The TOP 10 DEFENSIVE skills in Iceborne - And what to avoid! | MHW Iceborne

[@user-hi8jf1hu4p]

stun tip: using 'signal' in the radial menu will call your palico to you, there's a very high chance that your palico will break the stun once they're by you

[@arketsjenkins5016]

woooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooow

[@kielbasamage]

Finally, I was wondering why the bastard never helped...

[@travis8106]

he never does for me, its weird

[@supplice-03-aaliyah]

@@travis8106 first time?

[@warlocksnevereverdie]

You can put it on your wheel too

[@benedictcarter8095]

Recovery up synergises very well with health augments, meaning stopping to heal less often, meaning more dps uptime. I think you've overlooked that somewhat here.

[@kampfer91]

But if you deal more damage , you gonna recover more HP as it is damage base , a full charge swing of GS can recover 1/4 of HP bar .

[@canhnguyen-uj6ox]

@@kampfer91 name me one skill in the game that give you enough damage to equate the 30% extra healing from Recovery Up for 3 small decos or less.

[@aleksandrmikhail3803]

@@kampfer91 what great about health augment is crazy op with GS, You dont need to attack weakspot, just tcs whatever parts you can hit, and it will heal +/-50 point, more if you can hit weakspot, and even more with recovery up.......

[@SirHusky654]

But if you bring Divine Blessing then Recovery Up is kinda pointless because you'll barely take any damage to begin with.

[@dustinbiester4401]

I dont run without health boost or recovery up. In almost all of my builds i can slot in health boost and recovery up and still fit in all of the good damage skills (wex, crit eye, crit boost, pp, and agitator).

[@slayerjvr]

Stun resist is actually pretty easy to build for with the acid glav gloves B. It gives 2 lvls of it and has a lvl 4 a lvl 2 and a lvl 1 slot. So you can use the little slot for stun and then you have 2 other jewels to play with. They're my favorite gloves

[@theartgoose]

I also have been using them a ton. I think for solo play the skill is very comfy

[@RoyalTalon]

It's the only one of two gloves I use.

[@seriousminor321]

slayerjvr #1 defensive skill is health boost, #2 is stun resist, #3 is tool specialist imo. I like to go HAM and that means taking a few hits. Love stun resist.

[@killuadre9176]

Same. I solo most of the time so I run stun resist typically with the acid gloves too.

[@slayerjvr]

@@seriousminor321 and yeah I mandatory run health boost 3. Rarely health 2. Divine blessing depends on the monster. But I run stun resist alot since it's not usually damage that has fainted me but that dang stun lol.

[@TheManWithNoHands]

Some math: Health Boost is a direct 33% boost to your effective health (200/150), Divine Blessing is a 30% boost (50% chance to take 60% less damage), and Fortify is a 23% boost at 2 procs (this is because of the way damage is calculated, but I can go into it if someone asks). Also, a nice trick to "double up" on elemental mantles is to equip a glider mantle + your elemental mantle and slot the glider with the "Hard" version of the elemental resist you want. In the second slot put a [skill]/Maintanence decoration. With that you'll have +20 elemental resist when equipped with the glider mantle and about 26 elemental resist when equipped with the elemental mantle. With even Tool Specialist 1 slotted in there's only 9 seconds between the glider mantle expiring and the other coming up. This is just an extension of a tip I learned from another channel though.

[@nolanpower7264]

your insinuating we have hard jewels around here :( but really that's smart. I wouldn't go as far to say DB5 is a 30% reduction though. If DB will save you from a OHKO, then you still have a 50% to cart.

[@TheManWithNoHands]

@@nolanpower7264 Nolan Power Nolan Power I actually don't have the hard jewels either, what I've been doing is fitting a lvl 1 res jewels in my normal build and a lvl 4 res+ in the mantle. As for the DB, yeah that's the way it is for OHKOs, but if you're at the point defensively where you already can survive a hit, then DB will easily average out to a 30% increase in health over the hunt. It even works on chip damage, which is great since even with guard 5 some attacks can still heavily chip you. If you're fighting a monster that can OHKO you easily (can't think of any but maybe Namielle's Shocknova) then DB is even a bit better since the difference between being OHKO and not is bigger than the difference between whether you took 75% of your health or 30%. I do understand what you're going for though.

[@nolanpower7264]

@@TheManWithNoHands BTW that GS strat sounds amazing! This was probably the most useful info I got from this page haha.

[@yurika12]

@@TheManWithNoHands but DB5 is 30% more defense off of you base def. It does not include the 35 it gives you nor food, buffs and anything else, so it is effectively lower than 30%. Also, the way the game calculates damage, as far as i understand, is total defense= a certain % which is how much of the monster's attack gets through. So a 30% increase in total defense (which we know its not since its base def) does not equal 30% less damage you take.

[@TheManWithNoHands]

@@yurika12 Divine Blessing 5 is a 50% chance to reduce the damage you take by 60%. It has nothing to do with how much defense you have. If, the defense calculation, you would have taken 100 damage, that means there's a 50/50 chance for you to receive either 100 or 40 damage. Over the course of a hunt, on average you'll be taking 70 damage from the attack. It specifically reduces damage, not increases defense. You're thinking DB as in Defense Boost.

[@OniGanon]

My list would be something like... 1. Stun Resist - In my experience, stuns are the leading cause of death by far, for myself and others I've played with. Iceborne buffed this to 90% at rank 2, so can be left there to be extra cheap. 2. Speed Eating - Next most common cause of death is taking another hit before/while drinking a potion. Speed Eating 2 is like night and day difference. Rank 3 is even better but 2 is good enough. Mushroomancer is an alternative, if you have the decos. 3. Health Boost - Very important when monsters start oneshotting you, but that doesn't really happen until you start fighting tempered Elders/Jho/Diablos. That's the only reason why it's not 1st on my list. 4. Evade Extender - There's plenty of things that cannot be i-framed through, but everything can be avoided if you're simply not in the aoe, and that's a fair bit easier with roughly 35% increased roll distance. Less investment than Evade Window. Can be used offensively. 5. Evade Window - Dodging becomes a lot easier with double the i-frames, but it's such a heavy investment... 6. Tool Specialist - Having a defensive mantle ready to go most of the time is just so great. 7. Divine Blessing - Absolutely fantastic, if it works. IF. Too RNG for me, unless using rank 5. 8. Recovery Up - Works great with Speed Eating/Mushroomancer and health augment 9. Elemental Resist - Reduce damage and negate blight from an element. It's great, but it's very monster specific. 10. Earplug/Tremor/Wind Pressure - Very monster specific, for monsters that can true combo.

[@rudolfrudi5452]

Finally someone who appeciates speed eating. THANK YOU. I am so sick of seeing "max deps bro" builds everywhere, no health boost no speed eating no nothing, everyone makes mistakes, and i would rather not get one shot and if i take a big chuck of damage to heal it right back up and get back into the fight. So what if you deal 20-30% more damage than me? That damage will be total 0 when you die or when you heal while i clap monster cheeks.

[@francoiscoupal7057]

@@rudolfrudi5452 I've lost so many hunts because a glass canon wannabe waltz in and get two-shoted the moment the monster turns on him. Three times... Was that guy once. Never again. This is the reason I NEVER completed the Behemoth battle (the normal one; not even the extreme). It's not scaled to be soloed, and every time I open my game, so rando drops ins, get wasted, hunt failed. This is true even in Iceborne (with master rank equipment....)

[@rudolfrudi5452]

@@francoiscoupal7057 yeah, i know what you are saying, i tried behemoth with randos and failed everytime. You need a really organized group with a mandatory SnS healer (thats was me). I managed to do extremoth multiple times with people that actually knew what they were doing. I suggest you look for "monster hunter gathering hall" discord group, i am sure you will find people that know what they are doing and willing to help. The best team comp i would say would be a healer and 3 dps : 1 hammer for KO , one HBG for status effects and one whatever other weapon (personally i would suggest a IG for mounting)

[@OniGanon]

@@rudolfrudi5452 Yeah as I like to say, death is the ultimate DPS loss. If I have to choose between a practically guaranteed success that takes a few minutes longer, or max deeeeeps to shave those minutes off but risk wasting 10-20 minutes on a mission failure, I'm taking the safe bet every time.

