@@SuperRADLemon remember to charge the philes with your blade, taking note not to overcharge your gear, then switch transmission and send the philes to your shield, when your shield is charge, you change transmission to morph the axe, then you launch your super atk, and you transmission shift it back to blade. "Charge-sen Drifto?!! naniii?!"
@@SuperRADLemon i have mained charge blade in 4u, world, generations, gu, and rise demo. I have also used swage in the same games except 4u. This really does hold up
I actually prefer having the weapons entire moveset being gone over at the beginning, it helps have a full understanding of the weapon for people who don't typically play that type of weapon in-game.
S.Axe has always been my second favorite main, and my number one weapon when I'm "serious" about a hunt. I find it odd the whole "axe being a chore" point of view from the community, I have actively used the Axe as much as the Sword in all of the games I've played. Probably just my play style I guess. I absolutely love this weapon and it's adaptability. Glad it came out in the generation that I joined the franchise, such a great weapon
Agree with you there. Charge blade is my current main but the muscle memory that I've gotten from thousands of hours with Switch Axe has made it my go to 'serious' weapon when I need to shut off the brain and let the axe sword go brrrr do the work. My best hunting times are still with the switch axe
@@Kohiku I used to be a charge blade main, still kinda am with 200+ hunts completed in Rise on it, but I've been leaning more into switch axe because of how absolutely fun it feels. Idk if its placebo but, charge blade felt kinda sluggish Rise in comparison to world (which is ironic considering the wacky flying bug moves you can now pull off) and the guard points being nerfed to hell and back kinda just turned me off after awhile. SA, as of now to me, is far more satisfying because, even after its *Big Damage Caveman Move* you can still get back into the fight pretty fast and the sword move's combo animations just look and feel satisfying. Since Rise made the Monster AI more active and added some new moves to most to make up for the added mobility of the player, Charge Blade just feels extremely slow, especially with the faster monsters. Even when you opt to cancel your SAED for a regular ED, the recoil animation just takes too long and youre just knocked back unless its a perfect opening. Thats why the Meta for most is Savage Axe mode I guess. Though Charge Blade still has a very huge place in my heart, and nothing does beat that perfectly timed and positioned SAED. Switch Axe, in comparison, is basically my caveman weapon. It takes a bit more finesse without a shield but once you have the Amped state I literally enter braindead Unga Bunga Elemental Discharge and Double Slash + Wild Swing mode.
My first ever main weapon, it helped me understand how Monster Hunter really works (I was just spamming random combos with the Dual Blades before that) and made me fall in love with the series. From that point SA is always one of my favourite weapons, and I love how they're trying to focus on the switching mechanic to encourage you to use both modes consistently
Ah, you've finally seen the light super rad, you've finally made a video on the most superior of all the 14 weapon types! Come dear commenters, join the church of the holy switch axe! Its glory is greater than all other weapons... Just here to like and comment early for the youtube algorithm. Gonna watch this shortly.
@@finalaleks.6663 You are doing good dear child, now spread the good word to all corners of the community. Convert the hunters to the grand light of the switch axe!
@@Tamanegi-P my child i hearby appoint thee a priest of the swag axe for thy exceeding reverence for the greatest of weapons. Go forth and recruit others to our cause.
Sunbreaks switch axe now is actually insane its ability to remain evasive and the new morph attacks massively incentivise you to do different kinds of morphing attacks now
The Rapid Morph skill alone greatly incentivizes the use of the SA's morph attacks. Getting up to 20% more morph attack damage, along with 30% faster morph speed is huge, and any Switch Axe-focused set in Risebreak that does not use Rapid Morph 3 is a bad set.
@@SuperRADLemon Adding in wanting to see a history of buddy mechanics in Monster Hunter games. From palicos to shakalakas, prowlers, and the new palamutes. Having never played 3U, I never knew they had different npcs being your ai buddy other than palicos.
I remember 4Ultimate had a really pretty pink and blue switchaxe which was made from parts of both Azure Rathalos and Pink Rathian. It had a big chunk of poison on it, too
The value of Invincible Gambit is actually pretty high. It has hyper armour, meaning that it'll bulldoze through tremors, roars, and basically any attack while taking somewhat reduced damage; it's great for a more berserker-like playstyle. This combined with its relatively decent damage and movement makes it a great punishment tool, as well as a distance-closer. Combined with only requiring one wirebug and having a standard wirebug cooldown, among the 1-bug silkbinds it's pretty high up there. As someone who enjoys axe mode a great deal more than sword mode, this move speaks to me. It's more useful against Mizutsune than Great Izuchi, I find, also. But, to be fair, I was the kind of dork who did tempest axe adept/valor with axe mode only. On the other hand, I found Blade Charger to be practically useless. The actual effect doesn't last for very long; functionally speaking it's just a reload that moves you around and saves your next 2-4 attacks.
The charger had I framed tho I always use it for a quck evade and recharging sword. The gambit always moves too far to be used as an evade for me personally. But yeah I agree with you.
Blade charger had a ton of I-frames so think of it as an evasion tool that also helps your sword mode it's really good. Switch axe definitely got two fantastic silk bug moves imo.
@@kbrxion5620 during the invincible gambit (ZR and X) you have super Armor but can still take damage, silkbind charger (ZR and A) provides full invisibility and propels you forwards
The only thing I would add to this nice historical recap of switch axe is that while in axe mode in world, and moving walking toward, the hunter will preform an awkward transition into sword mode, where as in rise, moving forward and swaping to sword mode this akward transition is a fluid attack now.
The mechanics introduced in World (eventually) made me fall in love with the weapon. It took about a hundred or so hours of gameplay but when I decided to try the weapon for more than just two hunts, my eyes were suddenly opened to the possibilities. I essentially minmaxed a build using Safi armor and the Safi Switch Axe with exhaust phial, mixed with certain items and skills, it became ridiculously OP in multiplayer for most monsters. It was this weird mix of a support and raw damage build, where I did so much damage with the infinite I didn't even need to use sword mode all that much after exhaust buildup reached a certain point. My teammates hated how much I tossed them around tho, but that's not my problem. *puts on sunglasses* 10/10. Great video as always!
If i remember correctly, Clutch claw combo from elemental discharge allows you to climb on the monster if you started near full bar (it only auto climbs if you're in amped mode). The other reason would be that you started the discharge where the monster was not and wish to climb on before he moves away. The clutch grabbing gives a slight boost to the bar so if near the end of the explosion you're still not full you can get the remaining charge by clutching on
Fun fact, SA must have been more popular on Xbox than on pc, because every time i checked SA was ranked either 7th, or 8th in popularity. Another fun fact, in mh3u if you take your basic starting switch axe you get in your item box at the beginning of the game and continue upgrading it along the right upgrade path, it will wind up as the best SA in 3U, mizars aterism. Loved that baby, but I hated farming moonshards. Although I did have a method of cheesing lucent nargacuga to speed up the process drastically.
The clutch claw grapple of the discharge in Iceborne gave you a good amount of meter which helped a lot in getting to the amped state. It also helped you instantly grapple onto a monster and since it gave a good amount of meter, most of the time after grappling you would already be at amped state which enabled you to do the elemental discharge while grappled.
The silkbind attacks for SA are actually quite good and they both see some good use in speedruns. Invincible gambit is great to power through weak attacks and specially useful against roars. Switch charger not only recharges the gauge and prevents it from depleting for some seconds, but also makes you unhittable during the entire animation, making it wonderful as an evasive move. On top of that both of them allow you to cover a good amount of distance in a short time and can be used right after any other attack, so they work beautifully as repositioning tools.
