I was wondering how would you hit him with any melee weapon but you used a bowgun instead. Good, since its the only way to beat the giant laser tank without tearing your hair out. If you don't bounce off, you'll be set on fire or put to sleep. Also, fun fact, he can use a poison plume in the high rank version of the quest and you can get poison sacks from that quest too. Which isn't weird at first due to Gravios's relation to Basarios until you read that its explicitly said that Gravios can't use poison.