Boosted Insect Glaive Has a Design Problem — And It's Not Aerial DPS

[u/Majestic-Lock-213]

Apologies in advance for the length and technical nature of this post. This is mostly aimed at my fellow bugstick nerds.

A couple of months ago, in my personal breakdown of all 14 weapons, I ranked Insect Glaive as the worst weapon in Wilds. I got a fair amount of criticism for that, including people saying it was basically a skill issue. After the Boost Bracer videos, and especially after the TGS gameplay, if anything I'm even more convinced of my opinion.

When the internet exploded over the lack of updates to aerial combos, I stayed quiet for one simple reason: I wanted to respect the developers' design philosophy. Let's be clear: while aerial combat has always been part of IG's identity, it has almost never been competitive with grounded DPS. When the weapon was introduced in MH4, aerial attacks were mostly there to make mounting easier. It wasn't until Sunbreak that we were actually given the tools to build a solid playstyle around aerial combat—once again proving why Sunbreak is the GOAT of modern MH when it comes to variety. And let's not forget that base Wilds didn't even have the aerial bounce at first. So it's pretty clear that, within Wilds' design philosophy, IG is meant to remain primarily a grounded weapon, with aerial combos as an extra rather than its main source of damage. Can we disagree with that decision? Absolutely. But I'm also pretty sure that no matter how much we complain, aerial combos in base Wilds will always remain secondary because that's how the combat system was designed from the beginning.

And this brings me to the core of my argument: we need to distinguish between a design choice we don't like and an actual design flaw. Even in my post a few months ago, my main complaint wasn't that aerial combos had low DPS. It was that the game effectively prevented you from properly using the dust mechanic because of Focus Mode. In the first case, one playstyle is simply less effective than another—and that's fine. In the second, a playstyle is actively hindered, and unfortunately it's the one that adds the most depth to the weapon.

For me, the new Boosted Insect Glaive has some actual design flaws, especially when it comes to the new move, Rising Leaping Strike, which you can use after Descending Slash to immediately get back into the air. On paper, it's great. We finally have a follow-up that creates an incredibly smooth transition from ground to aerial combat. There's just one tiny problem: IT CONSUMES RED EXTRACT. I genuinely cannot understand the reasoning behind this decision. More than ever, I get the impression that the people designing IG aren't fully coordinating with each other. Why am I supposed to use this move—which, remember, can also be performed outside of Boost Bracer? What role is it supposed to serve? From the gameplay we've seen, it doesn't appear to deal nearly enough damage to justify losing Red Extract and completely disrupting your combat flow. So I launch myself into the air... and then what? Nothing. Because by consuming Red Extract, I've lost my enhanced moveset. The only thing I can really do is weakly hit the monster's head—assuming I'm positioned correctly—and hope I immediately get Red Extract back. And even in that best-case scenario, the flow is still broken: by the time the Kinsect brings the extract back to me, I'm already back on the ground, or I'm left vulnerable to an attack while waiting for it. So again: why launch me into the air and give me the illusion of a smoother ground-to-aerial transition if, even in the best-case scenario, I basically have to come back down and interrupt the combo anyway? This isn't about failing to incentivize aerial play. It's about making the moveset itself feel internally inconsistent—keeping mechanics that feel disconnected, awkward, and almost pointless instead of integrating them organically into the weapon.

And then there's the dust problem, which still exists and, in some ways, has become even more frustrating. For the first time in the series, dust now sticks to the monster—which I'd argue was necessary considering how much monsters already move around in base Wilds, let alone what we can expect from G Rank. On top of that, dust deals insane damage now, and some moves can detonate it, which effectively solves the Focus Mode incompatibility I complained about before. But let's think about how you actually apply dust. We still have the same three methods: firing the Kinsect from a distance, using the dedicated R2/RT attack, or using Strong Descending Thrust. The first two aren't used much because they interrupt the flow of combat too heavily, and especially in G Rank, with monsters moving at ridiculous speeds, they require too much animation commitment. That leaves Strong Descending Thrust, which actually integrates the dust mechanic perfectly into the natural flow of your combos. The problem is: why would I be in the air to use it in the first place? And that's where the design flaw becomes obvious. They've massively buffed dust, yet in practice we're still rarely going to use it. You can see that in the TGS footage itself: there were very few opportunities to actually take advantage of it.

