you fight glavenus with long sword and parry his face off
LS is even better at countering monsters into the grave in Rise too.
Just a heads up on the demo LS, apparently some of its Motion Values are bugged. The big one I know of is the helmsplitter damage is roughly double what it should be. So nobody should be shocked if that changes when the game comes out.
you fight glavenus with long sword and parry his face off
Lance block counter claw counter for fucking days. I love any monster that has consistent combos because I just would get into a Sekrio rhythm. Clunk slock, clunk slock, clunk slock
Zinogre and Nergi were also a ton of fun to do this to.
you fight glavenus with long sword and parry his face off
LS is even better at countering monsters into the grave in Rise too.
Just a heads up on the demo LS, apparently some of its Motion Values are bugged. The big one I know of is the helmsplitter damage is roughly double what it should be. So nobody should be shocked if that changes when the game comes out.
That seems plausible, it was hitting for like 360+ on mizu in red. That's utterly obscene and it beats out true charge slash slightly. At the same time, half of that is still a big hit when it's all mount and has little windup. And oh no whatever will I do about being in yellow.... *counters roar*
Have we talked about how amazing wirefall is as a mechanic?
I feel like it's going to be extremely broken late in the game.
Wirefall is real good, but it's locking you out of the very good silkbind attacks if you're using it. Also, staying down = staying invincible, which might help at times.
Yeah just wait until we're fighting g rank stuff blitzing around like theyre on crack, and you know at least one of the monsters is going to have some ability programmed into it where if you wire recover away it just shoots a laser at you mid recovery and you die.
Have we talked about how amazing wirefall is as a mechanic?
I feel like it's going to be extremely broken late in the game.
Wirefall is real good, but it's locking you out of the very good silkbind attacks if you're using it. Also, staying down = staying invincible, which might help at times.
I'm assuming upgrades to the number of wirebug uses you get/recovery speed.
If those aren't in then it's probably self-balancing, yes.
Have we talked about how amazing wirefall is as a mechanic?
I feel like it's going to be extremely broken late in the game.
Wirefall is real good, but it's locking you out of the very good silkbind attacks if you're using it. Also, staying down = staying invincible, which might help at times.
I'm assuming upgrades to the number of wirebug uses you get/recovery speed.
If those aren't in then it's probably self-balancing, yes.
They have stated there will be no wirebug-related armor skills IIRC.
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KalnaurI See Rain . . .Centralia, WARegistered Userregular
Okay, so I just got Monster Hunter World the other day and I think I need some help. The "explain this to me" kind. In most games, I will never ever equip anything with lower numbers (let alone negative numbers) because those numbers are not higher numbers, which are in all cases and situations better. But I'm getting the distinct impressions that things like the damage value for weapons and the lowered elemental defenses for things like armor aren't telling the entire story when it comes to equipment values.
What I need more or less explained to me is I guess the why and what of this. Are there other values that tell me how much faster or more damage that a weapon is and can deal equivalent damage, are there in-game explanations of when it's fine to take a hit to one defense in order to boost another? Or is this more of a "look up a guide" kind of thing? I just dislike operating sub-optimally if I can avoid it, I don't like exposing myself to weakness exploitations and the like. What's the tactics I'm looking at/for? Are there armor sets that are just capital B better? Are there weapons that are just traps to make life harder for you?
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Forever Zefirocloaked in the midnight glory of an event horizonRegistered Userregular
Okay, so I just got Monster Hunter World the other day and I think I need some help. The "explain this to me" kind. In most games, I will never ever equip anything with lower numbers (let alone negative numbers) because those numbers are not higher numbers, which are in all cases and situations better. But I'm getting the distinct impressions that things like the damage value for weapons and the lowered elemental defenses for things like armor aren't telling the entire story when it comes to equipment values.
What I need more or less explained to me is I guess the why and what of this. Are there other values that tell me how much faster or more damage that a weapon is and can deal equivalent damage, are there in-game explanations of when it's fine to take a hit to one defense in order to boost another? Or is this more of a "look up a guide" kind of thing? I just dislike operating sub-optimally if I can avoid it, I don't like exposing myself to weakness exploitations and the like. What's the tactics I'm looking at/for? Are there armor sets that are just capital B better? Are there weapons that are just traps to make life harder for you?
All weapons within a type will attack at the same speed, so Attack Speed is not a stat you need to worry about in MHW.
When you're looking at a weapon, they all have a raw damage, but then there may also be additional elemental damage or status effects listed. (If these values are in parenthesis, they won't actually do anything unless your armor has a Free Element perk to 'unlock' it.)
A weapon will also have a sharpness gauge. Sharpness goes Red, Orange, Yellow, Green, Blue, White, Purple, from dullest to sharpest. The sharpness will affect the damage a weapon does as well as if your attack will bounce off of certain monster parts.
A weapon may also have an Affinity number, negative or positive. Affinity basically is your chance to crit, or if it's negative, a chance to do less damage.
A weapon may also have bonus defense or decoration slots. Decoration slots allow you to insert gems that give you various skills/perks, and there's 4 levels of them.
So with that all in mind, it kind of depends on your play style as well as what you're about to hunt. One Long Sword may have a attack number of 500, but have blue Sharpness, and a level 3 deco slot. Another Long Sword may have 350 attack, but purple Sharpness, a level 1 deco slot, and 10% affinity. What works best in your build? Are you perhaps about to hunt something weak to Fire and strong to Ice? You may want to adjust your weapon accordingly.
And it's kinda similar with armor. One piece may have a lower defense, but an extra deco slot. Again, are you perhaps about to hunt something weak to Fire and strong to Ice? They'll probably be using ice attacks, so you may want to craft some armor for that fight that has a high Ice Defense stat. The built in perks are a huge part of armor, so it's all about finding a combo that fits what you want to do.
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Okay, so I just got Monster Hunter World the other day and I think I need some help. The "explain this to me" kind. In most games, I will never ever equip anything with lower numbers (let alone negative numbers) because those numbers are not higher numbers, which are in all cases and situations better. But I'm getting the distinct impressions that things like the damage value for weapons and the lowered elemental defenses for things like armor aren't telling the entire story when it comes to equipment values.
What I need more or less explained to me is I guess the why and what of this. Are there other values that tell me how much faster or more damage that a weapon is and can deal equivalent damage, are there in-game explanations of when it's fine to take a hit to one defense in order to boost another? Or is this more of a "look up a guide" kind of thing? I just dislike operating sub-optimally if I can avoid it, I don't like exposing myself to weakness exploitations and the like. What's the tactics I'm looking at/for? Are there armor sets that are just capital B better? Are there weapons that are just traps to make life harder for you?
