Topic: Monster Hunter Rise

@JaxonH In this game, Latent Power is on a timer to activate starting when a large monster engages you, which gets reduced as you deal and take damage. In the previous games it was either taking a lot of damage or waiting long enough in a fight, whichever came first. Wasn't very popular back then since either could take a while to kick in.

In other news, LS is yet again meme worthy

I just fought Lunagaron...I just assumed it was Odogaron but with ice...he's nothing like Odo, lol

I made it all the way to Malzeno by the end of my Sunday. Managed to beat him three times to make the armour with his unique perk on it (one of the coolest perks ever, mind you, and a really great solution to the difficulty problem I have had with the game so far).

I think I carted twice the first time I faced them? But then when I faced them the following two times, I was actually surprised by how generally easy the fight is, given they are the flagship. Their status effect they apply is weirdly more beneficial to the player than it is negative, they do have some pretty crazy attacks, but you're only going to die to them once before you see the telegraphs a mile away.

I will say they quickly humbled me though, as I unlocked a new tier and monsters such as Rajang and Bazelgeuse, with the carts being used up by me and my friends so quickly, it had to be some kind of record.

Honestly, was pretty surprised by how generally easy and ceremonious a lot of the new/returning monsters turned out to be, on the road to Malzeno. There are probably some I am missing, but out of the big three newbies so far:

I faced the new Gore Magala, they just get jumbled in with a bunch of quests - they aren't used to level up an MR or whatever. I thought the whole Frenzy Mechanic would be more punishing, but it wasn't really - much like Malzeno, the benefits seem to outway the negatives and this ended up being a pretty easy fight. I think a friend used up one cart, but we still had enough bits by the end to make some new cool weapons, which would go on to be helpful in the battle against Malzeno.

I carted to Seregios almost instantly. I dunno what happened to be honest, sometimes if the damage is small enough, your character doesn't react to getting hit, so you can sometimes not even realise you are almost dead, until you cart. I have to assume it chipped enough health and then turned around and just finished me off.

Overall though, once I was paying attention to that, this was another pretty easy fight. The bleed seemed to only be applied by it's projectiles which are generally fairly easy to avoid and otherwise was just a fairly straight fight. Like with everything in Sunbreak, if it is just damage you need to deal with, with no additional statuses or combos or after effects and other such things, there is often not much challenge there. They do do this like big sweeping kick straight out of Kamen Rider, it is crazy fast and the FOV/camera in this game is fairly annoying, but you can deffo manage it. I think Shogun is a far greater challenge when taking the bleed into account.

The Seregios set has an interesting bonus and the horn is really great, but didn't get enough parts to make anything. Oh and they were also just tossed into the middle of a bunch of quests too.

Then finally, Espinas. Was honestly dreading this with the triple combo balls of death, but Rise has made this super forgiving, with the damaging effects of the fire and the poison lasting way less than they do in regular fights. They also seem to deagro whenever they paralyse you, so just a really weird, super easy, fight. I'd rather fight this than Rathian, to be honest. It has a more niche unique set bonus, but the horn is pretty cool and combined together I am sure they will have some interesting effects. I dunno how meta it might be, but I hope I will eventually be able to go on and find out. I think this one was at least used as an MR gate?

I'm still over here fighting lunagaron. Just finally got my mantle to compete the armor set so now I can move on with continuing MR4.

The lunagaron dual blades are CLAWS btw. They look sick.

So I booked off a long weekend to do nothing but play, rolled credits last night and wow...I really REALLY enjoyed Sunbreak! Can't wait to jump back on & do some more side quests, get new gear etc I hope everyone's been having fun, happy hunting!

Everyone is so far ahead of me. It happens every time a MH game comes out, since I do all the Quests.

I just did the mid-MR2 urgent quest, and about 2 more after. Got a couple new Follower/Survey Quests to do also. But tons of new MR2 Quests unlocked. I like the Yukamo armor I just saw at the smithy. Nice callback, and actually has solid skills. Just need 5 more Twisted Stiffbone from bone piles to craft the armor. Not sure if I will yet though. We'll see how it goes.

I like the cutscenes in this game. More humor, more personality. That was one thing World did better than Rise. So it's good to see that approach returning in Sunbreak.

I went ahead and took off that crazy talisman that gave me +3 Evade Extender, and also took off the Evade Window skills. At least until I get to Apex Emergency-tier monsters again. They trivialize everything else.

Think I'm gonna try to maintain current MR sets for both Long Sword and HH, for all of my severing and part breaking needs. Although HH desperately needs better skills.

Switch Skill swapping has been a godsend for Long Sword, though, since I regularly jump back and forth between Sakura Slash for quick spirit gauge increases and Soaring Kick for max damage output.

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.

@JaxonH Not everyone! I'm still early in MR2, and this weekend is turning out to be busy for me. I'll probably be the one behind by the time I get back on!

I love the early game as well. I'm trying to make the Pukei set and Blood Orange Bishaten set for the Gunner skills, plus Tetranodon. Also I have a bunch of heavy bowgun's to upgrade, and that's not including any extra weapon classes I want to use for fun. Oh and I have to catch up my buddy gear to MR! I forgot about that.

I haven't touched any of the follower/survey quests yet actually! I should get around to that. I'm excited to do them with the Kamura characters, and I'm sure I'll grow to love the Elgado team (almost) as much.

@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.