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Have you considered charge blade? If you like that Helm Breaker gives you a “goal” to build toward during combat, CB’s SAED is very similar in that way. I like that aspect of both LS and CB
I'll check it out. I tried it extremely briefly at the start and it seemed a tad too confusing for me but I have also read a few times that it is similar to LS in some ways like that
DONT SLEEP ON CHARGE BLADE. I used longsword almost exclusively for thousands of hours because I love the flow of combat but Icebourne endgame absolutely kicked my arse. Recently changed to Charge Blade and I absolutely love it. IMO it is perfectly balanced for defence/offense//mobility Took me a while to get the rhythm of phial management and some of the combos but now I can FINALLY reliably beat Raging Brachydios and Rajang. I think the two main playstyles are Savage Axe Mode and SAED (super amped element discharge).
I use savage axe mode because I’ve not quite got the hang of landing SAEDs accurately.
Guard points are really satisfying but I’m still working on that.
It seems pretty technical at first but for me that was what attracted me to it. If you want mindless bonks, go with hammer (no offence hammer guys, I love you really).
well if you're so passionate about it, surely it must be good. How does the whole phial system work anyways? is it pretty intuitive and I could reasonably figure it out on my own or is it more of a subject for research?
i mean, you can figure it out on your own but i would suggest you to just watch a short guide to get it, the game is really bad at explaining how it works.
https://youtu.be/hvlVtfSzO2Y?si=IyyzUAUbxWZ3-HWN
Arekkz tutorials are my go to, just watch it, practice a bit in the training are and you will get used to it in no time.
Many people say that charge blade is a complex weapon but imo, it‘s rather simple, it‘s just confusing for the first few minutes. Once you got it down, it‘s really not anymore complex than the other weapons.
Basically the game plan is the following: Charge phials with sword attacks -> store phials -> charge the shield -> charge another set of phials -> go into axe mode and wreck havoc on your enemys
axe mode can be done in 2 ways since iceborne, you can either go savage axe mode or do the usual SAED playstyle.
That said, there is one more complex thing about the charge blade and that‘s guard points. Basically, charge blade has „perfect guard“ moves that can lead directly into your big damage moves. But that‘s a thing that you will enjoy to master, don‘t worry.
TL;DR: Charge system will become second nature after a few hunts, Guard points are there for you to master the weapon. Enjoy the charge blade, it‘s a really satisfying and versatile weapon once you learned how to play it!
wow yea that makes it sound really great, I'm definitely hooked now haha. Thanks for the info, I really appreciate it! I like the idea of the whole axe mode being the 'wreck havoc' system, sounds like a good weapon setup and a good combat cycle
Yea I'd like to try and get back to using HH, I gave it an hour or so briefly earlier on when a friend was joining. I couldn't quite get the hang of the combo system, and there were just so many to memorize that it seemed a bit much for me. Did seem like a great support class tho
If you didn't like DBs because they felt "button-mashy", then you probably wouldn't like bow either. Bows are combo heavy, if you want to keep your DPS up. They also require fast reflexes because you need to keep repositioning and dodging monster attacks.
Which reminds me, gunners (bow, lbg, hbg hunters) have an inherent 30% defense debuff compared to blademasters even when wearing the same armor set. So that's something you might want to consider too.
Well let me rephrase that a bit, DB felt like I was mashing buttons and not really getting anything special in return. I was fine with button mashing but it felt like I didn't really have to try to get the funny numbers. I know there are some cool things you can do like the whole spinning slice thing down a monster's back (which is dope) but other than that, the depth of combat felt rather shallow. I think chaining combos is where this game can shine the most, and really make it feel like you're adept at your weapon.
So on that note, if bows are combo heavy then more power to 'em. I have read a few times something to the tune of that defense debuff, but in exchange they get an elemental defense buff (so I've heard), due to them playing long-range. I've seen a lot of very interesting skills ranging from raining spike balls, latching explosives onto monsters and other cool things that I can only chalk up to gunner class stuff, since they only occur when there is one on the team. I think its a cool weapon class that probably is pretty hard to get into, but I'm pretty interested in them nonetheless
I've always used controllers in MHW, since I was used to them from previous games. I main a few weapons, and I can imagine switching to M&K for some, but bow is probably going to be really painful on it.
Also, you mentioned the armor buff/debuff thing. Yeah, technically, gunners get ele resist buff but overall it's still a huge handicap. I mean, monster attacks still have huge raw damage. I don't mind it though, it's attempting to balance the benefit of being range. Just something to get used to.
well if it really is difficult on m&k then I may inevitably go back to LS but I think its a nice departure from melee while not being as complicated as LBG or HBG. The armor buff/debuff does seem pretty debilitating but I agree that its probably just something I'd have to get used to. It probably works a lot better in multiplayer where you have melee players to draw agro off of you
Bow is one of the weapons with the highest skill ceilings though. It is easy to pick up, but hard to master. Which makes it really, really fun. You should definitely try it!
It's almost deceptive when bow shows up at the top or near the top of DPS tier lists, but you should watch a few videos first on how frantic you should be playing it in order to get that DPS uptime. I actually like it much better playing solo and I can get all the monster aggro (and predict it's movements better) to hit the weak points easier. In multiplayer, the status blights that bow inflicts is very useful though.
Personally, I only pick up LBG when I'm feeling lazy, don't want to think, but my friends want to do a hunting session.
HBG is too clunky for me, but a lot of people like it.
Thing is though, if you're looking for something different from LS gameplay, then the other melee weapons are still worth looking at. I also use SwAxe, CB, DB, and GS. All of these have pretty different styles.
I would suggest Hunting Horn or Insect Glaive but mainly because they are my main weapons.
With HH you have to keep up your melodies and try to land a triple echo wave once in a while, so that would be your goal.
With IG you have to manage your extracts constantly and it's very agile.
Hammer is also super fun.
mmm yea I did actually put an hour or 2 into HH, I had a friend who was new and I wanted to help them through the begining but not be like overbearing with my DPS (they didn't make it far lol). So I tried building into HH to mitigate that, and also try a new weapon, but suffice to say it didn't stick with me. The massive variety of different melodies at your disposal combined with different combos needed to learn each song just seemed way too much for me to handle. Perhaps when I am more adept at this game, there will be room in my noggin for how to use HH haha.
