Monster Hunter Wilds features a variety of weapon types for the Hunter to choose from. Some weapons are more offensive than the rest, while some provide a fair balance between offense and defense, like the Sword and Shield.

The Sword and Shield are fairly unique weapons among all the rest, as they allow you to defend against weaker attacks with your shield without affecting your mobility. They also provide both Blunt and Severing attack types, so you’re well-equipped to face any type of enemy. The following are the Sword and Shield pairs that are the best ones in the game.

Shrouded Katalo

Stats:

Attack: 322
Affinity: 0 percent
Element: None
Skills: Guard[3], Guard Up [1]

Among all the Swords and Shields, the Shrouded Katalo offers easily one of the best defenses. The weapon features a passive bonus of 15 Defense, alongside the Guard and Guard Up skills, making it one of the best options if you love playing defensively.

The Guard and Guard Up skill makes defending against even the toughest attacks much easier. The Guard skill reduces stamina consumption while blocking, and the Guard Up skill reduces the incoming damage drastically. However, the lack of this weapon’s offensive abilities, alongside the Blue max sharpness, makes it a difficult weapon to wield against most late-game monsters.

Chief Kukri

Stats:

Attack: 322
Affinity: 0 percent
Element: None
Skills: Stamina Thief [3], Attack Boost [1]

While Chief Kukri offers similar stats to the Shrouded Katalo, the unique skills of this weapon make all the difference. While Chief Kukri doesn’t have any extraordinary attack or defense prowess, the Stamina Thief skill makes it easier to exhaust monsters quickly, opening them up for more damage.

The Chief Kukri is a great Secondary Weapon to bring out if you’re trying to exhaust the monster, and then you can switch to your Primary Weapon to dish out the damage while the monster is unable to move. The drawback of this weapon is that, aside from lacking strong damage, it also only goes up to the Blue Sharpness zone, despite being a Rarity 8 weapon.

Melting Point

Stats:

Attack: 294
Affinity: 15 percent
Element: Fire 200
Skills: Critical Element [1], Master’s Touch [1]

Melting Point is a great offensive weapon with an excellent Attack and Affinity combination. Furthermore, the Master’s Touch skill ensures that you don’t lose any sharpness at all at times while attacking a monster.

The Fire elemental damage also helps against monsters that are particularly weak to fire, and the Critical Element skill further increases the elemental damage of the weapon. While this weapon lacks defensive skills, you can always use the evade option to avoid attacks instead of blocking them head-on.

Guiding Artorius

Stats:

Attack: 308
Affinity: 0 Percent
Element: Dragon 250
Skills: Guard [3]

Guiding Artorius is also a strong Sword and Shield, especially because of the 250 Dragon element damage on it. The high elemental damage, paired with the fairly high base attack power of 308 makes this weapon a good offensive tool against any type of opponent.

Its offensive capabilities aren’t the only thing that makes this weapon great, as it comes with the Guard skill, which reduces the stamina consumption on successful blocks, allowing you to continue your assault on the opposing monster after blocking its attacks.

Lala Acanthopelm

Stats:

Attack: 280
Affinity: 15%
Element: Paralysis 200
Skills: Critical Draw [2], Critical Status [1]

The Lala Acanthopelm is one of the sharpest weapons in the Sword and Shield category, as it has the biggest white sharpness bar than any other. Furthermore, it features high attack and 15 percent affinity to make sure you’re landing those critical hits often.

The Critical Draw skill increases the critical chance of draw attacks drastically, while the Critical Status skill ensures that you’ll have a much higher chance of inflicting the Paralysis status effect while landing a critical hit. These skills go well together with this weapon’s status effect, making it a great option against nimble monsters.

Titan’s Armament

Stats:

Attack: 336
Affinity: -15 percent
Element: Blast 250
Skills: Guard Up

The Titan’s armament is easily one of the hardest-hitting weapons in this category, but it comes with two drawbacks that hold it back. The weapon only goes up to blue sharpness, and it has -15 percent Affinity, which would affect your ability to land critical hits.

Regardless of these issues, this weapon makes up for all the flaws with its incredibly high attack and elemental damage, making sure that you’re doing a ton of damage, even without landing critical hits. Additionally, the weapon provides a passive bonus of 30 defense, and if you pair that with the Guard Up skill, you’ll have a complete package of strong offense and great defense.

Queen Rapier

Stats:

Attack: 294
Affinity: 15 percent
Element: Poison 180
Skills: Critical Status [3], Poison Duration Up [1]

If you want consistent damage throughout the entire fight, the Queen Rapier is going to give you exactly that. The weapon has great offensive stats, plus it can inflict poison, which can help you wither down the HP of large monsters slowly.

The Poison Duration Up skill further increases the status effect’s duration, and the Critical Status skill helps you in applying the status effect. It is a sharp weapon that will help you against any type of enemy unless you’re fighting a Rompopolo.

Jager-Ankh

Stats:

Attack: 294
Affinity: 20 percent
Element: Dragon 200
Skills: Critical Element [3]

The Jager-Ankh is easily the best Sword and Shield in the game, and it also looks pretty cool. It provides the highest Affinity among all other weapons of the same category, ensuring that you keep landing those critical hits. The Critical Element skill further enhances the elemental damage.

Most late-game monsters, including Arkveld, are weak to the Dragon Element, making this weapon an ideal choice in the High Ranks. Additionally, the balance between high attack and high Affinity makes it one of the best options for dealing damage among other Sword and Shield weapons.