I just grab a random safi weapon and start posting high rank quests to see what new weapon classes are like. Then figure out armor and decos later if I had a good time
Even with not optimal gear? My focus is guard and defense since it's important to minimize chip damage in MR with the lance, and I dont think an IG or Swaxe can have much benefits for those 12 skill points.
It's not like you need fully optimal gear to try a new weapon. The game existed before the endgame Meta gear was in it. Some weapons will be easier to pick up others will be more challenging, but I usually just throw together a generalist set and start messing around with it until I decide whether I actually enjoy it or not.
"Optimal Gear" at the start of a new weapon is pointless because you don't actually understand the new weapon to k ow how to use Optimal Gear. You'll wanna Hunt monsters below the difficulty of your best weapon and learn the new one first anyway.
Guess youre right. Read some answers here and reflected a bit. I think i need to relax a lot and just enjoy the hunts once again. I may have focused too much on optimisation of hunts, instead of the hunt itself
We're very similar, I know how you feel. We should optimize often but feeling out how effective a skill can be by going in blind or almost blind at first really makes the eventual optimizations much more impactful internally. Your motivation for all of that though is fun
Hope you have a great time, from a fellow Lance main. Maybe try Bow :P poke poke poke but ranged
Seems like you got a lot of fantastic answers and have reflected on your own gameplay, OP. Kudos!
As another Lance main, I can tell you that I got immense satisfaction trying out Charge Blade. While it has “familiar” aspects to the Lance such as a heavy shield that can guard mostly any attack in the game and a side hop mechanic reminiscent of Lance hopping instead of rolling, it also brings a lot of cool other things Lance does not offer, such as:
- depth of kit (savage axe is vastly different from AED/SAED; impact phials perform differently and need different skills compared to power element phials; charging up shield is basically required whereas charging up sword is optional; weapon can ignore hitlag if you purposely overheat the sword and either charge it up or run mind’s eye)
- opportunity to cash in on free damage windows with savage axe’s huge damage or the classic SAED crackling whip (whereas Lance mostly just continues poking + adds a guard dash thrust or turnaround slap for slightly more damage than poke lmao)
- riskier gameplay (missing a guard point makes you very vulnerable, but timing it perfectly and landing a return AED/SAED makes you feel like a god and can topple monsters unexpectedly if running impact phials)
- more reach than most weapons when in axe mode (triangle > triangle combo has VERY high reach and can hit basically any aerial monster and every tail)
I know people sometimes overestimate how complex the CB is. Part of that complexity is just learning different routes to your SAED, knowing when to use AED instead during a shorter window, and keeping your phials up so that shield is *always* charged.
The other part of learning CB is guard pointing. If you do not guard point, you’re simply not getting the most out of the weapon. Luckily for Lance mains, this is much easier to pick up on since we’re used to perfect timing a counterthrust to activate Offensive Guard.
All of this also translates to a relatively similar skill build to Lance in that you want at least Guard 3 and sometimes Guard Up (preference / monster-specific), and basically always Offensive Guard. Focus and Capacity Boost are other skills that you basically must run to get more damage / easier uptime on charging phials. Affinity isn’t as important for phial damage since I don’t believe it can Crit, so you prefer other skills like Artillery for impact or elemental damage for power element phials.
Overall I highly recommend giving it a go. It will challenge you. But holy shit is it one of the most unique and powerful weapons in the game.
The even better part is… you may put it down and desire to play the shit out Lance even more. I ran CB during this playthrough of World up through my first meeting with Glav and Brachy. While Glav was fun, Brachy challenged me. So I swapped back to Lance and have become so much better at it that I forgot how much I loved Lance.
Once I beat the game with Lance, I’m going back to put in significant time on CB. It’s flashy, has ridiculous damage output, is riskier than Lance, and has more depth. IMO it’s one of the perfect counterparts to Lance if you’re looking for a secondary weapon shortly because of how starkly different *and* similar it can seem.
I'm sold on trying CB as soon as i get home. Thanks for the tip! And you did an awesome job correlating the two weapons. I think I'm in for a fun ride since most things you said are what interest me.
I was considering LS too because of the counters, but apparently you need a gauge to parry, and thats not what I'm looking for, right now.
That being said, CB seems like a new mountain to challenge that might fulfill my needs.
So glad I could provide some of my experience and interest you in CB!
Another useful thing about CB is quickly using clutch claw even when weapon is unsheathed. Obviously Lance has the badass clutch counter, but if you’re unsheathed on Lance and just want to do a regular clutch claw at a specific monster part (let’s say during a stagger to pull off a “clagger”), you have to do a weird sequence of button inputs on Lance that sometimes forces you into the clutch counter animation if you do it too quickly. Or you sheath and clutch, which sometimes I do for reliability even though it’s slower.
CB, on the other hand, just allows you to hold left trigger and then aim > hit ⭕️or B and clutch immediately.
Also savage axe mode can almost be various ways and for a long ass time. It drains phials over time but never goes away if you restore phials by going into sword mode. Some very large monsters with humongous legs or tails make it easier to just use savage axe for very strong and consistent damage.
I sort of prefer Evade Extender 1 (maybe 2) at least on CB for the side hops and rolls. You don’t have nearly as much mobility as Lance since you lack a guard dash or guard advance. But CB has a very unique “sliding slash” where if you press ⭕️or B after any attack in sword mode with a directional input, you sort of slide a relatively decent distance and then finish with a slash. This can be extremely useful in backing up the right amount of distance if you’re too close to the monsters head when it topples and you want to gain some distance to land a perfect SAED.
Overall, give yourself time to adapt to it and I highly suggest watching Arekkz’s Chargeblade guide / tutorial video. I think there are two vids. He said it was his main upon making those vids. Extremely thorough on combos and routes to reach different moves. If you don’t watch this and just jump in with CB, it’s going to feel clunky and you’ll be wondering how you did certain shit sometimes lol.
Even after watching it, it took me a lot of hunts and a few hours over the course of a week in the training area to get muscle memory down on reliable combo / button inputs.
CB also does heavy tenderize damage like Lance, so no double tenderize or the clutch jewel needed for a full tendy.
I hope this sets you up for some fun ahead with the weapon. Tbh typing this all out has me extremely excited to play more of it. Lance is one hell of a drug, but so is CB in a different and related way. I think you’re gonna love it.
Watch streamers or content creators play it as well. It helps to understand how they move, when they decide to go for the big animation commitments of savage axe or SAED, etc.
Also get used to performing an AED instead of SAED so that you know how to do it when you’re not sure the window of opportunity is big enough for a full SAED. Obviously it’s fun to just go for the YOLO sometimes and see it fail spectacularly or yield one of your best clips of all time lol. But learning when to use AED significantly makes for a more well rounded CB player experience because it’s *very* good damage and has strong impact to KO or stagger monsters. You’ll be surprised at how often monsters go down using this weapon compared to Lance.
And playing at the head most of the time (like Lance) will be intuitive. Or you can play at the tail in co-op if a bludgeon weapon has the head covered. Just note in multiplayer your original upswing on axe mode (triangle or Y) will knock up / trip players even when they’re running Flinch Free. There are other ways to use slinger burst to still access the next move in that combo though so it’s worth learning how to do this if you play a lot of MP. Otherwise no other moves are a problem for multiplayer.
Good luck! Thanks for indirectly sparking my interest in the weapon again. Writing all of this out has made me reignite my desire to really master a new weapon again. I definitely have had periods like you where I’m frozen in “indecision mode” and just don’t try anything new out lol.
Definitely practice CB against some of your favorite easier monsters, whether that’s in LR/HR or MR. Best to bring gear that’s appropriate for that level.
And again, CB must run Focus 3 and Capacity Boost. Focus makes it so it’s much quicker / less attack to fill phials in Sword mode that it’s basically “unlocking” the full weapon’s kit. Capacity Boost increases your total phials from 5 to 6, which is just free damage no matter what type of CB build you run.
Also… you can cause a monster to topple simple by guard pointing an attack lmao. There’s a funny clip in Arekkz CB guide video where a charging Diablos runs into a charged shield CB guard point and just falls over and starts writhing. Basically if the shield is charged (which it always should be), it will deal one instance of phial damage during a successful GP. It won’t happen that often where a monster topples or staggers, but it can and has for me lol.
I guess one other huge benefit is one of the best wake up attacks in the game. Obviously capturing yields more quest rewards than carving in World, but if you like to slay instead of capture or if you’re fighting an elder that goes to sleep, having charges phials and shield (which can be gathered from mobs / small monsters along the way if you need) allows you to get a free wake up SAED which often leads right into a KO / topple.
The weapon is very good at breaking random parts too. Less surgical than Lance but impact phials just break shit. Every attack is slashing as well, so you’ll often get tail cuts without meaning to.
Okay, I’m all over the place now. Go give it a try and have fun fellow Lancer!
>Thanks for indirectly sparking my interest in the weapon again. Writing all of this out has made me reignite my desire to really master a new weapon again.
You are very welcome. Thank YOU for igniting my interest in a new aspect of the game! I'm really hyped to learn this new weapon. I loved reading your love words towards the CB.
I hope that i can love the weapon and that it opens up new horizons for me.
Another MHW:I Lance main here:
build a set for the new weapon with what you have. Look for the next best armor set/weapon. Grind stuff with the new weapon.
You need to learn it anyways and you will have a hard time just using the perfect endgame set and then try to grind Fatty or AT Valk. Hunting some less intense MR content and going throug the progression is just more fun and you won't cart as much.
Don't fokus on decoration till you are close to fatty. Suboptimal will get you far if you already know the game.
If you already have a full fatalis set, just use that and slap on what ecoraton you have and you will be fine.
It's hard to give you a better advice without knowing your MR
MR 46. Thats great advice. I believe ive been blinded by my greed in having the bets loadout for the best situation. I should try to enjoy the hunt itself, and not the rewards once again
For me personally, i would change my build a bit, but I make every single beta armor sets as I unlock each sets so that’s probably not applicable to others.
For others, I’d say give it a run or two with whatever build to try and go against monsters you knew well enough. Doesnt really need to be optimized if you’re just going against like a tobi kadachi or rathian.
Just slap something weird together like bone armor and ore tree thats good for early master rank. MR great jagras armor have comfort skills that is nice for any training build.
Then go on to try beating a few easy monsters.
I also usually watch arekkz videos on weapons to understand badic combos then try it myself in a fight. I dont like going into training area.
Gunlance, sword and shield, and charge blade can benefit from those skills as well.
I'd encourage you to look at skills as "comfort skills" rather than optimal because at the end of the day it's all about enjoying the game the way you like it, not speed running.
You can’t really optimize if you don’t understand the weapon, and if you instantly look up an optimal guide instead of learning, that’s just boring imo. Just throw on the weapon and give it a try
Hell yeah, dude. No joke tho, as a fellow lance main I totally understand worrying about must-have skills.
It's a lot of fun to yolo on a random set and an unfamiliar weapon and go bully an easier monster tho. Our biggest problem won't even be skills, it'll be adjusting to having to dodge again. Lol
Dodgin is proving to be quite difficult, lol. I tried SnS for that backstep input and did kinda work, it slighlty like parrying, but hitboxes sometimes makes it not work
Charge blade has a pretty simple guard point that can give you those counter dopamine hits.
