Patch 13.50a
Return of the Kulve Taroth
KT is back and back with vengence. Sweeping out almost all the Safi bows and completely redefining the meta game.
With the 3-4 variations per build depending on match ups, get ready for a wild ride!
Meta Overview:
There will be 5 iterations of Bow builds with the introduction of MR KT Bows.
1. Kjarr bow + Safi 3 piece + Raging Brachy 2 piece. (Power Build)
2. Kjarr bow + Safi 5 piece
3. Taroth/Safi bow + Silver Rathalos (TCE) 4 piece
4. Taroth/Safi bow + Safi 3piece + Velkhana 2 piece.
5. Blast builds: Raging Brachy bow + Safi 3 Piece + Raging 2 piece
(Alternatively, Shatterbow builds)
Tidus, a friendly speedrunner have made a summary over this topic in his video, check it out if you want to spare the troubles of reading.
Overall, Kjarr Bows + Safi 5 piece has increased damage by roughly 2-3% across the board over Safi bows + TCE.
Kjarr bows using the Safi 3 + Raging Brachy 2, also known as the “Power” set up, will best Kjarr + Safi 5 by roughly 1-2%, totalling an improvement of 4-5% over the past meta numerically.
Taroth Bows will often match Safi Bows in performance and sometimes surpass them based on the matchups and the build variations.
Table of Contents
Fire Builds
Con2 Meta Set
Con3 Meta Set
Taroth Fire Set
Fire Builds
Never in my wildest dreams have I dreamt of the day where Hellbow and the Silver Rathalos Alpha set get dethroned.
Kjarr King finally owns its rightful place as the best fire bow after being oppressed by a bow with mad stats made from a fire breathing dinosaur.
Con2 Meta Fire: Kjarr King “Power” Build
In this album, I will reference the Safi 3 piece + Brachy 2 piece builds as “Power” builds.
Con2/ss1 “Power” Build
Honey Hunter build ID
These Power builds will focuses purely on numerically maximum damage on hit.
However, the requirements of high agitator uptime and only stamina surge 1 will restrict its practical performance.
Whether you prefer this build or the Safi 5 sets will depend on your in-game performance and preference.
Kjarr King: Safi 5 Build
The Safi 5 builds made of Kjarr bows + Safi 5 piece will offer more stamina management skills and less agitator reliance at the cost of 1-2% dps per arrow.
This is recommended as a general purpose set for its overall balanced performance.
Con3 Meta: Kjarr King Safi 5 Set
Due to how close Power and Safi 5 were in terms of performance, and the restrictions posed by the deco slots.
The Con3 variation of the power build lost due to having to cut major dps skills.
Con3/ss1 Build
Honey Hunter build ID
Con3/ss2 Power Build
Honey Hunter build ID
Like previously mentioned, this set won’t out damage the one above but supports stamina surge 2.
Taroth Arrow Fire Builds
Although Kjarr King dominates from a meta perspective.
Taroth Arrow Fire is still a very good bow and the best against Namielle with its highest elemental damage value.
Con2/ss2 Build
Honey Hunter build ID
Con3/ss2 Build
Honey Hunter build ID
Note:
When comparing performances in non-namielle match ups.
The con2 variation beats Safi Hellbow but the con3 variation does not.
However kjarr fire is best for non-Nami.
Water Builds
Unfortunately, due to Kjarr Water not supporting power coatings, it’s performance lags behind the Safi Aquabow.
However, Kjarr Water is still a solid bow and recommended for a more casual audience.
Con1 and Con3 Water Meta: Safi Aquabow
Safi Aquabow slightly outperforms Kjarr due to having the advantage of power coatings.
Kjarr Water
The Kjarr Water bow is still very competitive since it bests Safi Aquabow with close coatings after power coatings.
The break even point is around 90 shot (20 shots after power coating) and therefore is better against anything that takes more than 90 shots to kill, hence more casual friendly.
Con2/ss2 Safi 5 Build
Honey Hunter build ID
Con3/ss1 Safi 5 Build
Honey Hunter build ID
There won’t be a “Power” set for Kjarr Water due to how elementally skewed the bow’s damage components are, and the overall hit zone value of the water weak monsters.
Dragon Builds
Dragon is pretty irrelevant but here’s a build for it anyways.
Con2 Meta Dragon: Kjarr Decay “Power” Set
Highest damage numerically for con2 builds.
Con2/ss1 “Power” Build
Honey Hunter build ID
Kjarr Decay: Safi 5 Set
Con2/ss2 Build
Honey Hunter build ID
The Safi 5 sets made of Kjarr bows + Safi 5 piece will offer more stamina management skills and less agitator reliance at the cost of 1-2% dps per arrow.
This is recommended as a general purpose set for its overall balanced performance.
Con3 Meta: Kjarr Decay Safi 5 Set
Due to the close proximity in performance between the 2 builds and the tightness of the power build.
The Con3 variation of the power build loses due to having to cut dps skills.
Con3/ss1 Build
Honey Hunter build ID
Con3/ss2 Power Build
Honey Hunter build ID
Like previously mentioned, this set won’t out damage the one above but supports Stamina surge 2.
Ice Builds
Stream is back and more powerful than ever.
Unlike every other noteworthy Kjarr bow mentioned before, the stream bow is the only bow that exceeds Safi bows with TCE from having much higher elemental damage instead of raw!
Ice Meta
Con2/ss2 Safi 5 Build
Honey Hunter build ID
Con3/ss1 Safi 5 Build
Honey Hunter build ID
There won’t be a “Power” set for Kjarr Stream due to how elementally skewed the bow’s damage components are, and the overall hit zone value of the ice weak monsters.
