Part 26: Ultimate Prowlers

"Will it Cat?" Prowlers and Mew: Ultimeowt Edition Part 2



Hello, gentle viewers! Today we will continue to explore what cats are capable of in their Ultimate form. Spefically, we'll cover ideal Prowler builds.

All right, so the basic stuff about scouting for cats still holds from Generations. The main difference is, previously you couldn't scout cats higher than level 20. In Generations Ultimate, Prowler Quests in the High Rank Village campaign, or G-Rank Hub, raise the scouting level cap to level 35, and then a final time to level 60. Both the maximum scout level and level cap are unlocked in G4, so either way you'll be doing a lot of questing. Let's build a cat that can get you there, and beyond!


Ultimate Prowler Builds

The changes to Generations Ultimate, not to mention the all new Beast cat, make the majority of Support Biasses viable to use as Prowlers! The only one that doesn't really work that well is Charisma. Charisma cats are still best relegated to your Palico buddies. They're best at support and buff-botting... and there are other Support Biases that do the support thing better than they do as a Prowler. Sad but true.

Not only that, but a lot of the Support Moves and Skills got re-tooled, and there are all new ones as well! This means you can do a wider variety of builds. It's not all about the Piercing Big Boomerangs anymore! (Only mostly!)

Now, reminder, thanks to the addition of the re-roll function, crafting the purrfect cat is waaaaaay easier. Refer back to this handy dandy infographic which I shamelessly stole from Gaijinhunter:



If you're only interested in a cat that's "good enough," then just look for a cat that has the most important skills and go with it. I'll make note of which ones are the essential skills if you don't want to be as obsessive about it as I am.


Essential Moves and skills are non-negotiable. Bare minimum, you want these. Make sure your cat either comes with them or can re-roll for them!

The Highly Recommended moves and skills are very helpful and worth going the extra mile for.

Look for the Recommended moves and skills if you want an optimal cat.


When deciding on your build, remember that at level 99 you get room for 7 Support Moves and you get 8 passive Skill slots. (And skills can take more than one slot!)

Also remember that you get two extra slots for both Support Moves and passive Skills to fill with whatever you want. Keep that in mind when deciding what skill set to scout for! Related to that, take a look at the A slot Support Moves. There is some nice stuff in there, but if you go for a cat that starts with one of those, you'll wind up with fewer moves overall. Generally, it's a better idea to just burn one of your extra slots on an A move instead.

Passive Skills are easier to figure out, most times. The A group passives are pretty much universally garbo, so you'll just want to grab as many B and C group skills as you can. Set B has a lot of really good and useful stuff, while C contains mostly status immunity skills as well as the generally essential Boomerang Pro and Critical Up S.

One Support Move that's especially worth considering on pretty much any cat is Pitfall Purr-ison / Shock Purr-ison. Traps are kiiiinda busted on cats. They're not only good for capturing. Don't underestimate the power of holding a monster still for a few seconds while you whale on it. That's powerful. There's a reason why human hunters can only carry two traps maximum! Cats can get essentially infinite traps. This is huge. Sure, monsters build up resistance to traps over time, meaning they break out of them quicker... but unless you actually need to capture a monster, generally you don't care! Basically, a trap is never a bad choice for your extra slot.

Now, there are two more skills that you should also consider on any cat, regardless of Support Bias. They're both B slot moves, and they're both new:Far-cat-ster and Furbidden Acorn.

Far-cat-ster is a welcome addition to the cat's repertoire. It costs 3 bars and functions exactly like the Farcaster item that humans can use: it teleports you instantly back to camp! It's great as a get out of jail free card- you're invulnerable for the entire animation, if you end up eating both Acorns or if you're on one of those pesky quests that don't let you go back to camp once you enter the combat zone. You don't always have a bed available to refill your Acorns on such quests, but at least you can take a breather if you need to!

Furbidden Acorn is a bit of an odd skill, but potentially very powerful. It costs no bars and instantly fills 3 bars of your Support Move Gauge... in exchange for merking one of your Acorns. You can't refill the consumed Acorn at the camp bed, but you do get it back if you cart. It's best used at the start of a hunt so you can come in swinging with Piercing Big Boomerangs, Weapon Upgrade, or Release the Beast right away. Just be careful of your health because you only get one Acorn... I am personally not that comfortable with this skill yet, but if you're better than me at not dying, definitely toss it on!




