In the life of every fledgling hunter, many tend to pick the Long Sword as their main weapon because it gives them those anime protagonist vibes, and I don’t blame them. The Long Sword has always been one of the best weapons in terms of DPS potential, and it just got better with all the changes in Monster Hunter Wilds, which, as you know, has opened the doors for some interesting builds. As always, we’ll list a few recommendations for Low Rank and High Rank, so you can pick the build you need the most, depending on where you are in the game.
Low Rank Builds
While other weapons can have many builds for Low Rank, in the case of Long Sword, we’ll focus on one that is easy go make and packs high DPS potential. While the Long Sword is great at doing damage, it isn’t so good at applying status effects, yet that doesn’t mean it’s terrible. We’ll go over that in the High Rank builds. But for now, let’s focus on a pure raw DPS setup for your hunter.
Hope Build
| Items | Perks |
|---|---|
| Hope Edge III Quematrice Lima II (Optional) | Critical Eye Lv 1 Speed Sharpening Lv 1 |
| Guardian Rathalos | Weakness Exploit Lv 3 Intimidator Lv 3 Scorcher II |
| Surge Charm I | Stamina Surge Lv 1 |
Oddly enough, this build will focus on the Hope Edge III Long Sword. While there are other elemental and status effect weapons you can unlock later in the game, nothing will beat Hope Edge III in terms of raw damage, which is what we’re going for. With this weapon’s skills, you’ll get an Affinity boost and will be able to sharpen your weapon faster, which is always great for larger weapons.
For armor, we’ll go for the full Guardian Rathalos set. This armor set provides three levels of Weakness Exploit, which increase our Affinity when hitting weak points and wounds. Intimidator is a nice skill to have but not the most useful; we only want this set for the former. The set bonus skill, however, is great as it increases your fire damage, and if you’re rolling with two Long Swords, you can add the Quematrice Lima II as a backup weapon. Lastly, we’ll go with the Surge Charm for the always-needed Stamina Surge skill.
High Rank Builds
Moving on to High Rank builds, we’ll also focus on raw damage, but most importantly, wound-breaking, which is something the Long Sword excels at. While there are a few elemental and status builds like the Paralysis one everyone is running with, a pure DPS build for Long Sword is also great and friendly to use, even at high hunter ranks.
Guardian Build
| Items | Perks |
|---|---|
| Dimensius (Rarity 8 Artian Weapon) | N/A Focus on Attack parts. |
| Guardian Akrveld (Beta) | Flayer Lv 4 Weakness Exploit Lv 3 Blight Resistance Lv 2 Partbreaker Lv 1 Elemental Absorption Lv 1 |
| Breaker Charm | Partbreaker |
| Draw Jewel III Focus Jewel III | Critical Draw Lv 3 Focus Lv 3 |
This next build is all about raw damage while also focusing on breaking parts. The bread and butter is, of course, the Partbreaker skill, but since you’ll also be aiming for weak spots, the Weakness Exploit skill is also great. For the weapon, you need your Rarity 8 Artian one, Dimensius, but if you don’t have the material, any previous ones work, too.
The Guardian Arkveld set will provide you with survivability thanks to the Decimator II perk, which restores HP after breaking a wound. And to improve your damage even more, we’ll add Focus and Critical Draw jewels. The former makes your weapon’s gauge charge faster, while the latter increases your draw attack damage, which is useful for Long Sword users.
If you want, you can throw a few other jewels into the mix, like Free Meal or anything that provides a defense boost. Anything that gives you the Leap of Faith skill is great, too, as you’ll be ending most combos with the aerial attack, but it is not mandatory.
As always, remember to watch this guide often, as we’ll likely update when we experiment with new builds or whenever new equipment arrives to the game. In the meantime, these Long Sword builds should help you in both Low and High Rank hunts.
