Topic: Monster Hunter Rise

Yeah fought her again today since I needed some mats...so the amount doesn't double, seems like it's just another set of 3 dragonators that appear. I dunno, everything is just chaos for me there, and once I'm hit, I end up getting hit again from recovering and die. >.<

There are times when I do make it through but it's just rare and random for me.

I've been getting through most of this expansion pretty easily, but, I'll admit, Magma Almudron has been humbling me. Really tough fight.

Honestly having a lot of fun with the lance. I feel like it has a very different rhythm to other weapons in the game. It feels like every other weapon is built around one big, heavy hitting, move that you try and find ways of making as strong as possible, and getting to as quickly as possible. Once you figure out your sequence, you sorta just copy paste that into every fight with minimal adjustment.

The lance doesn't really have any such move or elaborate combos, so I find it makes you think more about each aspect of it's kit and think more about the monster you are fighting. What move to use in the right place, when the right time is to guard, or counter, when to rush or pull back. The more you learn a monster, the stronger you become, as you more consistently land Anchor Rage for the best buff, more consistently land big counters etc and it just feels so satisfying, because it is all you. You aren't just being carried along by the combo, it is you who have timed that counter and positioned just right.

It has kinda given me a new lease of life with the game too. I really hate the artificial grind to an arbitrary number to unlock a monster thing, but now there is a lot of satisfaction for me in fighting a monster over and over again, as each fight goes a little better than the last until I feel like Neo "I know Kung Fu" I say as I land buff after counter, after counter, after buff.

That fight with Espinas was intense. I actually triple-carted the first time. He's not nearly as difficult once you realize you just have to keep baiting his attacks, but still, I've never seen a monster stay on my butt like that when I ran halfway across a map.

I'm really loving this expansion, but am surprised by how long its taken to get back 'in the groove' after a long period away from the game!

Since starting Rise (base) I have mained GS consistently.... which I understand will largely play to my favour, based on the new switch skill/counter that can be unlocked.

Currently making steady progress through MR2, not finding it too hard at the moment. I've yet to triple-cart, but I've had a few sketchy double-cart hunts (!)

My HR gear is holding up well, to the point that I've not invested yet in any MR upgrades. I saw an interesting build on YT for MR2-4 and will likely farm that during this week.... Currently working with full Valstrax armor, Narga GS and gone for some 'comfort' (Divine Blessing 3) alongside the obvious GS charms (Focus, Wex, Stun Resist etc).

I've tried Meta builds for GS before, but feel more at home with an element of defence/divine blessing (of course at the concession of DPS, which I am fine with).

Taking my time with the expansion though, few hunts a day etc. Done a bit of multiplayer with randoms... and must say that 'they' seem to be much better than base Rise! The amount of MP triple-carts used to be ridiculous, but standard of players seems to have improved?!

I beat Lunagaron last night and made it to MR4. He wasn't that hard, but he could hit like a truck if you're not careful.

Playing a fast moving monster with Great Sword can be challenging. But it's making me a better hunter.

I'd like to farm new armor but I'm debating on whether doing Lunagaron now, chasing that mantle, or hold off til Gore/Seregios..

Sunbreak has now sold over 3 million.

@Grumblevolcano
Gosh dang, didn't they just report 2 million the other day lol? That grew quick

This is too good not to share

Just took down Malzeno. What a cool monster! Kinda hope they lean in harder to the horror theme with the title updates.

I really wanted to take this expansion slower, but if I'm not getting MR points for quests I complete now, I might as well just rush to the end, and then go back and do everything. Legitimately my only real gripe with Sunbreak.

Really glad they ditched the Rampage quests. Also like the AI companions a lot, since they're helpful and play intelligently.

I feel like they... increased the number of cutscenes as well? Sunbreak feels a little more like it has a proper story campaign than base Rise did.

@Ralizah
Agree 100%

Thats exactly what I'm doing too, and is my one complaint as well. Either way all the Quests will get done. I did do all the MR1 and MR2 Quests though, since they're early tier monsters. Would be too OP coming back to those.

BTW, did you see that Malzeno meme posted above lol 😆

I feel that even monsters from the first MR quests feel good difficulty-wise even with the endgame sets. Of course they are easier but they are still fun fights. There's also the afflicted ones, although for me those felt more like a chore. They feel with much more hp and are a bit too aggressive in my opinion.

I'm pretty happy with how we'll most set parts that you get from MR monsters hold. There's more variety for builds thanks to that and the new decorations. Stuff like the mighty bow jewel make a really big difference.

