[Top 10] MHW Best Armor Builds

MHW Best Armor Builds
A Kula Ya Ku is surprised by hunters!


In Monster Hunter World, your armor set determines nearly everything about your abilities, and whether or not you will survive or be carted back to camp. Picking the right armor is literally the most important decision you will make in the game, so it is best to do your research, and know which skills you are going to need. Luckily, I am here to help you! Here you will find a list of 10 armor sets that I hope will complement your hunts perfectly. 

10. Guildwork Beta Set

While it is probably not your favorite part of playing the game, gathering items is one of the most important things you will do in the course of playing Monster Hunter World. You will spend countless hours digging at piles of bones or picking berries, catching bugs or fishing. This set utilizes the Guildwork Set, and is designed to make your time gathering as productive as possible. The Guildwork Armor Set bonuses make for easier and more fruitful gathering. 

What’s good about this build?

  • Good Luck Skill (2-piece set bonus) gives you better luck. This makes grinding more productive over time.
  • Carving master (4-piece set bonus) Gives you extra carves when you kill monsters, which combined with Good Luck gives you a better chance of carving those rare gems.
  • Slots! Slots aplenty! Gem this thing out to be combat-viable, and it’s a farming factory. Slot it out with ease of life skills to make your gathering more enjoyable! The possibilities are endless!

Full Build Details

https://youtu.be/AA0B0RJ-DeI

9: Pokemon Palico (AFK elder dragon kills!)

While this isn’t necessarily the best afk build, it is the cutest one! This build allows you to stand back, buffing your palico while it wreaks havoc upon enemy dragons. This build is capable of killing an elder dragon without even having to touch it with your weapon. Watching your Palico lay waste to dragons is one of the silliest and most fun experiences you will have in monster hunter, in my opinion.

What’s good about this build?

  • Stand back and let the cat do the work, which could be therapeutic if you have a particularly lazy cat. Wide Range allows you to buff your Palico from afar
  • Highly survivable. Stay out of the fray and put the danger off on your palico!
  • Can be used in 2 player hunts, pulling double duty as a support build.

Full Build Details

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AFT-axUF9K8&t=101s

8. Wide Range Support SnS

The Sword and Shield are incredibly useful for support builds because you are capable of using items while your weapon is out of its sheath. Playing into this fact, this build utilizes skills that make your use of items more efficient, either by making the animation shorter or even by giving you a chance of keeping the item you consume! Divine Blessing allows you to survive so much longer, and the build even gives you some decent damage bonuses with the right gems!

What’s good about this build?

  • Wide Range means that every time you take a potion, your allies get the benefit. Heal yourself to heal them. 
  • Highly survivable. You’ll be chugging potions all the time anyway.
  • Fun to play and useful to boot! Everyone loves to have a support guy in the party.

Full Build Details

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3Mbtoi55qzY&t=114s

7. Punishing Draw Greatsword/Frostcraft

The greatsword is one of the most satisfying weapons in the game.  Its charged attacks can lay down insane damage numbers in one hit. This build is the definition of min-maxing, as it takes the greatsword charge attack and makes it as powerful as it possibly can, through a clever use of the punishing draw and Frostcraft skills. While this is arguably the most damage-heavy one on this list, I ranked it lower because it has the requirement of a particular greatsword, taking away from its versatility. You are forced to use a Safi’jiiva greatsword to get the Valkhana

What’s good about this build?

  • -INSANE damage. You’ll be seeing damage numbers in the high triple digits on a regular basis.
  • -Satisfying to play. Something about landing a fully-charged greatsword slam on a sleeping opponent is good for the soul.
  • -Simple. Just swing your giant sword at the monster, fully charged, and you’re golden.

Full Build Details

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_hI35l_p66s

6: Sticky/Cluster HBG Build

The Heavy Bowgun is my favorite weapon in the game. There is no feeling more powerful than wading into battle firing away at dragons, watching the creature flinch as your rounds slam into it. You feel like a god. This build takes that feeling and turns it up to 11. Not only are you shooting monsters, but your bullets * also explode*. It’s like Terminator with more explosions. You are a force to be reckoned with. This build utilizes 2 pieces of Brachy armor for the artillery secret skill and 3 pieces of Nargacuga armor for the spare shot skill. The synergy between these two skills means that you’ll be pumping rounds into a monster faster than any of your teammates can attack. I have gotten 4 and even 5 KOs in a single fight with this build.

What’s good about this build?

  • Wonderful DPS. Just wonderful.
  • KO farming is super-helpful for your party.
  • Does not matter where you hit. Sticky ammo does the same damage everywhere!

