Incline Monster Hunter World - G-rank edition. Now on PC.

[Mr. Pink]

Despite being a evade lancing fanboy, Guard Lancing has never been stronger in this series since now. I did a little unscientific testing, and found that maximum Evasion Window (while still good), has been nerfed significantly from the last monhun game I played (MH4U). Guard on the other hand, now has new options like power shielding, which is very useful and negates the need to have Guard Up skill. Guard lancing is definitely weaker in multiplayer though but I've seen good lancers use pods when they weren't being focused to attract aggro and tank/counter everything.

Even though I play mainly lance, I do the fastest hunt times with the switch axe. Probably the highest DPS slashing weapon if used correctly, and extremely versatile, but the lack of defensive options means getting carted a lot more often unless you're already stacking evasion. The axe mode is pretty underrated because the rising slash is super fast and precise and great for hitting flying monsters.

If you don't want to think too hard about movesets and just want to smack things around and make huge damage numbers, there's always the classic greatsword. horizontal sweeps, vertical slams and charge attacks will get you far, and the block gives you a way to avoid things you can't roll out of, like wind gusts.

 

[Perkel]

Finished dealing with Nergigante. As much as High rank is high rank Nergigante fight is like early G-rank. Especially when it is close to death it ups game so much that i was fucking scared behind my shield non stop.

Fully agree on this. I grow tired of how my bone hammer look already...

This is one of cut corners. Imho it is also understandable. They could go Tri way and cut down amount of weapon types to something like 10 or 9 and make everything unique or do it like they did in MHW.
MHW is also fresh start. Previously in MH4 and MHXX they used assets dating back to first MH game on PS2 now they need to make everything new.

With MHW2 it will be fixed imo.

btw lol:

 

[Hobo Elf]

So I finally took the time to go and try out some more weapons as I've only been using the CB. I was a bit curious to see what new toys some weapons got so here are the ones I tried and my thoughts on them.

The Hammer:

Same ol' same ol'. Reliable, good, cool, makes your peepee strengthen when you hit the monster in the head. Actually, they gave it some "new" toys to play with now that you can do a charge attack, apply the charge into your hammer and then charge again. I say "new" because these are moves incorporated from Monster Hunter Gen / X, which is a good thing since the Adept style Hammer was really slick with it's new super charges. This is kind of the same but you don't need to evade an attack to proc it. When you charge your hammer and then charge yourself the new super attack seems to be one of the Hunter Arts for the Hammer iirc. Seemed like a similar attack. I liked the attack in Gen, but using Hunter Arts was clunky. Adding it into your regular move set makes it so good.

In the end it still feels like how the Hammer should be: easy to use, hard to master due to its reliance on positioning and deep knowledge of monster tells. The new added depth doesn't detract from this but it does add new fun toys to play with, which is how it should be. They did a great job with the weapon.

I give it a 5/5 Alexander the Greats.

The Sword and Shield:

I came in here with the most scepticism since I had heard people reporting that they felt weaker using it now, which is sad since I really enjoyed SnS in MH4U. What I found out is that I was getting the best kill times out of all the weapons I was using. They only added two new things to the weapon, one of which is now if you do the back hop charge attack (introduced in MH4) and it connects with the monster, you'll jump in the air, in which case you have two options. You can either use a regular Triangle slash to do mounting damage, or do a Circle shield bash, which can KO monsters. Theoretically the weapon was always able to KO monsters, in Gen it was even easier thanks to some Hunter Arts like the Shoryuken, but I was never able to pull it off due to the clunky way of using Arts and how you also had to position yourself well. Well, here I was actually KOing monsters quite reliably. I honestly couldn't believe it. I was doing extremely well with this weapon and I wasn't even using it to its full potential, like using the ability to use items while wielding your weapon, a very underrated ability imo. They also changed the Triangle + Circle gap closer move as well. Used to be a front hop and slash your weapon down. Now it does an upward slash. Will take a bit of getting used to, but it seems like it'll be useful for hitting tails, for example.

