User blog comment:BannedLagiacrus/Monster Appreciation Week: Zorah Magdaros/@comment-26421638-20180602192522

Zorah Magdaros is the second (third if we count Laviente) biggest monster that MH had so far, impressive in a first instance but gigantic/colossal monsters suffers of the same issue (quite boring and repetitive). I find Zorah Magdaros acceptable but I'm not crazy about it. If MHW had kept a difference between village and guild quest, Zorah Magdaros had the potential to be the offline final boss.

We are talking about of a gaijuesque creature that is literally a walking volcano (even more "walking volcano" than Dire Miralis, Dire is a bit more "draconic"). Living volcanoes always caught my interest so I like it. Despite being shorter than Dalamadur, he seems bigger when you're on its "back", you can walk (or climbing) nearly everywhere searching for weak or mining spots.

Much like most of this kind of big monsters, you don't have to face it directly, but you've to use the weapons available in the environment, and I have to say that works quite well, even if I find Jhen/Dah'Ren Mohran a bit more interesting. The first part of the battle consists of finding 3 weak spots on its back and destroy them, these weak spots however are capable to eject lava in different ways causing a moderate amount of damage. Of course it doesn't consists only on finding weak spots: you can find mining spots for gathering materials, shinies dropped by zorah's red-hot rocks, and trying to damage Zorah by using the different elements of the area, but beware because sometimes Zorah may accumulate energy and erupting with devastating force from its crater (I didn't really understood how to prevent this attack). After a while Nergigante arrives to Zorah's back, when you're at early-HR (obviously) is recommended to Ignore Nergi but when you're a full fledged end-gamer is pretty fun to entertain with Nergigante and trying to break one of its horns before he flies away/gets repelled. The second part is more traditional with balistae, cannons and dragonator, and it isn't really different from Lao, Shen or Mohran's last phase, Zorah tires to destroy the structure but it is not a problem at all, and sometimes you may be hit by random falling rocks but that's not a problem too.

I'm not going to spend many words about the first encounter at Great Ravine, is one time only and the two phases are swapped.

So what's wrong with Zorah Magdaros? Repetitive, and kinda boring if you do it twice in a row. If you do Zorah occasionally that's not a problem but what if you've to farm tt? In that case, you're screwed. Its quest appears once in a lifetime and its event isn't always available and that's terrible if you, like me, wanted to craft Zorah equipment for early HR. And you know what? Doing this for a second time when I've lost my save data I think that permanently damaged my poor brain. Annoying, but at least is quite worthy.

Equipment-wise is where Zorah offers its best, is the first monster that brings to the forge weapons with my beloved Blastblight, and its armor is made for Blastblight weapons and offers all right skills. Amazing for early-HR but then of course both weapons and armor aren't the best for end-game (even if they're not totally terrible and can be used for some sets). I also love the design of the armor. My brother cleared the main story with full Zorah's set so it isn't bad at all.

Overall: Zorah is OK but could be way better. Still a step forward if compared with Lao-Shan (counting MHXX) or Shen Gaoren (even if I'm still waiting for its revamp) but not as good as Jhen and Dah'Ren. If only Zorah was a bit more various during both phases and if wasn't so terrible to farm...