Where can I take down a Blue Yian Kut-Ku? I need to upgrade my bow!
If you're doing quests for the village elder, I think they're 3-star quests. I think guild is 3-star as well.
Funny you bring up Cephadrome, I was just fighting it. After I loaded my old save file, I really lucked out by getting a azure kirin horn on the first go (on my old corrupted file, I somehow was denied a horn 3 times), then took on G-ranked Cephadrome with my newly-upgraded Dragon Bow Solar. So amazingly fast, I that bow so much.
And he finally dropped another coral ceph fin, so I upgraded to a Daimyo Warbow IV. Yay! Now I just need three more damn fins to make a High Sandman Spike.....
This weekend I am hosting my first Monster Hunter party with some kids from school. They are all HR9 so needless to say I have a good hunting party to attend. Wish me luck!
I got a question regarding dragon resistance. What attacks does it actually resist? Do all elemental attacks from a dragon count as dragon? Or do the fireballs from ian and los count as fire?
I got a question regarding dragon resistance. What attacks does it actually resist? Do all elemental attacks from a dragon count as dragon? Or do the fireballs from ian and los count as fire?
As far as I know, the only monsters that really do dragon-elemented damage are the elder dragons, I think Tigrex, and one or two air attacks that rathalos does. So for the most part, having negative dragon resistance shouldn't impact you too much. And with the elders, you're probably going to want to put together specialized sets to beat their annoying procs (high wind, terrain damage, etc).
And congrats to you cor! Now you can, um, fight the even more annoying HR5 monsters. Yay?
Elderlycrawfish on
PSN/Steam - Elderlycrawfish
0
IceBurnerIt's cold and there are penguins.Registered Userregular
edited October 2008
Ol' crawdaddy is right. For the most part, dragon element defense is negligible, especially in MH1/MHF.
I played both MH1 and then 2 intensely back to back yesterday and finally realized two important reversals about MH2:
First: Rathalos has new AI, and no-warning, no-warmup, "just-frame" tackles that make him way, way harder than Rathian. He can just tackle out of nowhere the very instant any other animation finishes. He can berserk after just 3 hits and it lasts a rather long time. This is reversed from MH1 where Rathian could do this and she was, therefore, the scary one.
Second: Lances suck not due to the damage nerf, not entirely due to the sharpness nerf, but due primarily to a defense nerf. When you blocked properly with a lance in MH1, you wouldn't budge. You could block a charging berserked Diablos and the hits would just "bounce off". You had also wind/flinch/stagger resistance beyond greatswords. You had to be good at blocking and positioning, but lances were incredible if that was the case.
Totally not the case in MH2, in fact it feels exactly like sword & shield used to: really hard to use seriously due to being knocked around all the damn time. Block a charging Rathalos? Slide backward like anything else. Try to attack a landing wyvern? The wind knocks you down mid-strike. This is why they feel useless; they don't have the maneuverability to hit and but they have the same vulnerability that made people shun SnS in MH1.
Tell me this is not the freaking case in Freedom/2, otherwise it's going to be the same shit in 3.
Second: Lances suck not due to the damage nerf, not entirely due to the sharpness nerf, but due primarily to a defense nerf. When you blocked properly with a lance in MH1, you wouldn't budge. You could block a charging berserked Diablos and the hits would just "bounce off". You had also wind/flinch/stagger resistance beyond greatswords. You had to be good at blocking and positioning, but lances were incredible if that was the case.
Totally not the case in MH2, in fact it feels exactly like sword & shield used to: really hard to use seriously due to being knocked around all the damn time. Block a charging Rathalos? Slide backward like anything else. Try to attack a landing wyvern? The wind knocks you down mid-strike. This is why they feel useless; they don't have the maneuverability to hit and but they have the same vulnerability that made people shun SnS in MH1.
Tell me this is not the freaking case in Freedom/2, otherwise it's going to be the same shit in 3.
I may be wrong on this point, but I believe Guard +1/+2 mitigates some of the knock back on blocking. It certainly reduces the damage you may take from the block. I usually don't block (which, admittedly, may be why I get curbstomped so often), but I know for sure that I gem out my lance set to Guard +1 minimum. I'll look out for that the next time I lance.
The only time I really pull out my lance is for tigrex. I dunno, I have a much easier time facing him with a good thunder-element lance and a guard +1 set. In my opinion, this is one fight that shows how awesome lances can still be.
Guard+1/+2 were so powerful in MHF2, that Guard+2 was nerfed a bit in MHP2ndG. You can literally tank Akantor and solo him with a Dragon elemented Gunlance with little problem in MHF2 using a decent Guard Up/Guard +2 set. In MHF2, it took 10 and 15 points respectively for Guard +1/+2. In MHP2ndG, you need 10 points for +1 and 20 for +2, but Guard +1 was greatly improved at the same time. So in MHP2ndG, it's more difficult to get Guard +2 with any other useful armor skill, but Guard +1 is sufficient for nearly all purposes.
