Valstrax.webm
[Hide] (925.1KB, 360x360, 00:14) FOR ANY ANONS READING ALONG, HERE IS YOUR WINDOW TO CATCH UP & GET READY TO PLAY WITH US BEFORE WE START MASTER RANK / SUNBREAK
YOU'VE GOT A WEEK / FEW WEEKS / UNTIL WE'RE READY AGAIN
So with that, we've "beat" the basegame. I'd honestly recommend turning the mods off, and knuckling down with cleaning up the remaining quests (Dangos, Sub-Requests, Notes & Endemics if you're into that, etc etc) and just doing random SOS's. Apparently the best way to farm HR is the Ibushi Rampage, but doing the other Rampages at least once to unlock the other Apex hunts (Rath+Rath / Zin / Mizu / Diab) later on wouldn't hurt. Also, I'm not going to hold it against you if you turn on the drop table normaliser, because there are numerous 1% droprates, and we're not just making one build, just as long as you're ready when you're ready.
When you find one of the content gates, just go through it in your own time, that'll be the following 3 Elders, the True Final Boss and then stop before Valstrax / HR100. We'll repeat the Elders on ultradeath, treat the base versions of them as the "practice" versions, learning the basic movesets, and then "discover" Valstrax as it comes.
The key thing is that as they're all Elders, all 5 will require a slay, since you cannot Capture Elders. So we'll be spending a full-length Fury duration with them at like 160% speed, no ending it early at 10-25%HP. All will probably need a custom-build, so get familiar with using presets in your equipment box.
Chameleos is Poison, and has a lot of unique bullshit. Obvious one is that it's going to be invisible, aside from the eyes, and only becomes visible for very short periods (bonus mod, just to make it lore accurate + worth fighting + it's interesting). Break the horn and I think the mod will actually makes him even more invisible (since it flips his invisibility states), so aiming for the eyes might be a bad idea. Second is that he steals shit, usually he steals items, but I think he drains your Spiribird meters in Rise (either, or on top), so be careful what items you bring, and double-up on healing methods in case he steals your Mega Potions. Third is that his Poison is way stronger than others, and lasts a shorter time, so it's designed to burn your antidotes while still doing more damage if you ignore it. Full Poison Res does not immune it, only reduces it, but I'd say it's still required. Final is that he's undetected, which means you can't lockon or dive-evade, and I don't think monster-reliant decorations like Agitator work vs him. Also, because we need to paintball-kunai him to see him on the minimap, he's just going to take a while to find, not sure if his icon in the corner flashes when you're in the same zone. In previous games Smoke bombs help reveal him for a time mid-fight, Sonic bombs do the same but only while he's mid-attack, and Poison / Exhaust makes his mouth drool, but otherwise, he's just weak to Fire and is a bag of tricks. Typically he's got the easiest moveset, but him being almost completely invisible is going to change that so he's toe-to-toe with the other two.
Kushala is Wind Pressure. He's a shitmon in every game he's been in (apparently "they fixed him" in Rise, but I doubt it), and he only makes reappearances because he was the mascot of 2nd gen. Basically, a lot of annoying AoE tornados that stagger you with constant Wind Pressure. More importantly is his black wind barrier, where basically unless you cancel it with poison, melee users get staggered just by approaching him (that normal Wind Pressure Res won't stop), and he's immune to bullets from gunners. Kush does have a full-zone-sized nuke, but it's very obvious and an easy read. Other than that, he has no direct weakness, and because Poison is fixed damage on him + Poison weapons are typically lower-tuned + constant stagger from wind preventing you from doing damage, so he's just the tankiest of the 3. Also, because the Poison threshold will continually get higher and higher, he's somewhat of a DPS race. I'm sure not in the base version, but in the mod he will be.
We need Poison status, and we need Wind Pressure resist, don't even bother without.
Teostra is Fire and Blast. He has two states he checks into, heated and dusted - heat means he's immune to bullets aside from his face + wings (until you break his horn) and has more fire attacks, while dust applies blast clouds to his other attacks. Once he's in both states, you count exactly 180 seconds, then he does a very fast hard-hitting nuke you need to predict instead of react (which is going to be even faster with the mods) (especially since MHExtra specifies Risen Teostra as one of it's focuses, before we added on Fury) and resets. I'm not sure if the mods will change that timing, or make it so only the explosion is faster, but it's something to watch for. Basically, once he's double-charged for a while, fully disengage and wait him out. Weak to Water uncharged, weak to Ice when he's amped up, both even out as equally effective. I don't think he has Blastblight status, just Blast-damage-explosions, so max out your Fire Res and general Defense, because he hits the hardest of the 3.
I'd hesitate to say he should be the easiest with mods since he's much less dangerous once you know to wait out the big bang, but he's also probably going to have the highest chance of getting cheap suprise-carts due to his high upfront damage and blast-juggling. Lunastra (Fire + Butane + Minor Wind-Pressure) (Teostra's Lioness) is harder, and also a much better fight, and also fits into the trio better. But many aren't ready to have that conversation yet, and she's not in Rise, so we're not going to go there.
All 3 share a Dragon element weakness on the face / horn.
I have not fought Allmother Narwa, I don't know what her details are, I'm just going to assume it's Narwa + some Ibushi moves. I'd guess Thunder Res + Wind Pressure, Artillery and Partbreaker decos would go a long way based on the fixtures scattered around, but idfk.
Valstrax is raw speed (Dragon + Hawk + Fighter Jet). Even before the mod, it's the fastest monster in the entire franchise, and the mods are going to make this thing do fucking DBZ instant transmissions when it's at Fury threshold. Immune to Dragon element, very weak to all other elements equally, but it shits out Dragon element damage, and while Dragonblight disables your element output, we're going to need full Dragon Res anyways, so immuning the blight should be a passive and elemental damage is the way to go. Few things to keep an eye out for is that it holds it's breath almost all fight, but has clear windows where it needs to breathe, where you can smack it in the chest and topple it. All it's attacks also do a ton of knockback, on top of it being evasive as fuck, which means we'll either learn where it'll finish moves at, or we'll be chasing it around like a Scooby Doo scene. It has two heavy-hitting moves, one's a forward blast (a Dragon element version of our old friend mountainsnipe's attack, except it's unblockable without Guard Up and does considerably more damage / chip damage). That, and it's signature move. It's either an instacart or about as damn close as it gets to an instacart in damage, but instead of clearing the area / zone like Teostra or Kushala's, it's just a really hard to avoid lockon to one target (tl;dr it's a homing missile, not a nuke or a nova). I might bring Farcasters just to GTFO if it's genuinely impossible to dodge when in Fury, because at least the startup is very telegraphed, and very very iconic. Basically, look up when it disappears. I'll tell you if I do choose to leave, because if I farcast out and you don't, it's going to lock on to you instead.
>>301138
Just system sounds, Steam's Recording & Screenshots tool is pretty good, easier to use hotkeys and clip than OBS.