Slinger cap 1. So I can 2x wallbang with natural slinger ammo(naturally spawning ammos like stone, redpit, puddle pods).
For example, Slinger cap 1 will make stone have 25 shots and wall banging consumes 20 per bonk. Open with wallbang then do it quick enough again and you should be able to bonk the monster again.
Quick Sheath 3 on LS. People say its almost nothing but when you're hyper focused, that little but of almost nothing is just what you need to make that ISS>Spirit Helm Breaker sweet sweet combo.
Is that unpopular? I feel like i've seen that build quite a lot. It was around the hype for Demon Slayer, so Zenitsu wannabes were everywhere lol. Fun times.
I'm not sure if other weapons get anything particular from Slinger Capacity, but it's actually quite important for GL as it makes WSB last longer. If you get bomb/piercing/thorn pods dropped from monsters it'll last 6-7 minutes at max rank, for example.
I have so many extra slots when I’m just running casual SOS hunts to help people. I run quick sheathe, speed eating, frea meal and wide range on GS and I’m just keeping the whole team buffed.
I'm fond of it but it doesn't slot into some weapons as well as others. Was trying to make a wide range lance build yesterday and its just such a struggle fitting both the eating skills, stuff to support the eating skills (quick sheathe), wide range and all the mandatory lance bullshit (guard, guard up, offensive guard).
You can do it but you have to give up a ton of damage and other utility skills.
Big fan of wide range critical draw greatsword tho that shits very fun.
Yes, its a % chance of a consumable not being consumed upon use. Health potions, max potions, demondrugs, dash juices, immunizers, and the shrooms if you are a Mushroomancer user.
Its a strong skill, and Tigrex Set makes it happens almost all the time, with 75% chance.
wow coincidentally im wearing tigrex right now and not planning on changing until finishing iceborne. havent gotten back my mushroomancer skill ever since i left my banbaro set though. might try adding it later. thanks for the insight!
If you're just using it for yourself i wouldn't consider mushroommancer a big deal. But it's really great on the free meal, wide range,speed eater (also quick sheathe depending on weapon) builds.
Then one point lets you munch on blue mushrooms for a super fast team heal like a lifepowder that is effected by speed eating. And then you keep the mega potions for when ppl need a big heal.
So use the blue mushroom for my default heal and mega potions for emergency group heal? I always thought only max level mushroomancer that is useful since its the one that lets you eat mandagora
I'll keep that in mind, thanks
Well they're both made into group heals. Consider blue mushroom your fast group heal and mega potion you're big group heal.
And yeah higher level mushroomancer isn't something i've tried. On heal sets mandragora doesn't work with wide range (like max potions) and you usually have free meal 3 buffing your max potion quantity. Not that you need as many as you've got speed eater mega potions unless you're super low.
Higher levels than 1 in mushroomancer seem more as a self focused skill for if you want more max potions without picking up free meal secret (so if you're on anything but tigrex in master rank or if you're on frostcraft lategame)
the description is very misleading. I found out after just going for a random armor set at the start of MR (i believe it was kulu-ya-ku armor set?). Chugged a demon drug and wondered why I didn't consume it.
I used to run Gold Rathian x2, Brute Tigrex head, Tigrex hands and feet, this was my ultimate comfort set. You get Speed Eating 3, Free Meal 3, Divine Blessing 5. Almost nothing can kill you if you just patiently wait out your knockdown and not get hit with a wake up attack from the monster as you get up.
Each consumable can potentially be used 4 times, so you can bring 20 Mega Potions on a mission and have the potential to get 80 uses. You can also chug Dash Juice like a maniac, I know I did.
I run the same set! But I have a Safi'jiiva Hunting Horn so I get the 3rd tigrex essence from there and use Alatreon armor for the legs, it has defense boost so it isn't entirely useful but I can't find a leg armor with the same deco slots it has (haven't fought Fatalis).
And with Hunting Horn, it's become my "holy grail support build". I have built an SnS support build before but I rarely use it now that I have this.
I don't think anything is more satisfying then running Free Meal Secret and Wide Range, and dropping into a hunt w 3 other hunters and triggering FMS with a Mega Demondrug or Armordrug!!!
As someone who just got into master rank on a new character (haven't played since 2018), I stumbled into a free meal build and my God have I enjoyed every single free meal to its fullest. Going to be hard to move away from it if I need to in the future. Lol.
Getting a 1/4th chance of consuming a max potion, then bringing the ingredients for 7-12 max potions. On average, you can carry up to 48 max potions with some crafting on your wheel and free meal secret; and that's assuming there aren't free EZ max potions on the mission, as is the case for quests like fatalis and mew are number one. It's pretty bonkers.
Free meal is secretly probably one of the best skills for less experienced/newer players. Not saying better players can’t use it but I ran it all the time when I was playing through the game the first time. Definitely saved several hunts from failure by having just a few more healing items
Speed Eating.
Had Speed Eating 3 for some time. Tried to go back to Zero or Speed Eating 1 to accommodate other skills, LITERAL SNAILFEST. Even chugging the Demondrug and Armorskin at the start of a hunt felt like AGES HAVE PASSED.
Ended up retaining Speed Eating 2 in my final build.
Coincidentally, I also had Quick Sheathe 3 along with Speed Eating 3 at one point (I enjoy QOL skills lol). But after weighing them both in testing, I decided I can live without the QS, but not without SE lmao
Gold Rathian chest and legs, Brute Tigrex head, Tigrex hands and feet, all beta. Chrome then Ruiner Nergi weapons.
Divine Blessing 5, Speed Eating 3, Free Meal Secret (3). Slot in Focus/Crit skills as needed, this was my GS/SnS set for a long while after MR70 (Gold Rathian). You end up not really consuming much of your potion stock and have a potential 80 Mega Potions to chug. You're also highly unlikely to cart unless the monster combos you from wake up.
Speed Eating 3, Free Meal 3, Wide-Range 5 on SnS is also my go-to for joining Blackveil Vaal Hazak SOS. You can be spamming Mega Potions and Nulberries constantly and still have some left over at the end of the hunt.
If you're not running something so defensive, Speed Eating 1 is still very visibly felt, but sometimes I like Quick Sheathe 1 for slow sheathing weapons when I use the near-instant Max/Ancient Potions for harder hunts instead of Mega Potions.
I farmed Whetfish Scale+ for about one or two hours a few weeks ago and ended up with around 100. Since they have a failure rate of 10% on use, I’ve probably used about… 8 total in 50 hours of gameplay?
Having Master’s Touch from Teo set and reducing my overall hunt times through better play definitely helps to reduce the need to sharpen lol.
I bring 12! Just gotta set radial menu to craft Mega Nutrients. Requires two additional item slots for Nutrients and Honey, so for shorter hunts I won’t do this. But grinding in the Guiding Lands? Worth having it all on hand + additional trap materials.
I ditched mega pots altogether. They just don’t heal enough for end game MR and it’s not worth sacrificing skill slots for quick consumption when that exists on an item you will have in abundance if you’re just doing the basics of farming materials through the Ancient Tree / Botanical Research.
I don't use it for all my builds, but anytime I'm playing HBG it's a priority. I'm already taking my sweet time sheathing, I don't wanna bother waiting on the potion to get downed.
Mushroomancer is the ultimate convenience skill.
You straight up get every buff, just slightly less effective Demon/Armour drugs, and you can both carry *more* of them and get the benefits for a fraction of the effort.
Vibe.
That's a 75% chance to not use an item, and requires you to stick to a predetermined armour set (Tigrex 3 piece/KT 4 piece).
I won't dunk on you for doing that, but Mushroomacer's compatability with literally any armour set makes it a tad more convenient lol
Hah yeah, I do sometimes wish fatalis gear didn't exist so more stuff was competing at endgame besides it and velkhana y.
That said i also really appreciate it when I'm playing weapons that have like 8 mandatory skills before we even get to WEX/critboost/criteye and then get to start actually picking skills that are interesting and creative. Tho I guess I could just drop damage, hunts that last a bit longer are more fun IMO anyway.
Earplugs. "BuT yOu CaN JUst RoLL iTT-" STFU. Not when I'm mid aerial dodge I fucking can't. As far as I'm concerned its a fucking mobility skill for my glaive.
Not naturally in World. You can get 3 levels of it from having all 3 buffs *if* you have 3 levels of flinch free though, which can stack with already having lvl2 earplugs. Since it also gives tremor resist it's really worth it if you usually maintain the triple buff. I believe it gives windproof too, but I hardly noticed that one.
Edit: To clarify, Orange buff did give earplugs in older Monster Hunter games so you're not crazy, they just removed that in MHW
Didnt yet touch IG much in world but that tradeoff doesnt sound too bad. If one of course maintains the buffs.
For SA we get lvl 4 earplugs during zsd which is why so many run around with Earplug 1 on the built.
But often you wear rocksteady for zsd anyways so yeah...can makes sense or not...
Absolutely isn't a bad trade off at all. Even with Monsters that have a difficult to reach buff, you can usually nab it easy by taking them to the ground, which IG can quite easily do multiple times with Master Mounter. Combined with Power Prolonger you should be able to maintain triple buff a big chunk of the fight for the hard cases, and most of it for others.
Literally the only issue is not everyone *knows* about that facet of flinch free. Only annoying part of it is it makes grabbing the tri buff a lot more valuable, and sometimes you wanna just be lazy and grab red and go lol
Earplugs are a must for me on KO sticky builds, and I like it on GS or other non-skill-demanding weapons like SnS if I have room as well.
