Hunter Discussion

[Dephinix]

If you want to feel more involved, and actually need to make decisions, I think you'll end up liking Hu/Fi sword more. I know what you mean about the brain dead Br/Hu stuff, made me like Fi/Br a lot more before the class bonus. Let us know what decision you make after you have some time with it!

[Shadowstarkirby]

So I've been toying with the idea of changing to HU/FI maining sword lately. I'm currently playing a generic hybrid katana+bow BR/HU and while I love the swiftness of katanas, I don't particularly enjoy bows (even if they're better for bossing). Also, katana gameplay is getting a tiny bit stale spamming Gurrens, Sakura Endos, and Hatous. What I'd like to ask is the following:

1. How does HU/FI compare to BR/HU in terms of damage potential? In other words, will I be nerfing my DPS if I switch?
2. Do sword HU/FI's use more than just 3-4 PAs? Maybe I'm playing BR/HU wrong, but I hardly use anything outside of what was mentioned above and Kanran (setting bow aside).
3. How difficult is stance dancing? Just how often am I going to be switching between Brave and Wise? I used to play a FI/HU and pretty much sat on Brave Stance 24/7.
4. Worth making the switch if I'm already on the cusp of obtaining an Austere katana?

-------------- Additional questions if I DO make the switch to HU/FI:

5. What are "the" PAs to use for mobbing and bossing? I see tons of hunters using Overend on bosses, but I can't tell if it's just for flash or if it's actually good.
6. Critiques for this rudimentary build?: http://arks-layer.com/skillsim/skill...00000lo000000j (Couldn't decide between War Brave and Charge Parry. Thoughts? Or remove something else?)
7. What sword should I use in the interim before obtaining Gix/Orbit/Austere? Alternatively, should I continue improving my BR/HU and farm for an upcoming 14* sword from the new raid?

Really appreciate any answers that you guys can provide. Thanks!

1. Hu/Fi's bossing isn't as good as Br/Hu. Sword doesn't have great single target DPS unless you land Ignition Parry, which is stupidly hard. Wired Lance on the other hand is super good for bossing with Holding Current, Other Cyclone-0, and Heavenly Fall, but you're gonna need a health care budget to be able to use them effectively. Partizan is literally just Vol Graptor > Zenith Throw, which is pretty much Hu's spin of Br's Banishing Arrow > Kamikaze Arrow, only not quite as good.

That's just bossing though, it's mobbing is leagues above Br/Hu thanks to the Sacrifice Bite-0 and Nova Strike buffs. Using a maxed 13*, Sacrifice boosted Guilty Break > Nova Strike will easily crush any pack of XH mobs these days, dealing 80k+ damage per fully charged Nova Strike on every mob caught in it's wake. You'll have super armor the entire time doing it too, it's just really good. Br/Hu has the best movement in general with Gurren-tessen, although I'd argue in combat Guilty Break is far better with full gear with how quick and powerful it is. Gurren is still Katana's only practical mobbing PA, Karan-kikyou's DPP being too low, Kazan-nadeshiko's charge being too slow in practice, and even then, Gurren doesn't hit nearly as much enemies as Nova Strike can.

2. Use pretty much every PA except Cruel Throw, Stun Coincido, and Over End.

3. Shouldn't need to stance dance. There's only a handful of bosses that will only benefit from Wise Stance. Some people suggest getting both stances, but I personally opt for all S-ATK since any relevant boss that takes great damage or is easier to fight from the back (which I think is only new Anga at the moment?) will die relatively quickly anyway due to all the power creep.

4. If you're playing with just single trees, I'd really find some spare change to purchase a new tree, because there'd be a lot of wasted points using a Hu main tree for Br sub.

5. If we're just talking about Sword:

Sacrifice Bite-0 > Guilty Break, Nova Strike, aerial Ride Slasher, and step attacks for mobbing.

Sacrifice Bite-0 > Guilty Break, Rising Edge, Nova Strike, Twister Fall(-0), Ignition Parry, and aerial Ride Slasher for bossing.

