Wilds' Switch Axe is on the verge of greatness

[@BloodyWyverian]

I actually forgot Sunbreaks DPS chain which includes a morph back to axe mode but it loops between both modes for optimal DPS which isn't really making axe mode itself more viable. If you would like to check out other SA Mains' opinions on Switch Axe, there are three videos I can recommend: @MahnsterHunter: kzbin.info/www/bejne/pIjYoJeAdseii6s @juzzi: kzbin.info/www/bejne/f4aWpICOmdOirLc @Vector_V: kzbin.info/www/bejne/oJW0mmmIl85rfbs

[@Sadcatblake]

I feel with weapons having skills that the good switchaxes are gonna have a switchaxe unique skill that will make them powerful, so maybe that will affect things.

[@XenosenSTH]

I completely agree with your thoughts on switch axe. On the weird heavy slam stuff, I noticed that I could do heavy slam after 2 wild swings if the swings were left > right. This always worked when doing wild swing from neutral. Some combos/strings made wild swing start on the right side and heavy slam would only work after 3 wild swings (right > left > right). Pretty weird interaction and I hope this gets fixed like you suggested

[@BloodyWyverian]

That is EXACTLY what I meant with Wild Swing, it is so weird, starting on the left, no issue, but mid-chain when starting on the right, no way sir.

[@RIP_ZYZZ1738]

Unfortunately i don’t think it’s unintentional. It’s supposed to be a very small QoL change. So unless people rally against it, I don’t see it changing.

[@Nicoseilas]

i'll miss the attack after ZSD that Rise have

[@kingdice6768]

I know I miss soaring wyvern too, but we switch axe mains, known it never coming back so we have to accept it and if we had that that will be so unfair to the other weapons

[@cowzdrinkmilk3753]

@@kingdice6768 If keeping sway can come back than soaring wyvern could have come back too. They could have easily had the hunter be able to make use of their hook-slinger mid-air to pull themselves back towards the monster. You probably wouldn't be able to use it from neutral , but it remedying the awful endlag after ZSD was the best part about it anyway.

[@kingdice6768]

@@cowzdrinkmilk3753 true but they decided not to anyway so

[@dotLead]

In Wilds Ultimate/DLC maybe Or maybe they have a Switch Skill system too and they're just hiding that + the IG aerial combat in it​@kingdice6768

[@Gigi4u]

​@@cowzdrinkmilk3753I want the dive attack back and you probably gave the best solution to get it back. Maby to balance it it now uses your swords energy to preform the attack, so that you would need to choose if you want to use it or not depending on if you want to save energy.

[@RodrigoMAOEE]

The lack of hitstop feels really bad ;(

[@saibarathiravi2137]

i really hope they would add hitstop in the final build. although the combat look slow and more realistic, the lack of hitstop feel like i am cutting a cake

[@Hunterwoot]

This is the best and most balanced video on this topic I have see and I agree with almost everything you say. As for what you say at 10:42 Fox Invictus figured out what's going on here with the 2 Wild Swings not always leading into a Heavy Slam in his "MH Wilds Switch Axe Changes and Recommended Combos (No Guide!)" video. Essentially you can't have been moving before doing the 2 Wild Swings, else you'll need to do 3. Really hope they change this, feels very weird and inconsistent. [EDIT:] Noticed from the comments that this causes the Wild Swing to start swinging from the right instead of the left and that seems to be the hiccup, def seems like a bug or oversight that should hopefully get fixed.

[@jkannot]

I only played swaxe for a few hours in the beta, and it felt great since I was oblivious to the neutered motion values of sword mode. I was actually surprised they fixed the issue in world where if you try to fade slash immediate out of a fade morph you just start wild swinging (makes creating distance so much more stylish). Also the fade morph speedup is great, it just felt so sluggish in world and didn't create enough distance. The thing about full release being encouraged to spam in order to reach speedrun competitive DPS, I'm not sure if there is a straightforward solution. The thing about these "finisher" style moves is they're intended for huge burst DPS, higher than any other possible dps loop for a weapon. If there is a way to spam it, people will do it. Just look at longsword, the red gauge basically "amps" their normal attacks to the crimson combos, but the best way to play is still to dump the gauge immediately for a helm breaker. Aside from increasing sword MVs so that it doesn't fall completely behind full release spam, the only other way to discourage spam is to make it so costly you can't even spam it (probably not a good solution, looking at you compressed discharge). Or maybe the solution is to never speedrun again, and be free from meta dps :/

[@BloodyWyverian]

I also don't want people to foucs too much on Meta and DPS but we have to at least be comparable to other weapons I think, but I get what you're saying and I totally agree with your statements. It is a balancing act and trying to make every move viable while still allowing for clear DPS paths must be a nightmare to balance. I'll let the devs cook and see what happens in the actual game!

[@mynameisjeff3940]

I think what full release slash should be is a move you use as a one big last boom as your switch gauge in sword mode starts to get low. I absolutely think that fundamental sword mode combos should do more dps than FRS, the optimal combo in rise/subreak with the morph attack was so fun to do. And then as your gauge gets low and you have to go back into axe mode anyway and you maybe don’t have enough gauge to do a full sword mode dps combo you let off a FRS. It’s funny you mention long sword as a comparison because while I didn’t play pre 5th gen games based on what I’ve watched LS used to function very different before helmbreaker, it was all about getting to red gauge and staying there as long as possible and being a monster while you were in it. Kind of similar to 5th gen swaxe the goal is to be in power amped sword mode as much as possible but now in wilds it does kinda function like long sword again get to amped sword mode do your move that burns most if not all your gauge and repeat the loop.

[@honeychonav4027]

@@mynameisjeff3940 While I was having fun with the weapon in the demo. Instead of comboing into FRS I always usually tried to get to power amped sword mode to unlock FRS and then fish for wounds to perform it instead. As a reward for managing timing and wounding with the sword mode and axe mode's combos. Thought that was a neat bonus on the side without knowing the true values so if you enter power amped sword mode you can essentially perform what used to be ZSD spamming in world by eating all the wounds you preprepped on the monster until the power amped buff goes away. Until then even if suboptimally I had fun using the rest of the switch axe's kit except due to skill issue I can just never hit the counters correctly. XD Of course that's not really as possible in a party full of hunters but it was what I ended up trying to do while messing around with swax in the beta.

[@kingdice6768]

@@honeychonav4027 you get better with the counters, and if Capcom hopefully makes the counterstrike two ways to do the one way is automatic and one for short window attack opportunity.

