Post AT Rey Dau General Raw Damage / Lord's Soul Build

This is a good, high-raw damage "base" to start off with, until you want to start customising it for your own playstyle!

If you want to try something very different, consider looking at our Scorcher Builds, Bubbly Dance Builds, Convert Element Builds or this Crit Draw Build! And, if you've carted, try swapping to a Fortify Build for even more damage!

Lord's Soul / Guts (Tenacity) Explanation:

This skill has two different states:

1. Initially, your attack is increased by 5% and your defense is decreased by 5%. Further, if you have more than about 40 health, and would normally be defeated, you instead survive on 1 HP and change to the second state of the skill.
2. Now, you lose the attack bonus, and the 1 HP survival. Instead of your defense being decreased by 5%, it is now increased by 5%. Further, all Elemental Resistances are increased by 3.

The 5% attack bonus makes Guts (Tenacity) the strongest group skill in the game (outside of Fortify) and should be strongly considered for all damage skills.

The survivability effect occurs after the Food Skill Moxie Meal, and the Palico Support Move Vigorwasp Revival. This means that your 5% attack bonus will be conserved.

Weapon Changes:

• This build works perfectly well for both Artian Weapons, and the new Zoh Shia weapons that came out in Title Update 1!
• • If the monster is Dragon weak, Zoh Shia Weapons end up a bit better.
• The weapon decorations are fully customisable. Change them per your weapon and playstyle!
• • If you use a weapon that Guards a lot, like the Lance, you'll want to add in Offensive Guard
  • If you want to use your Charged Slashes faster as a Great Sword, you'll want to slot in Focus
  • If you play Switch Axe or Charge Blade, you may prefer to use the skill Rapid Morph
  • If you're using an Elemental Artian weapon, consider using the associated Element Attack skill
• These builds assume you want at least 80 hits between sharpening. If you usually do fewer hits than that, feel free to swap out Mastery for another Damage-boosting skill!

Calculation Notes:

This ends up being the optimal set if you can use a lot of the conditional damage-boosting skills at least well. Specifically:

• Weakness Exploit (hit weakpoints 90% of the time; wounds 20%)
• Agitator (monster is enraged 70% of the time)
• Maximum Might (max stamina 80% of the time)
• Burst (50% of the time, you do more than 5 hits in a row)
• Latent Power (the skill is active 50% of the time)
• Counterstrike (the skill is active 50% of the time)

If you can't use any of these skills well, consider changing a skill you use less well for a skill you can use better; or just put in some Defensive skills instead!