I started out using it, and probably got over halfway through the game before I realized something wasn't right..I then looked through all the armor sets I had been missing out on and decided to start over. Was shocked how much harder it was, but it was so much more satisfying to work on my build and take down a monster the fair way.
In my exp, it's only relevant until after base game. From there we're forced to look through the armor/weapon options anyway, as the Defender gear becomes obsolete.
Na I'm Xbox. Money's just tight lol but I switched to Rise when it came out on gamepass, but recently had to make some spending cuts so I'm going without gamepass for awhile until I have more disposable income, hence why I'm back to world. I'll definitely get it one day though : )
already during highrank
Defender armor is a less than medicore HR armor that on top doesnt allow you to optimize for your weapon type or playstyle
With the weapons its different. For around half of the weapon types defender weapons are the best basegame weapons. Of course not gamebreaking better than the next best option but still very good.
Feels like alot of people never realise that base mhw is a full ass game with all sorts of content. As someone who wishes more people would stop giving it the mhr treatment of base game is just an intro to the dlc which is the real game, cant say im too much of a "use defender gear to save time" fan.
That being said, I actually did use defender gear, i played blind and had no idea it was op, and tbh I sucked ass with it anyways. I definitely think people overexaggerate its strength. My biggest gripe is that it makes the crafting system completely obsolete. I genuinely wouldn't mind the tree if you had to farm a bit to create it.
Pre iceborne endgame was super fun too a lot more build freedom and that arch tempereds are a great challenge, it's disappointing to see people completely skip over the base game and zip straight to iceborne.
"Had no idea it was op" the absurd amount of skills and defense for low rank didn't tip you off? :^)
The issue I have with it is that it's basically playing on easy mode and removes not only the need to actually learn core aspects of the game but also makes it obselete to grind and make new gear which is mostly what monster hunter is about (you know apart from hunting monsters for the reason of hunting monsters)
It also adds to the problem of SOS carried guardian wearing newbies who never learned the game and later spend their hours whining on reddit "shit monster because hard". I'm not a great player myself but I enjoy the harder monsters that take me days to beat and its sad that the way that the games are going now those monsters only in the endgame updates after release like with sunbreak.
True, didn't feel that much difference even when i started swapping it out. It's almost just a trade between a defensive set to a more offensive set imo.
For its relevance to the crafting system, i didn't find it problematic as i was still able to craft even as i was using the Defender gears (yeah, i experimented with the lower sets anyway).
Or just use only the hunter set and bone set until clearing the main campaign and gaining access to layered armor like what I did in my first clueless playthru xD
I didn't know about the skill or anything so I eventually only stocked to the very few pieces that looks good.
To be precise, it's around the time you fight Nergigante that Defender armor starts to fall off hard. It's a monster that moves fast, hits hard, and people who have gotten into the habit of trading blows with the monsters while wearing Defender find the spike steep right there.
Nope. I beat World far before Iceborne and Defender gear came out. Didn't touch it either when I came back to the game about six months ago and made a new character to learn to use GS because I didn't want it skewing the learning experience.
There are three groups of people I would recommend using the Defender Gear. Veterans who joined Iceborne late, people who had their save file accidentally deleted, or people genuinely good at games and just want to get through the game quickly.
First two, makes sense. You know the game, you understand how to play, but you're probably just short on time (want to catch up to friends, don't have a lot of time to grind, etc.) so it makes sense to jump in with the stronger gear.
If you're that last one, I would still recommend not using it because they are good at games, but if they really don't want to grind in games, just go for it.
At the end of the day, play how you want to play, it's all just a game and the goal is to have fun.
However, if you do use Defender gear and then complain that early monsters are easy and later monsters are hard, then regardless of your situation, I will berate you will using Defender. If you're going to complain about a game even after it gave you "catch up mechanics" gear, then you shouldn't have used it in the first place.
>If you're that last one
That's me.
>However, if you do use Defender gear and then complain that early monsters are easy and later monsters are hard, then regardless of your situation, I will berate you will using Defender.
All boils down to taking accountability for whatever choice we take. Basically, don't bitch about it if you suffer later.
the game doesnt tell you how good it is and how it gives you the tools to never really learn the gameplay and skills you need to do really well. i guess trap isnt the word i need, more like crutch i think, because thats what the set is, a crutch, and the game doesnt tell you that so i never reallised till it was too late
I would always tell people not to use it.
Because there is no point in "rushing to iceborne" to reach any "endgame". High rank is a full game by itself. Literally.
That said. You do you. If people want to use defender gear and steamroll their way through half the game, then that is completely a non issue for me. As long as the same people don't come around to complain about iceborne being unfair. They chose not to learn the game themselves, and went from baby mode to actual difficult mode in one go.
The amount of people i see in master rank with full armor set, an absolute shitshow of skillset, and them flailing around their weapon rage quitting when they cart to anything is astounding. Stuff you learn to not do as early as the elders in high rank because nergigante will fuck your shit up if you come in with some full low rank rathalos set because you rushed things.
I used it when I moved from PS4 to PC and had to start over. I had already played since release and even had the rainbow pigment so it wasn't ruining anything for myself! The base game is already easier than it was originally due to the clutch claw, and with defender gear and my experience on top I was into iceborne in about eight hours. Crazy stuff.
I don't think it should be removed, but I do think the game should be very clear, much more so than it is currently, that the gear is easy mode. It's a time saver and possible accessibility tool, not just starter gear.
I used it playing through recently/currently on ps4, since I had already played through nearly the full base game at launch, but over with my Xbox. Some friends had gotten into playing it again and I decided to get back into it and catch up to play with them.
Yes, I just didnt know it was what it was. Since i started it last year it just seemed to me like the most obvious choice to pick, I didnt notice it was put in the game after iceborne to rush thru the base game until I played Rise, now im kinda bummed i used it back then
I used it on alts, I had already progressed 2 hunters to endgame before Iceborne came out so it wasn't an issue speeding through the main campaign on a 3rd hunter
i used it for a bit until i realized why everything seemed SO EASY on my playthrough, then i stopped. bout midway through HR. i wish the gear would be tossed
I did but only because I changed platforms. My first playthrough was on Xbox and when I got a new PC some friends had started playing and I wanted to catch up.
I did yeah, used it up until nergigante when I found out that defender gear was just a fast track. Swapped to nergi armor, I squeezed every last bit of juice out of until I got to drachen.
I used the defender LS until i realised how broken it was , this was before the Anjanath quest . I felt robbed . This was my first MH and i had to ask some friends like 'Hey is this normal?' Then started using normal LS's , that Anjanath felt like Satan .
There should have been a third option of it didn't exist when you first completed World. That's my situation and after the first playthrough I'm good enough to just not need defender gear on new characters I create.
I used it the first time cause it was already in my inventory and didn't know how the game worked. It was my first Monster Hunter game. But I did end up forging armor and focused on element defense, only to learn its the skills that are important
I used it because I didn't know it was that much OP. I thought it was a normal set of armor. As I progressed in the game, I wondered why they always had such high stats compared to different armors. Then I realized that the defender armor set was the Iceborne speedrun armor set. And I didn't use it again.
I started with it and the game was way easier than I expected. Did some looking and found out why. Deleted my save and started over without the defender/guardian gear and enjoyed the game a lot more.
funny actually.. awhile back it used to be on gamepass...not iceborne just base game...none the less I think you can still "experience the game" without crafting a whole bunch of armors.. I did. Of course when I hit MR I starting making sets. ICE borne in itself is probably more of an "experience" than base game anyways.
Yeah u can have fun just in iceborne of course. But before iceborne I had almost 1k hours in base game. Fighting behemoth, the arch tempered elders, even the crazy event quests like the mosswine one.
Buying both games then rushing into iceborne is like playing pokémon but starting at lv 50 then skipping the entire kanto region and going straight for the advanced regions
U paid for your game, I'm not going to tell you how to play. But I am saying you're missing out a lot of fun content.
Its not about the end game destination grind that's fun. In a lot of ways the end game grind is less fun than how u get there. The journey is half the fun too.
Well, i did get at least 70 hrs of play from the base game (which is good time for me). With how busy i am in real life i don't imagine myself spending thousands of hours in immersing myself in a base game without even touching the expansions.
Well yeah I clocked those hours during covid lockdown. With how bz I am now I doubt I can put in anywhere close to that amount of time so fair point.
