Is my HBG Pierce build useless now?

[phosTR]

I love HBG Pierce against huge monsters. I use Legia Shattercryst+ and will soon upgrade, but there's this new tenderize mechanic, and when i am playing with this build, i don't use the claw to tenderize the monster, only to slam his head on a wall. How bad it is to not tenderize the monster parts? Like, the gameplay with this build (for me) is about staying away to get the best range and just unload pierce ammo on the monster, if i'm forced to tenderize the monster all the time, this gonna suck with this build.

[Waffles]

Not wounding a monster will definitely keep your damage from reaching its' maximum potential, but you'll be fine playing as normal.

You can solve this issue by playing with a team of at least one other heavy weapon, preferably one that wounds fast like Lance.

[phosTR]

Originally posted by Gen:

Not wounding a monster will definitely keep your damage from reaching its' maximum potential, but you'll be fine playing as normal.

You can solve this issue by playing with a team of at least one other heavy weapon, preferably one that wounds fast like Lance.

So, if i want to be optimal i just need to discart a weapon that i like to use and that took me mats, time and money to craft? Lance looks cool for the shield but it seems too hard for me, since i'm an average/casual player.

[Greb]

You can get around not softening, but softening is ridiculous with bowguns and pierce in particular because it usually just turns the entire monster into one big effective damage spot (not always, but most of the time)

Pierce is not useless, a lazy endgame Pierce Shot 3 will hit 25's through a monster without any softening or scope or range attack up mods, and potentially up to like 40's - 50's if you've gone full meta damage crazy and you're shooting down a completely softened monster that is very susceptible to Pierce I.E Anjanath.

I break out my Pierce 3 HBG whenever a monster is handing myass to me, which sadly has been kinda often recently, and it's still doing good work. It's emphatically better if you soften, which can give you the impression that it sucks without softening, but no, you can still make it work without it..

..although I will say if you're not planning on softening at all, or playing with friends who do, you might be better off using a different type of ammo, I guess.

Originally posted by phosTR:

So, if i want to be optimal i just need to discart a weapon that i like to use and that took me mats, time and money to craft? Lance looks cool for the shield but it seems too hard for me, since i'm an average/casual player.

Lance is fairly newbie friendly, at least it was before Iceborne added a few new mechanics, but I can't imagine they'll take long to learn. It's less lazy than before though, whereas counters were kind of irrelevant now they're almost a core part of the whole weapons image now, countering into soften attacks or getting some nasty hits with Offensive Guard, etc.

Give it a try, it's less clunky than it looks, especially if you use Evade Extender. The shield part itself with sufficient Guard and Guard Up lets you just laugh in the face of anything that vaguely resembles a threatening attack without it, too. That's probably the first real joy, when you can just tank a Teostra nova or a Namielle nuclear steam bomb like it's nothing, etc.

[TyresTyco]

Go figure. Pierce goes through the monster. Tenderizing the head for example only gives bonus dmg for the head hitzone. Which isn't that much depending on the monster.

Well.. you want to use pierce against large monsters so.. yeah it sure gives a lil extra dmg. But it's nothing to serious. Better to use maximum might on pierce hbg only so you have max crit outside of weak spots.

[Djeeta]

Pierce build is still good on some monster, like Lavasioth and Shara Ishvalda.
But its become more or less specialist weapon in specific situation.

[River Victor]

Pierce is far from useless. If you're lugging a HBG, you'll have a hard time keeping up with chargers like Tiggy or Brute Tiggy or Barioth. They're everywhere. One second, they're on one corner, the other, the opposite. The fastest way for you to keep up with your Spread HBG is to fold your gun and chase then unfold. By the time you're done setting up, it's gone. Seriously, that is an awful way to deal DPS. You can just go Pierce and shoot it from a reasonable range. Big monsters with long chutes like Uragaan, Radobaan, Anjanath, Banbaro, or Savage Joe are perfect targets. You can aim down the chutes of Ura, Baro, Anjie and Rado after you tenderize the first two front zones. They're sooooo long. TickTickTickTickTickTickTickTickTick. All gold numbers. Savage Joe's heart is easy as hell to aim with Pierce.

Also, tenderizing for Pierce HBGs are easier. The animation for it is very short. Latch, stick, boom. You only need to tenderize once to weaken it as well. Spread HBGs take much, much, longer. Latch, stick, shootshootshootshootshootshootshoot, boom. Pierce HBG tenderizing time is on par with fast weapons, and you'll have easier time softening to help your teammates or yourself.

