Underneath my yellow skin

Monster Hunter: World and the beginning of the end

i'm all glowy and shit.
Daora Entom in action as I fly high!

This week in Monster Hunter: World had me cleaning up house. It’s funny because it mimics how I work in the real world. I ‘grind’ before doing the real work (mostly by thinking hard about things) so it seems as if I make my decisions suddenly and rashly, but in reality, I’ve given it a lot of thought. It’s like swimming–most of the work is done below the surface.

When I last posted, I had just tackled Teostra and had two more Elder Dragons in this cluster plus Kirin (also an Elder Dragon) and the final storyline quest (final is not really applicable in this game, but it’s the quest that makes the credits roll). Before this, I’d been tackling one main monster a week, roughly, so I thought it’d be the same. I’d manage to do one more Elder Dragon, then farm the hell out of it so I could make all the armor and weapons out of it that I wanted. Plus charms that need the parts. I still needed the Teostra Gem, but I didn’t feel like fighting him any more, so I took a short break.

Next up was Kushala Daora. I love this Elder Dragon. She (and I call her she. Dunno if it’s cannon or not, though I found an angry post about how it’s an IT! Not a he or she!!!! Like, who the fuck cares? Why does it chap your hide so much that Kusha is called a she and not Nergy being called a he, for example? Nerds are the worst about this shit. For real. But I digress) is elegant and very Asian-looking (specifically Chinese, but probably meant to be Japanese), and if you don’t attack her, she ignores you. Once you attack her, however, it’s on! She’s called Kushala Daora,  Dragon of Steel, and she has control over the wind. Her most vicious attacks are wind-based (though they all inflict physical damage, which is odd), and she is covered in steel. That means you don’t do much damage until you break her skin, and her tornadoes are insane. The only thing I knew about her before going in was that she did a lot of wind moves, so I made sure I had Windproof Level 5 (max) before taking her on.

As usual, I rolled in all buffed out and with My Nergal Gash. I will take High Elderseal over high elemental damage any day of the weak. As I said earlier, it’s believed that High Elderseal means the Elder Dragons do their ultimates less often. There is no official word on it, but it seems to be true from what I’ve seen of videos with people who weren’t using Elderseal.

Kusha was fairly easy with the liberal use of Flash Pods. That is still probably the singular best tip I learned from Casey–bring Flash Pods and the materials to craft more whenever fighting a flying monster. Kushala is made almost trivial with Flash Pods as long as you don’t do it during her tornado phase. I wasn’t even close to carting once, and I did it in under twenty minutes. Of course, I did her multi several times, and I had to laugh because her gems dropped so easily. I have three, I believe, whereas I still don’t have one from Teo, and it took me twenty tries to get one from Nergy. I had a hard time getting two of Kusha’s tails, so that’s what I concentrated on when I did multi. I managed to slice it off three out of five times (I think I had Partbreaker), and I felt like a badass. I finally got the second one on the last time I cut off her tail. I needed them to make her Insect Glaive, Daora’s Entom. I’m mostly maining the Switch Axe, but her IG is so badass! It’s a squid, and it lights up when you use it.

by far the grossest-looking monster.
Hello, Dark Souls, my old friend.

A few days later, I was itching to take on Vaal Hazak, which was unusual. Normally, I would be content to multi the previous Elder Dragon for a week plus do other quests and investigations. Not this time. I think it’s because the endgame is in sight, and I want to reach that goal line. Well, not the endgame per se as there’s a whole ‘nother level of hard with the tempered monsters (not to mention Arch-Tempered Elder Dragons), but I don’t want to get into that yet. Vaal Hazak is a very Dark Souls-looking boss. He has the stench of death around him, and his gimmick is that he oozes effluvia. I don’t know exactly what it is, but it’s the stuff in the Rotten Vale that constantly saps your health if you don’t have Effluvial Expert Level 1 (only one level) to guard against it (and against some acid damage, which is relevant in this fight). That’s only from the Effluvia around you (which he causes). You need Effluvia Resistance Level 3 (highest level) to mitigate Vaal Hal’s effluvia bullshit and to negate the accumulation of his effluvia bullshit–which is cutting your health in half. Yup. That’s his shtick, and I hate it. I hate anything that cuts my health so abruptly, so I went in with both Effluvial Expert Level 1 and Effluvia Resistance Level 3. And my beloved Nergal Gash, of course.

I don’t know if it’s simply because I was properly geared or what, but Vaal Hal was by far the easiest of the Elder Dragons. BY FAR. It took me less than fifteen minutes, and I cut through him like butter. I only had to eat two or three nulberries, and I didn’t even break a sweat by the time it was over. I even mounted him, and it was fun flying around the Rotten Vale. He never did his mouth-spraying thing (which is the one, if you’re caught in, will cut your health in half)–at least not that I saw. Then again, I stayed near dat ass, so maybe I just missed it. He didn’t do it during the multis I ran of him, either, so I really have to praise the High Elderseal.

