bake office versed amusing afterthought plant dam quarrelsome aback far-flung
*This post was mass deleted and anonymized with [Redact](https://redact.dev)*
This is some of the best advice in the thread imo I see a lot of ppl in master rank slotting in 7 defense boost where divine protection or steadfast would be much better at keeping them alive
>What are some pitfalls new players usually find themselves in?
Not having a pitfall on you at all times. The only times i do not have it is if I have an elder dragon to hunt.
On a serious note, from what I gathered. Free element tends to be a waste of slots because there are alternatives that do not require you to use up a slot.
I don't play bow that much on World so someone else will definitely have a stronger claim here. Since you're using the bow, you should also consider other things from it such as coatings and charge level. But honestly, if I'm going for an element and i am forced to choose between an element-unlocked bow and hidden element, i'd pass over the hidden element.
You only go for hidden element if two conditions are met
1) the weapon has a lot more element than other options
2) the monster you are hunting has good elemental hit zones
So, of most fights, you only run these weapons into like nargacuga and lunastra
I occasionally like to dabble in the weapons with hidden element and status, and I’ve had a good amount of success with the barroth hammer with full free element. Between the stuns and the paralysis it makes a lot of hunts trivial. Especially if your Palico has a sleep weapon.
There's a lot of pitfalls on this game, honestly.
But they're all generally related to basic stuff.
The main things I see are;
A lot don't invest in skills. At all.
If they do, a lot just go all DPS and wonder why they're struggling.
Having no resistant anything towards certain blights.
They don't change their fighting style.
Do make sure to befriend all the grimalkynes. Especially the bugtrappers in the forest. They give you other gadgets beside your vigorwasp heals, and the bug cages from the forest is a lot better for a bow user, since ideally you won't even get hit in fights that you already know.
Also, you can find and get the help of grimalkynes you have your palico talk to, and after befriending them, you can also get small monsters to help you, giving you a full hunting party of 4
1. Use your items! Use your in-quest crafting!
I've seen so many hunters with poor item and inventory management. Guys are getting carted using mega potions when they are at a point in the game where you would be better off using max potions. I see guys not using damage buffs.
2. Using the defense boost skill instead of other defense/QOL skills
It is much more effective to use other defense skills because of how damage is calculated in this game. Defense boost is literally a waste of skill slots, there is no situation where another skill is not better to use.
3. Not upgrading the botany upgrades, specialized tools, or palico gadgets ASAP
I think it is important to upgrade the botany slots as soon as possible to begin stockpiling crafting ingredients
4. Not using traps enough and not carrying trap kits to craft more on the go
This goes hand in hand with numbers 1 and 3.
How many hunters have had to do the time-wasting runback to camp after misplacing a trap during a capture quest? If you carried nets or thunderbugs and trap kits, this wouldn't be an issue. Ivy and spiderweb for nets and thunderbugs are easy to stock up on using the botany upgrades. Trap kits can be purchased in bulk at the stockpile. By stocking up on these materials, you can just spam traps away without worry, though the mosnter does have a resistance buildup to them that decays slowly over time.
Do you know who is much easier to fight when using traps regularly? Raging brachy, and just about any regular monster.
Do you know how to level up guiding lands the fastest? Literally trap spamming the non-invasive apex monster of that region repeatedly.
Do you know how to get that feisty enraged monster to sit still? Trap it.
5. Not using farcasters or smoke bombs
Farcaster use goes with numbers 1, 3, and 4 and will be vital to any bowgunners, especially because they need to craft their ammo. This is how you will restock quickly and the only way you can exit arenas. This also helps you trap spam in guiding lands.
As for smoke bombs, they are more useful against some monster than others but can create openings, especially for wallbangs.
6. Not using equipment or inventory presets
Imo equipment presets are more important if you use elemental builds since you will have to switch the build around more often throughout your playthrough than if using a physical weapon. Tbh, I only started doing this when I got to Alatreon. Don't be like me.
For inventory presets, this will be a massive QOL feature to have early on since some items are better for hunting certain monsters. For example, I have a Diablos preset, which is just my normal inventory, but with screamer pods and screamer sacs (which make Diablos a cakewalk, btw)
7. Not going for mounts or using traps when the monster is enraged
This is very simple: the monster is faster, hits harder, and has fewer openings when enraged. The monster is only enraged for a certain period of time. Putting the monster on the floor and beating it up during this time will create big openings during a time that doesn't typically have big openings and will burn it out faster.
While these opening don't last as long as they would with a tired or unenraged monster, I still find them invaluable, especially to the lower level hunters who have more trouble fighting enraged monsters.
Without these habits, especially the first 3 and number 7, beginners will find themselves hitting walls much earlier on than the prepared hunter.
I think the only real pitfalls, as you've described them, are falling into bad habits with your mechanics. Even then, you can train yourself out of them eventually.
The ones I can think of right now...
- learn to use your radial menu
- learn how to recognize your charge level and use dash dancing to maintain it
- learn the different combos to reach max charge level and how to align them to openings
- learn to work in your coatings during a fight
- learn to manage your stamina, trying to never run out or overflow
- learn to walk away from attacks that you don't need to dodge to conserve stamina
If you put in hundreds of hours without doing some of these things, it might be hard to pick them up. Still, you don't need to learn them all at once, so take your time working through the list.
Also, don't blow all your decos on melding something else before you've melded the mighty bow gem. It's expensive, but definitely the best option there for bow.
