Monster Hunter World Catch-All

Rybowl wrote:

Don't think I'm going to be picking this up right now, but I still enjoy watching Gaijin Hunter videos. Hope you're all enjoying your hunts. Wish I didn't feel like I was so terrible at this game as World was really great for awhile until I just hit a skill wall that I didn't have the energy to go through.

At what monster(s) did you drop the game?

FedoraMcQuaid wrote:

Really enjoyed Flaming sword tail dino fight. Felt like a lot of back and forth and the AI seemed very smart in how the monster created space, was a challenge to keep myself under it with the slow gunlance speed but once I got that down was consistently tripping it and flinching. Only weird thing was it kept running to a new location every couple minutes, really threw off the pace of the fight.

Haven't really gotten down how to use the grapple very well. I think I miss the flinch window or just am not understanding the mechanic well. Need a Gaijin hunter grapple video, either I get thrown off immediately even when they aren't enraged or the O redirect and the blast doesn't actually make them move at all.

Yeah, Glavenus is a great fight. It was one of the four flagship monsters from MH Gen. I was thinking that they might bring in Gammoth to fit the ice theme, but I guess that would require an entirely new monster skeleton, unlike Glavenus.

I'm still working on fully understanding the grapple myself. The best times to use it seem to be when the monster is either flinched or CCed in some way, while they're running away, when they're gearing up for a turf war, when they're eating, or while they're roaring (if you have earplugs). It may seem counterintuitive to use it while they're CCed when you could be unloading damage, but the damage buff you get from weakening a spot is very noticeable, especially if you're in a group. I've tried to use it mid-fight while the monster is running around many times. It works occasionally, but more often, the monsters bucks me off and deals heavy damage.

As far as the redirecting and slinger blast, I'm still working on that. It only works when you're on the head. It works really well when the monster is running away or exhausted. It doesn't work at all when they're enraged. Keep an eye on your stamina when you're attempting it. Unlike mounting, you lose stamina very quickly while grappled.

Rybowl wrote:

Don't think I'm going to be picking this up right now, but I still enjoy watching Gaijin Hunter videos. Hope you're all enjoying your hunts. Wish I didn't feel like I was so terrible at this game as World was really great for awhile until I just hit a skill wall that I didn't have the energy to go through.

Aww, sorry to hear that Rybble. I believe that you could make it through the skill wall if you wanted but if it's not fun for you to push, then it's not worth it. Master Rank is definitely more difficult than High Rank was.

I just passed Nargacuga and Glavenus. They're very fun, though I prefer Glavenus to Nargacuga because Chargeblade. Glavenus is a very good fit for Chargeblade because you do block/attack dueling games with him and it feels awesome. Narga runs around a little too much and I hate chasing.

I use Clutch Claw at the start with Rocksteady for the assured down. Just grab or switch to the head and flinch shot the monster into a wall. It needs to be near a wall, tree, rock, tall ledge, or other monster.

Glavenus is nice to grapple because he does a lot of tail attacks. If the monster isn't attacking with the part you're grappled to, you won't get thrown off. But clutch claw downing tactics really only pays off when they're not enraged. You can still weaken parts when they're enraged.

Most monsters will have a stopped animation where they're gathering themselves after successive strong hits. That's the time to grab on.

My handle is SpinalShooter on PSN and I'll be happy to help out any High Rank player a couple times with hunts. Early MR is not that different from late High Rank.

If it's any help, early and mid Master Rank is actually easier than late High Rank because the monsters don't have multiple one-shorting moves. Even Glavenus only really has a single powerful move, and it's not even a guaranteed one-shot.

This was posted on reddit. Have to click through to see it, but it's great.

Funny monster video!

LarryC wrote:

I use Clutch Claw at the start with Rocksteady for the assured down. Just grab or switch to the head and flinch shot the monster into a wall. It needs to be near a wall, tree, rock, tall ledge, or other monster.

Glavenus is nice to grapple because he does a lot of tail attacks. If the monster isn't attacking with the part you're grappled to, you won't get thrown off. But clutch claw downing tactics really only pays off when they're not enraged. You can still weaken parts when they're enraged.

