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Best Skills For Heavy Bowgun

MHW: ICEBORNE | Best Skills For Heavy Bowgun

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MHW: ICEBORNE | Best Skills For Heavy Bowgun - GameWith
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Read this Monster Hunter World: Iceborne guide to know the best & recommended armor skills for the melee weapon - Heavy Bowgun!!!

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Related Heavy Bowgun Articles

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Heavy Bowgun Features & Overview

Long Range Weapon

Long Range Weapon

The Heavy Bowgun is a ranged weapon that excels in damage per shot! Due to its ranged nature, it can deal damage to monster parts that are normally hard to reach for melee weapon users!

Has Two Unique Special Ammo Types

The Heavy Bowgun has two unique special ammo types which change up the way it's played.

Wyvernsnipe Ammo

Wyvernsnipe Ammo

The Wyvernsnipe turns your Heavy Bowgun into a long range sniper rifle, which uses piercing ammo to deal heavy damage to monsters!

Wyvernheart Ammo

Wyvernheart Ammo

On the other hand, the Wyvernheart will require your hunter to get up close to the monster, but fires a heavy barrage of bullets to deal massive amounts of damage!

Recommended Skill List For Heavy Bowgun

Skill Recommendation Criteria
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
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
Normal Shots Adds more attack damage to normal ammo & arrows
Piercing Shots Adds more power to piercing ammo & the Dragon Piercer move
Spread/Power Shots Increases damage of spread ammo & power shot arrows
Special Ammo Boost Increases damage of bowgun special ammo
Maximum Might Since this weapon doesn't readily consume stamina, you'll have increased affinity rates when your HP bar is full
Peak Performance Attack power is increased when HP bar is full
Free Elem/Ammo Up Increases the amount of ammo loading capacity, best when using rapid fire
Evade Extender Extends evasion distance, giving you more breathing room against incoming attacks
Critical Eye Increases affinity rate, allowing for more chances of making critical hits
Mind's Eye/Ballistics Prevents attacks from being deflected, and shortens distance before ammos reach their max power

Best Heavy Bowgun Skills To Equip

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 Heavy Bowgun's reach to target weak spots & make for efficient hunts.

Alternative Heavy Bowgun 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.

Normal Shots

Lvl Effect
1Increases the power of normal ammo and normal arrows

Essential For Normal Ammos

Since you will also be using normal type ammunition when fighting against monsters, it is essential to equip this skill in order to power up your normal shots and deal more damage!

Spread/Power Shots

Lvl Effect
1 Increases the power of spread ammo and power shot arrows

A useful skill to increase the damage of your Heavy Bowgun's spread ammo. Recommended for all Heavy Bowgun users. It's best paired with the Normal Shots skill.

Piercing Shots

Lvl Effect
1 Increases the power of piercing ammo and Dragon Piercer

This skill is useful when using piercing ammo as it boosts their attack power. However since there are only choice moments to use piercing ammo, this skill is at a lower priority.

Special Ammo Boost

Lvl Effect
1 Increases the power of bowgun special ammo and Dragon Piercer by 10%
2 Increases the power of bowgun special ammo and Dragon Piercer by 20%

Increase Special Ammo Damage

This skill is useful in increasing the attack power of the Heavy Bowgun's Wyvernblast, allowing it to deal vasts amount of damage to any monster it hits.

Maximum Might

Lvl Effect
1 While active, increases affinity by 10%
2 While active, increases affinity by 20%
3 While active, increases affinity by 30%

Best For Weapons That Don't Consume Stamina

Since the Heavy Bowgun doesn't consume that much stamina except for dodging, this skill will help you increase your affinity rate. You'll be able to deal more damage when your stamina bar is full.

Peak Performance

Lvl Effect
1While active, grants attack +5
2While active, grants attack +10
3While active, grants attack +20

Increase DPS At Max Health

This skill increases your attack damage when you are at full health. Despite the Heavy Bowgun's low mobility, it is useful for opening up encounters with a little extra damage to remove a chunk of the monster's health!

Free Elem/Ammo Up

Lvl Effect
1 Draws out 33% of hidden element and expands clip size for some ammo
2 Draws out 66% of hidden element and expands clip size for some ammo
3 Draws out 100% of hidden element and expands clip size for some ammo

Crucial For Rapid Fire Builds

This skill is highly important when you want to fully utilize the Heavy Bowgun's rapid fire feature. This increases your loading capacity, letting you shoot more ammo at your target.

Evade Extender

Lvl Effect
1Slightly extends evasion distance
2Extends evasion distance
3Greatly extends evasion distance

Increase Weapon Mobility

The Heavy Bowgun is one if not, the slowest weapon in the game. It will be helpful to increase weapon mobility with this skill in order to be able to avoid incoming attacks faster!

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.

Mind's Eye / Ballistics

Lvl Effect
1Prevents attacks from being deflected. Also shortens the distance before ammo and arrows reach maximum power

Maintain Weapon Accuracy

Piercing bullets are excellent with this skill. Since it shortens the distance at which the bullet reaches its maximum power, you will be able to get more accurate shots at the monster, while still dealing a high amount of damage!

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Article Written by
MHW: ICEBORNE Strategy Team

MHW: ICEBORNE Strategy Team

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