Wilds' Switch Axe is on the verge of greatness

So the Heavy Slam is all about timing now? Shoot. Here I thought they lied about it needing only 2 swing. Legit can't tell. I played for like, 10 hours of SA and I can't consistently get 2 swing into Power Axe. What I do is that, I look at my hunter and if the 2nd swing doesn't come from the right, I need to wait for 3rd swing so it actually come from the right AND THEN do Heavy Slam to get Power Axe. I thought the mechanic is that, the axe 2nd swing NEED to end from right. If not, you need to get into 3rd swing to get it.

Also is it that bad to ask for a clearer indicator of when you can get Power Axe? In World your hunter literally glow up after you swing enough to activate it so I'm kinda sad the visual is not there in the Wilds Beta. And I say swing enough bcuz you can actually get Power Axe in World with only 2 swing. You just need to start with the Upswing move and I guess it somehow count as half a swing.

im moving to swaxe if SAED doesnt get fixed

my only complaint is the sword mode counter keybind
if you time it wrong you'll just be standing there while switching to axe mode

wilds counter aint even that good the amount of chip damaga its so ass we lost the strong morphs attacks

Dropped a nuclear bomb into the feedback survey... hopefully they hear us switch axe players....


I have and still am very dissatisfied with the reliance on specific moves to fill gauges on the switch axe. The new Spiral slash and Heavenward Flurry should not fill 5x more gauge than all the other attacks. I really do not want a repeat of perfect rush sword and shield, where all you do is use the same 4 attacks for the entire hunt, PLEASE at least SLIGHTLY normalize the gauge fill rate of attacks.
I cannot believe that you cannot morph back to axe mode when reaching zero on the switch gauge.
Making us use axe mode to fill the switch gauge is a nice touch, but morph sweep should be reverted to wild sweep so we aren't penalized for trying to refill our switch gauge. In GU and Rise, you can just press the morph button again to go into sword mode, so why force us to do it?
Why are we forced to keep at least 1% of the gauge there so we don't have to do that morph to axe animation? It was fine in world and rise! You could swing in sword mode, get to zero gauge, then do a morph back into axe mode to keep the combo rolling. Bring that back PLEASE.
No follow-up after the early zero sum discharge finisher is really boring. In both world and rise the hunter was able to do an axe-mode attack to keep up the pressure.
I find the new animations for switch axe to be very ugly. It feels like my hunter is swinging around Styrofoam instead of a heavy metal object. The axe-mode focus attack looks bad. The new Unbridled Slash and Full Release Slash looks sad, like a pathetic version of the Compressed Finishing Discharge. I'm not sure how the damage compares, but the animation and gameplay feel is way worse. Not having Super Armor during them makes them feel bad in comparison as well.
I also find the explosion effects of the Elemental Discharge Zero Sum Discharge and Unbridled/Full Release Slash to be very lack-luster. I hope weapon visual & sound effects across the board get a glow-up.

A great video as always.

I feel that the skill floor and cap has absolutely taken off after a very unga bunga Sunbreak that was too braindead for my taste (and basically ignored an entire half of the weapon), so that's great.

I also love how fluid the weapon feels, and the new attacks and animations are beyond awesome.

I do, like everyone else, think that Sword mode damage is too low, and constantly having to morph back and forth feels very forced (I prefer the weapon having multiple built in viable playstyles and letting the player choose), which is a shame.

All in all, I think I will absolutely play SA in Wilds, but perhaps not as much as I did in 5th edition.

The back and forth dance between axe and sword is always how I have played it b/c it feels the most natural and true to the core design of the weapon. Wilds has made this playstyle more viable which is nice.

I'm speaking from the perspective of an outsider, ive only played world swax a little and none in rise.

I overall really liked swax in wilds beta, as a non swax user i definitely was blind to some of the issues you mentioned in the video but overall i thought it was fun as hell. Tho i really am questioning on the part where you said there was a lot of thinking for swax, when i was soloing reydau with swax (of course going for just a kill and not speed running in anyway), i felt like i had really good rhythm just charging powe axe, charging amped, counter if i needed and seeing should i go for zsd or full release, also having to decide if i want to use a wound for charging switch gauge or doing damage. Maybe because i wasn't forcing myself into doing max dps, but overall i didn't feel like i was struggling in making decisions. Of course the hunt took a while (like 30 mins, but it was my first solo hunt of reydau) but it was really fun.

