And now I get a hankering for whipping out 3U aain. But not only has it been forever, but I'm without anyone to play with here in these strange scandinavian countries, and soloing G-Rank was rather miserable. Hmmm. What do...
I'm assuming you're 3DS only then?
I've soloed most of 6* and 7* (except maybe Jho and Miralis). It's not my preferred method, but it's fine if I just need a part here or there. I pretty much refuse to solo anything 8* unless I really want to repel Hallowed Jhen; most of those feel like they were intended to be fought with at least three players, but two with Shakalakas seems like the bare minimum.
SA's stamina draining combo is actually pretty good now, esp with mega dash juice. It got more than doubled in strength between tri and tri ultimate, granted.
The tldr with SA's is sword mode vertical infinite for casual dps
Phial burst if you absolutely know you can land the last hit and it isn't gonna get hit after that
Infinite axe swing with dash juice or max stamina for looooooong periods of hits
Uppercuts for single hit damage/high reach.
Horizontal sword slashes only for hitting low stuff (uppercut and sideways hit low stuff first, downward hits high first)
And now I get a hankering for whipping out 3U aain. But not only has it been forever, but I'm without anyone to play with here in these strange scandinavian countries, and soloing G-Rank was rather miserable. Hmmm. What do...
I'm assuming you're 3DS only then?
I've soloed most of 6* and 7* (except maybe Jho and Miralis). It's not my preferred method, but it's fine if I just need a part here or there. I pretty much refuse to solo anything 8* unless I really want to repel Hallowed Jhen; most of those feel like they were intended to be fought with at least three players, but two with Shakalakas seems like the bare minimum.
Yeah, the whole multi monster in arena thing is rough without a buddy to split.
In the end I just played and did a few 6 and 7 quests. Derped for a bit against a Nargacuga until I found my SnS rhythm again, then went for some Brachys and Jinougas. I even got a Jasper as a welcome back gift!
Man, I didn't even know how much I'd missed this game. Dual Brachy is fun, and reminded me that in Monster Hunter the party ain't over until the horn sings. I murderized the first one practically untouched, and was owning the second, until my brain started going derp and I went from 100 to 0 in the space of thirty seconds, and then dying again due to lack of meal defense buff and HP. So close to triple cart.
Hmmm. I should think of something to make, some little project to have some direction. What's a good G armor for Sword Axing? I've mostly been using Goldeus.
And now I get a hankering for whipping out 3U aain. But not only has it been forever, but I'm without anyone to play with here in these strange scandinavian countries, and soloing G-Rank was rather miserable. Hmmm. What do...
I'm assuming you're 3DS only then?
I've soloed most of 6* and 7* (except maybe Jho and Miralis). It's not my preferred method, but it's fine if I just need a part here or there. I pretty much refuse to solo anything 8* unless I really want to repel Hallowed Jhen; most of those feel like they were intended to be fought with at least three players, but two with Shakalakas seems like the bare minimum.
Yeah, the whole multi monster in arena thing is rough without a buddy to split.
In the end I just played and did a few 6 and 7 quests. Derped for a bit against a Nargacuga until I found my SnS rhythm again, then went for some Brachys and Jinougas. I even got a Jasper as a welcome back gift!
Man, I didn't even know how much I'd missed this game. Dual Brachy is fun, and reminded me that in Monster Hunter the party ain't over until the horn sings. I murderized the first one practically untouched, and was owning the second, until my brain started going derp and I went from 100 to 0 in the space of thirty seconds, and then dying again due to lack of meal defense buff and HP. So close to triple cart.
Hmmm. I should think of something to make, some little project to have some direction. What's a good G armor for Sword Axing? I've mostly been using Goldeus.
Zin Z has fast charge, for more sword action (well, it would be, but reload), and looks awesome.
Zin Z has fast charge, for more sword action (well, it would be, but reload), and looks awesome.
Is Fast Charge really THAT great for swordaxing? Because if memory serves, making Stygian armor required what is coloquially known as way too many fucking Skymeralds :P.
Zin Z has fast charge, for more sword action (well, it would be, but reload), and looks awesome.
Is Fast Charge really THAT great for swordaxing? Because if memory serves, making Stygian armor required what is coloquially known as way too many fucking Skymeralds :P.
Also, female Stygian armor has silly dog ears.
I may or may not have killed more zinogres than anything else.
And no, there's probably better since the ax can reload the bar anyways given any opening.
