The most important GS tech since Iceborne has been the horizontal swing into slinger burst, it's capable of turning you almost 180 degrees on top of the directional movement from horizontal swing, it also loops into itself as long as you have slinger ammo and turns GS into a mobility king. Its the reason I main GS now.
Just to add upon that, you can do a slide blow after a tackle with slinger shot for a quicker tcs shortcut, you can slinger shot after your first charged slash and second charged slash. You can slinger shot after a regular wide slash. All slinger shot combos will have up to ~180 degree function as well.
@@jtones8953 If I still have plenty of time after getting a TCS off, I like to roll -> tackle -> slap -> slinger burst -> TSC again. The roll -> tackle -> slap combo is also really useful for escaping while your weapon is unsheathed. Also, if you have to sheath after tackling, make sure to slap before rolling in order to gain more distance from the monster and regen some stamina.
Yeah I tried just picking up a greatsword to fight stygian zinogre. I was doing no dmg, and getting off no true charges. I had to look up a tutorial explaining the tcs shorcuts, shoulder charge and jumping wide slash and slinger shot mechanics. The weapon is actually pretty technical to be effective
personally I find the weapon itself to not be the hardest part about using it, the bit I find harder is learning the monsters inside and out knowing what you can and can't punish, when you can be greedy and go for extra hits, and when to hang back and just let the move/moves play out
GS is easy in base game anyway. Buddy of mine is a GS main but hes barely average at it. Moment we got into master rank he switched to bow because of how mobile the monsters get. Thats where GS skill set goes way up.
Information in point 5 is not entirely correct: Monsters do not roar when they recover but when they enter the enraged state. It is also not likely that *experts* are widely using Earplugs because to really push the limit on a speedrun it simply better to either roll/tackle through a roar or better yet interrupt it with a flinch - you rarely ever see monsters not knocked down in top tier GS runs. Edit: Point 9 is also questionable, as you do lose a lot of sharpness from a clutch attack, and you want *at least* white sharpness because its multiplier is vastly superior to blue. The once-meta-and-still-relevant Acid GS has very slim sharpness in both purple and white so MT is just the go-to. MT is still great even with a Safi GS especially if you decide to get sharpness awaken.
@버들 He said, and I quote "What do a lot of monsters do after they get knocked down? They roar." It is occasionally true but misleading, so I clarified. The whole point with hitting monsters at they recover is to have a greater chance to flinch them - so *why not flinch them before or as they roar*? If someone can't time their TCS well enough and get interrupted by an enrage roar from a monster that just recovered, I'm sorry to say this but *they are no expert*, not in speedruns. I will say though it is a nice skill to have especially for casual play against weak roar monsters. For point 9, he tries to make a point where sharpness doesn't drop much on GS - which is not completely true and again misleading for players new to GS, as I explained, clutch attacks can tank sharpness, particularly for average players whose hunts may last longer and would need to tenderize multiple parts multiple times. And lastly, not everyone, especially not new players, has access to Safi weapons or has decided to invest in an awakened Safi GS, and the pre-Safi meta + comfy best raw GS *does need* MT to work. I'm not trying to be a dick here, it's just that giving incomplete and misleading information to an audience that is potentially inexperienced is not great.
John Lu Well, there was even more wrong information in the CB Video. I wish he would stop that series to fish views and leave these kind of videos to the pros. Or at the very least get professionals opinions. This series is like that not only lazy but also bad and hurt new players to some extinct giving them wrong ideas of the weapon.
I was just thinking about MT and agree with you. The clutch claw attack takes a nice chunk of your sharpness. Glad I wasn't the only one thinking this.
11.) After a tackle you can use a round slash that will reposition you around the monster, that roundslash will deal more or less dmg based on if you canceled a charge with a tackle to go into the roundslash.
Another one: using the slinger after Charge is a good way to spin your character around. Normally, you can only rotate about 30 degrees when using any of the Charges, but a slinger shot after the base Charge can let you spin in any direction completely, allowing you to reorient yourself before beginning True Charge.
For #2, your TCS 2nd hit hits harder if you hit a weak spot with the first hit (Orange numbers). If your first hit hits a tough spot (grey number), you deal much less damage. In Safi, when aiming for the tail while it's knocked down, be careful not to clip the wing with the first hit.
He forgot to mention that hitting the monster with the tip of the GS yield less damage then if you hit it with center of the blade. I also believe hitting with the hilt does less too. The axe type GS give a very good indication of where the sweet spot is
Great Sword might be the weapon type that changed the most in World. In older MH games there were no tackles, no TCS and end game sets would only fit around 5 skills. The meta back then was very much to use handicraft(to reach the next sharpness level), focus, crit draw, quick sheath, attack up and plugs/tremor.
11: if u charge the strong charge (second hit) at least one level, then the tcs will start charging at level 2 and it takes the same time it would take to not charge the strong charge 12: after the tackle u can roundslash(press B/O) to reposition sideways to evade an attack like LS fade slash. after roundslash u can slinger and go into tcs directly. same with the sideslap after a role(forward + Y + RT) to close the gap between a flinched monster and your self.
With the first one, thats not correct. The animation of going from strong charge to TCS has one charge built in to it. Going into TCS from anything else (Tackle, Slinger burst) doesnt go through the wind up animation, so it starts at no charge
I love it when people spread misinformation! Your 11 is wrong, you do not need to charge the Strong Charge Slash for that, it happens either way, you only need to charge the TCS twice if you shortcut into it via tackle or slinger burst
as a greatsword main, the tackle has kinda ruined me in terms of getting the roll I-frame, I just can't get it when I use other weapons cuz I never use it on GS.... I just tackle
never roll after a tackle, first it blocks your stamina from recovering and second, the animation delays your action - theres a video out there that describes the "agressive greatsword style" and basically use the round slash (o on ps4) to repostion for TCS combos or the paddle slap (r2 and triangle iirc) to cancel thr animation and start regening your stamina, furthermore you can also combo those into slinger bursts to instantly get into TCS again
Number 4 is something anyone can pull off easily assuming they have focus 3 since the monster just gets up at the same time the final true charge is already in motion. The only time it misses is when you have to run to the monster's face and that point you should probably use the slinger burst or a roll shoulder tackle but if you're already in hitting distance of your target then just charge slash (quick release), charge slash (quick release) and finally true charge. (At least that's something I've noticed after playing this weapon for most of MHW)
Ehm you forgot quite an important part, the middle part of the blade deals more damage than the top so positioning your TCS and basic hits are even more important, fade slash and 180° with slingershots (in middle combo) are also pretty usefull when the monster moves quite a lot, it helps you moving to the head. Best slinger shot combo imo are Y->slinger->TCS or roll->shoulderBash->SwordSlap(RT+Y)->Slinger->TCS Master's Touch is still necessary when we run the Acidic Glavenus, or Safi Weapons with 2 Handicraft V on the weapon (purple) hope it helps some players that struggle with GS mobility :)
I read somewhere that this is misinformation to claim - however I realized it was also irrelevant, bc you should never be attacking a spot where the monster is neither weak to sever nor tenderized.
You do want master's touch on certain great swords. As you crit you lose more sharpness. You should run MT if you're running acidic Glav, Shara, or the new Raging Brach great swords. Those don't have a lot of sharpness so you'll lose it in 5 or so hits assuming you crit each hit.
Here's a fact you could put in your video, Charging your attack in any way (CS, SCS, TCS) boosts your attack in Jumping Wide Slash if you decide to cancel the slash into tackle then JWS.
I've been a greatsword main since monster hunter unite, and I've watched it grow since then, really happy how it turned out. Needless to say I knew all of these things but cool video😂
By the way, if you charge a standard charge slash fully and then tackle, you can actually go back into the standard charge slash while keeping the same charge. It has very precise timing, and it isn't useful, but a lot of people don't know about it.
To expand on point 2: The requisite to gain TCS(Power) is that your small slash hits a HZV of minimum 45. So it is possible to get weak TCS even if you hit the small attack. To expand on point 6: about the second slash: It simply has a much higher motion value than your first/draw slash. Powering up a higher MV move over the lower one is of course, simple optimization. To expand on point 5: Speedrunners only bring Earplugs to very specific monsters that have a tendency to roar as part of their attack pattern (Zinogre family). The vast majority of monsters only roar in a (uninterrupted fight) when they enrage. Speedrunners will always force the enrage right at the start by flinch shotting three times. For casual players, you can expect the monster to roar after you wallbang it and it recovers, because of simple core programming to the enrage system. (2+ flinches+Wallbang = enrage treshold met). To expand on point 10: Those sets are kind of horrible. You started the video by saying that the GS is quite easy to pick up and learn, then go on to suggest crutch sets that sacrifice a lot of damage. Love or hate Masters Touch, but for someone calling himself an Economist you sure love to disregard massive mathematical increases, not to mention that you don't really sacrifice all that much to run a MT build. You could still run Earplugs 4-5 and hit your 100 Affinity on Tenderized parts with a comfortabe amount of purple. In another comment, I saw you trying to justify by stating 'speedrunners often don't use Masters Touch', which is true in certain cases where they have min-maxed the monster and scripted the fight so perfectly that they can use Safi'Jiva w/o Health Augment to maximize Resentment damage, which will always outdamage a similar MT/Peak Build by around 20 EFR. Speedrunners will always use the most damage they can get away with.