Equipment

Lastly let's talk about equipment real quick. After all, a warrior is only as good as her weapon, right? Unless you really really need a tail cut for whatever reason, you will always want to go with a blunt weapon. Blunt weapons exhaust a monster quicker, and can KO it if you hit it in the head. Both of these mean the monster spends less time trying to eat you, and you can spend more time beating on it!

Regardless of the weapon, you'll want to look for ones with high Affinity, or at the very least ones that don't have negative Affinity. Cats live and die by their crits.

Lastly, cats excel at elemental damage and they're especially good at status attacks. If you're going elemental, obviously just pick whichever element the monster is weakest to. For status, the two you want to look for are Paralysis and Blast. Paralysis locks a monster in place for a few seconds. If you happen to have a blunt paralyzing weapon, you can be extremely rude to monsters. Oh so very, VERY rude. Blast is a great option if you just want to go all in on the damage. A target afflicted by Blast will explode after a few seconds, dealing massive damage. The more you apply it, the more damage you'll do.

If you can stomach the hellgrind, any weapon made from a Deviant monster gives you extra gauge gain. Quite a few of them are best in class for their element/status (especially the Blast one). The hellgrind is real, though. Think carefully about it.

That's it for the general stuff. On to the real meat of things!



I'm here to eat Felvine and kick ass, and I'm all out of Felvine!



Fighting cats used to be the all-around best Prowlers, but in GU they're middle of the road- thanks to the massive buff the other Support Biases got. They still get some fun tricks, so they're well worth considering! Ideally, you'll want to spec your cat for a mix of melee and ranged combat, or just go all in on melee. Your choice.



Support Moves

You will still probably want to go with Piercing Boomerangs regardless of what specific build you go for. You're going to have better things to do with your gauge than tooting the Demon Horn, and you can always bring a sub Palico with that if you want the attack buff.

And ya know. Big Boomerangs is always nice to have, and C slot skills are easiest to come by. (Essential)

If you want to just go all in on melee combat, then I suggest going for Weapon Upgrade. Weapon Upgrade is kinda like Piercing Big Boomerangs, but for melee, if that makes sense. It's a B slot move that costs 3 bars of gauge (same as the total cost of the 'rangs), and gives +10 to your raw damge and +30% to your Affinity for 90 seconds. These buffs stack with the bonuses you get from Felyne Fury, so fire off both of those, if you can. Then you can either smack monsters in the face like normal, or rodeo them into oblivion. (Essential)

And since you'll be doing a lot of rodeos... how about Mega Boomerang to go with that? Not to be confused with Big Boomerangs, Mega Boomerang is a B slot move that hucks a bigass boomerang at your target. It has a loooong windup, and once the boomerang is away, it hovers over the target, spinning and doing damage as long as it's active. It is best used on an immobilized target... such as one that's just been toppled from a rodeo, for instance... (Highly Recommended)

An alternative is Claw Dance, another B slot move and also one best used on immobilized targets. You won't need both it and Mega Boomerang, so pick one. Both moves cost 2 bars. (Highly Recommended)

For your last B Move, pick one of Far-cat-ster or Furbidden Acorn. Far-cat-ster if you want your get out of jail free card, Furbidden Acorn if you want to come in swinging with Weapon Upgrade or Piercing Big Boomerangs right away. You can tutor the other one at the Dojo, if you want.

To round out your Support Moves, go for Dung Bombay (Highly Recommended) or Soothing Roll (Recommended). Dung Bombay is of course helpful for multi-monster hunts and for escaping when pinned, but what about Soothing Roll? I don't remember suggesting that before... Well that's because I didn't! Soothing Roll is one move that got a pretty massive buff in GenU! It used to cure abnormal statuses and nothing else. Pretty garbo! Well, now it also restores health! As soon as you activate it, you restore a bit of health. As you roll, you regenerate a bit more, and you are invulnerable during the entire animation. In the end, you restore the same amount of health that Emergency Retreat does. The main difference is at the end of the roll, you end up with your weapon out and ready, whereas Emergency Retreat automatically sheathes your weapon. Another major difference is you can use Soothing Roll while afflicted with Snowman (and other Binding effects like Mizutsune's Bubble) to immediately break out of it. Emergency Retreat does not work at all when you're a Snowman. Emergency Retreat is still the safer option, but it's no longer the unequivocal BEST option for self healing! And if you go with Soothing Roll, you can free up your extra slots for other moves!