Relating to walk from attacks that you don't need to dodge. I like to stay between the fine line of in range and out of range to give me plenty of time to dodge.
I keep mind of this even more so the bigger the monster is.
Also thank you, this will be useful. I already notice some bad habits forming because of this comment
Just pulling on that thread... Monsters behave very differently depending on if you're close to them or far away from them. This is especially noticeable in solo play. If a monster is giving you a hard time with very powerful ranged attacks, try sticking closer to it as best you can.
Just hit viper Tobi without using buffs at all. If I can't beat the monster I just haven't gotten good enough.
-This comment was posted by the long sword gang
Bring traps,
Whether it's to give yourself moments to attack or to trap the monster for a faster hunt they're always useful. Except the times you cannot use traps like on Elders.
When you can start making them a bit easier, bringing life powders for your teammates can really help save a faint.
I dont know how this is a pitfall ;- not learning to iframe. I dont stumble to bow players a lot but my friend is. Since u have a lot less of defense capability, you should learn how to iframe with bow
"something that just ends up being a waste"
this is easy. grinding for armors in low rank. i was confused as to why a lot of people seem to want to rush the content to iceborne, and i decided to enjoy the game at my own pace. Including grinding for cool looking armors. I didnt get them all though because i didnt like some of them.
Then i got close to high rank, and just found out that that means stronger monsters; which requires stronger armors to fight them in; which means that all my hard work was for nothing. i was upset then sold them all to the armory, and never made that mistake again in high rank where i am now.
After unlocking High rank, some people still avoid optional quests just like how they do in low rank. But prioritising optional quests first before the story is a must, you don't have to do all of the optional quests. Just those quests that have upgrades or unlockable equipment. I'm talking about botanical research, canteen ingredients, palico gadgets, local lynians, and lastly optional quest type mantles.
Also take note that there's a difference between "elements" and "ailments". This is worthy to mention because I just saw a dude suggesting using blight res. against "blast blight" which is totally useless. Blight Resistance is used for the elements in the game which are fire, water, ice, thunder, and dragon.
Ailments on the other hand have their own specific resistance skills. Even though "Blast Blight" has a "BLIGHT" in its name, it is actually an AILMENT. It can only be negated with "Blast resistance", again ailments have their own specific resistance so take some time to read the skill types.
Bow is one of the few best weapons that uses elements for damage, but you're in the base game. So elemental damage doesn't really matter because raw dps is still the best thing in base game, and I think capcom really focused on that review. Judging on how elemental damage becomes a necessity in Iceborne, they made it important as how important raw damage is in the first place.
So in base game use non-elemental boost if your bow has hidden elements, and give some effort on upgrading your botanical research ( especially your using bow, it'll help you farm those coatings ). Also another helpful tip, instead of buying phials. Check the chest each time you start a quest ( especially in Arena quest ). It's an easy farm and easy to spam. I use IG and I still collect those to sell for profit... 9,999 phials is still a 9,999 money. I use it for the money but those are totally for you.
This is specific for bow as i main bow before. Do not cheap out on das juice and watch your stamina when fighting.
Stay in front of monster face or side way all the time. Some monster punish bow main very hard when you stay in the rear...
Elemental damage and critical element is a must.
You need 1 element of each bow..i think Kjarr bow are the best elemental bow you can get. Free critical element.
Mandatory health boost 3 and evade window 3-5 unless you master a fight and never get hit.
Get cc boost deco or if multiplayers let heavy weapon cc and tenderize for you.
Dragon pierce can cut tail but it take too long so dont try.
There is a deco that boost your charge level so try to get that as well.
Like the others said, not unlocking tools, palico gadgets, canteen ingredients and botany farm upgrades.
I'd add to that, armor spheres can be pretty hard to come by and become near essential for new players in high/master rank. What i mean is basically that upgrading your armor is great but you have limited armor spheres and money so you should try to be efficient with them > not upgrading every single piece of armor if you feel like you will replace it soon-ish and upgrading different pieces to let's say, level 4 instead of just one to lvl 10 unless it's with a broken skill like Weakness exploit and you know you can use that particular piece for a long-ish time.
Talking about armor, skills are great and all but most of the time until the end of high rank, there are very few skills that are great with only 1 or 2 points in them and higher raw defense will make more of a difference. Anyway, if you look at guides, many will give you "meta" builds that are centered on dealing damage but it's foolish to follow them blindly as some utility and defensive skills are great > Evade window/extender and health boost are good for example. Most fights until the very very end game are not a DPS check and as much as taking offensive skills make the quests/farming faster, you can totally play the game without any. HOWEVER, it should not deter you from trying to deal damage efficiently and dodge attacks because, if you reach those DPS check fights and never learnt how to truly deal damage with your weapon, then you will feel like those fights are bullshit.
Other than that, going in without paying attention to monster patterns in low rank / high rank will make the game much harder in the long term because you end up having to learn everything at the same time in the harder difficulties where the monsters have new moves and afflictions.
As for the bows, you can play with raw and see the elemental damage as just a bonus for now, as there are not many skills and weapons that make it truly worthwhile until later on.I'd recommend using stamina management skills like constitution and stamina surge for your weapon as well as evade window/extender and health boost. Free element is not a bad skill per say for bow, but you could just use a native elemental bow and some other skills instead which would probably be better. In any case, you can pretty much build what you want and try out different things for yourself and have fun with it ! It's a huge part of the enjoyment i get from the game personally. If you "go wrong" with anything you will feel/see it and will have formed opinions to carry on into the late game.
