[MH:R] Gunlance Basics - Shell Types / Playstyles / Sets 

One tip for Blast Dash: Once you've used one, or are otherwise already in the air, you can hold the guard button (ZR by default) to chain into more Blast Dash, and it's much faster.

I’m glad you’re deep diving into gunlance and having fun with it! Helpful and concise guide. Very curious if the meta will continue on its apparent path or if they will make some changes to help it in the areas it needs

Maybe we can get a gunlance with a ramp up skill that boosts shelling level or just shelling damage right away. That might be a bit op right now, but when other weapons get a buff along the way, why not? gunlance

Regarding the charged hopping tech, you can still do it with blast dash equipped, you just gotta be a little quicker on the charge > hop timing so you don't accidentally fly right back to where you were. Another note on blast dash is that you can use the input for reloading to fire off another dash instead of holding A. It ends up being way more reliable since its a press rather than a hold which can make tighter adjustments impossibles. As for thoughts on the switch skills, GL is unfortunately one of those that just has the wrong options put in the wrong places. I also find that the current design behind the shell types is also in need of tuning since long shell is basically the only usable shell type. Here's the changes I'd like to see. 1) Remove the slow wyrmstake and just make all wyrmstake combos have the same application speed. It doesn't have to be as fast in compensation, but the slow stake is literally unusable or at the very least not a good option in many situations. 2) Replace the fast wyrmstake input of charge A + plus hold back to be the input for blast dash. The animation for blast dash has us aim behind and fire so the input makes sense at least, plus this makes full burst combos more accessible, lets GL keep a movement option like Lance has with its silkbinds, AND opens up a switch skill slot for this next change. 3) Instead of charged shell/blast dash, have the switch skill options be multihit wyrmstakes for damage or the stunning wyrmstake from current wide shells. This lets you build more effectively for low raw builds or use the stun stake for slaplance builds. 4) Make groundsplitter the permanent silkbind skill for GL and swap it with the parry. Now, you can choose either the parry or the rising attack as your "protective technique that helps keep your weapons upkeep going" (i.e. sharpness or wyvernfire gauge management skills) Kind of a long comment, but I really do like this weapon a lot, and I think these changes would help fix a lot of the weapon's awkward problems for the time being.

Good video! I really hope Capcom does something so that slaplance isn't the meta in the future 'cause it's so boring. Anyway, just a minor thing that wasn't mentioned in the video: some Gunlances like Zinogre's have the Rampage skills that make them do more damage against certain types of monsters, like aquatic ones, and with those rampage skills they'll sometimes do more damage than the Admiral's GL. Those rampage skills do increase shelling and wyrmstake damage too, one of the very few things in the game that do so.

Great guide. Thank you!

With current status of Long shell, i think they will reduce number shell by 1 for balance with Normal shell in next expansion That is why pure long slap is best option. Only use wyvern fire and wyrm stake in some condition

So glad the dog gunlance is strong lol Though my happiness is tempered by the idea of slap lance being the best eventually, which sort of defeats the purpose of gunlance to me.

It's worth noting that in line with base Generations, shelling damage in Rise is also about 20% weaker than in 4U or World. It was later brought back up in GU so hopefully once Rise G comes out shelling will also have that debuff taken off to get a leg up in damage. I guess it's just something Ichinose likes doing idk.

The new playstyle for wideshelling is actually pretty fun, you simply do 1 charged shell into a wyrmstake, then guard reload and rinse and repeat, you can do 2 charged shells if you have a huge window. The damage in that short frame is pretty good.

Thanks for this. I've used Lance for a long time, and I've wanted to mess around with GL but I never really got it. This helps a lot!

Brachy could fix GL scaling if they ever make something crazy like Ragging brach again

I definitely mentioned this during your live stream but there is one other thing that powers up you Shelling just like Artillery and Dango Bombardier. It’s the Ramp up skills Anti Aerial, Anti Aquatic, and Dragon Exploit. Dragon Exploit is not worth it but I thought I would mention it.

Wide gunlance is good for shelling too, with extra ammo you get an extra shell to use blast dash, for when you don’t have your dash attack. you can get in or out and still pop off a two shot wyrmstake combo. Focus on that for damage, and wyvrens fire when you can. Then with gaurd reload and parry, you can basically be in the monsters face doing good shell damage, and blocking everything and not deflecting off hard parts. I usually go with full burst normal in monster hunter world, but shelling with a wide in this just feels comfortable and, you have less cool-down with shelling as opposed to those big heavy swings of the lance lol.

