Gunlance Essentials!
Please read through the pins first, then ask questions later on if you still need help.


FAQ:

What type of gunlance should I play?
Simply put, Wide for normal shelling, Normal for full burst, Long for charged shelling.

How do I build a set for gunlance?
Artillery Secret. If Long, all you need is Artillery Secret, Focus 3, and Capacity Boost. Wide and Normal don't need Focus, but do need other damage skills. Check out the set link for more information.

How important are the different shelling levels?
For shelling? Very important. Use the highest you can.

How important is sharpness?
Shelling damage only drops once you dip below green. Note that gunlance pretty much BURNS through sharpness, especially full burst, so sharpness preservation skills are basically mandatory.

Do I need Artillery Secret? What about Focus? Guard? GUARD UP???
Yes you need Artillery Secret, unless you're playing slaplance. Focus is needed for charged shelling. Guard/Guard Up depends on your personal preferences and how you play.

What's this I hear about evade gunlance?
You use skills like Evade Extender and Evade Window to dodge through everything. It also helps you keep up with monsters as they move around. Pretty fun IMO, worth checking out. Best to try on Wide and Long, super pointless on Normal.

What do I augment?
Generally Health and Attack. For Safi awakenings, Zorah Essence, Sharpness, Attack, etc. More information in the set link.

What is this slaplance I keep hearing about?
You take the gunlance with the highest raw you can get, and you do the full burst rotation, but skip the full burst part. Very strong, but also quite unsafe. Build like a standard melee weapon, skip Artillery and Capacity Boost.

Where can I find the current Meta Builds?
Links are provided in the pinned messages of #world-build-discussion, #❗❗❗builds❗❗❗, #❄iceborne-build-chat❄, and this channel.
Current Good/Meta Gunlances(Non-Iceborne)
Sell your soul to KT.

If you shell at all, then all gunlances with level 4 shelling are good.

Sets
https://imgur.com/a/UFbuzJW (By Xan)

:small_orange_diamond: Long: Earthshaker Magda Lahat, King Gold Exploder, Taroth Buster 'King'
:small_orange_diamond:  Normal: Royal Burst, Taroth Buster 'Sleep'
:small_orange_diamond:  Wide: Defender Gunlance V, Bomber Gold Exploder, Taroth Buster 'Bomber', Taroth Buster 'Water'
:small_orange_diamond:  Slaplance: Taroth Buster 'Poison', Insatiable
:small_orange_diamond: All Kjarr gunlances have level 4 shelling, keep any and all if you want