MHW: ICEBORNE | Best Skills For Dual Blades

Read this Monster Hunter World: Iceborne guide to know the best and recommended armor skills for the melee weapon - Dual Blades!!!

Table of Contents

Weapon Features & Overview
Recommended Skill List
Best Skills To Equip
Alternative Skill List

Dual Blades Features & Overview

Best To Master Elemental Attributes

The Dual Blades' strength lies in mastering the elemental attributes of the game - knowing which monster weaknesses & which weapons to bring in every hunt.

Deals Heavier Damage With Demon Mode

Dual Blades users have a powered up mode call "Demon Mode". When they fill up their gauge, they can go into Demon Mode then Arch Demon mode for more powerful damage per hit, better evasion, & faster movement speed.

Recommended Skill List For Dual Blades

Skill	Recommendation Criteria
Critical Element	Increases elemental damage dealt with critical hits, exploiting the weapon's affinity to different elemental attributes
Evade Window	Enlarges invincibility window when dodging, useful to avoid enemy attacks or create more openings to deal damage
Attack Boost	Increases attack power and affinity at later level, allowing you to deal more damage to the monster
Weakness Exploit	You'll deal more damage and have increased affinity rate when landing hits on monster weak spots
Handicraft	Longer sharpness gauge will let you sharpen less & prevent damage loss when weapon becomes blunt
Speed Sharpening	Lessens sharpening time with a whetstone & keeps you from being too vulnerable to monster attacks
Razor Sharp/Spare Shot	Halves the loss of weapon sharpness, reducing need to sharpen or chance of attacks to deflect on monsters
Critical Boost	Damage of critical hits is increased, letting you deal more damage to monster's health when landing critical hits
Agitator	Attack & affinity increases when monster is enraged which lets your attacks hit harder than when monsters are calm
Critical Eye	Increases affinity rate, allowing for more chances of making critical hits
Earplugs	This prevents you from being stunned for too long from monster roars, allowing you to move away from monster attacks
Protective Polish	Negates sharpness loss for a time after sharpening, letting you hit targets harder for a short period
Evade Window	Elongates your rolls & dodges, helping you miss enemy attacks or place yourself properly for an attack opening
Stamina Surge	Recover stamina faster, allowing you to use your stamina more for dodging or special attacks
Marathon Runner	Lessens stamina consumption of dashing, allowing you to conserve stamina for attacking instead

Best Dual Blades Skills To Equip

Critical Element

Lvl	Effect
1	Increases elemental damage (fire, water, thunder, ice, dragon) when landing critical hits

Useful In Exploiting Monster Element Weaknesses

The Dual Blades's strength lies in its capacity to deal elemental damage & abnormal status effect. If you utilize elemental attributes in the game, you'll be able to do increased damage to any target monster.

Attack Boost

Lvl	Effect
1	Attack +3
2	Attack +6
3	Attack +9
4	Attack +12 and Affinity +5%
5	Attack +15 and Affinity +5%
6	Attack +18 and Affinity +5%
7	Attack +21 and Affinity +5%

Critical Skill To Have For Any Weapon

Since this skill increases a weapon's raw physical damage and then increases affinity rate at later levels, it's a very important basic skill to have in any loadout or build.

Weakness Exploit

Lvl	Effect
1	Attacks that hit weak spots have 15% increased affinity
2	Attacks that hit weak spots have 30% increased affinity
3	Attacks that hit weak spots have 50% increased affinity

Allows For Efficient Hunting

Weakness Exploit gives you bigger chances to deal more damage to monster weak spots, making it easier for you to break monster parts or lower monster health. Utilize the Dual Blades's mobility to target weak spots & make for efficient hunts.

Handicraft

Lvl	Effect
1	Weapon sharpness +10
2	Weapon sharpness +20
3	Weapon sharpness +30
4	Weapon sharpness +40
5	Weapon sharpness +50

Elongates Your Sharpness Gauge

Having the Handicraft increases your weapon sharpness. This lessens your need to sharpen your weapon and prevents you from being open to monster attacks.

Speed Sharpening

Lvl	Effect
1	Removes one cycle from the sharpening process
2	Removes two cycles from the sharpening process
3	Removes three cycles from the sharpening process

Recommended For Weapons That Lose Sharpness Fast

Since the Dual Blades does several hits per attack, it tends to lose sharpness fast. Speed Sharpening will help you sharpen faster, allowing you to go back into the hunt quickly without making yourself too vulnerable.

Razor Sharp / Spare Shot

Lvl	Effect
1	Halves shaprness loss. For bows and bowguns, shots have a chance not to expend coatings or ammo

Lessens Need To Sharpen

With this skill, you'll need to sharpen less during the hunt. When you sharpen less, you'll have more time to deal continuous damage to the monster and complete the hunt faster.

Alternative Sword And Shield Skill List

Critical Boost

Lvl	Effect
1	Increases damage dealt by critical hits by 30%
2	Increases damage dealt by critical hits by 35%
3	Increases damage dealt by critical hits by 40%

Combine With Attack Boost & Weakness Exploit

When you combine this skill with Attack Boost, Weakness Exploit, and Critical Eye, you'll be dealing a whole lot of damage to any monster you encounter in any hunt.

Agitator

Lvl	Effect
1	While active, grants attack +4 and increases affinity by 3%
2	While active, grants attack +8 and increases affinity by 6%
3	While active, grants attack +12 and increases affinity by 9%
4	While active, grants attack +16 and increases affinity by 12%
5	While active, grants attack +20 and increases affinity by 15%

Deal More Damage When Monster Is Enraged

The Agitator skill boosts your attack and affinity rate when the monster is enraged. Since monsters enrage multiple times during a fight, you'll be able to do more damage to it and defeat it more easily.

Critical Eye

Lvl	Effect
1	Affinity +3%
2	Affinity +6%
3	Affinity +10%
4	Affinity +15%
5	Affinity +20%
6	Affinity +25%
7	Affinity +30%

Skill To Increase Damage

Critical Eye essentially increases your affinity rate. Having a higher affinity rate allows you to deal more damage with weapons, letting you kill monsters faster.

Earplugs

Lvl	Effect
1	Slightly reduces the effects of weak monster roars
2	Reduces the effects of weak monster roars
3	Nullifies weak monster roars
4	Nullifies weak monster roars and reduces the effects of strong monster roars
5	Nullifies weak & strong monster roars

Disable Roars To Continue Attacking

With the Earplugs skill, you'll be able to attack through monster roars without being stunned. This allows you to keep yourself safe or still deal continuous damage.

Protective Polish

Lvl	Effect
1	Weapon sharpness does not decrease for a set time after sharpening

Keeps Weapon Sharpness Up For A Time

Protective Polish negates weapon sharpness after you use a Whetstone to sharpen a weapon. Having this skill lets you jump into the hunt faster and will help your weapon's sharpness last longer in the fight.

Evade Window

Lvl	Effect
1	Very slightly increases invulnerability window
2	Slightly increases invulnerability window
3	Increases invulnerability window
4	Greatly increases invulnerability window
5	Massively increases invulnerability window

Increases Invincibility When Dodging

Since the Dual Blades can only dodge attacks, Evade Window is a good skill to have. With this skill, you can dodge right through perilous monster attacks due to the enlarged invincibility window.