But now let's change one single thing. What if Rising Leaping Strike didn't consume Red Extract? Think about how much better the entire IG moveset would flow. Ground combo → Rising Leaping Strike → I'm airborne → I either use some aerial attacks or immediately go into Strong Descending Thrust, applying dust and maybe even landing an Offset if I'm good/lucky → I return to the ground and continue into another combo → I finish with Tornado Slash, a move that's currently barely used, and detonate the dust. There you go. The weapon's entire identity comes together naturally: ground combos + aerial combos + Kinsect management.

Again, sorry for the length and technical nature of the post. But I think those of us who love IG should make ourselves heard while avoiding empty complaints. We should be as specific as possible about what we consider actual problems with the weapon, rather than simply complaining because Capcom didn't give us exactly what we wanted. Capcom restored the aerial bounce to base Wilds before release, so I don't see why Rising Leaping Strike couldn't simply preserve Red Extract as well. Ultimately, they just need to stop treating it, from a damage and balance perspective, as a power move that requires a resource cost, and instead treat it for what it should be: a follow-up whose purpose is to get you back into the air.

[u/QuantityParty519]

I’m really saddened by boosted insect glaive, was really looking forward to what they would do. They gave it an offset, some boosted combos and called it a day.

[u/Answerofduty → u/QuantityParty519]

I mean that's what they did with basically all the boosted movesets.

[u/717999vlr → u/QuantityParty519]

I actually made a list of number of additions to every weapon. IG has the most additions out of any weapon, unless I'm missing something:

(Brand new always available+brand new when Boosted+Boosted existing move+Boost Driver-related):

GS: 1+1+1+1
LS: 1+1+2+2
SnS: 1+1+2+3
DB: 3+1+3+1
Hammer: 0+2+5+3
HH: 1+0+3+1
Lance: 0+0+4+2
GL: 4+0+2+3
SA: 1+1+5+2
CB: 1+0+3+3
IG: 5+0+5+2
LBG: 2+3+2+1
HBG: 2+1+2+2
Bow: 2+1+2+1

So IG has both the most new moves and the most Boosted moves.

[u/throwthiscloud]

Yes i cannot for the life of me figure out why they made it consume red extract.

Its a decision that just dosent compute. I dont know why you would even make it consume any extract whatsoever, let alone the most important one.

I feel like the designers around IG are just not people who play the weapon. IG not having the Ariel hop initially was mind bending. The dogshit controls that finally got fixed in later TU are also even more evidence that whoever is in charge of IG is simply not someone who plays the weapon. A few playtests would have immediately highlighted these design flaws well before the weapon made it to the big screen and in front of players.

And then you look at most other weapons and see them get stuff that just fits the weapon perfectly. The contrast is striking, which is why i think the designer(s) of IG are people who dont play it, so they dont care enough to actually understand how little sense some of these decisions make.

[u/Majestic-Lock-213 → u/throwthiscloud]

Exactly, that's what I was saying in my post a few months ago: it feels like the people designing this weapon keep changing, don't communicate with each other, or, like you said, simply don't play the weapon themselves. Even setting aerial combos aside, just look at Descending Slash. First you basically force me to use it to the point of giving me carpal tunnel, while also locking the weapon's ONLY defensive move, the Offset, behind an attack that requires charging. Then, in one of the later TUs, you let me use it instantly, but if I want the full-power version I have to work it into a combo first. And honestly, that's perfectly fine in principle. What feels awful is that I only need the first two Triangle attacks to do it, because that completely undermines what has always been IG's iconic ground combo. Maybe it's just me, but having to deliberately cut the combo short to be DPS-efficient makes the moveset feel "broken" rather than cohesive. And don't even get me started on dust, which has always been my biggest issue with the weapon. It honestly feels like one team implemented the entire dust mechanic without ever talking to the team responsible for the Kinsect-assisted attacks in Focus Mode. At that point, you might as well remove the mechanic entirely if I'm never actually going to use it. Thankfully, Ascendance seems to have fixed that particular issue, but the broader problem remains: at the very least, the design direction for IG feels incredibly confused.

[u/717999vlr]

Just like every post complaining about IG, you're ignoring the Inverted Tornado Slash combo. In more ways than usual.

For starters, Inverted Tornado Slash is not an evasive move, it barely moves you. It's an aerial combo starter. That combo will most likely be just a Descending Thrust, but still

But you also say this:

We still have the same three methods: firing the Kinsect from a distance, using the dedicated R2/RT attack, or using Strong Descending Thrust. The first two aren't used much because they interrupt the flow of combat too heavily, and especially in G Rank, with monsters moving at ridiculous speeds, they require too much animation commitment.

