Defender Weapons, most broken free weapon in gaming history?

[Hormesis]

This is my second time playing through world, after having lost my save data years ago. Now mh isn't the first game to implement weapons, or game designs after the initial launch, to encourage or to help new players to a game, however these defender weapons are the most broken i've ever encountered in 30 years of gaming

I just got done killing Kirin and got a commendation which allowed me to upgrade my GS to rarity 5 which has 912 raw 330 blast with enough blue sharpness to allow me to kill 5 large enemies w/out having to sharpen once. This is the only 5 rarity weapon i can currently craft and the best 4 rarity weapon is from the bone tree 720 raw no element/status with a green bar about 1/4 the size of the blue sharpness from my defender weapon. that's a raw of 912(1.2)=1094 compared to 720(1.05)=756 which means the defender has 45% higher raw with 330 blast compared to the second best GS at this point of the game. that's just insane

the defender armor is almost as ridiculous which the game "recommends" you choose at the start as your beginning armor. i'm now HR 11 i want to say and monsters are still barely chipping me when i get hit. i'm sure it'll pick up in difficulty later, and i'll have to actually craft a weapon or armor, but i've just never seen anything like this before so i had to share for anyone who hasn't bothered to go back and replay it

[Suzaku]

Yep, that's why a lot of us veterans tell new players to avoid the defender weapons and guardian armor. It completely ruins the difficulty of the game, which is going to be a major problem for new players (but should be fine for returning players like yourself).

[Andy_RK]

Ye, it was meant to skip the entire base game progression so that every player can join their friend in the iceborne content faster. They should've made additional info in the weapon&armor description to avoid sudden "difficulty jump" for newbie imo. I don't know if they have it too in mh:rise

[Hormesis]

Originally posted by Suzaku:

Yep, that's why a lot of us veterans tell new players to avoid the defender weapons and guardian armor. It completely ruins the difficulty of the game, which is going to be a major problem for new players (but should be fine for returning players like yourself).

good advice. it's actually fun, this time around to be so OP but yeah, you'd be in for a rude awakening if you were to assume that this was typical gameplay

Originally posted by Andy_RK:

Ye, it was meant to skip the entire base game progression so that every player can join their friend in the iceborne content faster. They should've made additional info in the weapon&armor description to avoid sudden "difficulty jump" for newbie imo. I don't know if they have it too in mh:rise :bbtcat:

rise has defender gear, but it was implemented before sunbreak so it's not as ridiculous. it's pretty insane when you first get it, but you can only upgrade once and that's after you get to HR. the starting armor was still the only real choice through all of the base game, but once you get to HR and eventually MR there's much better sets available.

[Popcorn]

Did so with my second PC character, did it again with my third, but due to the cutscenes, I gave up. (I know there's a mod, but eh)

Played 4x for base world and 3x for IB, can't do a fourth time

[Vampblader]

I restarted the game a few weeks ago and tried the defender gear once, took it off afterwards and never looked back.
It's way more fun to work for the armor and weapons though I could understand some people wanting to rush if it's their second time.
But for people without experience there'll be a rude awakening with the beginning of IB or if they try AT's.

[Hormesis]

Originally posted by Popcorn:

Did so with my second PC character, did it again with my third, but due to the cutscenes, I gave up. (I know there's a mod, but eh)

Played 4x for base world and 3x for IB, can't do a fourth time

yeah that cutscene for the second fight w/ zorah was painful since i had to watch it twice, wanted to see if i could kill nergigante but i got thrown off to some far off part of zorah and had next to no time to try and kill him. if i could skip that cut scene i'd have tried a third time but yeah, nowhere near that patient

[DoEFotGS]

Originally posted by iTriHard:

rise has defender gear, but it was implemented before sunbreak

LR version was in the game long ago, but HR upgrades become available right before Sunbreak launch. Defender gear in World was implemented also right before Iceborne launch.

Originally posted by iTriHard:

so it's not as ridiculous

I'm not sure how good or bad defender weapons in Rise, but in World it replaced almost all other weapon options in meta albums when implemented.

Note: current meta album for non Iceborne owners has WEX nerf and other nerfs that allow non defender options shine due to higher affinity.

[GamingWithSilvertail]

Originally posted by DoEFotGS:

Originally posted by iTriHard:

rise has defender gear, but it was implemented before sunbreak

LR version was in the game long ago, but HR upgrades become available right before Sunbreak launch. Defender gear in World was implemented also right before Iceborne launch.

Originally posted by iTriHard:

so it's not as ridiculous

I'm not sure how good or bad defender weapons in Rise, but in World it replaced almost all other weapon options in meta albums when implemented.

Note: current meta album for non Iceborne owners has WEX nerf and other nerfs that allow non defender options shine due to higher affinity.

It most definiatly did not.