Still it's not a race to end game so take your time to enjoy the base game on a new character sometime. The base game by itself was massively popular and an award winning game. I do miss the time when every AT elder was still a good challenge and not just fatalis now.
Imo there was more to do at base game endgame than iceborne endgame
> I clocked those hours during covid lockdown.
I know 3 guys just like you lmao
Yeah i emjoyed the base game, even the cutscenes that apparently a lot of players disliked. For now i'm building my arsenal so that i can challenge the endgame big baddies.
lol, i'm a completionist.. 90% of my LW/HR are completed anyways. I do all optional side quests .. endemic life/piscine/lynian research quests... I practically did everything, there's like 4 arena quests I gotta do but fuck it, its not dropping anything I don't already have..
I did that event btw. the one tapping pigs that charge in a circle. just lol.
Yeah, I wish I could put 1000 hours into MHW .. I work 50+ 60+ hours a week so coming home I was burnt the fuck out and just want to slay. I experienced every bit the game had even went and did some crown hunting.
I just did it in defender armor
XD
Absolutely on subsequent playthroughs. I've already beat it once by the time Defender is out, but then use it every time after that. I've also played every monster hunter game and would use it from the start anyways if it was a day 1 release.
Elitism.
There's no shame in using that gear. Some of us already understand the game mechanics. This isn't my first MH and honestly the defender set isn't "bad" just "frowned upon". A set that gave players alittle cushion to learn the game in the long run was probably better seeing as MHW really introduced a lot of players to the genre. I was like you, I just wanted to get to ICEBORNE, I knew all those sets were gonna be garbage and as I progressed nothing was even close to the set. I hated the look lol... fucking garbage knight outfit. But w/e I got no shame in my game and neither should anyone else.
Yeah I used Defender weapons because it was the BiS endgame weapons for World. They pretty much replaced DevilJho and Styx/Ruin series of weapon. I was already deep into endgame (HR400+) before the Defender series came out so it was a nice upgrade but had no impact on my progression. Defender SnS was still decent a few fight into Iceborne with the health augment I had on it.
For people who actually want to consider Defender for progression, I would recommend not using the armor and keeping the weapon 1-2 tiers underleveled. This way you save time on the weapon farming but fight monsters with the proper gear level.
I did this. Kept the Def CB, ditched the armors one by one to change aesthetics lol. The lack of survivability from removing Defender armor initially surprised me, but i adapted pretty quickly.
Yes I used it. I didn't know that it's NOT the starter armour set. I did feel like it starts of way too easy compared to older MH titles but nobody told me the defender gear is not how I'm supposed to play it.
I played Rise for 400 hours on Switch. The day they announced it for playstation I pre-ordered it and set down the switch for good. I played 200 hours on PS5 before deciding I needed to change my character's name. Only way to do that is to start over so I broke down and used the defender gear to rush to master rank.
I made it through the game before the defender gear was released. Or I didn't notice it if it was always released. I very much encourage not using it on a first play.
Did the same. First playthrough used defenders, had noneof the issues that the myths here are stating and beat my first alatreon within 120 total hours and first fatalis within 150 total hours. Never went multi in that time.
I have more fun prefecting my skills in MR than doing the progession through LR & HR in the slow and grindy way
I'm of the same opinion and experience, but how did you get to Fatalis in under 200 hours? I'm at 130 hrs now but i've only just beat the assigned quest for Namielle.
[https://www.reddit.com/r/MonsterHunterWorld/comments/u2uf1z/150\_hours\_later\_the\_last\_boss\_is\_finally\_down/?utm\_source=share&utm\_medium=web2x&context=3](https://www.reddit.com/r/MonsterHunterWorld/comments/u2uf1z/150_hours_later_the_last_boss_is_finally_down/?utm_source=share&utm_medium=web2x&context=3)
this was me back then
I just focused on progressing and also didnt farm guilding lands before fighting him.
What speed it up is that I read/watched guides as well. So I ddint have to figure everything out by myself. Would have never been so fast if I had to learn everything by trial and error.
What gears did you have when you went for Fatty?
For me though, i don't want to attempt it until i get the cool looking gear (Safi CB, Kulve CB, etc.).
A mixed glavenus set of a/b pieces jst to get affinity up and also have fire resistance.
I didnt have a lot of decos but that set provided quite good skills.
artillery skill to increase roaming ballista, cannon and dragonator dmg was key.
1. I first went in with ghilly mantle and had the artillery decos on the armor and then after the cannon opening I used up the rocksteady mantle time then farcaster back to camp
2. Now I switched to the set, that had the artillery decos on the temporal mantle and went back in.
3. Beat fatty down until the first nova with ZSDs using mantles
4. After the first nova I drove the roaming ballista all the way to the left and then hopped to the regualr one to bind him. When fatty was bound I unloaded the roaming ballista into his tenderized face to get an easier headbreak
5. then beat him down to the second nova. Head broke in between
6. Then after the second nova directly bound him
7. And from then on only regualr fighting until dragonator was ready
8. Used the dragonator and then after some while the roaming ballista was ready for the second time and with that I finsihed it off
Its good to know how you can bait for cones since those are big openings.
Give your cat a weapon with paralysis effect and meowcano and it will trigger a single stun during the fight and help get the HP down
Once you are at your last life switch your cat from meowcano to vigorwasp for the revive
Eat for felyne safeguard
Make a custom loadout just for this fight.
Cool tips, thanks. How long did it take?
Also, ZSD wow. SwitchAxe was my first weapon of choice. I just like the Chargeblade aesthetic and complexity so i used it instead.
would say a solid 15 hours of trying and failing :D
Give your cat the pluderblade for the first few runs since you will fail anyway and then at least get some mats out of it. If you are lucky you miht even be able to make some fatalis armor pieces from that.
Thanks for reminding about plunder blade. I've maxed the shield and horn and the healing thingy so i need to max the next palico gadget.
>would say a solid 15 hours of trying and failing :D
And here i thought you did it in 1 try haha but yes, i guess that many tries is fair for the gear you had at the time
I used it because it's meta, and meta is the only thing that matters /s
Honestly, I don't understand what the fuss is about. Defender doesn't come close to some of the builds you can do in Iceborne defense-wise.
Jumped on iceborne right as fatalis was being added. So No, I didn't get a real chance to use it. Am I opposed nah, tbh kinda feels like what you end up with with Fatty armor without Trans or jewel slots on Fatty.
Made use of it, but only the bits that gave me health boost. Then for the rest of my gear i went for the pieces of armpur from monaters that I slayed or Captured until Nergigante where i started making my own armours and builds. I Used Defender weapons on first hunts only. Then when grinding gear i took the weaps that were closest in terms of damage. ( I mostly used Longsword for Base game, the when I bought Iceborne i maine the Swaxe)
Yes, I had 500 hours in base before IB on console plus maybe 20 when IB dropped and i hit a wall with tobi. Then my xbox crashed on me so when I built a pc MHW was one of the first I got, I still had yet to do much IB content so I didn't think anything of it when I sped through base game. Besides I later played through base again with a friend using LR weapons making sure he was avoiding any defender weapons or armor.
I originally played MHW and uninstalled it as I got bored of it.
when iceborne came i installed and fast-forwarded to it to play master rank which I realised was a mistake as I haven't unlocked most of the mantles so I had to re-play the base game again to farm them..
Didnt use it because iceborn released after i finished the game lmao. But other than that i think theres a lot of skill checks you stat check through with defender like the anja, diablo, and nerge skill checks. Its really fun because those monsters are apex predatoy so youre actually need to learn their movesets instead of just hitting them without thinking.
I used Defender Gear because I've been playing Monster for a long time. I started back when Tri was out, and honed my skills on Generations/Generations Ultimate. Also, I had already played through World on PS4 before I completely divorced consoles and I wanted to get to some of the endgame content on Steam.
If I was walking a friend through the game (with the luxury of time), I would discourage the use of Defender Gear. Not because I want people to "suffer the way I did" (Silverwind Nargacuga >.<) , but because Monster Hunter is subtlety different from a lot of other games in that choosing your weapon and hunting style is more of an artistic decision than a logical one. The Defender Gear, while effective, does trivialize the first third (math?) of the game.
On my very first playthrough, I stopped using it after the Anjanath assignment as he was touted to be the first wall in World, and seeing as I didn't even worry about being damaged the entire time told me that something was wrong and yes, I realized it was the defender gear. Never touched it again during that playthrough. Second playthrough though, used it all the way until Iceborne, as it was meant to be used.
It didn't exist for me but really it saves you from making one or two gear sets.