[@Camustang]

@@francoiscoupal7057 You can solo it with MR equipment though without too much trouble, or duo it if you can play with a friend.

[@samhagar983]

Earplugs is my new favorite defensive skill along with health boost and divine blessing. Other monsters interrupt my fight too often and they just scream back to back to back. At one point after 6 roars between 2 monsters, I just put down my controller. Some times I actually like to play the game, and not have my character frozen for over a minute.

[@Chorizo547]

Big facts, some of us use Charge Blade or hammer ya know?

[@KyleSage35]

This is a reason why i made the earplug charm a perma slot in all my builds, i'd rather have a slow but fun fight were I never cart over fast paced multi-carts, already lost enough quest to dps build fools that run in & multi-cart before i've even used a potion & force fail my quest -_- edit: they run in, get roared, comboed, then repeat said mental derp to most peoples ire

[@XTheBossAruX]

Ll

[@Shvabicu]

Vaal Hazak Recovery and Recovery Up in particular synergize really well with a Health augment. I run Vaal helm and gauntlets for Peak Performance and Recovery Up with Gold Rath chest and waist on my braindead Ruiner GS farm build. 3 Health Boost + 5 Divine Blessing and all that recovery with skills and augment makes potions in general obsolete. You never need a Max Potion. Just relentlessly slash and tackle with insane uptime on the monster.

[@timyra2011]

Shvabicu this

[@greyknight627]

Agree, this.

[@intriguedkomi4888]

Agree this, save healing item and plenty of slot for deco

[@RuebenChan1]

It definitely works, I like the super recovery mix sets. Its one of the very few things I disagree upon with TheGameconomist. And I've only been able to use it without a health augmented weapon. I have yet to be able to make one. I imagine it is SO MUCH FUN

[@Bamazon_Prime]

All the uptime for doing like 5 damage

[@user-vm8yb4ev6b]

Evade extender is godlike on HBG, ridiculous distance covered, works wonders with slower loading HBGs to actually get far away enough to reload clusters and stickies, and I dont have to sheath every five seconds, like you said, you can just chase with this.

[@michaelm6179]

As an LBG user, Evade Extender is awesome quality of life. I see where the video is coming from and I agree with a lot of what's said, though I don't agree particularly with the ranking system as much. Defensive skills are very fight dependent and their values are adjusted accordingly. I do agree that some skills just have universal value, but for instance, something like Heroics is just him being sort of narrow minded. Heroics with the secret skill provides a 40% attack buff, which I'm pretty sure is the highesr single buff you can get in the game. This is very obviously an offensive skill lol. Overall, all of the defensive skills values can be determined by what you're hunting and what your aim is. Evade Window is better than every single one if you get the timing right, on the other hand it can be useless if you don't. It's all a matter of your proficiency and hunt.

[@bananarama711]

"You want to heal? Just use a max potion" Bruh I want to farm items other than mandragoras

[@D00MTR33]

Do the steamworks, I have almost 1500 max potions and over 3000 mega potions. And enough mega nutrients that I never have to worry about crafting. Plus you get 4 farming slots, mandragora , might seed, god bug, adamant seed or honey or gleam grass. What else do you need to farm?

[@Gangster0326]

Or just use the farm

[@AkantorCZ]

@@NeoPhyro You need material anyway to be able to craft more of them during the quest.

[@MrNategeo]

Stun resist with diablos is a godsend

[@dreambiscuits]

@@D00MTR33 steamworks gives you ancient potions not Max

[@3HeartLimit]

Guard+Guard up on a lance being able to literally block everything and counter is insane. For lance being able to block counter and not blocking and getting pushed will effectively increase your damage on a lance

[@ethanowens473]

I think his criticism there is, why can't Lance do that on its own instead of needing a skill to do its job effectively?

[@peternash7104]

​@ethanowens473 Doesn't that logic apply to most weapons? Take for instance draw for ls, or focus on gs? These melee weapons were designed to whiff against most monsters without these skills.

[@Leo-ob9bx]

It’s worth noting that lv 5 earplugs translates to free hits on the large monsters that roar a lot. By the end of the hunt you’d have dealt more damage than other defensive builds without earplugs. It’s not optimal in terms of deco usage and the availability of Rocksteady mantle but for a quality-of-life casual build, lv 5 earplugs is very nice to have.

[@MayHugger]

Eh, it’s really not worth it, at best you get a few quick hits, but nothing major. Plus you could just dodge roll through the roar.

[@yourdad5799]

​​@@MayHugger It removes the annoyence of roars and you can't really dodge roars consistently with base I-frames anyway

[@MayHugger]

@@yourdad5799 You can absolutely consistently dodge roll through roars.

[@yourdad5799]

@@MayHugger Yea no one is putting that much time to do that 💀. I ain't wasting my time when I can just remove this annoying mechanic entirely.

[@MayHugger]

@@yourdad5799 It’s really not that hard, you need to learn to fight the monster anyway, might as well practice the roar as well.

[@socc4298]

Earplugs on my HH build is clutch. Monsters have a bad habit of talking over my music! Lol If you're curious; Sonorous Eisfyl (sonorous jewel 4) Tigrex Helm A (satiated jewel 1) Garuga Mail A (vitality jewel 1) Tigrex Bracers A (satiated jewel 1) Shara Coil B (expert 4 & earplugs 3) Tigrex Greaves (satiated/expert 4 & crit boost 2) Friendship charm V Put it all together and you get; Ear plugs 5 Crit eye 5 Wide range 5 Attack 4 Health boost 3 Free meal 3 Speed eating 3 Horn maestro 2 Crit boost 1

[@Camustang]

Wouldn't it be smarter to pick a HH that can play the Earplugs song at this point?

[@danieltaylor8113]

The fact that you have friendship 5 charm hurts me. I have never had a tempered nightshade P come on my guiding lands. You are lucky

[@timsar4809]

This has gotta be one of if not THE worst build I've EVER seen

[@biske85]

"Guard and Guard Up" *raises lance* "because they should already come with them" *lowers lance*. Anyway, with stun resist rank 2 being 90% reduced duration, I find you can just get away with 2 ranks, and they're just 1-slot decorations.

[@CrownedClown_]

Deutscher?

[@jerisj.8971]

This may come across as obvious but it's still worth mentioning... Your superman dive can be spammed three times to fully dodge Lunastra's "super" and the input for the dive can be easily done without you receiving any damage. It takes a bit of timing, but it's effective because you can do this with little to no risk of a follow up attack, since Luna's animation is almost as long as the damage. Just hoping it helps whoever has a tough time managing that attack

[@LoncusZhao]

You are my new lord and savior.

[@jerisj.8971]

@@LoncusZhao thanks 😅

[@Gangster0326]

Wow lol I can’t believe I didn’t think of that... THANK YOU

[@Sunaki1000]

You can just clutchclaw on her body, this completly negates the stun, if your do it in time of course.

[@MdSala7]

Girlfriend : "You need to wear pants, we're heading out" You : "It's too expensive! It only has two slots, I need five!" Edit: You're single now and you have time to farm your decos.

[@Failzz8]

Super recovery and recovery speed are really strong for sure, super recovery heals up that pesky chip damage and saves a lot of time over the course of the hunt, because eventually you accumulate enough chip damage to be in 1 shot range if you don't have super recovery, which works really well with health boost. Recovery speed too pairs really well with health boost and super recovery, because you can take some really strong hits and heal up the entire red bar while you're invincible on the ground, or in a very short time after, which can then be enough to keep you safely out of 1 shot range, and let super recovery top you off, although I do agree that at that point, the set is usually too defensive.

[@tolontolon5538]

earplugs is on the bottom cuz of the decorations BUT when hunting horn play that earplugs large... its ambrosia

[@christiankirby8092]

FACTS!!!

