r/MonsterHunter • u/Aesmis • Aug 11 '16
A list of some notable Hunting Horns!
Hey all. Some (most?) of you probably know of Gaijinhunter. While I've got nothing against the guy, he made a list of his Top 5 Hunting Horns, and honestly...his picks just aren't all the great, in my opinion. I've been using Hunting Horn as one of my main weapons since MH3U, so I decided to assemble my own list of notable (puns!) Hunting Horns I think any new/veteran Horn hunters should add to their repertoire.
My Top Picks:
Hidden Harmonic (Nargacuga): This is a great general-purpose horn. Its song-list has Attack Up L, Defense Up L, Health Up L, and Negate Wind Pressure. These songs are pretty all-purpose, but you may want more specific songs for different encounters. It gets natural White sharpness at later ranks, and has awesome natural Affinity, but only has 160 natural raw, which is on the low side. I personally use the Whitegale armor, which has Critical Boost and makes this natural Affinity even nicer. It also has 2 slots. (On a side note, the Deviant (Whitegale) version has the exactly same songs with higher raw, better sharpness, but less Affinity and no slots.)
Striped Dragonga (Tigrex): This is a great horn for all-out offense. Its song-list has Attack Up L, Earplugs (HG on Encore), Negate Heat, Negate Cold, and Bind Immunity (Snowman, Bubbles, Nakarkos bones). It comes with a solid 200 raw at max rank with natural white. It has -15% Affinity normally, but that's pretty easy to counteract. It also has 1 slot. (The Deviant (Grimclaw) version has 20 less raw, 10% natural affinity, and no slots.)
Giant's Koto (Gammoth): This horn is a bit more niche, but boy is it a good niche to have. Its song-list has two amazing songs in Negate Elemental Blights song and the dual-purpose Earplugs/Wind Resist (HG/Windproof on Encore) song. It's also got Elemental Attack Up +8/10%, Elemental Resistances +5/10, and the situationally useful Sonic Waves (which is just a localized Sonic Bomb). It's got a massive 230 raw, 26 Ice, but only gets natural Blue sharpness (it can get a bit of White with Sharpness +2). It's got -20% affinity, but once again, not hard to deal with. It also has 1 slot.
Poison Fungasax: Another niche horn, but crazy helpful against Status Effect bosses like Malfestio and Dreadqueen Rathian. The most important song is Negate Abnormal Status, which gives complete immunity to all negative Statuses. It also has the very helpful Divine Protection, which gives a 50% chance to reduce incoming damage by 30%. It also comes with Status Attack +10/15%, and Bind Immunity. Its raw is a bit unimpressive at max with only 170 and only natural Green sharpness, but with Horn's natural Mind's Eye, bouncing is never a worry. It has a massive 45 Poison at max, but the song-list is honestly so good against Status monsters that the stats barely matter.
Magma Horn (Hellblade Glavenus): It's no secret that the Hellblade weapons are good, so the Magma Horn's inclusion is pretty natural. It has a short songlist of just Attack Up L, Knockback Negation, and Finale (which extends the duration of all your other songs when played). The Negate Knockback can be a lifesaver on some bosses, but it's definitely more niche than the other horns. It comes with a solid 180 raw, natural White sharpness, and 30 blast at max rank. It also has 5% Affinity, which is nice but pretty negligible. As with all Deviant weapons, it will also charge your Hunter Arts faster.
Emerald Flap (Astalos): This is a good balanced horn for when you have Stamina-hungry weapon users in your party. Its song-list has Attack/Defense Up Small/Medium, Negate Stamina Use L, Wind Resist/Negate, and Defense Up L. It ends up with 180 raw, 36 Thunder, and 20% Affinity at max rank, with a tiny sliver of natural White sharpness (quite a bit of white sharpness with Sharpness + 1/2). It also has 1 slot.
Honorable Mentions:
Poetic Bell (Mizutsune): This is a decent compromise between offense and healing for situations that call for it. Its song-list has HG Earplugs, Affinity +15/20% + Health Recovery Small, and another Health Recovery Small. It has 200 raw with 36 water at max, with natural Blue sharpness (white with Sharpness + 1/2) and 10% Affinity. It also has 1 slot.