Lances are enjoying a renaissance in MHP2ndG, by the way, because Evade +2/Evade Inc plus the lance/gunlance backhop allows you to pass through nearly any attack in the game (including beam weapons from Gravios and Rajang). You literally just hold a direction and tap X a couple of times and you're free as a bird, bunny hopping through attacks that would kill most other hunters. Lance/Gunlance are still great choices against ian/los, because the attacks are practically designed to hit ian/los heads. There are several videos out there showing a single Flashbomb allowing a Lance/Gunlance wielder to destroy one of those wyverns in record time... part of why some folks think Flashbombing is cheap (I'm personally not in this camp *shrugs*). My personal favorite is using either a Gun Chariot/Devout End (major dragon damage + gunlancing) or Darkness (a lance that paralyzes... Flash-> Stab x3 -> Backhop -> repeat until wyvern is paralyzed -> Stab until dead).
All guard weapons can block Wind Press, Roars, and a host of other attacks (like Gravios/Basarios farts, even). Every time a "smoke cloud" comes out from a wyvern when it's landing, you have to have your guard up, though... a common mistake is letting up your guard too early, causing you to be Wind Pressed. You can actually time your strikes to go between the smoke clouds, although I wouldn't recommend it. Some of the hit detection for guarding was wonky in MHF1 (like guarding in the opposite direction that the attack is coming from), but this was fixed in MHF2.
Oh, and as for the pushback, the animations for most pushbacks are much shorter than completing a diving leap or trying to roll and run in the Monster Hunter Portable/Freedom series... most of the time when I'm using SnS, I get more hits in by tanking a charge rather than trying to dodge it because of the faster recovery time. I think it just requires a bit of a change in mindset and tactics, but maybe it's just because of my decent Guard+1 armor sets.
As far as Dragon Damage, Svevin, conventional wisdom is that Dragon damage is taken from physical attacks from all of the Elder Dragons, Tigrex physical attacks, Akantor physical attacks, and Rathalos air attacks (basically, all of the "poster child" monsters from each successive monster hunter game). I suppose this means that Naruga Karuga also might have dragon damage for its physical hits, but I haven't read anything about it.
EDIT: I just got my White Guild Card a couple nights ago, which means I can start receiving Veggie Elder Ticket Divines. Yay! They trade in for Divine Plates, so it will save me a bit of farming once I start earning them.
Lances are enjoying a renaissance in MHP2ndG, by the way, because Evade +2/Evade Inc plus the lance/gunlance backhop allows you to pass through nearly any attack in the game...
I've been admiring lances far a while now, and I think it's time I made some. Maybe they'll make enemies like Shogun Ceanataur and Gravios a bit more managable.
I just hit HR7 (woo) and I'm pretty stoked about all the new weapon/armor options that have opened up. Now I just need to figure out what to work towards first.
Oh, and thanks for the advice Cucco :^:
Shiola on
0
IceBurnerIt's cold and there are penguins.Registered Userregular
edited October 2008
I wish I could do a lot of this, but MH2 is painfully different here. Armor skills were totally re-done for Freedom 2 so that it's not such a complete pain in the ass to get the really useful ones.
Most of what you consider "essentials" are rare, and activate at higher skill point levels than in Freedom 2. In addition, armor upgrades aren't as simple as using spheres - they require more monster resources.
Blocking is definitely nerfed overall, I guess you need to use guard+ skills to have performance anywhere near MH1. The same weapon could block Diablos like a vespoid stinger in MH1, but has a long knockback from any charging monster in 2, even Bulldrome.
Lance used to have stagger resistance while attacking in MH1. You could attack a landing wyvern and wouldn't be blown back until the end of your combo, same as greatsword.
Woot, killed tigrex. For some reason, I expected to fight a los or ian before a tigrex. I started getting the hang of GS charge attacking his head, but I need to 3 tigrex tails to upgrade along the siegmund path. Gotta get used to cutting his tail now.
It might be you don't want to upgrade along the Tigrex weapon path. Check if the prospective upgrade has negatife affinity. You really don't want to have any in your weapon.
It might be you don't want to upgrade along the Tigrex weapon path. Check if the prospective upgrade has negatife affinity. You really don't want to have any in your weapon.
I'd agree that it's mostly a good idea to avoid the tigrex lines, though in Svevin's case, I think he just needs the tigrex components to continue a non-tigrex weapon, so it's cool.
The negative affinity can mostly blow, though I suppose if you gemmed some reckless abandon to negate it, the raw damage of that line could be promising. There's plenty of other weapons you can make to get good raw damage, so it doesn't really matter I guess.
Elderlycrawfish on
PSN/Steam - Elderlycrawfish
0
IceBurnerIt's cold and there are penguins.Registered Userregular
edited October 2008
Gee, today was certainly the day of Kirin. Popped up 4 or so times. I took home 3 horns from one of them...yeah.
I also had rust stones taking up half a page at this point, so in addition to all the weapons from the rusted line, I now have a start on half the alternates.
Impressive Svevin...you seem to be flying through the monsters, relatively speaking.
