Iceborne Story Progression Builds

This guide should give a general idea of which builds you can use when going through the Iceborne story.

Starting Iceborne

This build is the bare minimum you should bring.

In general you can use your High Rank armor until Tigrex. First thing you want to craft in Master Rank is the Beo coil beta. The rest can be all Drachen Armor or Teostra Gamma + any good Mail.

Which melee weapons you play doesnt really matter, they can easily be swapped out.

1. build before tigrex

I added another two pieces of MR armor for some extra defense, also Earplugs makes it quite easy to wallbang monsters consistently.

2. build after tigrex

Earplugs 5 makes this build especially good for Hammer. Also Free Meal 3 allows for sipping a lot of potions without consuming them.
Weakness Exploit and Health Boost are the most mandatory skills you should have in every (melee) build, followed by Critical Eye, Attack Boost, Critical Boost

Disclaimer: some builds don't use these skills and build around sth else, these are very niche builds though

3. build after teostra

Well just like in the base game Masters Touch is also meta in Iceborne. The earlier you get it, the better.
You want to have the highest possible affinity, the more often you crit, the less you have to sharpen. This is usually archived by combining Critical Eye with Weakness Exploit. Agitator or Maximum Might can also be good options.

Health Boost added for better survivability (strongly recommended).

I left some slots vacant, these can be used for:
Peak Performance is optional, you should focus on affinity giving skills first.
Same goes for Speed Eating, its just added for comfort and can easily be left out.

Health augment on the weapon helps a lot, but is not that necessary for progression builds.

4. Final endgame build

Combine 3 pieces of Teo with 2 Brachy and you get Agitator Secret set bonus additional to Masters Touch from Teo set. This allows for a solid build with ~100% affinity, Agitator 7, Attack Boost 7, Peak Performance 3 and Crit Boost 3 while still maintaining Health Boost 3 for comfort.

Weapon is augmented with Health and Affinity. This is also what I recommend for almost any non elemental melee weapon.

5. Anti Alatreon Build

For Alatreon its mandatory to play elemental weapons! Fire and ice are best when you can manage to keep him in the opposite element with horn breaks during the dragon element phase. weapons with dragon element are a no-brainer and almost quite as viable.

6. Anti Fatalis Build

[Wreth]

@Boboscus I don't play ranged that often, edited that part thanks for your comment.

I was selfishly kind of only referring to melee based builds in the first place.

[Boboscus]

Weakness exploit info ain't really correct, sticky build gets literally nothing from affinity skills. Unless you count that 1->2 initial hit damage a boost.

[Wreth]

@Jerda Thank you so much, I'm glad I could help.

[Jerda]

You deserve the Extra Helpful award my man, this helps out so much.

[Wreth]

Its one of the most important skills every build should have.

[Demacian]

what about weakness exploit?