MHW Iceborne Best Hunting Horn Builds [Top 5]

Monster Hunter, World, Iceborne, Weapons, Hunting Horn, builds

Updated:

19 Jul 2020

Rise up dooters! It’s your time to shine!

If you’re familiar with the Hunting Horn then you know there are two ways to play: Corner Dooter, and War Bard.

Corner Dooters are pretty straight forward: stay away from the fight, stay alive, play your heart out to keep your allies buffed and healed. Personally, I don’t enjoy this style of play, but I know there are a few people that do enjoy doing this.

War Bard, on the other hand, uses its songs to buff itself and allies while also participating in the fight. This style of play is more focused on doing damage than it is to sit back and just play music.

Now let’s take a look at some builds that can make these two play styles shine.

5. Rurikhan’s Hunting Horn Build

EMBRACE THE DOOT - Hunting Horn Build - Monster Hunter World

We’re going to start this list with a build focused around comfort. This build has several defensive and healing skills, allowing you to make several mistakes and still be okay.

What's Awesome About Rurikhan’s Hunting Horn Build

This build is extremely comfortable.
If you just want to sit and give an uninterruptible concert, then this is your build.
Full Divine Protection and some points in Health Boost means this build is very forgiving.

Build Details

The stand out songs of this weapon are Attack up (Large) and Impact Echo Wave. Attack up Large provides a 15% damage buff. Paired with Self-improvement, this is a 30% increase in just your damage.
Echo Wave puts in work in this build. Since its motion values are already fairly high for the Hunting Horn, you can stack up Echo Waves to deal chunks of regular and stun damage.
This armor set uses the Gold Rathian set bonus which gives Divine Blessing 5. This skill reduces incoming damage by 60% when it activates and has a 50% activation chance.
At the beginning of the hunt, you can put on Rocksteady and play 3 songs and an encore. While I wouldn’t advise you to always do this, since this build has Health Boost and Divine Protection, you can pretty safely pull this off and get out all of your buffs without any interruptions.
This build only has a sliver of purple sharpness, so keep an eye on Protective Polish’s bar to keep your sharpness in purple at all times.
Health Boost, a Health Augment in the weapon, Divine Protection 5, and Earplugs means this build is a wonderful introduction to the Hunting Horn and can provide a comfortable hunt for players using this set.

4. AquChaos’ Fountain of Life

MHWI: Hunting Horn Build - Fountain of Life (1800+ATK, 1000+DEF, 200 HP, with IMMORTAL TEAM)

If you’re looking for something with more healing, try AquChaos’ Fountain of Life. With a megaton of attack and defense, along with a song list to help heal your teammates, this build is great for Corner Dooters.

What's Awesome About AquChaos’ Fountain of Life

A great build for Corner Dooters while still usable for War Bards.
This build focuses on healing and buffs.
Hitting 1800 attack and 1000+ defense, this build can dish out damage, tank, and heal.

Build Details

The weapon in this build, Sforzandor III, provides Attack Boost XL, Defense XL, and Echo Wave. This build also runs Attack and Defense mods in the weapon.
With the Tigrex set bonus, this build can hit Free Meal 3 which allows you to have a free item used 75% of the time. Paired with Wide-Range 5 and Speed Eating, you can keep a constant stream of healing for your teammates.
Stun Resistance 3 is used to make sure you are always in a position to heal no matter what.
Flinch Free Level 1 is going to be important in any build that wants to hop into multiplayer, but in this build, it becomes even more important since you need to make sure you are never interrupted while trying to heal.
With 200 HP and 1000 Defense, you can pretty comfortably take some risks to fit in more damage windows.

3. Tobiasobi’s Elemental Horn set

Let’s Doot! 3 Hunting Horn Builds For Every Occasion | Monster Hunter World Iceborne

Elemental Horns have the benefit of doing pretty decent damage and having some solid song lists to back them up. As a result, you can run elemental builds for a nice balance between support and actual damage.

What's Awesome About Elemental Horn

This set runs a Velkhana horn and Silver Rathalos Armor which look awesome.
Using True Critical Element can increase elemental damage to ridiculous heights.
To be more specific, this set is made to increase Ice damage while still doing a healthy amount of raw damage on the side.
Velkhana’s Horn has a pretty flexible song list to buff and heal allies, along with yourself.

Build details

Velkhana’s horn gives you a useful slew of songs: Attack up Large, Defense up Large, and Echo Wave.
Every elemental Horn build works well with Echo wave since it hits multiple times
While it may not have Master’s Touch, this build is still able to churn out crazy Ice elemental damage thanks to Silver Rath’s set bonus.
Handicraft can give you a fair amount of attacks before losing purple sharpness.
You can replace the ice elemental Horn with another one, as long as the other Horn has Echo Wave and Attack up Large, then you’re in a good position for damage.
4 pieces of Silver Rathalos’ True Critical Element, paired with high Affinity, will help you do most of your damage.

2. Water Elemental Hunting Horn

[MHW Iceborne] Silver Rathalos Solo - Hunting Horn 3'31" | リオレウス希少種狩猟笛ソロ

This build is built around maximizing elemental damage with your hunting horn. The idea is to use Master’s Touch and Elemental Crit to deal damage while keeping your sharpness. You can also replace the Hunting Horn with any elemental Horn that has Attack up (Large). The build itself would look like this:

You can swap the water elemental specific parts to whichever element you need.

What's Awesome About Water Elemental Hunting Horns

This set has performed extremely well in speed runs.
Best used against monsters who have some weakness to water (two-star preferably).
Master’s Touch + Crit element will be doing most of your damage.

Build Details

Since Master’s Touch, Critical Element, and Weakness Exploit are the central components of this build, you want to aim for the head to make sure you’re always at purple sharpness.
Echo Wave has fantastic motion values for elemental attacks and since it hits multiple times,it is the perfect move to stack on elemental damage.
Laguna Drum is perfect since it has attack up Large, Echo Wave, and Purple sharpness (with handicraft) for all of your damaging needs. If you want to replace this Hunting Horn, then you want to find a Hunting Horn with at least these 3 properties.
Unlike the previous build, this build relies on Master’s Touch while also keeping Critical Element for more elemental damage.

1. Hunting Horn Raw Damage

MHW ICEBORNE Hunting Horn Build That Powers Up Your Gold Experience Requiem

Finally, our number 1 Hunting Horn build focuses on raw damage. The reason for this is that it’s flexible so you don’t have to keep changing weapons, and the damage is good enough to work as a solo weapon.

What's Awesome About Hunting Horn Raw Damage

Probably the best Solo Hunting Hornset in the game.
Features the best damaging Hunting Horn in the game.
Most speed runs use a variation of this set.

Build Details

Just like the previous build, the core of this build is Master’s Touch with a boatload of crit. While it worked great for Elemental builds, it works better here thanks to the massive Raw attached to the Acidic Glavenus’ Hunting Horn.
This Hunting Horn should be augmented for Health Regen and Affinity if you want a comfy hunt.
If you want a more efficient hunt, then augment your weapon for Attack, Affinity, and Defense.
With full Handicraft, Master’s Touch, and 100% affinity if you’re attacking a tenderized spot, you should very rarely lose your purple sharpness.
This build rewards you for playing as precisely as possible. If you think this build is too unforgiving, I highly recommend trying one of the other builds on this list and testing out changes until you find a build that feels right for you.

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