[@crono6874]

(Before watching the video) As a long time player of the series i honestly recommend defensive skills over offensive for new players especially if they are going to play online... As you get more comfortable with the game than you can drop all the extra defense skills for something that fits your play stlye

[@scottcampbelljr9512]

Defense boost seven mixed with crit eye max and atk boost 4 is one of the best early g rank setups you can have because it's an extra 70-100 defense + 45% more affinity, giving you enough defense to not worry about dying quickly but still have the ability to do frequent crits

[@aheroforfun5541]

I think sleep resistance against nightshade is THE most important skill lol

[@Charmanderiix]

You would think think, just use the immunity mantle or the herbal booster. Plus the energy drink.

[@RedTriangle53]

nightshade paolumu? Did that solo on the first try with no preparation, and I'm horrible at the game.

[@malyxxplays7949]

@@RedTriangle53 always has to be that one asshole that's like 'yeah did it first try no big deal' bro don't be that guy

[@ifyourmarriedyourasimpandacuck]

@@malyxxplays7949 I did it my first try too, but I created an armor set with full sleep resistance , which is what i thought everyone did for monsters that induce ailments..........

[@Eorzat]

@@ifyourmarriedyourasimpandacuck Lol no. It's attacks are very easy to predict so you can just dodge them. And if you DO get hit with one of its sleep bombs, you can just use energy drinks.

[@Soriichi]

Health Boost lvl 3 Recovery Up lvl 3 are always on my sets, but mostly health boost lvl 3. I think recovery up is highly underrated.

[@mc10exotics]

I agree with health boost and recovery up a mega potion is 75% your hp bar. Sharas belt comes with health boost 2 and a recovery up so that’s a good option. Also brute tigrex belt has recovery up 3 and a weakness exploit

[@canhnguyen-uj6ox]

yeah, Rec Up + super recovery is very good for HBG i found, and very easy to fit in as well. Vaal arm + head and you have it, and it come with Rec Up 2 and Peak 2, both are pretty good. If you're on top of your guard, you almost never take big hit, and Super recovery is more than enough to top off the chip damage you take from guarding. It's a very low skill comfy build and it do so much damage it's insane. They literally just took Glutton and made it better AND more accessible.

[@drkcrstl]

yeah its not a bad skill, but once i unlock health augments i remove recovery up. ill be healing WAY less.

[@greyknight627]

@@drkcrstl Nah, keep the recovery up with health augment. Doing this with Greatsword makes my hunts so much easier. Recovery up is extremely overrated when it synergizes with a lot of skills. @TheGameconomist says it's just mitigated with health/max pots, but that means I have to stop, get a safe distance and drink. Recovery up is the best defensive offensive skill because I don't have to break my battle rhythm just to heal.

[@onbored9627]

Health boost/Stun Resist 3 are sick. I gave up recovery up once I started using max potions. Also, I realized most of the time I wasn't sitting still long enough to actually drink up to that extra 30%.

[@Otona685]

If you have stun resistance and resuscitate on a build you have nullified water blight, thunder blight, and turned ice blight into a buff. There are dozens of combo decos with Resuscitate on them, and Acidic Glavenus gloves have 2 levels of stun resistance and amazing deco efficiency. One piece of armor and 2 slots, one of which can be a combo offensive skill, and you've made 3 of the 5 blights useless against you and are immune to being wombo combo'd. But stun resistance is too inefficient....ok.

[@greyknight627]

Yeah, I laughed when he put it so low (below Guts and Evade Window no less). Stun Resistance is definitely a top tier defensive skill in Iceborne. If you never get stunned, you never get one shot so easily and it happens A LOT more now. @TheGameconomist is too much of a speed runner in my opinion. Sure, offensive skills are great and make the fight go quicker, but it really requires a massive amount of skill to not rely so much on defensive skills.

[@vampiszon6620]

@@greyknight627 Gameeconomist a speedrunner? I laughed so hard xD. He is an average player at most.

[@asdergold1]

@@vampiszon6620 perceives himself as one, I think he means.

[@onbored9627]

stun is the one ailment every monster can hit you with. totally worth it to use the acidic gloves I agree

[@Gebunator]

I was amazed too. Stun resist is pretty great. Teostra is not only one to stun hunters quick, all physical damage oriented WILL stun you so many times. Hell, MR rathians and rathalons can even stun you with fireballs if your fire resist is too low (like near 0). Resuscitate and stun resist is great skills to have in Guiding Lands when you are hunting various beasts anyways.

[@matthiasknaak4219]

It's just his list . It doesn't mean other skills are useless or less used by the community . Just use whatever fits ur playstyle . If u feel good ur fight will be much smoother . Happy hunting

[@PiroMunkie]

I would argue Evade Extender is the other side of the coin from Divine Protection. If you're confident with you ability to dodge attacks, extending the evade window is a comfy choice. If you aren't as clean, Divine Protection will give you more mileage. Also if you get good at using Evasion you literally negate more than just attacks since you can i-frame roars and other effects, which is something Divine Protection can't help you with. Also Wide Range + 3pc Tigrex + Lv3 Free Meal + Lv2-3 Gobbler + Hunting Horn is god-mode support. Your teammates will literally have to TRY to die, and giving your teammates the ability to just go ham will more than make up for the fact that you aren't doing as much damage.

[@SirHusky654]

Divine Blessing Secret is absolutely amazing. Also when I play Switch Axe I always take Evade Extender, but that's more for mobility than defense.

[@BANDEV89]

SirHusky654 Yeah switch axe mobility sucks in World Like l don’t know how they run SA without evade extender

[@filipeg.f.3136]

Honestly i don't think evade extender is good on SA its just to small of a difference and isnt worth the 3 lvl 2 slots investment you better with something else or evade window and roll through the atks. SA now has a really good poke and out with the axe improved"fade slash" giving it better mobility if you dont wanna over commit.

[@thomasreinoso8106]

You are not considering hp recovery augment is boosted by recovery up

[@Hailstormful]

The existence of Tigrex Secret and Wide Range Charm 5 makes it very easy to go for a medic style, which is important in Tempered Master multiplayer hunts... Recovery Up/Health Boost/Satiated 3/Wide Range, maybe even Tool specialist, if you're feeling spicy...

[@kuramakitsune9700]

Acidic Glavenus gloves beta are best for stun resistance.

[@greyknight627]

Stun Resist was criminally underrated in this video.

[@seahawk1579]

Am I the only one that likes evade extender on dual blades/long sword? Closes gap so quickly and feel like i can get out of really sticky situations

[@MVTVM]

I have a dual blades build called “Fun” where I run DB 5, arcade extender 3 and evade window 3. Fun is an understatement. I can still ruin monsters in about 15-20 minutes.

[@gabeperras3711]

Wow 15-20 minutes! Slow down, you might break your neck at that speeeeeeeeeeeed!

[@Cernunno]

Never leave the hub without Lvl3 Evade extender on my bow build. Lots of monsters have quick ways to close distance with huge body slams so its really good to keep the distance and get out of the hitbox of the attacks on the larger monsters.

[@Sunaki1000]

Steve Armor in 4 had it, it was pretty usefull.

[@yurika12]

I love it on my HH. I loved it in older editions with seregios weapon to keep sharpness up while chasing down monsters(rolling with the weapon recovered a unit of sharpness). Its a HH playstyle that lets you be aggressive, and close gaps fast.

[@Tri6Oraxus]

I didn't come here to get attacked like this, lol. I run vaal hazak with the "trifecta" as you called it. This is because I just don't really care about the time, and I enjoy watching arch-tempered nergi's dive bomb bounce off me and barely touch my health. I don't think they are bad, just bad for speed running

[@sharafbalboa3460]

Currently farming for a MR "auto-regen" set, too, since I played that way in base game back then. Just came back to MH and bought Iceborne. I feel the same way, it feels so good to just dont really worry about your health, and just dodge the real big moves which could potentially one-shot you. Otherwise the monster may as well just tickle me

[@ascalonlight4297]

@@sharafbalboa3460 it is really that good ? Sorry i just start playing (i have like 60 hours maybe) so im not sure what to play im kinda building a wide range build with lance for that help with alot of survival but idk

[@sharafbalboa3460]

@@ascalonlight4297 Not Sure myself, i would say its Not "Meta" for sure, but dont listen to Meta chasing Guys I would say, try what works Out for you and What you have fun with. But crit seems to be the go-to for almost all the weapon types, so critical eye, crit boost etc is Always good for DMG, and health boost 3 is also almost Always Part of the Most builds

[@hariman7727]

Agreed! In MHW, I had to use a recovery build to beat AT Nergigante. I find the healing boost skills add leeway, especially for long fights.