Ya, I've been playing like a madman. I can't say I'm that good with the GS tho. Although I've beat tigrex a few times now and managed to get the 3x tigrex tails I need for my weapon upgrade, I tried doing the tigrex in the desert mission and failed multiple times. I still need to work on getting in position in time to pull off the charges I see in videos, and when I fail, boy does tigrex lay on the hurt. If I screw up and get hit, it often leads to him getting 1 or more hits in on me while I'm getting up, often leading to my death.
I still need 3x rathalos tails to upgrade to Spartacus Blade. Is it possible to get that from the Hunter's Guild 2 star mission? I chopped off los' tail 2 or 3 times, but didn't get a los tail from any of the carves or the rewards for capturing.
Today I got to play with my kids. They make this game a cakewalk, they've spent so much time playing it's not even funny. They even gave me a cat, that can drop just about any monster in the game without any trouble at all.
I still need 3x rathalos tails to upgrade to Spartacus Blade. Is it possible to get that from the Hunter's Guild 2 star mission? I chopped off los' tail 2 or 3 times, but didn't get a los tail from any of the carves or the rewards for capturing.
I believe the guild 2-star rathalos mission gives crap rewards. I think the guildmaster even mentions it the first time around. Fairly sure you'll have to fight the higher one for the better rath carves.
So, I'm now understanding the full awesome that is hammers. I spent the day pounding on HR6 silver and azure rathalos, and gold rathian. So much easier than what I usually do, and that's even considering how much I suck with hammers still. I've got 4 out of 5 silver sol armor pieces, upgraded a gunlance to silver rook (even though I don't really use gunlances yet). Plus, it's just hilarious to see a rath get utterly pummeled into stagger and stars. Think I'll farm this way for awhile, make a soul U set as well. Heck, maybe even the rathian sets, seeing as how I think I'll be needing a lot of rubies for stuff in general.
Question to the experts: ian/los plates. What guild level quest do you have the best luck with getting 'em? My track record on plates is abysmal, and I need a bunch to upgrade various weapons and armors.....
So I got a friend hooked onto this game. Was wondering why he was having trouble capping some -drone raptor monster in Training Mission 7, so I tried to do it myself. I knocked him cold with the sleeping daggers, planted the 2 supply LG bombs, then lit them with the small one. Instant kill. I laughed hard
someone earlier mentioned the self-esp buff. is that only possible with the hunting horn or is there an item that i can use to get it?
still noobing it, but enjoying myself immensely.
ESP is acquired from 10 points of Fencing (found in a few armor sets including Silver Sol and Death Stench, or from the Sword Saint Piercing). Hunting Horns can play two series of notes (two white, then a different note, followed by two more white. Substitute Purple, if you want) that gives a self ESP buff.
Certain weapon attacks automatically have ESP attached to them. When demonized, you get ESP with Dual Blades. Spirit Gauge combos with the Longsword have ESP (not sure if you have to be fully charged). The 2nd and 3rd level of hammer charge has ESP, along with the Unsheathe attack. Great Sword has ESP when doing the 3rd level charge attack in MHF2 (this was nerfed in MHP2ndG). Bullets from a Gunlance or Bowgun and Bow shots never worry about bouncing, obviously.
Question to the experts: ian/los plates. What guild level quest do you have the best luck with getting 'em? My track record on plates is abysmal, and I need a bunch to upgrade various weapons and armors.....
Conventional wisdom says that Upper Guild Rank or G Rank Rathalos/Rathian and Silver Rathalos/Gold Rathian give higher drops on Plates. Avoid Pink Rathian and Azure Rathalos (who have the lowest chance for rare drops). Always cut off the tail for a carve (which has a small chance for a plate). Also, throw flash bombs at them when they are hovering/flying so that you can get them to drop a shiny (also a small chance for a plate on some versions). When farming for plates, most folks switch to a Fate armor set or Carving Celebrity armor set. My highest plate farming chances come from completing Anger of Heaven and Earth or whatever that quest is (Gold Rathian and Silver Rathalos together in the arena).
Question to the experts: ian/los plates. What guild level quest do you have the best luck with getting 'em? My track record on plates is abysmal, and I need a bunch to upgrade various weapons and armors.....
You must be having some backwards luck there. For me, rubies are far more difficult to obtain than plates. I often get los plates as a reward after farming silver rathalos for rubies.
Anywho, follow Hahnsoo's advice and you should be swimming in plates in no time.
Question to the experts: ian/los plates. What guild level quest do you have the best luck with getting 'em? My track record on plates is abysmal, and I need a bunch to upgrade various weapons and armors.....
You must be having some backwards luck there. For me, rubies are far more difficult to obtain than plates. I often get los plates as a reward after farming silver rathalos for rubies.
Anywho, follow Hahnsoo's advice and you should be swimming in plates in no time.
Well, lucked out on a suicide tail run, got that one rathalos plate I needed to finish Silver Sol. Luckily, I won't need anymore rathalos plates for awhile, though rathian is another story. Now I need more rubies apparently, and have been taking advice and doing runs on silver los. Snagged two in one run, thanks to an armor set with Luck Booster and the resultant extra rewards.
