Topic: Monster Hunter Rise

I've been working on a gunlance set! And while the gunlance hasn't felt immediately intuitive to me I can feel myself slowly getting better with it. The whole poke-poke-boom thing that I was used to in 3U, while still here, is no longer the ideal way to use the gunlance apparently, so I've been trying to acclimate to the new way of things.

Took down Zinogre in like 12ish minutes so I'd say that's pretty decent. Not that I'm trying to speedrun or anything, it's just that it's an indicator that I'm doing something right. It was kinda sloppy though because I've yet to get totally used to when I can safely attack without getting slapped mid-attack.

I'm not moving on to Kushala to I get the whole bazel set (And max it) if only he would give me the darn gem!

Finished my Gunlance set! Relevant skills are as follows:

• Guard lvl 5
• Razor Sharp lvl 3
• Artillery lvl 3
• Partbreaker lvl 3
• Wide-Range lvl 3
• Load Shells lvl 2
• Evade Extender lvl 2
• Guard Up lvl 1
• Speed Sharpening lvl 1
• Flinch Free lvl 1

@TeeJay
Nice! We can gunlance together now!

I have a set with Guard 5 and Evasion 5 and another set with Wirebug Whisperer built in, but my current iteration is as follows:

Guard 3
Guard Up 3
Speed Sharpening 3
Quick Sheath 3
Artillery 3
Stamina Surge 3
Constitution 2
Load Shells 2
Evade Extender 2

The stamina surge and constitution are enough to mitigate the stamina-sucking hops, the Razor Sharp 3 and speed Sharpening (combined with Narga Switch Axe) are enough to mitigate the weapon chewing through sharpness, the Evade Extender 2 provides enough mobility, the Guard 3 and Guard Up 3 ensure basically anything can be blocked, the quick sheath mitigates slow sheathing, load shells and artillery to boost damage, lower cooldown for wyvern fire and help with shelling ammo.

I also prefer the Switch skill that reloads both wyrmstake and some shells, though I imagine if you use a gunlance with like 7 shell capacity the other one might be more useful. Also prefer the Hail Cutter.

Blast dashing is hard to master but it feels so good. You can instantly change direction with ZR+A if currently in a blast dash. Overall, gunlance doesn't feel natural yet, but that's why I'm going to keep using it until it does.

I should join at some point since I also use gunlance. lol

gaijin hunter: Here's a new mining route that can't be improved.

Me: You sure about that?

Tweaked my Gunlance set a little. Got rid of the Razor Sharp in favor of Protective Polish 2. A full minute of no sharpness decrease after sharpening.

Got Speed Sharpening 3 to go with that and reduced Guard 5 to Guard 4 in favor of Handicraft. Not sure about that one, I may revert that decision but we'll see, the extra white sharpness IS nice...

I love how the counter switch skill increases sharpness so that even if you don't actually land the counter, it's still worth doing.

@Ulysses Sorry, I saw your invite but I was already doing my last hunt for the moment.

I am playing other games at the moment, but maybe once the next update hits later this month.

@TeeJay
Let me know your thoughts on the Protective Polish skill after you get some hunts under your belt with it. I’ve been curious about it but I wasn’t sure if it was worth using because you would need Lv. 3 to last 90 seconds, and even with speed sharpening I wasn’t sure if I would keep that up. Razor Sharp 3 basically doubles your sharpness bar length, so a 100% increase. If protective polish can beat that (PP3 would require sharpening every 3 minutes to = RS3, and if you sharpen more than that it’s a better skill, while if you sharpen less frequently than that it’s a worse skill). Question really comes down to, how frequently are you willing to sharpen in your given play style.

Maybe I’ll just try it.

As for Guard, I’ve found Guard 3 to be sufficient. Granted, Guard Up is also nice for reducing damage, but even against Apex monsters Guard 3 has worked for me. Definitely worth giving one or two points up to gain in another area.

