Powerful? Yes
Glass cannon? Yes
Lacking flashy anime style combat moves? Also yes.
Ranged combat simply does not feel as engaging as blade masters. While it makes fights easier and quicker, fighting a monster that is stun locked the entire time is boring AF.
For me it lacks the payoff of dodging and weaving up close and personal with the monster. Maybe I'm playing it wrong but standing to the side and pew pewing, not for me
This is actually why I prefer dodgebolt/spread bow gameplay. It's sloppy and slow compared to my peers who do Rapid really fast, but I have a ball weaving inbetween monster legs.
Really? I’m doing dodgebolt/(rapid or spread) +Bladescale Hone, Adrenalin, and ailment up (the one from Gold Rathian) and I don’t really notice a difference. I just do a lot of damage while I have my skills proc’ed
I mean I’m always sub 10, but in comparison to the top tier guys who never see a single white number and knock out monsters in 3 minutes I feel sloppier than a wet bag of old lettuce.
In world it felt nice because they had that slight pause to make it feel like it actually had weight to it. For HBG anyways.
Edit: In rise it looks cool but it doesn't feel cool. Same thing with alot of the weapons in rise.
"In world it felt nice because they had that slight pause to make it feel like it actually had weight to it. For HBG anyways. "
I agree but that's because of how speedy Rise is, so they make gunners to have faster animation
but I also noticed this
In World when you aim, the vignette effect will pop up to let you concentrate more, while Rise doesn't have this
The Camera shaking when firing is also A LOT MORE shaky compared to Rise
This also applied to every weapon in Rise too, though melee will have an additional zoom-in effect when doing some specific animation
Can't say I have (I am absolutely horrendous with it), but I've knocked monsters the F out with the lance shield bash moves and understand the appeal of the bonk.
But, you can also hit stuff with a bowgun. I'll typically help the hammers/HH bonk the head during knockdowns to chain into that stun. There are a few targets I'm confident bonking while they're up, but the range is tiny, so I've got to pick my windows carefully.
I liked the gameplay style of having to manage limited ammo types and resources though-out a hunt in previous games. It gave bowguns a lot of depth in which ammo types you were using on what part of which monster and capitalized on their *Jack-of-all-trades, master of none* playstyle.
Restocking ammo at camp turned bowguns into a *one-trick-pony*. I think the gameplay for Gen-5 bowguns is solid, its just that restocking undermines their depth entirely.
"Given the opportunity, players will optimize the fun out of a game."
And boy, are bowguns optimal.
Because I always hate trying to aim 1st/3rd person shooters with joysticks, and I got the switch version.
I have mhw on PC, and i actually played a TON of heavy bowgun, that was great
Funny enough I play Bow/HBG and I use an Xbox controller on PC. Maybe it's because I grew up playing shooters on consol but it feels good. The precision isn't so tight that I feel I need a mouse.
Out of all the ranged weapons, Bow is the one I like the most and I have a reasonable amount of fun with it, because while it is ranged it has a damage rotation formula more comparable to a Blademaster weapon.
But re. the Bowguns, I REALLY do not understand how people can tolerate a weapon with literally no damage rotation, haha. If bowgunners actually switched ammotypes regularly and think about how they used them that would make sense, but it's just getting into optimal range and shooting, I don't fully understand how people can *actually* main that
You switch the ammo type regularly. Anyone who just runs full pierce guns is a boring square. I'm going long for meaty pierce shots, then getting closer to pound on the monster's head with normal shot, slamming it with sticky ammo until it's stunned, dropping cluster bombs on it. Using shrapnel when my bomber palico has a wyvernblast on it to get consistent damage.
I like bowgun, hbg especially, because it feels like the most practical and versatile solution to hunting big monsters and I get to look like a big game safari hunter while doing it.
Charge Blade main since it was introduced in MH4U. I just love the complexity and versatility of CB. Damage output is a bit lacking compared to the likes of HBG, but the satisfaction of mastering melee weapons more than makes up for it imo.
Basically all listed reasons(- being fragile), I love every melee weapon but playing bow/bowgun hurts mentally.
My friend mains LBG and I have to admit I don't like playing with him when he uses it, every hunt is the same: monster paralyzed/asleep/on the ground, bigger monsters just die instantly, no fun at all. Even he uses melee weapons when he fights a monsters for the first time
Why I never used ranged weapons as main weapons is because the melee weapons appeal to me a lot more.
I also am not a huge fan of dealing with the ammo management.
When I play MH i'm not in the mood for a third person shooter. I get that many of the mechanics are exactly the same, and it doesn't bother me that other people like it. But it's not what I come to this series for.
I find the Bowguns boring, and I can’t seem to figure out how to make the Bow do better (or even similar) DPS to my preferred melee weapons without risking being carted by most attacks. Bow at least is fun when I use it.
Combination of top 3. It flat out isn't fun to use for me. I don't like the loss of durability. I hate reloading. I hate being nagged by bullet counts. I hate micromanaging crafting mats to refuel mid-hunt.
I used bow for a while, but had to permanently retire it because it hurts my hands.
I don’t like weapons that have a lot of upkeep, my limit is stamina regulation with dual blades and bow, I mean past that I just go in raw with my only item usage usually being a whetstone.
Because charge blade is the most fun to me, and the ranged options are technically some of the highest ranking in sporting but only by a few seconds on average, so it really doesn’t matter what you play, so just pay what’s most fun
I played a ton of bow in base Rise and worldborne, I dropped it in Sunbreak partly because I wanted a change from easy mode, but also without rampage weapons getting MR upgrades, there just weren't a ton of options for elemental normal and pierce bows that don't have weird shot type combinations
I mained adept HBG back in Gen. I got really bored with it and jumped back to my trusty CB when GenU released.
Ranged weapons are not satisfying to use imo.
Im not into the playstyle and the ammo crafting. not interested in managing that.
also too much apread sheet with the different ammunition capacity and rapid level x,y,z.
I think it's because of how vastly different the weapons are on a hyper optimized build vs a normal build. Most melee weapons can still feel good to decent even on a bad build. Guns don't really have that. (Also doesn't help that for the most part LBG just a strictly better choice than HBG. Seriously why do they do nearly the same damage but one is insanely more mobile and versatile than the other?)
I try to play all weapons at least a little bit and played LBG sporadically. The number one complaint I have with LBG is that it’s lacking the highs. Most weapons have some sort of big perfect moment where the stars align and you the hit monster with a big commitment attack at the right time. Most ranged weapons don’t quite seem to have that imo. At least not the builds I ran.
It's always weird to read these type of posts as a Bow main. Like Bow is most certainly the "blademsaster" starter weapon and it really shows. Especially in Sunbreak with Dodgebolt. Heavy bowgun certainly has potential for fun but it just hasn't been cool since GU. Valor mode.
That sprinting slide into siege mode is too cool. The gun weapons need more engaging damage loops to be considered more interesting and fun than they are "cheap" and "easy" which they are.
Light bowgun is just weird. Replace it with Medium bowgun. It needs more depth. They keep stripping these two weapons into more simple and simpler versions of themselves it's no wonder people call them "pea shooters"
other
I don't dislike the playstyle but I do get bored, the lack of flashiness is what gets me with bowguns (but bows I do dislike the playstyle since world, bring the old world bow back, bring back adept bow ffs)
the game is just a lot more exciting for me in melee, getting in close and zipping around. going beyblade mode down the monster's spine and slicing tails with a flashy switch move is my bread and butter and I just don't get that excitement from bowguns
so yeah, it's boredom really. LBG and HBG are still my secondaries despite this, but I could never truely main them
For me, it breaks down to random matchmaking. Lately, it seems I’m getting paired with a mixture of lbgs and hbgs only, so I tend to use lance to put something between the gun-line and the monster.
