EXPLOSIONS?!

There are only two weapons in the game that can turn a monster into a fireworks display - the Charge Blade and the explosion-on-a-stick itself, the Gunlance. 

Gunlances are unique in that there are three distinct ways to use this weapon: Burst, wide shelling, and long shelling. 

Burst uses normal shelling and their main form of damage comes from the sweep-slam-burst-reload-sweep combo. This playstyle has the highest animation commitment out of all the styles, but it has crazy high damage numbers.

Long shelling relies on just charged shells to do most of its damage. In base game, this style of lancing was plain awful because of how long the charge time used to be and how little damage it used to do. Now in Iceborne, its charge time is half of what it used to be, Wyrmstake Blast and the increased level in artillery and shelling allowed its damage to catch up to its siblings. This is probably one of the comfier ways to hunt since you can shell from a decently safe distance and, as long as you’re triggering the Wyrmstake Blast, you can do some hefty damage.

Finally, Wide shelling is a mixture of the previous two styles. It can do shelling against hit zones where the monster will take more damage from shells, and it can poke when the monster will take more damage from a physical/elemental attack. Its main combo is just poke-shell-poke-shell. This is probably the safest of the three since you can dodge at any time during its main combo and its animations aren’t very long. 

This list is going to be a bit different from the others. For the top 3, I’m going to put the best Gunlances for each of the styles, while the bottom two will be two comfort builds so everyone can gain something from this list. 

Alright, let’s get to the explosions!

5. Crimson Hornet Line

 

Iceborne Quickstart Guide for Gunlance. No spoilers!

The Crimson Hornet takes is our first comfort lance since it’s an early Long lance that also comes with a nice side of paralysis. 

While that paralysis won’t be relevant for most of your hunts if you’re playing a long-styled Gunlance, it can be nice for the here and there poke-shell combo. Otherwise, the Crimson Hornet’s line can be a decent starter Long Gunlance to help get you through the early and mid game. 

This weapon earns a spot here since you get it super early, and being able to comfortably Long shell your way through the story feels amazing.

What's Awesome About the Crimson Hornet line:

• Long shelling is comfortable and it forces you to practice putting your Wyrmstake Blasts on monsters and to focus on hitting them as often as possible.
• You get this weapon fairly early after you kill your first elder.
• If you also want to try mixed Long Lancing (where you shell-poke with Long shelling), then paralysis certainly helps that plan.

Crimson Hornet Stats

• Rarity: 11
• Shelling Type: Long Level 6
• Sharpness:
  • 50 hits of white sharpness
  • 30 hits of blue sharpness
• Raw Damage: 598 (376.61 Effective Raw)
• Affinity: 15%
• Element: 330 Paralysis
• Slots: 
  • 1x Level 1 slot

4. Glutton’s Fang II

 

Glutton Normal 6 Gunlance vs Tempered Pink Rathian. Vampire build

The second of our comfort lances is the Glutton’s Fang II. This weapon earns a spot since it can be made fairly early and only requires Jagras parts and later, Rathalos parts. For a weapon that can be made so early, the Glutton’s Fang II remains relevant even in at the end-game thanks to its Normal Shelling Level 6.
If you follow the build shown in CaoSlayer’s video, this weapon can lead to some very comfortable hunts. You have earplugs and evade extender built-in, and each hit keeps you at full health so you can keep swinging.

The reason it has to be the Glutton’s Fang for the build from CaoSlayer’s video is you can increase the health augment from Level 3 to Level 4 much easier.

What's Awesome About the Glutton’s Fang II:

• Easy-to-build and upgrade.
• You get really early access to this weapon.
• You can get up the Health Augment Level IV.
• Normal Shelling Level 6.
• Remains relevant even at the end-game.
• 2x Level 3 slots is a lot to play with.

Glutton’s Fang II Stats

• Rarity: 10
• Shelling Type: Normal Level 6
• Sharpness:
  • 30 hits of white sharpness
  • 80 hits of blue sharpness
• Raw Damage: 598 (363 Effective Raw)
• Affinity: 0%
• Element: (420 Sleep)
• Slots: 
  • 2x Level 3 slots

3. Queen’s Panopoly

MHW Iceborne - Gunlance Build - Full Burst

For PC, the Queen’s Panopoly is hands down the best Normal Shelling Gunlance. 

With high sharpness, natural poison, decent raw, and a high shelling level, the Queen’s Panopoly is able to out-damage many of its competitors.

Since you’re going to be eating through sharpness insanely fast in these builds, it’s highly recommended that you bring either Razor Sharp or Protective Polish so you can stay in white sharpness for as long as possible.

Here’s an example of a Razor Sharp build:

And a Protective Polish build:

Something to note for the future, once the Normal Level 7 Gunlances are released for PC, the Queen’s Panoply will most likely be replaced by those weapons - specifically the Stygian Zinogre Gunlance and the Safi'Jiiva Gunlance.

What's Awesome About the Queen’s Panoply:

• Poison damage helps make up for its decent raw.
• Great sharpness.
• When fully built, some of the highest Full Burst damage you’ll get before Safi’s PC release.
• Decent base affinity.

Queen’s Panoply Stats

• Rarity: 12
• Shelling Type: Normal Level 6
• Sharpness:
  • 70 hits of white sharpness
  • 80 hits of blue sharpness
• Raw Damage: 667 (417.7 Effective Raw)
• Affinity: 15%
• Element: 450 Poison
• Slots: 
  • 1x Level 1 slot

2. Royal Guard Striker

Iceborne PC Wide 6 Royal Guard Striker Review: Spoiler, is good.

This is the best Wide 6 Gunlance that you can find right now before Safi’s release. 

Not counting Safi, the only other competitor this Gunlance has is the Rajang Gunlance, and the Royal Guard Striker is much more comfortable to hunt with since it has more sharpness and affinity. 

Thanks to its naturally high sharpness, the Royal Guard Striker can hit purple sharpness with just 1 level of Handicraft. Purple, in this case, won’t increase your shelling damage, but it will increase your poke damage and prevent you from bouncing against most of the targets in the game. 

This Gunlance is also flexible since you can switch between having a water element or focusing on just raw. As CaoSlayer in his video puts it, you want to gem in Free Element so you can take advantage of this weapon’s water element for your hunts against monsters with either greatstrong hitzones or if they’re just weak to water. The only time you should stick with raw is if you’re running a crit boost build against a monster with hitzones that take a lot of damage from raw.

If you’re planning to stick with raw, I recommend using this build:

While if you’re planning on using Free Element, then I recommend this build:

What's Awesome About the Royal Guard Striker:

• Flexible to build with since it has a built-in Level 3 gem slot and a hidden water element.
• Great sharpness.
• One of the few Wide 6 Gunlances.
• Decent base affinity. I mean, it’s not a negative number, so it’s already beating the Rajang Gunlance which is the only other Wide 6 Gunlance pre-Safi.

Royal Guard Striker Stats

• Rarity: 12
• Shelling Type: Wide Level 6
• Sharpness:
  • 50 hits of white sharpness
  • 50 hits of blue sharpness
• Raw Damage: 621 (390.31 Effective Raw)
• Affinity: 15%
• Element: (510 Water)
• Slots: 
  • 1x Level 3 slot

1. Deathlance Vaal Spysa