Undergeared or game design?

[Nero]

Mostly just looking for some advice in iceborne. I've dived in, made some MR tiered armour, though I'm now finding that quite a lot of the bigger monsters have at least 1 or 2 attacks that can one-shot me pretty reliably.

Not just myself, when struggling with Velkhana I fired off some SOS's and lost 3 or 4 times in a row due to other's fainting.

At first I got annoyed, since one-shots in a fight expected to last 20 or 30 minutes is, IMHO, really bad and lazy game design. Though I'm also wondering about my gear. I got MR Legiana armour purely for this fight but still found I was barely surviving some attacks with only a pip of health.

Is there something I'm maybe missing for these high-end Iceborne fights? For the record Velkhana is now dead and buried so that's no longer an issue but there is a worry this is going to be a trend, since the monsters have been hitting harder with each rank.

[Kawalorn]

Did you equip Health Boost skill on your armor? It's pretty much mandatory.

Are you eating at cantine and/or using nutrients or max potion to increase health even further? Same as above, you should always do that.

Are you upgrading your armor's defense using armor spheres?

What weapon are you using? Ranged weapons receive more damage from physical attacks and less from elemental, and vice-versa for melee.

[Suzaku]

I don't recall any attack pre-tempered guiding lands able to one-shot, and most of the strongest attacks in the game just hit super hard but don't kill.

Upgrade your armor as high as it goes, get the 50hp from food, use health boost 3, and one-shots should be borderline impossible.

[Stim Addict]

Are you uping your DEF with decos? A lot of time people think that having any number higher than a zero is good def. Personally I can say that Velkhana isn't really that BS. My buddy and I got him first try 0 faints.

Take some time and really look at your build

Edit: When I say DEF decos I mean ice res

[Zand]

Velk's sweeping ice beam will kill you in one hit if you dont have Health Boost 3 and at least some positive Ice resistance. Either dont get hit by it, by staying close to the monster or get some Ice res.

[River Victor]

Velkhana is where your first MR armor start to get obsolete but things are still doable. Health Boost 3 is starting to become a must at this point. Blackveil Val Hazaak will also require Miasma Jewel x3 or you will die every two hits if not less. From this point on, you can probably slog through until you get the first end-game gear, but you will need something new soon.

[cruste]

create a forum request with session id, if you can't take the rngness of sos flares

so you get help from bored maxed out players instead of other beginners, who are in the same situation like you and try desperately to climb that skillwall.

[astranabeat]

HB 3 and ice mantle. Upgrade armor to max as the game allow. I don't remember getting one shot from Velhkana in story mode.

Stay at the side of the head and only thing th​at can hit you is the tail which is easy to dodge.

[Houseki Yarisuke]

It's less about being able to tank the attacks and more about being able to avoid them.

[Nero]

Thanks all for the replies. I've been upgrading the armour as needed though the health boost was something I didn't factor in. At least I know now it's not MEANT to be a one-shot.

[F.O.A.M]

Originally posted by Nero:

Thanks all for the replies. I've been upgrading the armour as needed though the health boost was something I didn't factor in. At least I know now it's not MEANT to be a one-shot.

although alot of monsters can still feel like it, IB is a different game imo. the monsters are faster and stronger than they ever were in the base game. new monsters chunk you for at least half your hp while xeno only took about 1/3 of my hp the first time. so IB is way harder in general than what normal MHW is

[Loxly]

Originally posted by Nero:

Thanks all for the replies. I've been upgrading the armour as needed though the health boost was something I didn't factor in. At least I know now it's not MEANT to be a one-shot.

I'd say skip on upgrading progression armor because you will need sh*t ton of armor sphere to max out rarity 12 armor. Just slot in 3 health boost and you probably won't get 1 hko'ed anymore.

[Fharlion]

As others have noted, Health Boost 3 goes a long way (and always eat before hunting), along with upping your defense through upgrades and resistances with decorations.
You can also consider using the Divine Blessing skill, but that is RNG (even if it is very generous), and not reliable.

Also make using Max Potions a habit (and carry around materials to craft more if you need more than 2/use the Free Meal skill). Late game MR monsters will rarely give you enough breathing room to top off using just Mega Potions, and they can easily chunk you for 60-80% health.

[Valentine (Lunaticus)]

If you have trouble against monsters you can also make builds against them. There's all sorts of defensive skills that can make the fights easier such as Evade Window, Evade Extender, elemental res skills and so on.

Experiment. Maybe Evade Window isn't really doing it for you in one fight while Evade Extend works perfectly. Once you're more familiar with a monster you'll probably find the need for the extra skills diminishes.

Staying alive longer helps you also learn the monster better.

[TwoArmedMan15]

If you're getting one-shot by Velkhana, then you're either not upgrading your armor, your armor has very low ice defense, and/or you're not using health boost 3. The game hands out armor spheres like candy in MR, so you should max out your armor's defense; you can eat for Elemental Defense Up L to counter low ice defense; and, if you can't avoid being hit, just use health boost 3 (it's 3 level 1 decos that you can craft at the melder).

[Saber]

Health Boost 3.