MHW Iceborne Expansion will be released on September 6th for Consoles! Dual Blades become more powerful with the Slinger Burst ability! Check out the latest combo for Dual Blades

Monster Hunter: World x Witcher III Wild Hunt is a two-part collaboration quest. Check out my guides to overcome the challenges of the witcher here:

MHW Witcher Event

MHW Ancient Leshen Guide

At the end of the event, I have myself a shiny new Dual Blades and a set with many possibilities, so I decided to fill up my next weapon guide with the weapon that always associated with speed – The Dual Blades.

At the end of this post, there will be a quick build crafted during my playthrough, as well as current Meta Build for Blast, Raw Damage & Elemental Build!

MHW Dual Blades Overview

First appeared in the western version of Monster Hunter (Not released in Japan until Monster Hunter G – Monster Hunter wiki ) these two blades has become the first choice for hunters who preferred speed and flashiness. When it comes to elemental damage, this was normally the first come to mind as well.

The accessible level of this weapon is also quite reasonable. There is just a couple of mechanic to learn, but just like other weapons of the series, when you come to higher Hunter Rank, knowing the basic moves is not enough.

MHW Dual Blades Basic Attack

Double Slash Combo

While this does not bear an impressive look, this combo can be a filler when you are waiting for your stamina to recharge and jump back to that Demon Mode again.

Lunge Strike > Round House Slash

A quick forward attack follow by a blade spin attack. This is mostly used when you need an opener or repositioning yourself. The Round house slash at the end can be changed to either Left or Right Rounhouse, depend on your input of left analog stick.

Turn Slash

While it is not mentioned in game. This manuever allow the hunter to quickly turn their focus on the opposite site. This also allow you to reset all other combo – Similar to Sword and Shield endless combo.

MHW Dual Blades Demon Mode

Pressing R2 will let you enter Demon Mode while using Dual Blades. This allows the hunter to move faster, your roll dodge will change to a fancy dash and all of your attack patterns will change as well.

Below is the upgraded version of each combo:

Demon Fang Combo

The classic combo will be upgraded to Demon Fang combo (Follow by Twofold and Sixfold Demon Slash) This is capable of dealing more hits and damage as well as serve as an opener for subsequence combo

Demon Flurry Rush

Our standard Lunge attack becomes spinning attacks that cover a wide distance. This also adds a third hit to this combo, allow the hunter to perform another spin attack in an upward motion.

Blade Dance

Iconic moves of MHW Dual Blades. This allows the hunter to perform a quick succession combo and deal devastating damage or proc any elemental damage in the process.

Dash

MHW Dual Blades Archdemon Mode

Archdemon mode allow Dual Blades user to perform some special attacks that are typically usable while in Demon Mode.

Perform attacks during Demon Mode will gradually fill up the meter below your Stamina bar. As soon as this is filled, you entered Archdemon Mode. In this mode, while your stance is still in the normal stance, some of the attacks in Demon Mode still remain the same:

Demon Flurry Rush

The first attack of this combo is the same as the Demon mode variation. However, you don’t have the last blade spin.

Demon

This is completely different to the Blade Dance of Dual Blades Demon mode. However, it is still better than nothing.

NOTES: All these attacks will drain the energy bar once used, make sure you switch back to Demon Mode right on time to get back that precious stamina!

MHW Dual Blades Advance Attacks & Tactic

Your most powerful power is Demon Mode. Snap in and out this mode efficiently while constantly managing your stamina is your best bet to become the pro in Dual Blades. This playstyle bears the resemblance to those that focus heavily on stamina like Insect Glaive or Bow.

MHW Dual Blades Best Combo

It is tempting to just spam all the attacks while in Demon Mode and call it a day. But recklessly does not get you far with Dual Blades. Knowing when to unleash your Blade Dance and when to switch back to Arch Demon mode should be your main focus as a MHW Dual Blades user.