[@honeychonav4027]

@@kingdice6768 Yeah it's mostly an issue with my timing honestly. I just have a hard time getting the Axe Offset timing correctly since I'm used to simply dodging out of the way of attacks in World. And counters that happen at the end of combos are difficult to time correctly when I'm just defaulting pushing out my combos. It's a skill issue. I'm playing Wilds Swax closer to World Swax, but my World Swax is weird because when I'm not ZSD Spamming, I don't optimize my play around my big attacks. I like playing it more methodically so I wild swing to break parts and generate wounds. Then I use the normal strong attack combo in Sword Form when it's available. Relearning how to utilize the Light Attack combo for it's higher reach. And only had a handful of time to learn how to ZSD in Wilds. I look forward to seeing how the weapon feels and performs in the full release or an upcoming demo.

[@ryryryot]

Knowing that swing 2/3x to heavy slam is actually a bug (and not my input issue) and sword counter works against roar in TGS build give me hope for this beautiful weapon :)

[@PvtGlarb]

my only complaint is the sword mode counter keybind if you time it wrong you'll just be standing there while switching to axe mode

[@HammerspaceCreature]

I don't think it's the keybind itself that's the problem but the way R2 moves are implemented with SA. They already solved this problem with other weapon movesets where you press R2 and then whatever other input you want and it cancels the morph animation into the other move, instead of making you have to press both inputs at exactly the same time. I don't know why we've gone backwards from that in this case.

[@benturtl9076]

True

[@ryryryot]

i play with MKB and this is the reason i will be buying a mouse with at least 3 side buttons, for triange+circle, R2+triangle and R2+triangle+circle

[@vampyerion6804]

The reliance on the Full Release Slash definitely kind of sucks. Its a very very cool move, so on the other side of the coin, personally i didnt mind it too much especially as a non-speedrunner. I highly doubt we’ll get more/different moves in the full game, but i would love to see charge attacks from Frontier if they’re gonna keep the nerfed MV’s. Otherwise i agree with the points made, and really, it wouldn’t take much to make this iteration of Switch Axe one of, if not the best its ever been. Im actually kind of a fan that your encouraged to use Axe Mode to build up Sword Gauge (though again, it does suck that outside of the Full Release Slash, the damage output is just too low).

[@Terron29]

I always used switch axe and still love it in wilds. I dont mind most of the changes but do agree it needs a bit more time in sword mode and a bit more damage all round. I love that it incorporates axe so much more. My main issue is the lack of hit stop and even regular hit sound effects need more oomph imo. I turned audio of everything else down to half and turned effect volume up to 100 and that helped some at least.

[@BloodyWyverian]

Absolutely agree with you, what I think is pretty cool, is that monster parts react to your hits now, their heads move a bit, parts of their skin wiggle around after being struck and so on, that combined with the hitstop and sounds we love would be absolute peak.

[@Terron29]

@@BloodyWyverian true! I love that and to be fair when you nail the offset attacks it feels anazing too. Thus could be something truly incredible if they just make some tweaks. Regardless even if it stays as is I will certainly be maining switch axe again. Love it

[@peterduprey7286]

I hope they bring the regular rising slash back as a tap input and make the offset one a hold. Offset rising slash almost feels too slow to use in combos.

[@benedictcarter8095]

Yes agreed. The moveset is great and really fun to play around, everything that needs improving is just a quick fix to overall balance so that it's not just a race to do the one big finish over and over. I'm sure I'm gonna love making SA again.

[@benturtl9076]

Not being able to morph back when you hit zero energy with a swing fucked me up so many times... I agree with everything you said. Great video! And btw I really appreciate you starting out immediatly all the time xD

[@HammerspaceCreature]

I really like the weapons that interact with Focus Strikes in a way other than just doing damage. Being able to save a wound knowing that you're about to be forced into axe mode and then popping it to get a chunk of sword gauge back immediately feels much smarter than just hit red part for free damage.

[@RenoKyrie]

Its why of all the Focus Attack Hunting Horn and Switchaxe are tied for my favorite since HH being able to get free 5 Notes is INSANE and i cant believe people would rather have the watered down Rise HH that wasnt even good, just really terrible And Swaxe's just opens oportunities for what do you want to do as a Swaxe player

[@Paperbat]

this was a PERFECT video on the issues of switchaxe in the demo! please forward this information to capcom in the survey or some other way because this was all spot on

[@BloodyWyverian]

Thank you very much and I completely filled out the survey with a big text lol and I hope many do the same!

[@mabanginn]

Correct me if you mentioned this in the video, but one of the new buffs for swaxe is you gain a bit of switch gauge now when you fill your amp gauge, giving you a bit of an extension in sword mode right after you get amped

[@tamagoGG]

he mentioned it at 9:50

[@AkaRystik]

The offset slash attacks are amazing and feel so good to land. I'm really happy with the new moves they added, and every weapon I tried felt so good. I really cant decide what weapon I'm going to main because they all felt so good.

[@72streeting]

easily one of my favourite switch axe videos because of how well it resonates with me

[@Eugene_IO]

I really wish our fade slash from both axe and sword mode was the offset attack instead.

[@Slanderbot]

The back and forth dance between axe and sword is always how I have played it b/c it feels the most natural and true to the core design of the weapon. Wilds has made this playstyle more viable which is nice.

[@ManlyPicnics]

As much as I'll miss EBC from Sunbreak, god it was so damn fun... I love Wilds Swaxe, truthfully I'm not a speedrunner and I certainly don't care about hunt times so I didn't even notice the damage difference, not that it would matter in a demo/beta anyway. I do wish they carried over Phial Damage in axe mode, to make it feel even more useful. Keeping the part break modifier would've also been nice for Power Axe. I love Swaxe, and can't wait to play more of it in the full game, with all the phial damage on Unbridled Slash, I can't wait to make my elemental Swaxe sets once more. I was very confused when I saw people saying Swaxe felt clunky and bad in Wilds, it felt amazing to me. Even with how slow the Offset is, I didn't really have an issue, and found it relatviely easy to get the timing down after a bit of practice. If they speed it up, I won't complain though. I did however feel like Amped stated depleted super fast at times, I don't know if it is much shorter or if I'm just too used to Power Prolonger. Also with the changes to fade slash, going Evade Window 4/Evade Extender 1-2 is going to be so much fun. Easily my favourite way to play Swaxe, tons of i-frames on even the side-step so I can just keep attacking.

