Armour Skills
There are numerous armour skills associated with the Bow. Each player has their own preferences for different skills, and while some skills are fairly mandatory, some skills are more situational. I will outline exactly what each skill does (as best as I can), and append notes to my evaluation of why they are or are not useful and why they should be considered in usage. My opinion on skill usage does not necessarily mean that you must follow them, but my analysis and opinions come from my experience and understanding of them. My analysis fairly subjective and dependent on my playstyle, so take it with a grain of salt, but also be aware that it is coming from a large amount of gameplay experience.
I will group these skills into Offensive and Defensive sections, and I will make a note of Focus more explicitly in it's own section. This list is not exhaustive.
The best way to build an armour set is to use Athena's ASS This is a tool that enables you to input the charms that you do have and select a set of armour skills, then let the program come up with various possible combinations of armour pieces, armour decorations and charms to get what you want.
Focus (FastCharge)
Focus is arguably the most required skill for the Bow. It reduces the charge time you need to spend to reach higher Charge Levels. This is crucial for many reasons, such as:
- More damage. When you take less time to charge a Charge Level 3 shot, you are able to fire off more shots in the same time frame.
- More openings. When you take less time to charge a shot, you enable yourself to use more openings to your advantage, openings that might not exist because the opening disappears due to a longer charge time.
- Stamina management. Spending less time charging means you spend less time drawing an arrow, reducing the demand on your stamina
There are numerous sources that outline the impact that Focus has on charge times. /u/Shadyfigure outlines the ratio values from MHP3's atwiki here and /u/aquabadger has timed the values here. Regardless, the impact of Focus on reducing charge times is really crucial, and by the time High Rank hits, a Bow user ideally wants Focus as their very first, primary skill on their armour set.
There is a very specific caveat to using Focus. The strength of Focus is that it reduces the charge time of your shot. Let's say that you take x seconds without Focus and y seconds with Focus. If you draw an arrow with Focus, and do not fire it in the difference between x and y, you've lost the advantage of Focus.
In other words, in order to make full use of Focus, a majority (or all) of your shots require you to fire them before the length of time you would take to charge the same shot without Focus. If you draw a arrow with Focus, and keep the arrow drawn for as long as the arrow would have taken to reach the same Charge Level without Focus, you've wasted the benefits Focus offers you. This, in turn, requires a good understanding of a monster's patterns and their openings, and knowing roughly how long before the opening appears to fire your shot. This requires a lot of practice, and contributes to the high skill floor/ceiling of the Bow.
Offensive Armour SKills
| Skill Name | Core / Situational | Effect | Laxaria's Notes |
|---|---|---|---|
| Focus | Core | Reduces Charging times | Mandatory for G-Rank. See above for analysis on Focus |
| LoadUp | Situational/Core | Adds another Charge Level to Bows, up to a maximum of 4 Charge Levels | MANDATORY for the Seregios and Akantor Chaos Bows. Very situational for the others. A good guideline for when Load Up is useful is when a Bow has a lacklustre Charge 3 shot, but an effective Charge 4 shot. An example is the Zinogre Bows, where Charge 3 is Pierce but Charge 4 is Rapid. |
| RapidUp | Core | A 1.1x raw multiplier[8] | Mandatory in G-Rank. A 110% raw multiplier for numerous G-Rank Bows is larger than a AuXL boost. RapidUp also stacks with any raw increase (AuL + RapidUp is effectively 22 true raw, for example). |
| PierceUp | Core | A 1.1x raw multiplier[8] | Mandatory in G-Rank. For the same reasons as RapidUp. |
| SpreadUp | Core | A 1.3x raw multiplier[8] | Mandatory in G-Rank. For the same reasons as RapidUp. A really important component of a Raw Spread Bow's damage. |
| Attack up Skills | Situational | Adds 10/15/20/25 true raw (AuS/AuM/AuL/AuXL respectively) | Really good additions to damage, but should not be prioritised above the three ShotTypeUp skills. Useful after having the ShotTypeUp skills. A really good idea in Low Rank as there are less armour skill choices available. |
