Monster Hunter Wilds – Hunting Horn: Hardcore DPS 100% Affinity Build

HH “Dragon’s Durge” DPS 100% Affinity Build

Ву Sinclair.

This is a hardcore DPS Hunting Horn build with a heavy emphasis on breaking wounds with Focus Strikes. It provides Damage Up (L), Defense Up (L), a strong self-heal on wound break, bonus damage to successful Focus Strikes, and 100% Affinity when hitting wounds, or 90% otherwise.

The two foundational skills to this build are Partbreaker which gives +30% damage to successful Focus Strikes, and Decimator I which heals 15% on wound break (or alternatively 20% if you replace the Protection Jewels with Medicine Jewels). G. Resounding Galahad is one of only a small handful of Hunting Horns that can crit with Echo Waves, and this fact paired with its excellent song list, make it the obvious choice for a 100% Affinity build.

To reach max Affinity this uses Maximum Might 3, Weakness Exploit 3, Frenzy + Antivirus, and the Corrupted Mantle. Anything above Weakness Exploit 3 goes above 100% Affinity when hitting wounds.

Bear in mind this does not provide Earplugs. You could run Grudgesounder Urga as your backup weapon and swap to it for emergency heals and to keep Earplugs up, or play with a dedicated support HH player with the Grudgesounder Urga, which pairs well with high Affinity builds.

Dragon’s Durge

Playstyle

Focus Strike every Wound you can, as fast as you can. You deal bonus damage to them, and heal 15% every time. The HH Wound break animation is also quite long, so there’s a decent chance your allies can strike the same wound too. Spam Echo Waves and Resounding Melody.

Gear

G. Resounding Galahad

• Handicraft Jewel III [3]
• Critical Jewel III [3]
• Handicraft Jewel [1]

G. Arkveld Helm β

• Flayer Jewel [3]
• Brace Jewel [1]

Arkvulkan Mail β (The non-Guardian variant)

• Flayer Jewel [3]
• Mighty Jewel [2]

G. Arkveld Vambraces β

• Protection Jewel [1]
• Protection Jewel [1]
• Protection Jewel [1]

Gore Coil β

• Mighty Jewel [2] (In a T3 slot)
• Mighty Jewel [2]

Gore Greaves β

• Chain Jewel [3]
• Sane Jewel [1]
• Sane Jewel [1]

Breaker Charm II

Corrupted Mantle (+30% Affinity after continually attacking)

Provided Skills

• Critical Boost 3
• Weakness Exploit 3 (higher goes above 100% affinity)
• Burst 1
• Black Eclipse I
• Antivirus 3
• Horn Maestro 2
• Flinch Free 2
• Constitution 2

Gameplay Tips

• G. Resounding Galahad can crit with its Echo Waves. This makes them all the more valuable to spam.
• Echo Bubbles don’t typically benefit from damage boost skills. I.E. while they do generate wounds, they don’t benefit from Flayer, and while they can activate burst, they do not benefit from its stat bonus.
• Echo bubbles can generate separate wounds if they damage separate locations, so make sure they don’t overlap too much.

Synergy with Other HH

• Grudgesounder Urga: No changes.
• Gramklang: Switch Mighty Jewel in T3 slot to Flayer Jewel.
• War Conga: Switch Mighty Jewel in T3 slot to Flayer Jewel, switch remaining Mighty Jewels with Destroyer Jewels, switch Talisman to Chainblade Charm II.
• Both: Sure, I guess! You’ll be at ~110% Affinity when your Mantle is fully active but hey, it’s not always active. You’ll be at 100% Affinity even more consistently.