Properly into this now. Currently in a stand-off with a Kushala Daora at HR 30 who is proving to be a bit of a git. I could probably push through, but then again I could spend the next three evenings crafting an entire poison set to really show him who's boss, so I'll probably do that.
Worked out that some of my problem with being knocked down again was that I'd completely forgotten about the Wirefall recovery move, that's saved my bacon on a few occasions now.
Sunbreak in 3 days, I probably should have gone back to this earlier!
Kushala used to be horrendous in World, he's much more fun now, I know it's a ways off and I dunno if you met him in GU but I really hope you eventually reach Valstrax, people need to see his sonic speed aerial dive at least once.
I absolutely hate Kushala Daora in World. Hate. Trying to use (I think) Dual Blades against him was one of the most frustrating gaming experiences of my life. Great Sword isn't a lot better though, unless you equip the right charms (so you can ignore the wind effect).
In Rise he's a lot better, but I did find out the hard way last night that if you're charging a Rage Slash in one of his tornadoes you can take some fairly substantial chip damage…
Sunbreak is tomorrow. I fully anticipate codes for the DLC appearing on our staff shop in the morning (though I can't guarantee it). Hands up if you're going to want one and won't be impatient enough to not buy it full price…
Could've guessed you wouldn't be able to wait…
He'll have finished it by now.
Sorry folks… no codes here after all. Move along, nothing to see here.
Yeah sorry, couldn't help myself.
Five minutes in and I'm already fighting a giant enemy crab. Best expansion ever.
The MR Azuros' were so strong they killed me through Rage Slash's absorb stance….so I fell back on Longsword like usual which have several counters for no cost or drawback 😔
Fucking hate having to use that weapon, at least I can farm MR gear for defense now.
I'm doing OK so far, taken down the Ludroth and the two Arzuros without too much trouble. Mind you I have spent the last week prepping my HR sets so I'm pretty well equipped right now, although I know it's not going to last. Going to be a blow to have to drop my well-tuned Poison set just in order to get enough defence to tackle Master Rank.
There really is nothing like a good co-op hunt in this series, just helped a friend hunt a Hermitaur with my Hunting Horn to help him get the shell break and shit just feels so good
I definitely prefer Monster Hunter as a single-player game, I think - in multiplayer (especially with randoms) it's too easy to coast through without really having to pay too much attention to monster mechanics or all the little things you can do with the environment. In single-player you're on your own and you really need to pay attention to all that stuff.
Sunbreak is so, so good though. Absolutely loving it. I've got so many quests and requests opening up, I'm spoiled for choice as to what to do and I am only MR2.
Unlocked the final final fight for base Rise (Narwa the Allmother) and like all Monster Hunter set piece fights it turns out it's complete gimmicky bullshit. Think I'll leave that one on my quest log until I'm fully decked out in endgame MR equipment then I'll just go back and kick its arse.
It's kinda fun but definitely gimmicky and definitely not something I enjoyed having to farm especially when trying to get better Talismans…
I got so fucking enraged trying to fight Seregios and Zinogre with Greatsword last night that I went away and came back with a Hunting Horn set and a Lunagaron Hunting Horn that has a song that sharpens the weapon and importantly, makes electric guitar-ish noises. It was like night and day, so I guess the moral of this story is don't be afraid to use new weapons sometimes.
And now I beat him easily I can say Zinogre is one of the coolest monsters in the series. 
Huh, I thought that was the one you had to beat to get access to Sunbreak? I don't mind it anyway, though - my nephew brought his Switch over the other week, because he'd got to it and couldn't beat it, but I think together we took it down on the second go.
As far as Sunbreak goes, I've decided to start getting through the MRs as soon as possible, rather than rinsing all of the quests, just because I want to get a really good loadout and then come back and do them all with better gear. Only on MR3 so far, though, and "met" one of the Lords.
I am almost mildly concerned at adapting to the new way everyone else is playing GS, with the bombs, wirebug counter and TCS, as I'd really got into the habit of using the Advancing Slash (?) and Rage Slash, but then I had similar issues with getting into that playstyle too, coming from World, so we'll just see what happens.