During this mode, while you can endlessly spam the Demon Dance with It is not the most efficient attack to start with, as there is a noticeable delay between each attack. Moreover, whenever you trigger this, you will be locked in one place, and this cannot be canceled to a dash as well. It will be a complete nightmare if you miss that ultimate and that Diablos will ramp up right in front of you.

With that in mind, You will need to perform this when there is an opening chance (Monster fainted, or trapped) Below are some common combo to help you set up this attack.

Demon Fang Combo > Fade Slash > … (repeat)

(LEFT/RIGHT)(REPEAT)

This can be chained indefinitely, however, as you can only use this when in Arch Demon mode, be sure to constantly watching for that stamina bar!

Demon Fang Combo > Fade Slash > Blade Dance Finisher

(LEFT/RIGHT)

Another attack of Dual Blades that does not cover in the game menu. This “Fade Slash” allow the hunter to briefly repositioning by moving to the side with a quick slash. With this small fix, start up your Blade Dance combo with the Demon Fang and finish with Demon Dance will surely become a natural instinct to your playstyle.

MHW Dual Blades Playstyle & Armor Skills

With that yellow bar constantly drained away. Your first priority of this weapon is to manage to get some basic supply for the Stamina. This contains Energy Drink and Dash Juice. Two basic consumable items for your sake of spamming those Blade Dance attacks.

Next off would knowing what skills are needed for a constant hunt. The following Armor Skills is your allies when using Dual Blades:

Constitution – Reduce fixed stamina Depletion by 10% (Max 50%)
Stamina Surge – Speed up stamina recovery (Max 30%)

For Affinity, the below is a great (if not must) addition to the build

Critical Eye – Increase Affinity directly (3% each level until level 4, after that it will be 5%)
Weakness Exploit – 30% Affinity when hitting weak spots of monsters. With the tendency to hits a lot, this is a great addition for Insect Glaive.
Critical Boosts – Increase Critical Damage by 30% (+5% each level, max 3 level)

Sharpness boosts

Sharpness boosts this time making an pretty important factor for an effective Dual Blades build. Given the number of hits for each of your hunt using MHW Dual Blades. Your sharpness bar won’t last long with all those “dance”

Handicraft – Increase sharpness by 10 each level (Max at 50 – Level 5) This boost your damage by 32% (At white level sharpness) The more sharpness you have, the better. But not all weapons can achieve white sharpness even with this skill.
Protective Polish – You get this from Odogaron set (4 pieces) or the Sharp Jewel (Level 2) The jewel is pretty hard to get thanks to RNG. This is a true end game skill.

Bonus Armor Skill

Peak Performance – Increase Damage when your health is full. This is recommended when you already augment weapon with health. Otherwise, it requires more skill to dodge and block.
Agitator – Increase attack power when monsters become enraged – I never see any calm monsters when being poked in the ass. This will give you attack power (Start at 4 and increase by 4 per level) and affinity rate (starting from 3% and increase by 3% per level) This skill can be obtained from the infamous discs cover monsters – Nergigante or the Challenger Charm.

Elemental Support Skills

Critical Element – Can be obtained via Rathalos Set – This skill allow you crit with Elemental AttackA
Any Elemental Attack skill – As MHW Dual Blades builds are often associated with Elemental Status. If you are planning to build an elemental build, you definitely will need these skills (Fire/Ice/Water/Thunder Attack)

With that out of the way. Let’s take a look at the builds possibilities of builds for the current meta.

MHW Dual Blades Builds

Basically, for weapons that doesn’t require any special skills, you can almost pick the Drachen set, tune in and out some Jewels and call it aday. But well, sometime mix and match is a better option.

Armor

As I still lack those end game jewels for a “proper-meta” build. I look around what I have, turn out the build that I used in the last MHW Witcher Event have some of the best armor skills for Dual Blades!