The flinch shot seems absurdly powerful. I thought it was just going to be used for the stun, but it was doing around 1400 damage to most monsters I fought yesterday. Flinching a monster into another monster is hilarious. I haven't tried it yet, but I saw a clip of it in action.

BoogtehWoog wrote:

Funny monster video!

Amazing

BoogtehWoog wrote:
Rybowl wrote:

Don't think I'm going to be picking this up right now, but I still enjoy watching Gaijin Hunter videos. Hope you're all enjoying your hunts. Wish I didn't feel like I was so terrible at this game as World was really great for awhile until I just hit a skill wall that I didn't have the energy to go through.

At what monster(s) did you drop the game?

Think it was a combination of Kirin and something else, maybe the new monster that was released and just didn't want to deal with it. There is a possibility I don't have the patience to learn the nuances of all the monsters.

Flinch-shotting a monster into another monster is best practice for when there's two of them in the same area. That way, you don't get disturbed while you're capitalizing on the down. Can't always get it, but if they're big monsters and they're going at it, it's pretty easy to pull off. Relatively speaking.

Got to fight Tigrex and Brachydios. I can imagine Brachy being hell if you don't have Blast Resistance. Tigrex is just fun with an LBG. It's a lot of dancing.

Rybowl wrote:
BoogtehWoog wrote:
Rybowl wrote:

Don't think I'm going to be picking this up right now, but I still enjoy watching Gaijin Hunter videos. Hope you're all enjoying your hunts. Wish I didn't feel like I was so terrible at this game as World was really great for awhile until I just hit a skill wall that I didn't have the energy to go through.

At what monster(s) did you drop the game?

Think it was a combination of Kirin and something else, maybe the new monster that was released and just didn't want to deal with it. There is a possibility I don't have the patience to learn the nuances of all the monsters.

It's actually quite alright. Most of us have monsters we like hunting and monsters we absolutely hate. So you just hunt the ones you like. We can help past the gate missions if you are interested in seeing further content.

LarryC wrote:

It's actually quite alright. Most of us have monsters we like hunting and monsters we absolutely hate. So you just hunt the ones you like. We can help past the gate missions if you are interested in seeing further content.

Definitely up for helping get past stuff!

I absolutely despise the Diablos monsters. I'd rather fight any arch-tempered than fight Diablos, especially Black Diablos.

I've played about 4-5 hours of this and just finished the first quest in the 2nd area (Wildspire Wastes) by killing a Barroth. Even though I'm enjoying the battles, I'm not sure if I'm approaching this or doing it in the right way. I've got a couple of questions.

1) The basic flow of combat for a new enemy is to hit it in different areas to see where it is vulnerable and then go for that, right? Sometimes it is somewhat obvious, like if it has a big armored head but its belly looks unprotected. Dodge to avoid its attacks and strike when it is occupied going after my pet thing. Notice the animations to avoid charges, tail attacks and the like.

2) It seems like my basic attack (pressing Y), seems to always do the most damage vs the enemies I have fought so far. Every once in a while I'll try a different swing, but it always seems to do less damage so I go back to Y.

3) When fighting an enemy for the first time should I be able to figure out if it has elemental weaknesses, or do I need to wait until I turn in enough research to update the monster codex? I had no idea the Barroth was weak to water when covered in mud (I didn't even notice it was) and weak to fire otherwise - so I just used the basic attacks. How do I even do elemental damage?

4) I tend to just want to get back into fighting so I don't spend much time in town. Not much of a fan of the writing / voice acting / story. I did get a message stating I had research to turn in so I did that this time. I think I could have done that a while ago. I did go upgrade my weapon a couple battles ago. Are there things I should do in town each time between missions?

I guess I'm doing OK because I progressing, but not sure if I get the overall picture. Thanks!

1. Basically, yes. You avoid monster attacks, and counterattack during its committed attack animations. You don't need to wait for it to attack your Palico. If its attack isn't going to hit you, go whale in it for a bit. Later on, you can tell what the attack is from a short tell and attack sooner, or even create your own openings.

2. It's a combo-based game so the best damage is locked behind attacks that only chain off prior attacks, generally. This usually involves some sequence of Y and X.

3. You generally only have one element so you can't know elemental weaknesses beforehand unless you just guess, like ice or water for a fire monster.

Hunter Notes will tell you the real deal once you bring up the Research Level enough.

