How to follow the guide?

The guide is more of a roadmap on what items you should try to use at a certain point in the game pre Iceborne. For example, if you are currently fighting low-rank Tobi Kadachi, you should check Rarity 2 gear.

However, if you beat Rathian at the same time while on expeditions, you will get access to Rarity 3 items. So check what is recommended from that list for you to get and upgrade accordingly

After the high-rank starts, try to adjust based on your playstyle. No need to follow the builds step by step but take them more as a frame

This guide should help you reach Iceborne if you do not want to use Defender gear

Low Rank

You could call this introduction to the game where you will encounter and learn most of the things about the game.

Rarity 1 gear

This is the start of the game and encounters should be fairly easy

MHW Bow low rank build

Helm: Bone Helm – health boost
Armor: Kulu Mail – will increase stamina recovery speed by a small margin, Bone Mail – gives more raw damage, great at the start of the game.
Gloves: Bone Vambraces – slugger skill is effective when using Arc shot
Belt: Kulu Coil – highest defense, no other good alternatives
Legs: Kulu Greaves – great skill Critical Eye which increases your affinity (how often you do critical hits)
Weapons: Kulu Arrow 1 (it is rarity 2, but you will have needed materials to craft it), Hunter’s Bow 2

Rarity 2

Some new monsters will be introduced but this should not make your game too hard

MHW Bow build low rank

Helm: Kadachi Helm - constitution skill will lower stamina consumption
Armor: Stay with Kulu Mail, however, if you keep dying upgrade to something from rarity 2, like Barroth Mail
Gloves: Barroth Vambraces – just the highest defense item, if you are ok with survivability you can keep Bone Vambraces
Belt: Kadachi Coil – a good addition to Pulsar Bow, with increase Thunder damage.
Legs: Kulu Greaves – no better alternative available.
Weapons: Pulsar Bow 1, Blooming Arch 1

Rarity 3

New monsters with bigger damage will be introduced. Moreover, new gear will be available.

MHW bow build low rank

Helm: Rathian Helm, Baan helm if you use arc shot often (shot which drops rocks from air)
Armor: Tzitzi mail, increases your affinity (higher critical rate)
Gloves: Anja Vambraces, give Special Ammo boost skill which increases dragon piercer damage.
Belt: Lumu Coil, enhances your survivability with Divine Blessing skill
Legs: Kulu Greaves or move to Girros Greaves for more defense
Charm: Thunder Charm 1 (if you use Thunder damage weapon) or Health Charm 1
Weapons: Pulsar Bow 2, also can craft Blooming Arch 1 may be good for, due to poison + paralysis coatings

Rarity 4

MHW Bow build low rank

Helm: Rathalos Helm – gives attack boost which increases general damage, Legiana Helm – good defensive helm with Divine blessing skill
Armor: Rathalos mail, provides weakness exploit skill, probably the best all-around skill available
Gloves: Odagoron Vambraces, gives Constitution skill which decreases stamina consumption for all of your actions
Belt: Odogaron Coil, Critical Eye will increase your affinity.
Legs: Rathalos Greaves if you equip these with other Rathalos items, your elemental attacks with bow will deal additional criticals. However, at this stage of the game the damage increase is negligible.
Charm: Thunder Charm 1 (if you use Thunder damage weapon) or Health Charm 1
Weapons: Pulsar Bow 2 – this bow still holds well at this stage. Get Rathslinger 1 if you have Rathalos armor set and the monster you fight will have weaknesses to Fire, otherwise, skip it.

High rank

Game opens up much more from this stage. You will have beaten Zorah Magdaros. A new rank will start. This means that you will fight some of the same monsters as before. However, they will be harder now. So I would suggest if you find that fights are difficult, skip the items suggested here and get items with these defensive boosts:

Health Boost (Vitality)
Divine Blessing
Speed Eating
Specific element resistance: Fire, Water resistance, etc.

Offensive skill which are your priority:

Weakness exploit
Constitution
Bow Charge Plus (rare decoration)
Critical Element
Critical Eye

Decorations

A new mechanic will be introduced, where you can use jewels to add skills to your equipment. You get them randomly from each hunt and investigations.

New types of armor - alfa and beta

New type of armors will be available. These are called alfa and beta. Alfa armors provide more skills and beta armors give more decoration slots. So if you have good decorations usually you should opt-in for bet armors.

Throughout the guide, I will be assuming that you do not have good decorations and only the ones, which are available through melder.

Rarity 5 - first good armors

MHW High rank bow

Helm: Kadachi Helm alfa – decreases your stamina consumption. Kulu Headpiece alfa, gives weakness exploit. Bone Helm beta – use free slot to insert specific element resistance
Armor: Tzitzi mail beta, gives constitution and two decoration slots, use them to increase your resistances
Gloves: Anja Vambraces beta, even though the skills are not too good, it still gives much more defense. Increases Dragon Piercer damage. Kulu Vambraces Alfa, gives more affinity
Belt: Lumu Coil alfa, divine blessing skill two levels, will greatly increases your survivability as monsters will be much harder. Kadachi Coil alfa – if you will be using Thunder element weapon
Legs: Kadachi Greaves alfa, Gives constitution skill for decreased stamina consumption
Charm: Fitness Charm 1, will increase your constitution skill
Weapons: Kadachi Strikebow – the best bow you will have at this part of the game. You can also get Archer’s Dance 1 before. It will be available once you beat Kulu Ya Ku in High rank

Rarity 6 - getting critical element

In this part of the game your aim is to unlock Critical Element skill from Rathalos set. You will only need two pieces. This will greatly increase your damage with elemental bows, so be ready to have a few of them based on enemy weaknesses. From now on you should also mostly use elemental weapons, so be sure to check enemy weaknesses before each fight.