Another thing you mentioned was how people felt like they were charging amped and switch gauge only to do full release. But hasn't that always been the case? Switch axe to me always has been "charge amped gauge, spam zsd, reluctantly use axe mode, repeat" how has that changed in wilds?

Overall im lovin the swax in wilds and i might play it more in mhworld as well now.

I really like the weapons that interact with Focus Strikes in a way other than just doing damage. Being able to save a wound knowing that you're about to be forced into axe mode and then popping it to get a chunk of sword gauge back immediately feels much smarter than just hit red part for free damage.

I really wish our fade slash from both axe and sword mode was the offset attack instead.

By far the best analysis I have seen so far. There are problems, but SA is not as bad as other content creators have said. I agree that the counters need to be revised: for example, I would speed up the axe one a bit, increasing its damage and damage reduction. For Sword's, there are multiple ways to improve it (from damage to more amphed state bar increase), but at the very least I hope that in the future you can counter roars and not take so much damage. Otherwise I like the direction taken with Wilds, particularly balancing more sword and axe use, unlike World (Sword + ZSD Spam) and Sunbreak (too much focus on counters), though my favorite iteration remains Rise (give me back omnidirectional morphs!) for now. I won't comment on MVs: they will surely change between now and launch, and at the moment we don't know if there will be SA-specific skills and how they will fit into the playstyle (rapid morph?).

Interesting to note that all opinions for obvious reasons are based on the Rey Dau, which is a monster that offers so many long openings that by necessity the optimal way to fight is to spam SA's new power move (as is the case with other weapons, e.g., LS's helmbreaker or GL's new double discharge); perhaps with other monsters with smaller opening windows the balance would not have been so negative, net of fairly objective flaws.

Maybe it's just a me problem but I frequently switched back to axe when I actually wanted to use the block on Sword mode.

Full release slash = 162 damage (long animation and you need to charge the amp state)
Hammer boink = 190 damage (medium animation time and you can stun the monster with the previous attacks to perform the charged attack)
Gunlance blast = 245 damage (same long animation, you can perform it 2 times and then wait to recharge)
(i didn't look for more damage from attacks, i don't want to cry xD)

I mean you need to charge the blade bar to charge the amp state and then look for a perfect moment to perform the attack without getting hit by a monster with this long animation and still it's not the strongest move in the game (or close) but the other moves are not strong and have damage loss. It's a slow moving weapon and the only resources to evade/protect are these two new counters but if you don't know the monsters' moves it's just a penalty because you'll take a lot of damage trying to counter them, and yes, when you can do it right it feels great, but this feeling disappears when you remember that you don't have enough damage to take advantage of the moment.

Just feels like you are playing the most difficult weapon of the game with gettin any reward for it. So sad.

I think swax is also in the verge of greatness
this is how I felt with around 2/3h of gamepaly (not a lot but thats like over 10% of my playtime, I tried every weapon for at least 2 hunts and swax is one of my comfort picks in 5th gen)
I loved it at the start because I had in mind the idea of all the sick counters I will pull off and how the weapon felt much more fluid, then I started feeling like its worse than 5th gen, but then again I started to get the hang of it and now I already love it as much as 5th gen if not more

Don’t forget wild axe into heavy slam is faster from neutral and from fade/downward slash

this was a PERFECT video on the issues of switchaxe in the demo! please forward this information to capcom in the survey or some other way because this was all spot on

Swaxe is my main, but some people keep saying it's terrible and some say it's better. I'm kinda torn on my fav weapon

Ik I’m a little late on this, but I just thought you should know that the devs intentionally gave us low rank gear to fight high rank monsters. So I wouldn’t be too worried about damage numbers for right now. A lot of weapon damage numbers are lower than they’re supposed to be bc the devs wanted to make the demo last as long as possible.

Needs dmg buff and a better counter

Another thing worth mentioning is how the amount of sword gauge you regain when hitting axe mode attacks is way too low for every attack that isnt the spiral burst slash. I understand it's supposed to be the main go to attack to regain it but right now it's pretty much the only viable option to do so, aside from the offset followup or focus attak which are way more situational.

