Read this Monster Hunter World: Iceborne guide to know the best & recommended armor skills for the melee weapon - Gunlance!!!
Table of Contents
Related Article On Gunlance
 How To Use | Best Builds |
| Best Skills | Endgame Tier List |
Gunlance Features & Overview
Powerful Shelling That Deals Explosive Damage
The Gunlance is a weapon that has a unique feature called "Shelling" this shelling explodes on impact and deals explosive damage to the monster. This also ignores the monster's tough spots meaning it deals massive damage to any part of the monster.
Allows You To Guard Against Attacks
The Gunlance also lets you guard against incoming monster attacks. Since this is a useful feature to block possibly deadly damage, it would be best to equip some skills that allow you to increase the effectiveness of your guard.
Combos Can Be Performed
Unlike in past Monster Hunter games, the Gunlance will now be able to perform combos. Learn the moves of the weapon in order to perform combos when the opportunity arises to increase your damage output!
Recommended Skill List For Gunlance
| Skill | Recommendation Criteria |
|---|---|
| Guard | Decreases impact of incoming attacks and lowers stamina depletion |
| Guard Up | Allows you to guard against ordinarily unblockable attacks |
| Attack Boost | Increases attack damage and affinity rate |
| Weakness Exploit | Attacking a monster's weak spot will increase your affinity |
| Critical Boost | Increases damage dealt by critical hits |
| Artillery | Increases the power of your shelling |
| Capacity Boost | Increases your loading capacity |
| Handicraft | Increases weapon sharpness |
| Critical Eye | Increases your affinity |
| Protective Polish | Sharpness will not lower for a time after polishing |
| Speed Sharpening | Speeds up the weapon sharpening process |
| Evade Window | Increases invulnerability window when evading attacks |
| Evade Extender | Increases your evasion distance |
| Flinch Free | Prevents knockback and tripping |
| Razor Sharp/Spare Shot | Halves the rate of sharpness loss in your weapon |
| Focus | Increases gauge fill rate and reduces charge times |
Best Gunlance Skills To Equip
Guard
| Lvl | Effect |
|---|---|
| 1 | Very slightly decreases the impact of attacks |
| 2 | Slightly decreases the impact of attacks and reduces stamina depletion by 15% |
| 3 | Greatly decreases the impact of attacks and reduces stamina depletion by 15% |
| 4 | Greatly decreases the impact of attacks and reduces stamina depletion by 30% |
| 5 | Massively decreases the impact of attacks and reduces stamina depletion by 50% |
Increase Your Survival Rate
Guarding is useful especially when going up against hard hitting monsters. However, you should opt to equip a Guard Lvl 3 skill or higher to greatly decrease the impact of those attacks!
Guard Up
| Lvl | Effect |
|---|---|
| 1 | Allows you to guard against ordinarily unblockable attacks |
Useful For Sustain
This skill will allow you to guard against normally unguardable attacks. This way, you will be able to hold your position against enemies instead of jumping out of the way!
Attack Boost
| Lvl | Effect |
|---|---|
| 1 | Attack +3 |
| 2 | Attack +6 |
| 3 | Attack +9 and Affinity +5% |
| 4 | Attack +12 and Affinity +5% |
| 5 | Attack +15 and Affinity +5% |
Useful For Any Weapon Type
This skill is useful for all weapons as it increases your attack damage and affinity at higher levels. Make sure to save a slot for this skill to increase your weapon's DPS!
Weakness Exploit
| Lvl | Effect |
|---|---|
| 1 | Attacks that hit weak spots have 15% increased affinity |
| 2 | Attacks that hit weak spots have 30% increased affinity |
| 3 | Attacks that hit weak spots have 50% increased affinity |
Increase Your Affinity By 50%
At the highest level, this skill will increase your affinity by 50%, meaning that you will be landing critical hits more often! Equip this skill to ramp up your damage against those monsters.
Artillery
| Lvl | Effect |
|---|---|
| 1 | Increases power of each attack by 10% and reduces Wyvern's Fire cooldown by 15% |
| 2 | Increases power of each attack by 20% and reduces Wyvern's Fire cooldown by 30% |
| 3 | Increases power of each attack by 30% and reduces Wyvern's Fire cooldown by 50% |
Perfect For the Shelling Feature
This skill is perfect for the Gunlance as it reduces the cooldown of the Wyvern's Fire. So you can do this special move more often which in turn, increases your DPS.