Geralt’s Armor Set comes with the following armor skills:

Health Boost & Recovery Speed Level 3 – Give you the extra protection needed for survival with a weapon without a shield.
Marathon Runner Level 3 – All you needed for a stamina cost weapon.
Weakness Exploit Level 3 – A no-brainer for any builds
Bombardier Level 2 – Just one more point to maximize that Mega Barrel Bomb damage.

The only downside to this armor is the Critical Eye Level 2 Armor skill. Jewels and Charm will need to be supplement if you really want the best damage.

Weapon

Zireael suddenly change MHW Dual Blades builds meta with it’s debut via the Ancient Leshen Event Quest.

Before Ancient Leshen Quest. The Meta choice for Dual Blades are always Diablos Club III (For Raw Damage) or any Taroth Dagger (for Elemental Build) But Zirazel – The iconic sword of Ciri has made an impressive entrance being one of the best options for Dual Blades meta now.

Boasting 294 Damage with natural White Sharpness and Dragon as Hidden Element. This Dual Blade offer flexibility for the best MHW Dual Blades Build right off the bat. If you prefer to utilize the 294 Damage, then slot in an Elementless Jewel is definitely a no-brainer. Decide to have some fun with the Dragon Element? You will definitely need those Free Element Armor Skills to unlock it first.

Another reason this is powerful is the White Sharpness it offers. MHW Dual Blades is one of the weapons that drain the Sharpness bar at a rapid rate (Thanks to those Blade Dance!)

Finally, the Dashing animation! Just like Witcher’s Silver Sword, this blade also comes in with some cosmetic effect close to the source materials. Your dashing animation will be changed to a green flash similar to Ciri’s ability in Witcher III.

Charm and Jewels

For Jewels, below is the one I used in this build.

Attack Jewel x 2
Protection Jewel x 3
Elementless Jewel
Flawless Jewel x 2

As for Charm, Master Charm III is used to boost the Critical Eye to Level 5 – Giving this armor set some damage potential.

This is not the best build though. Expert Jewels (If I had any) can be switched with Flawless Jewels and you can then use the Handicraft Charm level 3 to increase the Sharpness of this Dual Blades further!

Actually this is one of the build listed by TheGameconomist here

MHW Best Dual Blades Builds

The build I provided above is just a quick build using Geralt’s Armor Set. For the current best meta builds. You can take a look at the below:

MHW Dual Blade Blast Build Meta

Meta Dual Blade Water Build

Meta Dual Blade Raw Build

Aside from the Blast build and Raw Damage build (which straight up using full Drachen set) The elemental build approach for MHW Dual Blades builds currently will always consist of three Kaiser Gamma pieces and two Rathalos’s base armor pieces. This is for below armor skills:

Master Touch – Prevent sharpness loss when you land a critical hit
Critical Element – Allow elemental damage to crit.

Not just that, the Kaiser Gamma armor pieces (selected above) also gives you natural Critical Eyes Level 5. Combine this with Weakness Exploit and you got yourself a weapon that can never lose sharpness (As 90% of your hits are Critical!)

Another thing to note is the Handicraft charm. All of the builds (not just Dual Blades) will opt for the highest Sharpness possible, so you can deal enough damage before Sharpening. It is an expensive skill to get in lower HR though, as you will need other Jewels to supplement for other important armor skill.

This is all thanks to this subreddit post for all the meta builds of MHW Weapons:

For the full Dual Blade Meta builds compilation, check out the collection of user Awenth here.

All these builds are made happen by the awesome MHW Builder! Check it out here

Conclusion

Hope the above cover all the details needed for your next playthrough using MHW Dual Blades. Have you decided which Dual Blades Builds to pick up? Let me know if I miss anything, appreciate all the feedbacks.

MHW Weapons Guide

Or Check out my guides on other melee weapons

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Guide, MHW Dual Blades, Monster Hunter World
February 27, 2019

Monster Hunter World – Dual Blades Guide & Build