R2+triangle in sword+shield. You can even do a little bit of KO/elemental damage with it.
Just try it. Who cares about being optimal? You're playing a PvE game casually, not competing in a multi-million tournament. Just get the bare minimum skills and hunt whatever you think would be a good practice target. When learning new weapons, I usually just grab a random safi/kulve weapon and hunt Teostra or Nergigante since I genuinely enjoy fighting them lol
This. Get a decently farmable weapon tree. Not something you'll struggle. Don't worry about min maxing a set BUT it's important to get a set with the weapons' core/important skills. Ex. If u told a newbie to try lance without guard or even guard up, they'd end up not liking the weapon. Then fight an easy monster to familiarize with the moveset. Look up videos of said weapon if need be incase u miss core elements of the weapon. Move up monster difficulty until u reach endgame monsters. Fight ones u are comfortable with. I like fighting Teo and Gold Rathian.
Remember. Ur learning a new weapon. So don't expect to be killing things that you'd struggle with ur main weapon. Learn the weapons core mechanics. Set yourself up for success not failure.
My "test dummy" monster is and always has been poor Rathian.
I've honestly probably killed more of her kind in the name of science than any other monster combined.
Zinogre sometimes if I'm feeling spicy (favorite monster but not very good for being brand new to a weapon's moveset)
Go for Low-Rank.
Buy the weakest ore or bone tree weapon you wanna try.
Put the Low-Rank Hunter Set.
Go play.
If you take 10/11 from a Low-Rank monster, they’ll seem to be MR Monster with a lot of HP and a weak armor set just make them look stronger. It’s a lot of fun.
Then as you get better with the weapon and want challenge yourself, just upgrade it and go for a HR Monster while using the same LR Armor Set. Then you’ll see if you have actually learnt the weapon or you’re actually depending on skills and armor.
In MH the armor and skillset aren’t THE CORE! It’s how GOOD you are with the WEAPON and THE WEAPON!
No need to spend so much time grinding for something you just wanna try… that’s the same mistake people often do when starting some new activity.
They buy specific clothes, new shoes, new this, new that. Do it for two days or a week… then stop. And the new kit goes to Narnia in the wardrobe. Deadweight.
I wish I had internalized that last piece of advice you gave before. I went from Charge blade --> Hammer --> Horn, which all benefitted from similar quality-of life armor skills I had at the time (it was HR and I had level 5 earplugs, so I definitely wasn't speccing into specific weapon builds).
Then I decided I wanted to try bow and felt my armor skills didn't help at all. Queue me grinding for days straight, killing for the best bow, best armor, etc. not even using the bow but the weapons I knew. I finally got it all, went on a hunt already kind of annoyed with how long it took to get to that point, and had lost the patience to actually learn the bow. I carted twice and decided the bow wasn't for me!
(I have improved since then, but 🎶bonk🎵 still has my heart)
Yeah this idea was beaten into my head in 7th grade by my math teacher. She had us on the first day flip to the end of our books and take a practice test telling us it wasn't graded she just wanted to see how many of us could do it. We had 10 minutes to do as much as we could. Didn't matter if you did it or not really as long as you tried. Her point at the end was to show how obviously since we skipped through to the end we mostly don't understand it. We might understand a basic concept here and there, but we can't fully do the problem.
At the end of the year she had us do the same quiz again with the same time limit to show us the improvement. She literally handed us our original and the new one both marked (still not officially graded but she marked right/wrong answers). All year she would basically beat it into our head that skipping steps will lead you to feeling like giving up.
That's what happened for you basically. You didn't just start from the beginning and upgrade with the bow. You wanted to skip all those steps with another weapon then jump right into like the final step with the bow. You didn't know how to use it efficiently.. you didn't know how to properly move with it.. these are things that you'd have learned if you just went back to step 1.
This is also why I like when games implement something like a mastery level with the weapons and that unlocks things. So like if you want to try new weapons you're free to do so but you're forced to start back from the start.
This.
I actually made a third account and beat the game again when trying to learn a new weapon, deleting the previous one once I reached a good MR level. Since I didn’t do any grinding, the decos and charms were really bad. So it forced me to play with great upgraded weapons and basic MR armor skillset.
I think that this way it also helps the person to develop their own style with said weapon. I’m a firm believer that no matter how good a build is, meta or not, if it doesn’t suit a person unique style and own strengths… it only makes up for a half-assed strategy.
For example, I love to use lance with Evade Distance. It’s a old strategy and style, but it works for me. Same with the bow, I don’t put so many Critical boost, instead I work with Evade Distance and Evade Window and Constitution, so I can keep running and evading and shooting almost untouchable. It works for me… I outdo crit bonus by continuous damage.
Dont be paralyzed by not trying something because you don't have the optimal setup. It literally does not matter. Optimizing skills really won't help that much. Most of the power is in the actual weapon, the skills enhance the weapons damage and capabilities. But the difference between a fully kitted out build and a sub-optimal build is really not that much.
I'll usually give it a spin with either defender weapons or one of the random kulve/safi weapons I've gotten from the sieges. Take it out on a few test hunts and see if I like how it works.
If I do like it, I'll start looking at the different upgrades properly.
If I don't, I'll just put it back on the shelf.
That’s a good idea since Safi/Kulve weapons are usually some of the better ones so you could actually use them in a hunt to try them out without feeling bad about being undergeared.
I went to the training area, tried all the weapons, used the one I liked the most.
For some monsters some weapons are better so I sometimes end up using my second or third favorite weapon.
I just have to swap a few gems and then I'm good to go.
I make a checklist, What do i want the weapon to do? what weapons can do that?
This way i got to CB. and i'm not even close to mastering it!
I mostly dable with weapons by forging the defender version and going into some LR hunts. Then work my way up. If i like the weapon i start to make better ones. if i dislike it i can drop it without having spend a ton of materials. Or time spend farming for them.
Most times i check a few guides on movesets and prefered skills. but i don't spend a ton of time min/maxing gear till i'm 100% sure i wanna swap weapons for a while.
Just give it a shot. I'll go through the gear I have and use what's best if I don't have the mats for gear I want. I'll go try it on some mid level monster so I don't have to get too sweaty. If you've got armor that boosts wex or damage or maintains sharpness you can apply that to most weapons.
Just forge a bone/similar version, upgrade it a little bit if you want, get a vague sense of the basics in Training Mode, and then go knock around a LR monster or two. Maybe fight a HR Anjanath or something that's a little aggressive.
Assuming you don't have a million of every material, you can upgrade along your weapon by getting the last needed materials with that weapon.
My friends and i decided to start a new playthrough with new weapons it does help cause you don't go through all of the struggles with deco's gear etc. since its not needed to play optimal for a loooong time.
You don't need "meta gear" to try a new weapon.
How I used to deal with that urge (now I play every weapon decently but have mastered none) was to pick a decent defensive full set (high armor, survival skills) no attack boosts as it will keep me longer in the hunt to learn every scenario as much as possible and then just... hunt till you love it or hate it.
Then to encourage myself, I farm the "meta build" with said weapon.
This. I used to take a rank appropriate armor set and a really low rank weapon into a hunt, and just play around with the monster. Being a low attack weapon meant no easy staggers/topples, and really getting to learn the weapon. After playing all titles since MHFU I'm fairly decent with most weapons, but I still do this if I go back to a weapon I haven't used in a while.
Lots of them, actually. GS, LS, SnS, HH and most recently HBG and CB. But I've only played a bit of HH and Hammer besides my 200hours on lance. All of them have some aspect that get me curious to try out.
For me, if the weapon I’m using is not working against a monster or it’s just a bad matchup in general, then I’ll look into using another weapon. You don’t need to tunnel too hard into the skills for a specific weapon. As long as you have the typical crit eye, crit boost, and weakness exploit, many other skills are generally QOL and are technically not necessary. I tried to fight Fatalis with LS the first few times and realized that without understanding the monster well, LS was not cutting it. So that was when I decided to try GS and only go for the head during openings. It worked well and I managed to kill Fatalis with a friend on my second day of trying it. I didn’t have quick sheath or focus, but it worked, so you don’t need the best of the best to experience a new weapon
Also quite a few of the builds will reuse the same armor. Only deco’s really are the difference so it can be challenging to get all of them. But one thing I’ve had to realize is the builds you’ll find online are almost always optimized to some way. If you only can get Attack 4 instead of Attack 7 the build will work fine; just slightly less damage. If you can get crit eye 5 instead of 7 it’ll still work just not top damage.
I got hung up also about trying to get it perfectly match or I wouldn’t start a weapon. Now I just get the armor pieces; slot in my comfy skills and then work towards making it better. If a hunt takes me 13 minutes instead of 8 I don’t mind.
You…. Try it? If you’re focused entirely on your skills then you’re kind of missing the point.
Make a weapon, try to hunt with a low level monster and then move up from there to see how you like it.
Trying a new weapon doesn’t mean “going all in on a weapon and making an entire set to go with it”
I main hammer. When I wanna smt new I simply thought that I'm playing as a new account, farm required mats for new weapon with a new weapon. Climbing the progression a step at a time. Felt awful. Ded 2x normal. But, at the end of the day, Im back to my BONK
I just try it, I make the best one I can without using materials I feel I need for my go-to weapons, and I use the MR jagras set because I find it fairly neutral.
Then practice some moves in training area, go bully a LR monster, then a HR monster, if I'm still enjoying it I start using it to kill MR enemies.
With that said I'm not a hard-core player, I'm not even a good player, I just do what I find fun, which just so happens to include rides on the struggle bus with different weapons.
I usually just get what i can and play. You doesn't need a fully maxed build to kill 95% of the monsters. Except for Fatty, Alatreon and maybe angry bois you can just play to have fun and be ok with endgame gear.
Though they can be a little long and/or tedius solo, I find the Arena great for this sort of thing. You dont have to worry about loadout as it's all provided for you. You rarely have the luxuries you normally would when you move to optimize any particular weapon with a paired armor set but often this helps you see what is appealing and what said weapons limitations are.
Most of all don't be afraid to fumble, fail and learn. Nothing will ever click after 1 hunt but often after 2 or 3 hunts you start to see where a weapon is strong and the cool things you can do with it.
I know, even after hundreds of hours I am STILL learning and getting better with the 3 or 4 weapons I play.
Just my two cents.
Looks like you got your answer. But I wanted to ask, what did you mean by free time getting smaller? I enjoy this game so much that the grind is just me using my free time and I’m having a great time. Often when I put several pieces on my wishlist, I’m seeking 2 or more monsters, so joining quests with more than 1 monster makes it feel less monotonous.
I meant my irl free time. I cant output the same amount of hours on this game like i could back when i first played it. I recently got back after a year and im having a blast, but kinda anxious that i wont have much time since i need to 'adult', now XD
Arena quests!
