Topic: Monster Hunter Rise

@JaxonH Level 3 Master's Touch gives you an 80% chance not to lose sharpness per crit hit. And yeah it only applies to the crits you land, so if you're not running a crit build it's more worth getting razor sharp.

For me however this perfectly compliments what I'm doing.

@JaxonH For me It just matter's what I lose and what I gain, Say if I got more damage and skill that work for the weapon I use, and the other has lower damage but better affinity and sharpness along with good gem slots, then I would go for the lower damage as I think I can fix the bad damage with gems and rampage skills.

@JaxonH Great hunting with you and @Fatty_Whale42! I'm still peeved I triple carted to Utsushi's Magnamalo. Despite being the flagship, I still did not expect him to ignore Silkbind invulnerability like an Elder. After our lobby ended, I went ahead and crafted Teostra's full set in looking forward to a grudge match.

More than being properly equipped however, I just need more practice against Magnamalo. Even in low rank, I carted twice at my first attempt against him. I still don't know how to predict his patterns properly, much less against Utsushi's version.

Magnamalo is an incredibly fun monster to fight however! Capcom have outdone themselves with this latest flagship. I didn't know it was possible, but he has already eclipsed Zinogre in my book, aside from my love for the fact that thematically (through armor descriptions) Zinogre is the hero where Magna is the villain. Now we just need a fresh Zinogre variant to go toe to toe with Magna!

@TeeJay You're absolutely right; Teostra is both familiar at its core and yet more dynamic than ever, and his armor is easily the meta standard for high affinity weapons.

This run for instance makes use of Kaiser helm/chest/guards + Anja Waist + Ingot Greaves.
Anja Waist gives Attack+2 with one level2 slot and two level1 slots, while Ingot gives Attack+2/CriticalEye+2 with two level1 slots. Teo's armor also inherently boosts fire element, which is a nice bonus for the Rakna HBG. I brought a version of this set to our Chameleos quest with Jaxon and Fatty, which was partly why the quest went so quickly xD

One subtlety I just noticed is that on the full skill spreadsheet, slotted in skill points are in green whereas skills inherent to armor pieces are in white. Yet another small touch Capcom lovingly put into this game, and I continue to love the devs all the more for it.

OMG I just had the craziest hunt. I joined a Chameleos hunt in progress, and it was already about to die when I joined. It was running from the hunters so I went to where it was headed and helped finish it off which took like less them a minute.

Then I carved a GEM off of it, and then proceeded to get TWO MORE GEMS in the reward screen.

??????????

@Ulysses Oh! Interesting! I'll give that set a go right now!

@Ulysses
Magnamalo is tough. Gotta be on your toes the entire time. He doesn't relent. I love Magnamalo. Easily one of my favorite monsters.

As for triple carting, maybe its needed practice like you say, but I don't question your skills. I think it just came down to having 300 defense for one of the tougher late high rank Quests in the game. No matter how good you are, if your defense is low enough you're in jeopardy of a one way ticket on the kitty cart. I try to stick to the 400-450 range. I'm absolutely amazed you made it all the way through Teostra with such low defense tbh.

@JaxonH Well I appreciate the compliment! Now that you mention it, I guess I not only got through Teostra with 300 defense, but also farmed him enough to make the full set

And right back at you! I'm always impressed with how skilled you are against every monster. Were you two able to beat Utsushi's Magna on the second try after I left?

And like @Fatty_Whale42 has mentioned before, HBG's Silkbind can be iffy. Some attacks like Rajang's thunder breath can be completely tanked with the silkbind (you're literally just sitting there inside Rajang's thunder breath while you wind up the shot?!) whereas even basic charges from other monsters have persistent pings, quickly overwhelming your silkbind move. Doesn't help that HBG only gets one Silkbind and it's completely stationary! Hopefully they'll change that in the expansion.

Regardless, Elders in their most powerful states blow through silk binds, so I definitely will be more prepared for that against Magna. Does base HR Magna ignore Silkbinds like Utsushi's Magna?

Are the monsters in Utushi quests buffed? Because it definitely feels like they got buffed.

@TeeJay From what @JaxonH said to me, they're buffed and near G rank level tough. I didn't realize that until after we did the Challenge 2 quest against Goss Harag and Rajang however!

I found this funny meme on reddit and just wanted to share it with yall.