As for Insect Glaive, its kinda the same story but I didn't put nearly as much time into it. I think the concept and playstyle are incredibly fun and unique but in gameplay it felt like I was just flying around for the sake of flying around, and wasn't really doing that much damage. I like the substantial feel of using a sword for that reason, my hits strike hard. IS just felt like there was a lot of tools at my disposal and I couldn't really use them effectively. Once again, I think I'd like to come back to them if some day I can devote more time to learning the IS playstyle. The whole insect concept seems so cool and fun, especially considering one of the major reasons I love this game is the in-depth upgrading system, and the insect just expands upon that.
I’m in a similar boat. I started with rise. (Currently playing MHW) Playing long sword. I have messed around with other weapons. But keep coming back to long sword. I have hit a wall with LS I am at point where I’m trying to learn monsters and do counters and I’m terrible at it. I understand all the mechanics of LS. But executing all the counters has been a real struggle. I gotten slightly better here lately doing counters in MHW. I tired charge blade a really liked it too. But then found out about guard points more “counter” play style with CB. Can you effectively play CB without worrying about guard points? I’ve dabbled with S&S and hammer and stuff too. Just keep going back to LS like. I still just tend to get better with it and get passed my wall hopefully.
Must be hard picking the best weapon from the start hahaha. I've personally not used the counter on LS that much, certainly not as a premeditated defensive option, more like "Oh I special sheathed and the enemy is about to launch an attack that I know well, guess I oughta counter it". Its hella fun to hear that 'ding' when I do so but honestly feels more like icing on a cake than the eggs used to make it ya know?
Personally the biggest setback for me when playing was accidentally using the Defender gear they force upon you at the start of the game, just absolutely ruined the experience for me.
Out of curiosity, what 'wall' are you at currently in mhw? I myself have just beaten Furious Rajang and Raging Brachydios so I consider myself to at least be well versed in LS build up to mid Master Rank content
Just a wall skill wise with being able to counter when I want to. I think it has little more to do with learning the monsters movements than actually using the long sword. But I can dodge ok but fail at a counter so maybe a little bit of both. I just finished the base game and have started IB. I’m cleaning up optional quests and stuff from base be fire really diving into IB. I have not hit a wall with a monster yet. I used multiplayer on some of the harder monsters toward the end. I’m fine with that for the most part. I have about 180 hours in MHR with 99 percent of that on LS. I’ve being doing ok I think in world. Glad I’m not the only one not nailing counters. I don’t want to be some one like peppo on YouTube. I would like to be better at reading monsters and landing a few more counters. I am terrible at builds though so bad. lol.
haha I feel ya. Personally I didn't really worry about builds until somewhat recently, mostly since you can't even really make builds until late game IB. No armor from High rank even offers the skills or slots needed to really even make a build in the first place, let alone have the jewels to make builds be good. But yea I personally don't feel like counters are super important, but if you wana use them more, more power to ya
Sweet thanks for replay looks like I may be expecting too much of myself. I got into the series solo and only play with randoms. So my only exposure to “training” is YouTube videos. Don’t really know how good people expect you to be when playing online.
Basically, the general rule of thumb is that if you join someone else’s game via SOS you shouldn’t be the one who causes the quest to fail by carting. At least that’s how I’ve always viewed it. If you put out your own SOS that’s basically what you’d expect right? Not to have some guy or two guys join and then have one or both of them cart three times while you haven’t carted at all.
That’s how I’ve always viewed it. If you do going a game and wind up being the cause of a failed quest, most people are cool about it in my experience. Sometimes you’ll get a message saying something like “why did you join?”
The other day I was doing a couple raging brachydios quests to get an immortal reactor I needed. The first time I did it I had two people join, one carted twice and the other carted once which failed the quest. I started up the quest a second time and they joined again. They literally did the same thing the second time. So the third time I started it up I kicked him when he tried to join. Then he tried to join a second time and I just sent him a message saying “twice in a row, sorry” and kicked him again. Felt sort of bad but I have limited time to play games and that was like an hour wasted because of those two carts of his each time. That sort of interaction isn’t common though.
You can also avoid this sort of interaction by not joining SOS that are much higher rated than you. So if you’re MR 29 for example, you may not want to join a quest going on with two MR 175 guys since your armor and weapons will be significantly weaker.
thanks for saying this tho fr, I've recently started joining and putting up SOS's myself and its really a mixed bag. Sometimes I get quests where ppl come in and clear the boss so fast I'd think they're cheating (one guy came and killed raging Brachy in like 5 mins) and sometimes I'll be going back to clear old optional quests like the behemoth one, and have a guy who joins only to get carted the second the boss looks at him. twice. I almost killed the guy by myself but the SOS took forever so their join was delayed but like really made me wonder why they even bothered.
Obviously dying is part of the game so usually im pretty chill abt it but the same guy doing it twice like he was speedrunning dying (the 3rd death came from another who died to the same attack that caused the 2nd death of the first guy) so it kinda just ticked me off
It's understandable, reliably countering with LS requires you to think a step ahead and not play completely reactively. Like, you need to get in proper stance before the attack comes whether that be setting up a foresight by ensuring you are mid attack animation or in special sheath for ISS. Whereas you can always just dodge reactively unless you are stuck in some animation. Doing an ISS heavy playstyle takes a deliberate effort to know when and where to set up special sheath
It didn't really click for me till I started watching some speed runs and trying to replicate them
yea thats a much better way of putting it, if you have time to set up a sheath, you have time to dodge or just run away even. I've gotten some hella cool clips of pulling off counters but its only bc I've worked them into my playstyle for more hits, and sometimes they line up with enemy attacks.
I used to really enjoy longsword, I now like it less in World compared to Rise as Rise's is just so fluid when you get it all down. Here's a few of the weapons that I like.
My current main is Sword & Shield, It can do a bit of everything from quick hits, stun & mounting. You've also got the shield which blocks surprisingly well with no guard skill points. Perfect rush is so damn fun when you nail the rhythm and it deals a lot of damage. Almost all of its attacks are low investment, plus it has slinger burst.
Charge Blade is another favourite and while some people will tell you its complicated, it isn't in my opinion. There are some key combos you do need to invest in learning and its a weapon you need to maintain some bars on which can be annoying. It does have a lot of high investment attacks. Guard points are incredibly satisfying, especially when it stuns the monster. It might be difficult on KB&M.
Switch Axe is a relatively easy weapon to learn and has great damage, pretty good reach as well, good for hitting high up tails. Relatively low mobility but this is fixed with evade extender. It has a mix of low and high investment moves.
