AKANTOR

Hi This is what I did/have when I first defeated the Akantor by myself.

My armor was:
Head: Garuga Helm S - Expert +1 attached
Body: Garuga Mail S - Antivenin + 3 attached
Arms: Rathalos Soul Braces U - Earplug +1 & Gathering +2 attached
Waist: Garuga Tasset S - Earplug +1 attached
Legs: Garuga Greaves S - 2 Earplug + 1 attached

What I got was:
High Grade Earplug, Reckless Abandon +1, Poison Duration Halved (Not necessary for akantor but I use this as my all around armor)

Weapon: Khezu Shock Sword (960 base & 250 Thunder; Blue Sharpness)
Akantor has a -1 value for thunder so if you don't have a good dragon attribute weapon this is the next option. Great Sword is good as you can block most of his attacks.

What to do:
Bring a lot of Healing items just to be safe but I beat him just using mega potions only.
Bring Mega Juice & Power juice so you don't have to worry about running & dodging and believe me you will have to run & dodge alot
Flash bombs are good but I did this quest without using it so it's up to you


Hitting Strategy:
For me, I found that the safest place to be is his hind legs as you can just hit him on the legs & belly without getting hit as much. What I did was when I see that he is just growling, firing his laser or when he just got out of the ground, I run to his hind legs and when I think that my GS would already hit his legs, I release my GS and just do the infinite combo because the akantor would actually swing sideways and you would automatically be under him. The High Grade Earplug helps alot at this point. The most important thing to watch is when you see him going to stand up because when this happens, stop immediately and start blocking because he would scream. Just watch where you're located because if you are directly beneath him, even if you block you would still get hit. After he screams, Just fire away again. When you can't get under him, just run away until you get the opportunity to attack. That's where to Mega & Power Juices come in. Just wait for the opportunity and just hack away but don't forget to block.

Hope this helps you.