The moment you said "the easiest to use" I thought: "he's wrong - it's the simplest, but I bet there is depth to all those simple-at-first-glance moves". Yeah, I was right :) Anyway, definitely useful vid, I'm quite new to the game and this will definitely help me.
I mean, you could make a case that anything is complicated, people used to hate on cluster bombs in base game but there was still a guy who could get the world record speedrun with them and he would probably tell you its pretty complicated to do this. That being said amongst all melee weapons I find greatsword to be the easiest bc of its range, YYY moveset, tackle hyper armor frames, and damage.
@@TheGameconomist I'm not denying you - I also think that GS is an easy weapon (with an emergency block too), but I can't say for sure that it's the easiest - if it is, then I think that not by a large margin. Most weapons have an easier (but usually less efficient) playstyle and GS is definitely easiest to pickup. After typing above, I think that I might've took "the easiest" way too literally and included "easiest to master" as well (which may not be the case). Anyway, good vid - I definitely learned a lot from it :)
I think dual blades are the easiest, the weapons oozes dmg with little commitment, super easy combos I don't know about any advance mechanics it has. Other 2 weapons I would consider easier than gs are the lances
Some important things to add: 1. About tip number 7 - Sometimes monster attacks have lingering or delayed hitboxes (for example Namielle puddles) and tackling the attack will just see you getting reduced damage from the initial hit just to get hit fully by the 2nd delayed attack, this sucks because you take damage from both attacks so sometimes it's just better to roll or if you can't just take the L and get hit by the initial attack so as to not get hit twice. 2. About tip number 9 - Master's Touch is amazing on Greatsword exactly because it preserves sharpness so well naturally, if you're looking to run purple sharpness for damage or comfiness reasons you can run a master's touch build with 10 units of purple sharpness (the lowest amount you can get) and not have to sharpen for the entire hunt if you're hitting softened weak points. If you want more leeway you can always awaken for Sharpness VI instead of V and lose a tiny bit of damage in exchange for having 40 units of purple which is more than you will ever need on Greatsword. (these numbers of units are assuming you are running with 5 levels of Handicraft)
I agree, tackle spam is not a solution to every situation and I think it’s a bit overrated. It’s a nice additional tool but not an essential aspect of your combos, imo.
Commenting this before watching the video, i think i know everything about greatsword, let's see Edit: As i thought, for the first time nothing new. You can actually add some attacks that most people don't know, you can kick if you attack while guarding and you can follow that kick with a tackle, which is really usefull if you want to tackle a monster who is charging at you (diablos for example) but you have your weapon sheathed, you can just hold guard button and double triangle. And other attack that is usefull is the sword slap that you can make after a tackle, you don't have to follow a tackle with a normal up/down slash, if you just dont want to attack it is better to perform this slap attack than letting your character recover from the tackle animation. There you have 2 more tips that a lot of people doesn't know (i believe haha). I hope someone reads it and find it useful. Still a good video like always, showing a much more comfy play style with the GS.
Great video. Would have loved to see tips for the incorporation of the jumping wide slash(JWS), side blow and slinger burst combos to allow for a far more mobile GS playstyle. It allows on the fly re-positioning for TCS while doing respectable damage via JWS. Combos such as roll>tackle>side blow>sliger burst>TCS and roll>tackle>JWS>slinger burst>TCS are by far the biggest game changers when it comes to greatsword in iceborne. Im a Giraffe's video (watch?v=IcLCSSHc1Z4) is by of the most informative iceborne GS video, and I trust that most people who watched the video truly understands how much of a game changer the slinger burst is for the GS.
Focus level 3 has diminishing effects, level 2 works almost equally well because the punish opportunities only lasts that long, being slightly faster does not really get you more damage. 7th tip is honestly really wrong imo, if you want to dodge, just roll, if you wanna go for a punish, go for a slightly charged tackle, not a roll tackle, rolling is more usable if you need to reposition yourself. Lastly, if you have charged fully but isn't close enough to hit using the normal charged slash, go into a tackle and a wide slash, the charge increases the damage, even if not as significantly, it could help reposition and pick up some extra damage
GS came such a long way since the original game on the PS2. Looking back at those days, I'm glad I went with the GS as soon as I could (at the time, the only weapon you started with was SnS, and you had to forge/buy any weapon from the other classes hahah), it is clearly, in my opinion, the best weapon for anyone to use to learn how to play the game well. You can't hack and slash the monsters and really need to learn about their attacking and moving patterns, and any hit with the GS counts, so you really need to choose when to attack and really learn the behaviours of each of the monsters!
Two things that i wanna add ( ik im kinda late but anyway) : First, tackle is KO dmg so yeah... Secondly, when you build for partbreaker you basically got 2 extra levels compared to sns or dual blades, bc you deal so much pard dmg even without any partbreaker
My issue with focus is that I like the longer charge times so I have more flexibility when bash cancelling. With focus, your window is smaller so you don't get the luxury of choosing to bash if you need to react
To add to number 7 about the tackle .. your GS charge level also affects your tackle's damage (just like it does for the JWS or jumping wide slash) so at no charge - low damage and final charge - high damage.. for me (im not end game built yet but for me at no charge i do 98 damage but at final charge level i do 200 ish) also to note another thing that higher charge levels as have higher chance to stun or (possibly, small chance though) knock the monster over if your tackling the monster itself which can give you time to go into a 2/3 TCS combo.. so go into attack 1 full charge (keep the charge button active and hit the tackle button at the same time while its charging this also works for stage 2 attack or stage 3/TCS while they are charging if you need to hyper armor through the enemies attack and can also be used to reposition yourself if need be just keep in mind theres a delay inbetween so its more of situational use since youll be vulnerable during that time and while your recharging) then tackle - stun monster then attack 2 and then finally TCS and depending on the monster (since some recover from being knocked down faster than others) can allow for a second TCS combo .. however the stun isn't guaranteed so do keep that in mind... I recently started toying around with the GS myself and starting to love it.. i mostly main Bow or DB .. also glad i ran into your video since im new to the GS your video gave me some good pointers... Much appreciated for the time and effort you put into this video for us
In addition to what you said for point 6, you can reposition yourself by changing the direction of the sling shot as you shoot it... VERY useful if the monster decides to move last minute, you can correct your aim before TCS.
Personally I like to run master's touch for GS that have just a minuscule amount of purple just to keep it for the entire hunt (like raging braquidios gs for example)
In my opinion, these is just a tip. You can take it or not is up to you. For me I don't take earplugs because you have tackle so it does not really useful, even for point 5 it doesn't really matter for casual play. Just get the damage out as fast as possible because damage is the main point of GS. Even master touch is up to you. I did not use MT but I always use handicraft
Focus skjll is so important , I wish I knew about it earlier I'm a charge blade main, but I've recently been using greatsword and boy it makes a difference
Greatsword has been my dear baby for a long time. Starting back in MHFU 2010. Knocking monsters over, severing tails, and busting heads while keeping villages safe. Smoking everything one heavy charged chop at a time.
As far as I know first hit that hits the sleeping monster is doubled, so you want to miss the first small hit and land the second. Usually it's better to just slingshot them into a wall.
These things are literally almost all things that are extremely basic even non-GS users know... But here are some specific points on your points I'll make as a GS main that's been a GS main since 2004: 5 - Earplugs are only really needed in one case, Anjanath, because it won't fucking shut up, both Anjanaths can easily roar up to like 10 times back to back for absolutely no reason, whereas almost all other monsters roar once when the fight starts and once when they enter rage mode (meaning 1 roar every like 1-2 minutes so just roll through between charges since you will reposition a lot, tackle or interrupt them with a flinch). For Anjanath though, while they are roar spamming with Earplugs you get ridiculously long openings! 7 - The reason we roll early with GS and use the tackle to take the attacks head on is not so we can get a tiny bit of damage in, but because we already need to reposition anyways and rolling early and then tackling lets us reposition and resume the charge combos instantly instead of rolling then having to walk over to where the monster is and start the combo all over from the first Charge. Rolling then tackling lets you resume from Strong Charge, making it MUCH better for damage and also better for timing since you skip the entire first low-damage part of the combo you'd want to skip anyways. 8 - For Focus, there's two things I need to say. In base game main reason we ran Focus 2 instead of 3 isn't because we thought the 5% difference wasn't worth the lv2 slot for the decoration, but because it gave us just enough time to recover back to full stamina after a tackle to get back the Max Might boost to ensure we'd get all crits. The other thing though is that Focus 2 on MOST monsters allows you to do a full lv3 Strong Charge then TCS as the monster is getting up to flinch it again, while Focus 3 is just a tiny bit too fast so you are very likely to miss the window to lock them down, although there are few exceptions to this... 9 - Master's Touch is MANDATORY! Almost all GSs in the game only get a tiny amount of sharpness, especially the ones with Purple, often being at only 5-10, so without MT you may drop down in sharpness AFTER JUST TWO COMBO, especially if you had to "soften" parts first (which is ~3 hits) or you mounted (which is 4 hits, 1+3)! This isn't the 3rd Gen GS where you did 1 hit and sheathed, now it's combos and 1+1+2 hits from the standard combo cuts through sharpness like crazy! The ONLY time you can make do without MT is if your GS has AT LEAST 20 points of sharpness and even then you probably need Razor Sharp, unless you have 30-35 points of sharpness in which case you could being to skip sharpness skills. However, Teostra armor also has great skills and is really efficient on it's own, so MT is a nice bonus on top, it's not the only reason people use it. With sharpness being random in World with how it's 50% chance to lose 1 sharpness per hit, just a bit of bad RNG with it and you'll drop down VERY fast! For Safi weapons, it's a bit different, BUT if a run takes a while (eg: something like Uragaan with bad hitzones or elders with tons of HP) then you need MT, still, it depends on how much sharpness your weapon has, it's not a blanket "this is good" or "this is bad". 10 - Do NOT use those builds, they are decent, but if you really want something that's "really good" wait for JinJinx and Tuna's video or get one from speedruns, otherwise just make your own sets with whatever skills you like and enjoy the game, nothing's worse than people copy pasting sets thinking just because they have a good set they will be better at the game:P
@@LloydTheZephyrian Yup, tons of HP AND shit hitzones, basically only belly (which is nearly impossible to hit with GS consistently) and then head if broken (which is what you should focus on) but if you only have 20 sharpness you will have to sharpen at least once just from trying to break the damn head, meaning you need MT or at the very least Razor Sharp...
