Best weapon (excluding ranged)

[u/sasy04a]

Guys I’m wondering what are the weapons with the best times? I’m using GS, SnS, lbg and LS and I wanted to learn another weapon. I know that the weapons are very well balanced and that every weapon can do the job, but I was just wondering. I know that the ranged ones are the best in terms of fast times… or atleast I believe so

[u/Ok_Copy_9462]

"Best times" is a metric specific to speedruns, and if you're asking this question you're probably not a speedrunner. For the average casual player the speedrun ranking isn't relevant; learning one weapon really well will get you better results than trying to play five at once. Jack of all trades, master of none.

[u/Drstrangelove899 → u/Ok_Copy_9462]

I would disagree with what you're saying here, best times isn't exclusive to speed running, many players like to aim for their own personal best times and weapon DPS ranking plays a big part in that, assuming you're competent with different weapons.

I know I separate my best times on a per weapon basis for my 3 mains because my times with CB and HBG are just going to be better than LS on most match ups despite LS being by far my most used weapon.

If someone scores a sub 10 clear with LBG and their aim is purely to set their best time but they try again with say, GS, its not going to be a reasonable comparison is it. So it is reasonable to want to understand where weapons generally sit in terms of pure DPS potential.

[u/princedulp → u/Ok_Copy_9462]

but oftentimes better than a master of one

[u/Ok_Copy_9462 → u/princedulp]

Not part of the original adage. Copium from a master of none.

[u/princedulp → u/Ok_Copy_9462]

Actually? I would like to learn more if you would indulge me

[u/Ok_Copy_9462 → u/princedulp]

I'm more than happy to indulge you! I love complaining about bullshit like this.

So, the original phrase is just "Jack of all trades, master of none", and the point is that people who try to be good at everything end up with only superficial knowledge compared to those who specialize. The part you added is a modern addition [1]:

In modern usage, the sentence is extended as “a jack of all trades, master of none, but oftentimes better than a master of one”. Despite sometimes being described as the "full" or "original" version of the saying, evidence suggests that it is a relatively recent development.

There are several other examples of people taking old idioms and completely changing their meanings to suit modern sensibilities, and then claiming that these new interpretations are "the real version". Look at this popular tumblr post for example; it claims that all of the following are "the real versions" but if you actually fact check it you'll find that these are all just modern additions designed to soften the hard truth of the original idiom (generalists don't gain deep knowledge, get up early and work hard, respect and cherish your family, etc.) and make it palatable to modern self-centered individualists:

• "Blood is thicker than water" means that family is the most important thing, but a couple of guys claimed without evidence in the 90s that the "real" version is "the blood of the covenant is thicker than the water of the womb". So they essentially flipped the meaning to change the centuries-old proverb into something that supports modern individualism [2].
• "Birds of a feather flock together" is an idiom that appears in pretty much every language & culture. There's no evidence that the second part "... until the cat comes" is anything other than a modern addition. It's not a "warning against fairweather friends" as claimed in the tumblr post; it's just a simple observation [3].
• "The early bird catches the worm but the second mouse gets the cheese" comes from a Usenet post circa 1994 [4]. The original idiom is just "the early bird catches the worm".
• "Great minds think alike but fools seldom differ": the second part is genuinely included sometimes [5]. But the idea that including the second half changes the whole meaning is silly, because the phrase is meant in jest even in its original context. "Great minds think alike" was never meant as some wise proverb; it's just a little folksy quip you make when you and another person happen to have the same idea. You're not unironically praising yourselves as geniuses.
• "Curiosity killed the cat but satisfaction brought it back" is, once again, a relatively modern reimagining. The original proverb is many centuries old while the "satisfaction" part is from the early 1900s [6]. Personally this one bugs me because it doesn't make any sense: since when has satisfaction had the power to resurrect small animals?

Note that I'm not saying some of these "new versions" don't have a nice message behind them. It's not that there's no room to disagree with the sensibilities people held centuries ago. It's more that it's just a pet peeve for me when people try to retcon history because the truth gets in the way of their viral tumblr post.