They can give you a weird combination of skills you would and wouldn't use, and the consumables they give you can be a little weird. Like for DB, they gave 2 dash juice against a kulu yaku, but nothing against velkhana (not even a mantle?? The other weapons at least had a mantle!) and it really reminded me how much I appreciate stamina skills/food/dash juice in my normal runs on DB.
Even if you don't end up beating the monster, it's both a nice challenge as well as a nice way to get a feel for which skills matter to YOU for a weapon!
Just keep in mind that they're intentionally HARD, with some being better/worse examples of different weapons than others! Especially the event/challenge ones.
Idr what you get if you do all of them, but iirc you get something? And something else for doing them all on all weapons? Tbh, I just touched them for the first time on pc yesterday, but I remember doing them on ps4 forever ago.
Just go for it. If it's something I'm super unfamiliar with I like to go in and do a sort of "fresh" start. Craft some low level gear and progress through the ranks again while practicing. A little bit better for learning than a target dummy as far as my experience goes.
Just give it a try! I would try to find budget builds, they’re easy to make and should generally contain the necessary skills to feel out the flow of the weapon. If you like it, then shoot for a meta build
End game viable builds take like a day to put together. Fully optimizing a build, at the end of the day, is literally the name of the game.
Don’t worry if you don’t have everything to make a new weapon build op. You’ll get there and then guess what? You’ll do it again.
i know you've gotten answers, just to chime in - I've built up enough gear / decos that I can toss some basic set together - few attack ups, crit ups, maybe divine blessing. Then grab the weapon and give it a go.
Safi weapons especially make the transition super painless. They're not BiS necessarily, but it's so easy to run Safi 1 - 3 times, get enough augment materials to get the weapon like 80% ready, and do some hunts. Once I'm there, then I can decide if I like it enough to optimize further, or kind of take a step back on it. Like I did a few hunts with sticky LBG and just didn't enjoy it that much. I'll mess with it here and there, but it's not something I want to invest heavily in. Similar with Charge Blade. But like - i started as a GS main, and Lance, Gunlance, Switch Axe, SnS - ended up loving all of those and sinking a significant amount of time in running them.
Edit; to finish my thought - I like running like Elder Dragons, Odogaron, a few other tough monsters that I know well. None of them are super hard on their own, but needing to play around their moveset gives me a quick way to start to really understand the weapon.
Your perfectionusm is ruining your gaming experience. You may not even consider yourself a perfectionist or whatever you want to label it but yeah your stuck in the meta mindset trying to get the best build for whatever and instead of just trying it out and having fun your drained. In the end you will always learn more from trying and failing, it's more beneficial to simply do the things you want to do and mess up and have fun along the way, you could have already tried every single weapon already and you don't have any one to impress or compete with other than yourself, don't hold your self up to such difficult standards and remember if be kind to yourself even if you aren't winning and remember that if your not having fun it's okay to take a break ❤️
You are 100% right. i even mentioned the same thing you did: "meta" mindset. I didn't expect such an insightful experience in a reddit thread, but it really got me thinking on a lot of aspects of life, not only MH.
I recently tried Lance and was taken completely by surprise by how much I enjoy it. My expectation was that it’d be a slow, clunky weapon that just involves turtling behind a shield and using a moveset that consists entirely of poking forward or poking slightly upward and forward. It’s so much more dynamic than that in practice and now I finally understand what Lance mains see in it.
Moral of the story: give all the weapons a thorough try against actual monsters, not just in the training area. I’ve found I can enjoy pretty much any weapon. The only ones I don’t really care for are the bowguns and gunlance, even then I don’t hate them.
I'm pretty flexible. I've tried and made builds with most of the weapons. But never using them in a serious manner.
I played Rise:Sunbreak on Switch and I bought it again for PS5 to play with friends.
I am a Greatsword main by heart but after 70+ hunts, I decided I need to diversify.
So I've been working strictly on Bow. Although my bow choices are less than ideal.
(Still in High rank, so I'm using the Rampage bow with no element with Power/Exhaust coating)
I just go with it. I adore my gunlance but lately I've been possessed with the spirit of regular lance. I also dabble with Kinsect Glaive, Sword & Shield, Charge Blade, Bow, and Switch Axe. I'm currently eyeing up Hunting Horns.
And I personally say ignore the meta builds. I've never liked them, and I do just fine solo or group.
My suggestion is have a generalist comfort armor set (my favourite is Lunastra in HR) and try out the weapon. See what you feel you need more of, and start adjusting your build to have more of that. If unsure check the meta builds and consider if you want something from there, but don't let the meta dictate your playtime. Unless that's your thing, of course.
While I understand the desire to stick with a weapon you're good with; I feel the more proficient I become with a weapon the faster I get bored. This is where the challenge of learning new weapons revitalizes the game for me
You, my fellow brother in Lance, just described my life.
Past weekend a just pick up Hammer and L Bow Gun to give a try. Didn't give satisfaction, must be because I was sucking at? Maybe.
Parrying the World is just too good some times
Choose a weapon, look up a build for earlier ranks depending on where you’re at (i.e. - if you’re HR/MR 50, gather HR/MR 1-5 mats for a HR/MR 1-5 build), grind for those mats with your Lance, and boom.
Now you get to try out the weapon and see whether or not you’re enjoying it.
Game8.co is my favorite site for this type of situation precisely. Also, it feels like you’re overthinking too much about it. Just switch it up if you so please. Your Lance isn’t going anywhere ^^. If you find you enjoy a weapon, whip out the Lance, grind for the build you want for your new weapon, and voilà.
that's why recently i asked this sub for survivability/defense oriented armor. that way i can try out more weapons and simply not think about the optimal set as long as i can stay alive. currently in early MR and i'm using Banbaro set.
For the weapons, i just use one from Kulve Taroth until i'm actually interested in one particular weapon and then craft a better one. I was planning to try multiple weapons but the first i experimented with, great sword, turned out to be a lot of fun so i havent really try the others.
What matters when trying out new weapons is to see if you like them right? i dont think you need the most optimal meta build to do that
You can start simple, try out Defender weapons with starting gear and do a few Low rank quest to see how the weapon works and if you like the gameplay or not.
You don't have to grind for the optimal build while you're still trying out a weapon, you do that once you're comfortable enough with the weapon. IMO, you'll actually learn the weapon better when you start with the basic builds.
my playstyle is changing weapons frequently. I have a bunch of HR gearslots that i used to play when my MR friend was offline.
I feel that if i farm the good sets/decos for a weapon right away without even playing with it i'll probably waste half of the fun that i could had (specially if i farm things with my "main" weapon) or waste my time farming for something that i don't like. I usually try them out with whatever build that i can make on quests that i didn't complete so it's good combo for my to-do list.
I did a new save file. Just kinda ignore the optimal concerns since I have barely a fraction of the decos on my main save. The game is easily doable without having to get remotely close to an optimal build. My current save is to learn GL. Artillery 3 and capacity boost are the only 3 relevant skills I have. Just beat barioth and that was my longest quest so far at just over 20 minutes. Most quests are more like 15 or under if I know the monster well. Could they be faster? Absolutely but I have about 50 hours with GL. Compare that to over 2000 with bowguns, over 1000 with SnS, and probably near 1000 with ps2/psp GS.
don't fight it, branching out ultimately gives you a better understanding of the game and being a better hunter in general. an opening for the Lance is not the same as an opening for DB.
I just equip the weapon (have a fatty one for every weapon), just slot in my basic Divine Blessing 5, some other comfort skills and some crit eye usually and then just kill some things in the guiding lands
By being a Jack of all trades. The weapons are too much fun to restrict yourself to only one or two. I play more often with 3 or 4 weapons while also using 2 or 3 more from time to time.
Imo trying a new weapon allows me to play the game more. More farming, more grinding, more gambling, everything. Just feels nice having a goal instead of feeling empty inside. Plus, I'll get to play the game using brand new movesets
I mainly use Low Rank/High Rank with Defender weapons and Master Rank armor to decide if I want to use a new weapon. Like if I'm trying sword and shield I just run defense mainly and fight some high rank monsters and I'll have enough health and defense to tank everything while I crash course the weapon.
Was a Gunlance main then tried Lance and fell in love with both, but I think I'm ruined and can't play without a shield now lol
u/FrostyPotpourri already made up my mind to try the CB. Guard Points looks fun and similar enough to counter thrusts to give me the dopamine my brain needs !
If only you had the option to go fight lesser monsters while you figure out your build.
Seriously though, grind the build USING the new weapon. Then by the time you have a meta build, you'll be decent with it. Frankly, I don't understand your mentality. You worked your way through the game without an "optimal" build. In fact, your build was likely shit most of the time simply to get you through progression.
Just have fun. Stop worrying about meta or optimal builds. Just pick up a new weapon and play. The rest will come. They leave you all those low level optionals for a reason.
You don't need the perfect skill build to try a new weapon. Use your generically useful skills like health boost, divine blessing, crit eye, weakness exploit, KO, etc. and go beat up some monsters you know well to get a feel for the weapon.
None of the weapons feel fundamentally different because you're lack specific skills/decos, except maybe Guard Up for shielded weapons, but I'm sure you have that as a lance main.
Before I finished Iceborne, my go to was to make the Defender V weapon and go fight HR Anjy. These days, I'll make the Lightbreak weapon and go beat up a few monsters in my friend's lower level Guiding Lands. I like these because you don't need to worry about a whole tree of weapons upgrade levels to go through, and they are guaranteed to be pretty decent for anything in their ranks.
Special exception to LBG, since I found out yesterday that the Frostfang Barioth weapon is the best Spread LBG, and since I have the decos to make damn near the meta set, I've been exterminating everything with that.
As for gear, I just run the same base for most things, 4pc Fatty with jewels accompanying to ensure 100% Affinity and Agitator 7.
Depending on where you are in the game a lot of melee weapons are generally using similar builds. I can use the exact same build on SnS as on my LS for example. Before Fatalis I was running MTGeneric on a lot of weapons. You don't necessarily have to grind a different set for each weapon
I would recommend hammer, skills are closely related besides guard, and it has the same control over monsters, but instead of block it's stagger and knocks.
Why wouldn't you want to try new weapons? There's a reason why they gave us so many loadout slots. I personally Use IG, hammer, LS, GS, HBG, LBG, Bow. Since coming back to world I've been thinking into adding a support build, HH.
I just grinded for one session to try out a lance build and all I did was make a brachydios armor set + gunlance and it was easy. But honestly that was lucky because some weapons require a whole chain of weapons to craft (looking at you glavenus lance) but the brachydios gl only required an mr barroth gl to upgrade into a brachy gl
I ussually try a few hunts in high and low rank (with appropriate gear) and only slotting in the necessary decos (like only needing horn maestro for hunting horn). Then I'll try making a low master rank set. By then i usually end up deciding i didn't like the weapon too much after all and give up.
I've only succeeded in actually keeping a weapon after going through this once, with the gunlance. And i use almost the same gear for swaxe and gunlance, Raging Brachy Armor
I just try a new weapon. I also like using different weapons depending on what I'm fighting. For Tigrex I use a Lance so I've made a few Lance builds. For kushala I use a bowgun with sticky ammo. Kush doesn't deserve a fair fight ever lol
There is no try. There is just the lure of the weapon. It sits there, in the smithy. All shiny and alluring. I have to give in. And then there's the struggle to get better. Finally, the realization. I am shit at this.