Finally, female stygian is just fine thank you very much (though the gunner version is better, I like both).
I'm honesly thinking that Stygian armor would probably be a greatswording armor for me if anything. It has fast charge and evasion and with my +4 charm it's trivial to get Crit Draw into it as well. Crit Draw plus fast charge is a favorite combination of greatsworders, if memory serves.
It's a pity I am relentlessly fucking terrible with a greatsword. SnS, lance, bowgun, LS, even duals, I can deal with. But every atempt at greaswordng from me has ended in tears.
L Ron HowardThe duckMinnesotaRegistered Userregular
My friend uses GS almost exclusively. He says it's entirely about hit and run tactics. He draws the sword, whacks the monster, puts it away, and runs away again. Outside of blocking things like roars and occasional attacks, since I believe they take away too much sharpness.
The only monster I've killed more than Zinogre is Jaggi. And that's because he's a big kickable puppy.
I'm of the opinion that Quick Sheath is worthless for anything that isn't an LBG, SnS or DS. Those things are put away almost immediately with Quick Sheath. For everything else, it seems there's a negligible amount of time removed when sheathing. I haven't tried on all weapons, so take it with an extreme grain of salt.
My friend uses GS almost exclusively. He says it's entirely about hit and run tactics. He draws the sword, whacks the monster, puts it away, and runs away again. Outside of blocking things like roars and occasional attacks, since I believe they take away too much sharpness.
The only monster I've killed more than Zinogre is Jaggi. And that's because he's a big kickable puppy.
I'm of the opinion that Quick Sheath is worthless for anything that isn't an LBG, SnS or DS. Those things are put away almost immediately with Quick Sheath. For everything else, it seems there's a negligible amount of time removed when sheathing. I haven't tried on all weapons, so take it with an extreme grain of salt.
At one point I had Quick Sheath on my set. it was more of a free skill that just sort of came with the mixed set I was making.
It's a nice skill but I hardly miss it now that none of my sets have it.
Seidkona on
Mostly just huntin' monsters.
XBL:Phenyhelm - 3DS:Phenyhelm
Damn I'd forgotten how immensely aggravating can a Rathalos be if it puts its mind to it. All that up and down and moving the tail just when you're about to hit it. And I need roughly ALL the Rathalos materials if I want to upgrade this Corona... x_x
Ah well. Nobody said that equipping oneself to G standards was easy.
On that note, I think I'll see if I can find some GS that is easy to make ad decent, and try GSing, since we mentioned it. I don't like having weapons with which I'm completely useless.
My friend uses GS almost exclusively. He says it's entirely about hit and run tactics. He draws the sword, whacks the monster, puts it away, and runs away again. Outside of blocking things like roars and occasional attacks, since I believe they take away too much sharpness.
The only monster I've killed more than Zinogre is Jaggi. And that's because he's a big kickable puppy.
I'm of the opinion that Quick Sheath is worthless for anything that isn't an LBG, SnS or DS. Those things are put away almost immediately with Quick Sheath. For everything else, it seems there's a negligible amount of time removed when sheathing. I haven't tried on all weapons, so take it with an extreme grain of salt.
But when do you sheath SnS except to carve or chase to a new area?
Anyways, used some of my huge pile of Zinogre bits to make his GS. Worked quitr nicely on an HR Rathian, though I took more hits than I'd have liked. G rank S Zin armor, gemmed for crit draw... worked nicely.
Oh hey. Making a Lacerator Blade was super easy (though expensive), and combined with my Goldeus armor it goes to purple sharpness. And then I've put it to test. Boy, this is definitely a performance upgrade from the GSs I'd been using to try the weapon.
I think I'm getting a bit into the swing of this thing. And not needing to keep pressure up helps make Los way less aggravating. Fifteen minutes capture for a G Rank Los is not bad, either!
Zin Z has fast charge, for more sword action (well, it would be, but reload), and looks awesome.
Is Fast Charge really THAT great for swordaxing? Because if memory serves, making Stygian armor required what is coloquially known as way too many fucking Skymeralds :P.
Also, female Stygian armor has silly dog ears.
I know I'm late here so maybe this was addressed, but given you said "swordaxing" I'm assuming you mean playing how I use SA; basically you ignore the ax mode (almost) entirely. So I'm replying with that in mind.
