Best *overall* weapons

[Dantegram]

Okay, before you overreact or say that every weapon type is viable, I'm not talking about that. Of course they are. But in terms of DPS, breakage, ease of use, all factors of no specific weapon in that category (no saying hbg is best cuz glutton, etc) just the weapon class itself. All aspects of the mechanics. What is the overall best weapon class?
Edit: should say that I mean compare every weapon, all 14, I realize it sounds like I'm asking about ranged only

[Remi]

Bow, HBG, LBG from strongest to weakest, with the least strong LBG still being better than most melee weapons by a mile.

[Dantegram]

So melee is kinda sucky? I run dual blade and it seemed really good but not sure... I also looked at gunlance and hbg, so maybe I'll try hbg

[Seamus]

Charge Blade is pretty great if you can figure out how to use it.

[Dantegram]

Alright, I main db but want to pick up a second weapon, so db and hbg, but 3/4 is still good. I can try cb later.

[IrisMachina]

one person's criteria to judge which weapons are best will be completely different from another. in some situations some weapons might perform better than others. the ones i considered to be strongest in general hunts pre iceborne are.
HBG - spread3, and cluster are way too overpowered.
Bow - very strong and mobile range weapon with no bad match ups. somewhat overtuned.
LS - very balanced weapon thats comes with good damage, decent speed and mobility and comes with a defensive ability in the form of foresight slash. has long reach.
CB - very high burst damage with SAED, can block well with guard point, has good mobility. not as difficult to use as some people make them out to be.
GS - very high damage damage in the form of TCS, can tackle through most attacks until an opening has appeared. can headlock elder dragons very easily. the king of weapons. also has long reach.

you can also judge it by record speed times like the tier list made by the person in this video. but all weapons are good in the right hands.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GptqQedGTY4

[Bishop]

LBG seems kinda good all the way from the very beginning to the endgame. Fast, easy to use, easy to dodge anything, tons of status bullets to keep monsters in check. Does not require specific gear, elements and decos to work unlike bows.
If the question is what's the best for endgame, then it's not about weapon types, its about specific weapons (e.g glutton) and specific builds.

[Dantegram]

Originally posted by Bishop:

LBG seems kinda good all the way from the very beginning to the endgame. Fast, easy to use, easy to dodge anything, tons of status bullets to keep monsters in check. Does not require specific gear, elements and decos to work unlike bows.
If the question is what's the best for endgame, then it's not about weapon types, its about specific weapons (e.g glutton) and specific builds.

So... does this mean lbg and hbg are the way to go? I always thought that you could outperform ranged with melee.

[Dantegram]

Originally posted by OVERDRIVE!:

one person's criteria to judge which weapons are best will be completely different from another. in some situations some weapons might perform better than others. the ones i considered to be strongest in general hunts pre iceborne are.
HBG - spread3, and cluster are way too overpowered.
Bow - very strong and mobile range weapon with no bad match ups. somewhat overtuned.
LS - very balanced weapon thats comes with good damage, decent speed and mobility and comes with a defensive ability in the form of foresight slash. has long reach.
CB - very high burst damage with SAED, can block well with guard point, has good mobility. not as difficult to use as some people make them out to be.
GS - very high damage damage in the form of TCS, can tackle through most attacks until an opening has appeared. can headlock elder dragons very easily. the king of weapons. also has long reach.

you can also judge it by record speed times like the tier list made by the person in this video. but all weapons are good in the right hands.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GptqQedGTY4

According to this GS or Glutton hbg is the best, so does that mean that every weapon isn't even close to each other?

[JPM岩]

Originally posted by Dantegram:

Originally posted by Bishop:

LBG seems kinda good all the way from the very beginning to the endgame. Fast, easy to use, easy to dodge anything, tons of status bullets to keep monsters in check. Does not require specific gear, elements and decos to work unlike bows.
If the question is what's the best for endgame, then it's not about weapon types, its about specific weapons (e.g glutton) and specific builds.

So... does this mean lbg and hbg are the way to go? I always thought that you could outperform ranged with melee.

Yes and no; HBG does have the highest DPS, but you have to be able to use it; I, for the life of me, cant use HBG worth a damn, but with SA, I can easily out damage my skill with HBG

Originally posted by Dantegram:

Originally posted by OVERDRIVE!:

one person's criteria to judge which weapons are best will be completely different from another. in some situations some weapons might perform better than others. the ones i considered to be strongest in general hunts pre iceborne are.
HBG - spread3, and cluster are way too overpowered.
Bow - very strong and mobile range weapon with no bad match ups. somewhat overtuned.
LS - very balanced weapon thats comes with good damage, decent speed and mobility and comes with a defensive ability in the form of foresight slash. has long reach.
CB - very high burst damage with SAED, can block well with guard point, has good mobility. not as difficult to use as some people make them out to be.
GS - very high damage damage in the form of TCS, can tackle through most attacks until an opening has appeared. can headlock elder dragons very easily. the king of weapons. also has long reach.

you can also judge it by record speed times like the tier list made by the person in this video. but all weapons are good in the right hands.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GptqQedGTY4

According to this GS or Glutton hbg is the best, so does that mean that every weapon isn't even close to each other?