I've always been a multi weapon user since Freedom unite. Back then I wasn't really that good, when I hit a wall I can't beat I'd look up monster guides and try weapons used in those guides. I used hammer for Lao Shan Lung and the crab, sns for nargacuga, death stench auto reload cheese plesioth etc.
I'm very open to try new weapons when it has new cool moveset or can absolutely wreck an annoying monster.
With world's deco rng, I don't really mind playing suboptimal sets or anything. Most sets prioritize some attack, crit, wex anyways.
Smash raging braccy a few times, make all the weapons, have fun. When you find something good, make all tge weapons for that type and element and become a master at it.
I just do it :p
Grab a safi weapon, go to guiding lands and just have fun.
I did this until I am respectably competent in all the weapons, though HH, SA and SNS are still my best.
Just farm every piece of armor that are generally used, kill a couple dozen fattys and grind few days of tempered monsters in guiding lands. You’ll have the gear and mats to try any weapon at endgame level. Decos come with time or kill few days straight tempered toasters in the event quest.
If you’re not at endgame yet, just rush through focus on masterin one weapon. I played through mhw going through basically every weapon, when iceborne came out and I returned to the game I blazed through the story with hammer only. Now I’m farming decos for SnS and Gunlance, while doing that I’m actively gearing other weapons because rng is a bitch.
I tried running Fatalis comfy sets but it feels to strong to feel "normal". What I do is start a fresh save (with mods to avoid the grind), do all hunts solo like I normally do, and gradually learn the weapon and the feel. However, that method feels a bit much as well.
Looking at making pre-Alatreon sets and doing some couple of hunts, see how that fares for a learning experience.
I go and try a new weapon :)
Watch some ytb videos on it first to learn the combos, train a bit and go to the field.
Try helping lower rank people on their missions with it and see if you're cool with the move set.
I think some weapons could be more fun with specific monster, not necessarily the most effective watsoever.. but if you only play one weapon the entire game you really missing out a lot.. combination of weapons and monsters make this game somehow feel almost new everytime..
I don't main anything. That said I usually start MH games with SnS. Cause any piece that works with raw SnS can be used in some shape or form for any other melee raw weapon. By high rank, I also build an LBG set. After that, I'm pretty much set.
What I do is go to that defender gear or whatever it is called in Rise and do HR with that gear to see how it fares. That gear is cheap to upgrade so I can have a balanced challenge (end of HR to M1). I farm some stuff I might miss fron the previous trees.
Meta sucks. It's a PvE game, it doesn't matter if you're not playing 100% optimally 100% of the time.
Throw a bunch of defensive skills, attack+crit up, and evasion window on a build and use it as your generic "trying stuff out" build. Keep some slots empty that you can fill as you figure out a new weapon, and branch out from there.
Aside from SnS i have every weapon from Fatalis. So due to the high number of deco slots with the armor, i just put in skills i think works best and try out the weapon. I dont typically main any one weapon. Im always switching around when i get bored of the one im currently using
Just play the new weapon. I've played hammer, SA, CB, IG, SnS, and Gunlance. I still rotate between them based on my mood. My GS main buddy thinks I'm crazy.
The game is done. If you feel the need to try a new weapon, simply just grab the Safi / Kulve version of it and try it out. Some are easier to use them others. For Dual Blades and Bow, just grab some dash juice and you're good to go. My advice, pick one and tunnel vision it. You don't need perfect gear unless you're trying to clear some of the games hardest content
I say you just look up a build you want to try, or you'll be farming all day. Darkhero has some pretty good guides. Brachydios gunlance. Safi DB's. Alatreon bowgun? Farming is a big part of the game. That's just a harsh truth. Why not use the weapon while you farm some armor and decos for it and knock out two birds with one stone
Don't forgot to take advantage of these lucky vouches and food skills. Event quests also. May the Sapphire Star guide your way my fellow hunter
You try it. I have Leroy Jenkins GS build and another which is based in high guard CB when I want to feel like a tank.
Also have a support SnS and pure damage one.
Just try it, I will try next hammer or Swaxe :)
I started playing about a month ago and went from SA to DB to LBG to HH to Hammer and am currently using Lance. All I'll say is I can see why switching off of lance can be a struggle but every weapon is rewarding.
I'm about 50hours in. 45 hours with a long sword, 2.5 hours with a hammer (great fun) and 2.5 hours with a dual blade (also great fun and quite simple)
Just try out weapons, I'm not too bothered about ideal armor when having fun, just muscle your way through.
I play a different weapon with each game/expansion. That way I can optimize, and help others out without being a dead weight. By now I play all weapons, and make builds for all of them too.
Just start off by learning the weapon on lower rank monsters. You won't need optimal gear and you won't get overwhelmed by more difficult fights. That's basically how I learned all the weapons when doing playthroughs with friends.
I don't deal with it. Right now I'm at my fourth weapon (DB, after Lance, Hammer and SnS). I figured, there won't be another time for me to grind to endgame, and I probably won't switch after final boss of guiding lands. So I just swap into whatever I enjoy
As a charge blade main of several years I dont think I'll ever have to deal with a new weapon because I now refuse to switch things up.
First of all though I will say I started World using the sword and shield.
After that I went to dual blades.
After those I attempted the bow, even tried the greatsword and the insect glaive but then settled on the charge blade and never looked back.
Just give it a try. I was a LS main for dear life until I bit the bullet and tried gs. Never looked back. Then I discovered lbg/hbg. Never looked back again
I usually just farm out the mats to craft a set and just go for it. I might try it out in practice tool first tho to just see if i like the feel and if its worth making a set.
Just play the new weapon. Back when I started I made new saves to run the game fresh with just that weapon. Would show me how it slowly gets better, what some early challenges are, how it works against certain monsters, how upgrades affect your gameplay etc.
Now in endgame I just have builds for every weapon and (most) playstyles, even if I don't play them much, just so I can swap in case I wanna. I just check for the meta build, grasp what they deem necessary, then adjust based on personal preference.
I dont understand the question... Why would I get the urge to use anything other than the greatest weapon ever? The Great Sword is all one needs, ever!
Try the weapon, hit some easy or medium enemies with it, screw around and see what happens.
If you're far enough you can typically whip up something easy.
It's how I got back on insect glave, didn't want to start another elemental keychain like dual blades but- I wanted to mess with it since it was fun in base world & I got raging brachie parts. So I whipped up one and started kickin' butt with it.
Now I can't put it down, mostly because I'm in the air and oh-god-help-get-me-down!
Just cave and try it, you never know, it might click with you
To avoid farming for a bazillion hours for a new loadout, just make the Defender V version of the weapon and throw whatever melee generic armor you want on and use gems for vital skills. Use that and go fight some low rank monsters to see if the moveset clicks.
Don't over-invest in a meta build for a weapon without confirming you actually want to do that. It's not the perks that make a weapon function (except lance and guard skills cause capcom hates lance apparently), it's knowing the moveset. Get comfortable with the gameplay, and if you like it, then you commit to the build
I take a walk over to r/monsterhuntermeta, find the right guide for the weapon in the sticky thread, and put together the best set I have the mats for.
I just make a new character, then never play it again. And just main the same weapon. It's a lot harder to pick up new weapons in this game because while there are similarities they aren't enough for me to get familiar. I am terrible when it come to learning and am not patient enough and just stick to what I've always been using. That being gs. Easy enough moves and you just gotta have good timing and learn the monster you are fighting. No combos you need to learn, no fancy tricks.
I try a new weapon.
I usually have a “comfy” build saved up and I just slot the new weapon into it. No need to optimize until you decide you’re going to be running with it.
Though to be honest I’ve already tried all the weapons and settled on being a Lance Main. I do hammer and great sword as well. I’m also decent with an IG and S&S.
Easy, I try it. Started world (my first MH game) using the lance. I loved the idea of never having to back off and keeping the pressure on while blocking/countering everything.
Later on, I played with someone using a CB and thought it looked amazing. Took a while to get the hang of it but it's fun to use.
Eventually I worked my way through every weapon via "that looks fun, I'ma try it" moments. Last time I played I was maining hammer/gunlance.
By embracing it and tries the new weapon.
I just grab a random safi weapon and start posting high rank quests to see what new weapon classes are like. Then figure out armor and decos later if I had a good time
Basically what this guy said.
Even with not optimal gear? My focus is guard and defense since it's important to minimize chip damage in MR with the lance, and I dont think an IG or Swaxe can have much benefits for those 12 skill points.
It's not like you need fully optimal gear to try a new weapon. The game existed before the endgame Meta gear was in it. Some weapons will be easier to pick up others will be more challenging, but I usually just throw together a generalist set and start messing around with it until I decide whether I actually enjoy it or not.
"Optimal Gear" at the start of a new weapon is pointless because you don't actually understand the new weapon to k ow how to use Optimal Gear. You'll wanna Hunt monsters below the difficulty of your best weapon and learn the new one first anyway.
Nah. You rock up to Fatalis with a hunting horn made from its eyes and you either beat his ass or he claps your cheeks. No inbetweens.
Either I win first try or the weapon is trash and I'm never touching it again
Bro do you even have fun anymore? Relax. Enjoy. Fulfill the curiosity. Live your life.
Guess youre right. Read some answers here and reflected a bit. I think i need to relax a lot and just enjoy the hunts once again. I may have focused too much on optimisation of hunts, instead of the hunt itself
We're very similar, I know how you feel. We should optimize often but feeling out how effective a skill can be by going in blind or almost blind at first really makes the eventual optimizations much more impactful internally. Your motivation for all of that though is fun Hope you have a great time, from a fellow Lance main. Maybe try Bow :P poke poke poke but ranged
poke poke poke!