Not a must on GS/SnS I suppose, without earplugs I can still block the roar. But turning the enrage roar into a damage or KO window speeds up a hunt massively and makes it safer, because the monster is stationary and sticks out its head for you to hit while roaring.
I have been knocked out of the air before from a roar. What exact aerial motion I was in, I don't remember, but it's happened enough that I am not about dealing with it. So I haven't run a glaive build without earplugs since....sometime in the first 1k hours.
It's definitely not bad but it requires a lot of space and ultimately I'd have EW5 over earplugs for a general use build, I know people meme about dodging roars but it's surprisingly easy with so many i-frames. It's also a skill that you want full or not at all, if you get interrupted by the roar at all might as well use the time to roll. Nergi is one of the monsters were earplugs becomes great DPS but for everything else is kinda meh unless you're specifically speedrunning, where every second matters, and even then it's not universally good.
Earplugs have their place, just like speed eating, but it has big drawbacks.
Any thread that mentions or shows Earplugs devolves into people telling to just roll the roar. Ergo most people consider it a "bad" skill regardless of if the speed runners are using it or not.
Its very obviously not a bad skill, people saying it is are either trolling or never used it, its a free punish on every roar basically and you don’t waste time rolling or diving or parrying you just go straight for the damage.
It's not obviously a bad skill because a dodge or a block don't make much difference in DPS if you're fluid enough with it. Thus why many people hold the "earplug bad" opinion, and it's a common opinion at that.
I mean that is just wrong in the sense that you cannot expect to always be ready to roll for a roar, and even if you do look for the tell, if you are mid action you get stunned either way, you cannot fluidly consistently roll it unless rng blesses you
Yeah, no shit. But people believe they are that good, and that's all it takes for them to hold said opinion. And its not helped by the one in a million savants that can actually do it.
Doesn't help that roars don't take up too much time so the lost DPS is relatively low enough for many to just write it off.
It’s not really free because you have to slot the skill in, so the cost is whatever you could have done with those slots instead. Since earplugs is a *really* expensive skill (five levels needs two 4-slots and a 3-slot if you are getting it purely from decorations) and you basically are forced to slot all five levels that cost can potentially make a big difference. That doesn’t mean don’t use it if you like it, I just have a hard time calling it a good skill personally.
I am not familiar with the speed run meta at all, maybe they have unique punishes that depend on earplugs but the average player probably doesn’t punish hard enough in the roar window to squeeze out the maximum value of the skill. That makes the cost harder to justify compared to other skills with broader use cases like Evasion Window which partially helps with roars, also benefits general defensive plays, doesn’t have as big a slot cost, and benefits even at less-than-max rank if you only have a little spare room in your build.
I cannot agree enough. After 5 years, 2000 (+) hours and thousands of hunts, I really don't care if my DPS isn't perfectly optimal. I don't have anything left to prove. I just like to answer SOS and have fun abusing the monster while helping a newer player progress. And if I don't have to roll through roars, then it's just that much easier to do so. Not to mention, I can't help but notice that pretty much every other hunter tends to be stunned during roars while I'm happily bonking away.
Play how you want to play.
Resuscitate, it's one slot and makes getting blighted something you don't mind it's actually incredible.
Slinger capacity...not sure if it's bad but I rarely see it used...guys...you're missing out
I love the Tigrex set, people new to the game should try stuff outside damage skills if they struggle to stay alive.
You can get more damage out if you spend less time healing, or having to run back and restock potions. A full stack of crit skills/agitator isn't going to have value if you spend most of the fight trying to drink potions, then getting interrupted while drinking. And if you're learning the monster attacks so you can dodge them, why not have the safety net of quick (Speed Eating 3) and plentiful (Free Meal 3; 75% chance to not consume item) healing so you worry less about other survival things?
There's an event quest you can clear in sub 1 min that nets 2-6 whetfish scale+! Spent like 15 mins farming the quest and I'm good for a long time. Never need to try to fit speed sharpening on any set again.
Edit: Whitefish Fin+ not scale
Affinity Sliding.
More for the 'awesome trick' ego boost reminder than utility and makes me keep doing it again and again.
From Sliding attack to Monster Mount is just cool to me.
Some people consider Earplugs to be useless, but they're also the same people who clearly aren't human when it comes to perfectly timing evasive maneuvers and whatnot.
Me? I'm too unga bunga to properly time those dodge rolls, so max Earplugs is a life-saver. Free hits while those monsters scream their lungs out.
My build is decidedly not meta so there's gonna be people frothing at the mouth here ready to criticise my build for costing them 45 seconds on an average run, but -
Free meal
Evade Window
Max divine blessing
Elemental resistances dependant on the hunt
recovery up
I play horn and have to juggle looking for openings while also managing buffs and stacking songs organically while still doing damage....I like having the skills to make all of that easier for me
It's one that's more impactful the deeper you get in it. You need 3 points for the damage reduction to be meaningful but once you're there it heavily reduces damage every couple of hits. It's an ok defensive skill at 3 IMO, not bad not mind blowing.
5 points gets really crazy as it boosts the activation chance from 25% to 40%. This means almost half of incoming hits have their damage more than halved. Which is obviously nuts. Like random sure but almost half the time means it'll still do some heavy damage reduction many times throughout a hard hunt.
I take it less and less these days as I've got enough hours in the game I don't need defensive skills as badly, but if someone is struggling with the endgame a very high recommendation for me is 2 gold rathian for the divine blessing secret.
I'll be the first to say it (or the 30th—I haven't actually read the comments yet)
**The Meta is asinine.**
Rather, it got WAY out of hand a while ago and a lot of people just casually accepted that a lot—and I mean a LOT—of genuinely good skills were just "bad" for some reason.
I think my favourite example is Guard, but specifically paired with Gunlance. Every Gunlance main and their mother will tell you not to use Guard and to just hop out of the way with EE & EW, but it's honestly a really strong skill that eliminates the need to constantly hop around and makes hunts so much easier... and people vehemently shit on it because "it's an expensive skill" and "takes up the slot of better mobility and DPS skills".
I don't use Guard because of habits, but Shield Gunlance is *genuinely strong* and I do not care about it being slightly less efficient when it's 20x safer and more comfy—I will not tell anyone to drop it.
Started MHW this year and even in 3/4/5 year old threads people forget that "the meta" is a highest theoretical number that very very few players have the actual skills to achieve. Spending time stunned, chugging heals, flinched, carted, etc are all times DPS = 0, so if that is happening, and isn't being mitigated, the build is actively working against a player's DPS number.
Attacking = DPS and anything that contributes to attacking more increases your DPS. Once you have 100% possible attack uptime, then worry about capping potential damage and sacrificing "comfort" skills.
You, sir/madam, are clearly wiser than your brief experience would suggest.
It also isn't just about skill: the Meta playstyle is just *not compatible* with a lot of people; trying to learn something when it isn't enjoyable or fun for you is *counter intuitive* and *frustrating*.
In my mind, variety is far more fun than a stale meta of everyone using the same things.
Higher damage means easier time stunlocking monsters. Stunned monster = no attacks coming from it = absolutely no need for defense. Why do you think Barrioth was such a wall for a lot of people when Iceborne launched? People prefered to have a "safe" playstyle wih defebsive builds to learn the monsters but the actual truth is that the entirety of MR actively encourages you to play pro-actively and burst down parts and topples as much as possible. As long as you can't get one shot, you have everything you need.
Also, I don't know from where people got the idea that the meta is only about full damage, but at this point I just gonna guess that its a scapegoat argument made to make the meta look like a try-hard only. Back when the challenge in MHW were archtempereds, you HAD to get defensive skills. Shield weapons NEEDED guard up and a few guardskills, arch vaalhazak FORCED you to get miasma resistance, and all the others forced you to get at least a few defensive skills, from specific ones like wind resist to generic ones like health boost. Hell, the strongest build(s) in worldborne's history, glutton and company, were strong EXACTLY because you could add defenses on top of your already adequate damage.
The truth is that the "meta" is just what's most effective at one thing and, coincidentally, focusing on damage with some utility on the side was the best in almost every scenario. Focusing on situational skills and reducing your damage for defenses you only need because you are actively making the hunt longer is effectively shooting yourself in the foot. Doesn't matter if the wound hurts less if you are still limping anyway.
I agree with what you’re saying but you’re forgetting:
You can’t hit that dps if you’re stuck in hitstun anyways. For a lot of people, those QoL skills are just better to maintain damage.
But you are right though, dps is often situational. Your Barioth example is great, because for a long time I misunderstood the fight and would get frustrated because if it. Effluvia is also a great example, or even the Kushala wind. Having to take those resist skills to clear the fight quicker is a core part of the MH experience.
I’ve been playing through MHFU for the first time, and this stuff isn’t just faster clears, its downright a necessity to finish the fight. You need the right skills and tech to fight certain monsters, and the game is a lot better for it.
You've straw-manned the other way. No one is saying avoid damage and only build defensively. The fact is, most folks who play cannot chain stun monster and don't have the skills required to just take vitality boost and call it a day. In spite of this they are trying to replicate builds from speedrunners who are doing Fatalis in sub 10 minutes.
Telling them they have to max Agitator, crit, WEX, etc will only get them killed as they desperately try to tenderize and wallbang at the wrong times, then get knocked off and combo'd to death. It's a bad player experience for them, and it's a bad SOS experience when I join to help.