@JaxonH In general, I've been pretty happy with the difficulty level of this DLC. It's challenging, but not, like, insanely so. The revamped movesets feel designed to punish Wirebug spam.

Espinas and Malzeno are probably the best additions to the game to date. The former for its utter ferocity, and the latter because, well, it's a vampire dragon that teleports around the battlefield!

Switch skill swapping is a great function, but I hope they add more switch skills over time. Still barely anything worth using with the Hunting Horn, and it'd be nice to have a larger moveset to customize your playstyle with.

Yep, that was... definitely a thing.

@Ralizah
Two things I've used Switch Skill for with Great Sword is, firstly I prefer the silkbind move that yanks you toward the monster into an overhead Slash that can optionally be charged. But, it's not good for mount damage. So I swap with Hunting Edge which yanks me into the air, jumps off the monster and plows my sword down into them. Incredibly good to get mounts.

The other is swapping the traditional charge attacks with the faster non charge attacks. For quick monsters, you just don't get time to charge up a lot. So I swap to that style for super quick monsters.

It's actually been quite the game changer.

I do hope the next Monster Hunter game reworks the skill system. I think one of the weakest aspects of Rise was the gear, which is ironic, as it is a big part of the whole loop.

In World, sets had unique perks, so each set had an identity. In older games you weren't stacking skills, but points, to proc both positive and negative effects which really made you think a lot more about what you were crafting and really engage with the set building mechanics.

In Rise it was just a lot of stacking point x percent miniscule bonuses on top of each other and maybe every now and then a gear set would have a unique bonus, but it often wasn't worth building around, outside of really niche scenarios.

Sunbreak does address this to some degree, it feels like more sets have something unique about them and given we can now stack so many skills, I feel like I can experiment much more with mixed sets, as I can feel like I can fit in so many extra weird things, without sacrificing the core parts that make my build tick. But compared to other modern ARPGs or Looters or whatever you want to compare this to, I still feel it is very boring, overall. Very dated.

I also thought the difficulty was all over the place in Sunbreak and I think the end game Anomaly monsters are more of a chore than anything else, given their insane HP. Like I have been going back to some Master Rank quests to farm some materials from monsters I don't have at A yet and it feels like those missions are over in the blink of an eye and these are meant to be much harder monsters than I am fighting at A. Bullet sponges are never fun and never the answer.

Finally I got a Lunagaron mantle! My palico pilfered it for me when fighting a Rathalos! So I decided to farm him for the rest of the mats needed for armor, and got another one! Then hit the jackpot on the lottery for a figure when I returned!

Things are finally looking up.

Crafted Lunagaron armor, and the Switch Axe since I didn't have the Barioth Great Sword that's a prerequisite to upgrade to Lunagaron. I'll get that tomorrow. I wanted to try the new counter I unlocked anyways. Got both my palico and palamute decked out in Lunagaron too 😀

I will say though, my Guardian armor set I was using seems to be a bit better. After upgrading, it had 14 higher defense (because I was able to gem in Defense +7 for it, and used a Water Res +3 4-slot gem to dig out the resistance). Was only able to do Defense +3 on the Lunagaron, with a Fire Res +3 4-slot.

Also the skills were slightly better too on Guardian. I was running Good Luck 3, Earplugs 5, Focus 3, Quick Sheath 3, Stun Res 3, Evade Dist 2, and some other stuff. But on Lunagaron (granted it's built around a Switch Axe instead) I was only able to get Wirebug Whisperer 3, Quick Sheath 2, Rapid Morph 2, Good Luck 3, Stun Res 3, Razor Sharp 2 and Handicraft 1. It also has a bunch of other skills it came with like Latent Power, Agitator, Critical Eye, etc but those aren't ones I usually go for. It does have a special skill though that gives you i-frames during a Swap Evade, and recovers wirebug meter. So that's cool at least.

Honestly I just wanted it for the looks. After all, if you're not hunting in fashion, what are you even doing

Wearing layered armor?

uses the new melding options multiple times for who knows how long

....Screw it, this melding stuff is a waste of time. lol

@Ralizah
Haven't unlocked layered armor for master rank yet.

edit
Oh, I get it now. Good one

Finally beat the story! Otherwise known as the tutorial before the hunter rank cap unlocks and I don't have to rush through all of the key quests.

Time to get on those sidequests and non-key quests I've been neglecting until now!

Also time to slow down. I've been no-life'ing this for a few days now.