[@AoShinden]

I still find the forward overhead slash being on the Light attack button really really weird I really liked it when it was on the heavy attack button on rise

[@hoofyfoots]

In the full game you’ll most likely be able to change your controls at least

[@chasegaetze4507]

Can we just look at that knockdown out of the air on that brachy with axe mode? Lol that was awesome

[@BloodyWyverian]

I used offset slashes even before Wilds was a thing lol

[@kaeseheld]

its my favorite weapon but after like 10 hrs with it the impact of the sword hits felt so lackluster and unrewarding that i wont use it if it stays like it. which is sad because the moveset is pretty good even without any skills. when people say its clunky i feel like that mostly because of the pure beauty that sunrise swaxe was, and spamming that morph attack felt like a hot knife through butter ( even if not ideal )

[@Cayden.1]

Axe mode deserves to have the amped state attacks appy to it, it wws a good feature in rise and it would be good to bring it back here. sword mode needs many more adjustments to balance out the weapon. lowering sword mode overall makes no sense when players are forced to use axe mode to bring back switch gague with all the other methods of regaining it either being nerfed or removed. increase the counter's damage and amp state gain since it currently is the worst counter in the game with little benefit (on top of reducing damage taken). reduce start up frames for sword mode zsd so its reverted to its og state, its harder to spam with the decreased amount of switch gague gain so no reason to nerf it. Bring back morph double slash, no reason to get rid of it tbhm And finally increase sword mode's damage while also increasing axe modes damage and decrease the full release slash damage to compensate. building up switch gague should lead up to an exciting mode, not a dull one. sword mode amped state should be on par with charge blade savage axe mode since its harder to reach and even harder to maintain, lowering sword mode damage just makes no sense when using axe mode is mandatory to continuously access it.

[@JD-kl9xw]

Another thing worth mentioning is how the amount of sword gauge you regain when hitting axe mode attacks is way too low for every attack that isnt the spiral burst slash. I understand it's supposed to be the main go to attack to regain it but right now it's pretty much the only viable option to do so, aside from the offset followup or focus attak which are way more situational.

[@BloodyWyverian]

I totally agree, there are some shortcuts to the spiral burst slash but at the moment (especially because of the overall damage) sbs is the only useful axe move for regaining gauge in the basic kit of axe mode, which could really be balanced across all moves.

[@alexheaterful]

Full release slash = 162 damage (long animation and you need to charge the amp state) Hammer boink = 190 damage (medium animation time and you can stun the monster with the previous attacks to perform the charged attack) Gunlance blast = 245 damage (same long animation, you can perform it 2 times and then wait to recharge) (i didn't look for more damage from attacks, i don't want to cry xD) I mean you need to charge the blade bar to charge the amp state and then look for a perfect moment to perform the attack without getting hit by a monster with this long animation and still it's not the strongest move in the game (or close) but the other moves are not strong and have damage loss. It's a slow moving weapon and the only resources to evade/protect are these two new counters but if you don't know the monsters' moves it's just a penalty because you'll take a lot of damage trying to counter them, and yes, when you can do it right it feels great, but this feeling disappears when you remember that you don't have enough damage to take advantage of the moment. Just feels like you are playing the most difficult weapon of the game with gettin any reward for it. So sad.

[@ZhurTaa]

Not a Swagaxe main but i can say the weapon feels so good , good video

[@MahnsterHunter]

I should check my mentions more, so I'm late to the party but yes. They really need to find a better way to balance out the axe and sword mode, as axe has always taken a backseat. However, I don't know if the way they're implementing it in Wilds is the best way to go about it since power axe increases damage but every ender you want is spiral burst. I'm just excited to see what changes they're making since they didn't even want the reporters to play it.

[@escadora2206]

I agree with many of your points. I personally didnt play that much swaxe cause i play mostly every weapon so tried them all, but i gotta say that even tho it has some small problems, the weapon feels much better than in previous games in my opinion. Also great video, your mic isnt too great but i enjoyed listening to your arguments. Almost am inclined to do a video like this about lance too, but i guess that would be a waste of time

[@BloodyWyverian]

Thank you for your feedback, and I also think the weapon feels fantastic and has many great changes... a new mic is on my list lol!

[@ahmadbugshan9603]

I think swax is also in the verge of greatness this is how I felt with around 2/3h of gamepaly (not a lot but thats like over 10% of my playtime, I tried every weapon for at least 2 hunts and swax is one of my comfort picks in 5th gen) I loved it at the start because I had in mind the idea of all the sick counters I will pull off and how the weapon felt much more fluid, then I started feeling like its worse than 5th gen, but then again I started to get the hang of it and now I already love it as much as 5th gen if not more

[@partydeer1640]

Well said. I cant deny that I'm concerned still. Switch axe wasn't the biggest winner in Wilds, but it wasn't the biggest loser either. I think you were right in saying that its a bunch of small issues combined that make it feel lackluster. I'm worried, but i pray the next beta, demo, or full game release will fix these issues. Capcom wouldnt give us 2000 characters in the survey if they weren't planning on reading them!

[@hengkyleonhart]

If they keep them sword meter expensive, skills like enhancer or power prolonger will be a great deal in most set

[@VadeInSpiritu]

GS main, I’ve been trying out many of the other weapons for the last year or so in World. Started when I used SA to finally beat Fatalis. I’m just super happy and excited to get a new game with no clutch claw!

[@BloodyWyverian]

Yeah, the new wounding mechanic is way more fluent and engaging than the clutch claw... but I do miss the slinger bursts, really loved those. But overall I am very happy with what we got! How does Greatsword feel? I heard some GS mains being concerned that GS loses it's "weight" is way too mobile nowadays.

[@VadeInSpiritu]

@ I barely got to play the beta unfortunately. My PC needs an upgrade to run at more than 9 fps. I have also heard that. I played the beta just a bit and it felt very familiar / similar to World, but again the beta barely ran so I wouldn’t count that for much.

[@kasando]

I want to add there is a fast transition to elemental burst. You just need to do it after heavenward flurry. The move after double/triple slash. Idk why this change was made but it tripped me up a lot

[@BloodyWyverian]

oh okay, I actually never tried it directly after heavenward flurry I think, interesting, thank you for sharing!

[@kasando]

@@BloodyWyverian Yeah I tried double slash a bunch into elemental burst and it wasn't the smooth animation. I only noticed the smooth animation after heavenward fury. Also if you try ZSD after heavenward I think you still get the slow animation but that allows you to use focus mode to re aim the ZSD.

