#just first impressions made at fuckin' 5am hardly serious beyond that

[retphienix]

So anyways how about a "I hunted 1 each and know absolutely nothing but here's my first impressions" post for the title update 2?

Flaming Espinas is really fun. He has a decent, if only just barely different moveset from the usual Espinas- but his ultimate moves are impressive and fun to play around so all in all I'd argue he's a more fun Espinas and that's nice. Doesn't feel like you're just fighting the same monster, and that's the whole point in a good sub-species.

Solid monster. Could be more different, but is different enough. Honestly, small differences sometimes do a lot more heavy lifting in making you fight differently anyway- so he wins out.

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Violet Mitzu is a step above. Their new moves are interesting, their new use of the environment with their flaming pools is interesting, and all in all they are just a solid and very different Mitzu fight.

Solid monster, is VERY different if my one(1) hunt is to be believed (subject to change after I farm their crowns lol), nice. Probably the most interesting overall because of just how differently the fight flows, but that's 1 hunt deep.

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Risen Chameleos is, honestly, pretty much just "What if Chameleos was mad" and that's enough.

He revamps some old moves, he adds some new moves meant to counter common safe spots.

The worst I can say, and I mean it when I say it, is while I can't quantify what I expected- I expected more.

Like something in me said "Risen Chameleos is going to be next level" And because of those vague and lofty expectations he ended up being the closest to a disappointment I can say this update mustered.

He isn't one, to be clear. But he's just "Par" just "Enough" of a ramp up on Chameleos to be appreciated. Nothing more. Nothing shiny. Just enough.

That said, I enjoyed hunting him and look forward to farming him for far too long. And I'm actually a big fan of the Risen stylings, the explosions, the rage mode, that stuff's pretty sick.

It's just that I found myself more intrigued with the other 2 monsters revamps to the formula than our first Risen.

Good hunt though! Like, I typed more for him than the others and it was all negative so this is like the least fair presentation I can give him tbh because he might be my favorite fight of the three because he hits like a truck and he's so much more aggressive than normal Chameleos.

Like, I ramble on lofty expectations, but this is Angry Chameleos, and it turns out hunting Angry Chameleos is pretty fun. So I stand by my experience, but I must emphasize that despite that experience I had fun and look forward to more.

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Gear was interesting this time around.

Chain Crit got renamed since it was misleadingly titled.

Flaming gave us a new skill that sounds interesting but not nearly as game defining as the last update's new toys.

It sounds fun though. You build up a bar by attacking, and once full you get one(1) free hit where you'll ignore all staggering and take highly reduced damage and EXPLODE. No idea how nice the explosion is, but just for the amusing mix of defense and offense I say that's nice.

Violet gave us what is either entirely useless or extremely fun defensive utility. It's basically defiance except you get Evasion and Guard instead of earplugs / tremor / wind.

If it's Evasion and Guard 5, that's actually pretty sick and I can definitely see people running it with defiance for some tanky fun.

If it's like, evasion 3 or something, that's still good- usable even- but eh. Depends what decos it pops up on (and if it even does).

Defiance was game changing, this one already isn't on par with that- but it *could* be nice alongside it. Neat!

Both also gave some weapons, nice slots, nice new options, no complaints beyond an aesthetic preference for regular Mitzu on most bladed weapons.

Chameleos is demonstrating how Risen monsters will probably play out. He has no new parts, but you're granted a Risegem for beating him and THAT is the unique part used in his gear and decos.

His gear is.

Well.

It might be meta defining for some people lol.

It PERFECTLY slots in (as in the correct armor pieces and everything) into making a mix set with Gold Rath that is busted but I'm getting ahead of myself.

His new skill is Buildup Boost which is basically Foray except, well you'll see.

Foray gives you great damage while the enemy is afflicted with a status, but BB gives you up to 20% more damage on every attack that procs status buildup.

The thing I was saying about Gold is that this sounds tailor made to work with Status Trigger- and guess what armor slots this perfectly folds into? lol

They literally mapped it so you can just run max Status Trigger, max Foray, max BB and that's without worrying about talismans or nothin'.

They knew what they were doing lol.

That'll be a fun build.

He also gave decos and stuff, some nice ones too, but ignoring the good ones, the most interesting was that Chameleos Blessing got a 1 slot deco so all those poison builds can run level 3 blessing without needing a gimped set.

All said, pretty fun.

Flaming is fun. Violet was a standout for being interesting. And Risen *IS* a more fun Chameleos hunt.

I feel like I was much more excited last update, but that's unfair to bring up since I'm a 3U baby so seeing Lucent again was mind-blowing.

These are 3 phenomenal hunts, while last update had like 3 phenomenal hunts (Silver and Lucent 100%, and like 85% Gold but I could just be being unfair so I'll count them- it IS the most fun I've had on Gold so they get a pass) and 1 complete dud that didn't deserve to come back if it wasn't going to revamp more of their moveset (Seething).

So it at the very least matches last update in quantity of quality, it's just that I was hyped about Lucent and rewarded for that hype so :P

Good stuff.