Monster Hunter Wilds Great Sword Guide
Table of Contents
- Introduction
- Gameplay Overview
- Builds
- Skill Priority
- Weapons
- Craftable Weapons
- Best True Shadowbringer
- High Lagia Blade
- Artian Weapon (Varianza)
- Armor Sets
- (New) Bale + Lord’s Soul + Bad Blood
- (New) Bale + Lord’s Soul + Thunderous Roar
- (New) Blackest Night + Heroics
- Set Archive (Outdated Sets)
- FulGore
- FourGore
- ReyGore
- FourRey
- 3Rey/Zoh/Lag
- 3Rey/2Lag
- Variant - Convert Thunder Element
- Earplugs no LP
- Variant - Lord’s Soul
- Variant - Evade Extender
- Second Wind LP
- Lord’s Soul no LP
- Variant - no Azure for extra 2-slot
- Lord’s Soul no Evade Extender
- Critical Draw
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Introduction
This guide is based on the original GS guide by Jackscin & OP Ground Zero 2.0, which
has been remade here for better accessibility. Thanks to everyone who worked on that guide.
If you have any feedback or questions on this guide, you can find us in the meta channel
on the Mathalos Nest Discord server.
Gameplay Overview
Great Sword is a rather simple weapon at its core: beeg hits, beeg damage numbers,
monster beeg dead. All its subtleties really come from positioning and timing in order to be able
to successfully land your chunky hits.
Your core gameplay will generally consist in running around until you find an opening
for strong charged attacks that can be followed with even stronger attacks. Tackle and Offset
Attack can be used to power through the monster attacks while attacking them in return (Offset
Attack is a very good damaging attack regardless if you counter with it or not).
A more detailed gameplay guide is coming soon.
Builds
Skill Priority
Armor Skill Priority
1 Weakness Exploit 5 Since critical hits give a 25% raw damage bonus to your attacks
(which can be up to 40% with Critical Boost), increasing affinity
becomes the main way to maximize the damage of your juicy big hits.
Every single set in this album will be using a combination of these
skills in order to be able to reach >90% affinity.
Most of the time agitator and weakness exploit can not both be
maxed as the same. In those cases it is better to max agitator as the
bonus raw matters more with the amount of raw on current weapons.
1 Maximum Might 3
1 Agitator 5
1 Counterstrike 3
This skill gives you a whopping +25 raw for 45 seconds after getting
sent flying by an attack or hyper armoring through an attack that
would’ve sent you flying. The buff can therefore be triggered with
both tackles and offset attacks, which makes it extremely valuable on
the weapon.
1 Burst 1 Burst lv1 gives on GS +5 raw on your first hit and +5 to the following
hits. A pretty nice buff for only one lv3 slot.
1 Lord’s Soul
Lord’s Soul is a set bonus triggered from equipping any 3 pieces from
Arch Tempered monster’s armor sets. It gives a bonus equal to 5% of
your weapon’s base attack at the cost of a 5% defence penalty. In
addition, you gain the Guts passive which prevents you from taking a
hit that will make you faint if you are above a certain hp threshold.
After triggering, your attack boon and defence penalty will be traded
for a defence boon.
As AT / Gamma pieces already have good skills attached, you will
almost always have this passive triggered just by making skill
efficient sets.
2
Black Eclipse I (2p
Gore Magala) + Antivirus 3
Gore Magala’s set bonus has always made up for its
armor’s lackluster skill efficiency. With more and more armor sets being
released with high skill efficiency, the value of Black Eclipse has
decreased.
2 Earplugs 2-3
Earplugs is a pretty nice way to be able to land strong attacks in a
moment when the monster is standing still to roar. Its utility goes
down the longer monsters stay enraged, but for now it’s cheap enough that it’s worth considering putting it in your build.
3 Adrenaline Rush 1+
Adrenaline Rush gives you a raw attack buff for 30s after i-framing
through an attack. This is a nice buff, but only really useable on Crit
Draw builds since they are made to run around a lot with the weapon
sheathed.
The release of Seregios and AT Uth Duna has allowed us to build sets
dedicated solely to the adrenaline rush and crit draw playstyle.
Weapon Skill Priority
1 Focus 3
As most of GS gameplay revolves around charged attacks, Focus 3
will be the biggest damage boost for the weapon, not only because it
lets you attack more often, but also because it will let you land
attacks in situations where you otherwise wouldn’t be able to do so.
1 Critical Boost 3/5 We crit, therefore we boost crit. Easy and simple.
2 Handicraft 1+
GS doesn’t need too much sharpness to function and this is an easy
way to extend it. Luckily for us, this already comes bundled with
either Focus or Offensive Guard decorations.