[@Tri6Oraxus]

@@ascalonlight4297 check out this link, this is the extreme end, I usually drop defense boost for weakness exploit and partbreaker. But I run almost the exact same set but with a little more offense. Gives you a good idea of what it's like though. I wasn't joking when I said watching the strongest monsters just tickle your health bar; so much fun

[@MVTVM]

I’m running your Magda gametus sticky build with evade window 5. Boy, when I tell you I dodge everything. I have a shield as well with bulwark charm. Your videos always make me wanna try new stuff and I’ll tell you now, evade window is god tier. It makes this game like dark souls.

[@colindupee]

Vaal Hazak Vitality + Recovery Up was absolutely game changing for me in MHW. There is a huge amount of grind between when you can kill VH, and when you can get Health Regen augments into a weapon that you want to use.

[@badtiming2208]

After picking up the Hammer, I'm strongly considering farming the Earplugs Charm V simply because getting Power Charge roared off feels bad.

[@xahmah]

I've ran earplugs ever since MH3U, it's just something I find hard to take off of my best sets. When you get used to not dealing with roars, it's almost more annoying to deal with them after having ignored them for literally years. Of course I can dodge a lot of monsters' roars, but that still requires a little bit of time and effort away from dealing damage. I can't begin to tell you how many stuns/knocks I've dealt underneath those 3-5 second roar animations, which then leads to further damage on the monster. I really think it just comes down to preference at some point, because this list has it at #10 while having Tool Specialist at #4? Your argument of "just dodge instead" when it comes to earplugs also applies to the use of mantles as well. I never use Tool Specialist, but I always run Earplugs. EDIT: I should also add I'm a hammer main lol

[@danlorett2184]

Earplugs has always been kind of a sleeper skill. Once you get used to playing with it you realize how it helps with your dps uptime. It's decent defensively too. And it's even better now - there's an Earplugs 4 charm, Earplugs + whatever skill gems too. Also, Earplugs makes it WAY EASIER to engage in clutch claw shenanigans (which are pretty damn strong for hammer).

[@onbored9627]

but you can block/dodge roll to avoid the roars.

[@danlorett2184]

@@onbored9627 Which doesn't give you any offensive advantage like Earplugs does.

[@onbored9627]

@@danlorett2184 but roll doesn't cost any deco slots. plugs is almost necessary on a few monsters, but generally I don't have any problem with roars personally. To each their own I suppose. I'm more of a stun resist kinda guy.

[@danlorett2184]

@@onbored9627 No idea how you need stun resist if you're good enough to consistently roll roars.

[@MakiMaki.]

Recovery Up and the Vaal set bonus actually make a pretty fun build for Lance with health augments.

[@NinjaPirate239]

I know this is before safi, but recovery up effects health augment and safi recovery ability. Very worthwile

[@MrNicePotato]

Heroics is THE offense skill to use for extreme speedrunners and it should not be changed. It is known as such for a very long time in the series. It just happens that the felyne heroics completely overpowers the armor skill.

[@LesEnfants1972]

First, you put stun resist at no.9 most useful. Then near the end of the vid, you also called it one of the most overrated. Mind you, when fighting end game monster, being stunned is being dead. In my opinion, it's much higher than a lot of the skill you have put above it. Wide range is completely useless in solo hunt. While staying not stunned is tremendously useful in any case. And elemental resistant at 5th place? Their mantle achieves the same thing with additional slot for additional skill while lasting for a whooping 180s for 210s CD time. In other word, this skill is mostly pointless. But the biggest offender here is you putting the Guard and Guard Up skill in the overrated category. Sure, the Guard Up has been nerfed and can't block several new attacks in IB. But do you realize how valuable it is when you was knocked down by an attack and when you get up, the monster has already launched its follow up attacks? You don't even have time to roll away, but with Guard + Guard up skills, you can simply press R2 to be safe and immediately counter with an attack. It allow the lance and gunlance players to trade blows with the monsters and still coming up atop. For some playstyle that's a big MUST. All and all, you're running into the same problem as those Monster Hunter Trap guys. Sounding more and more elitist and arrogant everyday. These days, you are talking like only those speedrunners matter. I'm disappointed.

[@CivilChev]

The Monster Hunter Math Guys aren't elitist. They simply use math to determine what the highest amount of DPS possible is. They say in every video that you don't have to run their builds because it's a video game that's about having fun. They also made a followup video about the toxicity of the community where they say that they highly recommend people running defensive and comfy skills when not speed running, and that they only made the videos because of so many other people lying about what the most optimize sets were. The actions of the community misrepresenting the intent of the creator is NOT the creator's fault. If they told everyone "You're trash for not playing META" then calling them elite would be absolutely justified. They even have a video explaining why certain defensive skills (like defense up) are traps and should be avoided (recommending Heath UP). They wouldn't make a video talking about defensive skills if they were advocates of only using DPS abilities.

[@edxmon]

@@CivilChev Correction: They only started saying "it's a video game, have fun" after they got accused of being elitist, so it's NOT in ALL their videos. I do aggree with you that I never perceived the The MH Math Guys as elitist, they state the facts and are done, unlike the LameConomist. I agree with @LesEnfants1972 though, the LameConomist is more arrogant and elitist as time passes. The worst part is that he doesn't realize it, did you catch the "...if you're a decent player you won't need [fortify]."? so decent players don't die or easy need %+ stats? WTF. The LameConomist CONSTANTLY, throughout his videos, gauges whether a build/piece/weapon/skill is good based on it's use by speed runners or not. I still watch LameConomist videos, I just disregard his opinion and filter out the facts, or just watch MH Math Guys and get distilled facts.

[@greyknight627]

I agree with all your assessments on the rating of defensive skills in this video. It's really backwards and clearly geared towards speed runners. It's not a bad thing, but @TheGameconomist didn't think out this video very well (e.g., solo vs team play, shield users vs. non shield weapons, etc.; there is just too much variance in play in MHWIB to have a flat "Best Defensive Skills" video). Stun resistance is a top 3 defensive skill these days. In addition Recovery Up synergizes beautifully with weapon health augments and other defensive skills to make really offensive play style builds (ironic give most of his gameplay footage was GS, which any GS user out there will say use Recovery Up with health augment). I do disagree with the MHW Math Guys remark though. They have come out with some great videos explaining why things like defensive boost aren't that great when compared to health boost. They also have been more careful to say "play how you want, we are just going to put out the math for stuff if you're interested/a speed runner."

[@LesEnfants1972]

greyknight627 the “it’s a game, play as you like” is nothing more than a precaution they throw in as insurance when thing went south. The thing is, they totally disrespect other options but their own. And it does show. Remember how they keep calling the Divine Slasher as the “Divine Trasher”? Just because according to their “math”, it deals slightly less damage than their “optimal build”? Or how they brand the Long GL as the “meme lance”? For the very same reason as above? That’s right. That’s their true nature. If they are simply there to provide the math then do it. What’s the point of trash talking other weapons? Their “it’s a game” isn’t an encouragement at this point, it’s a spit in the face of anyone who use different weapons than their.

[@francoiscoupal7057]

@@greyknight627 Honestly, the "play like you want" part is a cheap deflection. If your entire channel is geared towards DPS maximising, it's utterly disengenious to say "play as you want". They pigeonholed themselves badly and their lame attempt at having it both ways rubs me in the wrong direction. Regarding the Super Recovery skill, it was my most useful and favorite skill for nearly 100h of play. Why? Because once you get access to it (Blackveil Vaal Hazak), and before you et access to life steal augments (Late in the Grinding lands), you are going to spend a lot of time in between unless you kinda want to speedrun the game. It's a super-effective stopgap skill between having to manually heal every so often (potions and pills) to regenerating you you inflich damage (life steal, or health augments). Before having to face tempered elders, super recovery and a good defense amount (defense up, GASP! another "useless" skill) allowed me to hunt a long time in the Guiding Lands without having to stop the fight and heal. Made for a much, much, MUCH more enjoyable experience until "true" late-game.

