User blog comment:BannedLagiacrus/Monster Appreciation Week: Stonefist Hermitaur/@comment-5178018-20160921161924

I like Stonefist's armor, but the fight is just sooo meeeeeh. That is, of course, I've only soloed it. Aaand generally speaking, due to its size and hitboxes, it feels a little too cheap a little too often. You practically need Mind's Eye just to fight it, or just freak out with aerial, but either way you're debilitating the potential of your approach because there's so many unnecessary things that decrease your efficiency while fighting it.

The bounce is one thing to get bothered over, but the stun rate is something completely of its own. The stun, and the fact that this guy loves rolling out combos- combos that are hardly combos because its attack patterns feel so random. But because at least 50% of those 8 attacks it just chained have a 75% chance of stunning you, well, better late than earlier.

Then if you wanna go aerial to avoid bouncing you have to consider how often it's going to swat you out of the air- and it will do so a lot. You also have to take your precious time aiming your jumps carefully because at least 25% of the time you're going to miss those legs, you're not going to reach those claws unless it lets you, the body is generally elevated to the point where the actual size of the monster becomes a factor in whether or not you'll be able to pull off the style with efficiency- since, well, screw hitting the shell and doing a scrap's worth of damage.

Though in spite of this I can't say I hate the monster, its fight is just... not very well thought out. Although Astalos brings some efficient weapons to the table that you can use against it, Stonefist is still a deviant I'd prefer not to fight, simply because I know I'm not going to enjoy its cheapness and the lack of efficient strategies I can use to counteract it.