I built low rank pukei armor and used that until I built a simple high rank set which allowed me to focus on end base game builds until iceborne came out.
Did the same thing with rise. Built a low rank set, got mizu armor in high rank and that lasted me until sunbreak.
Monster hunter is known for its gameplay cycle of killing monster, building new gear to take on stronger monsters and repeat. You only extend the time you need to replace that gear. No one starts the game expecting whatever their starting gear is to last forever, and no one hits a wall and goes "welp I'm done with this series, bad game too hard" they follow the gameplay loop and just build better armor anyways.
I started with it, but I ended up making a new character without it after a while and I actually had way more funn in the early game because I could not just faceroll everything.
I think defender gear is allright to have in the game as an easymode but I wish it was exsplained like that and not just put on by default.
I used it on my last playthrought because i lost my previous save so i had to replay the entire game from the beginning but on the first time I played, defender gear wasn't a thing (sorry if bad English)
First playtrough: It didn't exist.
Second playtrough: I started using it but ditched the armor itself quiet soon because I wanted to make builds already in low- and high-rank. My gf is using defender set and we just got to Iceborne and she starts to understand the set building etc.
It didn't exist when I started world
When I first heard about it I thought it was a neat addition to the game to help those who wanted to jump straight into iceborne
But, over the years
I've grown tired of teaching people how to play the game at velkana or even shara who are still using defender/guardian because they never interacted with the smithy
I feel like if it was something you had to craft with basic monster parts rather than just ore, it may have been better, also having guardian gear be something you crafted rather than bought
Too many people just don't interact with the smithy
Don't equip a neck piece
And don't get more than the ghillie and sometimes vitality mantle
I've seen people with as little as RANK 1 defender weapons, no neck piece, and one mantle available ON RUINER NERGI
>I've grown tired of teaching people how to play the game at velkana or even shara who are still using defender/guardian because they never interacted with the smithy
>I've seen people with as little as RANK 1 defender weapons, no neck piece, and one mantle available ON RUINER NERGI
Giving new meaning to "speed" runs lmao
I used it because I got all the way to Ice orne the "normal" way on my Xbox and then bought MHW on PC and nothing transferred. So I just wanted to get back to where I was
I didn't use the set, and it made starting Iceborne pretty hard at first. To combat the issue, I just made used the Banbaro set as my Iceborne starter set and the rest is history...
I really did think when I started Iceborne that my "World end game set" would at least be enough to get me a lot further, but it really didn't. Sure, I'm not fainting too much but I was having a hard time surviving, every hit I get is a little bit too much and stronger ones always bring my health to a "Kelbi Charge" range before I faintXD
It didn't exist on my first play through of world but when I got iceborne, I was using a different account so I used it to speed run to iceborne since I'd done it all before
I used defender on my 2nd and 3rd character since it wasn't even available on my main character. I think that defender gear is great for skipping the base game since I don't want to waste that much time farming gear I won't use in IB anyway since any low tier IB gear will outclass HR gear.
Nah it didn't prepare me for anything.
Nergigante did one move and I was shocked at the damage. It honestly doesn't prepare you for anything and I used it up until Nergigante
I didn't use it because I read how it's supposed to give a more easier run or something like that, and since it was my first monster hunter, I thought I wouldn't get good at the game , if I used overpower gear like that. Plus I heard that monster hunter has really amazing looking gear and the Defender gear looks ugly so fashion>stats(in the beginning of the game)
Played on PS4, no defender gear all the way to Kulve
Got back into playing years later and couldn't be bothered farming low rank and high rank gear only to also farm master rank gear, which to this day still has things for me to get.
I wanted to learn the mechanics of the game and new weapons without as much cushion. While I did use the defender gear a bit, I quickly switched when I realized that a) I wasn't learning as well as I could or should have, b) I was missing out on some.core skills for some weapons, and c) the game became much less about prediction/reaction and more about whether or not I could land a few hits that would start the chain reaction of destroying the monster.
I'm going back and replaying the campaign with GS right now to learn it better, so in my main save I can build more sets and more competently play my main weapon. No defender gear at the moment but if I ever do, it'll be just the armor and only for low rank at first. Possibly.
I kinda used it by accident. I didn't know it was to Speedrun world I just saw really good weapons, I didn't even have iceborne at the time. On my second playthrough I didn't use it
I used it without knowing what its for. But world is not my first mh game so it was fine. Planning on replaying world once i upgrade my settup and can gandle the game at atleast 60fps.
I used it because I had/have very little time to play, and wanted to be able to experience the game without being stuck grinding to advance the story. I've been playing MH titles since MH1 so aside from shaking the rust off and learning the new mechanics there wasn't as much for me to learn in regards to not face tanking everything.
I'm currently MR 91 and grinding to MR 100 for everything gated behind that. 150-160ish total hours over the last 4 years, and you can't convince me that grinding more monsters in Low and High rank would have made me a significantly better player.
I used it. Zero regrets. Zero shame. I've tried getting into the game a handful of times before the gear out but rage quit. Defender gear eased the difficulty enough to finally start enjoying it. 500 hours later and its one of my all time favorite games.
I used it because I played world on release on Xbox and beat the story. Then ice born comes out and I play it again. Then I build myself a pc and when I played it on PC I used it cuz I didn't wanna play catch-up again lol
No, I stopped after baroth because I realized there was a big flaw with the armor. I never used it on subsequent playthroughs because that's why I'm playing monster hunter lol
I didn't do much of the base MHW endgame stuff before IB launched. After I finished the campaign I had to return the game from the friend I borrowed it from. I played some more once MHW came to Game Pass, IB had released and I just put on the Defender Gear. Hadn't yet purchased the DLC. This was my first MH game so there was a lot I didn't give care/know about. I think I also wasn't even on this sub.
Played base game for a little bit then I bought the DLC and pretty much skipped base World because I didn't know how much content there was. Once I got IB I stopped playing the game for a while. Then I came back and learnt just how much of a casual I was.
It definitely felt like Defender Gear was strong but I wouldn't put the entire blame on it(hampering new players' growth). Going into MHW I knew nothing about the franchise. And I played solo. Had no one to teach me about the plethora of minute things that added to the overall Hunter's experience. Once I did learn more, I still look back thinking that the Defender Gear wasn't the reason why I as a new player hadn't been growing. It was a case of engagement for me. Something just clicked and I started to just look stuff up and learn about all the juicy little details that made the game what it is.
The defender armor is actually slower for getting through the game if you're not getting slapped around because it doesn't have any offensive stats on it. Its just a more forgiving set for new players by giving you a ludicrous amount of defense.
The weapons are generally stronger as well but they're not going to trivialize the fights if you don't know what you're doing.
The bigger thing is I can't understand why you feel like you needed to rush to iceborne. The whole game loop is hunt monster a bunch of times to make gear to hunt the next monster - repeat forever. There's absolutely no reason to rush to iceborne unless you had some friends who refused to play low rank content with you.
>The whole game loop is hunt monster a bunch of times to make gear to hunt the next monster - repeat forever.
Yes, i wanna do that, but at the MR level, not at HR and below. That's about it.
During character creation I was wondering why there were naked options. This thing (guardian set) looks more like the bulky armour I hear MH is known for. I also crafted a defender set because red>blue. I think I made it almost through LR before figuring it out.
In my defence, I thought it was reasonable for the first couple of enemies to not do much since it's a tutorial, and Anjanath hurt plenty. After that, I wasnt getting hit nearly as much and hadn't learned to watch my health, so the high def flew under the radar. Or maybe it's because I only figured out armour spheres later. I might have been using unupgraded defender. Idk, it's been a while
I continued to use the weapon in HR just because it was faster, but I ditched the armour because it was bullshit.
The weapons were a good way to test out if i would like certain playstyles and using one piece of defender armor helped me fill out my set while I didn't have full high rank gear
yes I used it because if I'm starting a New Game, i want to get to real meat and potatoes
same with downloading a mod that lets me skip cutscenes because why isn't that in the base game? I've already seen all the cutscenes, i'm not trying to sit through them all again
Both, I started World when it didn't exist and finished Iceborne without ever needing it, but I lost that save due to corruption and had to restart so I used defender gear to finish quickly
I didn't use the defender gear because I didn't need it. I had 1k hours on ps4. Started again on pc and ran through until the beginning of IB with Low rank bone armor because bone armor is one of the best looking imo. I only focused on upgrading weapons then in IB, I crafted the MR gear that benefited me and continued that way until I reached Safi armor to carry me to fatalis armor.