So, the first thing to understand is that most monster hunter games are sort of lying with weapon power. It's perfectly valid to compare the displayed numbers, but only within the same weapon type. The actual value that's used in the damage formula (true raw) is hidden, and the displayed number is that times a constant based on weapon type (so greatswords show much higher numbers than SnS even if they have the same true raw). Now, for the most part, this reflects the difference in per-hit damage, but... (I want to say 4 or 4U actually showed true raw).
Raw damage (nonelemental) has the formula raw * motion * hitbox *sharpness. True raw times the motion value of the attack times the hitbox of the monster times the sharpness modifier. The motion value of attacks varies a lot - the strongest hit of greatswords is a 210% hit, while dual blades top out at 21%. Dual blades have drastically higher hit counts, so it all works out, but that's kind of how that true/displayed raw works.
Second, elemental damage. Divide the displayed number by 10. That's what actually gets used (the elemental formula is actually really simple! Element * hitbox * sharpness = damage. Unlike raw, there's no motion value for 95% of attacks, so greatswords and dual blades do the same per-hit... which is why dual blades are used for status/element and greatswords aren't).
In general though, the raw and sharpness are the most important factor for weapons. Even on stuff like dual blades, raw is king. (The hitboxes for element are much worse than raw). Affinity is nice, but crits are only a 25% damage increase (and negative affinity a 25% loss), so...
For armor, I don't recall the exact way the defense works. Bigger number better, of course. Elemental resist is a flat % change. 10% lightning resist cuts lightning damage by 10%. Negative resists increase it. And that's it. Focus on your overall defense, because most damage isn't elemental. (Some fights want elemental resist, and fighting Kirin with 50 lightning is so so much easier for instance), though avoiding negatives to your target helps (when possible). Enough of a resist does help against status effects - I don't recall the exact thresholds but the first reduces severity (so normal ones won't work) and the higher one gives total immunity. The number changes color I think?
The final factor is skills. MHW's skill system is much simpler than previous games to understand, since each armor and gem just gives whole ranks of a skill. Read what they do, there's tons of them and this is where the real power of armor sets is, because there's tons of ways to get the same raw defense by pounding armor spheres in. But the generally good things are increases to affinity and raw attack, or immunities to things monsters use. There's some rarer things like Focus that increases charge speed of weapons (any meter that goes up or things like greatsword/hammer/bow), or Mind's Eye that prevents bouncing off a monster (you're not doing much damage still, but you won't get into that vulnerable staggering animation)
Weapons are divided up into categories (great sword, dial blades etc). Within a category, all weapons share a moveset and attack at the same speeds. So the only attributes you need to care about are it's raw damage, affinity, and element.
Element is a flat amount that's applied to every hit, so fast weapons tend to want it. Raw is modified by the Motion Value of any given attack - great swords charge attacks have very big motion values for instance.
Affinity is your crit chance. Negative affinity means you have a chance to do weaker than normal attacks. This can be fixed by investing in affinity related skills. Endgame Iceborne builds usually cap affinity.
For armor:
Your hp is static. You have 100 base, and can get 50 more from armor skills (health boost+3) and 50 more from food/potions for a max of 200
Raw defense has a pretty complicated effect, but the higher the number, the better. It's generally not worth worrying what a piece had as long as it's roughly the same rarity - you can upgrade it plenty just fine.
Elemental defense operates on a %. Have 50% fire red? You'll take 50% less damage from a fire attack. Have negative 50%? You take 50% more damage and probably explode.
Additionally if you have above 20 in element this will block or downgrade elemental blights that are applied to you. If you have above negative 20, this will increase the severity of blights applied to you.
Every armor piece has 5 different elemental res, one for each of the five elements. It'll be strong in areas the creature was strong, and weak where it wasn't - rathalos armor is strong against for, but weak to lightning and dragon for instance.
End of the day, you wear armor for the skills it's got - def and res can be fixed by food or just learning to dodge good.
Oh yeah, forgot about that. Before MHW giving you a rough cheat sheet of monster elemental resists, looking at their armor was a great way to figure out what to hit them with. Although it should be noted that in both cases it's only giving an overall value and where you hit still matters.
Rathian takes double the lightning damage to her face compared to her belly say. (Also, an average elemental hitbox for a weakness is only like 20% tops on most of a monster, while decent slashing hitboxes start at 35-40%. Raw is king.)
KalnaurI See Rain . . .Centralia, WARegistered Userregular
edited January 2021
Okay, some further clarification: are green armor and weapons of a higher quality in absolute terms than, say, white? Like, is there really any reason to dump armor orbs into white icon armor? I've already gotten up to a set of Anjanath armor that's like, light green icons? Which also seems to be the color my highest upgrades for weapons sit at right now. Would it just be better now that I'm in "green" armor to wear that instead of anything in the white range, or are those pieces still of any use?
I'm assuming that, at least within their weapon type, higher up the tree is better, but are all the, say, green level katanas of about comparable quality and use? I mean, I understand elemental weaknesses and status weaknesses in the abstract, the more the stars the better the result. I've already got water weapons to fight fire monsters, and water weapons to fight . . . a fair amount of the things in the Ancient Forest and that second desert area. I just finished that first Zorah mission where the spiney-horned dragon-thing almost took me out as I tried hit-and-run tactics on it.
I'm not that great at blind dodging (or hitting, for that matter), and it's unlikely I'll get all that much better. It's like fighting unlocked in a Dark Souls game, which I'm technically incapable of doing and still progressing, and I've noted there's no lock-on here, so thus far it's really been more about getting in some combos and then hoping I'm dodging away from attacks as I run and try to reorient the monster right in front of me again. And that's just the way it's gonna go, to be honest. I've been using the "Defender" armor thus far while I'm trying to figure out how the game works, but I don't just want to lean on that forever; I'm making all this armor, all these weapons, I want to use them. That said, is there a good "catch all" weapon type and armor set (i.e. no weaknesses or elements) to use on expedition mode? It's my favorite thing right now, to just roam the map killing monsters until I have a full inventory, but I've been defaulting to that defender stuff and while it makes farming easier, I feel like there might be a more traditional something. Like, maybe something from the Rathian or some other non-elemental monster? Something with no negatives to its defenses since I'd be fighting a variety of different monsters? Is it better to mix and match in that case for whatever defenses and skills that would make that most reasonable?
Sidenote, not really a question more of a comment but it might be helpful information, while all the weapons seem to have their uses I'm most enjoying the katana, sword and shield, sword and shield/axe thing, and the bow. I want to try the bowgun too. The others have varying levels if liking it or not, I'm really not the biggest fan of what I think of as "heavy" weapons that limit movement while they're out because I'm counting on being able to GTFO at a moment's notice, so things like the greatsword, hammer, and heavy bowgun are out for now. They're just to slow for me to successfully avoid damage.
