SA Guide 1.05

(I'm not playing or browsing /mhg/ that much anymore, so I may miss eventual metagame changes. If you notice that some new important info is not being implemented, you can message this account so that I can take a look and edit the pastebin. Obviously, questions and error reports are still welcome, so keep them coming in any case.)


CHANGELOG:
1.05 - Added Baraq Sedition, expanded Sharpness+1 / Razor Sharp descriptions, wrote more about Q&A relics

This guide will cover:

1) Recommended armor abilities
2) Recommended weapons
3) Q&A and elements of general playstyle.

I won't illustrate the moveset, with motion values and such, because I find a visual feedbeck too handy to pass by. Therefore I'll redirect you to gajinhunter's tutorial, found here:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZRv1_mGf2R8
  Note: This tutorial omits that you can chain the burst after every sword move, but you have the fastest transition into the burst attack at the end of the double slash, so you likely won't be bursting elseway anyways.


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 PART 1: RECOMMENDED SKILLS

I'll sort armor skills by three tiers:

- The first one includes what I (and a good portion of the community) consider absolute staples;
- You shouldn't play without a well thought combination of tier 2 abilities, depending on the weapon's characteristics;
- In tier 3 you'll find handy fillers to round up your set.

NOTE: Between squared brackets you can find the name of the skill as reported on charms and the name of the corresponding jewel.

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    TIER 1

>Evade Extender [evade dist - jumping jwl] / Fleet Feet [prudence - tactful jwl]

The true staple. Don't even begin to think you can go without this.
Given the nature of the weapon, and that of the following playstyle (I'm mainly referring to the large
evasion window illustrated at 6:55 in the linked video; we'll return later on this topic), without evade extender you can't properly reposition yourself with sidehops (for that they normally are too short) and you can't immediately (read: with a single roll) fill the gaps that naturally occur between the monster and you as it moves and attacks. In other words, SA has horrible mobility and bad sheathing times. With evade extender you're able to always have the monster in your attack range if you are well positioned and the monster isn't jumping, running or flying away. If you doubt the absolute necessity of EE, try and judge how rilevant the difference playing with and without it is.
  Fleet feet is simply Evade Extender + Peak Performance. The latter is a questionable choice for meelee weapons, and for good reasons: chip damage, environment damage and small monsters during the fight. AuL, however, is an appealing boost, that's for sure.
Some ways to keep peak performance up are:
- Being good
- Evasion +x
- Life honing
- Other hunters' items /palico's healing effect
On average, you can probably fit more consistent armor skills by settling down for EE. However, one must agree that peak performance forces a better understanding of evading, and it's a constant encouragement to play better. I personally find that it creates a challenging atmosphere, making it a fun skill. Plus, if you can consistently activate it, it should not be forgotten that we're talking about a 10 point AuL, one of the greatest damage/skill-points ratio buffs you'll find. This ultimately makes peak performance (and fleet feet) a solid option for solid players. It's also worth to note that, when considering an evasion+3 setup, this skill will probably look much more appealing. Simply put, if you're confident enough to use evasion+3, it's highly likely that you'll also be confident enough to use FF or EE+PP.



>Evasion+1 (or greater) [evasion - evasion jwl] / Acrobat [nimbleness - nimble jwl]

Evasion+1, while not as essential as EE, is, arguably, the skill that brings the most DPS to a capable SA user. In the right hands, E+1 is earplugs, tremor res, and if there was a skill that made you invulnerable to jho's breath, that too. In general, it increases the number of situations in which you can react while remaining near the monster, rather than having to evade out its reach and/or being forced to evade into bad positioning. Considering SA's mobility this is pretty huge.
  Just in case this isn't clear yet: evasion skills aren't only a defensive asset. In fact, they rather are to be considered the core of offence. Being able to evade a monster attack means, other than preserving HP, to be able to keep a constant pressure on it, not giving up on good positioning, thus hitting weakspots more consistently.

