i'm flying through village quests but i'm mostly just running the hammer
finding the wirebug/wirebug moves a little awkward and unintuitive to use still
I struggle to use it to get around the environment. Like I'll see where the game wants me to go, but just can't get the horizontal/vertical combined with my hunter climbing to get it to work.
As far as weapon moves go, I never really use the long sword counter one even though I should, the charge and slash is just too good to give up and everytime I try the web counter the fucking monster is all "nah sorry bro not hitting you now."
I almost never use the vertical and horizontal Wirebugs moves. I'm always just doing ZL-ZR when traversing the land.
Yeah, solo hun so far hasn't been too bad in HR. Izuchi lance, 10m for Tetranodon. I got into two KOs off of guard charges, its a worthwhile trade. I like being able to charge right back at a monster and get head hit+ko damage and then turn and sweep for another hit as it passes. Against non-charging attacks I can double-hit the face often by ending in shield bash.
I need to get into the habit of flipping to power guard right as attacks hit since a lot of moves the default counter will whiff on because of positioning, while power guard lets me 180 into a stab.
Also, I have learned that I cannot counter Arzuros worth a damn. The delays on his attacks just keep catching me.
I found entry 8 of the Lava Caverns while on the village harvest tour. I scoured that map (finding the other camp site in the process) for the better part of an hour and this was the only one I found. I have no other Lava Caverns in my Notebook.
Here's where it was. If they are really tied to specific quests, nobody should be able to find this on any other Lava Caverns mission.
Did the hub rampage quest to unlock HR; that shit sucks!
Like, this is not a fun game mode, not what I want out of monster hunter at all.
Edit: I can see it maybe being fun in multiplayer, but god that is such a slog when playing solo.
Eh. Once you figure out how it all works, it's a relatively easy way to build up vendor food (Defender Tickets) for melding Talismans, as well as get a honking wide selection of monster parts. Also, rare monster parts (Gems, Plates, etc.) show up way more often in the rewards, too.
There was a learning curve, but I'm enjoying it. It's actually easier to hunt the non-Apex monsters and get their parts in Rampage than it is to do a normal hunt. Rampages apparently have a wide matchmaking system such that if you put them up as Accept via Join Request, you'll get a full room pretty much immediately. The best part is that Rampages have unlimited faints, so one Hunter wearing no armor won't sink your quest.
Like I said, it's probably tolerable in multiplayer, but imo it was a completely miserable solo experience. A combination of having to run all over the place (not being able to climb up platforms without a wirebug made this way worse) + the apex knocking everything around like a rag doll whenever it so much as breathed on a platform, both of which are probably fixed by having more bodies to set up and for the monsters to focus on.
Even if your wirebugs are recharging, you can still wall climb. Get close, do the standard wirebug move where you use your own aim, and hold run like a normal wall climb.
I found entry 8 of the Lava Caverns while on the village harvest tour. I scoured that map (finding the other camp site in the process) for the better part of an hour and this was the only one I found. I have no other Lava Caverns in my Notebook.
Here's where it was. If they are really tied to specific quests, nobody should be able to find this on any other Lava Caverns mission.
I think they are just sincerely hidden that well, and you can pick them up at any time.
There is an awesome secret one in lava caverns that is hard to get to but unforgettable once you find the area.
Try to figure out how to get into that little curvy stick at the very top of the map...
Also there was one in sandy plains that (very mild spoiler)
was buried in among a patch of the bushes you can clear to try to find the buff birds. I cleared out the brush and there it was sticking out of the center.
I found entry 8 of the Lava Caverns while on the village harvest tour. I scoured that map (finding the other camp site in the process) for the better part of an hour and this was the only one I found. I have no other Lava Caverns in my Notebook.
Here's where it was. If they are really tied to specific quests, nobody should be able to find this on any other Lava Caverns mission.
I think they are just sincerely hidden that well, and you can pick them up at any time.
There is an awesome secret one in lava caverns that is hard to get to but unforgettable once you find the area.
Try to figure out how to get into that little curvy stick at the very top of the map...