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Forever Zefirocloaked in the midnight glory of an event horizonRegistered Userregular
Okay, some further clarification: are green armor and weapons of a higher quality in absolute terms than, say, white? Like, is there really any reason to dump armor orbs into white icon armor? I've already gotten up to a set of Anjanath armor that's like, light green icons? Which also seems to be the color my highest upgrades for weapons sit at right now. Would it just be better now that I'm in "green" armor to wear that instead of anything in the white range, or are those pieces still of any use?
I'm assuming that, at least within their weapon type, higher up the tree is better, but are all the, say, green level katanas of about comparable quality and use? I mean, I understand elemental weaknesses and status weaknesses in the abstract, the more the stars the better the result. I've already got water weapons to fight fire monsters, and water weapons to fight . . . a fair amount of the things in the Ancient Forest and that second desert area. I just finished that first Zorah mission where the spiney-horned dragon-thing almost took me out as I tried hit-and-run tactics on it.
I'm not that great at blind dodging (or hitting, for that matter), and it's unlikely I'll get all that much better. It's like fighting unlocked in a Dark Souls game, which I'm technically incapable of doing and still progressing, and I've noted there's no lock-on here, so thus far it's really been more about getting in some combos and then hoping I'm dodging away from attacks as I run and try to reorient the monster right in front of me again. And that's just the way it's gonna go, to be honest. I've been using the "Defender" armor thus far while I'm trying to figure out how the game works, but I don't just want to lean on that forever; I'm making all this armor, all these weapons, I want to use them. That said, is there a good "catch all" weapon type and armor set (i.e. no weaknesses or elements) to use on expedition mode? It's my favorite thing right now, to just roam the map killing monsters until I have a full inventory, but I've been defaulting to that defender stuff and while it makes farming easier, I feel like there might be a more traditional something. Like, maybe something from the Rathian or some other non-elemental monster? Something with no negatives to its defenses since I'd be fighting a variety of different monsters? Is it better to mix and match in that case for whatever defenses and skills that would make that most reasonable?
Sidenote, not really a question more of a comment but it might be helpful information, while all the weapons seem to have their uses I'm most enjoying the katana, sword and shield, sword and shield/axe thing, and the bow. I want to try the bowgun too. The others have varying levels if liking it or not, I'm really not the biggest fan of what I think of as "heavy" weapons that limit movement while they're out because I'm counting on being able to GTFO at a moment's notice, so things like the greatsword, hammer, and heavy bowgun are out for now. They're just to slow for me to successfully avoid damage.
First off, I'm pretty sure there is a lock-on option? You may need to go into your game settings to turn it on?
But yeah, for weapons, as far as I recall, it's always going to be better to upgrade to the next weapon on the tree. Now, once you get to the end of the tree, I think it tops out at Rank 12 (in Iceborne), Rank 11 (and maybe some Rank 10 also?) will still be viable. I mean, if there's a Rank 12 version of a weapon, that should be the best, but some weapon lines will only go to Rank 11, and will still compete with Rank 12 weapons. A good "general purpose" weapon I think is going to depend on the type of weapon you're using. Like, I believe the Rath line of Charge Blade's were solid all-arounders, but that may not be true for Long Sword. And it's obviously totally up to you, but I would recommend trying to figure out which weapon type you like the most and sticking with it for a long time so you can really learn the weapon and the monsters.
For armor, I feel like the Rank variation may be even wider because it's mostly about the perks that show up on the armor. I'm not sure if there's really a good "general purpose" set besides that Defender Armor that they hand out which is basically better than anything in Low Rank, and I think takes you through some of High Rank too?
But this is more end game talk. Where you're at, it's really just going to be whatever you want to do. Personally, I wouldn't worry too much about Low Rank stuff. You'll quickly move into High Rank which will replace all the Low Rank stuff. High Rank is where you'll want to start investing in your builds, upgrading armor etc. If you have Iceborne, you'll eventually move into Master Rank, which will completely replace all your High Rank stuff, but that's a loooong way to go.
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BrodyThe WatchThe First ShoreRegistered Userregular
Also, don't be afraid to level stuff up. There aren't any "you only ever get one of these" in this game. There are some items that are a little rarer, but if your just clearing the first Anjenath, that's a ways away.
For weapons, it's basically: fight a bunch of things, see if you can make anything better (for basically everything this is the highest raw/sharpness available) than what you are using, if yes, build that, if no, kill more things.
"I will write your name in the ruin of them. I will paint you across history in the color of their blood."
BrodyThe WatchThe First ShoreRegistered Userregular
Also,I can't remember the name of the armor set/weapons, but with the release of Iceborne they added gear to help speed people through world, I would avoid building/using those until you have the hang of the game and want to jump straight to iceborne (if you have IB).
"I will write your name in the ruin of them. I will paint you across history in the color of their blood."
It's not like an ocarina of time lock on, but I think if you click in the right joystick it tries to set your camera to the monster.
also armor doesnt matter as much as the abilities on the armor. i would try to get some with +attack, and try to get gems like free meal and +health for QoL. different parts of armor give varying amounts of skills so you can often get more of a given skill if you mix and match. and the alpha vs beta difference is that alpha has higher skill and beta has lower amounts of a skill but either more or higher level jewel slots.
First off, I'm pretty sure there is a lock-on option? You may need to go into your game settings to turn it on?
But yeah, for weapons, as far as I recall, it's always going to be better to upgrade to the next weapon on the tree. Now, once you get to the end of the tree, I think it tops out at Rank 12 (in Iceborne), Rank 11 (and maybe some Rank 10 also?) will still be viable. I mean, if there's a Rank 12 version of a weapon, that should be the best, but some weapon lines will only go to Rank 11, and will still compete with Rank 12 weapons. A good "general purpose" weapon I think is going to depend on the type of weapon you're using. Like, I believe the Rath line of Charge Blade's were solid all-arounders, but that may not be true for Long Sword. And it's obviously totally up to you, but I would recommend trying to figure out which weapon type you like the most and sticking with it for a long time so you can really learn the weapon and the monsters.
For armor, I feel like the Rank variation may be even wider because it's mostly about the perks that show up on the armor. I'm not sure if there's really a good "general purpose" set besides that Defender Armor that they hand out which is basically better than anything in Low Rank, and I think takes you through some of High Rank too?
But this is more end game talk. Where you're at, it's really just going to be whatever you want to do. Personally, I wouldn't worry too much about Low Rank stuff. You'll quickly move into High Rank which will replace all the Low Rank stuff. High Rank is where you'll want to start investing in your builds, upgrading armor etc. If you have Iceborne, you'll eventually move into Master Rank, which will completely replace all your High Rank stuff, but that's a loooong way to go.
I have Iceborne, yes.