Now, picture yourself taking this to the extreme: almost always remaining in the monster's weak zone, evading virtually every attack while assuring yourself the best possible positioning. Do you like the idea? Then you'll want to try Evasion+3 out.
  A quick note on evasion+2: it's useless upgrading from +1 to +2 since you add only two i-frames to your evades, while upgrading to +3 gives 8 more i-frames than +1 (which has 10), almost doubling your invincibility frames. Without Evasion+1 you have 6 i-frames.
  Evasion +3 is a debated skill, ultimately because to use it at its fullest you have to drastically change playstyle. While it's an extremely valuable skill if the player in question has a deep understanding of positioning and weakspots (despite being normally portrayed as a skill solely for inexperienced players, who, on the other hand, tend to only use it as a defensive mean), evasion+3 is said to "spoil" the player. While this may be an exaggeration, this skill certainly alters the perception of the evasion timing. This may cause difficulties in returning to evasion+1 and a more "consuete" playstyle, and frequently switching between evasion+1 and +3 ends up being a rather tricky procedure. Needless to say, if you decide to fully dedicate yourself to evasion+3, expect to be in for a lot of fun.

  If you're wondering why a switch axe guide in particular puts so much emphasis on evasion skills, it's because SA evasion mechanics' are blessed by its slow attack animations' transitions (again, that's illustrated at 6:55 in the proposed video).
  While the various attacks quickly chain if combo'ed, notice that the last attack animation of every combo is pretty slow. From the beginning to the end of the animation, you can evade with a sidestep, which is, for obvious reasons, an extremely handy way to evade compared to a roll. That translates in having a big non-rolling evade window, that you can use to overlap the repositioning role of the sidestep and the i-frames that it provides. I'm taking my time explaining this because this is a, no, THE fundamental concept and strength of the switch axe: repositioning while i-evading. If you skillfully use the big evade window that characterizes this weapon, and you master the art of repositioning while evading an hit, you're using this weapon at its fullest and you should feel good about yourself.

  Acrobat is Evasion+1 and Constitution+1. Helpful, especially if you find yourself with stamina issues, but replaceable with mega dash juices if necessary (and, no, it's generally not necessary because even though you'll evade frequently you won't run out of stamina). In the end, not a skill that you should actively look out for.



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               TIER 2



>Sharpness +1 [handicraft - handicraft or artisan jwl] / Honed Blade [edgemaster - honed jwl]

No need to describe them, as they don't affect your gameplay but only your DPS. A must for almost every weapon (surely, a must for every recommended weapon). However, especially with relics, remember to check if your SA actually needs it before blindly slapping Sharpness+1 in. Also, make sure that you're getting consistent purple sharpness from it: it may be wise to give up on this skill, for example, when considering a relic with 10 points in sharpness and a ton of white even without Sharpness+1, and that's because S+1 (and HB) are the two most expensive skills to get.
  Honed blade is simply S+1 and AuL. As straightforward as it can get. 10 points for 30 points worth of top tier abilities simply is a steal. The price to pay is a mixed set revolving only around this skill: your armor set will most likely follow the [X / Divine Ire / Kujula / Divine Ire / Miralis] pattern if you decide to get honed blade. This comes with 3-2-1-1 armor slots and 3 points in sharpness, 3 in elemental and 2 in spirit, leaving some flexibility, but you'll still need a very good talisman if you want to cram E+1 and EE in.


>Razor Sharp [sharpness - razor jwl] (steady hand)

Razor Sharp is definitely a top priority on every melee weapon, but SA needs it like air. Speed sharpening would be a much more accessible ability, that in the end outputs the same results, the obvious advantage that Razor Sharp has over SS being that you don't need to stop and use a whetstone. Aganist monster that have difficulties punishing you if you keep away from it for a couple of seconds, the cheapness of speed sharpening makes it an effective replacement of razor sharp, despite remaining an inferior option. On that note, speed sharpening is precisely '5 slot skill' (more on that later), so it's particulary easy to have or make space for, if needed be. However, the reasons RS is so incredibly useful on SA are the horrid sheathing speed and sword's mode mind's eye (you eat to more sharpness when hitting bounce spots), on top of the huge DPS boost that doubling the purple means.
  Steady Hand is Mind's Eye + Razor Sharp. Sword mode comes with innate mind's eye, so it isn't worth to actually prefer this skill over the simple razor sharp. If one of your mixed set requires you (for some unfathomable reason) to use this over RS, however, by all means go ahead.

