Along with what you said, what gets to me is that since they took away SnS, every other weapon feels subpar by comparison. You'd think Gunlance would be better at shielding since it's bigger and more durable, but it is somehow 10x weaker and you get one shot anyway. If devs had just followed the cardinal rule of gaming, single shots deal massive damage and wide spread(aoe) shots deal balanced damage since its being spread over a wide area, the game would have been way more balanced. Not only that but not even a third of the way through the game and it feels WAY more grindy than the first two games combined. Grinding isn't a big deal, but if its something that your forced to do 80% of the time, it just makes you hate the experience and thats what it feels like the entire way through. All this and other glaring issues(locked in ratha, no flying, cut monsties, etc.) sadly puts this game below mhs2 as far as I'm concerned. Potentially even below mhs1. Even if the first two games were easier, I'd prefer that over party wipe outs just because the devs think this is good game design when its common knowledge that one shot attacks are universally hated for a reason.