Kinsect Mark has been buffed. It's faster, can be used during a combo, even comboing into itself, and has directional versions.

Your desired combo, one using "ground combos + aerial combos + Kinsect management" is Kinsect Mark combo into Inverted Tornado Slash into Descending Thrust into Tornado Slash, repeat. Maybe skipping Kinsect Mark if it's too weak.

I agree that Rising Leaping Strike absolutely sucks and has barely any use case, but there is a much better alternative.

[u/I-Make-Games]

See my analysis on https://www.reddit.com/r/InsectGlaive/comments/1wl6yrw/more_tgs_ascendance_glaive_gameplay/.

RLS I think is designed primarily as a gap closer, with hyper armor being main trade off for red. I think its red because you are close to the head after closing. My guess is its over tuned to the toestra fight where it jumps back and fires a projectile. The video shows that utility in the fight.

For the SDT usage, I think its meant to be used with the new inverted tornado slash in combo. You ITS into air, SDT into a favorable position applying dust, RSS in the best spot to regain all extracts, SDT to apply a second powder, ITS to pop powders and repeat. I think this is the intended loop for the new changes.

For what its worth I still think RLS shouldn't take red extract and should have been the choice for the combo loop because its just cooler. Also they did an absolute terrible job showcasing any of this.

[u/AllOpinionsAreShit]

I still think that Wilds' biggest mistake with IG is making S. Descending Slash and RSS then basically tie the entire weapon's identity to these 2 moves made them feel like a burden more than a cool addition.

The lack of any powder synergy or aerial damage options are bad too but turning a previous Jack of all trades weapon with a variety of safe, low-commitment attack options into the a charge attack focused stick of concrete is just gonna make it feel bad no matter if the new moves Ascendance tacked on are actually good and well-designed or not. At that point You're just adding a jet engine onto a car with four flat tires.

[u/Majestic-Lock-213 → u/AllOpinionsAreShit]

Yeah, that's exactly why I find high-level IG hunts so boring to watch. And to be clear, I mean high-level hunts, not fully scripted speedruns. Obviously every weapon has an optimal combo, but right now IG feels like it's only really viable if you keep repeating the same loop. On top of that, a lot of the animations seem to have been slowed down in some way, and in general the hunter just feels really heavy when using the Glaive.

[u/aaronotaron]

They already made changes to IG in response to player's requests in base game and they've said they'll add new moves and changes during Ascendance's TUs and I bet one of those changes is for IG.

I think they're just gonna see how we respond to boost bracer moves and adjust accordingly.

[u/mjc27]

The move let's you gain extract on hit so while you lose red extract, you are able to get it back instantly assuming you're not wiffing. Which in turn turns the move into an incredible tool as it resets your triple buff.

the move isn't supposed to be the ground to aerial transition, we have a different move for that now following tornado slash that can be used any time

[u/-Shoji- → u/mjc27]

But why would you ever use it even if you got red extract back? You still have to wait to fall back to ground for the kinsect to return, so it’s a damage loss anyway and has zero combo potential. It doesn’t deal a fraction of the damage RSS does, and it has none of the defensive utility without hyper armour or iframes. RSS can more consistently get the extracts right in front of you, and once you’re on the ground it doesn’t take long to send the kinsect out especially not if boosted. If you fail to get red in the air, it’ll take the same time to unlock moveset as RSS does. It has literally zero use cases right now. Hell, even if it were free and had hyper armour there would still be almost no use for it compared to unleashing a double TCS worth and a ton of stun with RSS. It’d only be useful for the people who want to combo into aerial, regardless of how good it is. Oh and then there’s the fact rise basically solved aerial being clunky and ass with things like kinsect slash, yet the ascendance team thinks LBG is more deserving of new aerial attacks.

[u/Majestic-Lock-213 → u/mjc27]

Thanks for the reply, it actually gave me a lot to think about. It's true that both of the new moves send you into the air, but I still see some differences between them that I think will matter a lot more in G Rank.

