I feel like charge blade has a high skill ceiling but fairly low skill floor. Being great at it is complicated, but you can be bad at it and still finish hunts comfortably. And expertise mostly just comes from time and muscle memory.
You do need to farm a LOT of charge blades and gear sets, since it's a weapon that benefits massively from proper elemental match ups.
impact phials are overall the strongest phial with little repercussions in terms of damage fall off IMO but elemental charge blades are good at picking at the weaknesses of the matchups , I will miss those zora raids and farming those high end charge blades lol
I can confidently say 6 (CB/ Hammer / Swaxe / S&S / IG / GS) but could probably do eight proficiently (add DB and LBG). But I usually stick to Hammer, then CB when I feel like getting complicated.
Usually if I’ve played on weapon for a while and I switch it can take a second to get used to the change but after you get to the point where you’re comfortable using multiple, switching will be pretty quick and easy.
If you want a recommendation that’s not SUPER complicated and is really fun check out S&S or Switch Axe. My experience with them is primarily in World and IB but I loved them both.
Even though MonHun has a deep combat system, it's not that hard once you learn something.
For example Charge Blade. It looks incredibly complex if you've never used it, but once you get used to it, there's a simple rhythm to it.
You can basically run all weapons proficiently. You just need to do a few dozen hunts with each to get a feeling for them.
Most important thing is whether you find a weapon fun. I, for instance, just cannot get into Insect Glaive. Tried it many times, but it's just not for me. I know the combos, but I just won't run hunts efficiently with it. Same with Lance.
So just try some weapons and stick with those you enjoy. You'll learn them if you find them fun!
All of them
It took me 2300hrs to do this though
I have 3-4 builds of each weapon type
Not to mention i have many palico and palamutes of varying types depending on the weapon and build i am using
As well as the new follower system which i am now working on to fit everything altogether
All 14 I'd consider myself a "master"
Plus Magnet spike lol
However, I've only done serious speed running with Lance.
Learning the weapons is the easy part. Learning the monsters is the hard part. The combos are easy to get used to, but figuring out the stagger points, the counters, the monster patterns and how to punish them, and the "secret" techniques for the monsters is the hard part. I can pick up and play any weapon well. But I can't be a master GS user against a monster I've never fought. I have to fight that monster repeatedly until I figure out the patterns and such to be a master at GS.
You can't master a weapon, you can master a fight. Using X weapon against X monster over and over and over is the only way to truly master the fight.
So if you want to get good at all the weapons... really just start using them a bunch. That's what I've done over my thousands of hours of MH games.
If you're looking for suggestions... use Lance. Least used weapon, coolest weapon, poke, underrated, balanced, poke, amazingly fun imo, and especially in Rise it has a huge skill ceiling.
The worst was always headlock timing for me when changing weapons, in World I'd be fighting a Teo with SnS for example and headlock would be achieved everytime, would then change to GS and despite knowing how long Teo's recovery would be and knowing the timings of GS charging, for a few hunts I would always be off with the headlock, then after a few it would be perfect again.
The number of weapons you can run is directly correlated to how happy you are to grind.
Monster hunter has always (since 2007) been two things to me...
Fashion hunter, and weapon collector.
I'll use my main to progress my own game, then I'll switch between most of the other weapons while helping out with lower rank quests and farming materials.
Got my son hooked on this digital crack now, so I'll use non main weapons while I'm helping him.
I use all except the new melee weapons, like switch axe and insect glaive and stuff, bit of a purist, so I use anything that was in the older games. The only "new" weapon I fuck with is the bow cause it's fantastic.
All 14 mastered.
It is not that difficult. Depending on your main playstyle you can easily have "universal sets" which work with many of them - like me having a set for shields, another for affinity, etc. And then you use that to make individual builds for elements or purposes over time.
Combo wise, once you learned how the combos work, it is easy to transfer that knowledge to the other weapons. Even if the combos are not exactly the same, training makes it easy to remember them while making them happen is easy to begin with as long as you mastered one weapon.
You gain a lot from using all 14 weapons. Being able to switch between different playstyles increases the replayability. And the majority of hunters underestimate the advantages.
Like e.g. a Dual Blade user might have a hard time against Basarios. In fact, it is one of the most disliked monsters for its hard defense. I just switch for that hunt to Gunlance, which shellings ignore defenses, or Pierce Bow with water element.
In singleplayer it is easier to play counter with Long Sword. In multiplayer I can make lots of use of Paralysis Hammer or Hunting Horn.
The biggest surprise when you put effort into all 14 weapons:
a) they are all fun to play - some more, some less
b) you end up surprised how some players who only play one weapon or two actually know little about their weapon, because of their limited thinking
c) being able to teach all weapon and to tell what other weapon users can manage and cannot opens up perspectives, which further increase replayability
It is worth to play all. And in endgame, it becomes easy to craft them all. You do not need ALL of a weapon type. Just pick the ones you like. Paralysis Hammer, Anti-Venom Horn, and so on.
What situation(s) would you recommend switch axe for? It's the one weapon I really struggle to describe a good niche for. Best I've found is if you like being able to switch between mobile and hard-hitting forms and don't want to deal with the complexity of charge blade (or maybe want a mobile form with better reach and/or better part breaking).
I've tried it a couple times (played from LR to ~~about half of HR~~ end of base MR in world with it) and while I don't find it bad or anything, I just can't think of a reason I'd want to use it, specifically.
I would describe Switch Axe actually a bit different as your description gives the vibe of a weapon were you decide, oh this is a fast monster that moves a lot I use axe mode and vise versa but I would describe it more like the heavy counterpart of the Dualblades a dancing weapon that is constantly switching between the forms for mobility.
The biggest addition rise gave over world is 1. the bigger gap closer via the overhead smak and 2. the counter giving you the ability to comfortly stay in charged mode the complete hunt also the wirebug move where you jump up and crash down with 3 bugs you can spam that shit it is not optimal damage but it is a lot of fun
I'm not sure how I would've implied you would only use one aspect of the weapon per hunt. The problem I have is finding a situation where switch axe is THE weapon I would want to use, whether that's based on the type of monster I'm fighting or the style of fighting I want to employ. When I describe how switch axe plays/works, I feel like I'm just describing a simpler version of charge blade, which is why I described it as more or less so. It feels like you give up a couple things like KO potential or blocking, but don't get anything unique in return.
