Monster Hunter 3 Ultimate

I've played Tri, and I've fooled around with the new weapon classes a bit, and I'm starting to get concerned over which weapon class I'll stick with.

In Tri I mainly played with Hammer, because I liked the big damage, the relatively unique ability to KO, and the hit-and-run style of gameplay. To contrast, I was absolutely terrible at Lance, and sometimes okay at switchaxe (Although not for serious runs).

I played through with hammer first to get a handle of it, then tried some other ones - dual swords seemed good but I feel like they'll just do rather underwhelming damage (Although lots of hits for statuses), hunting horn I was too busy focusing on my stupid songs for to pay attention to the attacks, but I did alright, I ran out of time on Bow, and I slaughtered it in no time flat with the gunlance.

I got hit a lot as gunlance - I hate not being able to sidestep, and only seemed to be able to hop backwards, which made the lagombi's stupid snowball attack a REALLY difficult affair to dodge, especially since I moved slow, but the shelling, the big-shelling after the superpound, and the wyvern's fire were all very fun to use, and if I remember correctly, all fo the gunlance's hits do a ton of damage anyway.

I've also heard that the hunting horn is as powerful (if not moreso) than the Hammer, which almsot depresses me since it makes me feel as though the hammer is falling behind. Wouldn't it depend on the monster in question? Something that's slower or more stationary like a leviathan, as opposed to something particularly quick like a diablos or barioth or what-have-you would be better for a hunting horn, whereas the few hits you'll land with a hammer are more useful on big monsters?

I don't know, and I'm curious to see people's honest opinions on the weapons.
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I keep using Item Rover with Colette - even when I took the item already. Just plain cute watching her strip like that."- Chaos Angel V

Hammer have always been one of the best weapons in terms of Speed Runs so there's no worries there.

GL are cool, I really like their combos but you definitely have to get used to the lowered mobility compared to Lance (as you noticed lol)

all in all, just try everything and use whatever it is you like and feel comfortable with. every weap class can kill every monster anyway
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PSN: XRagnarokRiderX
Currently Playing: MHP3rd, BO2, Borderlands 2, and Pokemon W2

A bit of practice is all it takes. If you really want to use a Gunlance, I know a few tips:

-Gunlance CAN sidestep, but only in the middle of a combo.
-Alternatively, you can sidestep by backstepping. It takes a bit of practice but it's not very hard to spin the stick so that your Hunter's back faces the left or the right and quickly hit B to backstep.
-You can sort of double backstep. The recovery time for backstepping is nearly non-existent, so if you use the above trick, you can tap the backstep twice to quickly move out of a monster's range.
-But most importantly, the Gunlance and Lance aren't made to dodge, they're made to tank. Mastering either weapons requires you to know how to dodge what you can't block and know what you can block without having your guard broken. IE: Sometimes instead of trying to evade or block a Rathian charge attack, all you need to do is move far enough to the side so she'll clip you, and hold up your shield to block that damage with minimal stamina loss.

As far as Hunting Horns, go they're a tad tricky. I haven't played with them much with their new balanced stats, but it seems like you really have to be thinking when you attack. You have to have in mind the song you want when you attack and make sure you use the right attacks to make the song. Basically, you can't focus solely on attacking or you'll never get the full use of it and if you focus too much on making the song, you'll get hit too much.