These are my two most used builds currently. The Devastation’s Thorns build puts out very high DPS and is great for farming Elder Dragons with the high Elderseal that it has. The Dante’s Sword build puts out solid DPS, but more importantly, looks unique and awesome. It is important to add that both Charge Blades are augmented to have Health Regen because that is in incredible augmentation. I will typically always use Health Regen on my charge blades and if there’s an extra augment slot, I will use Affinity Boost because Attack Boost doesn’t change as much at the damage levels of most Charge Blades. I also use layered armor because the mixed set looks a little ridiculous, but have it off for the screenshots so the specific armor can seen.

Devastation’s Thorns

The Devastation’s Thorns is the final Nergigante tree weapon for the Charge Blade. The Nergigante weapons are all pretty powerful and competent and work well for high DPS in builds. Devastation’s Thorns is one of my favorite Charge Blades to use, and it is currently a part of my best build. With this build, I was able to out DPS my Diablos Tyrannis Charge Blade build. I plan to go back and rework the Diablos Tyrannis build before posting it, because with the new gamma armors, I can definitely make changes and it should come out higher than this Devastation’s build.





Devastation’s Thorns is one of the higher damage Charge Blades and comes with 150 Dragon element and High Elderseal. Dragon is not useful against every monster, but it doesn’t necessarily hurt to have. Elderseal is good to have against Elder Dragons only, but having High Elderseal can really help make the Elder Dragons easier to deal with. Thorns also has a sizeable chunk of blue sharpness that can’t be increased with Handicraft. Most fights, unless you keep the monster from leaving the area, you don’t need to sharpen during the fight. I will typically sharpen before reengaging. This Charge Blade is also an Impact Phial type, which I think is the best — the reasoning for this is that I think the elemental SAED is hard to hit with every hit and I believe Elemental Phial Charge Blades require a different playstyle that doesn’t rely on SAEDs. The Impact Phial Charge blades will also knockout the monsters when the phials are unleashed on the head — which allows for solid DPS phases.

This build gets the high DPS from boosting affinity. The point is to always be hitting a weak point on the monster in order to activate weakness exploit. To help increase the affinity boost, I use Maximum Might because typically, by the time you are hitting the bigger attacks, your stamina is full and gives you an extra bit of affinity. Attack Boost level 4 grants an additional 5% affinity as well. To get to Weakness Exploit level 3, I use two Weakness Exploit gems. An alternative is using the Dragonking eyepatch to get level two and either just use level two, or pair it with the Kaiser hands to get level 3. With that set up, you will have extra high level decoration slots too. Overall, while attacking a weak point, having maximum stamina and the boost from Attack Boost gives a 75% chance to critically hit. It is important to note that phial damage cannot critically hit, so land the axe hit of SAEDs to really take advantage of the high affinity. I use the Artillery Charm with all Charge Blades currently because it opens up a lot of skill opportunities with the armor. Artillery also translates into very big DPS increases over time with SAEDs. I use Critical Boost level one because it will boost the damage of any critical hits. Capacity boost comes from the boots and the purpose of that skill is to add an extra phial — which translates into longer time with a charged shield and bigger hits from SAEDs. Vitality is mostly just filler decorations because I don’t have any other level 1 decorations that I would prefer here.

If I were to make changes, I would use a Capacity Boost decoration and replace the legs. I can’t get one to drop, so I continue to use the legs. Focus is a useful skill to have for Charge Blades because it will keep you from having to recharge the shield as often and allow use to use the phials more often because of that. I would also probably replace Vitality decorations with Attack Boost just for a little extra DPS. If you have trouble staying alive and the extra health helps, the Vitality decorations definitely are useful and more Attack Boost won’t add so much DPS that it is necessary.

Dante’s Sword

Dante’s Sword is one of the event Charge Blades and in my opinion, one of the coolest Charge Blades. The sword comes from Devil May Cry and just looks awesome. It doesn’t have the big shield part and instead uses a magical “aura,” if you will, as a shield and also to turn it from sword to axe mode. The sword is fun to use and makes a lot of outfits look really cool with just a big magical sword on your back.

This build doesn’t put out massive DPS, but definitely puts out enough to finish hunts fairly quickly, while feeling awesome at the same time. It also has a lot of decoration slots for lots of customization. Dante’s Sword is a competent Charge Blade. This sword comes with no natural affinity, but does come with 150 thunder element. Thunder is not useful against everything and some monsters resist it slightly, so decide before the hunt if it is worth looking cool and taking a little longer to kill the monster or if you would rather take a different build into the hunt. Dante’s Sword has a very large chunk of blue sharpness that can be increased with Handicraft, but it won’t ever get to white sharpness, so I don’t think Handicraft is worth it here. There is more than enough blue sharpness to get through any encounter and sharpening before reengaging will keep you in the blue. Dante’s Sword is also an Impact Phial Charge Blade so release those SAEDs all over the monsters and aim for the head.

For skills, I suggest a minimum of Attack Boost 4 because of the affinity boost. Weakness Exploit 2 or 3 depending on gems and armor. Again, I always use Artillery 3 because of the huge boost to phial damage. I once again focus on affinity percentage being high to get some extra DPS out of the Charge Blade. I will note again, phial damage cannot critically hit, so make sure to land the axe hits when releasing a SAED. I actually use Focus on this build instead of Capacity Boost — largely just as a way to give Focus a feel and decide which version I like more. Both Focus and Capacity Boost have their merits, and both feel great on Charge Blades. When I finally get a Capacity Boost decoration, I will be using both on as many builds as I can. Maximum Might again is used in the same manner and having full stamina by the time I am doing big attacks. The Vitality and Expert decorations are there just for extra flavor. Vitality is always useful because it keeps you alive and the Expert decorations are because there are only so many 1 slot decorations worth using in this build and they translate into more DPS. The Critical Jewels boost the amount of damage a critical hit inflicts, so those are there to take advantage of the high affinity as well. The Medicine decoration is just to add a little extra survivability.

If I were to make any changes, I would add Attack Boost gems and take away expert and vitality gems evenly. I would like to add Capacity Boost to the build as well to get the extra phial. If I were to make it a build to take advantage of the thunder damage, I would add some Thunder decorations as well. Other than that, I am pretty happy with the build and it is pretty fun to use.

Those are my two most used builds at this time and I will definitely be working on more Charge Blade builds. I have a few other builds for other weapons too that I will polish up and get out for everyone to see. I will be putting out more Monster Hunter content so give us a follow here, on Twitter @pulling_aggo, or follow me directly on Twitter @TheRealXG.