Great Sword Overview

Posted by Yodi Dady on 09:18 with No comments

The Great Sword (大剣 Daiken), a classic weapon first introduced in Monster Hunter, is a weapon capable of dealing massive damage. Its way of use has changed since Monster Hunter 2, when it was given a charged attack. As a weapon which has its own depth of usage and requires a certain amount of training to be able to master and fully use, the Great Sword is not just any big pointy stick. It can also block with the R button, serving as a shield with slightly better protection than the Sword and Shield, as well as a fast-draw shielding ability activated by holding down the R button and then pressing triangle and circle. This shielding ability comes with a downfall, however, as each time you shield an attack the sword will lose sharpness. 

- Weapon Traits :

Great Swords require a certain amount of experience to wield properly and master. To a novice, they may seem very slow and unwieldy. However, in the hands of an experienced hunter, they can prove very useful with a very nice damage output. 

  • Great Swords provide hunters with shielding capabilities by pressing the 'R' button. The downside of this involves losing sharpness with each shielded attack; the amount of sharpness lost is thought to be the equivalent of a bounced attack. Carrying extra Whetstones is strongly advised.
  • The Vertical Slash can be 'quickdrawn'. This means that if you are walking or running and press Triangle, you will quickly attack with the vertical slash. This is the Great Sword's fastest attack.

  • The Vertical Slash can also be charged. Pressing and holding Triangle will begin this charge, which takes approximately 3-4 seconds to reach full power. The charge has three levels of increasing power, with the third having a high damage output capable of knocking down a monster in flight.

  • Due to the breadth of the Great Sword, its horizontal slash is useful for clearing small monsters. This can, however, be a hindrance in multiplayer quests as it can very easily hit fellow hunters.

  • The Upward Slash can literally send fellow hunters flying. Used properly, this can save a teammate from monsters' attacks. (They will not receive damage from this, and they will be invulnerable while in flight.)

  • The Great Sword has its own damage system based on the part of the blade that makes contact. The bottom and tip of the blade are weakest, while the center has the highest damage output.

  • All three slashing attacks can be chained together, but no two same slashes consecutively. For example, after slashing vertically (Triangle), either the horizontal (Circle) or the upward slash (Triangle+Circle) can be performed, but not the vertical slash. However, chaining an upward slash and a vertical slash causes a lengthy delay between each attack.

  • Hunters can roll forward or to the side after each attack, offering the option for hit and run tactics. This can be done to avoid the delays following each attack.

  • As with many other weapon types, watching the Great Sword's attacks will indicate a monster's weak points. If the slash flows cleanly through a monster, it is not a weak point. Conversely, if the slash seems to lag briefly upon contact, the point is weak.
  • With the Great Sword unsheathed, pressing SELECT will perform a quick frontal kick. This kick is much faster than its sheathed counterpart and is particularly useful for keeping pesky mobs at bay, such as the 'Preys.

  • In MH3, the Great Sword gained a new attack where in the hunter slaps the monster with the side of the blade, causing impact damage.
  • In MH4, the Great Sword gained a new attack where after a curved level 3 Slash or a ledge attack the hunter will do a powerful horizontal attack. The drawback, however, is that when the hunter does this move, you can NOT roll out of it.
  • The Great Sword also gained the ability to go from a side swipe to a curved level 3 slash. 
 - Pros and Cons :
  
Advantages


  • Extremely powerful
  • Can block
  • Can perform charged attacks
  • Long range
  • Sharpness is lost very slowly while attacking, so even a small bar of a level of sharpness can take a Great Sword a long time and lots of hits to drop to a lower level - thus higher damage can be dealt with the same amount of Sharpness compared to other weapon classes.
  • Can be drawn instantly to block monsters' attacks - this is referred to as Instant Guard in the game - and this can save the hunter's life.
  • Performing charge attacks will cause monsters to flinch more than any other weapon.

Disadvantages


  • Extremely slow
  • Takes tremendous skill and lots of practice to use and master its striking ranges.
  • Blocking reduces sharpness - a bit more than a bounced-off attack.
  • Takes great timing to unleash its powerful attacks. 
     

- Tutorial for Beginner Hunter (by GaijinHunter / @aevanko)

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