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Best Skills For Great Sword

MHW: ICEBORNE | Best Skills For Great Sword

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Read this Monster Hunter World: Iceborne guide to know the best & recommended armor skills for the melee weapon - Great Sword!!!

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Great Sword Features & Overview

Heavy Weapon With High Damage

Heavy Weapon With High Damage

The Great Sword is a powerful heavy weapon that possesses the highest attack damage per hit in the game. It can easily bring down monsters due to the high amount of damage that it generates!

Tackle Allows You To Keep Attacking

The Great Sword also allows you to "tackle" monsters. This prevents you getting knocked back while performing the move, allowing you to use it as a bridge to your combo if you need to stop your attacks for any reason.

Recommended Skill List For Great Sword

Skill Recommendation Criteria
Attack BoostIncreases your attack power, allowing you to deal more damage per second
Weakness ExploitDeal bonus damage and gain increased affinity when landing hits on monster weak spots
FocusIncreases your weapon gauge's fill rate, and decreases charge time for attacks
HandicraftElongates the weapon's sharpness gauge letting you sharpen less and prevents damage loss when blunt
Critical BoostIncreases the damage dealt by critical hits allowing you to deal more damage by aiming at weak spots
Quick SheathIncreases the sheathing speed of your weapon
Punishing DrawAdds a stun effect to draw attacks allowing you to bridge opening up a fight into an instant combo
Critical DrawIncreases the chance of dealing critical hits on draw attacks to give you an edge when beginning combat
AgitatorIncreases your attack power when fighting monsters
EarplugsAllows you to ignore monster roars and continue your combo when fighting monsters

Best Great Sword Skills To Equip

Attack Boost

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

Essential Skill For Any Weapon

In addition to raising the attack power of your weapon, this skill will also increase the affinity of the weapon at higher levels. This skill is a must have for all weapons as increasing damage dealt will always be useful against hunting monsters.

Weakness Exploit

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

Allows Efficient Monster Hunting

The Weakness Exploit skill increases your affinity when landing hits on a monster's weak spot. This is a great skill to have as it allows you to possibly end hunts quickly as long as you are aiming for the weak spots.

Focus

Lvl Effect
1Increases gauge fill rate by 5% and reduces charge times by 5%
2Increases gauge fill rate by 10% and reduces charge times by 10%
3Increases gauge fill rate by 20% and reduces charge times by 15%

Works Well With Charged Attacks

With this skill equipped, it lessens the time you need to wait for your weapon's gauge to be filled, and even the time it takes to perform a heavy hitting charged attack. With this skill, you will be able to amp up your damage output quickly!

Handicraft

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

Sharpen Less & Focus On Damaging the Monster

The Handicraft skill increases the sharpness of your weapon. This means that you will need to sharpen less often and focus on damaging the monster since it will take longer for your weapon to go blunt and become less effective.

Alternative Great Sword Skill List

Critical Boost

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

Use In Conjunction with Other Skills

This skill is best equipped when paired with other skills. Weakness Exploit and Critical Draw are some of the skills that will allow you to deal critical hits more often. When paired with Critical Boost, you can expect to see a huge jump in DPS.

Quick Sheath

Lvl Effect
1Slightly increases sheathing speed
2Moderately increases sheathing speed
3Greatly increases sheathing speed

Increase In Weapon Efficiency

Since the Great Sword is a heavy weapon, it can be difficult to land some hits at times. With the Quick Sheath skill, you will be able to use your weapon faster allowing you to hunt monsters more efficiently.

Punishing Draw

Lvl Effect
1Adds a stun effect to draw attacks and slightly increases attack power

Increase Weapon Versatility

This skill will slightly increase your damage and even add a stunning effect to your draw attacks. Please note that this skill is acquired by equipping Odogaron type armor, but it is very useful to have when using a Great Sword.

Critical Draw

Lvl Effect
1Draw attack affinity +30%
2Draw attack affinity +60%
3Draw attack affinity +100%

Excellent Skill For Dealing Damage at the Start

This technique will greatly increase your affinity with draw attacks. When paired with other skills such as weakness exploit, you can deal huge amounts of damage at the start of the fight by hitting a monster's weak spots with your draw attacks!

Agitator

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

Match Enraged Monster's Damage

This skill is useful when a monster becomes enraged. You will be able to match their higher attack power with your own, while at the same time increasing your affinity rate in order to deal critical hits more often!

Earplugs

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

Negate Effects of Monster Roars

With Earplugs, you will be able to ignore the effects of the monster roar and attack or dodge away instead. It is also useful as the monster will not attack while it is roaring so use it to your advantage.

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Article Written by
MHW: ICEBORNE Strategy Team

MHW: ICEBORNE Strategy Team

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