Hammers are making this so much fun. Rathalos is the perfect sucker for head pounds!
Screw tigrex when he's in rage mode. Seriously! I was fighting him in the desert and got him to start limping after dying once. Unfortunately, my paintball ran out and I had no idea where his nest was. By the time I found where he was sleeping, when I tried to shock trap and tranq bomb him twice, it didn't work. Then while in rage mode, he goes on to kill me 2 more times and I fail the mission!
Should I even fight him when he's in rage mode? I know there's an opportunity to GS charge attack him after he leap attacks me twice, but the smallest mistake and he takes off over half my life. Can I just leave the area and he'll eventually turn back to normal? Or does he only switch between normal and rage after taking damage?
Screw tigrex when he's in rage mode. Seriously! I was fighting him in the desert and got him to start limping after dying once. Unfortunately, my paintball ran out and I had no idea where his nest was. By the time I found where he was sleeping, when I tried to shock trap and tranq bomb him twice, it didn't work. Then while in rage mode, he goes on to kill me 2 more times and I fail the mission!
Should I even fight him when he's in rage mode? I know there's an opportunity to GS charge attack him after he leap attacks me twice, but the smallest mistake and he takes off over half my life. Can I just leave the area and he'll eventually turn back to normal? Or does he only switch between normal and rage after taking damage?
Rage is timed. So you can leave the area and let him calm down. Sometimes I will fight him raged but if I am in a small area or on my last life I don't. Tigrex can be a bitch sometimes.
Screw tigrex when he's in rage mode. Seriously! I was fighting him in the desert and got him to start limping after dying once. Unfortunately, my paintball ran out and I had no idea where his nest was. By the time I found where he was sleeping, when I tried to shock trap and tranq bomb him twice, it didn't work. Then while in rage mode, he goes on to kill me 2 more times and I fail the mission!
Should I even fight him when he's in rage mode? I know there's an opportunity to GS charge attack him after he leap attacks me twice, but the smallest mistake and he takes off over half my life. Can I just leave the area and he'll eventually turn back to normal? Or does he only switch between normal and rage after taking damage?
It's pretty tough dealing with already fast-moving monsters in rage mode. Tigrex, Naruga, Blangonga, Rajang, etc. can all be a huge pain in the ass whilst pissed off. So yeah, it's not uncommon to just sheathe your weapon and stick to evasive maneuvers 'til they've calmed down again (takes a few minutes). It may seem like you're losing time on the quest since you're not doing damage, but it often saves you time (and cash) you'd likely spend healing, or even running back from camp after taking a dirt nap.
Another thing that helps lessen the pain is to save flashbombs for when they go into rage mode. Some enemies can be highly unpredictable while flashed though, so you may want to stay clear of them still. Either way, it's a great time to heal, resharpen, set up traps, etc. Especially traps. I don't know if you've purchased the combo books yet, but if you carry the first two with you along with two trap tools and two genprey fangs, that's three shock traps you can have on one quest.
Some people think it's cheap to use flashbombs or traps, but man, when you're going solo sometimes you need every little trick up your sleeve just to make it through.
If you're still having trouble after all that (which happens sometimes), consider switching to a faster weapon like Sword and Shield. Preferably one with thunder element, since that's Tigrex's weakness. Oh, and don't forget you can take up to 3 psychoserum (sold by the old lady by the guild hall) which give you about a five-second view of any boss monsters on the map (for when paintballs run out).
Good tips. I knew of them, but I often forget to employ them. Just like the felyne kitchen. I know about it and always intend to use it before a mission, but I usually forget and start the mission. Same goes with bringing necessary materials. I know I'm going to the swamp and intend to bring antidote, but then I check out the armorsmith and forget all about it.
At least I'm getting the hang of tigrex. I performed GS full charge attacks on his tail whip and his double bite attack. Before I could only counter attack his bull charge.
So me and the hunting partner dropped the higher ranked Khezu for the first time today. I was a little disappointed that other than more hit points he didn't seem to be any tougher. However when we were finished I was able to finally upgrade to the true devil slicer! First blue sharpness weapon, happy times.
Downright blazing through it, corin. True Devil Slicer is awesome, one of my all time favorite weapons. That guy got me through a huge chunk of the game all by its lonesome.
Svevin, I always kick myself when I forget to eat at the kitchen too, as the benefits can sometimes be too good to pass up. With five cats, I've been doing the drink & cheese combo for full health and stamina. I know I could just use potions and meat for that, and get some other bonus, but meh. I've also got like 4 cats that double in either one of those ingredients, so sometimes I pull off 2 or 3 felyne bonuses for a round.
While this advice might not suit many, I found that I can take down tigrex best with a thunder-based lance and Guard +1 set. I just let him do his crazy runs and dives at me, block, and then I'm right next to him to get a few pokes in. If he stops to do some screaming or chomping, I just charge right through him, head to tail. The multiple hits are nice, and you can time most of his moves to maximize the number of strikes. Tail comes off like a snap, face breaks easy, claws usually break without trying either. Rage mode is still tricky though, but I'll just block until he leaves himself wide open.