Also there was one in sandy plains that (very mild spoiler)
was buried in among a patch of the bushes you can clear to try to find the buff birds. I cleared out the brush and there it was sticking out of the center.
Yeah I found that spoiler one during a similar harvest run. Quite the surprise! And it was the only one I found on that run, too.
Ok, there is one crazy hidden one just north of the main camp in the flooded forest. Climb up as high as you can on the northern side of the base camp and look for a tiny tunnel. The tunnel leads OFF THE MAP and serves as a shortcut between sections 1 and 13. Message and a bunch of rare resources are in there
Also, weird edge complaint, but... removing the ability to layer any armor really feels like a big step backwards. That was such a great addition to MHW I felt and I liked being able to play style hunter that much more.
Also, weird edge complaint, but... removing the ability to layer any armor really feels like a big step backwards. That was such a great addition to MHW I felt and I liked being able to play style hunter that much more.
I hope they add it. I already find myself not making new armor pieces to mix and match because I don’t want to look like a clown.
You can also blow up a door near the top-ish of the ziggurat, which has no indicator as such besides being able to see some resources through the rubble.
I found one relic in the Flooded Plains by missing a jump that I'd already dozen at least a couple dozen times as part of a farming route and falling down onto a little ledge that I had absolutely no clue was there
Also, weird edge complaint, but... removing the ability to layer any armor really feels like a big step backwards. That was such a great addition to MHW I felt and I liked being able to play style hunter that much more.
Layered armor is in the game, but for now it requires the purchase of the digital deluxe or the Magnamalo amiibo.
There are some other smaller purchases available as well.
Once that cow is milked I’m sure they’ll put more options into Rise.
Okay, since I've played around with a bunch of these and watched a few videos, it's time to talk Insect Glaive Strategy.
I'm not going to talk about how to actually play Glaive, but what I am going to talk about are the new cool things added in Rise, how they work together, and some of my experiences and combos I've found that work really well. For context, I've played and mained Insect Glaive since it's release (it's actually the reason I started playing the game in the first place!). I have to say that the Glaive in Rise is probably in the best place it's been, and it feels so much better than it did in World...after you get out of the hell hole that is the starter set of abilities and starter kinsect choices.
If you were put off by the Glaive in the demo, I urge you to try it again, because I think no other weapon got done as dirty by the demo as the Glaive. All of the cool new features were locked away and you were stuck with a useless, sluggish kinsect.
So, let's discuss some of the changes, starting with Kinsects, walking into Switch Skills, and ending with some combos of Kinsect/Switch Skills I've found particularly useful and synergistic. I'm not going to discuss individual glaive choices or armor skills, because a lot of that information is still being worked out, and the meta on stats has obviously not completely settled. One thing to note is that elemental weapons seem to have taken a little hit, and this does slightly affect glaive, but I don't think it's as significant as people are making it out to be. On the other hand...status glaive is in a really good place, especially with the right combo of kinsect and switch skills!
Okay, Kinsects! Everyone loves them, they're giant bugs that are strapped to your arm and that obey your every command. This is what everyone dreams about, right? I know I certainly do!
In Rise they have completely overhauled the kinsect system from previous games, and it is so much better. Instead of having to farm materials to feed and upgrade a kinsect, and choose the elemental damage it does, and only having really two choices at the end of the game, there is now a good reason to take almost every kinsect.
Kinsects (aside from the horrific two you start with) are divided into three categories: Assist, Powder, and Speed. In addition to this, each Kinsect does either Blunt or Severing damage, the same as Palico, Palamute, and every other weapon in the game. Severing can cut tails, Blunt can stun and exhaust.
This means there are six different choices you need to make: Starting with whether you want Blunt or Severing damage, you then need to ask whether you want an Assist Type, a Powder Type*, or a Speed type.
How do you choose?
Well, let's give an overview of them, starting with Powder Type, since most people played MHW, and this is probably very familiar to you.
Powder type kinsects work just like they did in MHW- you mark a monster either by shooting a pheromone bullet (ZR+ZL/R on the ground with the glaive out) at it or by hitting it with the blunt end of your glaive (which you can do either with ZR on the ground, or with one of the new switch skills, discussed below).
