A good Monster Hunter takes precision strikes coupled with quick reflexes to slay and hunt monsters those who find themselves a master of these two find a partnership with the Long Sword.
Mostly focused on offense, the Long Sword’s unique dodge mechanic known as Foresight Slash can make its user almost invulnerable to damage, unleashing a flurry of sword strikes as well as being able to finish with the powerful Spirit Helm Breaker.
The builds focus on a specific trait of the weapon, may it be affinity boosted offense, dodge & strike or even attack bonus skills that show the full potential of the Long Sword.
Also Read Below The Other Long Sword Guides
Note: If you are on Mobile device swipe table to the left to see the below full table information completely.
1) Blast Status Long Sword Build
This Build focuses on damage output through the Blast status effect and fully optimized with a balanced mix of Affinity and Defensive boosting skills.
Armor Set
Info | Head | Torso | Arms | Waist | Legs |
Name | Strategist Spectacles α | Damascus Mail α | Kaiser Vambraces γ | Damascus Coil β | Zorah Spurs γ |
| Jewel Slot | 1-0-0 | 1-0-0 | 3-0-0 | 1-1-1 | 3-2-0 |
Vs. Fire | 2 | 4 | 3 | 4 | 4 |
| Vs. Water | 2 | -2 | -3 | 2 | -3 |
Vs. Thunder | 2 | 0 | 1 | 0 | -1 |
| Vs. Ice | 2 | 0 | -3 | 0 | -2 |
Vs. Dragon | 2 | 0 | 1 | 0 | -3 |
| Base Defense | 56 | 60 | 72 | 60 | 72 |
Skills | Critical Eye x2 | Focus x2, Defense Boost x2 | Critical Eye x3 | Focus x1 | Blast Attack x2, Critical Eye x1 |
Charms
Defensive Charms
- Defense Charm III
- Elemental Res Charms III
- Protection Charm III
Attack Charms
- Rider’s Charm
- Part Breaker II
- Enervate Charm III
Decorations
- 2x Blast Jewel 1
- 3x Critical Jewel 2
- 1x Expert Jewel 1
- 2x Defense Jewel 1
Skills
- Critical Eye 7/7
Skill Effect:Level 7: +40% Affinity
When it comes to damage builds critical overpowers direct damage increase skills. Critical hits will be your main physical damage source for this build.
- Focus 3/3
Skill Effect: Level 3: Increases gauge fill rate by 20% and reduces charge times by 15%
Gets your meter up faster quickly improving your damage potential
- Defense Boost 7/7
Skill Effect: Level 7: +10% Defense, Bonus +35 and +5 to All Elemental Resistances
Lets you endure some hits from monsters while dishing out damage of your own.
- Blast Attack 4/4
Skill Effect:Level 4: Blast buildup +30% Bonus: +10
Improves your chances to build up Blast Blight on your target potentially increasing your damage output.
- Critical Boost 3/3
Skill Effect:Level 3: Increases damage dealt by critical hits to 140%
Improves your physical damage from critical hits.
Suggested Weapon Options
Imperial Shimmer (Black Steel Tree)
High damage coupled with high blast damage that is a great fit for this build even though it doesn’t have any affinity rating at all.
Empress Sword “Blaze” (Lunastra Tree)
High affinity with damage and a passive skill this weapon is also a great part of this build although lacking in damage potential.
Pros and Cons
Pros
- High Defense.
- Good armor set when learning to use the Long Sword
- Improves critical hits
Cons
- No direct damage increasing skills
How to Use The Blast Status Long Sword Build?
This build focuses on the freedom of how you would want to use the Long Sword since you have a fair defensive stat against most monsters, so don’t be intimidated by monster attacks.
Focus on your timing to get your Spirit Gauge at max level to deal maximum damage with your weapon or your Spirit Helm Breaker.
You can do a lot of damage with this build since it focuses on the blast status that deals an extra flat amount of damage on most monsters.
2) Foresight Slash Long Sword Build
This build focuses on the Foresight Slash maximizing and extending its damage negating properties that can counter pretty much any attack except for the cataclysmic meteor of the Behemoth.
Not only this build has maximized evasion it also carries a couple of offensive skills to make your counter attacks more effective.