[GamingWithSilvertail]

Originally posted by iTriHard:

This is my second time playing through world, after having lost my save data years ago. Now mh isn't the first game to implement weapons, or game designs after the initial launch, to encourage or to help new players to a game, however these defender weapons are the most broken i've ever encountered in 30 years of gaming

I just got done killing Kirin and got a commendation which allowed me to upgrade my GS to rarity 5 which has 912 raw 330 blast with enough blue sharpness to allow me to kill 5 large enemies w/out having to sharpen once. This is the only 5 rarity weapon i can currently craft and the best 4 rarity weapon is from the bone tree 720 raw no element/status with a green bar about 1/4 the size of the blue sharpness from my defender weapon. that's a raw of 912(1.2)=1094 compared to 720(1.05)=756 which means the defender has 45% higher raw with 330 blast compared to the second best GS at this point of the game. that's just insane

the defender armor is almost as ridiculous which the game "recommends" you choose at the start as your beginning armor. i'm now HR 11 i want to say and monsters are still barely chipping me when i get hit. i'm sure it'll pick up in difficulty later, and i'll have to actually craft a weapon or armor, but i've just never seen anything like this before so i had to share for anyone who hasn't bothered to go back and replay it

Someone hasnt seen WOW's druid necklash from Legion...

Congrats. You killed LR kirin.... PS. HR kirin doesnt doesnt matter to in the regular quest)

Not the one Kirin that matter.

[Hormesis]

Originally posted by DoEFotGS:

Originally posted by iTriHard:

rise has defender gear, but it was implemented before sunbreak

LR version was in the game long ago, but HR upgrades become available right before Sunbreak launch. Defender gear in World was implemented also right before Iceborne launch.

Originally posted by iTriHard:

so it's not as ridiculous

I'm not sure how good or bad defender weapons in Rise, but in World it replaced almost all other weapon options in meta albums when implemented.

Note: current meta album for non Iceborne owners has WEX nerf and other nerfs that allow non defender options shine due to higher affinity.

yeah rise is more a traditional installment w/ the LR, HR, Grank (except Grank is now called MR). defender weapons were already outclassed once you got to HR and by Mrank there are far better options, especially on elemental weapons like DB, SA and CB. not really sure how it's going to work for new players tho. LR only goes to 6*, then you can start HR and get to 7*, after which cap is released and you can get up to 999. the final enemy is at HR 100 (valstrax) but i think now you can start MR as soon as that cap disappears, whereas i was about HR300 when i started MR. weird thing is there's a MR scaled valstrax in the events which at the time you were restricted to using HR gear. But if you go straight to MR then you'll unlock the HR valstrax and be fighting him with MR gear, which will make him trivial. same w/ MR, the final enemy is at MR 100 (scorned magnamalo), but you can start AR at like MR 3* i think, which will mean you'll be like HR 20, MR 3* and be already undertaking AR which will give you access to even better gear, meaning you'll be incredibly OP when you start unlocking the HR monsters.

Originally posted by GamingWithSilvertail:

Originally posted by iTriHard:

This is my second time playing through world, after having lost my save data years ago. Now mh isn't the first game to implement weapons, or game designs after the initial launch, to encourage or to help new players to a game, however these defender weapons are the most broken i've ever encountered in 30 years of gaming

I just got done killing Kirin and got a commendation which allowed me to upgrade my GS to rarity 5 which has 912 raw 330 blast with enough blue sharpness to allow me to kill 5 large enemies w/out having to sharpen once. This is the only 5 rarity weapon i can currently craft and the best 4 rarity weapon is from the bone tree 720 raw no element/status with a green bar about 1/4 the size of the blue sharpness from my defender weapon. that's a raw of 912(1.2)=1094 compared to 720(1.05)=756 which means the defender has 45% higher raw with 330 blast compared to the second best GS at this point of the game. that's just insane

the defender armor is almost as ridiculous which the game "recommends" you choose at the start as your beginning armor. i'm now HR 11 i want to say and monsters are still barely chipping me when i get hit. i'm sure it'll pick up in difficulty later, and i'll have to actually craft a weapon or armor, but i've just never seen anything like this before so i had to share for anyone who hasn't bothered to go back and replay it

Someone hasnt seen WOW's druid necklash from Legion...

Congrats. You killed LR kirin.... PS. HR kirin doesnt doesnt matter to in the regular quest)

Not the one Kirin that matter.

lol'd the point i was trying to make was that following that fight i was already able to upgrade my defender weapon to rarity 5 which was an entire rarity higher than any other available GS. and no, didn't play wow. was this druid' necklash free like the defender gear was? and given to you at the very beginning of the game?

also i've been killing high rank kirin for nearly 20 years. have thousands of hours across at least a dozen different monster hunter games. something tells me i'll be fine :P

[Mu'Ammar of Carthus]

Been saying this from the very first day they were added to the game.
One of the stupidest idea I've ever seen a developper come up with.

[Pacoger]

defender weapons arent made to help new players, they are made to skip lr and hr to play directly mr on a new save xD

[Hormesis]

Originally posted by PacoGamer:

defender weapons arent made to help new players, they are made to skip lr and hr to play directly mr on a new save xD

lol'd you may be right. i roflstomped my way to IB, we'll see how far the defender gs will take me before i decide it's time to swap it for the new hotness