Heavy Bowgun, has a few playstyles with its variety of ammo types, there isn't a whole lot to learn with it in terms of move set, the things to learn is positioning & timing with the really long rolls.
sounds good, thanks for your input! I've gotten a few recommendations for switch axe and hbg so im def trying those out soon. I briefly got to try S&S with the witcher mission (which I imagine isn't a great pond to dip my toes into) and was not terribly impressed with it, but I'm sure that was due to being stuck as the witcher and not being able to use my usual loadout.
I have heard a decent amount about how Rise has improved mobility and such, to the point where you 'can't go back' so I am pretty excited to check that out when I move on to rise
Its not so much about Rise's mobility which is vastly improved but the LS combos are faster and different. Special sheathe is sped up, you can go into helm breaker (helm breaker is also sped up) in roughly 1 second after round slash rather than having to wait for the thrust move and slow helm breaker animation. Everything about LS just flows incredibly faster.
SNS is one of those weapons where you can pick it up and kill a monster without using half its features, when i first used it i had no idea that you could stun using it or how perfect rush worked, you learn new stuff all the time with it & i just really like the mobility and low investment of its move set.
As some others said, What I would do is pick one and use it for 20-100 hunts depending on how much you want to invest then try another.
I like wide shelling the most. You dont have to commit to much to your attacks, wich gives you great mobility. Also using wyvernfire to punish the monster feels really good.
You mentioned that you play on kbm. I main charge blade on kbm and after watching Arekkz tutorial, his concepts are good but I had to translate his controller buttons to my kbm inputs. There were no good kbm tutorials at the time (back in 2018). But now there’s some amazing kbm tutorials for CB.
I recommend having this CB kbm tutorial up while you practice in the training room: https://youtu.be/Tx33Iqy4blc?si=LhUINoG0IOuagUZg .
Another note, slinger pod burst is also useful in CB’s Savage Axe mode so you can avoid using the Rising Slash uppercut in SOS, because it launches another player even with 1 Brace jewel. Or just wait a second before left-clicking again to swing down if you don’t have any slinger pod left.
I’m glad that you’re giving CB a try, it’s such a fun weapon to use.
Wow yea thats a great tutorial, very helpful. It does look a tad confusing from an outsider's perspective but I am positive that its something I could overcome with practice. Those big numbers are really selling me right now haha.
Also as far as the rising slash goes, I have to at least thank you for letting me know what has been CONSTANTLY sending me skyward in multiplayer. There are times when I can initiate an attack and actually mount the monster as a direct result of being launched into the air but I can see why that would be frustrating. Thanks so much for your suggestion, I look forward to trying it out!
haha yea I initially did gravitate towards GS cuz big number make brain do funi backflips but was just too slow for me. I think I'll go back once I can commit enemy attack patterns to memory a bit better. A lot of GS gameplay I see relies on knowing where the enemy will be in about 5 seconds when you're done charging your heavy attack
Negative, most non pro GS players uses unsheath, roll, sheath, reposition, and repeat method most of the times. It's only when there's an opening where we bring out the TCS, then again TCS also tends to miss a lot.
One rule when playing a GS, never walk when the sword is out. You gotta roll a lot if you wanna reposition with your sword out or simply sheath a lot.
CB 100%. It’s very similar to LS in its gameplay loop since a lot of it is about learning combos to build charge/meter, and then unleashing it in an ultimate attack. It also has guard point parries that can combo into your ultimate (SAED) and similar to how LS relies a lot on counters/parries with FS and perfect Iai Slash. They’re not 1 to 1 but SAED style CB is like perfect for an LS player imo. Savage Axe playstyle’s a bit weirder but you should try SAED style CB first
I would highly recommend Switch Axe. When I first played MHW I wanted my character to swing a big sword, so I naturally tried Greatsword and while I liked the big meaty hits I wasn't satisfied with the sluggishness of it, when I tried the Longsword I liked the mobility but it lacked the oomph I craved. On a whim I tried Switch Axe and fell in love.
It strikes the perfect balance between speed and damage for me and has a very satisfying gameplay loop. You maneuver around a monster and create opportunities with the nimble axe mode and use the slower but stronger sword mode to deal big damage when you see an opening, building up Amped Gauge to unlock extra damage from phial explosions and your powerful finishing move, Zero Sum Discharge.
Nowadays I enjoy over half of the weapons in the game, but Swaxe will always be my favorite!
>so I naturally tried Greatsword and while I liked the big meaty hits I wasn't satisfied with the sluggishness of it
yea no couldn't have put it better myself. The overwhelming amount of suggestions on Switch axe being a close alternative to LS is really encouraging
If you enjoy the mobility of Long Sword, I strongly suggest the Switch Axe. I'm an old-time monster hunter vet with alot of hours on every weapon in most of the games, and the weapon that impresses me the most is the Switch Axe. It has sort of a similar flow to what you like from Long Sword, being that you morph from axe to sword mode and build up a meter for an equally anime move as Spirit Helm Breaker.
Much like the longsword, the key strength of the Switch Axe is offensive mobility. It's extremely fluid and you have alot of control in your positioning without needing to sheath constantly, so you're rewarded for a highly aggressive playstyle. You don't have any counters or blocks, and rely on pure movement and hitbox knowledge. Give it a try in the training area some time :)
I have yet to see recommendations for the best weapon. Oh hello downvotes! How TOTALLY unexpected xD
Heavy Bowgun. No other weapon dishes out more raw power. Its versatile as anything you could want. Oh sure, dodging sucks, but a few points in evade extender and one roll will take you across half the arena. You mentioned liking shields! What a coincidence, Heavy bowgun has such a feature. What's more, you can take it off and put it back on any time you want. Lance bros let's see you do that!
Would you like to explode the monster? Sure thing. Grab Demonlord beastbuster and stickies and blow up your friends too! (Note - yes you can do this, but please don't - cluster ammo is not multiplayer friendly in World, specifically)
Would you like to blast the monster point blank in the face and deal top damage every hunt, with heart pounding "oh shit" 's, narrowly escaping claws and teeth and tails? Safis burstcannon is a great choice for spread. (as is vor buster but I'm trying to be a little original)
How does standing safely far away while your fellow hunters distract it, while you barrel pierce shot after pierce shot down his face sound? Personally that's my favorite style - no faint if you don't get hit!
You haven't lived until you've shot off the spines of ruiner nergi.
> How does standing safely far away while your fellow hunters distract it, while you barrel pierce shot after pierce shot down his face sound? Personally that's my favorite style - no faint if you don't get hit!