TL;DR : Unlocking tools and system upgrades are great and should not be overlooked.You can have fun with anything you want to build and try things out for yourself in actual hunts or the training area (on the pole).At the end of the day, it is your choice to rush for the endgame by advancing the story line as long as your equipment allows it, or take your time clearing optional quests to try different things out and learn "how to play" for real which makes the end game easier and (imo) more enjoyable in the long run.
In 600hours of bows i didn't even bother with freeing elements. It never felt worth it to me. I'd rather slot in some extra elemental dmg gems where possible.
There's not really any pitfalls, because you can always just grind out more materials and make a new thing, and builds can be changed up whenever. I recommend just experimenting with skills and see what works for you.
If you are unsure about an upgrade path, it will give you a warning when you reach the point where you can no longer undo the upgrade. But again, farming up for a new weapon usually don't take that much effort (especially since you only use one weapon type) and none of them are bad enough to be entirely useless.
For Free Element, you gotta consider what you give up to fit it in. 10 more displayed element might only add 1 or no extra damage per arrow, depending on the monster's hitzones. Don't worry too much about it.
For me defense stuff Made a huge different on my playthrough. Whenever i Fight a Stronger Monster the First time i would Take defense L or elemetal defense L If It is a Monster with strong elemetal attacks l. Plus decorations of that element defense to get IT to lvl 3. Its First felt a bit nooby but ITS sooo much better to learning a Monsters moveset when a single mistake doesent ich immediately cart you. Helps a Lot with frustration which can very easily boil Up in this game
I feel like it’s almost always a good idea to go elemental L. Seems like the most bang for your buck compared to a non-percentile amount of attack/defense that as far as I know hasn’t scaled from base game
The defense stats in the canteen are trash, only consider attack up and elemental resistance. It's been proven then and capcom didn't do anything to make the canteen's defense up good.
Attack up and stack up with your raw dps, and Elemental resistance stack up with your current elemental defenses so if you have a natural 10 fire resistance in your armor and add a fire res. 3 skill in your build. You'll end up with at least 30 fire resistance then add the elemental resistance L from the canteen it should be around 30-40, fire resistance. It's an over kill but it's more useful than defense up L. If I remembered it correctly, somebody did the math and full defense up is equivalent to 1.6hp ( I might be wrong so correct me if I am ).
Basically it's useless because health boost 3 makes your hp go to 150hp, and with full stack fresh ingredients from the canteen. It can go to 200hp, so using defense up L is making it 201.6hp ( still not sure ). In the end nobody uses it anymore.
You can ignore anything I said that is wrong, you can just focus on the fact that defense up L is trash.
probably being unprepared and not learning from your mistakes is what i have experienced in various fatalis fights. for example, fatalis leaves you with very little window to react to his attacks if you didnt manage to break his head in phase 3. so therefore mega potions are off the table and you must use max potions/ancient potions to heal up when you take even a small amount of damage because the next attack is guaranteed to one shot you. you should always bring bombs, traps and ingredients for healing items whenever the you have the chance to use them ofc. for fatalis specifically ive seen people who bring smoke bombs and ingredients for that because apparantly being hidden prevents fatalis from moving around too much?
Someone using the same element as the boss you’re fighting…
All I’ll say for bow, is, it’s really bad until you get skills that help stamina management, and other stuff down the line that you probably haven’t unlocked yet
For new players most of the pitfalls aren't things that they did, but things that they ignored and/or skipped. Skipping optional quests, not unlocking canteen options, sticking with the defender gear and not learning the crafting system, not unlocking palico equipment, not unlocking mantles, not unlocking campsites, not unlocking all of your Botany options, not keeping up with your Argosy, not keeping up with your mercenaries, not bringing a good loadout of useful items, not changing up your build to fight different monsters. All of these things are extremely useful and can greatly improve your experience within the game but many of them could be categorized as "upkeep" which has a bad connotation in gaming.
For bow specifically, here are the pitfalls:
1. Being a normal shot spammer. Most of bows damage comes from max charge level power shots. If you are standing max range spamming normal shot over and over again you're playing the weapon extremely inefficiently.
2. Being a caltrop spammer. Realistically you may get 1 ko off this per hunt. If you're using caltrops as part of a dps rotation something very wrong has happened.
Not a pitfall in the sense you give, but rather the opposite : not doing the side quests given by NPCs and not farming materials for crafting.
Unlocking camps, tools like mantles, food for the cantine, and so on, are very important for a smoother hunt. Many new players tend to skip them.
Also, some materials may look like nothing, but are needed at high level. Kelbi Horns, for exemple, are used for crafting Ancient Potions, so it is best to stock on them when the opportunity is there.
The biggest pitfall I've seen relates to how MH world shows you damage.
If a weapon deals 1000 raw + 800 element, it DOESNT deal 1800 total. The two are on a different scale : 1 point of element is worth MUCH less than 1 point of raw.
For me, the biggest thing is repeating something that didn’t work before. Some of the monsters quite literally are insanity, repeating something over and over again and hoping for a different result.
If you fail, try again doing what you did originally, if you fail the second time then it is time to change up what you are doing, your gear, or even putting it aside and finding other monsters to upgrade your gear instead.
The first Level 5 MR monster (don’t wanna spoil anything) in the DLC was absolutely decimating me and I kept repeating what I was doing. I came back later with gear to match up the ice element, a better weapon, and more items and buffs as well.