Power phial is the best SA phial, phials are only active in sword mode, raw damage trumps elemental damage overall, and sharpness matters for the bonus damage. With all that in mind you want the highest raw damage SA, with a power phial, with the best quality sharpness you can find; any affinity is a plus. Armor wise Attack Up Large followed by Affinity+3 are what you want, in that order. Focus on this regardless of rank.
The easy example of that in action is end game. Miralis armor with Affinity+3 while running a lucent narga SA. Miralis comes with Rocksteady and Attack Up L already, so affinity+3 is another 30% crit to the 20 or 30 the lucent SA comes with. Lucent weapons all have the same sharpness with or without sharpness+1, meaning a lot of purple sharpness without sharpness+1. The lucent SA has the second or third highest raw damage of all SAs and a power phial. Your raw damage is so high in sword mode you'll stun most monsters even at g rank with a few hits.
Fast Charge, Focus, and other skills like that are nice, but they end up being whatever in the long run. It's easy enough to reload the sword mode even solo then get right back in there you're better off focusing on raw damage amplification. The most useful skill I've used outside of the raw damage increasing skills would be Latent Power, especially if you can get +2. You basically get unlimited stamina at +2 so you can roll to your hearts content; +1 is nice too, +2 is just almost broken with how much it reduces stamina reduction. +1 comes on Miralis armor for free, not sure how easy it is to gem in on other high and g rank armors.
Non-sword mode the infinite slash isn't too bad. Latent Power benefits it greatly since at +2 you can basically hack away forever. Other than the stab in axe mode to transition into sword mode with the second swing when I'm not going straight to sword mode from sheath the hack is really the only ax mode move I use. If you're running a SA with status this move and latent power shine. Moves that hit multiple times and are part of one attack/action/however the game defines it (ie. hack and slash ax mode move and demon dance with dual swords) will proc the same the entire way through. Meaning if the first hit crits, applies slime, applies poison, etc. ALL the remaining hits will do the same. So hacking away in ax mode lets you keep applying and/or criting as long as the monster lets you sit there and swing.
I've yet to fight a gold crown I couldn't cut the tail, break horns, whatever, when using dual swords. It can just be a bitch at times since you're wasting a lot of time to only hit specific parts once or twice. This applies to sword mode too, never had an issue reaching anything even if axe mode has the best vertical attack in the game.
If you actually like ax mode all the above still applies, you just don't have the phial active all the time, so be mindful of you're running an exhaust phial and trying to exhaust the monster in ax mode.
Even ignoring all that, SA's are one of the best weapons in the game for solo play. I mentioned it from a min-maxing perspective (power phial over others, raw damage over elemental, etc.) but just using whatever SA and skills you want will work for solo play. SA's aren't like bows where they take min-maxing to get solo kill times down to something reasonable.
So I unlocked the High Rank Village Quests a couple of days back and it's... mostly a bunch of monsters I already fought but more difficult and sometimes with a different colour.
Kind of disappointing. Makes it feel less like a progression and more like a sudden restart.
The other fun thing with Lucent Narga SA is going for Awaken for that sweet sweet infinite poison. I've read that's the best way to DPS, and it certainly seems like it's useful if you get a good opening on a fast monster you can't just infinite forever.
EDIT: The reskins are actually a little bit more different than you think; they're generally more different than the Jaggi/Baggi/Wroggi are from each other. They've either got a different element and somewhat different attacks (C. Peco, P. Ludroth), or they've got a pretty big switchup in style (Pink Rathian, with new and improved spinning forever, flippier and more horizontal backflip slaps, and with significantly improved fire attacks/bites/bites with fire added).
EDIT X2: Also, instead of generally calling crappier, weaker monsters, Quropecos now call fun stuff. Like the deviljho.
EDIT: The reskins are actually a little bit more different than you think; they're generally more different than the Jaggi/Baggi/Wroggi are from each other. They've either got a different element and somewhat different attacks (C. Peco, P. Ludroth), or they've got a pretty big switchup in style (Pink Rathian, with new and improved spinning forever, flippier and more horizontal backflip slaps, and with significantly improved fire attacks/bites/bites with fire added).
EDIT X2: Also, instead of generally calling crappier, weaker monsters, Quropecos now call fun stuff. Like the deviljho.
Yeah, I noticed Purple Ludroth spitting poison instead of water and I think I noticed a few new attacks. But it still looks exactly like a Royal Ludroth (except for the colour) and I've already fought a bunch of Royal Ludroths, so the fight isn't as exciting as it could be even with the new moveset.
I'm always up for fighting more Arzuroses, though.
