Gunlance shelling should inherit some elemental damage

改善/Improvements
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提案/Suggestion

As the title suggests, the Gunlance’s element should slightly affect the shelling damage of a Gunlance. When exploiting a monster’s elemental weakness, adding a percentage of the element (affected by elemental skills) to the shelling might encourage more diversity.

For specific percentages:

  • 12% for tap shelling
  • 18% for charged shelling
  • 6% for burst shelling
  • 24% for the Wyrmstake cannom explosion
  • 30% for Wyvern’s Fire

These values should boost each playstyle (Normal’s Fullburst, Wide’s Shell+Stab, Long’s Charged Shelling) by approximately the same amount.

現状/Current Status

Currently, Gunlance shelling is flat damage based on Grade, unaffected by raw, element,and affinity. This means the most popular Gunlances are picked for their skill (Deviljho’s Artillery, Kushala’s Unity) or are easy to upgrade (Bone). There is almost no reason to pick elemental Gunlances because the actual damage increase is marginal.

When switching to element on other weapons, players can usually expect ~17% more damage when exploiting a monster’s weakness, which can be higher with the right skills. For Gunlances, Normal and Wide shelling gain around ~8% more damage when combining regular attacks with shelling. However, Long shelling gains no benefit because their optimal playstyle is charged shelling only.

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I’m afraid that perspective is inaccurate: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gsfgD_QM0KQ

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It’s hard to say which playstyle is truly optimal for damage, maybe I should have said “primary playstyle.” The comparisons I made were through calculations on a speadsheet, so, on paper, each shelling type has their own “best damage combo” of sorts.

The video is an interesting look at an evasive-style gameplay. With so many Fullbursts, you have to wonder why they picked Deviljho GL over a normal GL like Zinogre instead.

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Regardless of the reason, it is still a testimony that long-type gunlances can still benefit from elemental bonuses: Just use the non-shelling aspects of the weapon.

Just because a weapon isn’t used in its “optimal” playstyle doesn’t mean that it cannot perform.

End of the day, a win’s a win. One must be able to adapt to the situation with the tool they have in hand and not expect the tool to transform for them. This is how monster-hunting has always been.

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