Thunder Builds
The thunder metagame has become a dumpster fire of confusion once again, mirroring the early days of Iceborne.
Thunder Meta
Please read the following before moving on to the builds.
The thunder metagame is blurred, again.
The rivalry between Safi Boltbow, Taroth Arrow Thunder and Kjarr Spark mirror the thunder meta of early days of Iceborne.
Safi Bolt is more skewed towards raw favoured matchups such as Tigrex and Legiana (pretty much everything thunder weak is raw skewed).
And Taroth Arrow Thunder is dominant in the thunder favoured matchups such as Nagracuga.
Kjarr Spark with its terrible stats is highly negligible overall, but it earns a unique place in the meta game for it’s para coatings.
However, the Safi Velk + Safi Thunder Bow set up with para coating will still be best if you manage to maintain high coalesence uptime.
Overall, if you don’t want to be confused, Safi bolt bow is the go to all rounded option.
Safi Boltbow will use the same builds as the previous patch.
Taroth thunder has the highest elemental damage and accels against high thunder hzv monsters suchs as Nagracuga.
However the low total raw does make it inferior for the more raw skewed thunder matchups.
Con1/ss2 Build
Honey Hunter build ID
Once again, Kjarr Spark has the worst stats of all the Kjarr bows. But it does survive in the metagame as a niche due to having Para coatings for matchups where para set ups are needed.
Con2/ss1 Build
Honey Hunter build ID
Con3/ss2 Safi 5 build
Honey Hunter build ID
Kjarr Spark: Safi 5 Set
Con2/ss2 Build
Honey Hunter build ID
Con3/ss1 Build
Honey Hunter build ID
The Safi 5 sets made of Kjarr bows + Safi 5 piece will offer more stamina management skills and less agitator reliance at the cost of 1-2% dps per arrow.
This is recommended as a general purpose set for its overall balanced performance.
Blast Builds
The Taroth Blast bow and Kjarr Blast bow both lacks power coatings, and therefore, fundamenally worse than the previous blast options.
The Blast bow meta lives on for the previously mentioned favoured match ups. However the difference between blast builds and the 2 iterations of Kjarr builds are less than 1% in most matchups.
Making the Kjarr builds a much better choice in multiplayer hunts.
The meta blast options are the same as before, the link will redirect you back to them.
Coalescence Builds
Coalescence builds are made for matchup that can apply blight to you through damage or special mechanics.
If you were able to trigger coalescence and maintain the buff, these builds will offer you the highest damage values.
Kjarr Coalescence Builds
This is the standard template for coalesnce 1 builds.
There will be many intereptations to how this set can be made but in my opinion this is the best set up.
Alternate between elemental attack decos and Kjarr bows for other elements.
The single attack deco is a flexible slot.
Con2/ss2 Build
Honey Hunter build ID
Safi Velk Coalesence Builds
Because Kjarr Spark and Kjarr Water are not the top of their class, Safi Velk set is stil relevant for Water and Thunder elements.
The para coating set is especially useful for Metalic Raths when setting up a head break.
The Safi Velk set for Water element will pull slightly ahead due to the power coatings.
And Safi Velk is generally better for the personal preference for para coatings.
There are 2 new additions however.
Highest Thunder damage set for purely coalesence based matchups.
To sub in para coating for Gold Rathian, replace the spread shot.
Con1/ss2 Build
Honey hunter build ID
Highest Fire damage set for purely coalesence based matchups.
To sub in sleep coating for Namielle, replace the spread shot.
Con1/ss2 Build
Honey hunter build ID
Comfort Builds
In this segment, I will be showing and comparing Kjarr build comfort sets and previous TCE meta comfort sets to demonstrate both the pros and cons of the build.
Overall, Kjarr comfort sets will still do more damage and has the benefit of being cheaper to make.
However, this advantage is accompanied by around a 15% reduction in effective hp due to the life drain set bonus from Safi 5 piece.
If you are concerned about the bleeding effect, try health augs on bow discussed down below.
Fire Comfort
Con2/ss2 Build
Honey hunter build ID
Con3/ss1 Build
Honey hunter build ID
In comparison to the TCE unique fire comfort set.
This set improves damage by around 3% at the cost of the bleeding side effect.
Dragon Comfort
Con2/ss2 Build
Honey hunter build ID
Con3/ss1 Build
Honey hunter build ID
Unlike the fire sets, TCE dragon does not have a unique comfort set.
This set improves damage by around 3% at the cost of the bleeding side effect.
However, the cost of build is overall lower.
Ice Comfort
Con2/ss2 Build
Honey hunter build ID
Con3/ss1 Build
Honey hunter build ID
Because Kjarr Stream is so above TCE sets and TCE ice does not have a unique set.
This set improves damage by around 3% at the cost of the bleeding side effect.
And the cost of build is overall lower.
Water Comfort
Con2/ss2 Build
Honey hunter build ID
Con3/ss1 Build
Honey hunter build ID
Kjarr Water unfortunately does not have power coatings and thus will lose by 2-3% against the TCE comfort set.
However, for rather casual players who takes more shots to kill, this set will yield similar value, if not better, at cheaper build cost.
Thunder Comfort
Con2/ss2 Build
Honey hunter build ID
Con3/ss1 Build
Honey hunter build ID
Kjarr spark is terrible but still relatively cheaper to build. It loses to TCE comfort sets by up to 3%.
MHW Bow builds 
needs a dragon piercer set
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