Best Skills for Charge Blades

This is a guide about the best skills for Charge Blades. Read on to know which skills to look out for when making a Charge Blade build and why.

Offensive Skills

Recommendations
Attack Boost	Affinity Skills	Artillery
Partbreaker	Elemental Attack Skills	Agitator

Attack Boost

This skill is recommended for hunters who want to maximize their Impact Phial damage. Impact Phial attacks (Elemental Discharge, Charged Sword phial attacks, Savage Axe mode attacks) do NOT crit. However, Impact Phials pierce through a monster's hide so boosting the base damage of your Charge Blade is the way to go.

Critical Eye, Critical Boost, and Weakness Exploit

Increasing a charge blade's affinity is always a good thing! Charge Blades with Elemental Phials especially benefit from these skills as their phial attacks can crit as well.

While Impact Phials do NOT crit with their phial attacks, it is still worth investing in these skills to boost the Charge Blade's base damage in both sword and axe forms.

Weakness Exploit is particularly good on Charge Blade builds since Charge Blades can tenderize a monster's hide with one clutch claw attack. The attack ends in axe form as well, giving hunters an opportunity for several Elemental Discharge combos.

Artillery

This is a key skill for hunters who prefer Impact Phials on their Charge Blades. Artillery boosts an Impact Phial's damage by as much as 30% at level three and 50% at level five (levels four and five are unlocked via the Artillery Secret skill).

This increase in impact phial damage also bolsters the Charge Blade's Knock-Out efficiency, allowing hunters to potentially chain knock-outs depending on the monster.

Partbreaker

Charge Blades excel at dishing out damage across a monster's body with its Savage Axe combos and Elemental Discharge Attacks. Partbreaker grants hunters a 30% increase in part damage at level three, giving hunters that extra bit of efficiency whenever farming for a specific item from a monster.

Partbreaker's damage increase does NOT reflect in floating damage numbers.

Elemental Attack Skills

This skill is primarily used by hunters who prefer Elemental Phials. Elemental Phial Hunters use the appropriate Elemental Attack Skill (Fire Attack, Water Attack, Frost Attack, etc..) that corresponds with their Charge Blade's element to boost it's elemental rating.

Elemental Phial Charge Blades are considered to be the most devastating weapons in the game when Elemental Attack Up skills are paired Affinity skills (Critical Eye, Critical Boost, Weakness Exploit, etc..).

Agitator

The introduction of the Clutch Claw made the Agitator Skill a community staple when making builds. When active, Agitator grants hunters +20 attack and affinity by 10% at level five. (levels six and seven are unlocked via the Agitator Secret Skill.)

The Clutch Claw, specifically its Flinch Shot Attack, gave hunters the ability to enrage the monster whenever the opportunity presents itself. This gave hunters a way to maintain their Agitator's up-time.

Charge Blades benefit from the attack and affinity buffs regardless of Phial type.

Defensive Skills

Recommendations
Guard	Guard Up	Offensive Guard
Evade Extender	Health Boost

Guard

A staple for any hunter that would rather block than evade attacks, The Guard Skill bolsters a Charge Blade's blocking efficiency. Hunters will receive a massive improvement in impact absorption and a 50% reduction in stamina depletion when blocking attacks at level five.

It is recommended that hunters invest in at least three points in Guard should they decide to incorporate it within their builds.

Guard Up

Another favorite of blocking hunters. The Guard Up Skill allows hunters to block otherwise unblockable attacks from monsters.

Offensive Guard

This skill is recommended for hunters that like to turn their defense into offense. Offensive Guard increases a hunter's attack by 15% at level three after executing a perfectly-timed guard. The buff only lasts for a few seconds after impact.

Charge Blade users who like to transition into an Elemental Discharge or Savage Axe combo after perfect-blocking will find this skill extremely useful for their playstyle.

Evade Extender

This skill caters to Charge Blade users who prefer to utilize the sword form's evasive combat style. Evade extender greatly increases the distanced covered by a hunter's dodge and Charge Blade hops at level three, allowing hunters to maintain the offensive while getting out of harm's way.

This skill does NOT extend the distance covered by the Charge Blade's sliding attack.

Health Boost

It never hurts to pump up one's HP! Health Boost increases a hunter's Health by 50 at level three, making it a solid addition to any build - especially early on in the game.