0
Halos Nach TariffCan you blame me?I'm too famous.Registered Userregular
The re-colours are a significant improvement over variant species in the past where they were often literally the same with maybe a different elemental weakness.
In Tri they do at least tend to have different AI or some other distinguishing gimmick.
But yeah, it is still kinda fighting the same stuff again with better stats, but they do throw in some new monsters too.
Yeah the fire bite on Pink Rath might actually be more annoying than all of her tail bullshit — which is saying something, because that tail bullshit is annoying as hell. I don't remember anything new that Azure Rath picks up, but I'd guess it's just more ways of setting you on fire. Is his "napalm" attack new?
What else... Steel Uragaan uses stench instead of sleep gas. Glacial Agnaktor has different (more annoying) rules for its armor, no chest armor, and does obnoxious things with its ice beam. Baleful Giggi will paralyze the shit out of you (still better than the original's super-poison). Ivory Laggi stays on land more often but that doesn't mean the fight is easier by any means...
There are some new monsters that will become available eventually as well. Besides Jho, you eventually get Zin, Narga, Plesioth, and Brachy. And Jhen Mohran.
The other fun thing with Lucent Narga SA is going for Awaken for that sweet sweet infinite poison. I've read that's the best way to DPS, and it certainly seems like it's useful if you get a good opening on a fast monster you can't just infinite forever.
Yup, same reason the Lucent long sword is so good too with Awaken. Both have good raw damage, high affinity, and great sharpness without sharpness+1, and with Awaken, can poison. Giggi X works great with both of them for playing that way since it's easy to make and grants both Awaken and Status+2. Have enough slots to charm and gem in Attack Up L too.
Lucent dual swords don't need Awaken for poison, but same thing. They're the only duals that come close to killing as fast as Brachy duals solo for me.
Lucent dual swords don't need Awaken for poison, but same thing. They're the only duals that come close to killing as fast as Brachy duals solo for me.
I dunno if I want to make those. I love my Grimmest Noxwings so much...
EDIT: Also, my final (regularly-scheduled) Hunter's Notes is live.
Yeah the fire bite on Pink Rath might actually be more annoying than all of her tail bullshit — which is saying something, because that tail bullshit is annoying as hell. I don't remember anything new that Azure Rath picks up, but I'd guess it's just more ways of setting you on fire. Is his "napalm" attack new?
What else... Steel Uragaan uses stench instead of sleep gas. Glacial Agnaktor has different (more annoying) rules for its armor, no chest armor, and does obnoxious things with its ice beam. Baleful Giggi will paralyze the shit out of you (still better than the original's super-poison). Ivory Laggi stays on land more often but that doesn't mean the fight is easier by any means...
There are some new monsters that will become available eventually as well. Besides Jho, you eventually get Zin, Narga, Plesioth, and Brachy. And Jhen Mohran.
At least if you're fighting pink Rath for the first time, Misty Peaks seems to have no zones without at least a small brook to roll in. It makes the bite from very rapid and very painful to very rapid and very annoying; it's still much worse to get hit by the tail-o-whirl.
Yeah the fire bite on Pink Rath might actually be more annoying than all of her tail bullshit — which is saying something, because that tail bullshit is annoying as hell. I don't remember anything new that Azure Rath picks up, but I'd guess it's just more ways of setting you on fire. Is his "napalm" attack new?
What else... Steel Uragaan uses stench instead of sleep gas. Glacial Agnaktor has different (more annoying) rules for its armor, no chest armor, and does obnoxious things with its ice beam. Baleful Giggi will paralyze the shit out of you (still better than the original's super-poison). Ivory Laggi stays on land more often but that doesn't mean the fight is easier by any means...
There are some new monsters that will become available eventually as well. Besides Jho, you eventually get Zin, Narga, Plesioth, and Brachy. And Jhen Mohran.
At least if you're fighting pink Rath for the first time, Misty Peaks seems to have no zones without at least a small brook to roll in. It makes the bite from very rapid and very painful to very rapid and very annoying; it's still much worse to get hit by the tail-o-whirl.
Off the top of my head I can't think of any water in the large field zone with the hut in the middle and the narrow rocky "nest". Hang on, let me pull up a map...
2 (rock nest), 3 (bridge), 4 (hut field), 5 (stump field), and maybe 9 (top of cave) look like they're pretty dry just from looking at the actual map, but obviously that doesn't show every detail. 5 and 9 probably have a small water area, but I can't think of any in 2, 3, or 4.