Capcom really needs to add more ways to improve shelling damage because the moment melee Gunlance becomes the best meta set, I'm switching to Swith Axe like in Iceborne. This coming from someone waiting for the PC version Monster Hunter Rise but has experienced all of World though. P.S: Still looking foward to try Gunlance in Rise, great video P.S.S: Sorry didn't fully watched the video and now I see Wide is like the default for Swinglance, I could live with that, leave shelling for Normal and Long and let Wide to do mostly raw and shell once in a while, just keep shelling strong in the other 2 styles

So like... my wishlist for Gunlance scaling options in the future of this game: Pretty please let us just, take Artillery to level like 5 or 6 in G-rank, that's the easiest thing Bombardier being an extra way to boost shells would be cute considering I catch myself making that mistake more often than I care to admit Special Ammo Boost affecting Wyrmstake and Wyvernfire would be really nice considering I am addicted to fishing for KOs with Wide Wyrmstake in this game Rapid, Spread and Pierce affecting Normal, Wide and Long Shells would be cute and a nice extra potential multiplier Reload Speed effecting this weapon would be funny even if it wouldn't really scale damage Some kind of armor skill that's just 'Weapon Attribute +1' that affects things like shell level, kinsect level, bow charge level, etc. would be nice to have Also please for the love of god buff Focus, it does so little for practically anything right now and having any excuse to do the cute double-charge Wide thing would at least be kinda nice Basically I just want to be allowed to dedicate 100% of my build to shelling and suffer for bad decisions when it comes to that, it feels really annoying having the whole thing with Gunlance being tied to exactly one armor skill that only ~60% does what I need it to do

Ive been waiting for this! I literally cant decide which build to go for.

Early risers rise up

nice, GL lookin interesting.

future here.bet u did not see gunlance changing so much in MHRS

Great video Phem :) I do feel Cornpopper has some use. It’s better for poke-shelling than the wide 4’s on lower HZVs. Maybe 40 and lower? Sometimes it’s better to just shell than spend time repositioning for a better hz. Has the best charged shells and WF for wide as well. And, even though it’s kinda niche- it gets a big boost on aquatic and leviathan monsters with the upgrade. Destroys Mizu. I like to use bludgeoner 3 and AB 7 on it for consistency. 🥸

Can I get more damage out of wide type Gunlances with elementals?

Love your content Phemeto!

I think getting lvl 6 shells is pretty possible honestly. We still haven't even seen R7 or 8 weapons from Elders which seem to all be coming in the first two updates. Though even if it does, it'll probably just be a couple that get level 6 anyway, but we'll see soon enough I suppose

I just want to add that if you have Protective Polish 2 charm it would be better to use it for Ort GL for Fullburst playstyle instead of Bludgeon. Because of math checked out that blue sharpness just wins out bludgeon overall but it is required to have PP2 at least to have consistent Blue uptime on Ort GL. For slaplance with Handi 1 and PP2 Diablos canon actually wins out Admiral math wise with the only downside is 60 seconds uptime for PP2.

This really makes my Monster Hunter rise

You got a vid on how to do combos with these puppies?

I just don't understand why I would play gunlance as slap lance, if I'm not gonna use the shells then I might as well actually use the lance, its way better at that job. Just my opinion btw I have been a gunlance main for years lol

What food should I eat before quests?

I'm gonna call it optimism bias, but maybe the reason we are getting access to level 5's in high rank is because we will be seeing level 6 and maybe even level 7 in g/master rank. Whoever is directing the redesigns on the weapons seems to REALLY love gunlance. I doubt they are going to force us back into the slap meta.

Are wyvern fire and charge shelling not things any more?

GL newbie here, so basically i should make a set prioritizing artillery 3 and load shell 2 rather than attack boost and critical boost?

ok while on one hand yea sure, the shells don't charge, on the other, that just means you eventually don't have to worry about buffing your shells and use them mainly for their INTENDED use of flying across the battlefield nonstop :)

Were we ever able to scale shells aside from artillery and food? You keep mentioning it like it's new but I can't recall anything else from world.

1:43 how did you transition out of WS cannon so fast to avoid that attack?

So wait, if shells don't scale off the weapon's raw does that mean explosive ammo on bowgun and impact phials on CB also don't scale based of your weapon's raw or is it just gunlance?

GUN hammer build when?

They should really make the shells fire elemental shots if they have an element

If you want to play gunlance but you don't want to use the shells(slap lance) just play lance. It's essentially the same thing. Don't call it a gunlance if the gun is irrelevant.

Dayum i have a talisman with max load shells and another with max poison attack :( lol

idk why capcom hates shelling so much... CB phials and sticky scale, it's so dumb

What is different between world and rise that makes gunlance scale so poorly, or was this problem also a thing for world

Wide's extra charge level is bizarre. Shouldn't Long have that?