3 Offensive Guard 3
Offensive Guard is great against monsters where you can trigger it often
enough through perfect guards followed by attacks, but otherwise it will
fall behind just maxing out Crit Boost.
4 Mind’s Eye
Some monsters have parts you will be hitting a lot with hitzone
values just below wex’s activation range. One example is Uth Duna’s
head. If you know what you are doing, use it. If not, best to slot in
any of the above skills.
5 Critical Draw 3
Crit Draw has become viable again thanks to the buffs to the skill
that allows you to keep the affinity for enough time to land an extra
hit after the sheathing attack. It’s not gonna be as good as a regular
setup (hence its low priority), but it’s decent nonetheless. Once again,
best slotted in if you know exactly what you are doing.
Weapons
Craftable Weapons
(Best) True Shadowbringer
True Shadowbringer is currently the optimal weapon choice even outclassing Artians.
Darkside enhances charged attacks of the three “standard” charged slash moves (Charged Slash
-> Strong Charged Slash -> True Charged Slash) at the cost of consuming health per Charged
Slash. The self-damage leaves you with recoverable health so Recovery Speed and Wild Jerky
will help offset the drain. For most scenarios Recovery Speed 3 is highly recommended so all
sets utilizing True Shadowbringer will have it.
The self-damage being recoverable health is important as it allows Greatsword to trigger
Resentment consistently. Capcom even coded the health drain to happen at the start of the
Charged Slash, allowing every Charged Slash to benefit from Resentment. As a result, the
weapon has enabled Resentment builds which Art ians can not take advantage of.
High Lagia Blade
Lag’s GS is a great craftable weapon and good for hunting Omega to craft
Shadowbringer. It has great attack and sharpness with the ability to slot in crit boost 5 and focus
3.
Artian Weapon (Varianza)
Note: currently Artisans are not worth making if you want the absolute best weapon as the
FFXIV collaboration Greatsword outclasses any Artian. In TU4 Capcom stated there will be a
way to enhance Artisans further so stay tuned. Otherwise, if you absolutely hate the health drain
from Shadowbringer, then you can use Artisans.
(Note: you can replace Focus/Handicraft with any deco that gives you Focus 3)
Like most other weapons, the best GS in the game is also an Artian weapon. The natural
white, the high raw, the affinity, the amazing slots and the ability to give it a status simply allow
you to make the best possible weapon for any situation.
GS is the best weapon for wakeup hits on sleeping monsters due to its amazing single hit
damage, hence why we go for Sleep. Do note however that Agitator won’t be active during your
wake up hit.
When you create the weapon, you should use 3x Attack infusions for the same
element (Sleep). The ideal reinforcements are 4x Attack + 1x Sharpness. In the end this will
give you a weapon with 225 Attack, 5% Affinity and 50 sharpness.
You could also go with 5x Attack reinforcements instead, which is theoretically more
damage, but without any Handicraft you will probably end up having to sharpen mid fight
often. Regardless, as long as you get at least 3x Attack it will still be better than the craftable
options.
Variant
- Offensive Guard: Critical Jewel II -> Guardian (or Guardian/Handicraft) Jewel
Offensive Guard is good against monsters such as Arkveld or Rey Dau where you can
realistically use perfect guards often to boost the damage of your following attacks. This will
however be worse than Crit Boost 5 if less than 1/3 of your hits are affected by OG.
Like most other weapons, the best GS in the same is also an Artian weapon. The natural
white, the high raw, the affinity, the amazing slots and the ability to give it a status simply allow
you to make the best possible weapon for any situation.
GS is the best weapon for wakeup hits on sleeping monsters due to its amazing single hit
damage, hence why we go for Sleep. Do note however that Agitator won’t be active during your
wake up hit.
Armor Sets
All of these sets assume that you reached HR41+ and you can craft all armor available or
farm all required decos. Quick Sheathe decos are fillers and can be replaced with anything you
want.
(New) Bale + Lord’s Soul + Bad Blood
Because of Shadowbringer, we are the only weapon class capable of consistently utilizing
resentment. Furthermore, Shadowbringer’s health drain counts towards Latent Power so we
also have the benefit of triggering it without having to rely on getting hit or self-damage.
The 2pc Bale bonus allows charged slashes barring Offset Charged Slash to add an
additional shockwave dealing around 10% of the original slash’s damage. You also gain around
20% elemental damage boost when you have recoverable health (think: “resentment but
elemental”).
Now with AT Nu Udra we can also make use of Bad Blood which adds a tiny amount of
damage while resentment is active. The damage ranges from 10 to 30 which is almost trivial but
free damage is free damage.
