Sword and Shield: Beginners Guide
Ву PokerDew.
FAQ
Is Perfect Rush good?
Yes, as long as you finish the entire combo with Perfect Rush III -> Scaling Slash -> Falling Bash or Plunging Thrust.
- Finishing with Spinning Reaper or Charged Chop is never worth it.
Which combos should I use?
- Lateral Slash -> Return Stroke -> Spinning Rising Slash -> Spinning Reaper -> (strong) Charged Chop.
- Your highest damaging combo, if there is any window to attack, it’s best to do this.
- You can end at Spinning Reaper if the window is shorter.
- Lateral Slash -> Return Stroke -> Roundslash.
- A good combo to do on very short windows; you can loop back to Lateral Slash after Roundslash.
- Shield Attack -> Shield Bash -> Hard Basher.
- Good for stunning monsters (hit the head) and conserving sharpness, does not deal elemental damage.
- Spinning Reaper or (strong) Charged Chop after Hard Basher for longer openings.
- Chop -> Side Slash -> Diagonal Rising Slash -> Diagonal Chop.
- Good for repositioning, not so much for dealing damage.
- Infinitely loopable, pressing Light Attack (triangle / Y / lmb) after Diagonal Chop will lead to Chop.
- Spinning Reaper or (strong) Charged Chop after Diagonal Chop is a good combo ender.
- Backstep -> Charged Slash -> Scaling Slash -> Falling Bash or Plunging Thrust.
- Good if you want to mount the monster while dealing decent damage.
- Backstep -> Leaping Slash -> Perfect Rush (I-III) -> Scaling Slash -> Falling Bash or Plunging Thrust.
- Good to use on long topples (stunned, flashed from the air, environmental traps, etc.)
I thought Chop -> Charged Chop was a good attack loop?
Normal Charged Chop has been massively nerfed. There is little reason to use this move, for now.
Is toggle focus mode necessary for SnS?
Toggle focus mode is up to preference. SnS doesn’t need to stay in focus mode all the time to be good.
How do I Backstep from neutral?
The easiest (and recommended) way is to enter focus mode and press Heavy Attack (circle / B / rmb) while holding back.
- The same inputs can also be done after tapping Guard.
I heard SnS’s Focus Strike is a bit special?
Attacking wounds that are about to form (visually denoted by a white scar) with the Focus Strike will lead to a multi-hit move, similar to Drill Slash from Sunbreak.
- This can be immediately followed up with a Spinning Reaper or (strong) Charged Chop.
Is SnS an elemental weapon?
Yes, but if you’re still progressing through the game it’s best to stick to raw builds to limit the weapons you need to craft. You can consider building for element once you reach endgame content.
SnS Moveset Flowchart
Link to imgur version of the flowchart.
Click to enlarge…
Quick Progression Guide
This is just a quick fix for those who asked on what to use, It is not the absolute correct choice yet as the math people are taking it nice and slow this time. And it usually doesn’t really matter that much anyways.
Mid-Low Rank (Chapter 2)
You can realistically use whatever you want here as Low rank armor doesn’t matter much at all apart from more defense. But if I were to recommend you it’d be:
Alternatively can use Quetamarice or Arakajan and Balahara (lower dmg for now) SnS as well for that sweet sweet Offensive Guard.
End-Low Rank (Chapter 3)
You can ignore this and go to early HR.
Holy smokes we have actual combat skills in armor to use now? (Still bad) and it’ll probably be obsolete as soon as you touch mid high rank which doesn’t take that long.
We are adding G. Rathalos 3 piece in for Weakness exploit which will give us 15% affinity for hitting weakspots. It isn’t much crit but it’s something.
You can also just use the max upgrade of whatever weapon you wanted but Balahara has the best Skill-Stats wise so we are using it here now.
G. odo Coil isn’t here because it uses a plate, a rare drop is a waste of time trying to farm for it so you can go ahead and finish the story and go to HR.
Early High Rank (Chapter 4)
Your best bet right now is upgrading your weapon to something better. Until Mid high rank you can just keep using your LR armors.
Mid High Rank (Chapter 5)
Congrats on finally unlocking the HR G. Monsters Now be a slave to the almighty. G. Rathalos again.
Arakajan SnS has the best stats for the SnS with OFG3 than the other one so I’m putting it on the build card for now. Of course use any Offensive guard SnS you wanted to use/available.
Max Might + Divine Blessing decos is optional but if you have it is a nice extra comfy/dmg.
Max might is an extra crit when you don’t roll/perfect guard and should be treated as a bonus rather than win condition.
End High Rank (Chapter 5+) [HR40+]
Congrats on unlocking Arkveld and Gore Magala you have too many damn ways of making sets as of right now need more maths and more theorycrafting.
But I can recommend you a comfy Do-it-all set as for now.
Notes:
- With 2p G. Arkveld you can pop wounds and get HP from it.
- Gore Magala 2p give you frenzy and when you cure it will give you 15% affinity and additional 10% from antivirus 3.
Also BK and mopop (I’m just BK unpaid slave) will eventually make a guide and this might not be the best option to run but still a very comfy one.
You use Meta craftables weapon down there and adjust weapon decos accordingly.
But the priorities should be Offensive guard 3/Good skills > Crit boost 3 or 5 > Whatever else you wanted.
Max might is an extra crit when you don’t roll/perfect guard and should be treated as a bonus rather than win condition.
Note: More useful information can be found on the Goblin.tips website. Not only about effective sword and shield wielding, but also about other weapons.
List of Meta Craftables
Fire
- Rathalos: The G one is bait because you have to deal with more sharpness management. (Remember MT is like Rise: no 100%, only 80%)
Water
- Balahara if you want crits
- Xu Wu if you want more sharpness
Ice
- Jin Dahaad: Enough said about its stats
Thunder
- Ray Dau: Guardian Fulgur doesn’t really have good sharpness and enough stats to make up for it
Dragon
- Gore Magala: Do I even need to say anything compared to its competition? Lmao
Paralysis
- Lala Barina: Your only craftable and it’s really good
Poison
- Rathian: Crit Status 3, Poison Duration Up, quite long white sharpness, and nice stats overall, even if poison uptime in Wilds isn’t so great
Blast
- Arakajan: The competition is Basarios with negative affinity and not worth the trade of stats for it
Artian can beat some of these craftables, but it is unknown how much it beats as of right now.
General Element Matchups
Click to enlarge…
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