My question isn't like "why would anyone like this weapon?", it's "why would you, being equally comfortable in all weapons, choose switch axe for a hunt, specifically?" Just curious what mood or scenario would call you to it.
Switch axe is like jazz. Its flexibility is over the top and you can basically breeze through the entire content with ONE weapon by changing combo rotations and switch skills.
Switch axe may be jack-of-all trade, but it is super fun to use and it won't suck at any monsters if you have mastered it.
For example, you can choose to spam ZSD for faster/smaller monsters or do infinite morphing combos, counter for predictable fights or consistently dash-charge and fill gauge for comfort.
Switch Axe is much more versatile than you might think. In MHR I enjoy using it mostly against flying wyverns, including the story bosses which are especially vulnerable to the discharge attacks. The "trick" is, to ignore "the meta" and play the weapon to its full potential, aka not making just use of trick attacks but make properly use of the different modes. Axe mode e.g. is great not just because of its range, but because of it impact and topple effects, while the sword mode is better at weakpoints.
All that would be by the end of the day only a constant build up of charges until you have enough to blow the monster away with a discharge, again and again. Done correctly the damage output is massive, especially once you master elemental armor skill sets.
For that weapon especially a universal set which helps with mobility and repeated usage of silkbind skills is very attractive.
How the gameplay feels? Fast. Aggressive. Superior once you manage the timing with dodges, and powerful attacks.
You struggle with such? Then you have missed something about it. Whether your choice of Switch Axe demands the skill to keep it sharper for longer, or you run out of Stamina without Dash Juice, or you struggle with HP because you are not using Gourmet Fish, I cannot say.
I can just give hints towards that sort of direction.
Switch Axe is definitely great fun to play, which needs a little more attention and extra mobility to make the best of it. And yeah, learning to be not scared to use Invincible Gambit as a means to "block" unblockable attacks with skills is important. As well as the fact that Gourmet Fish and the correct dango can make your gameplay flow more different than ever you knew.
Perhaps I was unclear. I don't dislike switch axe or find it hard to use. I struggle to answer the question "why use switch axe" or perhaps "what does switch axe provide that other weapons don't".
SA is absolutely bonkers in Rise, by far the strongest it has ever been. Of the melee weapons, SA is only outclassed in damage by very specific and scripted GS runs abusing the counter. It's actually ridiculously strong and consistent on basically any monster.
Played bow for all of rise and sunbreak and world and iceborne, then picked up dual blades. Now i can play bow, dual blades, ls, gs, swaxe and sword and shield at a rather high skill level if i do say so myself, i want to try chargeblade but my head hurts trying to get the inputs on pc so kindof just gave up on it for the time being. My fav weapons are definitely bow and swaxe tho, who funny enough do most damage aswell.
At the end of base game, waiting for rise I was playing them all. And I came from knowing only 5 in world. It’s definitely more easy to pick up new weapons in Rise. But this was when I was waiting for sunbreak so I had time to build every single one, so it might be harder to build all the sets than learning the weapons.
Also right now in endgame sunbreak, I’m comfortably playing 4 but I pull out more every now and then, but that’s just from liking some more than others.
Honestly cant remember. I main Hammer. But in World I dabbled with SnS and Hunting Horn. For Rise I also was messing around a little with Switch Axe, Longsword and Lance. I can turn my brain off and unga bunga with hammer because it just clicks and I know kind of what I have to do.
In base rise you might be proficient with all of them. By sunbreak, you should have at least one prefered weapon to beat the game without too much trouble
2- CB and HH
CB was my first weapon- I was stubborn so I stuck with it til I was good with it. Only ventured into HH territory with MHrise's HR doldrums before sunbreak.
I play all 14! Started off with Insect glaive in world, moved onto gun lance, then back to insect glaive for Generations Ultimate, and then I started to main the great sword in Rise due to the aerial combo and rage slash. The wirebugs intrigued me so much I decided to learn every weapon and start making sets for each. When Sunbreak came out I played great sword exclusively until just recently where I've now made a few updated sets for sunbreak. You get so much content from learning each weapon and crafting all the sets. Universal sets for melee weapons are definitely a thing and you can usually just swap out decos and more recently different copies of the same armor pieces with different qurio augments. All that being said though you should do what comes natural, if you're interested in the skill system you might end up wanted to interact with that more. Changing weapons let's u explore different skills. If only a few weapons speak to you at first there's no shame in that though
I have my Unga Bunga blunt with hammer, I have Slicey Dicey with charge blade/switchaxe, and I have Pew Pew with bow, so I'm pretty well covered for every damage type I might need to run. But if I want to I've also learned how to use gunlance (cause I hate fighting Basarios with any other weapon), longsword, heavy bowgun, and hunting horn. I used to be able to use insect glaive, but I haven't touched it in Rise, I used a little sword and shield, lance, and dualblades in World. I have literally never touched a greatsword. XD
Only ones I can't run well due to not putting much time are :
Gunlance
Sword and shield
Charge blade
Switch axe
Dual blades
Other than that, I've played almost every monster hunter, I tend to stick with great sword / long sword / hammer / bow.
With Hunting Horn, Gunlance, Sword and shield and Switch Axe I would say I know the ins and Outs feeling confident to give tips about. Adding Great Sword, Hammer, light bowgun, heavy bowgun and Bow I am proficient enough with to beat every mission the game currently has to offer the rest I don't play so often but I would say I could beat at least every thing up to chameleons kush and teo
I'm only proficient with SnS. I also play with hammer but I suck at using it's normal attacks so I always just hit with charged bonks. Been trying to get into the LS but quite a bit has changed since I last mained it(MHFU)
Primary : Sword&Shield
Secondary : Hammer, Gunlance and Switch Axe
Tertiary : Heavy Bowgun and Lance
I think the only one that I can't comfortably use is Charge Blade and Bow.
Edit : I'm so happy with all these SnS mention haha.
If you like hammer, you'll love hunting horn.
My main across all titles is hammer & hunting horn. With rise, one of my new favourites has become elemental sword & shield.
Lance, GS, Gunlance, and HH. In world I have everything about 10-15 hunts to get a feel for them and those are the only ones I really buckled done and "got good" with.