Suggested Support Move skillset: BBBCC

Suggested extra slot moves: Far-cat-ster / Furbidden Acorn, Pitfall Purr-ison / Shock Purr-ison. Tutor Emergency Retreat if you don't go for Soothing Roll.



Passive Skills


Earplugs(**) remains a very, very good skill. In fact, it's even better than it used to be! Now it's High Grade Earplugs instead of the lower rank version. You can ignore basically any monster roar with this bad boy! It's espeically helpful during rodeos. It turns monster roar times into extra stabby times! (Essential)

Fighting cats come with Attack Up S, but as I mentioned in Part 1, the regular stat boosting skills- Attack Up S/L and Defense Up S/L got nerfed into the ground. They used to boost your stats by a percentage, but now they just give a (piddly) flat boost. So now they're hot garbo. Know what's still as good as ever? Critical Up S(*) and Critical Up L(**)! Both boost your Affinity by a percentage- 10% and 20% respectively. Cats are all about them crits, so you definitely want one of them, possibly even both! Yes, they stack. Of course they stack! (Essential)

I would also recommend the B group skill Extend Fury(**). It makes Felyne Fury mode last longer. Thus, more stat buff time, more rodeos, and more chances to knock a monster the fuck down! (Recommended)

You probably still want Boomerang Pro(*). It only costs one slot and it's in the C group. You'll probably wind up with extras of those anyway. Might as well have it. (Highly Recommended)

You can round out your passives with any status immunity skill (if you don't go for Critical Up S). The best ones for all cats are Tremor Res(*) and Non-Stick Fur(*). You can heal most status effects with Soothing Roll or Emergency Retreat, but tremors and Snowman force you to not be beating on the monster mercilessly, and who wants that?! Non-Stick Fur lets you break out of it almost instantly. Keep in mind that Soothing Roll let's you break out of Snowman, but Emergency Retreat does not. (Recommended)

Keep your extra slots open for DLC skills! There are a bunch of new ones and a lot of them are really good! In particular I'd look out for Weakness Exploit(**)- which increases your Affinity when attacking a monster's weak point (like blunt damage on the head, for instance), and Aera(**)- which increases your mounting damage, similar to the effects of the Felyne Rider food skill. More rodeos more better!


Suggested Passive skillset: BBBCC



Equipment

Look for a balanced weapon with high Affinity. I'd recommend going for either elemental damage or Blast, as Paralysis and rodeos can get kind of funky.




I'm a Defense Prowler, and I'm fine!



Defense cats are one of my top three favorite Support Biases to run as a Prowler. It's the one I usually pick when I need to get really serious. That Adept Guard is just stupidly good. It makes me feel powerful.



Support Moves

Despite the fact that their boomerangs do slightly less damge, defense cats still work great as boomerang cats because the status procs and crits make up for the lack of raw damage. Huck those boomerangs, and have your shield button at the ready!

Defense cats get access to Emergency Retreat by default, and you definitely want that! It's the better defensive option between it and Soothing Roll and hey... defense is what we're all about, right?

