Earplugs useless?

[Born to Coom]

I have level 3 earplugs on my armor plus the palico gives me one level more.
I'm hunting a brachydios and everytime he screams I get stunned for the full duration not even a small decrease.

Am I missing something about earplugs?
Are they useless unless you max them out?

[Seamus]

More or less useless unless you get them to 5, yeah.

It's a pretty crap skill in world/iceborne.

[Heatnixx]

Yes, Earplugs are useless unless you have them to Level 5.
They're basically the complete opposite of Flinch Free, where the max level actually gets you killed.

[NecroMac]

How does Flinch Free max level gets you killed? I used it constantly on IG since 3 Flinch Free +2 earplugs gives me roar resistance and I had never issue with Flinch Free killing me

[Keoul]

Originally posted by NecroMac:

How does Flinch Free max level gets you killed? I used it constantly on IG since 3 Flinch Free +2 earplugs gives me roar resistance and I had never issue with Flinch Free killing me

Because tick attacks that would normally knock you off or back and giving you immunity for a few seconds would instead just keep ticking and kill you outright.

[Mr. September]

Anything below Earplugs 5 is fairly useless against bigger monsters because it's not a percentile increase. It's a hard increase that makes little difference until full immunity levels (which is 3 for weak roars and 5 for all roars if I remember right).

My suggestion would be: Either learn to roll through roars or use Rocksteady when available. You are better off saving 5 deco slots (or getting better armor that has other offensive skills).

[Popcorn]

Originally posted by Mr. September:

Anything below Earplugs 5 is fairly useless against bigger monsters because it's not a percentile increase. It's a hard increase that makes little difference until full immunity levels (which is 3 for weak roars and 5 for all roars if I remember right).

My suggestion would be: Either learn to roll through roars or use Rocksteady when available. You are better off saving 5 deco slots (or getting better armor that has other offensive skills).

Evade window would be highly recommended, as you can iframe through attacks as well

[Mr. September]

Originally posted by Popcorn:

Originally posted by Mr. September:

Anything below Earplugs 5 is fairly useless against bigger monsters because it's not a percentile increase. It's a hard increase that makes little difference until full immunity levels (which is 3 for weak roars and 5 for all roars if I remember right).

My suggestion would be: Either learn to roll through roars or use Rocksteady when available. You are better off saving 5 deco slots (or getting better armor that has other offensive skills).

Evade window would be highly recommended, as you can iframe through attacks as well

Right, I got a bit too used to the base iframes so I rarely need that lately. Evade Window when maxed would be way better than Earplugs for sure because it's useful for other situations too.

PS: You can also get a few levels of Evade Extender just to be sure, if you want to roll around more.

[baraboolka]

you can use Rocksteady Mantle instead of plugs, that is more convenient. Save 5 slots.

[Heatnixx]

Originally posted by NecroMac:

How does Flinch Free max level gets you killed? I used it constantly on IG since 3 Flinch Free +2 earplugs gives me roar resistance and I had never issue with Flinch Free killing me

Flinch free is an easy way to die instantly because many monster attacks knock the player down so they don't get hit twice, specially on multi monsters hunt where they can wander into one another, being knocked down saves your life.
Bazel is just one example of a fight where Flinch Free 3 actually harms you instead of helping you.

[FafnirChaos]

Originally posted by Heatnixx:

Originally posted by NecroMac:

How does Flinch Free max level gets you killed? I used it constantly on IG since 3 Flinch Free +2 earplugs gives me roar resistance and I had never issue with Flinch Free killing me

Flinch free is an easy way to die instantly because many monster attacks knock the player down so they don't get hit twice, specially on multi monsters hunt where they can wander into one another, being knocked down saves your life.
Bazel is just one example of a fight where Flinch Free 3 actually harms you instead of helping you.

Wouldn't flinch free help with shield users though? I don't play it however if you happen to forget to guard it should help that user get their shield up for that next hit. allowing some room for error and risk taking.

[Heatnixx]

Originally posted by FafnirChaos:

Originally posted by Heatnixx:

Flinch free is an easy way to die instantly because many monster attacks knock the player down so they don't get hit twice, specially on multi monsters hunt where they can wander into one another, being knocked down saves your life.
Bazel is just one example of a fight where Flinch Free 3 actually harms you instead of helping you.

Wouldn't flinch free help with shield users though? I don't play it however if you happen to forget to guard it should help that user get their shield up for that next hit. allowing some room for error and risk taking.

Honestly if you're playing the defensive shield route, Guard 3 and Defense/Vitality gems are just better than Flinch Free 3.
All the skill does is make some fights slightly faster while making others much harder.

[Feto]

Everybody knows you use Flinch Free for multiplayer, because everybody spams THE attack that trips everybody, interrupting attacks, guards and ruining everybody's day.

But anyway... yeah earplugs 5 is pretty costy for what it is. Rocksteady Mantle is way better.

[Himars-TT]

Is it useless? Nah. Is it costly? Yeah. But utility skills in general have always been about making up for what you lack in your playstyle / preventing disastrous outcomes. The debate for and against taking said skills has always boiled down to personal preference vs. highest DPS.

Take utility to make your hunts go smoother and give yourself a larger window to recover from any mistakes you might make. Despite the debate on launch for CB users to take or leave Earplugs, I've never left home without 'em cause I thought it was annoying as hell to get interrupted during SAED.

[The High Seraph]

Not useless . It’s more like situational . I used this in soloing Fatalis with heroic HBG . But if you are building around this , you should aim at level 5 . 3 is pretty useless .

Earplug lvl 5 is part of some HBG speed runs where you lock down your monster by forcing him to roar constantly with smoke bombs while you are freely shooting with earplug in roaring animation . You can do this with rocksteady but it’s simply not enough when fighting monster like Fatalis .

If you are just playing MP and chilling , you can totally forget this one .

[我是一只草泥马]

草拟吗@！