Weapon Popularity

[ShaftAlmighty]

I recently bumped into an npc west in the Coral Highlands on an expedition. It told me my weapon type is 8th in popularity among players(it was a hammer at the time). Went back with my gunlance which i currently main but it wasn't there.

Just wondering, What are the popularity ranks of weapon types? Is there a poll i'm not aware of?

[Shepherd]

I know that the NPC also tells you the most and least popular weapons. Last time I talked to him he said that Longsword was the most popular and the Hunting Horn was the least.

I believe that if you keep talking to that NPC he will give you even more detailed stats. The data below might be a bit old but it's probably close.

1. Longsword 20%
2. Bow 14%
3. Charge Blade 10%
4. Greatsword 9%
5. Dual Blades 9%
6. Insect Glaive 7%
7. Heavy Bowgun 7%
8. Hammer 5%
9. Light Bowgun 5%
10. Switchaxe 4%
11. Sword and Shield 3%
12. Lance 3%
13. Gunlance 3%
14. Hunting Horn 1%

[4outof5dentists]

I'm surprised SnS isn't higher up, considering how often it's recommended as a beginner weapon, how insanely good it is in iceborne w/ perfect rush, and its excellent quality of life (using items w/o sheathing, many low commitment moves, emergency shield).

Bow's another interesting one since it's miserable to play in story mode when you have no stamina skills, elemental boosts, or crit skills.

[Freak4Leeks]

Originally posted by 4outof5dentists:

how often it's recommended as a beginner.

Dude... it's a players duty as a gamer to completely disregard whatever is "recommended" for new players KEK. I went straight for whatever looked cool which was the charge blade and i got to around to the second last main quest before i found out it had an alternate power mode LUL

[4outof5dentists]

Originally posted by Freak4Leeks:

Dude... it's a players duty as a gamer to completely disregard whatever is "recommended" for new players KEK. I went straight for whatever looked cool which was the charge blade and i got to around to the second last main quest before i found out it had an alternate power mode LUL

LOL fair point. I did avoid the longsword like the plague both due to its reputation as a noob weapon that trips everyone (funny enough, I soloed through all the content before even touching MP) and because of my distaste for weeb ♥♥♥♥.

[gg0h]

Originally posted by Shepherd:

I know that the NPC also tells you the most and least popular weapons. Last time I talked to him he said that Longsword was the most popular and the Hunting Horn was the least.

I believe that if you keep talking to that NPC he will give you even more detailed stats. The data below might be a bit old but it's probably close.

1. Longsword 20%
2. Bow 14%
3. Charge Blade 10%
4. Greatsword 9%
5. Dual Blades 9%
6. Insect Glaive 7%
7. Heavy Bowgun 7%
8. Hammer 5%
9. Light Bowgun 5%
10. Switchaxe 4%
11. Sword and Shield 3%
12. Lance 3%
13. Gunlance 3%
14. Hunting Horn 1%

Recently become a Hunting horn main myself and it is 13 now, or at least when I talked to the NPC a few days ago. I guess one of the lances dropped down

[4outof5dentists]

Originally posted by gg0h:

Recently become a Hunting horn main myself and it is 13 now, or at least when I talked to the NPC a few days ago. I guess one of the lances dropped down

My guess would be that it's the lance. Not only did its elemental damage ratio get nerfed, the moves it got in iceborne aren't gamechangers like other weapons. In fact, from what I've heard, lance's clutch counter is rather situational and can get you killed if you use it at the wrong time. It's also been the slowest speedrunning weapon.

Finally, the monster designs in iceborne are incredibly hostile to shield weapons. Not only did they introduce multiple monsters with attacks that can't be blocked even with the guard up skill, they significantly increased the chip damage and speed of the monsters.

As an aside, I think everyone except lance, bow, DB, LBG, and IG got significant changes to their playstyle in iceborne.

