Armor & Weapons Worth Grinding for Iceborne?

[Z Y Z Z]

Hey y'all! I was wondering if there's any specific armor pieces/sets and weapons that's worth bringing into Iceborne. I've been grinding for Gamma pieces lately (Not much luck with that..) and was wondering if I should even be grinding for them at all, seeing as Iceborne releases in less than a month. Is there a noticeable difference in MR Elder Dragon armor and Gamma Elder Dragon armor, or does the MR armor blow the Gamma armor out of the water with better skills and/or decoration slots?

I've already beaten Iceborne on my Xbox One, but ran through it quickly since PC is my preferred platform and I wouldn't want to grind Iceborne on a console that runs like sh*t, and looks like sh*t.

Now again, my question is.. Are there any armor pieces/sets and weapons that's worth keeping and/or grinding for before Iceborne comes out? I came back recently to obtain the rainbow pigment and Drachen layered armor, which I've already achieved. So are there any armor pieces/sets (Specifically Gamma), weapons, or decorations that's worth grinding for, or will Iceborne make LITERALLY everything obsolete as everyone has stated?

[River Victor]

Defender weapons now outperform almost all weapons you can obtain from Kulve Taroth, which was previously the best you can farm for. There are still several weapons that Defender sets can't replace though:

Taroth Assault "Glutton", the notorious Spread 3 sprayer. Defender HBG replaces Taroth Assult "Support" and Kjarr Assault "Support" both of which are Pierce 3.

But seriously, I don't recommend farming Kulve Taroth now, as you will have the best weapons for... 30 days. You can just wait for Iceborne and craft the Master tier weapons.

I'm pretty sure other elemental bows, LBGs, and dual blades are still not replaced by Defender sets, at least not totally, since there are so many bows out there, and they're all mainly elemental. Defender weapon, however, replaces Taroth Blitz "Support", which is a bullet hose for Normal 2 S. It blows Taroth Blitz "Support" out of the water.

Lance and Long Sword meta are replaced by Defender as well.

All decos are worth keeping, as you will be able to add them to mantles as well, and there will be higher levels of skills for the currently existing ones, so you'll need to stuff more jewels. If anything, you can still meld the excess for higher level of jewels.

Nothing really replaces the meta armor sets though, and many of them require gamma parts, as they have the best skills for damage at the moment. Defender armor set is what its name says. Defends only. It's for tanking through the base game and a little through low Master. Whether you want to grind for the current meta sets depends on whether you want to hold on to the current best sets for as long as possible. If not, probably have to craft an intermediate set for Master Rank using early Master Rank materials. If you have the meta, maybe you can hold out until high Master, hopefully.

[Katitoff]

Nothing really is worth grinding before introduction of new master rank, which will make all of the current gear irrelevant sooner then later.

Just get what you want or have fun with builds you've never tried before.

[Remi]

Upgrade all Rath trees of the weapons you like to play to max as their IB upgrades will be the best weapons for raw and fire.
Dragonbone tree to the max, their materials are tedious to get and they also upgrade into something good. Only HR armour that's relevant in IB is Kaiser crown y.

[Popcorn]

Teo gamma parts can be useful in MR iirc. Idk cuz i also breezed (as in just storylined rhe game) on console as well

[JPM岩]

If youre curious about Switch Axe, I have a guide you can try to reverse engineer to figure out what SAs are worth getting https://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=1591169533