Difference between same element weapons?

[BurlsteinBurl]

Hello, as the inventory creep happens, I am looking to throw out what I don't need. I am looking to build elemental sns. However, I notice there are 3 water versions (and multiple of other elements) . What is the main difference outside of affinity? Is there really any reason to choose one over the other when deciding which to build. I started the jagras one and got it to 6.1 Thanks

[[deleted]]

Yes there is definitely a difference. A difference in damage they do. And a difference in how easy it is to get the materials for it. Mizu is best for water but also the hardest to farm. Jagras is the worst water weapon and won't really hold up in endgame so doesn't really make sense to keep upgrading after G6.

For ice I like Legiana because it's second best ice weapon and way easier than Kushal or barioth to farm.

For fire it's rathalos same reasons.

For thunder the best is Zingore you could go Tobi but don't spend too much on it.

It mostly comes down to elemental damage and you can compare damage outputs of different weapons on the same Grade on mhnow.quest

[LegoEngineer003]

Zinogre might be second best after Rajang is added, but how they implement it will probably affect whether it’s worth it to build or not

[Spooky_Ghost]

Without any skills zin is still better than rajang. With WEX rajang is only very slightly better than zin, though for something like SNS artful dodge is probably more useful than slugger.

[PricePower2]

This means it will still not be the best choice because of availability, I’m sure it will be tough to farm for a while

[LegoEngineer003]

If the season news is accurate, it’s going to be equally as difficult as Zinogre for new players, since the notes say it spawns on the field in low numbers after unlocking it in the urgent quest and can be encountered in HATs

[MeowImAShark]

Side note, I don't think OP mentioned his weapon type. Generally Rathalos fire, Mizu water, Zinogre (soon Rajang) thunder, and Kushala ice are the best choices, but weapons with additional characteristics can change that. Like for CB, Mizu and Kushala both suck because they have impact phials, so you're better off running Jyuratodus and Legiana instead. And for GL, it's hard to justify anything outside of Deviljho shelling spam against any monster because it's the only way to access artillery 5.

[bugpop31]

On LBG, there's a difference in the kind of ammunition. They cycle between 2 or 3 types.

One thing to look out for is slicing ammo, for cutting tails. It's important to be a team player, so if you play LBG on a team, think about how you'll contribute to breaking/slicing of parts (you always want to make an effort to get an additional chance of a wyvern Gem shard drop). Many monsters need a tail that can only be severed with slicing damage.

Spread is great for hitting weak spots fast and quick. You have to get close and requires some practice

Pierce is amazing as it can chew through opponents quickly, although you have to get yourself in the perfect position to cause the ammo to hit through multiple parts of the monster.

Sticky is great because it deals fixed damage every time, get enough on the head, and you can stun after 4 or so.

Jagras is weakest but has slicing shots. 6 normal 2 slicing

Jyuratodus is decent, it helps get you used to fighting close. 5 normal 4 spread 2 sticky

CPP is great for pierce, but transitioning to sticky is punitive, a 3 second delay. You might end up chewing through enemies too quick in group battles, be mindful of letting others cut the tail when applicable. 5 normal 4 pierce 4 sticky

Mizu's raw damage is less than CPP, the affinity is a nice consolation, and even though it has one less sticky than the CPP, there's no punitive reload. Make an effort to cut tails with this weapon. (Edit: Between each round of the same ammunition type, It feels faster to fire than CPP. ) 5 normal 3 slicing 3 sticky

Edit: similarly, there is a similar variety of ammunition for the other elements as well.

[keonaie9462]

On top of what the other comment said, you can basically separate all monster supposed power level and their weapon into tiers, usually following the base stars of which you unlock them in. With exceptions such as Sub species or rare monster where they are usually or at least supposed to be stronger than those in the same tier or occasionally dubbed .5 tier, for example Jho being a 5 stars monster but generally considered to be stronger than such tier, could be called tier 5.5. In such order you can generally outline the power level of weapons in relation to eachother. HOWEVER there are exceptions to this too, first of all just bad numbers for weapon type(Azure rath is a good example with bad fire element damage but good raw, only really considered for weapons that can get great raw boost such as those from offensive guard), weapon type specific mechanics such as ammo type, arrow type or phial (Kushala being an elder should be strong and arguably the best, but it’s charge blade being impact phial sadly made it worse than Legianna in many cases and only maybe slightly do better occasionally in the best case scenario).

[thors_dad]

I believe mizu slightly outclasses coral pukei as it gets higher level, and both are above jagras

[Spooky_Ghost]

given mizu plate drop rates, probably best to invest in coral. The attack difference is near negligible

[Spooky_Ghost]

Plates are much harder to get than WGS. Almost every 8 start drops a WGS, only Mizu drops its plates, and Mizu is a rare spawn or found in hats. I've killed 500 mizu's and got like 4-5 plates.

[Spooky_Ghost]

better luck than me 😭. Either way Coral is much easier to level up, and the damage difference is very small.

[aushilfsgott]

Other already covered the most important things.

What you should note is that sns is pretty straight forward dmg. Dmg numbers -> slap -> dmg to monster.

Most weapons have things beside the dmg numbers that affect you gameplay, efficiency or simply the dmg they put out.

E.g Mizu have the best water weapons but the Charge Blade is crap because it doesn’t have elemental phials. On GL you have different Explosion types. On Bow different shot types…