User blog comment:Narga99/MH3U!/@comment-6005381-20130723134107

if youre that new to mh then mh4 will be a bit of a culture shock to you, consindering how many of the old monsters are returning and how there foing back to the old animation style. (i know that was unrelated but i saw you were intrested in mh4 on another post so...) Any way, for armour i recommend lagiacrus to begin with just because of how often you fight it, for high rank tho you really don't want to use it, sooo hard to make. I advise not to go for lagiacrus weapons, the thunder element is very useful but there so hard to upgrade it isnt worth it. i strongly recomend the nibelsnarf weapons, you can make them with reletive ease and there pretty powerful (also good against brachydios). the crystal/fossil weapons e.g "vulcanis" are also easy to make and upgrade and also have reasonable stats.

theres more i could add but i think this is already long enougth. hope this helps. (i got to g rank solo so this is tried and tested advice)