Dire Miralis with the GL?

Hey guys! Me again. (I'm the guy that served you your coca cola) I loved the replies on my other topics, but I have a new problem. Dire Miralis is its name. /mad/

The question is actually pretty short: what is the best equipment to fight him with? I'm solo, so I want to be as prepared as possible. Are there any skills that are useful? (Besides the obvious Evade +1/2, Evade Dist, Sharpness +1, and so on) My favorite GL armor is Agnaktor Z gemmed for Guard +2, Guard Inc, Mind's Eye, Attack Up S and Artillery Novice.

Also I was thinking of using the Gunlance on him, because I feel the most comfortable with it. What's the best Gunlance at this time to use against him? I was thinking of:
Fangdemonium
Ancient Gyresmite or its upgrade, the Progenesis, but I don't know if I can get it yet since I haven't upgraded my Ancient Gyrelance yet
Roscaghast or its upgrade Roscavalance, again, don't know if I can get it yet. If not, I'll go for the Lagombalanche
Mighty Cornpopper (Lvl 5 Wide Shelling, 500 Slime, hell yeah)

I can make some other Gunlances too if I really need to (St. Zinogre, Deviljho), but I don't want to farm too much before I reach the final level of G-rank. I prefer to complete the main storyline before I start collecting stuff.

Insert endgame gunlance you can't access here
Insert nether armor you can't obtain here.
Insert shitty ice gunlance here

In all honesty the best way to do dire miralis (he's not hard btw) is to use greatsword constantly hitting the head (refer to mhfu's gs fatalis guide).

Evade+1/2 are next to useless since the majority of his attacks have a much larger frame of duration that bypasses the invin frames.

If you really insist on gunlance.... DO NOT USE NORMAL....: I can't stress this enough.

I have 300 hrs logged, 758 gunlance hunts, and 5 miralis solo kills.

First off armor isn't that much of an issue in U as it may have been in tri. I am STILL in high rank Glacial Agnaktor armor with artillery expert. The meat and veggie food combo will have a set skill for firewalker that will set your -25 fire weakness to a positive 3. Maxed at level 16 each piece will have 111 armor value, thus making it a completely viable option. If you don't have it just make sure you have guard 1 or 2, guard up, and artillery 2 and you will do fine. If you don’t need the fire resist then eat meat and dairy for bombardier that will further increase your shell and wyvern fire damage.

As for the gunlance find the best wide shell you can as you will do most your damage this way. Just to be clear elemental and raw damage doesn’t matter as you will be shelling 99% of the time. The wide shell will offer the most damage from shelling available and each shell hits twice. What’s more the damage FROM THE SHELLS will not be reduced from his armor. The beauty of this is you can be anywhere and shell to do your damage and are not confined to hitting weak spots. The S. Zinogre GL, ancient shard GL, and the ancient gyerlance GLs all have wide 4 so start there. The artillery 2 will increase the shell damage further AND cut off 30 seconds from the wyvern fire cool down.

I am comfortable enough now to break his face when he is in the water which you should do once you are more aware of his tells but when I was learning his patterns I stayed behind him between his wings. He doesn’t have that many attacks that hit back there, and you can work both wings from that spot. When he is on land shell the feet. I will say that again, when he is on land shell his feet. Use the charged shells when you can and he will topple. Often. And give you and your team head/chest/shoulder time.

Most of what he does he will do a second time so be sure not to get greedy. If you’re hit once there is a high chance of being hit 2-3 more times. I didn't hunt it till I did a half dozen "dry runs" and didn't solo it until I had 5 successful team hunts. Start a few hunts solo and just listen and watch it. See how long you can stay in the fight without getting hit and be keen of how much time he gives you before he retaliates against your shelling.

Truth be told he really isn't that bad but you won't believe that until you've kill it a few times. Just remember that the fight can go very smooth for long periods so don't let that get your guard down. It goes for all monsters but double so with Dire, greed will buy you a cart ride.

Constant shelling? You're doing it wrong. Even for wide gunlances the main source of damage is pokes. Shelling is only used to maintain combos.

haruno wrote:

Constant shelling? You're doing it wrong. Even for wide gunlances the main source of damage is pokes. Shelling is only used to maintain combos.

You’re missing the point. Dire has high damage reduction in all but the glowing areas and his belly. The crappy hit detection of it's attacks makes the GLs low maneuverability a little more painful than with more agile weapons. Hanging out near the front legs and face is dangerous territory for someone who is new to the monster. Shell damage is not reduced by armor nor enhanced by weak spots making your attack placement much more forgiving. Also I never said to never hit a weak spot with a melee attack *cough* overhead smash after quick reload*cough*, I said because of the shelling damage not being reduced that a player who is new to the monster can seek safer attack position to their advantage. Saying that shelling 99% will be your primary damage output is specifically to this person in this situation and not advice to everyone who will/has picked up a GL.

Secondly, Am I "doing it wrong" when advising to shell often? My GL arena record of Lagombi was 4min and a few seconds when the primary damage was coming from melee. After relying on shells it dropped by half and I have since been able to go back and post S times for all my arena/challenge quests that have a GL load out. G rank quests are over in about 7min or so with a cap if I am going after a single target, monsters trip, flinch, and fall over constantly, and parts break without even trying for them. When I use shells to reset combos my hunts stretch out by 5min easy and I see much less trips/flinches.

Please understand that my intention is not to offend nor am I upset at your accusation but you answered someone who was in need of GL advice with "use a GS". The difference here is what you think, have read, and may experienced in another game vs. 300+ hours of testing shell vs. attack and finding that, regardless of how it looks on paper shells wreck monster face. If you are suggesting that shells are only for resetting combos then I dare say you have vastly underestimated what a GL can do.

I have said what I felt was fair and correct and am now ready for your rage. As I would like this individual to receive as much advise as he can without having his topic locked please feel free to send any grief to my personal message box.

the weakpoints are easy to hit, camp the tail into oblivion. the whole belly region even counts as the chest weakpoint, all the way down to the crotch.

It's not hard to hit miralis' hind legs period. If you're having problems hitting him because oh mah gawd he too fast then learn to sheathe. You should not be spamming shelling on him (and non charge shells at that). Your general way of fighting miralis is forward swing => poke => upswing => poke => charged shell => poke => upswing => poke => poke => charged shell => poke upswing => slam => wyvren fire/burst cancel. When he falls over then you hit his chest/head depending on preferance.

Don't know if you're being serious when you're bragging about your A rank time against arena lagombi. You shouldn't be getting anything under a S. That in itself shows that you have no idea what you're doing.

Your 300+ hours of testing clearly isn't helping much if you're so misinformed. I'd advise watching a few of twig's mhp3rd gunlance videos to help you get started with gunlancing. Also to not mistake miralis for fatalis. K thx.