MHW high rank build bow

Helm: Strategist Spectacles alfa – gives higher affinity. Rathalos Helm alfa/beta – increases raw damage from attack boost
Armor: Rathalos Mail beta, weakness exploit skill. Rathalos Mail alfa, if you use Fire bow. Diablos Mail beta – as an alternative.
Gloves: Odagoron Vambraces alfa, gives great utility and offensive skills. Ingot Vambraces beta, defensive alternative. Rathalos Vambraces alfa – has one offensive skill, attack boost.
Belt: Odagoron Coil beta, great offensive capabilities with Critical Eye skill.
Legs: Rathalos greaves alfa, finished the set to get Critical element skill.
Charm: Fitness Charm 2, will further increase constitution skill
Weapons: Anja Arch 2 or 3 – best fire bow, use weakness exploit together with it. Snowfletcher – best Ice bow which you can use for further monster encounters and utilize critical element. Kadachi Strikebow – best thunder bow at the current stage. Dragonbone Bow 3 – bow with dragon elemental damage. If you will need Raw damage bow you can get Diablos Coilbender

Rarity 7 - enough to beat the game

You should be ready now to take most of the elder dragons and even some of the tempered monsters. You are now getting close to general best in slot items.

Use the free equipment decorations slots to put in jewels that are available to you. For example, use vitality, divine blessing if you die often. Critical eye, elemental jewels for increased damage

MHW high rank end game bow build

Helm: Rath Soul Helm Beta – you should have some critical eye decorations at this time in the game. Use them in two decoration slots
Armor: Rathalos Mail beta, stays the same, do not forget to upgrade it. Dober Mail beta if you will need raw damage.
Gloves: Odagoron Vambraces alfa, do not forget to upgrade them
Belt: Odagoron Coil beta, great offensive capabilities with Critical Eye skill. Rath Soul Coil alfa for Dragon Piercer.
Legs: Lavasioth greaves alfa, probably the best greaves available to you, with increased Spread/Power shots.
Charm: Fitness Charm 3, will further increase constitution skill
Weapons: Anja Arch 3 – best fire bow available for you, use Weakness exploit to negate the negative affinity effect. Snowfletcher – still the best Ice bow available to you. Flying Kadachi Strikebow – best thunder bow at the current stage, great upgrade. If you will need Raw damage bow you can get Galebender is your choice. Dragonbone Bow3 – as it is easy to get and you do not need to farm specific monsters take it. Hazak Velos 2 is better, but you will spend more time on farming Vaal Hazak. Moreover, dragon element is not as useful as it should be and only a few monsters have hitzones weaker to it compared to other elements.

At this point in time with the equipment in your hands, you should be able to beat the game. Because rarity 8 is not worth the farming and will become obsolete once you hit Iceborne. So do not spend much time on farming it

Rarity 8

As I mentioned you should spend time getting items if you only really need them. Otherwise, the previous rarity weapons should be enough. Of course, if you are having difficulties feel free to get these items to make the last encounters easier.

Use free slots to increase elemental damage of the bow you are using. For example, when using Legia Snowfletcher use Ice jewels.

MHW bow high rank end game build

Helm: Rath Soul Helm Beta – you should have some critical eye decorations at this time in the game. Use them in two decoration slots
Armor: Rathalos Mail beta, stays the same, do not forget to upgrade it. Dober Mail beta if you will need raw damage.
Gloves: Kaiser Vambraces Beta, best gloves available to you. Will maximise your weakness exploit skill
Belt: Odagoron Coil beta, great offensive capabilities with Critical Eye skill. Rath Soul Coil alfa.
Legs: Rathalos greaves alfa, keep upgrading them. If you will use Raw damage bow, get Dober Greaves Beta
Charm: Fitness Charm 3, will further increase constitution skill
Weapons: Anja Arch 3 – best fire bow available for you, use Weakness exploit to negate the negative affinity effect. Legia Snowfletcher – best bow without doing Kulve Taroth at this point. Flying Kadachi Strikebow – best thunder bow at the current stage, great upgrade. If you will need Raw damage bow you can get Galebender is your choice. Hazak Velos 2 – best dragon bow

Based on your elemental setup and wanting to maximize DPS, you can check these builds for more situation approaches in the base game: https://imgur.com/a/XCJleqI

Conclusion

You should be able to enjoy the game to the fullest with this bow equipment progression guide. Seeing how item combinations are the heart of Monster Hunter World.

If you think I have missed or something can be improved feel free to leave a comment below.