Wanted to get a sub-5, but the way this run ended really sapped my motivation (recorded this a couple days ago).
Shoutout and thanks to せた for his neat A2 topple punish: czcams.com/video/iJiFP9X-H-A/video.html
Theoretically 4'3x is achievable but the grind for it would be silly. It's near impossible get a 2'0x A1 (when she starts melting the wall) and even a sub-2'20 A1 is rare since an unlucky move or KT hugging a wall will set you behind pace like in this run. A fast A2 + 3 will be around 2'35 (at most 2'40), so you need a 2'20 A1 to have a good chance at a sub-5 run. If you get extremely lucky, you may be able to get away with a 2'30 A1.
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A few tips for people looking to run her with TA wiki IG:
A1
- Mostly comes down to luck. Of course, you should perfect the punishes for each move and there's some positional baiting, but it's really up to KT whether you'll have a 2'10 A1 or a 2'40 A1.
- Keep track of the tenderized forearm threshold (you get a feel for it once you run her several times). One reason is you want to prepare the leg topple immediately at the start of A2, the other reason is that I've found it's a good way to keep track of when to get orange extract - when you think she's going to clagger after the next punish on her tenderized leg, get orange.
- The tenderized leg (once exposed) takes a bit over two full DT + tornado punishes to reach the threshold, so a good DT punish with drill plus a ground combo or two should get it prepped for a topple at the start of A2.
- She has a tendency to "overstay" in A1 (i.e. you've done enough damage to get her to move to A2, but she continues spamming attack chains anyways). It's important to stay close when you think she's close to moving. I've found that if you're under her chest during an attack chain, she's likely to follow up with a headbutt which will never chain into another attack if she's ready to move, which may save you precious seconds in A1.
A2
- Clutch onto the right side of her head and immediately enrage her once she reaches A2 and tenderize chest; get the leg topple immediately after.
- Optimized head punish on the topple should get you around halfway through A2; the rest depends on good AI.
- However, you can bait all her favorable moves in A2: stand just in front of her front legs, either under/in front of her head or a bit to the side is fine as well. This often baits her triple head slam (really good), charge into turn around (really good), standing paw slam (really good), or paw swipe (not good but allows you to continue baiting). Bait 2-3 triple head slams/charges/paw slams and that's enough to break the horns. She should move to A3 within one move after the horns break.
- It's important to break the horns in A2 - it signifies that you maximized your punishes on the head and it allows you to set up for the head topple in A3. If the horns are still on in A3, you often have situations where the head topple comes right before the horns break and so you either hit the horns once and it cancels the topple due to them breaking or you hit the chest and deal way less damage.
A3
- Tenderize tail and do one attack to get her to enrage quickly. If you get lucky with crits or if latent power is still active, she'll enrage just from tenderizing the tail.
- After enrage animation, respond to her first attack then try to bait good moves like in A2. Triple head slam spam is the dream, but charge and leaping belly flop are also very good; sideways body slam is okay, tail swipe is okay (you can position with your vault so that the end of the tail pushes you towards her head as you DT).
- For leaping belly flop, get some distance and vault + DT on her head as she comes down (there's no hitbox on the move above her head). See 5'10 #2 below for an example.
- Focusing damage on the head should get you a head topple pretty quickly (3-4 moves). She should die soon after the head topple ends (or during it).
I had like 30+ runs in the 5'1x range, here's a couple of the ones I recorded that show some different situations:
5'26: czcams.com/video/B9Q2GHzc4sY/video.html
5'14: czcams.com/video/fq5umgh5fpM/video.html
5'10 #1: czcams.com/video/FprzSV8JfyM/video.html
5'10 #2: czcams.com/video/YLTFH5xttOk/video.html
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Mods used:
Felyne Meal Editor: www.nexusmods.com/monsterhunterworld/mods/1094
Behemoth Damage Numbers: www.nexusmods.com/monsterhunterworld/mods/5339
MHW IB PC, Ver. 15.21.00