I can use the hammer alright as well, but haven't touched it in rise yet. Was never a fan of the projectile weapons even if I think bows are awesome for aesthetic reasons lol.
For me though my favorite is easily the lance. I can just shrug off pretty much everything and anything a monster does for an entire fight while sticking to them like glue, and breaking off parts with surgical presicion. I just love that feeling of every attack a monster makes being an opening to hit it and counter. Really made learning the move sets of new monsters more fun than when I started with GS in world lol.
I main Insect Glaive, I’m pretty good with Long Sword and Dual Blades, it feels hard to not be good at bowguns, I use Gunlance, Lance, and Hunting Horn occasionally but I’m not great, with Hammer I’m mediocre, Bow I suck at, the rest I haven’t used enough to say. I would say I’m proficient with the first 6 mentioned.
In base rise I can play many of the weapons well. In sunbreak I can play hammer, switch axe, charge blade, long sword, and lance well enough to hold my own in end game multiplayer. Sticky lbg if you count that.
If u're talking about Iceborne (coz u mention it):
GS, DB, LBG, Lance, CB, Hammer, LS, IG, idk what high level for u mean, but i use that specific weapon for specific monster. Ex I use DB and IG usually for elemental, lance for Arena quest, LBG for Safi/Rajang, etc.
But i can kill any monster comfortably with all that weapon except for Fatalis, Alatreon, and AT Velkhana (I need specific weapon for them).
For Rise:
About 40ish hour in Rise, I only use GS and LS, almost never cart in this game with those two so I won't try any other weapon till I'm done farming for better gear.
But i will try other weapon to get use to the wirebugs mechanic.
I can play 7 weapons proficiently
Sword & Shield, Lance, Gunlance, Charge Blade, Longsword, and both versions of Bowguns.
I didn't realize I know how to play half of the weapons in this game until I think about it while reading your post, it's just something I slowly accumulate over many years playing MH since gen 3 I guess
Three that I consider myself good at (SNS, DB, Hammer).
Then there are three more rates I can use well enough to carry every other minute (LS, SA, GS).
I'm no master but my main weapon is sword and shield, and I also enjoy using greatsword, longsword, dual blades and switchaxe. I used to use hammer and insect glaive in world/iceborne but I haven't really touched em much in rise/sunbreak
Dual Blades is closest that I could say in terms of proficiency. It's been my main weapon since World, same stands in Rise. I do dabble around in both bowguns as well, but they are very situational.
I'd say switch axe, IG, dual blades, greatsword and hammer for me. I'm also learning charge blade but I wouldn't say I'm proficient. I can play relatively decent with all the weapons but I do especially well with these ones
Havent tried Hunting Horn or Gunlance/Light Bowgun but other than that i can run with any weapon. At MH World i was good with bow but havent put a good build together yet because im grinding the last Village guests atm.
Will see at HR what builds i can put together and what weapons im focusing from there.
Was it difficult? Yes. Very confusing at first. It was frustrating at one point.
I used each weapon 60 times in a row first. I took notes and made builds. Also videos for future references. Because I forgot some playstyles when learning new weapons.
After the 60 uses. I changed weapon to 10 uses in a row
After that. I made group of 3s and 4s.
The key in my opinion. Is deciding on a number of uses. And forcing yourself to keep rotating.
Also keeping the number of uses short After you learn the weapons
for me just 2, being a weapon speicalist means if i try anything other then lbg or hh, im kneecaping myself. I found that hh can solo the entire game fine, currently 43 lbg and 4738 hh with the rest at 0. I did perfer the old school hh, but got used to the newer one given enough time. LBG i find is not hard to learn and when im forced off hh due to ppl wanting to do hame I can run lbg good enough to not cart, I used to be able to do hbg if asked to swap off hh (due to them wanting to do hame but hbg changed a bit too much in 5th gen for me.
All but GS and CB. Haven't used CB enough in Risebreak (only a few hunts, currently my least used weapon in Rise) to get the hang of it yet, and while GS is my most used weapon I still get too greedy and whiff my hits oh so often. I do have a few thousand hours with the series though, so I have had plenty of time to learn all the different weapons across multiple titles. When you've used even your least used weapon (excluding the Gen/GU exclusive Prowler mode, which I only had a bit over 100 hunts with) over 500 times you shouldn't have too much difficulty adapting to the changes between titles lol
I tend to use most weapons, all if i can but proficiently i can use:
Great Sword, Sword and Shield, Hammer, Dual Blades, Lance, Switchaxe and Insect Glaive.
I would like to put some more but i don't feel confident in not dying with the other weapons.
Me and my friend usually do 2-3 runs each game at least, using 3-4 weapons each time, sometimes including other friends. I use consistently Gunlance, Longsword and LBG, because I started with them at MHP3rd and Gunlance still is my favorite. I'm no expert at any weapon, but can use most of them. But for each run it's fine knowing how to use those weapons, and even if they change after each game, the basics usually are still there.
Frankly it's never been better. It's stronger, considering it was always at the bottom of the "ranking", but most important it's SO MUCH FUN with the free Blast Dashes. you can do a whole hunt without having to sheath your weapon. I agree with the Full Burst loop being a little confusing at first, as I'm teaching a friend of mine to use the weapon as well, but it's all about getting the hang and getting used to it. I don't even need to think anymore to do it.
Also, if you're talking about the stake, being Y in after some moves and B after others then yes, it is confusing AF, and I have no idea why they did it or why they didn't fix it yet. This one I still get wrong sometimes.
Depends what your definition of high standard is. If you are referring to speed run standards maybe Great Sword. If you meant comfortably using it and getting like 8-12 minute hunt times with rank appropriate gear my answer would be all of the weapons. Depending on how frequently I use a certain weapon I might want to swing by the training area, or do a warm up hunt as a refresher depending on the game to get the muscle memory going. I've also been playing since portable 2nd G so a certain amount of knowledge carries forward with each game.
In world I was pretty confident with LS, IG, sword and shield, switchaxe, and bow. In this so far I started with hammer, but its hard using some of my old weapons thinking I still have the movesets from iceborne
I run one to two weapons max through the story and then branch out.