After marking a monster, the kinsect will fly towards the marked spot and attack until it is out of stamina (the little yellow bar under the kinsect icons on your UI), at which time it will return and bring you an extract from the last place it hit. Every time the kinsect attacks the monster, it will release Powder, which you can hit with your attacks (or kunai) to detonate, doing status damage that corresponds to the powder type of the kinsect (Paralysis, Poison, etc).
*technically this means in addition to Blunt/Severing, Powder-Type users need to think about what status they're trying to cause with the kinsect, which might be different than the statuses caused by the glaive itself. Choices! Status glaive is back!
The second type of Kinsect, Speed type, will be familiar to anyone who played any other Monster Hunter game with the glaive...with one twist. Speed Type kinsects, as the name implies, go REALLY fast when you shoot them out either from the draw attack (Zr with weapon sheathed) or as an attack (ZR + X with weapon drawn). They go fast, they hit hard, and also, most of them carry the Triple-Up Extender perk which causes your Triple-Up buff (when you get all three extracts) to last a lot longer. Those of you who played other Monster Hunter games will recognize this as the previous "Best in Slot Kinsect", and it's still really nice here as well. One new feature of Speed Type kinsects is that they charge up while sitting on your arm. After a while the abdomen of the Kinsect and the glowing bulb on your glaive will switch from yellow to blue, and that shows the kinsect is fully charged. Launching a fully-charged Speed Kinsect causes it to hit much harder, and at higher ranks of kinsects, hit multiple times at once! This can be really useful for cutting tails or stunning monsters, depending on which damage type you took with you.
The third type is new, and right now is probably my favorite type (with Powder Type taking second place and Speed taking third, but it's really a close call here). Assist type kinsects have a few things that set them apart. First of all...they're typically slower than Powder and Speed type, but they do hit harder. More importantly, Assist Types can collect two extract colors at once! Specifically, depending on which kinsect you use, they will always collect one color (either white, orange, or red) in addition to the color matching whatever part they hit. So, if you have an Assist kinsect that always grabs orange, if you hit a monster's head you get red and orange at the same time. This is a huge quality of life improvement. It's a tough call between which I find more useful between triple-up extender on Speed Types and the double harvesting of Assist Types.
The more exciting thing about Assist Types (more exciting than double extracts??? yes!) is that if you have the Triple-Up effect, the Kinsect will actually attack alongside you when you do specific combos. If you do the Strong Double Slash (X -> X -> X) the kinsect will fly around and attack on each hit of the glaive. Similarly this will also happen during Leaping Slash (joystick + A) and Tornado Slash (A after Leaping Slash or after Strong Rising Slash [X] ). What's great about this is that each hit of the kinsect uses the kinsect damage type. That means you either throw down some serious tail damage or really quickly exhaust and stun monsters. I'm absolutely in love with Assist Types, plus the kinsect flying around you looks super cool.
So now that I've talked about the three kinsect types, let's talk really quickly about the three switch skills for the Insect Glaive. I'm not going to go over them in much depth here, because I'll talk more about strategies in part three, where I talk about some Kinsect Types and Switch Skill combos that I think synergize really well.
First, let's mention Tetraseal Slash. This replaces Tornado Slash in your basic moveset and does slightly less damage than Tornado Slash. However, it hits multiple times and marks the target at the end of the combo. It also roots you for the duration of the entire animation, so be careful. One note here is that an Assist Type kinsect will attack on each swing of Tetraseal Slash. This will be important later.
Next up is Diving Wyvern. This replaces one of your Silkbind attacks (Recall Kinsect), replacing the dodge, heal, and stamina refill of Recall with a Plunging Attack that will be familiar to anyone who played Iceborne. One interesting thing about this attack is that the damage of the attack "charges up" based on how many hits you get from midair combos before using this ability. If you hit the ground, the charges reset, but I've seen this do up to 700 damage after a few aerial combos have landed. Aerial glaive is viable now!!!!!
