u/SuperSathanas

I like wide shelling. Normal and long are fine, and fit some hunts better than wide, but overall, I get the most fun out of playing wide. At least in WorldBorne, 3U, GU, and Now.

In RiseBreak, though, I feel like wide keeps coming up lacking in terms of DPS and being able to even really keep up with the monsters. I'm just barely into MR4 on this playthrough of RB, and even though I really want to keep maining GL, I keep finding myself picking up the Narga LBG simply because GL hasn't been feeling very gunlance-y, and because RFP2 is just keeping up DPS way better than GL, so I opt to use that over GL when farming up mats for decos.

Now, I'm not necessarily looking to be meta with GL. I'm just looking to have fun with it without feeling like I'm doing no damage.

I couldn't even tell you what my build is exactly off the top of my head, but I do know that I at least have

• Load Shells 2
• Artillery 3
• Guard 5
• Guard Up 3
• Quick Sheath 2 (or maybe 3)

For my switch skills, I'm using

• Blast Dash
• Guard Reload
• Guard Edge
• Erupting Canon
• Ground Splitter

During hunts, I'm doing the typical wide shelling poke->shell, but then also spamming Guard Edge->Erupting Canon as often as possible both to get EC out as often as possible and to recover some sharpness, and using Guard Reload to keep the EC loaded. I'm using Ground Splitter for closing distances, buffing melee damage, and also firing off EC. Blast Dash serves also most the same purpose as Ground Splitter in terms of closing distances and being able to burst->EC, but it also doesn't have to leave me vulnerable at the end like Ground Splitter.

Bullet barrage doesn't seem to be super useful with wide shelling. It leaves you vulnerable for too long at the start and end of it, and the lower shell count and wyvern's fire damage don't seem worth it. Definitely better for long shelling.

Because I'm doing very few bursts and not relying on wyvern's fire, I'm also basically just ignoring Hail Cutter.

Reverse Blast just seems like a worse option for wide shelling compared to Ground Splitter or blast dash. It gives you mobility and can hit with that initial shell, but doesn't present to opportunity to combo right into EC easily or give a buff.

Charged shelling isn't even a consideration.

I'll try to sum up my complaints with GL as succinctly as possible, but we'll see how it goes.

With Rise being faster than the previous games, with more aggressive monsters and more options for the hunter to stay mobile and aggressive, it feels like GL attempted to keep the slow but hard hitting nature but in all the wrong ways. You get all these skills that allow you close distances quickly and remain mobile, but the animations and cooldowns seem to just linger on forever, leaving you vulnerable. Ground Splitter leaves you unable to do anything for long while at the end of it's animation, Guard Reload is slow but is vulnerable to multi-hit attacks from monsters, the wyrmstake takes a little bit to come out and then the animation takes forever to stop, etc...

Which is why I settled into spamming Guard Edge->Erupting Canon. Guard Edge comes out quick and can handle multi-hit combos, and then allows you to transition right into EC, which you can recover from quickly. But you still need to reload for EC, so you're still constantly going into the GR animation. Foregoing GR just means that you have to go out of your way to make sure that you don't "combo" into your quick reload, which is essentially just purposefully tanking your DPS.

It's not hard to learn when you should or shouldn't reload when using Guard Reload, but if you don't have a good window to do it, you're essentially just limited to some pokes and some upward swings. Since you know you're going to be using some pokes and swings, you want that Ground Splitter buff, but we've already mentioned that leaves you vulnerable at the end of it's animation. If you're waiting for an opportunity to reload because you're out of shells, then instead of being able to close the distance with a Blast Dash, you're now going to do your slow Guard Reload and then take the time to close the distance.

I don't know. The wide GL just feels lopsided. You can be fast, but then you need to slow way down if you want to keep up the damage and keep your shells loaded. You can go the slap lance route, but it just seems harder than in previous games to actually be able to do anything other than poke or get out a rising slash, and if you want that melee buff, you still need to be slowed down by Ground Splitter. The game wants you to go fast, but then forces you to slow back down. I'm fine with GL being a slower weapon. It just doesn't feel like it meshes very well with RiseBreak overall.

So what the hell am I doing wrong with wide GL here?

Edit: I guess Heaven-Sent would make wide GL with EC spam more fluid and less vulnerable, but it's not available until MR6.