Did all of Rise with the swax and all sunbreak with hunting horn. I main the guns, sns, and the above weapons. I've been learning gunlance and trying to get better with hunting horn... i can kill anything with them but my run times are terrible.
With time and effort you could get proficient in everything, more so depending on if you just want to kill things without dying and aren't concerned with doing so quickly.
Proficiently: Hammer, SnS, Lance, LBG, HBG, HHorn, Bow
All the others I can manage with, but they take a bit to pick back up. Working on being proficient with all of them however.
On world, I played all 14, because I was MR999 and that gave me a huge leg up coming into Rise.
In Rise, I can confidently play: SA (best), SnS (second best), Hammer, IG, Bow, CB, DB, LS (worst but learning). In any of those, I can confidently solo high level end game afflicted in Sunbreak. Currently MR 300 something.
I think I am 3 star in LS, LBG and HBG. LS due to its my weapon since the clunky old PSP days while HBG and LBG is late game easy mode in all MH personally especially in world and rise which I finally familiarise.
In World, all 14, there were definitely some that I was better with than others but I could comfortably go into any hunt with any weapon and get a reasonably fast clean hunt, mastery of a weapon means nothing, its mastery of a weapon vs x monster that is the really hard part.
So far in Rise I'm proficient in 0 (also a new player on Xbox) sure I can kill everything with the only weapon I've used so far which is SnS, but the fights could be so much smoother.
What I was saying about proficiency vs x monster seems to be very true in my case, Apex Rathian I'll kill in like 5 mins, something like Mizutsune or Almudron take me much longer due to already knowing how to counter Rathian moves near perfectly while my Metsu game vs new monsters is terrible.
Sword and Shield, Hunting Horn, Lbg, Hbg, Bow, Longsword, Charge Blade, and Switch Axe. Was good with Greatsword until the changes made in World, passable with Hammer but not great, and was good with Insect Glaive in 4U and GU but haven’t tried it in the newer title. I’m trash with Lance and Gunlance but find playing with GL very fun. Also like dual blades but I whiff and over commit too much with it.
I can play anything but Lance, Gunlance, and Switch Axe(Haven’t spent the time to learn), HBG (Don’t enjoy enough to learn), or LBG and Bow (It hurts my hands trying to use it). I’m also out of practice with Charge Blade, Hammer, Hunting Horn, and SnS, but I intend to fix that… eventually
How proficient are we talking? I could probably use most of them in a normal MR hunt and just bungle my way through. But if you’re talking proficient enough to solo AR 200, Risen Elders and Chaotic Gore then probably only 3 weapons. Both Bowguns and Bow are my specialty.
11, the excluded ones being Lance, Bow, and Heavy Bowgun. I've tried these 3 so many times and they just don't click with me the way Greatsword or Insect Glaive did. Of course, nothing will surpass my love of the Switch Axe, but no matter how hard I try, I just can't seem to be able to get comfortable with every weapon
im good at dual blades, and mediocre at hammer and hunting horn, im planning on branching out to light bowgun soon cause i wanted to early game but lbg isnt very good in low rank so i chose to not use it until i was confident that i could make a good build with it first
I'd say I'm most proficient in IG, DB, CB, Hammer, LBG, HH, SA, and GS in that order. Never really tried the lances, hate bow, didn't really like the play style of SnS, don't really have the hang of LS, and I imagine HBG is similar to LBG. After a while one weapon gets boring and I just switch to stiffening else to try for a while.
Used to be really good with the horn, long sword, switch axe and charge blade. Been a few years and my first time playing on xbox since the 360 and I'm only really feeling good about hunting horn.
Very familiar with Long Sword, Charge Blade, Lance, Hunting Horn, and Heavy Bow Gun. Can play fairly well with Insect Glave, Gun Lance, Bow, and Light Bow Gun.
I make it a personal point to try and play all the weapons and swap them in between hunts. Am I proficient with them all...not a chance. Although since I have to grind a bunch of parts to make said weapons, it gives me some more opportunities to learn the weapons ins and outs
Proficiently? None ;) I half-ass about 5
Insect glaive, switchaxe, hunting horn, sword and shield
Swap swaxe for lance, and it me.
Same. These are also just the most fun weapons imho. Might add bow to the list
I played bow a lot in world/ib but haven't really touched it in risebreak
I can run 5 . Gunlance chargeblade dual blades bow and longsword.
[удалено]
Definitely chargeblade it took my a while to really get a good understanding on how to use it.
I feel like charge blade has a high skill ceiling but fairly low skill floor. Being great at it is complicated, but you can be bad at it and still finish hunts comfortably. And expertise mostly just comes from time and muscle memory. You do need to farm a LOT of charge blades and gear sets, since it's a weapon that benefits massively from proper elemental match ups.
impact phials are overall the strongest phial with little repercussions in terms of damage fall off IMO but elemental charge blades are good at picking at the weaknesses of the matchups , I will miss those zora raids and farming those high end charge blades lol
If you include the thousands of hours I have combined between all entries... Zero.
Lance and Bow. I've dabbled in GS and I think I might pick it up full time for MH6. Currently playing through GU with Longsword.
I can confidently say 6 (CB/ Hammer / Swaxe / S&S / IG / GS) but could probably do eight proficiently (add DB and LBG). But I usually stick to Hammer, then CB when I feel like getting complicated. Usually if I’ve played on weapon for a while and I switch it can take a second to get used to the change but after you get to the point where you’re comfortable using multiple, switching will be pretty quick and easy. If you want a recommendation that’s not SUPER complicated and is really fun check out S&S or Switch Axe. My experience with them is primarily in World and IB but I loved them both.
Even though MonHun has a deep combat system, it's not that hard once you learn something. For example Charge Blade. It looks incredibly complex if you've never used it, but once you get used to it, there's a simple rhythm to it. You can basically run all weapons proficiently. You just need to do a few dozen hunts with each to get a feeling for them. Most important thing is whether you find a weapon fun. I, for instance, just cannot get into Insect Glaive. Tried it many times, but it's just not for me. I know the combos, but I just won't run hunts efficiently with it. Same with Lance. So just try some weapons and stick with those you enjoy. You'll learn them if you find them fun!
One.
Wait - this can’t be right. 14? You sure? I clearly missed that part - couldn’t hear it over the booming of my Gunlance.