11) recovery frames after tackle are pretty long and can't be cancelled with evade, sometimes it might be more efficient with both time and stamina to go into sideslap after tackle, then evade 12) You can change direction 360 deg with the slinger burst after Charge Attack or Sideslap
Im calling bullshit. Link me to any "expert" (however you define the term, for me that would mean speedrunner) that ever used even a single level of earplugs. Usually, they perfected their timing to land TCS before the monster even gets to roar or just roll it.
I was hoping someone had called this out. "Experts are using earplugs" no they really arent, if you're any good with the greatsword you're either tackling or rolling through roars.
GS complexity comes in the integration of its attacks, combined with the knowledge of the monster's habits. I got good (hue) by practicing with Nergigante back in base game when he was the thing to beat. (spoiler alert, you have to fail more than you succeed to get better)
One thing I could add, there is an attack thats a bit situational, but its pretty decent at repositioning yourself and attacking at the same time. When you hit with a shoulder charge, but you know you can't shoulder charge again quickly, or a monster moves behind you, by pressing the 'O' button on the PS4 controller, you can move left, right, or forward, which can save you from the full brunt of an attack, and get some damage on the target quickly. I'm not sure what its called, so I'm calling it a step slash. Its saved me from plenty of rather brutal attacks, and it deals a pretty nice chunk of damage to a target.
I think you should mention that begineers can always build crit draw GS build. Which is alot easier to play and build. And even bring it further with a velkhana 4 part set
1. you can use the sweep atk to dodge side ways but you can only do that after the second charge also it has great hitboxes almost 180 degree so if a monster is behind you while you charging do this move 2. you can recovery your position much faster after TCS by doing a roll 3. if you're going to wake up atk do a shield move as close a possible to the monster head (almost touching) and then do a backflip from there do a TCS it works 100% for me hope this helps you !!! happy hunting !!!!
All of the best experts I know of including me do not use earplugs at all in their greatsword builds. Literally knowing the monster's mannerisms makes earplugs obsolete. Please don't pass misinformation to players just learning the weapon and tell them something is good
@@ARod3 I'm the furthest from a try hard, I want people to use what's comfy for them. But when he says veterans of the greatsword use earplugs in their build is already wrong. Greatsword is a reactionary weapon. Everything you do is way to get around the monster. Learn the tells and those 5 levels of earplugs go away to open up to a more useful skill for a greatsword.
Probably already covered by other people at this point, but if you do TCS after the second charge slash, you only need to charge up the TCS two times for max power. If you skip the second charge slash by tackling or slinger burst, you need to charge the TCS three times for max power.
1 thing many players don't know and wasn't mentioned at all is that if you are charging, not only are you charging the slash but also the tackle and follow up attacks.
Addendum on nº4, people land TCS as soon as the monster wakes up because KO damage doesn't build up when they're down (stars flying above the monster's head). You can also apply this to various other weapons that can KO.
To be honest, it was the nergigante greatsword that taught me about correct charging. The spikes only pop out when you release it correctly, so that was an incredibly helpful indication.
As much as I love tackle I've discovered one thing that lets me down... the chip damage when I tackle through an attack. I was fighting Stygian the other day and I tackled through his combo one tackle after another, but each time I was losing health, to the point where at the end of the combo, I had lost a decent chunk of health. It made me wonder maybe it was better to get hit and get the invulnerabilty from the knockdown.
The whole deal with the tackle is not to mitigate damage or parry (like charge blades for example), but only to i-frame through an attack and prepare a counterattack right after. It should never be a defensive tool. At best, it's a quasi-evasive tool, but it's almost strictly to support an offensive playstyle.
The "Strong Wide Slash" after the sliding combo attack plunge, or after an aerial attack, allows both SCS and TCS to gain full charge after two ticks, making it potentially a massive damage combo follow up if you can knockdown/etc. off Strong Wide Slash.
You should get in the habit of consulting some great sword mains. Some of your information on the weapons and some monster mechanics are either wrong or slightly off.
@@rickdiculous9737 He recommends Earplugs so you wont get canceled out of the TCS animation in which you can't even shoulder tackle. The fuck is wrong with you?
@StabYourBrain Since you can’t shoulder barge from neutral, you have to have at least swung once cancelling the second and negating the roar because of the tackle and an easy TCS as the monsters end lag of their roar, suggesting earplugs is an awful idea as the only time as it will only ever be useful is well before or after the roar. You can see in his gameplay he isn’t the adept at greatsword, which is fine but I don’t think he should be giving advice like that especially when it’s wrong.
@@299-j6f Jesus christ. It's a video game and this is a youtube video. This isn't brain surgery. He doesn't need a Phd to make a freaking video about monster hunter.
Please correct me if I’m wrong, but isn’t the 2. tip wrong? It’s about hitting the monster with the middle of the blade, the first hit has nothing to do with it right? Or am I wrong?
Tip 2 is slightly off. The final hit only powers up if you hit a "weak point" with the first hit. If you take it into the field you'll notice you won't get the white energy power up if you hit a resistant point with the first hit. The training post at the training grounds is a bit misleading for that as it always counts as a weak spot.
I know literally everything, accept, that you can TCS from that wide-slash finisher I never used :D I'd add that the roll-tackle is very good for repositioning, and slinger shot even better, as you can shot and turn in any direction you want. I'd also disagree that the only two paths for Safi GS is all-in attack+. I'm very comfortable playing 2x att V, sharpness V&VI and slot upgrade for lvl3 decos. I'm managing to pull out Atk+7, Earplugs+5, Defense+3 for that extra 5%, Health, Weakness exploit, Focus and Partbreaker maxed out (and have alt set with Critical boost in exchange for Partbreaker), all with 45% affinity and Friendship charm +5 as I like to buff and heal. Second set I'm using is power oriented, with agitator +7, without defense and wide range (and only 30% aff) but with all previous skills. 1700+ attack when monster go rage, and descent amount of purple to do whole fight before fleeing to another area. It's very fun to play :)
1 things you may not have known about UA-cam: pressing the < or > (. And ,) buttons on your keyboard will let you go frame by frame in whatever UA-cam video you are watching. This means you don’t need video editing software to examine something frame by frame, you just need to find or put it on UA-cam, free options such as OBS or even that one screen capture software that puts its website url in the top of your video. You can then upload it as a private or unlisted video, and everyone knows that uploading to UA-cam is a fast process that doesn’t take forever.
Elemental part on charged slash moves are only around 1/10 compared to the raw part. So stacking the element isn't as profitable as stacking the raw part of the weapon.
This is about tip #6 if you use the slinger burst you can use it to change the direction you face, so if you're going to miss your true charge you can use the slinger burst to land your true charge.
I have a slight problem with #4. It's not that people don't try and time that, but more often than not the monster stands up right as you use the TCS. So if you're just starting, don't worry about it.