Finally you have a really interesting replacement, and can choose between Leaping Slash and Forward Roundslash. Leaping Slash is the Forward + A move we all know and love. Forward Roundslash replaces that and replaces the draw attack on the X button with a dash that hits multiple times, ending with a downward smash. This attack has two interesting things about it. First of all, if you have Triple-Up and an Assist kinsect, the kinsect attacks during the Roundslash dash, which is nice. More importantly, most of the animation of this attack is a parry. The attack has a long wind-up, but if you get hit at any time during the actual attack animation you nullify the hit (as far as I can tell) and more importantly, you vault off the monster. This is.....well I love it. It's great, and synergizes really well with Diving Wyvern. Plus, we get a parry! I never thought I'd see the day!
Okay, now I've covered Kinsect Types and Switch skills. What are some fun combos I've found?
Well, the one I use most frequently is an Assist Type Kinsect doing Blunt Damage with Tetraseal Slash, Recall Kinsect, and Leaping Slash. I like this set because it turns me into a sort of Hammer user. I sit on the monster's head, use Leaping Slash for the big overhead smash with my kinsect joining in to deliver blunt damage, then I follow up with Tetraseal for more blunt damage, combo Tetraseal into Rising Slash, then back into Tetraseal. One thing that I didn't mention with Assist Types is that the kinsect uses stamina when it joins your attacks, and if it's out of stamina it won't join in....hence why I like Recall Kinsect! Recall Kinsect completely refills the Kinsect Stamina bar (and usually gives me an extract and some heal, in addition to a dodge). This lets me go back to smashing heads and stunning monsters. I don't tend to use Forward Roundslash here because I prefer the speed and height of Leaping Slash for doing blunt damage, but your mileage may vary.
Another fun one I like a lot is the return of Status Glaive. I take Tetraseal, Diving Wyvern, Forward Roundslash alongside a Blunt Powder Type kinsect and a glaive that does status damage (I really like the paralysis glaives we get, for instance). In one hunt I can typically poison, paralyze, and stun a monster (in addition to mounting it!), and it gives me a lot of control. I like the Tetraseal and Forward Roundslash because they do a lot of hits, which allows me to build up status much faster, and I take diving wyvern mostly because I don't really want to Recall my kinsect- I want more Powder out, and I need a big hit since I'm lacking Tornado Slash and Leaping Slash. Plus, aerial combos are nice for adding status damage from popping dust and the multiple hits of the combo.
Finally, I also really like Diving Wyvern and Forward Roundslash with a Speed-Type kinsect. I keep Tornado Slash for the damage. Having the kinsect charge while I'm doing aerial combos after a Forward Roundslash to lead into charged Diving Wyvern attacks is nice, plus having longer Triple-Up makes me think less about managing buffs. (Yes, the kinsect charges up on your arm while you're doing aerial combos!). I tend to use a Severing kinsect here, because I'm not focusing on Stunning monsters as much and being able to do an aerial combo, hit with a diving wyvern and then throw a kinsect at a tail before doing it again just works in my brain.
Anyway, Insect Glaive in Rise is great, I hope you try it out, and I'll see you in the skies!
Yeah, so much for lancing... I've gotten up to HR 5 now off it with HBG subbing in for some fights, but that's making me want to dance in the sky again...
When you get to HR its always a fun experience, your old staple monsters are now more deadly and you really have to choose those upgrades carefully (I'm out of god damn money money for fuck sake!).
I would like some money because these are artisanal nuggets of wisdom philistine.
Posts
I almost never use the vertical and horizontal Wirebugs moves. I'm always just doing ZL-ZR when traversing the land.
PSN/Steam/NNID: SyphonBlue | BNet: SyphonBlue#1126
Switch: SW-1493-0062-4053
I need to get into the habit of flipping to power guard right as attacks hit since a lot of moves the default counter will whiff on because of positioning, while power guard lets me 180 into a stab.
Also, I have learned that I cannot counter Arzuros worth a damn. The delays on his attacks just keep catching me.
