Iceborne Charge Blade Builds (PC)
Contents
Poverty Builds
Late Endgame Builds
Elemental Builds
Safi’Jiiva Impact Builds
Safi’Jiiva Elemental Builds
Last Update
4/8/2020
Brought page to parity with current console builds, including Raging Brachy builds. Raging Brachy releases April 9 (UTC).
Charge Blades worth crafting
Saber’s Maw II
(Progression only) Later, you can make it into Glavenus CB.
Chrome Fortress III
(Progression only) Great all-purpose CB until it is replaced by Lightbreak CB. Can use Elementless.
Dear Rosetta
(Progression only) Very similar to Chrome Fortress III, trading 10 raw and elementless for better slots, 10% affinity, and high poison.
Lightbreak Charge Blade
An incredibly strong new option which has replaced Luna Eostre and is available right after story (MR24). It actually comes extremely close to Safi’Jiiva Impact charge blades.
Despot’s Thundergale
Best Thunder elemental CB (pre-Safi)
Deep Schnegel II
Best Ice elemental CB (even after Safi)
Glavenus Bardred
Highest Fire Element CB (pre-Safi)
Hellsire Blade
Notes:
Lower Fire Element but higher affinity and raw than Glavenus
Deep Terroir II
Best Water elemental CB.. but pretty bad still (pre-Safi)
Deathaxe Vaal Aspida
Best Dragon elemental CB (pre-Safi)
Progression Builds
Mid-story Builds
MR 1 star, no decos
MR 3 star, no decos
MR 5 star, no decos
Post-story Builds
No decos
Unfortunately, you will need to farm a lot of Raging Brachydios right after story for its armor and weapon. Each armor piece also requires a mantle-quality item to create. When you get a Magazine jewel (R7), replace the helm with Raging Brachydios a+. When you get an Ironwall jewel (R7 or combination) and Charger jewel (R8 or combination), replace the waist with Raging Brachydios a+.
Only R8 decos and under
Helm can be either B+ or a+, B+ will be used more later.
Only R10 decos and under
Impact Builds
#Master’s Touch
This build does not easily fit Guard 5. If you want Guard 5 it is recommended to use the Gamma helm build or Artillery Secret build.
Build variants:
Artillery 0
#Master’s Touch (Gamma)
Requires HR Kaiser Gamma helm from Arch-tempered Teostra. Sacrifices some defense for superior slots.
Build variants:
Guard 5
Artillery 0
#Artillery Secret
Artillery 5 has been reborn and it is REALLY strong (compared to Zorah sets).
Build variants:
Guard 5
#Focusless
For Savage Axe fanatics only, dropping Focus and Artillery for pure physical damage.
Build variants:
Gamma helm
#Anti-Safi
No sharpness mitigation but Safi offers you plenty of opportunities to sharpen in battle. You can switch Mind’s Eye to Protective Polish if you find sharpness a big issue.
Build variants:
Less Offensive Guard, more Affinity
Elemental Builds
#Cookie Cutter (Master’s Touch)
Can be used with any elemental CB.
#Cookie Cutter (4 Namielle)
Only recommended for high element (base 390+). Only recommended for SAED focused playstyle. This set is replaced by Safi set.
#Cookie Cutter (True Critical Element)
Can be used with any elemental CB. Recommended for Savage Axe focused playstyle.
#Anti-Rajang
Balanced build with health boost 3.
Optional substitutions: -Critical +Minds Eye, -Vitality +Geology
Build variants:
Poverty
Gamma helm
Post-Safi
Safi’Jiiva Impact Builds
Safi FAQ
Which Safi CBs should I get?
For impact CBs, I recommend blast as the best general purpose CB. Sleep is also good for multiplayer or farming shinies in Guiding Lands. Poison feels worse than blast and paralysis takes a very long time to proc without investment into status. For elemental CBs, all but ice are best in slot for their element. Ice is beaten by Beotodus CB.
#Master’s Touch
This build does not easily fit Guard 5. If you want Guard 5 it is recommended to use the Gamma helm build or Artillery Secret build.
#Master’s Touch (Gamma helm)
Requires HR Kaiser Gamma helm from Arch-tempered Teostra. Sacrifices some defense for superior slots.
Build variants:
Guard 5
#Artillery Secret
While this looks almost identical to Lightbreak Charge Blade’s Artillery Secret build, the higher base attack from Safi with all attack awakenings provides a significant difference in phial damage.
Build variants:
Protective Polish + Item Prolonger
Guard 5
#Focusless
For Savage Axe fanatics only, dropping Focus and Artillery for pure physical damage.
Build variants:
Safi 3 + Master’s Touch + Resentment
Safi 3 + Razor Sharp + Resentment (Highest EFR)
Safi’Jiiva Elemental Builds
#Safi 5
Build variants:
Guard 5
Guard 5 (Beotodus)
Anti-Rajang (Beotodus)
Focusless
Focusless (Beotodus)
#Safi + Teo Hybrid
Sacrifices some element for the mostly infinite sharpness of Master’s Touch. Requires Teo essence so Beotodus CB cannot use this set.
Build variants:
Guard 5
Focus 0
#True Critical Element
Higher physical hits (including Savage Axe ticks) than Safi 5 (Focus 0), but lower phial damage.
#Safi + Velkhana Hybrid
Somewhere between Safi 5 and True Critical Element. A hidden contender?