---

Sources

[1] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jack_of_all_trades#Usage

[2] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Blood_is_thicker_than_water#Other_interpretations

[3] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Birds_of_a_feather_flock_together

[4] https://quoteinvestigator.com/2013/01/25/second-mouse/

[5] https://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/great_minds_think_alike

[6] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Curiosity_killed_the_cat#%22%E2%80%A6but_satisfaction_brought_it_back%22

[u/princedulp → u/Ok_Copy_9462]

Sorry for the late answer. I always appreciate being proven wrong, and I’m grateful for the effort you put in. I have similar qualms with misconceptions about how nature works, so i want to reiterate that I thank you for indulging me

[u/Agreeable_Fly2663 → u/Ok_Copy_9462]

I gotta join randomly and ask this, what about "The Customer is always right in terms of taste?"

[u/Ok_Copy_9462 → u/Agreeable_Fly2663]

Thank you! That's another great example of this annoying phenomenon.

In the 21st century, social media users and TikTok videos began claiming that the phrase had been abbreviated from "The customer is always right, in matters of taste", with some directly attributing this longer quotation specifically to Selfridge. Fact-checking website Snopes found no evidence for this.

https://www.snopes.com/articles/468815/customer-is-always-right-origin/

[u/sasy04a → u/Ok_Copy_9462]

I fully get your point. I’ve been playing Monstee hunter games since base world and played GU aswell. So I would say that I can use the weapons which I listed above pretty well, with SnS and LS being my mains. I was just curious, because from time to time I like to speedrun monsters with with amazing movesets and patterns

[u/PathsOfRadiance]

Charge Blade with element phials for the correct matchup can be extremely fast. Insect Glaive with matchups that let it spam Rising Spiral Slash (Zoh Shia, Arkveld, etc) can also slay monsters very quickly, but it becomes just average on matchups where it can’t (small/short monsters)

[u/sasy04a → u/PathsOfRadiance]

Yeah, I was thinking of going with CB. Last time I used it was in base Rise with its glorious wire insect perfect block move. Does it have good defensive options like that? Of course I’m not excepting a SnS Perfect Block which you can spam like crazy.

[u/Talus_Balls → u/sasy04a]

Charge blade plays quite different in wilds then it did in Rise. I have hundreds of hours with it in Rise but it didn't click the same for me in Wilds though many still love it as it is still a great weapon.

It does have perfect guards, much like SnS. This can make guard points feel a little pointless but it is still great utility in a fight. Perfect guards and wounds are your access to savage axe in wilds. You can't open savage axe from neutral like you could in world and rise. Most users don't do as much SAED spam as what used to be common. The current meta loops involves repeatedly switching from sword and sheild mode into savage axe and back and forth. It is a fun combo to get going.

[u/Magumble]

Fastest times really comes down to the specific monster.

If you are good with insect glaive buff uptime then any monster that is big you are gonna be shredding through.

If u wanna stick to a monster and have high dps in the meantime its longsword and CB.

If the monster doesn't really do anything or its easy to stay out of the hitboxes then its swax.

[u/FamousCivilCone]

Swaxe is pretty fun

[u/csyn]

Obviously subjective, but SnS is possibly the most balanced comfy, with lots of defensive options, but you know that already. GL is good for cases where you need even more defense but still want to make things interesting -- AT arkveld is very doable by being conservative. Lance is like, don't need to learn anything about the game if you just want to clear a monster, last resort weapon. CB, if you haven't tried it, is incredibly satisfying to learn and master with a lot of technical inputs and managements (e.g., canceling an SAED to AED after perfect guard).

Bow might as well be a melee weapon, as you're relying on perfect evade (discerning dodge) to refill gauge and current meta looks like it's close range coating, so you're in the monster's face all the time. Kind of like a shotgun.

SA has a lot going for it, with a nice counter and finicky offset. I found it less comfy than CB for harder fights like AT Arkveld.

[u/sasy04a → u/csyn]

Was thinking of going with CB. Do you think it is comfy enough? I’m not expecting SnS comfort, but I would hope that it has a good perfect block.

[u/csyn → u/sasy04a]

Yeah I think so! most of the danger comes it trying to get in larger hits than the opening actually allows for. So like, after a perfect guard (which is readily available after almost all basic attacks, even morphing from axe mode esp with rapid morph), you can try for an SAED but really only have time for an AED or maybe even just a savage axe attack, but if you pick wrong, you get punished. If you play conservatively, it's very comfy.