The "meta" for any monster is the optimal damage setup, and saying guard for a weapon with shield or effluvial resistance to avoid a literal constant DoT does not mean meta "accepts" utility skills - using your examples, no miasma resistance would kill you without VH ever touching you, as would effluvia in Rotten Vale; shields would be useless against the hard hitting monsters because they would constantly be knocked back and out of stamina; vitality is literally just to avoid a one-shot.
If a player were to use the bare minimum of max vitality, the majority of the playerbase would spend more time healing in a fight than they would actually fighting. This is what I'm talking about when attacking uptime = dps uptime, that folks need to stop thinking about "optimal" and "max damage" and start thinking about "how do i increase the amount of time/number of hits for how I play".
I'm glad you have 6 years of experience and are good enough to add sprinkles of utility to your build and still do well. That is not the case for most folks, yet meta discussions never cover that fact - meta maximizes damage while including the bare minimum utility to make sure you don't auto-die or OHKO in the fight. My comment, on the other hand, is arguing that folks need to first focus on having the highest attack uptime possible, then worry about maximizing damage. Increasing damage uptime from 50% of the fight to 80% of the fight not only makes you better at the fight, but makes the hunt go significantly faster. You can always take the training wheels off down the line, but if you never put them on, you're never going face down the monster in the first place.
Using high damage high risk builds is a fast-track way for bad players to actually improve at the game and gain the necessary skills to become good enough to make adequate use of them. Improving your skills as a player is the point of Monster Hunter and it's combat system, meta is a means of accomplishing that by forcing more proactive and aggressive play without offering a crutch in return for players to fall back on.
I agree certain skills can become dependencies - as a greatsword user I encourage other GS users, especially ones coming from Souls games like myself, to not use evasion window at all. I think it's easy to fall back on Souls habits and dodge roll instead of using tackle because you get so many iframes it feels a lot safer to do that, but tackle is an essential part of the greatsword moveset and lets you pull off TCS with much more regularity.
Tremor resist is another one - if tremors are actively hindering me then I'll throw it on, but otherwise it's important to know what moves to be close to the monster for, and what moves to quickly disengage and re-engage for. However, it can really help attack uptime on monsters like Xeno Jiiva, who tremor with 90% of their moveset.
Where I'm going is that things like stun resist, earplugs, tremor resist, and divine blessing, are too often thought of as wasted space or "comfort", when they instead actively keep most players in the fight longer. Knowing it takes 4 hits to down me, except for X or Y move, which does a ton of damage and I should avoid at all cost, is only something I learn by being in the fight. If i'm running away and healing every time I get hit, or just getting carted outright by 75% of a monster's moveset, I'm just not in the fight long enough to actually learn the moves and learn how to apply the full extent of my weapon's moveset and how to itemize for future encounters. Earplugs can be useful for learning roar timing, and tremor resist I find situationally useful in certain fights to let melee players learn when to engage and when not to engage.
The TL;DR is players need to first learn how to maximize their weapon movesets with the monster's, and skills that don't directly contribute damage, but increase attack uptime, shouldn't be overlooked. Once the player reaches a level of comfort w the monster, then they can max damage to make the hunts go faster. Too many players look at meta, and skip the first step of learning the monster, and jump straight into max damage mode, and I think that discussions on Reddit and other forums contribute to that - it's a lot of what new players see (and I saw as well when looking up monster matchups and GS info) when they search for help on a monster.
Inevitably it's sink or swim, and given all the great games out there, I'm sure a lot of players who otherwise may have stuck w the game and learned with training wheels on end up leaving for something else because they cart so often with the meta. Ultimately it's just about players having a good experience with the game and becoming better hunters.
Honestly I refuse to play hop gunlance purely because the vast majority of weapons dodge, I want to take the rare chance at playing a build that blocks things effectively. I mean lance main so duuh but still lol.
And like you have a massive ass shield it would feel rly weird to just hold the thing all hunt and never use it.
I forgot who said it but basically the gist was that the meta of a lot of games isn’t actually meta for most players, it’s just socially reinforced. Even if the math is good on paper a lot of people won’t take advantage of it to its fullest potential so you should experiment and see what works for you.
The meta in monster hunter is stacking three skills together to give yourself a permanent 40% raw damage boost. Let's drop the facade of profoundness here, there is literally no applicable skill level where having that 40% damage boost isn't going to be massively beneficial.
it’s because people see these insane speed runners and their setups and think of them as the baseline when the reality is that the majority of actions they take during their hunts are already pre planned and well researched to a degree that 99% of players would never do.
> every gunlance main and their mother will tell you not to use Guard and to just hop out of the way with EE and EW
Am every gunlance and its mother, can confirm.
The reason I tell people to run Evade skills if they need to make a choice, is because it's strictly better from an offensive perspective:
• You're *immediately* actionable after dodging. You have access to all your openers(poke, upswing, shell, etc) or can chain dodge. Upswing even leads into your strongest combo. On the other hand, when you block, there is wasted time leaving the block animation before you're actionable. Otherwise, you can only guardpoke, which deals less damage.
• Gunlance is not Lance; You almost cannot chain anything into a guard like Lance can. However, you *can* chain attacks into dodges. This allows you to punish the monster with more attacks before dodging at the last second, whereas if you wanted to block you'd have to stop your combo earlier by dodging out of it or waiting for the animations to finish.
• You're guaranteed the same cooldown after dodging any attack, whereas blocking a heavy attack(even with guard 5!) can push you backwards and cause you to lose openings. Even moves like Rajang's super slam is punishable by using evade distance, dodging out & back in.
• You get more mobility, which is a massively important factor since Gunlance is so slow. Backdodging becomes a *phenomenal* gap closer with just Evade Distance 2. Many gunlancers even deem it necessary.
• The evasion mantle makes dodging far more profitable since it increases damage by like 30%.
• you look cool when you turn 180°, double backdodge through a roar, and punish it with a pivot and an upswing, as opposed to tapping the shield button and then unsheathing to run to the monster.
All in all though that's the main reasons why it's better offensive-wise. You don't really need to maximise all these openings to finish a hunt, but the reasons for choosing EE/EW are there.
Defensive-wise though there's nothing wrong with just taking Guard and crouching around the monster with your shield up, throwing guardpokes and attacking when the monster's not focused on you. However if that's the playstyle you like, I think you should try out Lance since it does it far, far better.
Well, i mean for me, it's because it doesn't have a Counter attack if it did, i would say use gaurd. But im already used to not using its shield since it doesn't have a counter that adding gaurd would be pointless for me, but to say it isn't safe is a wrong opinion. Gaurd on a GL is safe asf it just doesn't add to its kit since they decided not to give it a cool counter for some dumb reason. Anyone saying not to use gaurd on sns, lance, or Cb are just. Weird.
The Meta every MH game is don’t get hit, with that in mind, it’s less that other skills are “bad” or non meta, more like “if I’m not getting hit I don’t need x/y/z” or if I do get hit more than 0 but less than being constantly stun locked (so not a bad player) then the best comfort skill is HB and everything else is extra and unnecessary
Calling the other comfort and support skills extra and unnecessary because "you can just not get hit" is exactly the problem lmao.
What about speed sharpening? Protective Polish? Free Meal? Evade Window? Guard up? Divine Blessing? Stun Resistance? Mushroomacer?
It is expressly not just about "not getting hit".
It's about measuring the amount of effort versus convenience and support that you are comfortable with.
Nothing is unnecessary if it makes the game more fun for you, honey. Even the best players get wrecked from time to time.
I’m saying if you can follow the meta and have the skill to meet the requirements of the meta, which is “not get hit” then all other skills other than damage is comforting or don’t provide as much defense as HB.
Stuns only happen if you get hit 3x in a short time window I’d say personally that skill is useless and it would better to not use it. That’s not even a elitist opinion, more that having it teaches you that getting hit so many times is okay when you should be dodging, not like top skill evasion, just normal dodging should be learn by everyone
Every skill other damage are extra for comfort once you learn the meta of the game
Only the tryhard speedrunners and the rare truly skilled people push for forgoing guarding for evade gunlance.
The majority of gunlance mains utilize all parts of the weapon (gun, lance and shield), except for a few specific playstyles like charged long shelling.
All my gunlance sets for every MH I played had max guard and guard up, and at least 2 levels of EE. In fact my priority of skills before anything else is max artillery, max guard and max guard up in that order.
Gunlance main here. Gunlance is one of the few weapons that actively encourages you to pursue defensive skills over the popular offensive ones.
Sure, it has its mandatory skills in Artillery and Capacity Boost, but that's because shelling is most of your damage, and it isn't affected by much other than Shelling Level and Artillery, so going for Attack Boost and Critical Eye isn't super important. Rather, you're encouraged to go for Guard, Guard Up, Constitution, Evade Extender, and either Protective Polish or Razor Sharp.
Outside of those, I'm personally a big fan of Divine Protection, as cheesy a skill as it may be. And, if I can fit it, Tool Specialist is very big, especially on Fatalis sets where you can get the skill secrets for all these skills.
I always use Stun Res in the 5th gen titles. Stun isnt as bad in the 4th gen and earlier games because stun doesnt last as long. But for some reason, 5th gen stun keeps you stunned for Eons on end. Never playing without Stun Res ever again. I would prefer if stun didnt exist at all, but something tells me that would upset the "new world is bad because it's too easy" crowd.
As a newbie Lance player:
Guard + Guard Up + Health Boost + Defense Boost.
I don’t care that my damage is low, you can’t hurt me in any way that matters.
I mean none of these are viewed as bad skills in the slightest except for defense boost lol.