4. Check for new missions
Check your Botanical Research Center
Check with the Argosy
Check your Tailraider Safari
Check your quest lineup with the Resource Center
Craft items and check your item stockpile

Don't feel as if you have to just fight. It's okay to just go around the place and appreciate the graphics, gather mats, and fish. It can also pay off to observe a monster before engaging or even note where it hangs out or where it flees when it's beat.

I'm probably not going to get this now unless something changes $$ wise, but maybe around Christmas holidays. We'll see! I can still work my way through the main game, since I haven't finished it properly yet.

robc wrote:

How do I even do elemental damage?

I think this got missed in all of the other amazing advice Larry gave so i'll kick it in here: Elemental damage you deal is a quality of your weapon. When building a weapon in the forge look on it's stats and it will say if it deals any elemental damage or status damage about half way down it's stat block.

LarryC wrote:

Don't feel as if you have to just fight. It's okay to just go around the place and appreciate the graphics, gather mats, and fish. It can also pay off to observe a monster before engaging or even note where it hangs out or where it flees when it's beat.

One of my favorite things is to just walk out and do an 'expedition' and explore one of the areas. Picking flowers, knocking rocks, collecting tracks. I'll gear for some stuff that gets you a bit more from plants or rocks and empty by bag so i have plenty of room to pick things up. I won't usually even fight a large monster, just spend an hour enjoying the scenery and collecting the bits, pieces and research points to support the fighting end of the game

Thanks you two for the advice.

I think I need to spend some time to see what uses the mats have. Also, I was under the impression that you get environmental damage from applying something to your weapon instead of it being something you pick when upgrading your weapon, so it's useful to find out I was wrong about that.

robc wrote:

Thanks you two for the advice.

I think I need to spend some time to see what uses the mats have. Also, I was under the impression that you get environmental damage from applying something to your weapon instead of it being something you pick when upgrading your weapon, so it's useful to find out I was wrong about that.

Well, grain of salt since I don't actually use either of the guns, but I think that's how it works with the guns, the element is your ammo.

robc wrote:

Thanks you two for the advice.

I think I need to spend some time to see what uses the mats have. Also, I was under the impression that you get environmental damage from applying something to your weapon instead of it being something you pick when upgrading your weapon, so it's useful to find out I was wrong about that.

Upgrading gear and armor is critical to keeping up with the monster power curve.

Elemental and status effects are best on the light and quick weapons (sword and shield, dual blades, etc.) - if you're running the slower hitting weapons, then raw damage is more important for you.

Checking out some videos on YouTube for your chosen weapon(s) can be way easier for learning combos than the in-game tutorials. Gaijin Hunter and Arekkz are both good.

Other materials can be used to make consumables like ammo, potions, stat boosters, etc. that make you more effective at fighting.

------------------

Now for my own question: is Iceborne entirely Master Rank hunting? MHW is my first foray into the series and we petered out around I think the double tempered bagel fight. Last played around when the big golden monster was released, but weren't ranked up enough to engage that fight. It sounds like the new content is even further endgame stuff. Would we need to catch up through the rest of the base game and max out decorations and such or could just we re-learn our weapons a bit and then jump into the new content? Thanks!

It is entirely Master Rank, but i never did any Arc tempered anything and with master gear that's easily accessable at the start of the expac I didn't find the first few new monsters to be significantly more difficult than going after a new monster was in the base game. The advice i read and followed after a slow start was: Don't be precious about your old high rank gear. put it away and build an alloy or bone set and start working up from there.

I was a bit heartbroken to lay aside my Kirin fabulous lightening vest, but you'd gots ta do what you gots ta do.

Hey so I don't have Iceborne (yet) but I'm still one of the Squad founders. (The Hunters with Jobs squad on PS4).

It currently sits at 49 members, and I'm adding BeriAlpha so that will bring it to 50, which I think is full unless they changed it.

They have added the ability to appoint other squad members as co-captains or whatever, so that they can also invite or approve join requests to the squad, so it doesn't have to be me all the time. I'm the only one that can kick people out though, so if you would like to be removed from the squad for whatever reason, let me know so I can take care of that.

So I guess I'm asking, does anyone want to be a sub-leader for the Hunters with Jobs squad on PS4? (UPDATE: anyone besides Ahrezmendi who graciously agreed - thanks!)