Utility Skills

Recommendations
Focus	Power Prolonger	Capacity Boost
Quick Sheath	Protective Polish

Focus

The Focus Skill allows hunters to charge their Double Slash Attack 15% faster at level three. This is important because the Charged Double Slash Attack from the sword form is the fastest way to fill up a hunter's phials.

Power Prolonger

Power Prolonger, in essence, provides the same functional benefits as the Focus Skill. Instead of bolstering a hunter's efficiency at filling up Phials, however, Power Prolonger will greatly extend the duration of the Charge Blade's buffs (Charged Sword and Shield) at level three.

This allows hunters to spend their phials offensively for a greater amount of time before recharging their sword and shield.

Capacity Boost

Capacity Boost is a straight-forward skill that increases the Charge Blade's maximum phial count by one. While this may seem like a minor buff, an extra phial can translate to significant boosts in damage and efficiency in the hands of experienced hunters.

Quick Sheath

This skill is recommended for hunters that want to start learning how to use a Charge Blade without having to deal with its long sheathing time.

Experienced hunters may also find this skill to be useful in hunts where high mobility is beneficial.

Protective Polish

Hunters who prefer using the Savage Axe or Charged Sword forms tend to run into sharpness issues during hunts.

Protective Polish is a great skill to address these issues as it applies a protective coating around the weapon after sharpening, ensuring that hunter's Charge Blade does not lose sharpness for a set amount of time.

Related Monster Hunter World (MHW) Guides

All Skills

List of All Skills

Best Skills for Each Weapon

Recommendations for Other Weapons
Charge Blade	Dual Blades	Long Sword	Sword & Shield
Switch Axe	Insect Glaive	Hunting Horn	Great Sword
Lance	Gunlance	Hammer	Bow
Heavy Bowgun		Light Bowgun

Weapon Related Guides

Melee Weapons
Great Swords	Trees & Full List	How to Use
	Overall Best List	Best Skills
	Layered Weapon Augments
	Best Great Sword for Each Element
	Best Great Sword for Iceborne
Long Swords	Trees & Full List	How to Use
	Overall Best List	Best Skills
	Layered Weapon Augments
	Best Long Sword for Each Element
	Best Long Sword for Iceborne
Swords and Shields	Trees & Full List	How to Use
	Overall Best List	Best Skills
	Layered Weapon Augments
	Best Sword and Shield for Each Element
	Best Sword and Shield for Iceborne
Dual Blades	Trees & Full List	How to Use
	Overall Best List	Best Skills
	Layered Weapon Augments
	Best Dual Blades for Each Element
	Best Dual Blades for Iceborne
Hammers	Trees & Full List	How to Use
	Overall Best List	Best Skills
	Layered Weapon Augments
	Best Hammer for Each Element
	Best Hammers for Iceborne
Hunting Horns	Trees & Full List	How to Use
	Overall Best List	Best Skills
	Layered Weapon Augments
	Best Hunting Horn for Each Element
	Best Hunting Horn for Iceborne
	Hunting Horn Notes and Effects
Lances	Trees & Full List	How to Use
	Overall Best List	Best Skills
	Layered Weapon Augments
	Best Lance for Each Element
	Best Lance for Iceborne
Gunlances	Trees & Full List	How to Use
	Overall Best List	Best Skills
	Layered Weapon Augments
	Best Gunlance for Each Element
	Best Gunlance for Iceborne
Switch Axe	Trees & Full List	How to Use
	Overall Best List	Best Skills
	Layered Weapon Augments
	Best Switch Axe for Each Element
	Best Switch Axe for Iceborne
Charge Blade	Trees & Full List	How to Use
	Overall Best List	Best Skills
	Layered Weapon Augments
	Best Charge Blade for Each Element
	Best Charge Blades for Iceborne
Insect Glaive	Trees & Full List	How to Use
	Overall Best List	Best Skills
	Layered Weapon Augments
	Best Insect Glaive for Each Element
	Best Insect Glaive for Iceborne

Kinsects
Kinsects	Kinsect Tree and Complete Kinsect List	Best and Recommended Kinsects

Ranged Weapons
Bows	Trees & Full List	How to Use
	Overall Best List	Best Skills
	Layered Weapon Augments
	Best Bow for Each Element
Light Bowguns	Trees & Full List	How to Use
	Overall Best List	Best Skills
	Layered Weapon Augments
	Best Light Bowgun for Each Element
Heavy Bowguns	Trees & Full List	How to Use
	Overall Best List	Best Skills
	Layered Weapon Augments
	Best Heavy Bowgun for Each Element