MonHun

[Kugelfisch]

Back to grinding Shogun Hermitaurs. I need wyvern skulls, which feels as tedious as getting Rath plates.
I'm going CB as I seem to have found a weapon that strikes a good balance between being strong enough to destroy the skull but not too strong and kill it before the break. The added impact damage from the phials helps as well.

Otherwise, I'm cleaning up HR quests that unlock arts and other stuff with the help of the wiki.
A tad boring as my gear is a little too good but a nice warm up and opportunity to get better with the CB.

[Kugelfisch]

Rough start to hunts today.
I wanted to go HBG against a Cephadrome duo. They wouldn't split no matter what and ganked the shit out of me.
So I decide I'll go CB instead. Got an ice one but needed some Zamtrios drops to improve it. So I go on a Zamtrios dual hunt....and brought the fucking ice CB.

Got back in the hunt with a fire one. That worked a bit too well. I wanted to capture them for a better drop chance on what I needed.
Killed one of them accidentally. The other fled wounded. I just wanted to mark it again since that was about to run out and before I get the chance a Palico kills it.

Well, got what I needed anyway. Now it's off to those damn Cephadromes again.

[Kugelfisch]

Time for a little something about the Charge Blade in Counter/Adept/Bushido style. Just my current though process and why it's less complicated than it appears.

Defence and the style
You get both a perfect block and dodge.
In axe mode or sheathed you have the Adept dodge, followed by a short run. From that, sheathed or not, X will perform the overhead axe swing and A will go into elemental 2. More on that later.

More important and interesting is sword and shield mode.
Perfect block is amazing! You can do nothing, X for a round slash that will charge the shield and has a guard point at the end or press A for a strong version of the A slash.

But what if there is no time for a block? That's what the guard points are for!
In Adept, you gain one for most of the duration of the charged A slash, at the end of every round slash and in the beginning of the transformation to axe mode. So while the block doesn't combo, the GPs do.
Thus, the Adept CB is a highly defensive weapon that flows directly into attacks after all blocks and GPs.

Charge
This is the most important thing. It uses the vials but is itself more Important than having vials.
Adept doesn't allow for yellow charge, so I will skip that.

There are two ways to charge the shield. Either perfect block into X or from axe mode X+A, cancelling with R.
Every vial will be used. Per vial, You get 30 seconds of red shield.
Red shield does the following:
1. Higher block ability, as good as Lance.
2. 20% more damage to all axe attacks.
3. Elemental/Impact explosion from all blocks, including those with GPs, and from the X+A shield poke.
4. Ability to super discharge.
5. Element/Impact explosion on the X strike after reloading.

As you see, you always want to be in red shield. Thankfully, it's trivial to do so.

Sword & Shield
You are quick, can roll and block or GP in almost all situations. This is where you spend most of the time.
Get those vials charged! Once you do, perfect block into X or transform to axe, press X+A and cancel the move with R.
Now it's time to bully!
X+A after any move does the shield poke, causing an element/Impact explosion without costing a vial. Also all your blocks do so. Abuse that shit! With a fitting element that is a ticket to flinch city, breaks lots of parts and topples monsters frequently. Impact will K.O. monsters if you hit the head.

Regular shield pokes, the strike after reloading and all the extra explosions from blocks make short work of monsters you can stand under or close to the head.
Eventuality, they will get knocked out or topple. That's when the axe finally comes into play.

Axe Mode
As usual, you want to be in red shield. The 20% extra damage is a must.
This is where we use the vials other than charging the shield. The moveset is much more simplistic.
X does an up swing, X and forward an overhead and A is for the three elemental attacks.

Every elemental attack uses one phial. A is a side swipe, similar to the Switch Blade's axe mode. Don't ever use that. It only gives you one explosion for the vial.
Instead, start with X and then A for the elemental 2 attack. It's a very wide swing that causes two explosions. X,A,X,A is an infinite that gives you good value for your vials. Think of it as the axe swing combo of the SB.

Elemental 3 is where it gets really interesting. Accessed either from A after elemental 2 or directly from X×A, it has three functions.
Cancelled with R it's how we charge our shield with all vials.
Without a charged shield, elemental 3 is a wide overhead, causing three explosions for one vial and putting us back into S&S mode.
With a charged shield, we get the amped elemental discharge. It's a super high overhead that unleashes all vials and the shield charge in one massive explosion. You can cancel it into the regular elemental 3 by holding X and back, if you want to keep the shield charge.