[@1brushstudio]

A great video as always. I feel that the skill floor and cap has absolutely taken off after a very unga bunga Sunbreak that was too braindead for my taste (and basically ignored an entire half of the weapon), so that's great. I also love how fluid the weapon feels, and the new attacks and animations are beyond awesome. I do, like everyone else, think that Sword mode damage is too low, and constantly having to morph back and forth feels very forced (I prefer the weapon having multiple built in viable playstyles and letting the player choose), which is a shame. All in all, I think I will absolutely play SA in Wilds, but perhaps not as much as I did in 5th edition.

[@BloodyWyverian]

Thank you very much! And yeah while I do appreciate, that we are supposed to use both modes a bit more freedom with sword mode might be needed. Totally agree with your points overall!

[@brotherelf]

Sets will change everything with no damage skill gems for armour the weapons who need more qol changes will improve more .

[@honu_of_Tarlach]

im moving to swaxe if SAED doesnt get fixed

[@randolemando]

I've never been so emotionally charged regarding a videogame until I saw how they neutered the swax's already barely-existent flow for a flashy move and gave certain weapons well-thought out moves plus finishers

[@zovze]

Don’t forget wild axe into heavy slam is faster from neutral and from fade/downward slash

[@Kookiebook]

I just wonder what full release slash would be like as a offset attack instead.

[@coalashslurry]

outside of an inevitable damage buff, i would personally love to see an incentive to use full release slash as an actual finisher to your sword combo as opposed to entirely replacing it. a highlight from the demo was using full release after a focus strike discharge, to try and mimic the experience of valor sa. whether it be from taking so much switch gauge to where you need to use it as a finisher, or its extreme damage potential only being available once your gauge is almost empty. but as it currently stands, it can just feel like a poor mans saed

[@MansMan42069]

Maybe if Full Release Slash while you have Power Axe mode also gives you phial effects during axe mode.

[@TheKisj]

I really hope i somehow get to play with any of you monster hunter youtubers at some point during wilds at some point, giving us cross play across all platforms was a brilliant move by capcom

[@BloodyWyverian]

No problem! Thanks to crossplay we can finally all play together no matter what platform! Really love that too.

[@Marzellus1991]

Swaxe is my main, but some people keep saying it's terrible and some say it's better. I'm kinda torn on my fav weapon

[@BloodyWyverian]

@@Marzellus1991 if you play it and it is fun to you, there is no need to be torn about it. I enjoy it and I will play it even if it can't keep up with other weapons. I'm not torn at all personally.

[@RenoKyrie]

Theres also other things people forget 1. We only had a test with Power Phial Swaxe, and apparently Wilds Swaxe use the same Amped State build up as Rise where each Phial build at different speed(You know, the same one that became meaningless thanks to Elemental Burst Counter) and this is also important to learn if Compressed Slash and even Wilds ZSD has better Elemental Scaling or they have more Raw Scaling which in turn opens up weapon viability for specific moves 2. Swaxe is the few weapons we know are VERY Armor Skill hungry next to CB, Bowguns, Insect Glaive, Lance, and Gunlance, we played with no optimal Armor Skill(And this is why im REALLY mad at Bow since god its soo unnecesarily overpowered) and for all we know there could be a new Armor Skill specificly for Swaxe and not just things like Rapid Morph Overall, yeah this was a good video, i am pretty happy with Wilds changes since the weapon has actual identity with both of its modes

[@BloodyWyverian]

You are absolutely right with those statements... it simply can't be stressed enough that this was a beta and we had only a very tiny insight into what skills will make possible in the actual game. And thank you for your feedback!

[@RenoKyrie]

​@@BloodyWyverianActually there is 1 thing i was mad at Why is the Axe mode heavy game does not have Phialed Axe in Amped State, that was like the ONE thing i liked in Rise and they didnt bring it back 🗿

[@bil5479]

are we not gonna get rapid morph :((

[@RenoKyrie]

Pretty sure we will still get rapid morph Maybe some new Skills

[@KageMH]

Good video Honestly switch axe does not feel bad, aside from counter chip damage and the weird morph when you have no gauge The normal combos are fun to use, but you just never use them because you wanna full release all the time.. which is boring Hoping for adjustments in full game, nerf to full release and buff to the other combos and attacks Full release should be something you use once in awhile not literally your biggest dps imo, for it to feel more fun to play. Optimally at least I only like to play optimally, maybe that is my issue xD

[@BloodyWyverian]

Thank you for the feedback and I love your runs! Finding every good opening for a full release slash in Rey Dau's moveset is very impressive! Especially since this attack takes ages to be over with no quick way to cancel out of it. I agree the balance of DPS simply needs to be redistributed and raised overall and full release should be something situational... like when Rey Dau reveals his weakspot after a railgun strike and he is stunned for a swift focus strike finisher into full release, that always feels amazing!

[@KageMH]

@ thank you! Yeah using it as a follow up for the weakspot attack feels satisfying, maybe they should lock this attack behind that or behind ED, and just make the normal combos strong

[@rexzakel1802]

I think the proposed fixes here probably wouldn't work if they were all implemented since they all pull the weapon in different directions. A lot of the things that Wilds SA is doing would be fine if one/two elements were adjusted. Sword Mode consuming a ton of gauge and needing axe to regain wouldnt be as much of an issue if Sword Mode damage felt very powerful and worth the gauge its using. We could make it so gauge consumption is less but it would be cooler if gauge consumption stayed the same but damage changed to make it feel satisfying. Same with removing the chip damage from Offset. Switch Axe's identity shouldn't be a counter based weapon with all the blocking weapons now have perfect guards, Longsword has a ton of counters, Bow and DB are perfect evades. Switch Axe is one of the few weapons left with relatively vanilla defense and I think that's a good thing and thats why they made sure to make the counters weak or at least not as strong as other weapons. I really think the chip damage should stay and we have to mitigate it with armor skills rather than adding a perfect timing so that the weapon can focus on counters like other weapons, its skill ceiling should be an evade and positioning based weapon imo

[@Swollpool]

I was feeling weird that I really enjoyed this version but I like your recommendations for changes. I would like a few of them at least. Curious though, I don't mind the chip damage during the counter. makes it feel like a block that you are not suited for but doing anyway. In saying that, you do take too much damage. I had a good flow with rey dau where I was offsetting and countering but I had to stop because of too much chip, where if I was using greatsword (I did this with GS as well), If I played well enough, health was not nearly as urgent. Anyway, I do like this version and it will definitely be in my regular arsenal. I hope capcom takes some of your recommendations

[@austinlindsay2378]

I like rise giving axe mode the amped attacks. I like the idea of both modes being in balance, you need sword mode to reach the amped state, and axe mode to fuel the sword mode. It's a damn shame this game has two axe weapons and neither encourage you to use the axe for very long.