Two other points of advice. 1: flinching with a pod can allow you to do a true charge slash best pod for this is the bomb pod since it doesn’t flinch immediately it instead leaves a cloud in front of you and then after a second I t explodes. This works very well if you have focus three because you can charge the third level of the tcs and angled correctly can even be a tcs power 2. When you stun a monster as a great sword you should always latch on to the monster this is for one reason and that it extends the time of the stun long enough to perform a first hit and again if you have focus lv3 can perform a level 3 charge on the second hit, all you do is latch on and immediately jump of, simple. This should be somewhere around 700-900 free damage depending on your build. Last thing to note is that if you are playing with more people and you know someone in the group always latches on to a stunned monster you can take advantage and set up for a tcs or tcs power by doing the first hit before the other player uses the clutch claw and while their clutched do the second and the tcs
Something for your next list, you can use the slinger burst to change the direction of your charged slashes. If you try hit Vaal's head for instance, often he will move and you will clip through him then your following strong charged slash would whiff. Instead slinger burst behind you and you will flip 180 degrees and all hits will land. You can actually see this example in your video around 8:45
Omit number 5 you DON'T need to bring earplugsYOU CAN ROLL THROUGH THE ROARS or you CAN BLOCK THEM and get buffed with OFFENSIVE GUARD I'm not even a great sword main and I figured that out a few weeks ago when I started playing with the great sword more it's really fun
Did you you know the wide swing can be charged up as well? If you reach full charge but the monster moved a bit too far to reach, you can tackle and press tackle button again to go into a wide swing forward. The animation is slightly different like it more flashy like a fully charged swing with the red flames.
if i may pile on these tips, here are some: 1. use focus 2. because focus 3 maybe faster but would be less powerful because you're charging and releasing faster. 2. practice how to tackle. it helps to keep the momentum up. but never tackle bagel's bombs, you will die instantly. 3. practice how to ledge hop or what we call it the reverse aerial attack because it sounds cooler. yes, it was really powerful back in base game, but still powerful now. use airborne decor. after you hop, hold attack button and charge first then release. deals more damage. use fast release when monster fast approaching, you can get a mount sometimes. this attack gives you higher chance to mount, trust me. in safi alone, P2 and P3, you can mount 5x (yes, did it) just by spamming this attack. 4. never miss TCS on KO monster. 5. go for purple sharpness, go for safi. 6. you strength does not come from gs entirely, but from your knowledge of the monster that you fight solo many many times. exploit their weakness, spam traps, use flashpod, env traps, anything that could set you up for a tcs. this has been long. be proud GS main.
Sometimes it isn't a bad thing to overcharge. It can be incredibly handy to overcharge and do slightly less damage if you're keeping track of damage thresholds for flinches and such.
Something not everyone knows unless they watch a tutorial or something is that the gs can in fact block, while it should only be used for emergencies it is viable
You missed one detail about number 3, you need to hold the attack button until you start jumping back to the ledge if you just tap your button once it doesn't get you back and instead you jumping further away from the ledge.
As for ledge hopping you can also start it with the sword being sheathed either by rolling or sprinting off of the ledge, though note that sprinting sends you off at a more shallow angle so it can be harder to time your attack to bring you back to the ledge.
To elaborate a bit further on the overcharge. Back in the old games, if you overcharge it, instead of being a lvl 3 charge attack, it would revert back to a lvl 2 charge attack. Im pretty sure its the same in iceborne since it does similar amounts of damage to a lvl 2 charge attack. Another thing. If you tackle a monster in the head, it does a bit of stun damage. Had a lot of times where id tackle into a monster's head and id get the KO
As a HH main, I'm in the middle of learning GS, this video helps tremendously, especially about the roll tackle which I didn't even know it's a thing! Thanks heaps!
You can also tackle after doing the kick animation. And it's recommended (whenever it's possible) to not roll again after tackle, because it drains a lot of your stamina. Follow with a leaping slash to reposition yourself and also deal good damage while recovering your stamina.
Been using gs for like 50 hours now and I didn't even know the first thing. I am consistently wondering why sometimes I'm hitting such different damage numbers. Now it makes so much more sense
If you fully charge a charged slash, and cancel into tackle then do a jumping wide slash, it charges the jumping wide slash and does a similar screen affect as both hits on a TCS
Its clear there is a lot you dont know about the greatswords moveset, you clearly dont play it often since you said its moveset consists of tackles and charging. If you know its moves it is extremely agile and your playstyle can be very agressive without you needing to sheathe at all
he mains Hammer, Lbg and the lance and compared to those weapons (especially Hammer) the GS really isn't agil at all i've got over 1000 hunts in Hammer and GS and can say that you would need evade extender to comfortly play without sheating solo.
F B in my experience the mobility comes from the quick sheathe speed and the non charge/tackle attacks. Once you really get a feel for the weapon and the monster’s move set you can get really good at keeping up damage while dodging attacks with your own attacks.
@@falkj.beinker6561 There is a advanced gs guide made by Im a Giraffe that shows in depth just how mobile the gs is, just because you played over 1k hunts with gs and havent learned all of its moves doesnt mean the weapon isnt mobile
@@zak4437 i know that guide and it's moves, it's just the comparision between hammer and GS. if you play hammer the horn or/and SnS the GS will never feel mobile even with quick sheath, focus, evade extender etc ....
For point #2 you mention you didn't notice this until recently, but the thing is this was actually changed in Iceborne. In base World, if you missed the first hit, the second hit would still hit for full damage
Not really. The loss of damage jewels compared to the small amount of time gain from sheathing quickly dosnt make up for it. And most of the time you are rolling to reposition and not sheathing
Point 1 isn't exactly correct: you get the full benefits of max charge, UP UNTIL the auto release at any time from attaining the charge until that point, it is still max charge, ONLY the auto release downgrades it to level 2 instead of 3 this is so that focus levels don't mess with your hold times
I use earplugs on all my builds. And it has come in handy more time that I can count. I also run a paralyze great sword because blast doesn't prock that much with the slowest weapon in the game. And also u are garenteed 1 paralyze per hunt and if u have a team. U will do A LOT of damage so. I'm not saying blast greatswords is bad. I'm just saying it's only good at solo hunts and if u have blast attack. I'm hoping I don't get Amy toxic messages. My username on Xbox in LOGOBUTTERM8. If u wanna disagree
The blast raging brachy gs is currently one of the best in the game. I will proc at least 5 to 6 blasts per hunt more if they are more susceptible. Para is not a good use for the GS due to it building slow just like the blast. If you want a good status greatsword go with the sleep Safi one but only with 2 star plus weakness to it. If you ever watch jinx and tuna video they do the math and explain the best ones to use by the numbers but like they say in the video play how you want to. You don't have to go with the meta
1) I always release on the audio and visual queue of the second charge animation 2) noticed my TCS was sometimes lacking didn't know that the first bit dictated the extra damage 3) Ledge hopping feels great and I love how the wyvern ignition looks doing so. 4) I'm dreadful at getting the TCS off on time, but I always aim to clip with the first hit and get that mega damage blow on the monster as it recovers. Annoyingly they always seem to move just out for the hit. 5) Earplugs actually help damage uptime especially for an instant slinger knock out when you start a fight 6) Didn't know you could rush TCS with the slinger fire option, I just tackle 7) Tackle invun window is great, it helps to have the extra step closer to a monster 8) I read focus as "attack x% faster" and it's crucial 9) Masters touch is overkill. If sharpness is ever a worry just run true razor sharp amulet 🤷♂️ Purple sharp affects affinity modifier..your crits do a little more damage...but... I'd rather hit harder 10) I'm not mega end game and I apologize as I'm a DB main ATM. I play LBG LS GS DB and recently found love for the lance. I want to remind great sword players that guarding exists...and it's good defensively but also having offensive guard isn't bad. Extra damage just for negating a big hit is a welcome addition to the extra half of a level 4 gem.
so I noticed both the builds shared are not running part breaker. how would we best fit this in as it's important for both Guiding Lands and Safi Siege
![[MHWI] Advanced Iceborne Greatsword Guide: the Tackle, the Side Blow, and the Mighty Slinger Burst](/img/n.gif)
Tackle is my earplugs.
tackle is my rock steady mantle lmao
Tackle is my hammer build.
Can’t tackle during TCS animation
Tackle is my wife 😻
@@merrickdougherty9082 then don’t TCS while monster roars 💁🏻♂️. Easy.
You can kick with GS. But be careful! This movement is so powerful that if you make a mistake, you will be exposed.
I have a massive fucking sword but i want to kick the shit out of someone
the only thing you’d be exposing would be your sexy greatsword enjoying FEET 🥵
I wonder how many people dont know the GS has a sweetspot for a bit more damage towards the middle of the blade
I learned that recently on the training log
**Marth grab range joke**
3%
And if u hit just with the tip u deal like no damage at all (like 80 or 90)
@@juanchomarin1995 *Lenny face*
The most important GS tech since Iceborne has been the horizontal swing into slinger burst, it's capable of turning you almost 180 degrees on top of the directional movement from horizontal swing, it also loops into itself as long as you have slinger ammo and turns GS into a mobility king.
Its the reason I main GS now.
Interesting
Just to add upon that, you can do a slide blow after a tackle with slinger shot for a quicker tcs shortcut, you can slinger shot after your first charged slash and second charged slash. You can slinger shot after a regular wide slash. All slinger shot combos will have up to ~180 degree function as well.
@@jtones8953 If I still have plenty of time after getting a TCS off, I like to roll -> tackle -> slap -> slinger burst -> TSC again. The roll -> tackle -> slap combo is also really useful for escaping while your weapon is unsheathed. Also, if you have to sheath after tackling, make sure to slap before rolling in order to gain more distance from the monster and regen some stamina.
Namielle gon' learn today.
Single hardest thing for me to master in MHW has always been slinger bursts, with any weapon.
i still disagree with GS being an easy weaopn lol
Yeah easy to learn but mastering it is a different story anyone can play gs throw focus on it and hold the button
Yeah I tried just picking up a greatsword to fight stygian zinogre. I was doing no dmg, and getting off no true charges. I had to look up a tutorial explaining the tcs shorcuts, shoulder charge and jumping wide slash and slinger shot mechanics. The weapon is actually pretty technical to be effective
personally I find the weapon itself to not be the hardest part about using it, the bit I find harder is learning the monsters inside and out knowing what you can and can't punish, when you can be greedy and go for extra hits, and when to hang back and just let the move/moves play out
@@walkthebrokenpath0 no compared to the other weapons its harder to use.