By the way, I had to turn voice chat off (and didn’t realize I’d had it on. Embarrassing, but I know it’s pretty low from hearing other people and not being able to hear their words, and I don’t usually talk much as I fight) after I got angry at a teammate once. I can’t remember exactly why, but it was probably them not healing up before going in to attack again. Look, I know there are many ways to get carted, and I’m not going to be too aggrieved about a one-shot kill or getting stunlocked and then hit, but I will get salty if you have time to heal, refuse to do so, then go back into the fray. I know there’s a Skill called Heroics that increases your attack and defense when you’re below 35% health, but it’s not worth it. I try to keep my eye on my party and heal them up when needed, but I can’t do that all the time and still be an effective attacker.

I mention voice chat because I was glad it was turned off while I was multi-ing for Vaal Hal. There was one time when one of the players was standing outside the next area, presumably waiting for the rest of us, and she was at roughly half-health. As we neared, she went in without healing up. I said, “Heal up, _____!” just as Vaal Hal one-shot her. I exclaimed, “Oh, come on, _____!”, which would have made me feel very bad if she had heard me. Hm. Maybe she got the half-health de-buff and didn’t have a nulberry to cleanse it. I should have tried to eat a nulberry, damn it. Anyway, after about another minute, she left the quest. I don’t know if she chose to or if she was disconnected, but it went much better after she left.

riding my unicorn for funsies.
Ride ’em, cowgirl!

Two nights ago, I went to bed ridiculously early and got up at four-thirty in the morning. I got everything I needed to do done, and then I decided to take on HR Kirin. My bête noire. LR Kirin gave me more trouble than any other monster in LR, BY FAR. That thunder bullshit, even with Thunder Resistance Level 3, was a killer. Literally. I carted three times against LR Kirin (one was a bullshit lag cart), and it took probably a half hour on the run where I did beat him.

I was expecting a slog when I went to fight the HR version. I read up on the best load-out and re-watched Casey’s video against Kirin (which was HR). Unfortunately, she used a LBG to beat him (she made this build solely to beat Kirin), so I didn’t get many tips on the actual melee. Everything in the forums said to be patient, take one hit and run, and I decided to put everything I learned to the test. I made a new load-out before fighting HR Kirin. I got the thunder resistance of my armor to 34, got my Thunder Resistance to Level 3 (max), made sure both Stun Resistance and Paralysis Resistance were Level 3 (max) as well since his thunder does both as well. I ate for Elemental Resistance up, had my health at 200, grabbed my Nergal Gash (so he couldn’t do his bullshit my skin is impenetrable and only my horn takes damage move as often), found my Grimalkyne friend, then went to face Kirin.

One thing I love about Kirin is that he’s not hostile when you walk up to him. He will completely ignore you until you attack him. Then, when he runs away, if he’s not enraged, you can just walk by him again in the near area. I think he’s beautiful, and I hate having to fight the unicorn. But, that quickly dissolves once we’re actually in contact because he’s so fucking irritating with his thunder bullshit. Getting my ass zapped all over the map is no fun, yo. And this time, I didn’t manage to attack him in his usual opening area, so I had to follow him allllll the way up to Legiana’s resting place before I could finally hit him–and I had my Thunderproof Mantle on all the way, which meant I wasted half of it.

Honestly, I had thought about putting it off until after the credits rolled so I could have two tools available, but I decided to do it yesterday, probably because of sleep-deprivation. Once I was actually able to fight him, it was tough, but not nearly as bad as fighting LR Kirin. I think it’s because I was much better geared out for this fight than the previous one. Having my stun resistance and paralysis resistance maxed out made all the difference in the world. Honestly, I think I may have to incorporate max stun resistance into all my load-outs as it is amazing. Anyway, I had all my buffs, and I used the Thunderproof Mantle (which you get for fighting the LR Kirin) instead of my beloved Vitality Mantle, and I went to town on his Elder Dragon ass.

All his attacks did much less damage. I wasn’t close to getting one-shot or even two-shot. I did use several more Mega Potions while fighting him than in other fights, especially in the last stage, but it was never really tense the way it was during the LR Kirin fight. Kirin himself is very staggerable with the Nergal Gash–that’s another thing that High Elderseal does for you, staggers the Elder Dragons–and I was able to go ham on his unicorn ass. When I beat him, I felt so triumphant, especially considering how much agitas his LR compatriot gave to me.

Side Note: I am making all the HR Palico sets, and Kirin’s is so super-cute! I need to kill at least one more HR Kirin to get the parts I need for weapons, armor, and charms. I’ll multi for that, but in some ways, it’s harder to do Kirin multi because then he does more random thunder attacks.

All I have left before credits roll is the final storyline quest. I know his name; I know one gimmick; I know his ultimate. That’s all I know except that it’s a grind because you can’t go back to camp during the battle. That means I have to stock up on items that make the fight easier, such as honey to craft more Mega Potions, herbs to craft Potions, an Ancient Potion, two Max Potions, Mega Nutrients, etc. I need my regular buff items, too, though, so it’ll be interesting to make it all fit in my item pouch.

I don’t know how much I’ll play past credits. I know there’s a lot to *do* post-credits, but I’ve put in several hundred hours already, and I don’t know how much more will I have to give to this game. We’ll see once I unlock more stuff. Maybe it’ll spur me to keep on hunting.

 

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