Salty Hunting MH4U: G Rank Najarala
Wednesday, March 23, 2016
What monster effectively shuts down 9 of Monster Hunter 4 Ultimate's 14 weapons? What monster is essentially the bane of blademasters? What monster will make you feel like you don't know how to play the game?
That's right, it's Najarala! This newly introduced monster struts it's stuff, showing off how utterly rage-inducing Monster Hunter can really be. If you're a Blademaster, it doesn't matter what skills you put on, Najarala will find a way around them and fuck you over three ways to Sunday. Whether it's the scales, the camera or an unlucky Bhanabra sting, you'll find something to get salty about when fighting this shitty snake.
 |
| I've raged more fighting this damn Snake than I have almost any other monster. |
Ask yourself a few questions before fighting this thing.
A: Yes
Result: Unless you're using a GL or CB, you'll probably have really shitty time. If you're using either of those two, you'll have a slightly less shitty time.
Q: Are you a Blademaster?
A: No
Result: Gunners, eat your heart out. This is one battle that swings very much in your favour. Be careful though, he can kill most gunners if he catches you off guard
Q: Are you using an Insect Glaive?
A: Yes
Result: Have fucking fun, this fight was made for you.
Before we get into the nitty gritty aspects of what makes Najarala such a pain, let's talk about the monster itself.
It's currently the only large monster in the “Snake Wyvern” family, outside of it's subspecies, and is joined only by the Remobra. There's two features that are immediately noticeable about this monster. First is it's long, serpentine body. Secondly, are it's Ampsounders, the large, flaring scales that run down from the top of it's head. That's it's weak spot. Yep, all the way up there. The body? It's kind of hard to tell where the “body” ends and the “tail” starts, but the upper sections of the body (the thicker part) is tougher than the thinner parts. You'll definitely bounce off without high, high sharpness.
In terms of attacks, up until G-Rank, it's move set is pretty manageable. While it doesn't have a breath attack, it can throw scales out a short distance as projectiles. Those scales will cause a Hearing Flinch if you're standing near their landing site. They'll also explode whenever Najarala roars, causing a guaranteed stun. You don't want to be stunned around Najarala. Bad things happen when you are.
It's long body is used in most of it's attacks, giving it a huge range, even without fireballs or beams. It's charging tackle covers quite a bit of horizontal space, because of it's long body. It's grab attack is easy to avoid, but, again, it's long body gives that attack an impressive reach. The most dangerous of it's attacks is the encirclement. It uses it's long body to literally pen you like live stock. While in this attack, it has 3 moves: a paralyzing bite, a tail swipe that'll keep you in and a high damage burrowing attack. It'll use the encircling move whenever you're stunned or stuck in flinching animations (like reeling for roars or flying scales).
 |
| Source |
By now you've probably got an idea of why this thing is a huge pain.
High Damage resistance. Out of Reach weak points. High damage, and extremely high damaging combos. Little flinching hits. There's lots to hate about this snake.
It's most accessible parts, the body and tail which are on the ground, take relatively low physical and elemental damage. It's weak point are it's ampsounders, located on top of it's head, out of reach for 95% of the Blademaster weapons, unless it's knocked down by a mount. Impact Charge Blades and Gunlances can sidestep this defence with they're flat-rate damage, but still suffer from the bullshit that happens when you're up close and personal with this dumb snake.
It's scales can travel quite a distance, occasionally landing exactly where you're standing, and the explosion they cause when they break goes a little further than it looks. Compound that with the fact that Najarala can throw out more than half a dozen of them, and then add it's ability to break them while moving (it's a specific move). It can be tough to keep track of where the scales landed especially when they're littered in various directions. It's not uncommon to be caught by an explosion just off screen. Did I tell you that these explosions are a guaranteed stun if you get hit? And that Najarala can deal 40-50% combos off of a stun? If a scale lands near you, you'll flinch, and that's just enough time for the snake to pen you in. If you're too slow, kiss 30% of your HP good bye, assuming you're using good armour. If you're a gunner, you're probably dead.
As a Blademaster, you'll have to stay in close proximinty to the monster. Being close to this thing means you'll be taking lots and lots of tiny little hits as it moves around and shifts position. It's the same kind of damage you take when a more “normal” wyvern grazes you with it's leg while moving, except it's much more annoying because it happens all the fucking time. Najarala's weird vertical size and coiled body mean that the camera will not include Najarala's head, leaving you guessing what it's going to do. Or you end up stuck in between it's coiled body, being unable to see neither your character nor Najarala's head. Either way, it's going to lead to you probably taking a hit, and that's bad.
Things are much easier as a Gunner, but those scales can travel huge distances causing all sorts of problems for slow moving Heavy Bowgun users. It's full screen charges can be difficult to dodge at a range because of how much space they can occupy horizontally, as well as how fast they can be. When charging, Najarala moves pretty darn fast, often leaving you taking a hit or two trying to dodge it's charges and tail swings.
 |
| Source: MH Wiki |
Before we end this, let's talk about some counter strategies for this thing. The main big one is to not play a Blademaster weapon if you're soloing the fight. The high damage resistance, camera problems and movement of the monster just aren't worth the trouble.
Insect Glaives, however, spell a much different story against Najarala. The jump lets you reach those high up weak points. The monster's serpentine proportions make extract gathering a breeze. Mounts keep it's face on the floor, letting you whale away at it's beak and ampsounders. The Kinsect buffs give you Earplugs, shutting down one of the Najarala's gimmicks and the Glaive's general high mobility lets you control the flow of battle. Glaives probably have the best times against this monster.
The method I've taken for Najarala is to pull it way back. I've gone Gunner, pulling back the range of battle to a much more comfortable distance. You can see it's tells letting you, generally, avoid putting yourself into risky situations. Gunners, specifically bowgunners, can easily target the weakpoints, scoring high damage and an easy beak break for those hard to find Heart-Stopping beaks. A well place Pierce shot does wonders against it's long body, and delayed shots like Crag and Slice can stop it's dangerous set ups with staggers.
Lastly, Najarala is vulnerable to Blast. Very vulnerable. Grab your best Blast weapon and light this sucker up like New Years. Keep the pressure up and watch it's relatively low HP get eaten up by the explosions.
While it's definitely has weaknesses, Najarala effectively makes fighting it with Blademaster weapons an annoying and difficult battle. It almost becomes a battle against the systems of the game itself, rather than the monster. Do yourself a favour and grab a good Bowgun if you need to take a bunch of these down.
Unlike most monsters, Tidal Najarala, the subspecies, actually is completely different. Without going into details, it's actually a little bit more manageable as a Blademaster. Still annoying, but nowhere near as bad as regular Najarala is. It's gimmick is basically pinball.
0 comments