GS is easy in base game anyway. Buddy of mine is a GS main but hes barely average at it. Moment we got into master rank he switched to bow because of how mobile the monsters get. Thats where GS skill set goes way up.
Information in point 5 is not entirely correct: Monsters do not roar when they recover but when they enter the enraged state. It is also not likely that *experts* are widely using Earplugs because to really push the limit on a speedrun it simply better to either roll/tackle through a roar or better yet interrupt it with a flinch - you rarely ever see monsters not knocked down in top tier GS runs.
Edit: Point 9 is also questionable, as you do lose a lot of sharpness from a clutch attack, and you want *at least* white sharpness because its multiplier is vastly superior to blue. The once-meta-and-still-relevant Acid GS has very slim sharpness in both purple and white so MT is just the go-to. MT is still great even with a Safi GS especially if you decide to get sharpness awaken.
@버들 He said, and I quote "What do a lot of monsters do after they get knocked down? They roar." It is occasionally true but misleading, so I clarified. The whole point with hitting monsters at they recover is to have a greater chance to flinch them - so *why not flinch them before or as they roar*? If someone can't time their TCS well enough and get interrupted by an enrage roar from a monster that just recovered, I'm sorry to say this but *they are no expert*, not in speedruns. I will say though it is a nice skill to have especially for casual play against weak roar monsters.
For point 9, he tries to make a point where sharpness doesn't drop much on GS - which is not completely true and again misleading for players new to GS, as I explained, clutch attacks can tank sharpness, particularly for average players whose hunts may last longer and would need to tenderize multiple parts multiple times. And lastly, not everyone, especially not new players, has access to Safi weapons or has decided to invest in an awakened Safi GS, and the pre-Safi meta + comfy best raw GS *does need* MT to work.
I'm not trying to be a dick here, it's just that giving incomplete and misleading information to an audience that is potentially inexperienced is not great.
Long story short your a moron 💩
John Lu Well, there was even more wrong information in the CB Video. I wish he would stop that series to fish views and leave these kind of videos to the pros. Or at the very least get professionals opinions. This series is like that not only lazy but also bad and hurt new players to some extinct giving them wrong ideas of the weapon.
Josh S, learn when to use “you’re” and when to use “your” before you call someone a moron.
I was just thinking about MT and agree with you. The clutch claw attack takes a nice chunk of your sharpness. Glad I wasn't the only one thinking this.
11.) After a tackle you can use a round slash that will reposition you around the monster, that roundslash will deal more or less dmg based on if you canceled a charge with a tackle to go into the roundslash.
I love this mechanic because it feels like I'm parrying the monster for trying to interrupt my charge
This ! It becomes basically your bread and butter when using a health Regen build, it feels so good and it's so useful
Well the only useful tip I found was on the comments, thanks a lot didn’t know that
Another one: using the slinger after Charge is a good way to spin your character around. Normally, you can only rotate about 30 degrees when using any of the Charges, but a slinger shot after the base Charge can let you spin in any direction completely, allowing you to reorient yourself before beginning True Charge.
Thanks for that tip!
For #2, your TCS 2nd hit hits harder if you hit a weak spot with the first hit (Orange numbers). If your first hit hits a tough spot (grey number), you deal much less damage.
In Safi, when aiming for the tail while it's knocked down, be careful not to clip the wing with the first hit.
He forgot to mention that hitting the monster with the tip of the GS yield less damage then if you hit it with center of the blade. I also believe hitting with the hilt does less too. The axe type GS give a very good indication of where the sweet spot is
He did mention it lol
Great Sword might be the weapon type that changed the most in World. In older MH games there were no tackles, no TCS and end game sets would only fit around 5 skills. The meta back then was very much to use handicraft(to reach the next sharpness level), focus, crit draw, quick sheath, attack up and plugs/tremor.
11: if u charge the strong charge (second hit) at least one level, then the tcs will start charging at level 2 and it takes the same time it would take to not charge the strong charge
12: after the tackle u can roundslash(press B/O) to reposition sideways to evade an attack like LS fade slash. after roundslash u can slinger and go into tcs directly. same with the sideslap after a role(forward + Y + RT) to close the gap between a flinched monster and your self.
With the first one, thats not correct. The animation of going from strong charge to TCS has one charge built in to it. Going into TCS from anything else (Tackle, Slinger burst) doesnt go through the wind up animation, so it starts at no charge
I love it when people spread misinformation! Your 11 is wrong, you do not need to charge the Strong Charge Slash for that, it happens either way, you only need to charge the TCS twice if you shortcut into it via tackle or slinger burst
@@fourswords77 Correct!
as a greatsword main, the tackle has kinda ruined me in terms of getting the roll I-frame, I just can't get it when I use other weapons cuz I never use it on GS.... I just tackle
As a lance main, I felt the same with the guarding advance :v
never roll after a tackle, first it blocks your stamina from recovering and second, the animation delays your action - theres a video out there that describes the "agressive greatsword style" and basically use the round slash (o on ps4) to repostion for TCS combos or the paddle slap (r2 and triangle iirc) to cancel thr animation and start regening your stamina, furthermore you can also combo those into slinger bursts to instantly get into TCS again
Number 4 is something anyone can pull off easily assuming they have focus 3 since the monster just gets up at the same time the final true charge is already in motion. The only time it misses is when you have to run to the monster's face and that point you should probably use the slinger burst or a roll shoulder tackle but if you're already in hitting distance of your target then just charge slash (quick release), charge slash (quick release) and finally true charge. (At least that's something I've noticed after playing this weapon for most of MHW)
Ehm you forgot quite an important part, the middle part of the blade deals more damage than the top so positioning your TCS and basic hits are even more important,
fade slash and 180° with slingershots (in middle combo) are also pretty usefull when the monster moves quite a lot, it helps you moving to the head.
Best slinger shot combo imo are Y->slinger->TCS or roll->shoulderBash->SwordSlap(RT+Y)->Slinger->TCS
Master's Touch is still necessary when we run the Acidic Glavenus, or Safi Weapons with 2 Handicraft V on the weapon (purple)
hope it helps some players that struggle with GS mobility :)
The first hit with the true charge slash needs to hit a tenderized or weak point of a monster first not just hit the monster
Correct!
this
I read somewhere that this is misinformation to claim - however I realized it was also irrelevant, bc you should never be attacking a spot where the monster is neither weak to sever nor tenderized.
It seem the GS has a sweet spot in the edge where de damage is 100%. It's not about the first hit but hitting with that sweet spot.
Well it's written in the compendium I believe
You do want master's touch on certain great swords. As you crit you lose more sharpness. You should run MT if you're running acidic Glav, Shara, or the new Raging Brach great swords. Those don't have a lot of sharpness so you'll lose it in 5 or so hits assuming you crit each hit.
Here's a fact you could put in your video, Charging your attack in any way (CS, SCS, TCS) boosts your attack in Jumping Wide Slash if you decide to cancel the slash into tackle then JWS.
Missed opportunity to title this video “10 Great Things about the Great Sword”
I've been a greatsword main since monster hunter unite, and I've watched it grow since then, really happy how it turned out. Needless to say I knew all of these things but cool video😂
By the way, if you charge a standard charge slash fully and then tackle, you can actually go back into the standard charge slash while keeping the same charge. It has very precise timing, and it isn't useful, but a lot of people don't know about it.
To expand on point 2: The requisite to gain TCS(Power) is that your small slash hits a HZV of minimum 45. So it is possible to get weak TCS even if you hit the small attack.
To expand on point 6: about the second slash: It simply has a much higher motion value than your first/draw slash. Powering up a higher MV move over the lower one is of course, simple optimization.
To expand on point 5: Speedrunners only bring Earplugs to very specific monsters that have a tendency to roar as part of their attack pattern (Zinogre family). The vast majority of monsters only roar in a (uninterrupted fight) when they enrage. Speedrunners will always force the enrage right at the start by flinch shotting three times. For casual players, you can expect the monster to roar after you wallbang it and it recovers, because of simple core programming to the enrage system. (2+ flinches+Wallbang = enrage treshold met).
To expand on point 10: Those sets are kind of horrible. You started the video by saying that the GS is quite easy to pick up and learn, then go on to suggest crutch sets that sacrifice a lot of damage. Love or hate Masters Touch, but for someone calling himself an Economist you sure love to disregard massive mathematical increases, not to mention that you don't really sacrifice all that much to run a MT build. You could still run Earplugs 4-5 and hit your 100 Affinity on Tenderized parts with a comfortabe amount of purple. In another comment, I saw you trying to justify by stating 'speedrunners often don't use Masters Touch', which is true in certain cases where they have min-maxed the monster and scripted the fight so perfectly that they can use Safi'Jiva w/o Health Augment to maximize Resentment damage, which will always outdamage a similar MT/Peak Build by around 20 EFR. Speedrunners will always use the most damage they can get away with.
The moment you said "the easiest to use" I thought: "he's wrong - it's the simplest, but I bet there is depth to all those simple-at-first-glance moves".
Yeah, I was right :)
Anyway, definitely useful vid, I'm quite new to the game and this will definitely help me.
