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Incline Monster Hunter 4U - Game is out NOW

roll-a-die

Magister
Joined
Sep 27, 2009
Messages
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What's the usual deal with weapons in monster hunter titles?

Do you just stick with one weapon type and boost it as much as you can?
Or do you switch between a few based on what your enemies do?
Either or, I normally, play with one weapon when I'm on my own solo(Generally a weapon that could be considered a formation breaker, like a long sword.) Another if I'm with a friend(s) in this case I use the Insect Glaive or hunting horn, and a third when I'm with randoms, generally something that won't get in the way, or knock down the idiots lagging about around me, like Dual Blades or a Lance.
 

Hobo Elf

Arcane
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What's the usual deal with weapons in monster hunter titles?

Do you just stick with one weapon type and boost it as much as you can?
Or do you switch between a few based on what your enemies do?
Either or, I normally, play with one weapon when I'm on my own solo(Generally a weapon that could be considered a formation breaker, like a long sword.) Another if I'm with a friend(s) in this case I use the Insect Glaive or hunting horn, and a third when I'm with randoms, generally something that won't get in the way, or knock down the idiots lagging about around me, like Dual Blades or a Lance.

Also good to keep in mind that some weapons like the LS are superior at cutting tails off or hammers are good at smashing faces, so if you are farming alone for a specific tail or some other carve that requires you to break a certain piece of the monster then just keep in mind that you aren't going to cut anything off with a hammer, obviously. The only weapon that doesn't need to worry about this is the Lance since it does both cutting and impact damage.
 

Damned Registrations

Furry Weeaboo Nazi Nihilist
Joined
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Messages
14,983
Lance also tends to be very versatile in terms of where you can strike, since it easily hits low or high with good presciion. Swords can hit the same spots but the arcs tend to clip parts you don't want to hit first (hit legs when you aim for tail, for example) and daggers just can't reach high up.

Also, cutting tends to be more versatile than smashing. Most parts that can be smashed off can be cut too if you really focus on it.
 

Hobo Elf

Arcane
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w0277AS.jpg


How's everyones progress going? Ever since I got into High Rank I've just been sort of hovering around, making weapons and finishing all the Low Rank quests I didn't do. The Seregios fight was also a bit disappointing, for a flagship monster. Basically a Rathian on steroids, except that I found the Pink Rathian to be way more lethal. Think I'll go do some online stuff today since I haven't done that for a while.
 

Avellion

Erudite
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Havent gotten too much progress due to studies.

I do play it when I have time and am not continuing my Pool of Radiance playthrough.
 

kain611

Augur
Joined
Dec 2, 2007
Messages
219
Haven't had much play time this past weekend. Hope to slog some hunts out later tonight though.
 

Baron Dupek

Arcane
Joined
Jul 23, 2013
Messages
1,870,765
Still waiting for 3ds emulator.
In the meantime - replaying MH : FU.
 

Hobo Elf

Arcane
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I'm getting tired of these scrublords online who have 0 skill and have been carried the whole way. Maybe I just have horrible luck, but that seems to be 95% of my experience with randoms online. Just now I did Brutal Tigrex with a GS user who spent the whole time standing next to a ledge waiting to jump-attack the monster. Of course this meant that most of the fight I was fighting Tigrex alone while he was being a useless shit. And whenever Tigrex was toppled over he'd try to combo with the GS. I never saw him use the charge attack once. Sigh.
 

Avellion

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Speaking of online, seems like every group I join has at least 1 person using an Insect Glaive. I dont think I have ever seen anyone using a gunlance, charge blade, bow, light bowgun, or hammer.

Maybe this will change as I leave once I leave the low level stuff.
 

Hobo Elf

Arcane
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Haven't seen a single Gunlancer yet, but I've seen a few hammer bros and a few bowgunners as well, both of the Heavy and Light variety. Charge Bladders I've seen a medium amount of. Was expecting a lot more of them tbh. There were a shitton of them when I played the demo.
 

Bahamut

Arcane
Joined
Jul 11, 2008
Messages
1,196
Hobo you got new 3ds, or standard?

Kinda want to get this, but lack of second stick for turning the camera annoys me
 

Hirato

Purse-Owner
Patron
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Codex 2012 Codex USB, 2014 Shadorwun: Hong Kong
I played MH3 on a standard 3DS, you get used to the camera controls after a while.
I grabbed a MH4 edition of the new 3DS along with my copy of the game, and using the C-stick for camera isn't really as nice as just using the touchscreen, mostly because it's a tiny little nub that's slightly resistant to input.
But on the plus side, it saves you space on the screen you can use for other things like the map.