[@Blu3Souls]

Maybe it's just a me problem but I frequently switched back to axe when I actually wanted to use the block on Sword mode.

[@pauloricardo-wn6ps]

i always thought the axe was crazy for dealing double the damage of a IG with half of the complexity of a CB, maybe the new changes are there to address similar sentiments but i hope the weapons isn't unrecognizable by the time wilds release

[@Boamere]

I think the lack of vfx and hitstun have made me really not like it (heavy slam is so sad compared to world) , plus the low damage and managment. My second biggest gripe is being funnelled into using the full release slash over and over for good damage. I really like the idea of the new moves and counters, I just didn't find it fun to use.

[@BloodyWyverian]

I totally understand that, hitstun and vfx really need to make a comeback for the good ol' hefty swings we love about the weapon. Damage really seems to be the biggest issue overall. I am still excited to see what skills and builds we'll get in the full release!

[@RIP_ZYZZ1738]

I have a VERY hot take as a Swaxe enjoyer myself: I want them to do anything but decrease the chip damage on SA. Increase amp build up, anything but that. The point of the weapon is to position correctly and NOT get hit. This “counter” feels more like a last ditch effort to not take all the damage. Make it give a massive chunk of meter or amped state even, I just don’t want them to nerf the chip damage on it.

[@BloodyWyverian]

Indeed an interesting take and I 100% agree that it shouldn't be incentivised to be spammed constantly like the Sunbreak counter. It's relatively low damage and chaining directly into heavenward flurry as one route makes it seem like a tool to actually just keep you in your flow or survive a powerful attack you couldn't dodge or survive otherwise. I really don't want it to be a thing you do a billion times every single hunt and never take any damage whatsoever. I am kinda torn on the counter tbh...

[@RIP_ZYZZ1738]

@@BloodyWyverian I do understand your concern though. It needs SOMETHING. But not decreased chip damage. I think a good buff is giving a big chunk of the sword meter back. That would indirectly solve your other issue with the expensive cost of sword mode currently

[@wits_end.]

2:22 idk about you but I used the the axe chop into morph double slash into morph and repeat combo. Meaning both modes were used all the time and the sword guage constantly refilled from the switch. Isn't that the optimal dmg combo? It had massive motion values without any slow down or clunk. Sunbreak already perfected the switching in switch axe imo

[@thedinosaurman2506]

As an iceborne power axe freak, I ADORE Wilds swaxe. Axe feels so good it's crazy. Being able to heavy slam so frequently is amazing, especially after an offset. And DON'T GET ME STARTED on the running overhead with focus mode. AND standing Y being overhead instead of side slash??? I'm down on one knee. I'm giving my beautiful baby trip-demon a big wet smooch right on its cutting edge. We've never been more back, my axe sisters-in-arms,,,

[@Sadcatblake]

Wait sword mode has a counter?! Hell yeah!

[@saygeez6381]

agree with heavy slam input, its really buggy where 2 wild swing didnt combo to heavy slam. and the fast zsd after heavenward flurry or two sword slash is gone .😢 😢

[@UnexistArts]

So the Heavy Slam is all about timing now? Shoot. Here I thought they lied about it needing only 2 swing. Legit can't tell. I played for like, 10 hours of SA and I can't consistently get 2 swing into Power Axe. What I do is that, I look at my hunter and if the 2nd swing doesn't come from the right, I need to wait for 3rd swing so it actually come from the right AND THEN do Heavy Slam to get Power Axe. I thought the mechanic is that, the axe 2nd swing NEED to end from right. If not, you need to get into 3rd swing to get it. Also is it that bad to ask for a clearer indicator of when you can get Power Axe? In World your hunter literally glow up after you swing enough to activate it so I'm kinda sad the visual is not there in the Wilds Beta. And I say *swing enough* bcuz you can actually get Power Axe in World with only 2 swing. You just need to start with the Upswing move and I guess it somehow count as half a swing.

[@dragonplaysmc]

Ik I’m a little late on this, but I just thought you should know that the devs intentionally gave us low rank gear to fight high rank monsters. So I wouldn’t be too worried about damage numbers for right now. A lot of weapon damage numbers are lower than they’re supposed to be bc the devs wanted to make the demo last as long as possible.

[@BloodyWyverian]

Yeah I know the matchups were kinda against our odds and as I said throughout the video we were playing a beta after all... but well Capcom themselves wanted our feedback on our experience so here we are I guess. But yeah, I'd never say Switch Axe is bad until I have the full game and the full picture with skills, armors and whatnot all available to us!

[@dragonplaysmc]

@@BloodyWyverian I personally really liked the way SA felt, but I can understand what you mean bc I main Lance and I feel the same way about some of the Lance stuff. I didn’t like how weak the Lance felt, but I honestly think it was just the sounds that came from hits, which I said in my review of the game on the Capcom survey for Wilds. The only other issue I had was input lag, as if the game took an exceptionally long time to register my controller inputs. All in all though, it was enjoyable!

[@spark9189]

it feels like half the changes in wilds run completely contrary to what people liked about the weapons. switch axe seems to be in super move spam territory, saed got nerfed to be significantly worse than savage axe, great sword and lance are now combo weapons, and dual blades have a bigger focus on aerial damage than insect glaive..

[@RodrigoMAOEE]

Just like Iceborne had clutch claw and Rise gad wirebugs, in Wilds, we got the wounds and focus mode, and so far, I don't quite buy the hassle. Sometimes, we start a focus combo, and even if the monster steps away from the Hunter, the finishing move "connects," damage is applied, and the monster topples. This doesn't feel rewarding at all ;(

[@fo0za954]

I agree it feels cheap, you see the numbers hitting everywhere but not a single part of the animation actually connected, it doesnt feel right at all.

[@justinwebb2773]

Other than the MV for attacks being nerfed, this is just a skill issue.

[@BloodyWyverian]

Honestly... yeah... I guess you could argue about the chip damage from the counter but I was very happy with the weapon overall, especially after some hours with it and getting used to the changes. I really love it overall and can't wait to make some cool builds and see what new skills await us. As I mentioned in the video there are a lot of changes to it and we didn't have that much time with it and we all are still learning what is possible and so on.

[@justinwebb2773]

@BloodyWyverian yeah, I think the numbers just need to be shifted around a bit and it would be in a good spot. Full release slash I think should be a finisher for when you don't have much gauge left rather than a core dps attack so the numbers should be toned down. MV should go up across the board. I don't know the numbers for the counter chip damage so I can't say. I think the overall design is in line with what the weapon is trying to do IMO just a shame about the numbers.

