Gunlance 101: or how I learned to love my shotgun sword and shield (a Guide)

###Intro

Lately, I've seen quite a few posts and questions regarding Gunlance. While I'm not the Master of said weapon, I'm fluent enough in the language of the fine Gunlance to offer a guide that will help newcomers and veterans alike.

###What is a Gunlance?

The Gunlance is exactly as it sounds; It is a fusion of a Gun (in this case, a shotgun) and the Lance. The Lance and Gunlance are similar in their attack styles, yet have enough differences to warrant separate playstyles.

The weapon (Gunlance) has two forms of attack. The first, like the Lance, is a series of attacks that perform stabbing motions, rather than slashing like it's other bladed counterparts. The second, is referred to as 'shelling'. These attacks ignore defense (no form of 'bouncing'), and deal a small amount of fire damage. Shells need to be loaded into the weapon, similar to bowguns. However, you have unlimited shells, so you don't have to worry about ammunition management.

The other notable thing about the Gunlance is the shield. The shield blocks most attacks, with little to no staggering compared to Sword and Shield. However, it will not block all attacks without Guard Up. We'll cover skills later.

###Comboing

The Gunlance is one of the best combo weapons in the game. You can go into any attack from the basic X attack (standing, not blocking). Examples include:

X -> X (standard two jabs. This is your go-to combo, followed up by your finisher(s))
X -> X -> X (two jabs, followed by an overhead slam. This slams the Gunlance down in front of you, dealing more damage than your standard jab)
X -> X -> X -> A (after the slam, hit A and you'll do a full burst, which is shooting all of the shells you have loaded at once.)
X -> X -> A, repeat (My go-to combo. You can jab, jab, shoot, and repeat as long as you have shells).
X -> X -> X+A (after the first two jabs, you can do an uppercut. The uppercut, along with your stab jab, does slashing damage. Great for reaching tails).
X -> X -> X+A -> X -> A ( Yup. Jab, Jab, uppercut, slam, blam, thank you ma'am. Typically, this is best reserved for Normal type Gunlances, but we'll cover that later.)
X+A -> X -> X+A (I want to thank u/Nolis for telling me about this combo. It's an uppercut, poke, uppercut. Great for hitting high up things, like tails.)
X -> X -> X+A -> X -> X+A (Jab, Jab, Uppercut, slam, Wyvern Fire. Wyvern Fire? Again, we'll cover that shortly.)
A -> A, repeat (shoot, quick reload one shell, repeat. This can also be done after an uppercut.)
A -> A -> X -> anything you can do after a slam (Shoot, reload, slam, whatever you want)
X -> B (directional, left or right) -> A (Jab, dodge, quick reload all shells. Great for when you've finished a jab combo.)
(standing) B -> A (Performs a Backhop. Backhops are handy for spacing, especially after a combo. Jab, jab, shoot, backhop, repeat. Backhop and A will reload your shells)
R + X +A (Wyvern Fire from a standing position. You have to be holding R first)
You can dodge (B) after nearly every attack. The only one that's tricky, is after the slam, as you still need to recover from the heavy attack. You also can't dodge after a Wyvern Blast or Full Blast (more on this later).
Holding R, press X (Upwards angled jab. Can repeat up to 3 times)
Holding R, press A (reload all shells)
Holding R, press X, then A, A, repeat (upwards angled jab again, followed by a shot, and then reload if you are not holding R. If it's a charge shot (takes longer to shoot, and covered later) then it can't be reloaded until the last shot)
While your weapon is sheated, hitting R + X + A at the same time will draw your weapon into a block immediately. This is important for when you're approaching monsters, or know that an attack is inbound.

This lists all of the combos that can be with the Gunlance. As you can see, you have several options compared to other weapons, and nearly every option can be changed on the fly. Jabbing, but you know the monster is about to move on you? Side step. Monster is about to fly away? Uppercut and fire. Slammed your Gunlance down, readied up Wyvern Fire, and the monster is running away? Well, you're S.O.L. there. Speaking of which, what is Wyvern Fire?

###Wyvern Fire

Wyvern Fire, is the Gunlance's special attack. It has a charge up period (between 2-3 seconds), and deals massive damage, with a trade off. You can only fire this attack once every 120 seconds. When you fire... Wyvern... Fire... It is the equivalent of four hits similar to your shell damage (separate section). Since it is four separate hits, it is best to not use this attack on a sleeping monster, since only one hit will deal the 'wake up bonus damage'. You should shell your target instead. Now that I mention it, onto the shells!

###Your shotgun and you, or what is shelling?

Shelling, if you remember from our combo section, can be done after nearly every attack. It is fixed damage, and is not affected by any defense on the monster, meaning you won't bounce on that attack. As I also mentioned, it does a small amount of fire damage, but not enough to really warrant using that as a reliable means of elemental damage. Shelling also makes the sharpness of your weapon deplete twice as fast. One shell is the same as doing two jabs, so keep that in mind. There are three types of shelling:

Standard: Just your regular, run of the mill shot.
Charged: Remember when you held R after a combo, and then hit A? That's a charged shot. Takes a little longer to fire, but deals more damage compared to your standard shot.
Full Burst: After performing your slam attack, hitting A will fire ALL remaining shells in your weapon. This can be great, if you're using the right Gunlance.

Now that we've listed the types of shells, what about the weapon? What does Normal or Long mean?

###Types of Gunlances; Variety is the Spice of Life

Much like our types of shelling, we have three types of Gunlance. They all have differences amongst each other:

Normal : This is your basic Gunlance. Most of the weapons within Gunlance are a normal type. This type also does the most damage within a full burst shot, since you can have 5 shells loaded at one time. The Wyvern Blast does it's normal damage, and shelling damage is normal.
Long: This Gunlance has the strongest Wyvern Blast, compared to the other types of Gunlance. The Full Burst is 'okay', since you can only load 3 shells. Normal shelling damage otherwise.
Wide: This type has the strongest shelling damage, and strongest charge shot. If you like shelling, consider a weapon of this type. This weapon sports the weakest Full Burst shot, as you can only load 2 shells at a time. Normal Wyvern blast; no changes.

Next to your weapon type, you will also see a number listing 'shot type'. This number will range from 1-5. This affects the damage your shells will do. Unfortunately, there has not been reliable information on how much damage each shell does, as MH3U has not been hacked yet (if ever) to reveal the hard data regarding this. It is, however, a relatively safe assumption that you can round up the damage to shot level (level 3 does 30 damage, 5 does closer to 50). The damage is probably less, but it's the best we have.

Okay, so now what? We have a weapon, and we know what to do with it. But what kind of skills should we use in tandem with our new toy?

Continued in comments...

Posted Apr 24, 2014, 3:13 PM UTC · edited

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