No boomerang cat is complete without Big Boomerangs, so make sure you can get that. (Essential)

Now, I find that Defense cats make excellent use of traps, so I recommend scouting a cat with an A slot skill so you can get Pitfall Purr-ison or Shock Purr-ison. Don't underestimate the importance of a few seconds of uninterrupted beatdown time! Lay down a trap and get smacking! (Highly Recommended)

Since we're scouting for an A skill, that limits our other options. For B slot moves, go with either Far-cat-ster or Furbidden Acorn. (Highly Recommended)

That leaves plenty of room for some C skills. In addition to the aforementioned Big Boomerangs, Dung Bombay remains ever useful. I like having it on all my cats. (Essential)

For your last skill... bear with me here: Barrel Bombay. Weird? Yes. For some reason, Defense cats get almost as much gauge from chucking bombs as they do from blocking, and Barrel Bombay costs 0 gauge. Need some gauge in a hurry? Huck a few bombs. (Recommended)


Suggested Support Move skillset: ABCCC

Spend your extra slots on Piercing Boomerangs and whichever of Far-cat-ster or Furbidden Acorn that your cat doesn't have already. If you don't want Furbidden Acorn, Mega Boomerang is a good second choice. If you can manage to catch a trapped monster in it, that'd be pretty devastating. It would cost a lof of gauge though!



Passive Skills

All right, as in the vast majority of cases, you still want Boomerang Pro(*). It's cheap and lets you huck boomerangs faster. Throw it on there. (Essential)

Defense cats come with Guard Boost(**), an essential skill that lets you block attacks you wouldn't otherwise be able to. Equip it and never take it off!

To go along with that, scout for Guard L(**). Your cat will come with Guard S(*), but why not go the extra mile for the L? Guard L will further reduce the knockback, and chip damage, you suffer when blocking. Very important! (Highly Recommended)

Next pick one of Critical Up L(**) or Counter Boost(**). Counter Boost gives you more gauge when you get hit. I think blocking counts as getting hit. In any case it would definitely work if you whiff your block! (Essential)

You can scout for a couple status immunity skills, Tremor Res(*) and Non-Stick Fur(*) being standouts, and/or Critical Up S(*) if you didn't pick up L. Or even if you did. Remember, they stack! (Recommended)

For your extra slots, teach your cat Ranged Attack Up(**)- which boosts your boomerang attacks by 10%. It stacks with the food skill Felyne Hurler (also a 10% damage boost to your 'rangs). You can fill the last slot with Weakness Exploit(**) once it's released.

An alternative idea for your extra slot: equip Mini Barrel Bombay- all cats come with it and its gauge cost is free, and then instead of Weakness Exploit teach Sonic Mini Bombay. It's a weird skill that adds Sonic Wave effect to Mini Barrel Bombay. It's actually a better method of inflicting Sonic damage than Ultrasonic Horn is, because Mini Barrel Bombay fires off quicker, is easier to aim, and costs no gauge.

Wait, I hear you ask, what about Earplugs? Welllll, Eargplugs is less necessary on Defense cats. Remember, you can Adept Guard monster roars! I personally suck at doing it... but if you're better at it than I am, you don't need Earplugs. If you're not confident in your ability to block roars, then yeah throw on Earplugs! (Highly Recommended)


Suggested Passive skillset: BBCCC (or BBBCC if you want Earplugs)



Equipment

Pick a ranged weapon with as much Affinity as you can find. I highly recommend equipping a paralyzing weapon, particularly blunt. I get up to some very rude shenanigans with my defense cat that way.




Suppawtive Felynes



Support cats used to be the best boomerang cats, but in GU the Gathering cats stole their crown. They still have a niche, as they are the only Support Bias with easy access to traps. Scout one to handle capture quests.



Support Moves

These guys also start with Emergency Retreat so yay! That's the one you want when scouting. If your cat doesn't have it, just re-roll at the dojo.

These cats are far better at ranged attacks than melee so they're still all about the boomerangs. Make sure you have access to Big Boomerangs. (Essential)

Since you'll be laying some traps, how about Mega Boomerang? Wind that up and fling it at a trapped or KO'd monster for extra damage. (Highly Recommended)

Throw in some more B skills while you're at it! Far-cat-ster and Furbidden Acorn are the best ones. (Recommended)

Round out your Support moves with the usual Dung Bombay. (Essential)

Despite the fact that Support cats come with their own trap, Poison Purr-ison, I strongly suggest burning one of your extra slots for Shock Purr-ison as well. Technically no monster is completely immune to Poison-Purrison, but it still functions like a Pitfall trap and some monsters will make you jump through some hoops to catch them in it. It's easier to just use Shock-Purrison on monsters like that and save yourself the hassle.