So the axe is good for two situations. Either switching to it for the immediate GP that will power through attacks. With the explosion and the added block strength of red shield it often leads to a flinch, letting you immediately go for element 2 with A, element 3 with X+A or even the amped discharge, depending on the opening.
Or you just have a big opening and lots of phials to get rid of.

The Flow
So, to condense it, a typical example.
Attack the monster, use A charge to block and get energy. Or use perfect block A to get it.
Reload to charge vials.
Once you have five, perfect block X for red shield. Or use R+X to block during the transformation, X+A and cancel with R for red shield.

Having red shield, block and GP with A when necessary. Otherwise, use shield pokes. Once you're in the red again, reload and hit with X after it when possible.

Red shield and full vials mean you should look for use axe mode now.
Transform to GP an attack, use elemental 2 to X combo. If you have to dodge, use X for the overhead if you need distance or A for elemental 2.
If you have an opening, go from 2 to 3, go directly to 3 if you're on your last vial or amp discharge if shield is about to run out and you can hit it.

For absurd damage, go with the overcharge Hunter art that lets you hold ten vials, charge them plus shield and then unleash it all at once when you get a stun.

Weapon choice
Now that you know that abusing the explosions for free in S&S mode and the extreme power of axe mode, weapon choice is obviously important.
The correct element with an elemental vial will wreak havoc on the monster.
Lavasioth, Zamtrios and Barroth get their armours absolutely obliterated and fall over often. The perfect time for a big punishment.
Gravios and Basarios get the belly broken by relentless shield pokes and their wings, heads and torso annihilated from the wide swings in axe mode.
Likewise, monsters with a head low to the ground get knocked out by impact vials and fliers knocked out of the air by the high reach of elemental 3.
Pick your CB carefully and you will get breaks and flinches all the time.
Coupled with all the explosions from GPs and you being able to keep the combi going, Adept CB is a highly defensive weapon that can stay very aggressive at all times.

The Weakness
Highly mobile monsters. This is something I still struggle with. You don't often get to punish them in the slow axe mode.
Play defensive, wait for a flinch or it being exhausted. There is not much you can do to keep up with a monster that jumps around all the time. Just be patient.

[Kugelfisch]

Today was multi monster Mittwoch. I just got done with all missing 5 star HR quests that unlock arts. All of them were duo hunts and the last two were arena quests. Those were exhausting.
Uragaan, Khezu and Shogun Hermitaur. The first two at the same time, which was a pain in the moat arena as there is no fence.
The last one was in the regular arena. Cephadrome, Arzuros, Iodrome, Lagombi and Volvidon.

I don't like arena quests. They can be very tedious.

[Guest]

Rise is coming to PC next year.

[VoiceOfReasonPast]

I see MonHun World was just a proof-of-concept.

[Kugelfisch]

Hardly surprising, seeing how many copies they sold.

[Kugelfisch]

Hyper monsters are varying kinds of bullshit. Yian Kut-Ku is insufferable to fight when it's head and tail are in hyper mode. Nothing but spinning and extra fast pecking.

At least I am finally getting some hyper materials to upgrade some weapons some more.
I'll likely also get to 7 star HR today.

Most hunts that unlock arts are multi monster arena quests, some against five large ones. I think I'll do those much later with G-rank gear. I don't see how I could solo those right now with the damage I do.

[Kugelfisch]

Two key quests and the urgent away from 8 star HR, the last one before G-Rank. So, am I just going to do that tomorrow?
Of course not!

See, I got some stuff upgraded, made Duramboros armour and just did the key quest against a Glavenus. I noticed two things.
First, I got really good in perfect blocking it's attacks. Fun fight!
Second, I lack a good set that isn't -15 to fire.

The Glavenus set looks fantastic, is good against fire and I can get +2 sharpness on it very easily.
I think it might take about eight Glavenus hunts for the set, parts to upgrade the weapon and the parts for the decorations. Maybe ten.
Tomorrow it's Glavenus hunting time!

[Guest]

Get a job.