HH main. Stuck at Deviljho.

[Toxi]

HR 13 HH, I thought I had it all figured out while fighting my way through to Elders Recess (just got there, haven't beaten Nergigante yet), but Deviljho proved me otherwise.

Short version. Over a dozen quest failures and I don't even feel like I'm getting better.


Long version below.


My equipment:

Armor: Blossom set normal, maxed out and Bone Waist high, also maxed out. (219 def)
Charm: Stun resist I.
Weapon: Fortissimo I. [best buffs so far. Attack (L), Health (L) and Defense (L)]
Tool: Health Booster. [switched this for Vitality mantle lately, the one and only defensive tool I have, because of how little use I got from the former]


The attempts:

for starters, with Fortissimo I's buffs, I should be able to tank him just right, but I just can't tank him at all even with those, his damage seems to just ignore it, because with Defense (L/XL) or none, he seemingly does the same high damage either way. I can't see even a 10% reduction in his damage, he takes away chunks either way, 20% to 30% on smaller attacks, 40% to 60% on larger hits and it's the same without the defense buff.

Problem 2. I barely can squeeze 1 measly hit in once every 15-30 seconds and usually get hit in the middle, or near the end, because of how much and how often this ♥♥♥♥♥♥♥ refreshes into another attack.

I'm guessing I'm trying him at an early point of the game, but I'm kind of stuck right now, because Nergigante isn't any easier with his air diving.
Maybe it's a problem with me not using the HH that well? it's a very slow weapon after all (2nd slowest probably, to GS) and although I like that, when it doesn't do any damage and the buffs don't feel that efficient, it's hard to justify its use here, the most damage dealt being 100 at the end of a double note and most commonly, 30-60.

other things that don't work, I Can't get used to his moveset and I'm ♥♥♥♥♥♥♥ Trying To! His shoulder bump is ♥♥♥♥♥♥♥ ridiculous... That thing is at least 5 meters long, if you count his small head, huge bloated stomach and colossal tail.
and if my placement is even slightly off, which, Good luck, Me! not having that problem, because he constantly and I mean, Never, he Just Never stops rotating and swiping with that tail and that square hitbox on his tail hitting me from nearly every conceivable angle. And that's not even getting into his stomps and tremors.


Conclusion:

I just feel like even when I'm trying and struggling to understand the mechanics and systems in place, I don't get this game and what it expects from me. Is It just Stats I'm missing, I need Earplugs, Stun, Tremor resistances, to make this fight bearable, or a combination of some of those and Attack stats? Buffs? I used Demondrug, with the attack boosts and self-improvement, but it barely increased my damage in any significant way, nowhere near the numbers I was seeing online of 150-300, per hit.
I know my set is trash and helping me very little because of its stats, but I thought I could handle it if I knew what I was doing. What really throws me off about this ♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥ angry gigantic pickle is, how insanely Tanky, Fast and hard hitting he is, not just tanky in, he's got a lot of health, I mean knocking him down is a tall order for my build.

My results in the failed attempts. At most, I could survive for 10, or 15 minutes without a cart, but breaking any of his parts took at least 10 minutes, if I could get the hits in and if they would Indeed, Hit him, as in, I get lucky to swipe in a hit on his head, due to him not moving away when I start an attack, he can change his head/stomach position by moving about every 3 seconds I think, hence the issues of his insane refreshes after attacks.


Final words:

I thought the Rathalos/Rathian/Pink Rathian were the worst up to this point, because they fly and are very hard to hit whilst flying, meaning, waste lots of flash flies on them and because I cannot cut their tails, which I'd say is 90% of their source of damage, I was expecting things to get harder, but this is a bit ridiculous..


I made this thread because I tried to SOS flare on him, but on one final attempt before switching back to all time solo again, I carted once every 1-2 minutes. I don't want to touch multiplayer after that again, or the SOS flare.
I didn't have that much trouble with him when I was all by myself and that was just the ♥♥♥♥♥♥♥ worst I've been and had it in the game so far...

