User blog comment:BannedLagiacrus/Monster Appreciation Week: Barioth (5th Gen)/@comment-28847569-20200209045022

I hate it.

It's probably better if I talk about the things I like about Barioth first, so I will say that I've always liked Barioth's design; even before I picked up 3U, since you don't see a "smilodon-wyvern hybrid" everyday. I also like Barioth's ecology, and how they're basically flying polar bears. Plus, I thought that it was neat how all of the quadruped Flying Wyverns in 5th Gen have extra thumbs on their wings. However, with that being said...

Barioth has basically never been a fun fight for me. In 3U, the second I fought it, it became one of my least-favorite monsters. After that, I fought 3U Sand Barioth, High Rank MHO Barioth, GenU Barioth, G-Rank Frontier Barioth, and G2 MHO Barioth (basically the same as G Frontier Bari, but what were essentially 4th Gen weapons), and I can't say I enjoyed any of those fights (heck, Stories Barioth is one of the most-annoying monsters to fight in the game). With Iceborne, I was hoping that I might finally get a fun Barioth fight, but that sadly was not the case.

Barioth's fight always revolved around it turning once (as opposed to the typically non-Elder Dragon turning twice), before using its superior mobility to quickly reposition itself away from you, which kind of forces you to chase Barioth around the map until you slowed it down by breaking its wings. Iceborne Barioth keeps that same mentality, but due to the animation fluidity that all monsters got in 5th Gen, Barioth doesn't even need to turn anymore; it can instantly go from a standstill to 50 meters away from you in a few frames. Not only that, but even breaking Barioth's wings does little to slow it down, since Iceborne shortened Barioth's recovery time, and some attacks cause Barioth to move *more* then it would had if its wings were intact. Because of those reasons and 5th Gen Barioth's low damage output, all I can really say about it is that it feels less like a fight and more like rigged whack-a-mole, and that 5th Gen Barioth is probably one of my least-favorite mainseries monsters.