yeah, as had been stated, the co-op for the main story is annoying with the whole cutscene situation. I wish they have some way to fix it. that being said, I feel that soloing the storyline's monsters is a good way to learn to master the skills involve in a hunt. as you encounter new monsters, getting knocked out by them even with the best gear you can get at that level is a great way to force you to learn how every monster attacks, they "tell" of their attack and how to dodge and counter. it forces you to upgrade and to learn and I feel that really important, especially once you get to high rank contents. getting knocked out cold in 2 hits while in your best gear is definitely a humbling experience. but successfully blocking/dodging and then counter attack a gigantic beast to the point of cutting off it's tail or breaking it's horn, knowing one wrong move could mean certain death, that is really a life on the edge feel to it.
I went on a couple hunts using the join quest function before going to bed last night, and it was so much fun fighting some high rank beasts and fighting along side other players besudes you amidst it all.
edit: how's everyone on their gear progression? I find that the basic Bone Armor set, once upgraded, can carry you pretty far, like to Coral Highland and later. I made the mistake of upgrading like 6~7 sets of armor together and now that I'm in high rank I realized most of them won't matter since I'm going to farm higher rank version of some of them and I coulda save the armor sphere+ for those instead. that'll be about 50+ armor sphere+ that I coulda use on some more advance gears instead. I think earlier on, maybe Bone, Highmetal, Anja, Rathalos or Odogaron set fully upgraded should be able to take care of most of your needs until high rank. of course that's just my opinion as a new player to MonHun. maybe some of the vets had better advice.
For some reason, land-based monsters are way easier...for me.