2016 Nissan Altima S
178,000 Miles
QR25DE 2.5L I4 Engine
XTronic CVT which somehow hasn't failed yet

I know it's hard to resist the urge to say "shitty Nissan CVT is failing" before reading anything else and move on with your day, but for once I think the shitty Nissan CVT is innocent.

Anyway, as the title states, after being driven for a little while, usually about 15-20 minutes, the car will start to hesitate to accelerate from a full stop intermittently. Once it starts doing it, it'll happen more often than not after coming to a stop, but sometimes it'll also accelerate just fine.

If the car doesn't come to a complete stop, it won't hesitate upon trying to accelerate.

The length of time it hesitates seems to be pretty consistently about 2 seconds. Throttle position doesn't seem to matter. You can either gently start depressing the pedal, push it to the floor, pulse it, whatever, and it doesn't affect how long it hesitates for.

Engine speed doesn't change during hesitation and so also isn't affected by throttle position. Once it's decided it's done fucking around, it'll start revving up and accelerating normally. It doesn't jerk, surge, sputter, or do anything else abnormal once it stops hesitating. It just finally decides to go.

It will idle forward while it's in its hesitation mood, but not as much as when it's not being stubborn. You can tell pretty much as soon as you take your foot off of the brake whether or not it's going to hesitate based on how fast it idles forward.

Engine speed at idle isn't any different than normal when the car decides to start hesitating. It seems like once you do get going, power and throttle response are also still the same as normal. I can't identify any other kind of behavior that comes along with the hesitation or that would indicate that it's about to start doing it. It'll just decide to hesitate from a stop, and it'll idle forward more slowly even at the same engine speed as when it isn't hesitating.

I've tried playing around with just shifting it into and out of park, neutral, and the useless sport mode while stopped to see if that'll affect whether or not it hesitates, and it doesn't. Driving in rev-higher-for-no-benefit mode doesn't seem to have any different effect than staying in regular drive. Turning the car off and back on doesn't have an effect on it. It'll have to sit for a while and cool back down before it'll stop hesitating.

Unfortunately, I haven't noticed or tested whether it hesitates in reverse.

I've cleaned the throttle body out a few times, most recently about a month ago, and made sure that it seems to respond correctly to throttle input. Also unfortunately, though, I haven't watched the value after it's started hesitating.

The MAF sensor is the original, but so far as I can tell, it's functioning normally. Also, I totally just disconnected the MAF one day when it was cold and drove it around for like 20-30 minutes, and aside from the engine obviously running rough due to no MAF data, the behavior was the same in that it started hesitating after being driven around for a while. Also the engine air filter is new-ish and not visibly dirty. I don't think it's an airflow issue.

Any ideas what the cause of the hesitation could be? I probably have more info in my brain that I'm just not recalling right now while half-awake if anything else is needed.

Intro/Preface (feel free to skip)

I got the GuHong Pro+ MagLev as my second cube, my first being a MoYu Super RS3M 2022 Standard. Since then, I've only acquired 2 more cubes, a QiYi M Pro V2 Pioneer and a MoYu RS3M V5 Ball-core UV, both of which I've written reviews for here. I wrote those reviews within days of receiving the cubes, because I felt like I was able to "get to know" them pretty quickly after getting them setup and doing several hundred solves with them.

I've been meaning to review the GuHong Pro+ MagLev for a couple months, but kept putting it off. One reason I've been hesitating was because I felt like the cube wasn't as "straight-forward" as the other 2, making it take longer to actually get familiar and "mesh" with it.

Another reason was that I thought because I'd have more to say about the GuHong, I should probably have more experience with other cubes so that a wider perspective could aid me in putting my thoughts together and allow me to make more meaningful comparisons. It's all well and good to say that a cube is "fast" or "stable", but without the context of a wider perspective, what does that mean?

The M Pro V2 and RS3M V5 were easy to review, because I felt like their defining features were things that really anyone with any level or skill or amount of cubing experience could understand. I thought the M Pro V2 sucked because of it's frustratingly inconsistent turning feel, and that the RS3M V5 was a good, comfy and lock-up-free cube out of the box with a shallow range of feel achievable through adjustments.

I can't describe the GuHong Pro+ MagLev so succinctly, so expect me to get even more wordy than I already have been. Also, I totally haven't tried out any more cubes yet, so to hell with perspective, I guess.