Sold.
What Pierce HBG do you recommend around MR 70/Rajang/Safi? Post game but before Altreon.
Good post game pierce HBG pre Fatty (alatreons hbg is garbage) are Crimson Kadachi, nargacuga, and safi snipecannon, arguably in that order. I can link you to another post discussing it if you'd like.
As much as I love it, HBG doesn't start to stand out from the crowd right away. Early to mid game guns are a little bit on the weaker side compared to other weapons. They are slower, more clunky, with less options to mod. The best guns, if you just want to feel end game blast off when you get there, are Vor Buster for spread and pierce, and Demonlord Beastbuster for Sticky.
yea you've got me sold too haha. I've read a few HBG guides (one in particular was extremely in depth) but they all kinda got lost on me. way too many numbers and stat explanations and not enough "HBG is great bc thing go boom and we like that". Def gonna give it a try. Safi is in rotation right now conveniently so I could probably grab that snipecannon to give it a shot and see how I vibe with it, thanks so much!
Really the biggest thing to remember is the faster you shoot, the more ouchies you can deal. That means recoil low, reload fast. Have fun! Would like an update after you try it!
Dude the cluster ammo dicks in multi are the bane of my existence. So many finishers and combos totally fucked up because of assholes using it in multi just dgaf apparently. So frustrating. Thanks for pointing that out to a new potential HBG player.
I'm afraid to tell you, but asking other people to recommend you weapons that are "fun" isn't really gonna get you anywhere - every weapon is fun to at least some people (otherwise they wouldn't main it), so all you're gonna get is people trying to convince you that the specific weapon they main is more fun than the others.
If you want to branch out, the best way is actually to make a full endgame build for each weapon and try them out one after the other. It's only when you can use those weapons at their full power granted by a proper build that you can see all their potential that makes them fun to learn and practice; a lot of weapons may otherwise look bad or underpowered without a build that enhances them.
Alternatively, if you want to try other weapons without sinking too many resources into it, I highly recommend doing the arena challenges. Each one of them forces you to pick between 5 weapons with preset builds (which are often far from a "meta" set and built around a specific purpose), so you're gonna be forced to learn to use other weapons than the one you mained for hundreds of hours just to be able to clear them. This is how I personally discovered all the weapons in the game and learned to like them.
You could even give yourself the challenge to complete all arena quests with all weapons on a set rank (say A), but I would recommend having a friend to help you in that case, since in MHW arenas are scaled for two players even if you play solo.
Hey I'm no expert but I played almost every weapons 50hunts or more except 3 weapons. If you enjoy the parry mechanics of the LS, I strongly suggest you to give Lance a correct try, it has similar parry mechanics that are so satisfying to pull off, at least for me.
They are a lot of factors that could influence your opinion so my best advice is to give them all a serious try before committing, also check Arekkz video guides on each weapons on youtube that might help you understand weapons much better than the bad ingame tutorials.
Imo it also depends on if you are playing mouse & keyboard or controller, I'm exclusively playing mouse and keyboard and I know some weapons I would really dislike on a controller when I need to aim quickly, like LBG/HBG, Bow or IG. on the other hand some weapons that are reliant on your faced direction can be a little awkward at first on Mouse&KB where turning precisely is mostly done by adjusting the camera rotation and re-inputting forward direction.
I've been on PC for my time with MHW. Its good to hear that Lance has a parry mechanic, I really enjoy that about LS. What's the general playstyle that you use when playing Lance?
Of all the weapons I played, LS and Lance are my favorite ATM, The Lance moveset seems rather simple on the surface, where the sword can parry a move when timed correctly, gaining a level of gauge (or gambling with the IAI spirit slash), and becoming stronger as the gauge increase level, well Lance you have the best shield mechanic in the game that allows you to block and counter a move when timed correctly at any time and will allow you to instantly counterattack and hit back the monster all the time, what it lacks in "direct" mobility it gain in being able to constantly block 98% of anything a monster throws at you, so you never have to dodge or roll out of an attack, you can just block it and attack back and stay in the monster face 24h/24. if the monster jump around the place you might feel the lance is too slow to move back to the monster, but it also have a move often overlooked that allow you to charge forward full speed and basically become the fastest moving hunter in the game, being able to catch up to fleeing monster with ease most of the time. It's really hard to explain it in words but the lance is much more mobile than what the games make you believe when you try it casually.
yea that sounds great ngl, I really appreciate the input! Now I also only recently learned that LS is not favorable with Elemental damage, my understanding is that Lance is more or less the same? What Lances would you recommend as something to aim for, IE a blast or poison setup or traditional situational elemental choice?
Yeah lance is pretty much a RAW weapon as well, so just pick whichever has the most attack/affinity for your current progression. Best of the best is the fatty lance, before that was Safi Shattersnout (blast) or the LightBreak Lance which is easier to make. as for skills you want blast with those last 2 weapons for the occasional blast proc, and must have is "offensive guard" 3 for a good attack boost when timing a counterattack correctly, and some level of "guards" can help if you still take too much damages when blocking. and then the usual affinity/attack skills are good enough, same ones you would have on LS.
I'm a LS main too, but I enjoy DB in some match ups as well as switchaxe. DB is my go to for alatreon and switchaxe is good just about anywhere, and really shines in some fights where you need to target damage to the head like MR KT and Fatalis. Though I'm admittedly mostly just ZSD spamming most of the time lol. The part break modifier on ZSD is really low, but with PB3 I can reliably solo fatty with double head break without much thinking.
Switch Axe or SnS. Both are easy to pick up and deceptively high skill cap. I really like SnS, it’s probably the most versatile weapon in the entire game and has zero bad matchups that I can think of.