Spend your other extra slot on Piercing Boomerangs.


Suggested Support Move skillset: BBBCC



Passive Skills

Equip Monsterdar(**) if you're doing a capture quest. The monster's icon will flash when it's capturable. Never wonder if a monster is weak enough to capture again!

Pro Trapper(***) carries a hefty slot cost but it's well worth considering. Not only does it speed up trap setting, but it reduces Poison Purr-ison to costing 4 bars and Shock Purr-ison and Pitfall Purr-ison to a measly 3!

As usual, you are a boomerang cat, so you want Boomerang Pro(*). (Essential)

Monster roars are annoying and they can knock you out of trap-setting. You don't want that; you want Earplugs(**)! (Essential)

Support cats have a bit less raw power on their side so you absolutely want Critical Up S(*) or Critical Up L(**) (Both if you can swing it!) (Highly Recommended)

Then there are plenty of status immunity skills to choose from! The best ones are Tremor Res(*) and Non-Stick Fur(*). Grab those, and Critical Up S(*) too while you're at it! (Recommended)

Spend your extra slots on Ranged Attack Up(**), and Weakness Exploit(**) once it's available.


Suggested Passive skillset: BBCCCC



Equipment

Again, you definitely want a ranged weapon here and Affinity is doubly important. Go with an elemental weapon or Blast to boost your damage further.




Did someone call for a mewdic?



All right time for heal cats! Heal cats are bonkers crazy go nuts now! They're another of my top three favorite Support Biases to take on For Serious hunts, especially multiplayer hunts. I've dragged my friends through a lot of tough hunts, tooting my Health Horn all the way!



Support Moves

Either of your second slot skills are fine. I personally prefer Armor Horn, but pick whichever one you like best! You can't go wrong with either. Remember, if you hold still after the initial effect, you'll also heal a bit of HP along with it!

Healing cats come with True Health Horn, of course, but let's toss in Health Horn as well. It doesn't heal as much HP, but it costs less gauge. You'll be able to fire it off more often. Useful! (Essential)

Now, healing Prowlers don't need a hell of a lot from B slot move, So I suggest going all in on the C moves. There's a lot of fun stuff there!

First, you don't have as much raw power as other Support Biases so your best bet is rocking the boomerangs. Therefore, you want Big Boomerangs, and of course tutor Piercing Boomerangs at the Dojo. (Essential)

Dung Bombay remains as useful as ever, so you want it. (Highly Recommended)

You'll want Soothing Roll as well, not so much for the self healing but for getting rid of status effects, including the ever obnoxious Snowman. Plus the gauge cost is cheap, so why not? (Essential)

Then look for a new move- Furlask of Healing. When you activate this nifty little number, you put a freaky looking pot on your head and gradually regenerate the HP of yourself and any allies in range! This is what Vase of Vitality should have been, but it's even better because you become a mobile source of HP recovery! Oh and don't worry, you can still attack and use moves as normal while wearing your stupid hat. (Recommended)

Lastly, pick your favorite C slot skill. My personal recommendation is Ultrasonic Horn. It's still not that great, so feel free to subsitute your C slot of choice if you want something different. (Recommended)

Fill your other extra slot with either Far-cat-ster or Furbidden Acorn. Furbidden Acorn is especially worth considering because you shouldn't be dying that much and you can chow down on an acorn if your buddies need healing in a pinch.


Suggested Support Move skillset: ACCCCC



Passive Skills

Equip Horn Virtuoso(***) if you can stomach the slot cost. Firing off those Health Horns faster might just save your bacon (not to mention your friends'!)

Monster roars can interrupt you while tooting your horn so of course you'll want to nab Earplugs(**) (Essential).

Counter Boost(**) is another good skill to look for. It fills your gauge faster whenever you get hit. Heal cats have pretty darn respictible defense, so you can just stay right up on the monster's grill, tossing boomerangs and getting disgusting amounts of gauge whenever you get smacked. (Highly Recommended)

Again, you're somewhat lacking in the raw power department, so you want them crits. Look for Critical Up L(**) (Highly Recommended).

You're a boomerang cat, so you know what that means! Yep, it means Boomerang Pro(*) (Essential).