What's in the box?

• The cube
• Adjustment system informational pamphlet
• Small flathead screwdriver

Features

• Maglev
• Dual adjustment dial system
  • Tension: 1-8
  • Compression/center travel: 6-1 (6 being the loosest)
• Adjustable 5 setting corner-to-core magnets
• 8 magnet ball-core
• Empty slots for additional edge-to-core magnets
• Single track design
• Wavy friction surface pattern
• Glossy finish

Out of the Box

The cube came out of the box wrapped in the typical tight plastic wrapping that you get on many other cubes. Once the plastic was removed, the first thing I noticed was that the cube was drenched in lube from the factory, as in it was wet to the touch. While researching the ZhanChi and TengYun, I saw posts as far back as 2011 complaining about the amount of lube the cubes had from the factory. I guess DaYan has kept their commitment to saving you from dry cubes over the years. This was some kind of very thin silicone lube. I had to wipe it down before I could use it.

Also, while trying to wipe away the excess lube on the outside, I totally dropped the thing right on my hard kitchen floor because while holding one side face the rest of the cube was able to rotate under it's own weight. Needless to say, the cube turns very easily... especially when it's well lubed.

The GuHong felt more heavy and "solid" than I was used to with the Super RS3M. It definitely felt higher quality than the $10 budget cube.

After a good wipe down, no adjustments, I started doing a few solves with it. Coming from the Super RS3M Standard, I could not control the GuHong with it's factory adjustments. It comes with all 3 adjustments set to their loosest/weakest, and this made the cube pretty fast and unstable. I was blown away by how effortless the turns felt and how the faces seemed to just glide into alignment with a slight spring at the end, but my slow and inexperienced self just couldn't keep up with the cube. It wanted to go faster than I was able to.

Naturally, the next thing I did was tighten down the adjustments.

Adjustment Systems

The GuHong Pro+ has a dual adjustment system under the center caps for your tension and center travel, as well as adjustable corner-to-core magnets.

First, I'll talk on the dual adjustment system.

The dual adjustment system is essentially 2 dials that uses a sort of cup that has the tension setting numbers on the outside rim and 2 protrusion used to turn it, a disk/ring that sits inside of it with the center travel setting numbers on it's outside, and a locking piece that goes in the center of the disk/ring. When they're all together, they go over the center stalk, the locking piece is twisted counter clockwise, and everything should be kept in place. The tension cup/dial part also has magnets in it that repel a magnet at the bottom of the center piece, which makes up the maglev system.

Turn the entire dial adjustment assembly counter-clockwise using the little protrusions to adjust tension, and turn it clockwise to adjust compression/center travel.

It's an alright system, but there are 2 things I don't like about it.

1. I prefer a screw to a dial for tension, because it allows for finer control over the adjustment. Also, combined with 8 predefined tension settings, the magnetic nature of the system makes adjustments less linear than a spring system, making adjustments feel like bigger jumps in feel and performance the tighter you get. The difference between the 6 compression settings don't bother me as much. It can just a little tricky trying to dial in your preferred tension.
2. The whole dual adjustment system can come unlocked if accidentally depress the locking piece while turning things clockwise for tension, and they tend to come unlocked when you disassemble the cube for cleaning and the center pieces are allowed to be pulled close to the core. If you adjust the settings or disassemble the cube, always make sure you check all 6 locking pieces unless you like your cube falling apart mid-solve and having to hunt down little plastic pieces of the adjustment system when they go shooting out of the center pieces. The magnets are decently strong in there, and the pieces can get some distance when things come apart.

Now for the corner-to-core magnets.

These guys are decently strong. Even at their weakest setting, they still assist in aligning the cube really well. On weaker settings, you get more of a smooth glide into alignment followed up with a little bit of a springy settling into place. I think just flicking Us over and over when everything is loose is satisfying just seeing and feeling the face spring a little bit at the end.

At their strongest 5 out of 5 setting, you get faces that snap into place and good bit of initial turning resistance. It's not a ton of resistance, but it's there. When turning, it feels like the layer or face will resist, then finally give in to the turn before being pulled into alignment. You're not doing single pull or flick U2s at this setting. Again, there is some resistance, but it's not really that much. It might initially feel like it compared to how effortless the rest of the turn seems to go, though. It's very snappy.