But yes, getting hit by the tail is always worse. The bite is just more annoying because it can hit you when you would normally have dodged it.
I've now made it to the part of the game where I'm farming monsters for their stupid rare drops, like Mantles, Emeralds, Rubies, etc. Grrrrr.
Break everything, cap, and run multi-monster quests when possible. All I can say.
I may or may not still have a few skymeralds of both types after making shitloads of Zinogre/Stygian gear. (Mainly because I've probably killed 50 of each type, but)
Farming for Skymeralds (and Lashes) was definitely the nut low in my recent farming. Tracking down a Brachy Gem was the first time I really ran up against this IIRC, but it always lurks on the periphery.
At least you have a friend to do this with. Most of my farming was done solo.
Although in "desire sensor lulz" I do have, no exaggeration, five Narga mantles at present. Guess what I haven't needed just about ever (ok, one, to make my Midnight Blackwings).
Lucent dual swords don't need Awaken for poison, but same thing. They're the only duals that come close to killing as fast as Brachy duals solo for me.
I dunno if I want to make those. I love my Grimmest Noxwings so much...
EDIT: Also, my final (regularly-scheduled) Hunter's Notes is live.
Grimmest Noxwings are definitely good. The bonus poison would matter a lot more if it was anything but DS though, you attack so often the 180 or so poison on the Lucent DS can keep things like Purple Luddy and Lucent Narga itself poisoned the whole fight. I also try to avoid getting stuck running sharpness+1, and you need that for purple sharpness with Grimmest.
I need to get a set together with Rocksteady and Honed Blade for weapons that benefit from sharpness+1. Miralis armor made me lazy where all I do is farm for random weapons now, since Miralis is so versatile, I have just shy or just over an entire page of the three available pre-set pages of Miralis armor charmed and gem 'd for evasion, focus, bombardier, status, elemental, etc. Other than gunning or bowing there's only a handful of times I use Rath Z or Giggi X, and before Miralis, those were all I used.
I like HGE way too much, and Rocksteady made that skill choice so much better to enjoy.
Okay, so, problem. My best weapon to kill Zinogres is SnS. With it, I easily outdance any wolf in the dance of death.
But I need three stygian horns. And breaking stygian horns with an SnS is not a thing that is happening. I've tried my hand at Greatswording the 2 S.Zin misson at G7 with my Lacerator blade, and almost timed out, for a total of one horn obtained, two to go.
Doesn't help that they're so large. Anything that is not a straight vertical attack hits the chest instead of the horns.
Okay, so, problem. My best weapon to kill Zinogres is SnS. With it, I easily outdance any wolf in the dance of death.
But I need three stygian horns. And breaking stygian horns with an SnS is not a thing that is happening. I've tried my hand at Greatswording the 2 S.Zin misson at G7 with my Lacerator blade, and almost timed out, for a total of one horn obtained, two to go.
Doesn't help that they're so large. Anything that is not a straight vertical attack hits the chest instead of the horns.
L Ron HowardThe duckMinnesotaRegistered Userregular
Have you tried guns? Bows? Kelbi OPSlimeBow?
I normally use the slime lance, so I don't have a hard time with his face, as he always faces me. I often have problems with tails though, since I rarely see their behind enough to poke them so their tails fall off. Which is why I have a friend with a GS. I keep the monster busy, he whacks them in the butt.
Okay, so, problem. My best weapon to kill Zinogres is SnS. With it, I easily outdance any wolf in the dance of death.
But I need three stygian horns. And breaking stygian horns with an SnS is not a thing that is happening. I've tried my hand at Greatswording the 2 S.Zin misson at G7 with my Lacerator blade, and almost timed out, for a total of one horn obtained, two to go.
Doesn't help that they're so large. Anything that is not a straight vertical attack hits the chest instead of the horns.
This is going to be a pain.
Pitfall traps and barrel bombs.
You know, I think I haven't used a pitfall in months, since they're such a pain to stockpile. You can farm the shock trap basic component by the boatload, but making nets requires webs, and webs drop when they decide to. I guess it's time to get a couple and use them.
Mostly I get mine from the Argosy captain. It's not like I'm doing much else with all of those non-rare commodities. EDIT: Actual Pitfalls, not webs/nets.
EDIT2: Also, Pitfall mask. Even with its insane recharge time it's at least one or two free ones per hunt. If you can get him positioned in a non-stupid location.
