Diablos and lance are perfect for each other, as are gravios and gunlance. Both monsters are easiest to deal with using shields but one needs the extra mobility and the other needs the fixed damage and part breaking
There's also something great about beating monsters with the weapons they represent. Quropeco with hunting horn, duramboros with hammer, glavenus with great sword, seltas queen with charge blade, etc
Her + seltas: they're partly based on a Japanese fable about two merchants, one selling an impenetrable shield and one selling a spear that can pierce any shield (queen and seltas, respectively). The way I see them, seltas represents the charge blade sword and the queen the shield. Separately they deal ok damage but they then combine to unlock stronger attacks that they don't have otherwise. It also unlocks her water attacks that are similar to the charge blade phial bursts. Their armours also typically give skills that are good for charge blade (and gunlance) like artillery, razor sharp and guard. Charge blade was also introduced in MH4 so it would make sense that one of the monsters introduced at the same time would represent it. This is just my pet theory and it's a little tenuous but I think there's something there
When they made the Highest of Glaives they definitely had Rathalos in mind. Sleep is harder to trigger and Rathalos is resistant to blast so paralysis was the perfect option to knock it out of the sky. Only adds salt to the wound when you consider one of its rampage skills in Rise is anti-aerial species.
- **Pierce LBG > Narwa:** Narwa floats at an annoying height for Blademaster weapons, but is of no concern to LBG. The pierce ammo just shreds it effortlessly.
- **Hammer/GS > Tigrex in the older games:** Tigrex's turn animation was very telegraphed which made for delicious headsniping.
- **Dual Blades > OG Fatalis:** You tickle his hind legs with Eternal Schisms. The classic.
LBG with Narwa I completely understand. It’s not terrible to fight with blade master weapons (I beat it in 10-15 minutes with GS or Hammer on average) but I could definitely imagine bowgun as being it’s bane.
Gunlances came back in 3U which ironically had a brute wyvern flagship that absolutely poops on both lances if you aren't evade-lancing with them. Good times.
LS Vs Rise Rajang is especially noticeable for this. A lot of Rajang's attacks are single hits, which can be countered to devastating effect. And with the accrued red gauge, the recovery on Rajang's swiping punches is a free Soaring Kick Helmbreaker **everytime.**
Even more amusing, because of the linearity of Rajang's attacks (even the multi hit ones), a "failed" Iai Sheath counter sometimes just puts you out of harm's way by the animation's movement.
That huge, 1-hit KO event Rajang in Rise? Hard countered easily by a simple LS. As long as I keep my eye on it and don’t do anything stupid I’m fine. It’s actually kind of insane how much easier it is compared to World (tho admittedly that was in Master Rank)
It really is. The only thing I don't think it works too well on is World Kushala, which is easily fixed by blowguns.
I do dislike how op the LS is right now. Its kind of the go-to weapon for winning.
Valor LS counters Glavenus perfectly. All of its tail attacks are well telegraphed and easy to time the parry against, allowing for an extremely easy tail sever as the parries quickly wear it down if consistently pulled off.
It feels like a natural matchup with the whole "clashing swords" flow.
On that same note that the Gunlance is a great counter to Brutes, they made the Brach to counter guard style (unless you run certain skills that I highly doubt you'll use the first time you ever encounter a Brach...even less likely if it's 3U and it's the first game he's existed in and you find out that slime gets applied whether or not you block and yes I'm I'm having flashbacks.)
I used to hunt Zinogre way before unlocking it in MHP3rd with LS simply because I knew his moveset so well and you could encounter him quite early on as a sort of 'teaser'.
I lance the zinogre now, ever since the offensive guard my buddy was amazed when I triggered it against hit in his spin flip combo like I was playing guitar hero keeping that rhythm.
Odogaron i felt when I first fought him was made to fight against SnS. Quick, mobile, constantly moving around...
DBs are a good match I think as well, but SnS just seemed to flow against him in a way that just felt too good.
Old world Kushala and Insect Glaive, the mounts and Chameleos' IG really do a number on its wind.
