Heavy Bowgun Help.

[RegalKain]

*Spoilers*


Ok so, I played through the original base campaign with an Insect Glaive, soloed all my elders the first time through for the full "experience".

And I wanted to step away from IG and try weapon type out, so I made a Heavy Bow Gun, sold all my IG stuff etc. Now I am in Iceborne, so far so good! I'm using a Pierce build and am not having to many issues, right up until I'm supposed to kill Velkhana (After the Gate/Barricade repel) and man oh man, I'm just struggling super, super hard against this thing. I can't seem to ram it into walls, any attempt to clutch claw it's face gets me roared or knocked off, Tried a set of gear with 24+ Ice Defense, and Ice Proof mantle, Ice breath of his still takes out 50% of my life.

I realize I need to "git guud" but I'm just struggling, any tips for facing Velkhana for the first time? Is there something I'm missing? If I stay super close it's easier to avoid attacks, but pierce completely falls off and is useless. Is this a "Go Spread or Go Home" fights? Thanks in advance.

[Squidvasion]

Evade extender is fantastic for HBG to help with rolling from velk breath attacks.

Curious though...why sell your IG stuff? You can collect thousands of armor and weapons in your box and make like 200+ sets in your loadout screen.

[Cel]

Some weapons or builds for weapons are simply better at some monsters than others. Pierce HBG is wonderful against big boys with multiple weakspots aka bazelgeuse but against velkhana you cannot trigger solid weakspot hits with pierce outside their head. I wouldn't say go spread or go home per say.. pierce HBGs usually got good normal 3 ammo options too which can be very effective if spammed at the head. If you love the pierce gun style though I'd probably recommend a light bowgun with rapid fire pierce2 instead as that is far more effective.

[RegalKain]

Originally posted by crimsonedge11:

Sorry for caps....but USE THE ROCKSTEADY AND TEMPORAL MANTLE for free part weakening/wall bashes.

I kind of forgot they exist, they were super strong pre-iceborne so I avoided using them, as I felt they made most things trivial, but I've heard they were balanced out so maybe I will dust them off.

Originally posted by Squidvasion:

Evade extender is fantastic for HBG to help with rolling from velk breath attacks.

Curious though...why sell your IG stuff? You can collect thousands of armor and weapons in your box and make like 200+ sets in your loadout screen.

I uhhh, didn't realize Evade Extender worked with rolls honestly, that's mostly me being an idiot though. Also I got rid of all my IG gear because I didn't want to fall to it's Siren's call of tons of mobility and flying around like a deadly sky ninja. :)

Originally posted by Cel:

Some weapons or builds for weapons are simply better at some monsters than others. Pierce HBG is wonderful against big boys with multiple weakspots aka bazelgeuse but against velkhana you cannot trigger solid weakspot hits with pierce outside their head. I wouldn't say go spread or go home per say.. pierce HBGs usually got good normal 3 ammo options too which can be very effective if spammed at the head. If you love the pierce gun style though I'd probably recommend a light bowgun with rapid fire pierce2 instead as that is far more effective.

I will look through and give the LBG a try, I do enjoy the pierce style, and I enjoy the extra range, I did Spread 3 for awhile near the "end" of the base game content (Glutton 3 yaa....) so I'll poke around, maybe try out Normal 3 and see if that suits me better.

[Seamus]

Originally posted by Regal Kain:

I uhhh, didn't realize Evade Extender worked with rolls honestly, that's mostly me being an idiot though. Also I got rid of all my IG gear because I didn't want to fall to it's Siren's call of tons of mobility and flying around like a deadly sky ninja. :)

Evade Extender not only works with hbg, but works MORE with hbg than other weapons. It's kinda nutty how far you can roll with 3/3 extender and a hbg drawn.

[Master Cheeks]

Temporal was nerfed considerably to have a finite amount of dodges instead of infinite until the duration wore off. Much more balanced now. Rocksteady hasn't been tweaked as far as I know, but it's also pretty balanced as MR monsters hit hard and it'll likely be some time before you have a totally maxed out defense set so it's very possible to just get chunked down quickly using Rocksteady.

[Hurricane]

To use hbg get a p3 or s3 gun stick shields on them and enjoy free kills with no fear of death...

[Saber]

Go Spread or Go Home ALWAYS

[RegalKain]

Originally posted by Hurricane:

To use hbg get a p3 or s3 gun stick shields on them and enjoy free kills with no fear of death...

Uhhh, maybe I'm doing something wrong but, even with tons of shields on it, most attacks don't proc the guard skill and just blast you anyway, but that may also be a failing on my part for synergistic skills.

[Squidvasion]

All the advice here is good but I'd honestly just wear the full Narga set which gives you quite honestly a fantastic starter skillset to get used to playing with HBG. evade window/extender should make you almost impossible to hit even with lackluster timing on rolls.

As what crimson has stated, clutch clawing to weaken as a solo HBG is tricky since the animation is one of the longest, so i typically wait to get one of those big hits that makes the monster reel while drooling (you can clutch at that moment to make it flinch a second time and get a soften for free).

Narga set will also give you spare shot which adds considerable dps output to HBG if you're not in the mood to craft ammo non stop during a hunt.

[Hurricane]

Originally posted by Regal Kain:

Originally posted by Hurricane:

To use hbg get a p3 or s3 gun stick shields on them and enjoy free kills with no fear of death...

Uhhh, maybe I'm doing something wrong but, even with tons of shields on it, most attacks don't proc the guard skill and just blast you anyway, but that may also be a failing on my part for synergistic skills.

You need to stand still or it wont block so stop shooting when an attack is due and it will be blocked. Only super attacks wont be blocked but you can roll them as they have a long wind up

[Hurricane]

Originally posted by Squidvasion:

All the advice here is good but I'd honestly just wear the full Narga set which gives you quite honestly a fantastic starter skillset to get used to playing with HBG. evade window/extender should make you almost impossible to hit even with lackluster timing on rolls.

As what crimson has stated, clutch clawing to weaken as a solo HBG is tricky since the animation is one of the longest, so i typically wait to get one of those big hits that makes the monster reel while drooling (you can clutch at that moment to make it flinch a second time and get a soften for free).

Narga set will also give you spare shot which adds considerable dps output to HBG if you're not in the mood to craft ammo non stop during a hunt.

You can craft a full clip in 1 second from your radial and dont even need to put your gun away to do it.... spare shot is okay but damage is better

[JebKerman]

Originally posted by Hurricane:

Originally posted by Squidvasion:

All the advice here is good but I'd honestly just wear the full Narga set which gives you quite honestly a fantastic starter skillset to get used to playing with HBG. evade window/extender should make you almost impossible to hit even with lackluster timing on rolls.

As what crimson has stated, clutch clawing to weaken as a solo HBG is tricky since the animation is one of the longest, so i typically wait to get one of those big hits that makes the monster reel while drooling (you can clutch at that moment to make it flinch a second time and get a soften for free).

Narga set will also give you spare shot which adds considerable dps output to HBG if you're not in the mood to craft ammo non stop during a hunt.

You can craft a full clip in 1 second from your radial and dont even need to put your gun away to do it.... spare shot is okay but damage is better

(True) Spare Shot is one of if the the best ways to increase your DPS because it means you spend less time reloading. And the effect is multiplicative with any other DPS boosting skills you put on.