This weapon is simply amazing imo. A very underrated one too. It doesn't do big numbers of damage, but it does constant damage and its overall damage is still competitive. I wish people understood that. It's also one of the best weapons for applying status and elemental damage, which is nice. I'm not a fan of elemental damage as it's too much of a hassle to get it working properly, but if you use a Paralyzing or Sleeping status, you will be greatly loved online, and it's still useful even if you play solo (Sleep bombing is still useful alone).

I give it a 6/5 swiss army knives.

The Funlance:

They got rid of over heating. Best thing ever. They also added some new bomb that you stick on the monster after your Circle + Triangle > Triangle > Triangle combo. I can't really comment much on this since I had a hard time applying it on a moving monster. I'm not the most experienced Funlancer and still fumble around occasionally with it, trying to use it like a usual Lance mostly. Anyway it's a new element that adds more explosions so I can't imagine it being bad. Wyvern Fire got nerfed by making it multi-hit, which hurts its capability for Sleep bombing monsters, but that's not the biggest loss in the world.

A fun weapon to use and fool around with, but not something I'd probably ever main or want to use when I'm progressing through content. Couldn't say why.

I give it a 4/5 bananas.

The Switch Axe:

Also didn't get huge changes. Axe mode is still the same, Sword mode got updated attack animations for the Triangle and Circle attacks. Biggest change is that when you attack with Sword mode you start charging a Sword gauge, and when it's full and you perform the Triangle + Circle burst attack, your character will latch on to the monster and use the charge attack as per usual. The animation for this is very cool, and it makes using this move a lot easier, safer and more reliable as you have the safety of being "mounted" while doing it (but the damage isn't counted toward mounting damage). Otherwise you can use the burst attack as in previous entries without getting attached to the monster. Honestly, the Switch Axe was fairly perfect. There isn't much you can do to add to the weapon. This new safer method of using a burst attack is, in my opinion, a very natural and good addition for the weapon, as a sort of cherry on top of the pie. I had previously mentioned that the Charge Blade is a bit unfair since it has a powerful burst attack with little penalties as its range is very big so you can use it from relative safety. This new Switch Axe addition makes the weapon more "competitive" with the CB in this regard, makes things a bit fairer.

A good, fun weapon to use. Something I might consider maining, or at least giving extensive use. A good hack and slash weapon for those who want more oomph for their hits than what a LS or DS provides. Just don't forget to grab Evade Extender when using the SA.

I give it a 5/5 sexually confused lumberjacks.

 

[Cyberarmy]

I used SA night(after getting bored from hammer) and had blast using it. Crafted meself a poison version of it.
Also tried dual swords and long sword, loved'em too...
This games weapons really started to bother me. Everything useful and fun to use. I'm afraid to use melody pipe because if I'll like it I may never drop it...

 

[Hyperion]

Got a little bit of playtime in last night. I started the series on the 3DS with 3U, and it could never grab me. Movement felt off, staring at a 4x4 screen was excruciating for my eyes and neck, and combat felt sluggish, or at least janky, compared to what I was used to. Needless to say, I finally caught the MH bug. I didn't do much but do the first 3 quests a bunch of times, to really try and get a feel for things.

I started with the Lance, but its moveset is honestly kinda boring, and seems to be more dependent on being reactionary against the tougher, enraged monsters. I like the idea of just standing face-to-face with a giant Dinosaur and repeatedly stabbing it in the neck like a prison inmate, but it was the blocking that threw me off. Counterstriking is incredibly powerful, but I'm finding I take chip damage from a lot of attacks, even with proper timing. I'm not sure if this is something that can be reduced with weapons better than the Bone Lance, or just a byproduct of not knowing what to block, what to evade, and what to Power Guard. What frustrated me most is the radius of what the shield covers is not very significant, and I took the full brunt of damage from an attack that "Wrapped around" my shield and hit me in the side of my dome. Unless it was just completely overpowering my shield and knocking me flat on my ass. I also had some problems properly executing the Dash Attack - you need to hit Triangle / Y in order to attack, or else you just collide with the monster and do inconsequential damage. But at the same time, the Lance has a longer reach than it would seem from a simple eye test. Definitely is going to require a lot more work, learning enemy animations, and trying it out on a wider variety of monsters to see its actual effectiveness.

