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Shara Ishvalda is a massive Elder Dragon inMonster Hunter World: Icebornethat acts as the final boss of the expansion’s story. As the final boss, you’ll need to do everything you can as you prepare to face Shara Ishvalda on Origin Isle.
Shara Ishvalda has two phases that force you to use very different strategies. However, once you understand the rhythm of the fight, this Elder Dragon becomes much more manageable. Below, we’ll take a look at everything you need to know about fighting Shara Ishvalda, including its strengths and weaknesses, the best armor to use, and more.
Shara Ishvalda - Strengths And Weaknesses
Shara Ishvalda has two different forms that you’ll see in this fight, but both have roughly the same strengths and weaknesses. Shara Ishvalda isweak to Ice and Blastattacks on itsHead, Neck, and Wings, butcompletely resists Thunder and Sleep. This monster also takes very little damage on itsback legs and tail.
Tenderizing Shara Ishvalda using yourClutch Clawis crucial for this fight, as the monster has quite a bit of health and can take a while to hunt, even with fully upgraded gear. Tenderizing a monster part will cause it totake more damage from your attacks, and can offset the damage reduction provided by a stronger part like Shara Ishvalda’s back legs or tail.
Best Equipment To Use To Fight Shara Ishvalda
The two most important things to bring to this fight arearmor with high defenseand aweapon with either Blast or Ice damage. Shara Ishvaldadoes not use elemental damagefor any of its attacks, so the armor you bring is entirely up to you, just verify youupgrade its defense levelas high as you can.
Some useful skills to have for this fight areEvade Window, Tremor Resistance, Health Boost, Weakness Exploit, Fortify, and Speed Sharpening. Evade Window will let you more easily dodge through Shara Ishvalda’s attacks, while Health Boost will increase your overall survivability.
Tremor Resistance isn’t essential, but can make Shara Ishvalda’s tremors less annoying, allowing you to attack while it shakes the ground instead of stumbling around.
Weakness Exploitis a great boost to your overall damage, whileSpeed Sharpeningwill help melee weapon users sharpen their weapons faster. Try to fit these skills into your build, but use whichever ones you feel the most comfortable with.Fortifyis also a great stat booster that activates once you’ve fallen in battle at least once, and can make getting back into the fight easier.
TheVitality Mantle, Temporal Mantle, and Rocksteady Mantleare also great choices for this fight, and can drastically increase your chances of survival when used at the right time.
As mentioned above, be sure to bring aBlast or Ice element weapon, as these will deal the most damage to Shara Ishvalda.Melee weapons will have a much easier time staying closeto the monster and make it easier to avoid its attacks while dealing damage, but ranged weapons should suffice if you prefer using them.
Bring a fewFarcasterswith you, as this is theonly way to return to campto restock on Potions or ammo without Carting.
As always, be sure toeat to increase your maximum health and staminabefore you head into this quest.
Shara Ishvalda - Fight Breakdown And Moves
In the first phase of this fight, Shara Ishvalda will becompletely covered in rocky armor. As you damage these rocky pieces, they will begin to break away. During this phase, Shara Ishvalda willmove very slowly, but will usehigh damage attacks. Luckily, these are prettyeasy to see coming, and should be easily dodgeable.
A few of Shara Ishvalda’s attacks will createsand puddleson the ground; moving through these will greatlyreduce your movement speed, making it harder to dodge the monster’s attacks. If you find yourself in one of these puddles, get out of it as quickly as you can.
To make this phase go by a bit faster, you canClutch Clawonto Shara Ishvalda’s head and ram it into the wall. This will deal a decent amount of damage to the monster whilestunning it for a few seconds, letting you get a few extra hits in. Be sure totarget Shara Ishvalda’s headand neckarea as you attack.
Eventually, all of Shara Ishvalda’sarmor will crumble away, and thesecond phaseof the fight will begin. As Shara Ishvalda sheds its armor, it will blast away the walls of the arena,expanding your moveable area.
In this phase, Shara Ishvalda willmove much faster, and it will be able to firesonic beam attacks from the tips of its wings. It will also frequently bring its wings together before firing alarge, high-damage beam to the front. This attack deals very high damage, but is easy to avoid bystanding behind Shara Ishvalda’s wings.
This is also a great time to deal some damage to Shara Ishvalda, as therest of its body is vulnerablewhile it focuses on firing the sonic beam attack.
Shara Ishvalda will also createsand puddlesduring this phase, but some of its attacks will also cause them toexplode after a few seconds. Like before, make sure you get out of these puddles as quickly as possible.
During this phase, Shara Ishvalda’sfront legs are no longer resistant to attacks, making these a great place to attack.
When Shara Ishvaldasubmerges itself underground and moves to one side of the arena, quicklyrun to the opposite wall. This maneuver indicates that Shara Ishvalda will attack with a large sonic AoE attack. This attack does very high damage and in most cases willinstantly kill you, so be extra careful to avoid it.
Once you’ve gotten down the timing for dodging Shara Ishvalda’s beam attacks, its other attacks should be no problem. You’ll mainly need to worry aboutfinishing the fight on time, especially if you spent a while in the first phase knocking off its armor.
Use all the offensive tools at your disposal, likedamage-focused armor skillsandappropriately upgraded weapons, and try toplay aggressively. This fight may take a few tries to complete, but Shara Ishvalda’s highly telegraphed attacks will get easier to avoid the more practice you get.
Shara Ishvalda - Drops And Materials
Shara Ishvalda will drop the following materials. These can be used to craft the Shara Ishvalda Alpha and Beta armor sets, as well as various Rarity 12 weapons.