Correct; Wyvern Ignition is brokenly OP for GS, same with Glutton for HBG

[puzzlefox]

Last I checked, Dark Devourer HBG with clusternuke was the weapon which held the most speedrun records. But if you use it online, everyone will hate you cause it blows all your teammates away from the monster, which is actually a steep DPS loss despite clusterbombs being so strong. It’s only effective in solo play unless your whole team is using medium-long ranged weapons.

Bow also holds an enormous portion of speedrun records, but will struggle on some monsters like Val hasak due to its aura which defects your shots.

Honestly, this game is pretty well balanced. Damage output doesn’t vary all that greatly between weapons and some weapons outperform others depending on the monster. Everyone saying “use whatever feels right” is the golden rule of MHW. Just be courteous to other players when playing online. Meaning don’t clusterbomb your team, and stick to attacking the part of the monster that your weapon is intended for. For example, if you’re using longsword, don’t attack the head of a downed monster while your hammerbro is trying to do his thing.

[puzzlefox]

And while speedruns do show what a weapon is capable of, you also gotta realize that those fights are heavily scripted (rehearsed under the best possible conditions) and are essentially perfect runs. The reality is, that perfect runs are not at all the norm. So there is no perfect weapon for every situation, and despite the glutton or wyrvn ignition being as good as they are, they can still easily be outperformed by another weapon in the hands of a better player or under more fortunate circumstances.

[IrisMachina]

Originally posted by Dantegram:

Originally posted by OVERDRIVE!:

one person's criteria to judge which weapons are best will be completely different from another. in some situations some weapons might perform better than others. the ones i considered to be strongest in general hunts pre iceborne are.
HBG - spread3, and cluster are way too overpowered.
Bow - very strong and mobile range weapon with no bad match ups. somewhat overtuned.
LS - very balanced weapon thats comes with good damage, decent speed and mobility and comes with a defensive ability in the form of foresight slash. has long reach.
CB - very high burst damage with SAED, can block well with guard point, has good mobility. not as difficult to use as some people make them out to be.
GS - very high damage damage in the form of TCS, can tackle through most attacks until an opening has appeared. can headlock elder dragons very easily. the king of weapons. also has long reach.

you can also judge it by record speed times like the tier list made by the person in this video. but all weapons are good in the right hands.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GptqQedGTY4

According to this GS or Glutton hbg is the best, so does that mean that every weapon isn't even close to each other?

nope not really. just play whatever you find fun. if you find high damage fun then go for it.you can either think of the weapons as a playstyle or a difficulty setting. you can always switch weapons if one isn't to your liking. theres no rule stating that you can't play more than one weapon type. it is actually encouraged to pick multiple weapons. don't get so hung up on speedruns. unless you are actually planning to break records. but in some cases clear times differences are as much as 1-2mins or a little more with different weapon types. new players tend to be concerned with best damage or fastest kill time. but over time, those thought will go away if you in the game for the long run. damage isn't everything.

[Mo0on]

taroth blitz support

:3

[Dantegram]

So... what I've gathered is that, under optimal circumstances, hbg glutton and Ignition gs is op, but basically 80% of the time under realistic circumstances, if I can perform well, I can out-damage just about anything?

[Dantegram]

Originally posted by OVERDRIVE!:

Originally posted by Dantegram:

According to this GS or Glutton hbg is the best, so does that mean that every weapon isn't even close to each other?

nope not really. just play whatever you find fun. if you find high damage fun then go for it.you can either think of the weapons as a playstyle or a difficulty setting. you can always switch weapons if one isn't to your liking. theres no rule stating that you can't play more than one weapon type. it is actually encouraged to pick multiple weapons. don't get so hung up on speedruns. unless you are actually planning to break records. but in some cases clear times differences are as much as 1-2mins or a little more with different weapon types. new players tend to be concerned with best damage or fastest kill time. but over time, those thought will go away if you in the game for the long run. damage isn't everything.

I don't want to set records, I aim to lock down monsters with sheer dps soon if I play the weapons right, and if a weapon can do that, have ease of use, Quality of Life improvements then I'll use that. But most hunts are 20 minutes for me, best nergi run was non-optimized, 15 minute run with kadachi claws 1.