I have also been trying other weapons sparingly, but they are still just passing fancies, for the most part. The one exception is that I have been using the SnS quite a lot, and having a lot of fun with it, but it is still very much a secondary weapon for now. I might try and get back into the Lance, as well, and just have those three (GS, SnS, Lance) be my pocket weapons across the series, as I've played and enjoyed them all in World too, and they seem to cover all bases (though GS can almost do that itself, as a general rule).
Huh, I thought that was the one you had to beat to get access to Sunbreak? I don't mind it anyway, though - my nephew brought his Switch over the other week, because he'd got to it and couldn't beat it, but I think together we took it down on the second go.
It's just the original Narwa that you need to beat to unlock Sunbreak - the end of the 7-star quests and the final boss of the original game before any updates were released.
After that you unlock Chameleos at HR 20, Kushala Daora at HR 30 and Teostra at HR 40, then finally Narwa the Allmother at HR 50, but they're optional. You can always go back and do them while you're working your way through Sunbreak.
I'm still using Hammer and haven't changed my style one bit for Sunbreak, yet - the new Silkbind attack you get at the start isn't particularly great IMHO. I think I have better ones coming up though.
I had the same issues with GS too, Jdub, and I actually really liked Rage Slash because it was omnidirectional whereas TCS is not and Rage Slash is an extra absorb. But honestly once you get used to countering a roar into TCS and taking advantage of ANY opening (Sleep, Paralysed, Tripped, Wyvern Mounts) for over 2k with mid gear it just becomes so fun. I actually really miss the classic Greatsword gameplay of just charging a Level 3 and letting go back in the old days and this feels like a step closer to that.
Quick question - I occasionally see a kind of three-part bar appear on my status bar (above the health and stamina bars). It's not there all the time, I can't work out what makes it appear or fill up or even what happens when it's full. Any idea what this is supposed to be telling me?
Have you got Healing Clover Bat on one of your Palicos? That's the only thing it could be afaik, it just heals you over time when you've damaged the monster enough
Have you got Healing Clover Bat on one of your Palicos? That's the only hting it could be afaik, it just heals you over time when you've damaged the monsterenough
Yes! That's it then, also explains why I've only just started seeing that pop up as I've only recently added it. I didn't know that was how it worked.
It's one of the 'Secret Support Moves' you can get in Sunbreak by doing the sidequests for the cat near the ship, the ones that say 'do 3 quests with a support/damage/healer' type palico. I still haven't unlocked them all because I like Clover Bat too much but one of them is 'Lottery Box' which does a random action with one of them being a mini Dragonater called 'Kittenator' which will knock a monster down.
I paid way more attention to my Palicos and Palamutes this time, updated all their gear and armour so they both have sleep weapons, gave my Palico all healing skills but I might change one skill out for the 'summeown endemic life' skill that spawns an extra wirebug for you. This is super useful for some weapons especially if you're using Wirebug Whisperer on your gear.
I paid way more attention to my Palicos and Palamutes this time
Yeah, same here, I'd pretty much ignored them in base Rise but here I've been kitting (ho ho) them out in state-of-the-art gear and even switching out which ones I take on quests with me. Taking two Gathering Felynes on a hunt really increases the amount of crap you bring back, as long as you can live without healing and dogs.
The new Palamute ability "Sniff it out!" is really helpful when you're looking for specific gathering points, it marks them on the minimap which is way easier than the old method of filtering icons on the main map.
I keep going off on mad tangents trying to create specific armour pieces or decorations; I'm still only on MR 3 and have so much stuff left to do. It's one of the best expansions I've ever seen, I think - base Rise makes so much more sense when you think of it as the first half of this much bigger game, rather than a complete entity in its own right.
Yeah, I've beat the end of the Sunbreak story now so I technically can just hunt for whatever I need to make my sets rather than half finishing something because I don't have the monster yet. I want to make Sword and Shield and Dual Blade elemental sets and that literally means different gear for every element in the game, add to that the Greatsword and Gunlance sets and thats that's going to keep me very busy!
Not to mention the free updates we're going to get…
Espinas is a complete git. Hits like a truck and never stops moving. The amount of times it's just… run me over is ridiculous.
I thought I'd been quite diligent in terms of keeping my armour and weapons up to date but I guess I'm going back to the Smithy to see what I can make that gives me more defence.