I'm expecting the usual answers, but know I have tried. I know I suck at the game, after the beating I got.

[Nerevar]

one does not simply HH the pickle^^



on a more serious note. youre not STUCK at jho. you dont have to fight him at all to complete the story which unlocks more gearing options. jho actually has more hp than nerg for example. but he is fully optional.

also your charm sucks. stun resist is an all or nothing skill. you either get lvl 3. or you dump the skill completly there is no middle ground when it comes to stun in world.
blossom is also a pretty low tier set aswell if i remember right. you should have a rarity 7 armor set by the time you fight the pickle already. 219 def is VERY low for pickle. you can have up to nearly 400 by now with buffs with better armor. that reduces his dmg big time.

finshing the story gives you a 2nd mantle slot. plus access to ALOT more powerful mantles like ultra instinct mantle (dodges automatically for you) this requires you to access pandoras arena special assignment questchain to unlock where you face off againist the true cancer of this game (excludeing rngesus) for the first time.

you simply need to upgrade your gear before you faceoff with the pickle again. gearing up is a huge deal in this game and makes alot of difference.

i had issues with the pickle aswell when i was new at first. once you gear up youll notice he isnt that difficult anymore.

[Lack of Stuff]

Put the idea of tanking with HH buffs out of your mind completely. If you want to tank monsters then you need a different weapon.

My suggestion is focus on beating Nergigante for now and worry about DJ later. You CAN beat him but he's post-release content that's designed to be tough for where you are in the game.

[//mood~]

The beauty of the game comes from being able to slay all monsters with almost any weapon type in the game. With that being said, other weapon types are much more recommended since you can do damage while having means of protecting yourself (dodge, block and even the range weapons). This is the case for deviljho. Perhaps try using a different weapon?

The strength of HH comes from buffing yourself and your teammates (Use SOS at the start XD). There are monsters in MHW that are gonna require a ton of patience (such as deviljho and nergigante). But once you get their movesets, you'll have a much better time going against them.

TLDR
-Use a different weapon if you can. If not, use SOS
-Watch a monster tutorial/guide
-Focus on which moves they use. Some moves create opportunities for hunters to lay down some attacks
-Get better gear!

Hope this helps :D

[Smug Kot]

HH isnt slow, stick to those moves:

Forward Y
Standing B
Forward Y+B
Standing Y+B (combo finisher, good for when you really need to hit and run)

Those are you bread and butter, remember you can CANCEL ENCORE DOING A ROLL.


also vs JhoJho just keep hiting his legs and stay near his belly, the only move could hit you there its the stomp but you can dodge easy.

[MarshmallowNinja]

As a HH main myself I can tell you that it is possible to beat him with HH. The best thing to do is focus on knock outs. Joh likes to do large hitbox attacks. Stick back and bait out a attack that he has to recover from. He is also a non-elder monster. So traps, stuns, sleep, paralysis, and flash can help.

[Hammer Of Evil]

its pretty tough to fight him at hr 13 with the blunt weapons because the range is a bit lower than most (HH/Hammer), and pickle is really tall.

its literally no choice except smash his legs to the point where they break and he starts falling over. ofc, get head hits in whenever you can, but for the most part we are out of range for smacking his skull.

hunting horn has the rising swing attack though, and being slightly longer ranged than the hammer, you should be able to confidently smash him in the hands every chance you get, thats a great weakspot.

remember that after hitting him, if he instantly rears up, hit him again instantly if you can, it will knock him down, or instantly cause an exhausted state, be ready for this 'counter charge' and counter it with a good smack. its one of his mechanics and results in a lot of free slaps to his skull. if you can't quite get the timing though, no worries, just dive it for now. (this is different from his big triple windup normal huge charge attack, this counter charge of his only happens after you hit him!)

if you're still struggling with pickle, build you a lance or gunlance. you can block all of his attacks, and both lances can easily hit his head and hand weakspots. and with an ironwall charm you won't get blown back so violently while blocking.

