Gunlance [GL]

Basis

GL is well-named since it pairs the iron defense of lance with a cannon who can fire shots and the powerful Wyvern Fire. Each GL has a cannon type amongst 3, changing its firing pattern and its Wyvern Fire. The cannon also has a level going all the way up to lvl9, increasing the shots damage.

Note that charged shots don’t exist in Frontier (not that much of a loss compared to everything Frontier gets).

Earth Style

Frontier GL can do a quick reload, charging back one ammo. This quick reload reinforces temporarily the reloaded ammo to 150% of its base power. From this quick reload, you can also do a wide sweep (can also be performed when unsheathing) that can be chained on a full burst, a move we only got way later in mainline. The full burst and its reach varies based on the GL cannon type.

Frontier Wyvern Fire also has some differences. It puts you in a guard state during the animation, allowing you to block hits in front of you while preparing the shot. You can also pour your ammos into the shot to turn into a Super Wyvern Fire, with the ability to control how much ammo you consume.

You can also ready the Wyvern Fire after a rising attack to shot it upwards with the ability to adjust the angle, good to hit a high part without messing with your allies.

Just like Lance, GL can use the power guard, granting it Guard +2 and a 360° guard angle while consuming your stamina. Keep also in mind that if you get hit in the back, you’ll be pushed to the ground but the damage is still cancelled. You can also move during power guard.

You can also chain your dodges with a dodging shot. This dodge doesn’t use any ammo and helps you build some distance quickly.

Heaven Style

Heaven Style replaces Wyvern Fire with Heat Blade. Heat Blade grants you for 2 minutes 100% affinity, additional hits on all your attack increasing your reach and makes your sharpness infinite. Note that the sharpness consumption is still a thing in the back: once Heat Blade expires, your sharpness is decreased based on the attacks you’ve used (and you very likely will need to sharpen). GL also needs to cooldown after Heat Blade, just like with Wyvern Fire which can be checked on the weapon vent.

Heat Balde also introduces a crushing attack at the end of the thrusting combo.

Storm Style

Storm Style reinforces your Heat Blade, allowing it to infuse your shots with elemental damage. The visual effect change based on the element and they can now deal elemental damage, based on your weapon amount. If you have a hybrid element, the shot will use all the elements it includes. If your weapon is a status or raw one, your shots are reinforced.

Extreme Style

As usual, Extreme Style allows you to run with your GL. It grants you access to blast dash, a variant of the forward dodging shot with some iframes obviously. Blast dash can be chained with a quick swipe. GL is one of the weapons with the richest run, granting you various combo paths and the ability to reload mid-run.

You get the Wyvern Fire back with the ability to turn it into an Extreme Wyvern Fire. The animation is way longer but you can use two full clips of ammo, overcharging the weapon to deal an overpowered explosion, its motion value going over 500. The overcharge push the weapon into overheat, with a longer cooldown than a regular Wyvern Fire.

Heat Blade is still here though with a new input and all the same advantages as before. It becomes the Elemental Heat Blade, infusing your additional hits with your weapon element. If your weapon has no element, the Heat Blade damage is increased. The Heat Blade cooldown can be followed on your sharpness bar and not the GL vent (tied back to Wyvern Fire).

Daily bonus

The Daily bonus increase shots and Wyvern Fire damage by 50%.