World was my first MH game and I fell in love with Insect Glaive after watching it's little tutorial video in the training yard. After finding out the "dumb little bug" /was/ actually useful I went from love to infatuation, along the way I've also had fun with Dual Blades, Long Sword and mostly Charge Blade as a secondary. In the end though nothing compares to the versatile combat style of the Insect Glaive. When you're in the zone it stops feeling like a roughly forged weapon and more like a scalpel. Every strike becomes surgical in precision, every subtle movement of the monster as predictable reactions of instinct. The battlefield fades away as little more than an operating table, the stage for which this vivisection in progress is taking place. At your mercy the monster is little more than a lively cadaver, spasming as you rend it's flesh and bone in order to understand it better so that the next session is more efficient. A lioness toying with it's food, a god bored of its creation... Then there are the time you just can't get a Red or Green to save your life and OH GOD ITS ANGRY NOW! WHERES MY VITALITY MANTLE ;0;
love seeing my old 3U main covered, personally i think the weapon needs some of its attacks to have a built in rocksteady effect seeing as the weapon doesn't have the best defensive or evading options and I also think when your doing the ZSD were you grapple onto the monster you shouldn't be able to get knocked of if they did that i think the weapon would be in a much better place overall
The SwagAxe dance of keeping gauge/phile high if done right is second only to lance for keeping critical positioning and control. The Silkbinds for a SWAXE user are about keeping that middle pressure. Ie. Melee range dps.
After all if you get out of position by using a fade step, or get pulled too far forward trying to gain potency having the ability to turn around and immediately yank yourself back into the right position using your silk bind is the whole idea.
Man, the switch axe is probably the weapon I've used the most. If I remember right, I started tri using sword and shield, did a quick stint with the hammer and tried the switch axe but endend up using the long sword most at first, then I got my hands on FU, tried all the weird "new" weapons that weren't in tri but ended up flip flopping between long sword and dual blades. Then 3U came out and though I started with dual blades and long sword, but the axe called to me. I just felt I needed to try it again, and after some practice I just couldn't put it down. Even when 4U came out all I used was switch axe. Wasn't til Generations was coming out did I find my second love, I was looking over the weapons of 4 to try something new, I never really got pulled to the insect glave, but the charge blade was a strange one, after a few tries on that I was hooked and it very well replaced the switch axe for Gen and GenU. Now I have a handful of weapons I like to use, the sword and shield, long sword, dual blades, switch axe, charge blade, bow and with the changes in world and rise I'm getting into the bowgun.
As a SA main: Regarding the mechanic of pulling off the clutch claw during the elemental discharge, I used it quite a lot to combo from the elemental discharge, to build up gauge and clutch claw the monster to combo into the zero-sum discharge. Just making a note here since during the video you’ve thought it as a weird mechanic and didn’t see much use to it.
i started playing switch axe in 4u, and its been my favorite weapon ever since. Cant wait for rise, because the new silkbind attacks in the demo already fix alot of the difficulties of switch axe, being that it lets you get in instantly with the spin move with no care to what the monster is doing, and lets you quickly both recharge your meter AND gain invincibility for entirely too long with the other one. (I also low key miss some of the old sword mode moves, we lost a couple good high hitting moves in the transition to world. but i guess zero sum discharge makes up for that.)
14:08 the clutch claw attack from a standing elemental discharge does huge damage and charges your sword incredibly quickly. And as others have mentioned, if you do enter amped state during the attack you clutch onto the monster. It's a very good move to use to keep doing damage as the monster gets up and moves around
Important note about the second recharge silkbind art, it's fully invincible! Using it to dash through big telegraphed attacks such as Mizu water beam allows for a great invincible (not super armor, invincible!!) gap closer that also ensures you have enough sword gauge to go to town. it's super useful.
I was hammer before tri.. then i found switch axe, and my life changed. I had found the god of weapons and basked in its power glow. I must kill everything that walks to make it shine the path. It’s how i purge the evil. Even other hunters feel its glory as it lifts them into the sky to mount monsters. All bow before the mighty switch axe.
ah yes, my main weapon in Tri, carried me through so many hunts. i didn't use it much in gen 4, but i did have it as a secondary weapon next to long sword in world, can't wait to see the other silkbind moves in Rise.
Something that I think's worth mentioning is the power phial nerf; in Tri power phials had a massive 1.4 multiplier on physical attacks, while Portable 3rd to GU knocked it down to 1.25. World and Rise have pushed it down even further to 1.18.
The switchaxe has always been the true underrated weapon of momster hunter. When it comes to weapons like the hunting horn or the gunlance, it's easy to understand why they're unpopular: the hunting horn had bad motion values until World, it's slow, and while the recital is satisfying, the endlag of the move is not ideal; the gunlance doesn't even know what it wants to be, and the lance can be very repetitive... But the switchaxe has always been a cool, stilish and overall good weapon, yet not a lot of people play it still.
I really like the format you use for the history of various things related to MonHun, I found your channel not too long ago but now I really look forward to your new content. Keep up the great work, you deserve all the views, comments and likes this community has to offer ❤️
I always thought it was a complicated weapon, but I got my hands on it at the end of iceborne and I learned to love it. its another one of those style on the monster weapons that feels great
The weapon I learned the game with! So dear to my heart it is. I love the Switch Axe. I feel like it's what beginners to MH thought of when they picked up the Great Sword in older titles - a huge weapon that gets swung around like a feather. At the very least, that's how I felt and made me pick up the weapon for a looong period of time. I actually thought the weapon changed quite a bit over the years just by changing how the morphing is integrated in the combos. It became gradually more fluid until it culminated in the full on berserker mode weapon it became in World. I started to branch out in 4U so I played less SA in later entries, but whenever I pick up the weapon in World or Rise, it feels like my hunter just went crazy with how much of a flurry of wide reaching moves you get to unleash nowadays. What was Valor exclusive essentially became the standard flavor of the weapon by now and I absolutely adore it.
The Switch Axe was my first main weapon, I have a lot of fond memories with this weapon. I remember being upset about not being able to craft it at first offline but I found out you could craft it online, I spent a night finding the materials I needed to craft the basic one and go online to just craft it.
Invincible Gambit is not useless. Is a great move to close the distance with the monster especially when you are in Sword mode. This allows you to stay aggressive without missing a beat. Then, Switch Charger is just a god sent. It has tons of s during the animation, and I never ran out of Sword mode ever again. The s especially nice since Switch Axe got no real defensive/counter move.
this was the first blademaster weapon i played in my first mh game, tri, after months of torturing myself playing heavy bowgun not realizing I had no idea what I was doing. I didn't even know critical distance existed back then. needless to say I had some LONG fights haha. Switchax was the first weapon I was able to take ceadus down with. Good times.
ahh, my absolute baby! i picked up the series in 4U thinking i was gonna kill it with the gunlance. after a real slog-fest, i tried swaxe out and absolutely got turned on to Monster Hunter in a really serious way. it’s been insane to see how the weapon’s progressed over the last several games, with Iceborne’s iteration being its peak imo. insane to know it started out as a ”hidden” weapon in its debut!
as I fiver I'm very very glad someone can tell some history from before I started this glorious series Switch Axe is my melee weapon of choice in Iceborne especially for Fatalis
Really cool video , switchaxe is a great weapon! But you know what would have made it better ?? If it had a giant shield along with it ! And there was also a cannon attached to it ! And it was named gunlance!!!! Do gunlance next !!!!