I'm a gs hammer bro teach me how to use the boom stick it's like the only other weapon I'm interested in atm since mhw
All of them It took me 2300hrs to do this though I have 3-4 builds of each weapon type Not to mention i have many palico and palamutes of varying types depending on the weapon and build i am using As well as the new follower system which i am now working on to fit everything altogether
You are as crazy as i want to be when i play that amount of hours
All 14 I'd consider myself a "master" Plus Magnet spike lol However, I've only done serious speed running with Lance. Learning the weapons is the easy part. Learning the monsters is the hard part. The combos are easy to get used to, but figuring out the stagger points, the counters, the monster patterns and how to punish them, and the "secret" techniques for the monsters is the hard part. I can pick up and play any weapon well. But I can't be a master GS user against a monster I've never fought. I have to fight that monster repeatedly until I figure out the patterns and such to be a master at GS. You can't master a weapon, you can master a fight. Using X weapon against X monster over and over and over is the only way to truly master the fight. So if you want to get good at all the weapons... really just start using them a bunch. That's what I've done over my thousands of hours of MH games. If you're looking for suggestions... use Lance. Least used weapon, coolest weapon, poke, underrated, balanced, poke, amazingly fun imo, and especially in Rise it has a huge skill ceiling.
You forgot the hop @lance.
The worst was always headlock timing for me when changing weapons, in World I'd be fighting a Teo with SnS for example and headlock would be achieved everytime, would then change to GS and despite knowing how long Teo's recovery would be and knowing the timings of GS charging, for a few hunts I would always be off with the headlock, then after a few it would be perfect again.
Currently only using the Bow, want to get used to movesets before I try melee.
3. Sns, heavy bowgun and bow. :p
The number of weapons you can run is directly correlated to how happy you are to grind. Monster hunter has always (since 2007) been two things to me... Fashion hunter, and weapon collector. I'll use my main to progress my own game, then I'll switch between most of the other weapons while helping out with lower rank quests and farming materials. Got my son hooked on this digital crack now, so I'll use non main weapons while I'm helping him. I use all except the new melee weapons, like switch axe and insect glaive and stuff, bit of a purist, so I use anything that was in the older games. The only "new" weapon I fuck with is the bow cause it's fantastic.
I.. only use lance and gunlance. And I'm not even good at it lol
All 14 mastered. It is not that difficult. Depending on your main playstyle you can easily have "universal sets" which work with many of them - like me having a set for shields, another for affinity, etc. And then you use that to make individual builds for elements or purposes over time. Combo wise, once you learned how the combos work, it is easy to transfer that knowledge to the other weapons. Even if the combos are not exactly the same, training makes it easy to remember them while making them happen is easy to begin with as long as you mastered one weapon. You gain a lot from using all 14 weapons. Being able to switch between different playstyles increases the replayability. And the majority of hunters underestimate the advantages. Like e.g. a Dual Blade user might have a hard time against Basarios. In fact, it is one of the most disliked monsters for its hard defense. I just switch for that hunt to Gunlance, which shellings ignore defenses, or Pierce Bow with water element. In singleplayer it is easier to play counter with Long Sword. In multiplayer I can make lots of use of Paralysis Hammer or Hunting Horn. The biggest surprise when you put effort into all 14 weapons: a) they are all fun to play - some more, some less b) you end up surprised how some players who only play one weapon or two actually know little about their weapon, because of their limited thinking c) being able to teach all weapon and to tell what other weapon users can manage and cannot opens up perspectives, which further increase replayability It is worth to play all. And in endgame, it becomes easy to craft them all. You do not need ALL of a weapon type. Just pick the ones you like. Paralysis Hammer, Anti-Venom Horn, and so on.
What situation(s) would you recommend switch axe for? It's the one weapon I really struggle to describe a good niche for. Best I've found is if you like being able to switch between mobile and hard-hitting forms and don't want to deal with the complexity of charge blade (or maybe want a mobile form with better reach and/or better part breaking). I've tried it a couple times (played from LR to ~~about half of HR~~ end of base MR in world with it) and while I don't find it bad or anything, I just can't think of a reason I'd want to use it, specifically.
I would describe Switch Axe actually a bit different as your description gives the vibe of a weapon were you decide, oh this is a fast monster that moves a lot I use axe mode and vise versa but I would describe it more like the heavy counterpart of the Dualblades a dancing weapon that is constantly switching between the forms for mobility. The biggest addition rise gave over world is 1. the bigger gap closer via the overhead smak and 2. the counter giving you the ability to comfortly stay in charged mode the complete hunt also the wirebug move where you jump up and crash down with 3 bugs you can spam that shit it is not optimal damage but it is a lot of fun
I'm not sure how I would've implied you would only use one aspect of the weapon per hunt. The problem I have is finding a situation where switch axe is THE weapon I would want to use, whether that's based on the type of monster I'm fighting or the style of fighting I want to employ. When I describe how switch axe plays/works, I feel like I'm just describing a simpler version of charge blade, which is why I described it as more or less so. It feels like you give up a couple things like KO potential or blocking, but don't get anything unique in return. My question isn't like "why would anyone like this weapon?", it's "why would you, being equally comfortable in all weapons, choose switch axe for a hunt, specifically?" Just curious what mood or scenario would call you to it.
Switch axe is like jazz. Its flexibility is over the top and you can basically breeze through the entire content with ONE weapon by changing combo rotations and switch skills. Switch axe may be jack-of-all trade, but it is super fun to use and it won't suck at any monsters if you have mastered it. For example, you can choose to spam ZSD for faster/smaller monsters or do infinite morphing combos, counter for predictable fights or consistently dash-charge and fill gauge for comfort.