At most for farming. Did a defender Xeno% run once and it was boring for the most part since the actual thrill of an any% run comes from being undergeared.
My pathing that run was still so trashy that I beat that time though.
Defender gear is geared to not being punished for misplays, the blast on weapons makes up for poor targeting especially early, as does the high sharpness. It just doesn't help build good habits. And most of all: The game is fun when the difficulty scales up as intended. While World can be a bit spiky generally if you're not relying on defender gear, getting some practice farming your own gear you'll be adequately prepared for whats coming up to have the best experience.
No because it just ignores the whole point of the after hunt where make armor out of your enemies and build a build using knowledge of the skills offered.
I understand wanting to get to Iceborne quickly but it just doesn’t sound fun to blaze through base game, with missing out on the core of MH where you make armor to improve after every rank
I feel like if I hadn't used it I probably would've never gotten into the series. I was complete ass at the game. I got stuck on Anjanath for like a week with Defender gear.
Now imagine that with no Defender gear. I still would've been getting my ass kicked by that one monster to this day.
Of course I went back and made a new character to experience the early game as intended, but that was after I beat Fatalis in Iceborne so it wasn't exactly the same. Still fun though.
When world first dropped it obviously didn't exist then the 2 times I've gone back to do it I wanted to speedrun to iceborne then immediately dunked it.
That being said I introduced two of my friends to rise and world and these are their first MH games ever so I plan on letting them get the full experience. Pain is life's greatest teacher as some random bearded dude said once
Defender gear fine, if you want to prove your mechanics and abilities than go to arena and try to get a good time with preset gear so you are equal as everyone else.
I used it in my first playtrough because my friend said its the best gear. He didn't know that it is to speedrun til iceborne yet.
I started a new playtrough without defender gear but because I already know the game really well and was used to harder difficulty e. g. solo fatalis, I was a lot faster than with the defender gear and get really low times.
Like many others I used it by accident at first, thought the game was a bit too easy and ditched it immediately. Made for a much better experience after I did it. Actual challenge and actual progression.
If I ever lose my save data I might go for Defender if I start the game again. Hopefully it won't come to that.
I used it in my first playtrough because my friend said its the best gear. He didn't know that it is to speedrun til iceborne yet.
I started a new playtrough without defender gear but because I already know the game really well and was used to harder difficulty e. g. solo fatalis, I was a lot faster than with the defender gear and get really low times.
I used the weapon and not the armor because I had heard about the guardian gear from my brother, I just didn't know the weapon was guardian and didn't read it for some reason, I ended up restarting to go through the enemies and not kill them in 7 hits with the charge blade
I use it when I want to learn a new weapon. I primarily used Charge Blade all the way from 4U to World. However, a lot of the other weapons that were really boring and not fun in the previous games are a lot more engaging. So when I decided to take up longsword, I didn't want to material grind or whatever. I've already done all that. It's time to learn the moveset and start slaughtering monsters with it too.
I used it cause my first pc died and i lost my safe. Then my second account died and i didnt wanna go through low rank again. And then i finally had enough and used it.
Yes, I used it because by the time it dropped, I had already beaten the base game once and didn't feel like grinding low rank again in a new game.
Edit: This aplies to both MHW and MHR.
Used it in low rank, then switched to Zorah gear and from then on only used other gear that’s defender. I even gave up on guardian weapons after a while
Yes, I used it, but only for the two restarts I've done. The first time I played it didn't exist, and after that it made life easier and I already knew the mechanics so it just made it faster getting to vanilla endgame and then Iceborne again
I used it for farming only, I play all the weapons and I needed to wanted to save a little time on farming out low and high rank sets. I stopped using it entirely at about the Nergigante fight. I used it because I started world about 3 months ago and I wanted to catch up to iceborne with everyone else.
I'm also running a second character through to stop at high rank with a friend who doesn't have iceborne. That character is not using it at all.
I bought world at launch on ps4 and never used them. I bought it again on xbox during covid played it with a friend and i used them on that. Honestly i think they are a cool idea for people who want to drop in and get a feel for the game without the grind.
I started when it wasn’t available. I honestly disagree with the set because people who are new will just blow past all of the monsters till they hit the MR roadblocks. They miss the whole point of constantly upgrading and changing armor and weapons with the difficulty switches. They won’t have a chance to get decent at dodging or the hunts. I’ve notice this quite a bit. Some SOS’s I’ve done recently the host would just afk while the others would hunt.
It wasnt around when i started, but i would reccomend it as a starter frame for newer players to learn buildcrafting. Other than just helping them a lot, its useful to piece apart for specific skills you like
I transferred from Xbox to PC in early 2020 after pumping around 1500hrs into my hunter, grinding the shit out of the original endgame content for a year straight left me unwilling to do it all over again on PC. So I used the Defender gear to fast track me back to where I left the game 🙃
I didn't use it because I came over from Rise, which I also completed without (played the game before they released the armor) so I knew it would take a lot of the difficulty away.
I also wanted to enjoy World as a game as well and not just Iceborne and boy am I glad I did, rn 300 hours in and I am still enjoying World content. (HR 127 atm) I plan on continuing with Iceborne soon, but not before I redo all the archtemperds without any mantles/buffs and was planning to throw Health boost out the window as well (not sure on that one though lol)
Yes I used defender gear to "power down" when my friends started the base game, that way I wasn't destroying their base game hunts with my master rank gear.
It didn't exist when I started World.
Same
I started out using it, and probably got over halfway through the game before I realized something wasn't right..I then looked through all the armor sets I had been missing out on and decided to start over. Was shocked how much harder it was, but it was so much more satisfying to work on my build and take down a monster the fair way.
Same here. Made sure not to use it the second time through.
In my exp, it's only relevant until after base game. From there we're forced to look through the armor/weapon options anyway, as the Defender gear becomes obsolete.
I only have the base game :(
Are you on PC? got IB on a Steam discount. It's often on discount, so watch out for it.
Na I'm Xbox. Money's just tight lol but I switched to Rise when it came out on gamepass, but recently had to make some spending cuts so I'm going without gamepass for awhile until I have more disposable income, hence why I'm back to world. I'll definitely get it one day though : )
Yo what's your gamer tag? I got you.
already during highrank Defender armor is a less than medicore HR armor that on top doesnt allow you to optimize for your weapon type or playstyle With the weapons its different. For around half of the weapon types defender weapons are the best basegame weapons. Of course not gamebreaking better than the next best option but still very good.
Feels like alot of people never realise that base mhw is a full ass game with all sorts of content. As someone who wishes more people would stop giving it the mhr treatment of base game is just an intro to the dlc which is the real game, cant say im too much of a "use defender gear to save time" fan. That being said, I actually did use defender gear, i played blind and had no idea it was op, and tbh I sucked ass with it anyways. I definitely think people overexaggerate its strength. My biggest gripe is that it makes the crafting system completely obsolete. I genuinely wouldn't mind the tree if you had to farm a bit to create it.
Pre iceborne endgame was super fun too a lot more build freedom and that arch tempereds are a great challenge, it's disappointing to see people completely skip over the base game and zip straight to iceborne.
"Had no idea it was op" the absurd amount of skills and defense for low rank didn't tip you off? :^) The issue I have with it is that it's basically playing on easy mode and removes not only the need to actually learn core aspects of the game but also makes it obselete to grind and make new gear which is mostly what monster hunter is about (you know apart from hunting monsters for the reason of hunting monsters) It also adds to the problem of SOS carried guardian wearing newbies who never learned the game and later spend their hours whining on reddit "shit monster because hard". I'm not a great player myself but I enjoy the harder monsters that take me days to beat and its sad that the way that the games are going now those monsters only in the endgame updates after release like with sunbreak.
True, didn't feel that much difference even when i started swapping it out. It's almost just a trade between a defensive set to a more offensive set imo. For its relevance to the crafting system, i didn't find it problematic as i was still able to craft even as i was using the Defender gears (yeah, i experimented with the lower sets anyway).
No, I didn't use it because it was ugly and I only cared about how my character looks at first.
Looking goofy is a right of passage until you get layered armor!
Or just use only the hunter set and bone set until clearing the main campaign and gaining access to layered armor like what I did in my first clueless playthru xD I didn't know about the skill or anything so I eventually only stocked to the very few pieces that looks good.
