- Highest DPS on paper.
- Less consistent (more crit RNG).
- Very difficult to roll.
Ostrak Oblivion (Gogma-Artian)
Reinforcements
Section titled “Reinforcements”You’ll want to roll for these on the base non-Gogma Artian (Varianza), and then upgrade to Gogma-Artian once you have the reinforcements you want. This is because dismantling a Varianza will refund all the invested Orichalcite, whereas rerolling reinforcements via the Gogma system consumes it permanently.
Optimal Configurations
Section titled “Optimal Configurations”There are two main “god rolls” for reinforcements on your Gogma GS. They’re extremely close together in performance to the point that the difference is basically a rounding error.
- Performs nearly identically.
- More consistent (less crit RNG).
- Several times easier to roll.
Suboptimal Configurations
Section titled “Suboptimal Configurations”- You must have at least one Sharpness reinforcement for the weapon to be practical for use.
- After that, as many Attack & Affinity and as few Element reinforcements as you can.
Set Bonus & Group Skill
Section titled “Set Bonus & Group Skill”The best and most versatile combo to roll is Soul of the Dark Knight/Lord’s Soul.
Rolling Soul of the Dark Knight means we only need to wear one piece of the inefficient Bale armor, so it’s quite important. Lord’s Soul gives more flexibility for set building, but it’s not as critically important since there are several efficient Arch-Tempered armor pieces.
If you can’t get both, aim to just get Soul of the Dark Knight - you can still make a set that’s nearly just as good.
Other Viable Rolls
Section titled “Other Viable Rolls”It’s still possible to make a highly performant GS set even if you can’t get the “god roll” of Soul/Soul. Bale bonus is still mandatory of course, so any mixed set that doesn’t have Bale on the weapon is going to need to wear 2 pieces of Bale armor.
| Group Skill | Set Bonus | Suggested Set(s) |
|---|---|---|
| Lord’s Soul | Doshaguma’s Might | [to be updated] |
| Lord’s Soul | Ebony Odogaron’s Power | [to be updated] |
| Lord’s Soul | Fulgur Anjanath’s Will | [to be updated] |
| Lord’s Soul | Gore Magala’s Tyranny | [to be updated] |
| Lord’s Soul | Omega Resonance | [to be updated] |
| Lord’s Soul | Rathalos’s Flare | [to be updated] |
| Lord’s Soul | --- | [to be updated] |
| --- | Soul of the Dark Knight | Bale Only |
For detailed information on this subject, check out this guide by & Knuckles.
Focus (Attack, Affinity, Element)
Section titled “Focus (Attack, Affinity, Element)”Broadly speaking, Affinity Focus is the most optimal for Great Sword sets. However, you can make good sets with any Focus by tailoring your armor skills. I’ll explain a bit why Affinity Focus is used for GS.
That thing, your Dark Soul.
Section titled “That thing, your Dark Soul.”GS sets look a bit different than most because Soul of the Dark Knight, the 2pc Bale set bonus, is too good to leave home without. It provides an extra 30MV laser attack on level 3 charges, which can crit and counts towards Burst uptime. However, the Bale armor itself isn’t very efficient. We prefer to roll DarkSoul on the weapon so we only need to wear 1pc Bale.
Other weapons don’t need Bale, so they’re free to use their Gogma roll for some other skill like Gore Magala’s Tyranny, an easy source of 25% affinity with high uptime. This offsets the affinity penalty that comes with Attack Focus. Thus, other weapons have a surplus of affinity, risking overcap. We don’t, because we “pay for” Bale.
Relatively negligible downsides.
Section titled “Relatively negligible downsides.”Affinity Focus loses 10 raw, but this can be regained-and-then-some with 1 Attack EX reinforcement (worth 12 raw). Conversely, Attack Focus loses 15% affinity, and you can’t make up for that with just one Affinity EX reinforcement (worth only 10% affinity).
Affinity Focus also gets -10 white sharpness. This sucks on other weapons, but GS isn’t as sharpness-intensive. As long as we have one Sharpness EX reinforcement - which we were going to do anyway - taking a small hit here doesn’t push us out of a comfortable amount of white sharpness.
Attack Focus is fine too.
Section titled “Attack Focus is fine too.”Although GS’s unique situation makes Affinity Focus the more versatile option with lots of different effective sets, it’s still very possible to make an optimal set with an Attack Focus GS. However, there are fewer compatible sets overall. Most Attack Focus sets will probably rely on Latent Power for affinity.
Elemental Infusions
Section titled “Elemental Infusions”As you probably know, element isn’t a very large portion of our damage for GS. Typically it’s only a few percent, with the overwhelming majority coming from raw. Element matching is technically viable though, since it will work out to slightly more damage than status over the course of an endgame hunt (due to high status thresholds for endgame monsters). With that in mind, creating an optimized Gogma GS for every element is a ton of farming for gains of only a couple percent at the most.
The other fly in the ointment is that you don’t know how long it’s going to take you to get good reinforcements and skill rolls until after you choose the element. You’ll be save scumming to check ahead on your rolls if you want to stand any chance at all, so functionally you don’t actually have any control over which element you end up with first.
Most players will probably end up just taking whatever element they get on their first god roll, and that’s perfectly fine. It’s your call how much or how little you want to engage with the Gogma Grind. You are the boss of your element sauce.
Elemental Matchups
Section titled “Elemental Matchups”Chart from Wilds Great Sword Guide by Jackscin and OPGZ2:
Fire has almost twice as many matchups as any other element, including standouts Jin Dahaad, Gore Magala and Lagiacrus. It’s used in some parts of the Gogmazios fight, too. Thunder comes in as runner-up with Seregios, Uth Duna, Omega Planetes and Mizutsune. Ice is pretty marginal with only four matchups, and even some of those are also weak to Water.