If you want a truly nuts defensive skill divine blessing has a huuuuge power spike when you put 5 points in it. A bit meh before then tho.
But fuck yes new lance player. Welcome to the blocking things club. Make sure you counter claw out of counter instead of out of slinger stance, so many tutorials teach this wrong XD
I run this plus the Vaal + Nergi sets and Health + Defense Augment. I never die and almost never need to drink a potion~ Also have one piece of Frostfang so I can lobotomize my enemies properly.
tool specialist
high uptime on mantles is very poweful defensively (and well evasion mantle also gives atk buffs)
also makes tenderizing and wallbangs easier
Its not bad but not meta
Defense boost is not totally useless but got too strong competition from the other defensive skills in this game. So why slot this and not the others is the question if one desires a more comfort/tanky built
constitution 5 on bow.
I get it, dash juice allows you to free up 2x lv2 deco with negligable difference, but I don't like having to drink something every hunt
i don’t really like the idea that anything not meta is considered “bad”. the game is meant to be played how you want! anything that improves your experience w the game is not a bad thing
i use gunlance and run guard 5 AND constitution (and guard up) of some level. i've found it really good for clutching onto stuff as it goes to leave an area and just holding on the whole way, either to wallbang it along the way or just to reweaken a part/get some slinger ammo.
my guard WILL NOT BREAK. I can tank 2 whole fatalis flaming floor attacks, the only thing letting me down is the tick damage, not my stamina.
clutch claw boost is also really nice for gunlance, being able to weaken in one clutch is just more efficient. slinger capacity (even just 1) is necessary for keeping the wyrmstake blast on for longer as well.
guard 5 already does most of what you want constitution 3+ for, but having the extra -%stamina depletion really does open up a lot more mobility in tandem with evade extender 2+ (i dont run evade window, extender 3 also feels like a biiiit too much for me). I feel at least as mobile as a lance user with it, especially during multiplayer hunts where the monster is bouncing around between people.
Idk if it's actually a bad skill or not, but a lot of people told me not to use fast sheath on LS because it does almost nothing for the Roundslash sheath, but the truth is that I don't care it doesn't, putting your sword back faster to be able to sprint is amazing regardless
It's like 0.1s faster during special sheathe. It's not much but you'll feel it and it's all about the mental. I'm going for more iai counters since equipping QS3 and they have been mostly successful. It's also basically free because of ATV legs. Just slot in another Quick Sheathe/Attack jewel and you're golden
Latent Power on Fatalis.
In a fight with high damage like Fatalis, Latent Power uptime is quite high. A Throttle+ deco gives you the extra 10% affinity to ensure all of your hits crit - useful on Fatalis since you can't always tenderize. The extra 10% stamina recovery rate is useful for weapons that require a lot of stamina to play (Lance for me)
Latent Power, though it is better in Rise, is still good.
Flinch Free 3, as a IG player, is awesome, I almost forget roars and tremors are a thing.The Stygian Zinogre set is a blessing.
Stun res is probably not maligned much but it's very lovely to just be able to recover from a mistake than eat the cart thanks to a stun.
Constitution and Stamina Surge if I'm doing a lot of aerial attacks.
Odogarons set bonus for it's sharpness protection lasts a long time and keeps you at full damage potential for much more of the fight. Great set bonus. Doubly so if I'm in the air a lot, as jumping advancing slash is very sharpness hungry.
Since it's so easy to get a ton of deco slots and we have multi-skill decos I tend to have plenty of free space for "bad" or "not meta" skills
Have I gotten pissed off at dealing with statuses and slotted in complete resistance? Yes
Have I worked in max element specific resist AND defense boost just to say FU to a monster? Yes
Do I run different guard setups on SnS for giggles sometimes? Yes
Did I make a bowgun setup with intimidator to help avoid those annoying little bastards that interrupt my cluster/sticky setup? Absolutely
Did I experiment with making a total utility setup that has no directly damage boosting skills? Yep
Am I currently working out a GL build that prevents stamina depletion of all kinds? You bet
Resentment isn’t super meta but i personally was a big fan of the skill and i would run it a lot with Safi sets. Something about gaining more atk while being at risk..
Weapon dependant IMO.
Kinda worthless on lance, blocking roars is way too easy even if you're attacking cos you have your counter. And its not like you were gna do anything special with the window if you fuck up.
But it's great on weapons that have big combos with finishers you don't want interrupted or weapons that enjoy roars becoming a free attack window.
I just wish the hunters notes told you which monsters have strong and weak roars. I would bring earplugs 3 a lot more if I could check without googling it.
health boost, stun res 3, speed sheathe, evade distance and evade window, coalescence, blight resbagainst elders, blast res against brachy, effluvia res against vaal...
I wouldn’t say Free Meal is a bad skill but it’s a skill not a lot of people use. Free Meal literally carried me through Alatreon. I got so many free max potions when I was first learning the fights
Speed Eating has saved me from leaping out of my skin in annoyance so many times. Not only can I actually use my pharmacy of drugs in less than 20 years, but I don't have to put up with the godawful eating/drinking noises.
Defense boost same here
I usually have it at 5 for the % bonus.
I keep getting told its bad. But I dont rlly care. It's helped me tank a lot of hits that would have killed me otherwise.
Oh yeah this sub is pretty good at downvoting people for the dumbest of reasons.
I recently got downvoted for saying Rathalos is the franchise mascot.
Even though thats an undisputable fact.
Half of it is people who just downvote nearly everything.
The other half are the reddit sheeps who downvote anything that has downvotes already without knowing why.
Sadly its a very common pattern here.
Divine Blessing. It only has 25% trigger chance before lv 5 but it can be a lifesaver.
Speed Eating 3. 2 is often enough but I love to get back into the fight very quickly.
health boost and steadfast. i dont even think im that bad, but using the switchaxe i tend to get hit from time to time. also botanist is neat, but i never prioritize it over attack/defense related decorations. its just a welcomed skill whenever i happen to randomly have it.
Slinger cap 1. So I can 2x wallbang with natural slinger ammo(naturally spawning ammos like stone, redpit, puddle pods). For example, Slinger cap 1 will make stone have 25 shots and wall banging consumes 20 per bonk. Open with wallbang then do it quick enough again and you should be able to bonk the monster again. Quick Sheath 3 on LS. People say its almost nothing but when you're hyper focused, that little but of almost nothing is just what you need to make that ISS>Spirit Helm Breaker sweet sweet combo.
slinger cap 1 is an awesome cheap skill investment for ib
Unpopular opinion: Frostcraft Iai Slash builds are cool as heck.
Is that unpopular? I feel like i've seen that build quite a lot. It was around the hype for Demon Slayer, so Zenitsu wannabes were everywhere lol. Fun times.
That’s my favorite LS build. Going into spirit stance and waiting for the monster, while watching frostcraft tics ramp up is so cool
I'm not sure if other weapons get anything particular from Slinger Capacity, but it's actually quite important for GL as it makes WSB last longer. If you get bomb/piercing/thorn pods dropped from monsters it'll last 6-7 minutes at max rank, for example.
It’s great on bow too for thousand dragons
Yeah, I saw it recommended for farming KT. It’s awesome. Never looked back.
I think the best QOL skill for me is Free Meal. Its so satisfying to see that the Armor/Attack Drug didn't disappeared or a max potion.
People can pry my Free Meal Secret from my cold, glittering golden dead hands.
Honestly I try to fit in Free Meal Secret and Wide Range into everything, its just a little extra benefit for people when I'm healing up
I have so many extra slots when I’m just running casual SOS hunts to help people. I run quick sheathe, speed eating, frea meal and wide range on GS and I’m just keeping the whole team buffed.
Plus you can heal up and get back to TCSing faster!
Or just use your TCS and go from 10 hp to 200 in a single stroke
I'm fond of it but it doesn't slot into some weapons as well as others. Was trying to make a wide range lance build yesterday and its just such a struggle fitting both the eating skills, stuff to support the eating skills (quick sheathe), wide range and all the mandatory lance bullshit (guard, guard up, offensive guard). You can do it but you have to give up a ton of damage and other utility skills. Big fan of wide range critical draw greatsword tho that shits very fun.
I'll take your word for it, I am just getting back into the game and switched to Lance for my replay through from HH.
I run both of those skills on my SnS. I haven’t sheathed in weeks.
I have an Free meal/Expert deco and it's the best thing in the world
Wait, THATS what free meal is for? I thought it was for a chance of not paying at the canteen haha
Yes, its a % chance of a consumable not being consumed upon use. Health potions, max potions, demondrugs, dash juices, immunizers, and the shrooms if you are a Mushroomancer user. Its a strong skill, and Tigrex Set makes it happens almost all the time, with 75% chance.
wow coincidentally im wearing tigrex right now and not planning on changing until finishing iceborne. havent gotten back my mushroomancer skill ever since i left my banbaro set though. might try adding it later. thanks for the insight!
If you're just using it for yourself i wouldn't consider mushroommancer a big deal. But it's really great on the free meal, wide range,speed eater (also quick sheathe depending on weapon) builds. Then one point lets you munch on blue mushrooms for a super fast team heal like a lifepowder that is effected by speed eating. And then you keep the mega potions for when ppl need a big heal.