(New) Bale + Lord’s Soul + Thunderous Roar
With how miniscule the bonus damage from Bad Blood is, you might get more damage
dout of having 30 seconds extra Latent Power uptime per trigger as it is 30 seconds of 50% extra
affinity. To fit Recovery Speed 3, one point of Agitator was sacrificed.
(New) Blackest Night + Heroics
Equipping 4 pieces of the Bale Set allows us to utilize an item called The Blackest Night.
The item can be used from the hotbar or from quick access. The latter is recommended as it
allows you to use the item whilst having your weapon drawn.
After using the skill, you enter a “stance” where you have three options. You can either
roll out of the “stance”, attack for a quick burst of damage at the cost, or wait for the monster to
attack you and break your shield. If your shield is broken you retaliate with a bigger attack, set
your hp to one and gain a buff called Undead Redemption for 30 seconds. In Undead
Redemption, your entire health bar becomes recoverable health, your base defence is doubled,
and you gain lifesteal on all your attacks. The health drain also triggers latent power. Finally, the
item has an 90 seconds cooldown, which starts the moment you use it.
This set uses Blackest Night to quickly enter Heroics range and uses the health drain
from Shadowbringer to stay in that range as the drain can not cart you.
If you want a safer option, you can swap out Heroics for Agitator and slot in Recovery
Speed 3. As a bonus, as triggering Undead Redemption turns your entire health bar into
recoverable health, you can eat a Wild Jerky and instantly heal to full. The Blackest Night even
sheathes your weapon so you can quickly heal to full and still take advantage of the defence and
lifesteal buffs.
Set Archive (Outdated Sets)
Most of the below sets are from previous updates, do note that none of them are directly
powercrept as we are still using the same few skills we have had since launch.
FulGore
This is the recommended GS set for most situations. While the weapon doesn’t use
stamina when attacking, you will still need to run around to reposition, to roll to cancel the
endlag of your big hits or to tackle, all of which will decrease your Max Might uptime. With 2p
Fulgur however you will never lose the 30% affinity from Max Might for your occasional stamina usage, which makes this the most consistent set for regular play (this is true also after the MM stealth change after the TU1 patch).
Variant
- Flayer -> Earplugs
Being able to land a big hit on the monster during a roar can have a quite high value on
many occasions, and it’s actually rather cheap to fit it in your build.
Earplugs 3 is only needed for Zoh shia, Gravios, Jin Dahaad and Gore Magala’s “phase 2”
roar; for all other monsters you can go with Earplugs 2 and still keep 1 level of Flayer
FourGore
This set outdamages the previous one if you can manage your stamina carefully enough.
This does limit the flexibility of your gameplay quite a bit however, so it's recommended only if
you like seeing the highest potential damage numbers.
Now that the maximum might bug has been fixed, the uptime of the skill has dropped
significantly. However, with skilled play the uptime can be kept high enough for the set to still be
viable. It is also worth noting that most of the time maximum might will trigger in time for the
final hit of a TCS if the combo started while it has deactivated.
ReyGore
Stepping onto the scene is AT Rey Dau. Its 3p set bonus gives 5% raw. The set also
provides you with Guts. Under the condition that you don’t consume the Guts, the 5% raw will
remain for the entire hunt.
Set also comes with Latent Power. Latent Power, once a certain damage has been taken,
you will receive 20% affinity. Normally Latent Power only lasts 2 minutes, but with 2p Rey, it
lasts 2 minutes and 30 seconds. Due to factors like monster aggression, and player skill, uptime
of this skill can be all over the place. However there is also player skill to factor.
If you are someone who constantly gets tossed around and curbed stomp, then really no matter
who you’re fighting, LP is just better cause your uptime will be much more consistent.
FourRey
This set reaches 536 raw and 100% affinity on weak points with all buffs triggered.
However, if the hunt is too short you will never trigger LP, and if it takes too long LP’s uptime
decreases too much to be effective. The alternative is to find a way to reliably trigger LP, which
can be done through bombs and corrupted mantle or just face tanking a strong hit or two.
Variant
- Mizu legs -> Nu Udra Beta legs
Swapping Mizu to Udra legs loses you one level of burst in exchange for an extra 1-slot
and windproof which allows you to slot Windproof 3 for Zoh Shia speedruns (which this
set is perfect for).
3Rey/Zoh/Lag
With the addition of Lag legs, we are able to fit more levels of agitator and wex and
squeeze out an extra free point of latent power as well. This set reaches 489 EFR without latent
power inactive and 536 with it active.
The flexibility of the decos also allows us to max agitator, wex or even latent power
depending on what we need.