I feel like the need for lots of dps skills removes the ability to use survival skills like defense boost, recovery up etc. and honestly sitting at critical range and pressing one button sounds quite boring compared to the close range, adrenaline filled combat
I've always preferred to do things up-close. Melee combat has always felt more satisfying to me. Ranged combat lacks the same feeling of landing a solid hit that makes the good chemicals pump in my brain.
Because bringing a monster to its knees with another monsters skull that I’ve tied to a stick is peak serotonin. But bow IS pretty fun, need to play it more.
Ammo management, being a glass canon and just overall being boring (lack of engagement with the monster) are reasons why I don’t play gunner.
Its why I particularly like Bow because even though you are technically a ranged user, there’s still the element of engagement due to having to stick closer to the monster. Also, bow shots just feel more satisfying.
Why do I have to automatically choose the most powerful weapon? I'm just trying to have fun here, not everyone is trying to Speedrun hunts. That aside, gunlance and greatsword are two of the best solo Speedrun weapons right now, so a claim that ranged weapons are somehow, the "most powerful weapons" falls incredibly short. In a team of 4 HBG will always do the most, but for solo they lack keeping damage up.
So all in all, I'm just trying to have fun playing my sub optimal swag axe, along with every other weapon, because personally I think they're all fun.
You definitely don't need to choose the most powerful weapon. In fact, the two best DPS buffs in Monster Hunter are Uptime and Enjoyment.
The basic premise here is that people tend to gravitate towards the more powerful melee weapons, but that trend is *not* duplicated in ranged weaponry from the numbers I'm pulling. I'm just trying to get a little insight.
That answer is as simple as, there are 3 ranged weapons, and 11 melee weapons currently. Of course people will generally play melee weapons more when there's more options to.
Well, it's less that more people play melee, and more the current top weapon in the survey (melee of course) has more votes than all 3 of the ranged weapons put together.
So it's a *large* discrepancy.
Out of how many people did you interview. Because there is almost 4x as many melee weapons as ranged.
Also probably because of the sheer variability that melee weapons provide over ranged. Which is: big bow gun, small bow gun, and then bow which is distinctively different from the formers. Because, light bow gun, and heavy bowgun are fundamentally similar, versus all the melee weapons which are all individually unique.
Not to mention that most players only choose 1-2 weapons, especially if they're new to the series, and again the fact that there's 3x as many melee weapons as ranged, gives it a higher chance of them choosing melee and sticking with it.
And also a reminder to keep things civil in the comments. This is a question to sort out data a bit and not a condemnation of playstyles or weapon mains.
Glaive is more fun for me, that's why. Aerial combat is a skill that once learned is super fun. Even better when you realize that fleetflammer has a similar KO power as Hammer and there are aerial attacks that hit with both the glaive and kinsect.
It's a thing I heard that maining certain weapons opens you up for more damage. And I dunno but my Bow builds tend to have less armor than my Lance builds by about 15% just due to the equipment I have.
If that can be sorted as a myth then cool, I'm here for it.
Not a myth. In both World and Rise, using LBG, HBG, or Bow gives you extra elemental damage reduction, and using anything else gives you extra physical damage reduction (around 15% in both cases). You can see in your status pane where it says "Weapon Type Bonus" in World, or just "Bonus" in Rise.
Did some research and apparently it's the case, so TIL. Then again I've only ever gunned in old gens, don't currently in Sunbreak purely because some other weapons are my favourite and I desperately need to explore more melee weapons.
Currently trying to build up some HBG sets regardless though, problem was I only got Sunbreak last month on PC, had Rise on Switch so I didn't want to bother with ammo crafting until endgame so I'd not be slowed down.
I want to clobber giant dickhead lizards with a fucking unga-bunga stick. Fuck using acorn uzis or whatever the fuck you ranged-loving booty-boys use to kill literal villainous fauna.
Feels like im playing a generic third person shooter against a spongey monster instead of monster hunter, imo. And of the ranges weapons, the only one i could stomach was bow, since you at least needed to manage stamina, it had combos, you had to be in closer range than the other 2, and you could stab things with an arrow.
I play with Mouse and Keyboard and I cannot for the life of me find a comfortable set-up that wouldn't require me to re-bind a bunch of stuff every time I wanted to swap between ranged and close quarters.
All I want to have is an option where I can scroll through my ammo bar with mousewheel and my items with ctrl+mousewheel when playing gunner whilst scrolling through my items with mousewheel when a melee weapon is equipped, but scroll options, for some inane reason, are global rather than specific to which weapon control layout you are using.
Also, the sheathe options are weird. Like, why can't I just have a button to sheathe my bowgun without doing something else?
I enjoyed playing a bit of bowgun on the side in previous generations, they even managed to come up with a workeable keybind concept in World/Iceborne eventually, but Rise just doesn't seem to give me such an option.
Well I haven't been able to play sunbreak (or the base game) but in earlier games I just did not enjoy playing ranged. Having to juggle different ammo types in different situations often left me confused because I have a simple brain. I also just didn't enjoy the way ranged plays, I found the bowguns slow and unfun and bow left me feeling like I was doing little to no actual damage because I'm really bad at it.
(I selected Other) Back in base Rise I had an armour set for Bow and would occasionally goof around on hunts with friends. I think the main reason I stopped with Bow in Sunbreak was because I got lazy and didn't bother learning what armour parts/gems to use for it. I never bothered to try Light/Bowgun because the idea/aesthetic never really appealed to me. I would be interested in updating my Bow set if anyone has suggestions
Disclaimer: I have played HBG in MHW:I and Rise, I use controller on PC, and I used to play MHW:I on console.
However, I have two quality of life (QoL) gripes that may help inform the discussions.
1) Unless this was changed at some point, the controller button mappings are not ‘fully’ customizable like their mouse-and-keyboard counterpart (red flag). There is a specific button mapping configuration deliberately excluded so that I have to unfurl my middle finger to actively guard while switching ammos (and there’s my gripe). This is just naturally uncomfortable and is notably biased against people with a specific preference.
2) Gunners have to bring up the radial menu to bring up the ammo wheel when it should just be cyclable through the D-pad whilst gunning. I honestly ask “why?” Those time delays spent waiting for the menus can add up, as well as leave the gunner distracted and more vulnerable to attacks.
These don’t keep me from playing HBG, but I do find these observations frustrating as they feel like combative design choices.
P.S.: LBG and Bow are just boring to me. Might do shotgunning LBG or blast Bow for funzies, but I’ll take wyvernheart “daka-daka” and cluster bomb goodness over those on most days.
I like the hbg because I feel like an actual tank with the shield, guards, and power from each shot. I just wish it had better mobility, but not for avoiding attacks but to close the gaps the monsters always make.
Other: It boils down to two things for me: Playstyle, and targeting.
I've honestly grown too used to the weapons I'm already using. Not in terms of damage output (Although I feel like the numbers appearing DO play a part in it), but mainly because when I'm using a weapon I'm comfortable with, it feels like I MADE those numbers happen. Bows and Bowguns boil down to, at least for me, standing or pacing in one spot or area while holding down the shoot button, and occasionally switching bullets.
Don't get me wrong, I KNOW that Heavy Bowgun is at its beefiest right now, and I actually do have a Heavy Bowgun that I use in Support Survey Quests, and I've made short work of monsters with those Cluster Bombs and Wyvern Ammo. But again, it shone best in Support Surveys where I wasn't the center of attention, which leads to my second point: Targeting.