I think my main thing is that . . . well I got this ten days ago and I'm still only right after that try to capture Lava Monster mission, and I've been doing just a whole bunch of almost exclusively Ancient Forest Investigations and Expeditions to farm up plenty of "stuff" and "make all the things" that I currently can. So I'm not exactly moving up quickly through the ranks as it were, I'm "stuck" until I do more of the story (unless doing a week's worth of stuff will get me into higher level stuff). I tend to do this, grind for the best stuff at all possible points in a game because I dislike being outmatched by the game. The Defender stuff feels a lot like "easy mode" which I like, but I also want to actually use the weapons and armor I've got going, which is going to see me hunting more things in the Ancient Forest and the . . .Wildspire . . . Wastes? I think that's it, I haven't gone back since the two mission-based monster hunts there. So I need more Hammerheadrex and Sandfishsharkthing parts for some of the stuff I want.
Basically, I was wondering if there was a good "no elemental defenses or only positive ones, and skills for general gathering" kind of armor, which in my head fits the "expedition" method of playing. I'm sure I can find a weapon that either has no element attack, or only has something like poison or blast or paralyze that's a solid weapon in any of the ones I like.
As far as learning a single weapon . . . it probably won't happen. I've been using the Katana the last few days, but I feel like switching to the . . . switchblade? Chargeblade? The sword and shield that turns into an axe, that one. And playing with that a bit more. It's part of what's keeping the game interesting for me, trying out more than one weapon.
Also,I can't remember the name of the armor set/weapons, but with the release of Iceborne they added gear to help speed people through world, I would avoid building/using those until you have the hang of the game and want to jump straight to iceborne (if you have IB).
It's defender gear and I've already been using it to get a handle on the basics of movement and combat without fainting/failing constantly (which would discourage me from playing further in this early time). I'm now easing down into "regular" armor, thus my questions about it.
It's not like an ocarina of time lock on, but I think if you click in the right joystick it tries to set your camera to the monster.
also armor doesnt matter as much as the abilities on the armor. i would try to get some with +attack, and try to get gems like free meal and +health for QoL. different parts of armor give varying amounts of skills so you can often get more of a given skill if you mix and match. and the alpha vs beta difference is that alpha has higher skill and beta has lower amounts of a skill but either more or higher level jewel slots.
Yeah, the lock-on I'm used to is the "lock the camera to the monster" type lock-on, otherwise it's camera free, and it's not like it's super fast to turn the camera looking for the monster, so I have to keep running away so I can see it head on, or risk getting hit constantly because I can't see what's attacking me from where. I'm not specifically looking for a fix for this, per se, I just assume it's required to play the game.
Doesn't armor defense mean I take less damage? I'm still being hit quite a lot, and it's not always easy to get away to heal, so I'm looking for everything that isn't dodging well that will make me take less damage.
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BrodyThe WatchThe First ShoreRegistered Userregular
Balancing elemental resists usually isn't too hard because you'll be aiming for skills from multiple sets of armor. Basically try not to dip below -10%, and if you know a monster is going to be doing a bunch of one type of damage, maybe try and swap a piece out to make sure that element is no lower than 0.
IIRC there is a hard lock option, and I used to try that back in MH3U, but it makes the game a lot harder, in my experience.
If you really want to do a tank build, you are probably best off with lance. Or, learn how to charge your shield fast for Charge Blade. Guard up will reduce damage taken while blocking.
"I will write your name in the ruin of them. I will paint you across history in the color of their blood."
Balancing elemental resists usually isn't too hard because you'll be aiming for skills from multiple sets of armor. Basically try not to dip below -10%, and if you know a monster is going to be doing a bunch of one type of damage, maybe try and swap a piece out to make sure that element is no lower than 0.
IIRC there is a hard lock option, and I used to try that back in MH3U, but it makes the game a lot harder, in my experience.
If you really want to do a tank build, you are probably best off with lance. Or, learn how to charge your shield fast for Charge Blade. Guard up will reduce damage taken while blocking.
I'm honestly not a tank type player, I'm usually more of a ranged/magic build in basically any game I play, with melee secondary. Like, that "magic and blades" red mage/battle mage style play is usually my thing. Mid-to-close range and quick moving is my preference. It's just that the ranged styles in this are somewhat limited to bows or bowguns, from my experience, and they don't have any way that I've found to effectively attack in front of them as well. And when I tend to play with any sword, it's almost always with a shield in any game because . . . well, gotta block.
As an idea from I'll use my usual Dark Souls build as an example, Int-focused magic build with a magic infused claymore and a 100% damage block medium shield with a bow on hand for long range.
I'm . . . well very bad at doing single-focus builds in anything. Too many weaknesses in anything that isn't a jack-of-all-trades. And switching around with weapons helps to make it feel less boring, as well.
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the gathering only sets i think are the butterfly looking ones, or one of the sets with guild in the name.
one of the L buttons on controller whips the camera to be behind you, so you can run towards yourself hit that and spin it 180. if youre on PC someone else will have to help with keybinds.
defense does make you take less damage, but 1-2 points different per piece isnt going to make a huge difference. and most monsters dont do enough elemental damage to worry about resists on them until later.
one tip about getting hit is to not be greedy. hit a few times then you can roll out of most attacks to cut the animation short and then sheathe your weapon to make dodging and getting back into position easier.
there are 2 evade related skills. evade plus gives more iframes and is kinda insane at max level. evade distance makes you roll farther but doesnt give more invincibility. nargacuga armor usually has both, but dont think hes there until the expansion. also the iframes start when you start to roll not during it. and try to dodge through attacks or you might still get clipped by the hitbox because there arent a ton of iframes without the skill. some attacks cant really be rolled through and you just gotta get out of the way.
also trying multiple weapons is fine but will probably mean lots of extra farming for both parts and money to make/upgrade them. if youre still using longsword try to make the lightning squirrel one (tobi kodachi). it has good stats and lots of stuff is weak to electric. try looking at the crafting tree and see what it starts with and build the prior parts (i think its the bone longsword line).
the gathering only sets i think are the butterfly looking ones, or one of the sets with guild in the name.
one of the L buttons on controller whips the camera to be behind you, so you can run towards yourself hit that and spin it 180. if youre on PC someone else will have to help with keybinds.
defense does make you take less damage, but 1-2 points different per piece isnt going to make a huge difference. and most monsters dont do enough elemental damage to worry about resists on them until later.
one tip about getting hit is to not be greedy. hit a few times then you can roll out of most attacks to cut the animation short and then sheathe your weapon to make dodging and getting back into position easier.
there are 2 evade related skills. evade plus gives more iframes and is kinda insane at max level. evade distance makes you roll farther but doesnt give more invincibility. nargacuga armor usually has both, but dont think hes there until the expansion. also the iframes start when you start to roll not during it. and try to dodge through attacks or you might still get clipped by the hitbox because there arent a ton of iframes without the skill. some attacks cant really be rolled through and you just gotta get out of the way.
also trying multiple weapons is fine but will probably mean lots of extra farming for both parts and money to make/upgrade them. if youre still using longsword try to make the lightning squirrel one (tobi kodachi). it has good stats and lots of stuff is weak to electric. try looking at the crafting tree and see what it starts with and build the prior parts (i think its the bone longsword line).