If using the touchscreen for camera controls really bothers you, you'd frankly get better mileage with a circle pad pro.

EDIT:
When you're hunting monsters though, you mainly just tap the L button periodically and adjust for height of necessary.
with that said, the camera sucks regardless when trying to hit regular beasts (it's clumsy to control), or when you're trying to kill really large monsters (you see little else besides the legs you're slashing)
 
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Hobo Elf

Arcane
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I use the old 3DS XL with a Circle Pad Pro for the extra analog stick. It's the same stick as the one that's on the 3DS and not a little nipple. I like it.
 

Hobo Elf

Arcane
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150 hours later I've attained HR71 and G-Rank 3. I think now I can slow down a bit. This is the point where MonHun starts to get unfun for me, where the end game Elder Dragons have OHKO attacks and/or combo attacks of doom that can wipe out your whole group if you aren't careful, regardless of how good your armor or resistances are. The ride is never truly over though. I just need to remind myself what a bigger resolution and good graphics are again.
 

Martius

Liturgist
Joined
Nov 24, 2013
Messages
1,058
I am still going through village quests in MH3U, current one is to kill Lagiacrus. Too bad 4U is not on Wii U too since I would probably buy it sooner or later. After playing on stationary console its bit annoying to play next game on handheld, big screen and proper controller are just more comfortable. At least its very rewarding, satisfaction after killing monster reminds be playing of Devil May Cry or Ninja Gaiden.
 

Hobo Elf

Arcane
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Agreed. I had played MH3U quite a lot on my 3DS but playing MH4U made me yearn for the days when I played Tri on the big TV so I went and bought MH3U again for my WiiU. I think I'll start replaying that game again soon. Honestly, I kinda like MH3U a bit more than MH4U anyway. I also really, really miss all the monsters MH Tri introduced. They are so much better than the 1st and 2nd gen shit that got brought back for MH4. No one wants to fight a fucking Yian Kut-Ku anymore.
 

Mr. Pink

Travelling Gourmand, Crab Specialist
Joined
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PC RPG Website of the Year, 2015 Codex 2016 - The Age of Grimoire Steve gets a Kidney but I don't even get a tag.
What's the usual deal with weapons in monster hunter titles?

Do you just stick with one weapon type and boost it as much as you can?
Or do you switch between a few based on what your enemies do?

there's a few moments where it's really hard to kill a new monster without going out of your way to make an elemental weapon that counters it. That's my only incentive to stop using my bread and butter: lances for big monsters, and sword and shield during gathering missions to clean up the trash quickly.
 

Damned Registrations

Furry Weeaboo Nazi Nihilist
Joined
Feb 24, 2007
Messages
14,983
I recently picked MHFU back up on emulator. It's so much nicer than playing it on the handheld was. And I can frameskip the shit out of the annoying waiting screens after missions etc.

Also, regarding weapons, I just recently made a SnS specifically to kill a Gravios. Longswords do no fair well against that fucker.

I have a tendency to make way too many weapons though. Armour is very important too, and decent armour is rather expensive, both in terms of materials and raw cash. Currently wearing a full rathian set, with a few cheap jewels it gives me the full +50 hp bonus, which is a huge benefit if you're not bringing max potions into battle.
 

Hobo Elf

Arcane
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I just hunt monsters I don't need materials for and sell everything I carve and get as rewards for cashola. You make mad bucks and fast that way.
 

Damned Registrations

Furry Weeaboo Nazi Nihilist
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Yeah but when I hunt monsters I don't need the materials for I'm suddenly able to make or upgrade a new weapon and suddenly the 10k I had in the bank vanished and I have another lame elemental weapon I never use. (After reading the damage mechanics elemental weapons have really fallen out of favour with me. Even on a target super weak to the element, it's usually barely worth the tradeoff of physical damage. For example, you can get both a 960 plain longsword and a 720/450 thunder longsword at rank 5. So you're trading 240 physical for 450 lightning. But when it comes down to actual damage, even on a really really favourable target like the shell of a hermitaur, the 240 physical will work out to 3.3 damage, while the 450 thunder will work out to 11.25. On the same monster, if you hit a spot actually weak to cutting weapons instead of it's most heavily armour location, like the arm, foot or body, you skew things way more towards physical, and it's more like 6 to 9. The right weapon is still helpful, but not very. Remember that this is just the difference of damage on top of the 720 physical they both have, which is doing 18. instead of 6 or 9. So the total difference between the swords is 24 vs 27 damage. And vs a lot of targets even then its not helpful at all. Take the plesioth. If you hit it's feet, those numbers work out to 6.6 and 4.5. So the thunder weapon is actually slightly weaker than the non elemental one, even though that's the element the fucker is weak against.

