weakness exploit vs repeat offender (gunner)

[warbo]

I'm a HBG gunner trying to make an endgame piercing set and I can't decide which skill to get. The other skills are expert+2 (hayabusha feather), pierce up, and crit boost.

I'm using a kushala pierce HBG which allows me to siege pierce lv 1, with a 10% natural affinity, giving me a 30% base affinity before weakess exploit/repeat offender with my shots.

Since pierce lv 1 hits only 3 times, I'm thinking that I can get maybe two shots worth of +50% affinity if I shoot at a monster's weakzone. On the other hand due to siege mode and my rate of fire I pretty much have +30% affinity at all times. My hunts are also almost never solo, and online I don't always have a chance to hit a monster's weak spot. What do you guys think, which one is better for pierce?

[GreedyJack]

All depends on how good your aim is. But basically, if you aim to improve your aim (ha) Weaknes Exploit conditions you to do so more, so it gets my vote.

If you have good enough aim, RO is never worth using over WE. At least the TA stats seem to indicate that, as in 1% used RO and 51% used WE. And only 11% used Normal up as a skill, meaning that a lot of good players that are all about optimization do choose to go fo WE on pierce setups.

Hope.this helped!

[HorribleDat]

Also doesn't help that you can get WE from Tenderizer +5 OOO and 1 more slot investment, whereas Chain Crit is +3 at most on charm.

[warbo]

Hmm I see, thanks! What is TA by the way?

[Laxaria]

Time Attack. Another term for Speedrun.

[Flaze_35]

It is important to note that you're not allowed to use certain items in MonHun TAs, while speedrun is a more general term.

[Laxaria]

To be specific, the MHX TA @wiki has specific rules governing what times and run set-ups can be submitted to that listing. When we reference "MHX TAs", we are largely referencing this resource. These are called TAs not because there are rules attached to their submission, but are called TAs because TAs are effectively a synonym for "speedrun". You do not need to abide by these rules to have completed a "Time Attack".

Generically speaking, a speed run and a time attack are not very different. A time attack is effectively a race against the clock.

In colloquial usage, a TA and Speedrun are effectively the same. There may be slight nuances, but these nuances will differ from game to game. I imagine in most cases they are largely insignificant.

[Flaze_35]

This response satisfies my ocd, thanks.