I've been building one weapon for each current tree end weapon for every weapon I like.
Yes, I am that person. Yes, that's crazy. Also, it feels good (still) to kill things and take their stuff, and it makes sure I have a weapon damage type for every occasion, eventually.
It's good to know I'm looking more at what the effects of an armor set are rather than per se the defense value of a point or so.
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If you want a general purpose set, you kinda need to define what general purpose for you is.
The baseline in the end game meta is having weakness exploit +3, critical eye +7 and crit damage +3. The way these skills interact puts you at 90% crit chance as long as you hit a weak point(usually the face or belly, tenderizing can "make" weak points but the math is more complex than you need to know as a newbie). In addition your crits hitting for 1.5x. so it's a bit boost to damage.
Health boost +3 is usually considered mandatory as well, just for the extra safety it brings.
Beyond that? Spice with what makes sense for your play style and weapon. I run evasion+5 for instance, because the massive increase in iframes helps dodge stuff. Focus+3 makes it easier for me to do charged attacks and gives me more opportunities. So on, so forth
Honestly, in low rank, just use armor that you think looks cool. The armor options in low rank don't have the same nuance as the high rank versions (and, when you get to high rank, you'll be selling off the low rank stuff anyways).
Weapons are a little different since you usually need the low rank to upgrade into the high rank stuff (not every weapon has a direct-to-high/master rank crafting option).
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the gathering only sets i think are the butterfly looking ones, or one of the sets with guild in the name.
one of the L buttons on controller whips the camera to be behind you, so you can run towards yourself hit that and spin it 180. if youre on PC someone else will have to help with keybinds.
defense does make you take less damage, but 1-2 points different per piece isnt going to make a huge difference. and most monsters dont do enough elemental damage to worry about resists on them until later.
one tip about getting hit is to not be greedy. hit a few times then you can roll out of most attacks to cut the animation short and then sheathe your weapon to make dodging and getting back into position easier.
there are 2 evade related skills. evade plus gives more iframes and is kinda insane at max level. evade distance makes you roll farther but doesnt give more invincibility. nargacuga armor usually has both, but dont think hes there until the expansion. also the iframes start when you start to roll not during it. and try to dodge through attacks or you might still get clipped by the hitbox because there arent a ton of iframes without the skill. some attacks cant really be rolled through and you just gotta get out of the way.
also trying multiple weapons is fine but will probably mean lots of extra farming for both parts and money to make/upgrade them. if youre still using longsword try to make the lightning squirrel one (tobi kodachi). it has good stats and lots of stuff is weak to electric. try looking at the crafting tree and see what it starts with and build the prior parts (i think its the bone longsword line).
I've been building one weapon for each current tree end weapon for every weapon I like.
Yes, I am that person. Yes, that's crazy. Also, it feels good (still) to kill things and take their stuff, and it makes sure I have a weapon damage type for every occasion, eventually.
It's good to know I'm looking more at what the effects of an armor set are rather than per se the defense value of a point or so.
I did something like this for MH3 (tri), one of the smaller MonHun games. If you're really going to aim for the same, you might want to make a checklist. I tallied all the items needed to craft what I didn't already have into a spreadsheet. I knew where to source each item, but having the list let me know what to hunt, what park breaks to go for, and when I had enough so I could turn excess into zenny. I don't think I would have succeeded without it.
From when I started this personal mission, late in the game's life, it took me through the very last day of Tri's online service to finish; a few months of hunting every spare moment.
The more you farm the more armor spheres you'll get so you can always upgrade armor pretty close to the same armor value. The skills make or break some weapons. I'm terrible at remembering the names of them. But stuff like charge blade and gunlance benefit from the skill that gives more explosive damage, bows almost require the one that gives an extra charge level, lots of weapons can use stuff that reduces how much sharpness you use up per hit, free meal is secretly the best skill in the game.
Elemental weapons are also kind of a trap. Raw damage is almost always better because the hotboxes on monsters don't have very high multipliers for it save a couple exceptions. That's why attack and crit is the go to for pretty much everything. It can be helpful to use a weapon with the right element to fight whatever monster, but think of it more as a bonus than the main strategy.
Also I'm sure you're mostly just smacking monsters in their legs because it is generally safer and easier, but try to smack them in the head or tails, you will almost always do way more damage.
The more you farm the more armor spheres you'll get so you can always upgrade armor pretty close to the same armor value. The skills make or break some weapons. I'm terrible at remembering the names of them. But stuff like charge blade and gunlance benefit from the skill that gives more explosive damage, bows almost require the one that gives an extra charge level, lots of weapons can use stuff that reduces how much sharpness you use up per hit, free meal is secretly the best skill in the game.
Elemental weapons are also kind of a trap. Raw damage is almost always better because the hotboxes on monsters don't have very high multipliers for it save a couple exceptions. That's why attack and crit is the go to for pretty much everything. It can be helpful to use a weapon with the right element to fight whatever monster, but think of it more as a bonus than the main strategy.
Also I'm sure you're mostly just smacking monsters in their legs because it is generally safer and easier, but try to smack them in the head or tails, you will almost always do way more damage.
And, depending on the monster, you'll either break horns to get horn material (important for certain weapons/armor) or cut tails which gives you another carve with its own loot table.
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I kinda disagree re: free meal - it implies you're spending a lot of time chugging, which tends to get you hit more.
The way monster stagger values etc work out, hitting harder is always better. Smack a monster, it staggersv or trips, the cycle repeats. With late game weapons you can even get heal on hit which just makes this cycle nutty
Free meal really helps with longevity in fights that you are having trouble with. Running out of potions is a real possibility if youre kind of on that cusp of getting over that hump and into the next tier of gear and fighting a monster you arent very familiar with. Also, it works with all consumables, so if youre in a shitstorm of a multiplayer group you could squeeze out extra lifepowder, or even down max pots and ancient potions real quick. If youre doing speedruns and already have maxed out gear it isnt really doing anything for you. As a 1 deco slot QoL skill, it is kind of bonkers for progression when you are new to the game or when youre learning a new weapon and look like a baby deer with it.
The more you farm the more armor spheres you'll get so you can always upgrade armor pretty close to the same armor value. The skills make or break some weapons. I'm terrible at remembering the names of them. But stuff like charge blade and gunlance benefit from the skill that gives more explosive damage, bows almost require the one that gives an extra charge level, lots of weapons can use stuff that reduces how much sharpness you use up per hit, free meal is secretly the best skill in the game.