Got the Anjanath after a couple more failures. I'd get to that last stage and he'd kill me. Finally got him though. Did the next story mission after that too.

After playing the Dark Souls series, it seems like the movement and combat in this could be a bit tighter. It's definitely more finicky to get facing the right way for a swing in MHW.

gamerparent wrote:

So I guess I'm asking, does anyone want to be a sub-leader for the Hunters with Jobs squad on PS4? (UPDATE: anyone besides Ahrezmendi who graciously agreed - thanks!)

I can help with that too

robc wrote:

After playing the Dark Souls series, it seems like the movement and combat in this could be a bit tighter. It's definitely more finicky to get facing the right way for a swing in MHW.

As much as I love all the Souls games, MH has far superior combat to any of them. Clunkiness is a pretty common complaint from beginners, but that tends to fade as you learn your weapon and how to approach combat against large monsters.

Adjusting to the lack of a lock on with weapon tracking is one of the biggest hurdles. I highly suggest changing from Focus to Target camera. Press R3 to lock onto a monster and tap L1 to re-focus your camera on them whenever needed. It feels weird at first, but you'll never want to go back to the Focus camera once you get the hang of it.

I'm not sure what weapon you're playing, but I second ActualDragon's recommendation to look up a YouTube weapon tutorial video from Arrekz or Gaijinhunter for your weapon of choice. There's a very good chance you'll learn a few things.

The facing in MHW is actually quite forgiving so you don't have to be exceptionally precise. The weak points are large portions of gigantic monsters so depending on how far you are and what you're using, the directionality required of you could just be facing the correct cardinal facing, or the right 180 degree arc, even.

Some weapons have attack arcs of 90 or even 360.

The graphics suggest that you need to be more precise than the mechanics actually demand. It's more abstract and cerebral than at first blush.

As for ICEBORNE, it is all Master Rank hunting.

But you can get to it as soon as you hit HR 16. Arguably, endgame HR was always just a placeholder for Master Rank, so it's a superior experience to grinding out the rest of HR. That's from someone who has all the gamma set gear.

Master Rank gear doesn't invalidate gamma rank armor from Arch Temepered for quite a while, but the basic Master Rank gear is much more powerful than early endgame HR gear, and also ridiculously easy to get. Literally, Great Jagras farming.

Once you're in Grea Jagras or Alloy or Bone gear and get your Jagras, Pukei or Beo weapon, you will not be worse off than someone using a tricked out Drachen set with the rarest decorations.

Be advised, Master Rank monsters hit hard, move fast, and have mountains of hit points. And they have new moves, too. In many ways, they animate almost as if the designers had no thought about giving anyone any openings for attacks. They look and feel natural. And that makes attacking them harder, but also looks incredibly amazing. You will have a LOT of cool moments.

And the gear is just lovely. It looks great and they pack a lot of skills.

I'm making a special mention of the speed and HP because some players from HR get shocked at the difference. 20 minute to 30 minute hunts are common if you know how to hunt HR monsters. That's for a Tobi Kadachi.

It doesn't remain that way. You can cut it down to about 10 minutes once you really know what you're doing, but 5 minute beatdowns on Tempered Dragons aren't happening in Master Rank.

Thanks Dyni.

I just tried to make you another sub-leader and guess what. You can only have one sub leader. Of course. As you would. Gah. Capcom is so infuriating sometimes.

The next region reminds me of something you might find in Morrowwind. I like how the regions are pretty different. I also liked fighting something that didn't kick my butt 6 or so times!

Dyni wrote:

As much as I love all the Souls games, MH has far superior combat to any of them. Clunkiness is a pretty common complaint from beginners, but that tends to fade as you learn your weapon and how to approach combat against large monsters.

What do you like about MHW combat more than Dark Souls? I prefer Dark Souls because the combat is more methodical and probably more simple - less button presses to remember. I like that the focus is on reading animations and timing attacks - which is also true for MHW, but I think more of a focus in Dark Souls. It also feels like Dark Souls has more polish and plays more fluidly.

I still like MHW, but just not up at the same level as DS.