Slow and steady man, I just keep plugging away. I can't wait to get our multiplayer on with Unite.
I am amazed that people make it as far as they do without the kitchen. I need every advantage I can get, especially the first time I fought tiggy. He was a bitch. I have my kitchen maxxed out and my cats are all leveled up. I have a pattern setup between every quest. I make the rounds on the pokke farm, port directly to the kitchen to eat, replenish stock and then back to the guildhall.
My copy of MHP2ndG arrived. Some of you may think I'm crazy for starting over with it, but I really didn't have any equipment that was especially hard to farm for yet.
I'm liking the little annoyances they've fixed like being able to access all your items without having to take it out of the item box for use in town, like planting seeds and such. The felyne fighter is pretty cool too, except when he throws bombs at the monster that end up hitting me. He sure is fun to kick around after completing a mission tho.
I think the felyne fighter makes the fights a little bit more multiplayer-like compared to the regular fights. Some monsters are different to fight against when they decide to suddenly rush in an unexpected direction, Rathalos for example. When he prepares most of his moves, he'll take the two usual steps and do an attack. With the cat running around it's possible to misinterpret his lining up to attack your partner as a tail-swipe. Or at least I had to make slight adjustments.
It's for the better though, and I like fighting with the cat much better than without. He's even learned to block my kicks, which came as a big surprise the first time.
He'll block them, but you can just run behind him and boot him in the ass.
You do make a good point about the dragons behaving differently with the cat around. I suppose if I'm going to be doing mostly charge attacks with the GS, I shouldn't bother bringing the cat with me.
Svevin on
0
IceBurnerIt's cold and there are penguins.Registered Userregular
edited October 2008
Not that anyone really cares, but I've nearly completed both a set of complete weapon tree diagrams, and tables listing all armor stats and skills for MH2. This critical information has been completely absent in English. It's taken me several months to get all the info together, translate it, and then assemble it into a useful format.
The armor tables are closest to completion. All individual pieces have full stats, I just need to finish counting gem slots to finish the table of aggregate armor set stats and polish some rough translations for the highest level sets.
Heh. I have too many cats in my kitchen as it is. I generally keep a Bomber Only cat (for ranged), Weapon Only cat (for melee), and Pacifist cat (for all situations) in my fighter stable. The Bomber Only cat has the Bomb boost, Large Barrel Bombs, and Bomb damage reduction. The Weapon Only cat has Farsight, Art of Eight Wonders (or whatever it's called), and Paralyze status. The Pacifist cat has Trap Master, Farsight, and Greater Health Flute. Trust me when I say that you don't want a Bomber Only cat running around when you are going melee. Also, Trap Master and Farsight are so useful, I don't know how I went solo without them.
Instead of dismissing your kitchen cats when you want to hire new ones, you can convert them to fighter cats and place them on standby. When you want that cat back on your kitchen staff, just rotate out another chef, and you can convert the standby cat back to a chef. I have 5 Felyne Heroics cats waiting in Standby right now, while my current kitchen staff consists of all Felyne Fear Factor at the moment. I'm trying to get a full set of Felyne Knockout cats, but so far, it's been slow going.
Currently, my hunting group is taking a breather from our Fatalis kills to bring our new 4th member up to speed. Speed HR up!
We can't let this thread die out. It's one of the few things keeping me from dying from boredom at work.
I'm caught up mission and gear wise in mhp2g that I was at in mhf2 now. Well, a little past actually. I have full ceanataur armor this time, but my siegmund line GS is only at Golem Blade+ right now. But I'm not using that anyways, since I'm using Ravager Blade+ for now until I can upgrade to Spartacus Blade. Here's the chart if anyone is interested in seeing the Siegmund path I'm working on: http://www.gamefaqs.com/portable/psp/file/934395/54112
I'm also working on my tigrex armor. Got 2 pieces so far. Gonna get the rest for the earplugs skill. What's the next armor set I should work towards after tigrex?
Posts
Where can I take down a Blue Yian Kut-Ku? I need to upgrade my bow!
If you're doing quests for the village elder, I think they're 3-star quests. I think guild is 3-star as well.
Funny you bring up Cephadrome, I was just fighting it. After I loaded my old save file, I really lucked out by getting a azure kirin horn on the first go (on my old corrupted file, I somehow was denied a horn 3 times), then took on G-ranked Cephadrome with my newly-upgraded Dragon Bow Solar. So amazingly fast, I
And he finally dropped another coral ceph fin, so I upgraded to a Daimyo Warbow IV. Yay! Now I just need three more damn fins to make a High Sandman Spike.....
As far as I know, the only monsters that really do dragon-elemented damage are the elder dragons, I think Tigrex, and one or two air attacks that rathalos does. So for the most part, having negative dragon resistance shouldn't impact you too much. And with the elders, you're probably going to want to put together specialized sets to beat their annoying procs (high wind, terrain damage, etc).
And congrats to you cor! Now you can, um, fight the even more annoying HR5 monsters. Yay?