I started with 4Ultimate, and switchaxe was my first weapon that I used. And I used it into G-Rank. I distinctly remeber whooping Kushala around with the Pink Rathian/Azure Rathalos poison switchaxe. It had a really pretty pink luster with a glinting blue blade, and has a large amount of poison with good raw damage (at least in my opinion)
La gran Hacha Espada :3 Actually the translation is Sword Axe rather than Axe Sword, in english adjetives are use at the start rather than the end. For example if you translated "blue sea" it wouldn't be "azul mar" but "mar azul" instead.
There was one big thing that I felt you forgot about in Iceborne, which was probably the Switch Axe’s best (and most spammable) attack. When you are in the amped state, clutch clawing and grabbing the monster from a sheath will either let you wound it like usual, or perform a Zero Sum Discharge (ZSD) onto the point. You can do this attack as long as you are in the amped state, even if you have no meter. This allows the Switch Axe to repeatedly spam ZSD will little to no consequence. The only risk is getting knocked off, and with mantles this strategy is even stronger, since you can just tank through most attacks with the right equipment. It is a very popular, powerful, and honestly rather spammable strategy, and trivializes the weird clutch claw out of elemental burst thing even more. I was a bit surprised you didn’t mention it in here, unless I am missing something somewhere...
I am a switch axe main and this video makes me feel like the weapond deserves more love then what it has I mean 11 out of all the is bs it should be in the top five at least Also yes as someone who mains the weapons invincible gambit is acctualy incredibly usefull because even though the ax has great Mobility it also has a few moves that take a bit of Animation to get through not to mention in both forms you move rather slow when it comes to walking so this allows the player to close the distance and be immune to knock-back when using it + -3 hit combo that builds up the Y burn ride mechanic so overall as someone who does main weapon I can say it actually is a very useful thing
@@SuperRADLemon Yea, the sword element discharge into clutch zero-sum is a bit quirky but it basically gives you one very long discharge if you pulling it off. Which is cool since zero-sum discharge attack has build-in earplugs. For me it was very situational. Both that and the heavy slam buff gave swaxe alot more versatility in regards what mode you wanna use. One small correction, heavy slam gives axe mode part breaker, not a straight up attack boost, and more flinch power.
Yeah, Switch Axe! I come and go from weapons as time goes on, but SA will always be special to me as the weapon that made MH "click" for me. It was just so ridiculous that I couldn't not enjoy myself.
I remember as a GS main, I once got bit by the curiosity bug, and had a go at the Switch Axe. Oddly enough, I found it clunkier than GS and never went back to it. Idk what it is, but the weapon feels weird.
I think that you're sleeping on the ZL+X silkbind, out of all the silkbinds in the demo with super armour, switch axe easily has the longest duration where it's active. It's definitely a more aggressive option for ignoring roars at least, but it seems safe beyond belief for a 1 cost silkbind.
I love the switch axe and main it since Tri, even though I didn't know at first it had a sword mode. I killed my first Lagiacrus offline with my boneaxe solely in axe mode. It wasn't until I played online that I saw someone in the sword mode and asked him how he did that. At least I had lots of practice with axe mode at that point.
14:15 you can charge your sword doing the elemental discharge and then combo into claw to climb the monster and do the discharge ON the monster. I think that this is the main use for it.
For the point at 14:18 where you couldn't get footage for the Clutch Claw specific stuff in the training room, you can change the objects in the training room to get the barrel "monster" which lets you practice clutch claw specific moves. You just have to talk to the house cat in the training room and select the change objects option.
Been playing since 3U on the Wii U and I would like to say I mainly play Switch axe a lot of the time. Before, this video I didn't even know the attack that depletes your stamina even existed. Fair play man, you earned as sub
Wait what? That first skillbind might be the greatest of em all for me. INSANE, like I dont know how good it is meta wise ig but boy does it feel satisfying
It's alright I was just quite surprised. Im also no SA main but idk I found that being super mega armored while dealing quite the amount of damage while having crazy range while still being able to aim. Damn I was impressed. But again I know it's not like everyone loves it
Actually the forst silkbind attack is very useful when wanting to either go through abroar, chase down a monster, or simply building up damage for a wyvern ride. I have even used it, when in full health, as a way to tank a hot so im not put back in a disadvantage spot. Though if you want an immediate dodge, the second silk bind had invincibility frames when you start getting sent foewrad, although half way through you might still be hit.
Ah the switch axe. The one weapon which I was disappointed learning I was playing it completely wrong because I always preferred axe over sword. It really did feel like until rise the modes were "sword mode" and "sword is not active mode", in the games I played (and seemingly was the same in world) Anyways, rise stuff, yes, power through roars to damage, free unga bunga damage there. As for the gauge charge move, that has i-frames... maybe we need wirebug nerfs in rise ultimate if everything is getting gorilla "I ignore everything you do" moves but hey, maybe that's just me BTW, was that an emulated version of 3U with a 60fps patch?
Axe mode is actually pretty useful in Iceborn. While it is much easier to simply build for pure Zero Sum Discharge spam, going for an evasion-flinch attack hybrid build and staying in Axe form only is also entirely viable. Now, I never played World's base Switch Axe, but from what I've heard, that one was basically Sword Mode only
There is a pretty significant change to swaxe that can be kinda easy to miss, or at least overlooked when going from world to rise; a standing morph attack. Lemme explain. In world, to do a morph attack, you need to perform an attack, then hit the morph button mid combo to switch form. Hitting the morph button while standing (read not attacking) performs a morphing animation (which I actually recommend watching btw... it's pretty interesting seeing how the bits and bobs shift around). In Rise, you can perform a morph attack without the need of a "starter" attack. You can simply be standing in axe mode, hit the morph button and perform a sword mode attack, and vice versa. The only requirement is that your character needs to be moving (or just a directional input). Standing still and hitting morph performs the normal morph animation. Also, the morphing attack finisher from wild swing needs an addition morph input at the end to actually go into sword mode or you will stay in axe, which can be pretty nice if you're just looking for a bit of extra damage and wanna stay in axe mode. (Edit: some Grammer edits. Phone)
The clutch claw grapple attack fills the amped bar by a LOT. So if you're close to filling it up. Slam the clutch claw button, fill up amped mode and manually trigger element discharge while youre clutching. Max dps acquired
I picked up switch axe in world and it helped me get into the game(I’d played since 4u but didn’t get into world) I guess I needed to “switch” things up😄
Actually, Switch Axe's Sword Mode can bounce when the sharpness at red (basically your weapon broke, literally) Its actually quite funny seeing SA sword mode bouncing
Picked up GU on sale over the weekend. As a swaxe main with World as my first MH game, i can’t play swaxe in GU to save my life. The lack of morph rolls and more restrictive morphing in general just changes the whole weapon for me, feels sadly clunky in comparison to its World/Rise versions. I took a dark turn to LS main in GU…
Decent take. I felt that throughout this weapon series, some opportunities was lost regarding a more meta-overview of the weapons in general. Things like how the weapon was conceptualized not from a gameplay perspective but from the historical or fantastical references, and how each come to fit the differences of themes across generations. The utility and physical mechanics of each weapon and how each combines fantastical aspects but is somehow grounded in reality is also pretty important aspect to the immersion of the gameplay. And if I'm not mistaken, no such video content creator has discussed this aspect in the past, I mean within the region of language I can understand of course. Maybe more important to me is the reason I picked this SA video to comment, is on the lore aspect of weapons. SA has some very interesting things coming from the phial mechanic as the first weapon to be christened with it. Some have already speculated that it has lore ties to monster energy and with it being so technologically advanced and mechanical compared to other weapons, I think it deems a section of it own and it's a lost opportunity to not discuss it at all, even if it's hardly officially canon. So maybe you could do that with CB instead? I also hope you'll do something with other examples like IG on how it references the 'respect from nature', 'prosperity from nature' aspect with the use of bugs, and how the bowguns handles the 'crafting from nature' aspect of the hunting Guild. They are also very prominent lore/thematic mechanics that give weapons their identities, IMO.