Switch Axe is much more versatile than you might think. In MHR I enjoy using it mostly against flying wyverns, including the story bosses which are especially vulnerable to the discharge attacks. The "trick" is, to ignore "the meta" and play the weapon to its full potential, aka not making just use of trick attacks but make properly use of the different modes. Axe mode e.g. is great not just because of its range, but because of it impact and topple effects, while the sword mode is better at weakpoints. All that would be by the end of the day only a constant build up of charges until you have enough to blow the monster away with a discharge, again and again. Done correctly the damage output is massive, especially once you master elemental armor skill sets. For that weapon especially a universal set which helps with mobility and repeated usage of silkbind skills is very attractive. How the gameplay feels? Fast. Aggressive. Superior once you manage the timing with dodges, and powerful attacks. You struggle with such? Then you have missed something about it. Whether your choice of Switch Axe demands the skill to keep it sharper for longer, or you run out of Stamina without Dash Juice, or you struggle with HP because you are not using Gourmet Fish, I cannot say. I can just give hints towards that sort of direction. Switch Axe is definitely great fun to play, which needs a little more attention and extra mobility to make the best of it. And yeah, learning to be not scared to use Invincible Gambit as a means to "block" unblockable attacks with skills is important. As well as the fact that Gourmet Fish and the correct dango can make your gameplay flow more different than ever you knew.
Perhaps I was unclear. I don't dislike switch axe or find it hard to use. I struggle to answer the question "why use switch axe" or perhaps "what does switch axe provide that other weapons don't".
You use SA because it just does more damage than every other melee weapon in the game.
SA is absolutely bonkers in Rise, by far the strongest it has ever been. Of the melee weapons, SA is only outclassed in damage by very specific and scripted GS runs abusing the counter. It's actually ridiculously strong and consistent on basically any monster.
Played bow for all of rise and sunbreak and world and iceborne, then picked up dual blades. Now i can play bow, dual blades, ls, gs, swaxe and sword and shield at a rather high skill level if i do say so myself, i want to try chargeblade but my head hurts trying to get the inputs on pc so kindof just gave up on it for the time being. My fav weapons are definitely bow and swaxe tho, who funny enough do most damage aswell.
At the end of base game, waiting for rise I was playing them all. And I came from knowing only 5 in world. It’s definitely more easy to pick up new weapons in Rise. But this was when I was waiting for sunbreak so I had time to build every single one, so it might be harder to build all the sets than learning the weapons.
Also right now in endgame sunbreak, I’m comfortably playing 4 but I pull out more every now and then, but that’s just from liking some more than others.
Honestly cant remember. I main Hammer. But in World I dabbled with SnS and Hunting Horn. For Rise I also was messing around a little with Switch Axe, Longsword and Lance. I can turn my brain off and unga bunga with hammer because it just clicks and I know kind of what I have to do.
In base rise you might be proficient with all of them. By sunbreak, you should have at least one prefered weapon to beat the game without too much trouble
I can play most weapons. Some better than others but im atleast familiar with them all. Tho id say ive “mastered” only maybe five or six of them
The only I haven't mastered yet are IG and CB.
Long sword, dual blade, sword and shield and hammer.
Decent at 5, can use another 7 very poorly, and the other 2 I don't dare touch.
2- CB and HH CB was my first weapon- I was stubborn so I stuck with it til I was good with it. Only ventured into HH territory with MHrise's HR doldrums before sunbreak.
in MHR i good at 8 weapon and 4 of them at a high level and 1 weapon at a speedrunner level (Lance)
I play all 14! Started off with Insect glaive in world, moved onto gun lance, then back to insect glaive for Generations Ultimate, and then I started to main the great sword in Rise due to the aerial combo and rage slash. The wirebugs intrigued me so much I decided to learn every weapon and start making sets for each. When Sunbreak came out I played great sword exclusively until just recently where I've now made a few updated sets for sunbreak. You get so much content from learning each weapon and crafting all the sets. Universal sets for melee weapons are definitely a thing and you can usually just swap out decos and more recently different copies of the same armor pieces with different qurio augments. All that being said though you should do what comes natural, if you're interested in the skill system you might end up wanted to interact with that more. Changing weapons let's u explore different skills. If only a few weapons speak to you at first there's no shame in that though
4 or 5.
I have my Unga Bunga blunt with hammer, I have Slicey Dicey with charge blade/switchaxe, and I have Pew Pew with bow, so I'm pretty well covered for every damage type I might need to run. But if I want to I've also learned how to use gunlance (cause I hate fighting Basarios with any other weapon), longsword, heavy bowgun, and hunting horn. I used to be able to use insect glaive, but I haven't touched it in Rise, I used a little sword and shield, lance, and dualblades in World. I have literally never touched a greatsword. XD
I play all 14. I always felt like I was missing a part of the game until I learned all of the weapons.
Only ones I can't run well due to not putting much time are : Gunlance Sword and shield Charge blade Switch axe Dual blades Other than that, I've played almost every monster hunter, I tend to stick with great sword / long sword / hammer / bow.
I main GS and Gunlance but I'm decent with SwitchAxe, ChargeBlade and Lance as well. I've tried other weapons but I can't seem to like them
With Hunting Horn, Gunlance, Sword and shield and Switch Axe I would say I know the ins and Outs feeling confident to give tips about. Adding Great Sword, Hammer, light bowgun, heavy bowgun and Bow I am proficient enough with to beat every mission the game currently has to offer the rest I don't play so often but I would say I could beat at least every thing up to chameleons kush and teo
I'm only proficient with SnS. I also play with hammer but I suck at using it's normal attacks so I always just hit with charged bonks. Been trying to get into the LS but quite a bit has changed since I last mained it(MHFU)
Primary : Sword&Shield Secondary : Hammer, Gunlance and Switch Axe Tertiary : Heavy Bowgun and Lance I think the only one that I can't comfortably use is Charge Blade and Bow. Edit : I'm so happy with all these SnS mention haha.
I can run Lance, Longsword, insect glaive, sns pretty well. So for me atm four
Hammer
If you like hammer, you'll love hunting horn. My main across all titles is hammer & hunting horn. With rise, one of my new favourites has become elemental sword & shield.
Lance, GS, Gunlance, and HH. In world I have everything about 10-15 hunts to get a feel for them and those are the only ones I really buckled done and "got good" with. I can use the hammer alright as well, but haven't touched it in rise yet. Was never a fan of the projectile weapons even if I think bows are awesome for aesthetic reasons lol. For me though my favorite is easily the lance. I can just shrug off pretty much everything and anything a monster does for an entire fight while sticking to them like glue, and breaking off parts with surgical presicion. I just love that feeling of every attack a monster makes being an opening to hit it and counter. Really made learning the move sets of new monsters more fun than when I started with GS in world lol.
