Almighty bug tamer!
The Insect Glaive is the perfect weapon for those seeking the compromise between the large attack range of the slower, heavier weapons without losing the speed of the lighter, but weaker weapons. It is also the only weapon capable of vaulting itself into the air without needing Aerial Style or ledges/hills, meaning it can mount a monster without needing any external aid.
In addition, the Insect Glaive features a Kinsect , a flying bug that is attached to your arm and will obey your orders. Send it out to attack various parts of a monster, and then it will extract essence that will then buff you. Combine the red, yellow, and orange essences to greatly power up your attack power, defense, and even give you access to new, catastrophic combos with speed and power comparable to the Dual Blades’ Archdemon Mode!
| Pros | Cons |
|---|---|
| Higher reach without losing attack speed and fluidity | Kinsect has finite stamina and will be useless if you overexert it |
| By obtaining essences, you gain access to increased attack power and utterly ridiculous infinite combos | Combos are relatively short and clumsy without essences for the combo buffs |
| Has a pole vault move you can use to mount monsters | You do not have invincibility in the air so you are very vulnerable during your pole vault |
| Controls | Attack (Guild Style) |
|---|---|
| X | Basic slash, can be comboed |
| A | Verticle slash that can be comboed briefly, becomes a leaping slash with red essence and can be chained into A-X-A-X…. infinitely |
| R | Aim at target and fire a marker that the Kinsect if released will travel to |
| R+X | Send out Kinsect. Will go to marker if one is set, otherwise wll fly out straight |
| R+A | Recall Kinsect. |
| R+B | Pole vault, you can then attack in the air with X |
| B | Evasive roll |
Guild Style
The biggest priority during the battle is for you to collect as many essences as possible. Red is offensive essence, Orange is defensive, and White affects speed. Red+White is most potent offensively, and Orange+White is most potent defensively. But you should always focus on all three. Different monsters have different zones which give different color essences, but generally speaking, red essence comes from the head, white from the limbs, and orange from the body and/or tail. Over time you will come to memorize where things come from. Small monsters can give essences too.
Once you have all three essences, you unlock the A-X-A-X…. infinite combo which is extremely powerful and also very fast. You can also finish off your X three-hit combo with A for a double tornado spin attack. It takes a little while to perform, however, and can trip allies.
The Insect Glaive can pole vault and thus mount regardless of style or terrain. Once you hit the air, press X to perform an attack which will inflict mounting damage in addition to standard damage. This gives the Insect Glaive a distinct advantage above other weapons and can be a great team player so that you can help others build up mounting damage to tip over monsters more often.
Striker Style
You lose all of the attacks associated with the A button except for the forward leaping attack, which has been moved to the X button. If you get all three essences, you can mash X to combo indefinitely. A has instead become the way you send out your Kinsect, with R+A remaining the way to recall your Kinsect. This simplifies the Insect Glaive in an elegant manner, allowing you to focus on your damage. Of course, you retain the pole vault manuever. Be sure to make good use of the three Hunting Arts that you can select from!
Aerial Style
Aerial Style Insect Glaive may seem redundant, but it is anything but. Many of your combos are now performable in the air, greatly expanding upon what the pole vault can do in other styles (a single, pitiful attack). Unlike other styles, pole vaulting in Aerial Style will launch you farther forward. After all, if you need height, you just somersault and then vault off of a monster, right?
Something else to note in Aerial Style is that your forward leaping attack has been completely removed except for as the unsheathing attack. Be sure to pick carefully the one Hunting Art you can have.
Adept Style
Rather than your combos altering (your X combo changes slightly but you can still do a series of three hits), your Kinsect managemet is greatly altered. When you send out your Kinsect, you cannot recall or give it different directions. It will fly out maximum distance, hang there for a few seconds, and then come back to you. As a result, you should only send it out if you know beforehand for certain that it will make contact and get the essence you want!
However, if you successfully complete a perfect evade and perform an attack during your follow-up sprint, the Kinsect will automatically reach out and obtain the essence of the area your attack contacts and give it to you without any delay! If you are able to perfect evade often and land attacks afterwards, you can forget about having to send out your Kinsect altogether without losing out on anything! You can equip one Hunting Art.
Recommended Skills
Even without Aerial Style, you’ll probably find yourself hanging in the air by virtue of pole vaulting often to topple a monster and spam some free hits. Therefore, Airborne and Mounting Master are great skills to help you capitalize on airtime you get that other weapons can’t offer you. Like some other weapons, you don’t have access to a shield, so pack Evade Distance Up or Evasion +1/+2 to better help with your defensive combat rolls or somersaults.
Finally, general Blademaster skills such as Sharpness +1/+2 , Mind’s Eye , and Razor Sharp are handy to have, the last two in particular. The Insect Glaive doesn’t have innate Mind’s Eye on any of its manuevers, unlike some other weapons, and due to its attack speed, will often decrease in sharpness rather rapidly.
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