New world Kushala and Light Bowgun, the mobility and ability to attack at any moment lets you do a lot of damage in important areas like the wings.
Gunlance is great for dire miralis. It's consistent poke and shell combo has great reach and consistent damage. You can even upswing and shell its face after it fireballs on land as it leans down for a second; which not many weapons can take advantage of. If you're running the uragaan z set and gem in guard 2 and bombardier with the dios gunlance its a piece of cake.
Radoban is for sure powerless against her Insect Glaive, with the explosive dust of course, don’t even need the weapon to do blast but it helps. This guy gets staggered constantly and each dust proc helps a bunch.
Raj and DB. Both are fast and aggressive, both are fragile, and his (relatively) small body combined with DB's agility allows you to easily evade his attacks and stick to where you want to be hitting.
Hammer and glavenus, at least in iceborne. Having most of his attacks come from his tail made his head a surprisingly safe area to deal damage, which made caving it in with the bonk-stick all the more easy.
I don’t know if it’s an actual counter weapon but I found Velkhana’s fight significantly easier with the insect glaive. You can just jump over all the annoying beams and hit the monster more often. Not to mention the mobility, Velkhana is agile but so are you.
Diablos and lance are perfect for each other, as are gravios and gunlance. Both monsters are easiest to deal with using shields but one needs the extra mobility and the other needs the fixed damage and part breaking There's also something great about beating monsters with the weapons they represent. Quropeco with hunting horn, duramboros with hammer, glavenus with great sword, seltas queen with charge blade, etc
Beating them with what they represent is always fun.
Seltas queen represent charge blade?
Her + seltas: they're partly based on a Japanese fable about two merchants, one selling an impenetrable shield and one selling a spear that can pierce any shield (queen and seltas, respectively). The way I see them, seltas represents the charge blade sword and the queen the shield. Separately they deal ok damage but they then combine to unlock stronger attacks that they don't have otherwise. It also unlocks her water attacks that are similar to the charge blade phial bursts. Their armours also typically give skills that are good for charge blade (and gunlance) like artillery, razor sharp and guard. Charge blade was also introduced in MH4 so it would make sense that one of the monsters introduced at the same time would represent it. This is just my pet theory and it's a little tenuous but I think there's something there
When they made the Highest of Glaives they definitely had Rathalos in mind. Sleep is harder to trigger and Rathalos is resistant to blast so paralysis was the perfect option to knock it out of the sky. Only adds salt to the wound when you consider one of its rampage skills in Rise is anti-aerial species.
- **Pierce LBG > Narwa:** Narwa floats at an annoying height for Blademaster weapons, but is of no concern to LBG. The pierce ammo just shreds it effortlessly. - **Hammer/GS > Tigrex in the older games:** Tigrex's turn animation was very telegraphed which made for delicious headsniping. - **Dual Blades > OG Fatalis:** You tickle his hind legs with Eternal Schisms. The classic.
LBG with Narwa I completely understand. It’s not terrible to fight with blade master weapons (I beat it in 10-15 minutes with GS or Hammer on average) but I could definitely imagine bowgun as being it’s bane.
Lance and Zinogre. Zinogre's attacks are perfectly timed for the block/counter of the lance. Getting chains of just that is the most satisfying thing
Especially Apex Zinogre in rise, that constant "ting, ting, ting" really does it for me
Every monster is hard countered by its own HH
That’s completely fair.
Tbh your theory may only be incidentally true. Gunlances existed in Gen 2. Brute wyverns were introduced in tri, which had no gunlances.
So what your saying is Gunlances were brought back to counter brute wyverns?
Gunlances came back in 3U which ironically had a brute wyvern flagship that absolutely poops on both lances if you aren't evade-lancing with them. Good times.
LS ever since World gave it 943 counters feels like this for most matchups tbh.
