Specific weapon & Armor (skills)"Best Practices"

I just spent a good deal of time reading over the "Waambulance" thread, and I saw alot of complaints about how old, yet newbish, players do not know how to properly use their weapons (Figure 8 GA, No Charge GS, Long-sword +autoguard ect..), or randomly putting armor without activating skills, or not gemming out negative skills.

Alot of this information is obvious to veteran players, but it is not very apparent to the rest of the community.

With a set of new weapons for 3U coming out, this problem is going to be compounded. I can just imagine Gunlance users sweeping & blowing everyone away, Hunting horn users that do not know how to sing & dodge, + a number of other problems arising from the huge influx of players. In hopes of getting a full list per weapon type, and a good guide for how to use armor (skills), I propose we start a concise guide on the MH3U Guides sub-forum once the game launches. Of course, those that have already started playing the Japanese version can start early, and we can add as we go on.

Ex.:

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Greatsword

Basics
*Basic Information, ie, how to draw the weapon, charge, perform draw attacks, ext.*

X button, While sheathed (weapon is put away) Takes the weapon out.
X button while unsheathed (weapon is out), does overhead hit. If X buttong is pushed again, does a quick side-smash that stuns small creatures.
A button while unsheathed does a frontal half arc strike.
X + A button does an upward swing that ends behind you.
R1 Button while Unsheathed, Blocks
R1 Button +X & A button while sheathed (weapon is put away) will do an instant block
Pressing X while Running (R1 Button + a direction) brings out the weapon slowly starting the charge if you keep X pressed.
Pressing X while walking (A direction, without pressing the R1 button) will do a much quicker overhead slash **This is key to a Run & Gun Strategy**
B Button with weapon out, does a roll in the direction you are facing, or where your directional button is being pressed.
Start button with weapon sheathed does a kick/tackle(underwater)
Start buttong with the weapon out does a quicker animation kick/tackle, and can be followed with the quick side-smash that has a stun component.
After the side-smash, you can perform a charge attack with the X button that hits slightly harder than the regular charge attack, but that has a slightly longer recovery animation at the end (which can be rolled away from early).

Proper Attacking, and online Etiquette
*Section for types of attacks & combos, and when to use them*

Run & Gun strategy - Great for taking on fast monsters, best used with the Critical Draw Skill and Evasion +2 if possible. Punishing Draw & Focus are a bonus to have, but not needed for this strategy. This is a begginer style of gameplay that allows you to learn how monsters move and still stay safe and do some damage. Other strategies can maximize damage much more than this. This strategy consists on running up to the monster, letting go of the R1, Pressing X while still holding the direction you are facing to do a quick draw attack, and the moment the attack hits the ground, pressing B to quickly do a roll our of the way, and Y to put your weapon away, and look for another strike oportunity.

Do NOT be afraid of the monsters, and try to predict where they will be. Once you learn how the monster moves, you can try to fully charge your attack and then roll away, sheath your weapon and try again. If you are able to get the Focus skill, doing a charge attack is your best way of doing damage. Weapons with super high raw, but negative affinity are the best ones to use with Critical Draw + Run & Gun.

When online, remember that your sweaping strike (A button) disrupts other players, and your X+A attack will knock them away, and cause all sorts of Havock... avoid this as much as possible. If you see a fellow player is sleeping, stunned, or otherwise inmobilized, you can, and should press the Start button while near them to kick them out of it. But do not do this if it puts you or others in danger.

Charging
*How to properly charge*

Charging is the real damage dealer of the GS user. If you ONLY combo, you will not really be doing all your potential damage. The biggest non-charge attack you can do, only does 48% of your weapons raw damage. A level 3 charge does 110% damage, or 115% if it is a charge-smash (the charge following the little side slap).

Level 1 Charge (Red aura): 65%
Level 2 Charge (Bright flash): 80%
Level 3 Charge (Big aura, no flash, Before system MAKES you strike): 110%

Important: Do not OVERCHARGE. Overcharge happens when you just keep holding the charge button beyond the bright flash and after you see a an aura around you. You will see the aura disipate, and the game will force you to strike at the same strength of a level 2 charge, making you loose 30% of your potential damage. Practice in free hunt before hand. Attempt several Level 3 charges until your timing is just right. Like cooking raw meat, the timing will take a little bit of practice, but once you get it, it will come naturally, and you will see your hunt times drop dramatically, plus it will set you far appart from the wannabe GS users.