[Toxi]

Originally posted by Nerevar:

one does not simply HH the pickle^^



on a more serious note. youre not STUCK at jho. you dont have to fight him at all to complete the story which unlocks more gearing options. jho actually has more hp than nerg for example. but he is fully optional.

You could say that for other monsters. One does not simply HH the flying pains in the ass. But, it is fun nonetheless, swatting them with it.

Anyway, I could tell that he's optional, I'm just almost done with the mats for Devil's Maestro, so I was trying to get 2 scales that I'm missing. Greed, man.. I still want that horn...

Originally posted by Lack of Stuff:

Put the idea of tanking with HH buffs out of your mind completely. If you want to tank monsters then you need a different weapon.

My suggestion is focus on beating Nergigante for now and worry about DJ later. You CAN beat him but he's post-release content that's designed to be tough for where you are in the game.

alright, Nergigante is the next target. Got it.

I'm not trying to tank monsters on purpose, the tankiness is for starters right now, until I get used to the moveset and for this one, I expect some hits to blindside me, because all the moving and shifting around this angry pickle does is gonna take me a while to get used to. It's not a lot of movesets, but the refreshes he has throws me off and just one time, is sometimes more than sufficient for a carting, because, either tremor + eat + toss me + laying on my back + head slam, or head slam at close range + shoulder check.

I think if I can get over those damn shoulder checks, he'll be a lot easier then, but it's easier said than done. That damn thing, has a gigantic hitbox and positioning seems to be everything for it.

Originally posted by Undertale: "CENSORED" edition:

HH isnt slow, stick to those moves:

Forward Y
Standing B
Forward Y+B
Standing Y+B (combo finisher, good for when you really need to hit and run)

Those are you bread and butter, remember you can CANCEL ENCORE DOING A ROLL.


also vs JhoJho just keep hiting his legs and stay near his belly, the only move could hit you there its the stomp but you can dodge easy.

I think Forward Y+B and Forward B are both the two hardest to hit this one with, on this one. Those are the ones I should keep for buffs.
Standing Y+B seems like the safest, but if angry pickle tail swipes, there's a good chance of getting hit, unless I'm under his belly, in front of his legs. Ok, I'll try that then, cheers.

also about dodge, noticed it, if I hadn't noticed roll cancelling various actions, I doubt I'd have made it too far in the game. I think it's more of a getting used to it, but my problem could also be how used to the souls games I am with rolling.
Gotta get it through my head that rolling here is for creating a short distance, aka, immediate displacement, while also minding the recovery post-roll and stamina consumption. There is Maybe an Iota of i-Frame in the roll, but it's not reliable in the slightest.



Thanks for the answers so far guys, these were some fairly encouraging replies and decent tips for where I am in the game.

[Nerevar]

Originally posted by toxicitzi:

Originally posted by Nerevar:

one does not simply HH the pickle^^



on a more serious note. youre not STUCK at jho. you dont have to fight him at all to complete the story which unlocks more gearing options. jho actually has more hp than nerg for example. but he is fully optional.

You could say that for other monsters. One does not simply HH the flying pains in the ass. But, it is fun nonetheless, swatting them with it.

Anyway, I could tell that he's optional, I'm just almost done with the mats for Devil's Maestro, so I was trying to get 2 scales that I'm missing. Greed, man.. I still want that horn...

Originally posted by Lack of Stuff:

Put the idea of tanking with HH buffs out of your mind completely. If you want to tank monsters then you need a different weapon.

My suggestion is focus on beating Nergigante for now and worry about DJ later. You CAN beat him but he's post-release content that's designed to be tough for where you are in the game.

alright, Nergigante is the next target. Got it.

I'm not trying to tank monsters on purpose, the tankiness is for starters right now, until I get used to the moveset and for this one, I expect some hits to blindside me, because all the moving and shifting around this angry pickle does is gonna take me a while to get used to. It's not a lot of movesets, but the refreshes he has throws me off and just one time, is sometimes more than sufficient for a carting, because, either tremor + eat + toss me + laying on my back + head slam, or head slam at close range + shoulder check.