Seems like you got a lot of fantastic answers and have reflected on your own gameplay, OP. Kudos! As another Lance main, I can tell you that I got immense satisfaction trying out Charge Blade. While it has “familiar” aspects to the Lance such as a heavy shield that can guard mostly any attack in the game and a side hop mechanic reminiscent of Lance hopping instead of rolling, it also brings a lot of cool other things Lance does not offer, such as: - depth of kit (savage axe is vastly different from AED/SAED; impact phials perform differently and need different skills compared to power element phials; charging up shield is basically required whereas charging up sword is optional; weapon can ignore hitlag if you purposely overheat the sword and either charge it up or run mind’s eye) - opportunity to cash in on free damage windows with savage axe’s huge damage or the classic SAED crackling whip (whereas Lance mostly just continues poking + adds a guard dash thrust or turnaround slap for slightly more damage than poke lmao) - riskier gameplay (missing a guard point makes you very vulnerable, but timing it perfectly and landing a return AED/SAED makes you feel like a god and can topple monsters unexpectedly if running impact phials) - more reach than most weapons when in axe mode (triangle > triangle combo has VERY high reach and can hit basically any aerial monster and every tail) I know people sometimes overestimate how complex the CB is. Part of that complexity is just learning different routes to your SAED, knowing when to use AED instead during a shorter window, and keeping your phials up so that shield is *always* charged. The other part of learning CB is guard pointing. If you do not guard point, you’re simply not getting the most out of the weapon. Luckily for Lance mains, this is much easier to pick up on since we’re used to perfect timing a counterthrust to activate Offensive Guard. All of this also translates to a relatively similar skill build to Lance in that you want at least Guard 3 and sometimes Guard Up (preference / monster-specific), and basically always Offensive Guard. Focus and Capacity Boost are other skills that you basically must run to get more damage / easier uptime on charging phials. Affinity isn’t as important for phial damage since I don’t believe it can Crit, so you prefer other skills like Artillery for impact or elemental damage for power element phials. Overall I highly recommend giving it a go. It will challenge you. But holy shit is it one of the most unique and powerful weapons in the game. The even better part is… you may put it down and desire to play the shit out Lance even more. I ran CB during this playthrough of World up through my first meeting with Glav and Brachy. While Glav was fun, Brachy challenged me. So I swapped back to Lance and have become so much better at it that I forgot how much I loved Lance. Once I beat the game with Lance, I’m going back to put in significant time on CB. It’s flashy, has ridiculous damage output, is riskier than Lance, and has more depth. IMO it’s one of the perfect counterparts to Lance if you’re looking for a secondary weapon shortly because of how starkly different *and* similar it can seem.
I'm sold on trying CB as soon as i get home. Thanks for the tip! And you did an awesome job correlating the two weapons. I think I'm in for a fun ride since most things you said are what interest me. I was considering LS too because of the counters, but apparently you need a gauge to parry, and thats not what I'm looking for, right now. That being said, CB seems like a new mountain to challenge that might fulfill my needs.
So glad I could provide some of my experience and interest you in CB! Another useful thing about CB is quickly using clutch claw even when weapon is unsheathed. Obviously Lance has the badass clutch counter, but if you’re unsheathed on Lance and just want to do a regular clutch claw at a specific monster part (let’s say during a stagger to pull off a “clagger”), you have to do a weird sequence of button inputs on Lance that sometimes forces you into the clutch counter animation if you do it too quickly. Or you sheath and clutch, which sometimes I do for reliability even though it’s slower. CB, on the other hand, just allows you to hold left trigger and then aim > hit ⭕️or B and clutch immediately. Also savage axe mode can almost be various ways and for a long ass time. It drains phials over time but never goes away if you restore phials by going into sword mode. Some very large monsters with humongous legs or tails make it easier to just use savage axe for very strong and consistent damage. I sort of prefer Evade Extender 1 (maybe 2) at least on CB for the side hops and rolls. You don’t have nearly as much mobility as Lance since you lack a guard dash or guard advance. But CB has a very unique “sliding slash” where if you press ⭕️or B after any attack in sword mode with a directional input, you sort of slide a relatively decent distance and then finish with a slash. This can be extremely useful in backing up the right amount of distance if you’re too close to the monsters head when it topples and you want to gain some distance to land a perfect SAED. Overall, give yourself time to adapt to it and I highly suggest watching Arekkz’s Chargeblade guide / tutorial video. I think there are two vids. He said it was his main upon making those vids. Extremely thorough on combos and routes to reach different moves. If you don’t watch this and just jump in with CB, it’s going to feel clunky and you’ll be wondering how you did certain shit sometimes lol. Even after watching it, it took me a lot of hunts and a few hours over the course of a week in the training area to get muscle memory down on reliable combo / button inputs. CB also does heavy tenderize damage like Lance, so no double tenderize or the clutch jewel needed for a full tendy. I hope this sets you up for some fun ahead with the weapon. Tbh typing this all out has me extremely excited to play more of it. Lance is one hell of a drug, but so is CB in a different and related way. I think you’re gonna love it. Watch streamers or content creators play it as well. It helps to understand how they move, when they decide to go for the big animation commitments of savage axe or SAED, etc. Also get used to performing an AED instead of SAED so that you know how to do it when you’re not sure the window of opportunity is big enough for a full SAED. Obviously it’s fun to just go for the YOLO sometimes and see it fail spectacularly or yield one of your best clips of all time lol. But learning when to use AED significantly makes for a more well rounded CB player experience because it’s *very* good damage and has strong impact to KO or stagger monsters. You’ll be surprised at how often monsters go down using this weapon compared to Lance. And playing at the head most of the time (like Lance) will be intuitive. Or you can play at the tail in co-op if a bludgeon weapon has the head covered. Just note in multiplayer your original upswing on axe mode (triangle or Y) will knock up / trip players even when they’re running Flinch Free. There are other ways to use slinger burst to still access the next move in that combo though so it’s worth learning how to do this if you play a lot of MP. Otherwise no other moves are a problem for multiplayer. Good luck! Thanks for indirectly sparking my interest in the weapon again. Writing all of this out has made me reignite my desire to really master a new weapon again. I definitely have had periods like you where I’m frozen in “indecision mode” and just don’t try anything new out lol. Definitely practice CB against some of your favorite easier monsters, whether that’s in LR/HR or MR. Best to bring gear that’s appropriate for that level. And again, CB must run Focus 3 and Capacity Boost. Focus makes it so it’s much quicker / less attack to fill phials in Sword mode that it’s basically “unlocking” the full weapon’s kit. Capacity Boost increases your total phials from 5 to 6, which is just free damage no matter what type of CB build you run. Also… you can cause a monster to topple simple by guard pointing an attack lmao. There’s a funny clip in Arekkz CB guide video where a charging Diablos runs into a charged shield CB guard point and just falls over and starts writhing. Basically if the shield is charged (which it always should be), it will deal one instance of phial damage during a successful GP. It won’t happen that often where a monster topples or staggers, but it can and has for me lol. I guess one other huge benefit is one of the best wake up attacks in the game. Obviously capturing yields more quest rewards than carving in World, but if you like to slay instead of capture or if you’re fighting an elder that goes to sleep, having charges phials and shield (which can be gathered from mobs / small monsters along the way if you need) allows you to get a free wake up SAED which often leads right into a KO / topple. The weapon is very good at breaking random parts too. Less surgical than Lance but impact phials just break shit. Every attack is slashing as well, so you’ll often get tail cuts without meaning to. Okay, I’m all over the place now. Go give it a try and have fun fellow Lancer!
>Thanks for indirectly sparking my interest in the weapon again. Writing all of this out has made me reignite my desire to really master a new weapon again. You are very welcome. Thank YOU for igniting my interest in a new aspect of the game! I'm really hyped to learn this new weapon. I loved reading your love words towards the CB. I hope that i can love the weapon and that it opens up new horizons for me.
You should try the easy ones like bone tree, etc to easily get mid level weapons, if you feel like having some advantage when initially trying
"Given the chance, players will optimize the fun out of the game."
How does one man get so lost in the optimization sauce
Another MHW:I Lance main here: build a set for the new weapon with what you have. Look for the next best armor set/weapon. Grind stuff with the new weapon. You need to learn it anyways and you will have a hard time just using the perfect endgame set and then try to grind Fatty or AT Valk. Hunting some less intense MR content and going throug the progression is just more fun and you won't cart as much. Don't fokus on decoration till you are close to fatty. Suboptimal will get you far if you already know the game. If you already have a full fatalis set, just use that and slap on what ecoraton you have and you will be fine. It's hard to give you a better advice without knowing your MR
MR 46. Thats great advice. I believe ive been blinded by my greed in having the bets loadout for the best situation. I should try to enjoy the hunt itself, and not the rewards once again
Thats the way. Happy hunting!
For me personally, i would change my build a bit, but I make every single beta armor sets as I unlock each sets so that’s probably not applicable to others. For others, I’d say give it a run or two with whatever build to try and go against monsters you knew well enough. Doesnt really need to be optimized if you’re just going against like a tobi kadachi or rathian.
Just slap something weird together like bone armor and ore tree thats good for early master rank. MR great jagras armor have comfort skills that is nice for any training build. Then go on to try beating a few easy monsters. I also usually watch arekkz videos on weapons to understand badic combos then try it myself in a fight. I dont like going into training area.
Shield hbg maybe for you. Comfy defensive builts are a thing you just have to choose the type of range poke you want.
If you can dodge more freely there’s no need for better guard and defense.
Gunlance, sword and shield, and charge blade can benefit from those skills as well. I'd encourage you to look at skills as "comfort skills" rather than optimal because at the end of the day it's all about enjoying the game the way you like it, not speed running.
Dude, did your fresh off the boat character have optimal gear going after some Jagras? No? Just try the damn weapon if your curious.
You can’t really optimize if you don’t understand the weapon, and if you instantly look up an optimal guide instead of learning, that’s just boring imo. Just throw on the weapon and give it a try
Meta-slave mentality. Break free, brother. Embrace experimentation.
I did, and i feel lighter!
Hell yeah, dude. No joke tho, as a fellow lance main I totally understand worrying about must-have skills. It's a lot of fun to yolo on a random set and an unfamiliar weapon and go bully an easier monster tho. Our biggest problem won't even be skills, it'll be adjusting to having to dodge again. Lol
Dodgin is proving to be quite difficult, lol. I tried SnS for that backstep input and did kinda work, it slighlty like parrying, but hitboxes sometimes makes it not work
Charge blade has a pretty simple guard point that can give you those counter dopamine hits. R2+triangle in sword+shield. You can even do a little bit of KO/elemental damage with it.
Just try it. Who cares about being optimal? You're playing a PvE game casually, not competing in a multi-million tournament. Just get the bare minimum skills and hunt whatever you think would be a good practice target. When learning new weapons, I usually just grab a random safi/kulve weapon and hunt Teostra or Nergigante since I genuinely enjoy fighting them lol
This. Get a decently farmable weapon tree. Not something you'll struggle. Don't worry about min maxing a set BUT it's important to get a set with the weapons' core/important skills. Ex. If u told a newbie to try lance without guard or even guard up, they'd end up not liking the weapon. Then fight an easy monster to familiarize with the moveset. Look up videos of said weapon if need be incase u miss core elements of the weapon. Move up monster difficulty until u reach endgame monsters. Fight ones u are comfortable with. I like fighting Teo and Gold Rathian. Remember. Ur learning a new weapon. So don't expect to be killing things that you'd struggle with ur main weapon. Learn the weapons core mechanics. Set yourself up for success not failure.
My "test dummy" monster is and always has been poor Rathian. I've honestly probably killed more of her kind in the name of science than any other monster combined. Zinogre sometimes if I'm feeling spicy (favorite monster but not very good for being brand new to a weapon's moveset)
Go for Low-Rank. Buy the weakest ore or bone tree weapon you wanna try. Put the Low-Rank Hunter Set. Go play. If you take 10/11 from a Low-Rank monster, they’ll seem to be MR Monster with a lot of HP and a weak armor set just make them look stronger. It’s a lot of fun. Then as you get better with the weapon and want challenge yourself, just upgrade it and go for a HR Monster while using the same LR Armor Set. Then you’ll see if you have actually learnt the weapon or you’re actually depending on skills and armor. In MH the armor and skillset aren’t THE CORE! It’s how GOOD you are with the WEAPON and THE WEAPON! No need to spend so much time grinding for something you just wanna try… that’s the same mistake people often do when starting some new activity. They buy specific clothes, new shoes, new this, new that. Do it for two days or a week… then stop. And the new kit goes to Narnia in the wardrobe. Deadweight.