Dyni wrote:

I'm not sure what weapon you're playing, but I second ActualDragon's recommendation to look up a YouTube weapon tutorial video from Arrekz or Gaijinhunter for your weapon of choice. There's a very good chance you'll learn a few things.

I'm using the long sword. I watched one of the popular weapon videos, I don't recall who it was by. It definitely filled in some holes I had in my understanding.

Thanks for filling me on Iceborne, all. Good to hear that we'll be able to make that jump. I think I'm getting over my burnout, but don't have much free time to play so we'll see when Mr. Dragon and I give it a roll.

LarryC wrote:

The facing in MHW is actually quite forgiving so you don't have to be exceptionally precise. The weak points are large portions of gigantic monsters so depending on how far you are and what you're using, the directionality required of you could just be facing the correct cardinal facing, or the right 180 degree arc, even.

Some weapons have attack arcs of 90 or even 360.

The graphics suggest that you need to be more precise than the mechanics actually demand. It's more abstract and cerebral than at first blush.

I agree that in practice it is fairly forgiving, but sometimes it just feels a bit off. Like, sometimes I hit the monster when I don't think I will, and others I feel I am facing better but then my guy swings more to the side than I think I'm facing and I miss. It's not a huge problem, and may be more me than the game, but it does trip me up sometimes.

robc wrote:

I agree that in practice it is fairly forgiving, but sometimes it just feels a bit off. Like, sometimes I hit the monster when I don't think I will, and others I feel I am facing better but then my guy swings more to the side than I think I'm facing and I miss. It's not a huge problem, and may be more me than the game, but it does trip me up sometimes.

It's the peculiarities of the hitboxes and animation. Like, a particular move will sometimes incidentally swing angled to the right so the blade will completely miss the monster, even though you would swear it was supposed to be a swing right down the middle. Then it turns out you just misremembered and it was always an angled swing.

The thing I never quite got with the Longsword was the Helmsplitter targeting, but I have it on the word of experienced users that you can target that thing with pretty good precision, and if you know how to do it, it will always hit where you want.

I haven't played Dark Souls so I can't compare, but it always seemed like the game's simpler in terms of moveset and it was always more of a timing game. MHW is kind of a timing game, but not really. You do have to time your attack well, but it's more of a reading game. You read the monster, then respond appropriately depending on what your weapon is and the tactical situation. You have a variety of combos at your disposal because the best option to exploit a monster's attack windows or to avoid its attacks varies. You could actually just always use the most basic, non-committed attacks. That kind of works? It's not very fast, nor is it very fun, but it kind of works.

As I said, I haven't played Dark Soul games, so I have no basis for comparison, but MHW isn't so much a hard game as it is a platform for cool moments. I'll see if I can dig up some vids.

A compilation of some of SunhiLegend's best MHW gifs, from the one and only SunhiLegend of HZD gif fame.

I think I met my favorite monster so far, the

Spoiler:

puffy flying fox

thing. It was a shame he had to die.

Just got to Acidic Glavenus. I just love the theme music for the pair of them and the moveset is just amazing when you're using a shielded weapon. I've actually also battled them with a Light Bowgun (of all things) and they're just as fun to fight. I'm thinking now I could put together an Odo set and anime my way through them.

For everyone in the endgame (essentially the entirety of Iceborne), don't rush, and revisit World monsters. They all get an interesting new quirk or two, and that sometimes changes the entire way you look at them.

robc wrote:

I think I met my favorite monster so far, the

Spoiler:

puffy flying fox

thing. It was a shame he had to die.

Thats why you always bring traps and tranqs and don't think too hard about where all those scales and cortexes and membranes you get as rewards come from. The reward set for capping is almost always better than for carving anyway

LarryC wrote:

Just got to Acidic Glavenus. I just love the theme music for the pair of them and the moveset is just amazing when you're using a shielded weapon. I've actually also battled them with a Light Bowgun (of all things) and they're just as fun to fight. I'm thinking now I could put together an Odo set and anime my way through them.

For everyone in the endgame (essentially the entirety of Iceborne), don't rush, and revisit World monsters. They all get an interesting new quirk or two, and that sometimes changes the entire way you look at them.

I just did MR Lumi, and i almost had a hard time fighting for laughing when he broke out his new move:

Spoiler:

inflating like a beachball and super ball bouncing 6 or 7 times