Topic: Monster Hunter Rise

@JaxonH
Just jumping in here mate to wish you well, and hope that you're now on the 'road to recovery'... sounds like you've had a ropey time recently! Hopefully the cocktail of old medicines, sushi and Switch are getting you back to 100%

I think that new game releases, especially for prolific/AAA titles, can often perpetuate a 'FOMO' (fear of missing out) mentality... and almost encourage a race amongst players to digest content as quickly as possible. I remember very clearly feeling similar to you when it came to Elden Ring, as I was travelling extensively (for work) during the release period and was unable to play as much as I wanted. I'd not even reached Stormveil castle before others online had Platinum'd the game! Then I'd read how far others had progressed, and found it almost depressing ha.

Your health should always come first, and be assured that there seems to be quite a few of us here that will be hunting regularly for some time. @Ralizah and I seem to have a similar mentality, doing a few hunts every day etc

For me personally, I plan to keep Sunbreak as my 'side game' for many many months to come... its a perfect 'arcade style' game to fit in next to something meatier on PS5.

I'm really enjoying farming for new sets and adapting my GS playstyle... I'm still 'maining' the ACS/Rage Slash style of play, which is my main scroll. But scroll #2 I have Strongarm/TCS, which I'm enjoying (very slowly!) getting better at!

Have a comfy build at the moment, looking like:
Attack Boost 4
Crit Boost 3
WEX 3
Focus 3
Blight Resist 3
Stun Resist 3
Part Breaker 3
Wirebug Whisperer 3
Blood Rite 3
Divine Blessing 2
Handicraft 1
Defense Boost 1
Flinch Free 1
Talisman being used is DivineBlessing2 with 2-2-0.... from base game! Still can't meld anything better!

How are you finding GS? Still enjoying? I'm currently pushing to get to MR50, so I can tackle Furious Rajang to unlock mats needed for L'Origine lv10 weapon.... but Im only MR24-ish right now

Anyway, hope all is well.... If I see you online I'll drop you a lobby invite with code 5477. But rest assured, there are many of us on here that will be playing for a LONG time it seems! Looking forward to hunting with you soon mate, rest up

@JaxonH I wonder if Lucent will get any new...mode, or big change or something. Like, I never got to them in IB but apparently Gold and Silver also had a new state they would go into and then eventually do a huge attack of some kind.

Anyways, I'm just constantly thinking of what other changes this Lucent could get. Also, I like how it does go invisible here. xD

So to keep things interesting I have been messing around with some other weapons again. Coming fresh off of the lance, I can't get over just how broken the Switch Axe's new counter is.

Whereas Anchor Rage is up for like a single second and just fails if you take no incoming damage, the Switch Axe counter (at admittedly higher Wirebug cost) seems to stay active for long enough to take a small nap.

There is seriously seemingly no downside to this thing, as even if you just spam the counter you are still gonna do comparable damage to the Anchor Rage counter. If you actually time it correctly (and unlike the auto anchor rage, you are in full control here) with the monster's roar, or attack, or whatever, you do absolutely bonkers damage, instantly get into amp'd state so you can just chain it right into elemental discharge for some truly nutty damage.

AND if you are using an Exhaust Phial Swagaxe, you are also getting basically all the benefits of the Hammer or Hunting Horn too, with effectively their new wirebug move (that one that sends out the small little grenades of KO/Stun on each attack) just rolled in there for free because why the ***** not.

I cannot believe how insanely shafted the lance got and just how insane the Switch Axe is in Sunbreak right now.

@Joeynator3000
I love it's colors. The white fur on its back looks so cool, and I also love how it's red eyes glow when it turns invisible.

Lucent was one of my absolute favorites from MH3U.

Ppl are finally going to learn the pain of grinding for those bloody 2% drop rate cloudy moonshards 😀

Yeah, Lucent kicked my butt hard when I first fought it, he becomes a bit easier after a while, though. I also use Gunlance and can often block the tail and spikes. Anyways yeah I'm just still wondering if it'll get something like what they did with Gold and Silver. xD

After about 100ish hours and up to like MR105ish, I think I am done with Sunbreak until the title update comes.

I know the "thrill of the hunt" or whatever is enough for some, but to me just mindlessly fighting monsters over and over with no actual goal or through line of progression eventually just feels like a chore. Like I guess if I literally had nothing else to play, joining random SOSs would be fine, but I have other games to play.

