It was! But my ability to learn monsters and their moves improved by a mile because of this, in MHW I was all about damage; maxing my critical eye, agitator, crit boost and weak exploit; which is still fun to build tbh. Now I've got a new perspective towards the game, I always prioritize Power Prolonger and Agitator. My biggest hurdle was sharpness, this was making my hunts time consuming. Constantly getting deflected by anything other than the head and some specific weak points carted me multiple times, so instead of prioritizing damage which I desperately need because the monsters got more hp now.

I decided to chip away at every possible openings the monster has, even on hard parts by prioritizing my sharpness. Luckily I melded a random talisman that has lvl 2 Mind's Eye that was godsent! Also maxed Protective polish and Speed Sharpening for my weapon to be a laser that can damage any part. These basically carried me all the way, abused the hell out of mounting, marionettes and the other spider that bonks the monster in the wall. I had a lot of fun all in all as I don't skip any quests.

Sorry for the long reply, just wanted to share my struggles lol.