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)
In MH: Generations, Focus is a powerful skill for the Bow that is very powerful in a majority of circumstances. Focus reduces the time you need to reach higher Charge levels and has crucial benefits, 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. Officially, in MH: Generations, Focus applies a 0.80x mulitplier on charge times. 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.
MH: Generations introduces new mechanics that let you instantly different Charge Levels on your Bow after a successful Adept evade or with two consecutive backhops in Guild style, as follows [Src]:
- Without Focus, a successful Adept Evade / 2x Backhop gives you a Charge Level 3 shot
- With Focus and/or Haste Rain active, a succesful Adept Evade / 2x Backhop gives you a Charge Level 4 shot
- With Distraction (Focus -10), a successful Adept Evade / 2x Backhop gives you a Charge Level 2 shot
In general, I will recommend the use of Focus as a near-mandatory component of a typical Bow set for MH: Generations. I make this recommendation in acknowledgement that many Bow speedruns drop this armour skill. However, I feel the average player will be unable to find the same level of execution and weapon mastery that a Bow speedrunner will. Additionally, these speedruns mandate the use of Mega Dash Juice, a resource that's trickier to acquire in MH: Generations (compared to MH4U) and may not be something many want to spend time farming for. Finally, the time differences that a majority of players find between Focus and a different offensive skill is unlikely to make sizable kill time reductions in either multiplayer or singleplayer play. In general, while MH: Generations' new mechanics make Focus less than 100% mandatory, most players will lose less from using Focus than gain from replacing Focus with a different armour skill. I myself use a Focus set in online play because I value the quicker charge times.
Offensive Armour SKills
| Skill Name | Core / Situational | Effect | Laxaria's Notes |
|---|---|---|---|
| Focus | Core | Applies a 0.80x multiplier on charge times for the Bow [Src] | Quite strong with few exceptions. See above for analysis on Focus |
| Normal/Rapid Up | Core on Rapid Bows | A 1.1x raw multiplier[Src] | A strong skill that stacks with any true raw or affinity increases. |
| Pierce/Pierce Up | Core on Pierce Bows | A 1.1x raw multiplier[Src] | Mandatory for Pierce Bows. |
| Heavy/Heavy Up | Core on Heavy-shot Bows | A 1.1x raw multiplier [Src] | Mandatory for Heavy shot Bows. |
| Pellet/Spread Up | Core on Spread Bows | A 1.3x raw multiplier[Src] | Mandatory for Spread Bows. This 1.3x raw multiplier should not be overlooked as it is a significant impact on the damage of Spread Bows |
| Weakness Exploit | Situational | Adds 50% affinity when hitting a shot hitzone of 45 or higher [Src] | Weakness Exploit is very strong if you can hit weak hitzones consistently. A strong damage boost. |
| Load Up | Situational | Adds another Charge Level to Bows, up to a maximum of 4 Charge Levels | A situational skill that is important for Bows that only have 2 innate Charge Levels. Can be used to great effect with TrueShot Up Bow-builds that prioritise using Power Shots, but unnecessary for most Bows |
| Attack up Skills | Situational | Adds 10/15/20 true raw (AuS/AuM/AuL respectively) | Really good additions to damage, but should not be prioritised above the four ShotTypeUp skills. Useful after having the ShotTypeUp skills. A really good idea in Low Rank as there are less armour skill choices available. |
| 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. |
| Critical Eye Skills | Situational | Adds affinity (10%/20%/30%) with CE+1/+2+3 | 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. |
| Critical Boost | Situational | Raises the damage boost from Critical Hits from 1.25x to 1.40x [Src] | A very strong skill when paired with high affinity Bows and Weakness Exploit. Otherwise, not very useful. |
| Repeat Offender | Situational | Raises affinity with successive attacks [Src] | I don't understand this skill specifically. I THINK it gives you a base 25% affinity which increases to 30% if you hit 5 times in 5 seconds. A considerable skill to use in place of Critical Eye. |
| TrueShot Up | Situational | Conveys a 1.20x raw multiplier to Arc and Power shots [Src] | A really strong skill if used well. Please check out the section on this skill and general play style of the Bow with this for more analysis and details on this skill. |
| 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. |
| Challenger +2 | Situational | +20 true raw and 15% affinity while a monster is enraged | A really strong offensive skill. Should be prioritised under the ShotType-Up skills but can be tricky to get on most sets. |
| [Insert Element] Attack Up | Core for Elemental Bowing / Situational otherwise | [E]A+1: 1.05x Element + 4; [E]A+2: 1.10x Element + 6[Src] | Mandatory if doing Elemental Bowing. Effective for Bows with strong elemental damage. |
| Elemental Attack Up | Situational | Without [E]A+#, a 1.10x element modifier [Src] | Functions similar to the [Element] Attack Up skills above. Consider prioritising beneath them but math is suggested to optimise values. |
| Trajectory | Situational | Extends the Critical Distance of your shots further back | Generally not recommended. |
| 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, but can be paired well with Weakness Exploit's 50% affinity bonus on shot hitzones of 45 or greater |
| Power Coat +# | Situational | PowerCoat +1 lets your Bow load L1 Power Coats. Power Coat +2 lets your bow load L2 Power Coats | PowerCoat +1 is useful for Bows who can innately load L2 Power Coats and want the additiona L1 coats for long quests as the damage boost is still useful. Power Coat +2 is not very useful due to the high opportunity cost |
Defensive and Utility Skills
| Skill Name | Effect | Laxaria's Notes |
|---|---|---|
| Ammo Saver | Has a 20% chance of not consuming the loaded Bow Coating [Src] | A nice additional skill to extend the amount of Power Coats available during a hunt. A worthwhile skill for consideration since L2 Power Coats are a 1.5x raw multiplier and contribute a massive amount of damage |
| Evasion +# | Adds additional invulnerability frames | The introduction of Adept Style and its Evasion mechanics renders this skill useless. If you are hunting something that Evasion +# will be useful for, use Adept instead. |
| Evade Extender | Extends evasion roll distance | Situationally useful against certain monsters but not very necessary with the introduction of Adept Style |
| 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. Adept Style evasion can function very defensively as well with good usage. |
| Mushroomancer | Consuming mushrooms gives you particular effects | Mainly used for infinite dash juice and free max potions. The Dash Juice from Mushroommancer lasts about 2 minutes (compared to Mega Dash Juice's 6 minutes). |
| 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 but may be useful early in the game |
| Divine Blessing | Reduces damage taken at a percentage chance | Not a very good skill because it is unreliable and Adept Style evasion mitigates a lot of potential damage with effective use. |
No comments:
Post a Comment