I think if I can get over those damn shoulder checks, he'll be a lot easier then, but it's easier said than done. That damn thing, has a gigantic hitbox and positioning seems to be everything for it.

Originally posted by Undertale: "CENSORED" edition:

HH isnt slow, stick to those moves:

Forward Y
Standing B
Forward Y+B
Standing Y+B (combo finisher, good for when you really need to hit and run)

Those are you bread and butter, remember you can CANCEL ENCORE DOING A ROLL.


also vs JhoJho just keep hiting his legs and stay near his belly, the only move could hit you there its the stomp but you can dodge easy.

I think Forward Y+B and Forward B are both the two hardest to hit this one with, on this one. Those are the ones I should keep for buffs.
Standing Y+B seems like the safest, but if angry pickle tail swipes, there's a good chance of getting hit, unless I'm under his belly, in front of his legs. Ok, I'll try that then, cheers.

also about dodge, noticed it, if I hadn't noticed roll cancelling various actions, I doubt I'd have made it too far in the game. I think it's more of a getting used to it, but my problem could also be how used to the souls games I am with rolling.
Gotta get it through my head that rolling here is for creating a short distance, aka, immediate displacement, while also minding the recovery post-roll and stamina consumption. There is Maybe an Iota of i-Frame in the roll, but it's not reliable in the slightest.



Thanks for the answers so far guys, these were some fairly encouraging replies and decent tips for where I am in the game.

for anything that flys : bring 3 flashpods and 10 flashbugs. and then put flashpod crafting on your quickmenu. this way you have 13 flashpods.

monster flys ----> flashpod it. monster becomes free to beat up for around 10 seconds and is fully helpless aswell.

thus flying monsters are actually the easiest prey for you once you learn this.
till you reach tempered monsters XD

[Lack of Stuff]

Except if it's Lunastra. Don't flash her unless you know how to handle it.

[Guizin]

I used to beat pickle of the HH all the time. Pay attention to his moves. It's generally a good idea to roll torwards it in some movements it does.

[el diablo anda suelto]

instead of going to sleep at a reasonable hour press 'GIT GUD'
use the power of the sound!

[DoT]

GIT GUD

[chefcook90]

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MSBQEEXHQiI

[Aki87]

Sounds like you need to increase your HH Knowledge and Skills. Watch HH speed runs and Grifted's Masterclass tutorials. Then apply everything in the training room, like drill on building your fastest song building combo, study the attack animations to learn when the exact time is to start Hiltstabs and flourish notes (ie - for SuperPound its when the horn causes dust to fly up), and master Encores and Rollout timings. Practice until you can do all of the above without thinking and have memorized your main 1-2 songs. Then combat test your new skills on easy monsters like Barroth and Anjanath.

HH Tips
Djo is fast so focus on fast attacks until he staggers, then hit him with the Forward Triangle + Circle (Super Pound). Fast attack include: 1) The Grifted Jab n Roll/Flourish roll: Press -> Circ, then roll before the second spin attack. Used to test if you have an opening and slowly build up stagger damage on Djos face. If you dont have an opening, the roll will allow you to evade. If you do, then do a full flourish for 3 notes. 2) Weak Pound: -> Triangle. Just your basic quick damaging attack. 3) QTABS (Quick Turn Around Back Slam): Circle + Triangle. The ultra damaging backwards overhead attack perfect to hit high heads. More of an advanced technique but one of the best quick counter moves. When he staggers, SuperPound -> Forward Recital is one of your fastest combos. Use Neutral recital instead if you arent sure about your positioning.

Big Openings: Djo can be toppled when he does his 4x side to side face swipe. Hit him with a big attack during the animation like a neutral recital and he will dramatically flop onto his back and allow a big encore on his face.

Helpful Gear: Try some evade window as training wheels. Many aggressive HH players Hit Pause and Roll at the last second to create openings via the Iframes roll. This is super easy to use on Djos 180 fire cloud breath and some tail spins.