[Waffles]

Originally posted by phosTR:

Originally posted by Gen:

Not wounding a monster will definitely keep your damage from reaching its' maximum potential, but you'll be fine playing as normal.

You can solve this issue by playing with a team of at least one other heavy weapon, preferably one that wounds fast like Lance.

So, if i want to be optimal i just need to discart a weapon that i like to use and that took me mats, time and money to craft? Lance looks cool for the shield but it seems too hard for me, since i'm an average/casual player.

Oh no no no, I was talking about another teammate with a Lance and wounding!

[Malfeasance]

I only ever weaken once the claw window opens (stagger, drooling) and then keep it rolling whenever I can on further staggers, stuns, or knockdowns. Depends on the monster what part I weaken.

Really the only fights I don't use it against are the annoying fast monsters like River said, too much risk of them getting around you and two shotting you. Tigrex in particular is nasty, over half of 180 health in one good hit... Pretty much anything else is fair game for me though.

I've personally been using a guard 5, guard up, and 3x shield, power, recoil Crimson Kadachi Lion II with 10% affinity mod and it's good. Not nearly as good as the absolutely IMBA Zinogre gun with a similar setup, but still really good. Rajang's arrival next week will only sweeten things with built-in mind's eye and WEX.

Really my only big complaint is how often monsters seem to get around your shield despite seemingly facing them, but that's probably just a me issue, too much lance.

[JebKerman]

Originally posted by River Victor:

...
Also, tenderizing for Pierce HBGs are easier. The animation for it is very short. Latch, stick, boom. You only need to tenderize once to weaken it as well. Spread HBGs take much, much, longer. Latch, stick, shootshootshootshootshootshootshoot, boom. Pierce HBG tenderizing time is on par with fast weapons, and you'll have easier time softening to help your teammates or yourself.

Bit of a correction, you're talking Wyvernsnipe vs Wyvernheart, not Pierce vs Spread.
Wyvernsnipe = Latch ... Big Bang
Wyvernheart = Latch .. daka-daka-daka .. Bang

For examples contrary to your terminology see:
Legiana HBG (Pierce + Wyvernheart)
OG 'Glutton' (Spread + Wyvernsnipe).

[Greb]

As a more familiar example too;

Loyal Thunder (Spread 3 etc) is Wyvernheart, and will machine gun a monster for several moments before a final boom which softens it. Riskier, for sure.

Crimson Kadachi Lion II (Pierce 3 etc) is Wyvernsnipe, and you simply clutch to a monster, aim your gun and boom, monster softened. Faster, safer.

It comes down to the two types of HBG, the Bone tree or the Ore tree.

[StormhawkV]

It depends on the monster. Pierce shreds Bazel and Jho. LBG, HBG... doesn't really matter.

[bonqo]

Originally posted by Malfeasance:

I only ever weaken once the claw window opens

^ this
Trying to soften any other time can be very dangerous, especially since by default the hbg has a relatively long seathe animation.

I built the tobi and love it

Teaming like the others say for hbg is wonderful! it gives you less aggro and time to position correctly. Tailraiders are also an option!

[Greb]

It makes me crazy they didn't add a Palico gadget that tenderised a monster for you. A nice Boaboa harpoon gun that was serrated and barbed so the part it hit would become softened. The other ability could have been a randomly picked paralysis / sleep / poison status harpoon.

Final ability could have been a big harpoon that pierced a monster and tenderised the areas it hit while passing through.

Something, anything, other than the ability to chuck down a flare and summon stuff you can get in five seconds anyway

[JebKerman]

Originally posted by Greb:

It comes down to the two types of HBG, the Bone tree or the Ore tree.

With Nargacuga's being the only oddball, as an Ore-based Wyvernsnipe gun.

Originally posted by bonqo:

Trying to soften any other time can be very dangerous, especially since by default the hbg has a relatively long seathe animation.

You don't have to sheathe to use your slinger/claw. You can switch between normal and slinger firing modes with the "Focus Camera / Select Target / Toggle Slinger Aim" key (Should show in the upper right corner when aiming)

[Greb]

Originally posted by Greb:

It comes down to the two types of HBG, the Bone tree or the Ore tree.

That's weird and I don't like it. I knew I had a good reason for ditching the Baleful Night, that thing is beyond cursed. Ugh.