Zinogre's head is a wonderful pellet shot magnet. A good pellet bowgun, pellet up and some other skills and it's hilarious at how much face wrecking you can do.
It's even been toned down a bit compared to how effective it was in P3, but still a formidable and an interesting way to fight zinogre.
Posts
I'm assuming you're 3DS only then?
I've soloed most of 6* and 7* (except maybe Jho and Miralis). It's not my preferred method, but it's fine if I just need a part here or there. I pretty much refuse to solo anything 8* unless I really want to repel Hallowed Jhen; most of those feel like they were intended to be fought with at least three players, but two with Shakalakas seems like the bare minimum.
AC:NH Chris from Glosta SW-5173-3598-2899 DA-4749-1014-4697
The tldr with SA's is sword mode vertical infinite for casual dps
Phial burst if you absolutely know you can land the last hit and it isn't gonna get hit after that
Infinite axe swing with dash juice or max stamina for looooooong periods of hits
Uppercuts for single hit damage/high reach.
Horizontal sword slashes only for hitting low stuff (uppercut and sideways hit low stuff first, downward hits high first)
Yeah, the whole multi monster in arena thing is rough without a buddy to split.
In the end I just played and did a few 6 and 7 quests. Derped for a bit against a Nargacuga until I found my SnS rhythm again, then went for some Brachys and Jinougas. I even got a Jasper as a welcome back gift!
Man, I didn't even know how much I'd missed this game. Dual Brachy is fun, and reminded me that in Monster Hunter the party ain't over until the horn sings. I murderized the first one practically untouched, and was owning the second, until my brain started going derp and I went from 100 to 0 in the space of thirty seconds, and then dying again due to lack of meal defense buff and HP. So close to triple cart.
Hmmm. I should think of something to make, some little project to have some direction. What's a good G armor for Sword Axing? I've mostly been using Goldeus.
Zin Z has fast charge, for more sword action (well, it would be, but reload), and looks awesome.
3DS: 0473-8507-2652
Switch: SW-5185-4991-5118
PSN: AbEntropy
So im looking to get back into hammering, and figured a honed blade/awakening set for a Grongigas is a good all purpose rounder
Look up the drops for urag palliums, all crazy low (1-3%) in multihunt quests
Have a bunch of time to kill at work, transfer saves to my 3ds
Start up "Best of Enemies" (purp lud, wroggi, volvi and steel urag) and voila
a pallium first time
Is Fast Charge really THAT great for swordaxing? Because if memory serves, making Stygian armor required what is coloquially known as way too many fucking Skymeralds :P.
Also, female Stygian armor has silly dog ears.
Zinogre Z also has evade+1 built in, which is pretty nice for SA with the side-step and all.
I may or may not have killed more zinogres than anything else.
And no, there's probably better since the ax can reload the bar anyways given any opening.
Finally, female stygian is just fine thank you very much (though the gunner version is better, I like both).
3DS: 0473-8507-2652
Switch: SW-5185-4991-5118
PSN: AbEntropy
It's a pity I am relentlessly fucking terrible with a greatsword. SnS, lance, bowgun, LS, even duals, I can deal with. But every atempt at greaswordng from me has ended in tears.
The only monster I've killed more than Zinogre is Jaggi. And that's because he's a big kickable puppy.
I'm of the opinion that Quick Sheath is worthless for anything that isn't an LBG, SnS or DS. Those things are put away almost immediately with Quick Sheath. For everything else, it seems there's a negligible amount of time removed when sheathing. I haven't tried on all weapons, so take it with an extreme grain of salt.
At one point I had Quick Sheath on my set. it was more of a free skill that just sort of came with the mixed set I was making.
It's a nice skill but I hardly miss it now that none of my sets have it.
XBL:Phenyhelm - 3DS:Phenyhelm
Damn I'd forgotten how immensely aggravating can a Rathalos be if it puts its mind to it. All that up and down and moving the tail just when you're about to hit it. And I need roughly ALL the Rathalos materials if I want to upgrade this Corona... x_x
Ah well. Nobody said that equipping oneself to G standards was easy.
On that note, I think I'll see if I can find some GS that is easy to make ad decent, and try GSing, since we mentioned it. I don't like having weapons with which I'm completely useless.
Plesioth is the main competition.
But when do you sheath SnS except to carve or chase to a new area?
