First time playing - Stay away from the guardian gear?

[Reo REbOrn]

May be a silly question but I've been playing with the guardian armor and was confused when I couldn't really find any other good upgrades and none of the monsters seemed like much of a challenge. I looked online about upgrades and it seems that it's free DLC to help boost people to IB content. Is that correct?

If so would you suggest staying away from it (spesh as I don't have the IB).

Thank you in advance.

[mewlynx]

If you care at all about progression, then yes, stay away from Defender stuff. There's little reason to craft any new gear with it, which is arguably half the fun of the story (gradually getting stronger and farming monsters for their awesome gear).

If you don't care about that, then feel free to use it. You seem to understand what it's intended for, so why not?

[Seamus]

Yeah, avoid guardian/defender equipment. The game is vastly more satisfying without it.

[Suzaku]

Yes, if you want the authentic game, then avoid Guardian gear and Defender weapons.

[©ThΣKämikαzeMΏήkΞ¥s™]

Well thats kinda true that you need to avoid, but also, the guardian armor helps you grinding on optional quests if you want want materials for weapons and armor. You can use Guardian armor to help you on quests, and until you have those materials you wanted, you can craft your own gear and no longer need guardian and now you can keep doing the process with every gear. But guardian/defender guear are usable on low/high rank but don't expect to use it on master rank, because if you do, then you are doomed.

[Wings]

Correct. if you want the normal playthrough experience, don't use it. The whole set was made for the purpose of boosting players to iceborne asap so they could play that content, since it's after the main game.
If you don't have iceborne, then it's just a set of armor that removes any sense of progression with the crafting system which is basically half of the game.

[Juliane_L]

do NOT use the defender/guardian gear. it only a bad money grab from Capcom: it makes begginers rush the base game story, buy Iceborne for more content (while missing hundreds of hours of content in the base game), get absolutely rekt by the first monster of Iceborne because they learned nothing with the defender gear , leave a negative review and then complain on the forum "game too hard give me my money back plz"

[TormentedSalad]

Stay away from it the game will likely be more fun finding upgrades as you go the weapons especially

[mighty]

started playing some weeks ago and yes,
stay away from it.
I did the first 2-3 hours using it and it felt like /godmode ON
then i googled about the set and it confirmed my opinion.

I´m post iceborne story now and i suggest to get used to the "gameplay" ( horrible hitboxes, low-i-frames and stun-lock-lock-lock-lock-lock mechanics AS SOON as you can, because godmode (guardian gear) ends with iceborne .
best wishes :)

[mighty]

Originally posted by Juliane_L:

do NOT use the defender/guardian gear. it only a bad money grab from Capcom:

is it ?
i´m wondering
i´ve purchased the main game in sale and after i was sure, that i want to continue playing, i purchased iceborne dlc ( sale ) and alot of FREE addons.
i never purchased any other addons/dlc for money, but i got that cheesing gear too ^^

[ChickenDope]

I'm pretty sure that it's only the defender weapons which are OP in base game. As in, you will get better armor about 3/4 in to the story 1/3rd - halfway through the high rank quests.

[Reo REbOrn]

Thank you everybody who replied. Staying well away from it now lol cheers :)

[Tregrenos]

Guardian Gear is a handy tool for the lower levels of the game, but it's not gonna be your saving grace if you don't know how to use the weapon you've chosen. If you don't learn to dodge you could hit a wall well before you even get to Master Rank. From what I've seen Diablos is an excellent teacher in this regard.

[BookishNerDan]

The upside to the Defender gear is that if you use it to learn how to use your weapon, then it can make for a less frustrating experience early on. Everyone here is right and that you shouldn't use it, however, if you go into a tough low level fight, say like Anjanath, and you use the Defender gear, you will live longer and get a better feel for your weapon without dying too quickly. Then, once you are comfortable with your weapon (and your keybinds) THEN take the gear off piece by piece and replace with crafted gear.

The biggest thing I noticed about using Defender gear as a training tool is that it allowed me to feel more confident using the claw on fights. Before I put on the Defender set I was getting killed really quickly and I never was alive enough to figure out how to use the claw. However, once I learned how to use the claw (to grapple onto a monster and punch them in their places), then when I took the Defender gear off I was confident I could use the claw tool even with less health and defense.

Just think of Defender gear as a way to gain confidence with the basic mechanics of the game without being punished because your crafted gear is too weak to allow you to stay alive long enough to learn how to play. But once you do have a feel for your weapon, for dodging, and for the other elements of the game, then take the Defender gear off and just craft the gear you want.

[thuey]

I am NOT a min/maxer and enjoy games for what they are, and how they craft the experience. I agree with the other posts: DO NOT EQUIP THE DEFENDER/GUARDIAN EQ.

I don't care about speed runs, beating each monster in the fastest time possible, etc. I just enjoy Japanese game design. I think Capcom missed the mark by making the Guardian/Defender gear available to anyone to usher them to Iceborne.

I recently finished MHW and started Iceborne (about mid-way). Honestly, I wish I had spent MORE time with MHW vanilla. I say, play it as it was originally intended and enjoy the ride. I had a blast and didn't use the Guardian/Defender gear. Everyone here kept telling me to move to Iceborne. If you care about getting the best gear, then yes, that's the best option, as it will make your MHW equipment pretty irrelevant. But if you want to enjoy the game for the game's sake, I'd say, delay your Iceborne play until you feel pretty comfortable with the MHW post-game of tempered/arch-tempered monsters. I did NOT do that based on the feedback here, and I regret it.

I don't love Iceborne. I understand it as a necessary progression, but the feedback here may have pushed me there too soon. The Iceborne monsters are pretty buffed up and generally on a completely different level from MHW story. I think Iceborne forces you to git gud, and I like that aspect... but the Guardian/Defender gear will stunt that for sure. And IMO, even rushing into Iceborne after finishing MHW will stunt that growth as well. Just enjoy MHW for what it is, for as long as you enjoy it. That would be my advice.

[Ragosta tin Dei]

Guardian is great starter gear go use it. Low rank is absolute arse and teaches anything beyond rudimentary basics of fighting. You will find High rank will have monsters with more moves and hit harder,