Proper Blocking
*How to know if you should block, and roll away, and nuances to blocking different attacks.*
You can only block attacks from in front, not from the back or from on top. Face the direction the attack is coming from, and not where the monster is positioned. Ex.: A tail slap from a monster in front of you, is actually coming from the direction of the tail, which could be your left, or your right. If you do not have time to roll between the monsters legs, or if you are getting into position to do a charge attack, block facing where the tail is coming from.

Always block roars or flashes. Wether your weapon is out, or sheathed, you can ALWAYS block

When to put away your weapon

The Greatsword is a great weapons when properly used, but if you always have it out, you are doing it wrong. The greatswords' power comes out when you know how to properly put it away. Rule of thumb: If you are not going to be hitting the monster in the next 2 seconds, your weapon should NOT be out, unless you are getting ready to block an attack that you would not be able to dodge, or panic dive if you are caught in the sheathing animation.

Best Armor skills
*Armos skills and why they go good with this weapon type*

Crit Draw +10 = Critical Draw - Makes draw attacks (Attacks you perform when the weapon is taken out of its holster) are always critical (+25% more damage). Since you are doing large amounts of draw attacks anyways, this is a critical skill to have for GS users.

Punish Draw +10 = Punishing Draw - Makes draw attacks have a KO/Exhaust component. High amounts of draw attacks make this great when fighting in a group, since a KO/exhausted monster will be easy target for the rest of your team. On solo hunts, you shouldn't be relying on this skill. You can get alot more damage by gemming for other damage increasing skills.

FastCharge +10 = Focus - Decreases the amount of time it takes to get a full charge. Level 3 Charge occurs almost instantly after the lvl2 charge flash. This is great for those learning how to do properly timed level 3 charges. Most monsters have animations that allow for well timed level 3 charges without this skill, with one of the exceptions being the Barioth.

Other good skills to have: Handicraft, Evasion, If you find yourself using guard alot, then Guard, and Guard up, maybe even autoguard, could also be helpful skills

Fighting specific Monsters
*What helps and what hinders, what to use online, and what to use offline*

Quote :

Kelbi - Kelbis can be KOed instantly with a blade slap. Either fail to hit them purposely with an regular X attack, and then press X again to do the sword slap, or more reliably, kick them with the start button and then press the X button for the sword slap. A KOed Kelbi will almost always give you a horn, or blue horn if it's a big kelbi.

Great additional guide and a long read for those who want to be professional GS users: http://www.gamefaqs.com/wii/943655-monster-hunter-tri/faqs/61652

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This was just an example (albeit a long winded one) on what this could look like. And having this all conviniently accessed in the forums would be great for all of us, plus all the additional people that will be joining us once MH3U comes online.

..... I know "How" to use every weapon properly and to it's fullest, I also know what gear is generally accepted... I just choose not to wear or play that way most of the time. Really it depends on who I am playing with and what we are hunting.

Most of the time when I am hunting it's purely for fun and I can take down a monster in the same amount of time regardless... Especially if it's just helping someone out leveling and we are not really focusing on something spacific.

If I am Hunting with someone I don't know for the first time.. that's a bit different.. I do tend to be more.. proper in my play style, wear my best clothing and am more streamlined in my play style... A lot of things are situational but some people can still do just as well without being so... Pretty.

In the end though the big question is... Shouldn't this thread be in the "general section?"

Something to note, this is all based on using the CCP or whatever its called now; which not everyone will be using.

Correct, what I posted is based on using the pro-controller. However, the link I pasted includes the other control types. Also, I was VERY limited in what I posted, giving one example of each heading.

Many forum goers are very much in tune with their prefered weapon(s), but I feel it is still helpful for that information to be shared with everyone. A quick FYI, my main is not the Great Sword... it is actually the bowgun, with the hunting horn coming in a close second. I can use, and have a good understanding about almost all the other weapons, since I have a couple thousand hours of playtime under my belt, but not everyone has that advantage.

Once the game is released, I might take it on my back to make these pages in the guides section, but we shall see... sometimes lazyness gets the better of me.

.... I plan on just using the "Kick" button on the touch screen the whole game.

In fact I plan on enlarging it to take up the entire screen if I can.

KICK


So the rest of the controlls don't matter.


But not Joking aside:

Anything like this would be of great use t many people. There are a lot of new fans coming to the MH series and a lot of Mew things in MH3U even for long time fans of the series.

Anything that anyone is will to work on and spend the time and effort on will be great and I would love to have put in the "GUIDES" section.

It's a nice effort to try and put out a general guide - however I also think it's kind of futile. The people that come here/gamefaqs/SA will probably know what they're doing. It's drumming it into people who don't look at anything external (or worse, hives of misinformation like neoseeker/socialdissonance) that would help, but is also hard without some way of posting guides in-game.