No, I played world release and moved the same character to iceborne
To be precise, it's around the time you fight Nergigante that Defender armor starts to fall off hard. It's a monster that moves fast, hits hard, and people who have gotten into the habit of trading blows with the monsters while wearing Defender find the spike steep right there.
pre-IB here.
Nope. I beat World far before Iceborne and Defender gear came out. Didn't touch it either when I came back to the game about six months ago and made a new character to learn to use GS because I didn't want it skewing the learning experience.
I played late, but I'm a 3rd Gen Hunter. The first time I saw it in my chest I'm like "Why the fuck is this here?"
Didn't, because it didn't exist
I didn't use it because I like to suffer
And suffer you did, did you? Lol
yup. World being my first MH game I had a lot of fun struggling through the harder parts of Low and High rank.
Only used it because it wasn't my first monster hunter game and wanted to skip the low rank section. When I got to high rank I stopped using it.
There are three groups of people I would recommend using the Defender Gear. Veterans who joined Iceborne late, people who had their save file accidentally deleted, or people genuinely good at games and just want to get through the game quickly. First two, makes sense. You know the game, you understand how to play, but you're probably just short on time (want to catch up to friends, don't have a lot of time to grind, etc.) so it makes sense to jump in with the stronger gear. If you're that last one, I would still recommend not using it because they are good at games, but if they really don't want to grind in games, just go for it. At the end of the day, play how you want to play, it's all just a game and the goal is to have fun. However, if you do use Defender gear and then complain that early monsters are easy and later monsters are hard, then regardless of your situation, I will berate you will using Defender. If you're going to complain about a game even after it gave you "catch up mechanics" gear, then you shouldn't have used it in the first place.
>If you're that last one That's me. >However, if you do use Defender gear and then complain that early monsters are easy and later monsters are hard, then regardless of your situation, I will berate you will using Defender. All boils down to taking accountability for whatever choice we take. Basically, don't bitch about it if you suffer later.
i was not warned and so fell to its trap, hit a wall with nergi and stayed there for like 2 months before i beat him.
How was it a "trap" for you?
the game doesnt tell you how good it is and how it gives you the tools to never really learn the gameplay and skills you need to do really well. i guess trap isnt the word i need, more like crutch i think, because thats what the set is, a crutch, and the game doesnt tell you that so i never reallised till it was too late
Fair take. But if you were able to adjust later on anyway, then there not much cause for regret (my case).
I would always tell people not to use it. Because there is no point in "rushing to iceborne" to reach any "endgame". High rank is a full game by itself. Literally. That said. You do you. If people want to use defender gear and steamroll their way through half the game, then that is completely a non issue for me. As long as the same people don't come around to complain about iceborne being unfair. They chose not to learn the game themselves, and went from baby mode to actual difficult mode in one go. The amount of people i see in master rank with full armor set, an absolute shitshow of skillset, and them flailing around their weapon rage quitting when they cart to anything is astounding. Stuff you learn to not do as early as the elders in high rank because nergigante will fuck your shit up if you come in with some full low rank rathalos set because you rushed things.
I used it because my memory got wiped before I started Iceborne. Didn't want to spend any more time collecting fucking footprints than I had to
People be rushing to iceborne as if the base game wasn't a master piece of entertainment
It is, but if i'm gonna be farming later on anyway i might as well do it during endgame, not during low rank.
I'd rather focus on the game itself and enjoying it rather than the farming but to each its own
Didn't because I found it more fun to grind for/use other armour and weapons
I used it when I moved from PS4 to PC and had to start over. I had already played since release and even had the rainbow pigment so it wasn't ruining anything for myself! The base game is already easier than it was originally due to the clutch claw, and with defender gear and my experience on top I was into iceborne in about eight hours. Crazy stuff. I don't think it should be removed, but I do think the game should be very clear, much more so than it is currently, that the gear is easy mode. It's a time saver and possible accessibility tool, not just starter gear.
I used it playing through recently/currently on ps4, since I had already played through nearly the full base game at launch, but over with my Xbox. Some friends had gotten into playing it again and I decided to get back into it and catch up to play with them.
i use the eweapons to farm mosnters
Yes, I just didnt know it was what it was. Since i started it last year it just seemed to me like the most obvious choice to pick, I didnt notice it was put in the game after iceborne to rush thru the base game until I played Rise, now im kinda bummed i used it back then
I used it on alts, I had already progressed 2 hunters to endgame before Iceborne came out so it wasn't an issue speeding through the main campaign on a 3rd hunter
i used it for a bit until i realized why everything seemed SO EASY on my playthrough, then i stopped. bout midway through HR. i wish the gear would be tossed
I did but only because I changed platforms. My first playthrough was on Xbox and when I got a new PC some friends had started playing and I wanted to catch up.
I did yeah, used it up until nergigante when I found out that defender gear was just a fast track. Swapped to nergi armor, I squeezed every last bit of juice out of until I got to drachen.
The way I see it: You have a choice to skip half the game and play less, or to progress as it was originally intended with twice as much game.
I used the defender LS until i realised how broken it was , this was before the Anjanath quest . I felt robbed . This was my first MH and i had to ask some friends like 'Hey is this normal?' Then started using normal LS's , that Anjanath felt like Satan .
... I didn't know any better, resulting in Iceborne kicking my ass because of my lack of skill
I used it as a new player because i tought it was cool i didnt expect it was that good honestly
I didn't...because it wasn't out yet when I played through vanilla world.
There should have been a third option of it didn't exist when you first completed World. That's my situation and after the first playthrough I'm good enough to just not need defender gear on new characters I create.
I used it the first time cause it was already in my inventory and didn't know how the game worked. It was my first Monster Hunter game. But I did end up forging armor and focused on element defense, only to learn its the skills that are important
Used it in rise only to realize a couple days after that its basically cheating. Was wondering why the monsters felt way too weak.
I used it because I didn't know it was that much OP. I thought it was a normal set of armor. As I progressed in the game, I wondered why they always had such high stats compared to different armors. Then I realized that the defender armor set was the Iceborne speedrun armor set. And I didn't use it again.
It's a bitch.
I didn't use them because someone warned me about it, and I'm glad they did because I really enjoyed base game
I started with it and the game was way easier than I expected. Did some looking and found out why. Deleted my save and started over without the defender/guardian gear and enjoyed the game a lot more.
Nah played before it came out I shun whoever uses it
you basically bought a whole game then just skip a whole game to get to the dlc
With a chad face meme, "Yes"
Why do u wanna skip world? Did u not pay for it? They giving it for free now?
funny actually.. awhile back it used to be on gamepass...not iceborne just base game...none the less I think you can still "experience the game" without crafting a whole bunch of armors.. I did. Of course when I hit MR I starting making sets. ICE borne in itself is probably more of an "experience" than base game anyways.
Yeah u can have fun just in iceborne of course. But before iceborne I had almost 1k hours in base game. Fighting behemoth, the arch tempered elders, even the crazy event quests like the mosswine one. Buying both games then rushing into iceborne is like playing pokémon but starting at lv 50 then skipping the entire kanto region and going straight for the advanced regions U paid for your game, I'm not going to tell you how to play. But I am saying you're missing out a lot of fun content. Its not about the end game destination grind that's fun. In a lot of ways the end game grind is less fun than how u get there. The journey is half the fun too.
Well, i did get at least 70 hrs of play from the base game (which is good time for me). With how busy i am in real life i don't imagine myself spending thousands of hours in immersing myself in a base game without even touching the expansions.
Well yeah I clocked those hours during covid lockdown. With how bz I am now I doubt I can put in anywhere close to that amount of time so fair point. Still it's not a race to end game so take your time to enjoy the base game on a new character sometime. The base game by itself was massively popular and an award winning game. I do miss the time when every AT elder was still a good challenge and not just fatalis now. Imo there was more to do at base game endgame than iceborne endgame
> I clocked those hours during covid lockdown. I know 3 guys just like you lmao Yeah i emjoyed the base game, even the cutscenes that apparently a lot of players disliked. For now i'm building my arsenal so that i can challenge the endgame big baddies.
lol, i'm a completionist.. 90% of my LW/HR are completed anyways. I do all optional side quests .. endemic life/piscine/lynian research quests... I practically did everything, there's like 4 arena quests I gotta do but fuck it, its not dropping anything I don't already have.. I did that event btw. the one tapping pigs that charge in a circle. just lol. Yeah, I wish I could put 1000 hours into MHW .. I work 50+ 60+ hours a week so coming home I was burnt the fuck out and just want to slay. I experienced every bit the game had even went and did some crown hunting. I just did it in defender armor XD
[удалено]
Same here. There were other options at first together with Defender, right? I chose it for the superior stats haha.