Well I’ll be damned I saw your great sword video and wondered if you did one for switch axe and see you did it six hours ago. Talk about luck and thank you
It's a weapon I've always wanted to get into but never quite understood so thanks for this video I'm gonna jump into iceborne in a bit and test it out again
As a Swag Axe main, a few tips: never rely on axe mode for raw damage, but buffing it via Wild Swing -> Heavy Slam gives it more partbreaker damage, and flinches monsters more frequently. For damage to finish a hunt, use sword mode. Keep slinger ammo on you so you can make use of the slinger burst for easy getaways in axe mode, and you're golden. Good luck!
Watching this after starting to use Swax in rise. It would be pretty cool to see a switch skill that turns it into a Alchemy ( I think that's what he said ) style and auto morph for more types of combos especially since axe also deals phial damage now.
I really like the changes you've made to these videos. This is by far my favorite so far just from a watching standpoint. Also Switch Axe is a fantastic weapon and my third favorite so maybe that helps lol.
Quick note. The clutch claw cancel for ED in world iceborne was supposed to allow you to use the ED build up to charge amped state, so that if you reached it before blasting you could hit one button to switch directly from a normal ED into an AED. :)
Switch Axe in Rise got "Heat Gauged". A new effect that is actually a nerf in disguise. Now your amp gauge fills insanely slow, like way way slower than in World, but to make it fill slightly faster you have to do a Axe mode slam first.
I still remember when reading about Monster Hunter Tri the Nintendo magazine when I looked the weapons I've said to myself "The switch axe should be mine". Known as the sword axe in spanish (hacha espada).
Ah, the Switch Axe, my first love. I always complained about how underutilized the axe mode was used, the switch is my favorite part, and a lot of the times the axe was just the means to get to sword. GenU was a good start with Tempest Axe, but World and Rise really makes the use of both the axe and sword worthwhile
Not sure when I became a SwA main. It was a slow transition but here I am swinging my stick around rapidly and shoving my stick down the the monster's skull while it tries to shake me off. Either I cart or they explode. The ultimate YOLO weapon.
Yo! Few comments regarding Rise SA from a SA SENSEI (jk bro put your IG down): - The "players are more encouraged to use axe mode" message thrown around is kinda fake news. Yes, amped state translates into axe mode but here's my tl,dr: sword mode MV's got buffed, early elemental discharge is probably BURST META, Morph sweep and power swing got nerfed and deal like.. 3/4 of the damage compared to iceborne (Overhead chop got buffed yay?), and to actually get your weapon amped you need to... you guessed it! Use sword mode! And it takes much much longer to charge it this time around! - 15:48 very happy to see a fellow SENIOR MH CONSULTANT agree regarding invincible gambit. It's very underwhelming and serves barely any purpose except: 1) punish a roar and 2) not get hit because let's be honest, you done F'D up. Oh but wait! - I personally think switch charger is... pretty good! Sure, charging the sword gauge is kindaa... let's just say not the most exciting thing, but it comes with two more features that compliment each other quite well: 1) repositioning, which SA users kiiinda need because we don't have 17 counters like LS and 2) it has a decent amount of s! So you can essentially do everything you can with the invincible gambit, but faster. Monster roar? Scared to get hit? Sword gauge empty? Switch charger got you covered. That's pretty much it. Great educational video, as always, and keep it up! PS: I somehow have the feeling you are aware of a certain Anthony Fantano, your videos give me a sliiiight melon vibe (might be wrong though). See ya!
as always, in terms of cars, Switch Axe is the Auto-transmission drive while Charge blade is Manual Transmission drive....
I need to study Charge Blade to see if this analogy holds up
@@SuperRADLemon remember to charge the philes with your blade, taking note not to overcharge your gear, then switch transmission and send the philes to your shield, when your shield is charge, you change transmission to morph the axe, then you launch your super atk, and you transmission shift it back to blade.
"Charge-sen Drifto?!! naniii?!"
@@NCHProductions lmaoo this along with your palamute running in the 90's bit. initial d memes are appreciated xD
@@SuperRADLemon i have mained charge blade in 4u, world, generations, gu, and rise demo. I have also used swage in the same games except 4u. This really does hold up
I fail to understand this analogy
I actually prefer having the weapons entire moveset being gone over at the beginning, it helps have a full understanding of the weapon for people who don't typically play that type of weapon in-game.
The mid-discharge grapple in World was so sick
S.Axe has always been my second favorite main, and my number one weapon when I'm "serious" about a hunt. I find it odd the whole "axe being a chore" point of view from the community, I have actively used the Axe as much as the Sword in all of the games I've played. Probably just my play style I guess.
I absolutely love this weapon and it's adaptability. Glad it came out in the generation that I joined the franchise, such a great weapon
Agree with you there. Charge blade is my current main but the muscle memory that I've gotten from thousands of hours with Switch Axe has made it my go to 'serious' weapon when I need to shut off the brain and let the axe sword go brrrr do the work. My best hunting times are still with the switch axe
@@Kohiku I used to be a charge blade main, still kinda am with 200+ hunts completed in Rise on it, but I've been leaning more into switch axe because of how absolutely fun it feels. Idk if its placebo but, charge blade felt kinda sluggish Rise in comparison to world (which is ironic considering the wacky flying bug moves you can now pull off) and the guard points being nerfed to hell and back kinda just turned me off after awhile. SA, as of now to me, is far more satisfying because, even after its *Big Damage Caveman Move* you can still get back into the fight pretty fast and the sword move's combo animations just look and feel satisfying.
Since Rise made the Monster AI more active and added some new moves to most to make up for the added mobility of the player, Charge Blade just feels extremely slow, especially with the faster monsters. Even when you opt to cancel your SAED for a regular ED, the recoil animation just takes too long and youre just knocked back unless its a perfect opening. Thats why the Meta for most is Savage Axe mode I guess. Though Charge Blade still has a very huge place in my heart, and nothing does beat that perfectly timed and positioned SAED.
Switch Axe, in comparison, is basically my caveman weapon. It takes a bit more finesse without a shield but once you have the Amped state I literally enter braindead Unga Bunga Elemental Discharge and Double Slash + Wild Swing mode.
My first ever main weapon, it helped me understand how Monster Hunter really works (I was just spamming random combos with the Dual Blades before that) and made me fall in love with the series. From that point SA is always one of my favourite weapons, and I love how they're trying to focus on the switching mechanic to encourage you to use both modes consistently
Same
This is exactly my story, except that I tried frontier switch axe and from then I can't play normal SA anymore
I felt like that too tbh
This is like my story except I was running around with Greatsword and missing my swings all the time
16:50 holy crap I forgot how many jaggi followed the great jaggi at a time, that looks so hectic. I miss them
Ah, you've finally seen the light super rad, you've finally made a video on the most superior of all the 14 weapon types! Come dear commenters, join the church of the holy switch axe! Its glory is greater than all other weapons...
