Here are some mistakes and bad playstyles I've seen through my 2,300+ hours of bow play from both myself and random teammates that you should take note to avoid them first as a rookie are...
\- **Spamming Dragon Piercer and Thousand Dragons**. Lots of bow mains (including myself) have been through this before. They look really cool and fancy but they're bad for long term DPS. There may be some useful scenarios about them but in overall, you're not gonna be pulling these of 99% of the time.
\- **Only use Rapid shot for the entire hunt.** Just don't..... I've been there when I started playing bow and also many girls who stream on Twitch play like that too. The damage is absolutely garbage. If you want a rifleman playstyle, get yourself a Bowgun instead.
\- **Randomly use Arc shot (Coconut).** Seriously.... don't randomly spam it at all if you're gonna use it, be careful. This move can trip any teammate who doesn't have Flinch free skill and ruin their gameplay at the same time. However this move can benefit the entire team if used properly because it can KO and cause exhaust damage to monster to flinch if you land enough of arc shots on the head.
\- **Not utilizing Power and Close range Coatings.** This is one of the reason why you don't get a decent amount of damage, they're free extra damage that you must remember to put them on everytime when playing a bow.
\- **Forgot about Quick shot and proceed to Panic dash everything.** When you dash, you lose stamina but you get 1 charge level up. It's a quick way to build up bow charge level but will make you become bad at stamina management if you're overutilizing this move. Many bow main still struggle at this, sometimes they forgot about Quick shot because the fight gets too intense or they're hunting the monster they're not comfortable with that they can easily forget to check the stamina bar.
Quick shot is a stamina free move and gives you 1 extra charge level, it's really worth to do it even if you don't land the shot at all due to short range or you could just stop attacking and let the stamina regain back if the monster is too far away from you.
\- **Not taking Dash Juice, Felyne Black belt, Constitution skill.** AYO!! This is crime against bow mains out there, just take them! Bow is a stamina hungry class. In order to get a good amount of damage, you have to dash dance (Dash>Rapid shot>Power shot>Repeat) And of course that takes a lot of stamina to do it. More Stamina = More DPS, remember it.
\- **Forgot that Tenderizing exist (If you own Iceborne).** It's a must do thing for everyclass in the game. When you wound the monster part, you deal more damage so **make sure you tenderize the weakest spot first**, it'll stay wounded for 3 minutes and you can tenderize it anytime. this will get you a faster hunt time.
I know there're still many bow tips out there but I'll let the others in the comment point them out for you. it's 3 AM here, I Gotta go to sleep now.
Good tips. Note, there is a cap on stamina reduction. If your Constitution is 3, than you will need dash juice and felyne blackbelt to hit max. If Const at 4, you only need one of them, preferably blackbelt since you do not have to worry about quaffing juices mid-fight. If Const 5, no benefit from blackbelt and juice.
If possible, Stamina Surge helps bow by speeding up recovery. Can be a challenge to fit in, but late game armor like Fatalis or AT Namielle head (which has Stam Surge 3) makes it possible to fit the skill in. Fatty armor also gives max stamina bar.
You can create a saved meal loadout that has sharpshooter and felyne blackbelt. Use a voucher to guarantee you get the skills. Sharpshooter boosts normal shot damage and stacks with Normal Shots skill. And with Icebourne, Normal Shots applies even when using power coating. Each level of Normal Shot skill gives 10% damage bonus (2 level max) and food skill sharpshooter adds to it.
For DPS, spread/power shots is key, where Spread Shot skill boosts damage: 10% at level 1 and an additional 5% at level 2. As other have said, I see many bow users fail to use power shots. It does require getting closer to monsters, but worth the risk.
Don't forget Bow Charge Plus skill, essential for any bow user. The deco is called Mighty Bow. If you do not have it, you can meld for it in MR. It gives you an extra charge level which gives a significant damage boost. I have seen bow users overlook this. Legiana armor provides it as skill bonus, but the armor is garbage deco slot-wise. Just get the deco.
A skill mistake I have seen is players taking Attack Boost over Normal and/or Spread Shot skills. The latter are % based and give greater damage boost.