Elemental weapons are also kind of a trap. Raw damage is almost always better because the hotboxes on monsters don't have very high multipliers for it save a couple exceptions. That's why attack and crit is the go to for pretty much everything. It can be helpful to use a weapon with the right element to fight whatever monster, but think of it more as a bonus than the main strategy.
Also I'm sure you're mostly just smacking monsters in their legs because it is generally safer and easier, but try to smack them in the head or tails, you will almost always do way more damage.
Actually, before fights are over I've usually broken the head and tail (I love chopping the tails off, thus the reason why I like the Longsword and Sword and Shield and Chargeblade), though there is usually a fair amount of belly and leg hitting since it's a usually a good place to get some hits and charge the Longsword or Charge Blade in specific without too much damage. I'm also trying to remember Demondrug, Might Pill, Armorskin, etc.
I fought a Rathian and a Ralthos at the same time last night. Not on purpose. I don't recommend it. I was starting to run out of time on the hunt for the Rathian so I had to kind of skirt the Ralthos, which was much more damaging to me than the Rathian and I figure that's "what happens" since it seems to fly a lot and hit with poison.
So later I went on an expedition and singled the bastard flier out and then ripped him a new one with a stronger weapon because eff that guy. Here's a Flash Pod, ya bastard. Try flying now.
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fighting him as God intended, 1v1 no items, greatsword only, final destination.
*nods, smiling*
*stops nodding, stops smiling*
LS is even better at countering monsters into the grave in Rise too.
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Just a heads up on the demo LS, apparently some of its Motion Values are bugged. The big one I know of is the helmsplitter damage is roughly double what it should be. So nobody should be shocked if that changes when the game comes out.
Lance block counter claw counter for fucking days. I love any monster that has consistent combos because I just would get into a Sekrio rhythm. Clunk slock, clunk slock, clunk slock
Zinogre and Nergi were also a ton of fun to do this to.
That seems plausible, it was hitting for like 360+ on mizu in red. That's utterly obscene and it beats out true charge slash slightly. At the same time, half of that is still a big hit when it's all mount and has little windup. And oh no whatever will I do about being in yellow.... *counters roar*
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I feel like it's going to be extremely broken late in the game.
Wirefall is real good, but it's locking you out of the very good silkbind attacks if you're using it. Also, staying down = staying invincible, which might help at times.
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I'm assuming upgrades to the number of wirebug uses you get/recovery speed.
If those aren't in then it's probably self-balancing, yes.
They have stated there will be no wirebug-related armor skills IIRC.
What I need more or less explained to me is I guess the why and what of this. Are there other values that tell me how much faster or more damage that a weapon is and can deal equivalent damage, are there in-game explanations of when it's fine to take a hit to one defense in order to boost another? Or is this more of a "look up a guide" kind of thing? I just dislike operating sub-optimally if I can avoid it, I don't like exposing myself to weakness exploitations and the like. What's the tactics I'm looking at/for? Are there armor sets that are just capital B better? Are there weapons that are just traps to make life harder for you?
All weapons within a type will attack at the same speed, so Attack Speed is not a stat you need to worry about in MHW.
When you're looking at a weapon, they all have a raw damage, but then there may also be additional elemental damage or status effects listed. (If these values are in parenthesis, they won't actually do anything unless your armor has a Free Element perk to 'unlock' it.)
A weapon will also have a sharpness gauge. Sharpness goes Red, Orange, Yellow, Green, Blue, White, Purple, from dullest to sharpest. The sharpness will affect the damage a weapon does as well as if your attack will bounce off of certain monster parts.
A weapon may also have an Affinity number, negative or positive. Affinity basically is your chance to crit, or if it's negative, a chance to do less damage.
A weapon may also have bonus defense or decoration slots. Decoration slots allow you to insert gems that give you various skills/perks, and there's 4 levels of them.
So with that all in mind, it kind of depends on your play style as well as what you're about to hunt. One Long Sword may have a attack number of 500, but have blue Sharpness, and a level 3 deco slot. Another Long Sword may have 350 attack, but purple Sharpness, a level 1 deco slot, and 10% affinity. What works best in your build? Are you perhaps about to hunt something weak to Fire and strong to Ice? You may want to adjust your weapon accordingly.
And it's kinda similar with armor. One piece may have a lower defense, but an extra deco slot. Again, are you perhaps about to hunt something weak to Fire and strong to Ice? They'll probably be using ice attacks, so you may want to craft some armor for that fight that has a high Ice Defense stat. The built in perks are a huge part of armor, so it's all about finding a combo that fits what you want to do.
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So, the first thing to understand is that most monster hunter games are sort of lying with weapon power. It's perfectly valid to compare the displayed numbers, but only within the same weapon type. The actual value that's used in the damage formula (true raw) is hidden, and the displayed number is that times a constant based on weapon type (so greatswords show much higher numbers than SnS even if they have the same true raw). Now, for the most part, this reflects the difference in per-hit damage, but... (I want to say 4 or 4U actually showed true raw).
Raw damage (nonelemental) has the formula raw * motion * hitbox *sharpness. True raw times the motion value of the attack times the hitbox of the monster times the sharpness modifier. The motion value of attacks varies a lot - the strongest hit of greatswords is a 210% hit, while dual blades top out at 21%. Dual blades have drastically higher hit counts, so it all works out, but that's kind of how that true/displayed raw works.
Second, elemental damage. Divide the displayed number by 10. That's what actually gets used (the elemental formula is actually really simple! Element * hitbox * sharpness = damage. Unlike raw, there's no motion value for 95% of attacks, so greatswords and dual blades do the same per-hit... which is why dual blades are used for status/element and greatswords aren't).
In general though, the raw and sharpness are the most important factor for weapons. Even on stuff like dual blades, raw is king. (The hitboxes for element are much worse than raw). Affinity is nice, but crits are only a 25% damage increase (and negative affinity a 25% loss), so...
For armor, I don't recall the exact way the defense works. Bigger number better, of course. Elemental resist is a flat % change. 10% lightning resist cuts lightning damage by 10%. Negative resists increase it. And that's it. Focus on your overall defense, because most damage isn't elemental. (Some fights want elemental resist, and fighting Kirin with 50 lightning is so so much easier for instance), though avoiding negatives to your target helps (when possible). Enough of a resist does help against status effects - I don't recall the exact thresholds but the first reduces severity (so normal ones won't work) and the higher one gives total immunity. The number changes color I think?
The final factor is skills. MHW's skill system is much simpler than previous games to understand, since each armor and gem just gives whole ranks of a skill. Read what they do, there's tons of them and this is where the real power of armor sets is, because there's tons of ways to get the same raw defense by pounding armor spheres in. But the generally good things are increases to affinity and raw attack, or immunities to things monsters use. There's some rarer things like Focus that increases charge speed of weapons (any meter that goes up or things like greatsword/hammer/bow), or Mind's Eye that prevents bouncing off a monster (you're not doing much damage still, but you won't get into that vulnerable staggering animation)
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Weapons are divided up into categories (great sword, dial blades etc). Within a category, all weapons share a moveset and attack at the same speeds. So the only attributes you need to care about are it's raw damage, affinity, and element.