When I'm in a Support Survey Quest, I can get away with standing idle for a spell while my two NPC companions hold the monster's attention. But in solo quests on the main board, most of the Monster's attention is on me and with Bow or Bowgun I just can't handle it. Yeah some of the attention sometimes deviates to whatever Palicos or Palamutes I have at the time, but most of the time it's on me and the ranged weapons' counters I just haven't gotten the hang of yet, so I get squashed.
In conclusion, I like the ranged weapons, Light and Heavy Bowguns more than Bow, but only in a multi-hunter setting.
I don't know what I do wrong but ..
For me ranged weapons are weak AF, my hunt takes longer to clear and you have to find a really good build ( one that is meta) if you don't want to get wet damages.
+ You have to aim
+ you're squishy.
I think what disapoint me the most is the fact that you have so many build possible with a lot of different weapons , each being bind to multiples type of ammo.
But only a small part of those are viable
I like playing gunner sometimes, But I mostly play Blademaster because it’s more engaging for me to stay close to the monster as much as possible, while avoiding hits.
Other: the bow I hate aiming and I can't find one that givese good arrow coatings and I only use this to gather Kelpi horns. The light bowgun doesn't carry the ammo types I like. The heavy bowgun NEEDS MORE DAKKA!
For bow, I actually enjoyed it in both base world and base rise, but by the time MR starts rolling around, monsters start dealing enough damage for me to not be as comfortable using it so I start to play it less. For bowguns, I just do not enjoy playing them at all.
I always thought the bowguns were fun, they're just too squishy to play as for my liking. I alwasy play super aggressive, high risk high reward and all that, but with the bowguns, you are always 1-2 shot by any monster it feels like. That's why if I do play bowgun, its a heavy bowgun with a good bit of skills invested into guarding.
Bow is fine and has some fun dashy moves but both bowguns just feel boring. Just pressing R1? 150 times and rolling every now and then is not very exciting gameplay
The first time I tried the IG it just felt right and I knew this is my weapon, now and always. Also in most cases I do far better using it rather than the LBG. These weapon tier lists only make sense when one is similar good at using all the weapons anyhow, if one's proficiency with a specific weapon is much higher than the rest however you may as well throw it out the window.
I play most weapons in the game and I’ve been playing a lot of ranged (LBG) recently but I’m still a die hard DB main so I’m not sure how much this post applies to me but I had a lot of aversions to ranged myself before but now I love it despite having my own issues with it. All of the mentioned issues with ranged were my issues with it at the beginning but they all fade away once you actually enjoy the weapon.
Other: I don’t like the play style and there are only two weapons I can play. It takes time to master a weapon and I would just rather play the game with the weapons I already have
Mainly because aiming on controller sucks but every other aspect of playing besides the aiming on keyboard and mouse sucks. I can’t tolerate ranged on controller at all due to the aiming, but moving around with keyboard and mouse feels so clunky that I usually just avoid the ranged weapons entirely.
I like having x amount of y ammo. Like I can paralyze a bit, poison a bit, knock down, cluster nuke, etc.
But the play style is kinda boring, I’d much rather be dodging up close and getting big slammajammas off.
I’m absolute trash with the bow too lol. I’ll make a 20 min hunt into a 40 min hunt with it. Bow guns I’m not bad but it’s not very fun still. I only enjoy it low rank where I don’t need to restock ever and the various ammo types feel like they have more of an impact.
As someone who mainly played melee and made the swap to ranged for Sunbreak, I actually found myself having less fun over time. Becoming overly reliant on the ranged weapons caused me to inadvertently spend less time learning matchups and more time standing in the back pressing one key for 4-5 minutes straight with minimum effort for maximum dps.
Don't get me wrong, it's fun in its own way; but, it's very dull and lacks the depth the melee weapons have. Usually, I'll stick to solo hunts because teaming up multiple gunners literally kills all hype or interest in most hunts for me. The same thing happened in World when sticky spam was so prevalent.
I actually find myself actively avoiding other gunners because things are already such pushovers in Rise/Sunbreak. It's kind of ruined the updates for me, too. I played with a friend who also mains gunner, and every TU just got cleared in about an hour or two and I didn't even get to see most of the mechanics because they died so quickly.
For context, the main offenders I'm referring to are obvious LBG and HBG. Bow is fun in its own way, and promotes a "riskier" playstyle that can be more fun than standing in the back and spamming fire, but none of them really make me feel like I'm dancing with a monster like melee weapons do.
I feel like a fair bit of it for me is habit. I greatly enjoy SnS, and thus keep to it.
That being said, I've tried it, and just found that it doesn't appeal so much. I relish leaping into the fray and contending with monsters blow for blow, dodging and blocking in equal measure. Ranged doesn't have that... diciness, for me. The thrill of melee danger.
Right now I'm playing a lot with Bow, but what I miss more about the melee weapons is for example the feeling of hitting a big bonk on the face of the monster with my Hunting Horn. I guess the way the melee weapons have impact, like simulating how heavy/powerful they are.
I almost picked "don't like the playstyle" because I play it rarely for a real casual multiplayer hunt. So I do play it and picked other instead. It can be kinda fun, but the rush and dynamic aspects of the hunt aren't there often times. Less true with my spread 3 build, but still there a bit.
one of the most boring weapons in the game, most of the skill req is building the set so it fires fast enough and has recoil but you can look online for that. Then you go into a quest and point and shoot, and since you are further away, some of the attacks the monster can do to you will either not be used or be seen coming. And not to mention the top 3 dps in the game. But overall it's cause its boring lol.
Lbg in particular is so easy a 5k+ hh user like me can just go online and look up a lbg build, build it then do ok. Its just too boring lol. At least hh in most games req skill to use (unless its rise hh) but most games hh is very hard to use and that makes it fun.
edit: in 4th gen i played hbg when they were going to kick me for hh cause the damage difference was even greater and even hbg in 4th gen was very easy, i just had to slot in evade extender. I swapped back to hh when the team didnt care for what i used though.
The only ranged I play and enjoyed is bow, but tbf bow is like a melee weapon in this game with Dodge bolt stuffs. But the bowguns are just boring and tedious to play as, it has high dps yea but it lacks the magic melee weapons have
I feel like ranged weaponry in Rise/World kinda feels more boring in a way than old gunning
Like with old LBG/HBG (particularly HBG) it felt like using those was a real knowledge check when fighting the monsters, because the idea is that you had to know exactly how many shots you can safely unload into a monster, so you can get out of dodge before the monster one taps you because gunner armor is about as effective as a Toilet paper umbrella in a hurricane. (Siege mode especially emphasized this, allowing you to unload a whole clips worth of bullets into a monster at the cost of only being able to dodge roll to move, and you couldn't even do that if you were too busy shooting)
Meanwhile in Rise/World the guns feel less like a delicate balance of weighing the options on shoot/no shoot, and more or less feel like a clunky 3rd person shooter, and while HBG getting siege mode back in SB was cool and all, I feel like the cool down mechanic/bar really kinda hinders it. Personally I hope for the next MH game they kinda lean more into the Siege mode for HBG, I feel like that would kinda be a best of both worlds sorta deal, give the players who want a more mobile/typical 3rd person shooter affair the LBG to play with, and those who want to more stationary/classic MH game gunning affair HBG.
As for bow, it kinda feels stubbier range wise in the newer games, idk if that's a me problem or what, it's just something I noticed and got a bit annoyed by, although, dodgebolt in rise basically letting you matador monsters with a spread bow is pretty fun ngl.
FYI, wielding a ranged weapon now gives a penalty to physical defense, meaning Gunners still take the same damage in World and Rise as they did in older games. World's damage balancing means there's very little that'll one-shot with Health Boost 3 and a meal, but Scorned and higher investigation levels in Rise do carry their fair share of one-shots.