Over End spammers are worthless shitters.

6. This is what I use. Your tree isn't bad, but I'd really find some way to get Charge Parrying, it's a super good skill that makes a lot of Sword play much safer. In my opinion, reduce Hunter Gear Boost to Lv 1 and get some of those points in Charge Parrying and grab the Wired Lance and Partizan gears. If not the latter due to your one weapon preference, get Iron Will.

7. If you want something short term, get a ディオアーディロウ-NT (Dio Ardillo-NT). It's an NT, so it's cheap, effective, and easy to get in pretty much any major EQ these days. Immediate Strike potential increases JA Damage by 5%.

If you want something long term, get a 赤のソード (Red Sword). It's an OT, so a bit more expensive, but can buy it straight off Player Shop without the need of passes. You'll need to extend it to Lv 9 at the very least and obtain 3 Photon Boosters via Challenge Mode shop, Solo XQ, or Weapons Badge 2016 Exchange shop to unlock it's hidden potential to Lv 1. Red Recalescence potential at Lv 1 increases damage by 14% when the weapon is extended.

As for the upcoming 14*, if they're anything like Austere/Invade weapon drop rates with PD, expect not to get them whatsoever and work on something else realistically obtainable. If you happen to get one, that's great, but keep expectations low to the ground.

[Moffen]

Use pretty much every PA except Cruel Throw, Stun Coincido, and Over End .

Just want to point out that I was only half joking about stun conido earlier,its super fast and gives an almost instant JA window as well as low cost so for Hu/Fi,it does well for getting your TAJA damage bonus.

Good thing to use for status effect orders in XQ too.

[Dephinix]

Good thing to use for status effect orders in XQ too.

Liar.

[echofaith]

To be fair, overened does have higher dps and dpp than nova strike or rising edge. Unless you are TAJAing between the 2, overend will work better for bosses, assuming you manage to land all hits

[Moffen]

Liar.

Go try it yourself lmao.

[Dephinix]

Go try it yourself lmao.

Nah, I was just messing with you, xD
Though, might want to turn off stances and use an ungrinded weapon to do the stun. ; ;

[Moffen]

Nah, I was just messing with you, xD
Though, might want to turn off stances and use an ungrinded weapon to do the stun. ; ;

Yeah I do that,because you tend to slap things into a 1HKO which is uh
Amusingly sad.
Rip

[Shadowstarkirby]

I honestly don't see the value of wasting a PA slot just for a TAJA opener with a stupidly small range. Guilty Break already fills that niche and more, granted it has longer frames, it hits just as hard uncharged, if not more and you can hold it to Charge Parry at that. As for XQ stage orders, if you care to clear them, it would just be better to affix Burn on some all class TMG and use that instead, cause enemies there are too soft to be slamming them with Stun Coincidos and not have them die not getting stunned.

Over End might have higher DPP and DPS, but that's only on paper, you have to take in account all the shitty hitstop it suffers through, praying whatever you're hitting doesn't move or die before the final cleave hits. It really is just outright better to just rotate some form of Rising, Nova and Twister(-0) than bothering with it at all. Additionally, with how it's double the PP cost of Rising Edge (it being just slightly below in DPS and DPP) as well as being harder to land and lasting more than double in length the frames it takes to complete without any safety of Charge Parry, it just ends just simply outclassed in pretty much every bossing scenario. It just sucks.

[echofaith]

A fair number of bosses and most mpa ones are very docile so landing all hits of OE isnt really hard. Of course you arent going to going to use it against a mecha banther, but against PD for example, it should be easy to pull all hits.
And while hitstop is a problem (almost sure it affects all sword pas though), doing 2 novas/edges in succession can sometimes be a problem when your massive hunter is in cooldown. Iframes are good, but if you get hit and flinch before you start the charging of the 2nd pa, you lose dps too.

I get OE being slow kills its usefulness in some cases, but the cases where it shines arent really that uncommon to make it labeled as worthless /: