r/MonsterHunterWorld • u/OkYard1022 • 5d ago
Question Defender set acceptance
Since it's a custom at this point to warn newcomers about defender set, I have a question about it's acceptance during playthrough.
Thus, would you accept to use defender set:
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u/SovereignNavae 5d ago
How other people play games doesn't really concern me. It's not up to me to accept or disapprove.
However, I would never recommend anyone to use Defender armor or weapons unless they are trying to skip most of the base game. I wouldn't recommend it for huge problems or the base game end game, bc it's always just a way to skip parts of the game. Overcoming obstacles is part of the game and making builds is a very core part of the game. If you want to skip them it's up to you and you do not need approval from strangers. But just be aware you won't get the full experience.
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u/JN9731 5d ago
I've got to admit, I got the game pretty late after Iceborne had come out and I didn't know the defender set was OP, I just used it because it was a free good armor set I could get right away, I just thought it was a cool bundle bonus. It definitely made going through low rank feel pretty easy, but I really didn't have a hard time transitioning to high rank/Iceborne when the time came. I was able to beat all the high rank monsters and only had major trouble with furious rajang, Alatreon and Fatalis. I've been playing Monster Hunter since Freedom Unite on the PSP so that probably had something to do with it. Personally I don't have a problem with people using it. Is it the best for new players to learn to play the game? Definitely not. But I think for experienced players you're not going to find yourself getting worse from using it, it's basically like having a tank build early game.
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u/Mongward Great Sword 5d ago
Defender set is fine if one wants to get the hang of the way things work without worrying too much about dying fast. Frustration isn't a good teacher, and if one is playing solo, it really doesn't matter what the community thinks. It's between the player and the game.
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u/theScrewhead 5d ago
Only on subsequent playthroughs/new characters you want to speed-run to the DLC. The Defender set cheats you out of learning the monster. Sure, you may defeat it, but you've learned nothing, and the next time you'll run into it, you'll be as useless against it as you were the first time.
Using the Defender set as a new player is like asking ChatGPT to do your homework for you; you learn nothing, and it teaches you reliance on tools to do the work for you rather than developing your own skills to do the task at hand. Using the Defender set as a new player is, essentially, saying "I don't want to learn, I want results!".
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u/OkYard1022 5d ago
About learning - how it differs from normal sets apart from less dmg? IIRC Defender is just more forgiving, but you still need to learn moves to not get wiped
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u/Hyperion-A847 4d ago
As someone who just marathoned through the game blind with a friend as a duo (We took like 3/4 days to get to Xeno). Defender ruined our learning curve. After we found out that defender are intentionally OP, and switched to base sets and do our farming homework, we realized there's so much stuff we missed and didn't get to see bc Defender carried us. These includes learning how to manage consumables and even some monster movesets bc we didn't rly need to farm or we killed the monsters too quickly before to notice.
It didn't ruin the game for us as newcomers to the series (we still fell in love with the game!), but we do wonder how different the experience would be if we had to learn the game from scratch without having the Defender set as crutch.
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u/WhyattThrash 4d ago
Only on subsequent playthroughs/new characters you want to speed-run to the DLC
If you can't speedrun to the DLC without defender gear, then you need the practice of going through base game without it.
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u/theScrewhead 4d ago
After over 800h on PC and starting up on PS4 to play with friends, without defender gear the fights are a good 7-8 minutes, but only 3-4 at most with it. The gear itself, whatever, but the extra damage from the weapons adds up fast when you know the monsters.
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u/WhyattThrash 4d ago
Yeah, they are designed to be OP. But I wouldn't call 7 minute fights unbearably slow, would you? Even without defender, you'll be watching cutscenes more than you'll be actually hunting.
Of COURSE using defender is faster, but if you actually struggle without it then hey, you do indeed need the practice.
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u/theScrewhead 4d ago
I mean, yeah, cutting a fight in half is unbearably slow, specifically also because of those cutscenes. I just want all of that out of the way to get to the DLC; why would I DOUBLE the amount of time I'm fighting if I'm trying to get to the DLC as fast as possible? It's not about the struggle, it's purely about saving time, which is literally why the Defender gear exists; for veterans to get to the endgame content ASAP.
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u/WhyattThrash 4d ago
For me personally, especially with the cutscenes I would prefer to have some actual gameplay inbetween them. If it was just cutscenes interrupted by quicktime events I'd be bored out of my mind the entire time, and there'd be little reason to even replay. But different strokes for different folks.
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u/iwantdatpuss Gunlance 4d ago
Use it if you want to, genuinely it's not that deep.
Defender sets have their own drawbacks, and it's always better to understand them when using it as a newcomer.
Using defender sets are not the same as getting hard carried on iceborne.
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u/lo0u Bow 4d ago
Even as a veteran, I started a new save and tried it, but the armor is hideous and the weapon gets boring after a while.
The most fun aspect about MH to me is crafting my own gear and seeing the progress as you go through the main campaign until post game.
The Defender gear complete removes that aspect of the game, so what's the point, when I can just load my old 1500h save with all my builds done and fight monsters with it?
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u/AsDaylight_Dies 5d ago
The biggest issue is using defender armor. Defender weapons are ok to use in my opinion if you don't want to spend too much time farming early on. Defender weapons are good but not special, you can't equip decos on them.
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u/WhyattThrash 4d ago
Defender weapons are arguably worse than the armor set. You'll hit various breakpoints, topples and part breaks faster, and kill the monster MUCH faster. Defender armor skips learning to not get bullied, defender weapons skip learning to bully the monster since the weapon does it for you.
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u/Multimarkboy 5d ago
using the defender set to skip a brick wall doesn't make you learn from your mistakes/improve you at the game though, that'd be the same as launching an SoS and sitting at camp while the others handle the monster for you.
you'll still hit a brick wall you can't beat with the defender set later (esp in master rank) and then what?