Also used the Insect Glaive. This mother here is F-U-N. Nice mixture of big, sweeping attacks, and straight line pokes whether you hold the analog stick or not. Also, does great, GREAT dps on a toppled enemy, since you can pretty much infinitely loop your combo with Triangle, Triangle, Circle, Triangle, Triangle, Circle, then finish with a 2nd Circle when time is up. I absolutely SUCK with the midair stuff so far, and find it hard as hell to land the attacks, and keep myself in air for more than a couple seconds or so. Could quite possibly be due to the fact that The Great Jagras is on the smaller side of things, and is an impractical enemy to utilize it against. I accidentally Mount its face a few times and wail on it 'till it got Knocked Out. Quite fun. I have no idea how the Kinsect works, but I've just been alternating between Essence Harvesting, and send it out to attack a monster, in hopes my Essence Gauge maxes out. I could be wrong, but it seems the Essence it retrieves is random, and you're left up to RNG as to when it fills up, and you go absolutely apeshit? That being said, the Evade distance on this badboy is ludicrous compared to the Lance and makes avoiding damage FAR easier. I've also been using the Mauldrone for the Healing Dust, and the sustain it's given me has made me not need a Potion yet. Cool stuff.

I wanted to give the Charge Blade a go, but I'm still too Green at the game / series to really wanna spread myself so thin. Definitely need to git gud before I give any more weapons a shot, and get myself acclimated with a few more Dinosaurs. I ran into the Peki-Peki thing whilst hunting the Great Jagras and got a little intimidated then ran like a bitch since it was 2 v 1. Maybe I'll give it a go next chance I have and see how poorly I fare against it, since that nigga poisons. Definitely not a problem, because I'm finally hooked.

 

[Perkel]

Yes all of the weapons got completely revisited. Fluidity is what is on my mind. They reduced clunk from weapons and made some awesome changes that really brings up weapons to new level and not in weird clunky way like X did.

My biggest suprise was bow. Seriously check how people now play with it. Basically it is completely different weapon now.

I'm not sure if this is something that can be reduced with weapons better than the Bone Lance, or just a byproduct of not knowing what to block, what to evade, and what to Power Guard.

Yes you need armor skills called Guard high enough to tank completely damage on some attacks. Honestly lance is pretty boring at start when you are new to MH but once you "learn it" you will see charm of it.

 

[tripedal]

Essences depend on what body part the kinsect hits. You shouldn't be attacking at all without all 3 essences, the dps difference is enormous.

 

[Mr. Pink]

Another non-obvious protip

First of all, damage values that are displayed in the forge on every weapon are complete bullshit. Each weapon type has a hidden multiplier that is used to adjust for the average attack speed of the weapon to get a (inaccurate) estimate for dps. Only use this number to compare between weapons of the same type.

Elemental damage and status damage are slightly different things. Elements like fire and water are calculated independently of raw damage, and each monster has its own elemental weaknesses on each body part. what this means is that if you hit a monster in a part with no elemental weakness, you will only do raw damage. For status damage like paralysis or poison, you can hit anywhere, but status build-up will only be applied 33% of the time. This is why nobody should use poison greatswords.