@Ulysses
Oh ya, we crushed em. I also gemmed up my Wide Range from Level 3 to Level 5 after the failed quest, to ensure I keep everyone healed as much as possible. Moving forward I'm making sure all my online hunts have Wide Range 5. It's such a crucial skill because life powders are kept in my 2nd radial menu loadout and takes longer to use. Whereas with mega Potion and speed eating I can react pretty fast (albeit, not always with enough health to save someone, but the steady heals overtime drastically reduces risk of someone carting- I also am bringing dust of life now too just in case, and have assigned them a spot in the radial menu loadout #2 next to lifepowders). Working as a team means I'm just as responsible for keeping you guys alive as you are. If one fails, we all fail.

I'm not sure if the monsters are buffed. They might be. Then again, High Rank Magnamalo is just a machine.

Question for some of the veterans: how important is blue sharpness on weapons as I start out in High Rank, specifically for 5, 6, and 7-star quests? Asking as an IG and Hammer user.

I know the multipliers for additional damage, so I guess I'm asking from your experience... does green sharpness start bouncing a lot in these quests? Does that extra damage multiplier from blue sharpness give a noticeable enough DPS bump to ditch green sharpness completely yet?

Thank you! =]

(P.S.: Thank you to everyone who recommended ditching the lobby system for the SOS feature to me about a week ago. Now finding hunts super easily :])

@JaxonH Well, I definitely wasn't getting 1-shot by Magna's amped up attacks in high rank, but then again, maybe I just never got hit ^^;
I also noticed Magna staying in his amped up final form a lot longer than in other quests.

And that's good to hear you beat him solidly! I'm itching for a rematch; talk about his armor skills epitomizing how I feel about him!

I also love Wide-Range, and I'm still upset Capcom kept it a level2 slot since MHWorld. High Rank is too distracting, but I still want to go back and get more Kamura Tickets from the village quests to make that coveted Utsushi armor for the Visible variant with Good Luck and Wide Range. I just wish the Visible variant had his mask on the Waist armor piece like his actual character model! I guess Capcom worried about it constantly clipping into the weapons when it sat on the back of the waist.

@Ulysses
That's the set I'm running. The good luck really helps get a couple extra mats per hunt, on average.

You can always hide the headpiece, or, make layered armor for the hidden headpiece and wear that. I just wear my Bazel layered armor, Kamura layered armor or Magnamalo Layered Armor over it.

@JaxonH I've splurged on a few micro transactions, and I love how the fox mask looks on Utsushi's set, so I'll run with that once I make it!

I also just love how much Utsushi Visible's armor skills resemble a sherpa role. After I take a break from farming, I like the idea of going back and helping low rank hunters sporting Utsushi's armor.

So.......for the first time since MH4U....I'm trying the Insect Glaive again. And... I'm having a blast with it! MH4U TeeJay is back baybeeeee

@TeeJay
Uh oh.

Is it time for Jax to bust out the glaive as well? Return to the glory days of the dual glaive duo?

@JaxonH Do it! Let us return to the glory days.

I really love the improvements the Glaive has gotten up til now. Kinsects are just purchased now, no seperate confusing upgrade system. I went for the Dual Color (Attack) Severing Kinsect. Using it, I don't have to worry about getting red essence at all, I just automatically get it when going for the other ones. It makes getting to triple buff basically painless.

The Diving Wyvern Switch skill is pretty awesome as a combo finisher! You just stab straight downward, pretty straightforward. But the more jumps you've done before using it, the stronger it is when you do it.

I really like the Switch Skill that's basically the Glaive's equivalent of the Switchaxe's forward overhead slash. Basically it's an attack that functions to close distance quickly as your draw your weapon.

Or you can just wire jump and start attacking from there.

The Jump Jewel is basically a must have. It's a level three gem and for good reason, it prevents you from getting knocked out of the air at all. An amazing perk.

Also I just now remembered triple buff gives you earplugs. I'm pretty sure it always did but I totally forgot about that until a monster roared just now and I was unfazed. I freaking love this.

Gah it's so fun.

@TeeJay
I'll have to see what I can put together. I definitely want a kinsect with triple uptime, or at least, that's the one that seems best, since I only truly started loving glaive after getting the double uptime kinsect in MH4U. But maybe double buff makes it easier to stay in triple buff more of the fight.

@JaxonH Triple Uptime looked appealing to me too, until I looked into it and found out it only increased your triple buff time by 20%.

It only takes two seconds to get to triple buff with a dual color Kinsect. Also there's a jewel for increasing triple buff time now, Power Prolonger. I'd suggest investing into that of you want more triple buff time.

The combination of trivializing the process of getting to triple buff (seriously I don't even have to aim I just spam it and get what I want within a second or two) and keeping triple buff active for longer with power Prolonger should appeal to you.

@TeeJay
Ya that sounds perfect