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Monster Hunter World Builds - Best Weapon Builds in Monster Hunter World

With fourteen different weapons to choose from in Monster Hunter World, the choice of armor items to pair with each and every one of them can often be pretty overwhelming. In this Monster Hunter World builds guide, we'll be walking you through a list of the best weapon builds in Monster Hunter World, so you always know which armor items you can equip with which weapon types.

If you need anything else on Monster Hunter World, including how to quickly track down a monster using the Scout Flies, as well as how to safely capture a monster in order to harvest rare parts for crafting, head over to our Monster Hunter World guides walkthrough hub.

Monster Hunter World Best Weapon Builds

In the guide just below, we've listed two armor matches for every weapon in Monster Hunter World, each of which will bring out the best in the weapon that you're using. It's worth remembering we're discussing High Rank armor sets in this guide, which offer two ability bonuses over their Low Rank counterparts.

For a complete, detailed breakdown of how to use every weapon we've listed just below, make sure to check out our Monster Hunter World weapons guide.

Best Armor Set for Great Sword in MHW

As you can probably imagine just by looking at it, the Great Sword is meant to be the heavy hitter of Monster Hunter World. A great armor choice for this is the Nergigante gear, which boosts your attack, weapon Affinity, but also lets you recover health every time you successfully land a hit on a monster.

Alternatively, the Odogaron armor set is a solid choice, mainly since it can boost your weapon Affinity statistic by a blistering 20%, which can then be boosted again up to a maximum of 30%, if you've got a Charm with the 'Critical Eye' skill. Outside of this, the Odogaron gear boosts your attack power while also adding a stun effect to your draw attacks, prevents weapon sharpness from decreasing for a set amount of time, and reduces stamina depletion by a minimum of 10%, great for when you need to evade at the last minute.

Best Armor Set for Long Sword in MHW

The Long Sword might be a much quicker weapon than the Great Sword, but both the Odogaron and Nergigante armor sets will both work really well for the weapon, for the exact same reasons. Boosting attack power and Affinity is excellent no matter what weapon you're using, and since the Long Sword can land strikes fairly quickly, the Nergigante armor's ability to heal you with each successive hit works wonders.

Best Armor Set for Dual Blades in MHW

Dual Blades are some of the quickest weapons in Monster Hunter World, so the Kushala armor set can be pretty effective when used here. It extends the weapon sharpness gauge by a nice +50, while also greatly extending your evading window, giving you ample opportunity to dodge out of the way of incoming attacks.

The Nergigante armor set also works well in conjunction with the Dual Blades, given that it can increase attack power, Affinity, and stamina recovery, and lets you heal with every hit.

Best Armor Set for Insect Glaive in MHW

One armor set that's great to use for the more acrobatic Insect Glaive players is the Lumu armor set, since it boasts the Master Mounter ability, which allows you to more easily mount monsters from above.

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Alternatively, you could always go with the Kushala armor set, as while it doesn't provide any strictly offensive stat boosts, it does give you bonuses in evade distance and the invulnerability window while evading, meaning when you'll have a much easier time dodging when you're up close with the Insect Glaive.

Best Armor Set for Hammer in MHW

Since you'll always be up close against monsters when using the Hammer, you might want an armor set that boosts your health and defense. The Rathian armor set is great for both, increasing your health and amount of health recovered when healing, while also increasing your defense and protecting you against poison.

The Odogaron armor set can also work well with the Hammer, given that it provides a stun effect to all your draw attacks, increases Affinity by 20%, increases defense, bleeding resistance, and weapon sharpening rate.

Best Armor for Bow and Bowguns in MHW

No matter if you're equipping a Bow, Light Bowgun, or Heavy Bowgun, you'll want to check out the Anja armor set. This set boasts the 'Artillery' skill, which boosts the power of all explosive attacks by 30%, while also reducing the cooldown time of Wyvern's Fire by 50%. Aside from this, the Anja gear increases your stamina cap, while the 'Special Ammo Boost' skill increases the power of Bowgun special ammo, and the Dragon Piercer charged shot for the Bow.

Alternatively, you might want to check out the Legiana armor set, which has some nice rewards for Bow users. The 'Legiana Favor' skill increases the maximum Bow charge level by one, and the Legiana armor set can also extend the invulnerability window when you're evading monster attacks, meaning you get added time to dodge out of the way when a monster comes for you.

We'll be continually adding to this guide to paint a clear picture of every weapon build in Monster Hunter World, but head over to our complete armor guide if you simply want the details on the best armor in the game, or go to our guide on how to kill Nergigante.

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