Trying to make a Peco Flint for Gobul, but...

Its mats are:

2 Vivid Feathers (Farming Qurupeco parts is relatively simple now.)
3 Flintstones (see above - I even know how to make him shut up!)

and

1 Flame Sac

That Flame Sac is my nemesis now. I've got full Quru armor up to level 3, with a Ludroth Splashhammer.

Evidently, I've got to farm Rathian - fortunately Quru has called her during a Moga Woods trip.

My question is: am I ready?

I think this has been answered in another thread: the answer is no. Take on Gobul before Ian. Sometimes, you just have to accept that you've upgraded your equipment as far as possible and it's time to move on to the next monster quest. Even if the Armory is showing the upgrade possibility. Call it a temptation - don't give in!

Besides, the Flame Sac has only an 8% chance to carve. With three carves, your chance to get at least one Flame Sac is only 22%. Even if you kill 3 Rathians, your chances of not yet having carved a Flame Sac is close to 50%. With your equipment, that's a lot of time. Then throwing on that Peco doesn't always call Ian, and it could be days before you get your Flame Sac.

In addition to the carve chance, flame sac is 10% chance on row 1 rathian freehunt. For each rathian killed, you have those 3 carves and then at minimum 3 items in row 1 for the free hunt. Pretty good odds of at least 1 flame sac.

You never know if rathian is too hard for you if you never try. I'd personally spend the time hunting gobul instead of crossing my fingers peco calls an ian, though.

Challenge Accepted! (Taking on Ian before Gobul)

This is pretty close to the set OP has.
Ludroth Splashhamer
Peco armor, upgraded to Level 3 (2x Armor Spheres, 1x Armor Sphere+ for each pc)
No talisman. I didn't bother with any gemming, either.

Items (these are all readily available at this point in the game):
Megapotions, Well Done Steaks, Dung Bombs, Antidotes, Paintballs, Whetstones, Pitfall Trap, Shock Trap, Might Seeds

And the camp box, typical capture quest fare.

No kitchen buffing/felyne skills. My ChaCha is maxed out, so I left him in village.

Quest: Trapping a Trickster
Locale: D. Island
Main: Cap Peco
Subs: Wound head, destroy a flint

My Objective: complete one of the subs (I need flints anyways), then wait for Peco to call Ian. If G. Jaggi is called, end by sub. If Ian is called, kill Ian, then end by sub.

Attempt 1: Day. 9 min
Oops, forgot my own strength. Killed Peco way too quickly. Without a sub complete. Embarrassing.

Attempt 2: Night. 9 min.
Started fight in Area 9. Broke a flint. Moved to Area 5. Peco called G. Jaggi. Ended by Sub.

Attempt 3: Day. 27 min.
Started fight in Area 7. Exhausted Peco. He flew to Area 10 to feed. Broke both flints, then dung bombed him to get him to move to Areas 9 then 5. Called Ian around the 8 min mark. Dung bombed Peco so that I wouldn't have to deal with them both.

KOed Ian twice, and got her to exhaustion as well. No carts. Didn't use any traps. Killed her around the 26 min mark. Ended by sub. Didn't get a flame sac on this run. (BTW: adding in the free hunt chances, and it's roughly 50/50 on getting a flame sac per free hunt)


Conclusions:

One: For an experienced player, it's going to take 20 min to 2 hrs of game time to get the flame sac. I had a pretty good run, I got tripped up on her legs twice during her charges, but that was all the damage I took from her. Each one of those charges took about 40HP off my life bar, so I retreated each time (gave me time to sharpen and max my stamina bar, though). I probably could have shaved several minutes if I went full out on item use (even just the EZ trap would have saved me from running from 3->7->8 when I got her limping).

Two: this is Sequence Breaking. The game flow is pretty insistent on feeding you one monster at a time for the first half of the offline storyline.

All in all, it's quite doable, but if this is your first playthrough, I'd say don't bother. From your join date, though, I'm not sure what your experience is - you've at least been playing a MH game for two years, so maybe this isn't your first playthrough? But if that's the case, you should have a pretty good idea of your skill level, and shouldn't need to ask whether you're ready. So now I'm just confused.

P.S.: You've asked this before! Just hit my stagger limit!
https://mhwiki.forumotion.net/t6364-am-i-ready-to-take-on-rathian-with-this-armor-and-weapon-set

Sorry, I just want to cook that Gobul.

Well, at this point in the game, it sounds like you've just about maxed out your gear. There's only a few things left.

If you have it, use Barroth armor. It comes with Attack Up (S) and Marathon Runner, useful skills for a hammer user. Gem out the negative skill with an Expert Jewel, and gem in two Attack Jewels to get Attack Up (M), and this is the best offensive set available at this time.

To get an idea of the attack boost, I used the damage calculator at http://mhtri.comeze.com
Superpound damage on the lantern (Gobul's weak spot):

	No skill	AUS	AUL
Plume Flint	75	81	85
Peco Flint	90	97	101

That's probably the best you can do with a hammer against Gobul until later in the game. Use of Might Seeds adds another ~7 damage to those numbers. So if you can farm Barroth for his armor and Ian for the Peco Flint, you'll get a huge attack boost (101/75 = 134%).

After all that, if you're still having problems with Gobul, you either need practice, or you need to switch to a different weapon class. Have you tried Gobul yet?

I like greatswording gobul underwater: charge > gobul turns > release > hit lure > evade sideways > repeat. Use some draw slashes on lure if it swims away. Remember to leave cha cha at village or he will troll you.

Jake, have you attempted the Gobul quest a second time yet? The first time is the most difficult, as it's the only time Gobul starts in area 6. You're stuck fighting Gobul underwater, and when he moves to either area 5 or 8, he's still underwater. Quite difficult when you're first taking him on.

On your subsequent Gobul quests, he'll start in Area 4 in the water. You can fish him out using the previously mentioned frog. If you stick with superpounds to the face, and use a similar tactic to Navgoose's GS strategy, you should get a KO while he's on land in area 4. When Gobul is KOed, you can pound the lantern. I'd suggest then using a pitfall trap near the entrance to area 3, as that's usually where he'll go after area 4. When he's in the pitfall, the lantern is again in hammering range, but you may want to use bombs. By doing that, you should break the lantern, making the quest much easier, since he won't be able to stun you anymore.

If at that point you don't think you can kill/cap Gobul, end by subquest. By breaking the lantern, you're guaranteed to get a Gobul Lantern in the break rewards. By completing both subquests, you have a 75% chance of getting a Gobul Spike in the subquest rewards. You need one of each, plus 8 Peco Feathers, to upgrade to the Numbingbird Hammer. The Numbingbird outdamages the Plume, is comparable to the Peco Flint on the lantern, and also applies Paralysis status, giving you even more free hits.

Then you can go back and kill Gobul with his own weapon! Poetic Justice!

and are you utilizing sonic bombs for getting him stuck?