Topic: Monster Hunter Rise

While not DOOTDOOT specific, the trusty trio of maxed out part breaker, slugger and stamina thief are serving me very well. Felt like I really hit a wall with MR3 and early MR4, but I was running a more generic build of just stacking things like attack boost, crit eye etc because there is such an abundance of it in those early MR sets, but as the old adage goes, your DPS is zero if you carted.

The long reach of the horn, the high fatigue/stun potential of the slap, the Bloom and the grenade thingies (why can I never remember the name) may all cost you damage, but the unrelenting damage of MR monsters has meant that KOs have been far more important to me than just flat DPS.

Knocking the monster over, tiring them out, interrupting them when they were about to do big wind up attacks has averted many a cart already. I can let everyone else focus on the damage. Moves like Earthshaker and that Bloom can still hit really hard, and the grenades allow for burst damage, so you can still pop your Skill Swap and get some hits in when you knock them down, too.

Stun resistance also feels basically required at MR. Everything is so fast, and you take so many hits, being stunned is probably the number one cause of me and all of my friends carts. Thankfully MR armour has such an abundance of decco slots (and those new condensed deccos), it doesn't feel like you need to sacrifice anything to squeeze it in.

@Ulysses
Too bad you couldn't do more hunts. We smashed!

...Okay does anyone know how to get to that one great wirebug in the Citadel's castle ruins section? I've looked everywhere and it's driving me insane. lol

Crafted Kushala Daora layered armor to go alongside my new early-game MR armor and long sword (which a few Lagombi had to donate their lives for). Looks very nice.

Bleh, you people are no help. TwT

Whatever, I found it, I apparently overlooked an underground tunnel.

Wow I was able to absolutely wreck Espinas with the dual blades once switch swapped away from the aerial combo to the normal grounded one and just concentrated on the legs.

...And somehow I got three lashes from normal quest rewards to compensate for never cutting the tail, lol.

Got almost all the MR2 Quests done last night. Just 4 key Quests remaining (saved keys for last).

Gotta drive to Indiana today for a work emergency at our newly acquired out of state plant. Leaving in about 15 min (long 7 hr drive). But once I get to the hotel, it's time to wrap up MR2 and advance to MR3!

I'm already MR 28 now. I loved all the new areas and monsters, the expansion really made the game even more addictive than it already was. I kinda wanted to make a new appearance to my hunter but it stayed the same despite of the new cool sets because I like him too much as it is already. Sorry for the quality of the pictures, I always have trouble passing pictures from my Switch so I iust took a photo directly:

They all have combined parts from different sets.

I'm still in MR4 so I haven't gotten to this point yet but apparently you don't actually start accumulating MR points until after the end game boss. So every quest you do before that won't get stocked and then dumped on you when you unlock your MR like in other games.

Apparently this was the case in base Rise as well but it was so long ago that I don't remember. This sucks though. Kinda drains some of my motivation to do other quests until I'm done with the story.

Just got a quick before work hunt in and beat Garangolm. All Quests complete up to this point.

Might just do key Quests from MR3 onward though, so I can do the remaining Quests and build MR

I rolled credits on Sunbreak last night, so I am now starting the end game grind. I must say up this point I have somewhat mixed emotions for the DLC. I think I come from a different place than some, in that I actually didn't like World that much. To me Rise was a solution for almost all of World's problems and was an improvement upon that game in almost every aspect.

Sadly, I do think that some of the things that made Rise such a joy for me get lost in Sunbreak, perhaps to try and appease the crowds that complained about Rise's difficulty and pace. The game is giving you so much extra power, yet I have never felt weaker. It feels like no matter how many survivability talents you stack, you are always glass, so you may as well be a glass cannon. I feel like I experienced more frustration in levelling through Sunbreak's campaign, than I did through the entire of Rise, base game to post.

But while the points where it feels like the difficulty just spikes out the ceiling may leave the longest impression, for me, the issue was in the opposite direction too. The difficulty is just all over the place. Monsters I have been longing to fight in Rise's context for so long are just unceremoniously dumped into a pile of quests and so absurdly easy, you blink and wondered if they somehow dropped an MR3 in your MR5 by accident. Only to go to the next monster, some piece of trash you stomped in base Rise, only for them to somehow feel like they accidentally wandered in from MR10. The curve is just a real mess.

That isn't to say I disliked Sunbreak on the whole. It is still effectively more Rise, which is honestly one of my favourite games of all time, only now with a whole load of additional QOL changes which I sorta can't believe I was able to play without for so long.

Fighting new monsters and unlocking new gear is always a treat, even though I think a lot of the new perks are fairly niche and probably won't have a huge amount of uptake. I also think the new Switch Skills plus the Swap mechanic are a truly meaningful addition, even if it is odd to me they make you wait to get a bunch of the best new Skills much like they force you to fight a lot of the same old monsters to get to new stuff, and while it does unlock new versions of gear and the fights are harder versions, it just isn't as exciting as fighting new things.

Just hit MR70. Still loving it. Don't skip the follower quests either. There's some really good armor and weapons you get from those.

Oh my goodness.

This review is the single greatest take on Monster Hunter Rise Sunbreak I've encountered.

@Ulysses ha. yeah, it looks very cool. i'm wearing it as layered armor now. The skills are great for Gunlance too.

@Ulysses Awesome. It's really fun. It takes some time to get used to it, but once you do, it's a blast. There's a lot of good tutorial videos on Youtube too.

Just fought Sunbreak's final boss, no idea where to rank it...dunno if it tops Ahtal-Ka. It's definitely up there with Dalamadur and Gog, though. (Shara was alright, too)

I would love to play with others here, but I am sorry, I betrayed the Switch for PC.

Those One Piece jackets by the way? chefs kiss. Fashion Game will always be the true end game. Me with the doot, my friend with the bow. You can't see the jackets on us that well, but we are both wearing them like some kind of gang. 😂

Fought the final boss last night...all I can say is...
...
"What happened?!"

That first fight with Garangolm was pretty epic. Great stuff. And the hunting horn you can make from his parts looks surprisingly excellent. Guess I'll be grinding him for his... er... "juice" soon.

Got to credits myself as well. The last fight was pretty awesome. I don't think anything will heat Ahtal-Ka though.

@Ulysses I saw your invite earlier today, but I was otherwise engaged, sorry! I do want to go on hunts with you though. Don't hesitate to keep sending me invites and I'll be sure to join if I'm available.