Interesting fact, Espinas is from Monster Hunter Frontier, the now defunct 'MMO' Monster Hunter (not sure how that works considering MH is online co-op anyway) which means now the door is open and we could get more, hopefully not the more stupid looking designs but more Espinas level ones. Also if they're bringing monsters from Frontier they can bring the Tonfa weapons from there too kthx.
I really like Espinas although his gimmick of being super durable when he's not enraged and super soft when he is feels bad when you fight him and he stops enraging before one of your big hit silkbinds, you can see how his skin is so thick that the fight always opens with you trying to wake him up from his sleep and it takes a few hits because he can barely feel you hitting him, very cool.
Armour is definitely important but progressing through you can still slapped pretty hard, I think monsters like Diablos and Zinogre will always just hit like a damn truck. One of my current endgame armours has Defense 5 and Divine Blessing 3 and my cat will not let me die 
The first time I fought Espinas and got hit by a fireball I thought I’d buggered up my latest build and forgotten to max out Stun Resist. The second time the thing hit me, and I was stunned, poisoned and on fire it occurred to me that maybe the best thing to do in future would be to stop trying to tank the fireballs and just move.
And yeah, seeing it sleeping to start the fight, trying to wake it up with a fully charged TCS, and then the total anticlimax that followed - in terms of damage and (lack of) reaction - was very amusing.
I’ve been off this week, so playing a fair bit; still happily GSing along, sticking mainly to my base Rise playstyle, tanking everything with Rage and Adamant slashes, but trying to throw in the new counter (which I’ve got on the second scroll) or occasionally the Surge Slash combo just to mix it up/branch out. Got past the MR70 fight earlier, which was a tricky one - the first quest in Sunbreak I think I’ve failed more than once - but a great fight, and I think I’ve got a very good idea of what awaits at MR100 now.
Absolutely loving it all, in truth; adding even more depth and variety to the combat, as well as the additional, genuine challenge, has moved this from a great game into an all-time favourite of mine. Between that and the fact it’s the first MH I’ve been playing at launch/as content is still coming out it’s almost become my favourite in the series by default, which is high praise considering one MH or another probably represents about 80% of my gaming over the last 18 months or so.
Xeno isn't leaving my brain, heart and soul until I beat it, but I'll definitely get to this eventually.
Update 1 tomorrow then.
Yup. All the additions should shake stuff up nicely for me, as I've just been happily doing a few hunts a night, to get materials and move towards MR100, but am otherwise pretty comfy in my build, etc, having found a nice balance between making big numbers and not carting (often).
I do need to step out of my comfort zone a little more often really, and get better with the Surge Slash Combo and/or Strongarm Stance, but when I have played around the good ol' Adamant/Rage combo on GS hasn't seemed to have that much of a damage drop-off, unless you really min/max and/or focus on Strongarm; I'm still frequently hitting four-digit damage numbers on single hits in the normal flow of combat, and mixing up whether I'm hunting alone or with others, so the old ways still seem like the best ways for now, for me at least.
I hit a wall at MR4 with Espinas and took a couple of weeks' break to do some power washing, but I went back to it last night and after several attempts and a rejig of my equipment I finally managed to bring the bastard thing down. Onwards and upwards!
Is it just me though or does Sunbreak dwarf the base game in terms of size? My quest log is enormous right now, and I'm maybe halfway through.
Is there any more ridiculously-named monster in this series than Shagaru Magala? I think not.
(Quiet at the back, Great Baggi fans)
Very shagaru-delic, baby, yeah.
Looks like we're getting Flaming Espinas in the next patch, which will be a good match for my current nemesis, the Fucking Teostra.
4K 60fps port coming to Game Pass in January, according to Eurogamer.
That's incredibly irritating. I mean the Switch version is very impressive, for the Switch, but I'd have held on for a proper next-gen version if I'd known there was one coming. Not going to play it all again either!
4K 60fps port coming to Game Pass in January, according to Eurogamer.
Hell yes! I'm so down for this. Wanted to play Rise on release but thought it was gonna drop on other consoles shortly after so I waited. Really hope this is true because Monster Hunter worlds was my first of the series and it was incredible. I can see myself putting 100s of hours into this for sure.
Please run at 60 for the series S. 🤞