I played both MH1 and then 2 intensely back to back yesterday and finally realized two important reversals about MH2:
First: Rathalos has new AI, and no-warning, no-warmup, "just-frame" tackles that make him way, way harder than Rathian. He can just tackle out of nowhere the very instant any other animation finishes. He can berserk after just 3 hits and it lasts a rather long time. This is reversed from MH1 where Rathian could do this and she was, therefore, the scary one.
Second: Lances suck not due to the damage nerf, not entirely due to the sharpness nerf, but due primarily to a defense nerf. When you blocked properly with a lance in MH1, you wouldn't budge. You could block a charging berserked Diablos and the hits would just "bounce off". You had also wind/flinch/stagger resistance beyond greatswords. You had to be good at blocking and positioning, but lances were incredible if that was the case.
Totally not the case in MH2, in fact it feels exactly like sword & shield used to: really hard to use seriously due to being knocked around all the damn time. Block a charging Rathalos? Slide backward like anything else. Try to attack a landing wyvern? The wind knocks you down mid-strike. This is why they feel useless; they don't have the maneuverability to hit and but they have the same vulnerability that made people shun SnS in MH1.
Tell me this is not the freaking case in Freedom/2, otherwise it's going to be the same shit in 3.
PSN: theIceBurner, IceBurnerEU, IceBurner-JP | X-Link Kai: TheIceBurner
Dragon's Dogma: 192 Warrior Linty | 80 Strider Alicia | 32 Mage Terra
I may be wrong on this point, but I believe Guard +1/+2 mitigates some of the knock back on blocking. It certainly reduces the damage you may take from the block. I usually don't block (which, admittedly, may be why I get curbstomped so often), but I know for sure that I gem out my lance set to Guard +1 minimum. I'll look out for that the next time I lance.
The only time I really pull out my lance is for tigrex. I dunno, I have a much easier time facing him with a good thunder-element lance and a guard +1 set. In my opinion, this is one fight that shows how awesome lances can still be.
Lances are enjoying a renaissance in MHP2ndG, by the way, because Evade +2/Evade Inc plus the lance/gunlance backhop allows you to pass through nearly any attack in the game (including beam weapons from Gravios and Rajang). You literally just hold a direction and tap X a couple of times and you're free as a bird, bunny hopping through attacks that would kill most other hunters. Lance/Gunlance are still great choices against ian/los, because the attacks are practically designed to hit ian/los heads. There are several videos out there showing a single Flashbomb allowing a Lance/Gunlance wielder to destroy one of those wyverns in record time... part of why some folks think Flashbombing is cheap (I'm personally not in this camp *shrugs*). My personal favorite is using either a Gun Chariot/Devout End (major dragon damage + gunlancing) or Darkness (a lance that paralyzes... Flash-> Stab x3 -> Backhop -> repeat until wyvern is paralyzed -> Stab until dead).
All guard weapons can block Wind Press, Roars, and a host of other attacks (like Gravios/Basarios farts, even). Every time a "smoke cloud" comes out from a wyvern when it's landing, you have to have your guard up, though... a common mistake is letting up your guard too early, causing you to be Wind Pressed. You can actually time your strikes to go between the smoke clouds, although I wouldn't recommend it. Some of the hit detection for guarding was wonky in MHF1 (like guarding in the opposite direction that the attack is coming from), but this was fixed in MHF2.
Oh, and as for the pushback, the animations for most pushbacks are much shorter than completing a diving leap or trying to roll and run in the Monster Hunter Portable/Freedom series... most of the time when I'm using SnS, I get more hits in by tanking a charge rather than trying to dodge it because of the faster recovery time. I think it just requires a bit of a change in mindset and tactics, but maybe it's just because of my decent Guard+1 armor sets.
As far as Dragon Damage, Svevin, conventional wisdom is that Dragon damage is taken from physical attacks from all of the Elder Dragons, Tigrex physical attacks, Akantor physical attacks, and Rathalos air attacks (basically, all of the "poster child" monsters from each successive monster hunter game). I suppose this means that Naruga Karuga also might have dragon damage for its physical hits, but I haven't read anything about it.
EDIT: I just got my White Guild Card a couple nights ago, which means I can start receiving Veggie Elder Ticket Divines. Yay! They trade in for Divine Plates, so it will save me a bit of farming once I start earning them.
This is still the case in MHP2G, actually. I've yet to fail killing Akantor using full Hermitaur S with Guard +2 and my trusty Gun Chariot.
I've been admiring lances far a while now, and I think it's time I made some. Maybe they'll make enemies like Shogun Ceanataur and Gravios a bit more managable.
I just hit HR7 (woo) and I'm pretty stoked about all the new weapon/armor options that have opened up. Now I just need to figure out what to work towards first.
Oh, and thanks for the advice Cucco :^:
Most of what you consider "essentials" are rare, and activate at higher skill point levels than in Freedom 2. In addition, armor upgrades aren't as simple as using spheres - they require more monster resources.
