Iceborne Charge Blade Builds (PC)
Contents
Progression Builds
Endgame Physical Builds
Elemental Builds
Last Update
2/6/2020
Added Anti-rajang builds
Charge Blades worth crafting
Saber’s Maw II
For story progression. Later, you can make it into Glavenus CB.
Chrome Fortress III
Great all-purpose CB until it is replaced by Gold Rathian CB. Can use Elementless.
Dear Rosetta
Very similar to Chrome Fortress III, trading 10 raw and elementless for better slots, 10% affinity, and high poison. Later, it upgrades into Luna Eostra.
Dante’s Devil Sword+
EVENT ONLY! Stronger than Chrome Fortress III and Dear Rosetta but weaker than Luna Eostra. Can be used for progression as it can be obtained much earlier than Luna Eostra.
Royal Star Shield
EVENT ONLY! Stronger than Chrome Fortress III and Dear Rosetta but weaker than Luna Eostra. Can be used for progression as it can be obtained much earlier than Luna Eostra.
The Melting Grasp
For high phial damage builds. Can get purple sharpness but CB cannot hold it even with Master’s Touch because of sharpness loss from blocking. Can use Elementless.
Luna Eostra
This is currently the best impact charge blade. High raw, positive affinity, great sharpness, great slots. Not elementless but has very high poison. Must be MR70+ to obtain.
Ruinous Devastation
Strong with great sharpness but poor slots compared to Luna Eostra. Must be MR100+ to obtain.
Rajang Beastblade Ikazuchi
For high phial damage SAED focused builds. Must complete story to obtain.
Despot’s Thundergale
Best overall Thunder elemental CB
Deep Schnegel II
Best Ice elemental CB
Glavenus Bardred
Highest Fire Element CB
Hellsire Blade
Notes:
Lower Fire Element but higher affinity and raw than Glavenus
Deep Terroir II
Best Water elemental CB.. but pretty bad still
Deathaxe Vaal Aspida
Best Dragon elemental CB
Progression Builds
Mid-story Builds
MR 1 star, no decos
MR 3 star, no decos
MR 5 star, no decos
Post-story Builds
Chrome Fort, only R6 decos and under
Weapon alternatives: Dear Rosetta, Dante’s Devil Sword+, Royal Star Shield
Chrome Fort, only R8 decos and under
Weapon alternatives: Dear Rosetta, Dante’s Devil Sword+, Royal Star Shield
Melting Grasp, only R8 decos and under
Chrome Fort, only R10 decos and under
Weapon alternatives: Dear Rosetta, Dante’s Devil Sword+, Royal Star Shield
Melting Grasp, only R10 decos and under
Late Endgame Builds
Late Endgame: MR70 and above.
#Guard 1 Master’s Touch
Recommended Augments: Health 1, Defense 1
Flexible charm: Attack, Agitator, Slugger, Health Boost, Miasma etc.
#Guard 1 Master’s Touch (Kaiser Gamma)
Required Event Equipment: Kaiser Gamma
Recommended Augments: Health 1, Affinity 1
Loses about 80 defense and 1 Attack to gain 1 Agitator. For tryhard speedruns.
#Guard 3 Master’s Touch, Flexible Charm
Recommended Augments: Health 1, Defense 1
Flexible charm: Attack, Agitator, Slugger, Health Boost, Miasma etc.
If running Affinity augment, swap 2 or 3 of the Guardian/Expert for Guardian/Attack.
#Guard 5 Master’s Touch
Recommended Augments: Health 1, Defense 1
Flexible decorations: Challenger+
#Focusless
Recommended Augments: Health 1, Defense 1
What a build! Used by Vanov in this video: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PdCV5wmddR4
#Artillery 5, Flexible Charm
Recommended Augments: Health 1, Defense 1
Flexible charm: Attack, Agitator, Slugger, Health Boost, Miasma etc.
I include this grudgingly as many people ask about it. My opinion is that Artillery Secret is not worth the sacrifice of Master’s Touch and several skill points compared to the above builds.
#Guard 5 Artillery 5
Recommended Augments: Health 1, Defense 1
Elemental Builds
#Cookie Cutter (Master’s Touch)
Can be used with any elemental CB.
Recommended Augments: Health 1, Affinity 1, Element (fill remaining slots)
#Cookie Cutter (4 Namielle)
Can be used with any elemental CB. Recommended for SAED focused playstyle. Best with high base element weapons such as Beotodus and Vaal Hazak, post augment and custom upgrade.
Recommended Augments: Health 1, Element (fill remaining slots)
#Cookie Cutter (True Critical Element)
Can be used with any elemental CB. Recommended for Savage Axe focused playstyle.
Recommended Augments: Health 1, Affinity 1, Element (fill remaining slots)
#Anti-Rajang
Balanced build with health boost 3.
Optional substitutions: -Critical +Minds Eye, -Vitality +Geology
Cheaper variant, no set bonus but no Ironwall+ or Frost+ needed. Actually really high EFR thanks to the skill efficiency of Rajang helm and Kushala waist.
Optional substitutions: -Critical +Minds Eye, -Vitality +Geology
Max damage build (with MT) for the confident. Thanks to Rainy for this build!
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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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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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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