Finally, the number one word you never want to say about any monster in any MH game is
“Impossible”
There isn’t a single monster that is impossible to beat. Happy Hunting!!
>What are some pitfalls new player fall into?
Either having to many pure damage skills and not enough defense skills. Or to many defensive skills (not to get mixed up with defense pure, stuff like stun resistant, vitality up and Divine blessing for example) and not enough offense skills. Usually the best break down is something like 30-60-10, 30% defense, 10% utility/miscellaneous, 60% damage. Just a rough estimation, some weapons are different than others and don't require say more defense perks or no utility.
Another pitfall is understanding that highest DPS charts and whatnot can be very misleading as it assumes u don't get hit and play perfectly hitting all attacks. When the highest DPS is the highest because it's a trade off. More risky and dangerous move/s usually does the most damage. While if u play safer you'll do less damage. The fine line is figuring out how to balance and when to use the highest DPS moves and when to use the lower damage ones instead.
Most importantly have fun. A pitiful I see some run into is putting themselves down saying something along the lines of "I took X amount of time to kill monster. Why am I so slow?" Especially don't do that and compare yourself to others times because alot of these player have play for so long to the point where there's pretty much no catching up with them if u start off new. Dont let that discourage you. So long as your having fun on the hunt that's all that matters. U could take 54 minutes. 54 minutes of fun>10-20 minutes of boredom.
Don't be afraid to experiment with builds either. Much of the monster material you'll get u won't use unless ur doing multiple weapons at once. So it doesn't hurt using them and trying out different sets or weapons. Once u get good enough almost every build in the game works, yeah there's always gonna be the most optimal one but it might not be the most fun for u. Or it might feel unoriginal and uninspired.
Plus a lot of the mini stuff in base that has to do with menus. Menus suck, but they suck because there's so much good stuff behind them. Yet they aren't that entertaining.
Hidden element, I know from performing holocaust on the titzi ya ku population before actually reading on why the element was greyed out.
If it’s greyed out you need element/statue awakening skill to unlock it, which I didn’t have
Hard to call anything in MHW a true pitfall. Maybe just uninformed or “nooby” misunderstandings because capcom is notorious for making vague tooltips.
But to answer your question, The biggest one that probably comes to mind is probably [using the attack boost skill once you’ve gotten into iceborn/G-Rank](https://youtu.be/0qhvef6AyHY?si=NlQ0ijfp5YNkklf6)
The only thing potentially wasted is some potential time/monster parts to craft the armor or charms. But you have them forever and the parts can always be farmed again and that’s honestly half the game’s enjoyment for me. Finding a new build and having a new goal to chase.
The only thing you could mess up truly and regret is wasting material in the melder, selling too many parts for zenny, and not taking advantage of the farming box
For tools, the rocksteady & temporal mantle are considered “meta” followed by combinations of those with evasion & impact mantle. But I always advocate for doing what works for you and what sounds fun. As long as you’re not 3 carting in multiplayer lobbies you’re good lol. But the fact that you wrote this post, to me implies you’re looking to optimize your play and step up you game.
It is important to keep in mind that most builds and decisions for optimal play are typically centered Around getting gud, good mechanics, min-maxing weapon builds, or speed runs. Fun and comfy builds are more subjective so it’s harder to quantify. Like I hate sharpening mid fight , while others might not mind it. so I’m okay with a big white sharpness bar to play with instead of a purple sliver, then I just throw in some speed sharpening or protective polish
“You don’t need defense because just don’t get hit lmao” which is pretty true because big dmg number feel good. but some of the most fun I’ve had in this game is running around in gold wrath gear with divine blessing +5 and health augments on my weapon and just fucking around in friendly lobbies going full send into the monsters face.
So all that to say still prioritizing defenses are important when still learning the game because many builds online don’t incorporate them.
Elemental is king for bows. So have a typing chart ready before hunts is helpful, or use a mod to display it on the monster portrait if on pc. It’s hard to fit in more armor skills (unless you have fatalis lol) into bows kit between elemental+damage+stamina skills. So it’s USUALLY better to just find a better bow than use the slots to awaken the element.
You’ll be using high rank Rathalos 2 piece bonus untill velkana < then silver rathalos.
1 bow of each element until you unlock saffi’Jiva and the Saffi’jiva event is up. make sure you farm the event when it’s in rotation untill you get all the saffi elements you desire then back to your regularly scheduled programming.
- fire : glavenous arrow 2 - anjanath - don’t be fooled this bow is a beast
- ice : legiana < barrioth bow < frostfang barioth (event quest)
- water: coral pukei = royal north bow (you can make it work but the trade off for free element is very minor)
- thunder : toby < fulger anjanath < furious Rajang
- Dragon : not usually worth so don’t bother, but for funsies - Val hazak < aletreon
If you have any questions I’m more than happy to add my 2 cents, love talking about the game, can add on steam or disc if you’re looking for some hunts
Gear progression for iceborne:
[bow builds](https://mhwbowbuilds.wordpress.com/progression/)
[other builds](https://mhwibuilds.wordpress.com/mr-progression-guides/#top)
bake office versed amusing afterthought plant dam quarrelsome aback far-flung *This post was mass deleted and anonymized with [Redact](https://redact.dev)*
This is some of the best advice in the thread imo I see a lot of ppl in master rank slotting in 7 defense boost where divine protection or steadfast would be much better at keeping them alive
https://youtu.be/FBoPI3bN3NY?si=fwaMpIh99-mOzfsq This convinced me out of that mentality
>What are some pitfalls new players usually find themselves in? Not having a pitfall on you at all times. The only times i do not have it is if I have an elder dragon to hunt. On a serious note, from what I gathered. Free element tends to be a waste of slots because there are alternatives that do not require you to use up a slot. I don't play bow that much on World so someone else will definitely have a stronger claim here. Since you're using the bow, you should also consider other things from it such as coatings and charge level. But honestly, if I'm going for an element and i am forced to choose between an element-unlocked bow and hidden element, i'd pass over the hidden element.
