There’s a glimmer of hope here.
I went to farm Diablos on an expedition and I kept fainting because my health was the size of a postage stamp again. Finally he just fucked off and left, which was annoying, but not rage-inducing. I returned to the wastes and didn’t see him on my map so I figured I’d have to restart. But I ran around for a bit and smacked the hell out of a Kulu-Ya-Ku, then started fighting a Rathian.
After a fighting him in a few areas, a Diablos suddenly bursts out of the ground to dramatic effect. I went through a long fight with him and I noticed I was hardly getting hit by his attacks. I had the rhythm down at this point. I finally brought him down and got the Diablos Fang I was looking for to complete the Diablos Charge Blade I plan to use after this last story fight.
I really liked fighting multiple monsters on a single expedition. It’s a good warmup and gives me a little satisfaction before I dive into the grind on the top tier monster I’m hunting.