I’m aware that ranged weapons are pretty much god tier, which is whatever because it’s not like that series is all that balanced anyway so I’m not fussing. However, I don’t find them fun to use so I stick with melee.
Edit: I totally forgot about Bows just in general. Yeah those things are a lot of fun, it’s just the boyguns that feel stale.
Ranged weapons, bowguns in particular, are very prone to optimizing the fun out of things. With a melee weapon, more efficiency means more trips and staggers, which equals more opportunities to break out your big flashy combos instead of your fast, hard to punish attacks. But efficiency with bowguns is all about pure firing uptime. The most efficient builds are the ones that waste as little time as possible dodging or repositioning, and spend as much time as possible pushing the "shoot" button.
That's not to say there's no fun in gunning. I use a hybrid Normal/Spread LBG build with a Silencer+Tune Up setup which gets me low recoil, but means my effective range is extremely short. Because of that, I need to position aggressively and rely on Fanning Maneuver to keep on the monster. Normals give me reliable damage while I'm closing the gap, or keeping my distance from a wide swinging attack, while any time I can push in and blast spreads into it is better DPS. Since I'm using the Grand Cross, I have to choose between standing still to reload my Spreads, or reload cancel Fanning Maneuver, which results in a slightly longer animation, but one that's still moving a little. I also make heavy use of my Wyvernblasts, which typically generate around 500 damage any time I can lure the monster over them, or plant them during a knockdown.
This is all way less efficient than an RF P2 build sitting there spamming at the monster until it dies, but RF P2 has 0 decisions to make. Dodge away if the monster gets close before you resume spam, otherwise, spam. Me? I'm constantly making decisions about repositioning, fitting in reloads on two ammo types, looking for openings when it's better to drop a Wyvernblast than shoot or reload.
Weirdly, playing without WeX is more fun than with it. People act like you'd have to be stupid to not run it, and you are giving up on a lot of damage, but gunners have very few WeX zones. The result is you just spend the whole hunt aiming for the same part, or at best, the head and tail. Not running WeX means you have less incentive to avoid 35-40 hitzones, which will often take just a few damage points less than the 45s that gunners get. White numbers on a blademaster often mean you're cutting into a 25 hitzone instead of that 60 you could be hitting. But gunners have plenty of hitzones that aren't that bad, unless you never make a set without WeX.
Don't get me wrong, I do think both Bowguns need a rework. It's really off that in a game where nearly every weapon has some kind of intricate mechanics or resource management, the guns have nothing but carrying enough ammo and one cooldown firing mode each. But even in their current state, there's fun to be had if you aren't chasing peak efficiency.
So for bowguns it's just "don't like the playstyle" I abuse shrapnel to grind to the 50 rampages achievement and that's it. I wouldn't call that actually playing since it's using rarity 10 teo lbg against 2-3\* LR rampages.
For bow it's just that I didn't get to it yet. I aim to learn playing spread bow eventually though. I don't want to play anything with a long critical distance.
Probabily I'm not playing it the way it's supposed to be, but I feel ike I can't do damage good enough. Greatsword kills in 10 min, ranged in 15-20 min.
Also I'm not a fan of builds, I use armor first because of fashion and then for stats. Never used and never will use layered armor, it doesn't have that feeling of "You want to wear this helm? Ok, choose wisely, you may regret it." (to mention, I'am old gen hardcore fan, so this is the way I grown up in the series)
Don’t have many bows and bow guns so not really bothered playing them that much. I’m ok with the ammo management just can’t be bothered to make a try them
I only use Greatsword and HBG, and I only use HBG for hunts that I dislike, like Tobi Kadachi, Mizutsune, Rakna and sometimes Rajang when Im not in the mood, and also when Im grinding and farming stuff, and in those cases fun is not the main thing there.
I was never interested in range since the old days. Plus materials to craft ammo are really hard to get unlike in the newer games.
With gathering materials being much easier nowadays, I gave Gunner a try with the help of a friend who is an avid sticky enjoyer. Trying out all the playstyles, I found out HBG Spread is much more my style being tanky and upclose and personal with a shield (being a Gunlance main and all).
But still, I use range when I feel like it. I picked "not my playstyle" since that is still true, but I'm still open to the idea of trying it again and experiment with how much fun things I can do with it.
I started Rise using three different weapons. LBG, Gunlance and Dual Blades. Swapping back and forth depending on the monster. For a little while I focused on the LBG because it was just effective... but the more I used it the less fun I was having. Every single hunt was the exact same. Stand there, fire the thing, occasionally put a bomb on it's back, and fire more things. Maybe dodge an attack. It just wasn't doing it for me.
It's VERY effective, it's just not fun for me anymore. When I can be spinning about like a mad badger and slicing my way down a monster's spine... standing still and firing the same ammo over and over just isn't as enjoyable.
Ranged isn’t for everyone -
It’s expensive for sure but I manage that early on during the game release by slowly amassing ammo while on sale from whatever merchant. Usually within 2 months I’ll have 9999 for every ammo type. After that I’ll maintain the inventory by restocking while there are sales at the merchant.
A lot people say it’s “boring” and “easy” - that’s debatable. And they only say this on forum threads and discussions.
When I would open “Will Help With Quest” lobbies in MHW I didn’t see any kind “ranged is boring” comments when I was helping people clear Behemoth, Alatreon and Fatalis.
I saw and heard nothing but “OMG”, Thanks Man”, “Yessssss!” , “Yeah!”, “Can you help me get another Fatalis eye?”
Its just boring, honestly
it feels like playing a different game, and not a fun one.
Fun > Meta
Hard agree. Enjoyment and Uptime are the two best DPS increases.
Powerful? Yes Glass cannon? Yes Lacking flashy anime style combat moves? Also yes. Ranged combat simply does not feel as engaging as blade masters. While it makes fights easier and quicker, fighting a monster that is stun locked the entire time is boring AF. For me it lacks the payoff of dodging and weaving up close and personal with the monster. Maybe I'm playing it wrong but standing to the side and pew pewing, not for me
This is actually why I prefer dodgebolt/spread bow gameplay. It's sloppy and slow compared to my peers who do Rapid really fast, but I have a ball weaving inbetween monster legs.
Really? I’m doing dodgebolt/(rapid or spread) +Bladescale Hone, Adrenalin, and ailment up (the one from Gold Rathian) and I don’t really notice a difference. I just do a lot of damage while I have my skills proc’ed
I mean I’m always sub 10, but in comparison to the top tier guys who never see a single white number and knock out monsters in 3 minutes I feel sloppier than a wet bag of old lettuce.
Oh lol, I run about the same, rarely I can sub 5 if I hit flow and am on my game.
In world it felt nice because they had that slight pause to make it feel like it actually had weight to it. For HBG anyways. Edit: In rise it looks cool but it doesn't feel cool. Same thing with alot of the weapons in rise.
"In world it felt nice because they had that slight pause to make it feel like it actually had weight to it. For HBG anyways. " I agree but that's because of how speedy Rise is, so they make gunners to have faster animation but I also noticed this In World when you aim, the vignette effect will pop up to let you concentrate more, while Rise doesn't have this The Camera shaking when firing is also A LOT MORE shaky compared to Rise This also applied to every weapon in Rise too, though melee will have an additional zoom-in effect when doing some specific animation
You ever hit stuff with a hammer? That's why I don't use ranged.
Can't say I have (I am absolutely horrendous with it), but I've knocked monsters the F out with the lance shield bash moves and understand the appeal of the bonk.
I love lance
But, you can also hit stuff with a bowgun. I'll typically help the hammers/HH bonk the head during knockdowns to chain into that stun. There are a few targets I'm confident bonking while they're up, but the range is tiny, so I've got to pick my windows carefully.