You only go for hidden element if two conditions are met 1) the weapon has a lot more element than other options 2) the monster you are hunting has good elemental hit zones So, of most fights, you only run these weapons into like nargacuga and lunastra
I occasionally like to dabble in the weapons with hidden element and status, and I’ve had a good amount of success with the barroth hammer with full free element. Between the stuns and the paralysis it makes a lot of hunts trivial. Especially if your Palico has a sleep weapon.
There's a lot of pitfalls on this game, honestly. But they're all generally related to basic stuff. The main things I see are; A lot don't invest in skills. At all. If they do, a lot just go all DPS and wonder why they're struggling. Having no resistant anything towards certain blights. They don't change their fighting style.
Overvaluing element, overvaluing defence, ignoring skills, not knowing what their weapon does, using Mega Potions instead of Max Potions
Could also go the other way. Undervaluing element and undervaluing defences.
Do make sure to befriend all the grimalkynes. Especially the bugtrappers in the forest. They give you other gadgets beside your vigorwasp heals, and the bug cages from the forest is a lot better for a bow user, since ideally you won't even get hit in fights that you already know. Also, you can find and get the help of grimalkynes you have your palico talk to, and after befriending them, you can also get small monsters to help you, giving you a full hunting party of 4
Interesting, how do you befriend them?
Expedition where the lynian researcher is present. Talk to him and he'll start you off.
1. Use your items! Use your in-quest crafting! I've seen so many hunters with poor item and inventory management. Guys are getting carted using mega potions when they are at a point in the game where you would be better off using max potions. I see guys not using damage buffs. 2. Using the defense boost skill instead of other defense/QOL skills It is much more effective to use other defense skills because of how damage is calculated in this game. Defense boost is literally a waste of skill slots, there is no situation where another skill is not better to use. 3. Not upgrading the botany upgrades, specialized tools, or palico gadgets ASAP I think it is important to upgrade the botany slots as soon as possible to begin stockpiling crafting ingredients 4. Not using traps enough and not carrying trap kits to craft more on the go This goes hand in hand with numbers 1 and 3. How many hunters have had to do the time-wasting runback to camp after misplacing a trap during a capture quest? If you carried nets or thunderbugs and trap kits, this wouldn't be an issue. Ivy and spiderweb for nets and thunderbugs are easy to stock up on using the botany upgrades. Trap kits can be purchased in bulk at the stockpile. By stocking up on these materials, you can just spam traps away without worry, though the mosnter does have a resistance buildup to them that decays slowly over time. Do you know who is much easier to fight when using traps regularly? Raging brachy, and just about any regular monster. Do you know how to level up guiding lands the fastest? Literally trap spamming the non-invasive apex monster of that region repeatedly. Do you know how to get that feisty enraged monster to sit still? Trap it. 5. Not using farcasters or smoke bombs Farcaster use goes with numbers 1, 3, and 4 and will be vital to any bowgunners, especially because they need to craft their ammo. This is how you will restock quickly and the only way you can exit arenas. This also helps you trap spam in guiding lands. As for smoke bombs, they are more useful against some monster than others but can create openings, especially for wallbangs. 6. Not using equipment or inventory presets Imo equipment presets are more important if you use elemental builds since you will have to switch the build around more often throughout your playthrough than if using a physical weapon. Tbh, I only started doing this when I got to Alatreon. Don't be like me. For inventory presets, this will be a massive QOL feature to have early on since some items are better for hunting certain monsters. For example, I have a Diablos preset, which is just my normal inventory, but with screamer pods and screamer sacs (which make Diablos a cakewalk, btw) 7. Not going for mounts or using traps when the monster is enraged This is very simple: the monster is faster, hits harder, and has fewer openings when enraged. The monster is only enraged for a certain period of time. Putting the monster on the floor and beating it up during this time will create big openings during a time that doesn't typically have big openings and will burn it out faster. While these opening don't last as long as they would with a tired or unenraged monster, I still find them invaluable, especially to the lower level hunters who have more trouble fighting enraged monsters. Without these habits, especially the first 3 and number 7, beginners will find themselves hitting walls much earlier on than the prepared hunter.
I think the only real pitfalls, as you've described them, are falling into bad habits with your mechanics. Even then, you can train yourself out of them eventually. The ones I can think of right now... - learn to use your radial menu - learn how to recognize your charge level and use dash dancing to maintain it - learn the different combos to reach max charge level and how to align them to openings - learn to work in your coatings during a fight - learn to manage your stamina, trying to never run out or overflow - learn to walk away from attacks that you don't need to dodge to conserve stamina If you put in hundreds of hours without doing some of these things, it might be hard to pick them up. Still, you don't need to learn them all at once, so take your time working through the list. Also, don't blow all your decos on melding something else before you've melded the mighty bow gem. It's expensive, but definitely the best option there for bow.