TL;DR: Gaining an advantage from using elemental weapons requires way too much knowledge of specifically where to hit which specific monsters with which specific weapons for a tiny difference. Normal weapons all the way.
 

Hobo Elf

Arcane
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It depends on the weapon. Lances, SnS and Dual Swords gain more from elemental damage than slower weapons, like SA, GS, Hammer etc.. but I agree that it is quite the hassle to keep upgrading a bunch of different weapons for different elements and then making sure you are hitting the parts that actually ARE weak to the element (just because a monster is weak to an element doesn't mean that every part in its body is lol what is this shit, Capcom?). That's why I go for weapons with good raw and a status effect. Poison and Paralyze are always useful as long as the monster can be afflicted with them, and nearly any monster can.

On another note, I just finished my final Urgent quest and killed Gogmazios! I have finally gone beyond G-Rank 3. The whole fight was quite intense since we went with 4 people and one guy carted 5 minutes in and then abandoned. Luckily the other 2 guys knew what to do.

tumblr_nd928yXXVX1ruxn67o5_500.png

The fight was fun and Gog is cool as fuck, but I was beginning to sweat there half way through. Thank god I wasn't playing with nubs.
 
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Damned Registrations

Furry Weeaboo Nazi Nihilist
Joined
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Messages
14,983
Paralyze is so much more useful with a group that it feels wrong using it when you're solo. Poison (and any status for that matter) does actually work on anything, although it's much better vs some targets than others. Khezus only take 60 damage from being poisoned for example, while a black Gravios sucks back 480 hp in just 60 seconds.

The problem with poison is that it's damage not being dealt to a body part, which makes it harder to stagger a monster, or break parts off before it dies. Thats why I like longswords; they seem to be the highest sustained damage you can get, which is good for staggering monsters or knocking them down when you're solo. Sleep would probably be nice too if I were willing to put in the effort of making some really sick bombs. 2 large bomb+ with the bomber skill and the triple damage modifier from sleep is a disgusting amount of damage. Of course, in a group you'd never get the thing to fall asleep because some asshole would wake it up. Though it might still be useful just as a shorter paralysis, since they do go through the animation of falling down and waking up.
 

Hobo Elf

Arcane
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I find Paralyze useful even when solo. It's just one more opportunity to get some freebies if you are trying to get a specific break or cut. Of course it's not as good alone as it is with more people, but it's good enough and works for me for its intended purpose. Poison is great especially if you wanna SnS solo since it helps keep your DPS somewhat competitive with the other weapons. Of course there are more useful applications, but that is one example. You could easily go through LR and HR with a Poison SnS and not bother with the elemental weapons.

Edit: Also, with the way weapon damage is calculated, using a high raw weapon vs using a slightly lower raw weapon with paralyze more or less comes down to you doing 1 hit less of damage every 10 or so hits, which you get back when the monster is paralyzed. In the end you really don't lose out in the damage and all it is is easier specific breaks. But, again, this depends on the weapon and I'm talking about the Lance now.
 
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Damned Registrations

Furry Weeaboo Nazi Nihilist
Joined
Feb 24, 2007
Messages
14,983
Well, again, status works much better for SnS. The difference between a raw longsword and a paralyzing one is way too big for the tiny paralysis to add up. Ditto for poison, really. Look at the difference between the longswords in the bone tree. The raw path hits 672 damage while the poison one slides back all the way to 528. Thats more like whiffing every 4th attack, (78.5% as much damae) which is a pretty huge deal. In exchange you get 250 poison damage, which is really hard to quantify because the actual poison status doesn't get built up on every swing, but only randomly on some swings. So I can't say that every 10 swings you'll cause poison and do ~180 damage to the monster. On top of that, the way status effects work, the monsters recover from partial infliction over time. So if you get 90% of the way to poisoning a Rathalos, and then the fucker gets up and flies in circles for 2 minutes, it was all for naught. Again, with more players this works better, because you can have multiple people inflicting shit to make the recovery rate irrelevant. The recovery also doesn't scale up with levels (though the infliction thresholds do) which makes it relatively more effective at later ranks where you're putting in 30 points of poison for every 10 they recover instead of just 15 or 20.

I can't get the hang of using SnS anyways though, the moveset makes you move around too much to lay into feet properly and it has nothing decent for stabbing above you into the soft bellies/faces of most large monsters.

Also, why on earth do greatswords even have versions that inflict status effects? How the hell are you going to ever inflict poison with a greatsword that does less poison per hit than a SnS?
 

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