There are many doubts that plague fans of Monster Hunter: World and among these is the choice of better armor skills.
This chapter of the Capcom series, has now passed the year and a half of life and many things have changed since its release, thanks to the numerous free DLCs with new monsters, weapons, and armor.
Monster Hunter is a series that has always been characterized by numerous abilities, present on the armor of the game's monsters or in jewels and talismans, objects to look for and equip.
As is always the case in games of this type, not all skills are as useful as others. And this is how the so-called "Meta" is created, even though it is not a competitive game.
With the arrival of the Nergigante ArciTemprato, the last DLC before the Iceborne expansion, Monster Hunter: World has finally reached a stable goal, closely linked to the armor of the Tempered Archers and the weapons of the Kulve Taroth.
Let's start immediately with this guide, which will clarify all your doubts about it!
The best sets for Swordsmen
With the arrival of the Behemoth, a legendary creature from the universe of Final Fantasy XIV, the meta of MH: World has gone from being based on attacking critics. A critical hit is calculated on theaffinity of the weapon. The higher it is, the more likely the hit is to be critical.
The affinity percentage does not change the critical hit multiplier in any way. A critical hit, with no skill, is calculated x 1.25.
The Behemoth brought his armor with him, the armor dragon. Alone the Drachen gives many useful skills: 3 points Critical Bonus, 3 of Attack and 6 by Critical Eye. In addition, the armor has 3 level 2 and 3 level 3 slots, making it more customizable than ever.
But what made the Drachen really strong, managing to change the meta of the game, is the skill you get with 4 pieces of this equipment: Touch of the Master.
The ability is not new, it was in fact already present on both sets of Elder Dragon Teostra armor, but the lack of customization of its pieces had not allowed it to conquer its place in the meta. Touch of the Master does not allow the armor to lose sharpness for each critical hit.
Combined with the abilities of Drachen, Weak Point and Maximum Power, most weapons manage to stay sharp throughout the hunt.
Drachen armor is not used whole. There are two great pieces that you can replace it with. The chest di Lunastra Beta and l 'elmo di Nergigante. The two pieces add 2 points respectively Perfect shape and 2 points to Maximum power.
The two sets are identical in skill level, but with weapons they need Craftsman it is preferable to use the variant with the helmet of the Nergigante.
The same set can now be replicated with other pieces, less customizable than Drachen pieces. It is a mixed set that uses the pieces of the Teostra ArciTemprato, which like the normal variant has Master's Touch in armor. The set consists of the Teostra Y head, arms and legs, Kulve Taroth Y skirt and Lunastra beta chest.
The most useful skills for Swordsmen
Let's now analyze all the useful skills for those who want to use the 11 swordsman weapons:
- Critical Bonus: One of the strongest skills in the game. At level 3, the critical hit multiplier is increased by 15% to 140%. Absolutely one of the most important skills to have, along with Weaknesses.
- Weakness: To understand how Weak Point works, you need to understand what the hitzone and how they work. Each monster is divided into hitzones, which generally coincide with the various parts of the body. Each hitzone has different weaknesses per element and pure damage, divided into projectiles, impact weapons, and slash weapons.
Hitzones have weakness values which are then used by the damage calculation formula, which we will discuss in another guide. If the hitzone's weakness value for the weapon used (cut if using the long sword, impact with the hammer.
The Impact Cloak counts each weapon as an Impact Weapon) is 45 or more, Weak Point will activate. The skill adds a whopping 50% affinity if you hit a weak point.
- Maximum power: 3-point skill. Gives up to 30% affinity with maximum stamina.
- Perfect shape: Skill given by the Lunastra's chest. At max health and level 3, the pure attack of the weapon increases by 20. Easy to maintain thanks to upgrade in regeneration.
- Craftsman: Not a must for every weapon, but is still used on Deviljho weapons. It has 5 levels, and for each level increases the weapon's sharpness bar.
- Non-Elemental Bonus: New entry in MH: W, Non-Elemental Bonus is one of the abilities that has contributed most to changing the game's meta. Boosts the pure attack of weapons that have no element or status by 10%. It also works on weapons with an element or status to be revealed.
- Reveal / Ammo +: For swordsmen, the ability is Reveal, which awakens part of the weapon's shadowed element or status. At level 3 it awakens him completely.
- Critic Elementale: Rathalos Armor Ability, Elemental Critic has found a fixed space in the meta thanks to the weapons of the Kulve Taroth ArciTemprata, the Kjàrr weapons. Elemental Crit, in the case of a critical hit from an elemental weapon, increases the elemental damage of the hit. Not all weapons get the same bonus: the Greatsword has +3 to pure attack, x1.2 to element. Charged Blade, Insect Glaive, Sword Ax, Longsword, Hammer, Horn, Spear and Rifle Lance +6 true damage, x1.25 element Bow, Sword and Shield, Double Blades, Heavy Crossbow and Light Crossbow +9 pure damage, x1.35 element.
Now let's see what are the specific skills for various categories of weapons:
- Quick Charge: Very useful on Greatsword and Loaded Blade, Quick Charge increases the speed of charged attacks of all weapons. It is also sometimes used on the Rifle Lance with Aimed bullets, used by charging the bullet.