Pierce Horn (Drilltusk Tetsucabra): This horn's pretty niche, but nice to have when you need it. Its songlist has Negate Stamina Use L, Wind Resistance/Immunity, Defense Up L, Psychic (reveals large monsters on map), Bind Resist/Immunity, and Negate Stun. Mostly nice for stun-happy monsters like Zinogre, as it helps you escape their combos. The negate stamina is also nice if you have Dual Blade users in your party. It has 220 raw, natural blue (white with Sharpness + 1/2), 5% Affinity, and +5 Defense.
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u/Aesmis Aug 11 '16
I left it out because it basically requires razor sharp or handicraft to work. I tried to limit my selections to general-purpose horns that don't require a skill to use.
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u/Rudamen Aug 12 '16
I feel its a bit weird to not at least list the HH that is by far the most used HH in speed runs, even if it was just an honorable mention, any list that doesn't immediately mention why it leaves out aka HH (I don't mean to be rude) doesn't seem thought out enough, it wouldn't be at the level of a top bow list not mentioning why teo bow isn't there, but that's the idea.
Razor sharp isn't even hard to fit in with a decent talisman.
Also you don't mention that you were singling out "general purpose horns that don't require a skill to use" in your title or initial comment. That would definitely clarify the scope of your post to viewers.
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u/ToshiYamioka I use almost every weapon Aug 11 '16 edited Aug 11 '16
This so much.
Akantor HH at max with Blunt Edge alone gives you somewhere around 340 Raw damage. Combine that with the songs it has (Attack up and Defense up +20%, Negate Stamina Use, and Negate Wind) and you have a really strong weapon nearing 370s that will KO and stagger hard if you encore on the head.
Not even Great Swords can match this Raw.
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u/co1onel Aug 11 '16
Blunt edge is a waste on the akantor horn. The horn already has 40% affinity, so with crit eye and weakness exploit you can easily hit 100% affinity. That's a 40% attack boost with crit boost, on top of the super high raw.
With razor sharp and absolute readiness you can keep up the green sharpness pretty easily. By the time you hit yellow, absolute readiness should be available.
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u/grumbles Aug 11 '16
To clarify, are you referring to Akantor Horn/Akantor Dark Melody? The low sharpness and lack of slots are a little rough.
What's with the blank song descriptions? Based on what you're saying, one of those should be Attack Up (L). What are the others?4
u/ToshiYamioka I use almost every weapon Aug 11 '16
Its Defense Up L, Attack and Defense Up S, Stamina Negation L, and Wind Res Hi.
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u/Kotaff Aug 11 '16
Where do you pull this 340 raw from? It has 250 raw, +20 with blunt edge, and yellow sharpness is a 1.00 modifier. With 30% affinity you get: 270 x (1+ 0.30 x 0.25) = 290 raw
Tigrex gs with AuS has : 230 x (1-0.25x0.30) = 292 raw
Yes the hh gets more raw with its song, but the great thong about that os that it's for your full group. So sure more utility more ko, but gs will still do more dmg.
Also it doesn't have enough green sharpness to stay there reliably, and yellow sharpness suffers from the low sharpness modifiers during most stages of your attacks animations, which makes it even worse (early & late hits do like 60-70% dmg). And that pretty much completely nullifies the effect of its attack up song.
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u/ToshiYamioka I use almost every weapon Aug 11 '16
Woops my fault. 340 is what you can reach using the songs accounting for expert I mean, after eating Attack Up L and mega Demondrug and 20% attack song. As far as sharpness goes it does kind of suck to keep the sharpness green but otherwise its still a viable horn for hunting in a group.
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u/Kotaff Aug 11 '16
Well if you start adding more flat raw value increases, Akantor loses even more to other weapons due to low sharpness (add 30 raw, it stays pretty much 30 raw on Akantor. Add 30 raw to a white sharpness weapon? it becomes 39).
Viable, sure, but not like you were praising it in your other comment.
Edit : also if 340 raw was taking the AuL song into account, how did you get to close to 400 then?
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u/ToshiYamioka I use almost every weapon Aug 11 '16
Basically a set with Challenger +2 Crit Eye +3 and eating for Attack L, Attack Song +20%, Mega Demondrug, and Might pill puts you near the upper ends of 360s. There was a YouTube video from MHX of an Akantor set that could reach up there from a long time ago but I cant find it. I know I can get 309 with bludgeon and food skills and my set has crit eye +1 to bring 50% affinity so thats 6.25 attack per 10% assuming 2.5% raw average, so I get 340.25 on average of damage with green sharpness (or is it yellow?)
I believe Challenger boosts it more and might pill does stack from what I recall.
