In Defense of the Defender gear

[Kurbain]

First of all, let me say that the defender weapons and parts of the defender armor are overpowered and I do wish they were a bit weaker!
BUT as someone who is currently playing through the base game for the first time and having a blast I'm glad they were added to the game. I don't feel like I'm missing out on much and there are certainly advantages. Despite using the defender gear, I'm still busy with the base game 111 hours in and crafted several pages of weapons and armor. Not because I'm forced to in order to keep up with the difficulty, but because I have more room to experiment.



Let's start with the defender weapons. It's a shame that there is little reason to craft anything else, but it's fantastic to have easy access to a strong weapon of every type straight from the start which is effective against pretty much all enemies.
If I had to charge into battle with a weak weapon every time I'm practicing a new weapon type, not only would the battles be tedious, but I wouldn't necessarily know if I'm failing because of the low weapon damage or because I am playing poorly. The dynamics of a battle change greatly depending on how much damage you are able to deal and battling a monster with a weak weapon is not indicative of how the weapon will actually perform once you are capable of putting out enough damage to reliably stun and flinch it, break off body parts, etc.

Thanks to the defender weapons I can freely experiment with all weapon types and take them into combat almost immediately to find out what works for me and what I want to spend more time playing with.
Rather than practice one or two weapons only and miss out on a lot of fun, I'm able to take my time and practice the hammer, longsword, hunting horn, light bowgun, charge blade, switch axe and sword+shield at the same time. Less time spent farming and in the training room means more time learning how to use the weapons against monsters and fighting the monsters I want to fight.



Now on to the defender armor. It turns LR into a joke. However, most of the content and fun is to be had in HR, at which point the effectiveness of the defender armor compared to other available armor types greatly lessens since it lacks important abilities like stun resistance, evade and earplugs, etc., which are very useful for new players.
It also only got 2 deco slots in total.
So there is still reason to craft alternative gear and just like the defender weapons, it leaves more room to experiment. You won't have to craft gear because you have to keep up with the difficulty, you can just craft what you are interested in.
Despite the existence of the defender armor, I have crafted 4 pages of charms and weapon sets!
Since you have strong armor to rely on, you can try out some of the weaker gear available without having to worry about getting your ♥♥♥ kicked.
Is somebody who is barely able to defeat the current monsters going to craft themselves some mushroomancer gear? Probably not.

Breezing past LR did cause some disappointment, but ultimately I don't mind that I was able to arrive at HR quickly, since I've swiftly gained access to a large variety of monsters and content.
There was no possibility of boredom ever settling in and I won't have to worry about hitting a wall until I've had plenty of time to try out various weapons and get a good feel for the combat, learn about traps, slinger ammos, etc.
I'm sure somebody experiencing a difficulty spike and hitting a wall 5 hours into a game is a lot more likely to stop playing completely than somebody that it happens to after 30 hours.
I'd rather hit a difficulty spike and get my ♥♥♥ kicked in Iceborne than do so at the beginning of the game when I was overwhelmed by the complexity of the game and wasn't sure yet if it's worth investing a lot of time into it.
Now that I am in love with the combat, the Iceborne monsters can gladly kick my ♥♥♥. I'll make sure to kick back.



If you actually read through my big wall of text even though you probably disagree and may have thought I was just trying to stir up trouble, then I would like to express my thanks.



TL;DR: Defender gear unfortunately OP, but at least it means players can spend more time experimenting with the armor and weapons they are interested in instead of farming just to keep up with the difficulty.
No need to worry about players hitting a difficulty spike early and quitting while they are unsure if its the right game for them and are busy enough just figuring out the combat.
Also plenty of gear in HR is actually better than defender armor.

[Twice]

Автор сообщения: Gargoyle Girl

"Using this strong armor is going to override your gamers instincts. Instead of actually learning to play, you're going to just breeze through everything without trying to learn how to properly fight, dodge, use your weapons, farm or anything else. Basically wearing this armor makes you a bad player and a bad person."