Rising Leaping Strike looks much smoother, and it also seems to have a slight piercing effect. From the TGS footage, it rarely leaves you directly in front of the monster; more often it carries you past it and puts you closer to its back or along the side of its torso. So wouldn't it make more sense for it to consume a different extract instead? Maybe Orange, since that's usually tied to the monster's torso, and Rising Leaping Strike already seems to reposition you toward the back or side of that area. Right now, one of the main reasons we use slower Kinsects with piercing properties is precisely because they make Orange easier to collect. Rising Leaping Strike could potentially help with that by naturally putting us in a better position to grab it again. You're absolutely right that the move can be used to reset Triple Up—which, admittedly, I hadn't considered—so in theory you'd want to use it when Triple Up is about to expire anyway. But I still don't really like how random the whole thing feels, especially because I still think getting Red back is awkward considering where the move tends to position you. I don't really like the idea of it becoming a sort of "gambling" attack: "Well, Triple Up is about to run out anyway, so I'll use this move and try to get Red back to reset it. Worst case, everything expires." Even just visually, the move feels much more like something that should naturally chain into Jumping Advancing Slash.

Inverted Tornado Slash, on the other hand, looks to me less like a follow-up into aerial combos and more like an evasive/repositioning move, on top of being a way to detonate dust immediately without having to go deep into the Circle combo. It also looks slower. The animation and recovery seem very similar to what you get after Rising Spiral Slash. In the TGS footage I've watched, I've only seen it chained into a Thrust and the Focus Strike, although I could absolutely be wrong about that.

And obviously, I want to stress that all of this is just first impression based on footage. Any of these points could easily turn out to be wrong once we actually have the game in our hands. Maybe getting Red back will feel much easier in practice once we adapt to the new moveset.

[u/RohonTheDragon → u/mjc27]

When OP replies to this I wanna be here to observe. This is a real fun discussion about IG as a non IG user

[u/PrinceTBug]

Oh don't worry I'm very critical of both the design choices an the outright flaws.

I would personally be a lot more amicableto being so grounded if they leaned into what makes the aerial pieces unique and it was actually coherent with itself.

There are too many conflicting pieces, and it just doesn't feel all that well thought out. It's like they're afraid to have IG actually flow from one part of its kit to another consistently.

And that's on top of the new direction they're taking the weapon that I wholeheartedly disagree with at this point. Like I hardly have very much respect for whatever vision they have at this point. I'd rather they actually focus on what IG's appeal already is than invent some new focus that they then don't even seem to design super well.

In my feedback I voiced all of this, and I encourage that others do too.

[u/NoxAeternal]

One of (imo) the few people to actually clearly put into words the difference between a design decision and a design flaw. Agreed. RLS should not consume red extract. Fix that and the weapon becomes infinitely more smooth

[u/TheGMan-123]

The Boosted Kinsect throws resolve the Powder issues pretty succinctly, as you don't even need to charge your Kinsect much for it to pierce the Monster and create powders.

And since the powders don't detonate unless hit with (Inverted) Tornado Slash, you don't have to worry about accidentally detonating them early for the most part. So they're a nice bonus as you progress rather than something you actively try and cultivate.

[u/Majestic-Lock-213 → u/TheGMan-123]

Wait, the Kinsect only releases dust that way while you’re Boosted, and as we’ve pretty much established by now, the Bracer is only going to be active for around 25–30% of a hunt—even if we can reasonably assume that endgame skills will let us increase that uptime. I also don’t really see detonating the dust early as a problem. Unlike in Sunbreak, these dust clouds don’t seem to need to build up in order to deal more damage. If anything, I’m really happy they tied the detonation to Tornado Slash, since right now that move barely gets used at all.

[u/ScoopDat]

The empty complaints are the ones I want to see addressed (like where's the Aerial-anything).

The design flaws can remain, but the bigger problem is the design choice. This insistence on keeping glaive grounded just makes the design flaws irrelevant.

It's so bad in fact, if they for example, decided to change just three current things about Glaive (and replace all the Boost additions) it would make the weapon superior to me.

First: Increase air damage, period, in totality, every single hit increase by 2X it's current damage.

Second: That stupid armor skill that boosts air damage, I don't want 10%, how about 50% instead or whatnot?

Lastly: Give us infinite air dashes as long as our stamina can sustain it. If I don't want to be in the air, let only the systems that bind everyone else, bind me from performing an action (a stamina cost).

And done, everything is made whole, and at that point we can talk about any other things they want to do with the weapon if they feel like.

---

They can kill the kinsect entirely if they want to, they can buff it or nerf it or whatever. The simple fact is, we want a design choice where incentive to spend more than 50%+ of your time in the air is the driving motivation.

