How the block works.
First theres two stances.
Idle stance= can attack or block in stance.
Blocking stance=Once the animation is done from transitioning from idle stance to block then the damage is capable of being blocked.
In General. Theres 4 types of attacks monsters do.
1)light physical
2)heavy physical
3) light elemental
4) heavy elemental
The moment you succesfully block depending if your shield is small or large type of shields determines how much knockback you get from blocking.
small shields = light physical attacks/light elemental attacks produce small recovery frames,wearas heavy physical/heavy elemental attacks produces an animation where the shield and arm get flown over the hunters head and the hunter gets Knocked back much further by say one regular dodge distance and the recovery frames are much much longer to return to blocking stance or go into idle stance *(this is why you’re getting hit on second combo attack)
Large shields= light physical attacks/light elemental attacks no knockback quick recovery frames ,wearas heavy physical/heavy elemental attacks push you back further recovery frames take a moment longer to return to idle/blocking.
Guard is what you need.
Guard shortens the animation from transitioning from idle stance to blocking stance.
The more lvls of guard. The faster your blocking stance animation finishes.
Also… guard skill the more you increase lvls the more Blocking stance knockback you reduce.
Now lets quickly discuss Firm foot hold or what is being referred to as Knockback skill.
This skill ONLY reduces recovery frames from knockback when your hunter is in idle stance and has ZERO effect on the knockback to blocking stance.
Also… a huge perk with sns + gyro is taking advantage of the pushback knowing that a heavy attack pushes you back one dodge distance then with that in mind intentionally looking in a direction to where your back is pointed pushes you back there and you can sometimes get counters off of the heavy attacks that lets you position very very nicely for a follow up counter.
Also…
Another perk to blocking stance is that no matter the weapon… you can block an attack with your back facing monster and this pushes your hunter past the ears or to the hindlegs giving you reach on tail easy.
One very big caveat to blocking is that heavy elemental attacks should be avoided rather then blocked as melee users are inherently much weaker to elemental attacks even if in idle or blocking then say range weapon users and vice versa when it comes to heavy physical attacks between melee/range weapons.
Soo when ya get hit… ya know now… you are stuck with recovery frames with your shield over your head because you have no guard skill and are blocking heavy physical attakcs/elemental attacks.
Also… the sns changes the counter from a successful block since knock back is reduced well at lvl 3 the sns goes into triple shield bash combo off of a counter instead of leaping counter slash into air combo. If you reduce guard to lvl 2 then it reverts to normal leaping counter slash.
Hope this helps your understanding what is going on as theres nothing wrong with the monsters attacks. Just more to blocking then ppl realise.