Jordan wrote:I really like the mobility of aerial for switch axe. Before I played MHX, I actually had bought MH3u and played switch axe a little bit in that game. However, i dropped the game before getting far. I did like the switch axe gameplay though so I decided to go back to it. The aerial style helps the weapon a lot since the switch axe was always a low mobility weapon that required a lot of dodge rolling to get into position. Additionally, the weapon hits a pretty wide swathe from mid-air so it's pretty well suited for the aerial style.
Aside from switch axe, I'm also a fan of guild sns because...well, I liked it in 4U.
What's deterring me from going back to my old favorite, the insect glaive, is the whole system of upgrading kinsects and the weapon. I'm not sure I can be assed with that this time around.
Loved switch axe in 4U and 3U so I'll definitely be going back to it. Aerial with great sword seems to take away the charge attacks, and takes away the R attack with long sword so I'm a little iffy on those. Still need to try the adept style.
Insect glaive was altered a bit I think. You now upgrade the glaive and the bug separately, and you can reset the bug stats using an item. Overall it seems like less of a pain.
Currently reading: A Feast For Crows AND A Dance With Dragons
Bring a new game and working through the early quests I figured it was a good time to try out weapons I've previously ignored. I mained long sword, charge blade, insect glaive, switch axe and hunting horn (near the end). This time around I'm moving between hammer, sword and shield, dual swords and lance. Not sure how long I'll stick with it but it's fun trying out new weapons along with new arts/styles. Sword in shield seems interesting in particular with the new oils you can apply to your sword as well as the offensive art which also offers evasion.
Currently reading: A Feast For Crows AND A Dance With Dragons
I started playing aerial great sword and love it. I still play aerial switch axe, insect glaive and guild sns though, and will probably do more sns later too (different styles).
Aerial great sword is very interesting. The charge attacks are transferred to your aerial attacks (when you roll into monsters with b). They function using the same generalized rules as charge attacks on guild great sword. The more you charge them up, the more damage you do but the less likely you are to hit the monster since it might move: Lesser charged mid-air attacks come out faster. There is a lot of tradeoff here. The aerial charged attacks are less powerful than guild charge attacks, but they are easier to land even when fully charged and they have the potential to mount.
Like the guild great sword, however, much of the time your bread and butter is to simply use draw attacks and then sheathe your weapon. That's what I really like about aerial gs: although it changes a lot of things, it's still a gs and still follows similar rules. The draw attack is a jumping strike with a lot of forward momentum. Best of all, however, it ALSO counts as a jumping attack which can mount. Most of the time I use the draw attacks and if I can see a good opportunity, I'll roll in for an aerial charged strike. The heavy focus on sheathing makes the weapon mobile and fast paced, much like the guild great sword (despite its large size).
I'm still experimenting with arts, but at the moment I use the one which charges quickly and does a little bit of damage, then makes your next attack do much more damage.
Yeah I'm loving big sword and shield, will probably become a new main of mine. Still haven't tried switch axe, charge blade or hunting horn which are my other big picks. Early game I think aerial works really well since you don't really need the benefits of striker or adept. I can definitely see myself moving towards adept later on in the game though.
Been trying out the castle walls art - prevents you from being knocked over, reduces damage taken, but disables sprinting. It's great with dual swords and dealing out long stretches of damage. Unfortunately I always seem to use it just as the monster is running away at which point I can't sprint... Lol.
I'm looking at the Monster Notes this time around, there's actually a lot of useful info in there. Had no idea you could make a niblesnarf eat a barrel bomb and then fish it out of the sand, or use a sonic bomb on the langomi to stun it.
While more confusing at first, I like what they did with the palico's. They got rid of thief and launcher biases and instead focused on making the rest of the biases more useful. Unlocking new skills and moves adds in a cool sense of progression. I also much prefer this version of the meownster hunter's mini game.
Currently reading: A Feast For Crows AND A Dance With Dragons
I use adept with long sword. It gets some nice bonuses out of it. You can also evade barrel bombs with adept, which is honestly retarded.
Aside from LS, right now I'm using Striker SNS, Aerial GS, Aerial/Guild Glaive (kind of preferring guild) and Aerial Switch Axe (less commonly). I think my main is Striker SNS. The arts that SNS get are extremely fun to use and can be rewrarding. The shoryuken can actually stun monsters, especially in conjunction with other bludgeoning weapons (my friend is a dedicated hammer worshiper and his friend likes the hunting horn).
In terms of equipment, I've mixed it up a lot. Right now I'm angling for Mizu gear. However, my most used set is actually the yukumo guild girl set with autotracker and capture guru. I just like the design. I also have a naja set, a mixed bulldrome set that gives me attack up (M) and a goofy moofah set.
I honestly have mixed feelings about the game. Outside of the special pass quests, I feel like monsters are way too easy this time around. While they added in all of these new techniques, they did not really make the monsters stronger to compensate. Some feel like they've aged terribly. Tigrex feels like a joke now. So do many others such as Seregrios.
Another problem is that the game is way too frontloaded. LR drags on for way too long. After over 50 hours, I'm still in LR (though I'm at the point where elder dragons appear).
I feel like arts were a great addition, but styles are kind of a mistake because they give way too much. Personally, I would like it if they dropped styles in MH5 but incorporated concepts from them into armor skills or certain weapons. I think this would be the best way to carry over aspects of X into the next game while restoring some semblance of balance. Right now I feel like 4U is a better game.
I actually knew about the Nibelsnarf thing, albeit completely by accident. I screwed up with bombing one time then later found out that the bomb disappeared after Nibbles charged at it...only for Nibbles to kinda reel in pain shortly thereafter and bob its head around. It's actually hilarious when it happens.