Anyways, used some of my huge pile of Zinogre bits to make his GS. Worked quitr nicely on an HR Rathian, though I took more hits than I'd have liked. G rank S Zin armor, gemmed for crit draw... worked nicely.
3DS: 0473-8507-2652
Switch: SW-5185-4991-5118
PSN: AbEntropy
I think I'm getting a bit into the swing of this thing. And not needing to keep pressure up helps make Los way less aggravating. Fifteen minutes capture for a G Rank Los is not bad, either!
Power phial is the best SA phial, phials are only active in sword mode, raw damage trumps elemental damage overall, and sharpness matters for the bonus damage. With all that in mind you want the highest raw damage SA, with a power phial, with the best quality sharpness you can find; any affinity is a plus. Armor wise Attack Up Large followed by Affinity+3 are what you want, in that order. Focus on this regardless of rank.
The easy example of that in action is end game. Miralis armor with Affinity+3 while running a lucent narga SA. Miralis comes with Rocksteady and Attack Up L already, so affinity+3 is another 30% crit to the 20 or 30 the lucent SA comes with. Lucent weapons all have the same sharpness with or without sharpness+1, meaning a lot of purple sharpness without sharpness+1. The lucent SA has the second or third highest raw damage of all SAs and a power phial. Your raw damage is so high in sword mode you'll stun most monsters even at g rank with a few hits.
Fast Charge, Focus, and other skills like that are nice, but they end up being whatever in the long run. It's easy enough to reload the sword mode even solo then get right back in there you're better off focusing on raw damage amplification. The most useful skill I've used outside of the raw damage increasing skills would be Latent Power, especially if you can get +2. You basically get unlimited stamina at +2 so you can roll to your hearts content; +1 is nice too, +2 is just almost broken with how much it reduces stamina reduction. +1 comes on Miralis armor for free, not sure how easy it is to gem in on other high and g rank armors.
Non-sword mode the infinite slash isn't too bad. Latent Power benefits it greatly since at +2 you can basically hack away forever. Other than the stab in axe mode to transition into sword mode with the second swing when I'm not going straight to sword mode from sheath the hack is really the only ax mode move I use. If you're running a SA with status this move and latent power shine. Moves that hit multiple times and are part of one attack/action/however the game defines it (ie. hack and slash ax mode move and demon dance with dual swords) will proc the same the entire way through. Meaning if the first hit crits, applies slime, applies poison, etc. ALL the remaining hits will do the same. So hacking away in ax mode lets you keep applying and/or criting as long as the monster lets you sit there and swing.
I've yet to fight a gold crown I couldn't cut the tail, break horns, whatever, when using dual swords. It can just be a bitch at times since you're wasting a lot of time to only hit specific parts once or twice. This applies to sword mode too, never had an issue reaching anything even if axe mode has the best vertical attack in the game.
If you actually like ax mode all the above still applies, you just don't have the phial active all the time, so be mindful of you're running an exhaust phial and trying to exhaust the monster in ax mode.
Even ignoring all that, SA's are one of the best weapons in the game for solo play. I mentioned it from a min-maxing perspective (power phial over others, raw damage over elemental, etc.) but just using whatever SA and skills you want will work for solo play. SA's aren't like bows where they take min-maxing to get solo kill times down to something reasonable.
Kind of disappointing. Makes it feel less like a progression and more like a sudden restart.
EDIT: The reskins are actually a little bit more different than you think; they're generally more different than the Jaggi/Baggi/Wroggi are from each other. They've either got a different element and somewhat different attacks (C. Peco, P. Ludroth), or they've got a pretty big switchup in style (Pink Rathian, with new and improved spinning forever, flippier and more horizontal backflip slaps, and with significantly improved fire attacks/bites/bites with fire added).
EDIT X2: Also, instead of generally calling crappier, weaker monsters, Quropecos now call fun stuff. Like the deviljho.
Yeah, I noticed Purple Ludroth spitting poison instead of water and I think I noticed a few new attacks. But it still looks exactly like a Royal Ludroth (except for the colour) and I've already fought a bunch of Royal Ludroths, so the fight isn't as exciting as it could be even with the new moveset.
I'm always up for fighting more Arzuroses, though.
In Tri they do at least tend to have different AI or some other distinguishing gimmick.
But yeah, it is still kinda fighting the same stuff again with better stats, but they do throw in some new monsters too.
