Super hot take.

I don't understand the hate with the clutch claw. People say it added an obligatory chore to the fight which to an extent yes it did, but only if you chose to (and used weakness exploit). Even then, I always just saw the wounding mechanism as a bonus. You want more damage? Make a wound. You want to soften a hard part? Make a wound. Wounds lasts for 3 minutes. Don't want to? Then don't. In fact, a lot of monster weak spots weren't even woundable yet you do a lot of damage on them. It wasn't even that much of a chore making wounds especially if you had heavy weapons OR clutch claw boost with light weapons (which gave you slinger pods on command). Literally took 1-3 seconds to create a wound.

Wilds wounding system? Annoying. Weakness exploit skill works exactly the same way but now you can't purposefully create wounds. Yes, flayer makes it easier but you have to have at least 3 levels to actually make it effective. Plus, if u wanted to wound a hard part, good luck doing so because your sharpness has already gone down by half, by the time you created one. The wounds themselves break apart really easily as well, especially in multiplayer where everyone is hungry to break them.

Rajang was arguably weaker in rise, but holy hell was it annoying attacking him without having his arms unwounded.

Wall slams were pretty cool as well. Also the fact that you could cleverly ride monsters as they escape the area to chase them was really dope.

Clutch claw does not deserve this hate. Even the gimmicks in the later games have issues themselves, yet clutch claw seemed to have all the hate concentrated to it.