The lance really did rekindle my interest for a bunch of hours, as it really transformed the game for me in how it required me to engage with it, but eventually I got to a pretty good place with the lance. The only thing I couldn't master was the insta-block cross counter, which I know is basically the most important lance move in the arsenal for raw damage, but I dunno how people hit it so consistently. I find it so clunky to use, and I am pretty sure me trying to land that and failing over and over made my DPS worse than just not using it at all.

Sadly, while the lance has been significantly buffed versus base Rise, the damage is still cartoonishly low compared to other weapons. I switched to the Switch Axe, literally just bumble my way through hunts, have no grasp of what I am doing, cart twice, always out of position and messing up combos and I am still doing like twice as much damage as I am on the smoothest hunt on the Lance I could pull off. Just feels so bad, man.

However, while the Switch Axe is a fun weapon, with big meaty damage that weirdly steals the utility of a lot of other weapons but then makes it way better, playing the Switch Axe reminded me of why I stopped using the Hunting Horn. I know here I go again, but I really don't like the difficulty in Sunbreak, overall.

Again, I recognise the difference of opinion on this, but for me the speed of the monsters, the aggression, the crazy damage they do even at full defence, it just isn't fun, it is frustrating. This really gives me World flashbacks where the difficulty just felt so oppressive, you were constantly in this cage, as a monster just brushing next to you could be enough to kill you if you weren't at full health. It is what made the Insect Glaive such a joy in World, because it really allowed you to sort of rise above the steep difficulty curve of that game, with a sense of fluidity and mobility the game just didn't ever really seem properly designed for.

This design "issue" seems to have become a core part of Rise, where people like me loved what the wirebug brought to the game whereas many others felt it trivialised the title, as you now had something no real monsters could properly counter, even with them being sped up or given new moves.

So it feels like in Sunbreak they tripled down on "solving" this issue to the point where basically every monster has either a deliberately designed wirebug punish move or just a spam, multi hit box, fast forward bullet hell move that forces the entire game down to a screeching halt as now hunters can't just zip away and keep the action going. And I get it, some people love that stuff and that is fine, but I just found the pace in World so tedious, I feel like the pace was so perfect in Rise and now we are in this sort of stodgy in between space which is only exacerbated by the afflicted monsters who are just absurd bullet sponges.

It really is of no surprise to me at all that pretty much all of the most heavily used weapons in speed runs and meta hunts are the lowest commitment weapons. Why would I go through all the frustration and misery of trying to master a high commitment, convoluted, complex combo weapon when one great sword counter can do like ten times the damage of that combo?

I dunno, I just really hope they go back to the drawing board from the ground up for the next title. It won't happen, but I can hope. Rise is by far my favourite of all of the Monster Hunter games I have played, and I would rank it as one my most favourite games ever, but I think Sunbreak went in the wrong direction to appeal to a different slice of the audience and I really hope there is more Rise in the next title, and less Sunbreak, even though I know the chances are small.

@Ulysses
I hear you loud and clear.

I started Xenoblade Chronicles 3 and am up to Level 25. I've never missed a Xenoblade game on launch day, and have beaten every game in the series (XC1 and Future Connected, XC2 and Torna, XCX, and now working on XC3). Getting sick kind of broke my MH binge which made it easier to jump right into XC3.

Of course I am nowhere near done with MH. But with tons of new content coming in title updates, I feel like I can temporarily shelf it for now while I beat Xenoblade 3. After that I'll come back and pick up where I left off. I always do every quest in MH games so I still have HUNDREDS of hours of content ahead of me.

Will probably take another intermission for Splatoon 3 and Diofield Chronicle, and then one more for a good solid month to play Nier Automata, Persona 5 Royal, Mario Rabbids, Bayonetta 3 and Harvestella. By then we should be on Title Update 3 around December with gobs of content waiting.

...So close to MR100, want to go ahead and get to that before the update. Decided to go ahead and start on some of the afflicted monsters...I hated Great Wroggi...he kept spamming the poison spit and hipcheck combo at me...

Ugh, I hope we'll at least get something like what the Apexes did (both Rise's and 4U, lol), or something like the Arch-Tempered from World/IB. Like, give these guys some new moves and stuff...

