User blog comment:BannedLagiacrus/Monster Appreciation Week: Viper Tobi-Kadachi/@comment-28847569-20200123021818

Overall, cool design and concept; annoying fight.

There's not much to say that hasn't already been said when it comes to the concept, but the idea of a cave-dwelling Tobi is nice, and Viper handles the idea solidly while also doubling-down on Tobi's serpentine traits. Plus, Viper Tobi's ability to dilate its pupils in such a prominent made me laugh at Barioth's inability to do so, so that was nice.

Fight-wise however, I feel like Viper Tobi really exemplifies the problems with the Clutch Claw. Throughout the game, but especially in early-MR, the game strongly encourages that you use the CC's tenderizing in order to do about the same amount of damage you were doing with the same gear before the Iceborne update. However, many of Viper Tobi's attacks involves it turning its entire body into a damaging hitbox that inflicts Poison/Venom and knocks you off its body. That combined with MR's monsters general tendency to constantly attack without pause, to the degree that openings present in previous games were removed from the monster's patterns, and CC just really feels unfun to use on Viper Tobi.

Without CC, Viper Tobi is enjoyable enough, but due to how MR works, it ends up feeling excessively bulky until you get your hands on endgame gear.