The melee damage king of base game is back in Iceborne with new moves and a new groove. 

For the fans of everybody’s favorite transforming weapons (suck it, Switch Axes), here’s a list of the Top 5 Charge Blades you should build. 

Disclaimer: Safi weapons are not included in this list since they will be addressed in a separate article. If you want to use a Safi weapon, you can still replace the Charge Blade here with the Safi equivalent.

5. Saber’s Maw II

  MHW Iceborne PC | Best Early MR Charge Blade Build

This weapon can be built extremely early in the game. It should only take a few Master Rank Jagras hunts in order to get the pieces that you need to make the weapon. Once you do, this Charge Blade is solid enough to carry you through the entire story. 

Alternatively, you can also create the Chrome Fortress 3, which has a fair amount more sharpness and damage, but it can take a little longer to make than the Saber’s Maw II.

What's Great About Saber’s Maw II

• Solid raw and Impact Phials means you don’t have to change weapons against different monsters.
• Impact Phials give stuns which, if you’re looking to learn how to Charge Blade, this weapon can open up more opportunities for practice in the early game.
• Fast and easy to make. A byproduct of killing Great Jagras is that you can use the remaining parts in the Elder Melder for useful items since you won’t likely need them at any other point in the game. 
• Once you get access to Glavenus, you can upgrade this weapon into the Glavenus Bardred.

Saber’s Maw II Stats

• Rarity: 10
• Sharpness:
  • 30 hits of white sharpness
  • 80 hits of blue sharpness
• Raw Damage: 936 (363 Effective Raw)
• Affinity: 0%
• Element: (330 Sleep)
• Slots: 
  • 2x Level 3

4. Deep Schnegel II

[MHW IB] Rajang charge blade solo 3' 27" 76

The Deep Schnegel II is made from the first monster you fight in Iceborne and it's easily the best Ice Charge blade around. While the rest of the blades on this list are focused on raw since they can be a bit more flexible, the Deep Schnegel II gets this spot because it remains relevant even after Safi's release.

Why you might ask? Because it has a massive amount of Ice element behind its explosions that solidify its spot as top Ice Charge Blade.

As a point of comparison, Safi's Frostshield hits 380.9 Effective Raw and 64.4 Effective Element when you get full elemental augments and awakenings on it. 

The Deep Schnegel II with full Custom Upgrades and Elemental Augments can get 351.12 Effective raw and 74.75 Effective Element, and still have room for a Health Augment or an Attack Augment. This means, against monsters who are weak to Ice, the Beo Charge Blade will out-damage Safi's Frostshield and be more comfortable to boot since it can have a health augment attached.

Shoutouts to u/FaptainFeesh on Reddit for catching this one. 

What's Great About the Deep Schnegel II

• Highest Ice damage among Charge Blades even after Safi's release.
• Great Sharpness even without Handicraft.
• Custom Upgrades and a flexible Augment slot makes this weapon amazing for damage and comfort.

Deep Schnegel II Stats (Full Element Upgrade and Attack Upgrade V)

• Rarity: 10
• Sharpness:
  • 60 hits of white sharpness
  • 80 hits of blue sharpness
• Raw Damage: 900 (351.12 Effective Raw)
• Affinity: 0%
• Element: 480 Ice (60.95 Effective Element)
• Slots: 
  • 1x Leve 2
  • 1x Level 1

3. Melting Grasp

MHW Iceborne PC | ZODA Best Endgame Charge Blade Build

This weapon has insanely high raw and can benefit from Non-Elemental boost. Team Darkside showcases a build that uses an Artillery 5, Protective Polish build. This is so they can take advantage of this weapon’s ability to reach purple sharpness with Handicraft 5, and then slam out as many SAED as they can with Protective Polish active.

What's Great About Melting Grasp

• High Raw, but low sharpness. Luckily we can use Protective Polish to make up for that.
• It can reach purple sharpness which can be a small damage buff.
• Lots of Phial damage. Since phials care more about your raw, this build focuses on making your phials do most of the work.

