User blog comment:BannedLagiacrus/Monster Appreciation Week: Lunastra (5th Gen)/@comment-26421638-20181221132455

After nearly a decade, the Flame Empress has returned in a Main-Series MH Game, from Freedom Unite to World, she missed all 3rd and 4th gen games, she was also the third Monster implemented in MHW via Title updates. Back in Freedom 2 Lunastra was just village-exclusive, weaker Teostra reskin, in Unite she gained an explosive tail swipe and her charge/jump were more predictable but that's wasn't enough to make her outstanding... But how is MHW's Lunastra?

MHW's Lunastra is no longer a Teo copy-paste! Now she has her own identity with her own moves, behavior etc. Obviously Luna share some moves with Teostra but only basic stuff like bites, claw swipes or tail whips. The difference between Teo and Luna now is even more marked than 4th Gen Diablos and Monoblos... But, if they did an amazing work to make Luna different from Teo, it doesn't mean they did it well gameplay-wise.

First of all, let's screw the lore a little bit: according to Teostra Ecology ''Teostra are a very aggressive monster. (...) Compared to Lunastra, who give warnings to get out of its territory, Teostra will ruthlessly attack intruders until they are dead.'' in MHW is exactly the opposite, while in MHW you can dance in front of Teostra and he simply looks at you just like if you're a moron, with Lunastra you cannot even stay on the same area for more than 5 seconds and she is already in front of you ready to annihilate anyone who claimed that Luna was a Teo reskin! And let's keep the trend to buff/nerf monsters for no reason: 4U Buffed Cephadrome, Gen nerfed Nargacuga and Yian Garuga to 4 star village quest monsters, Stories (despite being a spin-off) nerfed to the ground Black Diablos and they made Monoblos an end-game Monster, and now we have a Lunastra that has surpassed Teostra! I could easily understand the decision to buff Lunastra a little bit, and would be fine is she was at the same level of Teostra to make her more relevant, but I totally don't understand why she became the strongest Monster of MHW if we exclude Kulve, Behemoth or any Arch-Tempered EDs; and judging by the fact that Lunastra gives the same reward (in terms of zenny or drop rates) just like any other Elder Dragon like Nergigante or Vaal makes me think that Capcom didn't balanced at all this Monster in terms of difficulty, oh, you need a proof? Optional quest vs Investigation quest, that's more than enough.

Before focusing on gameplay, I would like to say how Lunastra has an additional stripe of fur on her back, longer fur on tail tip and she has a different shade of azure skin compared to older games, and I really like her new BGM, we could say "a remix of a remix", is simply MHW's Teostra theme with different instruments to make the theme more regal and more adapted for a flame empress, this works perfectly.

Seeing Lunastra in action is simply spectacular but isn't exactly the same if you're the player rather than a spectator, Luna is really aggressive and most of her attacks lights the surrounding with blue flames (finally Luna uses blue fire!) who causes an important damage per second if you walk on them, making this fight really complex. If DPS caused by flames isn't enough, Luna is capable to cover huge parts of the area with flames, forcing you to move on different part/angles of the same area if you don't want to be burned alive, plus multiple fire attacks may intense these blue flames even to burst in certain circumstances. If this wasn't enough, Luna is also capable to cause a really strong wind pressure with some of her attacks, and she also have a couple of attacks with bad hitbox (like the single tail swipe or these bursts of Blue flames).

And then there's her deadly Supernova (some people call it Internal Flare, is fanmade or true?), if Teo's Supernova is really predictable in world, Luna's Supernova is probably even more deadly than Teo's Supernova back in 4U. This Ultimate move doesn't kill instantly, but causes an heatwave (similar to 4U's G-rank Crimson Fata) who causes an insane DPS, dragon wind pressure, random blue flames or bursts within AoE; how to survive from something like this? It doesn't exist a fixed strategy, you can try to escape and maybe spam panic dives (especially at the beginning of the attack) but is not always possible, wind pressure and burst of flames may block your escape and chances to survive are pretty low. So if we exclude the Farcaster option, it doesn't exist a fixed solution: Panic dives, run for your life, heal, Astera Jerky or even purposely get hit by bursts of flames and lay to the ground (if you survive) might save you but there are a lot of variables, so good luck!

Lunastra is usually in company with other Elder Dragons but if Teostra is in the same area, just pray. They work together perfectly (unlike the Raths who destroys each other), lucky their combined Supernovas takes longer to cast and is easier to escape. Oh yeah, almost forgot about blue flame tornadoes, they're nice but quite uncommon.

Her weakspot (except for blunt weapons) are her wings, not certainly the best weakspot in case of short-ranged cutting weapons, if only there's a weapon who could reach her w... Oh wait, anyone remember that weapon who sucked badly back to the first "vanilla" versions of MHW? The so called "Insect Glaive"? Update after update Insect Glaive got improved on any aspect and nowadays IG has a second life, this piece of stick is a gamechanger against Lunastra, spam aerial attacks, destroy her wings and those annoying blue flames to the ground aren't a big deal anymore!

Arch-Tempered Lunastra is deadly, not very different from regular Lunastra but the ATK/HP boost is more than enough to make her one of the strongest Monsters of MHW, and she performs more often her Supernova, with a even more deadly DPS, but after a while I've learned that after the third roar (without counting when she roars for,the first time) she always does the Supernova, might be a helpful hint.

I don't like Lunastra Armor and I think that AT Luna's Armor is the worst of any Arch-Tempered Armor, even if could be quite useful for a healer against Behemoth. Lunastra's Weapons are the new meta for Blast (Or even Sharpness focused) Weapons, Luna/Xeno weapons are incredibly insane, but sometimes even Luna/Nergi weapons may be interesting depending by the build. A real pity they have an uninspired design.

Overall: I would probably like Lunastra, if wasn't more difficult than Teostra or alternatively if was another monster releated with "Tesukator" family. Spectacular and challenging but not always manageable unless if you use an Insect Glaive. At least her weapons are worthy. She is probably the best post-release MHW Monster and is no longer a Teo doppelganger, but isn't exactly the Lunastra that I wanted, not even close.