3Rey/2Lag
This set makes use of Lagiacrus’s Azure Bolt skill. How the skill works is that it triggers a
small explosion of thunder damage, increases your affinity by 15% for 20/30 seconds depending
on 2/4pc, then goes on cooldown for 30 seconds before it can be retriggered.
There are some key issues with Azure Bolt, the first being the uptime as with optimal
play the uptime will only be 40%. Also, the triggering hit does not benefit from the affinity bonus
which reduces uptime even further.
However, compared to the previous set, this set only drops one level of weakness exploit.
As a result, the trade off is 5% affinity on weak points vs 15% affinity + extra damage every so
often.
This set has been showing up in speedruns and is likely the most consistent
set you can run.
Variant - Convert Thunder Element {#variant-convert-thunder-element}
We are capping out on thunder resist for Lag GS’s Convert Thunder Resistance to
maximise elemental damage. Testing has yet to be done but chances are this set would shine
against monsters extremely weak to thunder.
Unfortunately this set is much more efficient at slotting wex than agitator so you will
need to be hitting weak points a majority of the time for the set to be competitive.
If you want to go all-in you can swap the 3-slot and 2-slot for a Bolt/Crit Element + Crit
Element jewel to max out on elemental attack. GS does get a 1.21x multiplier from crit element
over the 1.15x that faster hitting weapons have.
I would highly advise against this but it is funny.
You don’t have to use Lag’s GS with this set and can stick to Artians, the extra 2-slot
could be used for ambush which makes this set possibly competitive with the original version.
Earplugs no LP
This is another speedrun set that has been showing up. The idea behind the set is that
Lag’s affinity bonus proc’s before Gore's, allowing for more consistent high affinity.
With maximum might back to its unbugged release functionality, having extra affinity
has become much more useful. If you were to count your maximum might uptime, you would be
surprised how low it is.
In addition, this set trades away Lord’s Soul for earplugs 2 and can fit three levels by
swapping out another level of weakness exploit which is only 5% conditional affinity.
This set shines in shorter hunts where ignoring a roar can have a significant impact on
clear times - or if you just don’t like getting roared out of a TCS.
Variant - Lord’s Soul {#variant-lords-soul}
Use this if you want to keep Lord’s Soul for the guts effects. You can also swap one point
of wex for earplugs 3. Tool specialist and Uth Duna passive is nice but nothing major.
Variant - Evade Extender {#variant-evade-extender}
You can also replace the Uth Duna arms for Rey Dau if you really want evade extender.
This set can also drop one point of wex for earplugs 3.
Second Wind LP
This set is perfect if you miss the uptime of maximum might. Unlike the original version
that runs Gore, this set sources latent power for 50% worth of affinity. Use this set if you want to
have the most consistent crits, provided you trigger latent power.
Lord’s Soul no LP
This set trades away 4 points of latent power in the 3Rey/Zoh/Lag set for an extra point
of weakness exploit and Azure Bolt. Against tankier and/or harder-hitting monsters this is likely
never worth it. Where it does work well is in bullying weaker monsters.
Variant - no Azure for extra 2-slot {#variant-no-azure-for-extra-2-slot}
This version trades away Azure Bolt for one more 2-slot which you can slot in comfort
skills or ambush. Whether the trade off is worth it is up to you.
Lord’s Soul no Evade Extender
Use this set if you detest evade extender. You only lose a level of latent power. I find Zoh Shia’s
pulse to be useless but it comes free in this set up. On the other hand, tool specialist may come
in useful.
Critical Draw
Set made for the traditional “hit & run” GS style of the pre-5th generation MH games.
AT Duna and Seregios have done a lot for the critical draw build. Seregios has increased
the consistency of adrenaline rush and Duna Gamma has allowed us to use Lord’s soul without
wasted skills such as maximum might and latent power. As a bonus the build also gains a few
points of peak performance and tool specialist to squeeze out a small amount of extra damage
and mantle uptime although they should be treated as a bonus and not something to play
around.
There is no point in going to 4 pieces of Seregios as the 5% bonus attack from Lord’s soul
beats the bonus attack from retriggering adrenaline rush that 4pc Sere provides.
Critical Draw was made basically unusable in 5th gen due to the addition of non-draw
attacks such as TCS that dealt significantly more damage than draw attacks as well as the nerfs
to the affinity buff in Rise. However, in Wilds not only you get once again +100% affinity on your
draw attacks, but you retain the buff for 3 seconds after that, which means that you have time to
follow up your Draw Slash with another attack such as a lv3 Offset Attack, lv2 Strong Charged
Slash or Wide Slash into lv0 Charged Slash. You can use this for a nice playstyle change that
doesn’t lose too much damage.