3DS: 0473-8507-2652
Switch: SW-5185-4991-5118
PSN: AbEntropy
I found entry 8 of the Lava Caverns while on the village harvest tour. I scoured that map (finding the other camp site in the process) for the better part of an hour and this was the only one I found. I have no other Lava Caverns in my Notebook.
Here's where it was. If they are really tied to specific quests, nobody should be able to find this on any other Lava Caverns mission.
This plan does rather depend on the monster staying in one place for a bit, so my success rate with this manoeuvre isn't exactly 100%.
Like, this is not a fun game mode, not what I want out of monster hunter at all.
Edit: I can see it maybe being fun in multiplayer, but god that is such a slog when playing solo.
There was a learning curve, but I'm enjoying it. It's actually easier to hunt the non-Apex monsters and get their parts in Rampage than it is to do a normal hunt. Rampages apparently have a wide matchmaking system such that if you put them up as Accept via Join Request, you'll get a full room pretty much immediately. The best part is that Rampages have unlimited faints, so one Hunter wearing no armor won't sink your quest.
I can see how it'll get easier with more playthroughs, but it definitely won't get any more fun
Do I have to go to the hub?
I was avoiding it because I was waiting for my wife to have free time to play with me.
I think they are just sincerely hidden that well, and you can pick them up at any time.
There is an awesome secret one in lava caverns that is hard to get to but unforgettable once you find the area.
Try to figure out how to get into that little curvy stick at the very top of the map...
Also there was one in sandy plains that (very mild spoiler)
only if you want to progress to high rank. village 6* is the end of village, village only has low rank this go around.
I mean...I do! There's a lot of monsters I haven't fought yet, and I want to upgrade my Wroggi to HR!
Also, note that there's an insect glaive from the ore tree that is for some reason a rifle with a bayonet.
So anyway, I loaded up an almost full Wroggi set, minus gloves, and took a poison kinsect and now I look absolutely ridiculous Amaaaaazing!
Yeah I found that spoiler one during a similar harvest run. Quite the surprise! And it was the only one I found on that run, too.
Has anyone found more than one on a given quest?
I hope they add it. I already find myself not making new armor pieces to mix and match because I don’t want to look like a clown.
Uh oh
"We're not out of the clear yet"
You can be out of the woods, or in the clear, but it doesn't make sense to not be out of the clear!
Dammit localizers!
and there was the relic, just staring right at me
i can't find shit
3DS: 0473-8507-2652
Switch: SW-5185-4991-5118
PSN: AbEntropy
it's doubly infuriating because when you open the map and zoom in... the icons shrink. awesome
Narga/Tobi or any of the birds are the biggest offender here.
Layered armor is in the game, but for now it requires the purchase of the digital deluxe or the Magnamalo amiibo.
There are some other smaller purchases available as well.
Once that cow is milked I’m sure they’ll put more options into Rise.
I'm not going to talk about how to actually play Glaive, but what I am going to talk about are the new cool things added in Rise, how they work together, and some of my experiences and combos I've found that work really well. For context, I've played and mained Insect Glaive since it's release (it's actually the reason I started playing the game in the first place!). I have to say that the Glaive in Rise is probably in the best place it's been, and it feels so much better than it did in World...after you get out of the hell hole that is the starter set of abilities and starter kinsect choices.
If you were put off by the Glaive in the demo, I urge you to try it again, because I think no other weapon got done as dirty by the demo as the Glaive. All of the cool new features were locked away and you were stuck with a useless, sluggish kinsect.
So, let's discuss some of the changes, starting with Kinsects, walking into Switch Skills, and ending with some combos of Kinsect/Switch Skills I've found particularly useful and synergistic. I'm not going to discuss individual glaive choices or armor skills, because a lot of that information is still being worked out, and the meta on stats has obviously not completely settled. One thing to note is that elemental weapons seem to have taken a little hit, and this does slightly affect glaive, but I don't think it's as significant as people are making it out to be. On the other hand...status glaive is in a really good place, especially with the right combo of kinsect and switch skills!
Okay, Kinsects! Everyone loves them, they're giant bugs that are strapped to your arm and that obey your every command. This is what everyone dreams about, right? I know I certainly do!