[@TwilightWolf032]

You're right about Evade Extender, it's more used aggressively than defensively! Evade Extender + Evade Window + (stamina consumption reduce) = A very happy bow main :D

[@daymndaniel8134]

stun resistance is really important imo and its very cheap if u use acidic glavenus arms

[@Dark-qk3ie]

Exactly

[@theartgoose]

Or barroth legs, if u can afford to not use the garuga greaves. I've been playing this game for about 300 hrs and I never played multiplayer. I used to get really annoyed with monsters stunning me, but when iceborn came around I just started using stuns resistance and my experience with the game got way better

[@drkcrstl]

you should be focusing on LESS being hit many times in a row, thats when u get stunned. if the monsters hit you between longer intervals, your stun build up lowers alot

[@yourdad5799]

​@@drkcrstl Yea that works or just slot stun resist to make that a non isue. Whatever damage or utility skill you slot instead is not worth in comparason

[@Cyanin]

Rip resuscitate

[@trevinsingh9390]

I use it, 1 full minute of stamina surge and evade up. Works great with stun resist, like going ssj 2

[@Nova-du5on]

Rescucitate is extremely underrated. A single level jewel slot for a skill that helps you recover from some blights more easily (fire and blast) as well as mitigating the effects of other blights (ice and water), and improves your dodging performance when you’re suffering from an ailment anyways. Very good for helping yourself recover from a strong attack that also inflicts ailments.

[@PseudOni_]

@@Nova-du5on Also literally just buffs you against acidic glav

[@synxer5474]

Super Recovery stacks with the HH's Recovery Speed (L) so it can be fairly nice imo.

[@Killa_Joule2005]

It is stupidly good, effectively doubles your health.

[@chaosbug7]

I’m a BIG advocate for Stun resist. Being stunned sucks because it 1: That’s less time you’re doing damage 2: You’re a sitting duck 3: That monster is gonna demolish a stunned hunter in a hurry. This is why I’ll always run a piece of Armor that gives a few levels of stun resist and I’ll just slot the last one in. Thanks Acidic Glavinus gloves. Earplugs, while expensive and not always necessary, I do find useful if you can fit them in. Divine Blessing Fortify, & Health Boost are the other “Defensive” skills I find worth investing in, and some Guard if your weapon utilizes it

[@Ichorizor]

I think you are selling some of these pretty short. Iron skin might be situational, but just because you can run divine blessing doesnt invalidate the usefulness. It is a small deco, so you can easily slip it into a build just like health boost. Also Vaal regen builds are no joke, keeping Max Might going even vs DoT fights is amazing

[@goddamnarshia]

Recov up is pretty good on switch axe. Switch axe really becomes borderline mental if you're stopping every 2 seconds to heal , because you WILL get hit , and a lot. So i slot in gobler and medicne and boom its like eating a max potion , and i still do my dammage alright and really can't find anything else to put in anyway since i don't die as often to warrant fortify and don't forget , if im not mistaking , recov up stacks with health augment

[@danf6975]

If you are playing solo recovery up is really important if you are doing a build with regen on it So far I agree with most everything you said but I have to always think you're always playing with other people worries I'm always playing solo or only helping my wife when I'm able to be home So I would alter the list considerably For solo only players which many of the people that watch you are coming here for that information because your information is generally pretty good

[@theartgoose]

I agree! I never played multiplayer and for solo play I think stun resistance is also a must have. The list would definitely look a little bit different if it was for solo play

[@aleksandrmikhail3803]

Health augment Work best with GS, wanna heal? Just TCS whatever parts you can hit, and it heal +/-50 points of health, that equal to one great potion, add recovery up, it's heal even more.....

[@general_fail4887]

LOL i have over 600 Hours of MHW Playtime and just now i learned that with the +20 Ele-Resi you get Blight Resistance... wow XD

[@YourFriendlyKebab]

Same, I also discovered just now that thunderblight makes you easier to stun, i thought it increased electric damage received

[@-mokelo-8421]

You forgot Rescusitate! its op on velkhana and other ice monsters! It will ignore the ice blight demerit of stamina consumption. And u will have a great evade i-frame as long it is active.

[@Valkross9]

IMO Ailment resists are important when you start out master rank. I used a lot of ailment resist back then. Poison resist when you first fight Viper Kadachi, and sleep res on first Nightshade hunt were godsends. I still sometimes run Blast res on Brachy hunts. Better take out the vitality decos for blast res rather than rolling the blast blight away for half the fight.

[@thereprehensible435]

Wot. Earplugs is ALWAYS great. Lvl.4 Earplugs via charm, add a single size-3 jewel to max.

[@terminalarch6767]

conversely, level 5 wide range with just a charm

[@yurika12]

or make friends with a HH main

[@W0lfguard1997]

Best optional defensive skill: Effluvium resistance. Using one 3-point skill/necklace to make an entire elderdragon trivial.

[@SubmitToTheBiomass]

I've recently switched mains to lance and I have to say that I don't really mind having to build Guard and Guard Up. I still deal really good, consistent damage and it's pretty much the most unga bunga weapon possible. Sometimes I just press BBB A so many times that I completely go into a trance and then wake up like 10 minutes later and it's like "oh, I guess I must have killed the monster"

[@Verbose_Mode]

This is core to my lance play, and reducing the knockback translate to easier positioning and faster counterattacks.

[@ungobungo7986]

Dont call it unga bunga ;(

[@sergeantindie8072]

Just to quibble a little bit, Evade Window doesn't need all 5 levels to be effective. To get around Dark Souls levels of iFrames it should be ~3 Evade Window (Dark Souls had about 13 iFrames on the typical "Fast Roll", which is .36 seconds. The more common "Mid Roll" people mostly played with had ~.3 seconds). So Evade Window 2 is approximately equal to a Dark Souls "Mid Roll" and Evade Window 3 is about the same as a Dark Souls "Fast Roll."

[@alessandroferrucci6087]

kinda surprised to not see Speed Eating up there, especially since you did put in Wide Range which it works so well with. but even solo I find it makes my fights so much comfier, and it increases both survivability and damage uptime. I get hit, shrug it off and pop a mega potion while I sprint back towards the monster :D

[@D00MTR33]

Kirin stuns you way more than he paralyzes you. That's what thunder blight does, makes you easier to stun.

[@cyco7229]

exactly! I've heard him recommending paralysis resist over stun resist to fight kirin more than once and I went WUT NO!

[@LesEnfants1972]

Wear your rain coat. Tool specialist and slots make mantle pretty OP in IB.

[@juts89]

Evade extender is mandatory for gunlance imo. That back hop glues you to monsters

[@shiznicksgameing1181]

Agreed cant imagine playing Gunlance without it

[@danielnolan8848]

Health regain works with the health augmentation

[@danielnolan8848]

Well the the one that increases heal item's potency anyway

[@Barrusu]

yeah fr, he shouldve mentioned that. I use it on a lot of my builds

[@greyknight627]

I see a lot of comments hating on the lack of love recovery up got here and I frankly agree. Recovery up with health boost and health augments mean I can keep fighting to heal. @TheGameconomist is wrong in his logic that pots will just mitigate the skill; if I have to stop the fight to drink a pot, that's damage I am missing out on. Recovery Up with health augments mean I can keep plowing into the monster. I sport a Ruiner GS with lvl 2 health augment, Divine Blessing 5, Stun resist 3, and health boost 3; coupled with peak performance 3, part breaker 3, and rocksteady mantle I do a massive amount of damage because I can keep laying it on without needing to stop to heal (even with tempered elder dragons).

[@danielnolan8848]

@@greyknight627 it doesn't help with one shots, and even when you go to like 20%, but it works well with devine blessing and lets you ignore poison and burn

[@dinon17]

@@danielnolan8848 poison and burn ignore the passive healing. At least... I believe so since generally fire and poison makes my life harder while running a build that way. Divine blessing does make it so supernova's aren't as scary though... Mainly since tempered elders ignore flashbugs.