Armor Set
Info | Head | Torso | Arms | Waist | Legs |
Name | Empress Crown β | Rathalos Mail β | Kushala Grip β | Kulve Taroth’s Malice γ | Azure Starlord Guards α |
| Jewel Slot | 3-2-0 | 1-0-0 | 3-0-0 | 3-0-0 | 3-0-0 |
Vs. Fire | 3 | 3 | 0 | 4 | 2 |
| Vs. Water | 1 | 1 | 2 | -2 | 2 |
Vs. Thunder | 1 | -2 | -3 | 3 | 0 |
| Vs. Ice | 3 | 1 | 4 | -4 | 0 |
Vs. Dragon | 2 | -3 | -2 | -2 | 3 |
| Base Defense | 70 | 54 | 64 | 72 | 56 |
Skills | Evade Extender x2 | Weakness Exploit x2, Rathalos Power 1/4 | Evade Window x2 | Critical Boost x1, Weakness Exploit x1 | Critical Boost x1, Rathalos Power 1/4 |
Charms
Defensive Charms
- Evasion Charm III
- Protection Charm
- Flinch Free II
Attack Charms
- Any Elemental or Status Up Charms
- Speed Sharpening III
- Trick Shot Charm
Decorations
- 1x Critical Jewel 2
- 1x Jumping Jewel 2
- 3x Destroyer Jewel 2
- 1x Crisis Jewel 1
Skills
- Evade Extender 3/3
Level 3: Greatly extends evasion distance
Greatly improves your Fade Slash and step back from Foresight Slash.
- Weakness Exploit 3/3
Skill Effect:Level 3: Attacks that hit weak spots have 30% increased Affinity, with an extra 20% on wounded parts
When countering some attacks and the high arching swing of the Foresight Slash you will be able to make good use of this skill.
- Evade Window 5/5
Skill Effect:Level 5: Massively increases invulnerability window
Improves the duration of your invulnerability when using Foresight Slash
- Critical Boost 3/3
Skill Effect:Level 3: Increases damage dealt by critical hits to 140%
With your critical attacks this can improve your damage significantly without the need of direct damage skills.
- Critical Element 1/1
Level 1: Increases Elemental Damage (Fire, Water, Thunder, Ice, Dragon) when landing critical hits 1.25x
Extra elemental damage is always welcome, just make sure that you use the correct element for every monster you fight to maximize effectiveness.
- Partbreaker 3/3
Skill Effect:Level 3: Part damage +30%
Always try to break parts to deal more damage overall taking advantage of your Weakness Exploit Skill.
- Resuscitate 1/1
Skill Effect:Level 1: While active, greatly improves evasion invulnerability time and reduces stamina depletion
Doubles down the improved effects of foresight slash.
Suggested Weapon Options
Dragonbone Stabber (Dragonbone)
The high dragon element of this weapon provides a great fit for this build.
Kadachi Fang (Tobi-Kadachi)
With average affinity this thunder element weapon is an effective weapon to this build when fighting against some Elderdragons or Nergigante that are susceptible to the Thunder element.
Pros and Cons
Pros
- High Element damage
- Great Defensive skills
- Part Breaking Focused
Cons
- High learning curve
- Not newbie friendly
How to Use The Foresight Slash Long Sword Build?
Timing is everything with your attacks and counter moves as well as learning when to use your Foresight Slash is important to this build, since usually using it too early or too late can put you in a bad spot.
Remember that you would need at least a little bit of your Spirit Meter to be up to gain the damage negation of the Foresight Slash.
Not getting hit or even negating stuns and poison attacks can make your experience with the Long Sword a powerful one that makes you feel invincible in hunts.
3) Berserker Long Sword Build
This build is all about offense and how much damage you can do in little time with your weapon, mainly focusing on raw damage output ignoring any elemental resistance of monsters would have to your attacks.