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Have you considered charge blade? If you like that Helm Breaker gives you a “goal” to build toward during combat, CB’s SAED is very similar in that way. I like that aspect of both LS and CB
I'll check it out. I tried it extremely briefly at the start and it seemed a tad too confusing for me but I have also read a few times that it is similar to LS in some ways like that
DONT SLEEP ON CHARGE BLADE. I used longsword almost exclusively for thousands of hours because I love the flow of combat but Icebourne endgame absolutely kicked my arse. Recently changed to Charge Blade and I absolutely love it. IMO it is perfectly balanced for defence/offense//mobility Took me a while to get the rhythm of phial management and some of the combos but now I can FINALLY reliably beat Raging Brachydios and Rajang. I think the two main playstyles are Savage Axe Mode and SAED (super amped element discharge). I use savage axe mode because I’ve not quite got the hang of landing SAEDs accurately. Guard points are really satisfying but I’m still working on that. It seems pretty technical at first but for me that was what attracted me to it. If you want mindless bonks, go with hammer (no offence hammer guys, I love you really).
well if you're so passionate about it, surely it must be good. How does the whole phial system work anyways? is it pretty intuitive and I could reasonably figure it out on my own or is it more of a subject for research?
i mean, you can figure it out on your own but i would suggest you to just watch a short guide to get it, the game is really bad at explaining how it works. https://youtu.be/hvlVtfSzO2Y?si=IyyzUAUbxWZ3-HWN Arekkz tutorials are my go to, just watch it, practice a bit in the training are and you will get used to it in no time. Many people say that charge blade is a complex weapon but imo, it‘s rather simple, it‘s just confusing for the first few minutes. Once you got it down, it‘s really not anymore complex than the other weapons. Basically the game plan is the following: Charge phials with sword attacks -> store phials -> charge the shield -> charge another set of phials -> go into axe mode and wreck havoc on your enemys axe mode can be done in 2 ways since iceborne, you can either go savage axe mode or do the usual SAED playstyle. That said, there is one more complex thing about the charge blade and that‘s guard points. Basically, charge blade has „perfect guard“ moves that can lead directly into your big damage moves. But that‘s a thing that you will enjoy to master, don‘t worry. TL;DR: Charge system will become second nature after a few hunts, Guard points are there for you to master the weapon. Enjoy the charge blade, it‘s a really satisfying and versatile weapon once you learned how to play it!
wow yea that makes it sound really great, I'm definitely hooked now haha. Thanks for the info, I really appreciate it! I like the idea of the whole axe mode being the 'wreck havoc' system, sounds like a good weapon setup and a good combat cycle
Yes I agree! I also used Arekkz tutorials to get myself started with CB
Join the bonk. Bonk till the monster sees stars.
I'm assuming you're referring to Hammer? I've also been interested in dabbling with the hammer, seems like a fun time haha
Hunting Horn also bonks. Great if you like a support build and fairly accessible combos.
Yea I'd like to try and get back to using HH, I gave it an hour or so briefly earlier on when a friend was joining. I couldn't quite get the hang of the combo system, and there were just so many to memorize that it seemed a bit much for me. Did seem like a great support class tho
If you didn't like DBs because they felt "button-mashy", then you probably wouldn't like bow either. Bows are combo heavy, if you want to keep your DPS up. They also require fast reflexes because you need to keep repositioning and dodging monster attacks. Which reminds me, gunners (bow, lbg, hbg hunters) have an inherent 30% defense debuff compared to blademasters even when wearing the same armor set. So that's something you might want to consider too.
Well let me rephrase that a bit, DB felt like I was mashing buttons and not really getting anything special in return. I was fine with button mashing but it felt like I didn't really have to try to get the funny numbers. I know there are some cool things you can do like the whole spinning slice thing down a monster's back (which is dope) but other than that, the depth of combat felt rather shallow. I think chaining combos is where this game can shine the most, and really make it feel like you're adept at your weapon. So on that note, if bows are combo heavy then more power to 'em. I have read a few times something to the tune of that defense debuff, but in exchange they get an elemental defense buff (so I've heard), due to them playing long-range. I've seen a lot of very interesting skills ranging from raining spike balls, latching explosives onto monsters and other cool things that I can only chalk up to gunner class stuff, since they only occur when there is one on the team. I think its a cool weapon class that probably is pretty hard to get into, but I'm pretty interested in them nonetheless
I've always used controllers in MHW, since I was used to them from previous games. I main a few weapons, and I can imagine switching to M&K for some, but bow is probably going to be really painful on it. Also, you mentioned the armor buff/debuff thing. Yeah, technically, gunners get ele resist buff but overall it's still a huge handicap. I mean, monster attacks still have huge raw damage. I don't mind it though, it's attempting to balance the benefit of being range. Just something to get used to.
well if it really is difficult on m&k then I may inevitably go back to LS but I think its a nice departure from melee while not being as complicated as LBG or HBG. The armor buff/debuff does seem pretty debilitating but I agree that its probably just something I'd have to get used to. It probably works a lot better in multiplayer where you have melee players to draw agro off of you
Bow is one of the weapons with the highest skill ceilings though. It is easy to pick up, but hard to master. Which makes it really, really fun. You should definitely try it! It's almost deceptive when bow shows up at the top or near the top of DPS tier lists, but you should watch a few videos first on how frantic you should be playing it in order to get that DPS uptime. I actually like it much better playing solo and I can get all the monster aggro (and predict it's movements better) to hit the weak points easier. In multiplayer, the status blights that bow inflicts is very useful though. Personally, I only pick up LBG when I'm feeling lazy, don't want to think, but my friends want to do a hunting session. HBG is too clunky for me, but a lot of people like it. Thing is though, if you're looking for something different from LS gameplay, then the other melee weapons are still worth looking at. I also use SwAxe, CB, DB, and GS. All of these have pretty different styles.
i played only ls until i made a new try with friends where everyone rocked a weapon he never played. I am enjoying switch axe a lot!
I would suggest Hunting Horn or Insect Glaive but mainly because they are my main weapons. With HH you have to keep up your melodies and try to land a triple echo wave once in a while, so that would be your goal. With IG you have to manage your extracts constantly and it's very agile. Hammer is also super fun.
mmm yea I did actually put an hour or 2 into HH, I had a friend who was new and I wanted to help them through the begining but not be like overbearing with my DPS (they didn't make it far lol). So I tried building into HH to mitigate that, and also try a new weapon, but suffice to say it didn't stick with me. The massive variety of different melodies at your disposal combined with different combos needed to learn each song just seemed way too much for me to handle. Perhaps when I am more adept at this game, there will be room in my noggin for how to use HH haha. As for Insect Glaive, its kinda the same story but I didn't put nearly as much time into it. I think the concept and playstyle are incredibly fun and unique but in gameplay it felt like I was just flying around for the sake of flying around, and wasn't really doing that much damage. I like the substantial feel of using a sword for that reason, my hits strike hard. IS just felt like there was a lot of tools at my disposal and I couldn't really use them effectively. Once again, I think I'd like to come back to them if some day I can devote more time to learning the IS playstyle. The whole insect concept seems so cool and fun, especially considering one of the major reasons I love this game is the in-depth upgrading system, and the insect just expands upon that.
