MHW: ICEBORNE | Best Skills For Gunlance - GameWith (2024)

Read this Monster Hunter World: Iceborne guide to know the best & recommended armor skills for the melee weapon - Gunlance!!!

Table of Contents

  • Recommended Skill List
  • Best Skills To Equip
  • Alternative Skill List

Related Article On Gunlance

How To Use Best Builds
MHW: ICEBORNE | Best Skills For Gunlance - GameWith (3)Best Skills Endgame Tier List

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Gunlance Features & Overview

Powerful Shelling That Deals Explosive Damage

MHW: ICEBORNE | Best Skills For Gunlance - GameWith (5)

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
GuardDecreases impact of incoming attacks and lowers stamina depletion
Guard UpAllows you to guard against ordinarily unblockable attacks
Attack BoostIncreases attack damage and affinity rate
Weakness ExploitAttacking a monster's weak spot will increase your affinity
Critical BoostIncreases damage dealt by critical hits
ArtilleryIncreases the power of your shelling
Capacity BoostIncreases your loading capacity
HandicraftIncreases weapon sharpness
Critical EyeIncreases your affinity
Protective PolishSharpness will not lower for a time after polishing
Speed SharpeningSpeeds up the weapon sharpening process
Evade WindowIncreases invulnerability window when evading attacks
Evade ExtenderIncreases your evasion distance
Flinch FreePrevents knockback and tripping
Razor Sharp/Spare ShotHalves the rate of sharpness loss in your weapon
FocusIncreases gauge fill rate and reduces charge times

Best Gunlance Skills To Equip

Guard

Lvl Effect
1Very slightly decreases the impact of attacks
2Slightly decreases the impact of attacks and reduces stamina depletion by 15%
3Greatly decreases the impact of attacks and reduces stamina depletion by 15%
4Greatly decreases the impact of attacks and reduces stamina depletion by 30%
5Massively 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
1Allows 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
1Attack +3
2Attack +6
3Attack +9 and Affinity +5%
4Attack +12 and Affinity +5%
5Attack +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
1Attacks that hit weak spots have 15% increased affinity
2Attacks that hit weak spots have 30% increased affinity
3Attacks 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
1Increases power of each attack by 10% and reduces Wyvern's Fire cooldown by 15%
2Increases power of each attack by 20% and reduces Wyvern's Fire cooldown by 30%
3Increases 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
1Loading 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
1Increases damage dealt by critical hits to 30%
2Increases damage dealt by critical hits to 35%
3Increases 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
1Weapon sharpness +10
2Weapon sharpness +20
3Weapon sharpness +30
4Weapon sharpness +40
5Weapon 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
1Affinity +3%
2Affinity +6%
3Affinity +10%
4Affinity +15%
5Affinity +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
1Weapon 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
1Removes one cycle from the sharpening process
2Removes two cycles from the sharpening process
3Removes 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
1Very slightly increases invulnerability window
2Slightly increases invulnerability window
3Increases invulnerability window
4Greatly increases invulnerability window
5Massively 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
1Slightly extends evasion distance
2Extends evasion distance
3Greatly 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
1Prevents knockbacks
2Prevents standard knockbacks. Tripping is reduced to a knockback instead
3Prevents 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
1Halves 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
1Increases gauge fill rate by 5% and reduces charge times by 5%
2Increases gauge fill rate by 10% and reduces charge times by 10%
3Increases 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!

MHW: ICEBORNE | Best Skills For Gunlance - GameWith (2024)

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