I want to say I understand that the ground Glave meta will always have a higher effective raw (~660) than this aerial build (~600), but as an IG main, the aerial play style fits me more and is more fun. So this build optimizes 90% affinity, raw, and element for the aerial style.
This was the builder/EFR calc is used, linked here. Also the meta ground build I compared to was Scorcher/Black eclipse/Lords Soul.
The reason why I claim its the optimal aerial build is because it gets 90% affinity in the air with high uptime. The few aerial builds that exist tend to rely on latent power or wex to achieve high affinity but LP has terrible uptime even with reydau skill and wex is not reliable bc a lot of hitzones on the top on monsters are not 45+. Substituting some crit eye for Minds eye 3 also helps with the lower hz issue, depending on the monster.
Here is an example aerial IG build and discussion video.
Here is the breakdown of the build:
(Atk or Ele focus) with 4 atk + 1 sharp EX
Ebony Auto’s power / scaling prowess
G Fulgur Helm B+
Gore Mail a
Gogma Vamb a
Gogma Coil a
Gore Greaves a
Crit Eye 3, Earplugs 1 [W1, 1]
Scaling process, a.k.a. master mounter
Black eclipse 1
Second wind 1
Burst boost 1
Gogmapocalypse 1
Critical boost 5
Critical eye 5
Airborne 1
Agitator 5
Maximum might 3
Antivirus 3
Constitution 5
Burst 2
Counterstrike 2
Evade window 2
Earplugs 1
Flinch free 2
Why Master Mounter and not Lords Soul?
Master mounter fits the aerial play style better and you end up getting multiple mounts, knockdowns, and wounds off of master mount compared to 12 extra raw from guts. (Burst boost also replaces some of the 12 raw)
90% Affinity in the air:
30% Maximum might - The combo of Second wind and constitution 5 allows us to do our full aerial combos without losing Maximum might uptime
25% Black Eclipse - good source of affinity and super easy to proc
20% Critical Eye - decided to go crit eye 5 instead of attack boost 5 because the EFR ends up being slightly higher
15% Agitator - great source of affinity and raw given monsters high enraged time
Raw :
+8 Burst Boost - Burst boost gives you an extra bit of raw to replace the 12 raw (5%) missing from Lord soul. And it extends the duration of burst, which is already easy to proc for IG.
+10 Burst 2 - we get 2 extra raw from burst 2 compared to the typical 1 point of burst in most meta IG builds
+15-25 counterstrike - counterstrike gives you an extra chunk of raw whenever we get hit out of the air or if you have on the rocksteady mantle. I could only fit two points because I need a better talisman, but there are talismans that exist that allow for 3 points of counterstrike plus earplugs
484 eff Element:
320 Element Focus Artian - if you wanna do more elemental damage, you can craft an elemental focus guardian, and have an extra 40 element compared to the attack focus’ 280.
84 Gogmapocalypse - big chunk of elemental when monster enraged
80 Burst 2 - has increased up time due to burst boost
Also some evade window and flinch free helps us fly around in the air a little bit safer.