This one is ridiculous to me. You'll have an easier time to start with for sure and you won't have to be as on edge as you would if you played without it, but eventually the game is going to force your hand and you are GOING to LEARN whether you like it or not because old strategies won't apply, especially if you jump into Iceborne. It's not like you stop learning the game just because you use the armor.

There's an argument to be made that if you want to play base-game and experience the difficulty curve the way it was intended then you shouldn't use it, but eventually the difficulty is going to catch up with you regardless and you will learn as long as you stick with the game.

[Tregrenos]

Автор сообщения: Gargoyle Girl

"Hey, it's a game that you're meant to have fun with. Do what you want and ignore the haters."

But the haters are the best part about visiting the forum!

[Grottowalker]

Автор сообщения: Tregrenos

Автор сообщения: Gargoyle Girl

"Hey, it's a game that you're meant to have fun with. Do what you want and ignore the haters."

But the haters are the best part about visiting the forum!

Thats why i come here daily, to hear you hate on mods XD

[Twice]

Автор сообщения: Tregrenos

Автор сообщения: Gargoyle Girl

"Hey, it's a game that you're meant to have fun with. Do what you want and ignore the haters."

But the haters are the best part about visiting the forum!

Eyyy we're in agreement. Didn't expect that.

[Skeleton]

Автор сообщения: RedViper

I remember previous MH games having a demo where you choose a monster and a weapon that comes with a very specific set. So you just go in, practice each weapon, see what works for you and find your best weapons. That is how I started this franchise. And despite all of the quality of life changes that they did for MHW, I can't understand why they didn't implemented a "demo mode" for all weapons.

You have the Training Room and Arena.

The first gives you every base Iron weapon to start with, and the latter gives you preset gear which means no investment required to try new kits. I don't remember any "demo mode" in 3rd gen, but Arena sounds closer to what you're thinking of.

Автор сообщения: Twice Dead

This one is ridiculous to me. You'll have an easier time to start with for sure and you won't have to be as on edge as you would if you played without it, but eventually the game is going to force your hand and you are GOING to LEARN whether you like it or not because old strategies won't apply, especially if you jump into Iceborne. It's not like you stop learning the game just because you use the armor.

Breaking bad habits 2/3 of the way through the game is much harder than preventing them from forming in the first place.

Steady difficulty slopes encourage consistent skill progression.
Difficulty walls encourage frustration and make people quit.
Or leave them lingering in SOS purgatory.

[ᔑᓭ∴ᔑリ⊣]

Автор сообщения: RedViper

My main problem with the defender gear is that the game forces them into new characters with no explanation of what they are, a quick way to reach MR. So many new players will not know that they are using and will be confused as to why every single "upgrade" is significantly weaker than the starting gear.

I completely agree that the weapons allow for an easy way to be able to try other weapons, I remember previous MH games having a demo where you choose a monster and a weapon that comes with a very specific set. So you just go in, practice each weapon, see what works for you and find your best weapons. That is how I started this franchise. And despite all of the quality of life changes that they did for MHW, I can't understand why they didn't implemented a "demo mode" for all weapons.

MHW did have a 'demo' / Beta when it released on ps4, and again with the release of iceborne.
It was only temporary though for some reason lol. Completely agree with you here. The only issue I have with Defender equipment is the fact that they don't really explain what it is very much. you can literally select the armour on the character creation screen. afaik there's just a little pop-up explaining it but no doubt lots of people gloss over it thinking it's an ad or something as it looks similar to that with the placement of the pic (if im remembering correctly). and you don't get any other info about it beyond that

[warrickbartley]

sorry but for someone that had to grind though world for over 200 hours to get the meta gear, Defender gear is a red hot poker up the a ss for all loyal players of the game ,
the biggest cheat ever made and made by Capcom, so they could push sales of Ice borne
if we had to grind why cant the newbies, also grinding is how you fine tune your skills,
now so many new players in ice borne out of their depth because they cake walked though world.