[@Alexrico318]

Stun resist isnt all that expensive. Barroth boots B is my favorite for 2 stun res and 3 slots. I have yet to find boots that I'd like in exchange. At lvl 3 it also makes thunder blight useless, so with resuscitate as as a bow or aerial IG you get nice synergy. I'd definitely put it higher imo

[@yourdad5799]

I like the acitic glavenus hands more. It has 2 stun resist levels and 3 deco slots. Basicaly the same thing as the Barroth legs but more defence

[@MagicSwordYT]

you said stun res is too expensive and elemental res is really cheap!?

[@abdisaputra694]

Because you generally only need 1 lvl of the elemental resist, and then eat for elemental resist to get the desired blight resistance

[@MrAsh1100]

Yeap, and since there's no way to stun resist any other way than using armours, charms and gems, its a bit too expensive when those slots can be placed with something else better

[@LesEnfants1972]

@@abdisaputra694 or you can take an appropriate mantle to achieve much better result and still have slots to play with?

[@abdisaputra694]

@@LesEnfants1972 mantle has limited uptime, once the mantle wear out you have to wait. Well there are always good and bad, you need to compromise something to get something. There is no such perfect build anyway.

[@prae197]

You can also put 3 levels of ele res in a single slot, which you can't do for stun resistance

[@tkmaster9254]

This clip made me subscribe your channel. I always argue with my friend that "Damage is not everything." I understand that high number damage makes you feel good or finish the hunt faster, but if you die or need to try so hard to focus and dodge every coming attack, then it is not worth it. Thanks for proving my point. 😂😂😂

[@gliscorpotas]

#1 defensive skill isn't speed eating? smh

[@whitevii1533]

"Evade Window kind of turns you into a Dark Souls character" Me, a lance main, who played through all the Souls games with Great Shields and Heavy Armor: "What?"

[@LynnSnep]

Or, god forbid, the naked greatshield playstyle

[@madestro]

Ah yes. My first Dark Souls 1 playthrough was an amazing Havel like playthrough. Needless to say I also play lance and GL in MHW lol. I just love face tanking anything

[@jordanbutler6702]

For Savage Jho, I like to abuse Coalescence after deprocking Def down and D.Blight. Never thought I'd say Savage was easier than regular Jho in a sense 😅

[@codiseus]

Stun resist is my number 1 defensive skill to run. 90% of the time I faint is because I got stunned. So now most my builds have stun resist.

[@greyknight627]

Same, it was criminally underrated here.

[@onbored9627]

Yeah. that and health boost 3 are effective on every single monster. totally worthwhile. and in multiplayer it's funny watching people get stunned and you are just like "oh yeah I forgot thats a thing"

[@aziz_mubark]

Recovery Up isn’t overrated skill because it’s working very well with health augment, and I consider running it after HB3 and DvB 3. The other thing, heroic isn’t defensive skill it’s an offensive skill

[@kptsjn]

I feel naked if my build doesn't have Health Boost 3 and some stun resist. 🤷‍♂️

[@lutherloser5122]

I think he forgot that if you have crisis jewel and stun res. So when you get thunderblight you get charged with evade window and stamina ruduction,

[@thereprehensible435]

*HEALTH BOOST LVL.3* is MANDATORY.

[@pigletghost963]

If you mix golden rathian and lunastra you will have the most powerful tank

[@TheKessi1000]

Been playing Monster Hunter since the first one, back on PS2 (Veteran). I put over 2,000 hours into that game alone. I even made the Eternal Annihilator (THE rarest and most difficult weapon to obtain in all of MH)(If you understand what "PL8 Runs" means, you know what I am talking about). You put Earplugs WAY to low on the list. It deserves a top 5 spot, no question. Earplugs give such a huge benefit that most don't realize or understand. Your DPS automatically goes up significantly because now you can keep attacking every single time the monster roars (True triple charge guaranteed). You also can set a trap, flash bomb, drink a potion, buff yourself, help a teammate, etc. The other major benefit is being able to flat out save yourself if you are near death. Having the monster roar in that situation is a life saver. The other benefit is gaining a strategic advantage. You become more tactical and deadlier with gaining so many more open windows. Every player should have the Earplugs skill into their set, unless you are a gunner (still not a bad idea, but there are better skills for them). It's one of THE 5 skills to have in a set. I would never go without it. I miss Rocksteady from MH3U, so great. The mantle is nice, but you can't keep the skill up long enough to be worth it. I understand players who are speed runners and go for all out power, but that isn't the point of the game. That's just a personal challenge.

[@ArchetypeLuna]

Glad to see I use my build uses the top three defensive skills. I run a Master's Touch Divine Blessing Secret (Teostra Helm, Gauntlets, and Waist; Gold Rathian Chest and Greaves). My main disagreement is with Recovery Up due to how it works with the Health Augments; it can be useful for Peak Performance up time which can further boost damage as well as making you use less potions and letting you play more aggressively due to how your Health Augment is healing you more. While it is not a priority skill, it isn't that bad of a skill.

[@WisecrackJax]

You’re underrating Evade Extender, especially when on Gunlance or Switchaxe or something.

[@shadowkhan422]

He said its good on those weapons . He just doesnt consider it defence skill on them since you use it to chase the monster withn those. More of an attack skill basically

[@chrisbarnesbarnes8332]

It's great to have on a HBG with auto reload since auto reload makes having a shield useless

[@gabeperras3711]

@Chris Barnes Barnes shield with auto reload isn't useless, you just can't time your blocks.

[@chrisbarnesbarnes8332]

@@gabeperras3711 it's useless because you are losing damage. The point of a shield on a HBG is to quickly block attacks and continue to dish out heavy damage. Having to stop shooting after 1 shot just to wait for attack is stupid. Every time you auto reload you are vulnerable to a attack. There is no way to time a shield block with auto reload. The minute you fire your weapon once you now no longer have a shield

[@gabeperras3711]

Hey don't complain to me for your lack of skill.

[@NorthstarPrime]

Speed Eating is an amazing skill nobody should use. As soon as you take that skill away, you have to get used to healing slowly again.

[@D00MTR33]

I used to swear by it too but now I prefer mushroomancer over it now. Instead of healing fast with a mega potion you now get 10 free max potions plus demon drug, armor skin, astera jerky and dash juice that you use super fast. Both are 3 small deco slots so for me its been a go to since iceborne started. I highly recommend you try it out.

[@NorthstarPrime]

@@D00MTR33 thanks, I'll be sure to try that out

[@cyco7229]

mushroomancer is great but the decos are rare (rarity 8!) only got my second one yesterday after almost 800 hours, you can try some armor pieces but I'm not sure if they're efficient. What i did for a long time is I've created a build with the mosswine mask and a mushrooms item set, I enter the quest with them, proc all the buffs and then replace it with my regular equipment and item loadouts in the tent. the buffs will stay applied until you cart.

[@D00MTR33]

@@cyco7229 yeah, the rng can he rough. I have 4 after 1350+ hours and last week was lucky enough to get a mushroomancer/release deco which as a gunner is amazing. I had really good luck with rarity 8 decos on level 1 tempered MR quests. Finally got a ballistics deco 2 weeks ago from a tempered mud fish. There's a chest piece that has 2 ranks of mushroomancer and comes with 1 level 4 and 2 level 1 slots. You get it by doing arena quests, I need to get to doing those eventually.

[@onbored9627]

@@D00MTR33 just use max potions. mega potions are only slow for the first like 1s then they speed up, I didn't realize that for a long time. max potions for big hits, megas for chip. no more need for gobbler

[@RobertJohnson-nz3xm]

I always go max earplugs with my hammer. I consider them as offensive skills since roars are pretty big openings.

[@clonesharpshooter101]

I don’t know if you forgot to mention this, or if it was just that you weren’t aware, but Recovery Up also applies to health regen augment! With that pairing of augment and recovery up, it makes running Peak Performance a lot more viable for less-than-perfect and more aggressive play. Since lvl 4 Flawless decorations can often roll with Recovery Up as the combination skill, it makes it easy to fit it into the build!