I mean, you could make a case that anything is complicated, people used to hate on cluster bombs in base game but there was still a guy who could get the world record speedrun with them and he would probably tell you its pretty complicated to do this. That being said amongst all melee weapons I find greatsword to be the easiest bc of its range, YYY moveset, tackle hyper armor frames, and damage.
@@TheGameconomist I'm not denying you - I also think that GS is an easy weapon (with an emergency block too), but I can't say for sure that it's the easiest - if it is, then I think that not by a large margin.
Most weapons have an easier (but usually less efficient) playstyle and GS is definitely easiest to pickup.
After typing above, I think that I might've took "the easiest" way too literally and included "easiest to master" as well (which may not be the case).
Anyway, good vid - I definitely learned a lot from it :)
I think dual blades are the easiest, the weapons oozes dmg with little commitment, super easy combos I don't know about any advance mechanics it has. Other 2 weapons I would consider easier than gs are the lances
Some important things to add:
1. About tip number 7 - Sometimes monster attacks have lingering or delayed hitboxes (for example Namielle puddles) and tackling the attack will just see you getting reduced damage from the initial hit just to get hit fully by the 2nd delayed attack, this sucks because you take damage from both attacks so sometimes it's just better to roll or if you can't just take the L and get hit by the initial attack so as to not get hit twice.
2. About tip number 9 - Master's Touch is amazing on Greatsword exactly because it preserves sharpness so well naturally, if you're looking to run purple sharpness for damage or comfiness reasons you can run a master's touch build with 10 units of purple sharpness (the lowest amount you can get) and not have to sharpen for the entire hunt if you're hitting softened weak points. If you want more leeway you can always awaken for Sharpness VI instead of V and lose a tiny bit of damage in exchange for having 40 units of purple which is more than you will ever need on Greatsword. (these numbers of units are assuming you are running with 5 levels of Handicraft)
I agree, tackle spam is not a solution to every situation and I think it’s a bit overrated. It’s a nice additional tool but not an essential aspect of your combos, imo.
Commenting this before watching the video, i think i know everything about greatsword, let's see
Edit: As i thought, for the first time nothing new. You can actually add some attacks that most people don't know, you can kick if you attack while guarding and you can follow that kick with a tackle, which is really usefull if you want to tackle a monster who is charging at you (diablos for example) but you have your weapon sheathed, you can just hold guard button and double triangle. And other attack that is usefull is the sword slap that you can make after a tackle, you don't have to follow a tackle with a normal up/down slash, if you just dont want to attack it is better to perform this slap attack than letting your character recover from the tackle animation. There you have 2 more tips that a lot of people doesn't know (i believe haha). I hope someone reads it and find it useful.
Still a good video like always, showing a much more comfy play style with the GS.
Thanks
Great video. Would have loved to see tips for the incorporation of the jumping wide slash(JWS), side blow and slinger burst combos to allow for a far more mobile GS playstyle. It allows on the fly re-positioning for TCS while doing respectable damage via JWS.
Combos such as roll>tackle>side blow>sliger burst>TCS and roll>tackle>JWS>slinger burst>TCS are by far the biggest game changers when it comes to greatsword in iceborne.
Im a Giraffe's video (watch?v=IcLCSSHc1Z4) is by of the most informative iceborne GS video, and I trust that most people who watched the video truly understands how much of a game changer the slinger burst is for the GS.
Focus level 3 has diminishing effects, level 2 works almost equally well because the punish opportunities only lasts that long, being slightly faster does not really get you more damage. 7th tip is honestly really wrong imo, if you want to dodge, just roll, if you wanna go for a punish, go for a slightly charged tackle, not a roll tackle, rolling is more usable if you need to reposition yourself. Lastly, if you have charged fully but isn't close enough to hit using the normal charged slash, go into a tackle and a wide slash, the charge increases the damage, even if not as significantly, it could help reposition and pick up some extra damage
GS came such a long way since the original game on the PS2. Looking back at those days, I'm glad I went with the GS as soon as I could (at the time, the only weapon you started with was SnS, and you had to forge/buy any weapon from the other classes hahah), it is clearly, in my opinion, the best weapon for anyone to use to learn how to play the game well. You can't hack and slash the monsters and really need to learn about their attacking and moving patterns, and any hit with the GS counts, so you really need to choose when to attack and really learn the behaviours of each of the monsters!
Two things that i wanna add ( ik im kinda late but anyway) : First, tackle is KO dmg so yeah...
Secondly, when you build for partbreaker you basically got 2 extra levels compared to sns or dual blades, bc you deal so much pard dmg even without any partbreaker
My issue with focus is that I like the longer charge times so I have more flexibility when bash cancelling. With focus, your window is smaller so you don't get the luxury of choosing to bash if you need to react
@The Ark yeah I understand, I just never seem to have spare room for focus decorations, only thing I could switch out is crit boost
To add to number 7 about the tackle .. your GS charge level also affects your tackle's damage (just like it does for the JWS or jumping wide slash) so at no charge - low damage and final charge - high damage.. for me (im not end game built yet but for me at no charge i do 98 damage but at final charge level i do 200 ish) also to note another thing that higher charge levels as have higher chance to stun or (possibly, small chance though) knock the monster over if your tackling the monster itself which can give you time to go into a 2/3 TCS combo.. so go into attack 1 full charge (keep the charge button active and hit the tackle button at the same time while its charging this also works for stage 2 attack or stage 3/TCS while they are charging if you need to hyper armor through the enemies attack and can also be used to reposition yourself if need be just keep in mind theres a delay inbetween so its more of situational use since youll be vulnerable during that time and while your recharging) then tackle - stun monster then attack 2 and then finally TCS and depending on the monster (since some recover from being knocked down faster than others) can allow for a second TCS combo .. however the stun isn't guaranteed so do keep that in mind... I recently started toying around with the GS myself and starting to love it.. i mostly main Bow or DB .. also glad i ran into your video since im new to the GS your video gave me some good pointers... Much appreciated for the time and effort you put into this video for us
In addition to what you said for point 6, you can reposition yourself by changing the direction of the sling shot as you shoot it... VERY useful if the monster decides to move last minute, you can correct your aim before TCS.
Personally I like to run master's touch for GS that have just a minuscule amount of purple just to keep it for the entire hunt (like raging braquidios gs for example)
In my opinion, these is just a tip. You can take it or not is up to you. For me I don't take earplugs because you have tackle so it does not really useful, even for point 5 it doesn't really matter for casual play. Just get the damage out as fast as possible because damage is the main point of GS. Even master touch is up to you. I did not use MT but I always use handicraft
I only knew 1 or 2 of these tips, so this was a great learning experience. I always wondered why I was bad at GS despite how much I enjoy it
That roll tackle can also cause the monster to flinch, and get knocked down. Happens to Deviljho quite a bit.
Focus skjll is so important , I wish I knew about it earlier I'm a charge blade main, but I've recently been using greatsword and boy it makes a difference
Greatsword has been my dear baby for a long time. Starting back in MHFU 2010. Knocking monsters over, severing tails, and busting heads while keeping villages safe. Smoking everything one heavy charged chop at a time.
As far as I know first hit that hits the sleeping monster is doubled, so you want to miss the first small hit and land the second. Usually it's better to just slingshot them into a wall.
These things are literally almost all things that are extremely basic even non-GS users know... But here are some specific points on your points I'll make as a GS main that's been a GS main since 2004:
5 - Earplugs are only really needed in one case, Anjanath, because it won't fucking shut up, both Anjanaths can easily roar up to like 10 times back to back for absolutely no reason, whereas almost all other monsters roar once when the fight starts and once when they enter rage mode (meaning 1 roar every like 1-2 minutes so just roll through between charges since you will reposition a lot, tackle or interrupt them with a flinch). For Anjanath though, while they are roar spamming with Earplugs you get ridiculously long openings!
7 - The reason we roll early with GS and use the tackle to take the attacks head on is not so we can get a tiny bit of damage in, but because we already need to reposition anyways and rolling early and then tackling lets us reposition and resume the charge combos instantly instead of rolling then having to walk over to where the monster is and start the combo all over from the first Charge. Rolling then tackling lets you resume from Strong Charge, making it MUCH better for damage and also better for timing since you skip the entire first low-damage part of the combo you'd want to skip anyways.
8 - For Focus, there's two things I need to say. In base game main reason we ran Focus 2 instead of 3 isn't because we thought the 5% difference wasn't worth the lv2 slot for the decoration, but because it gave us just enough time to recover back to full stamina after a tackle to get back the Max Might boost to ensure we'd get all crits. The other thing though is that Focus 2 on MOST monsters allows you to do a full lv3 Strong Charge then TCS as the monster is getting up to flinch it again, while Focus 3 is just a tiny bit too fast so you are very likely to miss the window to lock them down, although there are few exceptions to this...