My only real complaint here is the similar to my complaint with the dual adjustment system in that adjustments aren't very linear due to the magnet nature of the system, and so while going from 1 to 3 might not feel like too much of a change, going from 3 to 4 will be noticeable, and going from 4 to 5 will definitely be noticeable. That might make it hard to find a sweet spot in turning feel.

Overall Feel and Performance

For context, my usual setup is

• Tension: 1-3 out of 8
• Compression: 1 out of 6
• Corner-to-core: 5 out of 5
• Cubicle Weight 1 or GAN 1 on the tracks
• A little Cubicle Weight 1 or GAN 1 plus a little GAN 2 on the pieces

The GuHong Pro+ MagLev is a pretty low friction cube. I feel like it has noticeably less friction than the RS3M V5 Ball-core UV. When properly lubed, there's no scratchiness or friction noises to speak of, but the cube is very "clacky". It's not the most quiet cube.

It's glossy finish is nothing to complain about, but also nothing to praise. It's there. It's not super grippy, but it's also not slippery.

Out of the box, at it's loosest settings and with the thin silicone lube, it felt effortless to turn and the layers would just glide. As I said above, it turned so easily that when I gripped just one side layer of the cube, the other 2 layers were able to turn under their own weight. However, at it's loosest settings, it's also decently unstable and is prone to lock-ups and twisted corners if your turning is sloppy or too forceful.

Turning up the corner-to-core magnets settings can help everything feel more stable without slowing things down too much. Tightening up the tension a few clicks can go a long way toward to helping stability without losing much speed. I feel like tightening up the compression really only serves to slow the cube down. But, even at the highest/tightest settings, the cube remains pretty easy to turn and still auto-aligns really well.

At really any adjustment setting, the cube feels pretty blocky. The corner cutting is alright, but I wouldn't expect too much. Tightening down the tension has a pretty severe effect on your ability to corner cut. Really, anything passed a 3 out of 8 on the tension and you may as well forget being able to corner cut effectively. Contrast that with the RS3M V5 which I feel has great corner cutting at loose tension, and is still able to do it decently well even at tight tension.

All that being said, I feel like this is still a decently fast cube that feels pretty good to turn. The strong auto-alignment and blocky nature of the cube makes it feel pretty tactile, like it's giving you feedback on your turns. You know when a turn is finished. It has that bit of initial turning resistance from the corner-to-core magnets, but it doesn't feel tiring or like you're fighting the cube. Compared to my other cubes, including the RS3M V5, it feels easier to do longer sessions with. It's weird, because it feels heavier, it feels beefier and blockier, it feels like there's more turn initial turn resistance, but almost paradoxically remains smooth and almost effortless. It doesn't feel light and airy, it just feels easy...

... but it will still punish you for sloppy turning. Going from a more forgiving cube to the GuHong can require a little getting used to.

Build Quality/Durability

I don't have much to say here.

I've dropped the thing like 20 times right onto hard floors, and have dropped in on my kitchen counter where it then rolled over to and into the sink. I don't see or feel any signs of actual damage. The pieces haven't separated, I see no cracks or chips in the pieces, the core and the stalks seem completely fine. I'm sure one day I'll drop it one too many times and break it, but for now, it's handling all the abuse my clumsy ass can throw at it.

The glossy finish does seem prone to collecting a lot of tiny scratches, though. I mean, me dropping it constantly doesn't help that at all. I'm sure I'd see similar scratching on a UV coating. The RS3M V5 would probably have many cracks and large chips in it by now if I were using it as my main.

Don't throw it at a wall and I think it should hold up well for a long while.

Final Verdict

This is a good cube. I love this cube. Granted, I don't own many cubes, but still. It's fast enough, low friction, it has 3 ways to adjust it's feel and performance, even if you don't have fine control over it like I would prefer, it offers a wide range of feel through those adjustments, and it can handle being dropped on the floor a lot.

If you're a newer cuber with limited experience with other cubes, I see no reason not to give it a try.

If you like cubes that can be fast and loose and don't mind strong auto-alignment, I'd say go for it.

If you like lighter feeling, more comfy and soft feeling cubes, or don't like blocky cubes, maybe skip this one.

If you rely on corner cutting a lot, you may also want to look elsewhere.

Overall, though, for it's price point, I think it's a really strong option.

