Here is a detailed guide on how to craft a build with one of the most popular weapons in Monster Hunter – The Longsword!

I already made the best Longswords to pick in Iceborne in this post. Drop by to have a quick look at all the arsenal.

http://18.191.70.34/2020/07/06/mhw-iceborne-monster-alatreon-the-blazing-black-dragon-guide-july-9-2020/

MHW Iceborne Longsword Guide

In Iceborne, Longsword got a new Sheathing stance move where you put your Sword into the Sheath to prepare for new attacks

• Iai Slash – trigger by pressing Triangle/Y/RMB during Sheathing Stance
• Iai Spirit Slash – Trigger by pressing R2/RT/? During Sheathing Stances

These new moves are now used along with the normal Spirit Slash combo for additional damage and fill the Spirit Gauge at a faster rate. Iai Spirit Slash is also used to be a more powerful Counter Attack.

MHW Iceborne Longsword Armor Skills

Longsword doesn’t have any special mechanic (Unless you count the Sheathing stance – which can benefit from skill like Quick Sheath and Critical Draw and Punishing Draw)

But why are these builds not using any of it?

• Quick Sheath – The new Sheathing Stance is super fast to execute, adding speed to something this fast does not have any meaning. Unless you want something more stylish or Vergil-like 🙂

• Critical Draw – Affinity is super easy to build now, you got level 4 Expert Jewel as soon as you start Iceborne. You also will get some Expert + [Insert Skill here] Level 4 Jewel here and then in Iceborne, so it’s not worth putting these skills for just some Affinity. Did I mention Weakness Exploit? Yeah, that is also easy to find as well.
• Punishing Draw – Ok, this is something on the grey line. This skill increases your damage and adds a stunning effect to your Draw Attack. But it only comes from Set bonus (Odogaron and Barioth set) so to try this out, you will need to have one of the two set’s bonus and some decent jewels. Is it worth it? You tell me

MHW Iceborne Longsword Build Compilation

The current best Long Sword in Iceborne is the Gold Rathian one – Wyvern Blade “Luna”, this is mentioned in my compilation here.

Before that, you can progress with the Viper Tobikadachi weapon tree to Pink Rathian. The Shara Ishvalda Longsword () is also a good pick as soon as you finish Iceborne Story.

MHW Iceborne Build – Early Longsword build

Back to the basic, before the end game, you can use Defender Armor and progress until Nargacuga – Our king for the best Mid Rank armor set

Nargacuga (along with Odogaron) provides you 901 Defense and Razor Sharp skills – which will save you from that Whet Stone for quite some time. It also provides you some utility Attack boost skill

• Peak Performance
• Weakness Exploit

Along with Master’s Charm III and a quick boost to Critical Eye with Odogaron Beta, you are set!

MHW Iceborne Build Longsword – Endgame Builds

You know what is common with all the Endgame Builds below? Yes, Repeat after me, Teostra’s Master Touch

This mixed Armor Set (3x Teostra + Rex Roar Chest + Garuga Leg) is heavy featured on all these builds.

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MHW Iceborne Build Longsword – Poison Build (Wyvern Blade “Luna”)

MHW Iceborne Build Longsword – Blast Build (Magdaros Volcansword)

Blast build is always take up a slot in every MHW Iceborne Builds. With a good blast build, you can proc the 300 Damage explosion around 6 or 7 times during the hunt, which adds 1800 – 2100 Damage to the monster’s misery.

The Magdaros Volcansword is a good one for this, but require you to have more Expert Jewels to compensate the -20% Affinity (One of the downsides mentioned in my guide here)

Hard to get Jewel in this build

• Handicraft Jewel 3
• Challenger Jewel Level 4

MHW Iceborne Build Longsword – Raw Damage (Royal Captain Rapier)

I tried Blast, I tried Poison, but what is the best master?

If all else false (Terrible hit zone, poison immunity) You can go back to the basic – a simple High Damage Long Sword and the power of your skill.

This is for those who love styles and be cool while dashing around with Iai Slash. The biggest plus of this build? That look of the Royal Captain Rapier.

This requires Fest Tickets from Event quest Fifty Shade of Whites and a Hero King Coin (Arena Challenge quest 06/07) but the end result is pretty satisfying.

This has 891 Damage and 15% Affinity (Slightly lower than Radiant Flow, but has higher Affinity)

Alternate for this is, of course, the Radiant Flow (Shara Ishvalda Longsword)

This is also super easy to pick up and play. If you don’t have all those fancy jewels, use the below build (Used Buff Chest and Gloves for some nice pec and Agitator)

MHW Iceborne Build Longsword – Safi’jiiva Build

Check out the full list of Safi’s Longsword variant here

For Safi’jiiva Longsword, you are good to go with the blast one – Safi’s Shatterblade. With four Attack V and a Sharpness VI, you can get 1023 Damage and occasionally a 300 Explosion during the hunt (With Teostra Blast Attack level 2 – This is around ~ 6 Proc per hunt, an addition 1800 Damage for you)

This build utilized both Peak Performance and Agitator for more Damage boost. While Agitator is pretty straight forward (Increase damage + affinity while monster is enraged) The Peak Performance require some skill to trigger as you need to maintain the full HP bar at all time.

Hard to get Jewel in this build

• Challenger Jewel 4
• Challenger/ Vitality Jewel
• Attack Jewel 4
• Critical Jewel

MHW Iceborne Best Build for Longsword?

The current agreeable meta is the Wyvern Blade “Luna” which give you a powerful Poison tick that can deal 520 Damage per proc(for 3 stars poison weakness)

The amount of Jewels for a Longsword build is also pretty reasonable. If you want to play Longsword, the farming process is way shorter than some of the more technical weapons like Charge Blade or Insect Glaive.

Finally, if you don’t like Blast or Poison, a good old fashion Elementless build with Shara and … is enough to get through the hunt.

What is your current Longsword build? Drop a comment below!

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The builds above are based on the MHW Build Reddit community builds as well as some of my personal input.

Builder Link buttons are linked to HoneyHunter awesome MHW Builder tool. Be sure to check out his/ her Patron!

Check out my best weapons compilation here

MHW Iceborne Build Guide for all weapons