9 - Master's Touch is MANDATORY! Almost all GSs in the game only get a tiny amount of sharpness, especially the ones with Purple, often being at only 5-10, so without MT you may drop down in sharpness AFTER JUST TWO COMBO, especially if you had to "soften" parts first (which is ~3 hits) or you mounted (which is 4 hits, 1+3)! This isn't the 3rd Gen GS where you did 1 hit and sheathed, now it's combos and 1+1+2 hits from the standard combo cuts through sharpness like crazy! The ONLY time you can make do without MT is if your GS has AT LEAST 20 points of sharpness and even then you probably need Razor Sharp, unless you have 30-35 points of sharpness in which case you could being to skip sharpness skills. However, Teostra armor also has great skills and is really efficient on it's own, so MT is a nice bonus on top, it's not the only reason people use it. With sharpness being random in World with how it's 50% chance to lose 1 sharpness per hit, just a bit of bad RNG with it and you'll drop down VERY fast! For Safi weapons, it's a bit different, BUT if a run takes a while (eg: something like Uragaan with bad hitzones or elders with tons of HP) then you need MT, still, it depends on how much sharpness your weapon has, it's not a blanket "this is good" or "this is bad".
10 - Do NOT use those builds, they are decent, but if you really want something that's "really good" wait for JinJinx and Tuna's video or get one from speedruns, otherwise just make your own sets with whatever skills you like and enjoy the game, nothing's worse than people copy pasting sets thinking just because they have a good set they will be better at the game:P
Doesn't Uragaan also have an absurd amount of HP that can put elders to shame?
@@LloydTheZephyrian Yup, tons of HP AND shit hitzones, basically only belly (which is nearly impossible to hit with GS consistently) and then head if broken (which is what you should focus on) but if you only have 20 sharpness you will have to sharpen at least once just from trying to break the damn head, meaning you need MT or at the very least Razor Sharp...
11) recovery frames after tackle are pretty long and can't be cancelled with evade, sometimes it might be more efficient with both time and stamina to go into sideslap after tackle, then evade 12) You can change direction 360 deg with the slinger burst after Charge Attack or Sideslap
17:08 Talks about the divine blessing skill, has focus description up
Im calling bullshit. Link me to any "expert" (however you define the term, for me that would mean speedrunner) that ever used even a single level of earplugs. Usually, they perfected their timing to land TCS before the monster even gets to roar or just roll it.
I was hoping someone had called this out. "Experts are using earplugs" no they really arent, if you're any good with the greatsword you're either tackling or rolling through roars.
GS complexity comes in the integration of its attacks, combined with the knowledge of the monster's habits. I got good (hue) by practicing with Nergigante back in base game when he was the thing to beat. (spoiler alert, you have to fail more than you succeed to get better)
One thing I could add, there is an attack thats a bit situational, but its pretty decent at repositioning yourself and attacking at the same time. When you hit with a shoulder charge, but you know you can't shoulder charge again quickly, or a monster moves behind you, by pressing the 'O' button on the PS4 controller, you can move left, right, or forward, which can save you from the full brunt of an attack, and get some damage on the target quickly. I'm not sure what its called, so I'm calling it a step slash. Its saved me from plenty of rather brutal attacks, and it deals a pretty nice chunk of damage to a target.
I think you should mention that begineers can always build crit draw GS build. Which is alot easier to play and build. And even bring it further with a velkhana 4 part set
1. you can use the sweep atk to dodge side ways but you can only do that after the second charge also it has great hitboxes almost 180 degree so if a monster is behind you while you charging do this move
2. you can recovery your position much faster after TCS by doing a roll
3. if you're going to wake up atk do a shield move as close a possible to the monster head (almost touching) and then do a backflip from there do a TCS it works 100% for me
hope this helps you !!! happy hunting !!!!
All of the best experts I know of including me do not use earplugs at all in their greatsword builds. Literally knowing the monster's mannerisms makes earplugs obsolete. Please don't pass misinformation to players just learning the weapon and tell them something is good
Just because you are a tryhard doesn’t mean the casuals couldn’t benefit from using earplugs.
@@ARod3 I'm the furthest from a try hard, I want people to use what's comfy for them. But when he says veterans of the greatsword use earplugs in their build is already wrong. Greatsword is a reactionary weapon. Everything you do is way to get around the monster. Learn the tells and those 5 levels of earplugs go away to open up to a more useful skill for a greatsword.
Probably already covered by other people at this point, but if you do TCS after the second charge slash, you only need to charge up the TCS two times for max power.
If you skip the second charge slash by tackling or slinger burst, you need to charge the TCS three times for max power.
I Just keep hearing "Roll taco"
1 thing many players don't know and wasn't mentioned at all is that if you are charging, not only are you charging the slash but also the tackle and follow up attacks.
Addendum on nº4, people land TCS as soon as the monster wakes up because KO damage doesn't build up when they're down (stars flying above the monster's head). You can also apply this to various other weapons that can KO.
To be honest, it was the nergigante greatsword that taught me about correct charging. The spikes only pop out when you release it correctly, so that was an incredibly helpful indication.
Also, the hunter kinda pumps the great sword with the full charge.
As much as I love tackle I've discovered one thing that lets me down... the chip damage when I tackle through an attack. I was fighting Stygian the other day and I tackled through his combo one tackle after another, but each time I was losing health, to the point where at the end of the combo, I had lost a decent chunk of health. It made me wonder maybe it was better to get hit and get the invulnerabilty from the knockdown.
The whole deal with the tackle is not to mitigate damage or parry (like charge blades for example), but only to i-frame through an attack and prepare a counterattack right after. It should never be a defensive tool. At best, it's a quasi-evasive tool, but it's almost strictly to support an offensive playstyle.
The "Strong Wide Slash" after the sliding combo attack plunge, or after an aerial attack, allows both SCS and TCS to gain full charge after two ticks, making it potentially a massive damage combo follow up if you can knockdown/etc. off Strong Wide Slash.
You should get in the habit of consulting some great sword mains. Some of your information on the weapons and some monster mechanics are either wrong or slightly off.
I know right, this asshole rather bring earplugs than just shoulder bash through a roar AND then assumes most of us won't know these 10 things 😂
@@rickdiculous9737 how is he a bastard? Stfu
@@rickdiculous9737 He recommends Earplugs so you wont get canceled out of the TCS animation in which you can't even shoulder tackle. The fuck is wrong with you?
@StabYourBrain Since you can’t shoulder barge from neutral, you have to have at least swung once cancelling the second and negating the roar because of the tackle and an easy TCS as the monsters end lag of their roar, suggesting earplugs is an awful idea as the only time as it will only ever be useful is well before or after the roar. You can see in his gameplay he isn’t the adept at greatsword, which is fine but I don’t think he should be giving advice like that especially when it’s wrong.
@@299-j6f Jesus christ. It's a video game and this is a youtube video. This isn't brain surgery. He doesn't need a Phd to make a freaking video about monster hunter.
I knew everything, however I still prefer the masters touch due to playing casually, never have to sharpen, ever, it’s great
Got into the game recently thanks to a reccommendation from a friend, so thank you for the video, learned loads of new things I was not aware of!
Please correct me if I’m wrong, but isn’t the 2. tip wrong? It’s about hitting the monster with the middle of the blade, the first hit has nothing to do with it right? Or am I wrong?
I just started using GS this morning and UA-cam somehow knew. Thank you, sir!
Thumbnail says longsword btw
Thanks, I just updated these, it will take a few minutes for youtube to show the changes :)
Tip 2 is slightly off. The final hit only powers up if you hit a "weak point" with the first hit. If you take it into the field you'll notice you won't get the white energy power up if you hit a resistant point with the first hit. The training post at the training grounds is a bit misleading for that as it always counts as a weak spot.
I know literally everything, accept, that you can TCS from that wide-slash finisher I never used :D I'd add that the roll-tackle is very good for repositioning, and slinger shot even better, as you can shot and turn in any direction you want. I'd also disagree that the only two paths for Safi GS is all-in attack+. I'm very comfortable playing 2x att V, sharpness V&VI and slot upgrade for lvl3 decos. I'm managing to pull out Atk+7, Earplugs+5, Defense+3 for that extra 5%, Health, Weakness exploit, Focus and Partbreaker maxed out (and have alt set with Critical boost in exchange for Partbreaker), all with 45% affinity and Friendship charm +5 as I like to buff and heal. Second set I'm using is power oriented, with agitator +7, without defense and wide range (and only 30% aff) but with all previous skills. 1700+ attack when monster go rage, and descent amount of purple to do whole fight before fleeing to another area. It's very fun to play :)
1 things you may not have known about UA-cam: pressing the < or > (. And ,) buttons on your keyboard will let you go frame by frame in whatever UA-cam video you are watching. This means you don’t need video editing software to examine something frame by frame, you just need to find or put it on UA-cam, free options such as OBS or even that one screen capture software that puts its website url in the top of your video. You can then upload it as a private or unlisted video, and everyone knows that uploading to UA-cam is a fast process that doesn’t take forever.
Elemental part on charged slash moves are only around 1/10 compared to the raw part. So stacking the element isn't as profitable as stacking the raw part of the weapon.
This is about tip #6 if you use the slinger burst you can use it to change the direction you face, so if you're going to miss your true charge you can use the slinger burst to land your true charge.
I have a slight problem with #4. It's not that people don't try and time that, but more often than not the monster stands up right as you use the TCS. So if you're just starting, don't worry about it.