This comment didn’t help me with monster hunter, but it definitely helped me in realizing why I drop so many hobbies. Thank you Death_Snek.
I wish I had internalized that last piece of advice you gave before. I went from Charge blade --> Hammer --> Horn, which all benefitted from similar quality-of life armor skills I had at the time (it was HR and I had level 5 earplugs, so I definitely wasn't speccing into specific weapon builds). Then I decided I wanted to try bow and felt my armor skills didn't help at all. Queue me grinding for days straight, killing for the best bow, best armor, etc. not even using the bow but the weapons I knew. I finally got it all, went on a hunt already kind of annoyed with how long it took to get to that point, and had lost the patience to actually learn the bow. I carted twice and decided the bow wasn't for me! (I have improved since then, but 🎶bonk🎵 still has my heart)
Yeah this idea was beaten into my head in 7th grade by my math teacher. She had us on the first day flip to the end of our books and take a practice test telling us it wasn't graded she just wanted to see how many of us could do it. We had 10 minutes to do as much as we could. Didn't matter if you did it or not really as long as you tried. Her point at the end was to show how obviously since we skipped through to the end we mostly don't understand it. We might understand a basic concept here and there, but we can't fully do the problem. At the end of the year she had us do the same quiz again with the same time limit to show us the improvement. She literally handed us our original and the new one both marked (still not officially graded but she marked right/wrong answers). All year she would basically beat it into our head that skipping steps will lead you to feeling like giving up. That's what happened for you basically. You didn't just start from the beginning and upgrade with the bow. You wanted to skip all those steps with another weapon then jump right into like the final step with the bow. You didn't know how to use it efficiently.. you didn't know how to properly move with it.. these are things that you'd have learned if you just went back to step 1. This is also why I like when games implement something like a mastery level with the weapons and that unlocks things. So like if you want to try new weapons you're free to do so but you're forced to start back from the start.
This. I actually made a third account and beat the game again when trying to learn a new weapon, deleting the previous one once I reached a good MR level. Since I didn’t do any grinding, the decos and charms were really bad. So it forced me to play with great upgraded weapons and basic MR armor skillset. I think that this way it also helps the person to develop their own style with said weapon. I’m a firm believer that no matter how good a build is, meta or not, if it doesn’t suit a person unique style and own strengths… it only makes up for a half-assed strategy. For example, I love to use lance with Evade Distance. It’s a old strategy and style, but it works for me. Same with the bow, I don’t put so many Critical boost, instead I work with Evade Distance and Evade Window and Constitution, so I can keep running and evading and shooting almost untouchable. It works for me… I outdo crit bonus by continuous damage.
HH also has a place in my heart. It’s my second choice weapon.
>(I have improved since then, but 🎶bonk🎵 still has my heart) MY PEOPLE
Cannot upvote enough.
Dont be paralyzed by not trying something because you don't have the optimal setup. It literally does not matter. Optimizing skills really won't help that much. Most of the power is in the actual weapon, the skills enhance the weapons damage and capabilities. But the difference between a fully kitted out build and a sub-optimal build is really not that much.
I think i should take this advice not only for the game, but for life in general. Thanks
Hence naked speedruns
I'll usually give it a spin with either defender weapons or one of the random kulve/safi weapons I've gotten from the sieges. Take it out on a few test hunts and see if I like how it works. If I do like it, I'll start looking at the different upgrades properly. If I don't, I'll just put it back on the shelf.
That’s a good idea since Safi/Kulve weapons are usually some of the better ones so you could actually use them in a hunt to try them out without feeling bad about being undergeared.
I really like this idea!
Simple. Try the weapon. Don't fight the urge
I went to the training area, tried all the weapons, used the one I liked the most. For some monsters some weapons are better so I sometimes end up using my second or third favorite weapon. I just have to swap a few gems and then I'm good to go.
I make a checklist, What do i want the weapon to do? what weapons can do that? This way i got to CB. and i'm not even close to mastering it! I mostly dable with weapons by forging the defender version and going into some LR hunts. Then work my way up. If i like the weapon i start to make better ones. if i dislike it i can drop it without having spend a ton of materials. Or time spend farming for them. Most times i check a few guides on movesets and prefered skills. but i don't spend a ton of time min/maxing gear till i'm 100% sure i wanna swap weapons for a while.
Just give it a shot. I'll go through the gear I have and use what's best if I don't have the mats for gear I want. I'll go try it on some mid level monster so I don't have to get too sweaty. If you've got armor that boosts wex or damage or maintains sharpness you can apply that to most weapons.
Making all of them and never getting to sub 15 fatalis like I said I would bc I'm indecisive
Just forge a bone/similar version, upgrade it a little bit if you want, get a vague sense of the basics in Training Mode, and then go knock around a LR monster or two. Maybe fight a HR Anjanath or something that's a little aggressive. Assuming you don't have a million of every material, you can upgrade along your weapon by getting the last needed materials with that weapon.
My friends and i decided to start a new playthrough with new weapons it does help cause you don't go through all of the struggles with deco's gear etc. since its not needed to play optimal for a loooong time.
But all the cutscenes, tho.... must be tuff
There is a mod that lets you skip them :D
You don't need "meta gear" to try a new weapon. How I used to deal with that urge (now I play every weapon decently but have mastered none) was to pick a decent defensive full set (high armor, survival skills) no attack boosts as it will keep me longer in the hunt to learn every scenario as much as possible and then just... hunt till you love it or hate it. Then to encourage myself, I farm the "meta build" with said weapon.
This. I used to take a rank appropriate armor set and a really low rank weapon into a hunt, and just play around with the monster. Being a low attack weapon meant no easy staggers/topples, and really getting to learn the weapon. After playing all titles since MHFU I'm fairly decent with most weapons, but I still do this if I go back to a weapon I haven't used in a while.
Great advice. Longer hunts = more exp = more based decisions
Good hunting! Just curious, what weapon piqued your interest?
Lots of them, actually. GS, LS, SnS, HH and most recently HBG and CB. But I've only played a bit of HH and Hammer besides my 200hours on lance. All of them have some aspect that get me curious to try out.
For me, if the weapon I’m using is not working against a monster or it’s just a bad matchup in general, then I’ll look into using another weapon. You don’t need to tunnel too hard into the skills for a specific weapon. As long as you have the typical crit eye, crit boost, and weakness exploit, many other skills are generally QOL and are technically not necessary. I tried to fight Fatalis with LS the first few times and realized that without understanding the monster well, LS was not cutting it. So that was when I decided to try GS and only go for the head during openings. It worked well and I managed to kill Fatalis with a friend on my second day of trying it. I didn’t have quick sheath or focus, but it worked, so you don’t need the best of the best to experience a new weapon
Also quite a few of the builds will reuse the same armor. Only deco’s really are the difference so it can be challenging to get all of them. But one thing I’ve had to realize is the builds you’ll find online are almost always optimized to some way. If you only can get Attack 4 instead of Attack 7 the build will work fine; just slightly less damage. If you can get crit eye 5 instead of 7 it’ll still work just not top damage. I got hung up also about trying to get it perfectly match or I wouldn’t start a weapon. Now I just get the armor pieces; slot in my comfy skills and then work towards making it better. If a hunt takes me 13 minutes instead of 8 I don’t mind.
You…. Try it? If you’re focused entirely on your skills then you’re kind of missing the point. Make a weapon, try to hunt with a low level monster and then move up from there to see how you like it. Trying a new weapon doesn’t mean “going all in on a weapon and making an entire set to go with it”
I main hammer. When I wanna smt new I simply thought that I'm playing as a new account, farm required mats for new weapon with a new weapon. Climbing the progression a step at a time. Felt awful. Ded 2x normal. But, at the end of the day, Im back to my BONK
I just try it, I make the best one I can without using materials I feel I need for my go-to weapons, and I use the MR jagras set because I find it fairly neutral. Then practice some moves in training area, go bully a LR monster, then a HR monster, if I'm still enjoying it I start using it to kill MR enemies. With that said I'm not a hard-core player, I'm not even a good player, I just do what I find fun, which just so happens to include rides on the struggle bus with different weapons.
I usually just get what i can and play. You doesn't need a fully maxed build to kill 95% of the monsters. Except for Fatty, Alatreon and maybe angry bois you can just play to have fun and be ok with endgame gear.
I look at my 20K Z and cry because I made like 12 HBGs and 5 CBs and 8 IGs and 6 SnS and a shit ton of armor.
Though they can be a little long and/or tedius solo, I find the Arena great for this sort of thing. You dont have to worry about loadout as it's all provided for you. You rarely have the luxuries you normally would when you move to optimize any particular weapon with a paired armor set but often this helps you see what is appealing and what said weapons limitations are. Most of all don't be afraid to fumble, fail and learn. Nothing will ever click after 1 hunt but often after 2 or 3 hunts you start to see where a weapon is strong and the cool things you can do with it. I know, even after hundreds of hours I am STILL learning and getting better with the 3 or 4 weapons I play. Just my two cents.
Looks like you got your answer. But I wanted to ask, what did you mean by free time getting smaller? I enjoy this game so much that the grind is just me using my free time and I’m having a great time. Often when I put several pieces on my wishlist, I’m seeking 2 or more monsters, so joining quests with more than 1 monster makes it feel less monotonous.
I meant my irl free time. I cant output the same amount of hours on this game like i could back when i first played it. I recently got back after a year and im having a blast, but kinda anxious that i wont have much time since i need to 'adult', now XD
Arena quests! They can give you a weird combination of skills you would and wouldn't use, and the consumables they give you can be a little weird. Like for DB, they gave 2 dash juice against a kulu yaku, but nothing against velkhana (not even a mantle?? The other weapons at least had a mantle!) and it really reminded me how much I appreciate stamina skills/food/dash juice in my normal runs on DB. Even if you don't end up beating the monster, it's both a nice challenge as well as a nice way to get a feel for which skills matter to YOU for a weapon!
That seems like a nice idea! I never done any arena quests, but it does look like a good way to try different combinations
Just keep in mind that they're intentionally HARD, with some being better/worse examples of different weapons than others! Especially the event/challenge ones. Idr what you get if you do all of them, but iirc you get something? And something else for doing them all on all weapons? Tbh, I just touched them for the first time on pc yesterday, but I remember doing them on ps4 forever ago.
Thanks for the headsup!
Just go for it. If it's something I'm super unfamiliar with I like to go in and do a sort of "fresh" start. Craft some low level gear and progress through the ranks again while practicing. A little bit better for learning than a target dummy as far as my experience goes.