In Rise they have completely overhauled the kinsect system from previous games, and it is so much better. Instead of having to farm materials to feed and upgrade a kinsect, and choose the elemental damage it does, and only having really two choices at the end of the game, there is now a good reason to take almost every kinsect.
Kinsects (aside from the horrific two you start with) are divided into three categories: Assist, Powder, and Speed. In addition to this, each Kinsect does either Blunt or Severing damage, the same as Palico, Palamute, and every other weapon in the game. Severing can cut tails, Blunt can stun and exhaust.
This means there are six different choices you need to make: Starting with whether you want Blunt or Severing damage, you then need to ask whether you want an Assist Type, a Powder Type*, or a Speed type.
How do you choose?
Well, let's give an overview of them, starting with Powder Type, since most people played MHW, and this is probably very familiar to you.
Powder type kinsects work just like they did in MHW- you mark a monster either by shooting a pheromone bullet (ZR+ZL/R on the ground with the glaive out) at it or by hitting it with the blunt end of your glaive (which you can do either with ZR on the ground, or with one of the new switch skills, discussed below).
After marking a monster, the kinsect will fly towards the marked spot and attack until it is out of stamina (the little yellow bar under the kinsect icons on your UI), at which time it will return and bring you an extract from the last place it hit. Every time the kinsect attacks the monster, it will release Powder, which you can hit with your attacks (or kunai) to detonate, doing status damage that corresponds to the powder type of the kinsect (Paralysis, Poison, etc).
*technically this means in addition to Blunt/Severing, Powder-Type users need to think about what status they're trying to cause with the kinsect, which might be different than the statuses caused by the glaive itself. Choices! Status glaive is back!
The second type of Kinsect, Speed type, will be familiar to anyone who played any other Monster Hunter game with the glaive...with one twist. Speed Type kinsects, as the name implies, go REALLY fast when you shoot them out either from the draw attack (Zr with weapon sheathed) or as an attack (ZR + X with weapon drawn). They go fast, they hit hard, and also, most of them carry the Triple-Up Extender perk which causes your Triple-Up buff (when you get all three extracts) to last a lot longer. Those of you who played other Monster Hunter games will recognize this as the previous "Best in Slot Kinsect", and it's still really nice here as well. One new feature of Speed Type kinsects is that they charge up while sitting on your arm. After a while the abdomen of the Kinsect and the glowing bulb on your glaive will switch from yellow to blue, and that shows the kinsect is fully charged. Launching a fully-charged Speed Kinsect causes it to hit much harder, and at higher ranks of kinsects, hit multiple times at once! This can be really useful for cutting tails or stunning monsters, depending on which damage type you took with you.
The third type is new, and right now is probably my favorite type (with Powder Type taking second place and Speed taking third, but it's really a close call here). Assist type kinsects have a few things that set them apart. First of all...they're typically slower than Powder and Speed type, but they do hit harder. More importantly, Assist Types can collect two extract colors at once! Specifically, depending on which kinsect you use, they will always collect one color (either white, orange, or red) in addition to the color matching whatever part they hit. So, if you have an Assist kinsect that always grabs orange, if you hit a monster's head you get red and orange at the same time. This is a huge quality of life improvement. It's a tough call between which I find more useful between triple-up extender on Speed Types and the double harvesting of Assist Types.
The more exciting thing about Assist Types (more exciting than double extracts??? yes!) is that if you have the Triple-Up effect, the Kinsect will actually attack alongside you when you do specific combos. If you do the Strong Double Slash (X -> X -> X) the kinsect will fly around and attack on each hit of the glaive. Similarly this will also happen during Leaping Slash (joystick + A) and Tornado Slash (A after Leaping Slash or after Strong Rising Slash [X] ). What's great about this is that each hit of the kinsect uses the kinsect damage type. That means you either throw down some serious tail damage or really quickly exhaust and stun monsters. I'm absolutely in love with Assist Types, plus the kinsect flying around you looks super cool.
So now that I've talked about the three kinsect types, let's talk really quickly about the three switch skills for the Insect Glaive. I'm not going to go over them in much depth here, because I'll talk more about strategies in part three, where I talk about some Kinsect Types and Switch Skill combos that I think synergize really well.