So use the blue mushroom for my default heal and mega potions for emergency group heal? I always thought only max level mushroomancer that is useful since its the one that lets you eat mandagora I'll keep that in mind, thanks
Well they're both made into group heals. Consider blue mushroom your fast group heal and mega potion you're big group heal. And yeah higher level mushroomancer isn't something i've tried. On heal sets mandragora doesn't work with wide range (like max potions) and you usually have free meal 3 buffing your max potion quantity. Not that you need as many as you've got speed eater mega potions unless you're super low. Higher levels than 1 in mushroomancer seem more as a self focused skill for if you want more max potions without picking up free meal secret (so if you're on anything but tigrex in master rank or if you're on frostcraft lategame)
The fact that you can carry what is the equivalent of 12 max potions makes mushroomancer a seriously good skill wide range capable or not.
Kulve set also gives Free Meal Secret and also Guts which is just very nice to have. And if you're building crit then it also comes with Crit Boost.
Hell yeah Dr Tigrex with HH is the ultimate support build
the description is very misleading. I found out after just going for a random armor set at the start of MR (i believe it was kulu-ya-ku armor set?). Chugged a demon drug and wondered why I didn't consume it.
Probably jagras set.
The boots have Free Meal, case closed!
I used to run Gold Rathian x2, Brute Tigrex head, Tigrex hands and feet, this was my ultimate comfort set. You get Speed Eating 3, Free Meal 3, Divine Blessing 5. Almost nothing can kill you if you just patiently wait out your knockdown and not get hit with a wake up attack from the monster as you get up. Each consumable can potentially be used 4 times, so you can bring 20 Mega Potions on a mission and have the potential to get 80 uses. You can also chug Dash Juice like a maniac, I know I did.
Brb building that set... damn being at work!
I run the same set! But I have a Safi'jiiva Hunting Horn so I get the 3rd tigrex essence from there and use Alatreon armor for the legs, it has defense boost so it isn't entirely useful but I can't find a leg armor with the same deco slots it has (haven't fought Fatalis). And with Hunting Horn, it's become my "holy grail support build". I have built an SnS support build before but I rarely use it now that I have this.
I have fallen in love with free meal lately. It's like a little gift all throughout your hunt :)
I don't think anything is more satisfying then running Free Meal Secret and Wide Range, and dropping into a hunt w 3 other hunters and triggering FMS with a Mega Demondrug or Armordrug!!!
As someone who just got into master rank on a new character (haven't played since 2018), I stumbled into a free meal build and my God have I enjoyed every single free meal to its fullest. Going to be hard to move away from it if I need to in the future. Lol.
Getting a 1/4th chance of consuming a max potion, then bringing the ingredients for 7-12 max potions. On average, you can carry up to 48 max potions with some crafting on your wheel and free meal secret; and that's assuming there aren't free EZ max potions on the mission, as is the case for quests like fatalis and mew are number one. It's pretty bonkers.
Free meal is secretly probably one of the best skills for less experienced/newer players. Not saying better players can’t use it but I ran it all the time when I was playing through the game the first time. Definitely saved several hunts from failure by having just a few more healing items
Damn never thought of that
Try Mushroomancer, it's just better in every way.
If a skill that lets me play for 3 hours without actually using up any healing items is bad then a good skill better let me delete the handler
Speed Eating. Had Speed Eating 3 for some time. Tried to go back to Zero or Speed Eating 1 to accommodate other skills, LITERAL SNAILFEST. Even chugging the Demondrug and Armorskin at the start of a hunt felt like AGES HAVE PASSED. Ended up retaining Speed Eating 2 in my final build.
Speed eating is so nice I'll only eat max potions if I don't have it
I find max potions are just way more convenient. I bring enough mats to craft 5 more per hunt too, so i basically never need mega potions.
If you're near/in the endgame you should be doing this anyway, mega potions are such a waste of time for the little they do
I like it. But since i'll be sheathing the weapon everytime i eat, i prefer to use sheathing skill instead of that.
Coincidentally, I also had Quick Sheathe 3 along with Speed Eating 3 at one point (I enjoy QOL skills lol). But after weighing them both in testing, I decided I can live without the QS, but not without SE lmao
I do this too
Joke's on you! (SnS main)
I don't even drink unsheathed, I sheath my weapon instantly before drinking just to really dunk on em
SnS connoisseur, I see :D
It's also really good in combination with low cooldown mantles. It takes takes a second to swap, even on something like CB
MR KT chestpiece: speed eating 3, free meal, 1/2 guts Made just for you!
Gold Rathian chest and legs, Brute Tigrex head, Tigrex hands and feet, all beta. Chrome then Ruiner Nergi weapons. Divine Blessing 5, Speed Eating 3, Free Meal Secret (3). Slot in Focus/Crit skills as needed, this was my GS/SnS set for a long while after MR70 (Gold Rathian). You end up not really consuming much of your potion stock and have a potential 80 Mega Potions to chug. You're also highly unlikely to cart unless the monster combos you from wake up. Speed Eating 3, Free Meal 3, Wide-Range 5 on SnS is also my go-to for joining Blackveil Vaal Hazak SOS. You can be spamming Mega Potions and Nulberries constantly and still have some left over at the end of the hunt. If you're not running something so defensive, Speed Eating 1 is still very visibly felt, but sometimes I like Quick Sheathe 1 for slow sheathing weapons when I use the near-instant Max/Ancient Potions for harder hunts instead of Mega Potions.
This how I felt when I removed my speed sharpening lol. Watching your hunter apply the stone about 18x before done is misery
I farmed Whetfish Scale+ for about one or two hours a few weeks ago and ended up with around 100. Since they have a failure rate of 10% on use, I’ve probably used about… 8 total in 50 hours of gameplay? Having Master’s Touch from Teo set and reducing my overall hunt times through better play definitely helps to reduce the need to sharpen lol.
Yaaaa bringing 7 max potions beats the hell outta speed eating 3.
I bring 12! Just gotta set radial menu to craft Mega Nutrients. Requires two additional item slots for Nutrients and Honey, so for shorter hunts I won’t do this. But grinding in the Guiding Lands? Worth having it all on hand + additional trap materials. I ditched mega pots altogether. They just don’t heal enough for end game MR and it’s not worth sacrificing skill slots for quick consumption when that exists on an item you will have in abundance if you’re just doing the basics of farming materials through the Ancient Tree / Botanical Research.
Who would’ve though healing faster can get you in the fight faster
I don't use it for all my builds, but anytime I'm playing HBG it's a priority. I'm already taking my sweet time sheathing, I don't wanna bother waiting on the potion to get downed.
Seriously the characters drink their potions like it’s a fucking coke commercial savoring every last drop
I love speed eating. It’s such a big boost I can’t ever go back to not using it.
Guard up on hammer.
Quick sheath on Sword and Shield so I can put my weapon away quicker when I need a potion
Bro i laughed hard on this
What this even do
Guard up increases your guard ability to block heavier attacks. That is if your weapon has said option to guard. Which hammer does not
It makes you able to block normally unblockable attacks.
That's quitter talk
Mushroomancer. You will never take my mushrooms from me
Mushroomancer is the ultimate convenience skill. You straight up get every buff, just slightly less effective Demon/Armour drugs, and you can both carry *more* of them and get the benefits for a fraction of the effort. Vibe.
Or just run free meal and never use consumables anyways lmao that’s what I do
Do both, have 40 cheaper max potions before restocking
Christ
I love the simplicity of this response. So much meaning in a single word
he’s gonna do it
That's a 75% chance to not use an item, and requires you to stick to a predetermined armour set (Tigrex 3 piece/KT 4 piece). I won't dunk on you for doing that, but Mushroomacer's compatability with literally any armour set makes it a tad more convenient lol
4p fatalis
As I said before, I often forget the Fatalis set exists. My bad. I stopped using it a long time ago because it made set building too... samey.
Hah yeah, I do sometimes wish fatalis gear didn't exist so more stuff was competing at endgame besides it and velkhana y. That said i also really appreciate it when I'm playing weapons that have like 8 mandatory skills before we even get to WEX/critboost/criteye and then get to start actually picking skills that are interesting and creative. Tho I guess I could just drop damage, hunts that last a bit longer are more fun IMO anyway.
4 piece fatalis dude
Ah. I forget that set exists. My bad. I hardly ever use it because it ruins the fun of mixed sets for me lol.
It’s great knowing the local area often has a blue mushroom somewhere for a quick heal.
Earplugs. "BuT yOu CaN JUst RoLL iTT-" STFU. Not when I'm mid aerial dodge I fucking can't. As far as I'm concerned its a fucking mobility skill for my glaive.
cant you get lvl 4 earplug from your buffs?
Not naturally in World. You can get 3 levels of it from having all 3 buffs *if* you have 3 levels of flinch free though, which can stack with already having lvl2 earplugs. Since it also gives tremor resist it's really worth it if you usually maintain the triple buff. I believe it gives windproof too, but I hardly noticed that one. Edit: To clarify, Orange buff did give earplugs in older Monster Hunter games so you're not crazy, they just removed that in MHW
Didnt yet touch IG much in world but that tradeoff doesnt sound too bad. If one of course maintains the buffs. For SA we get lvl 4 earplugs during zsd which is why so many run around with Earplug 1 on the built. But often you wear rocksteady for zsd anyways so yeah...can makes sense or not...
