monster movement in multiplayer

[Senpai so Ecchi]

So, a question here for more advanced hunters.

Short: How do i go about predicting the movement of a monster in multiplayer?

Long: I usually spent some time fighting a new monster Solo first, to learn its moves and attack windows and that stuff.
This is especially important when i play Greatsword or other slow weapons.
The thing i noticed here though, the moment i join a multiplayer hunt, all those attack windows go out the window. The monster randomly seems to switch targets, making a 180 turn out of nowhere causing my true charged slash that would have hit the tail to hit the (noneweakspot) claws instead.
Stuff like that.
So, is there a certain movement pattern in multiplayer that i just didnt learn/discover yet or are monster movements really random in Multiplayer?

(Also kinda annoying when im in a hunt with 2 range weapon players and the monster starts running back and forth between both of them while i am chasing after the monster like an idiot)

[JamesFace]

Short answer is you can’t. A lot of the monsters will target players who get too far anyway - nergi is a prime example. If someone slips from the group to take a potion, he’s straight on them.

If you are in a group of friends it usually isn’t too bad, you end up getting a synergy. But with randoms, you can’t really predict how they will play. Ranged players should never really be too far away anyway because of critical distance - The exception being sticky and maybe pierce. But if you have a sticky then you don’t really need to predic movements, as you will likely get plenty of openings anyway.

[mewlynx]

You don't beyond predetermined combos lol. Pretty much why I've started playing LBG so much lately, go tired of chasing the monster around.

[cruste]

All 4players with the same weapons are needed, otherwise you can't really predict so much, just get use to it, that many of the tcs will fail because monster moved in the last moment or got flinched by another player and enjoy the good times.

[Maffeketel]

It is very hard to do when attempting a hunt in multiplayer mode in spite of having extensive knowledge of the moveset of your weapon and that of the monster.
It's much easier to predict what a monster does when playing solo.

I'm a GS main myself and I still struggle with this unless I'm playing with a group of friends.
There is no reliable way to negate this issue other then mastering your weapon and knowing your opponent. It is a bit easier when playing with friends as I'm accustomed to their playstyle and I know what weapons theyre using. The communication is also a lot easier when using voice chat.

It does get easier over time once you have more hunts under your belt but it will always be difficult to completely overcome this issue. Practice makes perfect and there's certainly room for improvement! The GS just takes time and practice to use optimally and you get more and more accustomed to it over time. You'll see your true charged slashes connect a lot more over time.

I generally prefer to hunt solo or with friends and I usually join random SOS flares if I just want to help someone else overcome a difficult hunt or just to mix thing up a bit.
You never know who youre joining and the example that you illustrated with ranged weapon users is fairly common as inexperienced players can sometimes struggle with their positioning.

I hope that this helps answers your question!

[StarExile]

Originally posted by Senpai so Ecchi:

So, is there a certain movement pattern in multiplayer that i just didnt learn/discover yet or are monster movements really random in Multiplayer?

Yep, if you fight the particular monster like 200 times, you will start predicting some of his actions.
Some monster's attacks have pretty big windups so it's easy to tell where you want to be at that moment for a counter-attack or evasive maneuver.
For example, Furious Rajang`s aerial thunder bombs throwing attack, as soon as you see him jump, roll towards him and start to charge your GS attack and when Rajang lands your attack will be already charged - there are many such things for every monster, just learn their movesets.
If you are the only one melee in the party, choose the slowest buddy (its HBG user) and stick to him, a monster will come to you by itself no need to chase him, and after the monster finishes off a ranger you can continue your hunt :D Seriously just stay closer to them and the monster will not jump around that much.

[Lyuze]

"You cant" is the wrong advice.

EVERY monster in the game has tells for their attacks (Things like looking over their shoulder before doing a tail swing, or in more obvious cases like alatreon, blue lights indicating where an electric attack will happen). MOST of these tells indicate the direction they attack in. There is no cheat sheet for learning the tells, true, but learning a monster's patterns can help you learn the tells. Think of it like a dark souls boss fight. Youre just not going to beat pontiff sullyvahn on your first go, but after a few tries youll know his attacks, and what the tells are for each attack. Once you know the tells, it will still be hard to predict the monster in multiplayer, but you'll be MUCH better off. Keep in mind that you dont need to see a monster's head/face to learn the tells, every monster in the game has body language you can learn as well.