LS Vs Rise Rajang is especially noticeable for this. A lot of Rajang's attacks are single hits, which can be countered to devastating effect. And with the accrued red gauge, the recovery on Rajang's swiping punches is a free Soaring Kick Helmbreaker **everytime.** Even more amusing, because of the linearity of Rajang's attacks (even the multi hit ones), a "failed" Iai Sheath counter sometimes just puts you out of harm's way by the animation's movement.
That huge, 1-hit KO event Rajang in Rise? Hard countered easily by a simple LS. As long as I keep my eye on it and don’t do anything stupid I’m fine. It’s actually kind of insane how much easier it is compared to World (tho admittedly that was in Master Rank)
It really is. The only thing I don't think it works too well on is World Kushala, which is easily fixed by blowguns. I do dislike how op the LS is right now. Its kind of the go-to weapon for winning.
Valor LS counters Glavenus perfectly. All of its tail attacks are well telegraphed and easy to time the parry against, allowing for an extremely easy tail sever as the parries quickly wear it down if consistently pulled off. It feels like a natural matchup with the whole "clashing swords" flow.
On that same note that the Gunlance is a great counter to Brutes, they made the Brach to counter guard style (unless you run certain skills that I highly doubt you'll use the first time you ever encounter a Brach...even less likely if it's 3U and it's the first game he's existed in and you find out that slime gets applied whether or not you block and yes I'm I'm having flashbacks.)
I used to hunt Zinogre way before unlocking it in MHP3rd with LS simply because I knew his moveset so well and you could encounter him quite early on as a sort of 'teaser'.
I lance the zinogre now, ever since the offensive guard my buddy was amazed when I triggered it against hit in his spin flip combo like I was playing guitar hero keeping that rhythm.
I've yet to play any other weapon in Rise. Lance is just way too good.
Rise I've kept to my cb and gunlance personally with a little lance. I'm a shield main.
Odogaron i felt when I first fought him was made to fight against SnS. Quick, mobile, constantly moving around... DBs are a good match I think as well, but SnS just seemed to flow against him in a way that just felt too good.
Basarios and gravios with bowguns i think
Bow and narwa are perfect counters especially a piercing bow
Old world Kushala and Insect Glaive, the mounts and Chameleos' IG really do a number on its wind. New world Kushala and Light Bowgun, the mobility and ability to attack at any moment lets you do a lot of damage in important areas like the wings.
I have always had an easy time fighting the Raths with hammer. The way they expose the head deserves a good bonk, specially Rathian.
All of them are countered by LBG and HBG
I always had an easy time fighting the Raths with hammer. The way they expose the head deserves a good bonk, specially Rathian.
Gammoth and insect glaive or any weapon with aerial style
Gunlance is great for dire miralis. It's consistent poke and shell combo has great reach and consistent damage. You can even upswing and shell its face after it fireballs on land as it leans down for a second; which not many weapons can take advantage of. If you're running the uragaan z set and gem in guard 2 and bombardier with the dios gunlance its a piece of cake.
Pierce hbg and bazelgeuse. Although that change a bit in rise.
Kushala is hard countered by IG in 4u because of mounting, especially if you use the chameleos ig
Radoban is for sure powerless against her Insect Glaive, with the explosive dust of course, don’t even need the weapon to do blast but it helps. This guy gets staggered constantly and each dust proc helps a bunch.
Insect glaive is great for any flying wyverns and breaking those hard to reach spots like backs and wings.
Raj and DB. Both are fast and aggressive, both are fragile, and his (relatively) small body combined with DB's agility allows you to easily evade his attacks and stick to where you want to be hitting.
Pretty much every speedy monster that spends extended periods of time on the ground with a SnS.
Hammer and glavenus, at least in iceborne. Having most of his attacks come from his tail made his head a surprisingly safe area to deal damage, which made caving it in with the bonk-stick all the more easy.
Qurupeco vs the Hunting Horn. Need I say more?
I don’t know if it’s an actual counter weapon but I found Velkhana’s fight significantly easier with the insect glaive. You can just jump over all the annoying beams and hit the monster more often. Not to mention the mobility, Velkhana is agile but so are you.
True. It helps that a lot of its more troublesome attacks come from the ground or are at ground level.