[@robertgosney5657]

"The most dangerous thing is getting 1 shotted" Altereon says hello so Capcom where our health boost secret

[@RomanGuro]

Good Blessing secret is the best. If you take Helm from Gold Rat it also gives you a Health boost. You don't need 5lvl of Evade 2 or 3 helps a lot. Wide Range nice skill to put into Mantle with long duration time (the same for Tool Specialist).

[@Suzaku4489]

I'm sad Resuscitate didn't make the list. Halved stamina drain and improved evade window when afflicted by ANY debuff, the skill has only a single level, and fits in a level 1 slot. Makes rolling off fire/blast/brachy slime easier, gives you a better chance of rolling away to safety to heal, and most importantly, *turns iceblight into a buff*. Iceborne loves to freeze the player, and with resuscitate, that now has no effect on you since the skill negates the increased stamina usage while giving you improved evades! That saves you deco space so you can ignore frost resistance, or eat for attack up instead of resistances.

[@Raikomartinez]

Can't believe nobody talks about my mushroom manacer 🐷its op

[@D00MTR33]

I hear ya. I used to use speed eating but switched to mushroomancer in iceborne and I love it. 10 free max potions plus the other buffs you get is soo good. Free meal secret is pretty fun too. With brute tigrex you get a nice mix of offensive skills and free meal 3 makes your 2 max potions last 4-8 heals alone. Only bummer is it doesn't work on life or demon powders, I always use those to heal and buff my teammates but I still only get the normal amount of uses. I wish it worked on those, that way you could be kind of a healer build but still put out damage.

[@DanIsBad420]

@@D00MTR33 Just bring wide-range charm and demon/armor drugs for team buffs, the tigrex free meal discount procs for those

[@D00MTR33]

@@DanIsBad420 well as gunner I need my spare shots charm so wide range is out. I'm not trying to make a healer/buff build with this set up. I use free meal secret for self buffs and use a few items that benefit my teammates as well. I just find it weird that free meal works on all items that heal/buff you but any that can benefit your teammates it doesn't apply to. Why is it ok to use a max potion or !8but seed over and over but life powder or demon powder aren't affected? Tool specialist secret works with all mantles but free meal can't be used on all items? That's my issue.

[@zephyrsaix8319]

@@D00MTR33 bruh you can already have 7 max potions without restocking if you need more than that then your build is not the problem.

[@D00MTR33]

@@zephyrsaix8319 do I need more than that most of the time? No, but on certain fights you end up using more than that. Sure you can go back and restock but mushroomancer also gives you demon drug, armor skin, astera jerky and dash juice on top of the max potions. If you can fit it in your build why not use it? You don't have to if you don't want to but I like it.

[@mickfraser3576]

Since I started building with Stun Res 3 and Health Boost 3, I rarely cart. If you can get Diving Blessing in, too, you're golden. Best gloves for Stun Res are the Acid Glav B. I use them in most builds.

[@TCHrulez]

health boost is a must, divine blessing to take less damage and earplugs to be in the right position more often and allow more attacks/less interruptions

[@provalone]

Remember, if you are a GS and you want free true strike at fight start, max earplug will let you go all in right off the bat with a free combo to the weak point of your choice to cut the beasties HP by 5% (assuming focus max and decent Crit) Also, evade extender is great for Dragon piercer bow builds, letting you circle around the monster to line up a good shoot faster. Also also, quick sheath is a must for crit draw builds, like a Dragon piercer or clutch claw HBG (try it, its fun) and it really helps out healers with saving lives just a bit faster. Won't say no to a buff though, sheathing is about 15% of my animations in some hunts, and I would like it to go a bit faster

[@navarel9892]

I will say that, against a deadly one trick pony like nightshade or viper kadachi, having immunity to their ailment turns the fight from a 30 minutes of juggling between dodging the attack and healing the ailment, to just a 15 minutes of chasing the monster around

[@ShadeSaratoga]

I now use wide range with Free Meal secret because FMS is so broken right now.

[@chadcowman6293]

Totally agreed with your view on guard and guard up.

[@captainsoldier774]

I always have at least Health Boost or Recovery Up on my armor, makes farming much easier. Also, the Black Belt armor is one of the best support armors in my opinion.

[@josephl.8939]

I just want to start off by saying that I love your videos, and they are very in-depth and informative. Great work! But just want to say something about the Trio-Recovery Skill mentioned. I disagree that Divine Blessing doesn't warrant their use but in fact I think it encourages it. Divine Blessing reduces the amount of damage received and sometimes that reduced damage does not warrant a potion use, which conserves your healing items. Adding on to that, this reduced damage you receive could be mitigated by the healing over time (granted its nothing compared to a potion heal, but its better than nothing). And I feel the skill that wasn't talked about that actually makes these 3 healing skills work so good together is Peak Performance and the fact that Recovery Up actually affects items and the health regen skill too. I personally enjoy using Divine Blessing together with the trio-recovery and peak performance skills and it is a really comfy build, so just want to put it out there for others to try. That being said, I still love your videos and you do make valid and informative points, so kudos to you and keep up the great work! Cheers!

[@Chokoboh]

I'm glad videos like these exist now. Random Players do faint significantly less since Iceborne is out. (playing on pc)

[@weizizhang8532]

personal must have: earplugs,stun resist and health boost, elemental resistance if tempered eldies. Divine blessing is rng, while it did saved me a lot when i was inexperienced, relying on is not advised, but if you want to save potions it does helps a lot. Fortify is very good if you don't mind dying in a run, I hate it cause I hate to die, even once : ). Wide range is useless in a solo. Evade windows doubles your , but its kinda expensive and some people will call you garbo.

[@rudolfrudi5452]

Really? No speed eating? Dude with speed eating 3 i can drink 3 potions by the time someone without it drinks one. That shit has saved me more times than any divine blessing proc

[@kseries1981]

Use Max Potion. No need for Mega's

[@sandukan1001]

No idea if it is classified as a defensive skill but it was mentioned a couple of times. I love the speed eater skill, it does not only make the animation of taking a potion faster but also the amount of health you recover from that potion fills up your bar much much faster. Like you know how you die when in the middle of drinking a potion and you are like ''if he just finished drinking that then I would have survived'' don't ever have that problem with the speed eating skill. Or in a lunastra fight where she does her super nova, you know that short window of time where you can move again before the second wave of wind pressure comes, with speed eater it is actually possible to quicky take a mega potion or whatever, which makes it much more likely you survive. Such an underrated and overlooked skill in my opinion.

[@AntiTheory]

Stun Resist is actually OP. If you are properly geared for the final fight, Shara Ishvalda cannot kill you with his regular attacks without a stunlock wombo combo, and if you never get stunned you'll never get hit by his follow up laser or air blasts. Also, I found Pep jewels to be useful for once when doing the arena quest for the raven charge blade, since it's hard to avoid a Nargacuca and all the sleep gas that Goth Paolumu shits out everywhere at the same time. That's probably the only time you'll ever need them.

[@ojon12389]

I like to use quick sheath on hunting horn support, if I have free slots. When I am in a spot between attacking/buffing/healing, I can put the HH away faster to use healing items for the team.

[@charliebartlett5768]

Stun resist is super cheap to build if you have the 2 point level 4 deco

[@RoyFokker93]

Well I always use the defense up at max rank (charm and 2 armor slots). Not only increases your armor at 10%, but also gives you plus 5 in all elemental resistances, which is a huge deal. I pretty much run a complete defense build currently and I don't think it slows me down a lot when hunting, and I am more agressive since I have the confidence that I will not die from a cheap hit.

[@luketfer]

I'll argue that Evade Extender is considered one of the key defensive skills (along with health boost and Guard 3) for Gunlance. It massively extends the range of your hops and enables you to cross distances pretty quickly without the need to sheath and then run.

[@theblackbaron4119]

Yeah I personally would evade extender only on Gunlance, SWA and DB, but I generally don't enjoy the one man rave party button mashing. So just those two.