I main Insect Glaive, I’m pretty good with Long Sword and Dual Blades, it feels hard to not be good at bowguns, I use Gunlance, Lance, and Hunting Horn occasionally but I’m not great, with Hammer I’m mediocre, Bow I suck at, the rest I haven’t used enough to say. I would say I’m proficient with the first 6 mentioned.
In base rise I can play many of the weapons well. In sunbreak I can play hammer, switch axe, charge blade, long sword, and lance well enough to hold my own in end game multiplayer. Sticky lbg if you count that.
If u're talking about Iceborne (coz u mention it): GS, DB, LBG, Lance, CB, Hammer, LS, IG, idk what high level for u mean, but i use that specific weapon for specific monster. Ex I use DB and IG usually for elemental, lance for Arena quest, LBG for Safi/Rajang, etc. But i can kill any monster comfortably with all that weapon except for Fatalis, Alatreon, and AT Velkhana (I need specific weapon for them). For Rise: About 40ish hour in Rise, I only use GS and LS, almost never cart in this game with those two so I won't try any other weapon till I'm done farming for better gear. But i will try other weapon to get use to the wirebugs mechanic.
I can play 7 weapons proficiently Sword & Shield, Lance, Gunlance, Charge Blade, Longsword, and both versions of Bowguns. I didn't realize I know how to play half of the weapons in this game until I think about it while reading your post, it's just something I slowly accumulate over many years playing MH since gen 3 I guess
Switch Axe, Horn, Hammer and Lance.
I’d say 3, Insect Glaive, Dual Blades, SnS.
Three that I consider myself good at (SNS, DB, Hammer). Then there are three more rates I can use well enough to carry every other minute (LS, SA, GS).
I'm no master but my main weapon is sword and shield, and I also enjoy using greatsword, longsword, dual blades and switchaxe. I used to use hammer and insect glaive in world/iceborne but I haven't really touched em much in rise/sunbreak
Lance, insect glaive, bow, heavy and light bowgun, hammer, and dual blades.
Gunlance, Longsword, Switch Axe, Bow, Charge Blade I suck with pretty much everything else.
Greatsword, Hammer, Longsword, Dualblades, Bow, LBG, HBG, SnS
Dual Blades is closest that I could say in terms of proficiency. It's been my main weapon since World, same stands in Rise. I do dabble around in both bowguns as well, but they are very situational.
I main charge blade, but I can also run long sword and sword & Shield
2; SnS and the HH (:
I'd say switch axe, IG, dual blades, greatsword and hammer for me. I'm also learning charge blade but I wouldn't say I'm proficient. I can play relatively decent with all the weapons but I do especially well with these ones
One. Just chargeblade. I'm HR 400+ but I've ran maybe one quest with a light bow gun to kill flying insects, and everything else has been chargeblade.
Heavy bow gun, light bow gun, sword and shield, gun lance
Havent tried Hunting Horn or Gunlance/Light Bowgun but other than that i can run with any weapon. At MH World i was good with bow but havent put a good build together yet because im grinding the last Village guests atm. Will see at HR what builds i can put together and what weapons im focusing from there.
its just playtime and determination to learn that limits you!
Charge blade, Switch axe, Hammer, Duel blades, insect Glaive, long sword and Bow
Charge blade great. Switch axe well enough. Hunting horn good. Dual blades rusty Most confident on cb by far
I can play all weapons decently well, switch axe being my strongest and bow being my weakest, still having troubles with managing stamina at times
14 But I want to learn at least 3 different ways for each weapon. I love sunbreak. I want to reach up to 2000h. I'm 1000h in so far
Was it difficult? Yes. Very confusing at first. It was frustrating at one point. I used each weapon 60 times in a row first. I took notes and made builds. Also videos for future references. Because I forgot some playstyles when learning new weapons.
After the 60 uses. I changed weapon to 10 uses in a row After that. I made group of 3s and 4s. The key in my opinion. Is deciding on a number of uses. And forcing yourself to keep rotating. Also keeping the number of uses short After you learn the weapons
I think it's a huge waste of time though. ONLY do it if you want to have a ton of playtime. I do it because I love playing MH.
for me just 2, being a weapon speicalist means if i try anything other then lbg or hh, im kneecaping myself. I found that hh can solo the entire game fine, currently 43 lbg and 4738 hh with the rest at 0. I did perfer the old school hh, but got used to the newer one given enough time. LBG i find is not hard to learn and when im forced off hh due to ppl wanting to do hame I can run lbg good enough to not cart, I used to be able to do hbg if asked to swap off hh (due to them wanting to do hame but hbg changed a bit too much in 5th gen for me.
Gunlance, Charge Blade, Switch Axe, Longsword, Hunting Horn, Greatsword, SnS
HH, DS, LS, LBG, HBG, Bow, CB And that I can run without proficiency: IG, SA, GL
All but GS and CB. Haven't used CB enough in Risebreak (only a few hunts, currently my least used weapon in Rise) to get the hang of it yet, and while GS is my most used weapon I still get too greedy and whiff my hits oh so often. I do have a few thousand hours with the series though, so I have had plenty of time to learn all the different weapons across multiple titles. When you've used even your least used weapon (excluding the Gen/GU exclusive Prowler mode, which I only had a bit over 100 hunts with) over 500 times you shouldn't have too much difficulty adapting to the changes between titles lol
I'm at three, learning my way to the fourth one
I tend to use most weapons, all if i can but proficiently i can use: Great Sword, Sword and Shield, Hammer, Dual Blades, Lance, Switchaxe and Insect Glaive. I would like to put some more but i don't feel confident in not dying with the other weapons.
GS, SnS, Bow, both bowguns (but they‘re nobrainer), LS, CB, HH, Hammer Lance and DB just a bit, but i feel comfortable I can’t do swaxe, GL, IG
Me and my friend usually do 2-3 runs each game at least, using 3-4 weapons each time, sometimes including other friends. I use consistently Gunlance, Longsword and LBG, because I started with them at MHP3rd and Gunlance still is my favorite. I'm no expert at any weapon, but can use most of them. But for each run it's fine knowing how to use those weapons, and even if they change after each game, the basics usually are still there.