Blocking is definitely nerfed overall, I guess you need to use guard+ skills to have performance anywhere near MH1. The same weapon could block Diablos like a vespoid stinger in MH1, but has a long knockback from any charging monster in 2, even Bulldrome.
Lance used to have stagger resistance while attacking in MH1. You could attack a landing wyvern and wouldn't be blown back until the end of your combo, same as greatsword.
PSN: theIceBurner, IceBurnerEU, IceBurner-JP | X-Link Kai: TheIceBurner
Dragon's Dogma: 192 Warrior Linty | 80 Strider Alicia | 32 Mage Terra
I'd agree that it's mostly a good idea to avoid the tigrex lines, though in Svevin's case, I think he just needs the tigrex components to continue a non-tigrex weapon, so it's cool.
The negative affinity can mostly blow, though I suppose if you gemmed some reckless abandon to negate it, the raw damage of that line could be promising. There's plenty of other weapons you can make to get good raw damage, so it doesn't really matter I guess.
I also had rust stones taking up half a page at this point, so in addition to all the weapons from the rusted line, I now have a start on half the alternates.
PSN: theIceBurner, IceBurnerEU, IceBurner-JP | X-Link Kai: TheIceBurner
Dragon's Dogma: 192 Warrior Linty | 80 Strider Alicia | 32 Mage Terra
Ya, I've been playing like a madman. I can't say I'm that good with the GS tho. Although I've beat tigrex a few times now and managed to get the 3x tigrex tails I need for my weapon upgrade, I tried doing the tigrex in the desert mission and failed multiple times. I still need to work on getting in position in time to pull off the charges I see in videos, and when I fail, boy does tigrex lay on the hurt. If I screw up and get hit, it often leads to him getting 1 or more hits in on me while I'm getting up, often leading to my death.
I still need 3x rathalos tails to upgrade to Spartacus Blade. Is it possible to get that from the Hunter's Guild 2 star mission? I chopped off los' tail 2 or 3 times, but didn't get a los tail from any of the carves or the rewards for capturing.
I believe the guild 2-star rathalos mission gives crap rewards. I think the guildmaster even mentions it the first time around. Fairly sure you'll have to fight the higher one for the better rath carves.
So, I'm now understanding the full awesome that is hammers. I spent the day pounding on HR6 silver and azure rathalos, and gold rathian. So much easier than what I usually do, and that's even considering how much I suck with hammers still. I've got 4 out of 5 silver sol armor pieces, upgraded a gunlance to silver rook (even though I don't really use gunlances yet). Plus, it's just hilarious to see a rath get utterly pummeled into stagger and stars. Think I'll farm this way for awhile, make a soul U set as well. Heck, maybe even the rathian sets, seeing as how I think I'll be needing a lot of rubies for stuff in general.
Question to the experts: ian/los plates. What guild level quest do you have the best luck with getting 'em? My track record on plates is abysmal, and I need a bunch to upgrade various weapons and armors.....
still noobing it, but enjoying myself immensely.
Certain weapon attacks automatically have ESP attached to them. When demonized, you get ESP with Dual Blades. Spirit Gauge combos with the Longsword have ESP (not sure if you have to be fully charged). The 2nd and 3rd level of hammer charge has ESP, along with the Unsheathe attack. Great Sword has ESP when doing the 3rd level charge attack in MHF2 (this was nerfed in MHP2ndG). Bullets from a Gunlance or Bowgun and Bow shots never worry about bouncing, obviously.
Conventional wisdom says that Upper Guild Rank or G Rank Rathalos/Rathian and Silver Rathalos/Gold Rathian give higher drops on Plates. Avoid Pink Rathian and Azure Rathalos (who have the lowest chance for rare drops). Always cut off the tail for a carve (which has a small chance for a plate). Also, throw flash bombs at them when they are hovering/flying so that you can get them to drop a shiny (also a small chance for a plate on some versions). When farming for plates, most folks switch to a Fate armor set or Carving Celebrity armor set. My highest plate farming chances come from completing Anger of Heaven and Earth or whatever that quest is (Gold Rathian and Silver Rathalos together in the arena).
You must be having some backwards luck there. For me, rubies are far more difficult to obtain than plates. I often get los plates as a reward after farming silver rathalos for rubies.
Anywho, follow Hahnsoo's advice and you should be swimming in plates in no time.
Well, lucked out on a suicide tail run, got that one rathalos plate I needed to finish Silver Sol. Luckily, I won't need anymore rathalos plates for awhile, though rathian is another story. Now I need more rubies apparently, and have been taking advice and doing runs on silver los. Snagged two in one run, thanks to an armor set with Luck Booster and the resultant extra rewards.
Hammers are making this so much fun. Rathalos is the perfect sucker for head pounds!
Should I even fight him when he's in rage mode? I know there's an opportunity to GS charge attack him after he leap attacks me twice, but the smallest mistake and he takes off over half my life. Can I just leave the area and he'll eventually turn back to normal? Or does he only switch between normal and rage after taking damage?
Rage is timed. So you can leave the area and let him calm down. Sometimes I will fight him raged but if I am in a small area or on my last life I don't. Tigrex can be a bitch sometimes.
