Damage is not the most important, dodging is; Timing your dodge, positioning your dodge, and using your dodge for momentum. You can dodge practically everything in MH including roars. If you can dodge, you can stay in the fight. If you can stay in the fight, your DPS will drastically increase.

A lot of resources will describe to you the best damage build. You can't handle the skills that come on the damage build. Even comfort meta is out of your league. If you can beat the hardest hunts in 10 minutes or less, you're ready to start working it in.

Comfort skills are designed to be either training wheels or utility. These skills can help you patch your lack of skill until you get better.

No amount of raw damage will be able to compensate for the loss in DPS from you bailing on the fight to heal every 10 seconds or carting. Getting things deader faster is wasted if you fail the mission.

You will know when it is time to say goodbye to comfort when you start clearing fights in under 7-8 minutes and only use 3 or 4 potions.

S Tier
Evasion Window - Learn how to actually dodge things
Stun Resistance - 105% of new player carts occur from getting stunned
Defense Boost - Gives you room for more mistakes, loses power as armor gets better.

A Tier
Evade Extender - Makes it easier to dodge bigger attacks, (S Tier for slow weapons)
Recovery Speed - Teaches you to pace yourself carefully to maximize your selfheal
Quick Sheathe - Disengage quicker
Wide Range - Gives your teammates a way to capitalize on your failures
X,Y, or Z resistance - Good for overcoming bosses that are giving you a time because of X,Y, or Z

B Tier
Recovery Up - Use less potions
Fortify - Gives you an excuse for carting, helps prevent it again
Minds Eye - Keeps you from bouncing which can leave you exposed

Skills that are misleading
Flinch Free (2 or 3) - 1 point is very helpful, anything above will get you floored by any attack that has multiple hitboxes.
Guts - Ironically awful at keeping rookies alive.

Dodge attacks better by learning telegraphs. Some are auditory or even behavioral.

Don't get greedy, calm down and wait for a good window of attack.

If you can win with a weapon in the arena and not hate it, that's your weapon.

Always upgrade you armor, and trade in for armor of higher rarity as soon as it's viable.

Most vets remember the struggle and would love to help you get better, especially if you genuinely try not dying as a strategy.

Dodging is your number one priority. Git gud at it first, then try meta builds.