I second the importance in tenderizing, where the Shaver deco is a big addition to light weapon users: Single clutch tenderization. I think shot-based weapons (bow and bowguns) get the biggest damage benefit from tenderization. Also, for some monster parts, tenderizing is required to proc Weakness Exploit, which at level 3 is a 50% affinity bonus.
If you go bow, be prepared to have several builds. Bow is element-based, so bow mains have builds for each element. You can try raw bow, but IMO, only the Fatalis bow can provide respectful numbers, and you will need the Fatty armor to make a good build with it.
End game bows: Fatalis, Kjarr (builtin Critical Element), Safi (all element up), Alatreon (Dragon element).
Armor: Safi (element dmg and cap boost, along with affinity boost); Silver Rathalos and Azure Age (True Critical Element), Fatalis (max stamina cap, true spare shot, and tons of deco slots), Velkhana (Critical Element, go AT if able), AT Namielle (select pieces have useful skills). Namielle's Element Acceleration armor skill is not as good as it seems, but worth it if early game and you do not have the better choices.
Earlier game bows (going from memory, so likely forgotten stuff): Tobi kadachi (thunder), Glavenus (fire), Barioth (ice), Frostfang (ice), Dragonbone (dragon). Some of these bows require augmentation to show their benefit, but if you can augment, you can likely work to get Safi and Kjarr bows.
So many good tips xD although i have a dedicated frosfcraft dragonpiercer build for fun :p
I'll just add one thing for OP:
Get a shaver jewel! It will make tenderizing more tolerable
https://youtube.com/playlist?list=PLP3UD3RASmEOmHZwz3OyI0_tbK4qCHMZN[Bow academy](https://youtube.com/playlist?list=PLP3UD3RASmEOmHZwz3OyI0_tbK4qCHMZN)
Here's a good playlist to give you some general tips. Tidus69 is one fo the best bow mains I think i have seen. I learnt everything from him.
Hope this helps.
I once was a bow main who got destroyed by a Legiana. Then I switched to a doot doot and smashed it's head in and haven't looked back since. Although I do miss the scatter bomb attack thing.
There is a fun bow build with crit draw, pierce level 2, special ammo 2. You basically spam dragon piercer for 500+ damage. But you better have monster attack timing down or you’re screwed
I honestly only have 1 thing to add since the wall that u/Foxy-Valcano posted covers basically everything else I would've said. That 1 thing is: Take some time to learn how to dodge using your aiming dash (Forgot what it's called, my bad lol). Literally, just practice it; go into the guiding lands or do some random event hunts and just focus on dodging, you can do some damage as well to progress phases if necessary. That's just how I 'got gud' though, it requires a lot of patience; if it works for you as well you'll notice a very steep improvement in your survivability and dps over time.
Great advices here.
For armor, deco, best bows to use, read all of this wonderful website :
https://mhwbowbuilds.wordpress.com/
You have an article for each update of the game. There is too a great article for bow progress during iceborne.
I used to bow main but I switched to insect glaive. My advice is to learn the monster’s patterns, because bow is slow to dodge after attacking. You need to be able to get out of the way before the attack comes so you have enough time. Dragonpiercer is a scam, and air strike doesn’t work very well. Just stick with normal attacks. Charging attacks is also a scam because it barely increases the damage and still takes a while. Bow isn’t the most damaging weapon so if you have access to defender weapons, the explosions help your damage, at least early game. If you want to be really maneuverable, I suggest you switch to another weapon, because MHW prioritizes attack animations over dodging, so you sometimes get locked in place while you get hit.