Build variants:
No Protective Polish
No Protective Polish (Beotodus)
Thank you for updating your guides. This helps me a lot. U have a paypal? Id like to give few euros for ur work if u agree with it.
BR
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late reply, but I’ve added a paypal donation link to the “About” page
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Do you have any thoughts on when to take True Crit Ele vs. (2/4)-piece Namielle? I’m assuming that, broadly, True Crit Ele is better for Savage Axe to take advantage of crit-able elemental damage, while the Namielle bonus works better with ele SAED gameplay to amp phial damage, but I’m not sure. Are there any other factors that play into it—the CB’s elemental value, monster hitzone values, etc?
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If its okay I shime in to help a bit:
Your assumption is right, Namielle works better with SAED. Overall the SAED got nerfed hard for Iceborne, like really hard while Savage Axe mode crushes pretty hard with the right setup and true crit. Element.
Pay attention to this sentence he wrote under the 4-piece Namielle picture as well: “Can be used with any elemental CB. Only recommended for high base element weapons such as Beotodus and Vaal Hazak, post augment and custom upgrade.”
I don’t even bother to farm the Namielle set or SAEDs anymore.
You can try out hitting the pole in the training area to get a feeling how much SAED got nerfed in comparison to Savage Axe mode. My friend and me tried it, we got like 900-1100 Damage SAED for full 6 philes.
With Savage Axe mode you are usually able to deplete 4 philes, after that a Monster usually gets back on its feet and you gotta transform to Sword and Shield form. Damage was in the thousands, literally double and more. Important note: You need to tenderize the monster for this quite a bit.
Hope that helped a bit.
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did you pull that out of your arse
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What is the correct way to play CB if I want to maximise DPS: Savage axe or SAED spam?
From what I understand, savage axe is the way to go for impact CBs. What about elemental CBs?
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Oh wait, I just saw the new section about this, nvm lol
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Hey so Im doing custom upgrades to Beo CB but I dont know what the Ratholos mod elemental needs, i have the Scales and tempered scales from guiding lands but its still ????, not sure what it is, figured you would know and yeah ive hunted for mats outside guiding lands still not sure what the hell it is
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Nevermind, THe game never registered my King scale so it said I never had unlocked it but I did use it on something else so yeah great game
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Hi, thx for all this information really help me, any ideas for the augmentation slots?
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Love your guide! It would be awesome if you could include a good build for guiding lands farming.
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Take any of the raw builds and swap in 1 Geologist, that’s all you really need. Can slot in partbreaker if you really want to, but probably don’t need it.
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Simple enough! Thanks.
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which are the raw builds?
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Which patch (if any) is going to fix the Geologist bug? The Safi patch?
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@Salacavalini it has so far never been patched, I think they are leaving in the game on purpose
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Whats the Geologist bug?
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how do you put health1 and defense1 on luna cb? i can only put one.
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slot upgrade
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sorry, i mistyped — the upgrade is called ‘extra slots 1’ which will give you another augment slot to put in defense 1
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Which post-story build would you recommend for flexible charm? Maybe this one https://mhwbuilds.files.wordpress.com/2020/01/progression-chromefort-r8-1.png?w=1000 ? Would removing the charger charm to something else (defensive charm) cause a big damage drop?
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that one is totally fine to change the charm to something else, you lose a little attack and affinity
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Hey! Been using your guides for a while which helped me with progession, what’s your opinion on Inescapable Karma build for Non-Ele? Is it worthy to use do to Purple Sharpess than The Melting Grasp with Masters Touch? Thanks a bunch!
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I was wondering if there was a build for using Gold Rath set with the Luna Eostre.
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Hello Capcom just released the Buff Body armor in PC version.. I want use it with CB.
What do you think about this build? (full Buff Body + Rajang Helm B+) if you will change some skill what will you use?
weapon is Luna Eostre (Health, elemental and def augments)
(removed images)
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after you see… delete the images/comment please
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I think if you want to do no focus (savage axe build) you wouldn’t use artillery. This build seems better
link
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Thank you for the help, but my build is good for SAED playstyle?
Please delete my comment with the pictures now.
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focus 3 is required for saed playstyle, and I would use damascus chest for most builds with focus 3
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Super guide thank you !
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What do you think about dragon CB vs Safi primarily using Savage for ES procs?
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Hmm, I’m seeing some conflicting reports about how resentment interacts with the healing augment for the Safi armor builds.It seems that Resentment actually takes a little time to actually trigger, which means that it misses the hit that caused you to lose life, but is gone from the healing by the time you start your next attack.
In training room, doing a 10-12 hit sequence ten times with resenment gear and ten times without resentment seems to give the exact same damage output.
Or is the whole point to whiff a couple attacks (which make you lose life without healing) to trigger resentment and then go to town ? It means you would still have to re-trigger resentment after each Safi armor heal proc which doesn’t sound optimal compared to just using straight up attack (or affinity/elemental) augments.
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similar thread on the console build page: https://mhwbuilds.net/charge-blade/comment-page-10/#comment-1490
in general I would opt to not use regen augment if you have resentment (I will fix the builds some time). Even if you space perfectly to trigger resentment on your attacks, it won’t trigger on savage ticks.
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Hi,
I noticed all your impact builds have artillery showing it’s mainly for SAED playstyle. Does impact not do well with savage axe?
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