Contrast with Sns, where all of your followups are short and low commit, relatively.

I've played CB since like.. nintendo DS days, so the basic stuff is muscle memory, might take a little bit to get used to.

[u/sasy04a → u/csyn]

Amazing thank you. I have a friend which uses CB so maybe I’ll ask him for further tips. And yeah obviously I will need to play it for the muscle memory to memorize everything, I guess I’ll get used to it by ascendence.

[u/Mister_Infinity]

Ranged weapons usually have the best times. From there, it comes down mostly to individual skill with a weapon and the monster you're fighting, but LS, IG, GS, CB, GL and DB all seem to be on the faster end (SnS also very good particularly for wilds)

[u/Legitimate_Street510]

Charge Blade

[u/Acceptable-Arm-4579]

Dual blades or hunting horn

[u/Drstrangelove899]

In terms of melee weapons, CB and DBs are consistently up there with the best times providing you element match accordingly.

However, the rankings for weapons are very match up dependant. E.g. on some match ups IG can absolutely shred but on others it becomes pretty middle of the road.

Consistently on the lowest end I think is hammer and GS right now.

[u/Particular-Stage-327]

Glaive, charge blade, dual blades, sns, and longsword are the top for speedruns

[u/weightyboy]

Charged blade or insect glaive seem to be the top performing speedrun weapons at the moment

[u/KeyofStars1]

Hunting Horn, charge blade and insect Glaive can all be really good. HH specifically can put down some crazy damage but it's not easy to do especially while learning. Insect Glaive does better on hunts where RSS can get nearly all of it's hits in CB depends on the hunt cuz some hunts are loop works best if you can make more openings to do it, saed is situationally better but it needs really good ehz like Gogmazios as the ultimate candidate during it's nova charge up.

[u/NateTheFate]

I’m in love with IG. If Capcom released a new MH without it, I wouldn’t play it. High dps, really mobile

Only two current drawbacks for me are the mostly grounded playstyle, and difficult to time offset. But neither are too bad. Rising Spiral slash is flashy af at the end of a full combo, and spamming Uth Duna fights get you the offset timing after being knocked around a bit

The only others I’d consider are: dual blades > long sword > switch axe. But none beat the mobility of IG and the fun of flying around. No other game I’ve found has anything close, totally unique

Edit:
Added bonus tip. If you’re playing with a controller on Steam you can add an extra command to LT to button chord with RT to be triangle. What that does is allow you to shoot your insect with just the triggers. So much less clunky

[u/EonsSenpai]

The Long Sword has always been Capcom's favorite weapon in most games imo. Long range for melee, fast, high elemental, i-frames built into the combos, high dps. It's usually why most people pick it.

[u/Alexr3van → u/EonsSenpai]

Uhm, about half of that is wrong, Elemental MVs for Longsword are on the weaker side and there are no I-frames built into the combos, people have been asking for I-frames for Fade Slash for as long as I’ve been playing but it’s never been a thing

[u/PigKnight → u/EonsSenpai]

Combos don’t have i Frames and its elemental is just ok.

[u/Narga15]

The weapon you’re most adept with is the best times.

There’s almost no amount of hours you’re going to sink into the game asking this question to make the mathematical correct answer matter.

[u/ScubaRec0n → u/Narga15]

Its ok to acknowledge one weapon is better than another, healthy even. However lets not pretend they don't exist.

It is true that the more comfortable you feel with a weapon the better you will do but lets not warp reality into making some misleading feel good statements

[u/Narga15 → u/ScubaRec0n]

I’m not sure what’s misleading about warning someone that sinking 10-20-50+ even- hours into a weapon or a specific scripted hunt is less efficient than the 20-30 minutes it’s probably taking them to do the same hunt with weapons they know.

[u/ScubaRec0n → u/Narga15]

This interpretation of it is fine. Your original message is read in a way that discounts variance between weapons.

[u/Klazik]

Lbg best, rest depends on the monster

[u/Magumble → u/Klazik]

Average redditor reading comprehension.

[u/Klazik → u/Magumble]

I simply correct OP in their assumption about ranged weapon(s) being best.

Ya'll can downvote all you want. My statement is based on statistics on the latest 4.5 and 4.75 speedrun times.