You can use these tells to your advantage in multiplayer. If a raging brachy punches the ground, and you can see him gearing up as if he's going to uppercut towards a buddy, you then know not to be in the slime line that the following uppercut will create. You also know that the uppercut can either be followed by another one and a slight angle, or he will have a moment that you can get in an attack or two before he gets ready for his next attack. With this also comes a knowledge of the limits of your weapon. A window of opportunity for a dual blade to get in a couple of hits in demon mode might not be the same window that a great sword needs to get a true charge slash. An insect glaive can get in an aerial mounting attack much quicker than a HBG can get off a wyvern snipe (seeing as you need to load the wyvern snipe round first).

Personally, I find that REALLY focusing helps a lot. Playing casually is fun, but really digging down and tryharding, putting forth 100% mental effort, can help recognize tells and keep you on your toes to react accordingly. This, of course, could just be me being mentally slow and having to adjust accordingly though lol.

EDIT: And for the monster running back and forth, you can eat a meal with the 'Felyne Provoker' skill to get the monster to aggro you. Keep in mind this requires a fairly high skill level as the monster will be primarily trying to kill you instead of your buddies, but ranged hunters will appreciate you.

[Xyton]

It's difficult to predict what a monster is going to do in a multiplayer setting because that is simply the nature of it. The best you can do is predict who it's going to target and react accordingly. Always always always assume it's going after you and when it doesn't you should be able to adapt pretty easily. A common mistakes my friends make when we play MH together is that they assume they are safe because a monster isn't targeting them. This is an easy way to cart. Position yourself to where you are relatively close to your teammates without stacking on top of them. If someone in the group is too far away, it's going to make things more difficult as the monster will start running all over the place. If this happens often, then I recommend using crowd control like traps or status ailments on the monster to keep it still.

[GladiatorDragon]

Monsters don't have set patterns, nor can you predict who one is about to attack. If you ask me, this is because they don't want to have one dude with a Lance/HBG sit in the corner and take all the damage while the DPS shred the enemy. There are, however, three exceptions to this rule.

Behemoth is made to feel like a traditional RPG fight. Should it be hit enough in the face, it gets really angry and focuses down the person who dared strike its head.

Leshen also has it, but, to my knowledge, it is a bit harder to predict who it activates on.

Safi'jiva has a lot of similar elements to Behemoth - one of which is its aggro system. This one is activated by using the flinch shot.

However, in a regular hunt, you need to keep on your toes and be ready to dodge at any time, unless a suitable window opens up (sleep, paralysis, knockdown, mount).

As you continue playing, you'll pick up on the wind-ups for monster attacks, as well as when it's safe to hit. This is the significant difficulty part of Greatsword - knowing the monster well enough to identify when it's safe to use your attacks. I'd argue it relies more on this than any other weapon, as most other weapons, like the Charge Blade, Gunlance, and even the Longsword can reserve their massive burst hits for when the monster's stunned. The Greatsword mostly uses burst hits with long wind-ups.

Honestly, it's probably best to reserve True Charge Slashes for when the monster's properly incapacitated until you know the monster well enough to read its attacks.

[Garviel Loken]

Originally posted by Lyuze:

"You cant" is the wrong advice.

EVERY monster in the game has tells for their attacks (Things like looking over their shoulder before doing a tail swing, or in more obvious cases like alatreon, blue lights indicating where an electric attack will happen). MOST of these tells indicate the direction they attack in. There is no cheat sheet for learning the tells, true, but learning a monster's patterns can help you learn the tells. Think of it like a dark souls boss fight. Youre just not going to beat pontiff sullyvahn on your first go, but after a few tries youll know his attacks, and what the tells are for each attack. Once you know the tells, it will still be hard to predict the monster in multiplayer, but you'll be MUCH better off. Keep in mind that you dont need to see a monster's head/face to learn the tells, every monster in the game has body language you can learn as well.

