While this applies in general, I’ll be using MHW to explain this point.

Screw Deviljho.  That giant enraged pickle was the bane of my existence when I stopped playing base MHW.  He takes up a massive amount of screen real estate, loves to get in close, moves like the wind, and goes super mode when he has something in his mouth.  Sure, I killed him a few times but I really needed a better setup, and decorations where a very long farm.

I’ve got the start of my end game builds going now in Iceborne.  My elemental Charge Blade build (4 piece Namielle) is just ridiculous damage, and my Light Bowgun (Rajang Sticky) can keep almost any monster stunned for most of the battle.  Battles are generally under 10 minutes now.  Figure it’s about time to clear out the ol’ quest log from the base game and collect the last bits I didn’t have.

That means hunting a pile of tempered monsters (rare, random, and hard hitting), as well as some interesting duos (Teostra & Lunastra).  Bring it on.

You know what happens when you put a tempered High Rank monster next to a Master Rank geared player?  The player doesn’t get touched, and the battle lasts about 3 minutes.  Doesn’t matter which monster.  Even that damn pickle.

Is it fun though?  Oh yeah.  It’s not so much in the sense of revenge, but in seeing how MUCH this difference really means.  The increased offense/defense has a major impact, I get that.  But the number of decorations and build variety are oh so pleasant.  I no longer feel like I’m playing a slower cousin’s version of a real build.  And there’s still plenty of optimizations I can take.

Real World Analogy

I was having a chat recently about mindsets, and how my wife and I have friends that are still in that teenager mindset.  Where the boring aspects of life don’t phase them, since they are often not considered.  I don’t mean this in the narcissistic way, where they know they exist but choose to ignore them.  More in the “life will figure it out” way.

I have some fond memories of those days – like the bank account being empty a few days after pay day and some solid partying.  I have depressing memories of realizing the burden of responsibility my 20s brought upon – like heating and a mortgage.  The sheer amount of effort required to build a foundation so that I could manage that and STILL have a good amount of fun.  I can do the things I did as a teen today.  It may seem there’s the same lack of worry, but it just means I’ve become so much better at finding the right balance to fit that stuff in.

The world has changed a lot since I was a teen, and so have I.  It’s not like there’s a time capsule I can enter and use my knowledge of today on the kid I was then.  Hell, most of it wouldn’t really apply.  But growing up, finding the a similar amount of joy as I had as a teen and still finding the balance in the “adult stuff” is friggin’ euphoric.  I am thankful to be in this position at my age.  I’m content.  Hope you are too.