The biggest selling point of Akantor horn is mainly songs as it gives a lot of survivability in the form of stamina negate and defense L and and wind res while also having an attack booster.
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u/Kotaff Aug 11 '16
Well we're getting further and further from your original comment of "with only bludgeoner" now, aren't we?
Also might pill only lasts 30 seconds, and weakness exploit + crit boost is gonna be better anyways. Affinity is king in this game.
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u/ToshiYamioka I use almost every weapon Aug 11 '16
This is true, my apologies since my excitement for the Akantor Horn has overcome me. I will re-assess my damages on the weapon though my statement still stands on the usefulness of the songs.
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u/Kotaff Aug 11 '16
Oh yeah, great songs all around. No doubt.
Edit : I feel some strong sarcasm here, sorry if my nitpicking on numbers has irritated you in some way.
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u/ToshiYamioka I use almost every weapon Aug 12 '16
No its alright, my original statement was incorrect in just saying Bludgeoner only. I know the Raw damage on Akantor horn can go pretty high given the right skills, but I was wrong in saying just Bludgeoner can achieve those sweet near 400 level attack powers.
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u/OnlyRedfire Aug 11 '16
The Akantor HH with a set that gives Weakness Exploit, Critical Eye+1, Critical Boost, and Razor Sharp is amazing though, definitely deserving of the praise.
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u/palconfunch Aug 12 '16
Apologies in advance if this is a stupid question but what does "encore it in the head" mean? Is it when you tap R to play the encore? Does it have a high motion value or something? It's not the first time I've seen this written on this sub
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u/ToshiYamioka I use almost every weapon Aug 12 '16
You are correct, encore hits are the hits that occur after you play a song and press R for the second song. Theu have high motion values that can stagger monsters even at full health.
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u/shunkwugga Aug 12 '16
Blunt edge is kind of worthless on anything that spends its time in the yellow, though. You'd need sharpness 2 and minds eye to even make it worthwhile.
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Aug 12 '16
It is the best and is used in the majority of speed runs, which speaks to its general effectiveness.
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u/Hetlander Underwater Dreadqueen is a good idea Aug 12 '16
Back in 4U this list would have been a fuckin' joke. Akantor's Dark Melody and White Fatalis armor. One of the ultimate combinations.
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u/D-WTF Aug 12 '16 edited Aug 12 '16
I'm having a blast (pun totally intended) with the teostra's orphee. 180 raw, Atk and Def up S, Def up L, negate wind and Negate stamina with a slot. And that huge ass blast. The only bad thing is that it has blue without sharpness+2, but even without razor sharp and sharpness +1 the blue lasts quite a lot.
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u/pancakebreak Aug 11 '16
One note that you might be ignoring in your comparison between Tigrex Horn (final form of Striped Dragonga) and Grimclaw Horn (final form of Seize Horn) is the fact that hunter arts fill more quickly when you're using a deviant weapon. In almost all of my horn sets right now a 1 slot weapon is the same as a no slot weapon for me. The combination of a longer white sharpness, boosted hunter art, and an additional 25% affinity make up for the loss of 20 raw when moving to Grimclaw.
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u/Aesmis Aug 11 '16
I mentioned the Deviant bonus on my Magma horn description, but yeah the two are equally viable imo. The Seize Horn ends up with an effective raw of about 185 whereas the Dragonga ends up around 192.
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u/eviloneinabox Dr Pwn Aug 12 '16
Does anyone else lament that the notes are fucking backwards on the emerald flap. After many hours with my trusty maqam sedition from 4U I just...can't.
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u/Tenebrae42 Aug 12 '16
It should be noted that Bind Red also stops you from getting boned by the Nakarkos. I've grown to taking HH to the fight.
Also, horns with a green note on the A button have healing songs, and with the new double note system in this game, healing songs are actually nice this game. Especially online.
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u/Buttobi Aug 12 '16 edited Aug 12 '16
Very good guide. I will definitely use this to choose my horns for certain situations. Also keep in mind that Gaijin's lists are very subjective. He likes to put unconventional weapons on his lists because he personally likes them.
EDIT: One more thing. You might want to mention how to make the Poison Fungasax. You need Reststools which you get from the 3 star village quest "royal honey hunt"
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u/DreadNephromancer good tones and AuLcium to you Aug 12 '16
The second Nakarkos horn has the same song list as Gammoth's with natural white sharpness and endless blue after that. Doesn't hit as hard, but it does have an extra slot.