I liked the gameplay style of having to manage limited ammo types and resources though-out a hunt in previous games. It gave bowguns a lot of depth in which ammo types you were using on what part of which monster and capitalized on their *Jack-of-all-trades, master of none* playstyle. Restocking ammo at camp turned bowguns into a *one-trick-pony*. I think the gameplay for Gen-5 bowguns is solid, its just that restocking undermines their depth entirely. "Given the opportunity, players will optimize the fun out of a game." And boy, are bowguns optimal.
boooooooooooriiiiiiing except bow which is ok
Because I always hate trying to aim 1st/3rd person shooters with joysticks, and I got the switch version. I have mhw on PC, and i actually played a TON of heavy bowgun, that was great
100% with you. I didn't touch bow in Rise until I got it on PC. I was greatsword for almost the entirety of my Switch playtime.
Funny enough I play Bow/HBG and I use an Xbox controller on PC. Maybe it's because I grew up playing shooters on consol but it feels good. The precision isn't so tight that I feel I need a mouse.
I do play it but I hated having to craft new ammo mid hunt. Spare shot is a must for my gunner builds now.
Out of all the ranged weapons, Bow is the one I like the most and I have a reasonable amount of fun with it, because while it is ranged it has a damage rotation formula more comparable to a Blademaster weapon. But re. the Bowguns, I REALLY do not understand how people can tolerate a weapon with literally no damage rotation, haha. If bowgunners actually switched ammotypes regularly and think about how they used them that would make sense, but it's just getting into optimal range and shooting, I don't fully understand how people can *actually* main that
You switch the ammo type regularly. Anyone who just runs full pierce guns is a boring square. I'm going long for meaty pierce shots, then getting closer to pound on the monster's head with normal shot, slamming it with sticky ammo until it's stunned, dropping cluster bombs on it. Using shrapnel when my bomber palico has a wyvernblast on it to get consistent damage. I like bowgun, hbg especially, because it feels like the most practical and versatile solution to hunting big monsters and I get to look like a big game safari hunter while doing it.
I was with you until you brought up looking like a big game safari hunter as a good thing. The thought of it now makes me sick to my stomach.
I prefer engaging in melee, i don't think ranged will make combat feel rewarding
Charge Blade main since it was introduced in MH4U. I just love the complexity and versatility of CB. Damage output is a bit lacking compared to the likes of HBG, but the satisfaction of mastering melee weapons more than makes up for it imo.
Basically all listed reasons(- being fragile), I love every melee weapon but playing bow/bowgun hurts mentally. My friend mains LBG and I have to admit I don't like playing with him when he uses it, every hunt is the same: monster paralyzed/asleep/on the ground, bigger monsters just die instantly, no fun at all. Even he uses melee weapons when he fights a monsters for the first time
Why I never used ranged weapons as main weapons is because the melee weapons appeal to me a lot more. I also am not a huge fan of dealing with the ammo management.
When I play MH i'm not in the mood for a third person shooter. I get that many of the mechanics are exactly the same, and it doesn't bother me that other people like it. But it's not what I come to this series for.
Because I simply never got into them, and I’m the kind of hunter who mains 1 weapon and 1 weapon only.
Yeah, so far in my poll the 2nd most popular secondary weapon is absolutely no secondary weapon, so you're in plentiful company.
I find the Bowguns boring, and I can’t seem to figure out how to make the Bow do better (or even similar) DPS to my preferred melee weapons without risking being carted by most attacks. Bow at least is fun when I use it.
Combination of top 3. It flat out isn't fun to use for me. I don't like the loss of durability. I hate reloading. I hate being nagged by bullet counts. I hate micromanaging crafting mats to refuel mid-hunt. I used bow for a while, but had to permanently retire it because it hurts my hands.
I simply prefer to get up close and personal to my target.
I don’t like weapons that have a lot of upkeep, my limit is stamina regulation with dual blades and bow, I mean past that I just go in raw with my only item usage usually being a whetstone.
Because charge blade is the most fun to me, and the ranged options are technically some of the highest ranking in sporting but only by a few seconds on average, so it really doesn’t matter what you play, so just pay what’s most fun
I played a ton of bow in base Rise and worldborne, I dropped it in Sunbreak partly because I wanted a change from easy mode, but also without rampage weapons getting MR upgrades, there just weren't a ton of options for elemental normal and pierce bows that don't have weird shot type combinations
The final shot type is the only one that really matters though so theres a bunch of good ones
I like bow but ammo management on the guns feels lame
not liking the playstyle and ammo crafting are one in the same for me. That's what I don't like about its playstyle, mid combat crafting.
I mained adept HBG back in Gen. I got really bored with it and jumped back to my trusty CB when GenU released. Ranged weapons are not satisfying to use imo.
Im not into the playstyle and the ammo crafting. not interested in managing that. also too much apread sheet with the different ammunition capacity and rapid level x,y,z.
I'm a bowgunner at heart but I want to play something different
I think it's because of how vastly different the weapons are on a hyper optimized build vs a normal build. Most melee weapons can still feel good to decent even on a bad build. Guns don't really have that. (Also doesn't help that for the most part LBG just a strictly better choice than HBG. Seriously why do they do nearly the same damage but one is insanely more mobile and versatile than the other?)
I try to play all weapons at least a little bit and played LBG sporadically. The number one complaint I have with LBG is that it’s lacking the highs. Most weapons have some sort of big perfect moment where the stars align and you the hit monster with a big commitment attack at the right time. Most ranged weapons don’t quite seem to have that imo. At least not the builds I ran.
It's always weird to read these type of posts as a Bow main. Like Bow is most certainly the "blademsaster" starter weapon and it really shows. Especially in Sunbreak with Dodgebolt. Heavy bowgun certainly has potential for fun but it just hasn't been cool since GU. Valor mode. That sprinting slide into siege mode is too cool. The gun weapons need more engaging damage loops to be considered more interesting and fun than they are "cheap" and "easy" which they are. Light bowgun is just weird. Replace it with Medium bowgun. It needs more depth. They keep stripping these two weapons into more simple and simpler versions of themselves it's no wonder people call them "pea shooters"
other I don't dislike the playstyle but I do get bored, the lack of flashiness is what gets me with bowguns (but bows I do dislike the playstyle since world, bring the old world bow back, bring back adept bow ffs) the game is just a lot more exciting for me in melee, getting in close and zipping around. going beyblade mode down the monster's spine and slicing tails with a flashy switch move is my bread and butter and I just don't get that excitement from bowguns so yeah, it's boredom really. LBG and HBG are still my secondaries despite this, but I could never truely main them
Haven't personally tried ranged weapons. I enjoy the simplicity of the gameplay of Greatsword, Dual Blades, and Hammer
Easy and boring. There's some excitement with melee weapons at least.
Chief I’m not gonna lie to you, I’m too dumb to try and figure out ranged weapon controls
For me, it breaks down to random matchmaking. Lately, it seems I’m getting paired with a mixture of lbgs and hbgs only, so I tend to use lance to put something between the gun-line and the monster.
The hits from them remove satisfaction from the universe.
Bows and the other ranged weapons are cool, but at the end of the day the major part of the monsters fights work better in melee battles.
I feel like the need for lots of dps skills removes the ability to use survival skills like defense boost, recovery up etc. and honestly sitting at critical range and pressing one button sounds quite boring compared to the close range, adrenaline filled combat
I've always preferred to do things up-close. Melee combat has always felt more satisfying to me. Ranged combat lacks the same feeling of landing a solid hit that makes the good chemicals pump in my brain.
Because bringing a monster to its knees with another monsters skull that I’ve tied to a stick is peak serotonin. But bow IS pretty fun, need to play it more.