First, let's mention Tetraseal Slash. This replaces Tornado Slash in your basic moveset and does slightly less damage than Tornado Slash. However, it hits multiple times and marks the target at the end of the combo. It also roots you for the duration of the entire animation, so be careful. One note here is that an Assist Type kinsect will attack on each swing of Tetraseal Slash. This will be important later.
Next up is Diving Wyvern. This replaces one of your Silkbind attacks (Recall Kinsect), replacing the dodge, heal, and stamina refill of Recall with a Plunging Attack that will be familiar to anyone who played Iceborne. One interesting thing about this attack is that the damage of the attack "charges up" based on how many hits you get from midair combos before using this ability. If you hit the ground, the charges reset, but I've seen this do up to 700 damage after a few aerial combos have landed. Aerial glaive is viable now!!!!!
Finally you have a really interesting replacement, and can choose between Leaping Slash and Forward Roundslash. Leaping Slash is the Forward + A move we all know and love. Forward Roundslash replaces that and replaces the draw attack on the X button with a dash that hits multiple times, ending with a downward smash. This attack has two interesting things about it. First of all, if you have Triple-Up and an Assist kinsect, the kinsect attacks during the Roundslash dash, which is nice. More importantly, most of the animation of this attack is a parry. The attack has a long wind-up, but if you get hit at any time during the actual attack animation you nullify the hit (as far as I can tell) and more importantly, you vault off the monster. This is.....well I love it. It's great, and synergizes really well with Diving Wyvern. Plus, we get a parry! I never thought I'd see the day!
Okay, now I've covered Kinsect Types and Switch skills. What are some fun combos I've found?
Well, the one I use most frequently is an Assist Type Kinsect doing Blunt Damage with Tetraseal Slash, Recall Kinsect, and Leaping Slash. I like this set because it turns me into a sort of Hammer user. I sit on the monster's head, use Leaping Slash for the big overhead smash with my kinsect joining in to deliver blunt damage, then I follow up with Tetraseal for more blunt damage, combo Tetraseal into Rising Slash, then back into Tetraseal. One thing that I didn't mention with Assist Types is that the kinsect uses stamina when it joins your attacks, and if it's out of stamina it won't join in....hence why I like Recall Kinsect! Recall Kinsect completely refills the Kinsect Stamina bar (and usually gives me an extract and some heal, in addition to a dodge). This lets me go back to smashing heads and stunning monsters. I don't tend to use Forward Roundslash here because I prefer the speed and height of Leaping Slash for doing blunt damage, but your mileage may vary.
Another fun one I like a lot is the return of Status Glaive. I take Tetraseal, Diving Wyvern, Forward Roundslash alongside a Blunt Powder Type kinsect and a glaive that does status damage (I really like the paralysis glaives we get, for instance). In one hunt I can typically poison, paralyze, and stun a monster (in addition to mounting it!), and it gives me a lot of control. I like the Tetraseal and Forward Roundslash because they do a lot of hits, which allows me to build up status much faster, and I take diving wyvern mostly because I don't really want to Recall my kinsect- I want more Powder out, and I need a big hit since I'm lacking Tornado Slash and Leaping Slash. Plus, aerial combos are nice for adding status damage from popping dust and the multiple hits of the combo.
Finally, I also really like Diving Wyvern and Forward Roundslash with a Speed-Type kinsect. I keep Tornado Slash for the damage. Having the kinsect charge while I'm doing aerial combos after a Forward Roundslash to lead into charged Diving Wyvern attacks is nice, plus having longer Triple-Up makes me think less about managing buffs. (Yes, the kinsect charges up on your arm while you're doing aerial combos!). I tend to use a Severing kinsect here, because I'm not focusing on Stunning monsters as much and being able to do an aerial combo, hit with a diving wyvern and then throw a kinsect at a tail before doing it again just works in my brain.
Anyway, Insect Glaive in Rise is great, I hope you try it out, and I'll see you in the skies!
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PSN: AbEntropy
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