Armor Set
Info | Head | Torso | Arms | Waist | Legs |
Name | Drachen Armet α | Nergigante Mail γ | Nergigante Vambraces γ | Nergigante Coil β | Kulve Taroth’s Wrath γ |
| Jewel Slot | 3-1-0 | 1-2-3 | 1-1-2 | 2-0-0 | 3-1-0 |
Vs. Fire | 2 | 1 | 1 | 1 | 4 |
| Vs. Water | 2 | 1 | 1 | 1 | -2 |
Vs. Thunder | 3 | -3 | -3 | -3 | 3 |
| Vs. Ice | 2 | 1 | 1 | 1 | -4 |
Vs. Dragon | 4 | -3 | -3 | -3 | -2 |
| Base Defense | 72 | 72 | 72 | 64 | 72 |
Skills | Critical Boost x1, Airborn x1 | Maximum Might x1, Nergigante Hunger 1/3 | Partbreaker x1, Attack Boost x1, Nergigante Hunger 1/3 | Attack Boost x2, Nergigante Hunger 1/3 | Agitator x2, Heat Guard x1 |
Charms
Defensive Charms
- Protection Charm III
- Blight Resistance Charm III
- Speed Eating III
Attack Charms
- Challenger Charm II
- Handicraft III
- Exploiter Charm II
Decorations
- 6x Attack Jewel 1
- 2x Critical Jewel 2
- 1x Mighty Jewel 2
- 1x Elementless Jewel 2
- 2x Destroyer Jewel 2
Skills
- Maximum Might 3/3
Skill Effect:Level 3: While active, increases Affinity by 30%
Since you will not use much stamina with this weapon this skill will usually be active.
- Partbreaker 3/3
Skill Effect:Level 3: Part damage +30%
Breaking parts is essential to most hunts and is a great way to deal extra damage to monsters.
- Attack Boost 7/7
Skill Effect: Level 7: Attack +21 Affinity +5%
Direct damage boost to your weapon damage.
- Agitator 5/5
Skill Effect:Level 5: While active, grants Attack +20 and increases Affinity by 10%
Taking advantage of any situation with this build focusing on damage this skill is almost always active with any fight.
- Airborne 1/1
Skill Effect:Level 1: Jumping attack power +30%
Effective for fighters that use terrain and sometimes initiate combos after making a mounted attack.
- Hasten Recovery 1/1
Skill Effect:Level 1: Regenerates your health as you continually attack a monster by 10hp every 5 attacks
Adds a bit of sustainability and sort of incentive to keep hitting your target often.
- Heat Guard 1/1
Skill Effect:Level 1: Nullifies Heat damage
Often overlooked this skill is useful when fighting all of the fire element monsters from the Rathalos to Lunastra that ignite the ground, negating their effect and to let you focus on your attacks.
- Non-elemental Boost 1/1
Skill Effect:Level 1: Raises base attack for non-elemental weapons by 10%
Effective when it comes to long swords due to its high damage and affinity weapons with hidden elements.
- Critical Boost 3/3
Skill Effect:Level 3: Increases damage dealt by critical hits to 140%
An added damage increase to your attack focused build.
Suggested Weapon Options
Divine Slasher (Workshop Weapon Tree)
High physical damage is what you want with this build and with a hidden element this can take advantage of the Non-elemental Boost skill.
Bone Reaper II – (Bone Tree)
Another good weapon with high damage and a hidden element option if you don’t have the divine slasher yet.
Pros and Cons
Pros
- High Damage
- High Affinity
- Self Healing from attacks
Cons
- Low Elemental Defense
How to Use The Berserker Long Sword Build?
Going berserk with this build is basically the main point of your tactics and your attacks have a chance of refilling some health but not by a lot to fully sustain you in fights.
Remember to get your gauge up and keep it up to deal maximum damage and also take advantage of run upable walls to make Falling Slash attacks.
Take advantage of your high damage to break off parts to weaken your enemies that helps a lot in the long run for your damage output and survivability in fights if you can stagger them often.
Verdict
The Long Sword builds reflect on the idea of how to fully take advantage of certain aspects of the weapon itself both in offense or defense in combat.
Although the tactics that are used aren’t necessarily specific to the build but to only maximize their general effectiveness, these tactics can also be used on other builds of the Long Sword to practice and work on your skills.
Once mastered, the Long Sword is a powerful weapon to wield, making fights quick and swift much like the skills used by samurai that use this type of weapon.
Feel free to use these builds however you wish since these are basically the best guidelines of the best skills for the Long Sword that can either teach you something new or optimize your current builds for this weapon.
