Is the S&S shield slash counter bugged or is the shield just really bad?

[Pegarex]

I made a sword and shield build for the first time in a while, noticed it has a counter thing where if you hit the b button while blocking, you can jump start a perfect rush. I was able to get the timing for it pretty consistently with the training dummy, but whenever I try it against an actual monster, despite having 5 levels of guard and 2 levels of guard up, I get super high knockback. I first tried it against tigrex, decided "yeah, maybe since he is a high tier monster, I could see getting knocked back to much to follow up" and switched to Pukei-pukei, and had the same issue. The reason why I think it might be bugged was because I was getting more knockback trying to do the counter than I was just tapping the block to activate offensive guard, but since I am really uncertain if it actually is just bugged or me not having a very good reference point, I am making a discussion instead of a report.

[Nolo Contendere]

it has been a while since i've even touched S&S in any MH game (think like freedom unite), but I always remembered it being bad compared to Gunlance and Lance.

I feel like the usefulness of the shield is more of a better than eating the attack measure rather than something to base my assault around. Someone who knows more than me (not a hard metric) can feel free to correct or elaborate.

[Valentine (Lunaticus)]

The shield is indeed much worse than the others. I had actually thought about how useful that move could be if you invested in Guard, but sounds like it's not worth it at all. You could try stacking Embolden on top of that and try again.

[Pegarex]

Originally posted by Valentine (Lunaticus):

The shield is indeed much worse than the others. I had actually thought about how useful that move could be if you invested in Guard, but sounds like it's not worth it at all. You could try stacking Embolden on top of that and try again.

I was going to try that out next, just to see. Even if it does work, I feel like the most of the time, perfect rush is going to take to long to pull off, and so it would just be smarter to build wirebug cooldown and use metsu, since that can counter anything without needing guard or guard up, while still activating offensive guard.

[Pegarex]

Originally posted by Nolo Contendere:

it has been a while since i've even touched S&S in any MH game (think like freedom unite), but I always remembered it being bad compared to Gunlance and Lance.

I feel like the usefulness of the shield is more of a better than eating the attack measure rather than something to base my assault around. Someone who knows more than me (not a hard metric) can feel free to correct or elaborate.

Yeah, I've never really tried using the shield before either, because I always knew it was bad compared to every other weapons. The entire reason I wanted to try it is because rise is so counter heavy, and I have never seen anyone using this specific one

[Nolo Contendere]

The virtue of the SnS is mostly in being able to use items without sheathing as well as having pretty respectable mobility and versatile combos (not many weapons can both sever AND stun).

[Bobucles]

The shield is about as useful as a cardboard pizza box. SnS has strong mobility and quick access to items. The shield is mostly a last resort, for when dodging is not an option.

One of the better uses of blocking is to hold guard while standing up. The block activates before getting hit, so it's a safe way to stand up. This wasn't always the case, for example in world a certain perk would instantly stand back up and not allow blocking in time.

[Zhou Yu]

This video has some guard numbers of weapons if you're curious.
https://youtu.be/nmuNGaQnWp0

[Mirai]

Get Embolden armor skill, the Guard Slash playstyle is completely reliant on this skill.
Keep Guard 5 as well.

[Clail]

It works, but if an attack is strong enough to knock you back I don't think it will go into the counter/perfect rush combo
SnS shield isn't on par with the lances or gunlance, but it's still a lifesaver if you know you can't get out of the way of an attack.

[Plumber]

Unlike iframe-related skills, the two guard skills Guard and Embolden can stack with each other. In a solo environment where the monster always targets you, you can build to take advantage of this move. It's a huge armor skill investment, but it's pretty novel and can give better punishes than backhops would.

[FafnirChaos]

I think the shield is mostly for the stun effect, as opposed to blocking anything really. I watched a SnS player a while back out DPS everyone while stun locking the monster fairly easily, I litterally stopped attacking and just watched him eclipse everyones dps.

Can't say for sure though, barely touched it myself.

[Laughing kookaburra]

need guard 5 + embolden, too much knock back = no perfect rush

[Valentine (Lunaticus)]

Happened to bump into this video.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LBjJwWiOItY

As some have said, it does indeed work, as you can see for yourself from the video. Works surprisingly well too against attacks that I didn't expect it to. I'm definitely gonna try this myself too.

[Valentine (Lunaticus)]

After trying it myself now, I can at least guarantee that it's a very fun playstyle.

[FafnirChaos]

Originally posted by Valentine (Lunaticus):

Happened to bump into this video.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LBjJwWiOItY

As some have said, it does indeed work, as you can see for yourself from the video. Works surprisingly well too against attacks that I didn't expect it to. I'm definitely gonna try this myself too.

So that's how it works, Gonna play this..... at some point