[@barbedfungus3877]

I really liked Wilds' Switch Axe iteration, and thought it was a whole lot of fun. Damage aside, I love how it plays, and if it only gets a damage buff, I'll still be happy. I would love to see quick fire Elemental Discharge again and Morph Slashes on empty Switch Gauge but I still had a lot of fun with it. I would also appreciate some changes to Offset Attacks (because they feel pretty inconsequential without the topple) but that's more an issue I have with the game in general, and a small one at that. My biggest concern is Insect Glaive. It was, by far, the hardest weapon to figure out. I'm like 90% that out of every million new players, less than 10 will look at Insect Glaive and think "yeah this is manageable." It's thoroughly overwhelming, and it has some design issues that could be easily mitigated

[@BloodyWyverian]

Gotta agree with everything you said lol I had fun but would still love some changes... but nothing can ruin the fun I have with this weapon even if nothing is changed. I can't talk for glaive though so I take your word for it haha!

[@barbedfungus3877]

@BloodyWyverian Insect Glaive's new take is "a bit" polarising. On one hand the Rising Spiral Slash feels great to use, the Kinsect following attacks in Focus mode is both incredibly cool and functional and the changes to how you gather extracts (the maximum number of extracts the bug can hold is 3 now under certain conditions) are so nice. On the other hand, on 3 of the 4 monsters in the beta, i had a pretty difficult time getting one of the extracts, be that the 3 buff on Chatacabra and Rey Dau or the 2 buff on Doshaguma (i believe, I only remember I struggled a lot). This makes it more difficult to start the Rising Spiral Slash > wound burst cycle. The Descending Thrust and Slash attacks are also a complete bastard to use now, due to charging - why not make it a combo input tap? And finally, there is absolutely no reason to have dedicated Aerial Kinsect control with no Aerial style because Advancing Jumping Slash doesn't bounce you anymore.

[@Sorrowcrusader]

I love my swaxe😁

[@tasin7777]

Really good video, I agree with a lot of what you said. Some thing I want to add are that heavy slam isn't inconsistent, from neutral you swing left to right and after some attacks you swing right to left. Swinging left to right means it takes two swings to heavy slam but three hits for right to left. The reason why I think this happens is because they kept the code for three swings from world but skip the first wild swing so it's only two swings. I think this is unintended and should be fixed in full game. I disagree that axe and sword should do the same dps. Sword has a gauge and managing it should be rewarded with more damage, I think axe refilling gauge by attacking is incentive enough to use axe. I would increase the gauge refill of axe on all its attacks but especially on wild swing, wild morph, and heavy slam. They should do more damage but less refill than spiral burst counter so that all axe finishers have their own unique uses. I do have hope that capcom will fix a lot of these changes, they have shown to care about balance across the weapons even if they don't always get it right. Longsword being very strong is a problem when they design monsters assuming that all the weapons are longsword powerlevel. It's not a problem for people that love a particular weapon but it means if there's a challenge their first instinct is to switch weapons. For example, people that were struggling on fatalis were adviced to use switch axe and ZSD spam him with mantles until he dies. This feels bad for both the player that wanted to use their own weapon and the switch axe players because they aren't really using the weapon and will see it as a cheese weapon. Hunting horn players were worried that being able to preserve song buffs as a secondary weapon will tarnish the weapons image as an actual support only weapon and it's a valid concern to have. These concerns were sort of unfounded but only because it turned out longsword wasn't even close to the strongest weapon and HBG was a lot better for buffing yourself with damage. The concerns still exist but they were misplaced.

[@BloodyWyverian]

Thank you for the feedback and your opinion! I don't really want axe mode to be equal in terms of DPS, you are absolutely right, sword mode should still be the powerhouse, maybe I didn't say it correctly, I just like, that they seem to bring the DPS of both modes a bit closer together, especially since axe mode will be used a lot more because of the gauge management changes. I also didn't know what to think about the Fatalis cheese... it made people think even more SA is nothing but ZSD with mantles, which really is so sad, seeing all the stuff this weapon actually has to offer!

[@kingdice6768]

I love the switch axe in wilds and still do but The more I played switch axe I started to know the cracks and trying to do the offset attacks the more frustrated I got those attacks are inconsistent and need to be fixed I did not care about the damage numbers cause I know it’s the beta but I disagree with you with the with the clunkiness and the attacks were inconsistent and needed some tweaking I do agree the counter needs to be automatically and the offset attack. The wind up should be a little less demanding or reduce the animation wind up And the full release/I like the idea what I hate is you can get interrupted with it anytime . In my opinion, it needs to have hyper armor Or reduce the animation time. And I don’t like they had to make zdp weaker to make full release a better option that is not OK if both of them were equally powerful and it’s just you choose which attack you you need in that situation. And I continuously used zdp Because it’s a consistent attack that I can rely on and it’s fun to pull off Unlike full release Is a ripoff version of compressed discharge The worst attack in the game that capcom obsessed with And then they have the nerve to not even give it hyper armor, even if you miss it at least you won’t feel annoyed by wasting your time doing it

[@BloodyWyverian]

Yeah, I understand your points! I do get why people think it is clunky, in my own experience it simply wasn't that bad, especially after a while but I had my issues in the beginning too, absolutely! While I do like the full release slash, it should indeed be equal to ZSD and it'd be great if we had to choose which one to use for every situation.

[@kingdice6768]

I agreed that’s what I want to

[@2n0ri]

You have pretty much summed up all the things the Switch Axe needs improvement on. During my gameplay, I was too happy to play Switch Axe and didn't notice these issues until the beta ended. But this is the closest we can get to use PRIME Switch Axe, by PRIME I mean utilizing both axe and sword mode for maximum dmg output and flow. One other thing I noticed though is morphing seems a bit slow, maybe the reason behind that is rapid morph skill may return. Overall, a very satisfying weapon and I love how we get to utilize both modes.

[@zohlus6728]

Another miscellaneous nerf: Wild Morph no longer refills a bit of your Sword Gauge to put you in sword mode, instead your hunter abruptly stops after the Axe swings and reloads. The Heavy Slam input thing was driving me crazy as well. It felt like a coin flip every time I tried to Heavy Slam after 2 Wild Swings and eventually just reverted back to doing 3 Wild Swings instead. Also is it just me or were the Sword swings slower in the beta? It felt like the sword attacks were like 20% slower but it might have just been my imagination.

