Hunting Horn builds in Monster Hunter Wilds will likely prioritize a balance of offensive power, support capabilities, and personal survivability. The core aim is to maintain crucial buffs for the team while contributing significantly to damage output and monster incapacitation.
Core Hunting Horn Playstyle
Focus on an aggressive support style. Weave attacks with song recitals seamlessly. Prioritize positioning to hit monster weak spots while ensuring your melodies reach your teammates. Understanding monster attack patterns is key to finding openings for longer song performances.
Essential Skills for Hunting Horn
- Horn Maestro: This will almost certainly be a staple, increasing song effect durations and potentially performance speed or power. Max this out.
- Attack Boost: A fundamental skill for increasing raw damage output.
- Weakness Exploit: Capitalizes on hitting monster weak spots, significantly boosting damage.
- Critical Eye & Critical Boost: Core skills for any critical hit focused build, increasing affinity and critical damage respectively.
- Slugger: Enhances the Hunting Horn's ability to inflict stun damage, leading to more knockouts.
- Evade Window / Evade Extender: Improves defensive capabilities by increasing invincibility frames during dodges or the distance covered. Essential for repositioning and avoiding damage.
- Handicraft / Protective Polish / Master's Touch: Sharpness management will be crucial. Handicraft increases the sharpness gauge, Protective Polish temporarily prevents sharpness loss, and Master's Touch prevents sharpness loss on critical hits.
- Partbreaker: Useful for breaking monster parts more easily, potentially creating more openings or yielding more rewards.
Weapon Considerations
Raw Damage vs. Elemental/Status: High raw damage horns are generally preferred for overall consistency. However, elemental horns can be very effective against monsters with specific weaknesses, and status horns (Paralysis, Sleep, Poison) can provide significant utility.
Song List: This is paramount. Look for horns with impactful songs such as:
- Attack Up (S/L/XL)
- Defense Up (S/L/XL)
- Affinity Up
- Health Recovery (S/L) / Health Boost
- Earplugs (L)
- Stamina Use Reduced / Stamina Recovery Up
- Ailment Negation / Specific Elemental Resistance Up
Sharpness: Aim for horns with good natural sharpness (e.g., white or purple, depending on the game's meta) or those that can reach it easily with Handicraft.
Armor Set Priorities
Skill Synergy: Choose armor pieces that provide the essential skills listed above. Mixed sets are often optimal for maximizing desired skills.
Decoration Slots: Armor with ample decoration slots offers flexibility to customize your build further and slot in any missing skills or comfort skills.
Set Bonuses: Some armor sets may offer powerful unique bonuses when multiple pieces are worn. Evaluate these based on their utility for the Hunting Horn.
Melody Prioritization During Hunts
Initial Buffs: Start with foundational buffs like Attack Up, Defense Up, and any relevant stamina or health songs at the beginning of the hunt and reapply as needed.
Reactive Buffs: Use songs like Health Recovery in response to team damage or Earplugs just before a monster's roar.
Offensive Melodies: Keep offensive buffs like Attack Up and Affinity Up active as much as possible. Impact Echo Waves or similar damage-dealing songs should be used when openings allow.
Situational Songs: Ailment negation or elemental resistance songs should be prioritized against monsters that heavily rely on those mechanics.
Building an effective Hunting Horn set involves understanding the monster you are facing and the needs of your team, adapting your skills and song choices accordingly.