Capacity Boost
| Lvl | Effect |
|---|---|
| 1 | Loading capacity +1 |
Increased Ammo = Increased DPS
With this skill, you can load more ammo into your weapon. This in turn will increase the number of bullets fired when you decide to launch a burst attack, increasing your damage output.
Alternative Gunlance Skill List
Critical Boost
| Lvl | Effect |
|---|---|
| 1 | Increases damage dealt by critical hits to 30% |
| 2 | Increases damage dealt by critical hits to 35% |
| 3 | Increases damage dealt by critical hits to 40% |
Increase DPS Via Critical Hits
The damage done by your critical hits can be increased by up to 40%. Make sure to pair it with skills such as Weakness Exploit in order for this skill to trigger more often.
Handicraft
| Lvl | Effect |
|---|---|
| 1 | Weapon sharpness +10 |
| 2 | Weapon sharpness +20 |
| 3 | Weapon sharpness +30 |
| 4 | Weapon sharpness +40 |
| 5 | Weapon sharpness +50 |
Useful For Gunlance's Sharpness Problem
It is easy for the Gunlance to lose its sharpness. Having the Handicraft skill equipped will increase the sharpness gauge to compensate for the Gunlance's sharpness.
Critical Eye
| Lvl | Effect |
|---|---|
| 1 | Affinity +3% |
| 2 | Affinity +6% |
| 3 | Affinity +10% |
| 4 | Affinity +15% |
| 5 | Affinity +20% |
Essential For Melee Attacks
This will not be as important if you choose to mainly attack using gunfire. However if you choose to melee attack, make sure to equip this skill in conjunction with the Weakness Exploit.
Protective Polish
| Lvl | Effect |
|---|---|
| 1 | Weapon sharpness does not decrease for a set time after sharpening |
Can Help You Concentrate On the Hunt
Since the weapon's sharpness will not decrease for a time after sharpening, you will be able to focus more on the hunt as you will be sharpening your weapon less often.
Speed Sharpening
| Lvl | Effect |
|---|---|
| 1 | Removes one cycle from the sharpening process |
| 2 | Removes two cycles from the sharpening process |
| 3 | Removes three cycles from the sharpening process |
Faster Sharpening Process
This skill increases your hunting efficiency as it reduces the time it takes for you to sharpen a weapon.
Evade Window
| Lvl | Effect |
|---|---|
| 1 | Very slightly increases invulnerability window |
| 2 | Slightly increases invulnerability window |
| 3 | Increases invulnerability window |
| 4 | Greatly increases invulnerability window |
| 5 | Massively increases invulnerability window |
Increase Survivability
Evade Window will increase the time you are invulnerable to any attack while dodging. This will increase your survivability and will allow you to stay close to the monster when they are thrashing about.
Evade Extender
| Lvl | Effect |
|---|---|
| 1 | Slightly extends evasion distance |
| 2 | Extends evasion distance |
| 3 | Greatly extends evasion distance |
Increase Movement Speed
The Gunlance is a heavy weapon which at times, can lower your movement speed. This can make using the weapon difficult. However, this skill will increase your evasion distance, making it easier to dodge attacks!
Flinch Free
| Lvl | Effect |
|---|---|
| 1 | Prevents knockbacks |
| 2 | Prevents standard knockbacks. Tripping is reduced to a knockback instead |
| 3 | Prevents knockbacks and tripping |
Will Help In Multiplayer
Gunlance users usually approach the monster to deal their damage. This may be a problem in multiplayer as some other hunter's attacks may knock you back. Equipping this skill will solve that problem.
Razor Sharp/Spare Shot
| Lvl | Effect |
|---|---|
| 1 | Halves sharpness loss. For bows and bowguns, shots have a chance not to expend coating or ammo |
Sharpen Weapon Less Often
This skill will reduce the rate at which your weapon loses sharpness by half. This means that you will need to sharpen less often, and focus on the hunt instead.
Focus
| Lvl | Effect |
|---|---|
| 1 | Increases gauge fill rate by 5% and reduces charge times by 5% |
| 2 | Increases gauge fill rate by 10% and reduces charge times by 10% |
| 3 | Increases gauge fill rate by 20% and reduces charge times by 15% |
Shorten Shelling Cooldown
Although it is not explicitly stated, the Focus skill will also be able to reduce the Gunlance's shelling cooldown. However, it is not much of a priority. Only slot in this skill when there are no other situational skills you can equip!