Just here to like and comment early for the youtube algorithm. Gonna watch this shortly.
I have come to spread the good word. Bask in the pure dopamine of the Swag Axe, and you shall find true salvation.
@@finalaleks.6663 You are doing good dear child, now spread the good word to all corners of the community. Convert the hunters to the grand light of the switch axe!
@@Tamanegi-P my child i hearby appoint thee a priest of the swag axe for thy exceeding reverence for the greatest of weapons. Go forth and recruit others to our cause.
I too am here to share the glorious word of the switch axe, may our switches be clean and our discharges never fail.
@@ACBGames indeed brother, and may our axe always cleave deep into the flesh of our prey when we activate power axe mode.
Sunbreaks switch axe now is actually insane its ability to remain evasive and the new morph attacks massively incentivise you to do different kinds of morphing attacks now
The Rapid Morph skill alone greatly incentivizes the use of the SA's morph attacks. Getting up to 20% more morph attack damage, along with 30% faster morph speed is huge, and any Switch Axe-focused set in Risebreak that does not use Rapid Morph 3 is a bad set.
As a prowler main in gu i would love to see a history of the buddy mechanic from palicos to shakalakas to palimutes. Great vid as always.
Not a bad idea
Very good idea! Maybe can include even the Palamutes as helpers.
That actually would be neat, I used Prowler mode in Gen/GenU for my resource gathering
That would be fun
@@SuperRADLemon Adding in wanting to see a history of buddy mechanics in Monster Hunter games. From palicos to shakalakas, prowlers, and the new palamutes.
Having never played 3U, I never knew they had different npcs being your ai buddy other than palicos.
Before: barely any monsters we know about have switch axes
Now: Who the hell did this switch axe come from
I remember 4Ultimate had a really pretty pink and blue switchaxe which was made from parts of both Azure Rathalos and Pink Rathian. It had a big chunk of poison on it, too
@Smug cat Mine as well. It was so good that it saw me through High-Rank and into G-Rank.
@@luissilveira7057 the worst part is I can get that but my ds is broken
The value of Invincible Gambit is actually pretty high. It has hyper armour, meaning that it'll bulldoze through tremors, roars, and basically any attack while taking somewhat reduced damage; it's great for a more berserker-like playstyle. This combined with its relatively decent damage and movement makes it a great punishment tool, as well as a distance-closer. Combined with only requiring one wirebug and having a standard wirebug cooldown, among the 1-bug silkbinds it's pretty high up there.
As someone who enjoys axe mode a great deal more than sword mode, this move speaks to me. It's more useful against Mizutsune than Great Izuchi, I find, also. But, to be fair, I was the kind of dork who did tempest axe adept/valor with axe mode only.
On the other hand, I found Blade Charger to be practically useless. The actual effect doesn't last for very long; functionally speaking it's just a reload that moves you around and saves your next 2-4 attacks.
The charger had I framed tho I always use it for a quck evade and recharging sword. The gambit always moves too far to be used as an evade for me personally. But yeah I agree with you.
Blade charger had a ton of I-frames so think of it as an evasion tool that also helps your sword mode it's really good.
Switch axe definitely got two fantastic silk bug moves imo.
blade charger is fully invincible for the full duration of the move. quite possibly the best evasive move in the whole series
Fun fact: the Switch Charger silkbind attack provides full invincibility during its entirety
another fun fact: press X after the animation to get a finisher. Press down + X to get even cooler finisher
@@RanNyehh ooooo I’ll have to try that out!!
@@RanNyehh What, I didn't know that thanks
isn't it just that you get super armor during the silkbind attack but can still take damage
@@kbrxion5620 during the invincible gambit (ZR and X) you have super Armor but can still take damage, silkbind charger (ZR and A) provides full invisibility and propels you forwards
The only thing I would add to this nice historical recap of switch axe is that while in axe mode in world, and moving walking toward, the hunter will preform an awkward transition into sword mode, where as in rise, moving forward and swaping to sword mode this akward transition is a fluid attack now.
And the other way around, in Rise after a roll or side hop in sword mode you can use a quick morphing attack into axe mode which has i-frames
I personally would definitely prefer break downs of every move. Seems more like a definitive history that way.
Same I would prefer knowing every move. It just feel wrong to leave them out of a history video.
Finally! My baby, the swag axe!
13:19 power axe does not increase axe damage, it increases partbreak modifiers, which also affects flinches.
Thank you for the clarification
The mechanics introduced in World (eventually) made me fall in love with the weapon. It took about a hundred or so hours of gameplay but when I decided to try the weapon for more than just two hunts, my eyes were suddenly opened to the possibilities. I essentially minmaxed a build using Safi armor and the Safi Switch Axe with exhaust phial, mixed with certain items and skills, it became ridiculously OP in multiplayer for most monsters. It was this weird mix of a support and raw damage build, where I did so much damage with the infinite I didn't even need to use sword mode all that much after exhaust buildup reached a certain point.
My teammates hated how much I tossed them around tho, but that's not my problem. *puts on sunglasses* 10/10. Great video as always!
If i remember correctly, Clutch claw combo from elemental discharge allows you to climb on the monster if you started near full bar (it only auto climbs if you're in amped mode). The other reason would be that you started the discharge where the monster was not and wish to climb on before he moves away.
The clutch grabbing gives a slight boost to the bar so if near the end of the explosion you're still not full you can get the remaining charge by clutching on
Fun fact, SA must have been more popular on Xbox than on pc, because every time i checked SA was ranked either 7th, or 8th in popularity.
Another fun fact, in mh3u if you take your basic starting switch axe you get in your item box at the beginning of the game and continue upgrading it along the right upgrade path, it will wind up as the best SA in 3U, mizars aterism. Loved that baby, but I hated farming moonshards. Although I did have a method of cheesing lucent nargacuga to speed up the process drastically.
Yeah i remember swaxe being more middle of the pack for most of
Iceborne, like you said...
Please do NOT abbreviate sword axe 🙏😭
@@tree3307 HAAANK! HAAANK! DON'T ABBREVIETE CYBERPUNK! HAAANK!
16:13 switch charger also has pretty good I-frames so it's good for evasion
Out of all the monster hunter videos I've watched I never thought about seeing a history on weapons one, thank you can't wait to see charge blade.
The clutch claw grapple of the discharge in Iceborne gave you a good amount of meter which helped a lot in getting to the amped state.
It also helped you instantly grapple onto a monster and since it gave a good amount of meter, most of the time after grappling you would already be at amped state which enabled you to do the elemental discharge while grappled.
The silkbind attacks for SA are actually quite good and they both see some good use in speedruns.
Invincible gambit is great to power through weak attacks and specially useful against roars.
Switch charger not only recharges the gauge and prevents it from depleting for some seconds, but also makes you unhittable during the entire animation, making it wonderful as an evasive move.
On top of that both of them allow you to cover a good amount of distance in a short time and can be used right after any other attack, so they work beautifully as repositioning tools.
Are you kidding me? I have been a Switch Axe main since Tri and I NEVER knew about that finisher from the infinite axe swing! What is WRONG with me???