[@RocRolDis]

Stun resist is top priority for me. Every monster stuns and hits you constantly. I’ve got a level 4 gem for it, so building with it is a lot easier. Also, sleep resist not effective against nightshade paolumu? Well, I guess that’d be true for bow and bowgun users. I guess you just have magic resistances since you’re able to not get hit by sleep when 75% of the area is covered in sleep gas.

[@zanbamon4162]

Good video, Health Boost 3 is a must have for me. I get triggered by some people who doesnt realize the value of it though, they rather run +3 attack boost for a mediocre increase and get one shot by tempered monsters left and right, they get hit once and have to stop for heals all the time meanwhile I get hit once, reposition myself and hit the monster back with health regen so I'm actually doing more damage than them but they dont realize they are doing less damage using full DPS builds because they arent good enough to be using those builds.

[@billyfraiser6298]

Sorry my comment is so long :/..... Sorry for any typos. I proof read, but only once and did it quickly. ------EARPLUGS is more of an offensive skill. There isn't a single attack you can't dodge after a monster roars. You know those attacks, where a monster roars then does a big attack..... EASILY avoidable with 0 Earplugs. The only good use Earplugs has is being able to pummel the monster while he's standing still roaring. Earplugs = Offensive Skill. ------I value STUN Resist a lot higher. But I can understand putting it at #9 for some people. The reason it's probably my #2 or #3 defensive skill is because it's the only reason I ever die in fights. When I go into a fight without Stun Resist, the only thing that kills me is when i get stunned and can't move and I get hit again while I'm stunned. ------GUTS 100% belongs on overrated skills. I've tried using moxie that gives Guts and all it does is leave me with 1HP, then i die less than 1 second later by a quick follow up light hit by the monster 99% of the time. Waste of space = Guts Skill. ------ I've only played with Evade Window a couple of time and it does help a lot. But I feel I havent played with it enough to give a good opinion. ------I remember playing with Wide Range skill in the base game against Ancient Leshen and it worked ok. But wasn't worth the extra space it took up imo, but I don't usually run support classes (HH) so again, can't give a detailed opinion. ------Elemental resist (when the monster does Elemental Damage of course) is my #2 or #3 need to have skill for defense. Easily. It's right there with Stun Resist. Nothing more to say about it... .it's a must have against an elemental damage monster. ------Tool Specialist. I just started using this recently and love it. I regularly spend way more than half the fight in a mantle (and im really bad at taking off my mantles, because I want to keep fighting lol). If i was more efficient at it, I could probably spend 75%+ of the fight in a mantle. ------Divine Blessing. I will usually use this on a big defense build I'm using, because when it activates..... WOW!!! Barely any damage is done. Obviously the down side is RNG in the game and hoping it activates. I'd put this skill around 6-8 on a list like this. ------Fortify. I could understand someone putting it in their top 10 list. But it belongs around 8-10 spot. I've NEVER used this skill. Whenever I see it, I laugh at it. I might faint once every 20-25 quests. I mostly play the game with my wife and it's a shock to her when I faint. I have thought about using the skill for shits and giggles though... just to see how high i can get my attack/defense lol. ------Health Boost. Obviously #1. No question about it. Nothing more to say. ------ ------although I personally like to run Defense Boost (mostly for the +5 elemental res.) on most of my defensive builds.... I can 100% agree that it's definitely belong in the second half of your video. I completely understand that. ----- Super Recovery is a God send. I would definitely recommend the chest and arms pieces of Blackveil Vaal Hazak ( i believe), the two pieces that have Recovery Up and Speed on them. So wonderful having it. And the best part is that it acts like an offensive skill as well. Lets say you refill the red portion of the gauge but you're stuck at around 75%-85% health. You gotta stop and heal if you don't have Super Recovery... but with Super Recovery you keep on fighting AND heal at the same time!!! EASILY in my top 5 skills for a defensive build. I know it's an opinion based video, but I would go as far as to say you're 100% wrong putting it in the second half of the video. ------I agree with the Ailment Resistances. I will only use them when I'm feeling lazy and don't want to deal with poison/bleeding and the other stuff. But I agree it belong in the second half of your video. ------Never used Evade Extender (well maybe once)... so no opinion here. ------I've never bothered using Heroics. But I will point out a mistake in your video. You put Fortify #2 on your list, then say Heroics is crap because "if you're playing well, it wont activate".... but if you're playing well and looking for a defensive build, then you won't ever get any use out of Fortify. Just thought I'd point that out to you. ------Not once, has I ever used Quick Sheath.... so again, no opinion here. ------Guard Up... I use HBG a lot (IG and HBG are my two main) and I tried Guard Up once. I completed the mission (tempered zinogre) but it just wasn't that fun to use :/. But it did amaze me, the amount of damage it negates. -------Never used Iron Skin. Deviljho the only monster to inflict me with Defense Down... i think???? I can't ever recall anything else doing it. -------Never used Survival Expert Final Thoughts: I've got 900 Hours in the game (so not a whole lot compared to others, but enough to give a good opinion) and I mostly focus on defensive builds (unlike the guy in this video, who only considers a 1-2 when doing a build (no disrespect)). My top defensive skills are 1. Health Boost 2. Stun Resistance 3. Elemental Resistance ( Effluvia for Vaal, of course lol. I put here because if you have room for Elemental Res, then you can put Effluvia in place of it since Vaal doesn't do elemental damage). 4. Recovery Up (1 potion, done healing, especially with Super Recovery) 5. Super Recovery (Absolutely amazing. I was so happy when I saw you only needed two pieces to activate it, and the chest and arms are PERFECT pieces for this) 6. Recovery Speed 7. Tool Specialist 8. Divine Blessing (If you're using all of the above, divine blessing is just a bonus at this point) 9. Gobbler 10. Evade Window (the 2-3 times I've used it, it seemed to make a huge difference) Do not underestimate Super Recovery. Please do not listen to the guy in this video about that. recovery up and recovery speed matched with Super Recovery is a God send. You put my top 6 skills in your build and you're set. No more embarrassing faints with randoms. Like i wrote about above, I might faint once every 20-25 fights (probably more fights, but I didn't want to overestimate... so i underestimated, so im being more honest). My wife and I haven't failed a single quest in Iceborne when it's just us (not an exaggeration, we have NOT failed a single one, and we have around 300-400 hours in Iceborne). We only fail with randoms when THEY die. Easy fights take us about 5minutes. Medium fights take us around 10minutes. Hard fights take around 18min and the super hard fights (2 or more tempered monsters) takes us 20-28min). So you're not going to get blazing times.... but as the guy in the video explained near the beginning of his video... you save some time by not fainting. You'll also save A LOT more time by not failing and having to restart the quest. You're not losing a lot of time by going defense...... because you're continuously attacking the monster. Joining randoms against Raging Brachy.... they're all dying, they're all running around healing.. NOT damaging the monster. I look at their builds and they're all offense focused.... meanwhile, im defense focused and putting out more damage than them because I can keep attacking. My first two attempts at Raging Brachy was with randoms and they all died and we all failed. My third attempt (still not experience with the fight), I decided to do solo with my Insect Glaive. Beat him in 23 minutes. So obviously faster than not beating it at all. And to all you people out there who can go 100% offense and not die (which probably isn't many of you, hence why you're at a video like this), more power to you :) and I'm jelly.

[@linshu6141]

Specially for new players defensive builds are better because: 1. U need to learn the move set of the monster. 2. The defensive decorations / jewls are way easier to get. 3. They will be faster at the end because they faint not that often (like you said). 4. They not "loose" that much materials for potion etc because they take less dmg. 5. It does way more fun to win the fight at the first or second try.

[@void.society]

Heroics should be: The more damage you've taken, the more damage deal and def you get to a max cap of 35% health or lower. Level 5 100-90% Health: No Effect 89-80% Health: +16 Def and Attack +5 79-70% Health: +32 Def and Attack +10 69-60% Health: +48 Def and 5% Attack 59-50% Health: +64 Def and 10% Attack 49-36% Health: +80 Def and 15% Attack 35% Health or lower: +100 Def and 20% Attack Or maybe that's too op.. I don't know. Change those numbers around or something, but yeah! Too op?

[@sebk7168]

Your numbers are too high yeah, but it's a very interesting idea otherwise