Element is a flat amount that's applied to every hit, so fast weapons tend to want it. Raw is modified by the Motion Value of any given attack - great swords charge attacks have very big motion values for instance.
Affinity is your crit chance. Negative affinity means you have a chance to do weaker than normal attacks. This can be fixed by investing in affinity related skills. Endgame Iceborne builds usually cap affinity.
For armor:
Your hp is static. You have 100 base, and can get 50 more from armor skills (health boost+3) and 50 more from food/potions for a max of 200
Raw defense has a pretty complicated effect, but the higher the number, the better. It's generally not worth worrying what a piece had as long as it's roughly the same rarity - you can upgrade it plenty just fine.
Elemental defense operates on a %. Have 50% fire red? You'll take 50% less damage from a fire attack. Have negative 50%? You take 50% more damage and probably explode.
Additionally if you have above 20 in element this will block or downgrade elemental blights that are applied to you. If you have above negative 20, this will increase the severity of blights applied to you.
Every armor piece has 5 different elemental res, one for each of the five elements. It'll be strong in areas the creature was strong, and weak where it wasn't - rathalos armor is strong against for, but weak to lightning and dragon for instance.
End of the day, you wear armor for the skills it's got - def and res can be fixed by food or just learning to dodge good.
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Rathian takes double the lightning damage to her face compared to her belly say. (Also, an average elemental hitbox for a weakness is only like 20% tops on most of a monster, while decent slashing hitboxes start at 35-40%. Raw is king.)
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I'm assuming that, at least within their weapon type, higher up the tree is better, but are all the, say, green level katanas of about comparable quality and use? I mean, I understand elemental weaknesses and status weaknesses in the abstract, the more the stars the better the result. I've already got water weapons to fight fire monsters, and water weapons to fight . . . a fair amount of the things in the Ancient Forest and that second desert area. I just finished that first Zorah mission where the spiney-horned dragon-thing almost took me out as I tried hit-and-run tactics on it.
I'm not that great at blind dodging (or hitting, for that matter), and it's unlikely I'll get all that much better. It's like fighting unlocked in a Dark Souls game, which I'm technically incapable of doing and still progressing, and I've noted there's no lock-on here, so thus far it's really been more about getting in some combos and then hoping I'm dodging away from attacks as I run and try to reorient the monster right in front of me again. And that's just the way it's gonna go, to be honest. I've been using the "Defender" armor thus far while I'm trying to figure out how the game works, but I don't just want to lean on that forever; I'm making all this armor, all these weapons, I want to use them. That said, is there a good "catch all" weapon type and armor set (i.e. no weaknesses or elements) to use on expedition mode? It's my favorite thing right now, to just roam the map killing monsters until I have a full inventory, but I've been defaulting to that defender stuff and while it makes farming easier, I feel like there might be a more traditional something. Like, maybe something from the Rathian or some other non-elemental monster? Something with no negatives to its defenses since I'd be fighting a variety of different monsters? Is it better to mix and match in that case for whatever defenses and skills that would make that most reasonable?
Sidenote, not really a question more of a comment but it might be helpful information, while all the weapons seem to have their uses I'm most enjoying the katana, sword and shield, sword and shield/axe thing, and the bow. I want to try the bowgun too. The others have varying levels if liking it or not, I'm really not the biggest fan of what I think of as "heavy" weapons that limit movement while they're out because I'm counting on being able to GTFO at a moment's notice, so things like the greatsword, hammer, and heavy bowgun are out for now. They're just to slow for me to successfully avoid damage.
First off, I'm pretty sure there is a lock-on option? You may need to go into your game settings to turn it on?
But yeah, for weapons, as far as I recall, it's always going to be better to upgrade to the next weapon on the tree. Now, once you get to the end of the tree, I think it tops out at Rank 12 (in Iceborne), Rank 11 (and maybe some Rank 10 also?) will still be viable. I mean, if there's a Rank 12 version of a weapon, that should be the best, but some weapon lines will only go to Rank 11, and will still compete with Rank 12 weapons. A good "general purpose" weapon I think is going to depend on the type of weapon you're using. Like, I believe the Rath line of Charge Blade's were solid all-arounders, but that may not be true for Long Sword. And it's obviously totally up to you, but I would recommend trying to figure out which weapon type you like the most and sticking with it for a long time so you can really learn the weapon and the monsters.
For armor, I feel like the Rank variation may be even wider because it's mostly about the perks that show up on the armor. I'm not sure if there's really a good "general purpose" set besides that Defender Armor that they hand out which is basically better than anything in Low Rank, and I think takes you through some of High Rank too?
But this is more end game talk. Where you're at, it's really just going to be whatever you want to do. Personally, I wouldn't worry too much about Low Rank stuff. You'll quickly move into High Rank which will replace all the Low Rank stuff. High Rank is where you'll want to start investing in your builds, upgrading armor etc. If you have Iceborne, you'll eventually move into Master Rank, which will completely replace all your High Rank stuff, but that's a loooong way to go.
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For weapons, it's basically: fight a bunch of things, see if you can make anything better (for basically everything this is the highest raw/sharpness available) than what you are using, if yes, build that, if no, kill more things.
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The Monster Baru Cormorant - Seth Dickinson
Steam: Korvalain
also armor doesnt matter as much as the abilities on the armor. i would try to get some with +attack, and try to get gems like free meal and +health for QoL. different parts of armor give varying amounts of skills so you can often get more of a given skill if you mix and match. and the alpha vs beta difference is that alpha has higher skill and beta has lower amounts of a skill but either more or higher level jewel slots.
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I have Iceborne, yes.
I think my main thing is that . . . well I got this ten days ago and I'm still only right after that try to capture Lava Monster mission, and I've been doing just a whole bunch of almost exclusively Ancient Forest Investigations and Expeditions to farm up plenty of "stuff" and "make all the things" that I currently can. So I'm not exactly moving up quickly through the ranks as it were, I'm "stuck" until I do more of the story (unless doing a week's worth of stuff will get me into higher level stuff). I tend to do this, grind for the best stuff at all possible points in a game because I dislike being outmatched by the game. The Defender stuff feels a lot like "easy mode" which I like, but I also want to actually use the weapons and armor I've got going, which is going to see me hunting more things in the Ancient Forest and the . . .Wildspire . . . Wastes? I think that's it, I haven't gone back since the two mission-based monster hunts there. So I need more Hammerheadrex and Sandfishsharkthing parts for some of the stuff I want.