Those tier 2 skills are best used in combination, like:
- Razor Sharp + Sharpness+1 [a bit tricky , since the jewels clash (Razor gives -1 handicraft and vice versa)]
- Honed Blade + Razor Sharp (the most popular and efficent variant)
- Sharpness+1 + Steady Hand (but not really, since Steady Hand is only found on a handful od armor pieces)
- the above + Speed Sharpening (overkill in my opinion)
- Razor Sharp + Speed Sharpening (with weapons with natural purple)
- Sharpness+1 + Speed Sharpening (another popular choice)
(Honed Blade + Speed Sharpening is always shadowed by HB + RS since the respective jewels don't clash and RS>>>SS)




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TIER 3

Those skills don't bring major playstyle changes and generally don't require specific explanations, since they play the general role of fillers (not that they aren't useful obviously). You have lot of freedom of choice in this section (I repeat, at this point you should have planned out a set with a tier 1 skill and the combination of tier 2 skills that makes the most sense with your equipment), so you might want to play a bit with an armor set generator to find out the most fitting skill set, depending on your talismans and preferences.



>ATTACK SKILLS including:

- Peak Performance (already described)
- AuX
- Weakness Exploit (this skill too, like PP, becomes more useful the more evasion you have, for positioning reasons)
- Challenger +2 (generally the skill that brings the biggest buffs among the other tier 3 skills)
- Critical Eye (as a raw weapon, SA appreciates a bit of affinity. Still, raw boosts are to be preferred over affinity ones)
- Latent Power (the most inconsistent tier 3 skill, only mentioned because it often comes almost for free when planning out a Honed Blade + Razor Sharp set)



>FOCUS

If your playstyle includes not recharging your gauge as soon as possible (this is mentioned in Q&A), Focus finds a slight utility in shortening your wait for your gauge's refill. Thing is, if you want to wait for a natural recharge, you are most likely fond in playing in axe mode. In the end, you will find that Focus is outclassed by almost every other tier 3 skill.


>5-SLOT SKILLS

This is a list of relevant 5 slot skills; that is, skills that have 2 points, 1 socket jewel. In Athena's search if you find this (Tremor Res possible) indication, you most likely have 5 slots spare and can fit one of those:

- Bombardier (personally recommended with blast SAs AND with a sleepbombing team, or blast focused builds. Otherwise, other 5 slot skills are likely to bring more benefits)
- Divine Blessing (decent synergy with peak performance)
- Bio Researcher (actually a lifesaver aganist blast foes, because by preventing blastblight it prevents the often deadly attack+detonation combo of molten tigrex, teostra and the likes)
- Tremor Res (v) (since you can evade all the tremors in the game this skill doesn't add much)
- Sticky res (those 3 are monster specific)
- Speed Sharpening (the most recommended option for a generic scenario)
- Capture Guru
- Item Use Up (>v)
- Meat Lover (v)
- Mushromancer (v)(praised for saving the trouble of using very expensive consumables. Not especially useful on SA)
- Rationer (all gimmicks regarding items, fun to play around with)



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PART 2: RECOMMENDED WEAPONS



SA is a weapon class that benefits from element. That means that even though raw is its main selling point, the player that plans to extensively use SA should think about crafting one per element, and bring the most appropiated one depending on the monster.
  Even thought that all the weapons in the following list are highly recommended for the endgame, I'll still sort them by tiers, that will not consider the mere damage output (since every listed weapon is an endgame choice, it will outdamage / be more useful than the rest of the list, not considering relics and teammates. For example, status weapons become much more useful if your teammates bring the same status too), but rather, avaliability and all around usefulness. This tier list is meant for you to optimize your farming efforts by focusing on all around useful and powerful weapons first, and then covering then the more 'niche' ones. Note: in the same tier, a weapon placed above another has a higher value (considering both avaliability and all around usefulness).

TL;DR: A, for example, tier 2 weapon isn't weaker than a tier 1 one, but you should prioritize crafting tier 1 weapons, then tier 2 and then 3.

NOTE: Don't forget to consider those weapons in relation to your charms. For example, let's look at ceadeed. Maybe with 3 slots you could've fitted a powerful extra skill? Then consider Illuyanka because, at this point, it may as well provide a better DPS output.