World was my first MH game and I fell in love with Insect Glaive after watching it's little tutorial video in the training yard. After finding out the "dumb little bug" /was/ actually useful I went from love to infatuation, along the way I've also had fun with Dual Blades, Long Sword and mostly Charge Blade as a secondary. In the end though nothing compares to the versatile combat style of the Insect Glaive. When you're in the zone it stops feeling like a roughly forged weapon and more like a scalpel.
Every strike becomes surgical in precision, every subtle movement of the monster as predictable reactions of instinct. The battlefield fades away as little more than an operating table, the stage for which this vivisection in progress is taking place. At your mercy the monster is little more than a lively cadaver, spasming as you rend it's flesh and bone in order to understand it better so that the next session is more efficient. A lioness toying with it's food, a god bored of its creation...
Then there are the time you just can't get a Red or Green to save your life and OH GOD ITS ANGRY NOW! WHERES MY VITALITY MANTLE ;0;
love seeing my old 3U main covered, personally i think the weapon needs some of its attacks to have a built in rocksteady effect seeing as the weapon doesn't have the best defensive or evading options and I also think when your doing the ZSD were you grapple onto the monster you shouldn't be able to get knocked of if they did that i think the weapon would be in a much better place overall
The SwagAxe dance of keeping gauge/phile high if done right is second only to lance for keeping critical positioning and control. The Silkbinds for a SWAXE user are about keeping that middle pressure. Ie. Melee range dps.
After all if you get out of position by using a fade step, or get pulled too far forward trying to gain potency having the ability to turn around and immediately yank yourself back into the right position using your silk bind is the whole idea.
Man, the switch axe is probably the weapon I've used the most. If I remember right, I started tri using sword and shield, did a quick stint with the hammer and tried the switch axe but endend up using the long sword most at first, then I got my hands on FU, tried all the weird "new" weapons that weren't in tri but ended up flip flopping between long sword and dual blades. Then 3U came out and though I started with dual blades and long sword, but the axe called to me. I just felt I needed to try it again, and after some practice I just couldn't put it down. Even when 4U came out all I used was switch axe. Wasn't til Generations was coming out did I find my second love, I was looking over the weapons of 4 to try something new, I never really got pulled to the insect glave, but the charge blade was a strange one, after a few tries on that I was hooked and it very well replaced the switch axe for Gen and GenU. Now I have a handful of weapons I like to use, the sword and shield, long sword, dual blades, switch axe, charge blade, bow and with the changes in world and rise I'm getting into the bowgun.
After watching this Perhaps I need to put down my charge blade and bow and return to my swag axe roots...
As a SA main: Regarding the mechanic of pulling off the clutch claw during the elemental discharge, I used it quite a lot to combo from the elemental discharge, to build up gauge and clutch claw the monster to combo into the zero-sum discharge.
Just making a note here since during the video you’ve thought it as a weird mechanic and didn’t see much use to it.
i started playing switch axe in 4u, and its been my favorite weapon ever since. Cant wait for rise, because the new silkbind attacks in the demo already fix alot of the difficulties of switch axe, being that it lets you get in instantly with the spin move with no care to what the monster is doing, and lets you quickly both recharge your meter AND gain invincibility for entirely too long with the other one. (I also low key miss some of the old sword mode moves, we lost a couple good high hitting moves in the transition to world. but i guess zero sum discharge makes up for that.)
14:08 the clutch claw attack from a standing elemental discharge does huge damage and charges your sword incredibly quickly. And as others have mentioned, if you do enter amped state during the attack you clutch onto the monster. It's a very good move to use to keep doing damage as the monster gets up and moves around
Important note about the second recharge silkbind art, it's fully invincible! Using it to dash through big telegraphed attacks such as Mizu water beam allows for a great invincible (not super armor, invincible!!) gap closer that also ensures you have enough sword gauge to go to town. it's super useful.
I was hammer before tri.. then i found switch axe, and my life changed. I had found the god of weapons and basked in its power glow. I must kill everything that walks to make it shine the path. It’s how i purge the evil. Even other hunters feel its glory as it lifts them into the sky to mount monsters. All bow before the mighty switch axe.
40 seconds into the video and I’m already giggling, awesome intro dude
ah yes, my main weapon in Tri, carried me through so many hunts. i didn't use it much in gen 4, but i did have it as a secondary weapon next to long sword in world, can't wait to see the other silkbind moves in Rise.
Imagine the crippling disappointment we'll get if Capcom reveals that there are no extra silkbinds....
Something that I think's worth mentioning is the power phial nerf; in Tri power phials had a massive 1.4 multiplier on physical attacks, while Portable 3rd to GU knocked it down to 1.25. World and Rise have pushed it down even further to 1.18.
The switchaxe has always been the true underrated weapon of momster hunter.
When it comes to weapons like the hunting horn or the gunlance, it's easy to understand why they're unpopular: the hunting horn had bad motion values until World, it's slow, and while the recital is satisfying, the endlag of the move is not ideal; the gunlance doesn't even know what it wants to be, and the lance can be very repetitive...
But the switchaxe has always been a cool, stilish and overall good weapon, yet not a lot of people play it still.
wake up babe, new SuperRAD video
I really like the format you use for the history of various things related to MonHun, I found your channel not too long ago but now I really look forward to your new content. Keep up the great work, you deserve all the views, comments and likes this community has to offer ❤️
Glad you enjoy it!
16:25 it also had 7 years worth of I-frames in the rise demo
The cooler charge blade
cheers fellow SA Users
We'll always have more style - this fact told by the CB troupe
The charge blade may be cool, but switch axe will always be the og morphing weapon. That and its easier to learn. all hail the switch axe!
the thing is there's no competition between SA and CB. both are cool and i found both weapons is fascinating on their respective playstyle.
I always thought it was a complicated weapon, but I got my hands on it at the end of iceborne and I learned to love it. its another one of those style on the monster weapons that feels great
The weapon I learned the game with! So dear to my heart it is. I love the Switch Axe. I feel like it's what beginners to MH thought of when they picked up the Great Sword in older titles - a huge weapon that gets swung around like a feather. At the very least, that's how I felt and made me pick up the weapon for a looong period of time. I actually thought the weapon changed quite a bit over the years just by changing how the morphing is integrated in the combos. It became gradually more fluid until it culminated in the full on berserker mode weapon it became in World. I started to branch out in 4U so I played less SA in later entries, but whenever I pick up the weapon in World or Rise, it feels like my hunter just went crazy with how much of a flurry of wide reaching moves you get to unleash nowadays. What was Valor exclusive essentially became the standard flavor of the weapon by now and I absolutely adore it.
The Switch Axe was my first main weapon, I have a lot of fond memories with this weapon. I remember being upset about not being able to craft it at first offline but I found out you could craft it online, I spent a night finding the materials I needed to craft the basic one and go online to just craft it.
Invincible Gambit is not useless. Is a great move to close the distance with the monster especially when you are in Sword mode. This allows you to stay aggressive without missing a beat. Then, Switch Charger is just a god sent. It has tons of s during the animation, and I never ran out of Sword mode ever again. The s especially nice since Switch Axe got no real defensive/counter move.
this was the first blademaster weapon i played in my first mh game, tri, after months of torturing myself playing heavy bowgun not realizing I had no idea what I was doing. I didn't even know critical distance existed back then. needless to say I had some LONG fights haha. Switchax was the first weapon I was able to take ceadus down with. Good times.
ahh, my absolute baby! i picked up the series in 4U thinking i was gonna kill it with the gunlance. after a real slog-fest, i tried swaxe out and absolutely got turned on to Monster Hunter in a really serious way. it’s been insane to see how the weapon’s progressed over the last several games, with Iceborne’s iteration being its peak imo. insane to know it started out as a ”hidden” weapon in its debut!