Status effects are different because instead of actually adding in damage, you're adding onto a value that keeps track of that status. Once this value meets a threshold, the status is applied. each time this happens, the threshold is raised. no extra damage is applied by a status causing weapon. If the threshold is low, it is worth it to equip your cat with some type of status effect, to guarantee atleast one application of the status early on.


tldr of the tldr:

(weapon raw damage) * (type of move you're doing) * (sharpness) * (monster parts damage resistance for slash/blunt) + (weapon non-status elemental damage) *(sharpness) * (monster parts elemental damage resistance) = actual damage done to hp

https://mhworld.kiranico.com/guide/damage

 

[Perkel]

Mind you that no one really knows how it is calculated in MHW yet. All of knowledge was based around old games and rarely updated.


-------


Finished game (104 hours), by that i mean main story and saw/fought i think all monsters.

Things that really put game on top of all other MH games:

Elder Dragons. There are only handful of them but they are fucking amazing. Gone are they days where those things were basically normal monsters with more HP. Each of them are brutal and as fight progresses they became more and more lethal. Frankly speaking each of them can be considered G-rank monster as i managed to win fights only by scraping by, using absolute most of my skills, items and tactics

All monsters now feel fluid and they string together actions and morph animations. Gone are they days of old robotic MH monsters. Each monster new and old feels really good.

Weapons lost all junk and they got completely redesigned in smaller or bigger way. They are now fluid and they feel like esential tool you love rather than slab of iron you smash things with.

Multiplayer works like wonder along with party chat. It is the best game to play friends with in co-op. I had serious amount of fun playing it with few friends over those few last days and i will probably play it for next few months.


Things i think should change or are not so good:

- rush. While they got rid of key quests system they lost at the same time pacing. Everything story wise seems rushed. Especially last part. Key quest system problem was that quests weer unmarked not that there were those quests. MH4 had way better pacing

- weapon designs, they cut corner here but i fully expect them to fix it by MHW2

 

[Mr. Pink]

Yet another protip for those new to the series:

Here's a list of items you generally always want to have when going on a hunt. Never join a hunt without them.

* Potion
* Max Potion
Obvious requirement
* Rations
I prefer rations over well-done steak because you can eat them faster.
* Nullberry
Cures various annoying status effects.
* Mega Nutrient
This raises your max HP. If you don't already get +50 HP from whatever you ate before the quest, drink this until you get max. Also drink this after you get carted so you don't go back into the fight with pathetic HP.
* Powercharm
* Armorcharm
These charms increase your stats just by being in your pouch. there's no reason not to always hold them.
* Dung Pod
Extremely important and useful pod. Shooting one makes a monster fuck off to another zone.
* Flash Pod
Makes flying monsters fall to the ground, causes them to stop whatever they're doing. Very good for bailing out teammates who are getting cornered or stunned.
* Whetfish Scale
Consumable, but faster version of whetstones.

For capture:

* Shock Trap
* Pitfall Trap
* 2x Trap Tool
* Net
* Thunderbug
* Tranq Bomb

 

[Krraloth]

I'm a newcomer and I'm having a lot of fun. I use the insect glaive and let me tell you that vault has saved my ass more times than I can count.
Were the maps so layered and full of shortcuts even in the old ones?
I am considering starting to learn the pipe thing but coming from the ultra-mobility of the glaive I know I' going to be shanked a few times.
Is any codexer playing multiplayer?

 

[Hobo Elf]

There were always secret short cuts but it was never this layered. Old maps were closer to being arenas than actual areas. I play online, yes, though most of the time I play alone because of how incredible the Palicoes are.

Edit: I mean what the hell. Why would I bring along some random carting shitter with me when I can take my Cat who increases the monster drops by 3 per hunt? To whom would this even be a choice? Co-op seems to be the optional way of playing MonHunWor since you get two palicoes.

 

[Mr. Pink]

you can color your armor when you hit high rank!!

 

[Hobo Elf]

Didn't check the coloring yet, but I hope it's at least as comprehensive as in past MonHun games. It was funny to apply the rainbow dye on armor that made them glow like a rainbow. OTOH I'm really disappointed that HR armor looks the same as LR armor. Capcom got REALLY lazy with armor and weapon models here, especially when you factor in that there's no Gunner armor either anymore. The new way of grinding for Decorations is gacha bullshit as well, which isn't very nice. Imagine if they have charm tables for Decorations now.

