A new Monster Hunter Wilds update is here, and you know what that means – it's time to start talking about patches for the patch. First in the line of fixes is a pair of tweaks to notable gameplay bugs, including what initially appeared to be a big nerf to the Monster Hunter Wilds Long Sword.
Patch 1.021 went live on August 12 and included, among many other things, a balance tweak for the Long Sword: "Reduced the delay between input and action when chaining into Iai Spirit Slash from Special Sheathe." That essentially made it a bit easier to time the move to counter monster attacks, but players soon noted they were getting hit far more often after the Iai Spirit Slash should have completed.
Now, Capcom says it's a bug. In a new tweet, the developer says it's a "known issue" that "the invulnerability window upon successfully performing an Iai Spirit Slash with the Long Sword is reduced when used against monster attacks that have long hitbox durations." A hotfix is already in the works (alongside an item bar bug), and once it's done a new hotfix will be deployed.
This will actually mark the second hotfix for 1.021 in just a handful of days, with a previous fix targeting crashes and an issue with bringing the Wide-Range buff online to other players. None of this, of course, addresses the standing issues with performance and debate over difficulty, but hey, at least the small things aren't slipping through the cracks.