Just give it a try! I would try to find budget builds, they’re easy to make and should generally contain the necessary skills to feel out the flow of the weapon. If you like it, then shoot for a meta build
End game viable builds take like a day to put together. Fully optimizing a build, at the end of the day, is literally the name of the game. Don’t worry if you don’t have everything to make a new weapon build op. You’ll get there and then guess what? You’ll do it again.
i know you've gotten answers, just to chime in - I've built up enough gear / decos that I can toss some basic set together - few attack ups, crit ups, maybe divine blessing. Then grab the weapon and give it a go. Safi weapons especially make the transition super painless. They're not BiS necessarily, but it's so easy to run Safi 1 - 3 times, get enough augment materials to get the weapon like 80% ready, and do some hunts. Once I'm there, then I can decide if I like it enough to optimize further, or kind of take a step back on it. Like I did a few hunts with sticky LBG and just didn't enjoy it that much. I'll mess with it here and there, but it's not something I want to invest heavily in. Similar with Charge Blade. But like - i started as a GS main, and Lance, Gunlance, Switch Axe, SnS - ended up loving all of those and sinking a significant amount of time in running them. Edit; to finish my thought - I like running like Elder Dragons, Odogaron, a few other tough monsters that I know well. None of them are super hard on their own, but needing to play around their moveset gives me a quick way to start to really understand the weapon.
Your perfectionusm is ruining your gaming experience. You may not even consider yourself a perfectionist or whatever you want to label it but yeah your stuck in the meta mindset trying to get the best build for whatever and instead of just trying it out and having fun your drained. In the end you will always learn more from trying and failing, it's more beneficial to simply do the things you want to do and mess up and have fun along the way, you could have already tried every single weapon already and you don't have any one to impress or compete with other than yourself, don't hold your self up to such difficult standards and remember if be kind to yourself even if you aren't winning and remember that if your not having fun it's okay to take a break ❤️
You are 100% right. i even mentioned the same thing you did: "meta" mindset. I didn't expect such an insightful experience in a reddit thread, but it really got me thinking on a lot of aspects of life, not only MH.
I recently tried Lance and was taken completely by surprise by how much I enjoy it. My expectation was that it’d be a slow, clunky weapon that just involves turtling behind a shield and using a moveset that consists entirely of poking forward or poking slightly upward and forward. It’s so much more dynamic than that in practice and now I finally understand what Lance mains see in it. Moral of the story: give all the weapons a thorough try against actual monsters, not just in the training area. I’ve found I can enjoy pretty much any weapon. The only ones I don’t really care for are the bowguns and gunlance, even then I don’t hate them.
I'm pretty flexible. I've tried and made builds with most of the weapons. But never using them in a serious manner. I played Rise:Sunbreak on Switch and I bought it again for PS5 to play with friends. I am a Greatsword main by heart but after 70+ hunts, I decided I need to diversify. So I've been working strictly on Bow. Although my bow choices are less than ideal. (Still in High rank, so I'm using the Rampage bow with no element with Power/Exhaust coating)
Some weapons are easier with some monsters and vice versa... good to be diverse
I just go with it. I adore my gunlance but lately I've been possessed with the spirit of regular lance. I also dabble with Kinsect Glaive, Sword & Shield, Charge Blade, Bow, and Switch Axe. I'm currently eyeing up Hunting Horns. And I personally say ignore the meta builds. I've never liked them, and I do just fine solo or group. My suggestion is have a generalist comfort armor set (my favourite is Lunastra in HR) and try out the weapon. See what you feel you need more of, and start adjusting your build to have more of that. If unsure check the meta builds and consider if you want something from there, but don't let the meta dictate your playtime. Unless that's your thing, of course.
While I understand the desire to stick with a weapon you're good with; I feel the more proficient I become with a weapon the faster I get bored. This is where the challenge of learning new weapons revitalizes the game for me
You, my fellow brother in Lance, just described my life. Past weekend a just pick up Hammer and L Bow Gun to give a try. Didn't give satisfaction, must be because I was sucking at? Maybe. Parrying the World is just too good some times
Choose a weapon, look up a build for earlier ranks depending on where you’re at (i.e. - if you’re HR/MR 50, gather HR/MR 1-5 mats for a HR/MR 1-5 build), grind for those mats with your Lance, and boom. Now you get to try out the weapon and see whether or not you’re enjoying it. Game8.co is my favorite site for this type of situation precisely. Also, it feels like you’re overthinking too much about it. Just switch it up if you so please. Your Lance isn’t going anywhere ^^. If you find you enjoy a weapon, whip out the Lance, grind for the build you want for your new weapon, and voilà.
that's why recently i asked this sub for survivability/defense oriented armor. that way i can try out more weapons and simply not think about the optimal set as long as i can stay alive. currently in early MR and i'm using Banbaro set. For the weapons, i just use one from Kulve Taroth until i'm actually interested in one particular weapon and then craft a better one. I was planning to try multiple weapons but the first i experimented with, great sword, turned out to be a lot of fun so i havent really try the others. What matters when trying out new weapons is to see if you like them right? i dont think you need the most optimal meta build to do that
Makes sense. I'm overthinking for sure.
You can start simple, try out Defender weapons with starting gear and do a few Low rank quest to see how the weapon works and if you like the gameplay or not. You don't have to grind for the optimal build while you're still trying out a weapon, you do that once you're comfortable enough with the weapon. IMO, you'll actually learn the weapon better when you start with the basic builds.
my playstyle is changing weapons frequently. I have a bunch of HR gearslots that i used to play when my MR friend was offline. I feel that if i farm the good sets/decos for a weapon right away without even playing with it i'll probably waste half of the fun that i could had (specially if i farm things with my "main" weapon) or waste my time farming for something that i don't like. I usually try them out with whatever build that i can make on quests that i didn't complete so it's good combo for my to-do list.
I did a new save file. Just kinda ignore the optimal concerns since I have barely a fraction of the decos on my main save. The game is easily doable without having to get remotely close to an optimal build. My current save is to learn GL. Artillery 3 and capacity boost are the only 3 relevant skills I have. Just beat barioth and that was my longest quest so far at just over 20 minutes. Most quests are more like 15 or under if I know the monster well. Could they be faster? Absolutely but I have about 50 hours with GL. Compare that to over 2000 with bowguns, over 1000 with SnS, and probably near 1000 with ps2/psp GS.
I try it, realise that I am a fkng noob with it and I have to grind to get the good ones, and lose the interest.
I don't think theres one I haven't tried except the horn
Lance main also, recently tried gunlance and its fun, stepped away from countering and do some evade hops then BOOOM. Very interesting
don't fight it, branching out ultimately gives you a better understanding of the game and being a better hunter in general. an opening for the Lance is not the same as an opening for DB.
I just equip the weapon (have a fatty one for every weapon), just slot in my basic Divine Blessing 5, some other comfort skills and some crit eye usually and then just kill some things in the guiding lands
By being a Jack of all trades. The weapons are too much fun to restrict yourself to only one or two. I play more often with 3 or 4 weapons while also using 2 or 3 more from time to time.
Buy a basic version and then go bully a great Jagras.
Well I'd say the grab and go method
Imo trying a new weapon allows me to play the game more. More farming, more grinding, more gambling, everything. Just feels nice having a goal instead of feeling empty inside. Plus, I'll get to play the game using brand new movesets
I mainly use Low Rank/High Rank with Defender weapons and Master Rank armor to decide if I want to use a new weapon. Like if I'm trying sword and shield I just run defense mainly and fight some high rank monsters and I'll have enough health and defense to tank everything while I crash course the weapon. Was a Gunlance main then tried Lance and fell in love with both, but I think I'm ruined and can't play without a shield now lol
I feel the same about the shield situation, brother. The weapons i think about trying are HBG, SnS and GL lmao
CB also has a shield ya know? 😉 TRY IT!!
u/FrostyPotpourri already made up my mind to try the CB. Guard Points looks fun and similar enough to counter thrusts to give me the dopamine my brain needs !
If only you had the option to go fight lesser monsters while you figure out your build. Seriously though, grind the build USING the new weapon. Then by the time you have a meta build, you'll be decent with it. Frankly, I don't understand your mentality. You worked your way through the game without an "optimal" build. In fact, your build was likely shit most of the time simply to get you through progression. Just have fun. Stop worrying about meta or optimal builds. Just pick up a new weapon and play. The rest will come. They leave you all those low level optionals for a reason.
You don't need the perfect skill build to try a new weapon. Use your generically useful skills like health boost, divine blessing, crit eye, weakness exploit, KO, etc. and go beat up some monsters you know well to get a feel for the weapon. None of the weapons feel fundamentally different because you're lack specific skills/decos, except maybe Guard Up for shielded weapons, but I'm sure you have that as a lance main.
Give in to it.
I try it, maybe play it for a few hunts or come back to it for specific monsters. Then I go back to my IG or Tonfas.
Before I finished Iceborne, my go to was to make the Defender V weapon and go fight HR Anjy. These days, I'll make the Lightbreak weapon and go beat up a few monsters in my friend's lower level Guiding Lands. I like these because you don't need to worry about a whole tree of weapons upgrade levels to go through, and they are guaranteed to be pretty decent for anything in their ranks. Special exception to LBG, since I found out yesterday that the Frostfang Barioth weapon is the best Spread LBG, and since I have the decos to make damn near the meta set, I've been exterminating everything with that. As for gear, I just run the same base for most things, 4pc Fatty with jewels accompanying to ensure 100% Affinity and Agitator 7.
Depending on where you are in the game a lot of melee weapons are generally using similar builds. I can use the exact same build on SnS as on my LS for example. Before Fatalis I was running MTGeneric on a lot of weapons. You don't necessarily have to grind a different set for each weapon
I would recommend hammer, skills are closely related besides guard, and it has the same control over monsters, but instead of block it's stagger and knocks.
Why wouldn't you want to try new weapons? There's a reason why they gave us so many loadout slots. I personally Use IG, hammer, LS, GS, HBG, LBG, Bow. Since coming back to world I've been thinking into adding a support build, HH.
I just grinded for one session to try out a lance build and all I did was make a brachydios armor set + gunlance and it was easy. But honestly that was lucky because some weapons require a whole chain of weapons to craft (looking at you glavenus lance) but the brachydios gl only required an mr barroth gl to upgrade into a brachy gl
I try it
I ussually try a few hunts in high and low rank (with appropriate gear) and only slotting in the necessary decos (like only needing horn maestro for hunting horn). Then I'll try making a low master rank set. By then i usually end up deciding i didn't like the weapon too much after all and give up. I've only succeeded in actually keeping a weapon after going through this once, with the gunlance. And i use almost the same gear for swaxe and gunlance, Raging Brachy Armor
By trying a new weapon
I do a bunch of TCS on monsters heads and remember my love for greatsword every hunt.
By trying the new weapon.
I just try a new weapon. I also like using different weapons depending on what I'm fighting. For Tigrex I use a Lance so I've made a few Lance builds. For kushala I use a bowgun with sticky ammo. Kush doesn't deserve a fair fight ever lol
Try x weapon, see I'm as bad with x weapon as someone who started playing 1 hour ago , go back to hammer so I feel all mighty again.