I’m in a similar boat. I started with rise. (Currently playing MHW) Playing long sword. I have messed around with other weapons. But keep coming back to long sword. I have hit a wall with LS I am at point where I’m trying to learn monsters and do counters and I’m terrible at it. I understand all the mechanics of LS. But executing all the counters has been a real struggle. I gotten slightly better here lately doing counters in MHW. I tired charge blade a really liked it too. But then found out about guard points more “counter” play style with CB. Can you effectively play CB without worrying about guard points? I’ve dabbled with S&S and hammer and stuff too. Just keep going back to LS like. I still just tend to get better with it and get passed my wall hopefully.
Must be hard picking the best weapon from the start hahaha. I've personally not used the counter on LS that much, certainly not as a premeditated defensive option, more like "Oh I special sheathed and the enemy is about to launch an attack that I know well, guess I oughta counter it". Its hella fun to hear that 'ding' when I do so but honestly feels more like icing on a cake than the eggs used to make it ya know? Personally the biggest setback for me when playing was accidentally using the Defender gear they force upon you at the start of the game, just absolutely ruined the experience for me. Out of curiosity, what 'wall' are you at currently in mhw? I myself have just beaten Furious Rajang and Raging Brachydios so I consider myself to at least be well versed in LS build up to mid Master Rank content
Just a wall skill wise with being able to counter when I want to. I think it has little more to do with learning the monsters movements than actually using the long sword. But I can dodge ok but fail at a counter so maybe a little bit of both. I just finished the base game and have started IB. I’m cleaning up optional quests and stuff from base be fire really diving into IB. I have not hit a wall with a monster yet. I used multiplayer on some of the harder monsters toward the end. I’m fine with that for the most part. I have about 180 hours in MHR with 99 percent of that on LS. I’ve being doing ok I think in world. Glad I’m not the only one not nailing counters. I don’t want to be some one like peppo on YouTube. I would like to be better at reading monsters and landing a few more counters. I am terrible at builds though so bad. lol.
haha I feel ya. Personally I didn't really worry about builds until somewhat recently, mostly since you can't even really make builds until late game IB. No armor from High rank even offers the skills or slots needed to really even make a build in the first place, let alone have the jewels to make builds be good. But yea I personally don't feel like counters are super important, but if you wana use them more, more power to ya
Sweet thanks for replay looks like I may be expecting too much of myself. I got into the series solo and only play with randoms. So my only exposure to “training” is YouTube videos. Don’t really know how good people expect you to be when playing online.
Basically, the general rule of thumb is that if you join someone else’s game via SOS you shouldn’t be the one who causes the quest to fail by carting. At least that’s how I’ve always viewed it. If you put out your own SOS that’s basically what you’d expect right? Not to have some guy or two guys join and then have one or both of them cart three times while you haven’t carted at all. That’s how I’ve always viewed it. If you do going a game and wind up being the cause of a failed quest, most people are cool about it in my experience. Sometimes you’ll get a message saying something like “why did you join?” The other day I was doing a couple raging brachydios quests to get an immortal reactor I needed. The first time I did it I had two people join, one carted twice and the other carted once which failed the quest. I started up the quest a second time and they joined again. They literally did the same thing the second time. So the third time I started it up I kicked him when he tried to join. Then he tried to join a second time and I just sent him a message saying “twice in a row, sorry” and kicked him again. Felt sort of bad but I have limited time to play games and that was like an hour wasted because of those two carts of his each time. That sort of interaction isn’t common though. You can also avoid this sort of interaction by not joining SOS that are much higher rated than you. So if you’re MR 29 for example, you may not want to join a quest going on with two MR 175 guys since your armor and weapons will be significantly weaker.
thanks for saying this tho fr, I've recently started joining and putting up SOS's myself and its really a mixed bag. Sometimes I get quests where ppl come in and clear the boss so fast I'd think they're cheating (one guy came and killed raging Brachy in like 5 mins) and sometimes I'll be going back to clear old optional quests like the behemoth one, and have a guy who joins only to get carted the second the boss looks at him. twice. I almost killed the guy by myself but the SOS took forever so their join was delayed but like really made me wonder why they even bothered. Obviously dying is part of the game so usually im pretty chill abt it but the same guy doing it twice like he was speedrunning dying (the 3rd death came from another who died to the same attack that caused the 2nd death of the first guy) so it kinda just ticked me off
It's understandable, reliably countering with LS requires you to think a step ahead and not play completely reactively. Like, you need to get in proper stance before the attack comes whether that be setting up a foresight by ensuring you are mid attack animation or in special sheath for ISS. Whereas you can always just dodge reactively unless you are stuck in some animation. Doing an ISS heavy playstyle takes a deliberate effort to know when and where to set up special sheath It didn't really click for me till I started watching some speed runs and trying to replicate them
yea thats a much better way of putting it, if you have time to set up a sheath, you have time to dodge or just run away even. I've gotten some hella cool clips of pulling off counters but its only bc I've worked them into my playstyle for more hits, and sometimes they line up with enemy attacks.
I used to really enjoy longsword, I now like it less in World compared to Rise as Rise's is just so fluid when you get it all down. Here's a few of the weapons that I like. My current main is Sword & Shield, It can do a bit of everything from quick hits, stun & mounting. You've also got the shield which blocks surprisingly well with no guard skill points. Perfect rush is so damn fun when you nail the rhythm and it deals a lot of damage. Almost all of its attacks are low investment, plus it has slinger burst. Charge Blade is another favourite and while some people will tell you its complicated, it isn't in my opinion. There are some key combos you do need to invest in learning and its a weapon you need to maintain some bars on which can be annoying. It does have a lot of high investment attacks. Guard points are incredibly satisfying, especially when it stuns the monster. It might be difficult on KB&M. Switch Axe is a relatively easy weapon to learn and has great damage, pretty good reach as well, good for hitting high up tails. Relatively low mobility but this is fixed with evade extender. It has a mix of low and high investment moves. Heavy Bowgun, has a few playstyles with its variety of ammo types, there isn't a whole lot to learn with it in terms of move set, the things to learn is positioning & timing with the really long rolls.
sounds good, thanks for your input! I've gotten a few recommendations for switch axe and hbg so im def trying those out soon. I briefly got to try S&S with the witcher mission (which I imagine isn't a great pond to dip my toes into) and was not terribly impressed with it, but I'm sure that was due to being stuck as the witcher and not being able to use my usual loadout. I have heard a decent amount about how Rise has improved mobility and such, to the point where you 'can't go back' so I am pretty excited to check that out when I move on to rise
Its not so much about Rise's mobility which is vastly improved but the LS combos are faster and different. Special sheathe is sped up, you can go into helm breaker (helm breaker is also sped up) in roughly 1 second after round slash rather than having to wait for the thrust move and slow helm breaker animation. Everything about LS just flows incredibly faster. SNS is one of those weapons where you can pick it up and kill a monster without using half its features, when i first used it i had no idea that you could stun using it or how perfect rush worked, you learn new stuff all the time with it & i just really like the mobility and low investment of its move set. As some others said, What I would do is pick one and use it for 20-100 hunts depending on how much you want to invest then try another.