I still can't tell what Nibelsnarf is supposed to be. I've seen the game call it a frog/toad before, but to me it looks more like a manta ray. Maybe a combination? I like the monster a lot better in X than in 3U. In 3u it was much more boring to deal with. Some things in X make it more fun, like Bushido style for instance (the move where it expels sand is a great move to perfect evade and follow up).
I finally reached high rank (multiplayer) in X with my friend. The first part of high rank is amusing because the monsters they throw at you are largely shitters like great maccao, seltas and the dromes. Even with their damage boost, they are still very easy to defeat. That having been said, we found the one quest where you have to fight all of the above in the arena to be hilarious.
I'm HR7 now. The game opens up a lot once you get to the latter part of HR6 to HR7.
I'm switching between 5 different weapons right now: Sword And Shield, Long Sword, Insect Glaive, Great Sword and Switch Axe. Probably in that order. Here are my preferred styles:
SnS: Striker is just outright better than anything else that is available. The SnS arts are fantastic. I use it with a set that gives me a sleep sword, status +2, attack up (M) and bomb boost. I use all three of the SnS arts because all of them are good.
Long Sword: I prefer bushido/adept style although the LS styles in MHX are pretty well balanced. I could easily see a good argument being made in favor of Guild, Striker or Aerial. I've actually tried Striker before with fastcharge and found it pretty fun. Bushido gives you a pretty fun way to charge the sword, which I prefer over other options. I'm using the HR gourmew set with attack up (M) gemmed in. My other skills include sharpener, marathon runner and recovery up.
Insect Glaive: Bushido style outright is terrible and the Insect Glaive Arts, imo, are mediocre overall. Therefore to me it's really a choice between guild and aerial. I tried them both out and I actually honestly prefer guild at this point. You have a bit more versatility with combos and with controlling the kinsect. Having an extra art is nice too because some of the non-weapon specific hunter arts are pretty decent. The bulldrome set I have gives me attack up (L), adrenaline +1 and mounting master.
GS: GS has always been the most balanced weapon imo. That has not changed in this game as I feel that all the styles are easily viable. I personally prefer aerial with fastcharge (from the sailor set).
Switch Axe: I think everything is fairly viable with switch axe, though I think guild style comes off looking kind of weak. You lose very little from the other styles while picking up something useful for each of them. Switch axe has great hunter arts, which makes Striker pretty worthwhile. It also has an amazing aerial game since the sword part of the weapon allows you to get two hits in mid-air. Its follow up attack with Bushido is fantastic too. In either the sword or the axe form, you can do an amazing post-dodge follow up combo. I've tried all the switch axe forms and have a hard time deciding which one I like best. At the moment I favor Adept, but I think in hunting teams with 3 or more people and no other aerial players, there's a good reason to choose that style. It's also a safe bet against humongous monsters like Gammoth or against monsters that you're not very familiar with/have trouble dodging. This weapon has some of the best hunting arts in the game and thus you have ample reason to use Striker too. I feel like it really comes down to preference. Just don't bother with Guild.
Last edited by Jordan on 07 Aug 2016 02:36, edited 2 times in total.
In response to your earlier post, I do agree that monsters seem easier this time around. And on top of that I find they seem to run to other areas more than ever.
I've been trying adept out on a few weapons and I'm liking it more than aerial probably. I like your way of finding the right style for the right weapon though. I've been trying to give dual swords a chance, and I like them, but at that point I feel like I may as well use sword and shield so I can use items whenever I want. I do love the Wolf's Maw skill with dual swords though - racks serious damage.
I keep going back to sword and shield, which surprises me. The oils really help make it feel different. Still trying to stick to weapons I usually don't use.
Been playing mostly while I'm out so I haven't been able to tackle online much, but I am 4 star single player now. Still using random armor, haven't felt the need for higher defence/skills yet.
Currently reading: A Feast For Crows AND A Dance With Dragons
If you master adept, I think it can work decently well on every weapon except for Insect Glaive. Although I don't use them, I know that Hunting Horn and Hammer benefit a lot from it. Hammer doesn't have the awkward run that you do as a follow up. Adept Hammer also allows you to immediately charge up your weapon upon a successful dodge. My friend mains hammer and seems to alternate between guild and adept depending on the monster.
SnS is just too fun in this. I tend to just sleep bomb with it but you could also stylish bomb or just run a regular set. None of the styles for SnS are bad imo. I just prefer Striker because the arts on it are so good and you sacrifice almost nothing from Guild. The other day my friend and I were both playing SnS and we stunned a Lagiacrus with two shoryukens (forget the exact name of that art). It was awesome.
edit-I started playing bushido/adept switch axe and find it really fun and powerful. The post-dodge combo with axe is actually really good. It has a wide sweeping range and allows you to transition directly into sword. The reason why that's good is because you can do it whenever your weapon is sheathed. The post-dodge combo with sword, surprisingly, is a bit weaker imo but still not bad at all. Hits twice and can go directly into other combos. Overall a very strong and decently safe option.
My friend and I S ranked all the non-prowler arena grudge matches.
Today I completely finished singleplayer "village" as well. The last few quests were a real pain:
-duo rajang
-silver rathalos and gold rathian (at the same time)
-the fated four (mizutsune, gammoth, astalos and glavenus) paired up in doubles.
I felt so good after clearing the last one though. My strategy was to keep gammoth alive because it's big and slow. As it turns out it often ends up shooting ice at the other monster or staggering them with its trunk during long, dumb (in terms of AI) animations. I used a switch axe for the latter two missions and a gs for duo rajang.