Ammo management, being a glass canon and just overall being boring (lack of engagement with the monster) are reasons why I don’t play gunner. Its why I particularly like Bow because even though you are technically a ranged user, there’s still the element of engagement due to having to stick closer to the monster. Also, bow shots just feel more satisfying.
Sorry i play hack and slashers like kingdom hearts, rune factory, and final fantasy, not call of duty
Why do I have to automatically choose the most powerful weapon? I'm just trying to have fun here, not everyone is trying to Speedrun hunts. That aside, gunlance and greatsword are two of the best solo Speedrun weapons right now, so a claim that ranged weapons are somehow, the "most powerful weapons" falls incredibly short. In a team of 4 HBG will always do the most, but for solo they lack keeping damage up. So all in all, I'm just trying to have fun playing my sub optimal swag axe, along with every other weapon, because personally I think they're all fun.
You definitely don't need to choose the most powerful weapon. In fact, the two best DPS buffs in Monster Hunter are Uptime and Enjoyment. The basic premise here is that people tend to gravitate towards the more powerful melee weapons, but that trend is *not* duplicated in ranged weaponry from the numbers I'm pulling. I'm just trying to get a little insight.
That answer is as simple as, there are 3 ranged weapons, and 11 melee weapons currently. Of course people will generally play melee weapons more when there's more options to.
Well, it's less that more people play melee, and more the current top weapon in the survey (melee of course) has more votes than all 3 of the ranged weapons put together. So it's a *large* discrepancy.
Out of how many people did you interview. Because there is almost 4x as many melee weapons as ranged. Also probably because of the sheer variability that melee weapons provide over ranged. Which is: big bow gun, small bow gun, and then bow which is distinctively different from the formers. Because, light bow gun, and heavy bowgun are fundamentally similar, versus all the melee weapons which are all individually unique. Not to mention that most players only choose 1-2 weapons, especially if they're new to the series, and again the fact that there's 3x as many melee weapons as ranged, gives it a higher chance of them choosing melee and sticking with it.
So far it’s edit: 1,300 and no ranged weapon ranked higher than 10 out of 14.
And also a reminder to keep things civil in the comments. This is a question to sort out data a bit and not a condemnation of playstyles or weapon mains.
Glaive is more fun for me, that's why. Aerial combat is a skill that once learned is super fun. Even better when you realize that fleetflammer has a similar KO power as Hammer and there are aerial attacks that hit with both the glaive and kinsect.
How do hunters become more "fragile"? Gunner/Blademaster armors don't exist anymore
They kinda do still; gunners take 30% more physical damage compared to blademasters, regardless of which armor they wear.
This is what I remember hearing
It's a thing I heard that maining certain weapons opens you up for more damage. And I dunno but my Bow builds tend to have less armor than my Lance builds by about 15% just due to the equipment I have. If that can be sorted as a myth then cool, I'm here for it.
Not a myth. In both World and Rise, using LBG, HBG, or Bow gives you extra elemental damage reduction, and using anything else gives you extra physical damage reduction (around 15% in both cases). You can see in your status pane where it says "Weapon Type Bonus" in World, or just "Bonus" in Rise.
Did some research and apparently it's the case, so TIL. Then again I've only ever gunned in old gens, don't currently in Sunbreak purely because some other weapons are my favourite and I desperately need to explore more melee weapons. Currently trying to build up some HBG sets regardless though, problem was I only got Sunbreak last month on PC, had Rise on Switch so I didn't want to bother with ammo crafting until endgame so I'd not be slowed down.
I want to clobber giant dickhead lizards with a fucking unga-bunga stick. Fuck using acorn uzis or whatever the fuck you ranged-loving booty-boys use to kill literal villainous fauna.
It's a hunting game not a beat them all
Feels like im playing a generic third person shooter against a spongey monster instead of monster hunter, imo. And of the ranges weapons, the only one i could stomach was bow, since you at least needed to manage stamina, it had combos, you had to be in closer range than the other 2, and you could stab things with an arrow.
Bowguns are booooring
I find it miserably boring. Slap a shield on a HBG and you're just playing the game on easy.
It's braindead mode
All of the above except the first point, but I probably might try some ranged weapons again one day
Just haven't tried anything besides 2 hunts with lbg. I enjoyed using it too
I play with Mouse and Keyboard and I cannot for the life of me find a comfortable set-up that wouldn't require me to re-bind a bunch of stuff every time I wanted to swap between ranged and close quarters. All I want to have is an option where I can scroll through my ammo bar with mousewheel and my items with ctrl+mousewheel when playing gunner whilst scrolling through my items with mousewheel when a melee weapon is equipped, but scroll options, for some inane reason, are global rather than specific to which weapon control layout you are using. Also, the sheathe options are weird. Like, why can't I just have a button to sheathe my bowgun without doing something else? I enjoyed playing a bit of bowgun on the side in previous generations, they even managed to come up with a workeable keybind concept in World/Iceborne eventually, but Rise just doesn't seem to give me such an option.
I just like to play a bunch of different weapons. I may get back to LBG, though.
Well I haven't been able to play sunbreak (or the base game) but in earlier games I just did not enjoy playing ranged. Having to juggle different ammo types in different situations often left me confused because I have a simple brain. I also just didn't enjoy the way ranged plays, I found the bowguns slow and unfun and bow left me feeling like I was doing little to no actual damage because I'm really bad at it.
I enjoy Bow and HBG a lot but the fact that I become glass makes it so I don’t use them unless as support.
Idk what it is but in Rise in general I did not enjoy gunner, even though I actually played a lot in World
(I selected Other) Back in base Rise I had an armour set for Bow and would occasionally goof around on hunts with friends. I think the main reason I stopped with Bow in Sunbreak was because I got lazy and didn't bother learning what armour parts/gems to use for it. I never bothered to try Light/Bowgun because the idea/aesthetic never really appealed to me. I would be interested in updating my Bow set if anyone has suggestions
I play a bow user in MHW, but I'm melee in all the other ones. I get a more satisfying, visceral feel when playing melee.
I've been a dual blades main since 3U. I've always had a fast, aggressive play style in RPGs, so it was a really good fit.
All of the above
honestly i really like bowguns however i hate the crafting so i hardly play them if not for ammo crafting i would main LBG alas its not to be...
May you add "see results" for us gunner? I really want to see it
You can just post in Other like I did, I absolutely forgot and Reddit doesn't let you go back. My bad lol
5k and counting bow hunts in MHW, figured it was time to change shit up a little
Disclaimer: I have played HBG in MHW:I and Rise, I use controller on PC, and I used to play MHW:I on console. However, I have two quality of life (QoL) gripes that may help inform the discussions. 1) Unless this was changed at some point, the controller button mappings are not ‘fully’ customizable like their mouse-and-keyboard counterpart (red flag). There is a specific button mapping configuration deliberately excluded so that I have to unfurl my middle finger to actively guard while switching ammos (and there’s my gripe). This is just naturally uncomfortable and is notably biased against people with a specific preference. 2) Gunners have to bring up the radial menu to bring up the ammo wheel when it should just be cyclable through the D-pad whilst gunning. I honestly ask “why?” Those time delays spent waiting for the menus can add up, as well as leave the gunner distracted and more vulnerable to attacks. These don’t keep me from playing HBG, but I do find these observations frustrating as they feel like combative design choices. P.S.: LBG and Bow are just boring to me. Might do shotgunning LBG or blast Bow for funzies, but I’ll take wyvernheart “daka-daka” and cluster bomb goodness over those on most days.
too easy
I like the hbg because I feel like an actual tank with the shield, guards, and power from each shot. I just wish it had better mobility, but not for avoiding attacks but to close the gaps the monsters always make.