You can use these tells to your advantage in multiplayer. If a raging brachy punches the ground, and you can see him gearing up as if he's going to uppercut towards a buddy, you then know not to be in the slime line that the following uppercut will create. You also know that the uppercut can either be followed by another one and a slight angle, or he will have a moment that you can get in an attack or two before he gets ready for his next attack. With this also comes a knowledge of the limits of your weapon. A window of opportunity for a dual blade to get in a couple of hits in demon mode might not be the same window that a great sword needs to get a true charge slash. An insect glaive can get in an aerial mounting attack much quicker than a HBG can get off a wyvern snipe (seeing as you need to load the wyvern snipe round first).

Personally, I find that REALLY focusing helps a lot. Playing casually is fun, but really digging down and tryharding, putting forth 100% mental effort, can help recognize tells and keep you on your toes to react accordingly. This, of course, could just be me being mentally slow and having to adjust accordingly though lol.

EDIT: And for the monster running back and forth, you can eat a meal with the 'Felyne Provoker' skill to get the monster to aggro you. Keep in mind this requires a fairly high skill level as the monster will be primarily trying to kill you instead of your buddies, but ranged hunters will appreciate you.

I think OP means actual movements. Like where it is going to run to. Not attack moves.

[Lyuze]

Originally posted by Garviel Loken:

Originally posted by Lyuze:

"You cant" is the wrong advice.

EVERY monster in the game has tells for their attacks (Things like looking over their shoulder before doing a tail swing, or in more obvious cases like alatreon, blue lights indicating where an electric attack will happen). MOST of these tells indicate the direction they attack in. There is no cheat sheet for learning the tells, true, but learning a monster's patterns can help you learn the tells. Think of it like a dark souls boss fight. Youre just not going to beat pontiff sullyvahn on your first go, but after a few tries youll know his attacks, and what the tells are for each attack. Once you know the tells, it will still be hard to predict the monster in multiplayer, but you'll be MUCH better off. Keep in mind that you dont need to see a monster's head/face to learn the tells, every monster in the game has body language you can learn as well.

You can use these tells to your advantage in multiplayer. If a raging brachy punches the ground, and you can see him gearing up as if he's going to uppercut towards a buddy, you then know not to be in the slime line that the following uppercut will create. You also know that the uppercut can either be followed by another one and a slight angle, or he will have a moment that you can get in an attack or two before he gets ready for his next attack. With this also comes a knowledge of the limits of your weapon. A window of opportunity for a dual blade to get in a couple of hits in demon mode might not be the same window that a great sword needs to get a true charge slash. An insect glaive can get in an aerial mounting attack much quicker than a HBG can get off a wyvern snipe (seeing as you need to load the wyvern snipe round first).

Personally, I find that REALLY focusing helps a lot. Playing casually is fun, but really digging down and tryharding, putting forth 100% mental effort, can help recognize tells and keep you on your toes to react accordingly. This, of course, could just be me being mentally slow and having to adjust accordingly though lol.

EDIT: And for the monster running back and forth, you can eat a meal with the 'Felyne Provoker' skill to get the monster to aggro you. Keep in mind this requires a fairly high skill level as the monster will be primarily trying to kill you instead of your buddies, but ranged hunters will appreciate you.

I think OP means actual movements. Like where it is going to run to. Not attack moves.

Its a good thing I included advice for movements, too then, huh?

[Garviel Loken]

Originally posted by Lyuze:

Originally posted by Garviel Loken:

I think OP means actual movements. Like where it is going to run to. Not attack moves.

Its a good thing I included advice for movements, too then, huh?

I was talking more about the predicting attacks. Like IDK why you mentioned it is all. Like that part is just obvious.

[Lyuze]

Originally posted by Garviel Loken:

Originally posted by Lyuze:

Its a good thing I included advice for movements, too then, huh?

I was talking more about the predicting attacks. Like IDK why you mentioned it is all. Like that part is just obvious.

My entire post is about predicting attacks guy

[J.M.]

I’m a long sword player and let me tell you this: don’t try to predict monster moves in multiplayer. Even though you predict which move the monster is going to use, it may not hit you. If you really want to predict monster moves in multiplayer, you will need to memorize some fixed set of movement and when you see the beginning of that set, you know how it’s going to attack.