u/ronin0397

I've been sitting on this one for a while. I didn't know how to articulate why I didn't like time attacking as a whole until I went and play other games to complete my persepctive. Warframe, rise (again), pal world, etc.

1. Its purely just an ego stroke.

Time attackers kinda treat the game like an esport. But there is no medal or reward other than 'thats a good run' type comments. Unless they are streaming or posting regularly to be monetized, the clout of a good run doesn't really matter since a majority of players don't particularly care about time attacking. Generally the people who do care about time attacking are the ones who can solo all of the content and /or appreciate top level gameplay, which is a minority of the community anyways and time attackers are a smaller minority of that population. A discouraging part is that most runs take 20+ runs to get everything nice and perfect. It actually becomes the expectation rather than something to be impressed by after the 50th run on arkveld or gog to get a fast time. Imo time attackers act and are somehow better than the rest of the community for 'pushing through where others didn't' and their word is law cuz of the effort associated with a time attack mixing with the lack of recognition unless they plug and self promote, creating the 'my time is better than yours, so you have to listen to me' attitude.

2. Its a miserable way to play the game.

You aren't making any progress on gear or awards since you are likely on a hyper optimized build for the matchup and have more than enough know how to have the game completed. (It would be a different story if the goal is to get a really fast average for farming purposes but most time attackers reset after one or two flubs). You play alone and just record your runs to verify that you aren't cheating. (Its a separate issue).

Its basically wringing dry the remaining content of a given game after all of it has been done (guild card, crowns etc) and the player insists there is more to do by time attacking a monster 100 times each. The healthiest thing to do after 100% guild card and beating the content is to put the game down for the library of games is vast. In that regard, time attacking as a mode of play is unhealthy. It doubles down on the addiction that monster hunter fosters. I liken time attackers to going to level cap in warframe. There is a defined way to play and its just a matter of sloughing through it to get the result you want. If all of monster hunter or warframe was consisted of these time sink game modes, I'd quit both communities tomorrow. Capcom and de have the foresight to not centralize the game around the minority to retain its audience because the fun of mh and warframe are the grinds of improving your builds and fighting stronger enemies. You simply can't do that as a time attackers or level capper since you stand at the top of the mountain in perfect gear and are lowkey bullying the enemies until they cooperate for the camera.

3. The TA meta build definition: there is no value in a skill unless it somehow contributes to damage.

Damage is the name of the meta and time attacking game. Thats true for pretty much any game where you have to kill stuff. But time attackers run some questionable stuff to us mere mortal folk. It is not until we see the good hunt time and execution of the strat that we go and say 'oh I get it'.

I view meta in an admittedly odd sense.

Meta = value + context

Wanna run an element build? Burst, element boost and coal engine are an absolute must, Wanna run a raw build? Crit boost + affinity + agitator/attack boost are standard. Wanna strike that middle of defense and damage? Guard up for blocking weapons and AT sets for damage with a focus sash effect. In the same way that time attackers tailor their build to a given mon, the 'meta' of mh is diverse enough to support a build that tailors to a player's preferences. Damage isn't the only thing that holds value in the game and a set isn't bad because its not 100% dps investing. Trading off say 40 points of damage per combo loop for better survivability via something like guard up is 100% a viable choice in build design(post tu4). When the combo loop is doing 2000 damage on an ideal hitzone for example, its asinine to assert that dropping 2% of damage to not get deleted by guard chip is a wrong decision or somehow makes the builds shit. And of course, you pick the best of the respective categories for damage, utility/function and defense skills for your weapon.

4. Modding/cheating normalization

A few too many time attackers have been vocal about modding in perfect gear to 'skip the grind.' The only reason to boot up monster hunter is to grind for shit. The journey to perfection is the point of playing the game. Just because they wanna skip to endgame, they hack In stuff that most people spend literal months for.

At no point am I inclined to trust a run if they say it has modded gear because the cornerstone of time attacking is integrity. A run with modded gear in it has no integrity. While I disagree with playing with the mode, I respect time attackers for slogging through runs to show us some pristine gameplay. The entire grind to perfect gear + grind for a perfect run is what makes a time attacker. Imo its an insult to the devs, and time attackers who play legit when a hacker calls themselves time attackers. Time attacking is literally gatekept by meta, legally obtained times, and a community with integrity. Most of the cheating scandals were caused by mods and cheaters while legit players were sniffing them out and calling bs.

The centralization of getting the fastest time and thus the recognition is the source of this problem. You need to be first in line to post your good runs before the others do, especially when a new game releases. -> hacking/ modding spiked.

Pin this so we can see if my take ages like milk.

The boost bracers looks really good on paper for charge blade: an effective speed boost on attack animations like rapid morph, gain access to new super moves, and even access to boosting regular inputs like perfect guard (as shown by the gunlance).

So here is what can be confirmed on the mechanic:

1. Your hunter attacks faster.
2. You gain moves that are flashy like sbas
3. Your regular inputs benefit from the mechanic.

Speculation: The rev animation indicates a sort of duration/cool down mechanic, so it might have a wirebug like maintenance system.

What does this mean?

It is a unilateral buff to the move pool. Aed loop gets more consistent cuz buzz saw go brrr, but saed gets more reliable as well cuz your animations speed up. Based on how fast the slowest weapon in the game is moving, Charge blade will be two notches faster on our hardest committing input.

Rapid morph stonks only get stronger cuz it is one of the few attack speed boosts in the game, and its slapped on the 2 morphing weapons for the meta reasons.

The gs move looks kinda like a reworked version of strong-arm stance, so I have 0 doubts that the super moves will take some kind of inspiration from previous flashy moves. If they bring back cpp, its all over for balance. The sbas of rise were more defensive/utility focused in nature, so they would have to go to axe hopper, energy blade, or ripper shield if these flashy moves are designed to be offensive moves.

The rest of the speculation depends on if revving the bracers can be combod into, how long the duration lasts, if there's a cool down, and the actual new moves being added to charge blade. Just the concept of a speed boost is already enough to make the mechanic synergize with charge blade. The other stuff is just gravy on top.

A potentially quick question: is the roll chance for gog reinforcements (atk, ele, affinity, sharpness/ammo) the same as with artians?

Im poking around at the rng of endgames and this was the only one i couldnt find a hard answer for. Im not the best at probability calcs either, so i wasnt going to trust my free hand calcs.