 

[Perkel]

I think this is the core of what makes MH tick.

You best your opponent in battle of attrition, not it battle of luck.
Once you beat your opponent you wear his head on your belt to show to yourself that you were better than him.
Your primal lust for murder and competition is satisfied then. You feel like you improved.
But to further improve you need new victim, a new target.
You look into horizon and you see monster that can kill you with only his gaze.
You feel fear but no remorse. Because all you want is to wear his head on your belt.
To again satiate your primal lusts and to again see after that at horizon and what is behind it.

You are basically playing as Predator.


Which is imo reason why loot and repetition in this game feel different from other loot games.
Loot isn't loot but a reward. Repetition isn't repetition but training and improvement.

And it is unconscious thing really. I mean to beat this game you don't need actually to grind at all. You make bone weapon you upgrade with bone materials (which are plenty from each monster you beat) and at best 2 different armor sets and this is all you need to beat game.

The unconscious thing is that you want those armors and weapons. Because they are not just normal stuff but trophies. You wearing full set of some monster armor means you made it your bitch and you bested it out completely and your armor is proof of that.

 

[TheHeroOfTime]

What that makes you hooked to Monster hunter is the grinding and farming side of the game. It takes out the korean that we all have inside. But instead of using the grinding/farming to fill the game with poor content like most MMO's do, this series is built around the concept. Making the grindfest fun, rewarding and satisfying thanks to the combat, monsters and overall mechanics design.

Btw I saw that they used a remix of this theme for the Rathalos first appearance. It's a shame that it's not his combat music anymore.

 

[Dyskolos]

You best your opponent in battle of attrition, not it battle of luck.
Once you beat your opponent you wear his head on your belt to show to yourself that you were better than him.
Your primal lust for murder and competition is satisfied then. You feel like you improved.
But to further improve you need new victim, a new target.
You look into horizon and you see monster that can kill you with only his gaze.
You feel fear but no remorse. Because all you want is to wear his head on your belt.
To again satiate your primal lusts and to again see after that at horizon and what is behind it.

It's weird because my less dressed up version of this is precisely what always turned me off the series. Until I played it. Now I canceled class last Friday so I wouldn't lose three hours in the bloodlust cycle.

 

[Hobo Elf]

Finally made the HR Radobaan SnS. Let the sleep bombing begin.

 

[Perkel]

Sleep bombing works well. I used it to deal with Teostra because Teostra is fucking hard in MHW.

 

[Cyberarmy]

And I started to use bows.
Adn loving it...
This fucking game men.

Edit: Also after using bone armor set for a looooooong time I started to us its "alpha" version when I hit the HR. At least its black...

 

[Hobo Elf]

Sleep bombing works well. I used it to deal with Teostra because Teostra is fucking hard in MHW.

I heard that Elderseal weapons make Teostra and all other hard/annoying Elder Dragons (like Kushala Daora and Kirin) into complete jokes.

 

[Perkel]

Sleep bombing works well. I used it to deal with Teostra because Teostra is fucking hard in MHW.

I heard that Elderseal weapons make Teostra and all other hard/annoying Elder Dragons (like Kushala Daora and Kirin) into complete jokes.

Never used elder seal weapons. If that is true then those weapon skill should be out. Fighting those monsters was highlight of MHW.

Now they feel like apex. When you start mission you can freely come up to each of them and they will look at you and do nothing because they are at the top of world and there is nothing anyone can do about them. They ooze with pride of being at the top. They are not animals like dumb Anjanath that goes out daily to hunt food and maybe they will see you as food or not. They do not hunt for food because there is nothing they can't kill in seconds.

When you finally make decision to start fighting they do not go 100% from start, they treat you as nuisance. They do not attack at full force because to kill mosqito you do not use whole of your body to maximum.

