Monster Hunter Wilds' New Feature Is Nerfing Its Best Weapons

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A new combat feature in appears to have nerfed some of its greatest weapons. Due out in February 2025, is running an open beta test until November 4. During this period, players can enjoy a short demo of the game, witnessing the first moments of its story, exploring its first map, and hunting its first three monsters. Although it's only an early, limited version of the game, there's a surprising amount in there for players to experiment with, including the full arsenal of all 14 weapon types.

However, some players are logging onto for the first time, only to find that their favorite weapons have been nerfed. Some weapons were definitely hit harder than others, but the changes are universal, and they're not all going to be popular. It's pretty clear that they're a direct result of ' biggest new mechanic, called Focus, but whether its introduction was worth these changes is up for debate.

The worst casualty of ' weapon changes is the Insect Glaive, which has completely lost the ability to chain together aerial combos. The Insect Glaive functions somewhat like a pair of twin blades on the ground, but can also be used as a pole vault to launch a hunter into the air. Once they're up there, they have access to a variety of different moves, including, when the Glaive is powered up with red extract, a twisting, flipping, aerial somersault in which they orbit the Insect Glaive around their body, dealing constant damage to anything in the vicinity.

These hits are low-damage, but it's easy enough to land several at a time. More importantly, in previous games, players could chain together multiple of these aerial combos, staying in the air for extended periods of time. It took a little practice to master: in order to start the next combo, the last hit in the previous one had to land. Positioning and timing to maximize damage were difficult. But once players got the hang of it, they could use these combos to deal tons of damage with little risk to themselves. Plus, it was really