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TIER 1



-Baraq Sedition (Solo only)
-Ceadeed Axe
-Waxglare Wand

 Baraq Sedition is, stats wise, inferior to Ceadeed in every way for general use. But it has a gimmick going on for it. Since SA playstyle involves a whole lot of evading, even taking into account that this isn't a slow hitting weapon, the peculiarity of seregios weapon (5 rolls = 1 point in sharpness recovered) is by all means usable here. That said, Baraq Sedition is not the optimal option on multiplayer, since the monster will be likely to give you room to sharpen while targeting one of your teammates. From this point of view it becomes clear that Baraq truly shines in solo play, letting you fully dedicate yourself to the monster, and keeping up great DPS with Ceadeed's raw, 10% affinity, and infinite purple. It should not surprise you that this SA is a speedrunning choice, althought it's almost never used online.
  Ceadeed ony needs 2 rare drops (even if you have to complete 'Naked and Afraid' and 'Into the Heavens' in order to unlock the required wycoon's trades). The most powerful and useful craftable SA by a fair margin: if you are planning to make an all purposes SA set, this is your best bet as a non relic option.
  Waxglare is honestly one of the most easy weapons to craft, incredible against Kushala (and you'll surely need some of his or/and his rusted counterpart armor parts), and in general a pretty solid option. 3 slots are very appealing.


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TIER 2



-True Ruiner's Bane
-Baraq Sedition
-Stygian Vanagloria / La Conclusion
-Zamtracheous Maw
(-Nether Excellion) (temporary, until we get the Fatalis Force's DLC)
-Daora's Jana

Blast is very handy to break difficult monster parts, (SA is wonderful at this since sword mode comes with innate mind's eye), so it's nice to have one as soon as possible. True Ruiner's Bane is your best bet here, because you want to continously proc blast in order for it to detonate (hence the choice of an elemental phial and a high elemental value, as opposed to Lightbreak Axe).
  Instinctively one would go for Stygian Vanagloria as a dragon SA, looking at the raw. But the 40% affinity on La Conclusion makes the two DPSs comparable enough to allow room for a choice. I suppose that if you really can't decide you can weigh this choice in terms of your playstyle: if you find yourself doing the sword double slash and the axe stamina move, better element and the law of great numbers (the more hits you do, the more likely it is for your crit distribution to lay in the 40% area, leaving less room for float) make La Conclusion the most desirable choice; on the other hand Vanagloria shines on short fights and axe mode, but really, just pick the one that looks best looking to you, since the DPS difference is not worth the trouble of considering every little factor.
  Given the all around usefulness of paralysis and the early disponibility of the required crafting materials, Maw has a good value in early G rank. As we progress through the endgame, however, Maw becomes an underwhelming option compared to the other tier 2 weapons.
  Nether Excellion is actually a rather good SA, and thunder element takes care of a good number of monsters, but when we'll get the G rank Old Fatalis DLC there will be little room left for Nether. In the end Nether Excellion is an expensive placeholder, but don't feel discouraged to craft it if you can, because 1) we probably aren't getting the above mentioned DLC anytime soon, and 2) Nether, while outclassed in every aspect by Fatalis Force, remains your strongest option for a decent enough portion of the roaster.
   Daora's Jana is extremely good on paper, but since a Worn Switch Axe it's required, and the only worthwile ice weak monsters are pretty much only Rajang and Diablos, Jana is left with an extremely niche role. Needless to say, this SA proves itself immensely useful when required, as one could imagine by looking at its specs.

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Not yet available:



-Rathscension
-Fatalis Force

Both of those will fall in tier 1.

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PART 3: GENERAL TIPS AND Q&A



Q:  ANY TIPS ON EARLY AND MIDGAME EQUIPMENT?
A: Making mixed armor suits for every rank is a both useless and ridicously long work. Pre endgame is a transitory phase: it's not important how you complete pre G rank contents as long as you do. On the other hand some general templates can indeed be indicated. Try to work towards to:
- Gore armor, alternated to a fire res armor (ex. Tetsucabra) in LR
- Double Gore (odds are gore S armor pieces, evens are LR gore armor pieces), alternated to a fire res armor (ex. Tetsucabra S) in HR
(In every case, try to gem in Evade Extender)
With Double Gore and a fire res armor you can comfortably reach G rank.
At this point you should have the necessary experience and solid enough preferences to actively take your charms into consideration, coming up with a few first mixed sets (remember to set athena's caravan and GH quests before searching!). If you want to keep following templates, note that the Seregios X set is considered a cornerstone by many players, and in our case, by gemming in at least evade distance, you can assemble a truly good set matching the seregios X with Aksa Switch (easily and quickly upgradable until Seditous Axe). While not recommended as an endgame option, this combination blends wonderfully with the switchaxe playstyle, giving you consistent purple and white sharpness along with a strong raw and some neat eyecandy. With this setup, you should be able to comfortably farm your first mixed sets and engame SAs. If you wish to take a last guided step forward the endgame, a template consisting of odds Narga X and evens Kushala X lets you easily gem in Evasion+3, Sharpness+1, Evade Distance while leaving some extra slots to play around with.
  As for weapons, I don't like the idea of crafting good early game SAs that you won't use or upgrade in the endgame. I find it more efficent, time wise, to immediatly start collecting earlier stages of your endgame switchaxes. Based on that, crafting things like Rath Flame Splitter and Barbarian Outcast is a good idea because it won't translate in a future waste of materials.