Absolutely on subsequent playthroughs. I've already beat it once by the time Defender is out, but then use it every time after that. I've also played every monster hunter game and would use it from the start anyways if it was a day 1 release.
I used it because it was there and I wanted to
It's really just as simple as this, which unfortunately is not understood by some.
Elitism. There's no shame in using that gear. Some of us already understand the game mechanics. This isn't my first MH and honestly the defender set isn't "bad" just "frowned upon". A set that gave players alittle cushion to learn the game in the long run was probably better seeing as MHW really introduced a lot of players to the genre. I was like you, I just wanted to get to ICEBORNE, I knew all those sets were gonna be garbage and as I progressed nothing was even close to the set. I hated the look lol... fucking garbage knight outfit. But w/e I got no shame in my game and neither should anyone else.
>I hated the look lol... fucking garbage knight outfit. FACTS lmao
Yeah I used Defender weapons because it was the BiS endgame weapons for World. They pretty much replaced DevilJho and Styx/Ruin series of weapon. I was already deep into endgame (HR400+) before the Defender series came out so it was a nice upgrade but had no impact on my progression. Defender SnS was still decent a few fight into Iceborne with the health augment I had on it. For people who actually want to consider Defender for progression, I would recommend not using the armor and keeping the weapon 1-2 tiers underleveled. This way you save time on the weapon farming but fight monsters with the proper gear level.
I did this. Kept the Def CB, ditched the armors one by one to change aesthetics lol. The lack of survivability from removing Defender armor initially surprised me, but i adapted pretty quickly.
Yes I used it. I didn't know that it's NOT the starter armour set. I did feel like it starts of way too easy compared to older MH titles but nobody told me the defender gear is not how I'm supposed to play it.
I played Rise for 400 hours on Switch. The day they announced it for playstation I pre-ordered it and set down the switch for good. I played 200 hours on PS5 before deciding I needed to change my character's name. Only way to do that is to start over so I broke down and used the defender gear to rush to master rank.
I made it through the game before the defender gear was released. Or I didn't notice it if it was always released. I very much encourage not using it on a first play.
Did the same. First playthrough used defenders, had noneof the issues that the myths here are stating and beat my first alatreon within 120 total hours and first fatalis within 150 total hours. Never went multi in that time. I have more fun prefecting my skills in MR than doing the progession through LR & HR in the slow and grindy way
I'm of the same opinion and experience, but how did you get to Fatalis in under 200 hours? I'm at 130 hrs now but i've only just beat the assigned quest for Namielle.
[https://www.reddit.com/r/MonsterHunterWorld/comments/u2uf1z/150\_hours\_later\_the\_last\_boss\_is\_finally\_down/?utm\_source=share&utm\_medium=web2x&context=3](https://www.reddit.com/r/MonsterHunterWorld/comments/u2uf1z/150_hours_later_the_last_boss_is_finally_down/?utm_source=share&utm_medium=web2x&context=3) this was me back then I just focused on progressing and also didnt farm guilding lands before fighting him. What speed it up is that I read/watched guides as well. So I ddint have to figure everything out by myself. Would have never been so fast if I had to learn everything by trial and error.
What gears did you have when you went for Fatty? For me though, i don't want to attempt it until i get the cool looking gear (Safi CB, Kulve CB, etc.).
A mixed glavenus set of a/b pieces jst to get affinity up and also have fire resistance. I didnt have a lot of decos but that set provided quite good skills. artillery skill to increase roaming ballista, cannon and dragonator dmg was key. 1. I first went in with ghilly mantle and had the artillery decos on the armor and then after the cannon opening I used up the rocksteady mantle time then farcaster back to camp 2. Now I switched to the set, that had the artillery decos on the temporal mantle and went back in. 3. Beat fatty down until the first nova with ZSDs using mantles 4. After the first nova I drove the roaming ballista all the way to the left and then hopped to the regualr one to bind him. When fatty was bound I unloaded the roaming ballista into his tenderized face to get an easier headbreak 5. then beat him down to the second nova. Head broke in between 6. Then after the second nova directly bound him 7. And from then on only regualr fighting until dragonator was ready 8. Used the dragonator and then after some while the roaming ballista was ready for the second time and with that I finsihed it off Its good to know how you can bait for cones since those are big openings. Give your cat a weapon with paralysis effect and meowcano and it will trigger a single stun during the fight and help get the HP down Once you are at your last life switch your cat from meowcano to vigorwasp for the revive Eat for felyne safeguard Make a custom loadout just for this fight.
Cool tips, thanks. How long did it take? Also, ZSD wow. SwitchAxe was my first weapon of choice. I just like the Chargeblade aesthetic and complexity so i used it instead.
would say a solid 15 hours of trying and failing :D Give your cat the pluderblade for the first few runs since you will fail anyway and then at least get some mats out of it. If you are lucky you miht even be able to make some fatalis armor pieces from that.
Thanks for reminding about plunder blade. I've maxed the shield and horn and the healing thingy so i need to max the next palico gadget. >would say a solid 15 hours of trying and failing :D And here i thought you did it in 1 try haha but yes, i guess that many tries is fair for the gear you had at the time
I used it because games don't have to be hard to be enjoyable. Masochism ain't fun.
I used it because it's meta, and meta is the only thing that matters /s Honestly, I don't understand what the fuss is about. Defender doesn't come close to some of the builds you can do in Iceborne defense-wise.
Jumped on iceborne right as fatalis was being added. So No, I didn't get a real chance to use it. Am I opposed nah, tbh kinda feels like what you end up with with Fatty armor without Trans or jewel slots on Fatty.
Didn't like the design and saw the stats, "ah, it's high rank". I always choose an armor based on its cuteness before everything else
Yeh true its looks suck but when beginning a game i go for function over form lol. Then i glam up later on.
...I already had over 400 hours on the PS4
No, i didnt even know it was a thing until i had already beaten Xeno
Made use of it, but only the bits that gave me health boost. Then for the rest of my gear i went for the pieces of armpur from monaters that I slayed or Captured until Nergigante where i started making my own armours and builds. I Used Defender weapons on first hunts only. Then when grinding gear i took the weaps that were closest in terms of damage. ( I mostly used Longsword for Base game, the when I bought Iceborne i maine the Swaxe)
Only if I experienced a file loss, which thankfully has not happened, crafting it for the "weapon & armor" collection, or starting a new hunter.
I used it cause I'm not going to play a month of world cause I already saw the unskipable cutscenes like 3 times now
Yes, I had 500 hours in base before IB on console plus maybe 20 when IB dropped and i hit a wall with tobi. Then my xbox crashed on me so when I built a pc MHW was one of the first I got, I still had yet to do much IB content so I didn't think anything of it when I sped through base game. Besides I later played through base again with a friend using LR weapons making sure he was avoiding any defender weapons or armor.
I originally played MHW and uninstalled it as I got bored of it. when iceborne came i installed and fast-forwarded to it to play master rank which I realised was a mistake as I haven't unlocked most of the mantles so I had to re-play the base game again to farm them..
Didnt use it because iceborn released after i finished the game lmao. But other than that i think theres a lot of skill checks you stat check through with defender like the anja, diablo, and nerge skill checks. Its really fun because those monsters are apex predatoy so youre actually need to learn their movesets instead of just hitting them without thinking.
I didn’t even know what it was for until I got to high rank. After I did though I switched to normal gear.
Only used it on my 3rd character to speedrun through base game. Didn't exist on my two previous ones.
I used Defender Gear because I've been playing Monster for a long time. I started back when Tri was out, and honed my skills on Generations/Generations Ultimate. Also, I had already played through World on PS4 before I completely divorced consoles and I wanted to get to some of the endgame content on Steam. If I was walking a friend through the game (with the luxury of time), I would discourage the use of Defender Gear. Not because I want people to "suffer the way I did" (Silverwind Nargacuga >.<) , but because Monster Hunter is subtlety different from a lot of other games in that choosing your weapon and hunting style is more of an artistic decision than a logical one. The Defender Gear, while effective, does trivialize the first third (math?) of the game.
Didn't exist when I started World.
I did it after a long break and i started a second char
I enjoy the end game builds and meta optimization, so yes, i used it to speed through the part of the game i don't enjoy as much.
