The Official Monster Hunter 3 Ultimate Topic

Spoiler

Weapon Pros/Cons, Dos/Donts

Below is each individual weapon type's pros, cons, do's and don'ts based on my experience and opinion. Others may disagree with them, however I've been playing Monster Hunter for quite some time and I feel that my experience as both a user and someone who has played with others using the various weapons helps bring some insight into each weapon type.

For most scenarios, these tips shouldn't be a strict guideline, but more of things to consider and think about when playing, especially in Multiplayer.

Some general guidelines before I begin:
- When using any weapon in multiplayer, always be mindful of your fellow hunters. This is a cooperative game for a reason. You should be trying to avoid making their life miserable, or hitting them in general. No one is perfect, mistakes can be made, but constantly tossing your allies can result in you losing a hunting group. Always try to be aware of where they are and how your attacks and combos will effect them. It's not always about YOU doing the most damage, there's no rankings. There's only winning or losing. To that end, always try to act in the best interest in the entire group. I've seen missions fail in streams and in my own runs because of hunters being stupid, causing ally deaths due to their obliviousness of their surroundings.
- Traps are best used when the enemy is exhausted. They last longer on monsters that are exhausted. You can easily determine that a monster is exhausted if it starts moving slowly, staggering, or just sitting there with drool out of its face and taunting a lot.
- Most items are situational. This very much includes Flash Bombs. Do not spam them. A random acting monster is FAR WORSE than one that is not. With the revamp in Tri, there are very few situations in which Flash Bombs are useful. One situation is when you wish to down Rathalos, because he flies way too much. Flash Bombs can do this. They are less effective the more you use them, so be aware of that. All items have a place, but no item's place is everywhere.
- Try to leave Mining and Gathering to solo Gathering runs. There's nothing more annoying than a hunter that goes out and mines while you're fighting the monster alone. If it's a group concensus to go and gather before fighting the monster, that's fine, but do not do it without an understanding within the group. Gathering Missions exist for a reason, and you can easily do them on your own. There's no reason to NEED to do Gathering when on a regular run online.
- As a rule of thumb, you can usually continue to attack with melee weapons until you reach the low ends of Green Sharpness. Every enemy has areas that are open to Green Sharpness, so it can also help you find where they are weakest. Don't sharpen just because you lose Purple or White Sharpness, you're wasting Whetstones when you do this.
- Know your role with your weapon. If you're Hammer, don't be attacking the tail. If there's a Hammer user in your group, don't attack the head, that's their job.
- You can determine the effectiveness of anywhere you strike without a guide based on the special effect that gets generated when you attack. It is easier to determine in the Japanese versions of the game due to blood effects that are removed for US/EU versions, however the striking animation is still deeper and more red the more damage is done. You can use this to determine the best area to strike any enemy.
- Always pay attention to what the enemy is doing. You can easily determine when to and when not to attack based on how the enemy is acting. As you get better you can tell just what most monsters are going to do based on how they start their attacks. You should use these tells to your advantage.

Individual Weapon Information:

Sword and Shield

Dual Swords

Great Sword

Longsword

Switch Axe

Hammer

Hunting Horn

Pros:
- Can dish out a wide variety of buffs for yourself and your party.
- Can KO and Exhaust similarly to a Hammer.
- Can increase its own mobility to be faster than many other weapons.

Cons:
- Can be hard to learn, very combo oriented.
- Cannot cut tails (Apparently in P3rd it had one attack that did VERY low Slash damage. It was not viable for solo cutting, and as a result I still consider it unable to cut tails even if this was not a glitch and is still a slashing attack).
- Must temporarily pause to deliver buffs, which otherwise never take effect. Cannot deliver more than one buff at a time, and notes must be replayed to deliver a new buff.
- Wide variety of note types while every HH only has 3 different notes means that some HHs will be completely useless in some scenarios, due to lack of buffs that are good for the situation. There is a potential for some HHs to be completely useless due to bad note combinations.

Dos:
- Work your buffs into your attacks and combos.
- Keep an eye on your buffs and try to keep them constantly up. An entire group with constant Attack Up Large can do far more damage than you alone if you forget to keep it up. Although not every HH will have that buff, the principle is the same.
- If you have the Health Increase buff, use it when your allies need it. Be mindful if they are using the armor skill Adrenaline though, as they want to keep low HP for that. It might be a good idea to determine what buffs are not good to use in a group due to various armor skills.
- Know your HH. Know what it can play, what it can't play, and how to get each individual buff in case you need it at any time.

Don'ts:
- Do not sit in the background and buff. There's a reason HH was completely revamped to allow fighting and buffing at the same time. Take advantage of this.
- Do not deliver buffs if you are in danger. The notes will not reset or change as long as you do not attack, so take the time to get safe before you play.

Lance

Gunlance

Light Bowgun

Heavy Bowgun

Bow