I want to add there is a fast transition to elemental burst. You just need to do it after heavenward flurry. The move after double/triple slash. Idk why this change was made but it tripped me up a lot

I agree with many of your points. I personally didnt play that much swaxe cause i play mostly every weapon so tried them all, but i gotta say that even tho it has some small problems, the weapon feels much better than in previous games in my opinion. Also great video, your mic isnt too great but i enjoyed listening to your arguments. Almost am inclined to do a video like this about lance too, but i guess that would be a waste of time

i always thought the axe was crazy for dealing double the damage of a IG with half of the complexity of a CB, maybe the new changes are there to address similar sentiments but i hope the weapons isn't unrecognizable by the time wilds release

I have a VERY hot take as a Swaxe enjoyer myself: I want them to do anything but decrease the chip damage on SA. Increase amp build up, anything but that. The point of the weapon is to position correctly and NOT get hit. This “counter” feels more like a last ditch effort to not take all the damage. Make it give a massive chunk of meter or amped state even, I just don’t want them to nerf the chip damage on it.

I was about to write this:
Bro, don't go hating on Long Sword for no reason... Look at what they did to my boy in Sunbreak, weapon was still very strong, but ass to play (harvest moon is hot garbage).

But you saved yourself.
I swear, no matter what tools other weapons are going to get, Long Sword is always going to be the "go-to hate" weapon.

Let's all have equally fun/strong weapons (while still being unique and fun on their own ofc)!

And ofc, if a weapon (usually not even Long Sword tbh) outperforms the others, it doesn't mean everyone needs to use it or that it should be nerfed to oblivion.

Though, if a weapon clearly lags behind or lacks something, it should receive some love. It's better to bring weapons up than down.

Not being able to morph back when you hit zero energy with a swing fucked me up so many times...
I agree with everything you said. Great video!
And btw I really appreciate you starting out immediatly all the time xD

Axe mode deserves to have the amped state attacks appy to it, it wws a good feature in rise and it would be good to bring it back here.

sword mode needs many more adjustments to balance out the weapon. lowering sword mode overall makes no sense when players are forced to use axe mode to bring back switch gague with all the other methods of regaining it either being nerfed or removed. increase the counter's damage and amp state gain since it currently is the worst counter in the game with little benefit (on top of reducing damage taken). reduce start up frames for sword mode zsd so its reverted to its og state, its harder to spam with the decreased amount of switch gague gain so no reason to nerf it. Bring back morph double slash, no reason to get rid of it tbhm And finally increase sword mode's damage while also increasing axe modes damage and decrease the full release slash damage to compensate.

building up switch gague should lead up to an exciting mode, not a dull one. sword mode amped state should be on par with charge blade savage axe mode since its harder to reach and even harder to maintain, lowering sword mode damage just makes no sense when using axe mode is mandatory to continuously access it.

I think the weapon feels clunky, the offset is stuck in axe form and the guard counter is in sword form and gives you chip damage. Its just bad design that you are stuck in one form or the other to even offset or guard counter. I think unleashed slash and focus strikes arent interactive enough to bother wanting to use but im forced to due to all the damage being in it. unleashed makes swaxe feel more like charge blade than worlds swaxe. while the focus swings is you spaming a button and the game plays for you to get a stun or power axe form In world its not like axe mode is that bad at all, you can use it so well to reposition yourself around the monster while keeping the flow. The fact that you cant switch back to axe form on your own when your sword gauge is 0 is disgusting and awful. I heavily dislike this interation of swaxe and rather unleashed slash just be removed because as long as that move exists the power budget of the weapon will go into that. I flat out just do not like it.