Basically, I was wondering if there was a good "no elemental defenses or only positive ones, and skills for general gathering" kind of armor, which in my head fits the "expedition" method of playing. I'm sure I can find a weapon that either has no element attack, or only has something like poison or blast or paralyze that's a solid weapon in any of the ones I like.
As far as learning a single weapon . . . it probably won't happen. I've been using the Katana the last few days, but I feel like switching to the . . . switchblade? Chargeblade? The sword and shield that turns into an axe, that one. And playing with that a bit more. It's part of what's keeping the game interesting for me, trying out more than one weapon.
It's defender gear and I've already been using it to get a handle on the basics of movement and combat without fainting/failing constantly (which would discourage me from playing further in this early time). I'm now easing down into "regular" armor, thus my questions about it.
Yeah, the lock-on I'm used to is the "lock the camera to the monster" type lock-on, otherwise it's camera free, and it's not like it's super fast to turn the camera looking for the monster, so I have to keep running away so I can see it head on, or risk getting hit constantly because I can't see what's attacking me from where. I'm not specifically looking for a fix for this, per se, I just assume it's required to play the game.
Doesn't armor defense mean I take less damage? I'm still being hit quite a lot, and it's not always easy to get away to heal, so I'm looking for everything that isn't dodging well that will make me take less damage.
IIRC there is a hard lock option, and I used to try that back in MH3U, but it makes the game a lot harder, in my experience.
If you really want to do a tank build, you are probably best off with lance. Or, learn how to charge your shield fast for Charge Blade. Guard up will reduce damage taken while blocking.
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I'm honestly not a tank type player, I'm usually more of a ranged/magic build in basically any game I play, with melee secondary. Like, that "magic and blades" red mage/battle mage style play is usually my thing. Mid-to-close range and quick moving is my preference. It's just that the ranged styles in this are somewhat limited to bows or bowguns, from my experience, and they don't have any way that I've found to effectively attack in front of them as well. And when I tend to play with any sword, it's almost always with a shield in any game because . . . well, gotta block.
As an idea from I'll use my usual Dark Souls build as an example, Int-focused magic build with a magic infused claymore and a 100% damage block medium shield with a bow on hand for long range.
I'm . . . well very bad at doing single-focus builds in anything. Too many weaknesses in anything that isn't a jack-of-all-trades. And switching around with weapons helps to make it feel less boring, as well.
one of the L buttons on controller whips the camera to be behind you, so you can run towards yourself hit that and spin it 180. if youre on PC someone else will have to help with keybinds.
defense does make you take less damage, but 1-2 points different per piece isnt going to make a huge difference. and most monsters dont do enough elemental damage to worry about resists on them until later.
one tip about getting hit is to not be greedy. hit a few times then you can roll out of most attacks to cut the animation short and then sheathe your weapon to make dodging and getting back into position easier.
there are 2 evade related skills. evade plus gives more iframes and is kinda insane at max level. evade distance makes you roll farther but doesnt give more invincibility. nargacuga armor usually has both, but dont think hes there until the expansion. also the iframes start when you start to roll not during it. and try to dodge through attacks or you might still get clipped by the hitbox because there arent a ton of iframes without the skill. some attacks cant really be rolled through and you just gotta get out of the way.
also trying multiple weapons is fine but will probably mean lots of extra farming for both parts and money to make/upgrade them. if youre still using longsword try to make the lightning squirrel one (tobi kodachi). it has good stats and lots of stuff is weak to electric. try looking at the crafting tree and see what it starts with and build the prior parts (i think its the bone longsword line).
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I've been building one weapon for each current tree end weapon for every weapon I like.
Yes, I am that person. Yes, that's crazy. Also, it feels good (still) to kill things and take their stuff, and it makes sure I have a weapon damage type for every occasion, eventually.
It's good to know I'm looking more at what the effects of an armor set are rather than per se the defense value of a point or so.
The baseline in the end game meta is having weakness exploit +3, critical eye +7 and crit damage +3. The way these skills interact puts you at 90% crit chance as long as you hit a weak point(usually the face or belly, tenderizing can "make" weak points but the math is more complex than you need to know as a newbie). In addition your crits hitting for 1.5x. so it's a bit boost to damage.
Health boost +3 is usually considered mandatory as well, just for the extra safety it brings.
Beyond that? Spice with what makes sense for your play style and weapon. I run evasion+5 for instance, because the massive increase in iframes helps dodge stuff. Focus+3 makes it easier for me to do charged attacks and gives me more opportunities. So on, so forth
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Weapons are a little different since you usually need the low rank to upgrade into the high rank stuff (not every weapon has a direct-to-high/master rank crafting option).
From when I started this personal mission, late in the game's life, it took me through the very last day of Tri's online service to finish; a few months of hunting every spare moment.
Good hunting.
PSN: theIceBurner, IceBurnerEU, IceBurner-JP | X-Link Kai: TheIceBurner
Dragon's Dogma: 192 Warrior Linty | 80 Strider Alicia | 32 Mage Terra
Elemental weapons are also kind of a trap. Raw damage is almost always better because the hotboxes on monsters don't have very high multipliers for it save a couple exceptions. That's why attack and crit is the go to for pretty much everything. It can be helpful to use a weapon with the right element to fight whatever monster, but think of it more as a bonus than the main strategy.
Also I'm sure you're mostly just smacking monsters in their legs because it is generally safer and easier, but try to smack them in the head or tails, you will almost always do way more damage.
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And, depending on the monster, you'll either break horns to get horn material (important for certain weapons/armor) or cut tails which gives you another carve with its own loot table.
Now this is deviancy. Who sells their old armour?
The way monster stagger values etc work out, hitting harder is always better. Smack a monster, it staggersv or trips, the cycle repeats. With late game weapons you can even get heal on hit which just makes this cycle nutty
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megas just weren't doing the job against that endgame damage, and trying to craft max potions on the go was getting me killed
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When you've got 5 pages for each armor section, you tend to start trimming the R1 through 6 stuff.
Steam: https://steamcommunity.com/id/TheZombiePenguin
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Switch: 0293 6817 9891
Actually, before fights are over I've usually broken the head and tail (I love chopping the tails off, thus the reason why I like the Longsword and Sword and Shield and Chargeblade), though there is usually a fair amount of belly and leg hitting since it's a usually a good place to get some hits and charge the Longsword or Charge Blade in specific without too much damage. I'm also trying to remember Demondrug, Might Pill, Armorskin, etc.
I fought a Rathian and a Ralthos at the same time last night. Not on purpose. I don't recommend it. I was starting to run out of time on the hunt for the Rathian so I had to kind of skirt the Ralthos, which was much more damaging to me than the Rathian and I figure that's "what happens" since it seems to fly a lot and hit with poison.
So later I went on an expedition and singled the bastard flier out and then ripped him a new one with a stronger weapon because eff that guy. Here's a Flash Pod, ya bastard. Try flying now.