Wolfe
Member
In that case I would recommend skills like Evasion and Evade Distance which will both help with avoiding hits (although you still have to be good at dodging) while sticking close to the monster. Stuff like Tremor Res and Earplugs are always good in that regard too since they reduce your time out of combat.
Stamina/Marathon Runner has definitely spoiled me and I hate that I can't get it with the Nargacuga set since it feels like it goes so well with the hammer. The way it works is that it reduces your stamina drain for actions that continuously drain stamina such as sprinting or the hammer charge attack (imagine being able to run around a zone holding your hammer in charge mode since your stamina drain goes very slowly.)
Then there's stuff like KO and Fast Charge and whatnot that go well with hammer too, anyway heres the page I used when starting out to look up skills: http://monsterhunter.wikia.com/wiki/MH3U:_Armor_Skill_List
A few good sets to look into for this stuff (at least initially) would be Volvidon, Barioth and Nargacuga, but you can find key skills on plenty of other sets too.