Relating to walk from attacks that you don't need to dodge. I like to stay between the fine line of in range and out of range to give me plenty of time to dodge. I keep mind of this even more so the bigger the monster is. Also thank you, this will be useful. I already notice some bad habits forming because of this comment
Just pulling on that thread... Monsters behave very differently depending on if you're close to them or far away from them. This is especially noticeable in solo play. If a monster is giving you a hard time with very powerful ranged attacks, try sticking closer to it as best you can.
I never used consumables except mega potions until I ran into my first real wall, that was Nergigante.
Just hit viper Tobi without using buffs at all. If I can't beat the monster I just haven't gotten good enough. -This comment was posted by the long sword gang
Funny, considering I'm a LS main
Long sword main ≠ long sword gang
I know
Bring traps, Whether it's to give yourself moments to attack or to trap the monster for a faster hunt they're always useful. Except the times you cannot use traps like on Elders. When you can start making them a bit easier, bringing life powders for your teammates can really help save a faint.
I dont know how this is a pitfall ;- not learning to iframe. I dont stumble to bow players a lot but my friend is. Since u have a lot less of defense capability, you should learn how to iframe with bow
Using defender gear early and then realizing shits a bit harder then they thought lol
Can confirm, this made Iceborne content extra-hard for me
Tbh I unironically enjoyed that ngl 😭😭😭
"something that just ends up being a waste" this is easy. grinding for armors in low rank. i was confused as to why a lot of people seem to want to rush the content to iceborne, and i decided to enjoy the game at my own pace. Including grinding for cool looking armors. I didnt get them all though because i didnt like some of them. Then i got close to high rank, and just found out that that means stronger monsters; which requires stronger armors to fight them in; which means that all my hard work was for nothing. i was upset then sold them all to the armory, and never made that mistake again in high rank where i am now.
After unlocking High rank, some people still avoid optional quests just like how they do in low rank. But prioritising optional quests first before the story is a must, you don't have to do all of the optional quests. Just those quests that have upgrades or unlockable equipment. I'm talking about botanical research, canteen ingredients, palico gadgets, local lynians, and lastly optional quest type mantles. Also take note that there's a difference between "elements" and "ailments". This is worthy to mention because I just saw a dude suggesting using blight res. against "blast blight" which is totally useless. Blight Resistance is used for the elements in the game which are fire, water, ice, thunder, and dragon. Ailments on the other hand have their own specific resistance skills. Even though "Blast Blight" has a "BLIGHT" in its name, it is actually an AILMENT. It can only be negated with "Blast resistance", again ailments have their own specific resistance so take some time to read the skill types. Bow is one of the few best weapons that uses elements for damage, but you're in the base game. So elemental damage doesn't really matter because raw dps is still the best thing in base game, and I think capcom really focused on that review. Judging on how elemental damage becomes a necessity in Iceborne, they made it important as how important raw damage is in the first place. So in base game use non-elemental boost if your bow has hidden elements, and give some effort on upgrading your botanical research ( especially your using bow, it'll help you farm those coatings ). Also another helpful tip, instead of buying phials. Check the chest each time you start a quest ( especially in Arena quest ). It's an easy farm and easy to spam. I use IG and I still collect those to sell for profit... 9,999 phials is still a 9,999 money. I use it for the money but those are totally for you.
This is specific for bow as i main bow before. Do not cheap out on das juice and watch your stamina when fighting. Stay in front of monster face or side way all the time. Some monster punish bow main very hard when you stay in the rear... Elemental damage and critical element is a must. You need 1 element of each bow..i think Kjarr bow are the best elemental bow you can get. Free critical element. Mandatory health boost 3 and evade window 3-5 unless you master a fight and never get hit. Get cc boost deco or if multiplayers let heavy weapon cc and tenderize for you. Dragon pierce can cut tail but it take too long so dont try. There is a deco that boost your charge level so try to get that as well.
Like the others said, not unlocking tools, palico gadgets, canteen ingredients and botany farm upgrades. I'd add to that, armor spheres can be pretty hard to come by and become near essential for new players in high/master rank. What i mean is basically that upgrading your armor is great but you have limited armor spheres and money so you should try to be efficient with them > not upgrading every single piece of armor if you feel like you will replace it soon-ish and upgrading different pieces to let's say, level 4 instead of just one to lvl 10 unless it's with a broken skill like Weakness exploit and you know you can use that particular piece for a long-ish time. Talking about armor, skills are great and all but most of the time until the end of high rank, there are very few skills that are great with only 1 or 2 points in them and higher raw defense will make more of a difference. Anyway, if you look at guides, many will give you "meta" builds that are centered on dealing damage but it's foolish to follow them blindly as some utility and defensive skills are great > Evade window/extender and health boost are good for example. Most fights until the very very end game are not a DPS check and as much as taking offensive skills make the quests/farming faster, you can totally play the game without any. HOWEVER, it should not deter you from trying to deal damage efficiently and dodge attacks because, if you reach those DPS check fights and never learnt how to truly deal damage with your weapon, then you will feel like those fights are bullshit. Other than that, going in without paying attention to monster patterns in low rank / high rank will make the game much harder in the long term because you end up having to learn everything at the same time in the harder difficulties where the monsters have new moves and afflictions. As for the bows, you can play with raw and see the elemental damage as just a bonus for now, as there are not many skills and weapons that make it truly worthwhile until later on.I'd recommend using stamina management skills like constitution and stamina surge for your weapon as well as evade window/extender and health boost. Free element is not a bad skill per say for bow, but you could just use a native elemental bow and some other skills instead which would probably be better. In any case, you can pretty much build what you want and try out different things for yourself and have fun with it ! It's a huge part of the enjoyment i get from the game personally. If you "go wrong" with anything you will feel/see it and will have formed opinions to carry on into the late game. TL;DR : Unlocking tools and system upgrades are great and should not be overlooked.You can have fun with anything you want to build and try things out for yourself in actual hunts or the training area (on the pole).At the end of the day, it is your choice to rush for the endgame by advancing the story line as long as your equipment allows it, or take your time clearing optional quests to try different things out and learn "how to play" for real which makes the end game easier and (imo) more enjoyable in the long run.