As much as I'll miss EBC from Sunbreak, god it was so damn fun... I love Wilds Swaxe, truthfully I'm not a speedrunner and I certainly don't care about hunt times so I didn't even notice the damage difference, not that it would matter in a demo/beta anyway. I do wish they carried over Phial Damage in axe mode, to make it feel even more useful. Keeping the part break modifier would've also been nice for Power Axe. I love Swaxe, and can't wait to play more of it in the full game, with all the phial damage on Unbridled Slash, I can't wait to make my elemental Swaxe sets once more.
I was very confused when I saw people saying Swaxe felt clunky and bad in Wilds, it felt amazing to me. Even with how slow the Offset is, I didn't really have an issue, and found it relatviely easy to get the timing down after a bit of practice. If they speed it up, I won't complain though. I did however feel like Amped stated depleted super fast at times, I don't know if it is much shorter or if I'm just too used to Power Prolonger. Also with the changes to fade slash, going Evade Window 4/Evade Extender 1-2 is going to be so much fun. Easily my favourite way to play Swaxe, tons of i-frames on even the side-step so I can just keep attacking.

agree with heavy slam input, its really buggy where 2 wild swing didnt combo to heavy slam. and the fast zsd after heavenward flurry or two sword slash is gone .😢 😢

Swag/axe kinda sucks and it’s slowwwwww in wilds to be true , and the counter , is not a counter of you take damage .

Can we just look at that knockdown out of the air on that brachy with axe mode? Lol that was awesome

I like rise giving axe mode the amped attacks. I like the idea of both modes being in balance, you need sword mode to reach the amped state, and axe mode to fuel the sword mode. It's a damn shame this game has two axe weapons and neither encourage you to use the axe for very long.

Maybe if Full Release Slash while you have Power Axe mode also gives you phial effects during axe mode.

I've never been so emotionally charged regarding a videogame until I saw how they neutered the swax's already barely-existent flow for a flashy move and gave certain weapons well-thought out moves plus finishers

My complaint is that the axe mode doesn't feel fun to use.
Offset move aside, there really is no appeal for me with the axe. You would expect the devs have added something to the axe if this is their vision for the change, but there really is not much to work with.

I think the proposed fixes here probably wouldn't work if they were all implemented since they all pull the weapon in different directions. A lot of the things that Wilds SA is doing would be fine if one/two elements were adjusted. Sword Mode consuming a ton of gauge and needing axe to regain wouldnt be as much of an issue if Sword Mode damage felt very powerful and worth the gauge its using. We could make it so gauge consumption is less but it would be cooler if gauge consumption stayed the same but damage changed to make it feel satisfying.
Same with removing the chip damage from Offset. Switch Axe's identity shouldn't be a counter based weapon with all the blocking weapons now have perfect guards, Longsword has a ton of counters, Bow and DB are perfect evades. Switch Axe is one of the few weapons left with relatively vanilla defense and I think that's a good thing and thats why they made sure to make the counters weak or at least not as strong as other weapons. I really think the chip damage should stay and we have to mitigate it with armor skills rather than adding a perfect timing so that the weapon can focus on counters like other weapons, its skill ceiling should be an evade and positioning based weapon imo

Other than the MV for attacks being nerfed, this is just a skill issue.

I just wonder what full release slash would be like as a offset attack instead.

Switch axe is actually pure shit even worse than mhw when it was one of the worst weapon in the game, gladly ICE devs produced a mod to be good to play now Crapcom destroyed it again its like pure obsession to make this weapon bad 😂

Sets will change everything with no damage skill gems for armour the weapons who need more qol changes will improve more .

imagine reducing this game to this lol. yall are actively attempting to completely dissect the game before its even out. not factoring in the damage numbers and health numbers of each weapon and monster will be VERY different at launch. swaxe isnt doing enough damage? just think ahead to when you understand the monsters and have a full armor set with skills specific to damage with swaxe. I dont think it would be presumptive to believe that things will look much different on february 28th.

GS main, I’ve been trying out many of the other weapons for the last year or so in World. Started when I used SA to finally beat Fatalis. I’m just super happy and excited to get a new game with no clutch claw!

Switch axe main and wilds it felt really bad. Going back to sns/gunlance/charge blade probably for wilds. Shame. :/

Yes agreed. The moveset is great and really fun to play around, everything that needs improving is just a quick fix to overall balance so that it's not just a race to do the one big finish over and over. I'm sure I'm gonna love making SA again.

easily one of my favourite switch axe videos because of how well it resonates with me

I know it, MVs is nerfed…. Too bad…. How come SA gives the almost same damage as IG… sorry but i feel better using LS and GL in wild, even though i main SA in world….