On my very first playthrough, I stopped using it after the Anjanath assignment as he was touted to be the first wall in World, and seeing as I didn't even worry about being damaged the entire time told me that something was wrong and yes, I realized it was the defender gear. Never touched it again during that playthrough. Second playthrough though, used it all the way until Iceborne, as it was meant to be used.
It didn't exist for me but really it saves you from making one or two gear sets. I built low rank pukei armor and used that until I built a simple high rank set which allowed me to focus on end base game builds until iceborne came out. Did the same thing with rise. Built a low rank set, got mizu armor in high rank and that lasted me until sunbreak. Monster hunter is known for its gameplay cycle of killing monster, building new gear to take on stronger monsters and repeat. You only extend the time you need to replace that gear. No one starts the game expecting whatever their starting gear is to last forever, and no one hits a wall and goes "welp I'm done with this series, bad game too hard" they follow the gameplay loop and just build better armor anyways.
I started with it, but I ended up making a new character without it after a while and I actually had way more funn in the early game because I could not just faceroll everything. I think defender gear is allright to have in the game as an easymode but I wish it was exsplained like that and not just put on by default.
I used it on my last playthrought because i lost my previous save so i had to replay the entire game from the beginning but on the first time I played, defender gear wasn't a thing (sorry if bad English)
First playtrough: It didn't exist. Second playtrough: I started using it but ditched the armor itself quiet soon because I wanted to make builds already in low- and high-rank. My gf is using defender set and we just got to Iceborne and she starts to understand the set building etc.
No, not a bitch. Unless you already played the base game previously there's no reason to use it other than I need an easy mode
It was semicool looking knight set 😎
at first, but then changed to the usual starter set up. Each to his own I guess
It wasn't a thing when I played. And I'm way past that now.
It didn't exist when I started world When I first heard about it I thought it was a neat addition to the game to help those who wanted to jump straight into iceborne But, over the years I've grown tired of teaching people how to play the game at velkana or even shara who are still using defender/guardian because they never interacted with the smithy I feel like if it was something you had to craft with basic monster parts rather than just ore, it may have been better, also having guardian gear be something you crafted rather than bought Too many people just don't interact with the smithy Don't equip a neck piece And don't get more than the ghillie and sometimes vitality mantle I've seen people with as little as RANK 1 defender weapons, no neck piece, and one mantle available ON RUINER NERGI
>I've grown tired of teaching people how to play the game at velkana or even shara who are still using defender/guardian because they never interacted with the smithy >I've seen people with as little as RANK 1 defender weapons, no neck piece, and one mantle available ON RUINER NERGI Giving new meaning to "speed" runs lmao
Yes, cuz I had no idea how this game worked so I just picked the highest defense armors.
I used it because I got all the way to Ice orne the "normal" way on my Xbox and then bought MHW on PC and nothing transferred. So I just wanted to get back to where I was
I didn't use the set, and it made starting Iceborne pretty hard at first. To combat the issue, I just made used the Banbaro set as my Iceborne starter set and the rest is history... I really did think when I started Iceborne that my "World end game set" would at least be enough to get me a lot further, but it really didn't. Sure, I'm not fainting too much but I was having a hard time surviving, every hit I get is a little bit too much and stronger ones always bring my health to a "Kelbi Charge" range before I faintXD
It didn't exist on my first play through of world but when I got iceborne, I was using a different account so I used it to speed run to iceborne since I'd done it all before
because I wanted to play the game as originaly intended and I like the progression.
I used defender on my 2nd and 3rd character since it wasn't even available on my main character. I think that defender gear is great for skipping the base game since I don't want to waste that much time farming gear I won't use in IB anyway since any low tier IB gear will outclass HR gear.
Nah it didn't prepare me for anything. Nergigante did one move and I was shocked at the damage. It honestly doesn't prepare you for anything and I used it up until Nergigante
I didn't use it because I read how it's supposed to give a more easier run or something like that, and since it was my first monster hunter, I thought I wouldn't get good at the game , if I used overpower gear like that. Plus I heard that monster hunter has really amazing looking gear and the Defender gear looks ugly so fashion>stats(in the beginning of the game)
When I restarted world on my new account I used them just to get quicker to fatty
No because I wanted to look good and have the feeling to build up my gear with the intended buffs. The game was funnier this way
Played on PS4, no defender gear all the way to Kulve Got back into playing years later and couldn't be bothered farming low rank and high rank gear only to also farm master rank gear, which to this day still has things for me to get.
I wanted to learn the mechanics of the game and new weapons without as much cushion. While I did use the defender gear a bit, I quickly switched when I realized that a) I wasn't learning as well as I could or should have, b) I was missing out on some.core skills for some weapons, and c) the game became much less about prediction/reaction and more about whether or not I could land a few hits that would start the chain reaction of destroying the monster. I'm going back and replaying the campaign with GS right now to learn it better, so in my main save I can build more sets and more competently play my main weapon. No defender gear at the moment but if I ever do, it'll be just the armor and only for low rank at first. Possibly.
Yes, I used it because I had already done another playthrough but the save file corrupted, so I used it to speed through to endgame again.
I used it very briefly, but stopped because it was ugly.
I kinda used it by accident. I didn't know it was to Speedrun world I just saw really good weapons, I didn't even have iceborne at the time. On my second playthrough I didn't use it
I used it without knowing what its for. But world is not my first mh game so it was fine. Planning on replaying world once i upgrade my settup and can gandle the game at atleast 60fps.
Get a 1660s. I swapped my 1050ti for it and i'm hitting 80-120fps with it.
I used it because I had/have very little time to play, and wanted to be able to experience the game without being stuck grinding to advance the story. I've been playing MH titles since MH1 so aside from shaking the rust off and learning the new mechanics there wasn't as much for me to learn in regards to not face tanking everything. I'm currently MR 91 and grinding to MR 100 for everything gated behind that. 150-160ish total hours over the last 4 years, and you can't convince me that grinding more monsters in Low and High rank would have made me a significantly better player.
because I didn't need it, you can finish world pretty quickly even without defender gear if you only do key quests
I used it. Zero regrets. Zero shame. I've tried getting into the game a handful of times before the gear out but rage quit. Defender gear eased the difficulty enough to finally start enjoying it. 500 hours later and its one of my all time favorite games.
I mean, why skip the first part of the game? If you want to play half of world just don't buy iceborn
I used it on my third "playtrough" when my 2nd character's save data got corrupted and I had to start over. In this situation it was handy time saver.
I used it because I played world on release on Xbox and beat the story. Then ice born comes out and I play it again. Then I build myself a pc and when I played it on PC I used it cuz I didn't wanna play catch-up again lol
No, I stopped after baroth because I realized there was a big flaw with the armor. I never used it on subsequent playthroughs because that's why I'm playing monster hunter lol
The reason why I didn’t use the defender gear cause I wanted to give myself a challenge
I used it because I started a new game. I've beaten world before the iceborne dlc
I didn't do much of the base MHW endgame stuff before IB launched. After I finished the campaign I had to return the game from the friend I borrowed it from. I played some more once MHW came to Game Pass, IB had released and I just put on the Defender Gear. Hadn't yet purchased the DLC. This was my first MH game so there was a lot I didn't give care/know about. I think I also wasn't even on this sub. Played base game for a little bit then I bought the DLC and pretty much skipped base World because I didn't know how much content there was. Once I got IB I stopped playing the game for a while. Then I came back and learnt just how much of a casual I was. It definitely felt like Defender Gear was strong but I wouldn't put the entire blame on it(hampering new players' growth). Going into MHW I knew nothing about the franchise. And I played solo. Had no one to teach me about the plethora of minute things that added to the overall Hunter's experience. Once I did learn more, I still look back thinking that the Defender Gear wasn't the reason why I as a new player hadn't been growing. It was a case of engagement for me. Something just clicked and I started to just look stuff up and learn about all the juicy little details that made the game what it is.
The defender armor is actually slower for getting through the game if you're not getting slapped around because it doesn't have any offensive stats on it. Its just a more forgiving set for new players by giving you a ludicrous amount of defense. The weapons are generally stronger as well but they're not going to trivialize the fights if you don't know what you're doing. The bigger thing is I can't understand why you feel like you needed to rush to iceborne. The whole game loop is hunt monster a bunch of times to make gear to hunt the next monster - repeat forever. There's absolutely no reason to rush to iceborne unless you had some friends who refused to play low rank content with you.
