How am I supposed to actually play Iceborne?

[Good Puppy]

I managed to work my way through the main story, I'm new to the game but have a fairly firm grasp of mechanics and do my research and item prep before each fight.

But with Iceborne I'm finding it is literally impossible to continue, every monster 1-2 shots me and seem to have billions of health, i am spending 40+ minutes in a fight with a monster with absolutely no results.

My SOS signals have never gotten any results either, with 3 hours on the same mission getting absolutely no responses.

So exactly how much time am I gonna need to waste in old content before I can actually play this game i paid $40 for?

[Suzaku]

I'm not sure what you have access to, but if you can launch a master rank expedition, go and kill a great jagras a few times. His MR armor is easy to make, and should provide you with a decent amount of defense and early skills to at least get your foot in the door.

[Popcorn]

Originally posted by Suzaku:

I'm not sure what you have access to, but if you can launch a master rank expedition, go and kill a great jagras a few times. His MR armor is easy to make, and should provide you with a decent amount of defense and early skills to at least get your foot in the door.

Or do the event delivery quests, they give mats for bone and alloy armor

[LegacyXI]

Build any of the new armor sets right away. You should be able to get easily above 600+ defense which is enough to not be 2-3 shot. Also master rank has harder monsters in terms of the damage they do and the hp they have so expect longer fights even with a group.

[♋Phenex]

Originally posted by Suzaku:

I'm not sure what you have access to, but if you can launch a master rank expedition, go and kill a great jagras a few times. His MR armor is easy to make, and should provide you with a decent amount of defense and early skills to at least get your foot in the door.

Basically this and as for your weapon, craft and upgrade the bone or ore weapon until it reaches the master rank strength version.

Also make sure you're using the farm and have plenty of max potions, honey, herbs/regular potions to craft more. You don't need to spend any time in high rank except to maybe collect old materials for weapons.

Try to slot in vitality boost and/or divine blessing decorations for survival. If damage is low, skills like Weakness Exploit and critical eye are important for all weapons except sticky ammo in LBG and HBG which scale off attack only.

[Straylane HitoriBocchi]

All your old Armor are literally not useful anymore so you gotta buy new MR sets start mining and digging bones for a new set on iceborne map.

[Torche]

Sounds like you get hit too much and aren't hitting it enough. I suggest to go make an easy MR armor such as great jagras, or maybe mix a few different pieces for desired skills. Slot in health boost 3 and divine blessing 3 if you can.

[Psymind]

health boost 3 and divine blessing 3 will help you lots in the beginning. Craft the Talons and put in your inventory and always drink your demon/armor drinks. Oh and dont forget to eat in the cantina.
All this will boost you stat wise enough that you'll be able to fight confortably.

[argenex]

Originally posted by SalJM:

I managed to work my way through the main story, I'm new to the game but have a fairly firm grasp of mechanics and do my research and item prep before each fight.

But with Iceborne I'm finding it is literally impossible to continue, every monster 1-2 shots me and seem to have billions of health, i am spending 40+ minutes in a fight with a monster with absolutely no results.

My SOS signals have never gotten any results either, with 3 hours on the same mission getting absolutely no responses.

So exactly how much time am I gonna need to waste in old content before I can actually play this game i paid $40 for?

Um...
Were you already at the point where you were soloing / farming AT Elder Dragons?

I just wanted to add, that as one who has already completed all of the AT elder dragon fights, farmed them and acquired every gamma set, Icebourne isn't that hard at all.

Now, if you just completed the base story and were not actively farming at least Tempered Elder dragons, I could see you running into issues; the idea behind Master Rank is a step beyond which personally is refreshing from my perspective.

If you need help with builds, there is a giant build compendium on the reddit for MHW, and if you want help mastering AT Elders, I suggest the MHW Discord. Many veterns there who can both carry and instruct you, I learned a ton from them.

Good luck hunter!

Edit; Edit #2, decided it downgrade it difficulty-wise
I personally see the game in stages (with icebourne starting at 2):
1. Story / Tempered Monsters
2. Elder Dragons / Icebourne
3. Tempered Elder Dragons
4. Arch-Tempered Elder Dragons (events only)

[Dijkstra]

If you're using a poorly-optimized high rank armor set, Iceborne monsters will kill you in three or less hits for the most part, especially since monsters are more aggressive, have tougher skin (hence necessity of using the clutch claw to soften part of a monster's body), and generally just have more health and deal more damage. If you very recently bought the game and have just started out, once you get to Iceborne and its master rank monsters, you should farm Great Jagras or other easy to solo monsters you have access to and build a set of master rank armor. You can run with the Defender weapons comfortably into master rank three quests, though you'll want to upgrade your weapon too.

If you've farmed AT elders in vanilla solo/with groups, you should have a decent high rank gamma armor setup, so all it is is playing patient. The expansion does not require master rank gear, but it will certainly render things more forgiving.

[KingOfFriedChicken]

Here is one of the easiest options. Start an expedition on the new map, go hit some bone piles.... make master rank bone armor :p

[vintran]

I'm not sure what everyone is talking about here... the defender and guardian set that they freely gave you are perfectly fine for the first few MR monsters. After that you'll be able to craft a MR armor set. I've not had to grind at all from the beginning of the game and I'm breezing through Iceborne.

[vintran]

Heck, even the defender weapons are more than enough for MR monsters up to Tigrex/Nargacuga.

[Boodz]

I went with MR Banbaro set because it has mushroomancer and shrooms are a bit easy to get so it's a no-brainer and just went with it.

I'm still not a fan of clutch claw softening monster parts, feels like they buffed up every part of the monster just so they can make the claw mandatory.