1884

I put down the lance and picked up Switch axe for IB, the changes are so good: the axe updates and new fade slash move are game changers.
I’m MR one hundred something now, really have enjoyed my time with the game, it’s a great expansion. I love that they keep adding new content, the new monsters and raid have kept me logging in since release.

The biggest adjustment for me was having to transition to multiplayer, I’ve always run solo but the monster hp pools are too large and I felt like fights were taking way too long. Guiding Lands and the upcoming raid are basically endgame multiplayer anyway, so the sooner you embrace running with a group the better experience you’ll have.

1885

I do believe you just saved me 50 bucks and quite a few hours of annoyance. I enjoyed the base game quite a bit solo but multiplayer in this game is pure misery.

1886

Pretty easy to put together a QT3 group for those who want to hunt together. A good multiplayer group is one of the great joys of MH.

They did change the way scaling works in multi now, so it’s way better to hunt with two or three people, as opposed to a full group of four.

I found the pug experience to be tremendous in Iceborne on the console. I expect it to be the same on PC.

1887

Wow. It’s so not. I don’t care for MP normally, but I have a great time with it in MHW, and it works great most of the time for me. What makes you feel it’s misery?

1888

Yeah, I run with randos all the time when I feel like playing but my brothers aren’t around or whatever, and I’ve never had what I’d consider a bad experience.

1889

If you don’t mind playing with PUGs, and can tolerate the occasional bout of griefing, I guess it’s probably fine. I really don’t have the patience for that kind of thing, and the cinematic restriction makes it a chore to play through together with friends. So did the scaling, incidentally - I’m glad to hear they finally decided to accommodate 2 people playing in that respect at least.

1890

Just to be clear, is there still at least some solo story content I can do in Iceborne? I’m happy to skip the endgame stuff like I did in the base game. I’ll pay $40 anyway for the solo content.

Can someone describe the Switch Axe changes? I really didn’t like it before despite everyone praising it. The movement speed in sword mode hurt my soul.

1891

From https://www.monsterhunter.com/update/mhw/us/ver10_10.html:

  • Natural recovery of the Spirit Gauge is slightly shorter.
  • When using Foresight Slash, if you cannot use the Spirit Gauge, the Critical Eye effect will not activate. Attack hitbox and attack power have been decreased.
  • Fixed an issue where the Spirit Roundslash would deal damage of the aura level above the current level.
  • Fixed an issue where a Spirit Blade would be performed instead of a Foresight Slash when pressing the R2+X Buttons together from an Overhead Slash.
  • The attack power of the first hits for Spirit Slash III has been decreased.
  • The attack power of the fourth hit of Spirit Storm when done to the monster’s head has been decreased.
1892

Plenty of solo stuff, just like the base game. I did most of the story content solo.

That said, I PUGed way more than I thought I would. Initially it was just a way to farm stuff more efficiently, but because I had so much fun, it quickly became my preferred way to play. It’s also super gratifying to help out lower ranked players.

There are some good videos about the switch axe changes, the best one is from the monster hunter math guys (jinx/tuna), but the short version is, axe mode is viable now (due to motion value changes, the new fade slash, and new power axe mode) which has opened up different playstyles.

And due to the clutch claw dunk you have more opportunities to go nuts in sword mode.

So you’re more mobile, can trip/dunk monsters easier, and you don’t have to solely rely on sword mode to dish out damage. When I’m on a roll, there is no weapon I play that can touch the damage uptime of switch axe.

1893

Since I’m leaning towards making Hunting Horn my main, that will most likely be my preferred way to play. ;)

1894

If you main HH you will be a multi-player god, lol.

HH is so freaking good in Iceborne. It’s a shame it’s still criminally underplayed.

1895

Hey, I can at least try to right some wrongs. That is one of them. ;)

1896

I fully endorse everything in this post! Well said

1897

That doesn’t seem too bad. I plan to Iai slash everything anyway, haha.

If I don’t like LS, I’ll give Switch Axe another chance.

1898

Iceborne release is today on PC, right? I’m going to be doing my best to pretend it doesn’t exist. If I go down that rabbit hole I’m not coming back up for a while and I’m right in the middle of a couple other games.

Really looking forward to diving in a bit later, the changes sound great. And I never did any of the endgame farming stuff, which I will with this expansion.

1899

It does, yes, and I might leave work early today to get the downloading done so I can at least try to play a little bit later today. We’ll see. ;)

1900

It’s kinda good you didn’t do the endgame loop in MHW…it’s greatly improved in Iceborne. And the roadmap going forward as PC catches up with console will be loaded with tons of additional free content.

There’s never been a better time to play MH.

1901

Nice! In what ways did they improve the endgame loop?

1902

Can you expand on that? I did a couple hundred hours of endgame loop (deco hunting, Kulve, etc) in vanilla and I’m curious how it’s improved in IB.

1903

I think he means the Guiding Lands, but I’ll wait for his elaborate answer since I have zero experience with Iceborne.