Best bows right now?

[Azkeden]

So, Im a greatsword main, and after beating fatalis a couple of times I decided to go for a ranged weapon, and bow is my choice.
The thing is that I heard that bow main thing is elemental damage (which im glad because if I want raw dmg I can use my fatalis blade lol), but I don't really know anything about bows, I never played any, so I wanted to know which ones are the best bows for each element, and also make sure that Velkhana armor is the best armor for bow.

[Walrus-Sama]

Raw:
Fatalis, Safi (Blast)

Element:
Kjarr (Dragon, Ice, Thunder, Water, Fire)
Safi (Dragon, Ice, Thunder, Water, Fire)

I personally really like Fatalis Bow since you can use it against anything (well, except maybe Alatreon) and use all coating except Blast.

[JebKerman]

Originally posted by Azkeden:

... and also make sure that Velkhana armor is the best armor for bow.

Outside of Crit. Draw + Frostcraft Dragonpiercer setups (a Raw speciality, and great fun if you're in the market for something a bit silly) it'd be like 1 piece, tops.

Iirc the gist is: Kjarr Bow of the respective element, plus either 5pc Safi Armour (more theoretical damage), or 4 Piece Fatalis for something more comfy (which may well lead to more/similar damage output in practice).

EDIT: For something more nuanced/detailed/accurate this'll probably be worth a gander:
https://mhwbowbuilds.wordpress.com/15-01/

[~KeNnEtH~]

I am no bow main but my understanding is that due to low motion values you are gonna do better with elemental setup. Elemental setup always favours getting Crit Element or True Crit Element which you can get from 2pc Velk, 4 pc silver rath or a Kjarr weapon. Elemental setup also usually use the charm to boost the appropriate elemental attack skill since I guess it's more convenient.

The only exception is Dragonpiercer which has high enough motion values to justify using raw but it's a pretty long move kinda like TCS on GS so maybe you might like it.

Bow users will use dash juice to reduce stamina usage and some Constitution because they need to keep doing this back and forth dodge to skip the need to charge their bow pull. Kinda like your tackle to go into a higher level swing of TCS without going through the earlier moves.

That's as far as my understanding on Bow.

[The High Seraph]

Fire
-Kjarr Fire with 4 Fatalis+1 Velk Gamma for general play
-Taroth Arrow “Fire” + True Crit Element for Nameille
- Kjarr Fire with 5 safi for AT Namei ***Speedrun*** because safi set bonus also apply to status coating allowing you to quickly sleep Namei when she is limping to prevent fleeing .

Thunder
-Kjarr Spark with 4 Fatalis + 1 Velk gamma for Paralysis Match up
- Safi Bolt bow ( Velk Awakening ) with 4 Fatalis + 1 Velk Gamma for Another match up
These two are very equal . Safi have a bit more raw Spark have para coating + that’s all
- Taroth Arrow “Thunder” + TCE for Nagacuga

Water
- Safi Aqua Bow ( Velk Awakening ) with 4 Fatalis + 1 Velk Gamma for all match up .
- Kjarr Water with 3 Safi + 2 Fatalis for Solo speedrunning behemoth since there is no time to restock power coatings in speedrun .

Dragon
- Alatreon bow + TCE

Ice
- Kjarr Stream with 4 Fatalis + 1 Velk Gamma for General Play
- Kjarr Stream with 5 Safi for High Rank Kulve Taroth since you need to break her horns and these horns are not weak zone for Shot type . Although your damage is high , numbers will be shown in grey color this mean weakness exploit is useless and you need 100% affinity without WE . Beside , she have very good Elemental HZVs and set bonus extra element work very well against her .
- Safi Frost Bow with 4 Velk Gamma + 1 Fatalis for Luna , Raging Bracydios , Seething Bazel , Shara in Multiplayer . Frost Craft bow need specific play style against specific match ups to use it’s maximum potential

Raw
- Bow of Vice & Violance with 4 Fatalis + 1 Velk gamma against raw favored monsters such as Ruiner , Zinogre , Stygian Zinogre , Velkana , Master Rank Kulve Taroth , Fulgur Anja . May be Work against Kushala and Blackveil . But for Blackveil , just use Alatreon bow destroy its head with Blast Coating and switch to power and close range coatings after head is broken . This guy is ridiculously weak to dragon after head is broken .

1 Velk Gamma means Head or Legs
- Legs for general match up
- Head for High Coalescence match up such as Teostra , Raging Brachydios , Alatreon , Fatalis etc .

Current TCE
- Silver los Head , Chest and Hand .
- Dragon Barbs Alpha
- Azure Age boots
Fire Set use Silver los Alpha while other use beta .

Good luck maintaining Peak Performance without HP regen with Bow .

[Velkhana's Summer]

Originally posted by The High Seraph:

Good luck maintaining Peak Performance without HP regen with Bow .

yeah but in those fights resentment+safi usually wins out anyways so no need for peak. Someone mentioned it but there is no point in talking about velkhana 4 piece elemental bow cause its literally for solo speed runners only which is not the otp plus its an extremely dull way to play an otherwise really mobile and non stop action weapon.

[The High Seraph]

Originally posted by Velkhana's Summer:

Originally posted by The High Seraph:

Good luck maintaining Peak Performance without HP regen with Bow .

yeah but in those fights resentment+safi usually wins out anyways so no need for peak. Someone mentioned it but there is no point in talking about velkhana 4 piece elemental bow cause its literally for solo speed runners only which is not the otp plus its an extremely dull way to play an otherwise really mobile and non stop action weapon.

Frostcraft should be considered as bonus . And you can recharge frostcraft without losing anything by clawing monster in drooling animation or specific openings created by certain monsters that are hard to punish as bow . That’s why I said very specific play style against very specific match ups . And op asked about “Best Bows right now” so it’s unfair for Frostcraft ice bow if I didn’t mention since it destroy certain monsters really hard .

5 safi with resentment only win if user can’t maintain peak . PP with Fatalis 4 set have basically more power coating with stamina 200 . Enough raw power to fill elemental loss . So dps wise will be the same . But deal breaker is more power coating and more stamina . But there are fights that’s not possible to maintain PP without HP regen , but gladly these are high coalescence matchups . So switching to Velk Crown for 3 Coal instead of Boots for 3 PP is better idea .

[Dan Niton]

Originally posted by Walrus-Sama:

Raw:
Fatalis, Safi (Blast)

Element:
Kjarr (Dragon, Ice, Thunder, Water, Fire)
Safi (Dragon, Ice, Thunder, Water, Fire)

I personally really like Fatalis Bow since you can use it against anything (well, except maybe Alatreon) and use all coating except Blast.

Basically this but event is gonna end soon and if you could not get kjarr or safi in time, just craft yourself the 5 basic bows:
dragonseal Aldbow(Dragon)
Thundering Strikebow(Thunder)
Anjanath Flamebow(Fire)
Mist Glacia(Ice)
Laguna Shot(Water)

I'm still using these basic bows til this day since the game first came out and these are still useful.

[Dagný]

Just remember: No arc shots in MP