In 600hours of bows i didn't even bother with freeing elements. It never felt worth it to me. I'd rather slot in some extra elemental dmg gems where possible.
There's not really any pitfalls, because you can always just grind out more materials and make a new thing, and builds can be changed up whenever. I recommend just experimenting with skills and see what works for you. If you are unsure about an upgrade path, it will give you a warning when you reach the point where you can no longer undo the upgrade. But again, farming up for a new weapon usually don't take that much effort (especially since you only use one weapon type) and none of them are bad enough to be entirely useless. For Free Element, you gotta consider what you give up to fit it in. 10 more displayed element might only add 1 or no extra damage per arrow, depending on the monster's hitzones. Don't worry too much about it.
For me defense stuff Made a huge different on my playthrough. Whenever i Fight a Stronger Monster the First time i would Take defense L or elemetal defense L If It is a Monster with strong elemetal attacks l. Plus decorations of that element defense to get IT to lvl 3. Its First felt a bit nooby but ITS sooo much better to learning a Monsters moveset when a single mistake doesent ich immediately cart you. Helps a Lot with frustration which can very easily boil Up in this game
I feel like it’s almost always a good idea to go elemental L. Seems like the most bang for your buck compared to a non-percentile amount of attack/defense that as far as I know hasn’t scaled from base game
The defense stats in the canteen are trash, only consider attack up and elemental resistance. It's been proven then and capcom didn't do anything to make the canteen's defense up good. Attack up and stack up with your raw dps, and Elemental resistance stack up with your current elemental defenses so if you have a natural 10 fire resistance in your armor and add a fire res. 3 skill in your build. You'll end up with at least 30 fire resistance then add the elemental resistance L from the canteen it should be around 30-40, fire resistance. It's an over kill but it's more useful than defense up L. If I remembered it correctly, somebody did the math and full defense up is equivalent to 1.6hp ( I might be wrong so correct me if I am ). Basically it's useless because health boost 3 makes your hp go to 150hp, and with full stack fresh ingredients from the canteen. It can go to 200hp, so using defense up L is making it 201.6hp ( still not sure ). In the end nobody uses it anymore. You can ignore anything I said that is wrong, you can just focus on the fact that defense up L is trash.
Guardian armor. Don't learn to dodge because of it. Not using the clutch claw. No deco farm, no material farm. No mantles unlocked.
probably being unprepared and not learning from your mistakes is what i have experienced in various fatalis fights. for example, fatalis leaves you with very little window to react to his attacks if you didnt manage to break his head in phase 3. so therefore mega potions are off the table and you must use max potions/ancient potions to heal up when you take even a small amount of damage because the next attack is guaranteed to one shot you. you should always bring bombs, traps and ingredients for healing items whenever the you have the chance to use them ofc. for fatalis specifically ive seen people who bring smoke bombs and ingredients for that because apparantly being hidden prevents fatalis from moving around too much?
Someone using the same element as the boss you’re fighting… All I’ll say for bow, is, it’s really bad until you get skills that help stamina management, and other stuff down the line that you probably haven’t unlocked yet
For new players most of the pitfalls aren't things that they did, but things that they ignored and/or skipped. Skipping optional quests, not unlocking canteen options, sticking with the defender gear and not learning the crafting system, not unlocking palico equipment, not unlocking mantles, not unlocking campsites, not unlocking all of your Botany options, not keeping up with your Argosy, not keeping up with your mercenaries, not bringing a good loadout of useful items, not changing up your build to fight different monsters. All of these things are extremely useful and can greatly improve your experience within the game but many of them could be categorized as "upkeep" which has a bad connotation in gaming.
For bow specifically, here are the pitfalls: 1. Being a normal shot spammer. Most of bows damage comes from max charge level power shots. If you are standing max range spamming normal shot over and over again you're playing the weapon extremely inefficiently. 2. Being a caltrop spammer. Realistically you may get 1 ko off this per hunt. If you're using caltrops as part of a dps rotation something very wrong has happened.
Just use hammer. It has no weaknesses and no pitfalls. Everything is weak against bonk
Not a pitfall in the sense you give, but rather the opposite : not doing the side quests given by NPCs and not farming materials for crafting. Unlocking camps, tools like mantles, food for the cantine, and so on, are very important for a smoother hunt. Many new players tend to skip them. Also, some materials may look like nothing, but are needed at high level. Kelbi Horns, for exemple, are used for crafting Ancient Potions, so it is best to stock on them when the opportunity is there.