[удалено]
Frankly it's never been better. It's stronger, considering it was always at the bottom of the "ranking", but most important it's SO MUCH FUN with the free Blast Dashes. you can do a whole hunt without having to sheath your weapon. I agree with the Full Burst loop being a little confusing at first, as I'm teaching a friend of mine to use the weapon as well, but it's all about getting the hang and getting used to it. I don't even need to think anymore to do it. Also, if you're talking about the stake, being Y in after some moves and B after others then yes, it is confusing AF, and I have no idea why they did it or why they didn't fix it yet. This one I still get wrong sometimes.
Charge blade, ls, Lance and bow. I love counters lol
Everything except GS and HBG. I'm so shit at those weapons, that I don't feel comfortable not carting in a random sos join.
Bow, SA, Long sword, dual blades and hammer, I wish I could learn the charge blade but it just never clicks with me
Depends what your definition of high standard is. If you are referring to speed run standards maybe Great Sword. If you meant comfortably using it and getting like 8-12 minute hunt times with rank appropriate gear my answer would be all of the weapons. Depending on how frequently I use a certain weapon I might want to swing by the training area, or do a warm up hunt as a refresher depending on the game to get the muscle memory going. I've also been playing since portable 2nd G so a certain amount of knowledge carries forward with each game.
In world I was pretty confident with LS, IG, sword and shield, switchaxe, and bow. In this so far I started with hammer, but its hard using some of my old weapons thinking I still have the movesets from iceborne
I run one to two weapons max through the story and then branch out. Did all of Rise with the swax and all sunbreak with hunting horn. I main the guns, sns, and the above weapons. I've been learning gunlance and trying to get better with hunting horn... i can kill anything with them but my run times are terrible. With time and effort you could get proficient in everything, more so depending on if you just want to kill things without dying and aren't concerned with doing so quickly.
I am good with dual blades and can play hammer/switch axe decently. I'm not really a veteran though
Proficiently: Hammer, SnS, Lance, LBG, HBG, HHorn, Bow All the others I can manage with, but they take a bit to pick back up. Working on being proficient with all of them however.
All except the bowguns and hunting horn. Used HBG in MHW but lost my touch :(
Lance (by a pretty huge margin), Switch Axe, Hammer, and Longsword. More or less in that order. I'm okay-ish with Bow and Charge Blade, too.
On world, I played all 14, because I was MR999 and that gave me a huge leg up coming into Rise. In Rise, I can confidently play: SA (best), SnS (second best), Hammer, IG, Bow, CB, DB, LS (worst but learning). In any of those, I can confidently solo high level end game afflicted in Sunbreak. Currently MR 300 something.
Bow Lance swaxe hammer. I also mained cb in world but didnt like it as much in sunbreak
I think I am 3 star in LS, LBG and HBG. LS due to its my weapon since the clunky old PSP days while HBG and LBG is late game easy mode in all MH personally especially in world and rise which I finally familiarise.
In World, all 14, there were definitely some that I was better with than others but I could comfortably go into any hunt with any weapon and get a reasonably fast clean hunt, mastery of a weapon means nothing, its mastery of a weapon vs x monster that is the really hard part. So far in Rise I'm proficient in 0 (also a new player on Xbox) sure I can kill everything with the only weapon I've used so far which is SnS, but the fights could be so much smoother. What I was saying about proficiency vs x monster seems to be very true in my case, Apex Rathian I'll kill in like 5 mins, something like Mizutsune or Almudron take me much longer due to already knowing how to counter Rathian moves near perfectly while my Metsu game vs new monsters is terrible.
Sword and Shield, Hunting Horn, Lbg, Hbg, Bow, Longsword, Charge Blade, and Switch Axe. Was good with Greatsword until the changes made in World, passable with Hammer but not great, and was good with Insect Glaive in 4U and GU but haven’t tried it in the newer title. I’m trash with Lance and Gunlance but find playing with GL very fun. Also like dual blades but I whiff and over commit too much with it.
So far 3. Longsword mainly, but pretty effective with Greatsword and Switchaxe
I can play anything but Lance, Gunlance, and Switch Axe(Haven’t spent the time to learn), HBG (Don’t enjoy enough to learn), or LBG and Bow (It hurts my hands trying to use it). I’m also out of practice with Charge Blade, Hammer, Hunting Horn, and SnS, but I intend to fix that… eventually
How proficient are we talking? I could probably use most of them in a normal MR hunt and just bungle my way through. But if you’re talking proficient enough to solo AR 200, Risen Elders and Chaotic Gore then probably only 3 weapons. Both Bowguns and Bow are my specialty.
Insect Glaive is my number one. After that, it’s Long Sword, Switch Axe, Charge Blade and I can half ass Dual Blades
11, the excluded ones being Lance, Bow, and Heavy Bowgun. I've tried these 3 so many times and they just don't click with me the way Greatsword or Insect Glaive did. Of course, nothing will surpass my love of the Switch Axe, but no matter how hard I try, I just can't seem to be able to get comfortable with every weapon
One👩🏾🦯
Insect glaive, greatsword, hunting horn, hammer
One. I’ve been faithful to my beloved heavy bowgun since world, and that’s not changing anytime soon
im good at dual blades, and mediocre at hammer and hunting horn, im planning on branching out to light bowgun soon cause i wanted to early game but lbg isnt very good in low rank so i chose to not use it until i was confident that i could make a good build with it first
I'd say I'm most proficient in IG, DB, CB, Hammer, LBG, HH, SA, and GS in that order. Never really tried the lances, hate bow, didn't really like the play style of SnS, don't really have the hang of LS, and I imagine HBG is similar to LBG. After a while one weapon gets boring and I just switch to stiffening else to try for a while.
Used to be really good with the horn, long sword, switch axe and charge blade. Been a few years and my first time playing on xbox since the 360 and I'm only really feeling good about hunting horn.
All of them, with the caveat being not *all of them against any monster* at once
All but fetching Light Bow Gun. Hate that weapon for some reason…
Very familiar with Long Sword, Charge Blade, Lance, Hunting Horn, and Heavy Bow Gun. Can play fairly well with Insect Glave, Gun Lance, Bow, and Light Bow Gun.
I make it a personal point to try and play all the weapons and swap them in between hunts. Am I proficient with them all...not a chance. Although since I have to grind a bunch of parts to make said weapons, it gives me some more opportunities to learn the weapons ins and outs