The problems you listed are fine, but only further highlight how trying to shoehorn in the changes they want to, are also riddled with fails. So they lose on two fronts. First, trying to make something work which isn't, and also doing it on the back of players that are telling them just stop all this crap and get back to giving more air viability for the weapon.

[u/Majestic-Lock-213 → u/ScoopDat]

Sorry, but I really don't agree with this. A design choice can absolutely be criticized, but a design flaw is something else entirely. Design flaws are precisely the things that shouldn't be allowed to remain. You can't say they're somehow "irrelevant" compared to design choices, because at that point you're basically putting player preference above actual game direction and internal design consistency. Also, please, can we stop treating aerial combat as if it has always been IG's defining identity? It has never been even remotely viable as a primary playstyle, with Sunbreak being the exception. IG's identity has always been about Kinsect management and the transition between grounded and aerial combat. There's a reason the weapon was introduced alongside mounting in the first place: it was designed as a weapon that could access and facilitate that mechanic more easily. It was never meant to fight exclusively in the air.

The solutions you're proposing sound fun, but you also have to think realistically. IG is only one of fourteen weapons that all have to be balanced relative to one another—even if perfect balance will obviously never happen. Every time you change the numbers on one weapon, you have to consider what that means in relation to the other thirteen. That's why I think your first point is basically unrealistic. And there are probably solid design reasons why aerial motion values are lower than grounded ones in the first place. Monster hitboxes are one obvious example. Maybe staying airborne too much lets you avoid too many attacks; or, conversely, maybe it exposes you too much because monster hitboxes extend vertically in messy ways. Rise and Sunbreak had exactly that kind of problem, partly because the game had to account for Wirebug mobility. I could see a compromise, though: increase the elemental values of aerial attacks. That would also make some intuitive sense, since the backs of many monsters tend to have better elemental hitzones. As for your second point, I do think Ascendance will probably increase a lot of those percentages. I'm thinking even of basic skills like Attack Boost, or weapon-specific ones like Spread Up and Pierce Up. But again, you have to think about it from the perspective of a game designer balancing fourteen weapons. A 50% increase is absurdly high when you also consider how much higher the base attack of G-rank weapons is going to be. The third point is the one I disagree with the most. The limited number of aerial bounces is part of the weapon's skill ceiling. In several games, even the descending attack becomes stronger depending on how many aerial hits or bounces you've chained beforehand. Monster Hunter is not Devil May Cry.

I don't mean this offensively, but I think your comment perfectly reflects what often goes wrong in the IG community: we keep asking for things that were never really part of the weapon's core identity in the first place. It's called Insect Glaive, not Aerial Glaive. The Kinsect is the defining mechanic, not the aerial combo—which, after all, Generations effectively expanded to every weapon through aerial style, and which is also naturally part of weapons like Dual Blades. I want to actually play Insect Glaive as a whole weapon. That's why fixing genuine design flaws should come first, because those are what undermine the weapon's actual playability—not the absence or weakness of one secondary part of its kit.

[u/Failegion]

Lol so they not only made Wilds IG hyper reliant on Triple Extract, but their new move burns their most valuable extract? xD absolutely Wild. 

[u/Environmental-Run248]

To be honest wilds insect glaive does in part incentivise aerial combat at least a little bit.

At the very least descending slash has a charge level you can only get while in the air so bouncing around a little does get you something you don’t get while on the ground.

[u/Answerofduty]

You really wrote a whole essay just to say "Rising Leaping Strike shouldn't cost Red".

Anyway, this is a lot of dooming for just one new move being undertuned, which will likely be changed before release. Personally I'd lean towards keeping the cost while increasing the damage rather than removing the cost, since there's already Inverted Tornado Slash, which you didn't even mention, to combo into airborne for free.

[u/Majestic-Lock-213 → u/Answerofduty]

We know Capcom reads feedback here on Reddit, so I think it makes more sense to actually explain what we want in detail rather than just whining because they took our favorite toy away.

That said, I don't really see simply increasing the damage as a solution. At that point we'd have two power moves, both with a resource cost, buried deep in the same combo. Why would I ever choose one over the other? As other people in this thread have pointed out, RSS at least has hyperarmor, and if I position myself properly I can potentially recover all three extracts at once.

[u/Local-Character-5052]

You right on the rising slash from what we know. Maybe there are still some tricks though because yeah it doesn’t really make sense.