[@BloodyWyverian]

Yeah, heavy slam and the morph sweep can take a while to get used to, but personally I didn't feel like the sword attacks were slower but I didn't do a side by side comparison... felt equal though lol

[@Daquanatl]

Mr.Bloody how are your opinions now after the Community Update ? Can we await an Update video on it ?😂

[@BloodyWyverian]

I will post an update hopefully on the first weekend of 2025. I've been sick the last two weeks and now busy with the holidays, but I've been working in the background! I do like the changes they listed, although I wish we saw more of it. More notes about the changes will be discussed in the video very soon, promised!

[@ciphe5391]

I'm speaking from the perspective of an outsider, ive only played world swax a little and none in rise. I overall really liked swax in wilds beta, as a non swax user i definitely was blind to some of the issues you mentioned in the video but overall i thought it was fun as hell. Tho i really am questioning on the part where you said there was a lot of thinking for swax, when i was soloing reydau with swax (of course going for just a kill and not speed running in anyway), i felt like i had really good rhythm just charging powe axe, charging amped, counter if i needed and seeing should i go for zsd or full release, also having to decide if i want to use a wound for charging switch gauge or doing damage. Maybe because i wasn't forcing myself into doing max dps, but overall i didn't feel like i was struggling in making decisions. Of course the hunt took a while (like 30 mins, but it was my first solo hunt of reydau) but it was really fun. Another thing you mentioned was how people felt like they were charging amped and switch gauge only to do full release. But hasn't that always been the case? Switch axe to me always has been "charge amped gauge, spam zsd, reluctantly use axe mode, repeat" how has that changed in wilds? Overall im lovin the swax in wilds and i might play it more in mhworld as well now.

[@pauloricardo-wn6ps]

zsd seems less risky now, maybe because of the monsters we faced but still, you usually still used the fully-charged sword mode quite a lot before doing zsd

[@Benjiboi]

By far the best analysis I have seen so far. There are problems, but SA is not as bad as other content creators have said. I agree that the counters need to be revised: for example, I would speed up the axe one a bit, increasing its damage and damage reduction. For Sword's, there are multiple ways to improve it (from damage to more amphed state bar increase), but at the very least I hope that in the future you can counter roars and not take so much damage. Otherwise I like the direction taken with Wilds, particularly balancing more sword and axe use, unlike World (Sword + ZSD Spam) and Sunbreak (too much focus on counters), though my favorite iteration remains Rise (give me back omnidirectional morphs!) for now. I won't comment on MVs: they will surely change between now and launch, and at the moment we don't know if there will be SA-specific skills and how they will fit into the playstyle (rapid morph?). Interesting to note that all opinions for obvious reasons are based on the Rey Dau, which is a monster that offers so many long openings that by necessity the optimal way to fight is to spam SA's new power move (as is the case with other weapons, e.g., LS's helmbreaker or GL's new double discharge); perhaps with other monsters with smaller opening windows the balance would not have been so negative, net of fairly objective flaws.

[@Spyger9]

Awesome critique. Very fair and detailed. The only thing I would add is that Switch Gauge generation from different attacks is extremely imbalanced. Spiral Burst Slash gives like 10x more than other basic Axe attacks. I'd rather they level that out a bit.

[@BepsiZer09]

Ultimately even if they made no changes but gave me a faster animation for the ZSD stab after the Two-hit Slash in sword mode I'd be fine with that (I love my ZSD what can I say lol) I'm still playing this weapon regardless

[@BloodyWyverian]

That's the spirit!

[@vhex61]

7:35 lolol. Yea , LS and bow overtuned as always, and mains still complain. Such a meme They need to increase the input buffer of R2+triangle for counter. It works well if you input during an action but as a stand alone input, sometimes you accidentally morph instead of counter. Pretty deadly mistake 😂

[@Dastardly_Duo]

You say "sword mode is too expensive", but I think the weapon has changed so we use the morph more. The moves feel like they want you to combo the 2 modes

[@henrizx4912]

I feel that the sword mode is so slow, compare world 3 hits and triple slash to the wilds version

[@YukitoOnline]

Sad, no ZSD spam. Looks like I'll need to ATK buff my SA bros with my HH.

[@sethfakelastname]

Dropped a nuclear bomb into the feedback survey... hopefully they hear us switch axe players.... I have and still am very dissatisfied with the reliance on specific moves to fill gauges on the switch axe. The new Spiral slash and Heavenward Flurry should not fill 5x more gauge than all the other attacks. I really do not want a repeat of perfect rush sword and shield, where all you do is use the same 4 attacks for the entire hunt, PLEASE at least SLIGHTLY normalize the gauge fill rate of attacks. I cannot believe that you cannot morph back to axe mode when reaching zero on the switch gauge. Making us use axe mode to fill the switch gauge is a nice touch, but morph sweep should be reverted to wild sweep so we aren't penalized for trying to refill our switch gauge. In GU and Rise, you can just press the morph button again to go into sword mode, so why force us to do it? Why are we forced to keep at least 1% of the gauge there so we don't have to do that morph to axe animation? It was fine in world and rise! You could swing in sword mode, get to zero gauge, then do a morph back into axe mode to keep the combo rolling. Bring that back PLEASE. No follow-up after the early zero sum discharge finisher is really boring. In both world and rise the hunter was able to do an axe-mode attack to keep up the pressure. I find the new animations for switch axe to be very ugly. It feels like my hunter is swinging around Styrofoam instead of a heavy metal object. The axe-mode focus attack looks bad. The new Unbridled Slash and Full Release Slash looks sad, like a pathetic version of the Compressed Finishing Discharge. I'm not sure how the damage compares, but the animation and gameplay feel is way worse. Not having Super Armor during them makes them feel bad in comparison as well. I also find the explosion effects of the Elemental Discharge Zero Sum Discharge and Unbridled/Full Release Slash to be very lack-luster. I hope weapon visual & sound effects across the board get a glow-up.

[@곰바지]

My complaint is that the axe mode doesn't feel fun to use. Offset move aside, there really is no appeal for me with the axe. You would expect the devs have added something to the axe if this is their vision for the change, but there really is not much to work with.

[@_slyph]

Needs dmg buff and a better counter

[@thyrokio]

I was about to write this: Bro, don't go hating on Long Sword for no reason... Look at what they did to my boy in Sunbreak, weapon was still very strong, but ass to play (harvest moon is hot garbage). But you saved yourself. I swear, no matter what tools other weapons are going to get, Long Sword is always going to be the "go-to hate" weapon. Let's all have equally fun/strong weapons (while still being unique and fun on their own ofc)! And ofc, if a weapon (usually not even Long Sword tbh) outperforms the others, it doesn't mean everyone needs to use it or that it should be nerfed to oblivion. Though, if a weapon clearly lags behind or lacks something, it should receive some love. It's better to bring weapons up than down.