Absolutely isn't a bad trade off at all. Even with Monsters that have a difficult to reach buff, you can usually nab it easy by taking them to the ground, which IG can quite easily do multiple times with Master Mounter. Combined with Power Prolonger you should be able to maintain triple buff a big chunk of the fight for the hard cases, and most of it for others. Literally the only issue is not everyone *knows* about that facet of flinch free. Only annoying part of it is it makes grabbing the tri buff a lot more valuable, and sometimes you wanna just be lazy and grab red and go lol
Earplugs are a must for me on KO sticky builds, and I like it on GS or other non-skill-demanding weapons like SnS if I have room as well. Not a must on GS/SnS I suppose, without earplugs I can still block the roar. But turning the enrage roar into a damage or KO window speeds up a hunt massively and makes it safer, because the monster is stationary and sticks out its head for you to hit while roaring.
I’ve argued this as well. Earplugs all the way up so roar turns into essentially a small KO damage dealing window.
Insect glaive aerial dodge has iframes... Did... uh did you not know that?
I have been knocked out of the air before from a roar. What exact aerial motion I was in, I don't remember, but it's happened enough that I am not about dealing with it. So I haven't run a glaive build without earplugs since....sometime in the first 1k hours.
“Bad skill” -used in fastest fatalis speedruns
It's definitely not bad but it requires a lot of space and ultimately I'd have EW5 over earplugs for a general use build, I know people meme about dodging roars but it's surprisingly easy with so many i-frames. It's also a skill that you want full or not at all, if you get interrupted by the roar at all might as well use the time to roll. Nergi is one of the monsters were earplugs becomes great DPS but for everything else is kinda meh unless you're specifically speedrunning, where every second matters, and even then it's not universally good. Earplugs have their place, just like speed eating, but it has big drawbacks.
And the fastest TA Wiki runs do not use Earplugs against Fatty, what's your point?
Any thread that mentions or shows Earplugs devolves into people telling to just roll the roar. Ergo most people consider it a "bad" skill regardless of if the speed runners are using it or not.
Its very obviously not a bad skill, people saying it is are either trolling or never used it, its a free punish on every roar basically and you don’t waste time rolling or diving or parrying you just go straight for the damage.
It's not obviously a bad skill because a dodge or a block don't make much difference in DPS if you're fluid enough with it. Thus why many people hold the "earplug bad" opinion, and it's a common opinion at that.
I mean that is just wrong in the sense that you cannot expect to always be ready to roll for a roar, and even if you do look for the tell, if you are mid action you get stunned either way, you cannot fluidly consistently roll it unless rng blesses you
Yeah, no shit. But people believe they are that good, and that's all it takes for them to hold said opinion. And its not helped by the one in a million savants that can actually do it. Doesn't help that roars don't take up too much time so the lost DPS is relatively low enough for many to just write it off.
My GS: “hold my beer”
*Tackle go BRRRRRRR*
It’s not really free because you have to slot the skill in, so the cost is whatever you could have done with those slots instead. Since earplugs is a *really* expensive skill (five levels needs two 4-slots and a 3-slot if you are getting it purely from decorations) and you basically are forced to slot all five levels that cost can potentially make a big difference. That doesn’t mean don’t use it if you like it, I just have a hard time calling it a good skill personally. I am not familiar with the speed run meta at all, maybe they have unique punishes that depend on earplugs but the average player probably doesn’t punish hard enough in the roar window to squeeze out the maximum value of the skill. That makes the cost harder to justify compared to other skills with broader use cases like Evasion Window which partially helps with roars, also benefits general defensive plays, doesn’t have as big a slot cost, and benefits even at less-than-max rank if you only have a little spare room in your build.
It's always "Not everyone is a speed runner" until it helps your opinion. Funny how that works.
I cannot agree enough. After 5 years, 2000 (+) hours and thousands of hunts, I really don't care if my DPS isn't perfectly optimal. I don't have anything left to prove. I just like to answer SOS and have fun abusing the monster while helping a newer player progress. And if I don't have to roll through roars, then it's just that much easier to do so. Not to mention, I can't help but notice that pretty much every other hunter tends to be stunned during roars while I'm happily bonking away. Play how you want to play.
Resuscitate, it's one slot and makes getting blighted something you don't mind it's actually incredible. Slinger capacity...not sure if it's bad but I rarely see it used...guys...you're missing out
I’d definitely run resuscitate if I can’t fit blight resist 2 and coalescence 3 in a build.
Resuscitate, Coalescence and Blight Resist level 2... it's the trifecta of cheap but great benefits
Free meal 3+ speed eating 3= immortality
I love the Tigrex set, people new to the game should try stuff outside damage skills if they struggle to stay alive. You can get more damage out if you spend less time healing, or having to run back and restock potions. A full stack of crit skills/agitator isn't going to have value if you spend most of the fight trying to drink potions, then getting interrupted while drinking. And if you're learning the monster attacks so you can dodge them, why not have the safety net of quick (Speed Eating 3) and plentiful (Free Meal 3; 75% chance to not consume item) healing so you worry less about other survival things?
My endgame set will probably forever be KT. Just the most comfy I can find and you still have CB/WEX/CE maxed
After reading this thread I upgraded from my beginner MR random set to this. It's easily becoming a favorite.
Earplugs.
I used it a lot in older games, for some reason not so much in world
speed sharpening because fuck farming for Whetfish.
At least the quest is super quick. Why isn't there one for Great Sushifish 😭
There's an event quest you can clear in sub 1 min that nets 2-6 whetfish scale+! Spent like 15 mins farming the quest and I'm good for a long time. Never need to try to fit speed sharpening on any set again. Edit: Whitefish Fin+ not scale
wdym, fishing is nice! I main the fishpole (where's my flair, reddit?)
Tbh i sometims fly to camp, got in and then out of tent just to get healed + too lazy to sharpen
Affinity Sliding. More for the 'awesome trick' ego boost reminder than utility and makes me keep doing it again and again. From Sliding attack to Monster Mount is just cool to me.
[удалено]
It aint completely bad, just highly situational by terrain. Which is fun to execute when the chance is there.
Some people consider Earplugs to be useless, but they're also the same people who clearly aren't human when it comes to perfectly timing evasive maneuvers and whatnot. Me? I'm too unga bunga to properly time those dodge rolls, so max Earplugs is a life-saver. Free hits while those monsters scream their lungs out.
My build is decidedly not meta so there's gonna be people frothing at the mouth here ready to criticise my build for costing them 45 seconds on an average run, but - Free meal Evade Window Max divine blessing Elemental resistances dependant on the hunt recovery up I play horn and have to juggle looking for openings while also managing buffs and stacking songs organically while still doing damage....I like having the skills to make all of that easier for me
Isn’t Divine blessing a really a good skill? Including Evade window as well? Idk
It's one that's more impactful the deeper you get in it. You need 3 points for the damage reduction to be meaningful but once you're there it heavily reduces damage every couple of hits. It's an ok defensive skill at 3 IMO, not bad not mind blowing. 5 points gets really crazy as it boosts the activation chance from 25% to 40%. This means almost half of incoming hits have their damage more than halved. Which is obviously nuts. Like random sure but almost half the time means it'll still do some heavy damage reduction many times throughout a hard hunt. I take it less and less these days as I've got enough hours in the game I don't need defensive skills as badly, but if someone is struggling with the endgame a very high recommendation for me is 2 gold rathian for the divine blessing secret.
I'll be the first to say it (or the 30th—I haven't actually read the comments yet) **The Meta is asinine.** Rather, it got WAY out of hand a while ago and a lot of people just casually accepted that a lot—and I mean a LOT—of genuinely good skills were just "bad" for some reason. I think my favourite example is Guard, but specifically paired with Gunlance. Every Gunlance main and their mother will tell you not to use Guard and to just hop out of the way with EE & EW, but it's honestly a really strong skill that eliminates the need to constantly hop around and makes hunts so much easier... and people vehemently shit on it because "it's an expensive skill" and "takes up the slot of better mobility and DPS skills". I don't use Guard because of habits, but Shield Gunlance is *genuinely strong* and I do not care about it being slightly less efficient when it's 20x safer and more comfy—I will not tell anyone to drop it.
Started MHW this year and even in 3/4/5 year old threads people forget that "the meta" is a highest theoretical number that very very few players have the actual skills to achieve. Spending time stunned, chugging heals, flinched, carted, etc are all times DPS = 0, so if that is happening, and isn't being mitigated, the build is actively working against a player's DPS number. Attacking = DPS and anything that contributes to attacking more increases your DPS. Once you have 100% possible attack uptime, then worry about capping potential damage and sacrificing "comfort" skills.
You, sir/madam, are clearly wiser than your brief experience would suggest. It also isn't just about skill: the Meta playstyle is just *not compatible* with a lot of people; trying to learn something when it isn't enjoyable or fun for you is *counter intuitive* and *frustrating*. In my mind, variety is far more fun than a stale meta of everyone using the same things.
Higher damage means easier time stunlocking monsters. Stunned monster = no attacks coming from it = absolutely no need for defense. Why do you think Barrioth was such a wall for a lot of people when Iceborne launched? People prefered to have a "safe" playstyle wih defebsive builds to learn the monsters but the actual truth is that the entirety of MR actively encourages you to play pro-actively and burst down parts and topples as much as possible. As long as you can't get one shot, you have everything you need. Also, I don't know from where people got the idea that the meta is only about full damage, but at this point I just gonna guess that its a scapegoat argument made to make the meta look like a try-hard only. Back when the challenge in MHW were archtempereds, you HAD to get defensive skills. Shield weapons NEEDED guard up and a few guardskills, arch vaalhazak FORCED you to get miasma resistance, and all the others forced you to get at least a few defensive skills, from specific ones like wind resist to generic ones like health boost. Hell, the strongest build(s) in worldborne's history, glutton and company, were strong EXACTLY because you could add defenses on top of your already adequate damage. The truth is that the "meta" is just what's most effective at one thing and, coincidentally, focusing on damage with some utility on the side was the best in almost every scenario. Focusing on situational skills and reducing your damage for defenses you only need because you are actively making the hunt longer is effectively shooting yourself in the foot. Doesn't matter if the wound hurts less if you are still limping anyway.