| Brutality | Situational | Weakness Exploit and Critical Eye+2 (15% affinity) | A stronger version of Weakness Exploit with additional affinity. Very popular due to being on the Kaiser X chest and a worth consideration because of how useful the Kaiser X chest is for Torso Up for more than just Brutality |
| Bombardier | Situational on Blast Bows | Adds to Blast and Bomb damage | Really useful for the Blast Bows. Decent for Sleep Bombing purposes, but the Bow is not a very effective Sleep Bombing weapon. |
| Critical Eye Skills | Situational | Adds affinity (10%/15%/20%/30%) with CE+1/+2+3/Critical God | Not very effective because it requires a lot of true raw for the strength of Critical Eye to exceed Attack Up skills of an equivalent point investment. It can be useful, but worth doing the math for. |
| Challenger+2 | Situational | +25 true raw and 20% affinity while a monster is enraged | A really strong offensive skill. Prioritised under ShotTypeUp. Other valuable skills should not be sacrificed for Challenger+2 as it can be fairly tricky to acquire. |
| Fleet Feet | Situational | Peak Performance + Evade Extender | Tricky to acquire. Worth a consideration against certain monsters where Evade Extender can be useful, but should not be prioritised over core skills. |
| Weakness Exploit | Situational | Adds 5 to hitzones of 45 or higher | The effect of Weakness Exploit is really useful if you can hit weak hitzones consistently. Not effective on monsters with hard to hit weak hitzones, or lack such weak hitzones to begin with for a majority of the fight (Gravios, for example) |
| Silver Bullet | Situational | RapidUp, PierceUp and SpreadUp in one skill | A very lacklustre skill. It is tricky to acquire, and in numerous situations you are unlikely to use more than 2 of the available Primary Shot Types in a hunt. |
| [Insert Element] Attack Up | Core for Elemental Bowing / Situational otherwise | [E]A+1: 1.05x Element + 40; [E]A+2: 1.10x Element + 60; [E]A+3: 1.15x Element + 90[11] | Mandatory if doing Elemental Bowing. Effective for Bows with strong elemental damage, such as the Viand Bowfish, or if prioritising Elemental damage over Raw. Values here are on displayed element (divide by 10 for true element) |
| Elemental | Situational | Without [E]A+#, a 1.10x element modifier. With [E]A+#, check here | Functions in a similar, but weaker fashion, to [Insert Element] Attack Up. Prioritise under the above skill. |
| Trajectory | Situational | Extends the Critical Distance of your shots further back | Generally not recommended |
| Peak Performance | Situational | Gives +20 true raw when health bar is full | A really nice skill that is worth considering. Requires you to not get hit by anything, less effective in lava-filled areas as you will lose health from standing on hot ground. |
| Status Attack +1/+2 | Situational | SA+1: 1.1x + 1 SA+2: 1.2x + 1[7] | Useful for status usage, but not prioritised in general. |
| Status Crit | Situational | A 1.5x status application on attacks that you crit and apply status^9 | Not very good. |
Defensive and Utility Skills
| Skill Name | Effect | Laxaria's Notes |
|---|---|---|
| Evasion +# | Adds additional invulnerability frames | Can be quite useful for some monsters. Positioning is important for the Bow. Keep in mind that Evasion+# does not benefit you if you don't use dodge rolls or back hops, and generally you don't use many of these with the Bow. |
| Evade Extender | Extends evasion roll distance | Situationally useful against certain monsters, like Rajang and Molten Tigrex |
| Guts | Keeps you alive if your health is past a particular threshold and the hit would have killed you | Equivalent to Felyne Moxie's effect. Drink for Moxie instead of using this skill |
| Mushroomancer | Consuming mushrooms gives you particular effects | Mainly used for infinite dash juice and free max potions. Dash Extracts can be duplicated at the JuJu guy and if you don't get hit you don't need max pots ;) |
| Marathon Runner | Slows down the consumption of stamina drain | Note that this is specific for things that drain your stamina slowly. Useful to have early on but not necessary. |
| Stamina Recovery Up | Speeds up Stamina Recovery | Makes your Stamina regenerate faster. Not necessary |
| Divine Blessing | Reduces damage taken at a percentage chance | Not that great; if you need it, consider a Defense Hone on your weapon |
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