Example: Hammer is the best tenderizer in the game, GS can TCS much faster and change angles, SA's axe isn't useless, CB can now do something other than SAED spam, SnS is now a raw weapon b/c of perfect rush, Gunlance got a move that's so strong that it's a problem because people feel forced into using it, HBG got special scope for even more stupid damage, LS now has a slew of attacks after the weeb sheathe. Hunting horn got a whole new note + echo attack that lets elemental weapons to be at least sort of viable.

[ErzPaladin]

On Greatsword that NPC told me that it was the 3rd ranked weapon. However, thought the Insect Glaive is higher ranked. Cause I've seen way more IG-Users than GS user till now.

[VforVeranda]

I've always found that presenting that stat in-game is a little detrimental to the game, with my reasoning being:

New player finds stat, sees "most popular", misinterprets "most popular" to "most powerful" and boosts LS stat by changing over to LS. Game developers see stat, sees a fraction of people play horn and utterly decimates it for MHRise while focusing on making "everybody's favorite" even better.

Myself, I have made a point of getting proficient with all weapons and most of the bottom of the list are some of my favorites, specifically lance and HH.. both more deserving of love as they are currently getting from both players and devs.

[4outof5dentists]

And the funny thing is that in MHW, that list doesn't actually reflect the power of each weapons particularly well.

Yes, the HH and Lance are at the bottom and they are objectively the weakest speedrunning weapons.

But then is the longsword the best weapon when it comes to speedrunning? Not even close to being in the contention. The fastest MHW speedrun weapon is undoubtedly the Heavy bowgun, which places solidly in the middle of the pack in popularity.

How about SnS, whose absurd move values of perfect rush let them even been HBG in some monster speedruns? Despite all that, they are barely more popular than Lance and HH.

[Kelbi Blue, der Glyko-Genin]

Originally posted by 4outof5dentists:

And the funny thing is that in MHW, that list doesn't actually reflect the power of each weapons particularly well.

Yes, the HH and Lance are at the bottom and they are objectively the weakest speedrunning weapons.

But then is the longsword the best weapon when it comes to speedrunning? Not even close to being in the contention. The fastest MHW speedrun weapon is undoubtedly the Heavy bowgun, which places solidly in the middle of the pack in popularity.

How about SnS, whose absurd move values of perfect rush let them even been HBG in some monster speedruns? Despite all that, they are barely more popular than Lance and HH.

I want to believe that only a small percentage of players cares about what weapon they have to use to get the most damage output in the game. I hope most players use the weapon that is the most fun to them. I don't care about how good the heavy bowgun is at speed runs, I personally don't like playing ranged weapons. And I don't use lance, because the combat did not "click" with me, when I tried it out. Not because it is the bottom of the speed run tier.

[ominumi]

Originally posted by 4outof5dentists:

And the funny thing is that in MHW, that list doesn't actually reflect the power of each weapons particularly well.

Yes, the HH and Lance are at the bottom and they are objectively the weakest speedrunning weapons.

But then is the longsword the best weapon when it comes to speedrunning? Not even close to being in the contention. The fastest MHW speedrun weapon is undoubtedly the Heavy bowgun, which places solidly in the middle of the pack in popularity.

How about SnS, whose absurd move values of perfect rush let them even been HBG in some monster speedruns? Despite all that, they are barely more popular than Lance and HH.

It's just basic stats capcom give out to players. I mean if we can look at it further. Longsword users would be number 1 on which weapon type average faints. Relative to the population who use that weapon of course.

[FrozenFruit]

Originally posted by Fibroblaster, der Glyko-Genin:

And I don't use lance, because the combat did not "click" with me, when I tried it out. Not because it is the bottom of the speed run tier.

Have you tried lance on the monsters that come at you?
I dislike lance back in MHGU, but I decided to give it another try in MHW during the end game. Now lance is my go-to weapon when fighting tigrex or zinogre. I had a harder time fighting against them with my usual favour weapons before I start to use the lance.

