Yup. The timing is kind of terrible, too - releasing the game right around the time winter break ends and thus ensuring I won’t have time to play it while frantically prepping classes.
Still, I’m sure I’ll enjoy the hell out of it whenever I can string some time together for it.
KevinC
1584
Since I haven’t been following expansion news with it being so far out for PC still, how does this fit in with the rest of the game. Is it considered and endgame type of expansion?
Bateau
1585
It starts after high rank, so kind of.
But based on what I’ve read about other past MH expansions it’s closer to a softer reset with new tiers of difficulty but also new gear.
It adds Master Rank, which is the equivalent of G-Rank in the previous games. It’s a whole new difficulty tier that comes directly after finishing High Rank. All of the new monsters, gear and quests are Master Rank.
KevinC
1587
Sweet. Gonna be a long four months, ugh.
So do you have to have beaten the game to access it, or is it just a matter of getting to high rank?
Yep, I’m not double-dipping on the expansion as well. :)
Bateau
1590
You have to kill Xeno Jiva in HR iirc.
Yes, you have to finish the story in the base game to access it.
Ouch. That may count me out on the whole project, then - I was hoping there would at least be some new content for those of us still banging out heads on the elder dragons.
How far do you have to go? I remember the ending felt relatively brisk compared to the early/mid slog.
I’ve downed Nerg (several times) but still have the other four(?) elder dragons to go.
At this point I’m so rusty I’d practically have to restart, and I’m not sure I have that in me. I got an extremely enjoyable 100 hours out of the game, but a return to climb those last few mountains may be too much to ask.
Nesrie
1595
I stopped before even downing Nerg. I don’t think you’d have to restart. I’m not going to. I will just practice with others, get the feel again. The expansion isn’t going anywhere there, you can always give a feel for a bit.
There will be others, like me, that come in behind the rush.
Yeah, you’re right. Perhaps a winter break project to get up to speed - if I don’t get distracted by something else!
Nesrie
1597
That’s my plan. Around two holidays I should have enough downtime to try and get back into it. It’s intense gameplay, and I still do the solo monster and then group thing. I had to stop at Nerg because that told me I needed to gear up, and i was doing that when I got into RDR2 and then, well Thea 2 came out. I have two PS4 games to go back and finish.
Jeez is Iceborn ever good! Been loving it. They definitely seem to have rebalanced the multiplayer and single player difficulty a bit and the game is back to playing better in groups than solo. A most welcome change. Pugged for like 10 hours the last couple days and had ball.
A handful of quality of life changes that are are nice too, though they have added more permenant stuff to the item cross scroll bar, which I dislike. It litters that up and makes it hard to get what you want during fights. I think they intend for folks to use the radial menu in combat, but with somewhere around 4K hours of Monster Hunter played in my life the cross bar is just so ingrained in what I do.
Defintely feels like a G rank expansion (it is) and so far really adds what you would expect for that. The new area is cool and lots of new monsters. Losts of sub species with status effects so get used to shuffling decos for that (or making a few load outs).
Anyone playing on PS4 feel free to add me, my PSN is the same as my user name. I’m happy to help out newer players as well.
@Nesrie @vinraith It looks like Iceborn gives you a set of armor that is equivalent to max High Rank gear so you can equip that and not have to grind out a lot of armor to get to Iceborn (Weapons contintue to upgrade into G rank so crafting that stuff isn’t a waste.)
Nesrie
1599
So are you saying I can benefit from the expansion even before I finish the original boss? I got the impression I’d have to finish Nerg and the other… four I think to get to it.
It seems you have to, but the equipment provided should let you tackle it while fumbling around, if I interpret @merryprankster’s post appropriately. Probably only to hit a new wall in the new difficulty level though?
That really doesn’t make much sense to me, seeing as you have to play a mission solo before you’re allowed to play it MP. It’s also just unappealing because I spend the majority of my time soloing.
Kolbex
1602
Wait, what. I just bought this (MHW, not Iceborne) for my brothers and I because my understanding was that it was intended to be at least very MP-friendly if not MP-centric. This seems like a very stupid design decision.