"It just had this flamboyant flair about it" *shows Terra*
as I fiver I'm very very glad someone can tell some history from before I started this glorious series
Switch Axe is my melee weapon of choice in Iceborne especially for Fatalis
Really cool video , switchaxe is a great weapon! But you know what would have made it better ?? If it had a giant shield along with it ! And there was also a cannon attached to it ! And it was named gunlance!!!! Do gunlance next !!!!
I started with 4Ultimate, and switchaxe was my first weapon that I used. And I used it into G-Rank. I distinctly remeber whooping Kushala around with the Pink Rathian/Azure Rathalos poison switchaxe. It had a really pretty pink luster with a glinting blue blade, and has a large amount of poison with good raw damage (at least in my opinion)
Something interesting is that in spanish the Switch axe is named "Hachaespada" that can be translated to Axessword
La gran Hacha Espada :3
Actually the translation is Sword Axe rather than Axe Sword, in english adjetives are use at the start rather than the end. For example if you translated "blue sea" it wouldn't be "azul mar" but "mar azul" instead.
There was one big thing that I felt you forgot about in Iceborne, which was probably the Switch Axe’s best (and most spammable) attack.
When you are in the amped state, clutch clawing and grabbing the monster from a sheath will either let you wound it like usual, or perform a Zero Sum Discharge (ZSD) onto the point. You can do this attack as long as you are in the amped state, even if you have no meter.
This allows the Switch Axe to repeatedly spam ZSD will little to no consequence. The only risk is getting knocked off, and with mantles this strategy is even stronger, since you can just tank through most attacks with the right equipment.
It is a very popular, powerful, and honestly rather spammable strategy, and trivializes the weird clutch claw out of elemental burst thing even more. I was a bit surprised you didn’t mention it in here, unless I am missing something somewhere...
I am a switch axe main and this video makes me feel like the weapond deserves more love then what it has I mean 11 out of all the is bs it should be in the top five at least
Also yes as someone who mains the weapons invincible gambit is acctualy incredibly usefull because even though the ax has great Mobility it also has a few moves that take a bit of Animation to get through not to mention in both forms you move rather slow when it comes to walking so this allows the player to close the distance and be immune to knock-back when using it + -3 hit combo that builds up the Y burn ride mechanic so overall as someone who does main weapon I can say it actually is a very useful thing
I love the switch axe, it will be my main in rise and the Hunting horn of course!
*YES!! SWAXE!!!* I love what they did to the Switchaxe in Iceborne and Rise. Finally implented the switch in switchaxe instead of switch-to-sword axe.
I had such a hard time figuring it out in IB
@@SuperRADLemon Yea, the sword element discharge into clutch zero-sum is a bit quirky but it basically gives you one very long discharge if you pulling it off. Which is cool since zero-sum discharge attack has build-in earplugs. For me it was very situational. Both that and the heavy slam buff gave swaxe alot more versatility in regards what mode you wanna use. One small correction, heavy slam gives axe mode part breaker, not a straight up attack boost, and more flinch power.
Yeah, Switch Axe! I come and go from weapons as time goes on, but SA will always be special to me as the weapon that made MH "click" for me. It was just so ridiculous that I couldn't not enjoy myself.
I remember as a GS main, I once got bit by the curiosity bug, and had a go at the Switch Axe. Oddly enough, I found it clunkier than GS and never went back to it. Idk what it is, but the weapon feels weird.
I think that you're sleeping on the ZL+X silkbind, out of all the silkbinds in the demo with super armour, switch axe easily has the longest duration where it's active. It's definitely a more aggressive option for ignoring roars at least, but it seems safe beyond belief for a 1 cost silkbind.
Cant wait for the magnet spike video
I love the switch axe and main it since Tri, even though I didn't know at first it had a sword mode.
I killed my first Lagiacrus offline with my boneaxe solely in axe mode. It wasn't until I played online that I saw someone in the sword mode and asked him how he did that. At least I had lots of practice with axe mode at that point.
I suppose I’ll ask for the charge blade to be the next video, but next week I’ll be back to asking for the bow! Great video as always
idk why exactly but the gameplay from about 7:21 - 7:40 is the funniest shit to me, good stuff
I love playing Tri with the Switch Axe!
I hated unlocking it lmao
The Swaxe is insane in Rise. I outdamage all my friends by DOUBLE (it's on PC so we have damage meters). It's ridiculous with the Rapid Morph Skill.
Really enjoying this series! Your presentation style is smooth as always. Would love to see SnS next!
Coming soon!
14:15 you can charge your sword doing the elemental discharge and then combo into claw to climb the monster and do the discharge ON the monster. I think that this is the main use for it.
For the point at 14:18 where you couldn't get footage for the Clutch Claw specific stuff in the training room, you can change the objects in the training room to get the barrel "monster" which lets you practice clutch claw specific moves. You just have to talk to the house cat in the training room and select the change objects option.
Been playing since 3U on the Wii U and I would like to say I mainly play Switch axe a lot of the time. Before, this video I didn't even know the attack that depletes your stamina even existed. Fair play man, you earned as sub
Wait what? That first skillbind might be the greatest of em all for me. INSANE, like I dont know how good it is meta wise ig but boy does it feel satisfying
Well keep in mind I don't play the weapon often
It's alright I was just quite surprised. Im also no SA main but idk I found that being super mega armored while dealing quite the amount of damage while having crazy range while still being able to aim. Damn I was impressed. But again I know it's not like everyone loves it
Actually the forst silkbind attack is very useful when wanting to either go through abroar, chase down a monster, or simply building up damage for a wyvern ride. I have even used it, when in full health, as a way to tank a hot so im not put back in a disadvantage spot. Though if you want an immediate dodge, the second silk bind had invincibility frames when you start getting sent foewrad, although half way through you might still be hit.
Ah the switch axe. The one weapon which I was disappointed learning I was playing it completely wrong because I always preferred axe over sword. It really did feel like until rise the modes were "sword mode" and "sword is not active mode", in the games I played (and seemingly was the same in world)
Anyways, rise stuff, yes, power through roars to damage, free unga bunga damage there. As for the gauge charge move, that has i-frames... maybe we need wirebug nerfs in rise ultimate if everything is getting gorilla "I ignore everything you do" moves but hey, maybe that's just me
BTW, was that an emulated version of 3U with a 60fps patch?
Axe mode is actually pretty useful in Iceborn. While it is much easier to simply build for pure Zero Sum Discharge spam, going for an evasion-flinch attack hybrid build and staying in Axe form only is also entirely viable. Now, I never played World's base Switch Axe, but from what I've heard, that one was basically Sword Mode only
Dont assume next time. You can power up your axe and its amazing
There is a pretty significant change to swaxe that can be kinda easy to miss, or at least overlooked when going from world to rise; a standing morph attack. Lemme explain.
In world, to do a morph attack, you need to perform an attack, then hit the morph button mid combo to switch form. Hitting the morph button while standing (read not attacking) performs a morphing animation (which I actually recommend watching btw... it's pretty interesting seeing how the bits and bobs shift around).