Ok so I got this game because of the sale. Just the base game for now. Got done with the village 1* quests, and hunted a few Arzuros to get the armor and hunting horn from its materials… And then saw something interesting…

Have I had freaking high rank armor just collecting dust in my armor box this whole time…?

@Eel That's there mostly for getting through the game quickly if you have the expansion, I think, maybe there's an MR version for Sunbreak.

@Joeynator3000 at this point I think I’ll just forget I saw it and continue using the armor I worked for…

@Eel Yeah, I never bothered with it. lol

@Eel
If you're new to the game it's best to ignore it. It'll trivialize all the hunts in the base game which destroys the loop of the drive to hunt more powerful monsters to make better armor and weapons.

It's basically there for fast tracking to G rank if say, you played on Switch and want to get caught up on PC, or vise versa.

Do try out the different weapons though. Go to training room and swap out at the box, trying various combos and seeing what clicks. Once you find 2 weapons you like, watch a YT tutorial on it and practice learning the basics of how to use it.

MH is all about your weapon. It becomes an extension of you. Also remember movement is intentionally sluggish with weapon drawn. Meant to sheath first before running to reposition. You can (and should) change sheath from auto to manual in options. Horrible choice they made defaulting to auto.

Also should turn on silhouette outlines to see your hunter when view is obscured. And I'd activate gyro for everything EXCEPT camera, so you can aim your wirebug and items you throw easily.

Learning to get good with the wirebug will take 40 hrs or so (that's how long it took me and I was already a vet of thousands of hours in the series). Don't feel you need to master everything all at once. It comes in time with practice.

@Eel
As you play more armor and weapons will open up at crafting. Try to get a green sharpness weapon as soon as possible. You bounce off hard monster parts less and it has a higher damage modifier (1.05x for green). Keep your stamina topped off with rations and well done steaks during hunts if your yellow stamina bar depletes and shows red. Which it will over time. And top off on health with Potions. Keep weapon sharpened with whetstone if it dulls to a color lower than what it tops out with (yellow to orange or green to yellow).

Oh. And eat a meal before every hunt. No exceptions. It gives crucial buffs for the entirety of the hunt such as extra health, stamina and defense. Collect spiribirds while on the hunt for even more health and stamina, attack and defense if desired. They last until the hunt is over.

@Eel Yes I agree fully with @JaxonH / @Joeynator3000 - as you are new to the game it would be best to leave the HR armor in the box... and forget you ever saw it!

Using the HR armor will certainly trivialise the early hunts, and end up hurting you more in the long-run - as you won't be forced to learn the ropes properly. Rise was my first entry into the MH franchise, and looking back it was actually the early hunts and weapon experimentation that were crucial to getting better.

@JaxonH is totally right, and you should definitely try all/most weapons to determine the playstyle you feel most suits you. Whilst some weapons are deemed more 'meta' than others, there isn't really a wrong choice from the selection... all have pros/cons and will suit some players moreso than others.

Once you've selected a 'main' weapon (and maybe a substitute), you should then research online what the most desirable accompanying skills are for said weapon. For example, Greatsword players (in base Rise certainly) would utilise the 'Focus' still as this allows for quicker charging of the weapon. Once you have deduced the skills that support your chosen weapon type, you can then select Armors that already come built-in with said skills. Each armor piece has a variety of skills built in, and some can help your weapon out massively whilst other skills will basically be useless!

(NB. don't worry too much about the look of the armor, as you can 'layer' a fashion-set to go on top of the 'real armor' )

You can add your desired armor pieces to a 'wishlist' to keep track of everyone you are farming, and the game is pretty good at updating when you have all the needed desired materials. Once you have an armor set you are comfortable with, don't forget to upgrade the levels via the blacksmith!

There is a lot to digest for sure, but just try to get down the basics... There are many experts on this thread (of which I am certainly not one!) and plenty of help for you to answer any questions mate

Also - feel free to add me if you ever want to jump into some multiplayer. I wouldn't mind revisiting base Rise now that I have some Sunbreak gear to wreak havok with! I'm sw-6657-2171-6029

Running those early village quests with either the greatsword or the lance would probably be my number one recommendation to any new players. Especially with Sunbreak, there are now a whole heap of weapons where you can just spam buttons and do absolutely crazy damage with very little actual skill (source, me on the Swagaxe not knowing what he is doing but out DPSing the whole team mostly because I have zero commitment, insane damage, counter I can just spam constantly).