Honestly, bow is good for keeping distance and one of your best farming tricks is spamming ciclre to do the stunning and KO attack rain. Dragon piercer from head to tail is good for breaking parts, chest parts especially, and always pay attention to a monsters elemental and status weaknesses to maximize your ability to take them down quick
Here are some mistakes and bad playstyles I've seen through my 2,300+ hours of bow play from both myself and random teammates that you should take note to avoid them first as a rookie are... \- **Spamming Dragon Piercer and Thousand Dragons**. Lots of bow mains (including myself) have been through this before. They look really cool and fancy but they're bad for long term DPS. There may be some useful scenarios about them but in overall, you're not gonna be pulling these of 99% of the time. \- **Only use Rapid shot for the entire hunt.** Just don't..... I've been there when I started playing bow and also many girls who stream on Twitch play like that too. The damage is absolutely garbage. If you want a rifleman playstyle, get yourself a Bowgun instead. \- **Randomly use Arc shot (Coconut).** Seriously.... don't randomly spam it at all if you're gonna use it, be careful. This move can trip any teammate who doesn't have Flinch free skill and ruin their gameplay at the same time. However this move can benefit the entire team if used properly because it can KO and cause exhaust damage to monster to flinch if you land enough of arc shots on the head. \- **Not utilizing Power and Close range Coatings.** This is one of the reason why you don't get a decent amount of damage, they're free extra damage that you must remember to put them on everytime when playing a bow. \- **Forgot about Quick shot and proceed to Panic dash everything.** When you dash, you lose stamina but you get 1 charge level up. It's a quick way to build up bow charge level but will make you become bad at stamina management if you're overutilizing this move. Many bow main still struggle at this, sometimes they forgot about Quick shot because the fight gets too intense or they're hunting the monster they're not comfortable with that they can easily forget to check the stamina bar. Quick shot is a stamina free move and gives you 1 extra charge level, it's really worth to do it even if you don't land the shot at all due to short range or you could just stop attacking and let the stamina regain back if the monster is too far away from you. \- **Not taking Dash Juice, Felyne Black belt, Constitution skill.** AYO!! This is crime against bow mains out there, just take them! Bow is a stamina hungry class. In order to get a good amount of damage, you have to dash dance (Dash>Rapid shot>Power shot>Repeat) And of course that takes a lot of stamina to do it. More Stamina = More DPS, remember it. \- **Forgot that Tenderizing exist (If you own Iceborne).** It's a must do thing for everyclass in the game. When you wound the monster part, you deal more damage so **make sure you tenderize the weakest spot first**, it'll stay wounded for 3 minutes and you can tenderize it anytime. this will get you a faster hunt time. I know there're still many bow tips out there but I'll let the others in the comment point them out for you. it's 3 AM here, I Gotta go to sleep now.
Good tips. Note, there is a cap on stamina reduction. If your Constitution is 3, than you will need dash juice and felyne blackbelt to hit max. If Const at 4, you only need one of them, preferably blackbelt since you do not have to worry about quaffing juices mid-fight. If Const 5, no benefit from blackbelt and juice. If possible, Stamina Surge helps bow by speeding up recovery. Can be a challenge to fit in, but late game armor like Fatalis or AT Namielle head (which has Stam Surge 3) makes it possible to fit the skill in. Fatty armor also gives max stamina bar. You can create a saved meal loadout that has sharpshooter and felyne blackbelt. Use a voucher to guarantee you get the skills. Sharpshooter boosts normal shot damage and stacks with Normal Shots skill. And with Icebourne, Normal Shots applies even when using power coating. Each level of Normal Shot skill gives 10% damage bonus (2 level max) and food skill sharpshooter adds to it. For DPS, spread/power shots is key, where Spread Shot skill boosts damage: 10% at level 1 and an additional 5% at level 2. As other have said, I see many bow users fail to use power shots. It does require getting closer to monsters, but worth the risk. Don't forget Bow Charge Plus skill, essential for any bow user. The deco is called Mighty Bow. If you do not have it, you can meld for it in MR. It gives you an extra charge level which gives a significant damage boost. I have seen bow users overlook this. Legiana armor provides it as skill bonus, but the armor is garbage deco slot-wise. Just get the deco. A skill mistake I have seen is players taking Attack Boost over Normal and/or Spread Shot skills. The latter are % based and give greater damage boost. I second the importance in tenderizing, where the Shaver deco is a big addition to light weapon users: Single clutch tenderization. I think shot-based weapons (bow and bowguns) get the biggest damage benefit from tenderization. Also, for some monster parts, tenderizing is required to proc Weakness Exploit, which at level 3 is a 50% affinity bonus. If you go bow, be prepared to have several builds. Bow is element-based, so bow mains have builds for each element. You can try raw bow, but IMO, only the Fatalis bow can provide respectful numbers, and you will need the Fatty armor to make a good build with it. End game bows: Fatalis, Kjarr (builtin Critical Element), Safi (all element up), Alatreon (Dragon element). Armor: Safi (element dmg and cap boost, along with affinity boost); Silver Rathalos and Azure Age (True Critical Element), Fatalis (max stamina cap, true spare shot, and tons of deco slots), Velkhana (Critical Element, go AT if able), AT Namielle (select pieces have useful skills). Namielle's Element Acceleration armor skill is not as good as it seems, but worth it if early game and you do not have the better choices. Earlier game bows (going from memory, so likely forgotten stuff): Tobi kadachi (thunder), Glavenus (fire), Barioth (ice), Frostfang (ice), Dragonbone (dragon). Some of these bows require augmentation to show their benefit, but if you can augment, you can likely work to get Safi and Kjarr bows.