From there, pick a status immunity skill- Tremor Res(*) being my personal recommendation, or Critical Up S(*). (Recommended)

Fill your extra passive slot with the usual Ranged Attack Up(**), and Weakness Exploit(**), once it's released.


Suggested Passive skillset: BBBCC



Equipment

You'll want a ranged optimized weapon here too. To maximize monster lockdown, I recommend a blunt paralyzing weapon. That gives you more time to either beat on the monster, or heal your friends!




If you see anything suspicious, bomb it!



Bomb cats got heavily retooled in GU. They're the last of my top 3 favorite Prowler Support Biases (in no particular order). Adept just shuts so many monsters the fuck down and bomb cats can also deal damage while they're doing it. Besides, what's not to like about explosions?



Support Moves

Neither of your fixed support moves are terribly great, but Demon Horn at least is somewhat useful. Camouflage is just hot garbo.

Bomb cats do more damage with boomerangs, so make sure you can get Big Boomerangs (Essential) and tutor Piercing Boomerangs at the dojo.

Now, bomb cats don't need a hell of a lot from B skills. We'll just go for the usual Furbidden Acorn and Far-cat-ster. (Highly Recommended)

Soothing Roll is still excellent for self healing and shrugging off status effects, and frees up one of your extra slots. (Essential)

Dung Bombay is also useful and Highly Recommended. Monsters can do a lot of damage when they pin you!

Explosive Roll is a fun one to look for to round out your C skills. Bomb cats, as you might figure, do more damage with bombs, and they can get some fun extra effects with them. (Recommended)

Spend your other extra slot on Shock Purr-ison / Pitfall Purr-ison, or Giga Barrel Bombay. Giga is a more powerful bomb than your default Mega. It's especially good for waking up sleeping monsters. I've killed monsters that way! Highly satisfying.


Suggested Support Move skillset: BBCCCC




Passive Skills

Your cat comes with Bombay Boost(***), and you'll definitely want to equip it! It increases the power of all bomb-type moves and Blast status attacks. Equip a Blast weapon and fling explosions everywhere!

Like usual, you're a boomerang cat, so you want Boomerang Pro(*). (Essential)

You will also want Critical Up L(**) or Critical Up S(*) (or BOTH). (Essential)

Now, I highly recommend Counter Boost(**) as well. It'll give you more gauge if you whiff your Adept Dodge.

Also, there's a new C skill that's especially good on bomb cats, Extra Bomb Blasts(**). It adds the Blast effect to all your bombs. Bombay Boost also buffs Blast status. Between your bombs, Explosive Roll, and your Adept Dodge, there's a lot of synergy here! (Highly Recommended)

Pick a status immunity skill to round out your Cs. Again, Tremor Res(*) is your best option since you'll have Soothing Roll. (Recommended)

No Earplugs? You can Adept through monster roars, like Defense cats can. In fact, bomb cats are even better for this because they can move after a successful Adept. Roll right behind the monster and get smacking!

As usual, spend your extra slots on Ranged Attack Up(**) and Weakness Exploit(**) when it's available.


Suggested Passive skillst: BBCCCC



Equipment

You can go with either a ranged or balanced type weapon, as long as it has Blast status, even if it isn't blunt. In fact, the best Blast weapon in the game (obtained from Hellblade Glavenus) is a cutting weapon. Blast is that important. You'll do stupid amounts of damage this way.




Everybody wants to be a (Gathering) cat



Onto the new kings of Boomerang Town, Gathering Cats! If you want only one all-purpose Prowler, pick one of these guys. They can help you with those pesky gathering quests, AND monster beating!



Support Moves

These guys start with Piercing Boomerangs, so that is absolutely the second slot skill you want to go with, no question. If your cat doesn't have it, it's just a quick re-roll away!

And of course you'll want Big Boomerangs to go with it. Do I even need to say it at this point? (Essential)

Now, this is one case where I do find scouting for an A slot skill is worth it. Gathering cats have less defense than the other Support Biases, so having extra monster lockdown is very important. Look for Pitfall Purr-ison or Shock Purr-ison (Essential).