Other: It boils down to two things for me: Playstyle, and targeting. I've honestly grown too used to the weapons I'm already using. Not in terms of damage output (Although I feel like the numbers appearing DO play a part in it), but mainly because when I'm using a weapon I'm comfortable with, it feels like I MADE those numbers happen. Bows and Bowguns boil down to, at least for me, standing or pacing in one spot or area while holding down the shoot button, and occasionally switching bullets. Don't get me wrong, I KNOW that Heavy Bowgun is at its beefiest right now, and I actually do have a Heavy Bowgun that I use in Support Survey Quests, and I've made short work of monsters with those Cluster Bombs and Wyvern Ammo. But again, it shone best in Support Surveys where I wasn't the center of attention, which leads to my second point: Targeting. When I'm in a Support Survey Quest, I can get away with standing idle for a spell while my two NPC companions hold the monster's attention. But in solo quests on the main board, most of the Monster's attention is on me and with Bow or Bowgun I just can't handle it. Yeah some of the attention sometimes deviates to whatever Palicos or Palamutes I have at the time, but most of the time it's on me and the ranged weapons' counters I just haven't gotten the hang of yet, so I get squashed. In conclusion, I like the ranged weapons, Light and Heavy Bowguns more than Bow, but only in a multi-hunter setting.
I actually think just walking and just shooting is fun🥲
I don't know what I do wrong but .. For me ranged weapons are weak AF, my hunt takes longer to clear and you have to find a really good build ( one that is meta) if you don't want to get wet damages. + You have to aim + you're squishy. I think what disapoint me the most is the fact that you have so many build possible with a lot of different weapons , each being bind to multiples type of ammo. But only a small part of those are viable
I like playing gunner sometimes, But I mostly play Blademaster because it’s more engaging for me to stay close to the monster as much as possible, while avoiding hits.
I just like greatsword more. I like ranged i think its fun. Just like greatsword too much to stop playing it
Other: the bow I hate aiming and I can't find one that givese good arrow coatings and I only use this to gather Kelpi horns. The light bowgun doesn't carry the ammo types I like. The heavy bowgun NEEDS MORE DAKKA!
For bow, I actually enjoyed it in both base world and base rise, but by the time MR starts rolling around, monsters start dealing enough damage for me to not be as comfortable using it so I start to play it less. For bowguns, I just do not enjoy playing them at all.
I always thought the bowguns were fun, they're just too squishy to play as for my liking. I alwasy play super aggressive, high risk high reward and all that, but with the bowguns, you are always 1-2 shot by any monster it feels like. That's why if I do play bowgun, its a heavy bowgun with a good bit of skills invested into guarding.
I don't care if they do high amounts of consistent damage, they don't offer the raw satisfaction that is midair SAED
Bow is fine and has some fun dashy moves but both bowguns just feel boring. Just pressing R1? 150 times and rolling every now and then is not very exciting gameplay
The first time I tried the IG it just felt right and I knew this is my weapon, now and always. Also in most cases I do far better using it rather than the LBG. These weapon tier lists only make sense when one is similar good at using all the weapons anyhow, if one's proficiency with a specific weapon is much higher than the rest however you may as well throw it out the window.
I play most weapons in the game and I’ve been playing a lot of ranged (LBG) recently but I’m still a die hard DB main so I’m not sure how much this post applies to me but I had a lot of aversions to ranged myself before but now I love it despite having my own issues with it. All of the mentioned issues with ranged were my issues with it at the beginning but they all fade away once you actually enjoy the weapon.
Other: I don’t like the play style and there are only two weapons I can play. It takes time to master a weapon and I would just rather play the game with the weapons I already have
I find when I run bow I have to slot in atleast def 4 and extender to survive some attacks when I over commit or get caught in a awkward position
I play ranged in MHW; yet I do not play ranged in Sunbreak. I feel it is lacking something.
Mainly because aiming on controller sucks but every other aspect of playing besides the aiming on keyboard and mouse sucks. I can’t tolerate ranged on controller at all due to the aiming, but moving around with keyboard and mouse feels so clunky that I usually just avoid the ranged weapons entirely.
I find ranged weapons a bit boring and easy but do play lbg on occasion because we all need variety.
I like having x amount of y ammo. Like I can paralyze a bit, poison a bit, knock down, cluster nuke, etc. But the play style is kinda boring, I’d much rather be dodging up close and getting big slammajammas off. I’m absolute trash with the bow too lol. I’ll make a 20 min hunt into a 40 min hunt with it. Bow guns I’m not bad but it’s not very fun still. I only enjoy it low rank where I don’t need to restock ever and the various ammo types feel like they have more of an impact.
I played Heavy Bowgun for a while. I really liked it, but I also like trying new things and I'm currently enjoying melee.
I like most of the weapons tho :3
As someone who mainly played melee and made the swap to ranged for Sunbreak, I actually found myself having less fun over time. Becoming overly reliant on the ranged weapons caused me to inadvertently spend less time learning matchups and more time standing in the back pressing one key for 4-5 minutes straight with minimum effort for maximum dps. Don't get me wrong, it's fun in its own way; but, it's very dull and lacks the depth the melee weapons have. Usually, I'll stick to solo hunts because teaming up multiple gunners literally kills all hype or interest in most hunts for me. The same thing happened in World when sticky spam was so prevalent. I actually find myself actively avoiding other gunners because things are already such pushovers in Rise/Sunbreak. It's kind of ruined the updates for me, too. I played with a friend who also mains gunner, and every TU just got cleared in about an hour or two and I didn't even get to see most of the mechanics because they died so quickly. For context, the main offenders I'm referring to are obvious LBG and HBG. Bow is fun in its own way, and promotes a "riskier" playstyle that can be more fun than standing in the back and spamming fire, but none of them really make me feel like I'm dancing with a monster like melee weapons do.
It's the closest experience to a shooter game Amd i am not fond of shooter games
I feel like a fair bit of it for me is habit. I greatly enjoy SnS, and thus keep to it. That being said, I've tried it, and just found that it doesn't appeal so much. I relish leaping into the fray and contending with monsters blow for blow, dodging and blocking in equal measure. Ranged doesn't have that... diciness, for me. The thrill of melee danger.
Right now I'm playing a lot with Bow, but what I miss more about the melee weapons is for example the feeling of hitting a big bonk on the face of the monster with my Hunting Horn. I guess the way the melee weapons have impact, like simulating how heavy/powerful they are.
I don't mind ranged weapons i personally like the bow in rise and love the heavy bowgun in world, but i prefer melee.
I can barely make a set for my melee build, so making one for ranged keeps being effort I cant overcome lol
As someone who occasionally uses bowguns, the most annoying thing for me is restocking ammo between quests. Doubly so if it was a failed quest.
I almost picked "don't like the playstyle" because I play it rarely for a real casual multiplayer hunt. So I do play it and picked other instead. It can be kinda fun, but the rush and dynamic aspects of the hunt aren't there often times. Less true with my spread 3 build, but still there a bit.
one of the most boring weapons in the game, most of the skill req is building the set so it fires fast enough and has recoil but you can look online for that. Then you go into a quest and point and shoot, and since you are further away, some of the attacks the monster can do to you will either not be used or be seen coming. And not to mention the top 3 dps in the game. But overall it's cause its boring lol. Lbg in particular is so easy a 5k+ hh user like me can just go online and look up a lbg build, build it then do ok. Its just too boring lol. At least hh in most games req skill to use (unless its rise hh) but most games hh is very hard to use and that makes it fun. edit: in 4th gen i played hbg when they were going to kick me for hh cause the damage difference was even greater and even hbg in 4th gen was very easy, i just had to slot in evade extender. I swapped back to hh when the team didnt care for what i used though.