[JPM岩]

Lmao people still mad at an optional armor set that gets outdone at early HR.

[Nhika]

Made a new character, defender armor is definitely nice to have.
The main point of MHW (even though everyone else disagrees) - is to popularize the series with all sorts of player types.
In general the game isn't hard to play (if you have 500+ hours in the previous game titles).
The game is meant to be a sort of action/rpg, you farm mobs endlessly for gear/upgrades.
So essentially the beginner gear gives you alot of room to invest into the base weapons of each tree that you prefer.
But in the end getting carted here and there is normal back in the days of G rank; kind of like when Brachydios did his super man leap that 1 shot people; and we still farmed it for that 1% drop chance gem!
Also; end game gear isn't hard to farm when you SOS and kill everything in 5-10 minutes or play with some friends that don't suck.

[Tregrenos]

Автор сообщения: Grottowalker

Автор сообщения: Tregrenos

But the haters are the best part about visiting the forum!

Thats why i come here daily, to hear you hate on mods XD

Ya pushin' muh buttons, son! Ya know I only chime in when some dolt is callin' a "cheat" a "mod" and we both know the damn difference! (ಠ益ಠ) ~OOOOO!

Автор сообщения: Twice Dead

Автор сообщения: Tregrenos

But the haters are the best part about visiting the forum!

Eyyy we're in agreement. Didn't expect that.

If you can't get entertainment value from it then why do we even bother arguing about anything?

[Darkstar]

I played through the game solo (no xbox live) on my xbox one, and bought it again on pc, the defender gear makes it unplayable for me, i can't bring myself to care about upgrades when i already have the best gear. it would have been totally cool if it was comparable to tier 3 or 4 stuff, but as is i have no incentive to play anything aside from the terrible story missions, which are the weakest parts of the game imoh. i did an experiment in every wastes mission where i chose the bow and found my target monster, and just clicked attack, without aiming or moving, and it works every time, they either die, or run away, rinse repeat...that freaking sucks.

[Sacred Heart]

Автор сообщения: JPM岩

Lmao people still mad at an optional armor set that gets outdone at early HR.

But but...it will rUiN ThE ExPeRiEnCe!

I stayed out of this one cause i didn't want to bother with the gate keepers again (especially that one moron) but i always get a laugh reading the responses to these topics over something so trivial

[akiserenia]

u wear defender armour your experience will be lack.

using HR amours grind like pain u gaining experience so GIT GUD on elder drags/AT elders and MR

good luck on AT nergi xD it will slapping ur butt really hard of ur small lack experience MR quest would be get worse u got carried everytime

[Kurbain]

There is no question that the defender armor turns LR into a cakewalk, but playing through HR with the defender armor is actually signifcantly harder than using the armors that are craftable.

The defender armor set has only two level 1 deco slots, no stun resistance, no crit or attack boosts of any kind, not enough elemental resistance to prevent blights, no evade window or extender, no wind pressure negation or earplugs, etc.

I can solo any of the HR elder dragons without problems using regular HR gear, but if tried doing it with defender gear only I would probably get my ass handed to me.

That's the reason I don't mind its existence. MHW is a demanding and complex game. Players already have enough to deal with at the beginning of the game that they don't need to get their butt kicked by monsters on top of it. A lot of players would probably just quit at that point.
Should they use defender gear and reach HR after they had some time to familiarize themselves with MHW's gameplay, they are still going to run into trouble if they don't adjust and start crafting gear. Eventually the game will actually end up a lot harder, way before reaching Iceborne.

The vast majority of complains about defender gear is probably coming from veterans that have either never used it or like Darkstar have experience with prior games and didn't need to learn the myriad of game mechanics and details the game throws at you at the beginning.

Having said all that, even I believe that defender gear should be a bit weaker, particularly the weapons.

[kampfer91]

Why i hate the defender gear ?
Because they use them even after unlock the Shara quest....