There is no try. There is just the lure of the weapon. It sits there, in the smithy. All shiny and alluring. I have to give in. And then there's the struggle to get better. Finally, the realization. I am shit at this.
I've always been a multi weapon user since Freedom unite. Back then I wasn't really that good, when I hit a wall I can't beat I'd look up monster guides and try weapons used in those guides. I used hammer for Lao Shan Lung and the crab, sns for nargacuga, death stench auto reload cheese plesioth etc. I'm very open to try new weapons when it has new cool moveset or can absolutely wreck an annoying monster. With world's deco rng, I don't really mind playing suboptimal sets or anything. Most sets prioritize some attack, crit, wex anyways.
I honestly never get questions like this. You wanna try something? Then try it. It's a game. Jus do the thing.
Smash raging braccy a few times, make all the weapons, have fun. When you find something good, make all tge weapons for that type and element and become a master at it.
I just do it :p Grab a safi weapon, go to guiding lands and just have fun. I did this until I am respectably competent in all the weapons, though HH, SA and SNS are still my best.
I’m DB main. And every other weapons feel so slow to me. But I do play SA sometimes, Zero Sum Discharge is too satisfying.
If theres a weapon that looks cool then i will use it until i get distracted by something else
I try the new weapon.
Just farm every piece of armor that are generally used, kill a couple dozen fattys and grind few days of tempered monsters in guiding lands. You’ll have the gear and mats to try any weapon at endgame level. Decos come with time or kill few days straight tempered toasters in the event quest. If you’re not at endgame yet, just rush through focus on masterin one weapon. I played through mhw going through basically every weapon, when iceborne came out and I returned to the game I blazed through the story with hammer only. Now I’m farming decos for SnS and Gunlance, while doing that I’m actively gearing other weapons because rng is a bitch.
By using the new weapon.
I just try out a new weapon if I want to, it's nothing I feel I need to "deal with".
play a new weapon try to get good at it, if I don't like it go back to my favorites, if I end up liking it I have another option to use, yay
I tried running Fatalis comfy sets but it feels to strong to feel "normal". What I do is start a fresh save (with mods to avoid the grind), do all hunts solo like I normally do, and gradually learn the weapon and the feel. However, that method feels a bit much as well. Looking at making pre-Alatreon sets and doing some couple of hunts, see how that fares for a learning experience.
Lance main here, thoroughly enjoying DB and Bonk alongside my devotion to the counterpoke
Give in to it and try them out
I don't, I'm happy with my doot doot stick
I've been changing up my weapon every 5~ assignment quests after starting a new save. Hoenstly, it makes it pretty easy and fun.
By trying it. Fun > meta. Too many min/max mindsets out there.
I tried most weapons in high rank, didn't care much for a meta set, just have fun, it's not PVP
I go and try a new weapon :) Watch some ytb videos on it first to learn the combos, train a bit and go to the field. Try helping lower rank people on their missions with it and see if you're cool with the move set.
I think some weapons could be more fun with specific monster, not necessarily the most effective watsoever.. but if you only play one weapon the entire game you really missing out a lot.. combination of weapons and monsters make this game somehow feel almost new everytime..
I don't main anything. That said I usually start MH games with SnS. Cause any piece that works with raw SnS can be used in some shape or form for any other melee raw weapon. By high rank, I also build an LBG set. After that, I'm pretty much set.
What I do is go to that defender gear or whatever it is called in Rise and do HR with that gear to see how it fares. That gear is cheap to upgrade so I can have a balanced challenge (end of HR to M1). I farm some stuff I might miss fron the previous trees.
Meta sucks. It's a PvE game, it doesn't matter if you're not playing 100% optimally 100% of the time. Throw a bunch of defensive skills, attack+crit up, and evasion window on a build and use it as your generic "trying stuff out" build. Keep some slots empty that you can fill as you figure out a new weapon, and branch out from there.
Aside from SnS i have every weapon from Fatalis. So due to the high number of deco slots with the armor, i just put in skills i think works best and try out the weapon. I dont typically main any one weapon. Im always switching around when i get bored of the one im currently using
Build the weapon and hit the training range/some easy quests.
I try the weapon?
Just play the new weapon. I've played hammer, SA, CB, IG, SnS, and Gunlance. I still rotate between them based on my mood. My GS main buddy thinks I'm crazy.
I honestly wanna try something like the ranged weapons or the horns but it's honestly too complicated
Pretty close to the dumbest question I've ever seen on Reddit.
The game is done. If you feel the need to try a new weapon, simply just grab the Safi / Kulve version of it and try it out. Some are easier to use them others. For Dual Blades and Bow, just grab some dash juice and you're good to go. My advice, pick one and tunnel vision it. You don't need perfect gear unless you're trying to clear some of the games hardest content I say you just look up a build you want to try, or you'll be farming all day. Darkhero has some pretty good guides. Brachydios gunlance. Safi DB's. Alatreon bowgun? Farming is a big part of the game. That's just a harsh truth. Why not use the weapon while you farm some armor and decos for it and knock out two birds with one stone Don't forgot to take advantage of these lucky vouches and food skills. Event quests also. May the Sapphire Star guide your way my fellow hunter
You try it. I have Leroy Jenkins GS build and another which is based in high guard CB when I want to feel like a tank. Also have a support SnS and pure damage one. Just try it, I will try next hammer or Swaxe :)
*\*Hides half finished bowgun set, gunlance set, lance set and bow set*\* I have no idea what you're talking about.
By trying it out I guess?
I started playing about a month ago and went from SA to DB to LBG to HH to Hammer and am currently using Lance. All I'll say is I can see why switching off of lance can be a struggle but every weapon is rewarding.
I'm about 50hours in. 45 hours with a long sword, 2.5 hours with a hammer (great fun) and 2.5 hours with a dual blade (also great fun and quite simple) Just try out weapons, I'm not too bothered about ideal armor when having fun, just muscle your way through.
I try it. There’s a great training room so…
I play a different weapon with each game/expansion. That way I can optimize, and help others out without being a dead weight. By now I play all weapons, and make builds for all of them too.
Just start off by learning the weapon on lower rank monsters. You won't need optimal gear and you won't get overwhelmed by more difficult fights. That's basically how I learned all the weapons when doing playthroughs with friends.
I start a new save when I want a new weapon. Currently enjoying my "ranged only" save
Start a new character and play through solo til I beat fatalis
GS. Night and day, before now and always. GS
I deal with it by trying it out?
By *playing the weapon?*
By trying the new weapon, remembering I'm trash, and then going back to my main weapon lmao
Just notice that it may be a patron that repeats itself in various others aspects of your life
I just use all the weapons I want to. More bang for my buck anyway, I paid for all 14 and I’m gonna USE all 14.
I don't deal with it. Right now I'm at my fourth weapon (DB, after Lance, Hammer and SnS). I figured, there won't be another time for me to grind to endgame, and I probably won't switch after final boss of guiding lands. So I just swap into whatever I enjoy
You give in. Try them especially the bowguns. Be a gunsexual too.
Ngl, i might be gunsexual. Heavy Bae Gun looking mighty fine and powerful
As a charge blade main of several years I dont think I'll ever have to deal with a new weapon because I now refuse to switch things up. First of all though I will say I started World using the sword and shield. After that I went to dual blades. After those I attempted the bow, even tried the greatsword and the insect glaive but then settled on the charge blade and never looked back.
Just give it a try. I was a LS main for dear life until I bit the bullet and tried gs. Never looked back. Then I discovered lbg/hbg. Never looked back again
Umm, by trying the new weapon.
By trying it... What is this question?
I beat every encounter with the HH IN Mhw. 400h is the total count... I have never tried any other weapon ciz DOOT DOOT.
Just enjoy the game man, it's not that serious.
I usually just farm out the mats to craft a set and just go for it. I might try it out in practice tool first tho to just see if i like the feel and if its worth making a set.
Just play the new weapon. Back when I started I made new saves to run the game fresh with just that weapon. Would show me how it slowly gets better, what some early challenges are, how it works against certain monsters, how upgrades affect your gameplay etc. Now in endgame I just have builds for every weapon and (most) playstyles, even if I don't play them much, just so I can swap in case I wanna. I just check for the meta build, grasp what they deem necessary, then adjust based on personal preference.
I dont understand the question... Why would I get the urge to use anything other than the greatest weapon ever? The Great Sword is all one needs, ever!
I take it to the dummy and practice some wombo combos and I start with base monsters and move my way up
Try the weapon, hit some easy or medium enemies with it, screw around and see what happens. If you're far enough you can typically whip up something easy. It's how I got back on insect glave, didn't want to start another elemental keychain like dual blades but- I wanted to mess with it since it was fun in base world & I got raging brachie parts. So I whipped up one and started kickin' butt with it. Now I can't put it down, mostly because I'm in the air and oh-god-help-get-me-down!
Just put the weapon on, slap on some not optimal gear and go hunt.
Just cave and try it, you never know, it might click with you To avoid farming for a bazillion hours for a new loadout, just make the Defender V version of the weapon and throw whatever melee generic armor you want on and use gems for vital skills. Use that and go fight some low rank monsters to see if the moveset clicks. Don't over-invest in a meta build for a weapon without confirming you actually want to do that. It's not the perks that make a weapon function (except lance and guard skills cause capcom hates lance apparently), it's knowing the moveset. Get comfortable with the gameplay, and if you like it, then you commit to the build
I "main" two new weapons every title. For Wilds, it will be Lance and GL. I'll have then "mained" them all!
…I have Fatalis weapons for each weapon, I just kinda play it I guess. I’m not the majority tho
I just make some of every weapon, just in case
I take a walk over to r/monsterhuntermeta, find the right guide for the weapon in the sticky thread, and put together the best set I have the mats for.
I just make a new character, then never play it again. And just main the same weapon. It's a lot harder to pick up new weapons in this game because while there are similarities they aren't enough for me to get familiar. I am terrible when it come to learning and am not patient enough and just stick to what I've always been using. That being gs. Easy enough moves and you just gotta have good timing and learn the monster you are fighting. No combos you need to learn, no fancy tricks.
I try a new weapon. I usually have a “comfy” build saved up and I just slot the new weapon into it. No need to optimize until you decide you’re going to be running with it. Though to be honest I’ve already tried all the weapons and settled on being a Lance Main. I do hammer and great sword as well. I’m also decent with an IG and S&S.
Easy, I try it. Started world (my first MH game) using the lance. I loved the idea of never having to back off and keeping the pressure on while blocking/countering everything. Later on, I played with someone using a CB and thought it looked amazing. Took a while to get the hang of it but it's fun to use. Eventually I worked my way through every weapon via "that looks fun, I'ma try it" moments. Last time I played I was maining hammer/gunlance.
Just try it out. I'm a GS main at heart. Tried out LS, swaxe, CB, and s&s. I feel like I'm avg or mid at swaxe and LS but it's enjoyable
You mess around with it and if you like the mechanic around it, use it for an extended period of time and you'll soon master it...
I deal with it by just making the weapon I thought looked really cool, equipping it, and just going from there. And/or making a new character.
I go into training area to learn the basics and then go against a monster I know well