5:02 I often see blast fullburst done wrong like that. Many people don't seem to realize that the fullburst after blast dash can be done at the exact same moment with the overhead smash, you don't need to wait like old fullbursting. There's literally zero second between the smash and the fullburst. Because of that, the blast dash fullburst combo is the fastest fullburst at ANY time, even when the monster's right next to you. It's not a meme, it's literally the best fullburst starter, much faster than anyone else.

I watch you as a gl main for info on gunner cheese , watched this reluctantly Not fucking bad personally love my poke shell wide style 👏

i still have no idea about the gunlance, which isnt me saying "bad video", just me being a smoothbrain correct me if im wrong, so choosing a gunlance isnt dmg or element (i always have multiple weapons with fitting elemants for the monsters) but just shell lvl and type? Edit: ok, i now did 2 hunts against zinogre, one with ice and one with fire, both lvl 5 but normal and long and it really does seem like that the element is just decoration

Gunlance always has scaling problems. That's always the double edge about it. Good early game shelling but falls off late game/g rank

I don’t get it tho.. if one style of slap lance is no shelling then why not use lance?

7:44 put on your 3D glasses.

Woo-hoo, more engagement baybeeeee

make a skill called shelling master that makes it so shelling can crit

The heat gauge was infinitely better and more engaging with being able to lock it in place by using wyvernfire at almost max heat than being locked into using a silkbind attack that goes away the second you use the universal mechanic of wirefall :(

I think World was the first time Long wasn't the best gunlance, assuming you shelled at all

12:03 Mama Coco...?

I feel the worst part of gunlancing is the animation delay after every single move (guard, backhop, shell etc, WS cannon, WF). WS cannon is the only viable damage dealer but the animation delay at the end always opens us up for monter attack. The whole gunlancing feels much much more sluggish than in World. Gunlance is too dependent on wirebugs for both offense and defense atm.

Shoulda put doom and gloom at the end of the video.

Wouldnt running Handicraft 3 Razor Sharp 3 on Rathian GL be better than Bludgeoner memes? I mean you may as well since Bludgeoner is already a 3 level 2 slot investment and the setup I described is easily attainable by Mango Head/Arms with Almudron Chest/Legs. After that you just slot in Artillery and Load Shells with the help of a 2 lvl 2 slot talisman and you're done.. Youd sacrifice a bit of Attack Boost compared to Bludgeoner but I cant imagine it being worse in the long run especially since Speed Sharpening is also free to keep White Sharpness for at least a decent portion of the hunt.

Slap lancing makes me sad

Moved to Lance from gunlance and loving it. So sick of Capcom hamstringing gunlance with no scaling. I actually really enjoyed the heat guage as it gave you something to manage, so if you were actually good at the game you could do more damage, obviously it wasn't perfect but it was something. They need to completely rework shells imo and make the "type" a customisable variable, I hate not being able to use a certain GL because it has the "wrong" shell type. I could type of a massive essay about how I'd change the gunlance to make it an actually decent weapon rather than the 3 boring af sub weapons it currently is. Good video though, hope Capcom rework GL in the future.

Sad that the best part of the gunlance isn’t even the gun. To get damage even close to base world shells requires you to use the shitty skillbind that goes away constantly

A little disappointed you didn't even at least mention the other switch skill for groundsplitter. Don't get me wrong, 99% of the time groundsplitter is the better option, but if you're going a Wyvern Fire spam build, you can get Wyvern Fire back in like 10 seconds if you use Hail Cutter. To get around it's obscenely slow startup, you can use it after a blast dash in the air. My current build (while probably not the best) revolves around using Wyvern Fire whenever I can with the Howlitzer, which means I run Blast Dash and Hail Cutter, and then (just a personal preference since I prefer full bursting to wyrmstaking) I use quick reload.

Phemeto we have the SAME EXACT CHARM bro lol

The Howlitzer is the ugliest thing I've ever seen... lmao

when gunners are afraid of judgement after breaking the MHW meta with stickies and spread, they strap a shotgun to a lance so they can melee without missing their eardrums getting tortured by explosions

Has a barrel, and a chamber, and maybe a magazine for loading. Still not a gun.

idk why everyone is so into stun resistance. it's not a useful skill. for the stun resistance to be useful you need to: 1) get hit multiple times in a short timespan 2) you need to actually survive those multiple hits 3) your health needs to be low enough so that if you were stunned after so many hits you would actually die, so that the stun resistance is not wasted essentially stun res is just a different type of moxxie. in very specific circumstances it may save you. circumstances that barely ever come up to begin with. if you are getting slapped all the time because you play like a noob you might as well just cart and retry