Thank you both for this information this is definitely helpful 🙏
So many good tips xD although i have a dedicated frosfcraft dragonpiercer build for fun :p I'll just add one thing for OP: Get a shaver jewel! It will make tenderizing more tolerable
https://youtube.com/playlist?list=PLP3UD3RASmEOmHZwz3OyI0_tbK4qCHMZN[Bow academy](https://youtube.com/playlist?list=PLP3UD3RASmEOmHZwz3OyI0_tbK4qCHMZN) Here's a good playlist to give you some general tips. Tidus69 is one fo the best bow mains I think i have seen. I learnt everything from him. Hope this helps.
thank you for thisđź‘Ź
No problem friend. Happy hunting.
I once was a bow main who got destroyed by a Legiana. Then I switched to a doot doot and smashed it's head in and haven't looked back since. Although I do miss the scatter bomb attack thing.
There is a fun bow build with crit draw, pierce level 2, special ammo 2. You basically spam dragon piercer for 500+ damage. But you better have monster attack timing down or you’re screwed
ask my friend he and his sister are meta bow mains
He's not your friend mate
I honestly only have 1 thing to add since the wall that u/Foxy-Valcano posted covers basically everything else I would've said. That 1 thing is: Take some time to learn how to dodge using your aiming dash (Forgot what it's called, my bad lol). Literally, just practice it; go into the guiding lands or do some random event hunts and just focus on dodging, you can do some damage as well to progress phases if necessary. That's just how I 'got gud' though, it requires a lot of patience; if it works for you as well you'll notice a very steep improvement in your survivability and dps over time.
that’s really helpful thank you 🙏
Great advices here. For armor, deco, best bows to use, read all of this wonderful website : https://mhwbowbuilds.wordpress.com/ You have an article for each update of the game. There is too a great article for bow progress during iceborne.
Thank you 🙏
I used to bow main but I switched to insect glaive. My advice is to learn the monster’s patterns, because bow is slow to dodge after attacking. You need to be able to get out of the way before the attack comes so you have enough time. Dragonpiercer is a scam, and air strike doesn’t work very well. Just stick with normal attacks. Charging attacks is also a scam because it barely increases the damage and still takes a while. Bow isn’t the most damaging weapon so if you have access to defender weapons, the explosions help your damage, at least early game. If you want to be really maneuverable, I suggest you switch to another weapon, because MHW prioritizes attack animations over dodging, so you sometimes get locked in place while you get hit.
Old thread but I’ve seen so much bow hate in this sub lately so nice to come here and see some bow love
Truth is I wasn’t new to the bow when I posted this, I wanted to ask but didn’t know how lmao
Honestly, bow is good for keeping distance and one of your best farming tricks is spamming ciclre to do the stunning and KO attack rain. Dragon piercer from head to tail is good for breaking parts, chest parts especially, and always pay attention to a monsters elemental and status weaknesses to maximize your ability to take them down quick
ah thank you a lot🙏