It's pretty tough dealing with already fast-moving monsters in rage mode. Tigrex, Naruga, Blangonga, Rajang, etc. can all be a huge pain in the ass whilst pissed off. So yeah, it's not uncommon to just sheathe your weapon and stick to evasive maneuvers 'til they've calmed down again (takes a few minutes). It may seem like you're losing time on the quest since you're not doing damage, but it often saves you time (and cash) you'd likely spend healing, or even running back from camp after taking a dirt nap.
Another thing that helps lessen the pain is to save flashbombs for when they go into rage mode. Some enemies can be highly unpredictable while flashed though, so you may want to stay clear of them still. Either way, it's a great time to heal, resharpen, set up traps, etc. Especially traps. I don't know if you've purchased the combo books yet, but if you carry the first two with you along with two trap tools and two genprey fangs, that's three shock traps you can have on one quest.
Some people think it's cheap to use flashbombs or traps, but man, when you're going solo sometimes you need every little trick up your sleeve just to make it through.
If you're still having trouble after all that (which happens sometimes), consider switching to a faster weapon like Sword and Shield. Preferably one with thunder element, since that's Tigrex's weakness. Oh, and don't forget you can take up to 3 psychoserum (sold by the old lady by the guild hall) which give you about a five-second view of any boss monsters on the map (for when paintballs run out).
Good luck!
At least I'm getting the hang of tigrex. I performed GS full charge attacks on his tail whip and his double bite attack. Before I could only counter attack his bull charge.
Svevin, I always kick myself when I forget to eat at the kitchen too, as the benefits can sometimes be too good to pass up. With five cats, I've been doing the drink & cheese combo for full health and stamina. I know I could just use potions and meat for that, and get some other bonus, but meh. I've also got like 4 cats that double in either one of those ingredients, so sometimes I pull off 2 or 3 felyne bonuses for a round.
While this advice might not suit many, I found that I can take down tigrex best with a thunder-based lance and Guard +1 set. I just let him do his crazy runs and dives at me, block, and then I'm right next to him to get a few pokes in. If he stops to do some screaming or chomping, I just charge right through him, head to tail. The multiple hits are nice, and you can time most of his moves to maximize the number of strikes. Tail comes off like a snap, face breaks easy, claws usually break without trying either. Rage mode is still tricky though, but I'll just block until he leaves himself wide open.
Slow and steady man, I just keep plugging away. I can't wait to get our multiplayer on with Unite.
I am amazed that people make it as far as they do without the kitchen. I need every advantage I can get, especially the first time I fought tiggy. He was a bitch. I have my kitchen maxxed out and my cats are all leveled up. I have a pattern setup between every quest. I make the rounds on the pokke farm, port directly to the kitchen to eat, replenish stock and then back to the guildhall.
I'm liking the little annoyances they've fixed like being able to access all your items without having to take it out of the item box for use in town, like planting seeds and such. The felyne fighter is pretty cool too, except when he throws bombs at the monster that end up hitting me. He sure is fun to kick around after completing a mission tho.
It's for the better though, and I like fighting with the cat much better than without. He's even learned to block my kicks, which came as a big surprise the first time.
You do make a good point about the dragons behaving differently with the cat around. I suppose if I'm going to be doing mostly charge attacks with the GS, I shouldn't bother bringing the cat with me.
The armor tables are closest to completion. All individual pieces have full stats, I just need to finish counting gem slots to finish the table of aggregate armor set stats and polish some rough translations for the highest level sets.
PSN: theIceBurner, IceBurnerEU, IceBurner-JP | X-Link Kai: TheIceBurner
Dragon's Dogma: 192 Warrior Linty | 80 Strider Alicia | 32 Mage Terra
Instead of dismissing your kitchen cats when you want to hire new ones, you can convert them to fighter cats and place them on standby. When you want that cat back on your kitchen staff, just rotate out another chef, and you can convert the standby cat back to a chef. I have 5 Felyne Heroics cats waiting in Standby right now, while my current kitchen staff consists of all Felyne Fear Factor at the moment. I'm trying to get a full set of Felyne Knockout cats, but so far, it's been slow going.
Currently, my hunting group is taking a breather from our Fatalis kills to bring our new 4th member up to speed. Speed HR up!
I'm caught up mission and gear wise in mhp2g that I was at in mhf2 now. Well, a little past actually. I have full ceanataur armor this time, but my siegmund line GS is only at Golem Blade+ right now. But I'm not using that anyways, since I'm using Ravager Blade+ for now until I can upgrade to Spartacus Blade. Here's the chart if anyone is interested in seeing the Siegmund path I'm working on: http://www.gamefaqs.com/portable/psp/file/934395/54112
I'm also working on my tigrex armor. Got 2 pieces so far. Gonna get the rest for the earplugs skill. What's the next armor set I should work towards after tigrex?
if you're a girl character, you should make hermitaur, kirin and blango / blagonga, just cause they are cute. hahaha.
if you are a guy, then whatever, i guess... death stench for the esp seems good.