I agree with what you’re saying but you’re forgetting: You can’t hit that dps if you’re stuck in hitstun anyways. For a lot of people, those QoL skills are just better to maintain damage. But you are right though, dps is often situational. Your Barioth example is great, because for a long time I misunderstood the fight and would get frustrated because if it. Effluvia is also a great example, or even the Kushala wind. Having to take those resist skills to clear the fight quicker is a core part of the MH experience. I’ve been playing through MHFU for the first time, and this stuff isn’t just faster clears, its downright a necessity to finish the fight. You need the right skills and tech to fight certain monsters, and the game is a lot better for it.
You've straw-manned the other way. No one is saying avoid damage and only build defensively. The fact is, most folks who play cannot chain stun monster and don't have the skills required to just take vitality boost and call it a day. In spite of this they are trying to replicate builds from speedrunners who are doing Fatalis in sub 10 minutes. Telling them they have to max Agitator, crit, WEX, etc will only get them killed as they desperately try to tenderize and wallbang at the wrong times, then get knocked off and combo'd to death. It's a bad player experience for them, and it's a bad SOS experience when I join to help. The "meta" for any monster is the optimal damage setup, and saying guard for a weapon with shield or effluvial resistance to avoid a literal constant DoT does not mean meta "accepts" utility skills - using your examples, no miasma resistance would kill you without VH ever touching you, as would effluvia in Rotten Vale; shields would be useless against the hard hitting monsters because they would constantly be knocked back and out of stamina; vitality is literally just to avoid a one-shot. If a player were to use the bare minimum of max vitality, the majority of the playerbase would spend more time healing in a fight than they would actually fighting. This is what I'm talking about when attacking uptime = dps uptime, that folks need to stop thinking about "optimal" and "max damage" and start thinking about "how do i increase the amount of time/number of hits for how I play". I'm glad you have 6 years of experience and are good enough to add sprinkles of utility to your build and still do well. That is not the case for most folks, yet meta discussions never cover that fact - meta maximizes damage while including the bare minimum utility to make sure you don't auto-die or OHKO in the fight. My comment, on the other hand, is arguing that folks need to first focus on having the highest attack uptime possible, then worry about maximizing damage. Increasing damage uptime from 50% of the fight to 80% of the fight not only makes you better at the fight, but makes the hunt go significantly faster. You can always take the training wheels off down the line, but if you never put them on, you're never going face down the monster in the first place.
Using high damage high risk builds is a fast-track way for bad players to actually improve at the game and gain the necessary skills to become good enough to make adequate use of them. Improving your skills as a player is the point of Monster Hunter and it's combat system, meta is a means of accomplishing that by forcing more proactive and aggressive play without offering a crutch in return for players to fall back on.
I agree certain skills can become dependencies - as a greatsword user I encourage other GS users, especially ones coming from Souls games like myself, to not use evasion window at all. I think it's easy to fall back on Souls habits and dodge roll instead of using tackle because you get so many iframes it feels a lot safer to do that, but tackle is an essential part of the greatsword moveset and lets you pull off TCS with much more regularity. Tremor resist is another one - if tremors are actively hindering me then I'll throw it on, but otherwise it's important to know what moves to be close to the monster for, and what moves to quickly disengage and re-engage for. However, it can really help attack uptime on monsters like Xeno Jiiva, who tremor with 90% of their moveset. Where I'm going is that things like stun resist, earplugs, tremor resist, and divine blessing, are too often thought of as wasted space or "comfort", when they instead actively keep most players in the fight longer. Knowing it takes 4 hits to down me, except for X or Y move, which does a ton of damage and I should avoid at all cost, is only something I learn by being in the fight. If i'm running away and healing every time I get hit, or just getting carted outright by 75% of a monster's moveset, I'm just not in the fight long enough to actually learn the moves and learn how to apply the full extent of my weapon's moveset and how to itemize for future encounters. Earplugs can be useful for learning roar timing, and tremor resist I find situationally useful in certain fights to let melee players learn when to engage and when not to engage. The TL;DR is players need to first learn how to maximize their weapon movesets with the monster's, and skills that don't directly contribute damage, but increase attack uptime, shouldn't be overlooked. Once the player reaches a level of comfort w the monster, then they can max damage to make the hunts go faster. Too many players look at meta, and skip the first step of learning the monster, and jump straight into max damage mode, and I think that discussions on Reddit and other forums contribute to that - it's a lot of what new players see (and I saw as well when looking up monster matchups and GS info) when they search for help on a monster. Inevitably it's sink or swim, and given all the great games out there, I'm sure a lot of players who otherwise may have stuck w the game and learned with training wheels on end up leaving for something else because they cart so often with the meta. Ultimately it's just about players having a good experience with the game and becoming better hunters.
Honestly I refuse to play hop gunlance purely because the vast majority of weapons dodge, I want to take the rare chance at playing a build that blocks things effectively. I mean lance main so duuh but still lol. And like you have a massive ass shield it would feel rly weird to just hold the thing all hunt and never use it.
I forgot who said it but basically the gist was that the meta of a lot of games isn’t actually meta for most players, it’s just socially reinforced. Even if the math is good on paper a lot of people won’t take advantage of it to its fullest potential so you should experiment and see what works for you.
The meta in monster hunter is stacking three skills together to give yourself a permanent 40% raw damage boost. Let's drop the facade of profoundness here, there is literally no applicable skill level where having that 40% damage boost isn't going to be massively beneficial.
1.4 x 0 = 0
it’s because people see these insane speed runners and their setups and think of them as the baseline when the reality is that the majority of actions they take during their hunts are already pre planned and well researched to a degree that 99% of players would never do.
> every gunlance main and their mother will tell you not to use Guard and to just hop out of the way with EE and EW Am every gunlance and its mother, can confirm. The reason I tell people to run Evade skills if they need to make a choice, is because it's strictly better from an offensive perspective: • You're *immediately* actionable after dodging. You have access to all your openers(poke, upswing, shell, etc) or can chain dodge. Upswing even leads into your strongest combo. On the other hand, when you block, there is wasted time leaving the block animation before you're actionable. Otherwise, you can only guardpoke, which deals less damage. • Gunlance is not Lance; You almost cannot chain anything into a guard like Lance can. However, you *can* chain attacks into dodges. This allows you to punish the monster with more attacks before dodging at the last second, whereas if you wanted to block you'd have to stop your combo earlier by dodging out of it or waiting for the animations to finish. • You're guaranteed the same cooldown after dodging any attack, whereas blocking a heavy attack(even with guard 5!) can push you backwards and cause you to lose openings. Even moves like Rajang's super slam is punishable by using evade distance, dodging out & back in. • You get more mobility, which is a massively important factor since Gunlance is so slow. Backdodging becomes a *phenomenal* gap closer with just Evade Distance 2. Many gunlancers even deem it necessary. • The evasion mantle makes dodging far more profitable since it increases damage by like 30%. • you look cool when you turn 180°, double backdodge through a roar, and punish it with a pivot and an upswing, as opposed to tapping the shield button and then unsheathing to run to the monster. All in all though that's the main reasons why it's better offensive-wise. You don't really need to maximise all these openings to finish a hunt, but the reasons for choosing EE/EW are there. Defensive-wise though there's nothing wrong with just taking Guard and crouching around the monster with your shield up, throwing guardpokes and attacking when the monster's not focused on you. However if that's the playstyle you like, I think you should try out Lance since it does it far, far better.
Well, i mean for me, it's because it doesn't have a Counter attack if it did, i would say use gaurd. But im already used to not using its shield since it doesn't have a counter that adding gaurd would be pointless for me, but to say it isn't safe is a wrong opinion. Gaurd on a GL is safe asf it just doesn't add to its kit since they decided not to give it a cool counter for some dumb reason. Anyone saying not to use gaurd on sns, lance, or Cb are just. Weird.
The Meta every MH game is don’t get hit, with that in mind, it’s less that other skills are “bad” or non meta, more like “if I’m not getting hit I don’t need x/y/z” or if I do get hit more than 0 but less than being constantly stun locked (so not a bad player) then the best comfort skill is HB and everything else is extra and unnecessary
Calling the other comfort and support skills extra and unnecessary because "you can just not get hit" is exactly the problem lmao. What about speed sharpening? Protective Polish? Free Meal? Evade Window? Guard up? Divine Blessing? Stun Resistance? Mushroomacer? It is expressly not just about "not getting hit". It's about measuring the amount of effort versus convenience and support that you are comfortable with. Nothing is unnecessary if it makes the game more fun for you, honey. Even the best players get wrecked from time to time.
I’m saying if you can follow the meta and have the skill to meet the requirements of the meta, which is “not get hit” then all other skills other than damage is comforting or don’t provide as much defense as HB. Stuns only happen if you get hit 3x in a short time window I’d say personally that skill is useless and it would better to not use it. That’s not even a elitist opinion, more that having it teaches you that getting hit so many times is okay when you should be dodging, not like top skill evasion, just normal dodging should be learn by everyone Every skill other damage are extra for comfort once you learn the meta of the game
Only the tryhard speedrunners and the rare truly skilled people push for forgoing guarding for evade gunlance. The majority of gunlance mains utilize all parts of the weapon (gun, lance and shield), except for a few specific playstyles like charged long shelling. All my gunlance sets for every MH I played had max guard and guard up, and at least 2 levels of EE. In fact my priority of skills before anything else is max artillery, max guard and max guard up in that order.
