talisman?
ANd what kind of weapon augment for when I'll unlock this option.

Thanks in advance and sorry for the baguette english

[Smug Kot]

Ursprungligen skrivet av JebKerman:

Tbh, Long 4's Fullburst potential is pretty much the same as Normal 4s and uses 2 less shells while doing it, and having much better shelling elsewhere.

4 x 48-50 = 192-200
vs
6 x 34-35 = 204-210
(Tested against HR Great Jagras using Artillery 3 and Capacity Boost)

Melee damage plays a bigger factor in separating them. So while the Royal burst is a significant improvement over the ES Magda Lahat, the gap closes significantly when comparing Kulve Tarroth's offerings.

i could say the s ame (same its cencored now ? wtf steam) for wide 4, full burst its just meme at this point when wide and long gives a lot more in return.

Ursprungligen skrivet av Otaconnor:

Highly suggest Artillery Charm if you're lacking jewels. Otherwise guard charm if you're lacking those (underrated skill!)

Evade Extender is a must but did you know that the gunlance's neutral dodge (backstep) has relatively far range? If a monster is far you can turn around and backstep your way over super fast. If you have fast camera controls you can point the camera away and press L2+R2 to instantly snap forward, helps out with this. Also helps you instantly turn forward if the monster attacks while you're backstepping.
However 90% of the time you can get away with a couple forward dodges plus an advancing triangle attack (Y on Xbox I think)

Never forget Capacity Boost. Pray to RNGesus if you don't have the jewel yet.

Shelling attacks do NOT apply status or element, so don't bother with element up skills.

Don't bother eating for attack up large at the canteen for long gunlance. Attack doesn't affect shell damage so put everything else into utility/defense.

DO always eat for the feline bombardier skill (forget the exact name) as this will increase shell damage by a substantial amount. (About 110 damage per charged Long 4 shell)

If you want to try something super unique, check out the deviljho gunlance. Don't ever even use shells, just build drachen + handicraft and spam the slam attacks over and over. Shockingly powerful and not quite like any other weapon in the game.

... That's all I can think of right now, pros please tell me if I'm wrong (GL is my second most used weapon but I can solo behemoth with it relatively easily)

Guard still a option and i think its better than evade extender to keep youself alive, we have on the best shield in game so lets take advantage of that and also GL doesnt need offensive decos since most of the damage comes from shelling and a little of poking.

Unless you go full melee...but really that build its obsolete and not that good anyway.

[JebKerman]

Ursprungligen skrivet av Sarmanyr:

On that note, did someone has a good build for fullburst gunlance?

I'm building the last rathian sakura gunlance but Im wondering if there is better weapon. All the build I found on the net are 7-8 month old.

What armor should I forge and what kind of jewel and talisman?
ANd what kind of weapon augment for when I'll unlock this option.

Thanks in advance and sorry for the baguette english

As far as craftable weapons the Rathian "Royal Burst" is the best for fullburst. Kulve Tarroth can drop better weapons, but that's RNG reliant.

The Artillery Charm is typical, as the armour with Artillery on it is pretty bad and the decorations are rare (if you have 3 of the decorations, use those)

Ideally you also want the "Magazine Jewel" for Capacity Boost as the armour that has it (High Metal Coil B or Dodogama Greaves B) are rather bad.

The rest is largely up to you. Health Boost and maybe some Guard would be recommended, otherwise your standard Attack boosting skills like Weakness Exploit, Attack boost, Critical Eye, Critical Boost.

A couple of potentially useful set bonuses:

Razor Sharp: 3 pieces of Xeno'jiiva armour.
Fullbursting will rip through your sharpness and this can help reduce the sharpness loss.

Guard Up: 3 pieces of Uragaan Armour.
Allows you to block all Elder Dragon attacks, you normally can't block beams and other powerful attacks they dish out. You could also craft the "Bulwark Charm" for it, or if you're lucky you could get the "Shield Jewel" which means it only takes a single level 2 decoration slot.

[Tregrenos]

Ursprungligen skrivet av Otaconnor:

Shelling attacks do NOT apply status or element, so don't bother with element up skills.

While this is true it’s worth noting that Wyrmstake ticks can apply status buildup. However, the ticks themselves cannot actually activate the status once the threshold has been crossed. Once the threshold has been crossed the next physical strike you do with the Gunlance activates the status.

[Erudax]

Shelling damage is actually affected by sharpness - at the final bar of sharpness you'll deal about 30% less damage with shelling.

[Smug Kot]

Ursprungligen skrivet av Eru:

Shelling damage is actually affected by sharpness - at the final bar of sharpness you'll deal about 30% less damage with shelling.

at green you start to get negative damage but blue and white does the same damage so no boost for having whitesharp.

Ursprungligen skrivet av Tregrenos:

Ursprungligen skrivet av Otaconnor:

Shelling attacks do NOT apply status or element, so don't bother with element up skills.

While this is true it’s worth noting that Wyrmstake ticks can apply status buildup. However, the ticks themselves cannot actually activate the status once the threshold has been crossed. Once the threshold has been crossed the next physical strike you do with the Gunlance activates the status.

is there even any lvl 4 gunlance with status out ? i think not and its really dont worth to drop shelling levels for some niche status.

[Ordaeli]

Ursprungligen skrivet av Undertale: "CENSORED" edition:

is there even any lvl 4 gunlance with status out ? i think not and its really dont worth to drop shelling levels for some niche status.

There is a Wide 4 with blast. (the KT and ATKT one with bazel skin.)