Monster Hunter Now players believe the Light Bowgun doesn’t perform the way it’s meant to, with many calling for Niantic to make it more like Monster Hunter World’s LBG.
There’s no denying that Light Bowgun is in a sorry state in Monster Hunter Now. Niantic’s nerfs to the ranged weapon in the game’s December update have left players struggling to make progress, particularly when it comes to soloing Hunt-a-Thons and taking down high-star monsters.
It seems the damage range nerfs have only served to elevate the Light Bowgun’s preexisting maneuverability and speed issues. It’s because of this, that many Monster Hunter Now players want Niantic to follow Monster Hunter World’s iteration of LBG.
Monster Hunter Now players want Niantic to learn from Monster Hunter World
“There is nothing light about Light Bowgun in this game. You need 2 skills (reload & recoil) at level 3 to play normally, you can’t get your elemental attack to level 5. The dodge takes forever to finish, you have to wait a whole second before you can shoot/reload. You can’t walk and shoot, there is no rapid fire, LBG in its current state might as well be HBG,” wrote one player on the Monster Hunter Now Reddit page.
In its current state, many players believe the Light Bowgun is more akin to the Medium or Heavy Bowgun from the mainline Monster Hunter games. When you combine this with the lack of control over ammo types, meager damage skills, range nerfs, and the weapon’s sluggish maneuverability – it’s not surprising Light Bowgun is the worst weapon in the game.
“LBG could be much stronger if you could, say, sustain Pierce for more than 4 shots, or even stay on spread for infighting until the monster makes distance,” explained one player. “The shine of LBG in World was small but consistent damage. The damage can’t be consistent if I load into spread and Zinogre jumps 100 yards away.”
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The lack of ammo control is particularly troublesome in fights against mobile monsters like Barioth and Zinogre, who constantly move around the screen. Not only does this force LBG players to constantly roll forward to maintain critical distance, but they also have to stick to the monster when using Spread ammo.
In fact, it’s not uncommon for Light Bowgun players to waste Spread shots in order to cycle into Pierce to deal range damage.
“That’s my biggest issue, I build an ice gun just to do Zinogres cause Spread Shot melts them in the mainline series, but Spread Shot sucks in this and it kills the flow of a fight as I have to reposition every few seconds on a monster hopping across the map constantly.”
Whether Niantic will make any changes to Light Bowgun remains to be seen, but many Hunters will be hoping the adjust it before Heavy Bowgun gets added to the game in the future.