Two other points of advice. 1: flinching with a pod can allow you to do a true charge slash best pod for this is the bomb pod since it doesn’t flinch immediately it instead leaves a cloud in front of you and then after a second I t explodes. This works very well if you have focus three because you can charge the third level of the tcs and angled correctly can even be a tcs power 2. When you stun a monster as a great sword you should always latch on to the monster this is for one reason and that it extends the time of the stun long enough to perform a first hit and again if you have focus lv3 can perform a level 3 charge on the second hit, all you do is latch on and immediately jump of, simple. This should be somewhere around 700-900 free damage depending on your build. Last thing to note is that if you are playing with more people and you know someone in the group always latches on to a stunned monster you can take advantage and set up for a tcs or tcs power by doing the first hit before the other player uses the clutch claw and while their clutched do the second and the tcs
Something for your next list, you can use the slinger burst to change the direction of your charged slashes. If you try hit Vaal's head for instance, often he will move and you will clip through him then your following strong charged slash would whiff. Instead slinger burst behind you and you will flip 180 degrees and all hits will land. You can actually see this example in your video around 8:45
Omit number 5 you DON'T need to bring earplugsYOU CAN ROLL THROUGH THE ROARS or you CAN BLOCK THEM and get buffed with OFFENSIVE GUARD I'm not even a great sword main and I figured that out a few weeks ago when I started playing with the great sword more it's really fun
Thats pretty basic everyone know, the point is for speedruns, Roll or tackle increase TCS time.
@@bapriliannuseldo3278 I don't do speed runs but u see what you're saying
Did you you know the wide swing can be charged up as well? If you reach full charge but the monster moved a bit too far to reach, you can tackle and press tackle button again to go into a wide swing forward. The animation is slightly different like it more flashy like a fully charged swing with the red flames.
if i may pile on these tips, here are some:
1. use focus 2. because focus 3 maybe faster but would be less powerful because you're charging and releasing faster.
2. practice how to tackle. it helps to keep the momentum up. but never tackle bagel's bombs, you will die instantly.
3. practice how to ledge hop or what we call it the reverse aerial attack because it sounds cooler. yes, it was really powerful back in base game, but still powerful now. use airborne decor. after you hop, hold attack button and charge first then release. deals more damage. use fast release when monster fast approaching, you can get a mount sometimes. this attack gives you higher chance to mount, trust me. in safi alone, P2 and P3, you can mount 5x (yes, did it) just by spamming this attack.
4. never miss TCS on KO monster.
5. go for purple sharpness, go for safi.
6. you strength does not come from gs entirely, but from your knowledge of the monster that you fight solo many many times. exploit their weakness, spam traps, use flashpod, env traps, anything that could set you up for a tcs.
this has been long. be proud GS main.
Sometimes it isn't a bad thing to overcharge. It can be incredibly handy to overcharge and do slightly less damage if you're keeping track of damage thresholds for flinches and such.
Something not everyone knows unless they watch a tutorial or something is that the gs can in fact block, while it should only be used for emergencies it is viable
You missed one detail about number 3, you need to hold the attack button until you start jumping back to the ledge if you just tap your button once it doesn't get you back and instead you jumping further away from the ledge.
I’m not a speed runner, but I am a gS main.
IMO, purple sharpness is a waste.
For charms, I always use agitator, because it just makes the most sense
As for ledge hopping you can also start it with the sword being sheathed either by rolling or sprinting off of the ledge, though note that sprinting sends you off at a more shallow angle so it can be harder to time your attack to bring you back to the ledge.
To elaborate a bit further on the overcharge. Back in the old games, if you overcharge it, instead of being a lvl 3 charge attack, it would revert back to a lvl 2 charge attack. Im pretty sure its the same in iceborne since it does similar amounts of damage to a lvl 2 charge attack.
Another thing. If you tackle a monster in the head, it does a bit of stun damage. Had a lot of times where id tackle into a monster's head and id get the KO
See, the greatsword is simple, but a really good one will always land tcs. It's a weapon that rewards good positioning.
As a HH main, I'm in the middle of learning GS, this video helps tremendously, especially about the roll tackle which I didn't even know it's a thing! Thanks heaps!
Aye, felt the same with the little v + Y/B (triangle/circle) stabby move with the HH.
Great video, only thing is you show the description for the Focus skill instead of Divine Blessing for the last set you discuss
You can also tackle after doing the kick animation. And it's recommended (whenever it's possible) to not roll again after tackle, because it drains a lot of your stamina. Follow with a leaping slash to reposition yourself and also deal good damage while recovering your stamina.
Is there any other way to kick aside from pressing attack while guarding?
Been using gs for like 50 hours now and I didn't even know the first thing. I am consistently wondering why sometimes I'm hitting such different damage numbers. Now it makes so much more sense
Focus is great but a normal tcs build up is just the right amount of time as the monster recovers JUST as you land the first tcs attack
Great video, every point was important to know :]
If you fully charge a charged slash, and cancel into tackle then do a jumping wide slash, it charges the jumping wide slash and does a similar screen affect as both hits on a TCS
It also does more damage
Its clear there is a lot you dont know about the greatswords moveset, you clearly dont play it often since you said its moveset consists of tackles and charging. If you know its moves it is extremely agile and your playstyle can be very agressive without you needing to sheathe at all
he mains Hammer, Lbg and the lance and compared to those weapons (especially Hammer) the GS really isn't agil at all i've got over 1000 hunts in Hammer and GS and can say that you would need evade extender to comfortly play without sheating solo.
F B in my experience the mobility comes from the quick sheathe speed and the non charge/tackle attacks. Once you really get a feel for the weapon and the monster’s move set you can get really good at keeping up damage while dodging attacks with your own attacks.
Greatsword is my 5th most played weapon
@@falkj.beinker6561 There is a advanced gs guide made by Im a Giraffe that shows in depth just how mobile the gs is, just because you played over 1k hunts with gs and havent learned all of its moves doesnt mean the weapon isnt mobile
@@zak4437 i know that guide and it's moves, it's just the comparision between hammer and GS. if you play hammer the horn or/and SnS the GS will never feel mobile even with quick sheath, focus, evade extender etc ....
thanks for this! im a new GS user and im loving it but i have to admit i lack a lot of the mechanics.
For point #2 you mention you didn't notice this until recently, but the thing is this was actually changed in Iceborne. In base World, if you missed the first hit, the second hit would still hit for full damage
I'm surprised there's little mention of Quick Sheath here. I thought that was a high-priority skill for Greatsword as well.
Not really. The loss of damage jewels compared to the small amount of time gain from sheathing quickly dosnt make up for it. And most of the time you are rolling to reposition and not sheathing
Ten things you didn't know about greatsword
Number 1: There are ten things to know about greatsword
Point 1 isn't exactly correct: you get the full benefits of max charge, UP UNTIL the auto release
at any time from attaining the charge until that point, it is still max charge, ONLY the auto release downgrades it to level 2 instead of 3
this is so that focus levels don't mess with your hold times
I use earplugs on all my builds. And it has come in handy more time that I can count. I also run a paralyze great sword because blast doesn't prock that much with the slowest weapon in the game. And also u are garenteed 1 paralyze per hunt and if u have a team. U will do A LOT of damage so. I'm not saying blast greatswords is bad. I'm just saying it's only good at solo hunts and if u have blast attack. I'm hoping I don't get Amy toxic messages. My username on Xbox in LOGOBUTTERM8. If u wanna disagree
The blast raging brachy gs is currently one of the best in the game. I will proc at least 5 to 6 blasts per hunt more if they are more susceptible. Para is not a good use for the GS due to it building slow just like the blast. If you want a good status greatsword go with the sleep Safi one but only with 2 star plus weakness to it. If you ever watch jinx and tuna video they do the math and explain the best ones to use by the numbers but like they say in the video play how you want to. You don't have to go with the meta
Tip 2 - that was a new thing introduced in Iceborne, I remember it being talked about in previews from the beta and such.
1) I always release on the audio and visual queue of the second charge animation
2) noticed my TCS was sometimes lacking didn't know that the first bit dictated the extra damage
3) Ledge hopping feels great and I love how the wyvern ignition looks doing so.
4) I'm dreadful at getting the TCS off on time, but I always aim to clip with the first hit and get that mega damage blow on the monster as it recovers. Annoyingly they always seem to move just out for the hit.
5) Earplugs actually help damage uptime especially for an instant slinger knock out when you start a fight
6) Didn't know you could rush TCS with the slinger fire option, I just tackle
7) Tackle invun window is great, it helps to have the extra step closer to a monster
8) I read focus as "attack x% faster" and it's crucial
9) Masters touch is overkill. If sharpness is ever a worry just run true razor sharp amulet 🤷♂️ Purple sharp affects affinity modifier..your crits do a little more damage...but... I'd rather hit harder
10) I'm not mega end game and I apologize as I'm a DB main ATM. I play LBG LS GS DB and recently found love for the lance.
I want to remind great sword players that guarding exists...and it's good defensively but also having offensive guard isn't bad. Extra damage just for negating a big hit is a welcome addition to the extra half of a level 4 gem.
I actually didn’t know you could over charge until it came up in the loading menu
You didn't play older game do you ?
269h into the game and did NOT know you could overcharge the GS. D: Definitely explains some of the damage fluctuations that I attributed just to RNG.
so I noticed both the builds shared are not running part breaker. how would we best fit this in as it's important for both Guiding Lands and Safi Siege
Super helpful. Does shoulder charge count as a block?