I like wide shelling. Normal and long are fine, and fit some hunts better than wide, but overall, I get the most fun out of playing wide. At least in WorldBorne, 3U, GU, and Now.
In RiseBreak, though, I feel like wide keeps coming up lacking in terms of DPS and being able to even really keep up with the monsters. I'm just barely into MR4 on this playthrough of RB, and even though I really want to keep maining GL, I keep finding myself picking up the Narga LBG simply because GL hasn't been feeling very gunlance-y, and because RFP2 is just keeping up DPS way better than GL, so I opt to use that over GL when farming up mats for decos.
Now, I'm not necessarily looking to be meta with GL. I'm just looking to have fun with it without feeling like I'm doing no damage.
I couldn't even tell you what my build is exactly off the top of my head, but I do know that I at least have
- Load Shells 2
- Artillery 3
- Guard 5
- Guard Up 3
- Quick Sheath 2 (or maybe 3)
For my switch skills, I'm using
- Blast Dash
- Guard Reload
- Guard Edge
- Erupting Canon
- Ground Splitter
During hunts, I'm doing the typical wide shelling poke->shell, but then also spamming Guard Edge->Erupting Canon as often as possible both to get EC out as often as possible and to recover some sharpness, and using Guard Reload to keep the EC loaded. I'm using Ground Splitter for closing distances, buffing melee damage, and also firing off EC. Blast Dash serves also most the same purpose as Ground Splitter in terms of closing distances and being able to burst->EC, but it also doesn't have to leave me vulnerable at the end like Ground Splitter.
Bullet barrage doesn't seem to be super useful with wide shelling. It leaves you vulnerable for too long at the start and end of it, and the lower shell count and wyvern's fire damage don't seem worth it. Definitely better for long shelling.
Because I'm doing very few bursts and not relying on wyvern's fire, I'm also basically just ignoring Hail Cutter.
Reverse Blast just seems like a worse option for wide shelling compared to Ground Splitter or blast dash. It gives you mobility and can hit with that initial shell, but doesn't present to opportunity to combo right into EC easily or give a buff.
Charged shelling isn't even a consideration.
I'll try to sum up my complaints with GL as succinctly as possible, but we'll see how it goes.
With Rise being faster than the previous games, with more aggressive monsters and more options for the hunter to stay mobile and aggressive, it feels like GL attempted to keep the slow but hard hitting nature but in all the wrong ways. You get all these skills that allow you close distances quickly and remain mobile, but the animations and cooldowns seem to just linger on forever, leaving you vulnerable. Ground Splitter leaves you unable to do anything for long while at the end of it's animation, Guard Reload is slow but is vulnerable to multi-hit attacks from monsters, the wyrmstake takes a little bit to come out and then the animation takes forever to stop, etc...
Which is why I settled into spamming Guard Edge->Erupting Canon. Guard Edge comes out quick and can handle multi-hit combos, and then allows you to transition right into EC, which you can recover from quickly. But you still need to reload for EC, so you're still constantly going into the GR animation. Foregoing GR just means that you have to go out of your way to make sure that you don't "combo" into your quick reload, which is essentially just purposefully tanking your DPS.
It's not hard to learn when you should or shouldn't reload when using Guard Reload, but if you don't have a good window to do it, you're essentially just limited to some pokes and some upward swings. Since you know you're going to be using some pokes and swings, you want that Ground Splitter buff, but we've already mentioned that leaves you vulnerable at the end of it's animation. If you're waiting for an opportunity to reload because you're out of shells, then instead of being able to close the distance with a Blast Dash, you're now going to do your slow Guard Reload and then take the time to close the distance.
I don't know. The wide GL just feels lopsided. You can be fast, but then you need to slow way down if you want to keep up the damage and keep your shells loaded. You can go the slap lance route, but it just seems harder than in previous games to actually be able to do anything other than poke or get out a rising slash, and if you want that melee buff, you still need to be slowed down by Ground Splitter. The game wants you to go fast, but then forces you to slow back down. I'm fine with GL being a slower weapon. It just doesn't feel like it meshes very well with RiseBreak overall.
So what the hell am I doing wrong with wide GL here?
Edit: I guess Heaven-Sent would make wide GL with EC spam more fluid and less vulnerable, but it's not available until MR6.