Q:  ANY TALISMANS I SHOULD LOOK OUT FOR?
A: Handicraft (and even more, Edgemaster) comes particulary welcome since it would require too many sockets (an handicraft +1 jewel requires 2 slots). Other than that, every good talisman that covers the recommended abilities is more or less equally handy.



Q:  WHAT RELICS SHOULD I LOOK OUT FOR?
A:
  Refer to the following link for relic SA upgrades:
      http://wiki.mh4g.org/data/1818.html
The most important factors are raw (SA is a raw dependent weapon), sharpness (duh) and phial. A good relic SA should at least outperform Ceadeed, so try not to settle for less than 1566 raw and power phial. Element phial is usable too, especially if it goes with a status. "Awaken" (Dragon, Para, Poison all act as a sword mode awaken) and Exhaust phials are a deal breaker most of the times. In the end, however, a case by case analysis and a comparison with craftable alternatives with the same element/status are without a doubt your wisest approachs.



Q:  WHAT SHOULD I HONE MY WEAPON FOR?
A: This should ultimately be your preference. However it's worth noting that since you ideally want to never sheathe your switchaxe, life honing has more sense than on other weapon types here. Additionally, if you plan to use peak performance, life honing becomes immensely helpful, and as a matter of fact it's discouraged running peak performance without it.



Q:  HELP, WHEN SHOULD I BE IN SWORD MODE AND WHEN IN AXE MODE? WHAT COMBOS DO I HAVE TO DO? HOW DO I PLAY SA?
A: I obviously can't go into detail, because (even if I had the ghost of an idea on what should be the best way to face everyone in the roaster) I'd end up with having to make a guide for each monster, and every single resulting guide would be, by itself, longer than this one that you're reading. Plus, there would be too many factors to consider even within a single monster scenario.
Having said that, a few general tips can surely be given.
  The sword mode, especially in online, would be your most logic way to go, because forward+X is a great distance closer, you can XAXA and do high DPS, not tripping teammates, standing still and having the opportunity to sidehop whenever necessary. The XXXX combo should be conversely done when you have enough room to finish with the double slash or you want to close distance. When a monster is down and you're in sword mode, you can burst right at the end of the XXXX combo or whenever you want with XAXA. XXXX is my preferred choice in this situation because it can be started earlier when approaching the downed monster (because you can leave a small gap that the XXXX animation will close), has more elemental DPS and the transition into burst is the fastest after the double slash (try chaining it after different attacks and judge yourself). Just, be always aware of your surroundings, because you'll be tripping a lot if you're not careful.
  When your gauge is empty and you're in axe mode, you can either recharge it as soon as possible or play with axe while waiting for it to recharge naturally. If we're looking throught that in logical terms, you'll want to recharge an elemental inclined SA while you can do either things on a more raw oriented weapon. While on axe, you'll want to use small openings to do forward+X > X for the thrust attack followed by the overhead swing, which is your single most relevant axe attack. Basically, the thrust is for not having to do still+X which still is the overhead swing, but with a disappointingly slow animation. With a large opening, you can (roll + X)/(still+XA) + A + R, doing (roll), upwards swing, stamina attack and finisher (brackets indicate the two alternative ways to go for the upwards swing). In other words, a quick way to go for the finisher. Why rushing for it? Well, the finisher is your most aggressive link to the sword mode, either by recharging your gauge or by morphing. If you don't want to rush for a recharge or a morph and you have a few seconds to spend on your combo, do the stamina attack for as long as possible for the highest DPS; just, careful not to be greedy and end up missing your finisher!
  Those may be unsatisfactory tips, but writing more would translate to writing obvious or not globally correct informations, or worse, conditioning the development of your personal playstyle.


I'd like to thank all the anons that made suggestions and critics, and contributed in polishing this guide.