[Kelbi Blue, der Glyko-Genin]

Originally posted by FrozenFruit:

Have you tried lance on the monsters that come at you?
I dislike lance back in MHGU, but I decided to give it another in MHW during the end game. Now lance is my go-to weapon when fighting tigrex or zinogre. I had a harder time fighting against them with my usual favour weapons before I start to use the lance.

Well, to be honest with you: I tried Lance exactly once, for an arena quest, because there was no other of my go-to weapons available. :D Yes, I am sure with more practice Lance would be a fun to play weapon, but so far I didn't have the needed motivation to try again. Maybe in the future, when I feel like trying out another weapon.

I had the same experience with the Hammer. Tried him out in World and had a horrible experience. Mostly to my own lack of ability, of course. Tried it again in Rise and hat a blast. Now Hammer is like my second love I don't want to tell my main weapon about, so it won't get jealous.

[ErzPaladin]

Atm I'm testing HBG and Insect Glaive and especially IG is sooooo much better than GS overall, that I'm already thinking, that I'll stay on this. GS felt so f'cked up... I mean, landing some really hard hits, is pretty cool, but in general it just feels like your only purpose is to get beaten up. The dmg output over the entire quest is simply annoying.
With the Insect Glaive I do even more damage, can jump wherever I want to, can do range dmg and dodge as I please. It simply feels f'cked up as GS user. At least later on.
I don't really see where it would get any better later. That's the problem for me.

Or for example - the focus skill:

focus lvl 1: GS charges 5% faster
focus lvl 2: 10%
focus lvl 3: 15%

Do I miss something? And therefore you've to even charge 2-3 times instead of once, for doing serious damage. Yes, you can do two charge-cancels for getting faster to your true GS charge, but even then in most cases that's so tight that the monsters hit you or just move out of range.

That's kinda the only explanation for Critdraw, I guess. Then again it let's you wonder about the triple charging to true GS Charge.

Ok, in strategized parties GS might make the difference. If you've stunners and paralyzers and such. But in random parties? Or solo? On Low- and Highrank it doesn't matter. But on M-Rank it's kinda annoying. Especially against enemies like Velkhana, Legiana & such.
It's do-able, but it's salty. My opinion. Most of the time it just feels like you're mainly a burden for the Insect Glaives or LS users.

[Smaugi]

Originally posted by ErzPaladin:

Atm I'm testing HBG and Insect Glaive and especially IG is sooooo much better than GS overall, that I'm already thinking, that I'll stay on this. GS felt so f'cked up... I mean, landing some really hard hits, is pretty cool, but in general it just feels like your only purpose is to get beaten up. The dmg output over the entire quest is simply annoying.
With the Insect Glaive I do even more damage, can jump wherever I want to, can do range dmg and dodge as I please. It simply feels f'cked up as GS user. At least later on.
I don't really see where it would get any better later. That's the problem for me.

Or for example - the focus skill:

focus lvl 1: GS charges 5% faster
focus lvl 2: 10%
focus lvl 3: 15%

Do I miss something? And therefore you've to even charge 2-3 times instead of once, for doing serious damage. Yes, you can do two charge-cancels for getting faster to your true GS charge, but even then in most cases that's so tight that the monsters hit you or just move out of range.

That's kinda the only explanation for Critdraw, I guess. Then again it let's you wonder about the triple charging to true GS Charge.

Ok, in strategized parties GS might make the difference. If you've stunners and paralyzers and such. But in random parties? Or solo? On Low- and Highrank it doesn't matter. But on M-Rank it's kinda annoying. Especially against enemies like Velkhana, Legiana & such.
It's do-able, but it's salty. My opinion. Most of the time it just feels like you're mainly a burden for the Insect Glaives or LS users.

Gs is one of the hardest weapons to master.
A skilled Gs user can only by out damaged by hbg or bow.
All it takes is to know the monster