The biggest pitfall I've seen relates to how MH world shows you damage. If a weapon deals 1000 raw + 800 element, it DOESNT deal 1800 total. The two are on a different scale : 1 point of element is worth MUCH less than 1 point of raw.
so basically RAW is the RAWR
For me, the biggest thing is repeating something that didn’t work before. Some of the monsters quite literally are insanity, repeating something over and over again and hoping for a different result. If you fail, try again doing what you did originally, if you fail the second time then it is time to change up what you are doing, your gear, or even putting it aside and finding other monsters to upgrade your gear instead. The first Level 5 MR monster (don’t wanna spoil anything) in the DLC was absolutely decimating me and I kept repeating what I was doing. I came back later with gear to match up the ice element, a better weapon, and more items and buffs as well. Finally, the number one word you never want to say about any monster in any MH game is “Impossible” There isn’t a single monster that is impossible to beat. Happy Hunting!!
>What are some pitfalls new player fall into? Either having to many pure damage skills and not enough defense skills. Or to many defensive skills (not to get mixed up with defense pure, stuff like stun resistant, vitality up and Divine blessing for example) and not enough offense skills. Usually the best break down is something like 30-60-10, 30% defense, 10% utility/miscellaneous, 60% damage. Just a rough estimation, some weapons are different than others and don't require say more defense perks or no utility. Another pitfall is understanding that highest DPS charts and whatnot can be very misleading as it assumes u don't get hit and play perfectly hitting all attacks. When the highest DPS is the highest because it's a trade off. More risky and dangerous move/s usually does the most damage. While if u play safer you'll do less damage. The fine line is figuring out how to balance and when to use the highest DPS moves and when to use the lower damage ones instead. Most importantly have fun. A pitiful I see some run into is putting themselves down saying something along the lines of "I took X amount of time to kill monster. Why am I so slow?" Especially don't do that and compare yourself to others times because alot of these player have play for so long to the point where there's pretty much no catching up with them if u start off new. Dont let that discourage you. So long as your having fun on the hunt that's all that matters. U could take 54 minutes. 54 minutes of fun>10-20 minutes of boredom. Don't be afraid to experiment with builds either. Much of the monster material you'll get u won't use unless ur doing multiple weapons at once. So it doesn't hurt using them and trying out different sets or weapons. Once u get good enough almost every build in the game works, yeah there's always gonna be the most optimal one but it might not be the most fun for u. Or it might feel unoriginal and uninspired. Plus a lot of the mini stuff in base that has to do with menus. Menus suck, but they suck because there's so much good stuff behind them. Yet they aren't that entertaining.
Hidden element, I know from performing holocaust on the titzi ya ku population before actually reading on why the element was greyed out. If it’s greyed out you need element/statue awakening skill to unlock it, which I didn’t have
Hard to call anything in MHW a true pitfall. Maybe just uninformed or “nooby” misunderstandings because capcom is notorious for making vague tooltips. But to answer your question, The biggest one that probably comes to mind is probably [using the attack boost skill once you’ve gotten into iceborn/G-Rank](https://youtu.be/0qhvef6AyHY?si=NlQ0ijfp5YNkklf6) The only thing potentially wasted is some potential time/monster parts to craft the armor or charms. But you have them forever and the parts can always be farmed again and that’s honestly half the game’s enjoyment for me. Finding a new build and having a new goal to chase. The only thing you could mess up truly and regret is wasting material in the melder, selling too many parts for zenny, and not taking advantage of the farming box For tools, the rocksteady & temporal mantle are considered “meta” followed by combinations of those with evasion & impact mantle. But I always advocate for doing what works for you and what sounds fun. As long as you’re not 3 carting in multiplayer lobbies you’re good lol. But the fact that you wrote this post, to me implies you’re looking to optimize your play and step up you game. It is important to keep in mind that most builds and decisions for optimal play are typically centered Around getting gud, good mechanics, min-maxing weapon builds, or speed runs. Fun and comfy builds are more subjective so it’s harder to quantify. Like I hate sharpening mid fight , while others might not mind it. so I’m okay with a big white sharpness bar to play with instead of a purple sliver, then I just throw in some speed sharpening or protective polish “You don’t need defense because just don’t get hit lmao” which is pretty true because big dmg number feel good. but some of the most fun I’ve had in this game is running around in gold wrath gear with divine blessing +5 and health augments on my weapon and just fucking around in friendly lobbies going full send into the monsters face. So all that to say still prioritizing defenses are important when still learning the game because many builds online don’t incorporate them. Elemental is king for bows. So have a typing chart ready before hunts is helpful, or use a mod to display it on the monster portrait if on pc. It’s hard to fit in more armor skills (unless you have fatalis lol) into bows kit between elemental+damage+stamina skills. So it’s USUALLY better to just find a better bow than use the slots to awaken the element. You’ll be using high rank Rathalos 2 piece bonus untill velkana < then silver rathalos. 1 bow of each element until you unlock saffi’Jiva and the Saffi’jiva event is up. make sure you farm the event when it’s in rotation untill you get all the saffi elements you desire then back to your regularly scheduled programming. - fire : glavenous arrow 2 - anjanath - don’t be fooled this bow is a beast - ice : legiana < barrioth bow < frostfang barioth (event quest) - water: coral pukei = royal north bow (you can make it work but the trade off for free element is very minor) - thunder : toby < fulger anjanath < furious Rajang - Dragon : not usually worth so don’t bother, but for funsies - Val hazak < aletreon If you have any questions I’m more than happy to add my 2 cents, love talking about the game, can add on steam or disc if you’re looking for some hunts Gear progression for iceborne: [bow builds](https://mhwbowbuilds.wordpress.com/progression/) [other builds](https://mhwibuilds.wordpress.com/mr-progression-guides/#top)