Mega Boomerang combos well with that. You can wind up and fling it at a trapped monster. It costs a lot of gauge, but it's a very powerful combination. (Recommended)

As usual, you can round out your support moves with Dung Bombay and Soothing Roll (Highly Recommended).

Fill your extra slots with Furbidden Acorn and Far-cat-ster.


Suggested Support Move skillset: ABCCC



Passive Skills

Firstly, you're a boomerang cat, so of course you want Boomerang Pro(*). You already knew that, didn't you? (Essential)

Earplugs(**) are extra important on these cats. You're more fragile than other support biases. You do not want to be interrupted for any reason! (Essential)

Related to that, look for the B skill Artful Dodger(**). This nifty skill increases your invulnerability period while dodging. Zip around the battlefield, throwing boomerangs all the while! It'll help your survivability. (Highly Recommended)

Scout for Critical Up L(**) as well. You want to squeeze as much damage out as you can! (Highly Recommended)

In fact, I recommend looking for Critical Up S(*) as well. Really stack that damage!

You can fill your extra slots with Ranged Attack Up(**) and Weakness Exploit(**) once it's released.


Suggested Passive skillset: BBBCC



Equipment

Get a ranged optimized weapon with as much Affinity as you can get. Elemental, paralysis, or Blast are all fine. You just want them crits.




RIP AND TEAR



Lastly, time for Beast cats. Beast Prowlers work completely differently from the other Support Biases. Therefore, they want different stuff. Let's have a look.



Support Moves

Your second slot will always be Rousing Roar, and that's fine. Party-wide Stun resist and buff sharing is powerful.

Now, Beast cats are pure melee bruisers. In fact, they can't even use boomerangs once they go into Beast Mode. We'll be scouting for skills that work at close range. Firstly, you definitely want Weapon Upgrade. As I said before, it's like Piercing/Big Boomerangs, but for melee. (Essential)

Claw Dance is your best bet for a melee Support Move. Get a monster Paralyzed, stunned, or a in a trap, and get shredding! (Highly Recommended)

Next we have an odd one. Vase of Vitality- usually a garbage skill. It wishes it were Furlask of Healing. In the case of Beast cats, it combos well with their default passive skill, and Beasts don't need much else from Support Moves so... why not? (Recommended)

And you also want the usual Dung Bombay and Soothing Roll. There's a reason I have those moves on nearly all my cats! (Highly Recommended)

Then fill your extra slots with Far-cat-ster and either Furbidden Acorn or Pitfall Purr-ison / Shock Purr-ison.


Suggested Support Move skillset: BBBCC



Passive Skills


The Beast cat's fixed passive, Recovery Speed Up(**), is the skill I mentioned that combos well with Vase of Vitality. It increases the refill rate of the red portion of your health gauge. Equip this if you're rocking the Vase.

Earplugs(**) are especially important on these guys! You can't afford to have your combo interrupted when you're trying to build Beast Mode levels. (Essential)

Like on Gathering cats, Artful Dodger(**) is another very helpful skill, and it combos well with the Beast cat's backward sommersault that replaces your block. The sommersault has a lot of i-frames already, and Artful Dodger gives it even more! Get the timing down for the sommersault, and you're effectively immortal! (Highly Recommended)

Beast cats also want crits real bad, so look for Critical Up L(**) (Highly Recommended)

Now, since you don't need Boomerang Pro, let's pick up a status immunity skill. The most important one is Tremor Res(*), for the same reason you want Earplugs: you don't want those pesky monsters stomping around interrupting your combo! (Essential)

For your remaining passive, pick up Critical Up S(*) for even more crits! (Recommended).

You should fill your extra Passive slots with two as-of-yet unreleased DLC skills. The first one is the usual Weakness Exploit(**). The other one is Extend Beast(**). It does what you think it does- keeps you in Beast Mode longer.


Suggested Passive skillset: BBBCC or BBCCCC



Equipment

You want a close range or balanced weapon with high Affinity. Paralysis is best (especially a blunt one), for holding a monster still while you build your Beast Mode levels.



And that's it! Use this information to scout the most badass Prowler you can! Next time, we'll look at some Palico buddies to help you on your journey. Good luck, and happy catting!