In Rise, you can perform a morph attack without the need of a "starter" attack. You can simply be standing in axe mode, hit the morph button and perform a sword mode attack, and vice versa. The only requirement is that your character needs to be moving (or just a directional input). Standing still and hitting morph performs the normal morph animation.
Also, the morphing attack finisher from wild swing needs an addition morph input at the end to actually go into sword mode or you will stay in axe, which can be pretty nice if you're just looking for a bit of extra damage and wanna stay in axe mode. (Edit: some Grammer edits. Phone)
i love when you just got stunned by great wroggi 4 times in a row
The clutch claw grapple attack fills the amped bar by a LOT.
So if you're close to filling it up.
Slam the clutch claw button, fill up amped mode and manually trigger element discharge while youre clutching.
Max dps acquired
I abused the heck out of Adept Switch Axe with Energy Charge when soloing GenU.
Ahh yes switch boy i still have flashbacks yousing my i ceadeus switch axe in tri
I picked up switch axe in world and it helped me get into the game(I’d played since 4u but didn’t get into world) I guess I needed to “switch” things up😄
Started maining this weapon in MHW, then played Hammer and great sword for a long time. Now I’m back to switch axe in Sunbreak and I love it
Actually, Switch Axe's Sword Mode can bounce when the sharpness at red (basically your weapon broke, literally)
Its actually quite funny seeing SA sword mode bouncing
How rude can you be to even let a switch axe get to red sharpness?
@@foulXD Dunno, fighting 10 Basarios?
Picked up GU on sale over the weekend. As a swaxe main with World as my first MH game, i can’t play swaxe in GU to save my life. The lack of morph rolls and more restrictive morphing in general just changes the whole weapon for me, feels sadly clunky in comparison to its World/Rise versions. I took a dark turn to LS main in GU…
Dude I did the same I was getting ragdolled with swaxe so I’ve turned to valor ls 😂and I’m balling
@@zairea.4605 lol i’m glad i’m not the only one then 😂
That great wroggi was a menace, what was that 4x lunge combo 😭😭
Decent take. I felt that throughout this weapon series, some opportunities was lost regarding a more meta-overview of the weapons in general. Things like how the weapon was conceptualized not from a gameplay perspective but from the historical or fantastical references, and how each come to fit the differences of themes across generations. The utility and physical mechanics of each weapon and how each combines fantastical aspects but is somehow grounded in reality is also pretty important aspect to the immersion of the gameplay. And if I'm not mistaken, no such video content creator has discussed this aspect in the past, I mean within the region of language I can understand of course.
Maybe more important to me is the reason I picked this SA video to comment, is on the lore aspect of weapons. SA has some very interesting things coming from the phial mechanic as the first weapon to be christened with it. Some have already speculated that it has lore ties to monster energy and with it being so technologically advanced and mechanical compared to other weapons, I think it deems a section of it own and it's a lost opportunity to not discuss it at all, even if it's hardly officially canon. So maybe you could do that with CB instead?
I also hope you'll do something with other examples like IG on how it references the 'respect from nature', 'prosperity from nature' aspect with the use of bugs, and how the bowguns handles the 'crafting from nature' aspect of the hunting Guild. They are also very prominent lore/thematic mechanics that give weapons their identities, IMO.
Well I’ll be damned I saw your great sword video and wondered if you did one for switch axe and see you did it six hours ago. Talk about luck and thank you
It's a weapon I've always wanted to get into but never quite understood so thanks for this video I'm gonna jump into iceborne in a bit and test it out again
As a Swag Axe main, a few tips: never rely on axe mode for raw damage, but buffing it via Wild Swing -> Heavy Slam gives it more partbreaker damage, and flinches monsters more frequently. For damage to finish a hunt, use sword mode. Keep slinger ammo on you so you can make use of the slinger burst for easy getaways in axe mode, and you're golden. Good luck!
@@finalaleks.6663 Thanks for the tips I'll keep the slinger burst in mind
This video is Super SWAG.
Watching this after starting to use Swax in rise. It would be pretty cool to see a switch skill that turns it into a Alchemy ( I think that's what he said ) style and auto morph for more types of combos especially since axe also deals phial damage now.
I really like the changes you've made to these videos. This is by far my favorite so far just from a watching standpoint. Also Switch Axe is a fantastic weapon and my third favorite so maybe that helps lol.
Made my week again dude you should definitely start streaming
At 10k I'm going to do a celebratory stream :) I used to stream often about 2 years ago
@@SuperRADLemon Awesome dude let us know
Quick note. The clutch claw cancel for ED in world iceborne was supposed to allow you to use the ED build up to charge amped state, so that if you reached it before blasting you could hit one button to switch directly from a normal ED into an AED. :)
Switch Axe in Rise got "Heat Gauged". A new effect that is actually a nerf in disguise. Now your amp gauge fills insanely slow, like way way slower than in World, but to make it fill slightly faster you have to do a Axe mode slam first.
awesome heavy hitting weapon thats also very stylish with all the colourful explosions.
Invincible Gambit is pretty useful for powering through monster roars and lighter attacks; and outright evading heavier ones.
I still remember when reading about Monster Hunter Tri the Nintendo magazine when I looked the weapons I've said to myself "The switch axe should be mine".
Known as the sword axe in spanish (hacha espada).
Holding my breath for the "History of Monster Hunter | The Medium Bowgun" episode ;)
Ah, the Switch Axe, my first love. I always complained about how underutilized the axe mode was used, the switch is my favorite part, and a lot of the times the axe was just the means to get to sword. GenU was a good start with Tempest Axe, but World and Rise really makes the use of both the axe and sword worthwhile
Not sure when I became a SwA main. It was a slow transition but here I am swinging my stick around rapidly and shoving my stick down the the monster's skull while it tries to shake me off. Either I cart or they explode. The ultimate YOLO weapon.
6:00 Twitter Poll by Capcom - Switch Axe #1 in popularity in Rise. Heck of a jump.
Yo! Few comments regarding Rise SA from a SA SENSEI (jk bro put your IG down):
- The "players are more encouraged to use axe mode" message thrown around is kinda fake news. Yes, amped state translates into axe mode but here's my tl,dr: sword mode MV's got buffed, early elemental discharge is probably BURST META, Morph sweep and power swing got nerfed and deal like.. 3/4 of the damage compared to iceborne (Overhead chop got buffed yay?), and to actually get your weapon amped you need to... you guessed it! Use sword mode! And it takes much much longer to charge it this time around!
- 15:48 very happy to see a fellow SENIOR MH CONSULTANT agree regarding invincible gambit. It's very underwhelming and serves barely any purpose except: 1) punish a roar and 2) not get hit because let's be honest, you done F'D up. Oh but wait!
- I personally think switch charger is... pretty good! Sure, charging the sword gauge is kindaa... let's just say not the most exciting thing, but it comes with two more features that compliment each other quite well: 1) repositioning, which SA users kiiinda need because we don't have 17 counters like LS and 2) it has a decent amount of s! So you can essentially do everything you can with the invincible gambit, but faster. Monster roar? Scared to get hit? Sword gauge empty? Switch charger got you covered.
That's pretty much it. Great educational video, as always, and keep it up!
PS: I somehow have the feeling you are aware of a certain Anthony Fantano, your videos give me a sliiiight melon vibe (might be wrong though). See ya!
Lmao, I appreciate the fantano compliment. I don't think I ever based my vids off of him, but I love his content.