This is probably the most unnecessary review that I could possibly do, considering the popularity and reputation of the V5 combined with it's seeming lack of hype, but I'm going to do it anyway. I got mine in the mail on Monday. I set aside my GuHong Pro+ MagLev and spent 4 afternoons/evenings with the V5, doing something approaching 1,000 solves with it, about half of them timed. By this point, I think I have a pretty good feel for what the cube is, and so I want to bother you all by passing along my experience with this cube as a barely sub-30 cuber with only 3 other cubes.

Features

• MagLev
• 56 Magnet - Ball-core
  • 48 Edge-corner
  • 8 Corner-core
• Dual adjustment system
  • Screw adjustable tension
  • 9 setting click/dial compression
• UV coating
• Dragon scale friction surface pattern

Pros

• Screw adjustment for tension allows for you to dial in a more precise feel/performance than fixed dial systems.
• Easy 45 degree corner cutting with looser tension.
• Retains stability with loose tension.
• Decent auto-alignment.
• Minimal initial turning resistance.
• Very consistent feeling with looser compression.
• Tolerant of overlubing.

Cons

• Tightening the compression beyond the first couple settings slows the cube down a lot, giving you little freedom in feel and making the tighter settings seem unnecessary.
• Not very tactile/not a lot of feed back. Turns feel very "bleh", or possibly "ehhhh".
• Turns feel and sound scratchy even after lubing and warming it up.
• Feels fragile.
• Corner-core magnets are not adjustable.

Out of the Box

The V5 arrived bone-dry, which I guess makes sense considering it was inside of it's little robot display case and without any further plastic wrapping around the cube. You probably don't want a bunch of lube getting inside the robot on it's trip from the factory to your home. My first impression of it after taking it out of the robot and immediately spamming a bunch of sexies on all of the faces was that it felt pretty light. I got my Super RS3M 2022 Standard and GuHong Pro+ MagLev to try to compare their weight against the V5, and just holding them in my hand, they all feel right about the same, which is backed up by their listed weights all falling within a 2-3 gram range. Somehow, the V5 just manages to feel lighter, even when not turning.

It turned decently well even with no lube, with the auto-alignment still managing to do it's job most of the time. Being completely dry, it was unacceptably scratchy. The cube felt pretty stable, but turns didn't feel very satisfying.

I took a look under the center caps and all faces had their compression set to it's loosest setting. Attempting some forward corner cutting on all faces gave some poor and uneven results, but that really just comes down to the factory tension adjustments and tension being adjusted via screw rather than a dial.

Setup

After several minutes of playing with the thing, of course the first thing I did was put some lube in it. I used Cubicle Weight 1 on the tracks and corner feet, and GAN 2 on the friction surfaces. Being bone-dry, I used about twice as much as I normally would on my other cubes, then spammed a bunch of random triggers and algorithms from every rotation for a few minutes and then did about 2 dozen solves. It still felt pretty scratchy/friction-y, so I dropped more Weight 1 and GAN 2 in it. Now, the cube felt like it was lubed enough, as was evidenced by the lube getting all over my fingers while solving. The good news here is that over-lubing didn't result in the cube becoming gummy as is the case with some other cubes, like my Super RS3M 2022, which just refuses to act right if you add just a bit too much lube to it. The bad new is that it still sounded and felt pretty scratchy, it was just a smoother scratch with less turning resistance.

Next, I did what I always do when doing a whole setup on my cubes, and adjusted the tension to the point that 45° forward corner cutting was easy to do. Usually, I end up tightening the compression back down because this results in the cube being too lose and becoming unstable. However, with the V5, it remained stable during solves. Out of curiosity, loosed the tension up another half-turn of the screws. The cube did loosen up slightly, but still felt decently stable. Another half-turn now made the cube feel too loose, so I tightened it back down a half-turn. Loosening the tension of course also helped with some of the scratch and friction resistance, and helped the magnets auto-align a little better. At this point, the faces turned pretty effortlessly and I wasn't having any issues with alignment or lockups. It still didn't feel satisfying at all to turn, but it was definitely performant.