Full Build Details

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=19-7KR91Ado

5. Full Brachy Armor with a Gunlance

The set bonus for Brachydios armor is practically made for using a gunlance to dish out truly terrifying amounts of damage in a very short amount of time. The Raging Brachydios armor set bonuses give you agitator secret at 2 pieces, raising the max level of the agitator skill (which the armor maxes out) and Artillery secret which raises the cap of the artillery skill (which the armor also maxes out). This leaves all of your gem slots open for whatever-you-need.

What’s so good about this build?

  • -Incredibly fun to play gunlance
  • - Experience the true synergy between your armor and weapon.
  • - if you use a Safijiiva gunlance to get another set bonus by swapping out one piece of armor, you could potentially have 3 active set bonuses!
  • - Would also be viable for a heavy bowgun with sticky/cluster shots

Full Build Details

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_KlypWQpDYM

4. Full Safijiiva Set

The Safi’jiiva armor was considered the best armor set in the game for a long time. It’s set bonus, Dragonvein Awakening, makes it so you get a bonus to affinity, elemental, and status damage as long as your weapon remains drawn. This becomes quite scary in the hands of someone like a gunner, who generally keeps their weapon ready at all times. The full set bonus is an improvement upon the 3-piece set bonus. This set is the basis for many of the sets on this list.

What’s so good about this set?

  • Gives a major buff to affinity, which could put you at 100% affinity if you have weakness exploit active.
  • Looks really cool.
  • Some of the best-defense armor in the game.

Find Set Details

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RRP2BLuXYXM

3. Blackveil Vaal Hazak Health Regen Set

The Vaal Hazak set bonus allows you to regenerate your health slowly. This, paired abilities such as recovery up and recovery speed up, make the Vaal Hazak build one of the most survivable in the game. Not only does the armor regenerate your health like wolverine with a greatsword, but it also looks really, REALLY cool!

What’s so great about this set?

  • only needs 2 pieces for the set bonus. Perfect for mixing!
  • Health regen means you’ll survive longer!
  • Looks really cool. Seriously.  

Full details here

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RnKYu1wSN0o

2. Attack Helicopter Aerial Insect Glaive Build

Skill synergy is what this build is all about. These skills could not play more perfectly with each other. The secret to this set is to use a Safijiiva weapon with the Zinogre Essence augment. You then use three pieces of Safijiiva armor and two pieces of Stygian Zinogre armor. This will give you both Safijiiva and Zinogre set bonuses (Latent Power Secret from Zinogre). You then gem for resentment (which you have already started with armor skills). When you take damage from attacking a monster (because of the Safijiiva set bonus) it activates your resentment. Always. 100% of the time. Take enough damage? Latent power goes off. With this build, you are capable of actually using the aerial attacks to great effect, as they hit a lot of times rapidly.

What’s so great about this build?

  • At the risk of sounding like a broken record, this one is so fun to play I can’t stand it.
  • Makes the aerial attacks viable, which is great because the air is one of the safest places to be.
  • Gives some love to one of the most under-appreciated weapon classes.

Get full build details here

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dYHZLkyJ1dc

1. Immortality Build

Now, for the first time, you can experience IMMORTALITY!! Truly, this build has earned its rightful place at the top of this list. This build allows you to simply stand there while a monster beats on you, and survive. You are like a mountain, immovable. You are solid as a stone. You. Are. God. This build, though costly to make, will make you a valuable asset to any party, as you will never cart. It will allow you to comfortably fight monsters to your heart’s content, making mistakes, and barely even paying for them! Properly specced out with the right gems, this armor set gives you 5 full levels of Divine blessing, so it activates a solid 60% of the time. This, paired with an incredibly high defense makes it so you will barely take any damage, no matter how hard you get hit. It’s fascinating to watch RageGamingVideos get pounded on by a Ruiner Nergigante and survive it like it’s nothing!

What’s so great about this build?

  • Live forever!
  • Makes it easier to fight monsters. Less worry about carting and letting your team down.
  • Allows you to play in a riskier fashion, for big rewards. You’ll make attacks you would have held back otherwise. Play more aggressively!

Full Build Details here

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=refL4NvwggE&t=465s

Also be sure to check out these articles:

More on this topic:


From the hills of WV, Tyler has been gaming and writing for most of his life.
Gamer Since: 1993
Favorite Genre: RPG
Currently Playing: Dungeons and Dragons
Top 3 Favorite Games:Torchlight II, The Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim - Dragonborn, Diablo


More Top Stories