- Marathon runner: Exceptional ability on Double Blades, allows you to consume 50% less stamina with attacks or actions that consume it continuously, such as running or the Demon mode of the blades.
- Ability Bonus: Used on Loaded Blade and Rifle Lance, adds a bottle or bullet.
- Gunner: Boosts all Charged Blade and Rifle Launcher attacks by 10% for each level. Get a 40% boost with the Felyne Bomber Food Skill.
- Block: Increases the Charged Blade's Guard Point level. The red shield and the Guard Point already give 4 Blocking points, so it is used at 1 to allow you to block all attacks without recoil.
- Razor: Used on some weapons only, Razor halves the loss of sharpness per hit.
Another situational skill is Instigator, thanks to the pieces of the Nergigante ArciTemprato. Instigator increases pure damage and affinity when a monster enters rage, but with World's new rage mechanics it can only be used with a few monsters, such as the Odogaron, the Xeno'Jiiva and the same Nergigante.
Best sets and skills for heavy and light crossbows
If the Swordsman weapon meta is centered on the Drachen and Master's Touch pieces, the Crossbow meta is 3 piece oriented Xeno'Jiiva Gamma for skill saving. Saving has a percentage of not consuming bullets, allowing you to fire more and reload less. Another essential skill is Reveal / Ammo +, which increases the loader of the crossbows. At level 1, increase the bullet magazine level 1, to 2 i lv2 and to 3 i lv3. All non-level projectiles, such as Wyverns, elementals, and explosive projectiles, need Reveal 3.
Both heavy and light crossbows use the same abilities when used for pure damage. Let's break down the various abilities for each type of bullet:
- Normal bullets: Only i is used Normal 2, and only on light crossbows. They are needed Maximum power, Sweaters, Jerseys and Cardigans Weak, Bonus critical, Eye Critical, Attack e crafts perfect, Over which Normal + to increase the damage of bullets by 10%. Optional the Xeno skill, because with light crossbows the reload is fast. Skill is also useful Ballistics to be able to strike even outside the critical distance, difficult to keep online, which we will deepen in another guide. The food skills Felyne razor e Look Felyne increase the damage of bullets, Aim for normal bullets only.
- Armor-piercing bullets: Very nerfed on World compared to the other chapters, armor-piercing shells remain usable well with only a few monsters. Among these is the Xeno'Jiiva ArciTemprato, which, spending a lot of time in rage, may require the use of Instigator.
The other abilities are the same as for normal bullets. For piercers put Ballistics it is better than Piercing +, in order not to go out of the critical distance with the last hits of piercing 2 and 3.
- Bullets fanned out: The strongest bullets in the game are used at level 3. Same skills, almost mandatory Xeno bonus, Fan + e Non-Elemental Bonus with the Jagras Taroth.
- Bullets Cluster: They need a specific set, because they are not affected by the critic in any way. It aims to maximize the attack with Perfect shape, Instigator e Attack Bonus, also the Xeno bonus is mandatory for these bullets. They are not upgraded by Gunner.
- Wyvern bullets and explosives: Like Clusters, but powered by Gunner e Bomber Felyne.
- Elemental bullets: World's elemental shells are piercing, but are not affected by Piercing +. All elemental bullets have the cap elementale a 3, regardless of the crossbow that uses them.
Elemental damage is calculated on a percentage of the weapon's base raw, which makes heavy crossbows more suitable for element damage, but light ones, thanks to rapid fire, are more versatile and preferable.
The skills to have are the same as for critical sets with the addition of Critic Elementale. with Rathalos pieces or thanks to Kjàrr weapons.
Non-Elemental Bonus only activates if the weapon cannot equip any elemental shells, but unlike swordsmen weapons it works on status shell weapons.
Better sets and skills for bows
Bows are the weapons that have received the most changes from the other games in the series, changes that have elevated them to the rank of the strongest weapon category in the game.
Thanks to the dashes that load the levels of the arrows and to the combo normal / fan the bows have become the rulers of the element.
The most important skills are undoubtedly Enhanced Arc Charge, which adds a level of charge allowing you to extend the combo, and Fan + e Normal +. The bow is an extremely skill-based weapon, without these skills the damage will be negligible.
Another popular skill is Athlete. Athlete decreases stamina consumption for arrows shot and charged dodges. It is used at level 3 with the Sprint juice, which gives athlete level 2, thus reaching 5. Another alternative is to use Athlete 1, Juice Sprint and the food skill Felyne Black Belt.
Arches need Critic Elementale more than any other weapon. If you do not have the Kjàrr bows it is good to get the armor legs Supreme Celestial, USJ, which together with the chest of the Rathalos or the Rathalos azzurro for bows that need Reveal they are a good basis for building a set. Another interesting bonus set is that of the Lunastra, which increases maximum stamina after taking a Sprint Juice or Ancient Pill.
The other skills to have with the bow are Weakness e Eye critical. On the Critical Bonus arc it is very situational, given the low raw damage of the best bows, and Max Power is completely useless since the bow is never at full stamina.