Then it was on to playing with the compression. With the Super RS3M, I can tolerate it's compression set to anywhere from 1 to 6 out 9, so I decided to set the V5's to 3 out of 9. For me, this was a mistake. This immediately made the cube feel way tighter and the auto-alignment suffered for it a lot. Even loosening up the tension some didn't help this much and only resulted in the cube feeling too tight and unstable. Combined with how the cube still managed to feel light and airy, it now had a weird mixture of having too much resistance yet retaining a floaty feel, like a smooth sluggishness. It felt ambiguous. Loosening the compression to 2 out of 9 helped, but it still felt like there was too much resistance, so back to 1 it was. I don't think I'll ever tighten the compression on this cube again.

It was at this point that I noticed that 3 of the 8 corners had face pieces that didn't fit together quite right. There are gaps at the tip of the corner that can't be corrected by pushing the face pieces in tighter. And I didn't want to try pushing too hard because of how brittle and fragile the cube feels. I'm 100% sure that if I ever drop this cube (which I will), that I'll end up with the chipped corners that it has a reputation for.

After Break-in and Conclusion

After spending 4 days with the V5 Ball-core, I have to say that it's a pretty decent cube. It's fast enough, the auto-alignment works pretty well with looser tension and compression, it doesn't become unstable with any reasonable tension loosening, the corner cutting isn't anything to complain about, and after almost 1000 solves, it's yet to lock up on me.

It feels light and airy and has little resistance, making for easy turns that won't fatigue your hands/writs/forearms after prolonged cubing sessions. However, it just doesn't feel good to turn. I mean, it doesn't feel bad, but it's like the feel of the cube is just missing something. I wish the corner-core magnets were either stronger or were adjustable so that you could get some kind of a snap or spring out of the auto-alignment and possibly get a heavier feel out of the turns. There's just no feedback or real tactile sensation from the cube, making it feel more like a non-magnetic cube but with the performance of a magnetic one. It just feels off to me.

The persistent scratchy sound and feeling bugs me, and that may be solved with a heavier lube, but I fear that would result in that ambiguous sluggish feeling that I got from tightening the compression, but possibly with a more cushiony feel, which I don't think would serve this cube well.

I feel like the adjustable compression is more or less wasted, at least if you're not interested in slowing the cube down much. On all of my other cubes, the difference in feel as you adjust the compression is much more linear and is more gradual. Here, tightening the compression just ruined what the cube already had going for it.

The cube does feel pretty brittle or fragile, and combined with how the corner's face pieces don't fit together quite right and it's reputation for chipped corners, I think it's inevitable that I'm going to break this cube in some manner. I got this cube for about $8, but considering that it normally goes for about $25, I think that's kind of unacceptable. I got my GuHong Pro+ MagLev at full price for $18, I've dropped it directly on hard floors at least a dozen times, and there is no hint of visible damage on the thing.

I think it should be obvious that I prefer a blockier, more tactile cube, which is why my GuHong Pro+ will remain my main cube, but that doesn't mean that I dislike this cube. I have my complaints about it, but I also have my complaints about the GuHong. I don't feel like my solves suffer from using this cube instead of the GuHong. I don't feel the urge to put it down and pick up the GuHong during cubing sessions with the V5, but when I do pick up the GuHong after using the V5, I have a better cubing experience.

I have one more weird thing to say before I finally end this.

I have a QiYi M Pro V2 Pioneer which I do not like. It is scratchy, the auto-alignment sucks and is inconsistent, it feels loose and unstable, and it likes to lock up too often. Great corner cutting, though. I've been considering trying to mod it in some way to make it feel more stable/controlled and consistent, and the V5 Ball-core feels mostly like what I want to the M Pro V2 to feel more like.

Do I Recommend It?

At full price? No, and that mostly comes down to the build quality. I don't see this cube lasting that long. It'll take a drop or a hard bump at some point and give me some chipped corners, and I feel like the plastic face pieces are going to warp and crack just with the finger pressure of normal use. If you'd otherwise like the sort of feel and performance that this cube offers, you can most likely get that from another cube at a lower price.

At a discount? Do it. It's not a bad cube. If I consider my GuHong Pro+ to be a 10/10, then I'll call the V5 Ball-core a solid 8/10. It may not be able to offer a wide range of feel, but at looser settings, it does offer very easy turning, decent alignment, good corner cutting, good stability and apparently very little lockup. I'm sure I'll experience more lockups with it as I get faster, but right now, at sub-30, it's not locking up on me at all.