Melting Grasp Stats

• Rarity: 11
• Sharpness:
  • Handicraft 5: 10 hits of purple, 20 hits of white
  • 40 hits of blue sharpness
  • 80 hits of green sharpness
• Raw Damage: 1044 (366 Effective Raw)(423 Effective Raw with Handicraft 5)
• Affinity: 0%
• Element: (270 Paralysis)
• Slots: 
  • 1x Level 4

2. Rajang Beastblade Ikazachi

Gold Rathian vs Rajang Charge Blade [No Savage Axe] MHW Iceborne

Another Charge Blade that has huge Raw and relies on its Phials to deal most of its damage, Rajang Beastblade Ikazachi fulfills a similar role to the Melting Grasp. However, the Rajang Charge blade trades negative Affinity and Purple Sharpness for higher Raw and a bit of Lightning elemental damage. 

Just like with the Melting Grasp, we can use Protective Polish here to keep our white sharpness going for longer.

What's Great About Rajang Beastblade Ikazachi

• Higher Raw than the Melting Grasp.
• A little bit of Lightning damage makes this charge blade competitive against other Charge Blades. 
• Phials don’t care about negative affinity and only care about high raw. As a result, Super Amped Elemental Discharges are the ideal way to play this weapon.
• One level of Handicraft will bring you to white sharpness.

Rajang Beastblade Ikazachi Stats

• Rarity: 11
• Sharpness:
  • Handicraft 1: 10 hits of white sharpness
  • 50 hits of blue sharpness
  • 50 hits of green sharpness
• Raw Damage: 1116 (375.38 Effective Raw)(412 Effective Raw with Handicraft 1)
• Affinity: -15%
• Element: 90 Lightning
• Slots: 
  • 1x Level 4

1. Luna Eostre

*BEST* Savage Axe & Saed Charge Blade Build | MHW Iceborne

Our number one Charge Blade is the Luna Eostra. With poison damage, this Charge Blade will out damage every other Charge Blade out there. On top of that, this weapon checks every box needed to be a great weapon. Good slots? Check. Good raw? Check. Positive Affinity? Check. Good Sharpness? Check.

As IDeVaste explains in this video, you can build this weapon in a few different ways. As a result, short of the Safi weapons, Luna Eostre is the most used Impact Charge Blade for speed runs and damage. Since it also has so many slots, you can also figure out a way to build more comfort into the weapon as well.

What's Great About Luna Eostre

• Poison helps deal more damage.
• Wonderful slots.
• Great Raw.
• Great Sharpness.
• Positive Affinity.
• Flexible Builds.
• With Handicraft 5, you can get to Purple Sharpness, but that’s not necessary.
• Impact makes this weapon flexible against every monster and only limited by the build you’re running and how well that build does against specific monsters.

Luna Eostre Stats

• Rarity: 11
• Sharpness:
  • 70 hits of white sharpness
  • 80 hits of blue sharpness
• Raw Damage: 1044 (366 Effective Raw)
• Affinity: 10%
• Element: 420 poison
• Slots: 
  • 2x Level 2

If you’re interested in a more in-depth meta-breakdown of the Charge Blade, please visit the website MHW Builds for their analysis and summaries.

What about Safi'Jiiva?

At the time of this article's writing, Safi'Jiiva hadn't been released on PC. 

Once Safi'Jiiva is released, Charge Blades are free to choose almost any of the Safi blades to focus on. For Charge Blades that focus on Impact Phials, you'll want to go with any of the abnormal status blades and awaken for more raw damage. Master's Touch will still be the main game plan for your armor, since you don't want to lose sharpness while you attack. 

If you want to focus on Elemental Phials, then you can pick up any of the Safi Charge Blades with an element and awaken for elemental damage. True Critical Element can be useful here, but an alternative to that is running 3 pieces of Safi'Jiiva armor and 2 pieces of Velkhana armor for the critical element. 

If you're still interested in reading about post-Safi'Jiiva builds, then please visit this website. 

Thanks for reading!

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