What else... Steel Uragaan uses stench instead of sleep gas. Glacial Agnaktor has different (more annoying) rules for its armor, no chest armor, and does obnoxious things with its ice beam. Baleful Giggi will paralyze the shit out of you (still better than the original's super-poison). Ivory Laggi stays on land more often but that doesn't mean the fight is easier by any means...
There are some new monsters that will become available eventually as well. Besides Jho, you eventually get Zin, Narga, Plesioth, and Brachy. And Jhen Mohran.
AC:NH Chris from Glosta SW-5173-3598-2899 DA-4749-1014-4697
Lucent dual swords don't need Awaken for poison, but same thing. They're the only duals that come close to killing as fast as Brachy duals solo for me.
I dunno if I want to make those. I love my Grimmest Noxwings so much...
EDIT: Also, my final (regularly-scheduled) Hunter's Notes is live.
AC:NH Chris from Glosta SW-5173-3598-2899 DA-4749-1014-4697
At least if you're fighting pink Rath for the first time, Misty Peaks seems to have no zones without at least a small brook to roll in. It makes the bite from very rapid and very painful to very rapid and very annoying; it's still much worse to get hit by the tail-o-whirl.
Off the top of my head I can't think of any water in the large field zone with the hut in the middle and the narrow rocky "nest". Hang on, let me pull up a map...
2 (rock nest), 3 (bridge), 4 (hut field), 5 (stump field), and maybe 9 (top of cave) look like they're pretty dry just from looking at the actual map, but obviously that doesn't show every detail. 5 and 9 probably have a small water area, but I can't think of any in 2, 3, or 4.
But yes, getting hit by the tail is always worse. The bite is just more annoying because it can hit you when you would normally have dodged it.
AC:NH Chris from Glosta SW-5173-3598-2899 DA-4749-1014-4697
Break everything, cap, and run multi-monster quests when possible. All I can say.
I may or may not still have a few skymeralds of both types after making shitloads of Zinogre/Stygian gear. (Mainly because I've probably killed 50 of each type, but)
3DS: 0473-8507-2652
Switch: SW-5185-4991-5118
PSN: AbEntropy
My friend and I have been hunting Zinogres, so he can get their Skyemerald. I had 14 before he even got one. Now we each need 4 Stygian ones. Augh.
At least you have a friend to do this with. Most of my farming was done solo.
Although in "desire sensor lulz" I do have, no exaggeration, five Narga mantles at present. Guess what I haven't needed just about ever (ok, one, to make my Midnight Blackwings).
AC:NH Chris from Glosta SW-5173-3598-2899 DA-4749-1014-4697
I need to get a set together with Rocksteady and Honed Blade for weapons that benefit from sharpness+1. Miralis armor made me lazy where all I do is farm for random weapons now, since Miralis is so versatile, I have just shy or just over an entire page of the three available pre-set pages of Miralis armor charmed and gem 'd for evasion, focus, bombardier, status, elemental, etc. Other than gunning or bowing there's only a handful of times I use Rath Z or Giggi X, and before Miralis, those were all I used.
I like HGE way too much, and Rocksteady made that skill choice so much better to enjoy.
But I need three stygian horns. And breaking stygian horns with an SnS is not a thing that is happening. I've tried my hand at Greatswording the 2 S.Zin misson at G7 with my Lacerator blade, and almost timed out, for a total of one horn obtained, two to go.
Doesn't help that they're so large. Anything that is not a straight vertical attack hits the chest instead of the horns.
This is going to be a pain.
Pitfall traps and barrel bombs.
AC:NH Chris from Glosta SW-5173-3598-2899 DA-4749-1014-4697
I normally use the slime lance, so I don't have a hard time with his face, as he always faces me. I often have problems with tails though, since I rarely see their behind enough to poke them so their tails fall off. Which is why I have a friend with a GS. I keep the monster busy, he whacks them in the butt.
You know, I think I haven't used a pitfall in months, since they're such a pain to stockpile. You can farm the shock trap basic component by the boatload, but making nets requires webs, and webs drop when they decide to. I guess it's time to get a couple and use them.
EDIT2: Also, Pitfall mask. Even with its insane recharge time it's at least one or two free ones per hunt. If you can get him positioned in a non-stupid location.
AC:NH Chris from Glosta SW-5173-3598-2899 DA-4749-1014-4697
It's even been toned down a bit compared to how effective it was in P3, but still a formidable and an interesting way to fight zinogre.
I'm going to have to poison bomb a bunch of those damn mosquitoes again, aren't I?
Have a ton of freaking fun with that.