So Earplug is only good at rank 4-5?

[Kreddi]

What do they categorize as weak and strong monsters?
Are elder dragons strong while other large monsters are weak?

[Hare+Guu!]

Pretty sure it goes by threat level. So monsters ranked in threat level 1 are weak, and anything above is strong. And yes, it's only good at 4-5 because level 2 and 3 bosses are the only ones that drop the augments you want.

[Goromi]

Rank 4 is enough for me.

[DantE]

it's freaking expensive, i use beetlejuice helm and coil + 1 deco. that leaves a lot of dps on the table, not sure if it's worth it yet.

[Arthur.C]

Originally posted by DantE:

it's freaking expensive, i use beetlejuice helm and coil + 1 deco. that leaves a lot of dps on the table, not sure if it's worth it yet.

Bazel head and waist give you 4 already just 1 more earplug jewel you got 5, or either of them with max level earplug necklace give you 5.

[!?!]

Originally posted by DantE:

it's freaking expensive, i use beetlejuice helm and coil + 1 deco. that leaves a lot of dps on the table, not sure if it's worth it yet.

You can just go beetlejuice belt and charm though that gets rid of your charm.
Still worthwhile vs monsters that won't stfu. Like beetlejuice.

[TVMAN]

Here is a handy chart that completely answers your question OP
https://www.reddit.com/r/MonsterHunter/comments/87p2hq/mhw_earplugs_chart/

[DantE]

Originally posted by Arthur.C:

Originally posted by DantE:

it's freaking expensive, i use beetlejuice helm and coil + 1 deco. that leaves a lot of dps on the table, not sure if it's worth it yet.

Bazel head and waist give you 4 already just 1 more earplug jewel you got 5, or either of them with max level earplug necklace give you 5.

that's basically what i said, you don't think giving up 2 armor slots and a lvl3 deco for that is expensive? charm might be an option but i have tons of earplug decos and 0 artillery decos yet, so... yeah.

[Rock]

Originally posted by Kreddi:

What do they categorize as weak and strong monsters?
Are elder dragons strong while other large monsters are weak?

I haven't done yet testing with them but I will this weekend. However what I can say there is no point getting earplugs skills below lvl 4 that's for certain. And if you're thinking of going lvl 4 earplugs you should just go straight to lvl 5.

[Arthur.C]

Originally posted by DantE:

Originally posted by Arthur.C:

Bazel head and waist give you 4 already just 1 more earplug jewel you got 5, or either of them with max level earplug necklace give you 5.

that's basically what i said, you don't think giving up 2 armor slots and a lvl3 deco for that is expensive? charm might be an option but i have tons of earplug decos and 0 artillery decos yet, so... yeah.

Not that bad, bazel head got lv3+1 slots, waist lv3 slot, so you got earplug lv4 and 2 lv3 slots + 1 lv1 slot plus 3 other pieces of armor by your choice it's very good for mix sets.

[Hurricane]

Earplugs were op in past mh games but yeah useless in this game

[OMNOMNOM BAGEL]

If you playing a hard hitter like CB its definitely worth it. Monster AI is checking your inputs thats why they pretty much always roar or move when you about to hit your combo.
Ofcourse it depends on the Monster you facing. Bazel just raors all the time, Rathalos or Nerg on the other Hand just love to mess with your combo.

[Arthur.C]

Originally posted by Hurricane:

Earplugs were op in past mh games but yeah useless in this game

It's not as important as before but there are situations that I glad to have them, e.g without it LS jump attack can be interrupted by a roar, in fact, that was exactly what happened to me when I use the jump slash first time.

[Floskan]

Since i suck at rolling roars i just use earplugs 5 when using Greathammer. But a good deal of weapons in this game has ways of dealing with the roars without having to resort to earplugs, like the Greatsword where you just can tackle cancel the roar effect.

[Arthur.C]

Originally posted by OMNOMNOM BAGEL:

If you playing a hard hitter like CB its definitely worth it. Monster AI is checking your inputs thats why they pretty much always roar or move when you about to hit your combo.
Ofcourse it depends on the Monster you facing. Bazel just raors all the time, Rathalos or Nerg on the other Hand just love to mess with your combo.

I think that's play style and preference, I never put earplug on my CB mix set, I just simply GP them that way I can counter attack and GP the roar can charge up the shield too, very little though.

[Tiasmoon]

Originally posted by Hurricane:

Earplugs were op in past mh games but yeah useless in this game

It's not useless at all as some monsters do oneshot combo attacks right after roaring. Its just less useful because it requires 4-5 skill points before it has any noticable effect on the more dangerous stuff.