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u/shunkwugga Aug 12 '16
good thunder horn
Despots Thunderclap, the Zinogre horn.
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u/shunkwugga Aug 12 '16
I personally don't like the Thunderlord horn stats at max. you trade off raw for more elemental, I think. I don't have a really easy way to compare the two but I do remember preferring the standard one.
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u/WedgeSkyrocket Unofficial Lord of Street Dates Aug 11 '16
I appreciate this input a lot. Between this list and GH's, I have a small stable of horns to go for late game when I start to get bored. Thanks for the ideas.
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u/ElSpank Aug 11 '16
Interesting. Are these solo friendly or just for multilayer?
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u/Nianose Aug 11 '16
some HHs are more solo friendly than others, overall HHs are probably the most mutliplayer focused weapon out there and i love having a good HH player in my parts (or being one myself but i still need practice)
you kinda never need the negated stamina loss yourself
the attack/defense buffs are always nice
many of the things you do with HH are a bit harder to pull off solo since playing songs mid-fight can be hard (at least encore can be but if you knwo wehn you stagger/stun its ok)
the art that gives all the songs to yourself is great tho and the arts are pretty selfish for HH (but might be to much if they werent)
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u/ElSpank Aug 11 '16
Thanks so much for the write-up. I'm pretty new to monster hunter even if I have dabbled in quite a few of the older titles. I still have to pop my multiplayer cherry and knowing how I can do so and be useful is handy :D I'll probably start out simple with my favourite (hammer) but am looking to do something more useful long-term and assume Horn players are appreciated. Not sure if there are many HH players online but if there are tons of them then I will reconsider. Just want to plan something that will hopefully be welcome and of use to online groups :D
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u/Nianose Aug 13 '16 edited Aug 13 '16
there usually arent that many and if you cnow what other horns play you can switch to another and just be helpful still
or you can go hammer for easy KO (hammer is perfectly viable and easier than HH if ppl leave the head/KOin to you)
adding to that, dont be shy to kick LS/SA players AWAY from the head (if you know you can KO a monster somewaht easily), if hammering, because theyll just trip you...
because as hammer user head is your place and KO adds valuable time the monster just does nothing wich is free DPS
for hammer A,X,X is less dmg but the last swing comes through more because of the longer "sperarmor" duration, wich is nice since LS (and maybe others) wont knock you around that much
also i love aerial hammer since i can mount>stun often and the basic a,x,x/x,x,x combo is still there, but it might get repetitive and boring (imo aerial generally is a bit onesided)
dont take online too serious, have fun and enjoy, be sure to add ppl you like playing with to your freinds
hope youll enjoy online ;)
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u/ElSpank Aug 15 '16
Awesome reply. Thank you! Just got to village *** quests and have been able to boost a lot of my gear. Got a week off soon and will be throwing a lot of time into online :D
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u/forte27 Aug 11 '16
They'll excel in multiplayer, but they're just fine in solo. You'll probably want to select a horn with the Attack Up L song in single player.
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Aug 12 '16
Apart from Self-Improvement & I believe Large Monsters on the Map, all songs apply to your party as well. Stat boosts like Attack Up or Defence Up are even more useful in multiplayer as their buffs are effective exponentially useful the more people benefit from them.
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u/Hockey___ Aug 12 '16 edited Aug 12 '16
Don't forget the rajang horn if you have a team with more then one hunting horn, you can keep spamming finale and keep increasing the length of all songs. This makes it so other hunting horns don't even need play songs.
Edit: nvm just saw the hellblade glavenus horn
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u/minopoked Aug 12 '16 edited Aug 12 '16
Denden Doomsounder is a favorite of mine. Tremor res is always handy
Edit: whoops, meant napalm horn
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u/JamesIsNotMyName [INSERT GENERATIONS FLAIR LIKE THE 4 AND THE U FOR THE OTHERS] Aug 12 '16
I want to make a joke about using the word "notable" for hunting horns (like music notes) but I'm not clever enough. Someone do it for me.
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u/Gathin Aug 12 '16
Your trying to find someone sharp enough to make the jokes because yours fell a little flat?
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u/forte27 Aug 11 '16
I know Gaijin mentioned it in his honorable mentions as well, but don't sleep on the Seditious Warhorn/Maqam Sedition. An easy thing to forget is that rolling provides sharpness on Seregios weapons, so it's actually very easy to maintain white sharpness with this weapon, especially since it has natural white sharpness from level 1.