My weapons can't go any higher without hitting the G1 quests, unless you mean what kind of weapon I use: that's switch-axe. I'm thinking the EX Los armor or Akantor armor. Leaning towards the latter honestly because of sharpness +1 and I don't loose my earplugs. I would go down to only normal ear plugs though.
Yeah, I just meant what type.
I was a bow main up through the end of high rank but then I migrated over to Switch Axe. I picked up the weapon (and thus crafted equipment) as I straddled HR7/G1, so I was in your exact position.
As you probably know, defense is tiered to Low-rank, High-rank, and then G-rank. So, while you might see some nice skills with HR7/Rarity-7 equipment, you are almost certainly better off waiting a slight bit and crafting a G-rank set.
To answer your question more directly, I personally went straight from High-rank Tetsucabra (the mule I learned the weapon on) to Regios X to Nargacuga X. Seregios is the G1→G2 Urgent, so you will fight him a million times if you're playing online with randoms in G1 rooms, which makes it super easy to craft. It is a great utility set, especially when paired with the Seregios SA. The specific downside to it is that
everyone uses it at that point in the game.
http://kiranico.com/en/mh4u/armor/head/regios-helm-x
IMO the best skills for Switch Axe are Evade Dist, Evasion +, and Handicraft (as will all Blademaster weapons), making the Nargacuga X set virtually ideal.
http://kiranico.com/en/mh4u/armor/head/nargacuga-helm-x
And from there you can mix in Kushala parts and get a bit more gem freedom.
Narga X Mix: Evade +3, Evade Extender, Sharpness +1 Nargacuga Helm X (O), Kushala Cista X (1x Evade Jewel [2]), Nargacuga Braces X (1x Jumping Jewel [2]), Kushala Cocoon X (1x Artisan Jewel [3]), Nargacuga Greaves X
