CSS charge blade vs special investigation astalos

Channel:

juzzi

Subscribers:

4,530

Published on March 14, 2024 10:38:59 AM ● Video Link: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CIgkdxY7x3I

Game:

Monster Hunter Rise (2021)

Duration: 7:07

2,665 views

109

this was one of the most painful grinds i've had because CSS is so bad at fighting exhausted astalos, and isn't too great at fighting monsters in general. CSS is very hard to play well due to its lack of mobility and the general sluggishness/clunkiness of the moveset. not being able to exit axe mode without losing the CSS buff sucks and air dash is jank as hell. you have to be very cognisant of positioning, movement and timing at all times during neutral play and during punishes since you move and attack so slowly.

an example of CSS' difficulties is the double wing slam punish. this is the best move to punish for most weapons, including CSS. but for CSS you have to ensure you close the distance with astalos to force him to backhop after the first wing slam, otherwise your punish window is significantly shorter and your positioning is thrown off. if you're not close enough to the first wing slam, even if you force the backhop, you'll get a shit punish. you need to be right in front of or under his head to get either an iframe into ed1 or a ready stance into ed2, depending on whether you want status trigger and adrenaline rush or offensive guard uptime. if you're too far you can't iframe properly or your ready stance ed2 will whiff.

other weapons still need to close the distance with astalos, but most of them have a far easier time due to their higher mobility. some weapons also get decent punishes even when out of position, particularly if they have good counter - ready stance into ed1 or ed2 is not a very good counter.

it only gets worse when astalos is exhausted. the most consistent punish is on the wing sweep with iframe into air dash, but even that requires precise timing and positioning to hit the head and not the wings. the tail stab move requires similar position, and its recovery animation has astalos move his head far away, so you have to try and chase it down to land an extra ed1. astalos' tail spin gives a refresh for status trigger but affords a very small punish, usually ed1, that is very hard to connect on his head if he's spinning it away from you. worst of all is the exhaust charge. i try to reverse air dash it but only one hit can connect with the head, and that's only if i time and angle it perfectly. if i miss the angle or timing i will catch a shitzone and do minimal damage. either way you end up at his ass afterwards, which really sucks.

something that CSS suffers from in all matchups is the slow swings and massive hitlag. there are many punish windows where you can generally get a safe, quick ed1 in, but you should try and fit an ed2 for optimal damage. this however can get you punished by quick attacks like his double lightning crest swipe or the exhaust charge. for many of his punish windows you actually need to cancel the CSS ticks early to land both swings on his head or to ensure your punish is as safe as possible. some good examples of early tick cancels are at 1:20 and 2:44.

for most of my attempts i was running the amatsu weapon to get more consistent damage and bigger air dash numbers. this allowed me to get an earlier mount. however, after switching one dog onto silkbinder, i no longer needed silkbind boost or as many air dashes to mount, so i tried a status trigger set again to try and fish for more damage. my average clear times didn't change that much and after reviewing some footage, the damage output is barely different, so i think i just had better AI and gameplay and more red bubble pops for this PB. the silkbind dog does comparable damage to a dual bladed chain dog thanks to astalos' elemental shitzones, and also sometimes binds him down like at 2:58, which can create opportunities for me to just smack him.

i make a stupid mistake at 1:37, when my air dash lands behind his wing. you can't walk past his wing when he's topple, but i waste time with an overhead swing. i then air dash to his head but miss the landing hit. the first exhaust phase is pretty bad in general, with a lot of white numbers. 4:13 is a really fucking dumb moment where i miss my ready stance input and do a big fat air SAED with 0 phials. these are the two main mistakes that cost me a sub 6'30. i could save more time by missing less swings and hitting less white numbers but some bad swings are almost unavoidable on this playstyle.

a sub 6'20 should be possible but it's too damn hard for me and i'm giving up because i'm a coward and CSS sucks.

music: persona 4 - specialist (reincarnation)

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