Both the Greatsword and the Lance, plus the fairly forgiving early village quests, will allow you to form a strong, core, foundation for the game going forwards. Those weapons really require you to pay attention to your monster, learn about tells, positioning and timing and won't tax you with thinking about long, drawn out, combos or where to fit in high commitment moves. That stuff can come later.

It will be really frustrating to begin with, you will make a lot of mistakes at the start and you may long to try out these much stronger weapons (well both weapons are insanely strong, but it really depends on player skill as to how strong they get, rather than out of the box strong like others are), but I can assure you skipping this stage will make you a far worse hunter in the long run. And I can assure you it will get better, and when it all starts coming together, oh man.. nothing sweeter.

I would also be careful about looking up guides, especially "meta" guides as "meta" often means high skill, glass cannon, builds which will just create a lot of unnecessary frustration to begin with and may put you off. It is a good idea to look up what skills relate to your chosen weapon, but I'd focus on survivability over damage to begin with and then you slowly take those stabilisers off. Later game is a bit of a DPS check and if you are running too much comfort in your build, you are likely not doing enough damage to really give those skills value (as the longer the monster is around, the more time the monster has to catch you in a mistake and to find that all that comfort doesn't amount to much) but this isn't really a stress at the start.

@JaxonH @CJD87 @Pizzamorg thanks for the tips. I'm not new to the series, but I am to this new updated style of MH game, so yes I'm practicing the best ways to move around (I keep forgetting I have a mount now), and using the wirebugs (thanks for telling me you can use gyro to aim them!), and how the changed mechanics work, etc. I'm also not above cheesing it with a HR armor, however I feel the game hasn't required such tactics so far, so yes I'd rather just play normally with the natural progression of armor.

As for weapons, I'm kind of a Hunting Horn "veteran", so I'm right at home using it again. It's been interesting seeing the little changes they've done to it; the music seems to flow faster, though the effects also seem to be shorter.

I'm thankfully past the "information overload" introductory section of the game, so the loop has become a bit smoother.

Edit: Question, do I still need to mind the position of other hunters before slamming my horn on the ground? (I noticed my attacks don't affect my pets, and theirs don't affect me, unlike in previous games)

@Eel
I mean, ya, kinda? Most hunters gem in 1 slot of Flinch Free which prevents friendly knockbacks. It's still good practice to try and be mindful of where you swing your weapon, of course. But I wouldn't go too far out of your way to avoid interference. Flinch free exists for a reason, after all, and anyone who wants can gem in 1 point for cheap. Not all attacks will trip others though. I don't think Horn is really a weapon known for tripping others.

If you're an old school vet, the biggest hurdle you'll cross is learning the wirebug. Be it the 3 different traversal methods with weapon sheathed (ZL+X for 45 deg up from direction character faces, ZL+A for straight across from direction character faces, ZL+ZR for direction of gyro aimed reticle), the 2 different silkbind attacks with weapon drawn (ZL+X and ZL+A) and the almighty wirefall recovery (ZL+B to recover from being knocked over without waiting for animation of Hunter to get back on their feet).

Wirefall is the most crucial new mechanic you should strive to master. At first it will seem counter intuitive. You'll get hit and knocked down, and your instinct won't be to use ZL+B to spring back to your feet. You'll have to engrain it into muscle memory with explicit intent. But it's necessary as monsters later on will do multiple hit combos where, they knock you up in the air, and if you don't wirefall out of it they'll follow up with a massive, devastating second hit follow up.

But ya, if you've played the series before you've already learned the hard part. There's still a lot to learn with Rise but, it's going to be so much easier for someone like you than someone who has to learn everything from scratch.

@Eel You shouldn't go out of your way to slam the ground where other hunters are, but I haven't found being tripped up to be much of a problem in this game. Just hunt like normal.

Ah that's good to hear.

@JaxonH Hah at least in the other games, a misplaced Hunter trying to attack the same spot as a hammer or hunting horn user could sometimes end up launched in the air, not just flinching.

Yeah I keep missing the recover prompt. Gotta practice that.