As fight progresses the more damage you deal the more enraged they become and they start to move to show their potential for being at the top more and more. When you finally make a difference and they are at their last streatches and they are in the corner this is where they show they full potential because they are no longer fighting because they are annoyed but because they fight life and death battle and they use 100% of their power to full extend to kill you.

When they start limping you bloody know that you are very close but the threat gets so high that it is even hard to manage it because they start being relentless, fast, constantly enraged and using moves that will outright kill you in one hit if you are not at the top of your game.

Aside from one elder dragon all of the fights were bloody amazing for MH game. And if this is what we can expect from high rank then i definitely want to see new elder dragons in G-rank.

 

[Frusciante]

I never played any Monter Hunter game but bought this one because of the great reviews. Man, this is good shit. Fighting this cool electrical squirrel monster in the jungle with amazing animations, then a Giant t-rex monster comes along , picks the beast up with his giant jaw and throws it into the ground like its nothing. Awesome animations and very impressive to see as a tiny hunter. Not something I have experienced in any other game so far.

And then the whole crafting new armor and weapons aspect is so addicting. Co-op makes it all even cooler. so I'm pretty impressed.

 

[Perkel]

Well one of the things i forgot to mention is that what you just talked about. Game feels much like Shadow of Collosus as in you are justa small human but when you beat collosi or monster in mh game it feels like it wasn't bullshit plot sword that killed it but you and your skills alone.
Game suggest that in game people have much more powerful physique to tackle those monsters but overall even with such might at hand it still pales in comparison to monsters you fight.

This is especially shows in fights where big monster tries to fight with you. In dark souls or pretty much any other game you hit leg and that is how you win fight.
In MH leg is good target but not to kill monster but to topple it and then unleash hell on its face or particular parts of it that are weak, same with other methods of immobilizing monster via traps, mounting, flashbombs etc. They are there to give you window to brutalize monster in believable way. And when you unleash brutality on it often it takes like 2-3 toppling in rows of damage because monster can't handle all that pain and again goes down just when it tired to stand up.

And since fights last anywhere from 5 minutes to 50 minutes you never feel like you beat monster just by luck but in war of attrition. You gradually wear down monster, used traps, environment against it to best it.

 

[Hobo Elf]

Sleep bombing works well. I used it to deal with Teostra because Teostra is fucking hard in MHW.

I heard that Elderseal weapons make Teostra and all other hard/annoying Elder Dragons (like Kushala Daora and Kirin) into complete jokes.

Never used elder seal weapons. If that is true then those weapon skill should be out. Fighting those monsters was highlight of MHW.

Now they feel like apex. When you start mission you can freely come up to each of them and they will look at you and do nothing because they are at the top of world and there is nothing anyone can do about them. They ooze with pride of being at the top. They are not animals like dumb Anjanath that goes out daily to hunt food and maybe they will see you as food or not. They do not hunt for food because there is nothing they can't kill in seconds.

When you finally make decision to start fighting they do not go 100% from start, they treat you as nuisance. They do not attack at full force because to kill mosqito you do not use whole of your body to maximum.

As fight progresses the more damage you deal the more enraged they become and they start to move to show their potential for being at the top more and more. When you finally make a difference and they are at their last streatches and they are in the corner this is where they show they full potential because they are no longer fighting because they are annoyed but because they fight life and death battle and they use 100% of their power to full extend to kill you.

When they start limping you bloody know that you are very close but the threat gets so high that it is even hard to manage it because they start being relentless, fast, constantly enraged and using moves that will outright kill you in one hit if you are not at the top of your game.

Aside from one elder dragon all of the fights were bloody amazing for MH game. And if this is what we can expect from high rank then i definitely want to see new elder dragons in G-rank.

Yeah, people said that Elder seal weapons make them into puppies. Teostra can't use his Blast powder, Kirin can't summon lightning and Kushala can't make whirlwinds. I'll have to try it out for myself to see how strong it really is but it sounds it could trivialize some encounters.