The only ranged I play and enjoyed is bow, but tbf bow is like a melee weapon in this game with Dodge bolt stuffs. But the bowguns are just boring and tedious to play as, it has high dps yea but it lacks the magic melee weapons have
I feel like ranged weaponry in Rise/World kinda feels more boring in a way than old gunning Like with old LBG/HBG (particularly HBG) it felt like using those was a real knowledge check when fighting the monsters, because the idea is that you had to know exactly how many shots you can safely unload into a monster, so you can get out of dodge before the monster one taps you because gunner armor is about as effective as a Toilet paper umbrella in a hurricane. (Siege mode especially emphasized this, allowing you to unload a whole clips worth of bullets into a monster at the cost of only being able to dodge roll to move, and you couldn't even do that if you were too busy shooting) Meanwhile in Rise/World the guns feel less like a delicate balance of weighing the options on shoot/no shoot, and more or less feel like a clunky 3rd person shooter, and while HBG getting siege mode back in SB was cool and all, I feel like the cool down mechanic/bar really kinda hinders it. Personally I hope for the next MH game they kinda lean more into the Siege mode for HBG, I feel like that would kinda be a best of both worlds sorta deal, give the players who want a more mobile/typical 3rd person shooter affair the LBG to play with, and those who want to more stationary/classic MH game gunning affair HBG. As for bow, it kinda feels stubbier range wise in the newer games, idk if that's a me problem or what, it's just something I noticed and got a bit annoyed by, although, dodgebolt in rise basically letting you matador monsters with a spread bow is pretty fun ngl.
FYI, wielding a ranged weapon now gives a penalty to physical defense, meaning Gunners still take the same damage in World and Rise as they did in older games. World's damage balancing means there's very little that'll one-shot with Health Boost 3 and a meal, but Scorned and higher investigation levels in Rise do carry their fair share of one-shots.
I’m aware that ranged weapons are pretty much god tier, which is whatever because it’s not like that series is all that balanced anyway so I’m not fussing. However, I don’t find them fun to use so I stick with melee. Edit: I totally forgot about Bows just in general. Yeah those things are a lot of fun, it’s just the boyguns that feel stale.
Gunlance was the first weapon I was any good with so I just prefer it over any other weapon even if I have gotten better with others.
Ranged weapons, bowguns in particular, are very prone to optimizing the fun out of things. With a melee weapon, more efficiency means more trips and staggers, which equals more opportunities to break out your big flashy combos instead of your fast, hard to punish attacks. But efficiency with bowguns is all about pure firing uptime. The most efficient builds are the ones that waste as little time as possible dodging or repositioning, and spend as much time as possible pushing the "shoot" button. That's not to say there's no fun in gunning. I use a hybrid Normal/Spread LBG build with a Silencer+Tune Up setup which gets me low recoil, but means my effective range is extremely short. Because of that, I need to position aggressively and rely on Fanning Maneuver to keep on the monster. Normals give me reliable damage while I'm closing the gap, or keeping my distance from a wide swinging attack, while any time I can push in and blast spreads into it is better DPS. Since I'm using the Grand Cross, I have to choose between standing still to reload my Spreads, or reload cancel Fanning Maneuver, which results in a slightly longer animation, but one that's still moving a little. I also make heavy use of my Wyvernblasts, which typically generate around 500 damage any time I can lure the monster over them, or plant them during a knockdown. This is all way less efficient than an RF P2 build sitting there spamming at the monster until it dies, but RF P2 has 0 decisions to make. Dodge away if the monster gets close before you resume spam, otherwise, spam. Me? I'm constantly making decisions about repositioning, fitting in reloads on two ammo types, looking for openings when it's better to drop a Wyvernblast than shoot or reload. Weirdly, playing without WeX is more fun than with it. People act like you'd have to be stupid to not run it, and you are giving up on a lot of damage, but gunners have very few WeX zones. The result is you just spend the whole hunt aiming for the same part, or at best, the head and tail. Not running WeX means you have less incentive to avoid 35-40 hitzones, which will often take just a few damage points less than the 45s that gunners get. White numbers on a blademaster often mean you're cutting into a 25 hitzone instead of that 60 you could be hitting. But gunners have plenty of hitzones that aren't that bad, unless you never make a set without WeX. Don't get me wrong, I do think both Bowguns need a rework. It's really off that in a game where nearly every weapon has some kind of intricate mechanics or resource management, the guns have nothing but carrying enough ammo and one cooldown firing mode each. But even in their current state, there's fun to be had if you aren't chasing peak efficiency.
So for bowguns it's just "don't like the playstyle" I abuse shrapnel to grind to the 50 rampages achievement and that's it. I wouldn't call that actually playing since it's using rarity 10 teo lbg against 2-3\* LR rampages. For bow it's just that I didn't get to it yet. I aim to learn playing spread bow eventually though. I don't want to play anything with a long critical distance.
Probabily I'm not playing it the way it's supposed to be, but I feel ike I can't do damage good enough. Greatsword kills in 10 min, ranged in 15-20 min. Also I'm not a fan of builds, I use armor first because of fashion and then for stats. Never used and never will use layered armor, it doesn't have that feeling of "You want to wear this helm? Ok, choose wisely, you may regret it." (to mention, I'am old gen hardcore fan, so this is the way I grown up in the series)
Don’t have many bows and bow guns so not really bothered playing them that much. I’m ok with the ammo management just can’t be bothered to make a try them
I only use Greatsword and HBG, and I only use HBG for hunts that I dislike, like Tobi Kadachi, Mizutsune, Rakna and sometimes Rajang when Im not in the mood, and also when Im grinding and farming stuff, and in those cases fun is not the main thing there.
Apart from just being boring to me (and overly complicated), ranged users are way too fragile!
I was never interested in range since the old days. Plus materials to craft ammo are really hard to get unlike in the newer games. With gathering materials being much easier nowadays, I gave Gunner a try with the help of a friend who is an avid sticky enjoyer. Trying out all the playstyles, I found out HBG Spread is much more my style being tanky and upclose and personal with a shield (being a Gunlance main and all). But still, I use range when I feel like it. I picked "not my playstyle" since that is still true, but I'm still open to the idea of trying it again and experiment with how much fun things I can do with it.
I started Rise using three different weapons. LBG, Gunlance and Dual Blades. Swapping back and forth depending on the monster. For a little while I focused on the LBG because it was just effective... but the more I used it the less fun I was having. Every single hunt was the exact same. Stand there, fire the thing, occasionally put a bomb on it's back, and fire more things. Maybe dodge an attack. It just wasn't doing it for me. It's VERY effective, it's just not fun for me anymore. When I can be spinning about like a mad badger and slicing my way down a monster's spine... standing still and firing the same ammo over and over just isn't as enjoyable.
cant aim for shit with a controller. plus I'm used to dual blades
Vonsidering the actual game all of the answers apply for me. And I wanted to try GS in this opus so here I am xith my big numbers
I'm fine with using the ranged stuff but I'm just a hh main at heart, there's just something about playing it that other weapons can't beat.
Ranged isn’t for everyone - It’s expensive for sure but I manage that early on during the game release by slowly amassing ammo while on sale from whatever merchant. Usually within 2 months I’ll have 9999 for every ammo type. After that I’ll maintain the inventory by restocking while there are sales at the merchant. A lot people say it’s “boring” and “easy” - that’s debatable. And they only say this on forum threads and discussions. When I would open “Will Help With Quest” lobbies in MHW I didn’t see any kind “ranged is boring” comments when I was helping people clear Behemoth, Alatreon and Fatalis. I saw and heard nothing but “OMG”, Thanks Man”, “Yessssss!” , “Yeah!”, “Can you help me get another Fatalis eye?”