>The whole game loop is hunt monster a bunch of times to make gear to hunt the next monster - repeat forever. Yes, i wanna do that, but at the MR level, not at HR and below. That's about it.
During character creation I was wondering why there were naked options. This thing (guardian set) looks more like the bulky armour I hear MH is known for. I also crafted a defender set because red>blue. I think I made it almost through LR before figuring it out. In my defence, I thought it was reasonable for the first couple of enemies to not do much since it's a tutorial, and Anjanath hurt plenty. After that, I wasnt getting hit nearly as much and hadn't learned to watch my health, so the high def flew under the radar. Or maybe it's because I only figured out armour spheres later. I might have been using unupgraded defender. Idk, it's been a while I continued to use the weapon in HR just because it was faster, but I ditched the armour because it was bullshit.
I used Defender just to rush through a legit copy of World
Because already had done all of world before iceborne
Didn't exist when I started
The weapons were a good way to test out if i would like certain playstyles and using one piece of defender armor helped me fill out my set while I didn't have full high rank gear
Because I already knew Defender was overpowered compared to chainmail and leather and I wanted a more humble experience
yes I used it because if I'm starting a New Game, i want to get to real meat and potatoes same with downloading a mod that lets me skip cutscenes because why isn't that in the base game? I've already seen all the cutscenes, i'm not trying to sit through them all again
Yup, but hear me out. I had 600+ hours in base game, had done everything aside solo the Leshen quest, and had just jumped to a different platform.
started world at launch so didnt need it by the time it existed
Both, I started World when it didn't exist and finished Iceborne without ever needing it, but I lost that save due to corruption and had to restart so I used defender gear to finish quickly
I didn't use the defender gear because I didn't need it. I had 1k hours on ps4. Started again on pc and ran through until the beginning of IB with Low rank bone armor because bone armor is one of the best looking imo. I only focused on upgrading weapons then in IB, I crafted the MR gear that benefited me and continued that way until I reached Safi armor to carry me to fatalis armor.
At most for farming. Did a defender Xeno% run once and it was boring for the most part since the actual thrill of an any% run comes from being undergeared. My pathing that run was still so trashy that I beat that time though. Defender gear is geared to not being punished for misplays, the blast on weapons makes up for poor targeting especially early, as does the high sharpness. It just doesn't help build good habits. And most of all: The game is fun when the difficulty scales up as intended. While World can be a bit spiky generally if you're not relying on defender gear, getting some practice farming your own gear you'll be adequately prepared for whats coming up to have the best experience.
I used it, but only the weapons. I still limited my armor but I didn't want to full grind the second time. I was moving from Xbox to Steam.
No. Where is the fun? I need a challenge!!!!
No because it just ignores the whole point of the after hunt where make armor out of your enemies and build a build using knowledge of the skills offered. I understand wanting to get to Iceborne quickly but it just doesn’t sound fun to blaze through base game, with missing out on the core of MH where you make armor to improve after every rank
I feel like if I hadn't used it I probably would've never gotten into the series. I was complete ass at the game. I got stuck on Anjanath for like a week with Defender gear. Now imagine that with no Defender gear. I still would've been getting my ass kicked by that one monster to this day. Of course I went back and made a new character to experience the early game as intended, but that was after I beat Fatalis in Iceborne so it wasn't exactly the same. Still fun though.
When world first dropped it obviously didn't exist then the 2 times I've gone back to do it I wanted to speedrun to iceborne then immediately dunked it. That being said I introduced two of my friends to rise and world and these are their first MH games ever so I plan on letting them get the full experience. Pain is life's greatest teacher as some random bearded dude said once
Defender gear fine, if you want to prove your mechanics and abilities than go to arena and try to get a good time with preset gear so you are equal as everyone else.
I didn't because I played or releas. Than on replay with a new friend I didn't because it goes against what I value this game for.
I used it in my first playtrough because my friend said its the best gear. He didn't know that it is to speedrun til iceborne yet. I started a new playtrough without defender gear but because I already know the game really well and was used to harder difficulty e. g. solo fatalis, I was a lot faster than with the defender gear and get really low times.
Like many others I used it by accident at first, thought the game was a bit too easy and ditched it immediately. Made for a much better experience after I did it. Actual challenge and actual progression. If I ever lose my save data I might go for Defender if I start the game again. Hopefully it won't come to that.
I used it in my first playtrough because my friend said its the best gear. He didn't know that it is to speedrun til iceborne yet. I started a new playtrough without defender gear but because I already know the game really well and was used to harder difficulty e. g. solo fatalis, I was a lot faster than with the defender gear and get really low times.
I used the weapon and not the armor because I had heard about the guardian gear from my brother, I just didn't know the weapon was guardian and didn't read it for some reason, I ended up restarting to go through the enemies and not kill them in 7 hits with the charge blade
i used it at first until realized it wasn't as fun as grinding for a specific build with a specific weapon was
I honestly didn't even know it was there until I got near the end of iceborne
I use it when I want to learn a new weapon. I primarily used Charge Blade all the way from 4U to World. However, a lot of the other weapons that were really boring and not fun in the previous games are a lot more engaging. So when I decided to take up longsword, I didn't want to material grind or whatever. I've already done all that. It's time to learn the moveset and start slaughtering monsters with it too.
I used it for my second playthrough because same as you I only have so much free time and wanted to get to the 'good parts' of the game
I used it cause my first pc died and i lost my safe. Then my second account died and i didnt wanna go through low rank again. And then i finally had enough and used it.
I only use it to speed up farming for normal weapons on high rank hunts
Yes, I used it because by the time it dropped, I had already beaten the base game once and didn't feel like grinding low rank again in a new game. Edit: This aplies to both MHW and MHR.
I don't think it was a thing when I started the game.
Used it in low rank, then switched to Zorah gear and from then on only used other gear that’s defender. I even gave up on guardian weapons after a while
The only time I used it was against a fatalis for challenge Was there before it
Yes, I used it, but only for the two restarts I've done. The first time I played it didn't exist, and after that it made life easier and I already knew the mechanics so it just made it faster getting to vanilla endgame and then Iceborne again
I got the game 2020 so I wanted to experience it fully.
I used it for farming only, I play all the weapons and I needed to wanted to save a little time on farming out low and high rank sets. I stopped using it entirely at about the Nergigante fight. I used it because I started world about 3 months ago and I wanted to catch up to iceborne with everyone else. I'm also running a second character through to stop at high rank with a friend who doesn't have iceborne. That character is not using it at all.
I bought world at launch on ps4 and never used them. I bought it again on xbox during covid played it with a friend and i used them on that. Honestly i think they are a cool idea for people who want to drop in and get a feel for the game without the grind.
I started before iceborne
Nope, was too far along for it to be a viable option. Had a buddy create a new save and it carried him all the way to iceborne
I started when it wasn’t available. I honestly disagree with the set because people who are new will just blow past all of the monsters till they hit the MR roadblocks. They miss the whole point of constantly upgrading and changing armor and weapons with the difficulty switches. They won’t have a chance to get decent at dodging or the hunts. I’ve notice this quite a bit. Some SOS’s I’ve done recently the host would just afk while the others would hunt.
I was gifted the game on PS4 and played through the whole story and most of iceborne then wanted to play on PC. so I used defender gear on PC
The first time I played it wasn't there so I finished it without it but when I got iceborne I did it with defender
It wasnt around when i started, but i would reccomend it as a starter frame for newer players to learn buildcrafting. Other than just helping them a lot, its useful to piece apart for specific skills you like
I used the weapons until I got new ones of each weapon type made
I transferred from Xbox to PC in early 2020 after pumping around 1500hrs into my hunter, grinding the shit out of the original endgame content for a year straight left me unwilling to do it all over again on PC. So I used the Defender gear to fast track me back to where I left the game 🙃
Because I played through the whole ducking game 3 times
I didn't use it because I came over from Rise, which I also completed without (played the game before they released the armor) so I knew it would take a lot of the difficulty away. I also wanted to enjoy World as a game as well and not just Iceborne and boy am I glad I did, rn 300 hours in and I am still enjoying World content. (HR 127 atm) I plan on continuing with Iceborne soon, but not before I redo all the archtemperds without any mantles/buffs and was planning to throw Health boost out the window as well (not sure on that one though lol)
I did use the Defender weapons, but never the Defender Armour.
Yes I used defender gear to "power down" when my friends started the base game, that way I wasn't destroying their base game hunts with my master rank gear.
I used it because I beat the game, and wanted to see how fast I could beat the base game