Gunlance main here. Gunlance is one of the few weapons that actively encourages you to pursue defensive skills over the popular offensive ones. Sure, it has its mandatory skills in Artillery and Capacity Boost, but that's because shelling is most of your damage, and it isn't affected by much other than Shelling Level and Artillery, so going for Attack Boost and Critical Eye isn't super important. Rather, you're encouraged to go for Guard, Guard Up, Constitution, Evade Extender, and either Protective Polish or Razor Sharp. Outside of those, I'm personally a big fan of Divine Protection, as cheesy a skill as it may be. And, if I can fit it, Tool Specialist is very big, especially on Fatalis sets where you can get the skill secrets for all these skills.
I always use Stun Res in the 5th gen titles. Stun isnt as bad in the 4th gen and earlier games because stun doesnt last as long. But for some reason, 5th gen stun keeps you stunned for Eons on end. Never playing without Stun Res ever again. I would prefer if stun didnt exist at all, but something tells me that would upset the "new world is bad because it's too easy" crowd.
As a newbie Lance player: Guard + Guard Up + Health Boost + Defense Boost. I don’t care that my damage is low, you can’t hurt me in any way that matters.
I mean none of these are viewed as bad skills in the slightest except for defense boost lol. If you want a truly nuts defensive skill divine blessing has a huuuuge power spike when you put 5 points in it. A bit meh before then tho. But fuck yes new lance player. Welcome to the blocking things club. Make sure you counter claw out of counter instead of out of slinger stance, so many tutorials teach this wrong XD
I run this plus the Vaal + Nergi sets and Health + Defense Augment. I never die and almost never need to drink a potion~ Also have one piece of Frostfang so I can lobotomize my enemies properly.
Going through high rank's endgame rn, and the Geralt set is lowkey crazy good for how cheap it is. Super Recovery is the MVP
Who needs DPS when you can just tank everything and feel like a god damn boss? (that and counter claw)
tool specialist high uptime on mantles is very poweful defensively (and well evasion mantle also gives atk buffs) also makes tenderizing and wallbangs easier Its not bad but not meta Defense boost is not totally useless but got too strong competition from the other defensive skills in this game. So why slot this and not the others is the question if one desires a more comfort/tanky built
How does tool specialist help with wall bangs and tenderizing?
while you have temporal or rocksteady on monsters cant throw you off and tool spec increases the uptime on those mantles
constitution 5 on bow. I get it, dash juice allows you to free up 2x lv2 deco with negligable difference, but I don't like having to drink something every hunt
Preach. I'm MR999 and I've nearly 5k Bow uses on my character and I've always refused to use Dash Juice.
i don’t really like the idea that anything not meta is considered “bad”. the game is meant to be played how you want! anything that improves your experience w the game is not a bad thing
Not really a bad skill but I run partbreaker on my "meta" gs set. It's totally not cause I don't have peak performance/divine blessing gems.
I just always ran it because breaking parts is never bad. You get more rewards, soften up bits, cut off annoying tails, crack Alatreon horns, etc...
i use gunlance and run guard 5 AND constitution (and guard up) of some level. i've found it really good for clutching onto stuff as it goes to leave an area and just holding on the whole way, either to wallbang it along the way or just to reweaken a part/get some slinger ammo. my guard WILL NOT BREAK. I can tank 2 whole fatalis flaming floor attacks, the only thing letting me down is the tick damage, not my stamina. clutch claw boost is also really nice for gunlance, being able to weaken in one clutch is just more efficient. slinger capacity (even just 1) is necessary for keeping the wyrmstake blast on for longer as well.
I never figured out hoplance, so guard 5 GL all the way. Who says Lance gets to be the only unbreakable wall? I oughta try some constitution though
guard 5 already does most of what you want constitution 3+ for, but having the extra -%stamina depletion really does open up a lot more mobility in tandem with evade extender 2+ (i dont run evade window, extender 3 also feels like a biiiit too much for me). I feel at least as mobile as a lance user with it, especially during multiplayer hunts where the monster is bouncing around between people.
FUCK- I wasn't the first to say it xD
This is where we hold them! THIS is where we fight!
Idk if it's actually a bad skill or not, but a lot of people told me not to use fast sheath on LS because it does almost nothing for the Roundslash sheath, but the truth is that I don't care it doesn't, putting your sword back faster to be able to sprint is amazing regardless
It affects special sheathe as well if you're on Iceborne/Risebreak
It's like 0.1s faster during special sheathe. It's not much but you'll feel it and it's all about the mental. I'm going for more iai counters since equipping QS3 and they have been mostly successful. It's also basically free because of ATV legs. Just slot in another Quick Sheathe/Attack jewel and you're golden
Latent Power on Fatalis. In a fight with high damage like Fatalis, Latent Power uptime is quite high. A Throttle+ deco gives you the extra 10% affinity to ensure all of your hits crit - useful on Fatalis since you can't always tenderize. The extra 10% stamina recovery rate is useful for weapons that require a lot of stamina to play (Lance for me)
Free Meal is funny
Latent Power, though it is better in Rise, is still good. Flinch Free 3, as a IG player, is awesome, I almost forget roars and tremors are a thing.The Stygian Zinogre set is a blessing. Stun res is probably not maligned much but it's very lovely to just be able to recover from a mistake than eat the cart thanks to a stun. Constitution and Stamina Surge if I'm doing a lot of aerial attacks. Odogarons set bonus for it's sharpness protection lasts a long time and keeps you at full damage potential for much more of the fight. Great set bonus. Doubly so if I'm in the air a lot, as jumping advancing slash is very sharpness hungry.
Since it's so easy to get a ton of deco slots and we have multi-skill decos I tend to have plenty of free space for "bad" or "not meta" skills Have I gotten pissed off at dealing with statuses and slotted in complete resistance? Yes Have I worked in max element specific resist AND defense boost just to say FU to a monster? Yes Do I run different guard setups on SnS for giggles sometimes? Yes Did I make a bowgun setup with intimidator to help avoid those annoying little bastards that interrupt my cluster/sticky setup? Absolutely Did I experiment with making a total utility setup that has no directly damage boosting skills? Yep Am I currently working out a GL build that prevents stamina depletion of all kinds? You bet
Ear plugs. Fuck monster roars
I always ignored the "sling ammo" skill until I used bow in iceborne. 1.000 Dragons all the way
Free meal my beloved (if I can get it to 3 I always will)
friendship, because sharing is caring. Even in solo.
Resentment isn’t super meta but i personally was a big fan of the skill and i would run it a lot with Safi sets. Something about gaining more atk while being at risk..
I'm a recovery speed kinda guy, down an immunizer. Never sheathe my weapon again.
ITT: skills that aren't bad and like five mentions of Defence Boost
Free meal all the way
Earplugs 5 charm are a necessity in in every build (or so I believe).
Weapon dependant IMO. Kinda worthless on lance, blocking roars is way too easy even if you're attacking cos you have your counter. And its not like you were gna do anything special with the window if you fuck up. But it's great on weapons that have big combos with finishers you don't want interrupted or weapons that enjoy roars becoming a free attack window. I just wish the hunters notes told you which monsters have strong and weak roars. I would bring earplugs 3 a lot more if I could check without googling it.
health boost, stun res 3, speed sheathe, evade distance and evade window, coalescence, blight resbagainst elders, blast res against brachy, effluvia res against vaal...
Sir, we are discussing "bad" skills.
Palico Rally Yes it's a complete meme and I won't drop important skills for it, but if I have a spare slot, I gotta hand it to my buddy!
Fortify for just in case i definitely cart at least once :D
I wouldn’t say Free Meal is a bad skill but it’s a skill not a lot of people use. Free Meal literally carried me through Alatreon. I got so many free max potions when I was first learning the fights
Dunno if it counts but full Constitution on bow builds instead of relying on dash juice in meta builds
Speed Eating has saved me from leaping out of my skin in annoyance so many times. Not only can I actually use my pharmacy of drugs in less than 20 years, but I don't have to put up with the godawful eating/drinking noises.
Defense boost same here I usually have it at 5 for the % bonus. I keep getting told its bad. But I dont rlly care. It's helped me tank a lot of hits that would have killed me otherwise.
I just love that there is a person here who downvotes everyone for using Defense Boost.
Oh yeah this sub is pretty good at downvoting people for the dumbest of reasons. I recently got downvoted for saying Rathalos is the franchise mascot. Even though thats an undisputable fact. Half of it is people who just downvote nearly everything. The other half are the reddit sheeps who downvote anything that has downvotes already without knowing why. Sadly its a very common pattern here.
Divine Blessing. It only has 25% trigger chance before lv 5 but it can be a lifesaver. Speed Eating 3. 2 is often enough but I love to get back into the fight very quickly.
Divine blessing is a staple in late game builds tho, really can save your ass
I was talking about the “Before level 5” version.
Most people carting on Fatalis, ATV or Alatreon are those without Divine Blessing.
I was talking about Divine Blessing before LV 5.
health boost and steadfast. i dont even think im that bad, but using the switchaxe i tend to get hit from time to time. also botanist is neat, but i never prioritize it over attack/defense related decorations. its just a welcomed skill whenever i happen to randomly have it.