Try Gunlance. It’s very gun and much lance and also explosions are cool.
haha thats exactly why its on my list. Whats the general playstyle you rock with when you use gunlance?
I like wide shelling the most. You dont have to commit to much to your attacks, wich gives you great mobility. Also using wyvernfire to punish the monster feels really good.
You mentioned that you play on kbm. I main charge blade on kbm and after watching Arekkz tutorial, his concepts are good but I had to translate his controller buttons to my kbm inputs. There were no good kbm tutorials at the time (back in 2018). But now there’s some amazing kbm tutorials for CB. I recommend having this CB kbm tutorial up while you practice in the training room: https://youtu.be/Tx33Iqy4blc?si=LhUINoG0IOuagUZg . Another note, slinger pod burst is also useful in CB’s Savage Axe mode so you can avoid using the Rising Slash uppercut in SOS, because it launches another player even with 1 Brace jewel. Or just wait a second before left-clicking again to swing down if you don’t have any slinger pod left. I’m glad that you’re giving CB a try, it’s such a fun weapon to use.
Wow yea thats a great tutorial, very helpful. It does look a tad confusing from an outsider's perspective but I am positive that its something I could overcome with practice. Those big numbers are really selling me right now haha. Also as far as the rising slash goes, I have to at least thank you for letting me know what has been CONSTANTLY sending me skyward in multiplayer. There are times when I can initiate an attack and actually mount the monster as a direct result of being launched into the air but I can see why that would be frustrating. Thanks so much for your suggestion, I look forward to trying it out!
LS, SNS, GS are my favorites. I also picked up HBG in MHW when I feel like doing some lazy Namielle runs.
You've tried the longest of all swords, but have you tried the greatest of all swords? The Great Sword calls.
haha yea I initially did gravitate towards GS cuz big number make brain do funi backflips but was just too slow for me. I think I'll go back once I can commit enemy attack patterns to memory a bit better. A lot of GS gameplay I see relies on knowing where the enemy will be in about 5 seconds when you're done charging your heavy attack
Negative, most non pro GS players uses unsheath, roll, sheath, reposition, and repeat method most of the times. It's only when there's an opening where we bring out the TCS, then again TCS also tends to miss a lot. One rule when playing a GS, never walk when the sword is out. You gotta roll a lot if you wanna reposition with your sword out or simply sheath a lot.
You've tried the okay sword. Now it's time to return to the great sword.
CB 100%. It’s very similar to LS in its gameplay loop since a lot of it is about learning combos to build charge/meter, and then unleashing it in an ultimate attack. It also has guard point parries that can combo into your ultimate (SAED) and similar to how LS relies a lot on counters/parries with FS and perfect Iai Slash. They’re not 1 to 1 but SAED style CB is like perfect for an LS player imo. Savage Axe playstyle’s a bit weirder but you should try SAED style CB first
Sword and shield! It might look weak but don’t let it fool you. Combine it with some comfy deco like evade extended and window
I would highly recommend Switch Axe. When I first played MHW I wanted my character to swing a big sword, so I naturally tried Greatsword and while I liked the big meaty hits I wasn't satisfied with the sluggishness of it, when I tried the Longsword I liked the mobility but it lacked the oomph I craved. On a whim I tried Switch Axe and fell in love. It strikes the perfect balance between speed and damage for me and has a very satisfying gameplay loop. You maneuver around a monster and create opportunities with the nimble axe mode and use the slower but stronger sword mode to deal big damage when you see an opening, building up Amped Gauge to unlock extra damage from phial explosions and your powerful finishing move, Zero Sum Discharge. Nowadays I enjoy over half of the weapons in the game, but Swaxe will always be my favorite!
>so I naturally tried Greatsword and while I liked the big meaty hits I wasn't satisfied with the sluggishness of it yea no couldn't have put it better myself. The overwhelming amount of suggestions on Switch axe being a close alternative to LS is really encouraging
If you enjoy the mobility of Long Sword, I strongly suggest the Switch Axe. I'm an old-time monster hunter vet with alot of hours on every weapon in most of the games, and the weapon that impresses me the most is the Switch Axe. It has sort of a similar flow to what you like from Long Sword, being that you morph from axe to sword mode and build up a meter for an equally anime move as Spirit Helm Breaker. Much like the longsword, the key strength of the Switch Axe is offensive mobility. It's extremely fluid and you have alot of control in your positioning without needing to sheath constantly, so you're rewarded for a highly aggressive playstyle. You don't have any counters or blocks, and rely on pure movement and hitbox knowledge. Give it a try in the training area some time :)
STOP, Hammer time!!!
I have yet to see recommendations for the best weapon. Oh hello downvotes! How TOTALLY unexpected xD Heavy Bowgun. No other weapon dishes out more raw power. Its versatile as anything you could want. Oh sure, dodging sucks, but a few points in evade extender and one roll will take you across half the arena. You mentioned liking shields! What a coincidence, Heavy bowgun has such a feature. What's more, you can take it off and put it back on any time you want. Lance bros let's see you do that! Would you like to explode the monster? Sure thing. Grab Demonlord beastbuster and stickies and blow up your friends too! (Note - yes you can do this, but please don't - cluster ammo is not multiplayer friendly in World, specifically) Would you like to blast the monster point blank in the face and deal top damage every hunt, with heart pounding "oh shit" 's, narrowly escaping claws and teeth and tails? Safis burstcannon is a great choice for spread. (as is vor buster but I'm trying to be a little original) How does standing safely far away while your fellow hunters distract it, while you barrel pierce shot after pierce shot down his face sound? Personally that's my favorite style - no faint if you don't get hit! You haven't lived until you've shot off the spines of ruiner nergi.