[@BloodyWyverian]

yeah, hating on other weapons really doesn't help anybody after all, I sometimes yap about longsword but just for fun. We all want strong weapons with cool moves and abilites afterall.

[@labi3230]

Forcing specific ax attacks, by weakening overall gauge regeneration, makes swaxe boring. Moreover, the time that the sword can be used through the ritual is too short, and the damage is surprisingly low. No longer understand why I am attacking with the axe mode.😢

[@joevoyles2005]

Switch axe main and wilds it felt really bad. Going back to sns/gunlance/charge blade probably for wilds. Shame. :/

[@Rain1]

It is, but it's actually one of the 4 weakest weapons in wilds as of right now, hoping it gets a bit of a buff or something

[@Lolleman255]

im more suprised at how u have a consistent 120 fps u got a 4090 or sumthin lol?

[@BloodyWyverian]

Yeah I do... I wasn't too concerned about the demo running well lol but the optimisation still sucks which is a shame... but they still have some time to work on it!

[@DARKSIDER-xx1os]

Swag/axe kinda sucks and it’s slowwwwww in wilds to be true , and the counter , is not a counter of you take damage .

[@fadhilpaten]

I know it, MVs is nerfed…. Too bad…. How come SA gives the almost same damage as IG… sorry but i feel better using LS and GL in wild, even though i main SA in world….

[@maxwu2112]

I don't understand why we have to just make do with what we were given. We should not just have to accept the fact that our weapon is now clunkier (zsd out of double slash) just because. Clunkiness on the weapon when previous titles didn't have this is a result of lazy development. This is without even mentioning the fact that nearly all the new moves we received are so counterintuitive to what switch axe had seemingly been improving towards over the last couple games. Our focus mode makes us stand still in animation and swing, allowing the monster to simply move away from our damage and hit us. Our new fancy move not only has extremely heavy commitment, but also makes us stand still, does mediocre damage in comparison to other weapons, and is VERY INACCURATE. Overall, I think that I was very excited for the switch axe wilds release but upon seeing that the new moveset they gave us is self sabotaging and more annoying to use, I'm disappointed.

[@kingdice6768]

Thank you!!!! Thank you that’s how I feel. I don’t mind the new move if it didn’t leave us standing still or if it had hyper armor and least commitment time to pull it off.

[@Captain_Veinrick]

I think the weapon feels clunky, the offset is stuck in axe form and the guard counter is in sword form and gives you chip damage. Its just bad design that you are stuck in one form or the other to even offset or guard counter. I think unleashed slash and focus strikes arent interactive enough to bother wanting to use but im forced to due to all the damage being in it. unleashed makes swaxe feel more like charge blade than worlds swaxe. while the focus swings is you spaming a button and the game plays for you to get a stun or power axe form In world its not like axe mode is that bad at all, you can use it so well to reposition yourself around the monster while keeping the flow. The fact that you cant switch back to axe form on your own when your sword gauge is 0 is disgusting and awful. I heavily dislike this interation of swaxe and rather unleashed slash just be removed because as long as that move exists the power budget of the weapon will go into that. I flat out just do not like it.

[@legendredux1291]

wilds counter aint even that good the amount of chip damaga its so ass we lost the strong morphs attacks

[@MolezHD]

On the point of speedrunners complaining that they just have spam the new release slash for max dmg now, honestly nobody really cares. 99% of players are just playing for fun and because they wanna see and do cool shit, the game shouldn't be balanced around speedrunning and if you choose to be a speedrunner you should just take the weapons for what they are. The new release slash is sick and so satisfying to press. Also I feel switch axe is a weapon that relies on armor skills to really shine, it makes sense that the dmg output would feel a little low and underwhelming when we have literally 0 armor skills. I think later in the game switch axe will probably start to shine, especially if they kept skills from rise like burst or rapid morph, there might even be new skills like maybe one that makes sword mode attacks consume less gauge

[@LarkanElRegresado]

If you had played Rise/Sunbreak SA you would agree with him completely. Speedrunners have a LOT of game knowledge and their insight is very valuable. It is now about shitting on the weapon for its damage it is how fun and fluent the weapon feels. I was so hyped to try SA in the beta and I was 100% dissapointed, far worse than Iceborne's SA. No impact no damage, no proper morph combos, no range, no speed, very bad counters, gauge management is dreadful... Just so incredibly bad all around, it feels bad and it breaks my heart seeing the weapon like this😢

[@BloodyWyverian]

I'm not a speedrunner myself and I mean, yeah they will figure out the best way to massacre a monster in a moment's notice and I do trust them to recognize some issues because most speedrunner certainly know what they are doing and what their weapon is capable off but yeah I guess "balancing the game around speedrunners" would be a wrong approach if that would even be possible at all. But yeah, SA always relied pretty heavily on skills and since we don't have any big skills to speak of in the beta it fell short.

[@MolezHD]

@@LarkanElRegresado I did play rise, and switch axe felt fun to me on beta. Love the new release slash it feels satisfying as hell. Hit effects I think will be better on release once we are able to crit etc, they will likely get some general tweaking too. Also the offset attack with axe felt fine but the sword counter I think yeah we should take waay less damage when we land it, I think tbf it was probably bugged on beta or just an old version of it, because it would make 0 sense to have a counter that makes you still take full damage from an attack

[@jepasdenom7643]

Switch axe is actually pure shit even worse than mhw when it was one of the worst weapon in the game, gladly ICE devs produced a mod to be good to play now Crapcom destroyed it again its like pure obsession to make this weapon bad 😂

[@10XSeiga]

imagine reducing this game to this lol. yall are actively attempting to completely dissect the game before its even out. not factoring in the damage numbers and health numbers of each weapon and monster will be VERY different at launch. swaxe isnt doing enough damage? just think ahead to when you understand the monsters and have a full armor set with skills specific to damage with swaxe. I dont think it would be presumptive to believe that things will look much different on february 28th.

[@BloodyWyverian]

Well, basically everything you wrote I mentioned at some point during the video but yeah I agree with you, all this feedback is of course only on what was available to us, based on an outdated build with VERY limited options in terms of weapons and skills. But capcom asked for our feedback on this specific build and I'm sure they know what they're doing and where we simply don't have the full picture yet... which is basically everything lol I just hope we get another beta or a demo of the latest build of the game.