I don’t use handicraft for Nargacuga GL, for obvious reasons, but for Rakna Kadaki, which is arguably the best gunlance in the game, I do use one deco of Handicraft to compliment Razor Sharp 3 and Speed Sharpening 3. It seems to add just enough white sharpness, which, when doubled by the Razor Sharp 3 skill, provides sufficient sharpness to last an entire round with a monster without dipping into green, or if you do, it’s not by much.

tries to do more challenges in Pokemon Snap, thinks he getting all of them done and gets absolutely none of them
...
...Yeah I think I'm giving this game a break...might go back to Rise, dunno yet. I mean, I've pretty much seen everything in the update besides Apex Rathalos and Diablos...not that I'm missing much there since they're basically Dreadking and Bloodbath...lol
...
I dunno...Gah! >.<

This makes me feel better. XD

Royal Ludroth didn't turn out to be nearly as hard for me as the Barroth. Though using an upgraded switch axe certainly helped! I also tried my first Rampage (via the story-related Urgent Quest) and...I'm not sure what to think about it. On paper, it looks like a fun third-person take on tower defense. But in execution, I can't say I enjoyed it too much.

@JaxonH First, apologies on the late reply. The last couple of days have been nuts!

I haven't tried the Motley Mix at the Canteen yet; something else on the list! I've been defaulting to Dango for the time being since I'm not tired of the animation as of yet. XD The only problem with the BBQ spit is that it makes me want ACTUAL BBQ, so I try to avoid using it on an empty stomach.

I'm still keeping it to 12ish items, depending on the mission. Though I'm admittedly sometimes bad about clearing out the extras in my item pouch before heading out again. Trying to get better at that.

Duly noted on the arena quests. I'll certainly try a couple of them out!

@Tyranexx Barroth is hard for alot of new player's LOL, so its normal.

Yeah Barroth in World...he was too easy, like when his body was mudless he would try to shake some off still. Look, the animation was neat and everything...but after that first moment...he does it...CONSTANTLY. Shortly after the battle has started, it was basically over already. lol

I don't think I've seen him do this ONCE in Rise, once he had no mud left he would quickly go get covered again. So yeah, his fight is a lot better in this game. xD

That said, I may wait on getting back into Rise...gonna play other games for a bit until the next update happens.

@Tyranexx
No worries.

The motley mix is separate from dango btw. You can do motley mix as many times as you want, separately from eating a meal. Just wanted to clarify.

If you store your items as a loadout, and just load the loadout after each quest, it puts away everything in your pouch automatically and loads the items into your pouch for you too. Whenever I get back from a quest, the first thing I do is run to the item box and load my loadout for the next hunt, then make my rounds- first to my room to speak with my housekeeper to check the Argosy for rare ore and other materials and collect my harvest, check on meowcenaries and check on the dojo progress. Then I run outside to the merchant to check for the lottery and re-up on my talisman melding (you'll unlock that later), and every 5 Quests, when the meowcenaries return and I send them out again, I also visit the Buddy Plaza and grab the items at the top of the tree in the cohoot nest.

Once you get into that rhythm it'll form a habit, and you'll do it without even thinking about it.

Is there a mission in Rise that plays "Proof of a Hero" yet? Or will that come in the final title update?

...Doesn't it play during the Rampage? Like, when you hit that gong thingy. lol

@Ulysses
I like to figure that out before opening the lobby, and have a list of quests ready in my mind to post when others join to maximize time hunting monsters. As soon as one’s done, jump right into the next.

At this point, I’m just playing for fun- I’ll naturally build up more outfit tickets and lazurite jewels and meld more talismans as I play. So I don’t care what I hunt, tbh. It’s all fun to me.

I’m not that good with gunlance yet, but it’s crazy fun. It’s so refreshing finding a new weapon that offers the same kind of depth as Switchaxe and Charge Blade. Gunlance is a lot more nuanced than it seems to be at first glance.

@VoidofLight
Yes. I believe Ibushi and/or Narwa play Proof of a Hero in the latter half of the quest.

@JaxonH Ah alright.

New event quest!

@Snatcher Duly noted. The Barroth encounters I found tended to also favor smaller spaces, which certainly didn't help at all. XD

@JaxonH So Motley Mix is separate from how Dango functions. Gotcha. Appreciate the clarification!

I've admittedly been lazy about using item loadouts, so I might experiment more with those this evening. I'm getting better about routinely visiting the item box, something I was very bad at doing when first starting out. I need to establish more of a loop in general. I know there's a ton of extra stuff you can do in this game, but I haven't been taking much advantage of some of it. Like the Meowcenaries for example. So much to do!