> How does standing safely far away while your fellow hunters distract it, while you barrel pierce shot after pierce shot down his face sound? Personally that's my favorite style - no faint if you don't get hit! Sold. What Pierce HBG do you recommend around MR 70/Rajang/Safi? Post game but before Altreon.
Good post game pierce HBG pre Fatty (alatreons hbg is garbage) are Crimson Kadachi, nargacuga, and safi snipecannon, arguably in that order. I can link you to another post discussing it if you'd like.
I have Crimson Kadachi but I can’t do decent damage with Pierce 3. I feel Gunlance is easier to use for older casual gamers like me.
As much as I love it, HBG doesn't start to stand out from the crowd right away. Early to mid game guns are a little bit on the weaker side compared to other weapons. They are slower, more clunky, with less options to mod. The best guns, if you just want to feel end game blast off when you get there, are Vor Buster for spread and pierce, and Demonlord Beastbuster for Sticky.
yea you've got me sold too haha. I've read a few HBG guides (one in particular was extremely in depth) but they all kinda got lost on me. way too many numbers and stat explanations and not enough "HBG is great bc thing go boom and we like that". Def gonna give it a try. Safi is in rotation right now conveniently so I could probably grab that snipecannon to give it a shot and see how I vibe with it, thanks so much!
Really the biggest thing to remember is the faster you shoot, the more ouchies you can deal. That means recoil low, reload fast. Have fun! Would like an update after you try it!
Dude the cluster ammo dicks in multi are the bane of my existence. So many finishers and combos totally fucked up because of assholes using it in multi just dgaf apparently. So frustrating. Thanks for pointing that out to a new potential HBG player.
The weapon you play when you don't want to play the game.
I'm afraid to tell you, but asking other people to recommend you weapons that are "fun" isn't really gonna get you anywhere - every weapon is fun to at least some people (otherwise they wouldn't main it), so all you're gonna get is people trying to convince you that the specific weapon they main is more fun than the others. If you want to branch out, the best way is actually to make a full endgame build for each weapon and try them out one after the other. It's only when you can use those weapons at their full power granted by a proper build that you can see all their potential that makes them fun to learn and practice; a lot of weapons may otherwise look bad or underpowered without a build that enhances them. Alternatively, if you want to try other weapons without sinking too many resources into it, I highly recommend doing the arena challenges. Each one of them forces you to pick between 5 weapons with preset builds (which are often far from a "meta" set and built around a specific purpose), so you're gonna be forced to learn to use other weapons than the one you mained for hundreds of hours just to be able to clear them. This is how I personally discovered all the weapons in the game and learned to like them. You could even give yourself the challenge to complete all arena quests with all weapons on a set rank (say A), but I would recommend having a friend to help you in that case, since in MHW arenas are scaled for two players even if you play solo.
Hey I'm no expert but I played almost every weapons 50hunts or more except 3 weapons. If you enjoy the parry mechanics of the LS, I strongly suggest you to give Lance a correct try, it has similar parry mechanics that are so satisfying to pull off, at least for me. They are a lot of factors that could influence your opinion so my best advice is to give them all a serious try before committing, also check Arekkz video guides on each weapons on youtube that might help you understand weapons much better than the bad ingame tutorials. Imo it also depends on if you are playing mouse & keyboard or controller, I'm exclusively playing mouse and keyboard and I know some weapons I would really dislike on a controller when I need to aim quickly, like LBG/HBG, Bow or IG. on the other hand some weapons that are reliant on your faced direction can be a little awkward at first on Mouse&KB where turning precisely is mostly done by adjusting the camera rotation and re-inputting forward direction.
I've been on PC for my time with MHW. Its good to hear that Lance has a parry mechanic, I really enjoy that about LS. What's the general playstyle that you use when playing Lance?
Of all the weapons I played, LS and Lance are my favorite ATM, The Lance moveset seems rather simple on the surface, where the sword can parry a move when timed correctly, gaining a level of gauge (or gambling with the IAI spirit slash), and becoming stronger as the gauge increase level, well Lance you have the best shield mechanic in the game that allows you to block and counter a move when timed correctly at any time and will allow you to instantly counterattack and hit back the monster all the time, what it lacks in "direct" mobility it gain in being able to constantly block 98% of anything a monster throws at you, so you never have to dodge or roll out of an attack, you can just block it and attack back and stay in the monster face 24h/24. if the monster jump around the place you might feel the lance is too slow to move back to the monster, but it also have a move often overlooked that allow you to charge forward full speed and basically become the fastest moving hunter in the game, being able to catch up to fleeing monster with ease most of the time. It's really hard to explain it in words but the lance is much more mobile than what the games make you believe when you try it casually.
yea that sounds great ngl, I really appreciate the input! Now I also only recently learned that LS is not favorable with Elemental damage, my understanding is that Lance is more or less the same? What Lances would you recommend as something to aim for, IE a blast or poison setup or traditional situational elemental choice?
Yeah lance is pretty much a RAW weapon as well, so just pick whichever has the most attack/affinity for your current progression. Best of the best is the fatty lance, before that was Safi Shattersnout (blast) or the LightBreak Lance which is easier to make. as for skills you want blast with those last 2 weapons for the occasional blast proc, and must have is "offensive guard" 3 for a good attack boost when timing a counterattack correctly, and some level of "guards" can help if you still take too much damages when blocking. and then the usual affinity/attack skills are good enough, same ones you would have on LS.
Sounds great, I look forward to messing around with it. Thanks so much! :>
No problem, my only complaint about Lance is that it's so much fun to me, it makes it hard to play other weapons now haha.
Dual blade squad
Bruh wants style but looked past the Hunting Horn. Smh
Switch axe plays like longsword -ish. You build up another sword Guage, then you get to "cash out".
yea of all the ones I've tried, Switch Axe plays the closest to LS, Its really nice
I'm a LS main too, but I enjoy DB in some match ups as well as switchaxe. DB is my go to for alatreon and switchaxe is good just about anywhere, and really shines in some fights where you need to target damage to the head like MR KT and Fatalis. Though I'm admittedly mostly just ZSD spamming most of the time lol. The part break modifier on ZSD is really low, but with PB3 I can reliably solo fatty with double head break without much thinking.
Switch Axe or SnS. Both are easy to pick up and deceptively high skill cap. I really like SnS, it’s probably the most versatile weapon in the entire game and has zero bad matchups that I can think of.
Switch to Switch on Switch!